Author Information
Nocturnes: The District Manager's Disappointment
I was gone one interplanetary year . . .
just one . . . everyone deserves a vacation!
I thought I could trust you branch representatives
to follow our policies directly, and consistently,
even when I am absent.
So I thought.
But I have returned to find the surveilled planet
in chaos---total chaos, do you understand---
all because you did not bother to program
the observers' genetic process to self destruct
before engaging in any harm!
Those two in the country called Russia--
you fools named them Lenin and Stalin;
and that clown you cloned from a clown's DNA,
in that country called Deutschland, Hissler
or whatever his name was; and in Italy,
Benito something or other (at least we had
the Julius Caesar unit stabbed when its
final control mechanisms failed).
I have no idea what to say to the Area Manager,
but I have a fairly good idea what the
Division General Manager will say.
We must begin to use drone devices---
they will be seen by few, unidentified
and unsuspecred by most.
This star system is highly unremarkable;
most of its planets are dead,
that green one there teems with primitive life.
They have evolved from sticks on a fire, through firesticks,
and now they have discovered nuclear fission.
Yes, the thought is amusing---only one brain and four limbs
per person and they have accomplished that much,
with the compulsion of the chaos caused
by your own administrative ineptness.
We will wait a few of their years.
If the situation stabilizies, I will introduce
the Jack Kennedy unit I programmed myself;
but, unlike you freshmen, I have provided
not one but two contingent solutions---
the Lee Harvey Oswald andJack Ruby units,
ready to deploy when the time has gone wrong.
Of course I have to think ahead,
more than you bumbling fools can say for yourselves.
How else do you think I achieved District Management's rank?
