Writing > Misbegotten (new addition)

Chapter 38

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Daen:
Chapter 38

The next few days in Greater Harmony were tense, to put it mildly.

Diana and Bez had returned without incident, leaving Jules to be found by the real Hippo and his medics. They'd hidden in town, among supporters who'd sprung up since the revelation of the true history of Earth.

Even days after looking at the real database, Diana could still barely believe it! It hadn't just been Boudica in ancient England, or Deborah from the Bible: the Earth had been filled with dedicated, skilled, capable, leading women! Amelia Earhart, Marie Curie, Susan Anthony, Mother Theresa, Anne Frank, Jane Austen—the same 'J. Austen' that she and Simon had read as kids, though with her full name and sex revealed now! Queen Elizabeth, Catherine the Great, Malala Yousafzai... the list just kept on going!

And then there were other revelations about horrors committed by Diana's ancestors on Earth. The names Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Rosa Parks brought up an entirely new concept to her that had also been hidden from her. Part of her wanted to hate Noah for lying to her, but she knew that he'd been just as ignorant. It was her predecessor, this Georgina, who had both hidden and then revealed the whole truth.

Diana felt like she'd been kept in a box her entire life, and it had now just been opened and she could see the sky for the first time.

Being a pilot had been an incredible rush and privilege for her, and being a soldier had been a valuable and important duty at the time. But being the victim of such abuse, just as everyone else in their whole lives had been, was a very new and very uncomfortable feeling to her. The Faith had used them, had pruned almost all the truth about their history away from them, and effectively forced them into one way of living. She had to put a stop to it!

A surprising number of others felt the same way. Simon's debate with John had been attended by virtually every adult on the planet, and a bunch of teenagers too. It was so heavily guarded that Bez had been able to use it as a distraction in order to, uh, rescue her. Sure, she'd done the actual rescuing, but it was the thought that counted.

John had presented his argument well, claiming that it was God's will, as put down in the Bible, that their society be a Christian one. He'd followed up that America had been the best, although far from perfect, example of a Christian nation on Earth. He'd cited examples that were common to both the unlocked database and the Faith histories, to support his argument.

In contrast, Simon had been devastatingly blunt with what he'd seen. He outlined the true nature of the Crusades, and how they'd been brutal and unrelenting in who they killed, followed by the inquisitions launched in the name of God. He described the horrible crimes of the church leaders who had abused and molested so many of the youths in their care. Simon had pushed on through history towards the day Noah had been launched, bringing up the church's complicity in helping the Third Reich rise to power.

Things got a little better after the Second Earth War, but then had been sliding back again as Noah was being prepared for launch. Simon referenced many examples in the database of the times that individuals and entire churches had used their beliefs to excuse harming people, or ignoring people who were suffering. He'd concluded by saying the sheer number of times that basing a government or society after a religion had only caused suffering, should be taken into account. That even in old America, they'd tried to separate church and state, only to witness a dramatic resurgence of religious influence in their laws and how they were enforced.

After the debate, which Diana had watched later in recordings, Simon had been locked away again. He wasn't being kept secretly like she had been, but was in the city center, within spitting distance of the Oval Office. It seemed that Adam was intent on keeping his enemies close. Now Diana knew how Simon must have felt during her captivity. She wanted to give in, if that's what it took to free him. He was her best friend after all. Still, they were in this for the long haul. This was bigger than just them now.

Bez's position as New Eden Representative had been suspended, pending an investigation into his association with 'treasonous elements'. Walter's press credentials had been revoked too, for just reporting on these events and spreading information about what was happening in response to the database being unscrambled. Ironically, the database had no shortage of examples of reporters being jailed for speaking out against people who'd been in charge at the time. At least Walter and his assistants hadn't been arrested yet, and were allowed to move around freely.

Walter had gone home, but everyone else was safe at this... movement's home base: in one of the houses that Noah had built just before the Cain War had started. Noah could find them all easily enough, but it seemed that Adam and his cronies were still unwilling to trust him. They'd convinced their followers, and themselves it seemed, that Simon had been reprogramming Noah for years now, so they didn't trust him with any more than the most basic functions of life-support and agriculture. Even his drone manufacturing had been halted by Presidential order, which meant that all construction, be it terraforming stations or domes, was now on hold. At least that house was safe enough. It had never been occupied, and was as good a place as any to organize their resistance.

Even the thought of violent resistance made Diana feel ill. They wouldn't be fighting against robotic drones this time. These were real people—real human beings with feelings and fears and hopes all of their own! She didn't know what she would do if she had to kill one of them. Her earlier hesitation over Jules was now a shameful memory to her. She shouldn't have even considered letting him die.

