Winning Peace - Chapter 22 (Patreon)

2120: Ezekiel Lopez is born.

2130: Ten Year Old Ezekiel Lopez manifests incredible intelligence beyond even his already-prodigious intellect.

2134: In later years it is discovered that caches of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons manufactured by the extinct Russian Federation and People's Republic of North Korea being held for decommissioning went missing from the New Sinoese Empire's holdings. Due to the fascist state's secrecy and the ongoing intelligence conflict between it and the UNAS, the incident is covered up and a wide-ranging military-backed search is begun for the missing WMD materials. This would, unfortunately, provoke further conflict and misunderstanding between the two states, fanned by disloyal elements within each nation.

2136: Ezekiel Lopez and Colonel Rodney Holmes negotiate a private deal to allow the former to settle a private moon base, contravening international law.

2138: The 'Short War' begins and ends over the course of several hours. The Last Dogs terrorist organization detonates caches of smuggled dirty bombs in major UNAS and EU cities; a false flag operation designed to provoke the super-state into launching nuclear weapons against the New Sinoese Empire. The attack is successful, the follow-up launches by the NSE provoke further launches against India and other nations. It is later learned that agent provocateurs within various nations amplified the urgency of WMD responses under the instruction of the Last Dogs.

Simultaneously, an NSE attempt to drop nuclear weapons on Armstrong City, Luna, would be repelled by Ezekiel Lopez's quick thinking and begin his transition from eccentric teenage genius to a rising star in the solar system's new post-apocalyptic political scene.

2139: The immediate death toll in the year after the Short War stands at approximately 3 billion. While several hundred million are direct casualties of nuclear strikes across the world, the vast majority of the dead are accounted for by famine, pestilence, and disease. Although most actual fighting in the war ended within a month of the initial hostilities as all save for the most robust chains of command broke down, the mounting casualties continued on for months as supplies of food, shelter, and medicine dwindled dramatically.

2140: Ezekiel Lopez begins unsanctioned and extralegal interventions on Earth territories using landers with disposable shielding. It is widely known, or at least suspected, among the space-borne public that many of Lopez's humanitarian missions are directed at objectives far beyond those made public. With the stabilization of many faltering governments, the destruction of several warlords and would-be dictators, and other seemingly-coincidental occurrences, most are content to willingly overlook such overreach in the name of preserving human life. A further 2 billion die during this year due to the ongoing effects of nuclear winter and supply shortages.

Stellar Council elections begin, with interim Governor Paulo Sanchez stepping down to join former Governor Charles Philips who had stepped down shortly after the Short War and suffering a mild stroke. A moderate candidate, Silas Kilpatrick, is voted in as the first Prime Minister of the Stellar Council. Ezekiel Lopez, widely suspected to be closely allied with the man, if not controlling him from the shadows, takes an appointment as Minister of Science and Technology in the first Ministerial Cabinet appointments. Parliament meetings are initially held via video-conference along secure tight-beam communication as travel between colonies is dangerous, time-consuming, and limited to vital supplies.

2141: The Stellar Council moves forward with previously unofficial policy decisions and fully adopts the infrastructure of Armstrong City as its own responsibility, effectively purchasing the settlement's newly-expanded districts from Lopez, created by way of the private autonomous mining force that he had deployed. Lopez, per the agreement, maintains special rights and privileges as well as his own private residential block. Also at stake is the leasing of the nano-fabrication technology Lopez created to solve mission-critical supply shortages across the solar system. While Stellar Council committees establish proscribed materials and shutdown codes to all such machines in space, Lopez maintains proprietary control of the technology itself. The machines currently deployed on the planet Earth are conspicuously absent from the text of the agreement. The Energy Credit, a currency tied to the energy cost of the creation of a single gram of carbon, is established as the Stellar Council's new trade coin using advanced cryptographic signatures to prevent falsification and duplication.

On Earth, a further 1 billion people die in the wake of the apocalypse.

2142: Sarah Blaine turns ten years old in rural West Virginia, representing the first generation which came of age in the post-apocalyptic era. Emblematic of a new age of home-schooled children taught a primary, secondary, and post-secondary knowledge base on the privately-designed, personally-funded, and entirely unregulated network created by Ezekiel Lopez, many in the years to come would accuse the young prodigy of brainwashing and corruption of the young. Lopez would famously respond that, being accused of the same crime as Socrates, he was in good company. For lack of any other options, though, Lopez's educational program continued.

