“I cannot believe we have a day off,” Kayla said as she sat on her bed, clipping her toenails. “It feels weird. Like I’m a bad person for doing nothing.”

Rose wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Can you not do that in private?”

“Nope,” Kayla said evenly, and snapped off another chunk of keratin. She wasn’t thrilled about Chisom swapping cabins with Rose and had dealt with the problem by trying to avoid her new cabin-mate wherever possible. Sharing all their training together was enough of a trial, and Kayla had at least been able to count on evening curfew as a break. Unfortunately, now they had a few days of rest ahead of them, there was nothing to do but suffer each other’s company.

Stress Phase was over, and Kayla and the remaining recruits were about to graduate boot camp and be accepted into Valkyrie. They had completed long, solo marches in the hills, demonstrating their aptitude without instructor input and against time conditions. They had beaten the timed assault course, with no failures or restarts, and Kayla and Rose had set the best record.

Only one challenge stood in their way. The dreaded fast walk was a six-hour endurance run across a rough stretch of hills. The girls had heard rumors, supposedly shared by rolled back recruits, about snapped tibias, ankle fractures, or destroyed knees. Kayla had butterflies in her stomach as the day drew closer.

“Anyway, we are not doing nothing,” Rose said in a painfully condescending tone. “Christie and Thandi are going to enlighten us with a history lesson, isn’t that right, girls?” She gave the others a smile that was just a little too forced.

Kayla winced. Despite Rose’s demotion to ordinary human-being, she still didn’t seem to understand how real people spoke to each other.

“Remind me, what is the subject of your research?” Rose asked.

Christie began to speak, but Kayla interrupted. “The historical trend of aliens trying to enslave the human race, by recruiting human philosophers to create authoritarian regimes.”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “Aliens?”

“Jotnar.”

“Very well.”

She seemed amused by the idea, but when Christie summarized the story of the Pythagoreans Rose’s eyes widened in surprise.

“And so, we come to Plato,” Christie said, “the next step in the Jotnar plan.”

“Successful wrestler, by the way,” Thandi said. “Not that I’m defending the guy, but I respect the hustle.”

Christie tipped her head in acknowledgment. “To resume where we left off last time, the Greek world rejected the Pythagoreans and drove them underground. It makes sense to conclude that they would need to switch tactics rather than risk elimination. They want a new way to control people, but they can’t control knowledge, because intellectual inquiry is becoming very popular, and good teachers can be hired for a fee. A lot of the aristocrats in Athens are certainly covert Pythagoreans, but around 425 BC, a new figure wanders onto the scene. He’s married to an aristocrat, though he isn’t one himself, he’s extremely well respected as an upstanding citizen, and he has a strong interest in philosophy. More to the point, he’s making it popular and entertaining to the average citizen. This is Socrates.”

Kayla nodded. “So, the Pythagoreans start hanging around with him, maybe using his popularity to gain credibility?”

“Quite possibly, and Socrates is able to host public sessions teaching the young men of Athens his ideas without getting into trouble. Plato was one of those young men and he latched on to the Pythagorean ideas that were spreading behind the scenes. Unfortunately, Socrates never wrote anything down, and all we know about him was provided by Plato, who had his own agenda. What Socrates knew or thought about Pythagoras, we will doubtless never know. So, Thandi, if you would like to lead us off on Plato?”

Thandi nodded and flicked through her own notebook. “Kayla, I know you hate philosophy,” she began, “so I’ll be as brief as I can. Plato’s famous allegory of the cave sums it up—imagine you were chained to a wall in a cave since childhood, made to watch shadows dancing on the far wall. But you are so completely stupid that you think the shadows are reality.”

“Chained by who? What wall? What are you even talking about?”

Thandi raised her hand. “Wait, it gets better, because this one guy managed to get free of his chains and went off to explore the outside world. Then he returns and explains that everything you think you know about the shadows is wrong. You, of course, remain blind, deaf, and dumb, having peed yourself, or whatever, and completely ignore the righteous genius.”

Christie laughed. “Had Plato met Kayla in a vision do you think? The description is uncanny.”

Kayla flung a pillow at her, and she ducked away. “I mean, it is kind of insulting when you think about it.”

“So, what’s the real message here?” Thandi asked.

Kayla thought for a moment. “Don’t believe your lying eyes. You, the peasants, are ignorant—everything you think you know is wrong, and only I, by virtue of my elevated soul, know the truth.”

