by Rabia Rahou
A very open economy has helped that too. The League’s currency is one of the freest currencies in the world, a must for the main service The League was offering to the rest of the world – genome modification. When the whole world was focusing on the AI, The League chose another direction as unfortunately, they could never attract the best scientists in the AI field. This was not because of the lack of trying or the political will, but sadly, the top scientists and engineers decided to emigrate, work, and research at the Amian confederation.
The Amian society is built with emigrants, unlike The League which is a closed nation with a very different and unique language and way of life. The cultural gap is too big for any top talent to feel comfortable living in The League. In other words, even if the Amian society looks chaotic, it did succeed in attracting the top talent in every field, mainly because the image it projected to the rest if the world, an image of integration, and shared responsibilities, as the civility at the Amians can be acquired.
That part was never intended to be sold freely by The League. The population’s pride and shared past with a strong tradition, were without a doubt the main obstacles. But I have to give them credit in a way. Even if their society is not amazingly advanced, it is close to utopian, a kind of slowdown mixed with a sense of security and content that produces the omnipresent feeling of happiness.
Knowing that the AI’s train left the station a long time ago, Konu told me that The League chose a radical approach to fill the gap. They legislated the research and investment in genetics. After few years of lobbying at the UN for the legalization of the modification of human DNA for research purposes, the superpowers at the UN Security Council approved a law that tolerated the DNA research and modification for study purpose only, and only on The League’s territory as it is isolated from the rest of the world.
The deal was sealed as the supervisors promised the leaders of the superpowers that they can modify their DNA for a longer, healthy life. The leaders couldn't refuse a discovery that would give them an extra power over the people. They decided to give The League a shot. Knowing that they couldn't make those studies in their empires fearing uprisings. Even if done secretly, it was risky and dangerous for fear that a dangerous virus could break out in their territories, or even a creature. But The League’s society didn't protest much. Small groups here and there organized peaceful assemblies, but the rest of the society was already prepared. They knew it was their only chance to survive in a very complicated AI world. Altering DNA will give them a chance of sitting with the superpowers to sort out their own destiny.
After UN approval, The League was under pressure to fulfill their promises. A few years later in the University of Genetics in District 2, with the help of a super-AI computer provided by the First Citizens and under the cover of the UN Program of AI Aid to Emerging Nations, the scientists of The League finally unlocked the full DNA sequences with all combinations of not only the Homo sapiens but most of the animal world. Of course, they kept it to themselves. They classified the major combinations as Top Secret and never shared any information about that, knowing that the superpowers were powerless to blackmail them. The supervisors could reveal the whole circus around the UN law to the world and finance religious uprisings in their enemies’ territories by manipulating public opinion about their research on human fetuses financed by their beloved leaders. Because The League had nothing to lose, and the other empires had everything to lose, the empires calmed down the game and waited for a good chance to maneuver.
The supervisors played it very smart. They proposed a new concept that could pay well for both sides by opening their economy up to any fund wishing to invest in their genetic corporations. Of course it was welcomed by the superpowers as they didn't have much choice. The supervisors not only saved the economy but built strong bonds between all the empires, as all the empires invested big, including funds from the First Citizens to ensure their position in the field.
The League’s economy was doing very well, and the political position of their nation switched to neutral. They had to keep good relations with all the investors, and the superpowers preferred to keep The League as an oasis for all their dirty money and DNA enhancements.
The supervisors meet 11 times a year, each time at a district, to honor it. They discuss the problems openly and try to find solutions based on the common good. Recently, a major problem was debated publicly. It was whether The League would play a role in the Global World Order. As The League became more prosperous and stronger, the population was pushing the politicians for more dominance. Konu explained to me that if they decide to go ahead with the domination, we will have to remind them of their place. That’s why he was officially here to remind them how many tanks we have. He told me also that they do have another meeting after the festival. The Services call it the “real meeting.” It is the most important as the supervisors discuss their real strategy towards the empires. No one ever could track it. The Services thought even that it was a myth as there was no leads or evidence for it, but Konu insisted they keep the trying to uncover information.
The official meeting is held in District 10. The supervisors arrive in the main street walking as it's the tradition of the old tribes. Petals of flowers are falling from the sky, The League’s folk music is performed, and the population enjoys the nice spectacle on a chilled Egap summer day. There are cameras, flashes, and a red carpet like a movie premiere.
An amazing hostess and I are drinking cocktails and watching the festival from the roof of the VIP's Royal Hotel. I gave Konu some space as he said, “Now, he is under the eye of Oina.”
“So, you are in the security field?” asked the hostess, trying to make a conversation, even if she knows exactly who I am, as for sure, she is from The League’s services.
