Hadrian's Rage (4 page)

In Private Hunter’s recent evaluation and testing (physical, arms, education, abilities), he revealed he has embarked on an independent study and research of Hadrian’s history, including border defense and outside infiltration tactics, such as guerrilla warfare training (with a list of improvements for better Wall defense, tactics, and offense warfare as needed). {REDACTED—His recent tests in leadership, tactics, strategy planning, and combat analysis show an advanced knowledge and awareness of several areas recently assessed by the HDF Command (classified-restricted access)}. The recommendations made by this youth should be taken into advisement. His “penal restriction” status should not be a reason to ignore his advice.

It is this officer’s belief that Private Hunter would serve our country far more effectively if he were no longer restricted to private status. His tactile tattoo restraint should be removed and he should be duly promoted to lieutenant. His exemplary work over the first two years of service has surpassed that of the majority of military career officers.

Private Hunter continues to improve his skills in leadership, tactics, strategy planning, and combat analysis. As well, Private Hunter continues to excel in marksmanship (pistol and rifle), guerrilla tactics, and strategy planning.

All recommendations made by Private Hunter have thus far been overlooked due to his penal restriction.

All recommendations made by this officer to remove Private Hunter’s tactile tattoo restraint and revoke his penal restriction status have thus far been overlooked.

Private Hunter has not been promoted. Regardless of continuously being overlooked, Private Hunter continues to excel as a soldier in Hadrian’s National Army.

Almost three years have passed since President Stiles signed government bill 657—the Heterosexual Legalization Act—into law, making it legal for heterosexuals to live openly in our country. The HLA states that no man or woman will suffer exile if caught in compromising circumstances including such acts as kissing, walking arm in arm, hugging, etc. Also, the HLA clarifies the private sexual acts an opposite sex couple can engage in without penalty under the law: all forms of coitus being permissible with the exception of penile vaginal intercourse. Many supporters of equal rights for straight men and women claim this law is no different than the one it replaces since men and women were only ever exiled after the state could prove they did indeed have opposite sex intercourse used in the act of procreation. There is a key difference, though, as prior to the HLA, any of our youth caught in any compromising position were required by law to attend reeducation, whereas HLA now stipulates that registration for reeducation is at the parents’ discretion. Nor will Hadrian’s quadrant officials and peace officers incarcerate a same-sex couple on “suspicion of heterosexual behavior.” HLA stipulates that concrete evidence of the man’s penis having penetrated the female’s vaginal region must be presented prior to arrest.

Regardless of its similarity to the law it replaces, HLA, not even three years old, has caused a seismic uproar in our small country. It is as if Hadrian has gone mad! The events that led up to this monumental change in our laws started with the death of Todd Middleton, built in force with the sentencing of Frank Hunter, and culminated into a class eight tremblor with Gideon Weller’s decision to drink henbane rather than face exile.

Most, I’m sure, remember Gideon Weller’s trial. It lasted well over a year and was the key focus of every
Salve!
for over nine months. Charged on
multiple counts of rape, torture, and abuse of the many youth registered under his care at the Northeast Reeducation Camp, Gideon Weller ultimately confessed while being interrogated by Hadrian’s National Prosecutor, Graham Sabine. Gideon Weller was also charged with inciting suicide in no less than six boys at his camp, the last being that of seventeen-year-old Todd Middleton. As a recipient of an early entrance sports scholarship at Antinous Uni, Todd Middleton’s exposure, followed shortly by his traumatic murder, which many suggest was assisted suicide, truly was the beginning of the chaos our country is now suffering. As well as having been Hadrian’s “golden boy,” Todd Middleton was the son of Hadrian’s most famous agricultural engineer, Will Middleton. Will Middleton was the man who successfully genetically modified the soybean plant to grow in our northern climate. Considered a hero to our nation for helping Hadrian achieve close to 90 percent sustainability, it was revealed at Frank Hunter’s trial that Will Middleton, like his son, was heterosexual. In the years since these devastating events took place, our good country has become polarized—split in its opinions regarding its founding values. Although everyone agrees to the necessity of keeping Hadrian’s population at the ten million maximum, opinions differ as to the best means of maintaining that optimum. Let me begin by explaining to you the nature of these opposing factions.

