Buck Rogers
"And you regarded this as peace?'' Wilma asked with obvious sarcasm.
"Compared to what might have happened, I suppose we did," Buck answered. "It isn't that simple. It wasn't black and white, but a mass of gray. We ended the Second World War—"
"How many dead?" Bergstrasser asked, his tone making it clear he already knew the answer.
Buck shrugged. "It depends upon who did the counting. By conservative estimates, about seventy million. More realistically, more than a hundred million. A lot more would have died if we hadn't ended the Pacific War with the atomic bombs we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
"And that," Wilma said coldly, "led to another kind of war. Dozens of smaller, confined wars with mass killing, but not the end of civilization as so many had feared when the United States and the Soviet Union had so many hydrogen bombs. What if that war had broken out?"
"Thank God it didn't," Buck replied. "America and Russia were at each other's throats for years, but we never again dropped an atomic or hydrogen bomb on anybody."
"How many warheads were available? Nuclear and thermonuclear?" Bergstrasser pressed.
Buck frowned. He didn't like the direction this exchange was taking. "All are estimates at best. The actual numbers were secret. The best guess was between sixty and eighty thousand. The point is, what we called the Cold War—the standoff between America and Russia—ended without a fight. The Soviet Union collapsed from within—decadent, miserably poor, a dictatorship. Living under Communism was pure hell. Finally the whole rotten mess fell apart. Russia broke up into many smaller countries—"
"And the smaller wars continued," Wilma pressed.
Buck nodded. There was no way to ignore that reality.
"Plus a new danger presented itself," said the air marshal. "As the next several decades went by, more and more countries, to say nothing of power groups and terrorist groups, began to accumulate their own nuclear weapons. I don't want to describe anything that isn't accurate, Buck. Is what we've said, and what you have told us, true?"
"It is. But what's the purpose of all this? All we're doing is
A Life in the Future
rehashing ancient history," Buck shot back angrily.
"Not quite," Bergstrasser said soberly.
"What do you mean by that?" Buck demanded.
"You had your accident in 1996. Just about the time that you were placed in the laser dematerializer," Wilma interjected, "came the beginning of the end. In Russia, Moscow lost control of its territories—republics, I believe they were called. The new so-called free republics turned on Russia. When a republic declared itself free, Moscow reacted predictably with full military power. By the end of the twentieth century, only a few years after you were out of the picture, Europe was tearing itself apart. Many of the breakaway countries joined together to fight the Russians. The fighting in the old Communist lands began to spread. Someone launched a salvo of nuclear warheads against France and Spain. They retaliated. Within a week or so, all Europe banded together. France demanded that England come to its aid. The English refused, saying it wasn't their war. Turkey and the Czech countries, along with Germany and Poland, made their move to control oil sources by launching a massive war against the Mideast countries of Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Kuwait."
Wilma leaned back in her seat. "From that moment on, there was no stopping the spread of fighting. Missiles, planes, anjrthing that could carry a nuclear weapon got into the spreading war. England took a barrage of hydrogen bombs, but that was nothing compared to the biological agents that were thrown against the islands. The United States felt compelled to go to their aid, but the big question was whom were they going to fight?
"So the United States reverted to what your people called the Big Stick policy. They figured that if the leading cities of the warring countries were obliterated, those lands would be so devastated, the people so overcome, that the fighting had to stop."
"It was a big mistake," added Bergstrasser. "A very big mistake. America should have taken a hard look at the other side of the world. By the end of the century, the Chinese had built an enormous military machine. All the signs had been there, but your country, the old America, was just too smug to recognize the real danger. For many years America and her European allies had looked down on the Chinese as a backward country. China allied itself with Mongolia and the Siberian outposts. The Russ-
Buck Rogers
ian military bases in the Far East had been isolated from their homeland. They had no hope of reinforcements, and now they faced a truly powerful enemy right on the Asian mainland. China, Mongolia, Japan, Siberia, Vietnam, Sumatra, Singapore, New Guinea, all had felt isolated, and now they banded together. They came to the conclusion that it was time to put the white people in their place.
"They used everything they had—more than two billion fighting men, and no one knows how many tens of thousands of planes, tanks, heavy weapons. And a submarine fleet no one even dreamed they had. The Pacific became an enormous battleground of submersibles, but America and England, as well as those French and Russian subs that could escape from Europe, were vastly outnumbered. I'm sure you recall the kamikaze attacks the Japanese used against America in the Pacific War. That was an act of desperation. But now the Asian forces had superiority in both numbers and weapons, and millions of combat men willing to die just as long as they took enemy ships, submarines, and planes along with them.
