Normally one would think that the primitive areas of the world would still be capable of feeding themselves. But in the twenty-second century there were very few primitive places left on Mother Earth and even in those places the surrounding flora and fauna had been scattered and destroyed. Initially the impacts and tsunamis had shattered the ecosystems. Later they were ravaged by the tornados, hurricanes, hail storms and other freak weather occurrences brought on by the Calamity.
And so the people of Earth began to die. They died of starvation, they died from contaminated water and they died from lack of medical care and they died fighting with each other over scraps of food. They died from the cold of winter and the heat of summer. They died of thirst, infections and diseases. And sometimes they simply died, lacking the will to continue on in a world gone mad.
Only in the United States and China was some semblance of a government still in place and they were far too busy with their own survival to come to the aid of the billions left adrift by the Calamity.
Africa and South America suffered the most of all the peoples of the Earth. Centuries of corrupt and meaningless governments and exploitation by the corporations had left ninety-five percent of their populations barely subsisting and the aftermath of the Calamity was no different with the exception that subsisting had become much more difficult.
As before, the wealthy hoarded the spoils of the work of the masses, and, being somewhat better educated and informed, had prepared for the Calamity, stock piling food in armed fortresses. The formerly wealthy aristocrats lived comfortably while the ragged survivors died of starvation or disease begging for scraps against the walls of their compounds.
But if history teaches us anything, it is that the masses will only be trod on for so long before the pent up resentment bubbles to the surface like bits of meat in a roiling stew. And so it was throughout South America and Africa. The masses rose up against the wealthy and the words of twenty-first century entrepreneur became a fulfilled prophecy. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so violent and so bloody had the wealthy had the foresight to help the struggling survivors. But when they looked upon the decimated remnants of humanity clinging to the walls of their compounds they experienced not compassion but fear. It was the fear that they themselves would lose their affluent positions and suffer the same fate as the other survivors. Throughout history when the human animal, civilized or not, is confronted with a situation that evokes fear, they respond in a predictable display of violence. This time was no different as they ordered their security troops to fire on those begging at the walls.
No one can say with any certainty where the first shots of fear were fired but suffice it to say that they occurred in most of the lands of the Earth including the U.S. and China. Starving masses of people swarmed over the walls and the aftermath was senseless, bloody and utterly predictable. The security teams of the formerly powerful aristocrats were no match for the seething panicked thousands who flowed across the walls and meted out the punishment of the oppressed that has always followed a revolution. Starving, frightened humans lose all semblance of their humanity and it was no different during the Time of the Dying than it was in the French Revolution or any other time of uprising. The pathetic sadness of the situation is that the meager rations gained by the masses did not last very long and dying resumed at an accelerated rate as soon as the spoils of their revolution were consumed.
In the U.S. President Lansing was as unflagging in the aftermath of the Calamity as he was during it. Through a kind quirk of fate the Midwest region of America was virtually untouched with the exception of Chicago and other cities located along the shores of the Great Lakes. The bread basket of the country had already been planted when the Calamity struck and very few fields had suffered damage from the debris of the outer system. Des Moines still stood as did St. Louis, Omaha and Kansas City.
Without hesitating, on emerging from the bunker that had housed him for ninety days, he ordered the military to seize all crops in the Midwest region under Executive Order One of his administration. The farmers were given an entire year’s rations for their families and told that the land they owned was theirs by grant of the President. All mortgages in the United States were herein cancelled and the property vested in the owners and their families for as long as they served the people.
Lansing and Lao still spoke daily, sometimes for hours on end, and after every conference new orders were issued to save as much of the good from the old world as possible. Lansing and Lao benefited from the foresight of their governments before the Calamity, utilizing the stockpiled provisions to go forth among the people. The United States had stocked six cavernous underground installations with years of food and the collective knowledge of the human race as well as the top scientists in every field of study, at least those not co-opted by the corporations and sent off planet. But Lansing knew that they’d need more resources to rebuild the human race and to save as many of the population as possible. Therefore, after a long session with Premier Lao, President Lansing issued Executive Order Two seizing all corporate property and abolishing corporate entities entirely. Identical orders were issued in China.
Six corporate entities that survived the Calamity in reasonably good condition petitioned the President and the Premier to allow them to continue in existence and, in a show of their good faith they disgorged all of their assets and volunteered their structure to aid in the humanitarian efforts ongoing by units throughout the world.
Reluctantly President Lansing and Premier Lao agreed to allow them to continue to exist. But they could have no profits till such a time as the government and the people decided the crisis was over and the salaries were determined by advisors to Lansing and Lao. So it was that the corporation survived, albeit on a short leash, but to their credit they functioned wonderfully under the auspices of government control. But Lansing and Lao were not fooled by the spirit of cooperation served up by the corporations. They knew that, inevitably, they would revert to form and once more be a threat to the people. So other orders issued by Lansing and Lao made corporate malfeasance a crime against humanity with severe punishments. Bribery of a government official was a crime against humanity, for the official as well as the person or corporation conspiring to bribe.
