Posts Tagged ‘fiction’
The Last Gorilla: The Confederation Branch (Short Story, Part 1) (March 14, 2005)
Note: I borrowed the title and a section on the environment theme to Christian Jacq. The two parts of this story is a gross brush for a novel. Keep your comments coming.
It is the year 2050. A decade ago, the world community has lukewarmly agreed that earth is governed by a dozen superpowers from all continents that imposed their weight in size, population, technology, agricultural and energy self sufficiency. These were the heavy weight dominating world economy, finance, military deterrence, and technologies: the USA, China, India, Russia, Brazil, the European Union, Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Viet Nam, and Nigeria. The UN has been re-structured and two departments were extended practical executive responsibilities: the department of “World Confederation Regulatory Body”, and the department of “Defense of the Environment”
It was a time when nuclear bombs or mass destructive devices were banned in the world and all the documentations burned and erased from computer storage; theories about their feasibility prohibited by law. Small nuclear energy generators were the norm and special lower level lethal fuel invented. The only equipments for waging war at a distance were under the control of an international army, equipments such as tanks, ballistic missiles, long range guns, torpedoes and airplanes. Civil wars could still take place: perceived injustices and famine were still inevitable; but killing has to be at short range, preferably man to man.
It was a time where people could request an International passport, issued by an international committee after due process. Holders of these special passports had to relinquish affiliation to any political party or citizenship of any country. They were permitted to visit any country for short duration, and if they decide to work in any specific place, they could do it for up to 4 years on condition never to return, even to take care of business or visit relatives and families. The issue of how to establish any kind of profitable enterprises in such a short period was a taboo; it was inconsequential; it was not the committee’s affairs. It was assumed that people had to get into the internet or die. Face to face business and paperwork were regarded pre-historic endeavors and these were third class people and barely classified as working people. A new name was assigned to these low lives: Bad Breath Creatures or Bugs.
It was a time oligarchies were accepted, even encouraged, as long as the dynasty had accredited genes; the concept of nobility versus common people experienced strong resurgence in the UN corridors. People could still revolt against their leaders; this inalienable right was to stay, at least on paper, because the USA insisted. The rebels knew that such acts would result in a lukewarm intervention from the Confederation as long as the revolt is not directed against class hierarchy. The leaders of States were pressured to act benevolent, peace loving, and especially, staunch believers in the new world order and very cooperative with the delegation of the Confederate.
Slowly but surely, these superpowers negotiated a future for survival of the planet, based on rational models of sustainability that excluded any factors of sentimentality in the equations. The world population was growing quicker than estimated and it was expected to reach 9 billions; regardless of discreet euthanasia policies (thought to be efficient) and prosecuted in the under-developed States that were considered to be just mouth to feed but no return in brain power or willingness to fight for survival. Even within those sovereign super states, those hopelessly 10% of handicapped and unproductive citizens were systematically and legally made to have their normal longevity abridged by 10 years.
It was a time when leeches and bleeding were not administered for every ailment. Most children were vaccinated according to a protocol, whether parents agreed or not. Infants were still allowed to die in their sleep, but their genes were known and their death could be predicted within a couple of months, also according to a well established protocol. Breast cancer was under control and the loss of bone tissues decelerated considerably. Thus, women could be predicted to outlive their spouses by 20 years, simply because men revolted against the prohibition of eating meat, drinking milk, and smoking; men staunchly abstained from regularly eating vegetables and fruits. Instances of men just helping their mates to conceive and then die within months were common occurrences: The patterns of the Queen insects killing or eating their mates after the job is done was very appealing to the public consciousness. The ideology of men waiting till they are diagnosed with terminal illness before they copulate was widespread and even encouraged.
Cloning therapy: not a science fiction (January 29, 2009)
This is no longer the realm of science fictions: you can repair any sick organ with cloning parts and if you are rich you can extend your life to 150 years. We don’t need male sperms to clone a complete entity, human or animal. We don’t need a female nucleus in eggs to clone a complete entity, human or animal. Soon, we won’t need female eggs; labs would be able to manufacture the “pouch” or envelop of the female egg. It is going to take some time before human invest on research to circumvent female uterus for incubating fetuses during nine months. There are human clones on earth.
