The Rise of the Speaker

by Pete Driscoll

  And for that matter, how much emptier would my existence be? now that the possibility of like-minded people joining me had been pointed out. Maybe it would be foolish to advertise my whereabouts, the US government may not have been looking particularly hard for me, but they were looking and they wouldn’t ignore me if I announced my presence to the world - as I would surely have to if I hoped to attract people to our Island. But would it be selfish for me not to offer people the chance of a new life, just to keep myself hidden? These were questions I couldn’t possibly hope to answer in the space of a single sunset. So, as the sun slipped below the western horizon, I bid Alice goodnight and went to bed… and dreamed.

  “So that was it” I smiled, once again finding myself staring out of the Bastion windows as the Atlantian landscape was bathed in the warm light of the setting sun. “that was all it took to turn a refuge into a home, and a home into a nation. Bit of an anti-climax don’t you think?”

  “I’m not sure,” Jonathan mused thoughtfully, “I didn’t really know what to expect, I mean, how often are new nations founded outside of wars?”

  “Not many.” Penny agreed, “I think it’s nice, the natural progression of the island… it started out as a safe haven for you and it evolved into a safe haven for others. I’m kind of… proud… that it happened like that, no convoluted negotiations, no back room dealing, just pure altruism.”

  “Ah, well I wouldn’t get too carried away with that logic,” I warned, “the convoluted negotiations and back room dealing came a little later, and there would be plenty of it before Atlantia became a reality. We still had a long way to go, many battles to fight and many mountains to climb befor we got that far.”

  “Well, it’s my story and I think it’s nice,” Penny laughed and poked out her tongue.

  “Talking about Convoluted negotiations…” Jonathan spoke up after smiling lovingly at his girlfriend. “…we may need to put a hold on these talks for the next few days. The Health Summit is coming up and we have a lot of work to do before we are ready.”

  “Trust Jonathan to rain on our parade,” I joked to Penny as she pretended to pout. “Ok, Ok, we’ll pick this up after the summit, Penny, will you be joining us?”

  Jonathan looked at her hopefully as her eyes met his, “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She smiled.

  After a few goodnights and another frown inducing bow from Jonathan, I bid them goodnight and turned back to watch the night fall on our beautiful city.

  Chapter 26

  The summit.

  Blue Lagoon bay was one of the crowning achievements of the Atlantian Island. A huge, sweeping bay that stretched almost 12 miles from end to end, with white sandy beaches separating the water from the promenade of hotels, bars, restaurants, surf shops and tourist attractions. A mile out to sea, a huge network of coral reefs and tiny sandy islands capped the lagoon, creating an aquatic area of perfect swimming and water sport conditions, but also an incredible natural habitat for hundreds of marine species, safe from the dangers of deep-water predators. At certain times of the year, swimmers could expect to share the water with a myriad of tropical fish, playful bottlenose dolphins and sometimes - if they were very lucky – basking grey whales.

  On almost any day of the year, the beaches were crowded with tourists and families, swimmers bobbed in the sea, sail boats skimmed around the lagoon, kite surfers, jet skis and kayaks raced up and down the length of the bay and converted Pelican drop ships acted as airborne lifeguards, ready to help any swimmer in distress. The crystal clear, warm, turquoise waters of Southern Atlantia gave this tourism orientated city an air of paradise as it basked in the warm, year-round sun.

  The jewel in the crown, however, was the Spire. The second tallest building in the world stood on its own purpose-built island in the centre of the Lagoon. The island was sloped, with beaches on the side facing onto the bay, and the sea facing side rose to moderately size cliffs to protect the spire from some of the larger waves that occasionally found their way into the bay. The Island was connected to the mainland by two single-span bridges, each one joining the island at a slight angle to either end of the main promenade. The whole loop was exactly 26.2 miles, the precise length of a standard marathon and home to the national marathon event every year.

  The Spire was a true marvel of modern engineering. Octagonal at the base, its carbonite and glass construction twisted as it rose to its viewing platform 1652ft above the ground. The spire on top of the viewing platform rose another 250 feet, making it only 17 ft shorter than the Pinnacle in Hong Kong. A hotel and conference centre, easily protected by land, sea and air, the Spire had become the primary destination for foreign delegates, international summits, world leaders and celebrities. One of those summits was due to take place today and – as the Chariot raced across the countryside of Sothern Atlantia – Jonathan brought Penny up to speed with the purpose of the World Health Organisation’s annual universal healthcare summit.

  “You see,” Jonathan was saying, “most of the more… advanced and civilised… nations in the world have some sort of universal healthcare system. They have recognised the value of a healthy population and – unlike countries like the US and China – don’t want their population to pay for the privilege of good health.

  “the problem is,” he continued, “is that these systems are incredibly expensive to run. They usually require a large tax to be levied on the population, which means that any mistakes they make, or any inefficiencies in their operation becomes a public interest issue. There is a lot of pressure to get things right. On top of that, some of the more unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies out there charge these systems a much higher rate for drugs and equipment, placing even more pressures on the service. Then there are the politicians who want to sell the system – either in parts or in its entirety – to insurance companies and then charge the population to use it, basically using the American model of healthcare. It is easy to resist these offers in principle, but when the realities of running these systems are so complex and extraordinarily expensive… there is always a risk that they will collapse.

