Dayworld Breakup

by Philip José Farmer

  Various eminent and loyalty-tested historians have stated that history ended with the founding of the New Era. Mere chronicling of thoroughly mundane events replaced history. Though such statements should not be taken entirely seriously, they are true in several respects. The most significant is that the New Era has given all people the Good Life (as it’s called) but has removed any surprises.

  Paradoxically, progress is still with us but change is not.

  Actually, change does exist, though it is so slow that it is unperceived and unfelt by the individual citizen.

  Racism, sexism, nationalism, poverty, pollution and economic insecurity have been eliminated. The conflict and prejudices among races that existed in the pre-New Era and the early days of the New Era have disappeared. Caucasian, Mongolian, Negro, Amerindian, and Australian aborigine have melted together and become one more or less brown race. However, more than just variety of skin color has vanished. Much of the “color” of everyday life is also gone, though other factors beside racial difference have contributed even more to this loss.

  I tend to agree with the historians and sociologists who have stated the above. But such loss of “color” in everyday life cannot be avoided. A price must be paid for every purchase. For every advantage there is a disadvantage.

  These are cliches and truisms, but I do not apologize for them. History is a series of embodied variations of cliches and truisms. The names of people, events, and places change, and the effects of war, trade, science, and technology on history vary. (Fortunately, Earth has had no wars for 2000 obyears.) But mostly, it’s a recycling powered by greed or idealism, mostly by greed. Both greed and idealism have been and are fueled by the desire for power, whatever the proponents of both claim.

  What I’m leading up to is The Hero in History. You’re all well educated, have one or more doctor’s degrees. Thus, I don’t have to spell out to you the role of The Hero (male or female) in mythology, legend, and history. All eras except ours have had a multitude of heroes. The New Era has been remarkably lacking in these. The only prominent one, whose name every citizen knows, is Jerry Pao Nel. He led the doomed rebellion of the Martian colonists against the Commonwealth of Earth. He has been the subject of innumerable dramas, and we have allowed these to be displayed because they are a cathartic for the rebellious and resentful feelings of the citizenry. This latitude is in accordance with the secret rule for governing the citizens of the New Era. That is, let the people have all the freedom they wish—within a certain range. Keep a long leash on them. Don’t pull them up short until they go too far. If at all possible, don’t let the citizens see the iron hand in the velvet glove.

  This rule is for their own good.

  I speak of heroes because the New Era now has another. To be exact, two.

  These are the male outlaw, Jefferson Cervantes Caird, now known as William St. George Duncan, and the female outlaw, born Panthea Pao Snick, whose latest false ID is Jenny Ko Chandler.

  Allow me to briefly review the lives and careers of these two before I go on to my thesis of them as folk-heroes and then to the dangers they pose to the Commonwealth of Earth. We regard these two as outlaws, daybreakers, murderers, and subversives; in short, villains. But many citizens will assuredly make them heroes just as the common people of ancient England and Switzerland made heroes of Robin Hood and William Tell, and the people of ancient China made a hero of Sung Chuang and his band. Or, in the ancient nation of the U.S.A., John Dillinger and Jesse James.

  Caird-Duncan, as he is hereafter usually referred to, and Snick combine the political nature of Hood, Tell, and Sung and the anti-social semipsychopathic-economic nature of Dillinger and James.

  I am repeating some of the biodata of these two only to make my points re their becoming criminals and this potential impact upon us, that is, on history. Let us hope that they soon become just that—history.

  The parents of Jefferson Cervantes Caird, now alias Duncan, were Doctor Hogan Rondeau Caird, doctor of medicine and of biochemistry, and Doctor Alice Gan Cervantes, Ph.D., molecular biologist. They were born in Manhattan State, as was their son, an only child. Doctor Alice Gan Cervantes was the daughter of the famous biochemist, Dr. Gilbert Ching Immerman. Immerman was also the grandfather of Dr, Hogan Rondeau Caird, Jefferson’s father. Thus, Immerman was both the great-grandfather and grandfather of Jefferson Cervantes Caird.

