Still Crazy

Not long after Ping’s death, the world moved quickly from under the Fiat choke. Some national governments resurfaced, but that didn’t last long. Communities had come into being and this time they took on different shapes as needed, like musical ensembles that changed as new players came in and out.

A few communities had stuck to Fiat ways, but most were slowly evolving. People could see what was going on with their neighbors and broke away from communities that didn’t evolve fast enough for them. Then, starting early in 2065, one Fiat region started to make it hard to break away and by the end of the year it had declared borders and completely closed them. In many ways, they were reminiscent of the old North Korean and Cuban dictatorships.

The few of us who had lived through these regimes in the late and early 21^th century were mildly concerned at first. By the time these regions had declared borders more people had become worried and were now paying attention. People became very alarmed when the region called The Bracia completely closed its borders. The Off Earth Surface (FES) people who had lived under the Earth Authority’s rule were more than alarmed and began to prepare for the worst.

Petra and Ignatius

Just before dawn, one of The Bracia fighting units came over the hill, dropped their weapons, and raised what passed as an old fashioned white flag. They came down with their hands up for some reason. It turned out that they were deserting and giving themselves up as prisoners. We took care of them as best we could and explained that they were welcome to stay as members of our community, just not as prisoners. I spent a few hours explaining how our Ensemble operated and then left them to rest.

By next morning, they were ready to go back, resigned to fight for the only home they knew. All of them understood that The Bracia aggression was unnecessary, but nevertheless, most wanted to go back. By the end of the day all but two had left.

“The others went back. We didn’t. Obviously,” said the young woman. “They’ll report us as dead. We want to get as far away as we can from The Bracia.” I looked at them and was about to speak when the young man said, softly, “Yes, both of us. Together.”

“Even if half of what you said is a lie,” she said, “we’d rather stay out of that hell on Earth Surface.” I was surprised how she mixed “hell” and “Earth Surface” in the same sentence. All I managed to say was, “Uh, OK. Then follow me.”

I walked ahead of them, and without turning asked them their names.

“I am Ignatius. I am 18 years old. Not married.”

“And I am Petra. I am 20. I am married, but it doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”

“El¹ help us,” said Ignatius, under his breath. But Petra heard him. “El Shaddai is not going to help us. El is a burden on us, on all The Bracia. We have to help ourselves. We have to trust that these people will help us. If you want to pray, pray that they’d be Yahweh M'kaddesh.”

“I am not praying,” said Ignatius, “it was just something I said. Don’t let your amygdala rule you.”

I heard Petra chuckled. Then I quickly turned around and took a brief glance, enough to see them walking behind me in an awkward hug.

Over the Hill

About three days later one of the people who had returned was found down from the hoodoos on the crest of a nearby hill. It seemed that he had spent the whole night there. It looked like he had been beaten and had bite marks in his legs and hips. He was almost naked and we looked more dead than alive.

He stayed under an induced coma for almost three days. When he came out of it, the first words out of his mouth were, “your brother’s dead.” The woman nurse was taken aback, but she quickly realized that he was delirious and had confused her for somebody else. It didn’t take long for the word to get back to Petra that her brother was dead.

“Evidently, he took his own life when they found out that you and Ignatius were not dead after all. They found out when a few of the others confessed.”

“‘Confessions’ my eye. They were tortured, alright, but…” Ignatius stopped in mid sentence and glimpsed at Petra.

“Yes, unless they declared what he said a mortal sin,” Petra said. “They… they made him kill himself.” She stopped talking, her face became hard, and she dropped her head. I made a gesture to hug her and she hugged me hard. Just as suddenly, she let go and said, “when can we leave?”

“I’ll grab my gear and we can go.”

They stayed outside while I changed into my field outfit and picked up my backpack. I called for a cruiser and both of them looked at first horrified as it came towards us and then surprised when it came to a stop. “I take it you have not seen autonomous transports before?”

“Yes, we have them, but only a few and all at the service of the Far, the Prime, and his closest people.” Petra said and then she looked at Ignatius.

“The rumors were right, I guess,” he said. Looking at me, he explained, “the official line was that those transports navigated with El’s guidance and only worked for the Far and his Bosses because of their exalted DNA. But rumor had it that it was technology developed outside The Bracia.

