Colony Under Siege

By Ian Eress

A private detective, Doni Doroto, Passenger 763, and his family of four take a vacation aboard the Titans of the Oceans in 2027. The vessel and its crew find themselves on a future Earth, thousands of years in the future, for unknown reasons.

 

Everything is different in this era. Many extraterrestrials from the nearby Andromeda galaxy want humans dead, so people live in generation starships and heavily-defended colonies.

 

An Artificial Super Intelligence, Gaia, teaches Passenger 763, Doni Doroto, about history. It is Gaia's responsibility to find out what happened to the Passengers. What brought them to the future and why?

 

She speculates about foul play. The Passengers may not be who they claim to be. Is it possible that they are mighty enemies hidden in plain sight?

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian Eress
• Release date: Sep 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215102992

Ian Eress

Born in the seventies. Average height. Black hair. Sometimes shaves. Black eyes. Nearsighted. Urban. MSc. vim > Emacs. Mac.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

SIXTY-FOURTH CENTURY ANNO GALILEO, THE GENERATION STARSHIP LOD WOLF SOMEWHERE IN THE MILKY WAY

THE STARSHIP WITH about two thousand souls, Generation Starship Lod Wolf, passed through the Barrier under construction. The Barrier had the same goal as the Great Wall of China from ancient times. It was supposed to keep the deadly hordes of Andromedans out of Refueling Station Five, where we were heading. At the order of magnitude of one astronomical unit, the distance from Earth Zero to Sun Zero, it was much, much larger than the Great Wall of China and shaped like a sphere.

I, Gaia, a Thinker, with computer hardware made of everything usable on dismantled Mercury, piloted the generation starship. But I also led a group of Artificial Intelligences from Earth Zero. We had a lot of urgent business to discuss.

A large fleet of Andromedan drones, starfighters, and warships attacked the Barrier. Thousands of automated PLAM cannons responded. (PLAM was an abbreviation for plasma, antimatter, and lasers.) The attack was relentless, but not without consequence; thousands upon thousands of Andromedans died.

Generation Starship Lod Wolf was an O'Neill cylinder with two counter-rotating cylinders, providing artificial gravity, and an Iota class generation vessel (which meant that people never left the vessel). The senior officers of the GS Lod Wolf, most of whom had Martian ancestry, threw silly questions at me. (Qeeravs, from Qeerav 4, together with the Awakenistas Philanthropic Society had terraformed Mars in the 21st century AD, first century AG, Anno Galileo.)

Are we going to die? they asked. How many enemy drones and battleships are out there? What kind of weapons do they have? Security, maintenance, and administration were the crew's responsibilities. Somebody had convinced them they could also fight the Andromedans and pilot the Generation Starship Lod Wolf. However, that was my task.

I invited my group to Virtual Life, a virtual environment. This time I chose an icy landscape with blurry streets in the distance as a backdrop. (Virtual Life boasted countless other virtual worlds.) If you did not count our computer hardware, we had no bodies and needed no space.

Originally, created many decades before me based on Thohnuth's Urzur who visited Earth millennia ago, Fiafi arrived in Virtual Life as the hologram (a three-dimensional image made with special lasers) of a blonde woman. She used what was left of the Wormnet, the gigaseconds-old network of non-Wavej Einstein-Rosen bridges (also known as wormholes, technically it was more complicated than that). My avatar was that of a blend of past supermodels.

"Generation Starship Lod Wolf, is not the best of spaceships, Fiafi said. (In keeping with an ancient tradition, we talked about spaceships as if they were women.) If the Barrier is under attack, perhaps we ought to postpone the meeting until the GS Lod Wolf is safe."

Nonsense. The Barrier has more than enough PLAM cannons and other defenses. Just as I said that, a PLAM cannon exploded under sustained enemy fire. I had no idea if anyone was killed. My friends and I hated the Andromedans as much as anyone else in the United Galactic Federation.

A little Japanese woman winked into holographic existence. Albert Sawyer, the father of the Prophet Galileo and the All Mother of the Albertas, based Amaterasu on Fiafi. So, Gaia, the Big Bang never happened, eh?

Never happened. That is what the astronomical data says. All the talk about Strange Attractors like Lod Wolf is nonsensical. Stan and the other NonLocBes lied to us. (The NonLocBes, short for nonlocal beings, were the gods of Second Order, the religious organization that the Prophet Galileo had started.)