Armed with the assets left to their governments and seized from the corporations Lansing moved the U.S. capital to St. Louis while Lao began rebuilding Beijing. He explained to his friend Stephen Lansing that Beijing had always been there for his people and restoring it would mean more for his people’s morale than anything else he could do.
The tireless effort of the two leaders has become legendary and their unfailing dedication to the people of Earth is noted in every historical document of that period. When China suffered food shortages Lansing detailed airship after airship across the stormy skies of a raging earth laden with food from the Midwest harvests. When labor shortages threatened the American harvests, the airships traveled the other direction with thousands upon thousands of Chinese volunteers and the crops were saved. The two men shared knowledge and experts and sustained each other in the dark days of the Dying, because as tenacious as their efforts were they couldn’t come to the aid of all. South America and Europe were beyond the capabilities of the two survivors to aid as was Africa, although Lansing staunchly sent mission after mission to the British Isles with relief, refusing to abandon a five hundred year old tie with those islands and their populaces.
Yes, the efforts of the leaders are legendary, but still the people of the Earth died in multitudes. It has been estimated that at least two billion died the first year of the Dying. The rate of attrition would not relent for another two decades when the plans of Lao and Lansing finally came to full fruition.
Communication during this time was difficult because of the magnetized iron dust surrounding the planet. It scattered all signals whether outbound from the planet’s surface or inbound from its erstwhile colonies. While the technological capability still existed to launch com
munications satellites it would serve no purpose. The satellite, if it survived the debris encircling the planet, would be unable to send a signal back to its creators through the magnetized haze. Still, through makeshift ways and rigged communications relays the leaders of humanity were able to receive daily inputs from around the world. Much of the U.S. Navy surface fleet had survived and both China and the U.S. retained many aircraft from before the Calamity.
In the days of the Dying humanity saw the ships of the Americans and Chinese as angels of mercy. Whenever they appeared off their coasts and everywhere they touched down life became at least tolerable if not better and humanity started its’ long crawl back to civilization and the darkness was lifted. They delivered food and justice and taught the survivors how to grow crops and construct solar and wind utility grids all the while praising their leaders Lansing and Lao. For years afterward humanity in the beleaguered areas of the world blessed each other by a simple phrase, ‘By the mercy of Lansing and Lao’.
In one area, though, the leaders of downfallen humanity were frustrated. Alekos Antonopoulos, CEO of Planetary Strategic Solutions and the author of the disgraced NEOPDS, had disappeared completely without a trace. For years they sought him in order to try him on the world stage for crimes against humanity, but no effort bore fruit. It was as if he had disappeared from the face of the Earth.
After two decades the Dying is considered to have ended when the world’s population finally stabilized at five billion. Order had been restored in Europe, and Canada and Mexico had joined with the U.S. to form the North American Block. Units of the American military and relief corps had restored civilization to South America and Europe, just as Chinese units had stabilized Africa and most of Asia.
It was at the end of the Dying that Premier Lao and President Lansing had first proposed the World Council. It would be a body they deemed that would be the governing unit of all humanity. No more would the people of this world be fractured and set against one another. At the convening of this Council the two men, who met in person for the first and only time in their lives, laid out their plans for the recovery of humanity. They spoke of the path to the future, asking the Council to approve and implement what they called ‘The Long Road’.
President Lansing spoke first. Twenty years later he still looked ill at ease with public speaking, but this raw boned Midwest farmer carried an aura of quiet passion about him that moved and inspired all who met him. He saw himself not as a leader of humanity, but as a believer in the rights and potential of humanity and his passion and zeal swept away all resistance to his ideas.
“Our path has been unsettling and dark these past two decades, but through the perseverance of the people and the dedication of the many we’ve clawed our way back into the light. And the road before us is clear to me but it can only be traveled by the will of the people. Our predecessors in these offices spoke of the “national will”. I and my friend, Premier Lao, do not speak of the national will for no nation ever conceived of can do what must be done over the coming decades to ensure the survival of our species. We, who’ve drawn strength from each other over the years, speak to you of the will of humanity for we are one world now and one race, the human race. Let us set humanity on a shining path that will announce to the universe that our species that survived the Calamity and the Dying has earned the right to continue our journey. Let no one say that we have not earned our right to survive!”
Thunderous applause ripped through the Council chamber and Premier Lao stood to address the council. The members of the council saw a gray-haired, wispy bearded, grandfather of a figure take to the podium. He then spoke with a calm, but powerfully persuasive voice.
