Chapter 7

Writer's Note: I just realized, this is the first time we meet my MMC, Conner. Have fun getting to know him and his friend Josh.

“And this here is the edge of the forest,” the tour guide announced through a toothy smile.
“Think they paid him for all the dental work?” Conner muttered to Joshua. They snickered and earned a glare from the tour guide with the five - star smile. They let the silence stay for a few minutes while the guide droned on about the flora. Neither would want it reported back to Joshua’s father that they had been slacking and goofing off while at the biggest sight of historical proportions left on the face of the Earth.
“So do you think there really are people living in there somewhere?” Josh asked.
“How the hell am I supposed to know that?” Conner asked then considered for a moment, “you know, I doubt it. How would they find food? And are there not supposed to be wild animals in there like jaguars and poisonous animals and plants? I do not see how anyone could survive. What do you think?”
“I dunno. Humans are pretty ingenious bastards; there might still be survivors out there,” Josh said with a sweeping gesture.
“If that is true then your father is going to be screwing over a lot of people, do not you think?” Conner asked.
“Not at all. The world needs that space and my father has figured out a way to produce oxygen and filter out carbon dioxide without the use of trees. He has even managed to get pollination plants up and running so we no longer need to worry about that either. These Tree – Huggers really need to get with the forty fifth century,” Joshua claimed, nodding to himself. He could be as preachy and sanctimonious as his father when he started talking of the Program. But he really believed in it and Conner could not blame him for that.
Truthfully, it was amazing. The whole reason why they were on this trip to freaking Brazil right now was the fact that the trees could not be cut down without strangling the entire rest of the world in a few months. Over the years most of the underwater fauna had been killed by the chemicals companies had insisted on dumping into the oceans so the bulk of their oxygen had come from the trees and oxygen plants that they could wrangle. But Joshua’s father, Jude, had down what everyone had thought to be impossible, to be able to safely separate oxygen from carbon molecules in limestone and then be able to control the carbon once it’s back outside to have the ocean bind errant oxygen with the carbon again to start the process over. It was not a forever fix, but it would last everyone a while. A couple thousand years if the government continued to limit the number of children every couple could have.
“Really, Joshua, who are we to tell them what is moral or immoral for them? Or not prudent? If, as you claim, they have managed to survive all this time then who are we to tell them that they are out of date or that they need to change their entire view on the world? Is not one of your father’s basic tenements that we are not here to change anyone? If they want to keep their religion or old, superstitious beliefs that’s entirely up to them. He just provides a service,” Conner asked Joshua a few minutes later. He loved playing the opposing side to Joshua just to see him get riled up. At first he could usually hold it together and debate civilly but after a time, when the harder questions started coming and he did not have a white answer to give to the black question he became insanely frustrated and lashed out. Conner was the only one in their year who could manage to stay friends with Joshua for this long.
“I see what you are doing there, Conner. Stop it; I do not want to get in trouble with Mrs. Silva today. She has been watching us like a hawk this entire time and I think she can smell when you are trying to rile me up,” Joshua muttered out of the corner of his mouth. Conner glanced over at her and saw what Josh was talking about. She had set her sights on them and would not look away until they had moved apart for a time. Conner took the hint and found another person to stand by and another plaque to not pay attention in front of. Josh always had been the natural – born leader of the two of them. Conner made a nice beta to his alpha, though. Always the one who made sure the plans came through but never had to stand in front of the camera. Never to be in the line of fire if things went wrong. The one who doesn’t really have to believe in the cause to be a part of it. The only time Conner ever really minded it was when he could tell his testosterone levels were up and the aggression and need to succeed made him a little angry that he could never be in the spot light for a few seconds. Then he came to his senses and recognized for the thousandth time why. He never really believed in anything with the passion Joshua always seemed to be able to gather when he or his father came out with a new idea or invention.
It was Jude and Josh who had gotten the people to get behind policies such as the Nanny Restrictions, where nannies were no longer allowed to nurture a child from birth. They managed to get the population of North and South America to support laws saying that with a birth of a child the mother and the father had to take a mandatory year off to raise the child and nurture it. Yes, Jude’s father and grandfather had been working on changing the public view on that for years before this but Jude actually got the law to pass. Somehow he got the men of the countries to go past the old views on patriarchy and machismo and see how much it actually helped the child. Jude had actually managed to overcome certain biological programming to get this law passed, and Josh was right behind him every step of the way. In many ways it was his victory just as much as Jude’s.
