The Unincorporated War (50 page)

Hektor’s plan was both calculated and meticulous. A person of influence, whether an admiral, CEO, or action wing rabble-rouser, would be taken in for questioning and let go after an hour or two. They’d remember nothing of particular importance during their “questioning” and if challenged by any of their associates would still hold fast to all their beliefs and values. But in a matter of weeks or months they’d begin to shift their opinions in a manner keyed to some aspect of their personality. It would appear to be an organic and perfectly natural change of heart.

Hektor knew it would be impossible to shadow-audit, as he now referred to the newest form of psyche auditing, all the billions of people in the solar system, but he also realized that if he could get to the five hundred thousand who mattered it would give him the keys to controlling the rest. As others of influence popped up in the future they’d be shadow-audited as well and true stability would once again reign supreme. Had the Alliance not released a propaganda blitz claiming that Neela Harper had been audited in some odious new manner he’d have been able to move even quicker. The fact that what the Alliance claimed happened to be true was not a problem as far as Hektor was concerned. The research had been purposely compartmentalized and the teams being created were themselves “treated” to ensure loyalty. But Hektor would have to go slower under the nervous eye of a public that had been inculcated from birth to be paranoid about psyche audits, fearing exactly what Hektor Sambianco and Dr. Wong were now, in fact, doing. It also didn’t help that the strain of war without end was sapping all hope and feeding into delusional fantasies.

But hope was exactly what Hektor was planning to bestow as he approached the dais at Chairman Park.

President Sambianco has announced a major new proposal. Using his executive authority, the President has proposed a Majoritization Proclamation. The essence of the proposal is simple. Any person who serves in the war in some military capacity will be given a majority of their stock at the successful completion of the current hostilities. Those who already have majority will be given an additional 5 percent. The only exception to this policy will be the President himself, who as commander
in chief is part of the military chain of command. “Those who are bearing the brunt of this war to save incorporated civilization must be shown the tangible benefits of this civilization and the reward for their bravery and sacrifice.” With those words the President has set off a firestorm of protest and praise.

The minorities have exploded in wild celebration loudly praising “the minority President” and the “penny President,” not using these titles as intended insults, but rather as titles of pride. The President’s stock with the lower orders has never been higher.

This is a fact not lost on many Political/economical commentators. If the proclamation becomes a fact, it will create many new majority voters who will owe their newly won status to Hektor Sambianco and his branch of the Libertarian Party. It could secure their hold on the newly empowered federal government for de cades to come.

But of more immediate concern is how the major corporations will view what is being called by many a blatant theft of property. So far none of the major corporations or their CEOs has commented beyond stating they will study the proposition.

—N.N.N.

In order to get back to the Beanstalk as quick as he could manage, Hektor didn’t bother with public transportation. He needed to be in the main conference room before any of the gathered CEOs could say anything stupid or irrevocable. He didn’t want to have to arrange an “unfortunate” action wing terrorist attack if he could avoid it.

“It would be simpler to shadow-audit the lot of them,” he groused as he hurriedly made his way toward the room, but it would take too long and their security was not to be taken lightly. That would have to be a last resort with careful planning.

As Hektor entered the room he saw staring directly at him fifteen of the most powerful women and men in the solar system. At one time they’d all been people into whose ranks Hektor had dreamed of being accepted. They once held all the power and thus had been a source of endless fascination. But now they were just another obstacle that he needed to overcome.

Thankfully, they hadn’t all ripped into him at once as he’d expected. In fact, it appeared as if they’d all agreed to a common spokeswoman. Hektor was not surprised when the CEO of American Express got up. She was particularly upset because with the collapse of so much intersystem travel and entertainment, her company’s short-term profits had taken a considerable hit. But they had a long-term advantage based on the huge number of shares in people they’d developed
over the de cades. Hektor’s plan was a direct threat to not only hers but every-one’s corporation.

“Hektor,” she began as soon as he took his seat. “Sorry, Mr. President. What makes you think your proposal will ever happen?”

Hektor looked around the room. “If it doesn’t we’ll lose the war.”

“Then let’s lose the war,” said American Express flatly.

Hektor saw that this statement made some of the CEOs angry, but not all. Some were even looking dangerously supportive. Hektor slowly got up out of his chair, walked right up to the CEO of American Express, and by the sheer ferocity evident in his glare made her stumble backward into her seat. When she made no move to get back up he started to circle the table slowly.

“Let’s lose the war,” he repeated, voice emanating an eerie calm. “Let’s just stop fighting. As a matter of fact, why don’t we just look at the expense involved in fighting the war versus the benefit of simply stopping.” Hektor paused and had a bemused smile on his face. Then with a sudden fury he slammed his clenched fist down onto the table, causing a few gasps.

“Of course we looked at that option!” he seethed. “Do you have any idea how much time and money we would save if we just stopped fighting? So we lose 10 percent of humanity. We have stock options on the other 90 percent. So we lose most of the resources of the outer orbits. They have to sell us those resources at prices we can determine. They don’t have another market. In some ways it’ll be better if we lose because we’ll get the resources without having the attending problem of policing the vast beyond that is the beyond.”

Hektor looked at their befuddled faces. He was purposely making their case, throwing them off balance.