Italian gynecologist Severino Antinori announced publicly in 2003 that he has cloned three babies; he was forced to recant and moved his business to Ukraine. There are many professional institutions cloning human, for a price, after they have been cloning favorite pets of the rich and famous. No State or institution is about to go public on human cloning; they don’t have to, they just do it.
Let us examine the protocol for clone fertilization which is very close to cloning spare parts. First phase, a female egg is removed; its nucleus, which contains the genetic instructions, is extracted. A male non-sexual cell (generally taken from the skin) is treated to extract its nucleus (containing the DNA) and implanted in the de-nucleated egg. Let me remind you that the cell can belong to the same female person of the ovary and it would work equally well! The new egg contains all the DNA information of the donor.
Phase two: A special cocktail of electric shocks and chemicals aid the cell to regress to a primordial cell that replicates. Phase three is the process called “blastocyst” that can generate either an embryo for fertilization or the production of specialized spare parts of the various organs such as kidney, liver, heart muscle, or even hair.
Phase four cultivates the different organs by immersing the cell “souche” in a “soup” of proteins and enzymes to normally develop and then be transplanted to the sick donor in order to repair the failing organ.
Three main obstacles for assuring complete success have already been conquered. The first hurdle was taming the chaotic replication of cells; the second problem was the immunological aspect where virulent tumors developed in reproduced cells; and the third problem was the longevity of the organ due to the atrophy of the telomeres.
China, Britain, and the USA are publicly leading the research on cloning therapeutic spare part organs but they are the tip of the iceberg; many specialized institutions in Asia, Turkey, Israel, and India are working full time.
Babylon: where all start and end.
In order to relieve the pressure on the Northern and Easter bases within the periphery of the Empire Artax decided to open a third front westward. Many of the navy pirates had defected to Artax for higher returns but the Persian navy was still intact. Consequently, Artax avoided any maritime confrontation and his ships dispersed in the Indian Ocean met in Adan in Southern Yemen. The ships navigated around the Arab Peninsula and landed in the fishing town of Akaba in southern Jordan.
Instead of taking the long regular route to Babylon, the troops headed by Artax crossed a difficult desert to Basra. A mutiny in the inner circle of the Imperial guards assassinated “Khosro the Magnificent”. It was not that the Magnificent was more inept than his army commanders but the reaction of the guards was a traditional exit means to vent frustration on the leading scapegoat. The next day, the mutineers realized that they put an end to the only symbol that held the Empire still united. Chaos reigned in the Empire.
Artax army resumed its fast advance toward Babylon. The Persian Empire was as ripe as a rotten apple and the gates of Souze needed a light kick to disintegrate. The way to regaining the throne was open to Artax and post-war plans for reconciliation, reform, and reconstruction were being readied in Babylon.
Wild Goose Chase into the Old World: Persia 4th century BC
Preface
Ever since I have read the life story of the so-called Alexander the Great I have been restless. I keep considering alternative circumstances of how this mad and impossible incursion into the Old Eastern World could have been stopped.
I felt that writing a historical fiction novel about this period would do me good. It should be historical because people are shying away from current news: They don’t listen to news, they don’t read newspapers, they have no ideas what is happening around them and yet, they feel superior to all politicians and far more capable.
It has to be a fiction because the so-called facts are bitter pills and not so reliable:
They are the facts of the victors and petty facts after all.
I needed to delve and know more about the ancient world. I need to imagine that a few of its leaders and scholars could have foreseen how political systems and technologies would have developed.
How they would dare change the world according to their new visions. Whether they would have been better equipped, spiritually and morally to improve their world, people and environment, at their own snail pace
Alexander’s upbringing
Alexander was brainwashed since childhood. He was made insidiously to believe by his mother Olympia that he was the descended of the God Hercules. His mother kept telling him that the Highest Priest of Egypt was convinced that he is the expected World King for the end of the Aries period (The Belier or two horned mammal).
Alexander was actually a bastard.
His father Phillip, King of Macedonia, strongly suspected that his wife Olympia has given birth to an illegitimate son. At the time, the kingdom of Persia extended from the borders of India to Turkey to Libya in Africa. It included the current countries of Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Libya and the coast of North Africa.