“Yes, I’m picking up leftovers from the big security corps,” I replied
“That’s still not bad. Even a small and boring job could still elevate you if you let it,” she said.
“Is it? Listen… I think you know exactly who I am, and I know that you are probably an officer in your Services. So, if you need some information to impress your superiors, just ask, and if I don’t have any, then I will make up some just for the sake of your beautiful eyes...” Then I added, “…but in no way can a small and a futile job be fulfilling, as the scale of this feeling is equal to the impact of the job.”
Chapter 7
The Festival
“Sometimes loving means lying.”
~ Oina
N ote from Oina… Konu, I hope you will find these notes when I’ll be gone. I couldn’t tell you this in person, mainly because I don’t want to apologize to you – call it a complex if you prefer.
My name is Oina Feon. I have another name from my grandmother that you are not aware of. It is Oika; that means “the blue wave.” I am the seventh and last daughter of my parents, who used to work in the main library of District 1. We were quite a poor family as we never owned anything valuable. My two parents, both female, shared the same lover as the tradition dictated. Still, that man wasn’t my father. If one day you read this, know that I’m trying my best to be in harmony with you. Judge me lightly, knowing that intimacy between couples of the opposite sex is unusual to me.
From the old times of the first tribes and even today, the man's role in our society is primarily fertilizing women. Sometimes he could supplement his role with some support to the couple as a confident. Also, he could entertain if needed, but in no way did he have any say on how the family was functioning. From time to time, when a couple had a baby boy, which was rarely, by the way, he is treated for his first years the same as his sisters. Then, the father takes the responsibility of raising him as he was raised by his father.
The first scientists were in shock when they discovered the first tribes, their completely odd way of life, and, frankly, the feeling was vice versa. Now, as you know, fertilization is by artificial insemination. In The League, an actual man is not needed at
all nowadays. Therefore, please think of me tenderly, as I really care about you like I never did for a man nor a woman before.
Yours truly, Oina
This is the first time that I’m inviting Konu officially. I sent him our ambassador just a couple of days after his nomination, as we wanted that his first official visit to serve as a gesture of our outstanding and relaxed relations. I spotted him through the crowds, shaking hands with the supervisors with total indifference. Explaining the whole protocol to him turned out to be a total waste of time. He seems to go against everything I asked him to do.
“When the meeting begins, it is open to the public and recorded and transmitted live. Then there will be a break, followed by another two hours behind closed doors. The same schedule goes for three days. In the end, we prepare a speech with the final notes and directives. Then we close out the festival at a dinner with all the districts’ important personalities. Be sure to look every supervisor right in their eyes when you shake hands, smile, and make them sense that you really care. Try to make them understand that this action is more personal than political. They will feel relaxed, and they will appreciate you as a person, not just as a messenger from the First Citizens.”
“I see what you mean...” Konu replied like he wasn’t there, lost in thinking like he always is. He makes me feel like he got everything lined up and we are just there wasting our time.
“Tell me about the real meeting, Oina”
“That one will be the night of the closure. We don’t know the place or the exact time. The information will be sent to as in a DNA pill the same night.”
“I did read many reports about that DNA technique. We never succeeded in creating one properly, nor has anyone except your scientists. We even tried to duplicate the full process, but we failed in the last part of synchronization. The AI didn’t succeed in combining the pill with the user – or something like that,” he said.
“Every service uses the best AI to track and record us continuously. We know that we are under full-time surveillance. In this era, it is impossible to achieve complete isolation. Securing a one-day secret meeting between all the supervisors was impossible, or at least that's what we thought. Our scientists came up with this technique that gives us some private time away from you guys, and we know that you failed in recreating the process. I can’t explain to you further”
“I presume this Royal Hotel room is not secured either.”
“Do you care, Konu?”
“Not at all. I’m worried about you."
“The coded envelopes are sent to us the night of the meeting. They contain a DNA connector in a pill. Its effect is felt only by the person who is a hundred-percent identical to the genome embedded in that DNA pill. That effect is felt as a basic instinct.”
“It is an illusion, after all, right? A message encoded in a dream?”
“Do you want to try one?”
“I think you know the answer for that…"
“I made one for you.”
“Are you serious?”
“Open the box...”
Before I finished, he opened the box and swallowed the DNA pill without thinking of the consequences. He quickly faded away into a deep dream with interesting thoughts…
A sense of direction is generated inside the deep mind, a memory of a place, and the instructions to get there are mixed with my childhood memories. Memory is a subjective experience. It exists only inside the mind. It cannot be interpreted by a system other than the brain of the person who experienced it. In other words, it cannot exist outside the targeted person’s mind. That's why our AI couldn't figure it out. Now I know that nothing in this world can break this code because it is not a code. It's a subjective experience. Wow! This is amazing! How did you come up with this?
