The Modest Proposal Institute: A YA Dystopian Thriller

by Paul James

  Alexis: You never forgive people, no matter how many times they apologize or how low they grovel. So, no, he wouldn’t have gotten his job back. As for educating and supporting him, there is truth in that, but he would have been better off coming to us sooner. The speed of development of his robots since he left your world and came to us proves that. As for your “misogynistic” slur, that isn’t worth my breath to refute. Many women live within the institute, and more are coming to escape the misery that comes from your present world. They don’t see us as misogynistic; only you and your allies do that.

  Interviewer: But you don’t take women, so how can more women be coming to the institute?

  Alexis: As I’ve mentioned before, many of our men are now married and they and their families live within our properties, and now many more families are having to leave Western Europe; that’s what I was referring to. Also, where they still exist, our gated communities around the world are often supported by women who work through their own projects to provide services. Nursing and teaching are the two most significantly women-only projects currently in operation.

  Interviewer: Subservient services! You say you don’t oppress people, but that’s what that sounds like to me.

  Alexis: How are nursing and teaching subservient? Nursing and teaching used to be professions and we have restored them to that status by returning them to the private sphere. Being your own boss is hardly subservient or oppressed. You fix your 99.9 percent of the world and leave us to manage our tiny part. Those who work in our world don’t think of themselves as oppressed.

  Interviewer: But you often say your people can return to our world if they don’t like working in your oppressive twentieth century past. Why would we take your rejects when our world is struggling to find employment for our own people?

  Alexis: Your world is struggling because you foolishly tinkered with its mechanisms until you broke them. Our world is growing quickly because we have reset the mechanisms and they still run as well as they ever did, as every passing day demonstrates. But to answer your question, those who return to your world will bring valuable skills which you have lost. They will make their own employment.

  Interviewer: The period you admire so much, the twentieth century, was oppressive for too many people and we rightly changed it.

  Alexis: Civilizations work by promoting what creates wealth and strength and by suppressing those behaviors that don’t. You have chosen to do exactly the opposite, and in doing so you’ve sent Western civilization the way of all history’s failed societies. It’s nature’s way of cleansing populations of unhealthy behaviors. You can’t fight nature forever; eventually nature wins. Your time is up, as you are seeing every day but still won’t accept.

  The interview continued in this vein for a little longer. The anger it generated gave Shane the opportunity to once again demand the Founders end all direct engagements with the Western world. In this he was only partially successful. The Founders did agree to limit the amount of engagement, particularly avoiding debates that would clearly be used against the institute. This didn’t satisfy Shane, who had watched every interview degenerate from discussion to demagoguery in only minutes and knew every future one would as well, no matter how apparently harmless the topic.

  Disappointment with his fellow Institute leaders convinced Shane to become even more determined that the undersea cities would never be visible to the few people who, in the future, would live on the surface. How that was to be achieved, he wasn’t yet sure, but it would be the goal. What he did get from the Founders, Alexis, and Nadia was a promise to never mention the world being built below the sea.

  Chapter 29: The Institute Fights Back

  Through the following years of 2029 to ’31, it was clear the institute’s policy of rounding up attacking vessels and returning them to land didn’t discourage outsiders. Political life in the West and Africa had become battles of competing interests. Firebrand speakers spoke of the institute’s policy as “humiliation” and “insult,” demanding action. As people’s lives deteriorated, their words caught on. The Founders and council watched in growing dismay as, across the European continent, angry people marched on capital cities demanding the institute’s and other rich people’s wealth be redistributed to those who were without.

  The institute’s spy satellites and friendly informers kept the Founders and council up to speed and they, in turn, kept Alexis and Shane informed. Matters came to a head when a million people from across the continent converged on Brussels demanding action. Satellites showed significant military forces being gathered in Europe’s southern border. Institute leaders gathered to discuss what could be done.

  “Security, what is your opinion?” Dean asked.

  “We don’t have enough of anything to defeat that many warships, warplanes, or troops,” Shane said, speaking on behalf of Kurt and Yves as well as himself.

  “Then do you have a suggestion?”

  “We have identified the choke points of the European electrical and communications systems and their satellites,” Kurt said. “We recommend we destroy all those now. That would at least slow their mobilization.”

  “But not end it?” Alexander asked.

  “It may,” Yves replied, “if they learn from our action that they will not win easily.”

  “And if they don’t?” the council leader asked.

  “Their air and sea fleets will be grouped closely when they make their way here. At that point, we can hit them with the EMP weapons. Many will crash just from losing their electronic equipment. We believe that could turn the odds in our favor.”

  “And if they continue?”

  “Then we turn the NuMen on them with conventional weapons. There will be colossal loss of life and a war that none of us can accurately predict the outcome of.”

  “What are our alternatives?” the council chairman asked anxiously.

  “We surrender,” Alexander said, grimly, “and I’m not willing to do that.”

  “Surely there must be something between these two options that avoids a war,” the chairman protested.

