Madsen and I worked hard with what we had. Yet, no matter which way we approached it we could not gain entry as proven over-n-over each time that someone went out and tested what we had. Two days on, we had made no progress.
On day three, Madsen threw up his arms. “I’ve about had it an’ all!” But I kept going.
Another two days went by during which Roses scolded me for not getting enough sleep, but I found the answer. It too was simple in the end. To gain access we had to send, not just the time parameters of a memory held in common, but the memory itself had to be attached as well.
I trained Droght on it and sent him out. He caught up with Odentien and company at the Departure Gate of Inter-Constellation Port-SLF. On Droght’s return, his gloom spoke of failure more so than any words could express.
There was obviously more to it, but we had run out of time.
Therefore, his promise to Roses wasn’t kept.
She hugged and thanked him nonetheless.
With the Twelve’s thoughts still hidden I must find another way of locating Karrell.
So be it.
CHAPTER 70
Of History, Lies And Being Enslaved By Ideas Alone
Transcript continued: Interior lighting, typically subdued inside LAX, is dimmer this morning. Visuals are not nearly as bright as when Mister Warrent McPeters returned from Here-Born.
A few tourists hailing from various worlds arrive, straggling along as though they now regret being here. Their faces turn to the drab walls and floors like the hypnotized at a sideshow. In amongst all these arrivals, only a tour group composed of a single family from Here-Born seeks entry.
Up to and until today there had been a higher than usual influx of tourists from Here-Born. News bulletins made mention of this. However, it sounded more like ominous warnings than a tourist season report.
I’m curious about the low-lighting though—this appears to be more than simply lowering their utility payments. One moment as I access LAX’s utility bill. Done and yes—just as I had thought.
LAX has exceeded their monthly energy allowance and cannot buy additional consumable kilowatts. They have maxed out on consumed wattage for this month. They cannot purchase any further Unused Consumption Certificates, no matter who is selling.
Compounding this, LAX’s Breathable Air monthly usage is way over the top. Too many passengers and others have passed through LAX these last weeks. LAX Admin is in danger of violating several Assurance of Happiness laws, not something to be taken lightly.
Breathable Air in the LAX environment will have to be suspended.
Yes. That’s tourists for you...over using and under-taxed.
But let me check into this a little deeper.
A moment as I switch to The Department of Tourism...okay...got it...opening LAX Records, checking pending notifications. Yes. Found the details.
To hand is an unreleased Weather and Catastrophes bulletin. On the cover sheet is a picture of several volcanoes erupting with black clouds billowing overhead and boiling lava pouring down the sides towards a distant city. Dramatic yet false. The bulletin itself is standard issue.
I read it through anyway.
“Due to volcanic activity in the central Northern Hemisphere LAX will be closed to avoid ash and further residues for six weeks. All Travel Tickets and Cargo Assignments remain in full effect and are postponed six weeks, exactly.
“No further notifications will be provided.
“Special offers are available as follows.
“You may verify your new travel or cargo Departure DATE for a reasonable fee of $15,000.00 per cargo consignment or travel ticket. Checking Departure TIME is a separate item and costs the same price of $ 15,000.00 per ticket. Alternatively, pay a mere $45,000.00 and verify both departure date and time simultaneously.
“Also. Please consider the more alluring offer that follows and nab for yourself an incredible Web page access special offer when checking either cargo departure dates or times:
“You can now access the Make a Change web page for a mere $70,000.00 per ticket, which will be added, on your behalf, to the charges outlaid above. With this offer accessing both departure date and time simultaneously, costs a special low, low $159,000.00.
“Return trips are changed and charged separately per the above rates.
“Don’t wait—take advantage of this Special Offer right NOW!
“Not included in the above prices, the Department for the Assurance of Happiness collects an additional 75% Assured Happiness Tax on the overall transaction.
“Helping ADD-Dees adds to your Quality of Life and Assures Happiness for One and All.
“Furthermore, Federal Sales Tax of 168% will be charged in compliance with the Verification of Web Site specifications as listed under the Ease-of-Use stipulations for both ADD-D and Non-ADD-D citizens.
“If you so wish, you may cancel a Flight or Cargo delivery and we will send your original purchase costs to the Department for Enhancing the Happiness of ADD-D sufferers. A mere 200% tax on the transaction will be due by you to cover costs.
“No refunds allowed.”
Nothing could be clearer, a closure notification which ensures the happiness of all.
Hallelujah.
Back at my Transcript, I check on the new arrivals.
Security check request, Benwarr, Dewana and Roses D’elti.
Security Check returns No connection to Once-Other/Madsen Somalo.
As a family, they pass through Immigration without incident.
Per the current Assurance of Happiness Directive from Mister Warrent McPeters, which states: Attention. Red Alert. Direct Terrorist Attacks on Happiness. All Here-Born citizens must be assigned Terrorist Status D for Dangerous until proven innocent.
Said status attached to the D’elti family.