"The world was tearing itself apart. Vast areas were radioactive wastelands. Terrible epidemics swept across entire continents. Asian armies moved across the Aleutians and swept over Canada with virtually no resistance. They gathered their forces to a billion strong and poised for the death blow against the United States. In the meantime, to the south, the Central and South American lands saw the handwriting on the wall. There was no United States able to protect them. Either they threw in their lot with the Asiatics, or they'd be ground to dust. The Chinese and Mongolians wouldn't even have to invade. Biological agents would devastate them all. So the South Americans announced, first, they would remain neutral, but that facade didn't last long. It was either join the fight to erase the long superiority of the white man—and the same thing was happening in black Africa—or they'd be crushed. In fact, the uprising in what was South Africa was a bloodbath that equalled anything ever written about in the Old Testament. The countryside and the rivers and lakes all ran red with the blood of people hacked, cut, speared, or blown to bits. But there was a new player that emerged from the savagery. That was Chile and its immediate neighbors."
A Life in the Future
"I don't understand about Chile," Buck reiterated. "Strung out the way they are—"
Wilma stabbed the computer console buttons and Chile appeared magically. "The geography of Chile was perfect for submarine operations. Considering their long coastline, that was number one on their list. You couldn't get at Chile from the east because of the mountains. Argentina saw the handwriting on the wall and joined Chile. There had always been a powerful Japanese presence in Brazil. They set off biological plagues in the main cities, which in turn devastated normal commerce. Factories closed down, electrical power almost disappeared, rivers closed, airports were shut down by terrorist squads, food distribution died, communications faded away—"
"I get the picture," Buck said moodily. "And I can make a guess at one more thing. Because of the Andes Mountains, Chile stood apart from the mainstream of air currents. They stayed largely free of radioactive fallout and biological epidemics. All of a sudden, with nearby countries supporting them, with the Chinese and Mongols pouring supplies into their country, they became a dangerous power."
Wilma sighed again, worn out from her dissertation. "Air Marshal, please wind this up," she asked Bergstrasser.
The tall man stubbed out his cigar, lit another, and waved it in the air like a baton. "It was short and sweet, Buck, even though it took a few hundred years. First, southeast Asia was now the main conce
ntration of power in the world. Along their northern flanks, they had the Himalayas as a natural barrier. To the west, jungles and swamps and local national infrastructures had been devastated. All people wanted was something to eat. Nationalism disappeared. If the Chinese would only feed them, they'd devote themselves to the Chinese cause—and they did. Australia was left to die a slow death. Why bother with a country that was ninety percent desert, cut off from any meaningful aid or supplies, and could barely feed itself? Finally the Chinese got tired of Australia still proclaiming itself a bastion of democracy. Eighty Japanese supertankers, modified to hold troops, landed nearly a million fighting men and machines at several points along the coastlines, and Australia was chewed to pieces.
"That left New Zealand. The Chinese and Mongolians were smarter in the sociological sense than anyone had ever given
Buck Rogers
them credit for. They didn't touch New Zealand. They let it be known that, so long as New Zealand gave up its military armaments, the new Asiatic warlords would let it be. The country was rich, beautiful, and was completely out of the way. In the European, Latin, and other countries. New Zealand became the Great Escape. The rich, the powerful, and the greedy flocked to New Zealand, unhindered by the Asians. Because they could live there in luxury, a sort of modern Rome developed, protected by its enemies. It also gave the Asiatics a single dominant place for contact with what had been the Western World."
A long silence followed the verbal disintegration of the world Buck had known. Despite the cruel impact of the words he heard. Buck wasn't caught entirely by surprise. He had grown up and lived in a world of massive lethal armaments, of endless successions of wars small and large. He had been aware that just one tiny shove could send it toppling over the brink into a madness that would affect the entire world. But this new war wasn't for profit or greed, but to prove that the Asiatics, with the oldest civilizations on the planet, were the true leaders of the world. Now they would prove it once and for all.
"What happened in Africa?" Buck asked finally.
Bergstrasser snorted with disdain. "For a while, Africa was all cheering and huzzahs. The white man was finally getting his comeuppance. Then two very grim realities of life set in. First, virtually all trade with the rest of the world came to an end. Food, medicine, industrial parts—^just about everything— couldn't get in, and exports couldn't get out. The entire social and economic structure disintegi*ated. They were on the edge of anarchy, but apparently they figured it was worth the travail, because as soon as the rest of the world settled down, it would need African products and commerce."
Buck broke in. "I can figure the rest of that scenario. They had never really understood the Asian mindset—the Chinese, and the Mongols especially."
"You are correct," Bergstrasser confirmed. "The new warlords considered the blacks inferior. Nonindustrial, bereft of scientific structure—in brief, their only value was in inexpensive labor. It wasn't quite slavery, but the Chinese hauled them off by the millions to help clean up the destroyed cities, and they paid them barely enough in food and housing to keep them alive. They
A Life in the Future
became the postwar serfs, treated with utter disdain. I don't know how many millions died. Since then, the survivors have hardened—those who still live in Africa, that is. They've formed into tribes and bands again, they stay out of sight, and this time they swear they'll die fighting before they accept what the Chinese call 'Asiatic generosity'"
"Sounds pretty much like the Second World War," Buck added. "When Japan set out in the thirties on its program of conquest, it said it was creating a greater coprosperity sphere for all Orientals and Asians. That was their fancy name for conquest. They butchered, tortured, and enslaved millions of people." Buck paused. "But we're getting sidetracked. Let's get back to the power base that emerged and what we face today—the Half-Breeds, for example."