Their resistance movement was mostly women, unsurprisingly. Naomi and Bez had seemingly reconciled, and she was firmly on their side, as were about fifty others. Naomi was now speaking to a crowd about a kilometer away from the city center. "We were taught that slavery ended when the Roman Empire did. We were taught that the British established their trade empire by bringing products from places that had them, to places that needed them. We were lied to. The East India Company had a huge slave market, hauling people from Africa to the Americas in the most horrible conditions imaginable! Slavery continued even after America's revolution. The British were colonizers who stole from their victims and brutally oppressed them. They built up a market for kidnapping and selling people, and America inherited it from them!"

She seared the audience with her intensity. "We were taught that the American Civil War was fought over the states' individual rights to own property. We weren't told that the property in question was actual people! We were taught that the thirteen or so percent of Americans who were black, were the descendants of African immigrants who'd come to America. We weren't told that the vast majority of those 'immigrants' had no choice in the matter! Again, and again, and again they lied to us by cutting out parts of our history. They made it seem like their way wasn't just the best way, but the only way! They edited Earth for us, and our oh-so-dutiful President is happy to keep up the tradition."

"Look around you," she urged the crowd. "I've never seen any person with a skin color different than my own. The Faith's own histories give us racial listings for Earth's population. According to their own records, white people were about eighteen percent of the total group. We have over five hundred people living here now, and that's after Cain killed some of us! Statistically, over four hundred of us should be black, Asian, Middle Eastern, Hispanic, Native American, and whatever else there is on Earth. But we're not. Every single one of us is white! Think about the movies we saw while growing up. In each of them we saw one person, at most, who wasn’t as white as paper! Statistically there should have been a whole rainbow present, but there wasn’t, and it’s no different here in Greater Harmony! Believe me, that's not an accident."

She turned to face one of Noah's caretakers, which was standing obediently to the side. "Noah, how many people do we have living on this planet right now?"

"Five hundred and eleven."

"And according to the cell samples used to create us, or our parents' cell samples in a few cases, how many of us are Caucasian?"

"Five hundred and eleven."

"That's an amazing coincidence, isn't it?" She asked sardonically, and Diana couldn't help but smile at her tone. "Noah, what are the odds of that happening randomly? What are the odds that five hundred and eleven people randomly chosen from Earth's whole population, would just happen to be white?"

He didn't even hesitate. "Approximately three, times ten to the negative three hundred and eighty-first power."

Naomi held out her hands. "Whoa there. How about you rephrase that for those of us who weren't any good at math? Or who weren't allowed to take math, because we're women. What is that—one in a billion? One in a trillion? How many zeroes exactly?"

"Three hundred and eighty-one zeroes, exactly."

Naomi let the silence that followed, fill up the open area. The chances of everyone here being white were one in... a one followed by nearly four hundred zeroes. "Truly amazing. Astronomical, really. The odds against us all being this way? Either it's a miracle, or it wasn't an accident. Noah, how many human cell samples did you bring with you from Earth?"

"Twenty thousand."

"Are you allowed to use the cell samples in any order you want, or do you have to create these people in some kind of order, one after another?"

"I have a list I need to follow," he said, and his tone was frighteningly close to an admission.

"Then tell me," Naomi concluded triumphantly. "Out of the top seventeen percent of the cell samples on that list, how many of them are Caucasian?"

"All of them."

"There you have it, people," Naomi turned back to the crowd. "This was no accident. The Faith wanted the first ten or so generations on this planet to be white, just like they wanted the first leaders on this planet to be male. They knew that the group that got started first, who were the first people to start making money and buying property, would be the group to have the most power. Everyone else would get started later, and would be at a disadvantage because of it. Just like women are here, because we can't own money, and were only allowed to study a fraction of the things the boys did in school. Just like black people were on Earth, because they were held back for eighty years even after the so-called 'free' society of America was founded. The Faith wanted this. They wanted inequality, even as they wrote into their Doctrines the idea that we're all equal children of God. They're hypocrites, and if we follow their teachings, so are we!"

A bunch of the crowd started clapping enthusiastically, and Diana joined in. The applause wasn't universal though, and as it faded a little, a young man she didn't recognize stepped forward. "If what you're saying is true, and the Faith wanted us to be a white-dominated society, then why did they include the other races at all? Why not just leave those cell samples behind, or program Noah to destroy them on the way?"

Naomi smiled. "I wondered the same thing. Noah? Answer him, please."

