STRANGE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OMNIBUS (24 page)

“What’s the trouble?” she asked in a low voice.

“Everyone’s flapping,” he answered. “Word is that the giant secret computer they have in the basement exploded. Seems the Chinese or the Russians hacked into it and gave it an instruction to self-destruct.”

Ashley thanked the guard and turned away. She knew when she was licked. With all obvious methods of finding her brother’s killer stymied, she ended her leave and returned to duty at the Agency. She has since been promoted and is widely rumored in Washington political circles to be next in line for the post of Agency Deputy Director.

It is not to be thought, however, that Ashley has given up all efforts to find her attempted assassin. The day before she ended her vacation, she drove to a public library in West Virginia and used the computer there to write and then print a letter. Wearing gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, she mailed it off to California.

Ashley knew, of course, that it would risk her future at the Agency if she went public with the fact that her brother’s death was a failed effort to assassinate her and that this was intricately linked to the Kennedy assassination. To have done so would have placed her at odds with the official report of the Warren Commission, which the Agency would find too controversial. To an agent of her intelligence and ability and keen knowledge of how to motivate people, a good alternative was available. Now each day she waits to see what the recipient of her letter, film director Oliver Stone, will reveal in his widely-anticipated new expose of the conspiracy behind Kennedy’s death.

When Connecticut, one of the richest states in the nation by virtue of its high average annual income, announced it was suffering from unprecedented financial pressures, it was clear that a series challenge faced the country. The primary cause was a steady and rapid rise in education costs, resulting in very sharp increases in local property taxes and a large outflow from the state treasury to the municipalities for educational purposes.

In desperation, the State Government took the usual course adopted in such circumstances; it formed a blue ribbon special committee to investigate the problem and provide a solution. All of its members were chosen from among the members of the Education Departments in the various schools rather than resorting to actual elementary and high school teachers who had practical experience in the matter. The committee held hears over a three month period, listening to testimony from education officials, various members of state and municipal government and the general public. It then held closed sessions for another two months drafting the joint report.

In its final version as submitted to the Governor of Connecticut included the customary three options. The first one was to simply cut the school day by fifty percent, thereby allowing a similar reduction in the salaries paid to teachers. The report noted that this option would undoubtedly engender a strong reaction on the part of the powerful teachers’ unions and gave it short shrift.

The third option was to continue to fund education programs with no policy modifications. The financial shortfall would be covered by cutting or eliminating other government services, including police, sanitation and road construction and maintenance. This option had several advantages. Eliminating police forces would tend to increase the number and severity of clashes between the police and low-income urban areas, thereby improving the tempo of needed social change. Removing garbage trucks from the streets would help reduce traffic congestion and slightly shorten the driving time for most commuters. The reported pointed out a major disadvantage, that it would probably provoke such opposition among voters that it would lead to the ouster in the next election of most elected officials.

Thus, as is the case with all such commissions, it threw its weight behind the middle option. This involved shifting the school day from the customary daylight hours to after dark. School buses would begin picking up children for transport to schools at eight p.m. in the evening and deposit them at their schools about nine p.m. The school day would end at three a.m., with the school buses picking them up at their schools and dropping them off at their homes about four p.m.

The great advantage of this option was that it would permit municipalities to rent out the public school buildings during the day for use as office space and for commercial establishments. The change would provide a large new source of income for educational purposes and for funding other needed programs. There was little doubt that option two was the best choice. After some debate, the educational reform bill as it was labeled was approved by the State Legislature and signed by the governor.

The shift in school hours went ahead with few problems. Mothers with children at kindergarten age or older were freed of the need to provide daytime babysitting. Child psychologists confirmed that the change eliminated the problem of “latchkey children returning to homes in which no parent or guardian was available because at four p.m. they would simply throw themselves into bed to sleep rather than getting into trouble. Most parents welcomed the new ease with which they could go out after eight p.m. without having to pay for babysitters. Doctors commended the move as reducing the threat of adult skin cancer because the school age children would never be in the sun.

Many commercial establishments reported profit gains from the school reform. Restaurants, movies, bars and bowling allies saw greatly increased use as parents could now go out more. Cosmetics firms had to modify their lipsticks, and other beauty supplies sold to teenage and sub-teen age girls so for use after dark rather than during the day, giving them the opportunity to revise their packages slightly and greatly increase their prices.

Admittedly there were a few problems, A few students strongly attacked the change and threatened to call student strikes. The school authorities, concerned, consulted with child psychologists and successfully overcame student resistance through the new “make the student feel good program” This involved basing test scores and grades not on performance but on student popularity. All students rated each other from the most popular down to the least popular student, with highest grades awarded to the most popular.

The resentment aroused on the part of the least popular students, many of them nerds or academically advantaged in more classical academic fields, over the lower grades they received was easily appeased. They were given the privilege of selecting which movies the classes were shown throughout their class time. While officially designed to enhance the students’ knowledge of the subject, the movies had the additional advantage of allowing the teachers, most of whom had taken daytime jobs, to sleep at their desks.

Connecticut’s school reform plan proved so successful that it was quickly adopted by forty-eight of the other states. Only Alaska did not follow suit. There the Eskimos successfully opposed it, arguing that they required the assistance of their children at night to catch the seals, vital as a source of food and pelts.