There are those who firmly believe that heterosexuality is the central ill that has caused humanity to be in this fix in the first place. These people we all know as Hadrian’s Conservative Right. They claim that heterosexual lustful ways and a propensity for power and greed are what propelled mankind into its current horror. This sect also blames religious heterosexual supremacist fanaticism for suggesting that the planet and all its natural resources belong to humanity to do with as we choose. Their mission statement: “to return Hadrian back to its founding principles by criminalizing all forms of heterosexual behaviors as deemed necessary by our founding families.”

A second, equally vocal, group has emerged, and although the Conservative Right sees it as pandering to the heterosexual agenda, the leader of this opposition says it has but one goal, to educate Hadrian, and then the rest of humanity, of one simple fact: that we are all one. This pro-strai faction believes that if we are to rectify the damage we have done to this planet and diminish the excess of human population, then we must work as one. It is interesting to note that this group is being led by none other than our founding mother, Destiny Stuttgart. And, according to our
founding mother, too many unfortunate incidents have begun to molest the true beauty of Hadrian’s culture.

Anger, violent anger, has swept our nation, with much of that anger directed towards our heterosexual and bisexual citizens. Just over a year following the trial of Hadrian versus Hunter, the body of a middle-aged man was found burned beyond recognition inside his bubble vehicle. He had been murdered, stabbed multiple times, according to the coroner’s report, and died before he was put inside his bubble. It was then set on fire. Presumably, the killer, or killers, as may be the case, set the man’s bubble on fire to destroy any evidence of their crime. And these killers were successful. Had there been any of the offending party’s DNA on the victim’s body or his bubble, none remained after the vehicle had been set ablaze.
6

Two years ago, we saw the Face of Heterophobia
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when Georgeta Serban was beaten in Riverside Park where she and her partner, Zagor Petrovich, were walking arm-in-arm. As with most hate crime attackers, Serban’s abusers remain unidentified. They were wearing masks and gloves so none of their DNA was found on the victim, nor could they be identified. Zagor believes their attackers were men who were wearing some sort of device that had changed the sound of their voices. He said one attacker held him down while the other beat on his girlfriend. They were shouting out anti-strai slurs like “F’ing Breeder” and “Stab.”

And then last year—I’m sorry; sometimes it is difficult to remain impartial in the light of such a crime—four-year-old Fredrik Mustonen was beaten to death by his mother, Hanna Mustonen, because he “walked and talked strai.”
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If you recall, the details of the case included her having hit him in the abdomen so hard his intestines broke. She did not deny her crime. She, in fact, was the one to rush Fredrik to the hospital when he was rendered unconscious by her beating. As you may remember, she had been beating this poor child for some time, and it was this last attack that ended it for him. Hanna Mustonen chose to drink henbane rather than face exile.

Recently, yet another detritus fisherman was allegedly fired because he is straight—sorry—this has not been confirmed and an ongoing investigation into these allegations continues—I have been asked to remind our
viewers that currently in Hadrian, it is legal to fire an individual who is straight. This, of course, dates back to when heterosexuality itself was illegal. The sexual reform laws put in place over forty years ago are in flux as members of the government continue to argue over which aspects of these laws need to be retained and which need to be eradicated. Some believe it essential to wipe away all of the sexual reform laws—of course, no one wants anything that radical to occur. We must continue to preserve the very foundation upon which Hadrian was founded. Even if being heterosexual is now legal, certain heterosexual acts, such as penile vaginal penetration, must remain illegal. Those laws are the very premise upon which our good country was founded.

Hadrian’s four cornerstones are critical: Hadrian’s chosen lifestyle is homosexual; Hadrian will be a safe haven for homosexuals from around the globe; Hadrian’s central focus is the creation and maintenance of a stable human population; Hadrian will create an ecologically sound balance between humanity and nature. The only cornerstone Mother Stuttgart’s faction wishes to address is that of a “chosen” lifestyle. The basis of this faction’s argument is that one does not choose to be straight just as one does not choose to be gay. Mother Stuttgart proposes rewording this cornerstone, returning it to what she claims to be its original version: Hadrian embraces the diverse spectrum of human sexual expression. Hadrian’s Conservative Right argues the dangers of such a flexible representation of human sexuality, claiming we will be opening the floodgates to rampant acts of heterosexual fornications resulting in a massive increase in Hadrian’s population. In return, Mother Stuttgart’s faction ironically claims its battle is no different than the battle continuously being fought by our LGBTI brothers and sisters condemned by birth to live out their lives in the outside world. Perhaps our founding mother is right—but that is something Hadrian’s citizens have to decide—ultimately, though, no matter where you may stand on the legal status of heterosexuality, surely no one, not even the Conservative Right, can condone these heinous acts of violence and murder. In the wake of the violence that has hit our country over the past few years, I believe it is fair to say that our country needs an amendment to its hate crime laws.

