The Forever War

Now a major in command of his own strike force, Mandella reports to Stargate for “indoctrination and education” (181). He is immersed in an oxygenated fluorocarbon bath and hooked up to a virtual reality computer, from which he learns “the best way to use every weapon from a rock to a nova bomb” plus millennia of military theory (182). After two weeks of rehabilitation following his “education,” Mandella meets Colonel Kynock, his temporal orientation officer. They discuss the past few centuries of Earth history—a cycle of improvements followed by regressions. Kynock also brings up Mandella’s psychological profile—he’s a pacifist who has killed, which results in a sort of cognitive dissonance that causes him to transfer “the burden of guilt to the Army” (187). In short, he has the potential to be a good officer, but that potential is so far unfulfilled. Kynock also cautions Mandella that his entire strike force—as well as nearly everyone on Earth—is gay (heterosexuality is considered an “emotional disfunction”), and his psych profile suggests he is not as tolerant as he thinks he is. Also, a genetic revolution has taken place on Earth where babies are “quickened” in artificial wombs, but only when someone dies, keeping the population relatively stable.