The Clean Slate Accord Read online

  The Clean Slate Accord

  By Sofia Diana Gabel

  Copyright 2011 by Sofia Diana Gabel

  Cover Copyright 2011 by Steve Upham and Untreed Reads Publishing

  The author is hereby established as the sole holder of the copyright. Either the publisher (Untreed Reads) or author may enforce copyrights to the fullest extent.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold, reproduced or transmitted by any means in any form or given away to other people without specific permission from the author and/or publisher. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to the living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  http://www.untreedreads.com

  The Clean Slate Accord

  By Sofia Diana Gabel

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 1

  Alexa sat up straight and repressed the feeling of dread that had plagued her all day. It was only a speech, she reminded herself, but a speech that would change the world. She had no qualms about the impending change, but the fact that her image would be broadcast worldwide made her hands tremble. Ever since childhood, she’d preferred to work in solitude, behind the scene, but now everyone on Earth would know her face. Her entire adult life had led to this moment.

  She ran her hands through her short blonde hair and waited for the time to count down, keeping her hands clasped together under the desk. Five seconds, four, three…then, smile and talk. “Citizens of the world, as your Global Director, I, Alexa Lange, make this announcement from the Arctic Operations Bunker with great pleasure and hope. It’s taken twenty long years of negotiations and trials, but we now stand on the threshold of launching the greatest contrivance ever put before us. The Clean Slate Accord shall finally become reality, creating a clean slate, if you will, where our planet can start over. No more hostilities, violence, murders or wars. Humanity will finally evolve to greater heights without these unnecessary distractions. With all humility, I thank you for your attention and cooperation and I look forward to witnessing this amazing transformation as much as you do. May peace and prosperity bring about New Earth.”

  Alexa kept her eyes fixed on the global broadcast lens until the little red light flicked off, signifying the transmission had ended. She addressed her crew with a relieved smile, “Thank you, gentlemen. I’m glad that’s over.” She looked for twelve-year-old Jonas among the crowd of people. “Jonas, where are you? Can you get the President for me right away?”

  Jonas, small and gangly, peeked out from behind the broadcasting equipment, pushed his empty eyeglass frames back up to the bridge of his nose and nodded. “Already on line one, waiting for you.”

  “What would I do without you?” Alexa tapped the “one” key on her wrist communicator and took a deep breath. “Good afternoon, President Chandler. You’re free to make your announcement now.” She disconnected the call and went to Jonas. “Turn on the viewing screen. I want to watch Chandler.”

  Jonas flicked a switch on a console panel. “Done, Director.”

  The large wall screen flashed on and the image of President Isabella Chandler leaning against the front of her desk appeared. Alexa held up her hand to quiet the crew and whispered to Jonas, “You watch, she’ll use that same tired choreographed move where she starts talking and then goes and sits down to dispense her grandmotherly wisdom.”

  The President began her prepared speech with a genial smile. “My fellow citizens of the United Continents of America, I come before you to set in motion the much anticipated initiation of the Clean Slate Accord.” The President straightened up and moved behind the desk, just as Alexa knew she would, and took her seat. “I know you might still have some concerns about the aspects of the training process, but I can assure you, there’s nothing to worry about. Clean Slate is perfectly safe. For generations to come, you will be remembered, or should I say revered, for your complicity in this amazing advancement of the human race.” She folded her hands in front of her on the desktop and paused for a brief moment. “I would advise all of you to review your pamphlets just as a brush-up reminder of how the Serum A injections will work in concert with the implants. Any and all questions should be referred to your local magistrate or health clinic. The Accord will officially go into effect as of midnight, according to your particular time zone, when the implants are triggered. I am excited to serve as your president at the start of the Accord and if you see fit to re-elect me in the fall, I promise to continue to serve as your humble leader. I wish you all a pleasant night and may the grace of the Accord fulfill our every dream.”

  The transmission ended and Alexa looked over at Jonas. “Humble leader? Is she kidding? It was me who negotiated the uniting of the North and South American continents. You like the way she worked the election into the speech? I think she even peppers her hair gray so she’ll look more dignified.”

  Jonas pointed to the blank screen. “You don’t like her, do you, Director?”

  “Oh, it’s not a matter of like or dislike, it’s just that she’s so arrogant, in a very unpretentious way.” Alexa saw Jonas struggling with the concept and thought she should help him out. “She fakes her humility.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  With a wink, Alexa smiled at his innocence. “Don’t worry about it. It’s a trait you thankfully don’t have.”

  “But I’m like everyone else. You said it yourself.” Jonas stared down at the ground. Even when Alexa touched him on the shoulder, he didn’t look up.

  “Yes, you’re human, so in that respect, you are like everyone else. But your intellect, as wonderful as it is, segregates you from the rest of the population. Sometimes, Jonas, I wonder if you see the full potential of who you are.”

  He looked up and removed his eyeglass frames. “But why did you have to make me so smart? I’ve never had a friend. I’ve never even gone to school. People my age shun me.”

