As was later discovered both men had lost their families on the same day. Neither ever remarried and had no family for the rest of their lives save that of humanity. They found solace in the long distance conferences with each other and in the progress of mankind. Whether they had agreed on that fateful day to forsake all else except the plight of humanity is much debated and so, naturally, has become part of their legend.
For two decades they wandered the world on behalf of the Council and the Long Road, always inspiring humanity to mightier deeds. Many times they spoke of the lost children of Earth. They spoke of humanity’s duty to her lost children, and the World Council and humanity listened.
Such was the strength of their voices that the Council set a sixty year project into motion to remove the iron dust barrier that surrounded and isolated the Earth and to push humanity once again into the solar system. Gargantuan balloons, towering hundreds of meters high, layered with a light magnetic graphene material, were launched by rocket into the belt. There the iron dust would accumulate, eventually weighing the balloon down and sending it Earthward to disintegrate in the atmosphere. Scientists said the goal was attainable but warned that it would require decades to come to fruition. It is a testament to the esteem with which humanity held the leaders, Lansing and Lao, that such a program could be willingly embarked upon and doggedly completed after six decades.
Lansing and Lao retired from public service in the twenty-second year of the Long Road weighed down by their years of public service. In retirement they could’ve asked a grateful world for any luxury that a planetary civilization could bestow. The Council would’ve fallen over itself to provide it, but each man continued to live a simple life as they had for decades. It was often rumored that Lansing slept on a cot that was identical to the one he’d used during the Calamity and the Dying; Lao was said to have eaten like a bird because he wouldn’t gorge himself while others around the world had nothing.
In the thirty-first year of the Long Road, the world bade farewell to Samuel Lansing, a simple and compassionate Midwest farmer, who’d put the destiny of the human race above all else.
On his deathbed he told his friend Lao, “I believe we’ve made a grievous error by allowing the corporations to survive. We’ve loosed the proverbial serpent in the Garden of Eden and there will be no good from it. I beg you to make them listen, my friend.” And because Lansing asked, humanity did.
Lao came to the funeral, although he himself was in poor health, and he bade farewell to his lifelong friend, a man that he’d met in person only once before. And he gave them Lansing’s warning, in full measure, as he eulogized his friend.
As the wizened, stooped and feeble old man mounted the dais the voices of a million mourners were raised in a low funeral dirge. It was one that had begun during the Dying and spoke of the sorrow of those who still lived for those who were gone. A hushed silence descended over the million as Lao began to speak.
“I’ve known Samuel Lansing as I’ve known no other man in my life. Through the dark days of the Calamity and the heart wrenching years of the Dying we provided comfort to each other and counsel for the things that had to be done. I’ve seen him weep at the plight of humanity and I’ve wept before him as I’ve done before no other man. I’ve never known another man who was as staunch a friend and as steadfast an ally as Samuel Lansing. Many are the words that have been used to describe him and all fall utterly short of defining the man himself. Words are simply insufficient to describe this man that I knew. But suffice it to say that humanity has lost its grandest champion and I’ve lost my closest friend.”
“Samuel and I often spoke, not just of our duty to humanity during the dark days, but also of our duty to each other. I have one last duty to perform for my friend. I will now fulfill that duty.”
Suddenly the old man seemed to grow in stature and there was an unquenchable fire within his eyes. His voice, when he spoke, was strong and commanding.
“During the century before the Calamity humanity was betrayed and subjugated by the avarice of the corporations. On the day we needed them most, on the day that they could’ve redeemed themselves, we suffered a most heinous betrayal at their hands. Their ships fled rather than die an honorable death and the corporations hid vital assets that would’ve helped us save millions more. Finally, they left a quarter of a million of our children stranded off Earth to live, or die, as they could. And why was this done? It was greed, pure and simple, as my friend Samuel would’ve said, and their never ending thirst for power.”
“There is an evil that lurks in the human heart, but Samuel believed the human spirit could overcome it, indeed, that most people invariably did overcome this evil. That was his nature and I loved my friend for it. But Samuel and I understood that a corporation cannot strive against its very nature. There is no good in a corporation to balance the equation. Formed specifically to attain wealth and power how can we expect the ravenous beast to do otherwise?”
“And even today, as we march down the Long Road to a better future, I hear the soft voices of the corporations tempting humanity to give them power again, to trust them again, to ease the restrictions on their actions and all will be made well. It is ever their way to corrupt from within. Samuel Lansing wanted me to remind you of this after his death and I do so now.” Then a mighty voice rose from that frail body.
“Will we allow those who brought the Calamity and the Dying down upon our heads to lead the way again?”
A million voices echoed No!
“Will we forget the deeds of my friend, lying in state before you, and allow those who strove against him and sought to thwart his efforts at every turn, to once again control the fate of humanity?”
No! Echoed the multitudes.
“Will we who walk the Long Road forget the treachery that made it necessary?”