  “the British NHS very nearly ceased to exist after Brexit, it was only the national pride that the country had in its health service that prevented the right-wing government from selling it off. After that happened, the WHO started organising these summits, the idea being to share best practices and combine production and research resources more efficiently in order to stop anymore healthcare systems from collapsing. After the Spartan Wars with the US, we were invited to join, the summit moved here and the rest – as they say – is history.”

  Penny was jotting furiously on her pad as Jonathan finished his history lesson, “So how many nations are part of the summit?” she asked, finally looking up from her screen.

  “at the time of its inception,” Jonathan answered, “32 of the 34 developed nations on the planet had some form of universal healthcare – with America and China being the only exceptions – however, the system in Kuwait collapsed and the South Korean state was destroyed in the Second Korean War. But other non-developed countries are trying to institute a national healthcare system in their own nations, and they are invited to the summit as well. There will be delegations from 42 countries at todays summit”

  “So, this is going to be exciting then.” Penny beamed with enthusiasm as she looked towards Jonathan.

  “Erm…” his eyes flashed to me nervously.

  “Penny,” I interred, “under normal circumstances, each country would make a presentation of the state of their health system, the challenges it has faced over the past 12 months and how those challenges have been overcome. Sometimes they might add a bit about future plans… It is boring beyond description! The important stuff almost always is”

  “Oh”

  “But…” Jonathan smiled, “this year is a little different. This year, our fearless leader is making a special presentation. That will certainly garner a bit of excitement.”

  “What kind of p
resentation?” Penny was like a child at Christmas.

  “You’ll have to wait and see,” I winked.

  The international conference Hall was laid out in a similar – albeit bigger – fashion as the UN grand assembly hall. A raised podium at the front faced outwards into a semi-circle of individual desks seating the foreign delegations, the mezzanine above us held an expansive viewing gallery filled with spectators and medical professionals from every corner of the globe.

  Being the host, and the alphabetically first country on the list of speakers, I had the privilege of opening the conference and making my presentation first.

  “My esteemed colleagues,” I started, “world leaders, foreign delegates… friends. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the magnificent Spire hotel in the beautiful Blue Lagoon Bay.” There was a spattering of applause from the crowd, “But more importantly, I would like to welcome – and pay tribute to – the doctors, nurses and medical professionals who have joined us on this venerable day. Your hard work and sacrifice is what makes all this possible,” I gestured the seats in front of me whilst looking at the viewing gallery above, “It is your dedication, you compassion and your humanity that has kept our people and our children healthy,” the applause got louder as no delegate wanted to be seen left out of the tribute being paid to their medical personnel, I talked over the applause. “Your value to our society is beyond measure and from the bottom of my heart, I thank you.”

  I left the applause go on for a while as delegates and spectators alike stood to applaud the medical staff seated in the mezzanine above the hall. Camera’s panned up to the viewing crowd while photographer’s bulbs flashed at the standing ovation being given to the beneficiaries of today’s summit.

  “But,” I continued as the applause died down, “Thanking you isn’t enough. Instead, I would like to present you with a gift, something that will save your respective health systems billions, money that could be better invested elsewhere in the medical services or even used to pay doctors and nurses what they are worth.” A nervous chuckle from the delegations was quickly drowned out by the rapturous applause from the gallery. “more importantly, it will make your jobs easier and improve patient care.”

  “This…” I raised my hand and gestured to the wall behind me as an enormous screen flickered into life, “…is the wand.” The lights in the room dimmed, darkening the room and allowing the audience to see the screen better as a handheld contraption – resembling a hair dryer with the nozzle squashed into a thin, straight, blue light – illuminated the screen.

  Alice and I – with no small amount of input from the brilliant minds at the Hawking Institute - had spent the better part of a year working on the wand; a handheld medical instrument capable of diagnosing any patient of all almost any ailment with a quick scan of the body. The device used a combination of ultrasound waves, X-rays, MRI and cat scans - coupled with a new form of medical scan developed out of the heavily modified magnetic fields of the reactors – which, when passed over a patient, could entirely map the external and internal spaces of a human body. Equipped with a bank of carbonite infused microprocessors and Alice’s computer code, it could cross reference that map with every known medical condition on record, almost instantly diagnosing whatever ailment the patient suffered from.

  “I would like to first thank the British Delegation for allowing us to test this device in the world-renowned Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, England.” I continued after finishing the technological description of the Wand and as the hushed murmurs of the crowd died down. “We have been using this instrument in Atlantian hospitals for a number of months so – for the purposes of this presentation – we decided to demonstrate the wand in a completely neutral setting.