From Hurricane to Talking

We headed for another community, southeast of us. Ignatius slept for the first part of the trip, but Petra stayed up and watched our surroundings, intensely, as we moved. The cruiser kept at a reasonable speed so Petra could see all she wanted to see.

Finally, they approached a village and stopped in front of a multi-story house.

“We are going to stay here for now. This is Zion’s Tiny Getaway, in…”

“Who is Zion?” said Ignatius, snapping to full awareness after a long sleep.

“Oh, no, it’s nobody… It doesn’t mean that this is the property of somebody called Zion… it’s just the name of this village. It used to be called Cedar Points but they adopted Tiny Getaway as their name.”

“Are we going to be safe here?,” asked Petra, “Is there a defense unit here? Is that why we are stopping here?” She seemed to be on tippy toes, ready to jump. After the relaxing trip watching nature’s beauty, coming to a stop brought out her daemons.

“Look,” I said, “we could keep going if you’d like, or we can stop here for a bit, rest, and then keep going. I wanted to rest and you might want to learn something about the way other people live while we travel away from The Bracia. But, don’t worry we are getting away from them.”

Petra relaxed a bit and Ignatius started to take the gear we had provided them out of the frunk. It was becoming obvious how well they complemented each other.

“But you didn’t ask us,” Petra was curious, not angry. “But, that’s OK, you’re the boss. BTW, this is kind of small or something.” Then, she turned to Ignatius and said, “It’s like it’s missing the rest of the compound, right?”

“This was built as a home for a family. Now it is co-owned by the local company, including most of the villagers, and they rent it for parties, or working, or whatever. I rented the whole thing so you have plenty of space to decompress. Later, we could have other people over if we want.”

Ignatius dropped the gear he had taken out of the car and ran upstairs. Petra, still grasping her gear, walked straight to the backyard. I took that time to set up the rooms, leaving the one closer to the stairs for Petra and dropping Ignatius gear in the other one. I took one on the other side of the hallway.

After setting up my room, Ignatius and I talked a bit at the top of the stairs and Petra came up.

“BTW, you learn fast. You are right that we normally would consult with one another, but as I see you both are babes in the woods when it comes to life outside The Bracia. I am still trying to figure things out, so please forgive me. I will treat you like the adults you are, but you have to tell me when I go overboard or if something does not make sense to you.”

“You mean, like, ‘who’s Zion’?” Ignatius had a wicker smile on as he said it.

“Right. RIGHT!”

Gear and Transparency

“Now that we are all up here, do you want to go over your gear?”

“I looked,” Ignatius said. “It’s mostly clothes in there”

“Yes, but… let’s go over it, OK? Most of it is the usual hygiene stuff, but I want to tell you about the clothes, like the overall I am wearing.” In the half gloom of the landing, I turned it on. “Do you see it glow?”

“Oh, yeah.” said Petra, as she got closer and her arm extended towards my shoulder. “That’s something. Can I touch it?”

“Of course. But you can do that with your clothes, too.”

They looked at each other, then at me, and then they rushed to their room. Petra came out with her jacket, but Ignatius put his overalls over his clothes. They touched it, and then looked at each other. Then they looked at me, expectantly.

“Squeeze it. Here, squeeze right here.” I grabbed the material under my left snap and turned it and back on. They immediately did the same and turned on their outfits.

“What you see is a side-effect of a force-field that is now all around you, protecting you. I don’t think the glow is more of an homage to Isaac Asimov. It makes us look like Hober Mallow, right?” They didn’t get my attempted joke, but they chuckled nevertheless.

Ignatius kept turning it off and on and smiling from ear to ear. They were really enjoying this.

“I don’t understand the details of how this works, but you can look it up later if you want. What I do know is the ‘glow,’ as we call it, can protect us from most injuries. Not from a direct missile hit, but definitely from its shrapnel, for example. It doesn’t need a battery—all the energy it needs comes from you. It will feel a bit cooler when you first put it on, but you won’t notice it once you start to move normally around.” As I said that, both of them started jumping around, smirking and talking to each other. It was pure joy. Until Ignatius softly threw a small black brick from his bag to Petra.

“Wait, that’s too… ” Petra stumbled back a few steps and fell down. She was surprised, but still playful. She would have thrown it right back, but I stepped in between them.