No! Never! No! Roared the grieving throng of humanity as they openly wept.
“I call upon the World Council to further limit the power of the corporate beast in the name of Samuel Lansing!”
Yes! Roared the multitudes in a frenzy of grief for their lost leader.
Then the wizened little man rose to his full stature and there was fire in his heart and his words inflamed the masses with his passion. “Will we who’ve endured the Calamity and the Dying and who’ve walked the Long Road allow the dreams of Samuel Lansing to die?”
Never! Shouted the masses.
“Will you, the children of Samuel Lansing, forget his legacy? Will you forget the betrayals you suffered at the hands of the corporate beast?”
Never! The frenzied multitude screamed.
“I challenge you to never forget, to walk the road that my friend Samuel Lansing placed before you in the name of humanity. Are you up to the task I place on you?” and his voice thundered throughout the multitudes and the sky filled with the reverberating sound of the multitude’s Yes! And throughout the world billions watching the broadcast of Lansing’s funeral live shouted Yes!
And sitting in the front row looking up at the figure of the tiny old man, the leaders of the six corporations smiled their artificial smiles and shouted yes with the crowd while seething underneath. All knew their plans were now delayed by decades. The sentiment sweeping the world would confine them as surely as the iron bars of a prison. And Lao looked down on them and a small smile flickered across his face and then disappeared and the crowd shouted on.
Three years later, former Premier Lao died peacefully at one hundred and one years of age. His final words were, “Tell them they promised” and nothing more. Once again the world gathered in sadness and if the corporate contingent held expectations that Lao’s death would alleviate some of the hostility against them then they were sadly mistaken.
The acolytes of both Lansing and Lao were there in the thousands and millions and delivered impassioned speech after impassioned speech. The crowds were told Lao’s final words and they renewed the promise around the world made to the two men whom they loved so much. The co
rporations, seeing the ferocity in the eyes of the acolytes of Lansing and Lao, knew that their timetable was now indeed several decades away. But they were prepared for their own Long Road, for these were men and women of ambition, Napoleons and Caesars, one and all, for whom patience had always yielded results.
The world traveled on the Long Road without the living symbols of humanity, Lansing and Lao. But the promise they’d made was still fresh and new and another generation committed their lives to the dreams of the two men for the sake of humanity.
As the six remaining corporations battled for survival new organizations arose to fill the niche once controlled by them alone. Guilds arose among the scientific community and their existence made the global projects of the Long Road achievable, much to the frustration of the six.
The food that fed the citizens of the world was no longer subject to trading and false shortages and manipulation of price by men of avarice and for the first time in history the human race fed itself without resorting to war and coercion.
When new technology arose, the technology was disbursed to the people by the marketing guild who already handled the distribution of food, clothing and other basic tenements of life.
The guilds that arose were not perfect by any means, but neither were they riddled with the baggage of centuries as were the corporations. Obviously this new system threatened the remaining corporations and the guilds were constantly fending off the attacks of the six, but by and large, humanity was happier with the guilds so the corporations fretted in silence mostly.
The night skies of Earth after the Calamity were a maelstrom of shimmering lights dancing across the visible horizon from any point on earth. But the gigantic balloons continued to launch as the promise was renewed again and again. Soon vast magnetic nets weighing only ounces joined the balloons and a determined humanity looked eagerly forward to the day when the skies would once again belong to them.
Advances continued in the sciences of the new Earth as the World Council devoted all of its attention to the betterment of mankind. Removing corporate profits from the equation produced results at a far faster pace than had ever been experienced in the history of mankind. The quantum computer finally came into existence and the chipsats that had begun to emerge before the Calamity were honed into a comprehensive program for exploration once the skies were clear.
Genetics research produced medicines and procedures not dreamed of in an earlier age and best of all, it was available for the benefit of all, not the privileged few. The lack of necessity to produce overwhelming profits for the corporate machine meant that a drug or procedure came on the market and was available to all who needed it, not just to those who could afford it.
In robotics the human race failed to meet the grandiose expectations of earlier generations not because they couldn’t, but because the expectations did not consider the advances made in other fields. While robots that could mimic human beings were made for specific tasks, they were more a novelty than a necessity. The earlier predictions of robot soldiers on battlefields had never materialized. Even in the late twenty-first century, when they were actually tried on battlefields in several brush wars, they didn’t function with any degree of reliability. Portable Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) generators crippled the first generations easily enough and a later hardening of the circuits was only met with a more advanced EMP generator. Overall they proved to be a liability on the battlefield and, after the Calamity, wars were virtually eliminated and so the battlefield robots went into the dustbin of history as a dubious idea at best.
But nanobots and nanites had arrived and were revolutionizing many fields to the betterment of mankind instead of its destruction, specifically the fields of medicine and mechanical repair and maintenance.