Background on the motives of Alexander
Alexander’s goal was to conquer Egypt and receive from its High Priest the crown reserved for the expected son of God so that he can secure legitimacy.
As one of Alexander mentors explained it to him “If you want wealth you steal it by force and if you want legitimacy then you have to snatch it by the sword”.
As the story of history goes, while in Egypt, Alexander received a letter from the King of Persia. The King was proposing to Alexander to accept the coastal land of Turkey to settle their disputes.
It seems that the King of Persia was in a chatting mood and he added a threat that if his proposal is turned down then he will keep retreating before Alexander’s troops, to the confines of his vast Empire until Alexander gives up the chase. The letter warned Alexander that this task would be impossible to carry through.
The King of Persia had just handed Alexander a sweet excuse and a new purpose.
So much for making sense to a hot headed and crazy young adversary! Alexander barely visited any city twice and intended to advance further east to China.
What old “history books” told us
For thirteen years, Alexander barely backtracked in his wild push forward. His military travel took him beyond the Persian Empire to the Southern parts of Russia, Kashmir, Pakistan and parts of India. As matter of fact, Alexander could not have advanced that far if not for the fresh recruits coming from Greece to replace the losses.
The new recruits adored him and wanted to have a share of the glory. Alexander crossed deserts in summers, the highest mountains in winters and most of his soldiers died of hunger, thirst and diseases rather than from wars. Alexander died in Babylon at the age of 30 something and his fiefdoms were divided among his officers after many years of a long civil war.
Lesser known stories
The officers of Alexander, battle worn, sick with disease and confused as to the purpose of this incomprehensible campaign, finally expressed bluntly their unwillingness to go any further and confronted him. Alexander had to stop his advance and convinced his officers to navigate the Indus River and then reach Egypt by sea.
To punish his officers for foiling his dream of reaching the confines of the ancient world, Alexander made his army to cross the southern desert of Persia for 60 days where thousands of soldiers died of thirst.
Wild Goose Chase (30
Posted on: November 28, 2008
Kandahar: Medium-term plan 3
(fiction, continue 30)
At the city of Kandahar, in south central current Afghanistan, Artax appointed a women officer to be General in Chief of all the armed forces in southern Afghanistan. This tactic secured two major benefits;
first, the woman general would hold fast to the new system that secured and solidified women rights, and
second she would allow the force the necessary time to strengthen its grip on the region: the enemy was assumed not to take that seriously a force headed by a woman and thus insure valuable time to taking hold on the mind of the population.
Slowly but surely, the vision and planning of Artax were materializing in flesh and bones around the perimeter of the Persian Empire.
As for the “pilgrimage journey” to China, Artax selected the famous chronicle Battoukha to discover the wonders of China and to dispatch him the diaries: if Artax could not experience in the flesh the discoveries then Artax would share the excitement by the mind.
Marco Polo and before him Ibn Battouta (at least 8 centuries later) relied heavily on the manuscript of Battoukha to plan for their famous journeys to the Rising Sun China.
On the Southern Army
The adventure of the Southern Army of Artax, led by the vizier Khorsheed, was fantastic. This brave army made a series of successful landings in fishing villages and proceeded according to master plans.
Soldiers would enter a town, plaster the scrolls of the Constitution and Bill of Rights on the walls of shrines and local institutions, read them in front of the public; install one judge accepted by the inhabitants then horde the other judges and clerics to a remote training camp for indoctrination.
Educated and learned people in the community were encouraged to disseminate the new system. Young boys and girls were sent to schools. People bent on mischief and who took advantage of a confused central authority was apprehended to give evidence of who is the real authority in maintaining law and order.
Dangerous news arrived to Artax from his Southern Army which stopped his grandiose plans on their tracks: unless Artax assembles a strong naval force in the Persian Gulf, his Southern Army might not hold its terrain against the onslaught of the usurping Monarch.
This vast desert area along the coast requires constant supply of fresh water and food for his army that was dying of thirst and heat strokes. Artax had to advance along the Indus River which empties in the Indian Ocean.
He had to hire and stock enough ships to rescue the Southern Army or eventually to evacuate it honorably in an orderly fashion.
The lousy desert parts of his Kingdom were of no concerns to Artax anymore, though he had to support his army there in order to divert the forces of the usurping Monarch from the more critical parts of his secured bases in the Kingdom.
