Asterion (6 page)

Looking at the clock Christine jumps up. “It’s three in the morning.”

“Wow, how can that be?”

“Well, it is what it is.” She grabs her things and they embrace at the door for a while. “Hey, let me go, I need to get a little sleep.”

“I don’t ever want to let you go. I want to hold you forever.”

“I feel the same way, but we have to work tomorrow, I mean today.”

“Okay, Okay.” He gives her one tighter hug and sees her to her car. She drives off. He sighs and goes to bed.

The next morning a panicked Devin in the lobby of the facility greets a bleary-eyed Taylor and Christine. “We’re being investigated for a religious violation.”

Christine touches his arm, “What are you talking about?”

“They said someone here has possession of an illegal video from the Christers. Why me, why can’t things go silky smooth, you know, silky, silky, no problems here.”

Taylor pats him on the back, “You have to get a grip on yourself. They can’t expect you to know everything about the personnel here at the facility.”

Devin takes a deep breath, “They blame everything on you in the bureaucracy, even things you can’t control.”

“I’m sure you’ll survive.”

“I hope so.” He races to his office and closes the door.

Christine turns to Taylor, “We should be the ones who are worried. They are talking about us.”

“There’s no way they can trace anything to us.”

“Well, they know, they know.”

Milar walks into Devin’s office, “You first,” as she closes the door. “Are you a Christer?”

“No.”

“Have you obtained or watched an illegal documentary?”

“No.”

“Do you know or suspect anyone here of being a Christer?”

“No, and if I did, I would have turned them in myself.”

“Okay, that’s it for now, but don’t run off.”

“I’ll be here.”

She leaves his office and heads toward the lab. She enters and heads toward Trent.

Trent turns towards her and smiles, “Did you make him cry?”

“No, but I might make you cry.”

“Not me. I’m not a Christer, never have been, don’t believe in God. Never have, never will.”

“I wasn’t meaning that way.”

Trent’s smile drops and he stares at Milar.

She steps back and turns around, steps to the door, stops and cautions, “You are not to discuss this conversation with anyone.”

“Conversation?”

“Yes, that’s what it is.”

Trent gulps, “Okay.”

Walking down the hall, she finds Taylor and Christine in his office. “Trying to hide?”

Taylor stands, “With the door wide open.”

She closes the door, “I took care of that.”

Christine asks, “One at a time?”

“No, you two are pretty cozy. Together is good. Kill two birds with one stone they always say.”

Taylor interrupts, “Alright get on with it.”

“Okay, are you two Christers?”

They simultaneously reply, “Yes.”

“Are either of you or one of you in possession of an illegal documentary?”

Again the reply is, “Yes,” from them.

“Have both or either of you watched it?”

The reply is “Yes,” again.

Christine asks, “What happens now?”

Milar looks them over, “Well, I will make my report and you will hear from someone about it.”

“Just like that, wait. Either arrest us or let us be.”

Taylor puts his arm around Christine and looks squarely at Milar, “Yea.”

“Look, I really should not tell you this, but my superiors have already told me that if it is the team working on the project that I had to let them know and let it go. They are willing to look the other way for the benefit of society. However, keep quiet. Others might not be so forgiving.”

They nod. Milar turns and leaves the office. The door slams shut behind her.

Taylor looks at Christine, “That was close.”

She smiles, “Everything will work out.”

“Yea, that also means that if someone kills us we go to heaven.”

“Hey, if we go together we won’t miss each other.”

He smiles, “One of us should check it out before we both move there.”

She smirks, “Keep it up and you’ll make the survey trip.”

They laughed, having survived a close call. Taylor stops laughing, “Hey, meet me tonight at my place?”

“I’ll bring some snacks.”

Devin catches Taylor and Christine walking down the hall, “Hey, did she catch anyone?”

Christine gives him a stern look, “She said she didn’t buy your story.”

“Wait, what, she said that.”

She laughs, “No, just kidding. She probably wouldn’t tell us anything.”

Taylor smiles “Don’t do that to him.”

“Yea, don’t do that to me. I already took my pulse and blood pressure and they are up there.”

“Okay, sorry, but I just could not pass that one up”

Taylor taps him on the shoulder, “You’ll be alright. Every boss wants those under him or her to fear for their life at all times, but they won’t hold you accountable for something totally out of your control.”

“I hope you’re right.” He nervously walks away and ducks into his office. The door slams shut and locks.

They look at each other with surprised expressions and laugh as they head to the lab.

They are still chuckling as they enter the lab. Trent smiles, “Well, I guess it’s not you two.”

They stop, drop their smiles and thinking fast Christine answers, “Hey, we are still here aren’t we.”

Taylor smiles again, “Yea.”

Trent points in the direction of the warehouse, “Probably one of those dumb clucks.”

Taylor and Christine’s smiles drop and they stare at Trent.

“What.”

Taylor replies, “That’s not really nice. They are good people.”

Christine nods, “Yea.”

“Oh, you good nicks don’t like to denigrate others.”

They return to their work as the day wanes into evening.

