Black Tide Rising - eARC
Page 33
“Jesus, Steve,” Staba said, laughing. “Do you go around looking for worm cans?”
“From the first boat I cleared my experience has been that if you do anything in this fallen world, you kick over a worm can,” Steve said, shrugging. “The only way to avoid it is to do nothing. Any idea how many of my early boats legally fall into the category of ‘piracy’ not ‘salvage’? Worm cans have been my daily lot, Madame President. If I stopped to think about whether it was a worm can or not, I’d have gotten no-where.
“But, no, Madame Secretary, I don’t think that all the women of this nation should spend the rest of their lives barefoot and pregnant,” Steve said, looking at the Secretary. “Again, even if I were so misogynistic, we need the intelligent labor far too much. Making a baby requires little to none. Caring for them, at least at the feed, clean and clothe level, requires not much more. Again, it all comes down to labor. But I’ve said my piece. Other thoughts?”
“Skip the whole ‘baby factories’ question,” Staba said. “Toss around the labor issue.”
“There will be abuses,” Daryl Hughes said. The Secretary of State had thus far had no input on the meeting. He was a long-term State bureaucrat who’d been found in one of the shelters in DC. So far he seemed to be working out. Not that there were many other governments to interact with. But there were a few. “I suspect the Scandinavians will get their noses in a joint. British as well.”
“The Norwegians and Swedes have essentially no beta population,” Steve said. “They all died off with the alphas or before from the cold. Ditto, we have essentially none in our northern belt. Betas, since they can’t compete physically, tend to find the ecological niches outside the best where the alphas reside. At least that’s how it appears from what little study we’ve given it. So they were going to die off faster in the sub-arctic than alphas. As to the British…They face the same issues and will face the same moral dilemmas.
“As to abuses…we’re still not at the point of making a decision. If you mean abuses in the proposed labor market…yes, there will be. Policing it, especially given how fractured we are, will be very difficult. And probably a job of the States as opposed to the Federal government.”
“Human Rights is a Federal issue, Mister Secretary,” Alvarado said, tartly.
“I said policing it, Madame Secretary,” Steve said. “Not the basis under which it is policed. But that is what legislation is for. There is no way in hell that the reduced Federal government can police a labor force scattered over three million miles much of it still hostile. As to increasing the size of the Federal government to do so, we have rather severe budget constraints compared to our previous condition: State’s duty.”
“And if the abuse is sexual in nature?” Powers asked, still clearly unhappy. “That is going to happen. It was hard enough to police pre-Fall in my industry.”
“That actually goes to the question of their legal status,” Steve said. “It’s not rape if they’re owned. Are they humans with all rights? Can they vote? I would hope that we can come to a reasonable answer on that one: No. But are they ‘human’ for purposes of rights or chattel? Even chattel can have restricted rights. No beatings, can’t be put to death, minimum standards of care, etcetera.”
“If they are chattel, they are slaves,” Alvarado said, angrily.
“Calm, Madame Secretary,” Steve said. “My position on this is at best as disruptor; he who asks the tough questions. The reason that slaves were imported to the New World was…?”
“Labor,” Secretary Ryan said. “As in lack thereof in the Americas. I just realized that…oh, that is so wrong.”
“Missing something,” Staba said.
“If we go that route,” Ryan said. “Not suggesting it but if we did. Most of the betas who survived are in southern states. Like you said, they mostly die out up north.”
“Ouch,” Steve said. “Yeah, hadn’t gotten that far. Gah. I’ve never been a supporter of those particular state’s rights. Simply bringing up reinstituting slavery is making my skin crawl, trust me.”
“Slavery is wrong,” Alvarado replied. “Period. It’s wrong.”
“Agreed,” Steve said. “One hundred percent and absolutely. So is sex with a person who cannot give knowledgeable and intelligent consent. The term there is rape.
“So is leaving fragile, helpless human beings to die lost and alone in a howling wilderness. So is famine from lack of agricultural workers. So is the rights you are fighting for dying out for lack of an educated supporting population, being replaced by a tide of barbarism, Madame Secretary. Which, since women will have no rights, will at least eventually solve the population problem.
“Last but not least, whether we like it or not slavery will occur. History masters. Slavery has always been, back to prehistory, a reaction to labor limitations. See also: human trafficking in the pre-Fall world.
“We need labor. Once it gets out that betas can be trained they will be rounded up and used for labor. Once that happens, abuses will occur and young ladies like Miss Katherine are going to end up barefoot and pregnant. Probably in brothels. And if one of them has AIDS or retains the H7 virus in its blood form despite the lack of symptoms? Wow, do we get problems.
“We can make laws against it. It will still occur, as will the abuses, and being already illegal that much harder to police.
“There are no good choices left in this world, Madame Secretary. Only less bad ones.”
“Which do you choose?”
