Chapter 19
“Why did you bring him here?” Martina cried.
“We need someone with experience, with some maturity,” I said.
“I was going to call my parents.”
“Your father is a career military man. I don’t know if he'd be able to handle what we've learnt.”
“Are you trying to say we couldn’t trust my father?”
“If you didn’t live with the experiences you had lived through recently. Could I trust you with this information? Or would you turn me in as a subversive, a nut?”
Martina exhaled loudly and crossed her arms.
She was about to answer me, but stopped herself. Meanwhile, Samuel walked throughout the maze of cylinders containing developing humans. I warned him, tried to describe what he'd see; but it was beyond words. With all his maturity and wisdom, there was nothing in his life experiences that could help him deal with what he was being shown.
His face was fixed in stone as he ambled through the main laboratory at the Earth base. The two of us arguing were of little consequence compared to the grave reality he was trying to absorb. History was his passion, his purpose in life; but none of what he knew would have conjured up such a nightmare. Martina and I grew quiet as he came beside us at the control panel. We both looked at him, waiting for some sort of input. He walked by us, sitting down at the control panel.
“You've a great deal of important information here. You did a good thing to contact me Tyler.”
He sat down and started trying to filter through the informational database.
“How do we know we can trust you?” Martina said.
Samuel turned and looked at her.
“I guess you don’t really know. It’s too late to worry about that now. Tyler took a chance, followed his instincts. Maybe it was a little reckless, but you'll learn soon enough that he made a good decision.”
“I hope so,” Martina said.
“Listen young lady, try to understand something important. You've a great deal of information here, but no matter how important, it's not the complete puzzle. You've discovered valuable information about the present and how the people of the space station, your society, have been deceived by its rulers. Yet, you've received virtually no truthful information about your past or where you came from. You're struggling to comprehend too much information without any history behind it—that is where I can help. Together, we have a more complete picture of what it is we’re dealing with.”
**
The night’s sleep rejuvenated me. I remember waking in the familiar surroundings of a military barracks. Our team area was isolated and right near the lab. Despite this fact, I was feeling settled and oblivious to the tumultuous events of recent days. I looked at my messy barracks, almost expecting a call from my father. Then, it hit me—reality splashed in my face like ice cold water, thoughts flooded back into my mind. My calm disappeared, as I thought of Samuel alone in the main laboratory.
I got to my feet.
“Tyler, what's wrong?” said Martina. “Is Samuel still at the lab?”
“I guess so. He can't go anywhere else. He'd stick out like a sore thumb. I don't know what we'll do now.”
“We better get down there.”
We headed to the main laboratory. We walked into the eerie surroundings and could see Samuel busy behind the control panel.
“Have you been here all night?” I asked.
“Geez, don’t scare a person,” he said, jumping sideways. “Yes, I’ve been here all night. This plot is truly insane.”
“It doesn’t seem possible,” Martina said.
“It IS possible Martina,” he said.
“Are you sure they were acting alone?” I said.
“I couldn’t answer that with absolute certainty. I have figured out quite a lot from the information I have here.”
“What've you learned?” Martina asked.
“Obviously, a vast project like this can't be put into action with just two or three people. Yet, you can have hundreds, or thousands, working on a project with only a select few having the high-level knowledge of the project’s true goals and directions. I've found evidence of a hierarchical command structure. All tasks necessary divided into carefully defined components; many scientists and researchers working on the individual components, yet few with the high-level knowledge of the project’s main goals and direction. I can see only one other person having access to this laboratory; and that profile appears old and inactive. My guess is he could've died or been cut out of the elite group. There is a highly sophisticated automated system for maintaining and nurturing these growing humans. They'd been testing nutritional requirements for the experiments.”
“Don’t call them that!” I said. “They're human beings.”
“Sorry Tyler, I didn’t mean anything.”
“There's an automated system which provides all the nutritional requirements to the people in these cylinders; a kind of feeding tube. I think some people here are being starved to death and others are being overfed, just to see how they react.”
“Can’t you do anything about it?” I cried.
“Yes Tyler, I think I can. I will standardize the automated feeding requirements for all the people here; so that they receive the healthiest requirements as per the research they have performed up until now.”
“We need to tell the people what's going on,” Martina said.
“I don’t think that'd be a good idea,” Samuel cautioned.
“Why not?” Martina asked.
“Even though the current situation is far from ideal; we have to move cautiously. Stability is essential. The reality is there is a huge void in leadership of this society. Another factor is the powerful technology that your society controls. As an Earth dweller, I know what damage it can cause. If we rush into anything, make some sort of declaration of the truth, what will happen? I’ll tell you that we don’t really know. I know what it’s like to live in a world with that huge, gaping void where political leadership should be and it can get pretty ugly.”
“What're we going to do?” I asked.
“Let me have some time to work on it,” Samuel said.
“The explosion, the presidential residence!” Martina said. "We've GOT to explain it."
“What's that?” Samuel questioned.
“The presidential simulator. It's time for a presidential address,” I said. "Even the President is fake. It's all a hologram."
"Oh well," Samuel rubbed his head. "That'll have to be priority number one."
My mind was spinning.
