Corrupted: Book Three of the State Series

by M. J. Kaestli

  “Too bad he’s dead, I was just starting to like the guy,” Devina said, just as Freya broke into tears. “Toughen up, buttercup. You have to pull this off for at least a year. Maybe by then you will like the idea of blowing up the unit to make a run for it.”

  Somehow Freya went from crying to laughter. Freya both hated and loved Devina at the same time. One thing was for sure: it would be more appealing to leave. As much as she didn’t want to be on the same planet as young little Colin and his lovely partner and children, the burden of running this world suddenly seemed so much worse.

  Devina trotted off toward the house, but Freya lingered behind. It was difficult to be inside, seeing other people working out in her garden. For so long it had been her home, her partner, her solace, and now it was just scenery.

  One thing she decided at that moment was she was not going to delay in setting up her replacement. They were in such uncertain times; she had already seen so much loss in her days. She was going to make a difference in the world, or she would die in the crossfire. Lewis had it right. When you have the opportunity for change, take hold of it, even if it costs your life. Their lives were trivial otherwise, and would never be their own.

  She could have spent all day just standing there sorting her thoughts, but there was far too much work for her to do. Once she arrived back in her office, her heart sank at the flashing monitor. There was never an end to the messages. There was an important message indicating a Council meeting tonight on the subject of the transport device, and a follow-up message from Chastity to indicate that she would attend the meeting in her office.

  Freya had never truly understood what Chastity did for her civil duty, yet in this short time she had taken power, she didn’t know how she could possibly live without her. It was her duty to run Freya, tell her where to be, what to do, what to say. Perhaps Chastity should have been the head of State. Then the realization struck her: she kind of was, in a way. Freya ran the State, but Chastity ran her, which meant Chastity ran the State.

  The Council meeting started, except it was hardly a meeting. They simply declared it was time for them to recast their votes on the transport device. The research had been done, and Freya’s suggestion had come back as viable. The vote was now three options: Zandra, Victor, or Freya, was the name to be entered into the tablet.

  There was no further speakers or discourses; it did not seem right to have two voices be heard when one was not. Everyone cast their vote, and there was nothing left to do or say. Freya typed her own name into the tablet and hit Send. Chastity moved over to the monitor and shut it off.

  “You should know, if there is a tie, you have the power to sway the vote. Once the votes are tabulated, they will announce if there is a clear winner. If you don’t like the results, you can appeal to revote.” Chastity looked at her for a moment to make sure she understood.

  “What is the purpose of having a vote then?” she asked.

  Chastity almost smiled, but remained silent and turned the monitor back on. The results came in quickly; the transport device was to be built in the atrium by the train. The meeting ended abruptly, and the monitor shut off.

  “So, would everyone have voted for Victor if he was still the head of State?”

  “Well, you wouldn’t have, but yes, most people vote in the head of State’s direction.”

  Freya simply shook her head and looked at Chastity, who just shrugged before she left the room. Freya sat back in her chair and stared out into the garden. If the Council would always side with the head of State, change was, in fact, going to be easier than she imagined. So what did she want? What was the first change she felt was the most important to raise morale?

  Of course, people still needed to work. She didn’t feel she understood the intricate workings of that system well enough to tamper with it. If she tried to take down the monitoring system, it would be far too radical; the Council would overrule her for certain.

  She tried to think back to when she was young. What was important to everybody back then, before they became jaded or intoxicated with power? The answer came into her mind clearly; it would be the right to bear children that she would change first.

  Freya knew she would have to have Chastity help her in preparation of presenting this information to the Council. It may have worked once to throw an idea out into the wind, but she couldn’t give the impression she was impulsive or emotional to the Council.

  This was going to take some time and research in order to make this proposal. While the muse was with her, she recorded all of her ideas and reasons on her tablet. Chastity would help with the research, but she also had to have a solid reason why it was needed.

  The Council was set in their ways; they needed someone to shake things up and show them a new way of doing things. That person also had to sound intelligent when the concept was presented, and so she worked until her eyes just wouldn’t stay open any longer.

  She crawled into bed without changing out of her clothing. The moments before sleep took her, she remembered her conversation with her mother, how she had wanted to have more children but wasn’t permitted to. How Gita spoke to her with tears in her eyes after being sterilized.

  It was never a strong desire of hers, but she could empathize in a way. If Colin had stayed and if she had been allowed to, she may have eventually wanted to have a child. At least the thought had crossed her mind after meeting Ursa.

