Darkness to Light (eBook)

David H. Maring (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
238 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-0854-1 (ISBN)

Infos

'Darkness to Light' is a 52,000-word science fiction novel about a utopian, dystopian world that forms after a nuclear devastation. Paradise, a matriarchal nation state, is divided into female Wos and a select few male Donors. Generations after the great catastrophe a Wo archaeologist discovers a man frozen in a cryochamber. When he unfreezes, the two start an epic journey moving humankind from a dark age towards the light.

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"e;Darkness to Light"e; is a 52,000-word science fiction novel about a utopian, dystopian world that forms after a nuclear devastation. This novel shows the dramatic reemergence of struggling communities through the experiences of a young archeologist, revived cryogenic characters, Messianic Jews, and an array of barbarians. After this great catastrophe, the world enters a dark age when governments collapse as civilizations crumble. In the aftermath, survivors start the long and difficult journey back. Paradise, a new nation state, exists on the eastern coast of the former United States. Women rule. The only males not killed at birth reside at the sperm farm. Providing this resource is their only function. This society is divided into Wos, who are female, and Donors, who are male. The Department of Fertilization is the only parent that a child knows. Outside Paradise other societies struggle to exist. Messianic Jews occupy the Northern Zone. Their capital is New Jerusalem. Barbarians are encroaching on both countries, which are in constant conflict with each other. Generations after the great catastrophe a Wo archaeologist, Beth, discovers John in a capsule in the basement of a Decon Cryonics Center. When John unfreezes, the two start an epic journey through a constantly changing world. Will they succeed in moving humankind from a dark age towards the light?

Textauszug

CHAPTER TWO

“I studied your report from yesterday,” Julie said, as her boss poured a cup of the black coffee made from ground okra and nuts. “It was a great discovery finding those five Pre-AGC human remains.”

The bitterness of the coffee shocked Beth’s system into an elevated level of alertness. It overpowered the remaining effects of the happy sleeping pills taken last night.

“It was unfortunate the bomb’s penetration of the upper floors demolished almost everything,” Beth replied.

“How much more excavation before you finish this site?” Julie asked.

Beth did not directly answer the question but instead replied, “There appears to be another floor beneath the debris according to the directory carved into that tablet recovered yesterday. It listed the basement floor as the Decon Cryonics Center. I hope there is a human in the basement that survived in its frozen state.”

“That’s assuming the human can be resuscitated like the frozen Black male recovered from the abandoned capital, Washington,” Julie said. “Another person from before the Great Catastrophe would give us a second perspective. Now we should get the Robs moving if you are going to return to Nesota before the weekend.”

***

Seven Robs worked all morning removing the remaining debris while Beth examined and Julie recorded articles from the damaged structure built above the earth’s surface. By noon, the basement floor entrance was reached.

Shading her eyes from the bright reflective sun rays from the debris, Beth studied an oblong piece of marble beside basement doors that were still intact. Carved into its surface were the words ‘Decon Cryonics Center.’

How strange it was, she thought, for people in the prior world to think that life should be saved, extended, or prolonged. The concept of living beyond the age of usefulness was a foreign concept that she had difficulty comprehending.

“We should wait until tomorrow before we enter,” Julie said. “The Robs look exhausted, and they need to be fed. Breeching those heavy, steel basement doors can wait one more day.”

“I agree,” Beth said. “Join me in my tent for dinner after we’ve had a chance to wash away this cake of perspiration.”

Julie already knew the evening wouldn’t lead to a physical encounter. The earlier hope that the outlander region where they were working might free the archeologist from the restraints that existed in their homeland on intimate behavior had already been dashed. Beth had gently, but firmly rejected her advances, though their professional relationship remained undamaged.

***

Beth had been tense all day. Probably because time spent in the field did cut one off from the Temple of Pleasure where there were ways to satisfy the needs one’s body occasionally craved. But these methods encouraged by the government had never completely satisfied her.

Back in the environmentally secure tent, Beth stretched out in the long tub that provided more than enough room for her six-foot frame. As she laid there in a state of nature, a domestic Rob poured warm water filled with a mixture of special oils for preserving the skin. She then used a mild soap that would clean the body without damaging its soft texture. Afterwards, she used a battery-operated vibrator to bring relief to the sexual tension that seemed to come in waves anytime physical labor was involved. It was not satisfying. This didn’t surprise her. Even the Temple of Pleasure never brought total satisfaction to her thirty-year-old body.