  “I would like you to meet nurses Laura Graham,” a middle-aged brunette in blue scrubs appeared on the screen, “and Nathan Jones,” the brunette was replaced by a red-haired man in his late twenties. “Both of these nurse work in the triage section of the Hospital’s Accident and Emergency department. Nurse Graham spent her shift using the wand, Mr Jones conducted his examinations in the way he usually does. Let’s watch the results…”

  A short video detailing the working of the device and the test in Alder Hey started playing on the screen behind me as the raptured audience watched. The test had been remarkable, over the space of 12 hours, Nathan Jones had successfully diagnosed 122 patients, a spattering of applause echoed from the mezzanine, apparently that was a respectable number. Laura Graham – in the same amount of time but using the wand – had processed 478. Each of her patients was re-examined between a team of five consultants to ensure the wand was providing accurate diagnosis and not a single case of misdiagnosis was found. This wand could quadruple the efficiency of medical diagnosis in an instant.

  The crowd started applauding wildly as the usefulness of this instrument became apparent, the delegations, however, look significantly less enthused – these kinds of equipment had, traditionally, come with a hefty price tag.

  “There is more…” I continued as I raised my hand to quiet the applause. “Over the next few months, our team at the Hawking Institute will start to implement and test the next phase of the wand’s design.” The screen flashed and the previous image of the wand was replaced by a larger, similar looking instrument attached to an arm over a medical bed. A few pencil looking protrusions extended from the top and bottom of the wand’s face.

  “These laser scalpels will be able to treat a whole range of minor injuries; they can fuse broken bones, seal cuts and lacerations, they can even heal internal bleeds without breaking the skin. Imagine all the minor ailments that clog up the health system which could be immediately cured with this equipment…” Even the delegates were applauding now, “With more upgrades in the future, we are hoping that major, but delicate surgeries could be performed with this tool; heart and brain surgery, removal of cancer cells, emergency trauma surgeries, the possibilities are endless.

  “These machines will be provided to any health service that wants them… for free!” The delegates immediately sat up and started paying more attention, “there are only a few conditions that they would need to agree to, the first of which being this: These are meant as aides to current medical staff, not as replacements for doctors. Any health system laying off medical personnel as a result of receiving this technology will have it revoked… Our doctors and nurses are the pride of our health system, they cannot be allowed to be replaced by machines.” The cheer from the auditorium was deafening.

  “Secondly, the greedy and corrupt insurance and pharmaceutical companies should never be allowed to profit from a device which is meant to be free, so any health system handing over these devices to private companies – either to be reverse engineered or used in a profit-making hospital -will have them revoked.” Another cheer from the crowd, Socialised medicine tended to instil a hatred of cooperate greed in anyone working within it.

  “and that – my friends – is it. We have hundreds of thousands of these wands boxed and ready to be shipped to each hospital and medical centre in every country who wants them. All I ask is that you all leave here today remembering the words of this venerable body… Good health is a right, not a privilege. Thank you! And enjoy the rest of your summit!” The crowd lifted itself to a standing ovation as the lights came back up and I left the podium.

  “Wow, that really was exciting.” Penny beamed as I entered the backstage area 15 minutes after I had started my speech. “Incredibly generous as well, a little naïve maybe, but certainly generous.”

  “Naïve?” I asked, pretending to look confused, “why do you say that?”

  “Well…” Penny flustered, “I mean, these delegations may agree to your terms, so might the doctors, but what’s stopping an underpaid janitor from stealing one and handing it off to an insurance company?”

  “Carbonite, my dear.” I smirked, “The nice, white, plastic exterior is covering a solid carbonite case, they couldn
’t get to the internal mechanisms if they wanted to. And even if they managed that impossible feat, each device is wiped and rendered useless as soon as the seal is broken.”

  “You’d already thought of that...” She realised with a huff.

  “Nope, that particular idea came from Jonathan.” I smirked, slapping my blushing aide on the back and walking off. Jonathan was never one to openly take credit for his work, it was one of the things I liked about him; humility is an often-overlooked quality.

  Penny squealed, linked her arm around Jonathan’s kissed him on the cheek and they both started after me, “So, what other brilliant ideas have you had?” She whispered playfully yet filled with pride at her boyfriend’s altruistic security concerns.

  Jonathan simply smiled and kept walking, exactly as I would have done. He would go far.

  “Now, I have a meeting with one of the British delegates that will take up the rest of my evening, we have suites booked upstairs, maybe we can pick up the history lessons tomorrow?” I said with a smile.

  “Would that be with the princess?” Jonathan asked with a smile

  “Maybe.” I smirked back. “See you both tomorrow.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me.” Penny beamed and with that, we parted ways. “What Princess?” she whispered to Jonathan as they rounded the corner arm in arm.

  Chapter 27

  Building the dream.

  “Ok… so, where were we?” I asked as my two companions and I sat around the table of the sky suite – the most prestigious room in the Spire Hotel. The empty plates of our delicious meal were left on the fine tablecloth as we all rose and moved the two sofas, pressed against the highest bank of windows in the world. The Pinnacle may have been the tallest structure on earth, but the top 150ft of that tower consisted of an unusable needle – this was the highest room on the face of the planet. And it was all ours for the next two days.