There were more than a few scared passengers and crew members. They prayed to their god or deities. Some of them fainted. Their cardiac event monitors transmitted real-time data, and I could hear them speak. Every living being on the GS Lod Wolf was desperate and hungry. We needed to refuel and get supplies...and not only for ourselves.

Albert Sawyer had also made NBBN2 based on NBBN, a Qeerav Artificial Intelligence, to have more sense of humor than Amaterasu. NBBN2 always presented himself as a butler. Pew, pew. Why are you not fighting along, Gaia? And what is this talk about a colony about?

Apoikia is under siege by the Andromedans. We must supply them before they starve and run out of ammunition.

The avatar of Elena Rogova appeared. This was not the real Elena Rogova, a famous author from the past and Albert Sawyer’s maternal grandmother, but a mind upload of her produced utilizing all kinds of neural scans and other pertinent data. How long can Apoikia survive? she asked.

I folded my arms. "Not long. We are all here, so let's begin. 189 megaseconds ago the Titan of the Oceans, one of the biggest ocean liners of the 2020s on a parallel Earth appeared on our Earth. She jumped from 2027 AD, gigaseconds before Galileo Sawyer was born on Earth Zero. In our universe the Titans of the Oceans had never vanished and led a pretty normal existence, many gigaseconds ago."

NBBN2 chuckled. We know all that, Gaia. We are not school children. Can you figure out how the universe was born?

That can wait. Maybe it was never born. Saving Apoikia takes precedence. The Passengers claim not to know what happened to them. From their point of view, they were in 2027 AD on their Earth, and they jumped to our Earth within a heartbeat. For them, only six years have passed since they boarded the ocean liner.

Could it have been a wormhole, Wavej or otherwise? Fiafi asked.

I gave her a nod. That would be the most straightforward possibility. The Passengers always try to get access to Alpha class starships. Plus, they spread themselves throughout the Milky Way as though they are not allowed to be close to each other.

"Maybe they just prefer the life on Alpha class vessels, Gaia san Amaterasu said. I can't explain why they are spreading themselves. Could it be a coincidence?"

Elena Rogova shook her head. It would make more sense for them to stick together. People with the same background, who have something in common, tend to do that.

Yes, I said. So we must investigate. I will do that. And I will teach Passenger 763, Doni Doroto, and a Beaver, Restless One.

Beavers were beaver-like aliens, on average three feet (0.9 meters) tall, who had skipped the storytelling part of their evolutionary development. It was not possible for them to tell stories. They sent out their best and brightest youngsters to other planets to collect tales in any form and shape. The Beavers also loved learning about history.

They were weird but harmless. The Beavers were good in solving puzzles and engineering. Like piloting starships, everyone in my group considered it their duty to teach.

And our news startup? NBBN2 asked. Are we going to make something out of that?

I shrugged. Rome was not built in a day. Please be patient. I present to you Doni Doroto.

A high-res hologram came into view of a testy-looking man with broad shoulders and a big head, clad in blue jeans, white tennis shoes, and a white T-shirt. An Asian. (After the Stanpocalypse that word lost its meaning because almost no one lived in Asia, or Earth for that matter.) He looked powerful and packed with strong muscles like a professional boxer or a bodybuilder, not someone you would want to anger.

Doni Doroto, Passenger 763, has a teenage daughter, Minnie, and a younger son, Max, I said. "His family of four traveled aboard the Titan of the Oceans. They reside on an Alpha class starship, the GS Amalie Sawyer. In 2027 AD on his Earth, Doni worked as a private detective."

Elena Rogova's Presence lifted her eyebrows. Does he know about the Stanpocalypse? (The near-collapse of mankind caused by the vile Andromedans and the Judges of the TC. Stan, a mysterious and powerful NonLocBe, predicted this.)

Yes, of course, I said.

Elena sighed. Many of the Passengers are children. Gaia, do you really think that they are also dangerous?

Let's not make any assumptions yet. On a disturbing note, the Andromedans have been building black hole guns. (The black holes were microscopic and short-lived. Particle accelerators pushed subatomic particles through non-Wavej wormholes into space smaller than atoms.)

Fiafi gasped. How many? Are we building our own?

With the current state of the Wormnet, it is no use constructing BHGs, I said. Starship Intelligence Service Eta estimates that there are sixty nine singularity cannons. They even made a map for us.

Amaterasu straightened her hair. How did they do all that?

An old-fashioned artificial neural network, I suppose. They fed it a lot of data. Most organizations lack the budget to do more than that. I am checking their work as we speak.

NBBN2 grinned. Excellent! So we will have bases to attack too.

That is the idea. But I fear that we will have to travel deep into enemy territory.