Thandi grinned. “Exactly. Remember, the exclusive cult of knowledge was run out of town. People know to watch out for those guys. But the second part of Pythagoreanism is that only the pure souls can attain true knowledge. Plato has just doubled down on that part. His approved friends have the truth; everyone else is not to be trusted.”

“Oh, I get it. Now you’re excluding the inferior souls by suggesting that their knowledge is illegitimate.”

“Of course. Like Christie said, in democratic Athens, knowledge can be taught to anyone. So, how can the ruling class guard their control? All a citizen needs to be a leader in his community is the confidence and self-discipline to learn what he needs to know about the world. Plato is attacking that kind of character growth. Sorry loser, you might be an expert on Mediterranean trade routes, but your soul isn’t pure enough to know how the world really works. Why don’t you leave real power to me and my elite friends?”

Rose scowled. “So, the wisdom and knowledge of brilliant individuals counts for nothing?”

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Kayla turned to her with an annoyed expression. “But he’s saying that the knowledge and life experience of ordinary people counts for nothing. Only con artists tell you not to listen to anyone else. Honestly, I’d say Plato was the one trying to chain people to a cave wall.” She shrugged. “But, at least he’s not being an asshole and trying to take over Greece, I guess.”

“No,” Thandi said, “he totally is. He launches character attacks on what he calls ‘Sophists’. Athens—as a democratic state—functions through the Assembly. All the citizens can put forward motions, make speeches, and vote on an issue. The Assembly is also where legal trials are conducted, so the citizens can only effect change or find justice by making a convincing speech to the crowd. They need to be taught how to make strong arguments, or pay people to argue on their behalf. Well-educated men who are good at speaking sell their services in much the same way lawyers or consultants do today. Plato portrays these men—who are, in fact, empowering citizens—as fools who believe in nothing and will defend any pack of lies for money.”

“Yeah, so he’s attacking the foundations of the democratic state.” Kayla tipped her head in acknowledgment. “Because he’s an aristocrat, trying to take over the world for the Jotnar.”

Rose held up her hands. “Look. This was just a deep thinker and a bunch of esoteric ideas. You’re going to have to do better than that.”

Thandi grimaced. “And so we come to Republic; Plato’s plan for the perfect city. Step one, create a dedicated class of warrior-guardians to protect the city.”

“To keep people in or out?” Kayla chuckled.

“I know, right?” said Thandi. “Next he describes how the roles in the society are strictly enforced – people should only do jobs they are good at, and are forbidden from doing anything else. All literature which might misguide the citizens is banned, and he’s talking about something like ninety percent of Greek poetry. He has long chapters attacking specific parts of popular poems and mythology like the Iliad.”

Kayla thought for a moment. “You mean the story that shows misbehaving aristocrats confronting their flaws through the tragedy of war?”

“Yeah. How about that?”

“He’s actually just tossing out Greek culture, isn’t he? Actually, citizen, your culture and traditions suck, here’s some state propaganda instead.” Kayla winked at a stone-faced Rose.

“It gets worse,” Thandi said. “Some of the best warrior guardians are elevated to rule as ‘Philosopher Kings’.”

“So, it’s a military dictatorship,” Kayla concluded.

“Plato explains that they must tell a useful lie to the citizens; that their souls were forged by the Gods using different metals. Some people are gold, some are silver, bronze or iron, and the metals must not be mixed. If a child is born mixed, they will be driven out of the city. Citizens must take the station in life their metal indicates.”

Kayla shrugged. “I don’t see any precious metals standing up to a well-aimed burst of high-velocity lead.”

“Yeah, you haven’t heard the half of it yet,” Thandi said. She gazed at them for a moment before looking around the cabin with an expression of subdued anger. “Here comes the bottom line, and I’ll just read straight from the text: ‘all these women are to belong in common to all the men, that none are to live privately with any man, and that the children too, are to be possessed in common, so that no parent will know his own offspring or any child his parent… I mean that it looks as though our rulers will have to make considerable use of falsehood and deception for the benefit of those they rule…

“It follows from our previous agreements, first, that the best men must have sex with the best women as frequently as possible, while the opposite is true of the most inferior men and women, and second, that if our herd is to be of the highest possible quality, the former’s offspring must be reared but not the latter’s. And this must all be brought about without being noticed by anyone except the rulers, so that our herd of guardians remains as free from dissension as possible.’”