Samuel had busied himself in his plans. Surrendering some control, we were walking away from him, dissatisfied in the unknown solution we desperately wanted to be a part of. As we were slowly moving away from him, he said, “Think positive you two, stay positive. We're in a unique situation. I've studied a lot of history, and humans keep making the same mistakes over and over again, but how many times has the greatest military power in the world had a chance to start with a clean slate? Run by pacifists disinterested in domination over other cultures. I’ll tell you how many times—zero. Historically, military might comes hand-in-hand with the most ruthless and the most power-hungry. Now, look what we have here: three people who just want the world to move in a positive, humane direction—and we have all the power. Think about it, my young friends. It is an exciting situation, completely unique.”
**
“Nothing's the same anymore, is it?” Martina asked as we stared at each other. I leant back on my military cot. We were in the barracks, managing to sneak in without being seen by any of the other military personnel.
“No, everything has changed now.”
“It used to be a place of mystery, of dreams.”
“I wished it could go back to that again. The reality is not nearly as romantic.”
“Neither is our own little space station.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“So, Melissa is your girlfriend?” Martina said.
“Why do you ask that?”
“I’m not allowed to ask questions?”
“No, I guess it’s no problem. I haven’t known her long enough to call her a girlfriend. Let’s just say I wouldn’t mind.”
We didn’t talk much after that, just stared down at the ground—with new perspectives—thinking of Earth. No longer with the innocent eyes of youths, now we looked with the cynical eyes of hardened soldiers. What a difference a few slivers of time makes. Sometimes those slivers can cut right to the heart of the matter.
When we got back to the lab, I could see that Samuel was working with the presidential simulation module. To my surprise, he had a pen and paper, archaic tools for our society. He had a pile of pages filled with some of his work. He was staring at them with a look of satisfaction as we walked towards him.
“You know you can create text documents in here,” I said.
“Thanks for the news bulletin young man,” he said. “But I’m not from the dark ages. It just so happens that I’m comfortable working with pen and paper. It may be a little bit more work, but where I come from, it’s always good to save energy. We don’t leave our computers running twenty four hours a day. I’ve been working on a presidential speech. My goal is a smooth transition to a real government. I think we can all agree on that.”
“Let’s hear it,” I said.
“You want me to read it?” he said.
“Sure, why not.”
“My fellow citizens of the world,
I am here to address you on some pressing matters facing us all. I know that you all are aware of the bomb that went off in my presidential suite. One primary reason for this address is to ensure you all that I am alive and well; and have survived this attack. I want all our citizens to realize that I've decided to stay in high security enclosures as we root out all those responsible for this attack.
I know many of you probably assume this attack was somehow perpetrated by Earth terrorists. In a way, I wish this was so; but it was not. The attack was perpetrated by World Government military rebels who were trying to undermine the stability of our government. I can assure you that these rebels are a small minority of our primarily loyal troops, and they've been rooted out over the last few days. The government is stable and strong; still firm in its conviction to run in a democratic fashion. Yet this situation has caused me as an individual and leader, to do much soul-searching.
I will be leaving politics in the not too distant future. I will continue with my functions as President as long as it takes to organize an election and have a smooth transition to a new government. I want to make it clear to all of you that my primary objective is for our society to evolve in a positive, democratic way. We must all realize that democracy is never achieved. It is an unattainable ultimate goal which we must all stay diligent if we hope to approach it. We must keep working towards this ultimate goal at all times. As a society, we can never rest; we can never relax and say: we live in a democratic society.
In every society, there are always forces, lobby groups, business interests, politic interests--working against democracy--against the true freedom of elections--against the freedom of the press--against the freedom of speech. These forces will never go away in any society, at any time. This being said, we cannot let this destroy or conquer our spirit as a people. We must continue to work, to fight, for what is right.
At this point, generations have passed; all of you have lived your entire lives on this station, with maybe a sojourn to the Earth base. This cannot continue. The Exodus that has already commenced must continue. This will create a far greater complication in our governmental system. We must learn to integrate with those who inhabit the Earth. Yes, you have heard me right. For far too long, we have simplified our governmental decisions by labeling all Earth dwellers as ‘terrorists’. There's no doubt, there are terrorists that live on Earth; and they must be dealt with harshly, but military intelligence has discovered many enclaves where common people, peace-loving people like ourselves, have survived and live now on Earth. There must be a place for these people too in our society.
There is only one way for us to truly achieve peace in our lifetime. We must value all lives the same. There can no longer be different tiers of rights and privileges. It is the only way, my dear friends. If not, war will be with us forever. It is the natural by-product of a world of haves and have-nots. Through these two fundamental principles of a just society—democracy and equality—we will have a solid foundation to build a legitimate future. It is my sincere hope, my fellow citizens; that we will all work together towards this goal. This is why I hope that you all get involved.
Leadership needs to come from the people. We need new leaders with fresh views. I hereby pledge to set up a fund for new parties and fresh campaigns. If you can meet minimum requirements of party and leader support, you will have access to the same limited campaign funds as all the other candidates. There will be equal airtime on the World Government networks for all these established candidates. The time has come to say 'No' to victory for the rich and powerful; for the ones who can buy as much public relations and exposure as possible—it is time to say 'Yes' to true equality, true democracy. I dream of a better world, my fellow citizens, a world not for the chosen few—a better world for all of us.”