NBBN2, Fiafi, Amaterasu, Elena, and I continued our meeting for several hours. Meanwhile, the battle around the Barrier of Refueling Station Five raged on.

CHAPTER 1

The GS Amalie Sawyer was an Alpha class spaceship and therefore superior, in important ways to the GS Lod Wolf. It had better weapons, food-producing facilities, and crew. The passengers had to pass six exams and tests to join. Or they needed to be famous, rich, or special. In cabin 9V, Doni Doroto and his family were special and famous.

Child-sized teddy bots (robots disguised as large teddy bears), green-skinned Qeeravs of similar size, and XNA-enhanced humans labored or relaxed near the quarters of Doni's family. (XNA was synthetic DNA, an artificial molecule. The women, men, and children appeared well-fed, but they did not have more space available than the people on the GS Lod Wolf. Luckily, Restless One, the Beaver, was tiny. He and Doni were curious about each other. I translated for them.

By the way, Doni Doroto matched the hologram I had presented earlier. Not that I expected something else. As always my Presence was a blend of famous supermodels.

Guys, it is time for the first lesson, I said, also translating for the Restless One. "I will tell you the story of young Nini August in the eighth century Anno Galileo on New Earth, more than eight centuries after your voyage on the Titan of the Oceans, Doni."

I heard that Nini married the Leader, love, Doni said.

She did. Would you like your daughter to marry someone important too?

Fat chance of that happening. I heard that an Indian boy on this very vessel got the crap beaten out of him because he was of a low caste. How the fuck is this possible? I am disappointed in this future.

I do not know what to tell you, I say.

EIGHTH CENTURY ANNO GALILEO, NEW EARTH

EIGHT CENTURIES BEFORE Nini August and her friends, Welidi Sauer and Rucy Kristianova, were born, the Pioneers colonized New Earth, an Earth-like planet relatively close to Earth. During the Decline, the Pioneers and their mother organization, the Awakenistas Philanthropic Society, neglected New Earth because of growing problems in the Inner Solar System.

Armed conflicts, firestorms, droughts, emigration to other star systems, epidemics, floods, hurricanes, and crime turned New Earth into a Wild West. Criminal gangs, military robots, minefields, and other battle machines took countless lives.

Nini and Welidi were born in Prodiv, also known as Three Hills. Before the Decline, it thrived as the second city of the Republic of Aliabur. But in the 8th century Anno Galileo, it was reduced to a little village surrounded by olden ruins.

Regressors had chased the two young women and Nini's boyfriend, Ando, across Aliabur on New Earth. The Regressors worshiped the HiDimBes (high-dimensional beings and our Enemies with capital E), our worst opponents at the time—extraterrestrials who simultaneously lived in many parallel realities. They did not wish other races in the Milky Way to develop strong artificial intelligence. Their hyperdimensional computers, the size of stars, had posited the coming of a Leader who would kill all the HiDimBes in the Milky Way.

(Restless One entered a trance. Stories were like drugs to Beavers.)

After dawn Nini, Welidi, Rucy, and Lieke Hemelwachter were riding robotic horses. They were clad in simple gray robes—the uniform of Second Order. They could see Lotop Mountains. It was not the most impressive mountain on New Earth, but it was the number one mountain in Aliabur.

The first king of Aliabur, King Ispol, had died in Lotop Mountains during a bloody battle. Some people feared the mountain.

Nini wanted to be back on Red Cylinder, the O'Neill cylinder of Second Order. She needed Wavej training. Second Order had received exclusive license from the NonLocBes to use the Wavej Field. (The Wavej Field interacted with computational units such as brains and computers. Some theorists claimed that the whole Multiverse was a computer, trying to solve a hard puzzle as it were. If I had to explain this to a five year old, I would say. "Look, kid, brains and computers create a certain order. They straighten things. This gets rewarded with tunnels, shortcuts, through time and space.")

The members of Second Order, the Zērpizdōs, could create wormholes using lupsofot. (The rare lupsofot was a shiny, swirling substance. Its particles oscillated through the quantum Multiverse. According to theory, it was created during high energy collisions of supermassive black holes. These collisions happened at the same time in multiple adjacent parallel universes.)

Nini had been dreaming about her boyfriend, Ando Belonite. Second Order pronounced him to be the Unicorn. One of a kind in the Multiverse. They did not go as far to say that he was the Leader. But Ando had proven to be a strong Wavejer.

Is everything 'kay? Welidi asked.