Bergstrasser turned to Wilma. "You take this one."
She nodded. "It's not a pretty story, but it generally follows what you've already heard. The year when you had your accident, the world had a choice of a bright new future or reverting back to a period very much like when Hitler and other fascist leaders were coming into power. Space travel was coming into its own. It was a time, you'll remember, of American and Russian cooperation in space—the big shuttles, the Russian stations, the interplanetary robots. All over the world, different countries were sending up satellites. Programs were under way for international cooperation in returning to the moon and building permanent stations there. Sixteen countries were sending ever-larger ships to Mars. Manned expeditions were coming off the drawing boards. The computer revolution had become an explosion. Everyone in the world could be in immediate contact with everyone else. The science of genetics was leapfrogging into the future. Scientific and technological advances were extraordinary.
"But the world couldn't get its feet out of the mud. Your people had their eyes on the stars, but wars all around the world kept bogging them down. The United Nations was a joke. It was probably the most amazing period of world history ever. Space travel existed side by side with outhouses, even in America. Genetic advances in food production were near miracles, yet millions of people starved to death every year."
Buck took it all in silently. Finally he asked his first direct
Buck Rogers
question about what had happened to the United States. Despite all he'd heard, he felt something was still missing.
"Look," he said slowly to Wilma, "this all seems like bits and pieces to me. Let me ask you some fast questions, and keep your answers short and sweet. I'll fit the pieces to the puzzle in my head. If I'm missing something, you can fill me in later." He waited as Wilma glanced at Bergstrasser. He nodded.
"Today—and I mean right now—who's running the world? I can't tell from what you've told me whether it's the Chinese or the Mongols or both."
"For the most part, it's the Mongols. But it's not all that neat and tidy. After they swept most of the world, they began to fight the Chinese. Winner would get to be top dog. While they were in the middle of seeing who was king of the hill, the United States took a desperate measure."
"Seems like anything would be desperate under the circumstances," Buck said acidly.
"It was. Our country was a long way from being defeated. We still had a powerful submarine force throughout the world— forty-thousand-ton boats, superfast, thermonuclear drive. They didn't need refueling, produced their own water, even manufactured basic foodstuffs. Anyway, we had over a hundred of them dispersed around the globe, at least sixty beneath the Arctic icecap. I've already said the Mongols came down through Canada. When they hit the United States, things really got wild."
"Who won?" Buck was holding true to his promise of fast questions. The look on his face made it clear he wanted equally fast answers.
"For a while, the Mongols."
"And then?"
"Do you remember the Minutemen from the original American Revolution? Well, Americans turned up everjrwhere, heavily armed. They let the cities go and took to the countryside, fighting the Mongols like Indians. It slowed down the Mongol advance considerably."
Buck knew a bit more about combat than field action. "Where was our headquarters?"
"Washington was gone. Hydrogen bomb. So were Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, and most major American cities."
Buck recalled the underground command centers that had
A Life in the Future
been built when America and Russia were on the brink of war. "So that leaves—?" He let the question hang.
"You're in part of it. Niagara. The government was split into organizational zones . . . orgzones. There was a whole city beneath Niagara Falls and the rivers. Other places such as Cheyenne Mountain—"
"The old headquarters for the North American Defense Command, built under a mile of solid rock," Buck noted.
"Right. Old salt mines. Even deep underwater domes. Massive structures of steel or
armorglass. Most of them are at least two miles beneath the earth's surface."
"How do they communicate with one another?"
"Data compression, satellite hookups, hydrosignals. Even if they're picked up, the routing is random."
"And the language?"
Wilma laughed. "Ancient languages predating even Sanskrit. And they're changed all the time."
"How tight is the national organization?"
Bergstrasser leaned forward in his chair. "It stinks. We're fragmented. There are Mongol outposts throughout the country. A few are allied with us, but most of the others are still loyal to Toutka and Chamka."
"Whoa! That sounds like a song-and-dance routine."
"Sorry. They're the two big problem children of the Mongol Empire. They're not really leaders, but rather ministers of power. They stay behind the throne of the Celestial Mogul."
"This is getting to sound like a Chinese menu. Please, spell it out for me," Buck said impatiently.
"The Celestial Mogul is the number one man of the Mongol Empire," Wilma explained. "He's known variously as Aseptic Majesty, the Celestial Mogul of Mongolia, Potentate of Asia, Dean of the Ever-Living Nobility, Overlord of the Mongolian Emperors of Amerigo and Europe. To the Mongols, he's a venerated world ruler. He holds court from a monastery in Tibet."
"Would you believe he's two hundred and thirty years old?" Bergstrasser added.
"Sure. If he's in a tank of glucose with his brain hooked up to a bioscience computer. But if he's that old, well, he can't be running the big show."
"He isn't," Wilma confirmed. "Toutka and Chamka are his
Buck Rogers
left and right arms. They run the Mongol Empire, but they keep the old boy alive because his age is revered by the Mongol subjects. It keeps a lot of people in line."
Buck Rogers- A Life in the Future Page 10