Across the rest of the planet Earth, it is calculated by multiple governments that the final remaining spates of immediate deaths come to fruition from the Short War. Although dramatically increased rates of cancer still occur in sectors of the populations which lived near dirty bomb or nuclear detonation sites, resource scarcity has evened out by this point as illicit deployment of nano-fabrication units picks up producing medication, fertilizer, water filters, and other vital supplies. Late in the year, an intergovernmental panel jointly led by the remnants of UNAS, the EU, and the Stellar Council put the final death toll of the Short War at 7.31 billion human lives. The current estimated population of humanity in the post-war world sits at 3.15 billion, with roughly 70% having died in the conflict itself or as a direct result of the conditions afterward.

The anniversary of the Short War is memorialized as the deadliest event in recorded human history, only exceeded in percentage of extant humans killed by the genetic bottleneck event in ancient prehistory.

2143: The Stellar Council passes the Clone Rights Act (CRA) to amend its Bill of Rights. A notoriously divisive document, it granted full protection to all sentient and sapient human life created as a result of artificial processes. This included both 'flash-cloning' and 'vat-cloning.' The former of which proved to be the major striking point among groups opposed to the concept. Worries, later proved to be inflamed by agent provocateurs within Luna on behalf of the Last Dogs, pushed forward edge-case concerns of humans purpose-grown for specific jobs by major corporate interests and cutting out the job market for natural-born citizens. The primary purpose of the act, which guaranteed civil rights to children incubated in artificial wombs, was often overlooked as the driving force behind the bill. Prime Minister Kilpatrick's speech during the signing ceremony also highlighted the fact that disallowing corporations from treating cloned humans as biological robots and granting them civil rights would would actually disincentivize the prospect of such a dystopian future from coming to pass, as there would be no inherent advantage for the legal responsibility they would now bear.

2144: The first post-war year which can, in any way, be considered 'normal.' National organizations, by this point, have staunched the bleeding and are beginning to repair and rehabilitate structures. Major centers of largely-untouched civilization include Peru, Australia, Iran, Scandinavia, Indonesia, Cuba, and Morocco. The international community begins proper public negotiation with the Stellar Council to lease nano-fabrication units for domestic use, many of which are broken either in transit or during routine maintenance, but yield no significant insights into duplication of the machines. The UNAS staunchly refuses to come to the bargaining table and begins exacerbating domestic instability by sending military units to claim known nano-fabrication units for reverse-engineering attempts. All of which fail.

After a few particularly violent confrontations during the protests for and against the CRA, the Stellar Council moves forward with plans to create and install a formal national police to be overseen by a transparent committee of appointed cabinet personnel, local parliament members, and an elected independent civilian. A complete training course in technology, civics, law, sociology, and investigative procedure is constructed and set to last six months, with an additional three months slated for each successive rank promotion. Such rigorous review standards are set due to the fact that the Security Force will have access to 'Autonomous Deputies' to help secure the peace and keep rule of law. The capabilities of the new robotic drones are intentionally limited to the point of not even being networked together, and under the direct control of their human handler, who's orders and directives are logged for review and can be released publicly should a legal dispute arise. Their debut occurs during a public ceremony where the Security Force and their Autonomous Deputies face off against each other in an hours-long break-dance competition.

Finally, the hodgepodge orbital station created out of the original Artemis Gateway project and numerous outdated pre-apocalypse craft, is decommissioned as the new Tiphares Station. The construction is tethered by an orbital elevator to the southern pole of the moon and easily reachable by underground monorail from Armstrong. In tandem with the opening ceremony, lunar material and Armstrong waste is fed into nano-fabrication units at the industrial base of the orbital elevator and turned into the first pieces of a new series of spacecraft meant to aleviate the few aging transports still in service. Although not revealed to the public for nearly a decade afterwards, secret plans are also drawn up to commission a light corvette-model spacecraft specifically designed for 'customs and peacekeeping work.'

Sasha Tuigamala is brought on to work as Ezekiel Lopez's administrative assistant and PR manager.