Of course, the reform resulted in occasional minor difficulties which were quickly overcome. When the decline in the scores in the tests administered every few years to all students in mathematics and writing skills led to this country being ranked one hundred and sixty-seventh among the hundred and sixty-seven nations covered by the survey, this was easily handled. The tests were given to a representative sample of the student population to establish its suitability and then modified to insure that at least eighty percent of all those taking the test in the United States would achieve the desired level of achievement. Education experts and government officials are confident that when the test are administered next year, the United States will regain one hundred and sixty-eighth place in the national rankings.

The story of the educational reforms is one to make all Americans proud. It shows that through cooperation and common effort by parents, students, educators and government officials, nothing is impossible. If we can all resolve to keep on this path, there is no doubt that the United States will reach even greater stature as the most admired nation and accepted pathfinder for the World.

For six days a week, George Stevenson did the same thing every day at the same hour for the same length of time. The seventh day, Sunday, he rested. Most of what he did was totally useless, and George was well aware of this fact. He followed his schedule because it gave his life the order it required. Without it, he knew, he would be lost. It was all he could do under the circumstances to keep himself sane.

It is not a simple matter for someone to keep from yielding to despair when living alone in a windowless metal enclosure only thirty feet long by five feet wide. Add to that the fact that he knew he was living more than a hundred feet below the level of the sea. If his submersible developed a leak, he would quickly drown. And George had been living alone in that submersible for some three and a half years.

George’s fate was even worse. He could calculate almost exactly the day of his death. It would come when he exhausted his food supply. He would have to come to the surface, whether the living conditions were capable of sustaining life or not. By his estimate, he had another two years to live. He could increase it somewhat by reducing his consumption of food, but he had already done so once. He was now always hungry, looking forward eagerly to the next small meal. A further reduction of food would make his life unbearable. It was better, he thought, to sacrifice the few days or weeks more he might have been able to eke out from extending it through a period of near-starvation.

The daily ritual was always the same. He awakened at six, exercised on his treadmill for an hour, and then had breakfast. At nine, he would carefully check his remaining food supply. He did not have to worry about air to breath or water to drink. The submersible was equipped with equipment that could break down the ocean water surrounding him into its individual components, yielding pure oxygen and potable water.

George’s schedule allotted an hour for reading, then a skimpy lunch. The choice of dishes for all of his meals was quite narrow: cans of fruit, cans of main courses such as spaghetti, franks and beans or stewed chicken and canned crackers in lieu of bread. His f favorite dishes were the canned applesauce and the canned chicken. George heated the cans in boiling water and then emptied the contents onto his plate. The only thing he actually made from scratch was his beverage, coffee, tea or cocoa. Naturally, George was tired by the monotony of his diet and longed for the foods he once enjoyed, cake, fresh bread and Oriental food.

After lunch, George would spend a few hours reading. The submersible was stocked with a large library of books, all available for reading via his computer screen. Virtually every American novel published in the last hundred years was included, as well as a good collection of reference works and some foreign classics. His eyesight had deteriorated since he was in the submersible, and he had no way of obtaining corrective glasses. After a few hours of reading, his eyes would start to bother him. He would stop and take a nap.

When he awakened, George would have a light dinner choosing from the same menu as before. Then would come the treat of the day. He would select a movie from the large assortment of films available to him, and then turn in. Under the circumstances, it is not strange that he preferred to watch comedies to dramas.

Sundays were the best day I the week. He would permit himself to watch two movies, one in the afternoon and another in the evening. He also had in his larder a small quantity of “special treats,” that had been included for morale purposes. There were small quantities of canned cranberry sauce, which he enjoyed with chicken, some packages of chocolate, and several cases of small champagne bottles, for celebrations. George would select one of these treats to make something of a celebration for his Sunday dinner. On the Thanksgiving Days and Christmas Days he had spent on the submersible, he permitted himself one of the treats at each meal.

As unhappy as he was over his existence, George knew that he was very lucky. Just about all of the people he had known before boarding the submersible, just about all of the people then living, were now dead. Frozen by the awful cold. George owed his survival to luck and to the fact that he had worked as a nautical engineer.

After prolonged debate, the American government finally accepted the report of its scientists that the Earth was about to experience a period of decreased solar activity. Temperatures would fall so low that all living things on the surface of the planet would be destroyed. Immediately, frantic efforts were made to ensure the survival of the human race. Similar attempts were made by other great powers. Obviously, provision could be made for only a handful to survive. Two courses of action were suggested, one was to tunnel deep into the earth in the hope that the intervening layers of soil would provide insulation from the freezing temperatures on the surface. The other was to construct a fleet of submersible vessels which would allow people in them to survive far enough below the surface of the sea, where the water would provide insulation.

As a maritime engineer, George was employed in helping to construct the submersibles. Each one was designed to enable two adults, one male and one female, and two children to survive in them for three years. The adults would be of childbearing age, and it was hoped that two children would be born before the submersible was forced to come to the surface. In addition to the necessary provisions, each submersible was stocked with a supply of seeds which, it was hoped, could be planted on land. Since no livestock could be carried on the submersibles, the survivors would have to become vegetarians, other than possibly catching such marine life that had managed to survive in the ocean.

When the tunneling effort encountered difficulties, priority was given to the submersibles program. The initial projected number of five hundred thousand was doubled. Unfortunately, after the designs had been finalized, and some seven hundred thousand of the craft constructed, a review of the design plans revealed a disastrous flaw in the calculations. The mechanism for providing breathable air from sea water did function as projected. However, the daily maximum rate of oxygen supply was only sufficient to sustain one adult, not two adults and two children as had been envisaged.