[Announcement: The editor had to head to the hospital due to an emergency, and depending on how it goes, there might be three more chapters later to cover for yesterday's miss or moved to tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your support.]
Aron’s speech had hit the target, inspiring and riling up everyone that watched it. From beginning to end, the reactions on social media only grew wilder and wilder as people rapid-fired their views on the imperial feed all over the internet. Even Panoptes had had to spawn a whole host of VI assistants to ensure that the opinions were neatly tucked away in their own individual echo chambers, lest conflict arise from opinion clashes.
That said, a few examples still had to be made of those that egregiously violated lese majeste law, though there weren’t that many who crossed that line. Most people were reasonably supportive of the empire, having experienced the sweetness of imperial citizenship benefits already. Life was good for imperial citizens, and it showed in the general optimistic trend in the background, with very little need for propaganda to reinforce or alter peoples’ opinions.
Events like the speech Aron had just delivered as the empire of mankind were only occasionally necessary to maintain and bolster the opinion that most people shared. And this speech in particular had fired everybody up, even going so far as to silence some of the habitual naysayers who were constantly contrarian in their outlook. Those people called themselves devils’ advocates, but most people had another name for them: ultimate pains in the ass.
Gaia motioned for silence in the council chamber. When the applause finally died down, she said, [We’ll begin with the imperial health agency. Councilor Ross, the floor is yours.]
A podium rose in front of Councilor Nathan Ross and he stood from his seat to deliver his agency’s progress report. “I would like to thank the emperor for the oppo—” he began, but was cut off by Gaia.
[Please keep your remarks concise. There are a lot of agencies that need to report, so brevity is appreciated. Everyone understands that everyone is grateful for the opportunity to head imperial agencies. Let that be stipulated in the record. Please continue, Councilor Ross.]
The councilor cleared his throat and, after a brief pause, continued, “We’ve officially finished the first rejuvenation treatment across all imperial citizens. There were zero rejections or issues with the process, thus, our empire is now a hundred percent healthy of body and sound of mind.
“In addition to general health, the process also rejuvenated the telomeres in citizens’ DNA, officially extending the lifespan of humanity to approximately two hundred years, plus or minus twenty years.”
A murmur ran through the crowd in the council chamber. They had been feeling excellent since their first visit to the imperial medical pods, but it wasn’t until just that moment that they understood exactly what had happened to them during their brief visits to the cubes. Now that people outside were hearing about it unprepared, though, they could only imagine the bomb that had just been dropped in people’s minds and hearts.
And this was only the beginning of the progress reports; if things were to continue along this track, there was no telling how many shocks the populace was about to receive!
After another gesture for silence from Gaia, Councilor Ross continued his report.
“We’ve also cooperated with a number of other agencies to gather DNA samples of all of Earth’s remaining flora and fauna. Working backwards from there, and through the historical fossil record, we have begun a campaign to reintroduce species that have gone extinct due to external influences, like overhunting, clearcutting, and so on. We’ve also begun an initiative to bolster the numbers of species that are considered at risk of extinction, like various sea life, giant pandas, avian species, and others.”
He paused to allow people to catch up with his report, having dropped bomb after bomb. He looked around, and when the glaze in his fellow councilors’ eyes cleared up, he continued speaking.
His report on the environmental work continued for about ten minutes before he wrapped it up, saying, “As always, all information has been made available in the Akashic Record for those interested in the details of our work so far and the plans for the work we’ll be doing in the future.
“On another note, we’ve also addressed the concerns of healthcare workers. Now that the first complimentary visit to the medical pods in the cubes has been completed, we plan on scaling back access to them in the community clinics and hospitals. Medical pods should be a final lifesaving measure when all other avenues have failed. As such, healthcare professionals will remain in the healthcare profession, staffing local clinics and hospitals.
“After all,” he grinned, “pod fees are expensive, and doctors will be much cheaper. If the only healthcare we offered cost you two percent of your net worth every time you visited them for a minor ailment, those minor ailments would end up piling up and causing lasting harm to your bodies. Our agency exists to ensure the health of all imperial citizens, including their financial health to a certain extent.
“So for those men and women who work in the healthcare field, please rest assured that your jobs are safe. That’s all from my agency, thank you everyone for your time.” He sat back down in his chair and the podium in front of him melted back into the ground.
[Next in line is Councilor Bauer of the imperial environmental agency. Please deliver your report, councilor,] Gaia said and a podium rose from the floor in front of another seat.
With the lesson from the beginning of the previous report still in his mind, Councilor Greg Bauer rose and immediately dove into his report, wasting no time on meaningless pleasantries that served no purpose but to waste time and lower efficiency.
“The imperial environmental agency has been working on reversing the damage caused by global warming since the industrial revolutions around the world. For that, we constructed environmental scrubbers and have begun cleaning the atmosphere and ocean of excess greenhouse gasses, including carbon dioxide. So far, we’ve reduced the aggregate concentration of harmful greenhouse gasses from around 500 parts per million to 434 parts per million, a net reduction of approximately thirteen percent.
“We’ve also lowered the acidity of the ocean by approximately 26%, or a net increase in oceanwater pH from 8.05 to 8.06. Our target for the surface layer of the ocean is a pH of 8.17, returning it to the level it was at before the industrial revolutions in the 1700s began.
(Ed note: The aggregate greenhouse gas number is completely made up, but within reason. CO2 is currently at around 414PPM, which is a terrifying concentration, especially as relates to ocean acidification. A drop in oceanic pH of about 0.3 resulted in one of the largest mass extinction events in the history of the planet, and over the last 70 years or so we’ve dropped from a pH of 8.15 to 8.05 and the acidification is only speeding up. Some time this century (2100s), we’re estimated to reach anywhere from 8.0-7.7, so our children or grandchildren may experience a mass extinction event of their own. Something to keep in mind, yo.)
“Over the following weeks, we will be focusing on retrofitting scrubber devices into the industries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions. That’s just a stopgap measure, though, until our engineers develop new methodologies for carbon neutral, or even carbon negative standards in operation and production.
“In combination with miniaturized atmospheric scrubbers, we’ll also be focusing on public education regarding the harmful effects of greenhouse gasses, which we estimate will produce a number of interest groups that will get involved in healthy environmentalism instead of ecoterrorism. Planting trees is better for the environment than burning buildings, so do please keep that in mind.” Greg paused for a moment, allowing the impact of his reminder to sink in before continuing.
“Our current goal is that the environment will be healed from all negative impacts over the past two hundred and fifty years no later than October four years from now....”
Councilor Bauer’s report continued in that vein for about another twenty minutes, giving people an explanation of the towers that had been discovered dotted around the globe and putting a whole host of conspiracy theories to bed as the theorists discovered that what they thought was some giant... whatever was in fact just glorified filters for the entire atmosphere and ocean.
That said, conspiracy theories were rarely ever completely defeated by facts and logic, so they still continued... just with fewer proponents that believed in them.