“Every single one of these arguments has the unequivocal backing of the truth,” he continued. “There’s more that you may not have considered. The social stresses of winning this war will be onerous. Our civilization will have to accept things that would’ve been treasonable, psyche-auditable offenses a mere three years ago. Have you really considered the effects of our new government
bonds
?” He said the word with such contempt that had they not known better, each and every person in the room would have thought that Hektor was the most vehement opponent of the fiat currency he’d only recently introduced, as opposed to being its strongest supporter. “It will take de cades for the government to pay them off, and that’s if we actually use some backdoor versions of taxation.” He saw the assembled group go pale as the blood drained from their faces. “Yes, I said it, taxation. Thank you, Mr. Cord. But let’s not forget the fact that hordes of individuals will be given
financial
ability beyond their
actual
ability. Something that our system was designed to prevent. They will cause problems of spending and credit when the less able will buy what they shouldn’t and
get educations they don’t deserve and are incapable of using properly. Imagine how many medics will actually think they have the right to be doctors and will sadly have the stock shares to fund it. The social mess with the inferiors will be a tragedy we’ll all have to deal with. Even with everything I’ve just described, we’ll still need to prosecute this war … we’ll still need majoritization.”

“Why?” asked Toshiba. “It seems to me you’ve done an adequate job of justifying our
not
prosecuting the war.”

“Because once this war stops we can never get it started again. For one thing, neither side will want to continue, barring the most extreme circumstances. Plus peace will pay more than war. But consider what will be the end result of peace now.”

He paused and saw from the blank stares that not one of them had really considered the long-term ramifications of a negotiated peace.

“Justin Cord will have his civilization and they may still have incorporation in his Alliance, but it won’t be long before they get rid of it altogether. You’ll have one-tenth of the humans living as a beacon. Any social problems they have because of their primitive economic and social system will be masked by the fact that they’re a frontier economy. The growth they’ll experience for the next century or two will give the illusion that their system works, just like the old American idiocy before it collapsed and took everyone and everything down with it. And just like then, before Cord’s system goes it too will take us all down with it. Any person in the core who feels they’re not being treated well, i.e., all the ones who deservedly belong on the bottom, will now have another option. They can run away to the Alliance and you can be sure Justin Cord and his ideological children will be there to welcome them with open arms, rejoicing that others have escaped the incorporated jailers that we’ll be portrayed as. They’ll expand in population and industry. Jupiter alone has the potential resources and space to grow larger and more powerful than the entire core. In seventy years we won’t be able to defeat the Alliance; in a hundred they’ll be able to conquer us. And when the idiocies of their system start to make it untenable, do you think they’ll simply admit they were wrong and go back to incorporation, the only philosophy of human existence that actually works?” Or will they attack the civilized core, a core much weakened by the long de cades of population loss and propaganda campaigns, and thereby destroy the only hope the human race ever had? So you want to protect your profits. Well, good for you, you should. There’s nothing wrong in acting in your self-interest.” The corners of Hektor’s mouth formed into a knowing grin. “I always have. But remember, self-interest comes in two forms: short term and long term.

“I have figures,” he continued, “and projections elaborating on what I’ve just said and am happy to share it all with you, both conclusions, procedures,
gathering methods, and the entirety of the raw data itself. But you already know what I’m saying is true. In the short term our interests are served by peace.” Hektor called up a map of the solar system with a floating time chart beneath it. The system hovered holographically above the conference table. The UHF-controlled area was in red and the Alliance-in blue. The areas slowly started to change colors as the time chart beneath advanced in years. With each passing de cade the UHF’s color receded and the Alliance’s grew. Within 250 years there was hardly any red left at all.

“We’ll be at the doorstep of a society whose beliefs are diametrically opposed to ours,” said Hektor, “and all our investments in humanity will be for naught. But what ever the price paid, incorporation, human civilization, and our long-term self-interest demand the complete eradication of the Outer Alliance and that putrid belief in the freedom it represents.”

It would take weeks of debate and Hektor would have to deliver much in the way of backroom deals and government contracts to corporations that were happy to reacquaint themselves with the powerful narcotic of unlimited government spending and debt passed on to future generations. But in the end the CEOs and the corporations they represented fell in line and supported the new total war. The pennies too signed up in enthusiastic numbers; they were fighting for what they considered to be their freedom.

Ceres

Justin missed his swims in the Cerian seas. He still exercised. His new doctor insisted on it, but Justin couldn’t bring himself to swim as he once did. It wasn’t the swimming itself; he still did that in the current-driven pools. But he’d always used his time in the sea to work through his problems and afterwards discussed them with Neela. Now he’d started to box those parts of his life away, both emotionally and physically. He no longer slept in the same bedroom he’d once shared with Neela. He’d had that space converted into a security station.

But he couldn’t escape her shadow entirely. He buried himself in his work, and that never eased up. He had to lead the fight in the war, which meant balancing recruiting with outfitting the ever-expanding fleets. More spacers for the fleet meant fewer trained personnel to man all the systems needed to keep an advanced interstellar civilization running. Commodities were also becoming an issue. It wasn’t so much a matter of paying for it all, as the new Alliance dollar was holding steady as an accepted currency. Technically it wasn’t a fiat currency, since it was backed by orbital slots and mining holdings on the various planets.
But the currency had to be able to buy goods and ser vices in an economy, and the truth was there were fewer and fewer goods and ser vices to be had as the demands of the war became more prevalent.

But that was the price of saving some small portion of the human race from the mental castration that awaited them if Hektor and all he stood for won. And so the Alliance struggled on in its third year of the war with no end in sight and everyone going about their jobs as best as they could manage. And it was why Justin found himself on a docking port in the Via Cereana dedicating yet another warship to the ever-growing Alliance fleet. It was hard to believe that twenty ships had almost decided the war nearly two years back. Now the Alliance fleet had over one hundred ships captured, refitted, or constructed from scratch at Gedretar, and soon more would be coming out of the newly renamed Jovian Shipyards.