Mars Needs Books!. Gary Lovisi

responsive to the “people”—now called “citizens”—as everyone was a citizen of Earth—but it was also to better effect tight, concise, effective control.

      Eventually the DOC put in place a new planetary government, the worldwide “Authority” that ruled the Earth—for the DOC—and for Simon.

      Early on, the move had been a darling of political leftists and socialist internationalists, who simply gushed lovingly over it; the idea had been loosely based on the defunct United Nations—or the Soviet Internationale. The Authority came into existence under the theory of benevolent big government being able to help everyone with their special needs and to ensure their every want.

      The Authority became a worldwide totalitarian government dressed up as a smiley-faced super Mommy State, but underneath it could be hard and harsh. It soon became a master with not such a smiley face at all. By then the old nation states were gone, now everyone was a citizen of the world. Equality and utopia had arrived, and no one complained—if they knew what was good for them.

      To accomplish this and keep it in place every form of media manipulation, unconscious message implanting, and propaganda was used to control the masses. Psychological control centers and reeducation ‘camps’ were established to get people thinking correctly, so they would cooperate and accept all the good things the Authority was bringing into their lives to make it better.

      Utopia had, in fact, arrived!

      The goal for the Authority was to keep power and extend power. They did it by controlling the people into absolute obedience.

      Control was key.

      Control in every form imaginable, and many forms not imaginable.

      It had worked better than Simon had ever anticipated.

      Yet not all was perfect in His paradise.

      There were a few difficult cases that still persisted. They called themselves “individuals” and while they were scorned as uncooperative, inflexible, and troublemakers, even subversives—and when necessary, traitors—they still persisted. They were of course dealt with accordingly. But killing didn’t always work. There was no real satisfaction in it after a point. You can not kill everyone. When one of these so-called individuals was killed, another seemed to be born to take his or her place. Simon realized that something had to be done to breed this taint out of His humanity.

      In cases where citizens were merely troublesome, they would be dealt with in a variety of ways. In the early days, some citizens seemingly couldn’t get their fill of protests. They protested everything. After the DOC took control all that nonsense stopped. In cases where protests were organized, or like-minded groups acted, key members would be brought back under control by a variety of means. Sometimes these organizations would just cease to exist. As if they had never been. Often members disappeared altogether. An unusually large number seemingly committed suicide, voluntarily or forcefully. It made little difference. Others awoke to discover they were being arrested for a variety of trumped up crimes they had never committed. It did not matter. They were always convicted. It was even rumored that the worst of these had been shipped out to Mars and the other planetary colonies. All media and educational outlets were used to enforce absolute compliance—technology guaranteed success in a way no other totalitarian government had ever achieved before in human history.

      Truth was always the greatest loser, of course. However if you didn’t like the particular truth spouted today, just wait until tomorrow, or the next day and there will be a new version you might like better. But probably not; because the one thing you could always count on is that things will always get worse.

      * * * *

      Arabella Rashid walked into the room. Her sharp eyes quickly scanning all the images on the screens that glowed in front of Simon’s desk. She looked at him intently, carefully, trying to hide her fear. “I see you’re really going to let them all leave, after all.”

      “Yes, we need workers on Mars and some of the outer colony planets,” Simon said quietly.

      She used to have an Anglo name, but five years ago she had taken the name of Arabella Radshid. She never told anyone why. Not even Simon. Especially not Simon. She was thirteen years old now and an acknowledged genius. Her IQ was said to be the highest in human history. It had naturally caused her to become noticed by DOC scientists and eventually, Simon Himself. She was being groomed as the Assistant Director of DOC. One of his most special creations.

      Like the ancient Roman Emperor Tiberius with his creature and successor Caligula, Simon often said he was nursing a viper for the citizens of Earth!

      Arabella Rashid had also been Simon’s mistress for the last five years.

      She was only thirteen years old but she had learned much from her mentor.

      Her master.

      Simon often told her he was big on mentoring, especially with young, often under-age girls. One could hardly call them women, when they still had years to go to attain even their teens.

      Arabella had been disgusted by all of it. However, it was all she knew in her short life, even as she hated Simon with a hidden passion that was unquenchable, one as righteous as the old gods of myth. The forbidden gods of her Ancestors. Simon was the only god allowed now.

      However, while Simon was a monster in many ways Arabella Rashid didn’t let that bother her, or misdirect her, from her own goals.

      Yes, she had her own special goals, even at thirteen.

      “You surprise me,” she said softly. “Letting a group of troublemakers get away so easy. They’ll only be a problem for you in the future....”

      Simon gave her one of his all-knowing smiles. It wasn’t arrogance; it was power supreme and cruelty incarnate, only tempered by vast knowledge and experience, “My darling, that is the plan. They’ll be a problem—I dare say it, perhaps even a challenge—for us to crush. And thus, their demise will make us even stronger.”

      Arabella Rashid nodded. She thought that she understood. The knowledge made her wince. Simon’s devious cunning was as if it had been given birth by Satan himself. She looked at the man closely; an old man now, but her superior in so many ways. He was her mentor in all things, her lover, her master, a monster incarnate she realized. An inner shudder ran through her that she could never express openly.

      Of course she’d never been told about the Devil, or even God, nor much of anything that was from any of the old religions, all of which was strictly forbidden. Religion had been relentlessly attacked, degraded, ridiculed, and finally sent away by the government. The government saw it as a threat, a dangerous pluralistic voice to its all-encompassing laws and regulations. All religions, and so much more, had been erased from the culture and society many years before her birth. None of it existed in the digital record, and since that was the only record that mattered....

      Even in her special position, she’d seen truth covered by lie upon lie, so she’d had to dig furiously and dangerously for every truth or fact she ever discovered. Nevertheless, if you looked hard and deep enough, it was still possible to uncover truth.

      Sometimes.

      Some of the ancient information storage devices known as “books” still existed. Antique hard copy texts printed and published many decades past. Of course, most unapproved texts had been expunged years before. Billions of books had been destroyed outright. Gathered up and burned. Now all modes of media were tightly controlled. Obsolete media, such as TV, video, CDs, the Internet, and even the latest full cortex implants and brain inserts—were all heavily edited, corrected, abridged, or changed. The digital record was the approved text for everything these days and it came straight from the DOC through the worldwide government Authority.

      It began long ago when they put secret chips in phone devices, computers, even video screens to tell what you were doing, watching, saying—along with your location data. All personal messaging was on file for access by the government too, so there was no privacy even on your most personal devices. All media was interconnected and any government agency that desired the data had access