When Konu woke up, he was in shock, analyzing his experience like a kid riding his bike for the first time.
“Supervisor Oina, please, a quick question from our audience on Channel 4,” a journalist brought me back to the present with his screaming question. The League's men are a disgrace…
“Of course,”
“As we know this meeting is a special one, a very important national topic will be discussed, and our audience is wondering if the presence of the Head of the Armies of the Amian Confederation is appropriate in this circumstance.”
“Our agenda includes many meetings, as you know. Many issues will be reviewed, but the national ones will be discussed privately.”
“Another question from the audience… They are wondering if the Amians, by sending their Head of the Armies, are, in a way, flexing their muscles to dissuade us from going further with our New World vision, a vision that grants The League a better place among the empires.”
“General Konu is here at our invitation. Therefore, I assure you that, none of this is accurate.”
“Supervisor Oina, thank you for your time.”
I couldn’t focus on the interview; he completely controls my attention. The feeling of losing it in Konu’s presence is funny. But deep inside, I feel sad every time I see him, talk to him, touch him. As progress goes both ways, it gives a solution, but at the same time, it creates a bigger problem.
We did make big progress in altering our DNA as we stopped the aging of the body, The League’s seniors look like healthy people in their 30s, but we couldn’t stop the aging itself. He and I, we know that my time is coming soon. I am 98 years old.
I met him a couple of years ago, and since then, I decided to write my thoughts as I badly needed a confidant to talk to about him. Unfortunately, I am lonely. My leadership position isolates me from my peers. The only thing that can filter all the sadness and transform the rest into a beautiful tragedy is the writing. It provides me with a light companion and an escape to meditate and think. I know that he writes too, but we never gave up ourselves fully to admit that. We didn’t give up our defenses either, at least not instinctively. In a way, the reason could be that we still didn’t believe that this is happening to us at this point in our lives. The Service reports and theories about us were more gossip than accurate. Some speculated that because I had such little time left, as the best predictions went from just three to four years. So, I decided to live fully and enjoy life as much as possible and with a powerful a man, if possible.
Others suspected that Konu is really in love, as he is an orphan, and through me, he can satisfy both the feelings of the mother’s affection and the love of a partner at the same time. Another theory suggests that he is enjoying this relationship only to satisfy his big ego and compensate for his complex of solitude.
Our Service wrote that he is playing me in every aspect, as he knows that I am depressed and afraid of my approaching death. They think I became easy prey for an ambitious man like him. The Amian Service believes that I am playing him for our advantage, as I am wise and accomplished through all my years in leadership. I have twice his age and his experience, plus I am a very powerful woman that could eat the best man or woman on the planet for breakfast, or even create them if I wanted.
After three days of cameras, interviews, and flashes, an official dinner party for the high-end district personalities began. First, I spotted Dismar with his tuxedo moving slowly towards me. He wasn’t interested in the amazing hostesses we had tonight. Perhaps he is looking for something else, a DNA pill, maybe? Looking at him closely makes me think that Konu finally found the perfect disciple, one who has the potential and the will to learn, will serve faithfully, and gives him some company. Also, Dismar found a true master who can shield him, educates, and inspires him, and makes his life meaningful again. I've been observing them now for quite some time. They create a unique dynamic that is starting to reflect on both. Dismar is not the broken soldier with an unbearable life anymore, and Konu is shifting slowly from the isolated master who is looking only for wisdom to a more of an open person enjoying life, finally.
“Here you are, handsome as ever! Dismar, how are you?”
“Thank you
for inviting me, Miss Oina.”
“For you, it’s just Oina. There are no cameras here.”
“I see, then let's make out fast before he shows up.”
“In your dreams!”
“How are you, Oina. Is he taking care of you?”
“Yes, he is, and by the way, where is he?”
“I left it with your Services, as you requested. Don’t tell me you guys lost him...”
“Maybe...”
“Oh, no!”
“Relax, settle down. He is in my suite. Wow! All that worrying about him…”
“Don't scare me, please. I'm having a nice time here. Nice party, by the way.”
“Is that why you ignored the nice hostess I picked up for you? What are you looking for, Dismar?”
“I don't know…something more, I guess.”
“More, in what sense?”
“Alright, there he is. I need to go, and you know very well what I'm looking for, Oina.”
As soon as Konu stepped out of the elevator, Dismar excused himself and took off. I like that boy a lot.
“A drink, maybe?”
“After that pill? No, thank you. Nothing will beat that.”
“Yes, I know.”
“What time you need to go?”
“I am still waiting for the envelope. I’ll go anytime soon, I guess.”