“Please, don’t throw it. That’s an emergency battery pack, should you need it. It gets heavier as it gets closer to the clothing. It’s like shooting a bullet. Thankfully, you threw it softly,” I said while looking at Ignatius.

“It was kind of fun,” Petra retorted. “Come to think of it, why would you have this protective technology when it’s all nice and peaceful over here?”

“Actually, we didn’t have it until after the Bracia hostilities started. In fact, nobody had exactly what you have right now, but we had enough pieces of it. Some of it came from the Off Surface folks and some from groups that were into extreme sports. Many people jumped in to put them all together quickly enough right after the Bracia violence started. Violence is one thing that revolts all of us.” I continued, “that is one of the big advantages of having transparent and unobstructed access to all kinds of technology and fundamental discoveries from anywhere in the biosphere. We can learn and take action fast because we are not slowed down by all the secrecy that Fiat thinking leads you to.”

“Are you hungry? We can get something to eat by ourselves or we can go to an open kitchen. Your choice.”

Open Kitchen

“What is an open kitchen?” Petra looked… strange… between exploding and imploding.

“Well different people open their kitchen to anybody who wants to join. Sometimes you have to cook, but in most cases not. But, the assumption is that you are going to wash stuff.”

Ignatius reached out for Petra’s hand and said, “open kitchen, here we come. Do we have to wear the glowie clothes?”

“Might as well get in the habit.”

They walked to the nearest open kitchen and they saw a couple with a small kid coming from the opposite direction. After greeting each other, Ignatius walked up to the front door and knocked.

“Just go in. They are ready for us,” said one of them.

Ignatius slowly opened the door and the kid ran right in as soon as he could fit. Again, Ignatius and Petra looked at each other and she looked extremely pleased.

As soon as they reached the kitchen, the introductions started. “This is Ignatius, and this is Petra, and I am Bayta,² but everybody calls me Bay.”

“Well, I am Ardeth, but everybody calls me Ard, and this is Bart, and he goes by Bart,” everybody chuckled. “And the little thing running around is Eden. At least, that he wants to be called now. We’ll see how that turns out.”

Then, from the kitchen, came a loud, “And I am Dinah, Di for short, and this is Elijah and we are doing some of the cooking tonight, well Elijah is. Come over here, and don’t worry, he won’t let you help.” Then came a softer, “I don’t need any help. Heck, I don’t want any help, but, yeah, come in here, I had my rabies shot already.” Eliha and Di laughed at what was obviously a familiar joke.

“So, do they call you Iggy or something like that,” asked Bart trying to start a conversation.

Barely stopping eating, Ignatius said, “Not really. Everybody calls me Ignatius or by my number, but I hate that. And don’t call her Pet, she hates that even more.” I jumped in to clarify, “Ignatius and Petra are from The Bracia. They were in a battle unit over there and that’s what the number is about.”

Di climbed on her elbows and leaned forward, halfway across the table and just looked at them. Finally, she said, “Are you feeling welcome? If anything doesn’t feel right, just tell us and we’ll figure things out.”

With that, the conversation blossomed and everyone enjoyed it very much. Then Petra asked, “are you bosses?”

Ardeth started to say, “Well, Bart thinks he is the real boss… “ But Bart, looking very serious, jumped in, “Ard, honey, I think this is a really important question for her.” Then, turning to Petra, “I don’t think we are in the way you mean it. Sorry, but what led you to think we are?”

Petra looked kind of embarrassed and looked at Ignatius for support, but before he could say anything, she said, “because you live so… well, I guess? This is the kind of luxury that you see in the boss’ house. And you are so at home… Sorry, I had to ask.”

“They really did a num…,” Di started to say. “OK, so no, we are not bosses. Nobody is a boss here like they are at The Bracia and few other communities around the biosphere. Elijah and I know what you mean, but Ard and Bart never lived through that, except maybe when they were young like Mitch, sorry, Eden is now.” Dinah looked at them, and they were shaking their heads, agreeing with her. “We lived in what’s now The Bracia, but we came here several years ago. We saw the writing on the wall and started warning our friends. Let’s just say that The Bracia made clear that we were persona-non-grata in their domain. And now they want us back? I am old enough that I can say this: screw them! Here we get to be fully functional adults.”

