By 2250 AD, humanity had ( it thought) done rather well for itself. Not a single war had taken place on Earth since 2143; the result of that 17 hour conflict being the incineration of the last terrorist regime to refuse assimilation into the United World Government. Perhaps best put into perspective by the governor of its neighbor nation; " The needless waste of 10 million fanatics lives will not be forgotten easily, but will be forgotten.”
Earth''s population remained steady around 30 billion citizens, counting all habitable areas of Earth, her lunar colonies and space stations. There wasn''t any room or tolerance for warlike petty dictators anymore, or their followers. Now, floating cities and farms covered roughly 35% of the Earth''s ocean surface. These sweeping reforms did not come overnight of course. The changes were brought on by the mother of all such dramatic and fundamental evolutions; (necessity). Mankind of the 23nd century was shaped and molded by the wretched conditions of the 22st. In 2180, man lived (barely) in a highly polluted and shrinking world, as more and more of the natural world died mankind’s quality of life deteriorated as well. The 22st century was set down in history as the second dark age of man. Everything man needed to live was in dangerously short supply; food, drinking water, medications, energy, living space, and even breathable air were expensive and difficult to maintain. Temperatures worldwide in the inhabitable areas were seldom below 96 degrees Fahrenheit.
The average man of 2185 was sick physically and psychically, with various toxins slowly building in his tissues. No privacy or escape from his humdrum existence, no opportunity to relieve stress or frustration. Mankind was sinking into a morass of his own making. Violence was rampant as those who had no hope or wealth raided the communities of those they perceived as better off. The main upshot of the violence was the death of man''s oldest institution; cities. Any once bustling metropolis, by the 21st century''s close, had now become empty shells of their former greatness. Their buildings now loomed over streets choked with refuse, under skies filled with smog and dust. Their bare dead trees reached toward the sunlight that could not reach them. Their last inhabitants, those to old or weak to flee the dying metropolis, wore special government issued masks to filter the air, and stayed indoors until dusk so they could avoid intense solar burns. They trekked each night to the designated distribution sites for food, water, and drugs (also government issued) before returning to their hovels of glass and stone.
The suburbs, overwhelmed by the more violent ex-urbanites flowing into them, gathered what they could and retreated even further from the dying giants. The raiders took over the suburbs with very little resistance and were marooned there. The last vehicles had gone with the exodus to the rural country and sheer distance and hardship kept the raiders from moving away from the distribution sites. Just as mankind’s life on Earth looked bleakest of all, he was spared by a phenomenon that had never happened before in his history. On the 25th day of May 2197, a massive meteor shower began and lasted for 41 days and nights. The sky looked afire with them; there were so many in sight. Something about the chemical properties of the meteors, released in Earth''s atmosphere as they burned, removed huge amounts of free ozone and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and precipitated much of the ash and dust suspended nearer to the surface. No sooner had the meteors stopped than the storms began. Torrential rains pelted the Earth for weeks, the drainage carried away thousands of tons of topsoil and refuse alike. Throughout this violent cataclysm, no fewer than 50,000 human lives were lost. The survivors of this spectacle (approximately 26 billion people) were witness to their world being cleansed by fire and water in turn. On July 27, 2097 the rains slowed, and eventually stopped, and the long prayed for sun appeared in the sky. Little wonder that this entire generation of mankind felt they had been granted a second chance to make amends for their mistakes. The formation of the World Protective League from the old United Nations took place shortly after and culminated nearly 150 years later in the United World Governments formation, and its credo was a result of that long past experience. “Man belongs to the Earth, but Earth belongs to no one."
The fringe of Antarctica (740 miles inland on all sides: averaged :) supported its maximum 2.1 billion humans; the decision to move out into the cold reaches of space could no longer be postponed. The concept of the greatest good for humanity as a whole being paramount over all other considerations had finally come into its own.
Violent crime had been drastically reduced by several fundamental changes in world psychology and economic pressure. Malcontents and sociopaths who may have gone unnoticed or undiagnosed until adulthood in the 21st or 22nd centuries, were now virtually all identified in their formative years in this crowded 32nd century world. Steps were then taken to divert or utilize these tendencies for mankind’s good.
Crimes involving property and money were also near unheard of by this time since E.C.T. was implemented of the global economy, making paper and coin money worthless. All purchases, payments and taxes were now electronic in nature and every transaction was traceable. Banks now contained only records computers; accounts were credited from your employer''s computer payroll and debited by electronic requests from sales computers. A subcutaneous barcode (visible to U.V. light only) provided the individual with identification, Global Economy account number, origin, birth date, genetic information, Global Security number, and eligibility for government operated medical or psychiatric services. Both inner forearms of every infant were marked painlessly with this 38-digit code at its birthplace, hospital, or clinic.
With no loot to stash and no place to hide, no way to get around without being identified, in a world where you let the scanner read your code or you can''t eat, travel, cross borders or enter dwellings, crime had become a dying profession. The average human being now lived to an optimum 120 years if male and as always a bit longer if female, 125-130 years. Through genetic engineering virtually all-hereditary and inherited susceptibility to diseases were eliminated.