In past centuries jet aircraft had soared through the heavens of Earth, burning fossil fuels and allowing the privileged to travel the world. Under the Long Road this approach was abandoned and the immense airships envisioned by early twenty-first century dreamers once more controlled the skies of Earth. Their time had finally come as mankind merged the lightest, strongest materials with the most efficient solar cell technology and lightweight electrical engines. No fuel but the blazing sun powered the sizable vessels through the skies and all a citizen had to pay was a modest fee that went towards the workers in the guild and to build replacement ships. While they lacked the roaring speed of earlier years they made up for this perceived flaw with the aerial views provided to the passengers and a more relaxed mode of travel. Once again the saying “The journey is what matters not the destination” became a popular idiom.
For those requiring speed, maglev trains connected every major city in every corner of the world zipping from city to city at seven hundred kilometers an hour. Mass transportation moved the citizens of this brave new world to their jobs and to the far corners of the world, and connected the peoples of this new world in ways never achieved before in human history. A person could board a maglev in St. Louis one morning and be in New Rio, Brazil the next, well rested and oriented to his or her destination. Speed was no longer the overriding concern when it came to travel. Because of the ease of communications and the various holographic displays there was no longer a need to travel for business and with the advent of the variable purpose duplicators even the need for shipping parts and devices had been eliminated.
The variable purpose duplicator was the natural evolution of the twenty-first century’s so called 3d printers. If a part was needed for a particular machine in any part of the world the specifications were sent to a variable purpose duplicator at the location and the VPD instructed the technicians to install the appropriate modules and the necessary raw materials and the part was ready within minutes. There was no need to waste valuable energy sending items across the world when they could be made on sight, anywhere on the Earth. The early precursors to the VPD’s had been standard equipment for all off world colonies prior to the Calamity and had been invaluable to the surviving humanity of Earth. The current models included the capability of duplicating themselves. A version of this machine had been adapted to every industry including mining and the processing of metals.
Although mankind could not yet leave the atmosphere, because of the tortured skies, new launch vehicles were being developed and old plans that had been put aside were dusted off and explored anew.
A hybrid Earth-to-orbit (ETO) ship once proposed in the twenty-first century was now seriously evaluated. The enormous ships would be fully a kilometer long and carry helium when operating below twenty kilometers in altitude but switch to hydrogen above that altitude. Using these gases they would attain altitudes above eighty kilometers at which point the gases could no longer supply lift, being restricted by the containment of the gas within the light weight bladders holding them. At that point a Vasimr Ion MPD would initiate and the vehicle would commence a long slow ascent into orbit. Using this method, large payloads could be delivered to orbit without the exorbitant expenditure of fuel needed in earlier flights. A working model was constructed and tested and approved as the delivery platform for the new generation of communications satellites that were under construction by the six corporations. The lighter and stronger materials developed during the Long Road only added to the efficiency of the system.
A planetary defense system had already been planned and its Earthly components constructed by the fifty-seventh year of the World Council. By the agreement of all humanity the corporations were excluded from the work and the exclusion would continue when the system was operational. All who worked on the system and constructed the units had made the solemn vow, never again, in a pledge to humanity.
In the year 2197, the World Council informed the world that the scientists of Earth believed that the time had come. The skies would once again belong to humanity.
THE LOST CHILDREN
Once again the skies were clear above the Earth with barely a trace of the ghostly lights that had marred the heavens for almost eight decades. Bu
t the Long Road was far from finished. Beyond its atmosphere the Earth was deaf, blind and helpless. The World Council knew that priority must be given to connecting humanity across the globe as they’d been before the Calamity. And also to the proposed protective shield for Earth, so that mankind would once again feel safe in the cradle of their home world.
There were satellites to build and networks to establish. There was a compelling need for a foothold in space so a permanent station was needed in orbit. Before the Calamity there had been six stations at various altitudes orbiting Earth. One belonged to the governments of the world and five were owned by corporations. None remained in existence when the skies had once again cleared.
Two colossal Earth to Orbit (ETO) ships were commissioned and brought into service by the year 2198, the Samuel T. Lansing and the Li Liang Lao. In the fall of 2198 they rose from the surface of Earth carrying sixty-four communications satellites designed and built by the six corporate entities. The huge ships spiraled outbound from the Earth and six days later the first of the communications satellites were deployed. The plan of the Council was to deploy the satellites at different specified altitudes and orbits. So when the sixty fourth was deployed at an altitude of twenty-two thousand kilometers thirty one days later there was no place on Earth that was outside the reach of the communications network. Within hours the people of Earth were once again connected in a vast web and the years of isolation had ended. The human race was at last just that, a single race, a single species dependent on one another.
The planetary defense grid proved more problematic. Many difficulties were encountered and they could not use earlier models as guidelines because they had obviously failed miserably. The remaining corporations offered their help at every opportunity but the Council, many of whom had personally known both Lansing and Lao, adamantly opposed them. The Council was determined that the corporate fingerprint would not appear on the global defense system.
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