Vale!

Dean's shoulders ache, but that does not deter him from bending into his work. It isn't his anatomy text doc he desperately needs to study; rather, he is mired in the difficult task of trying to create…design…some kind of symbol for the essence of humanity. Surrounding him are the scant few members of the GSA
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, an organization he established in his first year of uni, all trying to help him come up with some sort of symbol they can use to represent the heterosexual members of Hadrian's population. They have been batting ideas around for over an hour, but no one has come up with anything viable. Tara Fowler restates her original suggestion, “I still think we should go with a blue and pink striped flag, kinda like the rainbow flag, but with traditional boy/girl colors.”

“Too cliché,” says Cantara.

Dean smiles; Cantara is the only one able to disagree with Tara and not spark her self-defensive and argumentative nature. “Besides,” he adds, “those colors have only been gender specific since the twentieth century, and only for the outside world. We don't want to go back to stereotyping.”

Siddhartha Seshadri, whom everyone calls Sid, tries another approach. “Why don't we just use the joined male and female symbols? That would be easy and everyone knows it already.”

Dean cocks an eyebrow. “That could work, I suppose.” Although Dean is not crazy about the idea, he, like nearly everyone in the group, feels the need at least to consider, if not always agree, with Sid.

“Boring,” says Cantara, who, unlike everyone else, is not so easily swayed by Sid's unintended influence. Cantara is extremely difficult to please and has no qualms uttering her opinion, regardless of how curt it
is or whom it might displease. “We need something colorful, something exciting. Something everyone can relate to. Something everyone loves, you know, to help make us more endearing. Right now when people think of us, all they think of are things like gross and despicable. We want them to see us as beautiful beings, just like every other human.”

“That's the key, Cantara.” Dean turns and smiles her way. Cantara flushes with joy. “Somehow, we've got to get across the idea that we are just like everyone else. It doesn't matter whom a person is attracted to so long as we respect one another as humans.”

Sid laughs. “It sounds like you're talking about the gay pride flag, all the colors of the rainbow.”

“Well, we can't use the rainbow flag; that's just for homosexuals,” Tara objects.

“Why not?” Dean asks. The idea intrigues him. “I mean, the original pride flag was really meant to reflect the different colors of human sexuality, and we're one shade of that.”

“Yeah, but in the outside world, het'ros mock homosexuals and their pride flag.”

“Do they? Do they all?” Dean questions. “No, seriously, people, think about it. Most of us in this room are either straight or bi, except for Sid.” Everyone turns and smiles Sid's way, even Cantara. So far, Sid is the only gay person willing to associate with the group to make it a real GSA. “According to the media, straight people don't exist in Hadrian.” Smiling, Dean adds, “Well, we know better. Will Middleton was straight. His son, Todd Middleton, was straight. I'm straight. Tara and Cantara here are both straight.” Continuing with his reasoning, Dean says, “So, if the media is wrong about us, then no one really knows what people outside our walls might think. All we have extolling strais' evils, and most certainly not any virtues, is HNN, and there are days when I doubt its veracity.” No one can deny Dean's censorship of
Salve!
and Hadrian's National News. In the past year, HNN has undergone a major shift in management, and Melissa Eagleton has often contradicted herself in many of the
Salve!
episodes.

“I know,” Prasert Niratpattanasai adds. “It's like she starts saying things that sound supportive, and then suddenly, she pulls at her ear and begins backtracking and spouting shit.”

