Year: 2045
Over 3,000 ships are now known on The Mesh Communications Network to be seasteading. There are also over one hundred ships permanently at sea that have not chosen to get on The Mesh network. Many deepwater gardens are thriving. There are three permanent structures in various geographic locations that seasteaders call home. One of these, originally built in 2039 and the first of its kind, stretches between 8,000 and 13,000 feet below the surface, in the Atacama Trench about 100 miles off the coast of Chile and Peru. Violent, extortion-funded gangs with fancy titles (governments) have quietly stepped up their pursuit of those involved in the C.A. Salt Project. The seasteading, anarchist pioneers have, in turn, developed more advanced defensive technologies and techniques in order to evade the state.
Scene 1
Mr. Holo, an agent from Alpha Engineering, is having a drink at the estate of his boss, Richard Checker.
Richard Checker: Mr. Holo, you’ve been with Alpha for a great deal of time, and have had a great career. However, I’ve had a somewhat troubling meeting with the board of directors, which is why I needed to speak with you.
Mr. Holo: Sir, I know that…
Checker interrupts.
Checker: Please, let me finish. It has been nine years since that turncoat scientist Ray Regalo released classified technology to the public. At the same time, ships that were not previously known to exist were found, quite accidentally, as I understand it. Since that time, it has been found that there are indeed undocumented people and ships permanently at sea, living outside of the law. You were tasked with finding out more about what is going on out there, and putting a stop to any use of the technology taken from Alpha. And you have failed miserably.
Mr. Holo: Sir, with respect, I beg to differ.
Checker: Wait. I have a question. This nano-technology that reflects and amplifies sunlight, if in use under the oceans, should create obvious bright spots that can be found, right?
Mr. Holo: We should be able to do that, but..
Checker: But what?
Mr. Holo: We have been unable to detect any such radiance in deep water. I believe that whoever is using Radiance technology has found a way to mask it. Cover it up, so to speak.
Checker: A type of cloak, you say?
Mr. Holo: Yes.
Checker: I am not aware of any such capabilities.
Mr. Holo: Neither am I, sir, but…
Checker: You believe it exists. And then there’s the problem of finding these fantastic vessels.
Mr. Holo: My military contacts have said they’re like ghosts, sir.
Checker: Beliefs and ghosts, Mr. Holo. We work for a multi-trillion dollar company, and the best you can come up with is beliefs and ghosts?
Mr. Holo: They must have a way of seeing us come. Military vessels, private Alpha craft, CIA, it doesn’t matter. They have a way of seeing us coming, and evading us.
Checker: And satellites, Mr. Holo?
Mr. Holo: Satellites, radar, sonar, it doesn’t matter. Some anomolies show up on satellite from time to time, but disappear before we can get to them. They are mobile, and have very advanced technology.
Checker: And where are they getting this technology, other than the Radiance that was taken from Alpha?
Mr. Holo: They develop it themselves, I suppose.
Checker: What about A.I.?
Mr. Holo: They have very advanced A.I. We know this from the pursuit of Ray Regalo, when he was giving Radiance away. He escaped for a short time out to sea, on a ship with a female and a humanoid A.I.
Checker: Then there’s the question of funding and supply lines.
Mr. Holo: Our efforts at infiltrating their networks have revealed that there is no central apparatus for trade, no single monetary system, so to speak. They use highly encrypted forms of barter and blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. They have a private communication network outside of our internet that we have been unable to break. We know very little of the supply lines, but it seems that some decentralized networks exist linking land and sea.
Checker (angry, gruff): Dammit, Mr. Holo, who are they?! What do they want? Who are their leaders? How many of them are there? I want answers, and I want results! Do you have any idea who we work for?!
Mr. Holo: I don’t know who they are, or what they want, or who their leaders are, if they have any. There could be a hundred of them, or there could be thousands. We don’t know.
Checker: Holo, there are other agencies and private groups working on this problem. There are some, like myself, who feel that it’s time to take this information public, in a way that suits our agenda, of course.
Mr. Holo: To what end, sir?
Checker: War, of course.
Mr. Holo: Might I remind you, sir, that there have been seven documented confrontations between either private or public military forces, and whoever these ghosts are, they have escaped every time. We must fight them quietly. Doing so publicly could be embarrassing.
Checker: And what information was gained from those confrontations? What was learned about the enemy?
Mr. Holo: Well, we were unable to identify many of them, but….
Checker: Mr. Holo, someone who might not know you as well as I do might think that you’re sympathetic to their cause, that you’re helping to cover their tracks.
Mr. Holo (extremely agitated): How dare you, after all my years of loyal service!
Checker: Silence, Mr. Holo. You service has been appreciated, and handsomely rewarded, I might add. It has come time, though, for you to retire.
Mr. Holo (shocked): But I’m not ready to retire!
Checker: Be a good sport now, Mr. Holo. (Checker presses button on table, two heavies walk in, crack their knuckles)
Checker (thin smile): These gentlemen will show you out, Mr. Holo.
Mr. Holo goes kicking and screaming with the two heavies. Checker makes a call.
Checker: Mr. Holo has been retired.
Phone Voice: Explain your rationale.
Checker: How else could people and ships just disappear from government and corporate databases? How else can they be nearly invisible? They must have help from the inside. Holo was focusing on this problem for far too long to not get more results. We need more aggressive action. Overt and covert.
Phone Voice: Very well, Checker. Your input is appreciated. However, there are some who believe that overt action is not a good course at this time.
Checker: Why not?
Phone Voice: Because if the slaves discover that life is occurring at sea, off our plantation, then they might try and escape the plantation.
Checker: But, there are some who support overt action, and….
Phone Voice: There will be no argument from you, Checker. You have wide license to operate covertly, and that’s it. The public must not be brought into an overt war, at least not yet. Goodbye, Checker.
Click.
Episode 11 coming soon!
Thanks for your time and attention!
Just say "NO" to slavery!
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