day 03 of 30

Idealiana was determined to escape and get back to work; the project she was working on was essential to the future, she believed. But after a thorough inspection of her livingspace... labels on everything told all: it was a Haremspace model 14A Version 2, each appliance had instructions in three languages, and the daily cleaning routine was written on the walls. Plaques on the wall instructed how to prepare for all the steps of producing a baby, how to care for the baby until age 3, how to release it and get ready for creating another baby; and how to prepare for going to the digestion vat when no further babies have been produced within a specific amount of time. The place was clean but clearly had been well used by former occupants. And no indication that the former occupants left to anywhere but the vats.

Yet the place was splendid with comforts. The bed was more plush than she even knew existed; the television screen so huge that it filled a whole wall, and the food menu was more lush than any restaurant she had ever visited. Exercise equipment was everywhere, along with instructions for how much to use it, at each step of pregnancy, and before and afterwards. Clearly she was to get in good physical shape and stay that way. As long as she produced babies, that is. It brought memories of a henhouse, producing eggs for the farmer; then finally the roasting oven.

There seemed to be no means of escape. No clue as to where she was even located, other than in the RiEl part of town.

After a couple days of prowling her confined space, she began to think, that she had long postponed a relationship and creation of a family, never enough money and too many job responsibilities. Now she began to think that here was her chance to have family, time out from work; and Rationallo was something of a handsome hunk at that. So some part of her mind settled into acceptance of her new fate, the excess of plush comforts enfolding her, and her new role in life. Albeit probably quite a bit shorter life than would have been otherwise.

And she longed for company, something besides the television screen and sound that did not know she existed. When would Rationallo come visit her? And what kind of present would he bring this time? She had little to think about, but these things.

Meanwhile, Rationallo had much to keep him busy. He was letting his new wife soak in her new world for a few weeks, it was standard technique for new acquisitions. The caper in which he and Guardiano got their breeder additions had gone perfectly, the women were listed among the casualties, and the shock to the 3Musketeer Political Corporation was intense at the loss of their flagship group, their finest leaders. And most satisfyingly to Rationallo, the rate of patent applications by the 3Musketeers Political Corp fell drastically. That will cut down on those black market new gadgets, he thought, a big win for the Tanfl Political Corporation, yes.

Yet the pressure was ever on him. As a member of the Rich Elite, and in top management of Tanfl, he had to keep his body in well exercised shape, a trim musculature, and the latest clothing styles ever at hand, and the practiced public knowing smile while slightly bulging his biceps and expanding his chest ever so slightly, he ever had to exude the look of a long accomplished winner. Two hours a day he performed academic studies, the pressure to learn new more was as much a requirements as was the need to present a hansome physique. He had to perfom in sports, although ritualized gaming with somewhat predetermined outcomes that still maximized the competitive stress on people, and there was still the physical stress and motions to go through quite strenuously. Then enduring the bland office and rote duties as a leader of the Tanfl Political Corporation, hunting down any variation from standardization, so as to maintain the business environment to accurately predict all management moves as rigid as the gears of an old clock's movement. He looked forward to the weekly meetings of the Society, where his aggressive, creative powerful real self could be more fully expressed.

The next meeting of the Society focused, as so often, on the acting out of procedures for what happens when there was some witness to their doings, or even some member who was too horrified at what was being done to remember the long term greater goals they all were serving, that "the end justified the means.". The practiced acting out of the cold and ruthless terrifying termination of the witness, or informant, brought the blood lust to Rationallo's state of mind, a balance to his being. And, of course, conditioned him to never think of betraying the Society's cause, ever in the slightest, lest those brutal cunning forces set their implacable group eye upon him.

