Dawn of Modern Man

by Nick Plastino

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it. Unless people report it, it shouldn’t be a big deal with the UAN,” Parker said. He was just guessing really.

  “Don’t worry about anything, man,” Dunc spoke up, “The way things are set up, you can try to kill people in there and not get in trouble. Legally why would any of it matter? Nobody really gets hurt. Right? I mean it’s all fake, it’s virtual reality.”

  “Sure, you’re right,” Parker said, “Car, please make some beverages and put on a little relaxing music.”

  The Solar Citizen responded, “Right away, Parker.”

  The car ride was quiet, everybody felt well taken care of though. After Parker and Cadmus got out, the car brought Dunc home and returned on its own.

  PAR T II

  The Road to Seattle

  C H A P T E R 9

  It had been a few weeks since the terrorist attacks. The weather was beginning to warm compared to the brisk chill of early spring and the days were getting longer and longer. North Mountain Academy had garnered international attention. The media campaign Alceon Fudore ordered was in full swing. The campaign to paint religion as society’s biggest threat to progress was going as planned. She felt it was just a matter of time until the general public was divided on the issue in the way she wanted them to be. Alceon of course, wanted the people to believe it was only those that suppressed science that should be against reproduction research.

  The campaign delicately painted a picture that showed fundamentalists of their religion as dangerous because they could not openly even suggest any of their beliefs should be questioned. The campaign used all the outlets possible and soaked the public with information about the history of Abraham religions, showing contextual evidence to question the authenticity of the stories fundamentalists believed as fact. The campaign was aimed to be informative and pushed information that laid into question religious dogma. There was also the negative push. The paid advertisements across the media spectrum that highlighted all of the problems these beliefs have caused society: The dark ages being a crucial note that was hit from all angles, focusing on how it can happen again if religious dogma prevents people from embracing science; followed by sexual abuse in all meanings of the term (molestation, gender, preference, and the tendency for religions to oppress sex or oppress women); these general ideas were spattered around an array of information about all of the death in the name of religion. The functioning word in most of the campaign’s language was “belief” or “faith.” The media campaign suggested to the masses, which were considered spiritual but not religious, that a religious person’s faith or belief was indoctrinated at a young age and mechanisms were put in place to ensure compliance to these manmade beliefs. The act of someone speaking on behalf of a divine being was likened to past North Korean dictators or residents in the mad house. The campaign strongly pushed the importance of the scientific method and how it was shunned in religious communities, and they wanted to shun science inside the Cloud. The campaign’s slogan:

  Science is right People are right It’s their choice

  The religious communities were fragmented, they had no central voice. None of them could agree on what to believe, but the time had come where they felt they needed to stick together. Their beliefs were being put to question by mainstream society, no longer were they off limits from the media. An organization called Religions of God (ROG), which was comprised of spiritual leaders from the world’s major religious organizations, formed within a few days of the media blitz. ROG (spoken like a word) immediately countered the media campaign with messages warning of the dangers of reproduction research and that God would look unfavorably upon those in favor of the research. Their message regarding eternal damnation was at the core of their arguments against the UAN. ROG’s secondary message looked like advertisements for an afterlife of bliss. ROG was growing rapidly. It went viral in religious communities, doubling in size every couple of days. The holy land and its inhabitants had a common enemy in the UAN. Which stories they believed no longer seemed as important as protecting their common identity, they worshipped God. The organization was a force to be reckoned with, suddenly the funds were massive and the media war between religion and reproduction research was on!

  Alceon’s campaign, orchestrated from North Mountain Academy, had a seemingly limitless budget and full support from Chancellor Richard Seymore; he even tried to take credit for the campaign. The media caught the moment when he said, “I’m in charge at the UAN and the position we take in the media is strategic. All strategic decisions come through me.” To the degree it was true or not, people didn’t perceive Richard Seymore as the catalyst of this strategic decision. He had close ties with the religious community. There were too many videos from the past of Richard Seymore pandering to the religious community for donations. The public viewed him as a liar above all. It was clear to the world that Alceon was the face of the campaign. And to Alceon’s delight it was going exactly as planned: religion versus reproduction in the Cloud, choose one or the other. Alceon was making a name for herself on the public stage, the people learned to love her and hate her. She was wildly popular with Athiests and had a reputation amongst the majority of people as being brave. Alceon Fudore became the most polarizing figure in the media. Some people found her tactics distasteful and others found them blasphemous. Many religious people viewed her as the devil incarnate.

  C H A P T E R 1 0

  The unusual circumstances around campus didn’t affect Parker all that much. He got high marks on his exams. He did take the time to study for his career placement exam like Becky said he should. The exam went well, he thought. He could not have performed any better in the strategy analysis scenario; he knew he nailed that one. It was a war game scenario with rules similar to chess. He used a distraction technique by advancing a Battalion and Fleet and then cornered the General with a Platoon of Special Forces. Most people did not win in the war game scenario. It was considered above average to save the general from assignation and ask for a truce. Killing the other team’s General was rare; with minimal casualties, it was almost unheard of. Parker showed high marks on Cloud Navigation and Architecture as well. The test showed Parker was advanced in planning and knowledge of resources. It came easy to Parker.