  “They’re already mobilizing,” Kurt said. “I’d say they aren’t interested in discussions.”

  “They could be bluffing,” the chairman said desperately.

  “We will contact the EU leaders and offer to talk,” Alexander said, “but after their success at putting down the recent revolts in France and Belgium, they’re feeling pretty macho—even with their leaders being almost all women.”

  “But that’s why I feel they can’t be serious,” the chairman said. “Women are conciliators. They won’t want to get people killed.”

  “You should go look at the recent footage from Europe,” Alexis said sarcastically. “I’m happy to talk with them, but I saw how they put down those recent protests. I don’t believe they will want to talk now.”

  There was a murmur of agreement. Everyone had seen the recent violent scenes from Europe.

  The chairman, sensing he was not making an impression on the audience, said, “We still need to try.”

  “I think we can all agree to that,” Alexander said, “but we need to plan for war, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

  The discussions continued for some days, right up to the time it became clear from negotiations that the fading EU was gambling on a war with the institute to reestablish itself.

  The EU fleet—the “Armada,” as many were calling it both in the institute and on Western media—was ready to sail when the EU leaders issued their final ultimatum. The institute had to hand over billions of euros in reparations and relocate its factories to Europe. If the institute didn’t respond in twenty-four hours, the Armada would sail and forcibly seize the institute’s assets.

  Shane, Kurt, and Yves were joined by Tomas in the African spaceport headquarters, where the Founders gave them their decision.

  “Your original advice was to destroy their national electrical and electronic control systems,” Alexander said. “
Is that still your view?”

  “If we are to defend ourselves, yes,” Shane replied.

  “Then proceed immediately.”

  “We need to follow up on their fleet and plane control systems, too,” Kurt said, “and we need our space planes to destroy their military and civilian satellites ASAP.”

  “We have already ordered the space planes up,” Dean said. “That’s why Alexis is not here with us. They should be entering space within the hour and seeking their targets.”

  “We will coordinate our space and ground attacks so nothing is warned and escapes,” Shane said. “Their fleet and planes can be dealt with when, or if, they set sail.”

  “You have command here,” Alexander said, “Alexis is in space. The only restriction we demand of you both is that there should be no deliberate loss of life from our attack. I’m still hopeful that, when they realize their weakness, they will divert their efforts to rebuilding their countries instead of hoping to steal ours.”

  Chapter 30: Success . . . of a Sort

  Shane, Kurt, and Yves settled into chairs in front of security screens and put on the headsets that merged them into the control system. Shane looked down from Institute satellites to see northern Europe, and he waited until he saw Kurt and Yves had also locked onto the target area. They’d already agreed which targets each would take out. As they began to zoom in on their individual areas, Shane spoke to Alexis, now high above them.

  “Are you and the others in place?”

  “Everything is ready here,” Alexis said. “All our missiles are locked onto targets. Their satellites will be gone in two minutes of the word to go.”

  “We’re closing in on their infrastructure,” Shane said. “Our missiles will be there in minutes. We’ll give you the word.” He hesitated, then spoke his mind. “I hope these things work. They’ve never been tested on this scale.”

  “Whether they work or not,” Alexis said, “they have left us no other choice except surrender.”

  “I’m not questioning our actions; only acknowledging that if it isn’t successful, we’re in a shooting war, and that isn’t what any of us wanted.”

  “Sadly, it only takes one to start a fight, and that’s what they want,” Alexis responded.

  “Fire now,” Shane said. His voice was quiet, conversational, as if this wasn’t the possible beginning of the end. “Our missiles are two minutes away.”

  “Missiles gone,” Alexis said.

  There was silence as the leaders watched the screens. When the targets bloomed into balls of purple fluorescence, there was a general release of breath.

  “Our EMP weapons seem to have had the intended effect,” Alexis said. “From up here, Germany and Holland have gone dark. What do your readings show?”

  “All electrical grids in northern Europe are out,” Shane said. “It seems we’ve now tested the EMP weapons on a large scale and they work well.”

  “It will be interesting to see how their economies cope without electricity,” Alexis said. “Is the infrastructure down there intact?”

  “Yes, transformers and powerlines are still there, just dead. And the satellites?”

  “Still there,” Alexis said, “and they’re dead too. Here’s hoping it’s enough to have them call off their attack.”

  “I hope it is too, but in a strange way I’m fascinated by what comes next. They can go for broke and hope to regain all they’ve lost, or they can recall their troops and use them to maintain order in their now derelict countries. What will they choose?”

  “They may not ‘choose’ either. The people may choose to finally toss them out and manage their own affairs, as they once did.”

  “That would be the best option for everyone,” Shane replied, “which is why it probably won’t happen. People have lost the knack of running their own lives.”

  “We’re done here,” Alexis said, “and returning to Earth, but only to pick up more supplies for Moon City. We need to be self-sufficient up there before the next group of people decides to attack us.”