He and the rest of the Society group members sat and drank in the multimedia real life documentary, this time of what was done to one who was not even a member, but who was aware of the Society's existence, and happened to be in the wrong place and time, saw too much , and was too smart for his own good. He had become worried that the same fate might befall him and others, so he left some sealed messages to be read in case of his "accidental" demise on a trip. One of them was discovered by the Society. And thus his doom was sealed, yet the process done as much adventure for the members, as well as reinforcing prevention of any urge they themselves might have to not do the dirty work of the Society, when called upon. The too-smart-for-his-own-good witness had his father hastened to death, his mother remarried to one of the Society's members, the family home sold and all possessions moved the their new home, and all the items sifted to remove all trace of what had been witnessed. There they found another copy of the "In Case of..." message; his mother was hastened to her death, and robbery items placed among the few things allowed the witness as his inheritance, a frameup perfectly laid trap; gossip systems and store security networks spread fearsome attributes to him, had alerts posted with the guy's picture, as a potentially dangerous suspect to be watched in every store constantly. Abuse reports were placed on record, that the guy was a molester, and every action he took to find a mate was to be feared and reported. The Society obtained an injection tracking tag removed from a real abuser predator's cadaver, and had it injected into the witnesss without his understanding. The documentation from constant survelience, even in his tiny apartment, showed his bewildered slow crush, on and on. With no reason he could see, attractive women shrank from his touch and looked wide eyed fearfully at him; in every store, the security people were ever nearby obviously watching narrow-eyed, and the other customers fled, fearing involvement; so shopping itself became quite uncomfortable. No woman would have him, no friend was there in time of need, desolation was his life, and it all made no sense to him and no one would tell him what was happening.

How powerful, how pervasively unapposable, the Leroy Brown Society was! The audience pride and power was thick as they would raise their fists and gruffly chant Die! Die! at the image of the Enemy shown on screen. After that movie, a series of video clips of the still-alive "Enemies of the Leroy Brown Society and Nation" were projected on screen, and to each image of a person, the thousands of members would raise their fists and feel hatred while they shouted "Rat Fink Die, Die!" at the person's image... tests had shown that in some strange way, when that was done, the far-away real person could be observed to act oddly, even have accidents at that instant. The mysterious yet ever provable efficient Radionics devices at Society's headquarters, had the DNA "witness" obtained from each of the Society's "enemies" and the remote-acting devices were set not to heal, as they were designed for, but set to disrupt the person, such as "sending" castrate life patterns at their targets, further preventing the enemy from forming new love relationships with people who then might be at risk of really getting to know the person.

Rationallo left the weekly meeting feeling powerful, even deliberately aware of his powerful physical muscles rippling as he sauntered out, he an in-group member of this great group... yet, something also felt uneasy, what was it? No matter. But Guardiano smiled confidently even more than ever, saying something about justice being served against those who would break traditions that were sacred.

Idealiana had her two menses finally, and eagerly awaited lovemaking at long last, get on with making family. She had seen no physical human for over a month; and so when the door opened, her joy was surprisingly intense. Rationallo strutted in, smiling confidently, flexing his biceps so casually in his clothes model pose to excite her. And it worked, her eagerness washed over her with her lovemaking dreams pasted over the physical image of Rationallo, how handsome he was, what a great mate he was. Looking deeply into her eyes, in a smile, he placed the wrapped gift in front of her, turned and left, shutting the door.

Idealiana stopped breathing a moment, in shock, surprise, dismay. Then she looked at the especially beautifuly wrapped gift he had given her. Was it a wedding ring? She opened it with almost reverence. But when she opened the box inside, she only found a semen injector for artificial insemination, with instructions in three languages. And a battery-powered vibrator, enough for one hours' stimulation to enjoy. It was to be used along with an X-rated movie by Rationallo for his wives's use, during artificial insemination and whenever else they wanted. He did not want them to be lonely. The Rich Elite men risked no disease from their many women; only one was lover. Idealiana almost threw the injector into the trash, before she remembered what happened when a wife did not produce babies. She was not ready yet for the digestion vats. Imagination soared; and baby came.

