The stop at Mieni was a quiet and relatively peaceful one. Which came to some mild relief for Hyun as he knew a good part of his mission had failed in a way. Ling's own behavior had reflected the rather "passive" nature which many Animalians saw things. They often had the natural weapons and strength to be dangerous fighters, but outside of combat sports, it seemed like it would take a disproportionate amount of force or aggression aimed at an Animalian to trigger any sort of militant response. Much of this he'd learned through conversation with various Animalians in Lyre and Animalia and getting some updates on others.
He'd found that Animalians well understood the concepts of law and order and were quite willing to defend those concepts. Stories on an attack by a then Heather Green a couple years back had shown some of the instinctual issues that could be troublesome and reflected what it would take to get Animalians to take a more militant stance, given the battle Heather had had back then with the Rhino Guard. There were also some reports that some members of the Egyptian Army had willingly converted to defend some of the archeological sites around New Zerzura from possible attack from terrorists. On the surface, those things had been the idea that his own government and put behind Ling's uplifting. Even if Ling wouldn't be the super soldier, herself, her virus laced milk could then be used to uplift more predatory animals that came into North Korea. However, Horizon had her vaccinated after her uplifting and Hyun had found more details on some of the actions that Chairman Kim had taken interest in. It was there that he found that the super soldier idea wouldn't be practical. A converted human might be more willing, but it would still take a lot of effort to encourage military action and even with the cases that were known, the acts were still defensive in nature. Which would mean that raising an army of Animalians to invade South Korea and Japan wouldn't be practical, and there could be the potential that infecting large numbers of South Koreans and Japanese and THEN attacking might only push their opponents to taking the actions to defend themselves.
Using the Animalia Virus as a weapon, once Ling's vaccination wore out was still an option, but Hyun had had to report that what advantages it could provide would be brief and not complete. Especially as none of the Animalians that he had talked to or met with had seemed to have any interest in travelling into North Korea, which would essentially defeat one of Chairman Kim's other ideas with regard to the farm that had raised Ling. Use the "embassy" there as a means to kidnap and brainwash Animalians into openly serving and supporting North Korea, even in ways that were more "diplomatic." In theory the idea could work, but only if enough went willingly and so far the only ones that seemed to think there was a "tourist trade" that would be viable in North Korea were members of the present US government's administration, who Chairman Kim was confident he didn't need to convince.
That had in turn lead to some of Hyun's own private frustrations with himself and privately with his own mission. Ling would be a great prize and propaganda piece for North Korea, but only if she accepted only his take on Western society and didn't question the regime he served. However, he hadn't managed to keep the means of censorship and control that would be needed to preserve Ling's loyalty, and while she had not made any comments that were attacking Chairman Kim, she was more open to questioning at the differences she observed from what Hyun had described to her. And the stay on Mieni seemed to further increase Hyun's own private questions, even if he wouldn't voice them.
"A lot of this does not reflect the taking of the island," Hyun commented as he looked across some of the Mieni's War sections in the museum that had been organized from the old munitions building that the US military had used during the Cold War, and by the Japanese before it in World War 2.
"Well," a guide that was specially assigned to provide information to the two guests from North Korea began, "so far as we know, the island was uninhabited when Japan claimed the atoll... or at least so sparsely populated that there weren't that many people that would be concerned with it."
"And that makes it better?" Hyun asked.
"Well... of course not," the guide answered, "but it was how it was. Things like imperialism didn't really go into real decline until after World War Two... and even there, many of the mechanisms of power that played to the colonization of various parts of the world still remained. As the US and the Soviets argued over who's system worked better in the Cold War and then as Mao and Khrushchev argued over who should lead the Communist countries. So it's not as though things are going to just become anyone's utopia anytime soon."
Hyun looked back to the posted pieces that centered around Mieni as they walked along. He noted the establishment of American facilities on the island and that America held onto it after the war, along with the rest of the Marshall Islands. It wasn't until one of the last plaques that included dates in the post war era that the Marshall Islands gained their independence.