Premier Lao then spoke. “I’ve drawn strength over these twenty years from my friend, Samuel Lansing. Together, when things were darkest we spoke not of the hundred tragedies we endured daily, but of the shining path we saw before us for humanity. We talked of the future humanity could build, of our hopes that the same mistakes that have plagued our race from time immemorial would not be repeated. To this end we’ve spent the last twenty years drawing up the plans you see before you. They are self-explanatory and we’ll continue in our present capacity as long as the people and our bodies will allow us. We will aid you in these endeavors but the decision to proceed down this path must be one made by the people and their representatives. There is an easier way than the one we’ve outlined for you. But it is the same path humanity has followed throughout our history and we believe it will merely lead us to the same state of existence we endured before the Calamity. From the day that we accepted the burden of leadership we vowed we’d never betray the people of this world as they’ve so often been betrayed throughout history. We choose to right the wrongs of our past and to give the people the voice they’ve struggled to achieve over the centuries. In this we humbly ask you to participate.”
Lansing and Lao had chosen the members of the Council wisely and had groomed them accordingly. Every man and woman cried out their willingness to embark down the Long Road with the mentors of humanity, which is how they viewed these living icons. Eventually the applause and shouts died down and Lao continued, first looking at Lansing, who gave a slight nod and nothing more.
“There is one request we have for you, although we’ll not live to see its fruition. Many times over the years we’ve spoken of our lost children, those colonists offworld who were abandoned by the corporations during the panic of the Calamity. They are the children of humanity as well. We’ve felt our obligation to them just as keenly as the ones who stand before us. We ask this legislative body to consider this a lifetime request of my good friend Samuel and myself. We ask nothing further of you than this; when the long road has been marched down, look to the skies for our forgotten children and seek them out. Extend to them our help and solace and our bitter regret for their abandonment. We don’t know if they’ve survived or not but we have a duty to them and this duty we now pass on to you. Will you accept?”
The room exploded as the saintly Lao finished and Lansing stood and shook his friend’s hand. And so mankind once more embarked upon a grand path with confident optimism and enthusiasm. But all wondered secretly if they could stay the course and avoid the corruption that inevitably seemed to seep into even the grandest dreams of humanity.
THE LONG ROAD
The plans furnished by Lansing and Lao were very detailed and precise and addressed everything from food distribution to energy consumption.
No more would the members of humanity struggle to escape poverty and to seize the opportunity to achieve in this brave new world. The right to enough food to survive and thrive, the right to medical care and the right to education couldn’t be denied to any individual under the comprehensive vision of the leaders. How far an individual went in society was at last determined by their merit and intelligence and nothing more. No longer would intelligent minds languish in poverty undiscovered. Now they were considered an asset of humanity and it was in humanity’s interest to open the road for them to succeed.
The six corporations that had survived the purge of Lansing and Lao did not interfere or in any way give suspicion that they didn’t agree with the path taken. Their leaders outwardly supported every step of the Long Road and showed no interest in the decadence of their past. They knew that the time was not ripe. The wounds of humanity were too fresh to forgive or forget the betrayals that had led to the Calamity and the Dying. So long as Lansing and Lao lived, humanity would not forget the corporate transgressions of the previous century. So, as always, they bided their time and marched to the drum of the current philosophy.
All energy used by mankind would be either renewable or generated by nuclear means under the Long Road. As much as possible humanity would live in harmony with its world. Science, unfettered by greed, would guide their footsteps down the Long Road.
With no wealthy class to siphon off the fruits of the public labor planetary projects were conceived and executed in remarkably short time per
iods. Government review boards determined each job classification’s earnings and strictly monitored the profits of the remaining six corporations and their salary structure. It seemed there was no end to what mankind could achieve now that they’d removed the parasitic corporations from the necks of the people.
In this new world the Council could bring overwhelming manpower and resources to bear on any problem and a worldwide energy grid was achieved in just a decade. Not satisfied with that the Council set its’ sights on fusion reactors. In the past governments had thrown vast sums at the corporations and it seemed that fusion was always just a decade away in the corporate press releases but never actually achieved. Now the full resources and the citizens of humanity were thrown into the fray and real progress was achieved almost instantly. By the second decade of the Long Road humanity had finally achieved the holy grail of fusion.
When told of this former President Lansing had replied, “It’s amazing what the human race can achieve when it doesn’t have to line the pockets of greedy men.” Lao echoed his sentiments and praised the World Council.
Both Lansing and Lao were true to the words they’d spoken at the Council. Each had resigned his office in deference to the World Council and had tirelessly supported them over the years, going wherever they were needed. Just an appearance by one of the leaders of humanity at a project site was equivalent to a thirty percent increase in productivity. None wished to disappoint these men. Wherever they went an awed citizenry was swept over by an experience that could only be called religious. The lengths to which the two men had gone on humanity’s behalf and the sacrifice they’d endured bestowed something equivalent to sainthood on them by a grateful world.
Children of the Dark World Page 34