Elijah spoke, “Sorry your family is going through all that back there. Really sorry.”

Ignatius was quick to respond, “We don’t have any family back there now. Petra had a brother but he made a mortal sin by telling them that we were dead. You know what happened.”

“Actually, we don’t, not first hand. We left before that kind of thing started, but we’ve heard stories from friends who left The Bracia later.” He stopped and made a sound that came from deep inside of him. Dinah put her loving arms around a deeply sad Elijah.

They kept talking and eventually said their goodbyes. As they walked back to the house, Petra broke the silence and said, “This is so screwed up. People are going to die… worse, our friends are going to harm and kill other people and they are going to end up traumatized, and for what? The Far and the rest of them… it’s just pure, pathological greed! This is the most wasteful thing EVER!”

“I think that we all knew it deep down inside,” said Ignatius, “that is why we made a run for it. The others went back because they knew what would happen to their families if they didn’t. We had been pumped full of fears about the world beyond The Bracia and, honestly, I really thought I would most likely end up dead here, but I didn’t care. You were staying, and that’s all that mattered.”

“We should start to write down everything we learn from our journey. For them!” Petra said softly. Ignatius simply shook his head up and down, almost imperceptibly.

As we got to the house, Petra asked, “What do you for writing or recording around here?”

“Look in your bags and you’ll figure it out. Good night.”

Whose Is It?

As they were eating breakfast the next day, Petra asked about who owned the house they were staying in.

“I imagine that many of the people who live here?”

“But how?” she asked.

“Does that mean,” Ignatius asked, “that most people here are from the same family?”

“No. Maybe. But that’s not the point. I imagine that when the previous owners left, nobody wanted to buy it. In those cases, several people formed a company, funded it, and the company then bought the house. Like I said, people rent for all kinds of events, not just lodging.”

Petra was intrigued, “Formed a company?” And so was Ignatius, “Funded it?”

“OK, I see. I’ll explain the whole thing, but first: do you want to stay another day or do you want to continue your trip?” They both wanted to stay another day. “Got it. I am going upstairs to put on some clothes and then let’s go on a walk. Maybe we’ll meet some people.”

As they went out the door, Bayta got started. “Let’s start from the beginning. Decentralization is really important to us. In fact, the whole idea of a few people owning most of the wealth really is anathema to us. I mean, it’s just weird that that system went on for so long, but I guess that proves that that divide-and-conquer worked and people just got used to it. In any case, in most RADICAL communities any group of people can come together as a company to create something or buy something or what have you. They can fund these companies with their work or with their COINs if they need to buy something. In this case I am guessing that some people formed a company and collected enough COINs to buy the house. They rent out and pay for maintenance and whatever else is needed. They also pay a bit into a community fund which does community projects with it. It’s pretty typical.”

Bayta headed for a tree shade and sat, while Petra stood by, and Ignatius… Well, Ignatius could not stand still and he took to walking around the tree.

“Is that,” Ignatius asked, “what an Ensemble is?”

“No… Maybe… I am pretty sure in the case of the house we are using it is not related to what we’d typically call an Ensemble. The people who bought this house probably belong to several different Ensembles. They bought to generate COINs for themselves and for the village that they actually live in. Twice per year the house is open for bids and anybody could buy the house if they win the bidding. I am pretty sure that they would not mind if that happened because the new owner would then generate COINs for the community and everyone would benefit.”

“But what if,” Ignatius asked, “nobody rented the house?”

“Not sure what they would do, but most likely they’d have razed so they would not have to pay for its maintenance.”

“So the people who put up the COINs to buy it would lose them?”

“That or maybe part of the community fund is used to buy some of it so they don’t have to carry all the financial risk by themselves. It depends on what they all agree to.”

“It sounds kind of complicated,” said Ignatius.

“I think it is more that it is very different from what we are used to at The Bracia,” exclaimed Petra. “In any case, it seems better than the bosses owning most everything and the rest of us being married off to a crazy sonofabitch just to make ends meet.”

Bayta didn’t say anything, she just looked at Petra from where she was sitting.

Ignatius was startled by Petra’s remark and decided to change the conversation. “What are COINs, anyway? They’re like dollars, right?”