Thandi sighed heavily. “And Plato goes on to describe how they must use festivals to trick couples into controlled marriages, while the children they produce are confiscated to be raised in, he says, ‘a rearing pen in a separate part of the city, but the children of inferior parents, or any child of the others that is born defective, they’ll hide in a secret and unknown place, as is appropriate. It is, if indeed the guardian breed is to remain pure.’”

She threw her notebook on the bed as a stunned silence filled the cabin. “I’m done, someone else can talk.”

For a minute, nobody did. The crack of a bat, followed by the sound of laughter, drifted into the cabin from outside.

“I seem to remember,” Rose muttered, “a teacher suggesting that this was all a metaphor for the soul or something.”

Thandi rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. Look where his imagination led him. In all the social circles you’ve moved through, you’ve never met this type of absolute worm before?”

Rose looked down.

Kayla rubbed her eyes. “I want to ask someone from the research collective if they think the Jotnar were silicone-based lifeforms. ‘Cause this Republic sounds like something a machine would come up with after being programmed to solve the problems of a cattle farm.”

Christie nodded. “There were ethno-fascist, genocidal regimes on Earth that did not go this far.”

“I mean, I thought we were going to get lost in esoteric nonsense about meaning and forms,” Kayla said, “but this is freakin’ crazy.”

“Yeah,” Thandi agreed.

“Rather a religion of enslavement, than control,” Christie said.

“These Pythagorean guys really wore their contempt for humanity on their sleeve,” Kayla said as she avoided making eye contact with Rose. “Guess that’s what happens when super advanced alien overlords are offering you ultimate power over the whole planet, or galaxy.” She waited to hear an objection, but none came.

Kayla decided to change the subject. “So, what happened to Plato anyway? Did he ever try to put this stuff into practice?”

“He did,” Thandi said. “In Syracuse, Plato and his Pythagorean protégé, a man named Dion, attempted to groom a Tyrant’s son, Dionysius II, into being a Philosopher King. But the attempt failed, and they were exiled from the state.”

“I suppose,” Rose said in a muted voice, “that Valkyrie’s philosophy has a more Aristotelian approach. “They like to encourage our individuality, so long as we are committed to putting the team and the mission first.”

Christie grinned at Thandi. “Isn’t it amusing that the four of us have completely different backgrounds, and yet seem to be succeeding in our pursuit of a common purpose? It seems that personal motivation trumps any kind of rulebook.”

Thandi winked back at her. “Don’t get comfortable, Chris. I shall not rest until your immortal soul has been saved.”

“Okay, hold up,” Kayla said. “I have this weird idea that if humans are innately religious, then maybe I believe in the God of War. I mean, I’m not trying to codify a belief system or anything, it’s just an image that helps me think about things.” She flashed them a cheeky grin. “All I’m saying is we need to sacrifice a goat at midnight when the moon is full, after dancing around a stone circle, and victory will be assured.”

She held up a hand as Thandi’s eyes narrowed. “I’m kidding; I have a serious point to make. Just hear me out. The God of War is vastly more powerful than any living thing could be. It is capricious, unpredictable, and cruel, but forever changing and evolving. When you get too comfortable, you don’t pay the God adequate respect, and you get harshly punished. When you make dumb assumptions, you pay a sacrifice of blood. I call this entity a God because it is immortal, and will always be more powerful than mere humans. No matter what fancy technology you create, no one will ever be strong enough or smart enough to defeat it. The best you can hope for is to placate its wrath for another day. And you’d better get up early tomorrow because the game starts all over again, but there’s no reward for a winning streak.”

“Certainly sounds like the way many ancient warriors portrayed the spirits they prayed too,” Christie observed. “Including one notable semitic tribe.”

Thandi stared at them incredulously, then shook her head. “So, Rose,” she said, “Would you agree that we seem to be with the proverbial good guys?”

“I suppose so,” Rose said.

“And the Helvetic League?” Kayla asked.

Rose shook her head. “There is a lot to criticize, but I still feel they’ve done a lot of good. Misguided, perhaps, but controlled by aliens? No, I can’t believe it. What we’re discussing was such a long time ago, and so much has changed.”

Kayla raised her eyebrows. “Well, I hope you’re right.”

Rose nodded.