  As you well know, the organic department did not discover until very recently that Immerman had, when young, developed in his laboratory what we now refer to as the “elixir” or ASF. That is, age-slowing factor. When administered to a person, it slows down aging by a factor of seven. An infant who would naturally live to 100 subyears, if given this at birth, will live to 700 subyears. But since the dayworld system already extends his lifespan to 700 obyears, the infant will now live to 4900 obyears.

  If the infant were, hypothetically, living every day, he would survive to the age of 700 obyears. Or 700 subyears, since in his case, obyears and subyears would be the same. During his lifetime, the earth would have circled the sun 700 times.

  Immerman, you might say, was the New Era’s Doktor Faustus. He had in his hands a gift for humankind that would be a boon or a curse, depending on the viewpoint. For the individual, it would be a gift from God, if I may be forgiven for using a superstitious phrase. God knows that there are still far too many citizens who believe in God. But many also believe in astrology, fortune-telling, ghosts, angels, demons, witchcraft, and gambling.

  For society, it could be a curse. We (by we, I mean past and present World Councillors) have kept Earth’s population growth rate to zero. In fact, as you know but the public does not, we have managed to reduce the population from the ten billion existing a thousand obyears ago to the present two billion. But the populace (and this includes all but the very highest government officials) believe that the present population is ten billion. We have done this with the highest of ethical values in mind, for the good of the people and for the good of Earth.

  For the good of Earth is the same as for the good of the people. Never will we allow this planet to become stripped and polluted again so that humankind faces extinction—as it did in the early twenty-first century A.D.

  As I said, Immerman could have made his elixir or ASF public, or could have repressed it. Instead, he decided to use it not only for himself but for his wife and children. His wife was sworn to secrecy re the ASF as were his children when they became adults. Eventually, ASF was given to the extended family and then to others. These formed the nucleus of a secret society the members of whom referred to themselves as “immers.” After a time, this group, ever expanding, became a quasi-political body. They also spawned other secret groups which were controlled by the immers but knew nothing of the ASF or its origins.

  From what we have found out since the Caird-Duncan and Snick affair, we know that Immerman decided that he must disappear. He was staying visibly younger than his contemporaries, and he had to appear to die before assuming a new identity. (His wife had died in an accident.)

  He arranged the reproduction of his body, growing it in his laboratory (government-owned but administered by him). And he arranged the “accident” which partly destroyed the duplicate’s body, which was identified as his.

  Though an intense investigation is now being conducted to ferret out the insertion of false data in the data banks and the false ID he used, we have gotten nowhere so far. Probably, we will not succeed. As I have pointed out in previous reports, the control of data and close surveillance of citizens by the government gives us great power. But our control of data is a two-edged sword. We use it to monitor trade, traffic, materials flow, and protection of citizens from themselves and from others. But criminals have used data banks for their own purposes. These false insertions of data have usually been detected, but there surely must be some cases that have been quite successful. Just how many, we cannot, of course, know.

  Immerman disappeared and became, in effect, just another cit
izen. But he still controlled the immer organization. Then he abandoned this ID, probably through another “death,” and became David Jimson Ananda. This was in that area anciently known as Albania, now part of the Southeast European Department. You know how he arose from a block-leader in Tirana to World Councillor. His tremendous ingenuity is shown by the fact that his biodata were minutely scrutinized during his rise in administrative positions, yet, though false, escaped detection.

  It was after he was established in his World Councillorship that he secretly set up the override circuits on the news-channel communications circuits. We still do not know how he did this nor have we as yet traced the override circuit to its site of origin. Though we can now prevent its transmitting of messages, we must find its initial source. Present speculation is that it is located in one of the seven thousand communications satellites. If so, then it was planted by space technicians, and all who could possibly be involved are being subjected to TM.