Everything they had managed to convince people to do was for their good, thankfully. Conner had no doubt that at least half of America would follow Jude into a lion’s den because they thought he was the son of God. Everything that comes out of his mouth goes into their secret diaries at night, as far as Conner and Josh’s hacking got that one night, before they were caught by Jude. The three months punishment work in helping the permanently hospitalized for some of the entries these people make.
“While some people may argue that we have no leg to stand on with trying to tell people we have not seen for five thousand years that they have to come back into our society and be freaking productive members, which they have not been doing all this time, I do not believe that it’s so wrong of us to say that. They can not understand that things have changed out here; me and my father did that. We made it so we no longer need the forest to give us oxygen or to house the wild animals. We have preserves in high – rises to do that now. We need this land to build up on though and this is just taking up useless space,” Josh whispered to Conner at the sign detailing a certain flower that had cured boils or something. Conner smiled just a bit. He had been waiting for this moment. Josh never could resist a good debate. Or any bait Conner might throw out.
“That still does not answer how it is moral that we force them to take on our belief system. How do we know, and who are we to say from our uninformed stance, that our way is the only way and the only right way?”
“Well, my father would say that we are really not trying to do that. If they wanted, we could move them into a preserve and keep the option open for their re-socialization open always for them and their children,” Josh answered. Conner waited. Whenever Josh specifically said that his father would be of an opinion he needed time to formulate his own, different one. Conner found it a good sign when Josh had a different opinion from Jude. It meant that he had his own thoughts and beliefs and wasn’t just following some rote script hidden on their hard drive somewhere or worse, that he was like Conner and had no true convictions but just followed the silver spoon that was being yanked around by dear old pa.
“I know that this is against one of the major credos but I think we do have the right to tell them that our way is right and theirs is wrong. It is a question of empirical facts. We have an average expected life span for both males and females together of ninety six. Our cancer rates are extremely low, and are only plummeting. They are expecting there to be zero spontaneous cases within ten years and I think that is actually a pessimistic view. The birthrate is stable and we only lose one or two full term fetuses in the entire world in a year. Everyone is literate. Women and men are finally equal, as are any races that might still exist in certain, small pockets. We have a global power, language and open market. No country is richer than the other. Our food is filling, tasty and nutritious and we do not need to use real animals for our protein. We have obliterated malnutrition, auto immune deficiency syndrome, the flu and cold and several other illnesses that used to plague us. If we look at all of that I do not see another conclusion to come to – things are appreciably better. We can tell them this and show them it. No matter what those damn Purists say.”
“While that may be true, with the lengths that the tree huggers go to, I wonder that they are more of a religion than a different society though. Which even you say is acceptable because it is not based on empiricism or any form of proof other than intuitional. They will not accept any old evidence to prove to them that what they believe is wrong, if you ever could get them to change their minds. And you know that you could not. They devoted their lives to this, and those of at least a hundred generations. They staked their entire view of the world on this. We have no right to meddle in such belief,” Conner countered in a low voice, smiling just a bit. What happened next shocked him to the core.
“Well, Conner, I do not know how to counter that just yet. Give me some time to think that over before I answer you, okay?” Josh asked. Conner nodded on the outside, ever the obedient second. Inside though, he was yelling “halleluiahs” to the heavens. Once, just once in his long friendship he managed to make Josh speechless. He came out on top for once. For whatever reason – perhaps Josh was fatigued from the traveling or being in the real sun and unregulated and high heat all day – but Conner had gotten him to say he needed to think up a reply.“All right. We will talk about this again later. Hey, it looks like the group is going back to the hotel. That means extra feast foods and unnecessary flavors, such as chocolate. You know that the dark truffles are my favorite and we only get them once a year at Christmas normally. Then tonight we get to go star viewing. They say that it is the clearest of any part of the world down here so we have an afternoon rest to get through as well today,” Conner said to Josh and led them back to the year’s monorail bike transport.