  Alexa sighed. Here it comes, the self-pity. Poor Jonas. Every now and then, he fell into a contemplative mood and pondered his existence. Alexa took the frames from him and waved them in the air. “Why don’t you leave these things off? You know I don’t like them. Your eyes are perfect.”

  “I look more like everyone else with them. It gives me the appearance of a fault. They bring me equality,” he answered with a half-smile.

  Equality? He would never be equal to anyone, but Alexa was not about to tell him that. “Why would you want to waste your time in school or socializing with ignorant people? You are who you are. You’re special and for that reason, I didn’t implant you. You and I are the only humans on the entire planet without implants.”

  His face seemed to brighten a bit, which relieved Alexa. She really disliked playing mother to his childlike insecurities. He reached out and took the frames. Slipping them back onto his face, he sighed.

  While the crew packed up the broadcasting equipment, Alexa motioned for Jonas to follow her into the hallway. She glanced behind to make sure he was following and thought how diminutive he looked. “Hurry up, Jonas.”

  “Yes, Director. Have I done something wrong?”

  “Not at all.” They walked farther down the hallway, almost to her bedroom. “Can you do something for me? Without
the knowledge of anybody else?”

  “Anything for you. What do you want me to do?”

  Alexa lowered her voice even more, “Can you double-check that the remaining Serum D has been destroyed? I don’t want even the smallest stockpile left.”

  Jonas just stared through his frames, as if taken by surprise at the request. “All of the Serum D? You don’t want to keep some for further experiments?”

  “No. I want all traces of it destroyed. Make sure all the files referencing any experimentation and the lab trials are deleted, too.”

  He stared again. “I can do that.”

  She knew he could, but she needed to know that he would. He’d been instrumental in developing the serums and Alexa knew how he detested letting go of his creations. “Good. I’m going to go and lie down for a while. Call me when it’s done.”

  Jonas took a moment to straighten his frames and then hurried the other way down the hall, toward the lab. When he disappeared through a doorway, Alexa went to her room. With the initiation of the Accord, there was no reason to keep any evidence of Serum D around. Serum D had only been used in the lab during development of the implants and since it wasn’t needed anymore, the danger of keeping it around was too great.

  She opened her bedroom door and let her eyes drift over the room for a moment before stepping inside. In one corner, she had a gilded picture frame outlining an enlarged view of a sequence of Jonas’ DNA, and on the other wall, a complementing photo of her own. It was a balance of perfection.

  Once over the threshold, the door closed automatically and she sat down on her bed. On the table next to her was a stack of pamphlets. She picked one up and skimmed through it, although the words were very familiar as she’d written it herself.

  After receiving your MB-3 Implant, you will be injected with a dose of Serum A twelve hours before the onset of the Accord. By the time of the Serum A injection, the implant will have attached itself to your brain stem. There will be no rejection to the implant, as it will become a living part of your body.

  Serum A will begin to immediately “rewire” your brain’s synaptic responses to Megaburst (MB) activity. Megabursts are defined as the synaptic impulse strength triggered by certain thoughts or activities. For example, 5,000–6,000 MBs are registered during sleep or rest, 7,000–12,000 MBs are within the range for normal waking activity. 13,000–25,000 MBs register during strenuous or sexual activity and 26,000–30,000 MBs result from extreme hostile, violent or hateful thoughts, which are likely to cause the individual to act on those thoughts.

  The Clean Slate Accord will go into effect once the Serum A has regulated MB activity to where MBs over 25,000 will no longer be possible.

  Welcome to New Earth, where one mind, one people becomes a reality!

  Alexa clutched the pamphlet to her heart. She could still remember when worldwide peace was just a dream. Most of her young adult life was spent in the Great World Conflict as a genetic warfare specialist in her home country of the Arctic Principate, starting when she was only sixteen. Mandatory service is what the enlistment letter had said, but rather than placement in the ground laser forces, her IQ landed her a position in the laboratory. How many lives had she changed with her invention of the VRD, Viral Recombinant Defender? Too many to remember.

  It had been so easy to develop the VRD into a perfect weapon. Targeting missiles were loaded with vials of the virus and launched at the enemy’s most populated areas. The missile exploded on impact and the virus was carried up on the ensuing smoke where it drifted into the air. It spread fast, attaching itself to the medulla oblongata of the host. It recombined its own DNA with the host’s and rapidly divided, shedding airborne spores via the host’s respiration. Within a day, the host was transmuted into a mindless shell of its former self and thousands more were infected. Only after seizing control of all the major continents did the Arctic Principate declare victory, and order the dispersal of the antidote to the VRD. While the antidote had been effective in preventing further spread of the virus, it did nothing for the host.

  The memory of the Great World Conflict had haunted her every since. It had given her a craving, an insatiable desire for peace. For twenty years she’d worked to develop the implants, making them as humane as possible. The only unfortunate part was when Jonas found an unavoidable implant failure rate of one in five hundred thousand, when the implant and host were incompatible.