  For the most part, school came easy to Parker. He liked class and his teachers seemed to like him. Parker was the kind of person that enjoyed school, he liked working to a finish, and that’s what graduation around the corner looked like to Parker, a finish line. It was getting closer and it made school not just something he managed, but something he looked forward to. He knew there was only so much time left that he was going to be waking up for class at North Mountain and he cherished the remaining opportunity to focus on his education.

  Also, he liked the people on campus. They were personable, easy to approach and it made Parker comfortable. He thought numerous times he picked the right school to attend. Everything wasn’t perfect though, as personable and approachable as everybody seemed, a lot of people were more curious about their virtual identity, checking their mobile devices or staring into oblivion looking through their connected contact lenses scanning the radar of the virtual airwaves. People were either walking and halfway paying attention to where they were going, or sitting in common areas studying. So Parker didn’t get into a whole lot of conversations outside of class discussion, but he felt confident talking to anybody if he needed to and that was comforting enough.

  All the attention the Academy was getting as the center of reproduction research and the War on Religion didn’t bother Parker much at first. There were news teams from all of the major outlets posted up in Sandpoint. CRN, BNC, NNA were just a handful of the big name news groups that were streaming coverage out of Sandpoint. Each day they would start with their somewhat mundane formalities that more or less recapped information people already knew. And then throughout the day they would interview people picketing for one side or the other to fill the gaps between research u
pdates. The town no longer looked sleepy. The hotels were full in Sandpoint with droves of people that came to support the UAN or denounce it. The vibrancy in the town was hostile, but people were safe. There had been no violence, just peaceful demonstrations.

  He kind of liked all the attention his school was getting and he especially liked the coverage of the beautiful scenery surrounding the school. The commentary was never shy to point out how beautiful

  Lake Pend Oreille was or how great the fresh air smelled. Parker liked that coverage, he just wasn’t sure about all of the attention the school got for causing strife with religious people or why it was just them that would be against the research. He felt the coverage was good though, and that it covered the angles well. Many students appeared on news holograms and video bites showing that not all the students agreed with the research and many stood up for religious people as well, albeit they were likely to be ostracized in class discussion for having such views.

  With all that said, it didn’t take long for Parker to get to the point where he wanted to completely ignore all of the extra attention in his town. It became clear to Parker after about the first week and a half that the attention wasn’t going to go away as long as the school’s Headmaster, Alceon Fudore, was suggesting to the world that religion was the sole threat to millions of people that would prefer to live in the Cloud. Parker slightly sided with the school’s position, but he thought that pushing against religion wasn’t really the answer. Parker thought they had their beliefs and to try and change them or persecute them wasn’t really the best way to handle it. But at the same time, they were the ones responsible for killing innocent people in the name of their god. Parker would get a little torn about the whole thing, but for the most part he didn’t let the issue bother him too much.

  Parker wasn’t religious, but he was indoctrinated with a saying, ‘Whatever happens, happens for reasons out of your control many times, but it’s important to learn from the happenings.’ This was a saying Parker’s father taught him when he was young. “It was a rule to live by,” he remembered his father telling him. Parker’s father had a lot of these colloquial sayings. He felt many of his father’s teachings were applicable to everyday life.

  It had been a while since Parker went home to visit his parents. He missed them and with all of the hoopla around campus it seemed like a good time to go home for a weekend. He thought it would be fun to surprise them. Parker didn’t talk to his family very much. The occasional video call came in about once a month or so. His old man was too busy to worry about a college kid, and his mom was more focused on the kids she taught than the ones she raised. Parker was busy too and liked that his parents didn’t bother him, he had friends whose parents called every day and frankly, Parker thought, they were always babied to the point they couldn’t even get a haircut without asking their mom about it. Parker had financial support from his parents, though, which he knew made his life easy and for that he was thankful to have parents that cared. Yes, a surprise visit would be nice, he thought.

  A ride opportunity presented itself the same day Parker decided it was soon time to make a trip to Whidbey Island. At the last Beast Fight, not the one Cad got kicked out of, but the one where the Ogre almost lost against Atlantic Atlanta’s Swamp Thing, Dunc mentioned that he always had room for a ride over to the west side. Parker liked the idea of riding over in a supplies truck. He also started to like Dunc the more time they spent together. They both realized that they had been on the same track team in secondary school. Dunc was older by a few years and ran distance for varsity. Parker ran the sprints and jumping events so they didn’t practice much together, but they realized they had many of the same experiences during secondary school on Whidbey. They realized they had quite a bit in common.