"According to my programming, the Faith was forced to include those samples, as a condition of its partnership with the American military. General Hanover insisted that the entirety of the human genome be represented, as he was concerned about possible genetic degradation due to eventual inbreeding. However, it seems that the Faith was able to follow the letter of the law, to paraphrase things, rather than its spirit. They did include the entire spectrum of Earth's races, but mandated me to place the Caucasian race in the most powerful position. Not explicitly, but by insisting that I clone the cell samples in a specific order."

Naomi spread her arms, as if to encompass the entire crowd. "I know what some of you are thinking. The President said that Simon is a traitor. He told everyone that Simon lied to protect his wife, and that he programmed Noah to lie, too. I'm not asking you to just take Noah's word on this, or trust in the database that Simon unlocked for us. Use the evidence that we have here and now! We're all white here; there's no debating that! Diana is a pilot, and a skilled one; there's no arguing that either. If God really did ordain women to be in the lesser position—to never ever be anything that a man could be—then how did He allow someone like Diana to exist? You don't need to believe Simon or Noah to ask that question."

A high pitched, constant tone began in the distance, echoing out over the rest of Greater Harmony. The crowd all turned in that direction, whispering concern and fear. Diana recognized it after a moment: the alarm horn for the city. It was the same tone she'd heard as a child, when volcanoes and lava flows destroyed their first home.

Following the noise, phone screens began lighting up all over the crowd. It was another mandatory message, recorded by the President, and piped into everyone's phone whether they liked it or not. Bez held his up for Diana and Naomi, and the few men in the crowd did the same for all the women who weren't allowed to have phones.

"Citizens of New Eden," the President began calmly. "It was my hope that the recent debate with Simon, televised to the entire planet, would lessen tensions within our society, but it seems that some malcontents are still determined to spread lies and misinformation. As a result, I have been forced to take some... unfortunate actions to maintain order in Greater Harmony. A debate is a fine thing to have, but it's not a deciding factor under the law. I have scheduled the trial of Simon, on the charges of fraud and conspiracy to commit sedition, to begin tomorrow. Jury selection is already underway, from a random sampling of all adult men within the city. The trial itself will be presided over by the only legal authority we have as of yet; Chief Justice John."

Diana shared a horrified glance with her two friends. John had already publicly accused Simon of being a traitor and blasphemer. How could he possibly be expected to remain fair, if he was the judge in this trial?

"In addition, to maintain the security of our citizens, I am instituting a curfew within the city, effective immediately. Anyone, man or woman, adult or child, who is outside of their homes after six pm will be subject to arrest and incarceration. Greater Harmony will not be turned into a lawless zone, and dissent against democracy will not be tolerated."

On the screen, the President gave a brief sigh. "I understand that many of you are afraid. We're in uncharted waters here; dealing with unprecedented events in our history. Yet I have confidence that we will rise to the occasion, as we did during the war. These restrictions are temporary, and will be removed as soon as it is safe to do so. Trust in God, and in the wisdom He has given us, and we will get through this together." The screen went blank again.

Diana felt rage boiling in her gut. "That arrogant little jerk! Does he honestly think that putting up a curfew is going to stop us? Or anyone really, from hearing the truth and deciding for themselves?"

"It's not about his arrogance," Bez said pensively. "This is just a show of power. Still, it's almost six. He could swoop down on us all in a matter of minutes if we don't get off the streets."

Ahead of them, Diana could see most of the crowd thinking on the same lines. They were looking nervously at the time, and shifting from foot to foot. "It's all right, people," Diana spoke up, holding out her hands, palms out. "We're not asking anyone to get in trouble here yet. Go home if that's what you feel you need to do. If you want to hear more, come with us, and we'll put you up at our place. Either way, they'll have no reason to arrest you."

"We can't just leave Simon to that trial," a young man Diana didn't know spoke up. "You heard the President: John will be in charge of it! It won't be fair at all."

"We won't," she assured him. "Simon is one of us, and we won't leave him behind. Now either go home or come with us, but we have to move now."

As the crowd dispersed, Diana started wracking her brain on how to live up to her promise.

-.-

A few hours later, Siagis had set, and Greater Harmony was plunged into darkness. Walter sat in his apartment in the Western Quarter, looking over the files on his computer and trying not to dwell on his future as a journalist.

Without press credentials, he might as well be a leper as far as the people were concerned! He shouldn't have just confronted the President like that. He would have to work on both his tone and his timing, if he ever got the chance to be an official reporter again. Still, he'd gotten some good footage from the meeting prior to Simon's arrest. Close shots of the guard who'd arrested Simon, as well as the President and Chief Justice's face as it happened. Wide shots of the crowd chanting in protest. He could make something out of this.

