I thought about the future of this pleasure planet as, my visit over, I rode the DropShip back to Alioth Station. All around me in the ship people were asleep, exhausted from days and nights spent in the frantic search for gratification. These, the rich and superrich who had come to Galaina and were now returning to their home worlds, leaving some of theirwealth behind them, were only the latest in a centuries-long stream of visitors whose extravagance has meant prosperity for this planet. On other worlds life is often an endless round of backbreaking toil, an attempt to scratch out a bare living from an ungenerous land. Meanwhile, Galaina neither toils nor spins but just grows rich on tips. Can it go on like this? So far, the Commonwealth government seems to accept the planet as at worst a necessary evil. Their war machines and the countless subsidiary industries that feed, arm and provision them would shrivel and contract without the regular nourishment of capital investment that Galaina can provide. These benefits are supplemented by direct revenues, either in the form of taxes paid to Katrina Steiner or outright bribes to the other powers. As one official put it, "Nobody wants to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs." It is not, however, out of the question for one of the houses to try to steal the gold for itself. A direct attack on the planet would probably be unproductive; the tourists would vanish along with the wealth they bring. On the other hand, although no one likes to talk about it, there have been attempts to bore from within. House Kurita's agents are known to have established cells on the planet and to have attempted to stir up resentment against the royal family. To date, these efforts have been totally unsuccessful. The Webber dynasty has ruled Galaina for over 600 years, and although Galainans may laugh at their rulers and trade scurrilous stories about them, they feel a strong sense of identity with the royal family which is reinforced by ties of history, locality and religion. After all, they are all Galainans. The night before I left I had a talk with an official of the Galaina Friendship Committee. When I asked him about the future he shrugged and said, "Why shouldn't we go on and on the same way? We've been in this business for a thousand years now. That ought to tell you something." But everything changes, I said. The universe is a dangerous place. "Sure, sure," he interrupted impatiently, "I could fall off Mount Kreisberg and break my neck. Your JumpShip could be hijacked by pirates. But life goes on, people are born, they live, they die. And let me tell you something else," he said, and he leaned towards me with the cynical, conspiratorial grin that is the mark of the true Galainan, "some things never change. Everybody, everybody, wants to have a good time." Pleasure Planet Galaina Introduction A Room at the Inn A Day in the Country Lord Anatol, Duke of Galaina Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Lee B. Barton Back to BattleTechnology 3 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1988 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com