The Blast

…Some said the shift in radical climate changes and the swirling of pollutants after the big party had irreversibly altered the human genescape and distorted the libido in new and profound ways…

Drinks Are on The Devil, page 223

Before the blast—which most people referred to as the “big party”—most of Earth had been divided into highly populated city-states and swathes of countrysides that were dotted with towns and smaller villages. These metropolises and rural regions maintained a connection through trade and a variety of cultural exchanges. Over time the gradual erosion of trust set in between the two areas, with those living in rural communities becoming suspicious of the cities as control centers ran by elites, furthering the antagonism between the two starkly divided societies. Furthering the divide between the two zones, the subsequent war crisis and trust crisis almost went hand in hand, causing even greater calamities. The lack of government transparency, constant corruption and political scandals, along with the onslaught of artificial intelligence and virtual reality experiences, all created an irreversible crisis of trust on the planet. 

Following the trust crisis were the water crisis and the air crisis, and both of which added to the tension between the cities and the countrysides. Soon skirmishes broke out in the countrysides and at the borders of cities over food and water. The conflicts escalated, causing regional battles to break out across the globe.

Eventually the people in the countrysides mobilized and made sacrifices to pull together by conceding and compromising with one another, along with aligning with factions inside the cities who were splintering off from the power elites. Clans and tribes and communities began to show solidarity by uniting to overthrow those in power. In the end, when the ruling elites realized that the world’s societies would be drastically altered in the way of power tilting in favor of the population, they decided to pull the plug by launching catastrophic bombing campaigns of what would later be called Project C. 

It had been speculated long before that the ruling elites had always planned to pull the plug on civilization if it was ever apparent that they could lose power and control of society and industries. When the blast occurred, it emboldened those who had no trust in the governing bodies on the planet. Some of the special investigators assigned to scrutinizing the blast claimed that the event was caused by a solar outburst, while others said comets or asteroids were to blame, and further out on the fringe there were those who speculated that the blast could have only been the work of off-world entities. Most of these theories were viewed as disinformation, because most people believed, including the majority of investigators, that the blast had been caused by weapons of mass destruction from the greatest military powers.

The devastation altered the planet unlike ever before, including irreversible shifts to the mindsets of Earth’s remaining inhabitants. The survivors were so disoriented and bewildered by a catastrophe of unprecedented scale, that those that did make it through the blast were in a staggered state and could only focus on clean water, food and shelter. Their sole priority was keeping their children and loved ones alive. 

Some of the changes to Earth were immediately noticeable, like the wild and varied colors of the sky. There were bodies of water of nearly any color, with pink and orange being favorites for viewing, although often deadly. Some forests were filled with red trees where the blades of grass surrounding these trees were more turquoise than green. Microclimates popped up and were often juxtaposed to their greater surroundings; a wet and windy near-freezing landscape could be adjacent to a milder dune-filled terrain that stretched into semi-barren land with cactus and tiny ponds. Tens of thousands of flora and fauna had been seemingly lost in the blast and its aftermath, and many more died in the weeks to months following, and even years later species were still dying off. Some creatures mutated, becoming an odd variation of their former selves, taking on new characteristics. The dahkadills were such a case, with the carnivorous flying insects morphing into a frightfully large pest with hardened shells.

The offspring of the people who had survived the blast would also become a part of the visible changes in subsequent generations. What was called, the “huddle of defense”, was the action of most all people who had sought security and fortification in those who could be trusted, eliminating old barriers of prejudice and discrimination, which resulted in a kind of new beige people. Some of these offspring were of a more yellow or red or brown shade than others, but most babies were a fawn color. These new children were referred to as beigies, and they made up half of the population after the blast.

These striking visual changes to Earth and its inhabitants were referred to as the new colored world. This period of time was also a time for radical change in thought, and this feature of open-mindedness was another reason for the “new colored world” label. Public philosophical discourse was prevalent during this time; humans became more tolerant of one another, and their differences. People tried to understand each other’s perspectives more, applying patience and undertaking peaceful resolutions to problems, while shunning past ways of bloodshed. It was a special time on the planet. People truly pondered human existence in a way that hadn’t been seen since the days of the ancients, embracing the enchanting mysteries of Earth, and even the universe. They would meet up and hang out and philosophize openly at all hours. There was no night and day in the old orthodox sense of it, only the visual differences, and even those had become murky in this new colored world. 

Eventually, advanced technology earned its way back into society, mostly due to the crucial need for scientific engineering in the domains of public health and agriculture. Yet, the new tech renaissance was highly regulated due to the lingering visceral fears that humans still held of laissez-fare tech run amok. 