  “Alexis,” Shane said urgently, “Tomas just asked if he can send robots to Europe to secure the situation. He thinks if we demonstrate we can provide peace and order, then the Europeans will switch to supporting us and that will make us safer.”

  Alexis sighed. This again. There was something in the human psyche that made people believe the world would be a better place if only they were running it; that if everyone followed the same philosophy, the same theory, the same way of life, the same religion, then peace and happiness would reign forever. And nothing anyone could say—or history could show—would ever remove that belief from human minds.

  “Every time we speak to the world, we say there must be no more empires,” Alexis said wearily. “Every message we send to ourselves or to the world includes #NoMoreEmpires, and yet even our own people, like Tomas, don’t see or hear it. How can we hope others will?”

  “We can’t,” Shane said, “and if you think about it, it’s what we’re doing too—creating a society that works for us, I mean. We’re creating our perfect society, just outside the world’s attempts to do the same. What makes us different is, first, our determination not to let people in who don’t agree with our rules and, second, our determination not to force others to follow our rules. I guess I can tell Tomas we don’t agree?”

  “You can,” Alexis said. “The people of Europe can fix themselves without our intervention. That way they’ll have only themselves to blame when they don’t like the result.”

  “It will fix itself in the form of many small kingdoms as it was in the old days,” Shane said.

  “And that worked better than when they were all joined up,” Alexis said. “Small countries have small wars.”

  Shane laughed. “Maybe, but they’ll be complaining from the moment they feel themselves safe again.”

  “They won’t be complaining about us,” Alexis said, “and that’s all I care about. We will be safely out of their reach.”

  “For a time,” Shane said, thoughtfully. “One day they will recover their technological and industrial skills. Then we’ll be in danger again.”

  “I suppose we’ll remain in danger while their present weaponry stays functional,” Alexis replied. “When it can’t be repaired and there are no technicians to fix it, we’ll be safe. I think 2040 should be the end of it. Then it will be a hundred years or more before they’re able to dive under the sea to threaten you or look out into space to threaten me. We’re going to be okay.”

  “I’m thinking that once their weapons are useless, we should ensure they never develop new ones,” Shane said thoughtfully. “It wouldn’t be difficult to intervene and destroy any weapons program we see being developed. After all, we will be the only people who will be able to see everything, if the future develops as we think.”

  Chapter 31: The Institute on the Moon

  As they’d agreed, when Shane’s underwater cities were essentially complete, construction of the institute’s Moon City picked up. Space planes had long been assembling a convoy of components, materials, and machinery just above Earth and then ferrying them to the dark side of the moon, away from prying eyes.

  As the final dome was nearing completion, Alexis supervised the installation of tanks and pumps that would store and circulate the liquid that kept the three dome walls separated. Large internal buildings and machinery were placed inside before the three walls of the dome were completed so the airlocks could be kept small. The airlocks were the only openings permitted in the dome and had been formed during the pour. Only when the dome was proven airtight and the liquid circulation stable was air admitted into the vast inner cavern. Air was precious here on the moon; even the smallest loss would be hard to replace.

  When the dome was completed and they had air to breathe, the construction crews began fitting out the city. Protected from the moon’s hostile environment, everyday work became manageable for the small crew of men; they could now wear less bulky and constricti
ng safety suits that would immediately self-seal if the dome’s air pressure fell. Tomas’s construction robots, ConBots, needed no such protection, and consequently it was they who did most of the physical work while the men monitored progress and engineered solutions when problems arose.

  Three months later, Moon City accepted its first occupants, a mix of researchers and hotel staff to maintain and manage the facility. Specialized robots continued to do most of the physical work while people concentrated on progressing the city’s purpose. As their role diminished, the researchers were replaced by new volunteers, and the city grew to its full complement of staff and people. Among the first to take up residence were factory farmers and construction crews for the future cities.

  Alexis spent his time moving between Moon City and the institute on Earth, still pushing for more resources from the institute and more speed in the exodus of people from Earth. This grinding schedule, along with his time spent as the institute’s spokesman, was wearing him down, and for a time his wish was to withdraw from his spokesman role.

  That wish ended, however, the moment he realized his role as spokesman had one important advantage: it allowed him to do marketing for the future. To quickly expand the Moon City, it needed a purpose that generated money. Only when people are working for reward do things take off, and new colonies were no exception. Tourism had long been considered the best first industry for space, and Alexis took every opportunity to encourage the idea of moon vacations to a wider audience. Even though it was still too risky for all but the bravest and richest tourists, and there wouldn’t be facilities for some years to come, he began generating a market of interested people through the interviews.

  Chapter 32: Underwater Institute Sinks from View

  From his reclining chair, Shane watched the undersea world swirl around the wall of his apartment in Shaneville. He never tired of the view. Marine life, large and small, swam or drifted by in an ever-changing menagerie of sea life. Most residents of the underwater cities, he knew, shut out the outside world, preferring the simulated images of the surface world projected on the inner surface of the dome. These gave city residents the comforting feeling of being on land under sunny skies, and for most it worked.