The Eternal Glass Ceiling :: The Neo-Reconquista

The Subaltern

Speeding down the freeway at ninety miles per hour. Amaru began to question Stan about zone three. Amaru never suspected that a privilege guy like Stan would be the one to volunteer to visit such a dangerous part of Terra Domus. Stan revealed to Amaru that he would always hangout in zone three that's why his father got worried and sent him to Aequor Domus after his mother died. Finally, Amaru had gotten the answer to his unasked question. Amaru gave his condolences expressing sympathy for the Stan's lost. Then he asked about the cause of her death. Stan explained that his mother died from the airborne plague and that he may have contracted the disease from her. Which explained his heavy coughing and shortness of breath.

That's when Amaru realized that the symptoms Stan was exhibiting was very similar to the respiratory disease that his mother died of. Could it be that Amaru's mother had contracted the airborne plague as well? The boy began to speculate that the idea was absurd because the plague had not even been announced as yet—or was it? It's highly evident that the boy's family barely used electrical devices thus they rarely kept up with the news. The only reason Amaru had even heard about the storm and the plague was the courtesy of the informative elderly men that was huddled around the radio in the village.

In spite of everything, Stan had stated that he was not worried about his ailment because his father was working on a cure. That's when Amaru began to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Professor Kalinsky was using Amaru's immunity to the disease as a means of creating some sort of remedy. That's why The Professor extracted Amaru's blood and examined him regularly. Stan also mentioned that this was a project that his father kept secret from the authorities. Living under the watchful eye of the government is very tough so it's important that anyone who's working against the system move stealthy. Amaru began to state that he did not understand why creating a remedy for the airborne plague would be a bad thing. It would help many people who lived in The Outlands.

Stanley scoffed as he explained to Amaru that the government was not interested in making a permanent cure to counter the effects of the plague. He said that they were using the plague as some sort of biological weapon. They would effect the people of The Outlands then promise them a temporary cure if they became residence of the dome and worked for them. From this shady agreement it was also evident that there was great profit to be gained from the effects of the plague. Big businesses could benefit from investing in cure campaigns, cure conventions, medical equipments, research, products and so on.

"They have strategically utilize this temporary cure to the plague in the same way they've utilized the low wages. They give the poor just enough to keep them coming back, but not enough to empower themselves or fix their problems." Stan explained. Lastly, Stan explained how he was highly skeptical towards Morgade's interest in his father work because if his father was to find an actual cure to the plague. The big corporations would try to purchase it from him so that they could monetize the medicine to make a profit. And If his father refused the offer or stood in their way, they would probably assassinate him and confiscate the serum. This explained why professor Kalinsky was hardly home most of the time and why he spent so much time moving around.

Amaru began to recall that this was the same thing that they did to Texlar's free energy project. Before they allowed Texlar Corp. and other humanitarian movements to provide the Outlanders with free energy to help them rebuild. The government prohibited the project and used the free energy project for the dome while monetizing the energy, charging the public for something that was initially supposed to be free according to the inventor, Neir Texlar.

After a long thought-provoking conversation. The boy's arrived at the train station where they caught the high-speed vacuum train that would transport them to zone three. The vacuum was constructed with magnets, that repel and push the train up off of the tracks, and another set that moved the elevated train ahead. Taking advantage of the lack of friction, this magnetic levitation allowed the train to move smoothly without turbulence which was more efficient than conventional rails. The train zoomed passed the bridge authority at a break neck pace. Then crossed the wide open waters that separated zone two and zone three.