The ability to clone tissues for transplants came of age during the 2900''s and was widely used by medical firms to solve hundreds of basic problems. No laboratory used animals for testing now since living human organs were readily available. Law expressly forbade cloning complete humans after 3105, however a very bloody and costly interdiction effort by the U.W''s military police did succeed in stopping the 30 copies of a serial murderer and his original were captured and executed. This showed the United World Government that complete cloning was too apt to be misused, under any security conditions. Perhaps single greatest good to ever come from mankind’s sciences. The United World Government used cloning to re-establish every endangered species known. Man who was nearly the doom of all animals on Earth finally saved his ancient competitors. The U.W set aside 10,000 square miles of each continent to preserve the wilderness. Parceled in north to south strips 10 miles wide and 1,000 miles long. These preserve areas were forbidden to be poached or inhabited by human beings. The UW. established a wilderness ranger force (more to look after the animals than to intercept humans); the area''s fences were more than sufficient to stop invaders. Anyone wishing to view the areas could watch them anytime on remote holovision. Plant species were cloned and preserved in the wilderness areas and where ever space permitted their growth. Due to this proliferation of plant life and the reduction of pollution, Earth''s oxygen level and air quality both climbed back to healthy norms. For the present Earth was in better environmental shape now than it had been in the 16th century. Oceanic life was carefully maintained as well. Mankind farmed many aquatic plants and animals and managed these habitats to benefit both domestic and wild aqua life. Mankind de-salinized sea water for his use, treated and returned it to the sea cleaner than ever before in history. The Great Lakes of America were severed from the St. Lawrence and returned to a fresh water system. The Aral Sea in Asia nearly destroyed by draining of its tributaries for irrigation and industry was slowly re-established and re-stocked with life. Efforts even extended to genetic scientists resurrecting extinct plant and animal populations, also by cloning (after DNA reconstruction from their preserved remains.).
Along their ancient flyways, thousands of birds again darkened the skies. Mankind found new pets more beneficial to Earth and humans than dogs and cats. Farmers provided a habitat for owls, lynx, and bobcats to control rodents effectively, also snakes and birds to control insect numbers. Man, for so long concerned with dominating nature had finally become caretaker and faithful servant.
Cancer was now a treatable and almost curable condition. However, with such a huge population to deal with, the common cold and other virus born infections continued to make billions miserable and in many cases, these claimed more lives each year than that of cancer or aids put together. AIDS, the bane of the sexually prolific 20th, 21st, 22nd centuries was now a more contagious but less feared disease, since now only 3 in 10 of its victims become ill and of them only 1 in 70 died; (results of the virus mutating to a less lethal form to become a better parasite). We were lucky on that score.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Therefore, with their comradeship of billions and longer, healthier lives and secure World Government, humankind reached and explored 20 of the bodies of its own solar system, and established eleven lunar colonies. The average citizen of the U.W. worked 30 hours a week, lived in climate controlled environments where power for heat and lights came from low cost fusion production. All was provided by the community itself. Whenever possible his/her clothing, furniture and appliances, utensils and dishes were made of recyclable materials. Items that needed repair could be traded for a credit on a new purchase. Manufacturing companies could either rebuild the item and sell it again, or recycle its components if repair was not economical. All organic wastes were recovered and processed as nutrient for the community’s hydroponic farms. The huge garbage problems of the past were now only regrettable facts in historic records.
Somewhere among the things humankind had grown out of, it also lost something. Drive, initiative and ferocity of purpose had faded from the race as they became increasingly undesirable. For instance just as in earlier organizations of laborers, “unions”, a man or woman who out worked his/her peers not only broke the rhythm of other workers but also created tension and outright malice in the workplace. The adoption of the uniform wage system, administered by the United World Government in 3225 set the workers income based on the value of the product or service they provided, time of service and cost of living plus 20%. “The rat race” for riches that trampled so many souls underfoot in the 19th, 20th, and 21st, centuries was over. The corporate rebellion of 3228 was one result of the U.W’s 20,000 companies closed their doors and threatened to starve the U.W. Government economically by producing nothing and employing no one until the repeal of the uniform wage act. The Government having time on its side and the good will of every worker (who didn’t share in his employer’s elitist lifestyle) simply waited them out. For the first time since the opening of the industrial revolution, every piece of commercial machinery in the world was silent. The government shipped all of the produce the eleven lunar colonies didn’t need for themselves to Terra and distributed it to everyone who was not an executive for free. Since power generation by fusion was already government run (along with communications and health care) the only people who suffered through the rebellion were the corporate officers and their families, who had to buy food and generate their own power. As their immense credit base was slowly eaten, spent and burned, the corporatists tried one last action of spite. Into every commercial computer connected to phone lines or fiber optics, they fed a lethal virus program which erased every memory byte in 3 hours time. Believing their cause won, the corporatists then sent a communiqué to the U.W. Council, demanding immediate action, (repeal of the Uniform Wage Act of course). What they got was immediate all right; but action it was not. Alex Dorman, 37th United World president, was within two years of his 20-year term’s end when he went on worldwide holovision and announced the council’s unanimous decision to outlaw all corporations, conglomerates, holding companies and multinational firms. Legal companies were now defined as institutions that provided a needed service or product, produced no non-recyclable wastes, paid 10% of their gross profit each year to the U.W. and could not exceed a net worth of 70 million credits. Any institutions exceeding the limit would be split into two new firms with 50% of the capital going to each one. The world’s stock exchanges, closed since the first day of the revolt, would remain so. As Dorman completed his speech, another first was at hand. Every telephone system in the world went to operator service only; they would place calls only to fire departments, hospitals, and government officials until further notice. Along with the phones, the U.W. also had control over the electronic credit system, and under an emergency code access, adjusted all accounts corporate and personal to $100,000.00. An aide of the president stepped to the podium and calmly announced this last item to the public. Then added in an anachronistic Texas drawl; ‘Well sir, everybody’s got the same marbles in their sack now, so it’s back to work.” The corporatists in their condominiums and private compounds were shocked to disbelief. “He’s bluffing, he’s lying, he can’t, he couldn’t,” they mumbled. The next morning telephone service was opened and they called their banks, their brokers, their offices and associates, it was true, every one of them had $100,000.00 and nothing more. Regrettably, several chose suicide rather than what they perceived as mediocrity.