  However, a scan has shown that three possible candidates have died during the time period that the override mechanism could have been placed in a satellite. One or more of these might have been responsible. If so, we’re out of luck. We also wonder how many of the three deaths are valid, and these are being intensely investigated.

  Just why Immerman-Ananda set up the override is not known. It must have been part of some contingency plan or, perhaps, though this seems incredible, he had plans for becoming world dictator.

  Whatever the reason, he certainly did not expect anyone to force the location and use of the override from him and use it for that person’s purpose. That person being his own descendant, Jefferson Cervantes Caird, alias Duncan et al.

  At some time, probably when Jefferson Caird was eighteen, he was told about the immers and the ASF. He swore the oath, made doubly binding because, if he betrayed the immers, he also betrayed his beloved parents. Besides, from what we know of Caird’s personality, he was thrilled by the idea and eager to play an active part. After graduating from South Manhattan State College, he entered the Manhattan Academy of Organics and graduated with many honors. His doctoral thesis was on the psychological profile and brain chemistry of daybreakers. Given hindsight, we can see how ominous this was for the Commonwealth.

  The immers had long been planting their members in various important government bureaus. As an organic, Caird was in a position to know when danger of detection threatened the immers and to take measures to warn them. We do not know exactly when he accepted the role of courier for the immers. Those intertemporal messages which had to be delivered verbally or via hand-carried tapes were entrusted to Caird. He became a daybreaker. To do so, he had to adopt a different ID for each day. False biodata for each ID were inserted into the databanks by a procedure the organics still have not determined.

  It was during this early period that Caird’s peculiar ability, one of his peculiar abilities, was revealed to him and to the higher administrators among the immers.

  At first, he was merely assuming a separate ID for each day. Then it became apparent that Caird was not just acting. He had become each persona. Thus, though the persona for each day varied significantly from each other, and from the original Caird, he was each one. He was on Wednesday, Tingle, data banker; on Thursday, Dunski, fencing instructor; on Friday, Repp, TV actor-writer-producer; on Saturday, Ohm, a weedie and part-time bartender; on Sunday, Father Tom Zurvan, a half-mad street-preacher; on Monday, Isharashvili, a Central Park ranger.

  Yet an estimated one percent of him retained the Caird persona. This was enough for him to maintain a tenuous continuity with all of his personae and to carry out his courier role.

  Caird’s parents both died, apparently drowned at sea off Long Island while yachting. This was during a particularly cloudy and stormy day. The satellites could not observe them, and the location signal from their yacht ceased operating. The boat was sunk, but their bloated bodies were recovered a week later. These may have been laboratory-grown reproductions. For some reason we have not been able to discover—Caird apparently also does not know it—his parents had to “disappear.” Perhaps they have popped up elsewhere with false IDs or they may have actually died.

  While he was still at the Academy, Caird got married and was licensed to have one child. She now lives in Manhattan and teaches history. She has been TMed and proved innocent of any knowledge of ASF and the immers.

  The second of Caird’s peculiar talents, in this case, a unique talent, is his inborn or self-taught resistance to the so-called truth drug, TM. Somehow, he is able to resist the effects of TM. He can lie when exposed to it in spray form or when it is injected. Though unconscious after being subjected to TM, he can still lie. Even the electronic devices which monitor such sure indicators of prevarication and mental stress as skinfield potential and blood chemistry and brainwave and eye-movement changes are deceived.

  Caird-Duncan seems able not only to lie to others when he’s under TM, but also to himself.

  Panthea Pao Snick was the daughter of organic officers in Manhattan. She took up her parents’ profession and became a detective-major shortly before the events occurred which brought her and Caird together. Her record was excellent, and her superiors recognized her high ability as a detective. That she was given one of the very rare temporal visas demonstrates her superiors’ great regard for her.

  Snick’s assignment was to track down a female daybreaker named Doubleday. You know the story of what happened after that. It’s a complicated one, but, during the course of events, Caird (and his personae) became a danger to the immers. Snick was captured by the immers, and Caird objected to her being killed.