Artisiana enjoyed her new job as a longshoreman at the port facility of 3Musketeers Political Corporation. She was adept at remotely handling heavy machinery that moved cargo on and off the freightors. That she was the lone survivor of the disaster to the main headquarters was unspoken, for her safety. Yet her role posing as the widow of one of the building's casualties, had to be filled too; the real widow staying in Europe. Artisiana's new double life just added more spice to her life, she felt. Occasionally she would attend the parties for single women held by the Tanfl RichElite, and was able to learn about the harem structure and its great rewards of good life for those lucky women.... So just which harem now had her boss Idealiana? She bet it was one associated with someone who would parade ride in the truck with the stanchion for a flag. She was well past the marriage age of 15 and was among the most sexy looking and brainy women at 17, and her smile and sweet questions soon found out the car was of corporate leadership, often used by a leader named Rationallo and his friend Guardiano. Would she like to be introduced to them? They both have new wives but surely soon would be seeking more. Yes, but at some other time, thank you, she replied.

Tanfl Political Corporation changed its long term strategy to that of being supportive of 3Musketeers' project to build a space escalator to GEO, and the applications which then would be possible, especially the ring of cities around the earth in GEO. However, the recent accident that had demolished 3Musketeers headquarters and manufacturing facility, had also destroyed the production of the hundreds of millions of electric motor sliding armature segments needed for the escalator's support. 3Musketeers always operated at the brink of financial collapse, and had no way to restore that production capacity in the near future. Tanfly would have to supply the lost production capacity, but how? The whole space escalator carousel project required countless innovations, thus was an abomination to the very principles of Tanfl.

So Rationallo arranged to have a meeting with someone from the Prospective Wives group. He had learned of an attractive smart 17 year old woman who worked as a longshoreman at the city's 3Musketeers port facilities, and arranged for an interview as a prospective wife, but for a real purpose that was quite different; one new wife was quite enough to deal with for now. And he would need another job promotion to be able to afford another Haremspace model 14a Version 2.

Meeting with Rationallo for the first time, Artisiana's first impression was that he was a stunningly handsome powerful looking man with an air of absolute confidence; tall at 6 foot 6, the perfect image of the Leroy Brown icon. She had worried that an investigation into her past for marriage purposes would likely turn up her real past and double identity, yet she plunged on undaunted. Soon she realized that Rationallo was not being amorous, but had intentions of making a secret business deal which he wanted her to handle. He would declare her a wife-at-large, provide her with a small fortune which was to be used to rebuild the manufacturing facilities for producing the critical components for their space escalator project, but not tracable back to Tanfl. The business was to be hers, not his; but he would be secretly available to advise and make the major decisions of the business. This was fine for Artisiana, since she had little urge to plan and manage, but liked the adventure of making things happen in the physical world in a dazzling way. What an opportunity, to get the space carousel escalator project going again! It was going to be great fun.

Artisiana started reconstruction of the ruined 3Musketeers headquarters manufacturing plant by having the old concrete and burned machines and bodies all bulldozed into a cube shape, having concrete cast over it and engraved with the names of the fallen stored within.

Then when the first section of the new plant was constructed, and new hires essentially without skills were all she could find, on the first day of work, she gathered her new staff in the room. “Welcome to the new beginnings of the great 3Musketeers Political Corporation’s headquarter’s manufacturing plant. we are going to great things here, you and I, all of us together. All for One, And One For All!

“We are going to sing the 3Musketeers company song, but the second stanza will have new words. The first stanza are those written long ago ’You load 16 tons of number nine coal and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter don’t call me, I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store. “ To the same tune, the new second stanza words are: ‘You load 16 tons of 3 mm armatures and what do you get, another day higher and closer to orbit. Saint Peter don’t call me, I won’t go, I make my future with the company goals.”

‘Then we do a bit of cheery exercise before heading for our workstations. It goes like this: Still standing, shout ‘Ho, Ho, Ha-Ha-Ha’ while first lifting one knee and reaching across with the opposite hand to pat the knee with the first Ho, then put that foot down and lift the other knee and pat it with the opposite hand at the second Ho; then reach straight up over your head and clap your hands flat together, hands positioned in a mirror image of each other, while saying the Ha-Ha-Ha part. We do this several times, then stand relaxed and silent just feeling, for half a minute. then off we go to our workstations!”