The middle class, the working poor and destitute were also overwhelmed, however in the opposite way. Just as the mega-millions of credits were removed from some accounts, all others were filled to $100,000 overnight. A well remembered scene of the day July 4th 3229 was president Dorman holding the first baby born after the 12 midnight transaction. He handed the child an account book with $100,000 credits printed on the first line. The furor over this sudden change lasted a few months time. The government assisted ex-employees to takeover and run their ex-bosses businesses as partners and shareholders now, not peons. Mercantile dominion of world politics was over, and poverty faded into the past. What about the money left over after the adjustments were made? $875,000,000,000,000.00 was split three ways into the Global Security System, Global Healthcare & Education System, and the space colonization sections of the United World Government. Those responsible for the virus attack were tried and convicted (by U.W. court) of data tampering and sentenced to life among their fellow men.
The only truly military organization existing now was the United World’s military police. This unit guarded all U.W. governors and the General Assembly at Geneva on Terra herself. Seldom but sometimes used as a peacekeeping force in local situations, more often than not these men performed their drills for ceremony only. They carried a small side arm at their belts that were both communicator and recorder. Heavily indoctrinated in the martial arts, U.W. police did carry weapons on guard duty. Their sidearms fired an electronic pulse of 100,000 volts at .3 amperes. This burst caused intense pain and nerve impulses scrambled in the victim for 10-15 minutes.
Space travel graduated from hydrogen oxygen fuel rockets to fission of hydrogen (ion drive) to hydrogen fusion drive. At their best however 1/10th of the speed of light was their upper limit. Divisions of velocity were variable in negative powers of 10 down to 1/1,000,000 of C. After which the ion drive would engage and speed was registered in feet per second for docking or landing. Line of sight communications progressed from radio waves to digital laser transmissions to digital microwave systems. At the furthest manned outpost, Charon (moon of Pluto) delay in Terra’s response was 9-10 minutes. Due to all Earth had learned about its immediate neighborhood. No space vessels were armed or built to be.
Altogether, the expansion of humanity into each colony required intelligent, hard working people who could not content themselves on Earth. As the race expanded into the solar colonies Earth population fell back to a maintainable 4.5 billion people. U.W. analysts now estimated total census of humans at 48 billion by 3900 AD, +/- 10 million. The challenges of constructing self-sustaining and protective structures for the colonies, mining the asteroids and planets for materials needed, and keeping the systems functioning provided employment to 95% of the available workforce. Earth and Venus, always the greenhouses of the solar system, became the breadbaskets of the republic. Over the next century Earth’s colonies spread outwards from Luna to Mars, Venus, 18 of the moons of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Her furthest manned outposts were Pluto itself and its moon Charon. Once this vast expansion halted however, the populace had more living space than ever before, more leisure time than any generation in history, and the human spirit became even more peaceful. Probably the most independent and tough minded of Earth’s scattered people were now that of miners. They were tasked with surveying, sampling, and processing materials and ores, from planets and asteroids alike. Solid, liquid, and gaseous needs of the colonies and Terra were found and filled by these companies of hard nosed professionals. Zipping around the asteroid belts and Jovian satellites, these small ore ships, crewed by 10-20 persons, brought their bounty of metals, ores, chemicals, and radio actives to the colonies.
They came away with food, clothing, new equipment, and entertainment to break up their shipboard routine. These were humanities latest and possibly last frontiersmen. Rough, ready, and free as freedom can be. Their own true masters and servants, but fond of Earth and her colonial children even if sometimes bored by their company.
~End Prologue~