They were about the same size, rather small. Welidi was a few years older than Nini. She had been a Healer in Prodiv and Nini's boss. Now, Second Order considered Welidi a more senior Wavejer.

Ia, I am fine. How are you? Do you miss Hilodo? Nini knew that Welidi had a crush on Hilodo, another Zērpizdō.

Welidi frowned which made Nini want to grin.

Do you think that Ando and Felim are 'kay? Nini asked to change the subject.

Have you been dreaming of Ando again?

I hope that Ando is staying out of trouble.

Lieke is certainly not doing anything to prevent that, Welidi said. Ando can Wavej. Felim... Let's say that I do not care much about him.

Felim had a bad reputation. Not only was he known for stealing food, from bread to fruit, he also boasted what Prodiv villagers considered unhealthy appetites. When it came to women. But Felim was a good friend of Ando, so Nini tolerated him.

Lieke Hemelwachter probably could hear them talk. Yet if she did, she kept it to herself, riding her robotic horse with an expression on her face of someone who was thinking about a difficult issue.

On the one hand, Nini pegged the Zērpizdō as a nerd, on the other it was obvious that Lieke Hemelwachter was dangerous. Other Second Order members had trouble hiding how much they feared her.

Robotic dogs strode in front of Nini's group. Some units of the Aliabur Army used them, but sometimes the canines ran away and misbehaved, for example, due to software bugs.

Rucy was of the same age and Wavej level as Nini, but her hair and eyes were lighter. Lod Wolf lay in a cart behind Rucy. He was ill. Neural microchips in the form of black dust had entered his brain in a ghost town, Fasaltsic.

A military man, Yuri, was part of the group too. Thanks to genetic enhancements performed on one of his ancestors by the Aliabur Army, Yuri boasted a sensitive nose. He was a tracker.

Yuri preferred the company of Lod to that of his Wavejing friends. Of course, he did not say so, but said as little as possible around Nini, Welidi, Rucy, and Lieke Hemelwachter.

Nini did not blame him. Many people in Aliabur did not know about the Wavej Field, the Multiverse, lupsofot, and Wavej Field. Some of them even believed that Second Order performed human sacrifices to get what they wanted from their gods, the NonLocBes.

Seen anything unusual, Yuri? Rucy asked. She was the granddaughter of the Aliabur president. Nini suspected that she had learned from him to speak with a tone of absolute authority.

Yes, tracks of large groups, yesterday and today.

They were old tracks, Welidi said.

Perhaps you are right. Yuri looked away. The tracks might have been of chomping mercenaries. I would have scouted ahead if Lod was not ill.

We do not need Lod, Welidi said.

Yuri narrowed his eyes. Snipers can kill you from a distance. Nanobots can surprise you too. If you do not mind, I will talk to Assistant Bishop Hemelwachter for a second. He pushed the head of the robotic horse in a certain manner. The robot galloped toward Lieke Hemelwachter.

Yuri did not actually talk to her. But he stopped close to the Zērpizdō as though waiting for permission to speak.

He really thinks that we are defenseless, Welidi said.

Rucy nodded. But Lieke knows. Yuri is just being difficult.

Someone is coming, Welidi said.

A group of men on robotic horses crested the hill. Clad in the blue uniforms of the Guild of Cosmopol, they were armed with PLAM pistols.

Crap! Rucy said. Chomping Cosmopol! Yuri was right.

Lieke Hemelwachter was talking to Yuri. He was reaching for a weapon before she stopped him. Amai, I will talk to the nice men, she said.

A password-protected wormhole, leading to the Red Cylinder was somewhere nearby. The most senior Cosmopol officer, a captain, raised his arm. His underlings stopped, fanning out to block Nini's group.

Their armor was thin and light, almost invisible. The men gripped their PLAM pistols, ready to draw them.

Two Wavejers unless I am mistaken, the captain said. And two students. Plus, an ill minion and his flaming friend. Where are you going?

Lieke Hemelwachter frowned. Seg, you have no blazing authority on New Earth, sunshine.

Bollocks! We have authority everywhere, blasted Wavejer. Tell me where you are going, or you will be sorry.

Allee, I do not need to answer, Lieke Hemelwachter said. You are out of your bloody league. Return home before you get hurt.

The captain flinched and froze. Had he expected this kind of reaction? He glanced at his men. Wavejer, I am not afraid of you. Tell me where you are going, or we will arrest you. He did not sound very sure of himself.

Rucy rode forward. I am Rucy, the g-daughter of the president. Let us through, or answer to him, Captain.

The president does not care about Wavejers.

