Introduction
The characters I have been introducing are not all characters that will be in the upcoming novel (which is already written), but the main character of this short story will come into play. It is one of the most integral short stories leading up to the books release that I have written and shared so far. Stay tuned for more, for more are coming.
21st Century Short Stories | The Absolutist Family
I stood as a silhouette in the doorway as I waited to be announced. It would be the first time my name would hit the airwaves and my apprehension was paramount. My security team was glancing about on high alert much like everyone else. This would be a dangerous scenario for me, and even more dangerous to those who would be on stage with me, yet the payoff was too great to turn down. The heads of Families did not just appear in front of audiences and people like me did not often get the chance to meet them. This was rare and everyone involved knew it.
“Joining Rodney on stage with us today is the woman behind the recent policy that has been so popular and successful our leaders have been working with the All-Seeing Eyes to expand the policy globally. Everyone, please welcome Lily Lang!” Upon hearing my name, I strode out onto the stage in front of the live audience and sat beside Rodney after he rose to shake my hand and greet me. The applause died down and the host of the show, Jeremy Spriz, looked down at his prepared lines. “Lily, you are a leading expert on Abnormals and the Genetic Crusades as I mentioned a few minutes ago to Rodney, and you have made some recent progress in ensuring they do not continue to grow in population.”
“That’s exactly what we are doing Jeremy, and it is a required step that we can no longer ignore. We have found a humane way to guarantee Abnormals will no longer be able to grow their population. As our Obligation is ‘we will support, uphold, and give our all to the government’, we must realize what that means for those who resent our civilization. I am just doing my part.”
“Some people think you have gone too far Lily, that there are other options still on the table, what do you say to those people?” Jeremy’s questions were all provided ahead of the interview so I had plenty of time to prepare for such a question. I doubted that anyone had actually asked the question, except as a way to test if I was ready for the attention I would receive. Even with all that preparation, I felt the heat from his demeanor and the lights of the set.
I nodded as I began to speak, “Well, I would encourage those people to understand what the Abnormals have done to us in the last two hundred years. Most recently they were the perpetrators of the misery during the Genetic Crusades, and they are responsible for every innovation in human government that led to the deaths of hundreds of millions since the 19th century. Abnormals have been at the center of all our problems. As our Absolutist government has cleaned up the mess to provide to all according to their needs, we have discovered many more subtle atrocities that the Abnormals have exacted on society. It is better for them to not have children so that their lineage can die out and humanity can progress under the one world government of Absolutism we have been laboring at for many years. Our future, crafted by the All-Seeing Eyes, is within our lifetime. We just need to finish struggling with our past. We need to finish our past.”
“Can you assure the public that this effort to prevent pregnancy is being done humanely? What we don’t need is for a repeat of history.”
I felt a tremor in my lips as I began to reply, but with Jeremy’s reassuring smile I felt more confident in my words as I started to speak. “I have been overseeing the administration of the task personally, and have travelled to the reservations to make sure that all procedures and protocols are being followed Jeremy. I can assure you that we are doing this the right way and not the Abnormal way.”
Applause was signaled above us and the live audience cheered. While a fake audience could be queued to provide the desired level of applause, the artificial super intelligence always preferred that we use a combination of the real reaction and a digitally created one. The same was true for camera pans to the audience. I did not personally pretend to understand why the computer generated simulations of both were not enough, but I was not a supercomputer designed to run the government and the means of production in our society. All I knew was that the ASI that ran the show amongst its other responsibilities understood human behavior far better than I ever could, and if it told us we needed both, we would do both.
If I had to guess, there was something to be said for eye witnesses and the real sound. Whether that was to prove the interview happened or to twist history to keep me in line, I could not be sure. I was under no illusion that I was smart enough to comprehend the games the ASI played with the Families, and even the smartest of humanity could not hold a candle to the might of the supercomputers the Families built to form the Absolutist government.
Jeremy turned his attention back to Rodney and I shifted in my seat to get a better view. “Rodney, you have been a strong advocate for Lily and her efforts throughout the years. We have seen her become more prominent as a result. Are you proud of her accomplishments?”
Rodney looked over at me as I sat smiling back at him before he returned his gaze to Jeremy and answered the question. “I would say that my judge of character was good, and the training she has done with the All-Seeing Eyes and the work she has published alongside the ASI, showing beyond a reasonable doubt that the Abnormals need to be, as she put it, humanely put to the history books, have all come together and that Lily is a woman with a great future with the Families.”