  This was the right thing to do, not just because it would make people happy, but because they really did need the population to increase. Who knew what could be waiting for everyone on that colony world, or whether there could be diseases or infections that could come through the transport device.

  Her eyes opened well before the alarm. It wasn’t even light out yet. This was the part of being head of State that was going to take some adjustment. Sleep was a luxury. It was becoming commonplace for her to sleep less. There was no need for an alarm; it was as though her body knew that she had too many things to do to have time to sleep. Her eyes would suddenly pop open, and there was nothing she could do to close them.

  There was not a single sound or movement in the house when she would get up and exercise, just herself. She would exercise, shower, dress, and be in her office before any of the workers arrived for the day. Looking back, she remembered Victor always doing the same. She didn’t know whether he exercised or not, but he was always there working before others arrived and long after they left.

  When she turned on her tablet, she found Chastity had already sent over some of the information she had requested. Apparently, she wasn’t the only person who didn’t sleep much. A lot of the information Freya didn’t understand; it was on population and housing, food supply, energy consumption, all data on a system already in place. What she had really been hoping for was for something to side with her proposal.

  Looking through the information, she knew her only course of action would be to stick to what she had written the previous night. She had to convince them of a need not because of what they knew, but rather based off what they didn’t know. They knew how much each life consumed in resources and space, that was clear. What they didn’t know was what was waiting for them on the colony world. Fear had made it possible for them to rule the people; perhaps she could use that same tactic against them.

  Chapter 13

  The Council meeting was about to start. Freya’s stomach felt as if it were doing backflips. She was not an eloquent speaker like Victor had been. Will I even be able to sway the Council toward any idea of mine? It had worked with the location of the transport device, but that was relatively small. Increasing the population was something that might not be possible, or at least it would be risky.

  She had pored over the data about consumption; she wasn’t entirely sure there was enough power or food to accommodate for these extra bodies. She needed to focus on the why factor, why they needed to increase their population. If she could convince them of that, they would figure out the how. She was
not a strategist; there were people far more capable than her in that endeavor.

  Chastity turned on the monitor; it was time for the meeting to start. They went through the formal start, and when it was time to discuss the items on their itinerary, Freya took a deep breath and took charge of the meeting.

  “If I may have the floor, I have a pressing topic in need of review.” She didn’t wait for their response, or permission.

  “With the Colonization project about to come into fruition, it is necessary we begin to increase our population, immediately.”

  A murmur rippled through the monitor. It was an incredibly bold maneuver, one that would normally take years of research and data to strategize and implement. But they didn’t have years, and so she needed to throw proper protocol into the wind.

  “We are facing far too many unknown factors. There is no data on what those colonists will be facing when that ship touches down—we don’t know enough about the planet they are about to inhabit. There could be bacteria or a disease we don’t currently have a vaccination or antidote for. Our people have been in a clean environment for so long, we lack the immunity to fight off new threats. The planet has a climate much like ours with vegetation and animals, but we don’t know what kind of predatorial animals or insects that could possibly feast on the new arrivals.”

  “And the spacecraft could crash on impact and kill them all instantly. We already knew the risks when we started this project over thirty years ago,” one of the Council members interjected.

  “Yes, it could. But I don’t think it will. There is something I am even more terrified of than all of the colonists being wiped out. I am more afraid of them being successful in landing and building the transport device before the threat has been fully discovered. I am afraid of them unwittingly carrying this threat back through the transport device and killing the majority of our population under the dome before a solution, cure, or weapon is discovered. This could set us back to the beginning, when there was so few of us trying to survive complete annihilation. Our population needs to increase immediately, it needed to increase before that spaceship ever left the ground. I fear we have been reckless, and I pray we have not already waited too long.”

  “Madam Head of State, I mean no disrespect to you by saying this, but we have not been reckless, and we do have a contingency plan for such a travesty,” the same Council member interjected again.

  “As you are relatively new in your position, you might not be aware that we do have a space functioning independently from the dome. It is in the mountain where our people originally retreated during the nuclear war. It is still populated and functional, as it is where our team of scientists live and work to develop new technologies and medicines. The very reason this facility is used in such a way is to avoid a contamination or an outbreak. If one of their experiments goes wrong and they blow themselves up or create some virus or super bug, it will be contained in the mountain. If a threat comes through the transport device, it will be contained here, and they will work to eliminate the threat in a safe environment. They follow strict protocol to avoid incident. In fact, when they were testing the transport device, it did blow up once, but they were testing it outside which significantly brought down the number of casualties.”