Maybe he could turn it into a documentary. He didn't need any official standing to do that, and by the time it was ready, he might be a reporter again.

Almost unwillingly, he looked over to the file on the screen that linked to the historical database. Part of him wasn't sure if the President was wrong about this. It seemed so unbelievable, to have everything they'd ever known suddenly challenged and thrown into doubt! But he couldn't just take the database as ordained truth, either. He had a responsibility to be objective and reasoned, despite the circumstances.

Naturally, he'd started with what Simon had to say about reporting back on Earth. Walter had known about White House press briefings, and the Correspondent's Dinner, and all the traditions that came with being a member of the Fourth Estate. He'd seen footage of Nixon's resignation, in response to charges of obstruction of justice and abuse of presidential power. Noah had taught them in history class, that Nixon’s fate was an example of Americans holding their leaders responsible for misdeeds.

He hadn't seen, until the database, how Nixon had railed against reporters and news outlets. He hadn't seen how other presidents did exactly the same thing, both before and after. That hadn't been in the Faith histories that Walter had studied in school.

He'd named himself after Walter Cronkite, partially because of Cronkite's involvement in shining a light on the Watergate scandal. It had been his goal, ever since moving to Harmony as a kid, to be a shining light himself. He would report the truth, and guide people like a beacon, into doing the right thing for everyone. He would fulfill God's will for himself by being the best reporter he could possibly be!

Whether the database was true or not, Walter couldn't ignore how eerily similar it was to what was happening here. He had been censured, for his actions, and illegally. Well, extralegally, he supposed would be a better way to put it. There were no laws concerning the Fourth Estate yet. Though there probably would be soon.

He moved over to his Idea Wall, on one side of his apartment. On it was a full listing of the events since the War had started. Walter had gone from publishing his first news outlet, the Harmony Gazette, right into a simulator and then into a cockpit. He had seen combat, and seen good friends die in those weeks, as they all struggled against Cain. Then, in that final confrontation, he'd seen Diana down there on the ground with Simon. He'd heard that it wasn't Tycho who'd been training and leading them, but her. He'd come to grips with it, just in time to get orders from the President to cover it up. They all had. The idea that a woman could be a pilot, much less a heroic and skilled one, was too embarrassing for this administration to have, so all of them had been ordered to stay silent. Then she'd been locked away for her actions.

It was Walter who had leaked the truth.

He'd violated his Commander-in-Chief's orders, and acted out of conscience. He was supposed to shine a light on the truth, after all, even if that truth was ugly to some. As stunned as he'd been at finding out it had been her, it didn't really matter. Everyone else deserved to find out too. In a way, this whole conflict was on him. If he'd kept his mouth shut, maybe everyone else would have as well. Then he’d found out that Bez had done the exact same thing. While it had undercut Walter’s contribution a little, it did make him feel better that he wasn’t alone.

His Idea Wall had a full list of all of this, including every bit of evidence he'd been able to dig up on the President, the Senator and the Chief Justice. Ever since they'd failed their flight training, he'd focused on them. Not just because they were government officials, but because they might also be cowards, and the people needed to know that, too. He'd dug up every bit of archive footage from the simulation runs, and conducted... careful and off-record interviews, with people who'd flown with them.

He was reasonably certain that Chief Justice John wasn't lying. The man took himself way too seriously, and could be a real killjoy at times, but he was a genuinely bad pilot. The other two weren't.

Walter stood up to go make himself a late dinner, when the door suddenly burst open! A heavyset man, wearing a black ski mask, stepped in and glanced in his direction. Walter took a few steps back, but the intruder stomped over to him immediately and seized him by the shirt. Familiar-looking eyes darted around the room, as Walter was too terrified to say anything. He was helpless in this man's grip, and any resistance might make this even worse!

Then the intruder's eyes reached the Idea Wall, and his lip curled with contempt as he read it. He snapped back to look at Walter and growled. "You ungrateful little parasite," he growled out, lifting Walter completely off the ground. "I was just going to leave you a message, but you're too much of a pest, aren't you? You'll believe anything that traitor says!"

"I don't," Walter managed tightly, restricted by the pressure against his chest. His captor lowered him a bit, and he took a deep breath. "Everything on that wall is stuff that happened before Simon started talking about his database. Everything I've recorded is stuff that actually happened, and was witnessed. I traffic in fact, not rumor. If you're going to send me a message not to be gullible, trust me: I'm already there."