2145: Government intelligence apparatuses within the Stellar Council discover the continued existence of the Last Dogs within earthbound human nation-states and begin a covert attempt to neutralize their influence where discovered. The exception to this policy is the UNAS, which has been judged to be infiltrated at high-enough levels that a purge of their elements would alert the Last Dogs to their ruse being discovered. It is likely the continuing political cold war between the UNAS and Stellar Council contributed to this decision, as well as the decision to otherwise lock down communications between Earth and the solar system colonies. Silas Kilpatrick, upon being informed of this discovery, elects to wait out this year's elections before moving forward with public disclosure.

Unofficially, Ezekiel Lopez chairs a goodwill tour of the solar system colonies to display the new age of safe travel between them. During stops at Mars, Venus, Ceres, Vesta, and Palls along with other space stations, the new crafts picked up the previous administration's parliamentary electors as well as the next term's in order to hold an official ceremony handing over membership from the first to the second term. Kilpatrick, having won a second five-year term and riding high on the rebuilding efforts, broke the news of the Last Dogs survival to the solar system's populace during the journey. The news was followed by the release of a series of drugs inducing increased longevity and wide-ranging immunization treatments which served to soften the blow. Despite this, the Security Force was put to its first trial by fire as panicked riots broke out across several districts of Armstrong City. To their credit, the chaos was handled without any fatalities and only minor injuries.

Several individuals injured during the unfortunate events were fitted with the first sets of publicly-available cybernetics after it was pushed through the final testing process by the Ministry of Health and Medicine.

On Earth, there are sporadic breakouts of unexplained and seemingly-unmotivated violence which slowly grow in number over the course of the year. Several hindsight evaluations of this period have concluded that despite all attempts to insulate the planet from news, the Last Dogs became aware of the Stellar Council's knowledge of their survival and began moving accordingly.

Several large pieces of space debris finally fall to Earth as their decaying orbits collapse, including a partially-destroyed Sinoese space station that impacts Mongolia. Due to the heavy devastation, it is concluded that the station was carrying some number of unexpended nuclear munitions, such as the ones launched at Armstrong City during the Short War.

2146: The start of what would later be termed the 'Rabid Years.'

Even as the former colonies begin to formally unite into a cohesive political entity in a more tangible way, the Earth-bound nations are pushed to the brink of collapse once again as random civilians, military personel, and government actors go mad for seemingly no reason. Despite the adoption of space-borne Panacea treatments, the violent incidents are ongoing, eventually leading to a rare few starting to appear in space as well. Panic abounds throughout much of the year as psychologists posit that the incidents might be the result of collective damage to the human psyche, hypothesizing the existence of a species-wide PTSD event that would lead to eventual destabilization.

This is eventually proven false when, late in the year, Brigadier-General Rodney Holmes assassinates the newly-elected President Hayes of the UNAS and declares the formation of the Government of the First Wolves. Before he is taken off the air, he reveals a pre-war contagion developed jointly by North Korea and the Sinoese Empire as part of their biowarfare program is to blame. The UNAS near-instantly devolves into a multi-faceted civil war as the resurgent federal government's legitimacy is obliterated in that single instant. Mexico, Canada, Texas, and California declare Independence within the week, followed shortly by the Neo-Confederacy. The remaining states slowly come to terms with their own de facto independence as they attempt to purge both infected and Last Dog collaborators. Rodney Holmes and his military coup is killed in a widely-televised raid by a joint coalition of Texan and Californian national guardsmen with additional Autonomous Deputies retrofitted for warfare deployed from nano-fabrication units within the two new nations.

Ezekiel Lopez, in one of his rare public speeches, promises to isolate and cure the pathogen or resign in disgrace and return to Earth to do what he can for those suffering without the benefit of distance between them. Critics of the promise regard it as an empty-handed gesture meant to forestall the incipient panic, citing Lopez's comparative lack of achievement in the biological arena as well as their own failure to detect the cause of the disease.

The now 26 year old prodigy's response was simply, “Sounds like a skill issue.”