She was not much at analyzing, planning, or engineering; she was great at getting things done. Right now, she was in great need of details about what she needed to make happen. In her new office, she stopped to evaluate her situation: all the people who knew how to make the things, those sliding armature things, had been killed in the sudden destruction of the building. At the same time, all the engineering specifications and drawings were also destroyed, all the machines needed for their manufacture were destroyed. Everything gone. What exactly were the things anyway? She thought back to the name on the boxes she had delivered as the final shipment from here to the port. Something like “3 mm sliding armatures, 1000 each” So she was going to have those people out there make make more boxes of thousands of whatever those things were. Sliding armatures. Right.

She wished the vending machine for those jelly bean stimulants had not been destroyed too.

----------------
Over in the Tanfl Political Corporation HQ, Rationallo was having midmorning thoughts too. Had he really made a deal with the 3Musketeers, a teenage woman at that who surely would be better at making babies than making a manufacturing plant happen. And it all had to remain a secret deal. Not that Tanfl Corporation was unfamiliar with making secret deals aplenty, but it had to be done according to the rules. And the rules did not say anything about mutual projects with The Enemy, 3Musketeers Political Corporation. He had told Artisiana that all she had to do was provide a 10% profit quarterly, and no questions would be asked of him by Tanfl board members. She would be allowed unlimited innovation opportunity, but all those innovations must be confined within the manufacturing plant, and without any patents applied for, thus no word of them getting out.

Guardiano had been quite enthusiastic about the prospects enabled by a successful carousel space elevator that moved most of the population into temporary quarters built in GEO. At that point Guardiano would change their plans quite abruptly. But for now, there was the need to get the transportation structure built and running; even at moving one million people a day, along with their basic household belongings, it would take two decades to get them up there. Building the cities up there, mostly of lunar materials, at enough room for a million people a day also was almost unthinkable, too, but that was another later thing to deal with, and the 3Musketeers were going to have to do that, not him.

Those ‘sliding armature segment” things, what were they anyway? He brought up the wall vision screen and accessed the world knowledge base. He input “sliding armatures”. Reply was that it was associated with forbidden technology, info unavailable. Only by accessing old science fiction databases could he get any reply about the carousel space escalator’s basic idea. How much could he make solid plans for manufacturing the inner working parts, based on old science fiction stories? This was not at all to his liking.

Those science fiction stories were linked to some old web pages, which sketched out some ideas, both in words and sleazy graphics. It involved a hoop big enough to completely go around the earth, stretching far above the earth on one side, and its loop contacting the ground on the opposite side of the planet.

It was like the hoop was spinning around the planet, faster than orbital velocity, trying to stretch outward, away from the center of the planet. It was the insides of the hoop that continually revolved around the planet, that is; while the outside of the hoop remained motionless relative to the surface of the planet. The insides of that hoop were in constant motion, so fast that the centrifugal force they created as they revolved around the planet along the hoop's perimeter, was great enough to exceed the force of gravity on those high velocity masses, exceed it enough to push outward against the hoop hard enough to support the weight of the hoop. And those “insides” were the “sliding armature segments” that were the problem today. Those things slid along magnetic levitation tracks built into the motionless outer part of the hoop, and got sped up by electromagnetic pushes when passing through the ground terminal accelerator, and they did not bump into each other. Millions of the little buggers, all going at once. Who said this thing would work, even could be built?

Well, it was rumored that the 3Musketeers already had the beginnings of one already in working condition, and were in the process of using its current lift capacity to lift the materials for building a Solar Power Satellite in Geostationary Earth Orbit, by which it could thereafter power itself, free of the dwindling earth surface energy resources. Its ground terminal had been built within an east-west tunnel bored through high up in the Andes mountains, right along the equator in Ecuador. They were also preparing to start building another one, which would have its ground terminal in Africa.

And the insides of these hoops were going to consume prodigious quantities of these sliding armature things, billions of them maybe. Things that now no one alive knew how to build. Things for which the plans had been destroyed along with the engineers and technicians and manufacturing personnel that had made them. And the tooling with which they were manufactured. All gone.

And it was worse in that he knew he had helped create that destruction. Now he had to fix his mess. It was not a good day, so far.