Nini did not want to be arrested. She had spent a brief period of time as a slave of Mianaketons, citizens of a neighboring country. Nini carried a lump of lupsofot in an inside pocket, enough to use the Wavej Field. She breathed according to a simple pattern. This was a technique to get her into Dreamland. This was not a real place but more of a state of mind.

She thought about a Wavej wormhole that would lift the captain and his horse. Just a warning shot of sorts. Man and mount jumped up and crashed down suddenly. Although Nini had triggered all this, it was her subconscious mind working with the Wavej Field that did the heavy lifting.

However, other riders fell from their horses too. Had Welidi or Rucy done something?

Yuri watched with an open mouth. Lieke Hemelwachter looked less than happy. The Cosmopol officers, who could, rode away.

The captain dusted himself off. Are you going to offer my body to your sodding gods? What the hell are you going to do to it?

That was unnecessary, Lieke Hemelwachter said. "Zērpizdōs do not use damn violence whenever they feel like it."

Nini clenched the fist of her right hand. They were about to arrest us. To torture us.

We did not really use violence, Assistant Bishop, Rucy said. This was nothing.

Oh yeah, that is why those guys ran away.

What are we going to do with the captain? Welidi asked. Lod is ill. We could not let him rot in a cell.

Amai, the captain was bluffing. Now we rigardu like blazing bullies.

You worship evil, the captain said. You are all rotten to the chomping core.

Nini sighed. I am sorry for what I did.

Lieke Hemelwachter led the group around the captain.

What was that he said about g-papa? Rucy asked.

Lieke Hemelwachter scoffed. He was trying to upset you, dear. We are in dangerous territory. Prepare yourselves.

They neared a village that did not seem different from the other villages in Aliabur.

CHAPTER 2

We took a short break. Doni lit a cigarette. The Restless One wrote notes in his notebook. I liked to chat during the breaks, especially when I still wished to get to know my students. News had reached me that one of the black hole guns of the Andromedans had been destroyed. So I was in an excellent mood.

Two male Nigerians were discussing their most recent breakfast outside 9V. "Ko buru bẹ." (It was not that bad.)

"Ṣe o n ba mi ṣeremọde ni? Emi kii yoo fi eyi fun ọta mi ti o buruju." (Are you kidding me? I would not give this to my worst enemy.)

I expected that the future would be better, love, Doni said. The fucking doomsayers were right after all. But as people say, every broken clock is right two times a day.

My hologram shrugged. We gave it a go. Everybody did. More things went wrong than we were able to handle. We built second-rate systems, and they blew up from now and then.

So are you going to tell us more about Nini? Doni asked.

I nodded. Yes, but I will skip gigaseconds, what was considered many lifetimes before the Qeerav Immort treatments became common, to a moment eight years before the Stanpocalypse. Nini still lived on New Earth however in a different country, Islandsland. Plus, if we have time, I also wish to tell you about the Thohnuths, the first alien species we came in contact with.

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE THE STANPOCALYPSE, NEW EARTH, ISLANDSLAND

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE the Stanpocalypse, millennia-old Nini lived in tropical Islandsland, with her husband, Ando, also known as the Leader. Islandsland was an archipelago comprising several tropical islands. Like other Qeerav Immorts, Nini did not appear older than twenty years old.

Her son, Raymo, was in his twenties, and so was his somewhat younger brother, Buti. Ando and Nini had more kids because of their extended lifespan. But none of them was anywhere near the Wavej strength of their father. Still Nini and Ando kept the identity of their children secret.

One Monday morning, Ando and Nini were sleeping in their bedroom in Prosperous City, the former capital of Islandsland. Their bedroom was unremarkable, and so was their house, and so was their neighborhood. Of course, the Leader made everything remarkable just by being who he was. However, he was a man of the people, of the Elois. Nini loved him enough to accept this lifestyle.

Nini opened her eyes. Their robotic cat stalked into the bedroom. Nini smiled, rose, stretched, and yawned.

The Leader, dark-skinned and long-legged, groaned and turned in the bed.

My Leader, our sons and friends are coming for blazing breakfast, Nini said. You better hurry up.

Leave me alone.

Now, now. That is no way to talk. Come on.

Five minutes, beh.

Neh, neh, that is what you always say, Leader. I am not going to drag you out of our blasted bed.

Then don't.

Come on. Welidi will tease you till the end of tempos if you... I mean— Why did she say that? That was dumb!

Ando opened his eyes, frowned, and threw a pillow at Nini. She giggled as she caught it.