Afterword
John Ringo
“There is something about the destruction of civilization that connects with the modern reader.” —Gary Poole
Humanity has become a mass of ciphers gathered together in huge lumps called cities and countries. No individual human, from a person working in a mall to the President of the United States has any real control over his or her existence and even presidents have little long term effect on history.
People go through life affecting little or nothing save, if they so choose, by having children who may or may not have more effect. By the same token they live lives of quiet ineffect in relative security and generally free from violence. This is the nature of a truly “good” civilization. That it is boring and humdrum. When it ceases to be so it is by definition “bad things happening.”
But humans are not designed for “boring.” We evolved in small tribes, constantly on the ragged edge of destruction and scrabbling for survival against both the environment and other humans. In World War Two, the height of human misery and violence since the Age of Agriculture, approximately five percent of the planet’s population died due to violence. The current rate, despite how it might seem, is below one percent.
Early human hunter-gatherers on the other hand died from violence twenty percent of the time, four times the rate during the years 1937–1945, and for hundreds of thousands of years. The history of the Paleolithic is a history of constant warfare to make Mad Max pale in comparison.
It is also a history of small groups gathering together to defeat well-nigh impossible odds. It is that, in my opinion, that is the resonance to every “post-apocalyptic” story, a harkening to an age when things were simply do or die and everyone in the group knew each other and had the choice of cooperate to survive or die.
There is no “every man a cipher” aspect to post-apocalyptic fiction as there was none to those early tribes. Good guys or bad guys, every character knows every other character, their good side and bad, their strengths and weaknesses. Every individual of the tribe must strive with their last ounce of everything to ensure the tribe’s survival. Every character is important to the survival, for or against, of every other.
Apocalyptic is pre-medieval.
Apocalyptic is…primal.
Thus as long as humans maintain boring, humdrum civilization, post-apocalyptic or apocalyptic fiction will remain popular. Because it is who we are in our hearts.
At our core, we are all savages.
About the
Authors
John Ringo brings fighting to life. He is the creator of the Posleen Wars series, which has become a New York Times best-selling series with over one million copies in print. The series contains A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, Hell’s Faire, and Eye of the Storm. In addition, Ringo has penned the Council War series. Adding another dimension to his skills, Ringo created nationally best-selling techno-thriller novels about Mike Harmon (Ghost, Kildar, Choosers of the Slain, Unto the Breach, A Deeper Blue, and, with Ryan Sear, Tiger by the Tail).
His techno-thriller The Last Centurion was also a national bestseller. A more playful twist on the future is found in novels of the Looking-Glass series: Into the Looking Glass, Vorpal Blade, Manxome Foe, and Claws That Catch, the last three in collaboration with Travis S. Taylor. His audience was further enhanced with four collaborations with fellow New York Times best-selling author David Weber: March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars and We Few.
There are an additional seven collaborations from the Posleen series: The Hero, written with Michael Z. Williamson, Watch on the Rhine, Yellow Eyes and The Tuloriad, all written with Tom Kratman, and the New York Times best seller Cally’s War and its sequels Sister Time and Honor of the Clan, all with Julie Cochrane. His science-based zombie apocalypse Black Tide Rising series includes Under a Graveyard Sky, To Sail a Darkling Sea, Islands of Rage and Hope and Strands of Sorrow. A veteran of the 82nd Airborne, Ringo brings first-hand knowledge of military operations to his fiction.
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Eric Flint’s writing career began with the science fiction novel Mother of Demons. With David Drake, he has collaborated on the six-volume Belisarius series, as well as a novel entitled The Tyrant. His alternate history novel 1632 was published in 2000, and has led to a long-running series with many novels and anthologies in print. In addition, he’s written a number of science fiction and fantasy novels. He now has fifty novels in print as well as many pieces of short fiction and dozens of anthologies which he’s edited. He currently resides in northwest Indiana with his wife Lucille.
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Jody Lynn Nye is a writer of fantasy and science fiction books and short stories. Since 1987 she has published over 45 books and more than 140 short stories, including epic fantasies, contemporary humorous fantasy, humorous military science fiction, and edited three anthologies. She collaborated with Anne McCaffrey on a number of books, including the New York Times bestseller, Crisis on Doona. She also wrote eight books with Robert Asprin, and continues both of Asprin’s Myth-Adventures series and Dragons series. Her newest books are the third Lord Thomas Kinago adventure, Rhythm of the Imperium (Baen Books), a humorous military SF novel, and Wishing on a Star (Arc Manor Press), a contemporary fantasy. Jody runs the two-day intensive writers’ workshop at DragonCon. She and her husband are the book reviewers for Galaxy’s Edge Magazine.
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John Scalzi is the author of Old Man’s War and other novels.