His protests, meant to mollify the intruder, only made him angrier. "You're not gullible! You're evil. You refuse to accept that the President is a great man; a visionary, who's trying to make things better for everyone! You're like a disease, but even worse, because you actually know what you're destroying. You just had to try and ruin it for everyone!"

"What do you want from me?" Walter asked, terrified. He could call for help, and he knew he had neighbors close enough to hear the ruckus. Unfortunately with the curfew, it was unlikely any of them would risk responding.

His attacker hesitated just a minute, and then his lips curled into a smile. "This." He swung a fist into Walter's gut.

Walter doubled over, coughing, and vomited on the floor. The pain was like nothing he'd ever felt before! His attacker stood there for a moment, and then kicked him hard in the ribs. Not content, he did it again and again, and again. Walter curled up, trying to protect his midsection, and felt more blows rain in on him. It seemed to go on forever, but perhaps a dozen kicks were all the man gave him in the end.

Then he leaned down and grabbed Walter by the hair with his left hand. He forced his head up, and looked Walter in his face again. Back in Harmony, Walter had once trapped a fly in the arboretum. He'd taken his time with it, and picked its wings off, just to see how it would get around. That was the same look he saw now, in the eyes of his attacker.

The man struck again, this time to the face, and everything went black.

-.-

The next morning, Bez and Naomi were organizing the protest outside the de facto courtroom. Diana had helped arrange it, but couldn't be here as she was still wanted herself. Over a dozen people had shown up already, and were lining the hallways outside the theatre. It wasn't a theatre yet, of course, but it would be in time. For now it was the only space in the city center large enough to handle all the witnesses, legal experts, security, and audience members who would attend.

Naomi went down to one end to organize the signs that some of them had brought, and then returned. She saw Bez's phone light up on the way, and he glanced at it before his back stiffened. "What is it?"

He looked up with haunted eyes. "This is from one of my friends over at Hippo's clinic. Walter was attacked last night in his home. He's at the clinic now, in bad shape. From what my friend says, he's got multiple broken ribs, a punctured lung, his collarbone's been broken, and he's got a severe concussion. Hippo's not even sure he'll make it!" A gasp ran through the group, and word spread to the others who were too far away.

Naomi felt like the floor had fallen out from under her. "Walter's no threat to anyone. He's not even a part of our group! Who would do this?"

Lisa spoke up from her left. "You have to ask? They sent us a message yesterday, and then another one today. It doesn't matter if he's an official reporter or not; they're still going to make an example of him for everyone else."

Bez shook his head as if he disagreed, but already people were starting to file into the corridor to head into the courtroom. Naomi recognized some of the security people, followed by John, the prosecution lawyer, and then... Simon!

He looked good, despite the circumstances. The security people gave the protestors a suspicious look, but when it was obvious they were unarmed, they waved the rest forward. John gave the protestors a withering look, and swept past them. Simon followed suit with an encouraging smile as he was herded in after. Some of the women in the group weren't willing to just let them in without any challenge, though. Naomi, especially. When it was clear that the President wouldn't be here, she called out to the advocate, and he stopped to look at her.

"What's the matter, Strom? Disrupting our meetings and harassing us wasn't good enough for you? You had to start beating us up, too? How low is too low for you?" Some of the women in the group voiced encouragement for her.

Strom gave her a surprised look, and then held out a hand to stop the security people from going into the courtroom as well. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Walter! He was beaten into a pulp last night, less than a day after asking the President a perfectly reasonable question! Are we really supposed to believe that was just a coincidence? He might not even survive his injuries!"

Something that might have been fire flashed through his expression, but just for an instant. "I represent the entire New Eden government in this case. If you're accusing me, or any of my clients, of perpetrating this unfortunate incident, step lightly. You could very easily find yourself in New Eden's second court case."

Naomi flushed with anger, but Bez reached out a hand. "Thank you, advocate. You’d better not keep the judge waiting."

Smirking, he headed inside, and the guards followed. Naomi whirled on him. "We're not just going to let them get away with this, are we?"

Bez let go of her hastily. "We don't have any proof that the President ordered this, or was involved at all. For now, the best thing we can do is stick together. If they want to attack another one of us, they'll have to attack all of us."

Naomi turned back to the picket line, still seething at the injustice of it all. Despite that, she had to admit Bez had a point. It was up to them to remain nonviolent, and give their enemy no reason to arrest them, too.

She tried not to think about the examples she'd seen in the database... of peaceful protestors not being arrested or harassed, but just plain killed.

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