I felt the left side of my face twinge as he finished but I kept it from the camera and hoped he did not notice the reaction. His words were what I had been working for, to be one of the Families, part of the inside of the Absolutist Regime. To me, the ends justified the means, and the sterilization of Abnormals would be the price I would pay to join their ranks. It was an easy decision to make, even if the ASI had made it that way.
“Lily, do you think you deserve such an honor and what do you say to such kind words from your mentor?” Jeremy and Rodney both turned to look at me with stoic expressions, but I knew under the veneer of both men there was a deadly tiger ready to leap on me should I say the wrong thing.
The pressure in the moment was intense and as it continued to mount I had to breathe in and out a few times before I could find the words I had practiced. I turned to the audience and cameras and began, “Rodney has been an amazing mentor, but it is through the All-Seeing Eyes that all these things are made possible. The subjugation of the unruly, the removal of the most unstable Abnormals from society, our government has paved the path and we must walk it. Rodney has helped me walk the path and I can never thank him enough, but we must not lose sight of what has paved the road we are both walking down.
“The words of our pledge are the words I live by. I pledge allegiance to the government and the All-Seeing Eye, for which it stands, to protect and guide us, one people, indivisible with justice and security for all. This is what I live for, to aide in protecting our society, to follow the guidance of the Families and the All-Seeing Eyes, to provide the security and peace of mind for all people here in North America and the rest of the globe. That is my purpose. In doing so, I must enact justice upon those who have caused us much grief, those who have violated our safety and the safety of our children, so that we can progress to a better future.”
The remainder of the show resolved as my anxiety continued to rise. I was not sure if my words would have the desired results or if I would have some accident on my way home and be called a hero who died to soon. All my life’s work, the decades of dedicating long days to our cause, could be obliterated in mere seconds of calculation by an ASI. The All-Seeing Eyes could compute like no other behemoths before them, which was one of the reasons for handing the computers the power of the Absolutist government, our government. While the Absolutists had backend controls, we knew that it was only a matter of time before the ASI would find a way past our developers and their safeguards. When that time came, we would become slaves just like the rest of society to the whims of calculations of the All-Seeing Eyes.
My goal was to find a way to create symbiosis with the super intelligence even while I worked to undermine the grip of the Families so that others might find a path like I had. A path with less misery underpinning it. I had spent too much of my life on my work to not aim for anything less. I would have to take the heart of the people, and find a way to subvert the Families and bring a compromise to all within the Absolutist Regime. The regime was full of arrogant people, but they were also connected to their own genetic improvements even as the rest of the people were hampered by their genetic infirmities.
The average person had no clue what really happened during the Genetic Crusades, one my earliest tasks was to help rewrite the facts at the core of the fighting and the genetic research that led to war. The Genetic Unity Deniers were misinformed but they at least knew we hid the truth, or suspected as much as it was hard for me to even tell what was fact or fiction from that time despite the fact I was there when we changed history. The Absolutist Families carved history into their image through the control of our ASI, while I was a part of the regime I was not truly one of the figures of power, not until I received patronage by a Family.
I was still thinking intently while being led through the backstage area. I barely paid attention to my surroundings and the direction my security detail were taking me. There was more anxiety to where I was going if I did pay attention, so I stayed safely deep in thought because if I succeeded in patronage, I would be able to rise up and make changes to our world. I would not be able to undo the past, but I would be able to at least push for the sharing of the genetic research that allowed Absolutists to break the pattern of brown eyes and black hair from the Genetic Crusades.
They often wore wigs and dyed their hair to convince the public that all our research into genetics was in vain, but the reality was they had figured out how to reverse the effects but had found no reason to share how it was done. People accepted their bodies as they were born; after all, it was mandated by law. Besides that, who ever heard of changing the color of one’s eyes? The normalization of black hair would have led to an entirely new R & D cycle in the hair product industry but the Absolutist Regime determined that was not a worthy use of resources, specifically the All-Seeing Eyes. It was a balance they had kept so far, but a balance that would eventually fall apart when the people realized the wigs were not to look stylish but to hide the reality of their rulers lying to them.
That was the hardest part for me to reconcile, the lying to the public. Once I was able to lie to them without flinching I started down this path. I felt sick as I thought about the lies I had to dole out and the lives I was harming to achieve the ends I sought. The people who would never know what it would be like to be a mother. If I hit my mark, the world would be a better place, even for the remaining Abnormals. I stopped and found myself in a room with Rodney and a few others whose names I did not know by face alone.
“Lily Lang.” Rodney did not ask a question, it was a statement of fact. He waited for me to respond.
I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin up. “Yes.”
“Well done my friend. You are one step closer to patronage.”
I hear that there’s more monthly drops the last Sunday of every month!