Sid agrees. Prasert and he are roommates and having been dating for over a year. Prasert is bisexual and his last lover was a girl. When Sid
learned of their affair, he proved to be the best of friends. Rather than expose his companion, he sat and listened when Prasert explained the way he felt about Edit and why. Sid never pretended to understand, but since Prasert had become his closest companion, he couldn't bear the thought of ending their friendship. Sid understood why he had stood by Prasert shortly after Prasert's breakup with Edit. Their friendship had grown much deeper than “just friends,” and Prasert was unwilling to deny their connection. He ended his affair with Edit, and when he told Sid why, Sid readily embraced him. “Prasert's right,” Sid says, and then considering for a moment, he adds, “and so is Dean.”

“Thanks, Sid.” Dean appreciates Sid's vote in his favor because Sid's voice carries a lot of weight in their little group. “You're absolutely right, Prasert; we really can't depend on anything Eagleton and HNN have to say. They are running the Conservative Right Party line, and even if Eagleton wants to back us, clearly she can't. Either way, this part of our discussion is moot since our real concern is to decide on an appropriate symbol that reflects all of humanity so we are no longer promoting ourselves as heterosexuals against homosexuals. We need to promote ourselves as humans opening our arms to other humans.”

“We could have a circle of men and women holding hands.” Tara cringes as soon as she suggests it. Looking to Cantara, she apologizes. “I know, too hokey, right?”

Feeling like she has hurt her best friend's feelings, Cantara back-pedals. “No, it's not hokey at all. I kinda like it. What do you guys think?”

“It's one idea,” Dean mutters. Blinking open a new doc and keyboard, he types the idea down. He then opens a design page. Blinking a holographic pencil mid-air, Dean reaches for it and attempts to draw out a rough sketch.

“We could make each person a different color of the rainbow,” Prasert suggests.

“Maybe,” says Dean, not sounding convinced. Even so, he taps the toolbar for colors and begins using the eyedropper tool to color in the stick bodies he's created. He shakes his head in disapproval.

Cantara laughs. “It's a good thing your vocation is nursing because you make one hell of a lousy artist!”

Dean joins the others in a chuckle at his expense. His digital design really sucks. Sitting back in his chair, he stares critically, then issues the
vocal command, “Trash.” The holographic image disappears. Turning grim before the others' jocularity has subsided, Dean gathers the group closer to him.

Cantara feels worried because Dean seems so solemn. “What is it, Dean? What's wrong?” The rest of the group gathers in closer, concerned, too.

“Nothing. I just hate remembering this man.”

“Who?” Tara's curiosity is piqued. Dean is so amicable it seems odd he would express dislike towards any human being.

“An acquaintance from my past. He worked in the black market. He taught a friend and me a very important skill.”

Prasert leans in closer. “What's that?”

“How to make sure your trashed items really get destroyed.”

Cantara looks pale. “You mean just trashing doesn't trash?” She turns her worried look onto her friend.

Tara responds, “Dean taught me already.” Cantara's sigh of relief is audible. “Apparently, anything you type is saved in the government's archives, so if you type something you don't want anyone else to see, you have to trash it, then retrieve it from the archives, and then destroy it completely.”

“Show us.” Sid's request sounds like a command. More than curious, this is a skill this group really needs to know.

“No item is really trashed. Like Tara said, everything you type is saved instantly to Hadrian's National Archives. There are different storage files like individual citizens, businesses, uni admin, uni profs, uni students…” Dean trails off. “See what I'm getting at? Even though I just trashed my design, it is still out there inside the Augustus Uni student folder deep inside HNA's cyber world. We have to hack inside, retrieve the file, and disintegrate it before anyone else discovers it there.”

“How would anyone know it's even there?” asks Prasert, questioning the necessity of such an extreme action. “I mean, it could sit there for centuries, and no one would even notice it amongst so many other files. It's like a virtual warehouse filled with hundreds of billions of files.”

“Yes, but all information is filed there, so if anybody ever wanted to find something out about you, something that could be used against you, well, that would be the place to look.” A collective shudder ripples through the room.

“Wouldn't so many files overburden the system?” Prasert remains skeptical.

“Yes,” Dean replies. “You're right. I asked my friend the same question. The government has sweeper programs that delete anything inconsequential like grocery lists and the like. Even things like children's journals, if all is innocent. The sweeper files scrub the system every morning sometime around 4 a.m. That is also when the system retrieves any sensitive information and then forwards it instantly to gov security. So,” Dean warns, “whatever you type for the GSA, print and then destroy all files before 4 a.m. Understood?” Everyone nods in agreement.