2147: After three months of worsening public order, Ezekiel Lopez announces success at isolating the vector. He presents the carrier for the disease as a parasitic protozoan known as Toxoplasma gondii which had been altered to carry a dormant strain of an artificial variant of the rabies virus within itself and infect the host at a random time and place. As this protozoan was already present in over half of the human population, it was an easily-overlooked source of the contagion and had likely been infecting stellar colonists from before their travel from Earth. Despite Lopez's cautions, public efforts turn to the eradication of cat populations in the hope of slowing the spread of the disease, causing several localized outbreaks of bubonic plague as rodent populations surge.

Lopez confers with numerous other specialists in the relevant fields of study looking for a solution. Due to the offending organism's long history of existence bypassing the human immune system, a retrovirus is eventually settled upon as the most likely solution. The first several dozen attempts fail, draining the sudden hope that had developed in the wake of the discovery.

Finally, after several long months of work, Ezekiel Lopez offers a joint solution with Dr. Miranda Cole and Dr. Hiroshi Sato. The result of their efforts is tested on a number of afflicted individuals across the world, proving its effectiveness.

The side effects of the Asclepius Inoculation became apparent within the next year.

2148: As more people fall to the artificial disease and the final cells of the Last Dogs are annihilated without mercy, the treatment is administered to all those who will take it and forced upon many who refuse as a matter of public safety. Given that any individual infected with the protozoan could go insane at any moment, governments mandate full rounds of treatment for any and all citizens. National identification codes are issued with many opting for health-monitoring cybernetic implants to prove their immunization.

Numerous extremist religious and partisan groups rebel against these new strictures. Government forces, with increasing aid from the Stellar Council's Autonomous Deputies, begin aggressively policing these societies, many of which self-destruct as their members succumb to madness and are either captured and forcefully immunized or killed in ensuing combat with law enforcement.

Six months after the first inoculations, individuals began reporting increased night vision, a general increase in health, a spontaneous remission in cancers, diabetes, other chronic diseases, greater clarity of thought, increased athleticism and spatial reasoning, better reaction speeds, heightened proprioception, and less susceptibility to obesity, infections, disease, and similar conditions, and a noticeable decrease in sleep requirements.

When confronted with the, admittedly mostly welcome, side-effects, Dr. Lopez shrugged and replied, “You wanted a cure to an artificially-created parasite that had been implanted with a genetically-engineered disease. I had to essentially rewrite the human immune system. Be thankful it didn't take ten years instead of two.”

Regardless, Ezekiel Lopez becomes an extremely controversial figure overnight as conspiracy theories swirl around the enormously influential and intelligent figure. Many begin to paint him as a shadowy mastermind, echoing early post-war narratives by tyrants and warlords who attempted to reinstall the old corporatocracies and oligarchies. Tellingly for those in this community, many of those individuals met untimely demises and cleared the way for a new government administration more friendly to both the Stellar Council and Lopez personally. This controversy only increases as the first children of the post-Asclepius world are born.

2149: The Stellar Council Parliament convenes a special inquiry on the subject of the after-effects of the Asclepius Inoculation and the numerous mutations in children born to those who have taken it. Many exhibit startlingly high levels of intelligence from even a young age, vastly increased neural density and brains that are visibly more resilient and faster at computing data. Strange neural clusters at the base of the skull appear to create redundant biological controls, supporting stronger immune systems, a second heart equidistant from the first on the other side of the chest, more efficient digestion and oxygenation of the blood, a second liver, and the alteration of the inner ear and sinus systems to more smoothly account for movement in three dimensions.

Attached Transcript Fragment:

Lopez: “And you object to the changes on the grounds that those given the vaccine were not informed of the repercussions on both themselves and their children? Not on the grounds that any of the changes are objectively problematic or truly 'negative' to one's quality of life?”

Representative Evan Reynolds: “That is correct, Dr. Lopez. To be clear, we are all extremely grateful for the service you've provided both the Stellar Council and humanity. It is because of you that these institutions exist at all, truthfully. However, we feel that you have overstepped the bounds of what was asked of you, in this instance. The mission statement of those who were given resources and funding to isolate the threat to humanity and cure it was just that: to reveal the disease, cure it, and innoculate against it.”

Representative Cyan Xi: “If you did so knowingly, at least. Which is the purpose of this special inquiry. Specifically, we are here today to determine if you, as the driving force behind the vaccine which was implemented, made conscious decisions to alter the genome of the human species beyond what was absolutely necessary to accomplish these goals.”

