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Original X-roads-2003
In the Future…
It had been several days since I had returned to the penthouse. Mark had been in and out without much conversation. I had discovered that Meeset and the others were on Terran Hold Fourteen, the worlds maximum security penitentiary. It was a sole island, only accessible by boat. I had no way to reach it to free her, but Mark needed only to say the word and she would be released that minute.
When he returned home, he poured himself a drink and sat on the couch.
“Will you please release Meeset?”
“No.” he did not look away from the window screen that streamed the news.
“Why?” I asked.
“I can not take the risk of letting her out. Her ideals are too dangerous.” He set his drink on the coffee table and turned to me. “Zahran’s ideals are formidable. I understand his stance on humanity versus nature, we have spent many hours together. He is right on many levels about teaching the people to live together with nature in a sustainable way. There is just one problem with this.”
“What is it?” I was annoyed.
“Human nature.” he turned away from me and back to the news. “You people with your ideals have no thoughts of the cares of men. You think the world should be your way, but many people would rather not be inconvenienced.” The screen went blank and showed the city. “All these people would die without their comforts. They do not know how to farm the land or hunt to survive. Within three cycles over half the worlds population would die of starvation if we followed Zahran’s plan. There would be chaos. People would kill each other over petty squabbles. There would be no more economic structure because there would be no power to the factories. No air filtered in the domes would bring disease. No water recycling plants would work, the water would be unusable in a week and depleted in a half cycle.”
He picked up his glass and took a sip. “You would let two thirds of this planets population die. All those innocent lives, and for what would you do this?”
“For future generations, so they can live.” I defended my stance.
He looked at me as if I was naive. “You will not achieve that. Look what I have built here, a self sustaining society. These people here are well fed, the water is purified and useable and none of it relies on the planets resources.”
“Because you’ve plundered them!” I accused him.
“Regardless of what happened to the resources, the fact remains that I have created a living society without them. That does not rely on them for survival. Why would I sacrifice trillions of lives needlessly?” he asked in earnest. “No I will not free your friend. You can see why.”