“So,” Sid asks, “how do you do it? Hack in to disintegrate your files?”

“Watch close.” Dean may not have an instructor's finesse, but his serious demeanor makes up for that. All eyes and ears are attentive. “Step 1: Access hgov forward slash voclink. Step 2: Scroll down to the bottom of the link. Step 3: Here in small print—” Dean zooms in so the others can read—“is gov security. Tap. Step 4: Up pops verification code. Insert the following password: hgs6669.” He pauses briefly before saying, “My friend's a sick bastard.”

“I don't get it.”

Tara laughs. “For a horny little thing, you sure are naive.”

“The number 666,” Sid explains, “is an old Christian superstition—”

“Hey,” says Prasert, hitting him. “Some of us believe in God, here!”

“Sorry, babe.” After an apology kiss, Sid recommences his explanation. “The number 666 is said to stand for the devil. And sixty-nine—” He smirks as Cantara blushes.

After a lengthy laugh at Cantara's expense, Dean continues with the lesson. “Now that we're in, we begin the search.” Dean begins typing “Augustus Uni Dean Hunter student access—”

“Hunter?” Cantara is oddly disturbed by this. “Why not Stuttgart?”

Dean pauses; confusion passes over him. “Ah—I'm not sure. I was still going by Hunter when I registered and, ah—I guess I never changed it.”

Quick to smooth away tension, Sid launches in with an explanation. “Too much of a hassle; damn near impossible, I'd think, to change every single point in the system with your name attached.” Cantara relaxes. So does Dean.

Back in focus, Dean finds his digital design. He opens the file to ensure it is the right one—colorful stick men holding hands—and then issues a vocal command, “disintegrate file.” It breaks into particles of light and vanishes.

There is a collective murmur: “Cool!”

Cantara utters her approval, “I like this friend of yours.”

“He abandoned his son because he was straight.”

Admiration turns sour and Cantara spits out, “Bastard!”

There is a moment of silence. Everyone knows the name of the boy in question: Todd Middleton.

Prasert, ever the pragmatic, gets the group back on track. “Okay, so the file's gone. Now what?” Apologetically, he adds, “We still need a logo.”

“It's okay, babe.” Turning now to Dean, Sid asks, “What are you thinking?”

“Well, I was hoping we could come up with something to reflect Tara's haiku ‘Humanity's Sun.'”

“Oh, I love that one.” Cantara smiles and, even though everyone has heard it before, she recites it for her peers: ‘We are each of us/rays of light shooting forth from/humanity's sun.'”

“If we could come up with an image for humanity's sun, that would be ideal.”

“Well,” says Sid, turning to kiss Prasert on the cheek, “we'd love to stay and help, Dean, but we have a sociology class. Tara, coming?”

Tara's eyes brighten. “Yes!” She lets out a little laugh and there is a sudden spring in her step as she joins the two men. “Cantara,” her voice is bubbling over with excitement, “meet us for supper so we can celebrate.”

“Okay.” Cantara's smile stretches over the whole of her face. She knows why Tara is excited. Her sociology professor is going to read her essay about what it is like growing up straight to the class. Tara was practically dancing on air when Professor Politis asked for permission to share it. “I'm hoping it will open a few minds to understanding others,” the professor had said. She also promised not to expose Tara by keeping her name anonymous. Sid and Prasert are the only students in her class who will know it is Tara's essay. Waving as Tara and the two boys exit their small GSA office, Cantara shouts, “See you later!”

After the pack leaves, Dean inquires, “What was that about?”

“I promised Tara I wouldn't tell anybody, but I think you're safe. Her professor is going to read her essay about what it is like being heterosexual in Hadrian.”

“Whoa,” says Dean, his brow contracting, “that could be dangerous.” He knows the essay; he proofread it for Tara, and although he fully agrees
with everything she has to say in it, he warned her not to hand it in. Tara seemed to believe her professor was more open-minded than Dean was willing to give her credit for. Clearly, Tara was right, but still, if others learn who authored that piece, Tara could be in for a lot of ugly treatment by her peers. Augustus Uni may be the first in Hadrian to admit openly bi and straight students, but that doesn't mean that all of the faculty or its student population are accepting of their presence. Most bi and straight students remain in the closet. Even the office for their campus GSA is a well-kept secret. Or, at least, so Dean hopes.