Lopez: “And if I did?”

Representative Ada Bauer: “Are we to take that as a confession of guilt?”

Lopez: “In the sense that I am admitting to a crime? No. I merely ask to determine the repercussions if my statements do not satisfy the Council and they find I am. Simply put, I am asking what is at stake here?”

Representative Evan Reynolds: “Such a finding would draw into question your decision-making capacity and good judgment as not only the Minister of Science and Technology, but as the keeper of the nano-fabrication technology which supports our society. While it is beyond the remit of this committee, such a finding could ultimately cost you the many special privileges your positions have previously afforded you.”

Lopez: “Well, I am glad that you're being transparent with your demands, at least.”

Representative Cyan Xi: “Minister Lopez, I would ask that you keep your remarks respectful at the very least, if only for your own sake. You are, by many, an extremely well-regarded individual who has advanced human science and technology by centuries during your relatively young lifetime. Even with this... unfortunate business, it would do you no favors to sour your reputation among the greater part of humanity overseeing these proceedings.”

Lopez: “I thank the Representative for their advice, but to paraphrase a great man, I feel that, 'You must pardon my rudeness. I have grown prematurely old in your service and now find myself bitter.'”

Representative Ada Bauer: “If I remember correctly, you are paraphrasing George Washington's confrontation of armed forces in rebellion against the United States in the Whiskey Uprising. That is a rather heavy allusion to put before this body, Minister Lopez.”

Lopez: “Then I will be clear so as not to allow any further doubt. I have served for nearly ten years as an architect for a government I could have controlled as a tyrant. I have shared many technologies to make lives easier and acted to preserve human life both in space and on Earth. I have denied myself many pleasant distractions during these years, such as the comforts of friends, family, and loved ones. I have no desire to continue the next decade as I have finished this one. Therefore, I offer my resignation to this investigative body. I only ask for a short period to transition controls of vital services to other Ministerial Departments before it becomes effective.”

A cacophony of noise rises up from the observation seating.

Representative Evan Reynolds: “Order! I will have order!” A long pause of settling noise. “Minister Lopez, while this is far from a court of law, what you are proposing is tantamount to a plea of Nolo Contendere. That is, a tacit, rather than explicit, admission of guilt. Are you sure this is the fashion you wish to proceed forward?”

Lopez: “Anything I have done, I feel that history will judge that I did so in the best interests of my species. Regardless of my course of action, I move forward with a clear conscience.”

2150: Even as humanity moves forward irrevocably changed, it still moves forward. Armstrong City on Luna, Eos Chasma on Mars, and the flying cities of Venus are expanded dramatically and see an influx of new immigration from Earth as trade lanes between the planet and the colonies are opened for the first time in over ten years. While conflict is ongoing in the former UNAS territory, peace-keeping missions by the Stellar Council keep violence to a low level. Autonomous Deputies, now branded as Autonomous Troopers (or ATs for short), begin the slow process of cleaning radioactive hot zones in the major cities under careful human watch. New deals with the Stellar Council are struck and further nano-fabrication units are proliferated, though the design stays a state secret. With final segments of the population being vaccinated by local governments, the terror of the Rabid Years come to a close.

Spaceship production skyrockets as upscaled nano-fabrication is implemented on a wider scale, allowing more and more people to move about the solar system. Cruises lasting several months to Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus become popular vacation destinations. So-called 'Iron Wombs' and more standardized cloning implemented over the past few years causes a surge in the population by several million as the specter of the Last Dogs is finally put to rest with the destruction of the last holdouts in the region of Tibet.

Ezekiel Lopez is asked to serve out the final year of his term training his replacement to ensure a peaceful transition of the immensely technical office's duties and minimal upset to the standards that the populace has come to expect.

~~~

Well, here's the promised timeline chapter.  It's a cruel necessity, though I know some people enjoy them.  I tried to spice things up a little here and there, but this was needed to give people a clearer picture of the events over the passage of time.

Next up is Industrious.  I'm thinking the Marvel side of things.  Next week will be a chapter of the OG Naruto side.

Going into another month, thank you again for all of your support and I hope everyone's having a much more tolerable allergy season than I am so far.