After the bath, Beth dressed in a simple khaki outfit and a pair of dress boots. Looking into the mirror, she was satisfied with her appearance. She could thank the government. The council had in place a system that kept one looking youthful until the age of fifty, at which time you reported to the Temple of Departure. Until then, the lifts and youth injections meant that no wo looked old or at least not incredibly old. The year of fifty had not been created arbitrarily. Scientists years ago designated this as the time at which a wo would become a minus for society. The males at the sperm farm were vaporized at twenty-five, though she heard rumors that a new age of twenty-one was now being given thoughtful consideration by the authorities.

***

Julie’s garment was so low that it revealed her breast implants, while the lower portion of the dress was made with material that hugged the contours of her body so tightly that there was nothing left to the imagination. She hoped Beth wouldn’t be offended. This was the only illegal clothing she had packed for the two-month’s assignment away from the capital. She stitched it herself in the privacy of her three hundred square foot apartment.

It felt good to be out of the required gray one-piece outfit for someone of her station. Although tonight’s dress had failed her in an earlier attempt to seduce the boss, she had used it over the years to seduce other wos and had never been caught by the law. Such sexual intimacy was punishable by time in a labor re-education camp. That was tough, but not as severe as having sex with a male. The penalty in such cases was immediate death by vaporization. She had never performed such an act, though she had wondered what it would be like. There were rumors that one heard about how males and wos had copulated in the time before the G.C. But the distance from that time was so great only the council had knowledge of such a world.

The steaks that evening was topped with a large helping of white potatoes, not the instant ones that were normally served. Beth had used a substantial number of ration coupons for these items. Vegetables on the plate were from the green houses that dotted the rural sections on the outskirts of Nesota. A bottle of wine from the cellar of a recent excavation was ready to be consumed. The background music that came from a relic of the past added atmosphere to the dinner.

The way Julie had dressed for the evening reminded Beth of her assistant’s earlier advances. But nothing, not even her loneliness, would take her down the path of engaging in such forbidden conduct. The price for just moments of pleasure was too great and would immeasurably damage her career plans.

Beth’s ambition to one day become a member of the council had dominated her every action since puberty. When a vacancy would occur no one knew, but it had been a long time. Many wos believed it was long past due for the ruling ones to report to the Temple of Departure, though they kept such thoughts to themselves and a close circle of trusted friends. Right beneath the surface of their society was a certain restlessness about the fact that those who controlled their lives never seemed ready to depart.

***

Beth was still in a deep slumber the next morning when the domestic Rob came to wake her. The night before she had taken a double dose of a tranquilizing drug to quell her restlessness. She sent him to get coffee on three occasions before her brain waves began to work properly.

Later that morning, when Beth arrived at the excavation site, the Robs were struggling to open the heavy double doors. With a loud creaking noise, they finally began to swing on the rusty hinges. Beth and Julie slipped through. Once inside, the radiation counter attached to their work belts immediately stopped the constant chirping noise.

“There is no radiation,” Beth said the instant she realized the air was pure.

A miniature nuclear unit still working was in a corner. This capsule reminded her of crypts discovered on previous digs. There was a thick glass covering the capsule. Beth and Julie were unable to discern anything because of liquid nitrogen gas that filled the chamber. A bronze plate attached to the side of the capsule read ‘John Lee Brunson DECON 211 FIRST LIFE CYCLE Born July 1999. Placed in capsule May 10, 2060’.

Beth and Julie looked with interest at the last name. In Paradise no one had a last name. But they did have individual administrative designations that distinguished them from others.

On the flat top of a three- foot marble pillar beside the capsule was a text enclosed in a transparent plastic box. An inscription read, “Instructions for Future Generation on the Science of Cryonics and the Methodology Used for Suspended Animation.”

“This is a great moment,” Beth said. “The human has been preserved because the nuclear device continued to function. If we can safety transport the body back to Nesota, it’s possible the Medical Research Institute can revive him.”

“They were able to do it with frozen Neanderthals and other groups in the years before our world was isolated by the Great Catastrophe.” Julie was quick to point out and show that the history courses at the university had not been a waste of time.

“We’ve had no contact with their colonies since the WAR,” Beth said. “We were blessed that their DNA was preserved at our labs and from it, we were able to create Robos and reduce their IQ down a few points.”

Julie knew from her studies that the Robs, whose ancestors roamed the earth two hundred thousand years ago, had been bred for such purposes. They were called Robos because in the early days after the Great Catastrophe, the council thought they were like robots, necessary to perform duties that humans found boring or dirty, or that required heavy lifting. They were now simply referred to as Robs. Before the G.C. these Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Hobbits had been bred only as a curiosity. The male Robs were of low intelligence and castration at the age of three removed any sexual threat. But the government...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.6.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-0854-1 / 9798350908541