As always with nanowrimo, unedited, unproofed, no spellchecker, stream-of-consciousness nonsense.
Enjoy.
So, the bad news first, we failed, we hit all the tipping points and global warming was worse than everyone feared, nations collapsed, sea levels rose, floods, famine, pestilance, war, all the bad stuff, tens of millions died in “natural” disasters that if they’d acted sooner could have been avoided, fasiscm became the inevitable route that most nations took, late stage capitalism crumbled and the neo liberal deconstruction of state organs left most people on their own and turning to demogogs and strong men that promised simple answers to what they felt were simple questions. Why Us? Ecofascism and greenwashing, all the while the massive corporations and corrupt upper class that caused everyone to ignore reality kept on weilding power, big oil, big tech, big marketing, trillions were syphoned into high tech exclusive solutions for the rich and powerful, and their chosen whites. They withdrew into their fortress states oppressing all around, stealing food, destabilising any organisation that could threaten their easy perfect lives, the brainwashed servants to the states carried on for decades as the world cooked and the abanadoned continued to be forced to feed their brutal system. Everything seemed lost, the soil turned to dust, the forests died, the seas were home to algae and toxic sludge, many literally living on floating islands of plastic rubbish. Mostt people who had once been enslaved by the states to extract valuable minerals and farm the last of the arable lands were replaced by robots and over time more and more of the residents of the states were cast out as unnecessary. Natives of the wastes began to live between the automated factories, mines, plantations, and fisheries eaking out a living in subsistance communities most of the people in the world were forgotten, and over time they formed collectivist communities and then confederations of communities that exchanged needed materials, consensus building and real democracies formed, a new global network of complex orginastional organs were formed to surpplant the long since failed nation state apparatus. Then one day the ecofascist technocracies were overthrown by their citizenry, and they ventured out to find a whole world of people changed. By that point the records indicate that the population had dropped from around twelve billion people to about four billion in just a few decades…
So, the good news? We made it through! And estimates of the global population are around six billion people, and it wasn’t easy, the world today looks very different to the 21st century, sure there are still cities though in the old world not many of them have skyscrapers anymore, those have slowly but surely been mined for materials to build more sensible structures, in the areas that the technocracies ran there are of course a lot more big buildings, a lot of shinny white space age, green washed structures, but waste not want not, where buildings could do a job they were left, where they weren’t needed they were deconstructed and turned into low rises.
-=-
Ellin looked out from her perch ontop of a telecoms pole that reached above the township, a scrawny sharp eyed teen with scruffy hair and thick dirt under her nails, a big grin across her face dressed in rustic clothes with multicoloured bead neckless around her neck and bracelets around her wrists. She was watching her family work the communal fields with a piece of long grass between her teeth. Her ears twiched as she heard the roof door open and looked down, someone in a wheel chair came out onto the roof and looked up, and called to her in a soothing voice.
“Ellin, what are you up to?” They asked and then looked out over the fields.
“Nothing much Yujin.” She said and then rolled backwards on her perch and dismounted with the elegance gymnast dismounting a beam at a world championship landing with a bounce next to Yujin, she quickly knelt down and hugged her knees, eyes locking on their face and smiled again.
“Have you had a chance to review the white paper I wrote for the learning circle tomorrow yet?” They asked.
“Of course! It was really interesting, the way you played around with the concept of belonging, conservation, and space habitation. Controversial of course.” She said in reply. Bouncing to her feet she spun and sat on the wall, then glanced down over the ledge.
“You should be more careful, any thoughts for improvement? Do you think anyone else will agree?”
“We all want to explore the boundaries of what people can really achieve so I don’t think that there can be a reasoned excuse to not wonder the stars, though as you have noted we need to do it in line with the people values of community, coexistence, and anti-exploitation. Is there a responsiblity to maintain an asteroid even if it doesn’t have a ecosystem? Or if we do become used to simply exploiting rocks in space what’s to stop us from reverting to what we once were.”
“Though there is only so much we can intuit without actually trying.” Yujin maneuvered their wheel chair to look over the ledge with Ellin.
“Exactly, but you know what a lot of our elders are like.” Ellin smiled.
“Do I ever!” The both of them smiled. “So what are you upto today other than avoiding your responsibilities?”