On the sidewalk, Benwarr D’elti powers up his Nomadi, turns and looks directly into an Assurance of Happiness camera and...
...my screen died and went blank several hours ago. I immediately switched to digital audio recording and I am now entering the recorded details. The information I am entering I recorded on my little digital recorder.
Be Ready, Prepared, and Continue is our Section’s motto.
Transcript continues with the entering of recorded details:
I turn my monitor off and back on.
Still dead.
I check my Nomadi; its screen is blank as well.
I check Skellumer’s terminal—also blank. I step across the squishy carpet and into the hallway and hurry by large offices segmented into cubicles. All the monitors are dead. Faces turn my way and eyes appeal to me. Confusion, fear and here and there, carefully hidden relief, but not carefully enough. I head back to my office.
I sit down just as a picture appears on the screen—it is of the good Brother Adolf. I love this particular photo in which the Cross of Equalness rests easy at his throat and his hand points to heaven while the glow of all Being Equal shines around him.
I glance over my shoulder; the same picture is on Skellumer’s screen.
Back to mine.
The clouds glow around Adolf as they always do, the sunshine reflects off his face and his eyes glow with heavenly light. Without warning, something new and terrible happens. The picture becomes animated and the camera pulls back.
I hang onto my desk, arms shaking.
Thousands upon thousands of worshipers stand before him. I never knew his congregation was that large? They are all pointing to the sky and shouting over and over.
What are they shouting?
Oh...at the bottom of the screen.
“Sieg Heil.”
Whatever those words mean.
No time to ponder as the commentator is already talking about something called Nazis and a war and a place called Germany and that Adolf Hitler started World War II.
What?!
Tanks, airplanes, trucks, and soldiers all wearing the Cross of Equalness rumble across the screen.
How ca
n the Church of Brother Adolf start a war?
Now, what?
Church members accost persons on the street, storm into homes and confiscating firearms, beating the occupants. People forced into railroad cattle cars, packed like sardines in a can. Young children stare at the camera, eyes dead. On the station platform, a church member draws a firearm and shoots an old man who is unable to stand after being pushed to the ground, kicked and beaten.
Oh no!
I’m looking at thousands of emaciated corpses guarded over by church members wearing the Cross of Equalness. Of course! And reality hits me right between the eyes. This is a new compulsory History Lesson.
At last! All makes sense.
We are learning why Freedom of Religion had to be rewritten then rewritten again to become the original Hallelujah Freedom of Religion and Ensured Happiness Act. I mean...I now know what happened.
A map of the world appears on screen and my headache gets worse. Unfortunately, with this project I have already overused medication, run out of and still face two weeks before the renewal date. I drag my mind back to the screen.
Focus falls on Europe and zooms in on a country or province named Germany. Yes! That’s it! Just Germany.
To the left of the Western European coastline lie two smaller landmasses named Great Britain. I recognize these as Red Zone GB. Red Zones no longer support human life.
A large piece of real estate further west and down south a little is, of course, the US of Axis. Red Zones are scattered across parts of the continent, particularly along the southern and northern border areas.
Wait. What’s that on the US of Axis? I lean closer and read what’s printed, and oh my. They’re calling the US of Axis...the United States of America. What? The United States of America is further north and over in the Far East. Who are these loons? I mean, that is where I live, I should know where I am. Right?
I stare with eyes so wide they hurt, but what is there keeps getting worse setting off painful flashes that almost blind me. I turn away and bury my face in my hands. After a moment, I rub my eyes but when they scream in protest, I look back at my screen.
A Map of Africa displays. On the southern tip is another Red Zone I know of, but an information box says it is the Union of South Africa (later a Republic) and one of the Allied countries from WW II. Who came up with this junk?
Australia appears, and though it’s a Red Zone, it is declared one of the WW II Allies too. No, they were not. Like South Africa, they fought against Brother Adolf alongside the US of Axis in payment for being released from Internment Camps in the US of Axis. That is why they are Red Zoners. Red Zones are Dead Zones are Fellows of the US of Axis and were all nuked to end WW II.
If there is one thing I know, I know my history.
Visuals jump to a picture of the President of the US of Axis during WW II, Doctor Hendrik Verwoerd, but the News Reel calls him the Prime Minister of this Union of this South Africa thing. Please. Try getting your facts right.
Next, it declares the good Doctor to be the architect of something called Apartheid. What’s that? Then it makes a big deal of the fact that the Doctor studied in this place called Germany. What does that have to do with anything? Next, it displays the front page of the New York Letteratti.
Love that Newspaper. But wait...under the name banner...something weird...New York, New York, United States of America. What kind of terrorist attack is this?
Next, a visual recording of a radio broadcast playing from within a family’s home in black and white. I watch and listen as a voice claimed to be the Prime Minister of England declares War on Germany and it’s dated September 3, 1939. How can something so old be 1939? The radio is crude, so this News Reel comes from the time when electricity was first used domestically.
Everyone knows we’re talking way back during the early 1300’s.
And now!