  Tragically, the implants could not be removed surgically. Alexa had learned her lesson from the VRD and developed a more effective antidote to the implants for the testing phase. Serum D short circuited the entire process, reversing the effects and converting the host back to its original state. But once Serum D was administered, the host could never be implanted again. To prevent running the risk of having unregulated people undermining the Accord, she designed a failsafe mechanism into the implants instead. If MB activity registered at 26,000, the implant would fire. Within a nanosecond, the person would be vaporized from the inside by the ensuing nuclear pulse, and the host would never feel a thing. The pulse would be contained within the host and the body would simply vanish without any trace of what had happened.

  While Serum D had been necessary during the testing phase, it was not needed now. The Accord was the only solution to humanity’s weakness and there could be no antidote if it was to work. Removing defective hosts was more effective in the long run than Serum D. Anyone getting their hands on Serum D could prevent New Earth and Alexa was not going to let that happen. No one could find out about Serum D.

  A chill crept up her spine. There was so much responsibility heaped on her shoulders. She governed the world. But was it ethical to stray a bit off the path of honesty by not disclosing the removal process? Was deception the only way to build a world of peace? She lay down on the bed and closed her eyes, imagining what such a world would be like. It was almost too good to be true, but she knew in time she’d be loved for her accomplishment, so long as nothing got in the way.

  Chapter 2

  A soft sound broke through Alexa’s meditation and she opened her eyes. He was there again, intruding on her privacy. “Jonas, I’ve told you not to come into my room unannounced.”

  “What’s it like?” He was kneeling by her bedside, staring at her through his oversized frames.

  “You ask me that every time. Sleep is not something I can explain so easily on a non-biological level. Your body doesn’t require sleep, just rest each day. You know that. Besides, I wasn’t sleeping. Is there something you need?”

  “I don’t feel well.”

  Whenever Jonas admitted illness, Alexa paid attention. She’d been with him his entire life and only on two occasions had he become sick. “All right, let’s take a look at you.” She got out of bed and escorted him to a chair beneath a recessed light.

  “Director, I feel strange right here.” He pointed to his abdomen. “And I have a headache.”

  She felt his forehead and gently probed his stomach. “There’s no fever and no tenderness. When did this start?”

  “For a while now. But the headache started about an hour ago.”

  Alexa glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s nearly ten minutes to midnight. Why didn’t you come to me right away?”

  Jonas wiggled in his seat and rubbed his temples. He leaned forward and started to rock back and forth slightly, holding his stomach and making a tiny groaning noise. “I don’t feel well.”

  “Jonas, you’ve never acted like this before. You know you can come to me with any problems, even if you think I’m asleep.” She placed her hand under his chin and lifted his head up. “Is there something else wrong?”

  Before he had time to respond, Alexa’s wrist communicator console lit up. She pressed the incoming message button.

  “Director, this is David in the control room. There’s something you need to see.”

  “I’ll be there in a moment, David.” She turned off the communication line and stared down at Jonas. “We’ll have to finish
this conversation later. If you still don’t feel well, you can lie down for a while, but I don’t want you wandering off.”

  Jonas nodded slowly and mumbled, “Yes, Director. I’ll be in my room.”

  She watched as he jumped up and shuffled from the room. Perhaps she’d spoken too harshly. After all, his psyche was extremely fragile, an unfortunate trade-off for the increased intellect. Had she known about the problem, she could have adjusted his DNA during his creation.

  She checked the clock again and sighed. Only nine minutes to go before the Accord would be official in the United Continents. Once the implants were activated, there’d be some loss, as expected, but a sharp decline as any malfunctioning implanted hosts were removed from the population.

  “Lights and mirror activation,” she called out to the interior comfort system. The lights came up brighter and the frame around the large mirror on her closet door illuminated. Staring at her reflection, she touched the fine lines around her eyes. “I look old.”

  “No, you don’t. You look exactly how you should look,” the mirror’s voice replied.

  Alexa pulled up slightly on the skin around her eyes. “Of course you’d say that, you’re programmed to report facts. Which means I look my age, lines and all.”

  “Very true, but I can still add compliments. You have beautiful skin tone, a light spray of freckles and the color of your hair is still mostly a delightful shade of blonde. Hardly any gray at all. See? I’ve learned that much. I can also see that your brow is furrowed. You have a problem?”

  She pulled a chair in front of the mirror and sat down. “Yes. It’s my sweet Jonas. He’s acting strange. He says he’s sick, yet I see nothing wrong. In the past, he’s whined about ill feelings, but this time he waited for an hour to tell me about a headache. It’s not like him.”

  “What is it you want from me, Director?”

  “I’d like to have a sample of his DNA analyzed. If there’s a breakdown in his genetic matrix, I need to find out. He’s useless to me unless he’s one hundred percent operational.”