“I’ll have you know that I already spent the morning studying the blueprints for the chip autofabs you find out in section 11 and I fixed the solar collectors in the old Otton farm! I’ve been a busy girl, and you?” Ellin said.
“A busy enby I have been as well, other than finishing off this piece for tomorrows circle I’ve been studying up on advanced construction methods and I spent last night fixing some of the harvest drones.” They said and jutted their chin in the direciton of some hover bots looming in the sky.
“What busy bees we are!” She turned back towards the door leading back into the building.
A beeping echoed in Ellin’s ear and a box with green text appeared to float in the air infront of her saying “Incoming Call from Frang” she answerd the call.
“Hey Frang, what’s up?” She asked.
“Hey Ellin, I’m good, look we need a package delivered to Bridd and then they need someone to help them fix up their comms tower, do you think you could help out?” Frang asked.
“Sure sounds like fun it’s been a while since I’ve been out to Bridd, are you at the workshop?”
“Yep.”
“Okay I’ll see you in ten.”
“Thanks Ellin.”
She ended the call and turned to Yujin, “I’ve gotta dash, that was Frang they’ve need a packaged taking to Bridd.”
“No problem, you have fun, I’m going to go and bother Sukhi and Salak while you’re off and about, give me a call when your back.”
“Will do.” Ellin vaulted over the ledge and landed on the ground.
“Bones of rubber that one.” Yujin said with a smile and shook her head.
-=-
Ellin had grabbed the package, said her hellos and goodbyes then rushed to the tower with her glider, the tower was easily the tallest thing in the settlement it had a big platform at the top and multi coloured flags at intervals all the way up, most people would use the lift but it was slow and Ellin had things to do so she took the ladder and raced up the to the top. Once there she took in the view again, she loved being high up, she loved that Yujin was going to take them to space one day, she loved the Earth and everything on it and about it but she wanted to explore like the people in the books, of course she could explore the oceans, she knew there was so much to see there but for some reason she wanted to go up. She looked up at the sky and smiled. Then put on her face mask and looked out across the endless forests and mixed with farmlands, the wonderous farm forests that her ancestors had helped plant and maintained under the nose of the old establishment. She took a deep breath checked the wind and pressed the button that opened the wing up on the ultralight glider, she could feel the wind trying to catch her and drag her away but she’d been doing this kind of thing for most of her life and wasn’t spooked for a second. She checked the wind gauge one last time, then when a she saw the flags twitch in just the right way she let the wind carry her away.
She sored through the sky with ease catching one updrift after another she could keep track of her position using the GPS system that was part of her Navi a tiny computer that she kept in a thick neckless with a pretty multicoloured pattern painted on it. After a while she found herself flying along with a flock of ducks for a while, she delighted in their bemused looks and quacking but they seemed good manered enough to share their skys with her. She thought about how she’d first met Yujin, they’d arrived with their family at the settlement when she was about ten, she’d never seen a differently abled person, at least not one that didn’t have a replacement limb and had to travel around in a chair, she’d asked them if they liked the sun and they’d shook there head slowly, then she asked them if they liked the sea and they shook their head again, then she asked if they liked the stars, they nodded, and so Ellin started to talk excitedly about the stars, everything from constellations to the make up of planets to how blackholes worked, on and on, Ellin smiled, she looked forward to the day when the both of them could sore through the sky together.
She the ducks quaked a loud farewell and turned north while she continued inland, below the forest gaveway to sickly greyish brown and the faint sent of pollution reached through her air filter. Unprocessed toxic zones, wastelands, and abandoned things, as much as it annoyed her she was also accutely aware that by reprocessing, recycling and breaking down these areas of past mismanagement would provide many more centuries of materials that were essential to maintaining the high standards of living that everyone was able to enjoy. Still, it smelt, and it made her sad for the past, but glad of where she was. After some time she was back over forsts again and could see the settlement of Bridd, a few large launch towers, a train line running into the town and a large trainstation with attached warehouse were the most obvious things near them was a strip for gliders and solarplanes to land and checking that all was clear she set about descending.
A rining in her ear for a moment and an incoming local call, she answered.
“Hi, this is Ellin from Boury.” She said.
“Afternoon Ellin, clear skies to you, this is Maram of Bridd, you’re safe to come in whenever you’re ready.”
“Thankyou Maram, I’ll see you shortly”
-=-