Meltdown Ophilion - Book One

SUPPLIMENTAL_The Cholan and the Keneso

Notes:

Kypro was the name of their com-zone – officially called a citizen center — one of 138 on Ophilion. These enormous metropolises were much bigger than the biggest of the cities we had on Earth at the beginning of the twenty-second century. In their construction the Ophilion used a reinforced metallic alloy they called chalidion-26 which allowed them to build taller buildings and thus very compact cities, giving the centralized governments of each com-zone tight control over the tens of millions of inhabitants.

The general populace of Ophilion – the labor and service class, who were referred to as "Cholan" (CHO-lan) meaning 'citizens' – were not slaves, but neither were they free; they existed for the benefit of the ruling class – which were known as "Keneso" (ke-NE-so) meaning 'stewards'. If a citizen had been born into the labor class, it was up to them to make the best of it. If they were fortunate enough to have been born into the ruling class, then they could thank the stars for the advantage and enjoy the pleasures and duties of the ruling class.

This two tiered social system had been in place since ancient eras, however, it had changed considerably in the last three hundred years. There had been an intermediate class of successful Cholan, in previous eras, who were allowed to own land and industry and could work their way into the sphere of Keneso. It had also been possible, in those eras, for Cholan to marry into the High Circle of Keneso, if certain conditions were met. Cholan with bright minds and original ideas were admitted into the Keneso. But that had changed ten generations ago - at the beginning of the com-zone era.

In the cenro 8456-G, in which this narrative takes place, there was absolute segregation in all spheres of life between the two classes. While it was possible to lose one's status as Keneso and be degraded to Cholan, it was not possible, under any circumstances, for a Cholan to earn or even marry into the status of Keneso. There were no official relationships between the classes.

Although there was some discontent, there had never been an uprising of the Cholan against the Keneso, the reason for this is the absolute control wielded by the Keneso and the high level of cooperation between the rulers of each of the one hundred thirty-eight com-zones.

The Ophilion had been very slowly developing higher forms of technology for over forty generations – more than one thousand years, unlike our technological explosion of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries on Earth.

For over six hundred years Ophilion had possessed air ships that could fly between the com-zones as well as into the vacuum of space, past their meteor belt and to their neighboring settled world of Quarinor and on to any of the thirteen other planets of their star system.