The rear bases of Artax stretched from the fertile lands of current Karachi in Pakistan to Goa in India. Artax messengers were carrying orders and instructions to all armies and governors along secured routes. In every region that the King authority was entrenched, municipal elections were held and the spirit of the Constitution and Bill of Rights were disseminated, gradually but surely.
Changes in societies need time, patience and genuine zeal in convictions to make any headway.
Artax primary duties to his people was to keep close contacts, involvement, and interactions with the institutions and taking close attention to the training camps programs for the reeducation of the newer generations as to the spirit of the articles in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The dissemination of information about the new cultures in remote lands was a most important ingredient in Artax educational system. Artax motto was: ignorance and isolation from other civilizations is the drug of choice exploited by the religious extremists who abhor civil supervision of any governing body.
Wild Goose Chase into the Old World: Persia 4th century BC
Preface
Ever since I have read the life story of the so-called Alexander the Great I have been restless. I keep considering alternative circumstances of how this mad and impossible incursion into the Old Eastern World could have been stopped. I felt that writing a historical fiction novel about this period would do me good. It should be historical because people are shying away from current news: They don’t listen to news, they don’t read newspapers, they have no ideas what is happening around them and yet, they feel superior to all politicians and far more capable.
It has to be a fiction because the so-called facts are bitter pills and not so reliable:
They are the facts of the victors and petty facts after all. I needed to delve and know more about the ancient world. I need to imagine that a few of its leaders and scholars could have foreseen how political systems and technologies would have developed. How they would dare change the world according to their new visions; Whether they would have been better equipped, spiritually and morally to improve their world, people and environment, at their own snail pace
Alexander’s upbringing
Alexander was brainwashed since childhood. He was made insidiously to believe by his mother Olympia that he was the descended of the God Hercules. His mother kept telling him that the Highest Priest of Egypt was convinced that he is the expected World King for the end of the Aries period (The Belier or two horned mammal).
Alexander was actually a bastard. His father Phillip, King of Macedonia, strongly suspected that his wife Olympia has given birth to an illegitimate son. At the time, the kingdom of Persia extended from the borders of India to Turkey to Libya in Africa. It included the current countries of Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Libya and the coast of North Africa.
Background on the motives of Alexander
Alexander’s goal was to conquer Egypt and receive from its High Priest the crown reserved for the expected son of God so that he can secure legitimacy. As one of Alexander mentors explained it to him “If you want wealth you steal it by force and if you want legitimacy then you have to snatch it by the sword”.
As the story of history goes, while in Egypt, Alexander received a letter from the King of Persia. The King was proposing to Alexander to accept the coastal land of Turkey to settle their disputes. It seems that the King of Persia was in a chatting mood and he added a threat that if his proposal is turned down then he will keep retreating before Alexander’s troops, to the confines of his vast Empire until Alexander gives up the chase. The letter warned Alexander that this task would be impossible to carry through.
The King of Persia had just handed Alexander a sweet excuse and a new purpose.
So much for making sense to a hot headed and crazy young adversary! Alexander barely visited any city twice and intended to advance further east to China.
What old “history books” told us
For thirteen years, Alexander barely backtracked in his wild push forward. His military travel took him beyond the Persian Empire to the Southern parts of Russia, Kashmir, Pakistan and parts of India. As matter of fact, Alexander could not have advanced that far if not for the fresh recruits coming from Greece to replace the losses. The new recruits adored him and wanted to have a share of the glory. Alexander crossed deserts in summers, the highest mountains in winters and most of his soldiers died of hunger, thirst and diseases rather than from wars. Alexander died in Babylon at the age of 30 something and his fiefdoms were divided among his officers after many years of a long civil war.
Lesser known stories
The officers of Alexander, battle worn, sick with disease and confused as to the purpose of this incomprehensible campaign, finally expressed bluntly their unwillingness to go any further and confronted him. Alexander had to stop his advance and convinced his officers to navigate the Indus River and then reach Egypt by sea. To punish his officers for foiling his dream of reaching the confines of the ancient world, Alexander made his army to cross the southern desert of Persia for 60 days where thousands of soldiers died of thirst.
Adonis Diaries 