  So they made a plan to go, while drunk at the Beast Fight, and invited Cad who responded memorably saying, “Fuck yeah,” while holding a beer and extending his pinky, doing his best to look proper, the properness turning into a shit eating grin. Dunc and Parker rolled with laughter. They planned to leave the following day, on Friday, after the academy let out. Three weeks of the media bombardment on Sandpoint seemed long enough. Cad and Parker were excited to get out of town and they were all excited to go on a road trip together.

  C H A P T E R 1 1

  Parker and Cad had to meet Dunc at the hive depot. The depot was almost completely hidden from the road. There was a large stone wall around the building topped with electrified barbed wire. The building was fortified like a prison, which made some people suspicious, like they were up to no good.

  Most people understood the importance of keeping the food as safe as possible from a terrorist attack. The threat of poisoning food in the hive felt very real to those living in there, they relied on what went through the feeding tube. So most people understood why the hive depots were well protected. The wall that nearly surrounded the depot had a sliding gate door, which seemed big enough to fit a small house through. Above the wall the only visible traits of an advanced warehouse were the handful of large semi-arched tubes. They were garbage can-sized tubes in a row, like street lights lining a meridian, bending down in opposite directions ready to vacuum out the sustenance from supply rigs. The tubes were supported by concrete phallic towers each one getting further from the gate. The trucks pulled in and the depot did the rest of the work; pumping the sustenance from the supply truck into holding.

  The depot was positioned just outside of downtown, where streets were wider and close to the interstate. Cad and Parker took the Solar Citizen from the Remington Lane house. The plan was to meet Dunc just after his shift started. He would pull out of the depot and they would hop in. They would ride over with Dunc to Seattle and catch a ferry to Whidbey Island.

  The car ride was quiet. The guys were a little tired from the night before at the beast fight. Cad’s eyes were glued to his government issued mobile device. Parker told his car to idle near the depot entrance. The car would drive home on its own and do whatever cars do on their own (Parker joked about his car driving around trying to meet other cars). Parker knew his car was a luxury though and he could have the car come get him if he needed to, the car was permitted to cross state lines autonomously; thanks to permitting, which was easy to get, just a little paper work. He could always ride the tram back too if Dunc had some sort of work emergency or something, that was the last thing he wanted to do though. Once Cad and Parker road the tram all the way back, it took 5 hours, which felt like way too long on a tram. It was free, though.

  As Cad and Parker sat in the car waiting for Dunc to back out, Cad joked about riding the tram instead, “Remember when we took the tram back? We should do that again. Yeah, ride over with all the crank heads looking to get chemicals in the city.”

  “There’s not that many crank heads on there. Definitely some though… messed up teeth and stuff,” Parker made a crooked gesture with his jaw and lips. “Some people travel on it for business or whatever people travel for. We took it. It’s an efficient way to travel.”

  “Parker, you know people who have important business aren’t riding the citizen transporter across multiple states. They’re riding top shelf in something nicer than your Solar Citizen.”

  “Look I’m just saying some of them who are riding that thing have legitimate business. You don’t know, maybe their premium car needed servicing or it was on nanny duty and taking care of their kids. Secondly…” Parker paused.

  The gate slid open and the rear of the rig started backing out.

  Cad’s eyes got wide, “Damn, that thing is huge. Does that take up more than one lane?”

  Parker made a noise blowing air out his lips, “Psssht.” He was surprised Cad asked this, “The interstates have separate lanes for super transporters. See, we jump on the freeway through that access tunnel,” Parker pointed directly down the street. “The way the road interacts with the wheels makes that thing like a train.”

  “Yeah… I guess I knew that, I just haven’t see
n one, this close.” Cad opened the door and hopped out.

  Parker did the same.

  The rig that Dunc drove was impressive. Its trailer, which was backing out, was over two hundred feet long. It looked like a metallic silver tube stretched out over four sets of tire hubs. The tube had several hatches on top with varying lengths of separation. The ground clearance was the height of a person and the distance between tires was barren, there was just the metallic tube. It was an impressive trailer. Parker had seen these rigs drive on the road before. The UAN sustenance trailers were well known among interstate travelers. The trailer was the longest and most sophisticated on the road. The high- tech material the trailer was made of could bend around corners, which gave them a well known nickname, Snakes. As it backed out it bent around the corner into the street.

  Tractor trucks, the part that pulls the trailer, were personalized for the most part and designed to carry cargo as big as the UAN sustenance tube. Some people drove a company truck and others had their own and contracted a rate. There were benefits to both sides but Dunc contracted his rate and had his own truck. As the trailer made its way out of the depot the tractor truck finally emerged. The truck was designed to look like a snake. It was green with a purple bottom lip, white fangs and snake eyes. Dunc was in the cab flashing a smile down towards the guys. Parker and Cad were making their way closer to Dunc’s window, which was open.