"Where there any major troubles between the US and Mieni?" Ling wondered, "if there were few, if any, inhabitants?"
"With Mieni Atoll... no," the guide nodded, "and officially the US military presence on Mieni was kept as part of a partnership between the US and the Marshall Islands after they were granted their independence. And once the atoll was essentially sold to Animalia... the atoll politically is now part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and it's to them that we pay our local taxes to. This museum serves to help provide the history for the atoll and the World War II events that relate to it... especially with the USS Pennsylvania in some of the deeper water nearby."
"Sunk?" Hyun wondered.
"Scuttled," the guide answered, "as with some of our other displays, the ship survived the war and even survived the atomic tests on Bikini Atoll and was then purposely sunk as it had no further use. And at the time, Mieni was grouped geographically with Kwajalein which then went into the navy records. The geographic change is really more of a footnote than anything else."
"And you would hope that wars like WW2 don't happen again, right?" Ling wondered.
"One can hope," the guide nodded.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ling generally found much of Mieni interesting to explore, even as some things were being set up for the IAC when they got to some of the Mieni sponsored events. She also enjoyed swimming to some degree. The scent of the sea was different from what she knew before, but the water was warm she even managed to get Mr. Hyun to do a little swimming. Though, sometimes it seemed more like he was there to protect her and supervise her. The most interesting thing running into some people that were just as "odd" as she was.
"So... your head is supposed to be clear?" Ling asked sat in a chair no one seemed to be using only to see a fish Animalian walk by. The scales and even bone on his head seemed practically transparent. She could see two large round eyes, or at least she thought they were eyes move on the top of his skull.
Bubblehead nodded, "Yes. Before I was uplifted, a lot of my hunting often had me come up from below my prey and I would wait until they moved between me and the source of light above the water, and thus cast a shadow. The clear skull and changing position of my eyes made that easier... Though I suppose to many land animals like you, some of the oddities of the ocean depths are beyond what you would expect."
"I suppose," Ling said slowly and then blinked for a moment, "I'm used to people thinking me weird too..."
"You weird?" Bubblehead wondered.
"Well... yes," Ling answered, "I'm a Korean Water Deer."
"A deer?!" Bubblehead gasped with some surprise, "I'd thought you were like a saber toothed dog..."
"Yes... many do not think of deer when thinking of a large curved tooth on the upper jaw," Ling nodded with a sigh, "as deer are herbivorous and thus my tusks aren't exactly... something normally associated with herbivorous animals. And so far as I know, no deer was ever predatory."
Bubblehead chuckled and nodded for a moment, "Well... I suppose that can let us both wow people with how different we are. So what do you think of Mieni?"
"Interesting, your museums on ocean life and the history for this atoll and the Pacific War in World War 2 are informative," Ling commented, "though I've honestly most enjoyed the swimming. I may need to rinse the salt out of my fur... but it is fun."
Bubblehead nodded and gave a small smile as he sat down beside Ling. He'd actually had a bit of time off from some of his work with Horizon's deep sea work and studies on the full effect the Animalia Virus had with deep sea life when he'd come across Ling watching some of the preparations that were going on for the IAC on Mieni. Some of that would also lower the ability to take on some of the work, largely due to the overload of tourists coming into Mieni. It wasn't that all of their work couldn't be done, but it was agreed that with the increased tourist traffic beyond what Mieni normally managed, even by comparison to the first IAC, it was figured best not to over tax anything.
"Will you be staying long?" Bubblehead wondered, "supposedly part of the IAC will have some events here."
"Not too long..." Ling answered, "our group supposedly on a big colony tour. We're supposed to be touring all the Animalian Colonies. The next big stop is Japan/China colony."
"Well... I'm sure it'll still be fun and you'll get to see the world," Bubblehead answered, "and hopefully the world will accept you for who you are."