John Krygelski - The Aegis Solution

With a slight jerk of his head, Sweezea indicated to Elias that he was to follow, and opened the door, entering. With everything he had seen so far, Elias expected his escort to come to attention and salute the man inside; however, other than a subtle stiffening of his posture, Sweezea acted as if he were bringing a new hire in to meet his civilian boss.

“Sir, this is Doc Charon. He’s a newbie.”

The man behind the desk was in his forties. He wore a long-sleeved, white shirt, which was crisp and well starched, and he was clean shaven, with hair that was long for a military cut but short for a civilian. Elias decided this compromise was deliberate and contrived to convey a specific message that the man was neither.

“Charon,” the man greeted him, standing and extending his hand. “I’m Milton Pierce.”

They shook hands, and Elias probed, “Pierce?”

A smile crinkled the corners of the Chief of Staff’s eyes. “I see you’ve met my sister.”

“Mildred Pierce is your sister?”

“Yes, she is.” He turned and said, “Thank you, Sweezea. You may return to your post.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sweezea reached into a pocket on his vest and extracted the clip from Elias’ Beretta, handing it to Pierce. He then turned to Elias. “It’s good to meet you, sir.”

Elias shook his hand. “What did I tell you about the ‘sir’ stuff? It’s a pleasure meeting you.”

Elias’ escort turned and left the office, closing the door.

“Please have a seat,” Pierce invited, making a show of placing the loaded clip on the edge of the desk near Elias, and lowering himself back into the leather seat. Elias took one of the two offered chairs.

“If you don’t mind my asking, how did it come to be that you and your sister run two of the enclaves here in Aegis?”

The man’s smile returned as he leaned back in his chair. “I don’t mind at all. I’m sure it’s a bit curious. Mildred and I arrived together. Back then, there were no enclaves, as you put it.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Coming up on eight years now. The people here hadn’t split into distinct communities yet.”

“Really!”

Seeing surprise at this on Elias’ face, he added, “Oh, the seeds for the eventual segregation, as some might say, were already present. But at that time the size of Aegis allowed for a reasonable amount of buffer space for everyone, so the friction between people with very different viewpoints, philosophies, lifestyles, et cetera, was manageable.

“However, as the population continued to grow at a rapid pace, maintaining anything resembling a peaceful coexistence became more and more difficult.”

“Sounds a lot like out there,” Elias commented, pointing his thumb in a vague direction over his shoulder to indicate the outside world.

“Precisely,” Pierce agreed. “As long as there was open space, unclaimed territory, then people who felt that they didn’t fit in could always strike out and establish a new community.”

“Or country.”

“Or country. You’re right. But to continue…even though we were scattered about this facility, we were beginning to clump into groups. The groups were rather fluid at first, in both membership and location.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some people have a tough time deciding where they fit.”

Elias nodded. “That’s for sure.”

“Right. They might wish to indulge themselves in an unrestrained, hedonistic lifestyle for a time, then awaken one morning feeling guilty and make up their minds that they need structure, an externally imposed discipline to compensate for the absence of that trait in their character. They would migrate from group A to group B.

“Others might initially embrace the construct of a well-defined, regulated environment, only to suddenly rebel and want to cut loose, as it were. They, then, suddenly would switch from group B to Group A.”

“I imagine there was quite of bit of that going on.”

“There was. That is why I described that period as fluid.”

“What you’ve depicted so far doesn’t sound unreasonable or unworkable. What happened to force the creation of the barriers?”

“Borders.”

“Yes. I suppose they would be.”

“Of course they are borders. What else would you call them?”

Elias shrugged. “So what happened?”

“As I mentioned, the burgeoning population happened. Previously, individuals could carry on as they wished, hurting no one, and away from the watchful eyes of those who might disapprove of their choices.”

“You said ‘hurting no one.’ There wasn’t any crime?”

“No, there was, but surprisingly little back then. You’d be amazed how much of a difference it makes to a social group if there is no money involved. Most of what did occur could fairly be dropped into the category of ‘crimes of passion.’ Handling those issues as they arose was not particularly challenging.”

“And what happened? What was the trigger?”

Pierce leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. “I guess we reached a tipping point. There was no warning. Actually, that’s not true. In retrospect there were plenty of clues. There was a breakdown in communication. It was initially subtle but eventually obvious.”

What do you mean by a ‘breakdown in communication’?”

“People stopped talking to each other. I mean, really talking. One day individuals or small groups were able to sit down, discuss things, and come up with a reasonable compromise and, seemingly, the next day they couldn’t. Every discussion, every organized meeting quickly degenerated into screaming and name-calling.”

“That sounds like the outside, too.”

Pierce did not acknowledge Elias’ comment. “Then one night, some couple, I don’t even know who they were, were having sex" — the note of disgust in Pierce’s voice was unmistakable — “out in the open…in a corridor instead of in one of their rooms. A woman named Beth Havlichek came upon them while walking with two of her friends, and made a comment about how they should take it to someplace private.”

Elias saw the Chief of Staff squeeze his eyes shut, as if trying to block out an image. “They killed her!”

“What?”

“They beat her to death, both of them, right in front of her friends.”

“Her two friends returned to the gathering they had just left and described the incident, painting an especially vivid picture of the pleasure, almost glee, that the couple displayed as they murdered Beth.

“The seven people they told stampeded immediately from the room and ran to the scene, to find that the couple had resumed their activity, right next to Beth’s body.”

“Good God!”

Pierce opened his eyes and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. “The small, angry mob descended upon the couple and killed them.”

Pierce paused, giving Elias an opportunity for a comment. None came, and he resumed, “Then it began. It spread like a wildfire through Aegis. Those who associated themselves with the couple retaliated in kind. The other side, so to speak, struck back. And for the following twenty hours, the halls of Aegis were filled with mayhem, bloodshed, and death.”

“Who put a stop to it?”

“No one! No one could, I guess. But other than some feeble, half-hearted attempts, no one tried. I, myself, have been filled with shame since that day for cowering in a hiding place instead of doing something…anything.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. There isn’t much anyone can do when something like that happens.”

A weak smile played across his lips as Pierce muttered, “Thanks. But to answer your question, I think everyone merely got tired of the rampage.”

“It burned itself out.”