This special time of human tolerance and overt philosophical endeavor, combined with the relaunch of tech-forward programs and cutting-edge biotech ventures, all created an exciting social climate for the generations that followed the big party. Sporting clubs, nature clubs and all sorts of other social clubs sprang up and sprouted new generations of people who craved positive change in all aspects of their lives. These people valued health, consciousness, face-to-face social interaction and work-life balance over their past addictions to shallow materialistic desires, competition, isolating selfish ways, and the internal authority to constantly be driven at all costs. 

Rejuvenated agricultural associations, along with the farmers’ alliances had also played a prominent role in the slow recovery of mending a wounded planet. The redevelopment of natural food sources had all been implemented through a re-wilding of fruitful landscapes. Guilds and trade unions were established throughout all sectors of society. The guilds had reinvigorated the scientific knowledge that had nearly been lost in the blast, and they were crucial in the development of the Pointer One systems of living, These guilds inculcated the knowledge of their specific trades into the next generations, and they would remain intact and carry their roles over to the island city-state of Tehama. The sporting and social clubs that were formed during the Pointer One system would also make the journey to the new city-state, along with the many varied academic institutions, and the unionized security force known as the Star Masters. 

Created as a cooperative between people who wanted to live inside a massive glass-enclosed city and people who preferred to live outside of these structures in rural villages, yet remain connected to the city by trains, the Pointer One systems were launched with immediate success. The parts of Earth that was still inhabitable became dotted with these cities that were built inside of a glass cone-shaped structure. Each city housed between forty-five thousand to sixty thousand residents, with train lines sprawling out into the countrysides like the tentacles of a giant squid. The enclosed cities contained an air filtration system, and on the outside of this glass cone a ring of trees spiraled up from the bottom to the top like garland wrapped around a Christmas tree. 

The first of these urban – rural cooperatives was named Pointer One. The origin of the term Pointer One, came from the pointing to a new direction out of the chaos and darkness, and the “one” because of the first enclosed city was listed as such. Pointers Two through Seventy-Nine, which was the last of these cooperatives built, were all referred to as the Pointer One system. They were controlled and operated by a management committee that held a tandem of single overseers in the positions of developer and general manager, or GM. Beneath the developer there were six bugs, which was the title for the people, often younger, who were coming up with new concepts while being groomed for the potential position of the next developer. These committees all interacted with a zone chief from each district in the city and the villages attached, and governance was enacted in the form of direct democracy. There was a GM and a developer at the head of every sector of society; such as the air, water, earth committee, which was in charge of every aspect of ecology, including agriculture. There was the department of science and engineering, and also the department of humanities and athletics. Health and justice were always grouped into one department, and this H&J group would also carry over with the big move to Tehama in the form of the Hara. 

For the first twenty-five years the Pointer One system flourished, growing stronger and more vibrant with each passing year. In its third decade of existence, some of the Pointer Ones began experiencing problems in the form of raiders attacking the villages, yet never being able to penetrate the glass-enclosed cities. In most cases the raiders were successfully fought off, as the Star Masters were well armed and maintained an arsenal of high-tech weaponry. But in some cases, the raiders learned to take control of the villages, enacting a siege of the cities by controlling the agriculture of the attached countryside. One by one, nine of the Pointer Ones collapsed to the raiders, tumbling like dominoes across an ashen landscape. The result of these hostile attacks was the beginning of the first talks covering strategies for defense, which included the development of nanorgic food sources grown and cultivated at smaller scale, along with solutions for the escalating problems of the raids. 

Over the next decade the Pointer Ones were successfully defended against, and no other cities fell to the raiders. But the raiders continued to wreak havoc in the form of train bombings and the taking of hostages, thus putting great strain on the residents of the Pointer Ones and causing them to live in constant fear of the next attacks. 

The death knell came in the form of a scourge of germs that the raiders began to carry with them. There were several of these plagues, and they were unknown to even the best scientists of the Pointer Ones. Testing revealed that they had originated from a variety of diseased and mutated animals and insects from far-flung realms. Some of these diseases were highly contagious, causing the populations to plummet in the Pointer Ones. The villages were especially greatly affected, losing so many people to these raids and pathogens that most of these rural dwellers had to seek refuge inside the enclosed cities. Over time, the heads of all of the committees and the zone chiefs, along with the leading scholars and engineers throughout all of the remaining Pointer Ones drew up a proposal to relocate to an island. They strongly believed that this island could sustain a thriving and healthy population, giving these peoples the best hope of rekindling what they had lost in the chaos of the last decades. Out of these contentious discussions, which took several months, a proposal was drafted and presented to the people of the Pointer Ones as a promising endeavor with fruitful rewards. Although the journey to relocate would be arduous, and casualties would likely occur along the way, it would be well worth it once they arrived to their new homeland. 

And thus, after nearly a year of preparation from all of the remaining Pointer Ones, the grand migration began. Envisioning a bright future, with vigor and stars in their eyes, the peoples of the Pointer Ones embarked on what would always be referred to from that moment on as the “big move”.