  Immerman himself, that is, David Jimson Ananda, flew from Zurich to Manhattan to take personal charge of the situation. He seems to have lacked any family feeling because he condemned his own grandson to death. But Caird escaped and rescued Snick.

  Meantime, Caird had been heading toward a mental breakdown. All of his personae were trying to take control and dispossess the others. While fleeing both the organics and the immers, Caird became temporarily catatonic and was arrested by the organics.

  After questioning Snick, the organics arrested and questioned under TM some of the immers. A Wednesday citizen, Colonel Paz, revealed all that he knew. Of course, he did not know any more than we did that Ananda was in reality Immerman, nor did he know that Ananda was in Manhattan. But the organics were able to scoop up a number of lesser-rank immers, and their testimony plus Paz’s revealed to us the existence of the immer society.

  Regretfully, we were forced to gorgonize Snick and consign the body to a warehouse in the New Jersey wilderness. She knew too much and was too sympathetic with her rescuer, Caird, to be trusted to keep silence. The main factor in determining to keep her quiet was the ASF. The public must not know about ASF. It would demand it if it knew about it, and its long-term effects would be deleterious to society as a whole. We found ourselves in the ironic position of having to agree with Immerman on that. But we, the World Council, agreed that we would share ASF among us and those of our children who could be trusted.

  Now, due to Caird’s message and printouts of the ASF formula, distributed worldwide among the citizens, we are facing a very difficult situation. Should we admit that the ASF formula is valid? Or should we deny it and claim that it is useless, a criminal’s hoax, and possibly dangerous? Or should we give in to the storm of demand by the citizens and let them have ASF? Or what they believe is ASF. It could be a preparation of harmless ingredients which would satisfy them that they are getting something which will allow them to live seven times longer. By the time they find out that their age is not being slowed down, ten subyears at least, i.e., seventy obyears, will have passed. We can blame Caird for that.

  While we debated what to do with Caird, he broke out of a supposedly escape-proof building.

  Caird is elusive and slippery, the very model of a trickster. This quality, too, will appear to the people to be admirable and will add lustre to his rol
e of rebel-hero.

  It seems that he had again changed his persona before fleeing Manhattan into the wilds of New Jersey. This was the persona he called William St. George Duncan.

  He fell in with outlaws, people who had become daybreakers for various criminal reasons. They holed up in ancient tunnels beneath a warehouse. This was the very building in which we had stored the stoned Snick. He found and destoned her. During this time, to throw us off the trail forever, he managed to grow his duplicate in a government-owned laboratory near the warehouse. This he cleverly palmed off as his corpse, presumably killed during a struggle with an organic officer. Caird also killed the officer.

  Caird, Snick, and a companion (see Index re Padre Cabtab) made their way to Los Angeles State. There they made contact with a subsidiary underground organization. This had various names, but I shall use just one as a label, OMC. That is, Old Man Coyote. Except possibly for the very highest officials in OMC, none of its members knew about the immers or ASF. OMC was just a tool for the immers.

  Caird, Snick, and Cabtab were located finally by World Councillor Ananda, that is, Immerman. He tried to have them killed and then abducted them, for some reason, to his secret apartment on the 125th level of the La Brea Tower Complex. Even the Los Angeles organic generals of each day did not know of this covert residence of the World Councillor.

  Somehow, the three prisoners broke loose. Padre Cabtab was slain, but Snick and Caird-Duncan killed all but two of their captors. These were Immerman-Ananda and an accomplice, Carebara. Caird-Duncan used TM on his grandfather and extracted from him various data. This included the clandestine override circuits Immerman-Ananda had arranged many subyears ago. Having initiated the mechanisms which would broadcast his rebellious messages re video and automatic printout, Caird-Duncan then called the nearest organic precinct station. He told the officer in charge that a murder had been committed in the apartment. This puzzled the officer because his call-up of the registry of that floor showed that the apartment suite was unoccupied. However, the few interim organics available were dispatched to the site.