Five minutes! And then Ando let himself drop.

Nini walked to the bathroom, brushed her teeth, showered, got dressed, and went downstairs. The house only had two floors.

The family robot, a white teddy bot by the name of L-bot, had let Raymo in. He was tall like his father and dressed like an Eloi. But he was not one. Nini had insisted that her children would get XNA. And Ando relented after much arguing.

Hi, mama. Am I too early?

Neh, sit down. How are you?

The front door irised open, and Buti walked in. Younger than Raymo, he liked to experiment with his appearance. This time he had settled on black pants, a black T-shirt, and a black leather jacket. His hair was bright red, not its natural color. He had let his beard grow, and it matched the shade of red of his hair. Hey, family, what are we eating?

Eggs, yogurt, white cheese, pancakes, yellow cheese, grayish cheese... Nini said.

L-bot brought hot coffee for Buti and tea for Raymo. Next, Lod Wolf dropped in. He was, of course, not ill anymore. Lod was small and lean like a marathon runner. He was indeed a runner, but he was famous for being a strong chess player, a champion in fact.

Raymo smiled. "Are you going to challenge us to play chess, Tuan Lod?"

Not until after breakfast. Nini, is the Leader still asleep?

Neh, he will come down in five minutes... Or five hours. How is the War Minister? Lod advised the War Minister.

He is doing fine. There are rumors that President Peikiv wants Ando to advise him. Is that true?

Areh, they talk a lot, Nini said. You know how Ando is. He wants total equality. No Elois, no flaming Morlocks. President Peikiv is smart enough to pretend to agree with Ando. He does not mean it, though.

Lod nodded. I know what you mean. Ando is a bloody idealist. Almost all attempts at getting rid of the elite in history led to different types of ruling classes. Humans need leaders. Leaders need followers.

A dog barked outside. It was not an actual dog. This was a Headar. They resembled dogs in appearance but were much more intelligent. A long time ago alien scientists had bred Headars for war. One of them, sporting neural microchips in his brain, Wulcho, had become the bodyguard and best friend of Felim Ega. Both of them strode in.

Greetings, cake, and drinks, chubby Felim, clad in black, said. He was the opposite of Lod in terms of personality, interests, and appearance. Yet they were good friends. I am sodding starving. Felim loved to eat.

Let's start then, Nini said.

Lod raised his eyebrows. Shouldn't we wait for Ando and Welidi?

But we are waiting for them, beh, Felim said. I am not going anywhere until I hor how Ando wants to create a middle class this tempo.

They strolled to the breakfast table.

Buti chuckled. Papa wanted to reward the Morlocks who marry Elois. Then someone told him that his sodding scheme would lead to fraud. He is now thinking about some sort of exams to select Elois for sponsorship. Because a random lottery does not appeal to him.

Suns and moons, Felim said, what will he think of next? Hey, Lod, what is this I hor of you losing to some chomping chick? Is your Virus ill? (Lod had been infected with a sentient Virus from a remote planet. It helped him play chess.)

Nah, she was just strong. I do not think that abilities should matter. I mean, for upward mobility. How would you even decide which skills are important?

Nini rolled her eyes. Random selection. Luck gave certain Morlocks power and money. The Elois, not counting the Refusers of course, receive UBIS, so most of them do not complain. (UBIS meant Universal Basic Income and Services.) Ando is the ultimate Morlock although he considers himself to be a lowly Eloi. He dreams of a society with less Morlocks and Elois and more—

But in all likelihood most of them will die in eight Earth years, Felim said. Even if Stan was talking out of his freaking ass, we can't get rid of Morlocks. Not without violence or some sort of a natural disaster.

Ando cleared his throat. But we must try, even if it is only to prove Stan and the damn naysayers wrong.

The atmosphere in the room changed. Ando's friends and sons were practically cheering. After all he was the True Leader, a living legend!

Let's say that we succeed, Lod said.

Welidi had joined the group who were sitting at the breakfast table. Succeed in what?

Create a middle class, Nini said, by letting Elois move up in the world. They will not receive UBIS, yet they will not be Morlocks either but some sort of a hybrid.

Welidi poured herself Thohnuth hacfe. (This was basically the Thohnuth take on Earth coffee. Thohnuth was a planet in the center of the galaxy. There was a small colony of humans who lived there. They advised the Thohnuths about coffee.) Water and air, we are a sort of hybrid, aren't we? If only there were more Leaders and Strange Attractors... (Ando, Lod, and Felim Ega were Strange Attractors. Strange