Soldier Boy

A small frontier colony receives a military visitor who brings word that a nearby settlement has been destroyed by an unknown alien force, prompting a tense evacuation. The narrative contrasts peace-trained settlers who disdain soldiers with the disheveled, scarcely respected troops who nonetheless carry the only immediate knowledge of the threat. Discoveries of sabotaged defenses and vanished technologies expose complacency and institutional weakness. The piece examines how communities confront sudden external danger, the uneasy dependence on outlawed violence, and the moral and practical choices that arise when preparedness collides with long-standing pacifist sentiment.