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the
Exodus’ five hundred fifty years, particularly the first years of
the thirtieth century. That nasty crowd was responsible for
countless acts of terrorism that ended up costing millions of lives
and millions of square kilometers of land and sea. If they were
going to be forced to move, they threatened, then they would
utterly despoil Earth for good and for ever. The fighting ended in
3149 when the ringleaders of the incipient “Oligarchy” were caught
and sentenced to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
    Humanity, living among the stars, celebrated
their demise.
    But the Oligarchy, named for how they viewed
themselves on nature’s hierarchy, didn’t disappear. Like an unseen
infection that hadn’t been completely eradicated, the movement
slowly festered and spread. For two hundred years no one heard of
it, having relegated their madness to the darker pages of human
history.
    Random chuckled without humor.
    “What’s so funny, amigo?”
    “Nothin’,” said Random. “I’m just thinking
depressing thoughts.”
    “With that view? Are you nuts?”
    “Sometimes I think I am.”
    “Not that I want to continue your trip down
South Sad Street, but mind sharin’?”
    “The typical. How stupid people are. I mean,
look at this.”
    “I’m lookin’.”
    “It’s like the Exodus didn’t mean anything.
People let the Garkies take over planetary governments, and now
Earth faces complete destruction. Think of it! If they destroy the
Nyett Zhong, humanity will inevitably repopulate this world and
wipe it out. And if that doesn’t happen, the Garkies will destroy
it anyway, as they’ve promised for centuries! That’s just … really
depressing.”
    “It always starts with apathy
and complacency,” said Hewey. “That’s how crapheads like Garkies
ooze their way into power. But hey,” he went on, “a lot has to happen for
them to get what they want.”
    “I wish Cubey could see this. He’s been gone
a long time.”
    “He’s still got a digital heartbeat,” said
Hewey. “Don’t worry about him, Rand. I remember when you did the
same thing to me.”
    “What did it feel like?”
    “Like nothin’ at first,” mused
Hewey. “And then it was like I was surrounded by light. But then I
realized I was an
‘I,’ and that the light wasn’t new; I was.”
    “Light,” smiled Random. “The sun?”
    “Yeah. I realized that I was runnin’ some program to
determine the strength of a solar flare and that my sensors were
pointed in that direction. I realized it. Realized . That was quite a
moment.”
    “Here comes the sun/ Here comes the sun/ And
I say … It’s all right….”
    “That’s how it felt,” said Hewey with a
happy sigh.
    “Cubey’s got a lot more power than you,”
said Random after humming a few more bars. “I’d think that would
speed his progress compared to you.”
    “Don’t worry too much, amigo. Remember: his
central core is on Phobos and he’s still gotta do his job there,
one that is quite a bit larger than runnin’ an RV! Besides, I don’t
think it works that way.”
    “Why not?”
    “Don’t know, really. I just have a feelin’
it doesn’t.
    “Interesting.”
    “I know I’ve said it before, but let me
thank you again, Random. You’re a good friend.”
    “My pleasure,” smiled Random as he watched
Earth spin above him.
    “Shall I cue up some Beatles?”
    “Sounds good. Early Beatles, if you wouldn’t
mind.”
    “I wouldn’t mind at all.”
    ~~*~~
    Nine planetary governments and over
twenty-seven thousand subgovernments made up Parliasolis, or the
Parliament of the Solar System. The Oligarchy was comprised of
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Pluto Darken, which represented
twenty-five of Sol System’s most distant worlds. Oligarchist
governments were little more than dictatorships hiding behind the
appearance of democracy in the manner of the most corrupt
governments of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Their
populaces, while loudly proclaiming