Free Peace Army by Steven L. Hawk Page B

could not control their anger and aggressive tendencies.
    What most of society did not know was that re-training for sexual orientation often failed. The same was not true for those who underwent re-training for aggression. That carried a very high success rate. But unlike those who couldn’t control their anger for very long, those who failed to be re-trained for sexual orientation usually learned to hide their inclinations.
    As more and more failed re-training, underground groups slowly formed. Like Tane, they grew and matured in secret. Over time, these disparate individuals and groups networked, merged, and grew. Eventually, they became a large, organized entity—an entity with no formal name, but a very real agenda. It was an agenda of self-preservation.
    While the rest of society grew to accept and embrace the concept of “Peace,” the members of this group did not. Outwardly, they recited the Council line. In private, they resisted most of Earth’s new norms and quietly, but actively, planned their separation from the rest of the world.
    Resistance and planning took many forms. They gathered weapons and stashed them away. They accumulated land and farms in a centralized area in S’merca that would be their homeland. They selected leaders and took steps to promote their members to key posts and public offices.
    The most important step their members took was to volunteer for assignments at the re-training centers. After decades of effort, they controlled ninety percent of all re-training efforts around the globe. Once they gained control of the centers, identifying, protecting, and recruiting others like themselves was easy.
    The final component of their century-long plan fell into place when they put a Culture Leader on the Leadership Council.
    The group was only weeks from announcing their succession from the rest of the world’s Peaceful society when the Minith landed on Earth. That was eighteen years ago and caused them to put their plans on hold as all of humanity struggled against the alien invaders. Instead of announcing their separation from the world and setting up a homeland in S’merca, they shifted their focus to defeating the Minith.
    Grant and all of Earth knew the rest. It was already recorded in the annals of human history. The efforts of the Senior Scientist had saved the world from the Minith.
    What the citizens of Earth did not know was that Tane and his fellow homosexuals were again ready to come out of the closet. The fact that the Minith were interfering with those plans a second time was too much to bear. Instead of waiting, as they had years ago, they decided to take a different, more “cooperative” approach. In exchange for open acceptance of homosexuality by the Leadership Council, the secret organization would offer their assistance in any future fight with the Minith.
    Tane and Randalyn were offering the Council a good bargain, in Grant’s opinion.
    As Tane had so eloquently put it only minutes earlier, they had done their duty—now they wanted their reward. And they were unwilling to wait for the current emergency to sort itself out before getting it.
    If they did not gain acceptance and recognition, they would move forward with their plans to separate themselves from the rest of the world. Tane had made it clear to Grant that nearly two thousand of those fighters currently in the armed forces would go with them. And those who weren’t already in the army would join their side and take up arms if necessary.
    While Grant had no reason to deny Tane and his people their coming-out party, he had a very good reason to help them achieve it. If the scientist and the Culture Leader were correct, a lifting of the law against gays would result in more than fifty thousand new recruits. That excited him a great deal. The thought that those fifty thousand might form their own army excited him much less.
    Grant did what any sane man would do. He offered his full support. If they were ready to