  Freya nearly lost the pit of her stomach. She could do nothing to contain the flushing color of her face, her clenching jaw, or the sour look on her face. How was she ever going to lead when they didn’t share such a critical piece of information from her?

  “I will, however, concede the validity of your point. We don’t want to return to the beginning and lose our colony and we especially don’t want to lose the population inside our dome. We should proceed with an investigation to see if increasing our population is a viable option.”

  She wanted so much more than an investigation, but knew she had no solid ground to stand on. At least not without exposing her ulterior motives.

  She swallowed hard and began again. “Yes, thank you Councillor. We will table all other matters until we receive the data of that investigation.”

  Chastity switched off the monitor and looked at her.

  “How did I do?”

  “You spoke well, but you are not going to move a mountain in a day,” she replied.

  Freya nodded. She was being ambitious with the Council, but someone had to. Their entire way of life was about to change, yet the Council was keeping up with the status quo—even keeping pertinent information from her. If someone didn’t have the nerve to speak up, who knew what would happen. There was a time for the Council to act and think how they did, but that time was coming to an end.

  ***

  Patience was never a virtue which Freya possessed. Waiting for other people to do the research for the proposal was enough to drive her insane. She was edgy and distracted from her work. This was one of the most important steps she could possibly take as the head of State, yet even as the leader, she was still at the mercy of others.

  She tried to do some of the research herself, but her mind couldn’t process any of the information. Every time she tried to read, her eyes went out of focus or her mind just couldn’t comprehend what she was reading. She was too close to this situation, too emotional. Part of her knew what the real problem was: if she was not successful, then she would have lost Lewis and committed murder for nothing. This just had to work, or she could not live with herself.

  The Council finally contacted her, and their next meeting was scheduled. She looked into the blank monitor, sitting on the edge of her seat.

  “Good afternoon, everyone. We have the results sent back to us in regards to the inquiry about increasing the population. Based on the information presented to us, it does not look like it is possible at this time,” the voice said out of the monitor.

  “Why not?” Freya shot back quickly.

  “Madam head of State, we leave these decisions up to our team of scientists. They analyze the data of our current living situation, and they come up with answers based on fact. We do not have the space for more reproducing couples at this time.”

  “Space? The issue is space? It is not oxygen, or food? If the issue is space, can’t we make more space?”

  “We only have the infrastructure in place to support the number of reproducing couples that we currently have.” He paused. “We cannot build any new structures to accommodate more reproducing couples at this time.”

  “Are you seriously telling me the reason we can’t increase our population is because we don’t have enough two or three-bedroom apartments to house them? That is not a good enough reason.”

  “I understand how that may sound, but we have always provided equality for our people. How could we possibly tell one couple they could have a larger apartment, and another that they have to fit their family into a smaller space? It would cause friction among the people.”

  “Again, that is not a good enough reason. The threats facing us far outweigh the chance of a few people grumbling about equality.”

  “How would you recommend we go about this?” the Council member said. “We are open to suggestion if you have something on your mind.”

  The invitation didn’t sound friendly; it hid a threat behind the kind words. Let her speak her mind, and if she didn’t have something brilliant, she would lose all credibility. Is this a trap? Do they want me to fall flat on my face? Or are they really asking for ideas or answers?

  “We ask for volunteers,” she replied sternly, feeling the need to sound confident. “We openly disclose the situation; we give people the choice. If they were not going to be chosen for reproduction and this would give them that option, some will take that small apartment for their families gratefully,” Freya answered.

  A thought then struck her, one that was so obvious she was angry at herself for not thinking of it sooner. “I would like to request information from our scientists,” she added. “I would like to know if it is possible to reverse the sterilization process. I do believe that if a woman
wanted to have a child and then was sterilized, she would not have a single issue with the apartment space once she had that child.”

  “I am a doctor; I don’t need a consultation with the scientific team. Yes, most women will still be able to conceive a child if we were to reverse the process,” a different male voice chimed in.

  “That is wonderful news,” Freya replied. “I think I could address the nation, and propose a questionnaire be sent out. People could indicate if they would be willing to live in a smaller apartment and have their procedure reversed.”

  “I think we need to proceed with a little more caution,” replied the more familiar voice. “We still need to keep genetic screening involved. If we open it up to just anyone, we are going to see a large increase in disease in the future.”

  “What would your recommendation be then?” Freya asked, feeling a little smug about being able to turn this back around on him. “Are you saying it should not be made public? I think if we were to keep this a secret, it will create more disgruntled civilians.”