The Empire: The Beginning Prologue As they strive to castoff the yoke of tyranny. In the mid 21st century, the Corporate Socialist Industrial Complex, with the aid of conservative extremist and religious fundamentalist, and their political allies, using patriotism and nationalism, reinforced by religious dogma, gained control of what was then the government of the country once known as the United States. Once in control, they established ‘Plutocratic’ rule. The rule of a society by its wealthiest people for their own purposes. The ‘Oligarchy’ proceeded to abolish all regulations -- labor, health, safety, environmental; any law or regulation they deemed that encumbered corporations. They proceeded by dismantling all social programs that aided the elderly or less fortunate, like Social Security, even health care for the citizenry. The legal system was abolished. Complaints were handled with the complainant disappearing. Social justice no longer prevailed. The populace was effectively forced into submission; into servitude. They closed all colleges and universities preventing the average person from all academics. Even high schools were turned into training camps. Libraries were destroyed. An intelligent mind might rise up and resist the ‘Oligarchy,’ demanding social justice. After the ‘Great War’ in the early part of the 22nd century, the Corporate Socialist Industrial Complex controlled the world. Thus begun a thousand year rein appropriately known as the dark ages of Earth. A millennium where economic domination prevented people from acting for themselves. And political domination prevented people from thinking for themselves. (*) It was the year 2992. And Robert Donovan was making the final preparations for what would be the first interstellar space flight. Robert Donovan had been named Robby, with no surname, when he was born some twenty-four four years earlier. He was the son of Amanda, a slave girl, who was a household servant in the home of the wealthy business tycoon Robert Donovan. Robert Donovan had repeatedly forced his will on Amanda. She was only sixteen when Robby was born. Donovan had no wish to acknowledge Robby being his son. He could remain with the other slaves. He would either survive or he would die. Amanda cared for her son the best she could. The slave masters provided little in the way of food or clothing for their servants. Amanda would steal scraps of food for her son, doing without herself. And he survived. It was a cold, wet, windy night five years later. Amanda was lying on the makeshift bed, an old used mattress throw on the floor, in one of the slave shanties. There was no heat. And the one window had been covered over with an old discarded blanket to help block the wind and cold. Amanda had what they called the coughing sickness. It was the common flu or influenza that had evolved into pneumonia. Amanda died at 0423 hours. Medicines were available for the wealthy elitist. But the slaves could get by with whatever home remedies they could concoct. Although only five and a half years old, Robby remained by his mother’s side, throughout the long, cold night, doing what he could to comfort her. Slaves were restricted from all forms of education. They were simply trained to perform rudimentary task. But Amanda, with the help of Grandfather, had taught herself how to read, write and perform elementary math. She did not dare let anyone, especially the slave Masters, know she could read and perform math. After becoming sick, and knowing she would die, Amanda took the long trek with her son Robby to meet Grandfather. It was never made clear to her if ‘Grandfather’ was actually her grandfather or that was how he was addressed. Grandfather was the keeper of the vault. The vault was a subterranean chamber deep below a building that had once been part of a university. No one could recall the name of the university. The vault contained thousands of pre-Corporate Socialist Industrial Complex (CSIC) books, newspapers, magazines, videos, computers and computer disk. The CSIC, when they came to power, tried to erase all past history by destroying books, newspapers, magazines, videos, and computer disk, anything with reference to past history. They rewrote history crediting some actor that served as president, as being the ‘father of the country.’ And all reference to a black president had been erased. As she lay dying, Amanda made her son promise two things: One, he would not reveal the location of the vault. Two, he would strive to castoff the yoke of tyranny that enslaved humanity. (*) Are you okay, Robby?” asked Jeremy. Like Robby, Jeremy had been born to a slave girl. In fact, of the forty plus people that comprised the crew of the star ship, that they had named Adventure, all but William (Bill) Rockefeller were the offspring of slaves. Jeremy’s biological father was Gerald Morgan, a wealthy banking tycoon and financer. The CSIC ‘Oligarchy’ had recognized early on that most of their own offspring did not possess the necessary intellectual capabilities for higher learning -- the mental processes of abstract thinking and reasoning. They had initiated a screening process to determine if any of the slave children possessed exceptionally high learning abilities. When Robert Donovan learned that the child he had fathered with the slave girl Amanda possessed the necessary intellectual capabilities for higher learning, he was more than happy to acknowledge Robby and give him his name. Robby never liked the name Robert Donovan, Jr., as official documents now listed him. He much preferred the name his mother had given him -- Robby. When Robby had graduated, at the age of eighteen, with a doctorate in astrophysics, the degree read: Hereby confers upon Robert Donovan, Jr. the degree of Doctorate of Astrophysicist. Robert Donovan, who had ignored Robby as a baby, and due to the lack of medical treatment, had permitted his mother to died in a cold slave shanty, was leading the cheering section. The hypocrisy was not lost on Robby. And the promise he had made to his mother, that cold, wet, windy night in the slave shanty, so many years before, flashed through his mind. I promise to strive to castoff the yoke of tyranny that enslaves humanity. (*) “I’m okay Jeremy,” Robby replied. Then added, “Fire up the engines. Let us go where no man has gone before. Let us find and settled a new world where humanity will never again be oppressed.” (*******************)
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:22:02 +0000
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