Curling up together on the couch, they share a few snacks. Taylor starts the video with the remote. Clips of the military appear on the screen. “Burnsom won the favor of the military establishment. It represented the most socialized of any government entity. Join the military and you had behavior modification, training, food, shelter, healthcare and retirement for those staying long enough to earn it. Burnsom uses a draft system and military style training to indoctrinate young adults in the new society. He expanded the role of the military to accommodate the surge of people. Burnsom then dissolved the states into provinces with a pyramidal organizational structure. The federal government is at the top, with the provincial governments as the regional arm of power and local authorities carrying out government edicts at the ground level. All policing activities fell under the same umbrella. There is a closer working arrangement between the military and domestic law enforcement. There is no toleration of dissention except for sanctioned events that gave the appearance that people still had free speech.”

An image of the flag appeared on the screen. “To reinforce his changes, Burnsom decreed that the flag should be modified to represent the new order. The stars and stripes became six white stars in a red circle representing the provinces and the stripes became blue on the white field. The old flag is outlawed as it is considered a form of rebellion.”

“War is made less costly in terms of human life. Military technology laid waste to the enemy who could only muster precious human capital to wage war. Burnsom chose his battles carefully to minimize casualties. Soldiers would follow the technology to victory. Vast artillery batteries and pilotless drones softened up the enemy. While this minimized casualties, there are still far too many for the populace.”

Taylor and Christine were a part of that and they took special pride in helping to protect the country and its soldiers. The narrator catches their attention again. “Burnsom has used this superior capability to intimidate citizens who protested the authority and enemies outside the country. This fact is not well known to the general public”

Taylor is not pleased to see it used against the country’s citizens. “I never intended it for that purpose.”

Christine looks up at him, “No one ever does.”

“I guess so,” Taylor laments. They are beginning to see that every good intention, if not carefully implemented could result in some harm to someone. The government taught that unrestricted liberty could harm others, but now they are learning that the opposite is also true.

The screen displays charts and graphs to show that Burnsom still had a problem with revenues keeping pace with expenditures. “Continued issues with revenues are addressed with exports of natural resources. Transportation changed as the supply of fossil and synthetic fuels became profitable exports for the country. Automated aquaculture became successful using nanobots. Fish, maintained in offshore farms with troublesome fencing methods now roam free with the nano technology ticking away inside them. At the appropriate time, the nanobots would control the animal and steer it toward the inland corrals for harvesting. Once in the pen the nanobots would exit the animal through the intestines. Their job done, they would self-destruct. They are aware of the dangers of nano technology. They could not be captured and reverse engineered for destructive purposes so self-destruct mechanisms are built in for several scenarios.”

Taylor looks at Christine. “Trent worked on that project. That’s why I selected him for our project.”

Various houses and apartments appear on the screen. “People are not allowed to live in single-family homes as in the past. Everyone has to live in apartment complexes close to work centers, ride busses and bicycles. If you are lucky enough to be important to the government, or a bureaucrat, you might qualify for an electric vehicle or in some cases, a fossil fueled vehicle. Rising in the ranks might get you a single-family dwelling. There used to be single-family homes for even those in poverty. Doctors, engineers and other scientists receive compensation for their discoveries and inventions with a home as their reward or compensation. In the past, entrepreneurs could start with little and with the right idea become successful and employ many in their business. Entrepreneurs, now bureaucrats with the right connections, could work within the system and create new government businesses. They would gain a fraction of the wealth they would have amassed in the past, but still more than the average citizen would. These measures finally stopped the race toward deficit spending, but for how long. The new issue is the lack of productivity that is growing over time. Guaranteed work and income has left the country with a workforce that does the minimum instead of striving to excel and reap the rewards of hard work.”

That brought the couple to the end of that segment and the end of a long day. It is hard to focus on anything but the ominous condition the country faced. Their status insulated them from most of it and they wondered what other austerity measures are in store if things got worse.

Taylor reassured Christine. “Don’t worry, together we will do okay.”

Christine smiled. “I like that.”

Taylor questions her, “The work it out part?”

She squeezes his hand. “No, the together part.”

“Let’s go to the park tomorrow. Get some fresh air after the sanitized air in the lab.”

“Great, let’s have a picnic.”

“I haven’t done that since I was a kid with my parents. Ten O’clock okay?”

“Meet me at my place.”

“Great.”

They snuggled for a while, but time caught up with them and they had to go their separate ways for the evening.

At ten the next morning, Christine hears a knock. She goes to the door and they greet each other with smiles and a hug. Christine looks at his basket, “What did you bring?”

Opening the basket, he replies, “Some finger foods, grapes and water.”

“Great, no duplicates, I made some fried chicken. Easy to eat and disposal is quick.”

“Great, I love that. Let’s go.”

They walk to the nearby park. Burnsom made sure a little bit of nature is nearby to everyone. His style of benevolence is to take the land away from private owners and return a tiny portion for the public use.

Taylor looks up at the tall trees, “My parents told me that in the past, people could have property of their own and create their own landscapes.”

“I heard the same from mine. Do you think that day will come again?”

“Burnsom has too much of a hold on the government. I can’t see that happening.”

“Would be nice”

“Yea, I hate to dream about what can’t happen.”

“Dreams inspire the changes of the future.”

Taylor laughs, “Now you sound like a politician.”

“That’s romantic; call me one of those people.”

They giggled and laughed as they walked along the path. The rabbits, squirrels and birds keep a curious eye on them and they tried slowly to approach them, but they keep a few feet between them and the couple.