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Dave Klecha has been making up stories since he can remember, and once he learned to make them up about fictional people instead of what happened to the cookie jar, things really took off. His fiction, unrelated to cookies, has appeared in Subterranean Magazine, Clarkesworld, and the Baen anthologies Armored and Operation Arcana. Dave is a veteran of Iraq and father of three children, living with PTSD from one or both of those experiences. He resides in the Detroit area with his lovely wife and three adorable but dastardly adversaries.
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Sarah A. Hoyt writes everything except men’s adventure and children’s books. Her short stories have been published in Analog, Asimov, Weird Tales, numerous DAW anthologies and even more respectable venues such as this one. Her novel, Darkship Thieves, won the Prometheus award in 2011. She was born in Portugal and lives in Colorado with her husband, two sons and an ever-increasing number of cats. Everything else about her is unimportant.
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Kacey Ezell is an active duty USAF helicopter pilot. When not beating the air into submission, she writes military SF, SF, fantasy, and horror fiction. She lives with her husband, two daughters, and an ever growing number of cats.
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Michael Z. Williamson is a bestselling and award winning SF and fantasy author, best known for the Freehold universe. He has consulted on disaster preparedness for various theatrical productions, private clients and the DoD. The latter are woefully unaware of the impending zombie threat. A veteran of the US Army and USAF, his hobbies include fine Scotch, antique swords and firearms. Having successfully outgunned the nations of Iceland and Barbados, he is currently in an arms race with Bermuda. He lives in central Indiana, where the post-glacial terrain offers a good, clear field of fire. He can be found online at MichaelZWilliamson.com
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Mike Massa has lived a diverse and adventurous life, including stints as Navy SEAL officer, an international investment banker and an Internet technologist. His greatest adventures, though, have been in marriage and parenthood. Mike is a university cyber security researcher, consulted by governments, Fortune 500 companies and high net worth families on issues of privacy, resilience and disaster recovery. He lived outside the US for several years (plus military deployments!) and has traveled to over eighty countries. Mike is pleased to call Virginia home, where he passionately follows the ongoing commercial space race, looks forward to family holidays and enjoys reading the latest new books by his favorite SF&F authors.
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Tedd Roberts is a research scientist who writes both science fact and science fiction. His research as a neuroscientist is on the cutting edge of human memory, prosthetics and brain-to-computer interfaces. Tedd also advises SF writers, game developers and TV/movie writers on incorporating accurate science in Science Fiction. His Hugo-award-nominated nonfiction appears multiple times per year on the Baen Books website, and has been archived in the Baen Free Library nonfiction collections since 2012. His short fiction often incorporates near-future themes from medical research or from his background as an Eagle Scout, Boy Scout Leader, teacher, professor and musician.
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A native Texan by birth (if not geography), Christopher L. Smith moved home as soon as he could. Attending Texas A&M for two of the four years he lived in College Station, he learned quickly that there was more to college than drinking beer and going to football games. Deciding that a change of venue may be more beneficial, he moved to San Antonio, attending SAC and UTSA, graduating in late 2000 with a BA in Lit. While there, he also met a wonderful lady that somehow found him to be funny, charming, and worth marrying. (She has since changed her mind on the funny and charming, but figures he’s still a keeper.) After the birth of his first child, and while waiting on the second, Chris decided that he should start his own business, and has been running it since 2001. In a fit of creative inspiration, Chris began writing flash fiction in 2012, and has moved on to short stories. His first, “Bad Blood and Old Silver,” appears in the Luna’s Children: Stranger Worlds anthology, from Dark Oak Press. His two cats allow him, his wife, their three kids, and two dogs to reside outside of San Antonio.
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A 2015 John W. Campbell Award finalist for Best New Author, Jason Cordova was born in California and promptly moved out as soon as he legally could. He has sold fiction in horror, fantasy, steampunk, and science fiction. A former teacher and military veteran, he has circled the globe at least once (and never got arrested or hospitalized, something of a record for him). He currently resides in Virginia and is the “International Ambassador of the Kaiju Awareness Foundation.”
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Eric S Brown is the author of numerous series including the Bigfoot War series, the Crypto-Squad series (with Jason Brannon), and the Megalodon series to name only a few. His short fiction has been published hundreds of times in markets like the Onward Drake anthology from Baen Books and the Grantville Gazette. He also done the novelization of movies like Boggy Creek: The Legend is True and The B
loody Rage of Bigfoot. The first book of his Bigfoot War series was adapted into a feature film in 2014 and his book The Witch of Devil’s Woods was adapted into a feature film in 2015.
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Gary Poole has worked in the entertainment and publishing industry for his entire adult life. He’s worked directly with John Ringo on over a dozen novels, and has adapted several of them into screenplays (all of which remain in development). When not working with Ringo, he is the managing editor of a successful alternative newsweekly in Tennessee and spent years on the radio as a talk show host and award-winning broadcast journalist.