The vast continent of the United States of America is named Communist China. What?
Ahh?!
Now there is a picture of Brother Mao, pimple on chin included. But where’s the Stars and Stripes. They always fly behind him. But scrolling now, some horrifying quotes purportedly from Brother Mao:
“War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun, it is necessary to take up the gun.”
And.
“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun....”
And.
“The Communist party must control the guns.”
And worse.
“Everything under heaven is in utter chaos, the situation is excellent.”
Next a title: Mao Zedong’s Great Sparrow Campaign.
In 1958, Mao Zedong demanded all sparrows be killed. The reason given was that sparrows were eating the crops. Millions of peasants spent all day chasing sparrows. The sparrows became so tired they landed and were killed on the ground. When it was found that sparrows ate insects and were actually protecting the crops, it was far too late.
Famine ravaged China.
Soon there was nothing to eat.
People became criminals in pursuit of food. Many killed others just to eat them. It is said even brother ate brother, child ate parent, parent ate child. And those in charge refused the elderly any food at all, allowing these useless eaters to starve and die.
It is said that fathers were made to bury a child alive as punishment for a child caught stealing food or complaining about the lack of food, or of hunger.
While the people were dying of starvation, stockpiles of grain sufficient to feed the entire Chinese nation rotted away or was sold to foreign countries.
Some say the deaths happened because of ignorance while others say it was done to decrease the number of peasants whom those in charge viewed as numbers, not as real people.
Does your government see you as merely a number?
My heart races at that question.
I glance about as guilt makes me cringe.
Phew! Not even Skellumer is looking around.
I get back to reading.
The number of deaths during Mao Zedong’s reign is estimated to be between thirty and seventy-eight million all told. No one knows how many starved, or were murdered, or worked to death, or were tortured and killed for protesting or speaking out.
This massive number of people died during peacetime in that China was not at war.
The total tally of dead for all sides during WW II stands at forty-five million and is lower than Mao’s rampage. This makes Mao Zedong or Brother Mao as you refer to him, the greatest mass murderer in all of human history.
I cannot breathe.
I pound my chest and my heart starts again and my lungs inhale air.
I have questions.
What is the horror I am watching?
Is someone trying to brainwash me?
I must be strong because I know my history if nothing else.
Wait.
Is this some kind of a test?
Wait again.
The screen is changing, evolving into desert sand. A shimmering mirage draws closer. In a blinding flash of motion, we are up close. It’s a person dressed in an air-conditioned suit with the face-shield down making it difficult so see the face behind.
Eyes shine through the shield, though—intense eyes. They stare into me and into everyone around me and suddenly a powerful voice speaks.
“Have you ever wondered how real the history you’ve been taught actually is?”
The face waits as silence descends around me. In this utter silence, the people around me crash to become mentally scrambled eggs.
Is everyone thinking yes as I am?
The voice speaks. “If yes, understand this if you will. They have lied to you. History was changed. Perverted. Twisted. Good twisted into bad. Bad into good. Heroes are villains. Villains are heroes. Dates were switched and changed around almost randomly.”
The head retreats.
Desert evolves into a view of Earth from high above.
The
point of view rushes closer and closer to the surface.
The picture of Earth grows bigger.
What is all the surface green stuff? A carpet? Artificial grass? Going down faster, getting closer. It’s all trees, a whole continent of trees. What is this? And the voice speaks.
“You have been lied to. What is on screen exists right here, and right now. The green you see is the Rainforest. You’ve been told it died. Yet centuries ago laws were passed ensuring that for each tree cut down, three new ones must be planted. That was done worldwide.
“You were and are still being told that you must pay for the air you breathe as the Rainforests are gone and carbon dioxide can no longer be naturally converted to release oxygen back into the air.
“You’ve been taught this can no longer be done by plants and trees nor can it be done by your oceans. For some unknown reason, you’ve been told these can no longer do this conversion process due to so few forests and stagnant oceans.
Breathable Air of Chicago, Illinois, has lied to you about this. BA has said that it’s air they import from planets far, far away. Another lie!”
The image of the beautiful green Rainforests of Earth freezes on the screen.
My hands are shaking.
I glance around.
Most of my fellow staff members are popping pills.
Even my Supervisor is.
I look long and hard at him.
He gets it but shakes his head.
No one is sharing pills today.
Skellumer smirks and does not pop a pill—he never does.
In the far corner, our ADD-D workers are huddled in conversation pointing at their TV.
My screen returns to normal.
But I can’t work. No one can.
CHAPTER 71
Of Differences Resolved
Ozerken has arranged a working passage to EB for Madsen and me on board cargo carrier Seattle BA-75. She’s docked at port bay Three North. We’re headed for Three North in his SandMaster. I sit to the right of Madsen, staring out at the passing desertscape.
In the distance a flock of Arzerns circle, dark silhouettes upon a clear blue sky. Over my shoulder, our trailing sand-cloud’s tail is crooked as Mourner’s Wind has come alive and drives dust northwest.
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