Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Day 30 of 30

NanoWriMo2005
J E D Cline
Title: “The Ark of 1984’s Future”

Day 30 of 30

There had been 36 of the residential Stanford Torus built and occupied before the 3Musketeers could build one to be Ark 1, a Stanford Torus dedicated to the preservation and expansion of species, for eventual restoration on the earth surface. This one was the best environmental simulation for large mammals from around the world, that were still living. Later they would be working to create from DNA specimens saved from species going extinct, but for now, they were using what animals they could still find alive and reproducing at the present time, few that they were. The environment included the supportive species, including the vegetation. The Stanford Torus Space Settlement design of 1976 was based on making it into 6 equal sized alternating sections, agriculture alternating with residential and light industry in the city version, and in the Ark versions, intensive agriculture devoted to raising food required by the species of animals, so they were not limited in population to the vegetation growing naturally. And the three sections that would have been condominiums, allowed some segregation of groups of animals.

By the time of the readiness of ark 1 for inhabitation, there had been lost two more species from the earth, that still had a small population still surviving in the lunar StationBase1’s pet farm. So two mated pairs of each animal were brought from the pet farm to lunar StationBase3, to be smuggled aboard one of the shipments of the quarter-shell segments sent for the newer cities under construction at the time.

The lunar bulldozer had an enclosed shirtsleeve working environment for two people, and so Idealiana prepared it for the long slow trip over to StationBase3, for herself and the 8 animals, two plant species, and supportive bacteria and insects. This made for a crowded interior, and a transfer crate was slung on the side of the dozer. She had camouflaged the dozer by adhering lunar regolith all over its exterior surfaces, including over some over panels to conceal its more obvious mechanical shapes.

She drove the dozer along the trail it had scooped several years ago, just before the destruction of the interim carousel escalator and StationBase2. Reaching the end of that trail, she drove over the regolith, not making further trail, although the dozer’s tracks would be there for awhile. She arrived at StatiionBase3, got the animals and plants into the transfer crate after pressurizing it, and the personnel there took over the task of the surreptitious delivery to GEO, to avoid attracting attention of Tanfl to the existence of life at StationBase1. Turning the dozer around, Idealiana set the dozer blade to graze the trail it left behind, dragging a rake behind which tended to erase the dozer’s tracks. Then she returned to her home at StationBase1, arriving before the end of the lunar day; the dozer was equipped to sit out a lunar night occupied, but it was not much more that bare survival in there, so she was glad to get back to the larger friendlier space of the StationBase’s people, pet farm and greenhouses.

Eventually some 19 more years passed, and Tanfl was dealing with the last of the people coming to temporary homes in the cities in GEO. Each family was required to provide their home on the earth surface as collateral for the temporary condominium home in GEO, deed to be returned when the home in GEO was vacated at return to their home down below. Everybody had to go up, from everywhere on the earth surface, as there would be no supply of power or food for anybody. So everybody made their way to the carousel escalator terminal.

The escalator had been lifting people and their household goods from the ground up to GEO at the design rate of a million people a day. Finally the earth was almost completely depopulated, a few more days’ worth of people.

Tanfl management all left their offices in GEO to make sure of things on the ground were properly completed.

As the last people arrived in GEO, there was news of a problem, that all the young women somehow had disappeared, had not arrived in GEO with their families. There were almost half a million young women missing, it was determined. And Tanfl management could not be located to file reports. Finally, no more people arrived in GEO from the earth terminal, the task was done.

It was time for the 3Musketeers management to take over the task of restoring the earth ecosystem during the next couple of years, detoxifying it and replanting. However, when they arrived at earth terminal, they were fired upon; several were killed before they escaped back up the escalator. The 3Musketeers security guards held the escalator terminal site, but that was as far as they had jurisdiction. And they began to report attacks on them, and attempts to destroy the terminal.

3Musketeers’ men came down the escalator from GEO, hundreds of thousands of them, but few weapons were available. The attackers were well armed and killed tens of thousands of 3Musketeers men before a perimeter was established defending the terminal, fenced around, and an impasse began.

By then it was realized that all the Tanfl people were not in GEO anymore, and presumably were on the ground; yet they could not be contacted to report the ongoing problems from marauders,

Actually, they were the marauders. Carrying out plans made over two decades before, the Leroy Brown Society members had blocked return of people to the ground, and declared all of earth now belonged to them. And they had kidnapped half a million of the more attractive young women from among the last immigrants going up to GEO, to form huge harems for the Leroy Brown Society men, the mainstay of Tanfl Political Corporation, which now owned the earth and all the abandoned factories, homes, and weapons. They declared that all those who had left their homes to live in GEO had gone astray, had not followed the laws of tradition, and therefore forfeited their claims of ownership. They were declared no longer members of the human race, and that the Tanfl men were in the process of creating the new human race of earth surface, to own it forevermore.

3Musketeers asked how will the cleansing and re-seeding of the earth’s vast ecosystem be done with people still on the ground; Tanfl’s reply was that there would be no such thing done, there was no need of it. All was business as usual.

After another year had passed, the 3Musketeers had pushed their territory out to include about 10 miles around the base of the escalator carousel terminal, but that is as far as they had resources to protect. The Tanfl men occasionally would conduct sorties against that perimeter, more for the sport of it, since Tanfl had the military arms of the arsenals of all the nations, thus could destroy 3Musketeers at a whim. No reason to bother, as their long term plan was going just fine, and included destroying the escalator itself, ending any hopes of the people in GEO to ever return, end of subject.

Tanfl’s main concern was of how to run a world with so few people, and how to breed the kidnapped women as fast as possible to build up their population. The Earth and all its treasure was theirs, surely rightfully. Had they not made it so? The Earth had been abandoned, and so Tanfl had claimed ownership of all of it, by rights of salvage. They were the true followers of tradition, and the rewards were vast indeed.

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