Лю Цысинь - Supernova Era

The world leaders continued their meeting in the East Room. The American president started into his opening remarks.

“Boys and girls in charge of the countries of the world, welcome to America!

“First of all, I’d like to express my apologies for having had to receive you in Washington, D.C., I would have preferred to hold this banquet on the top floor of the New World Trade Center in New York. I dislike Washington. This city in no way represents the United States. On a new continent covered in skyscrapers, the city we’re in seems like a retreat to medieval Europe. This White House—I mean, it’s just a country manor. I wouldn’t blame any of you for wondering whether there are stables out back.” Laughter from the crowd. “The adults located the beating heart of America here for continuity with the past, not just to L’Enfant’s past, but even farther back, for continuity to your homelands,” and he gestured to the cluster of European leaders.

“This neatly describes the awkward situation in which we now find ourselves. We’re a world of children, but we’re still living the lives of adults. Think back to the final days of the Common Era, to our vision of what the coming new world would bring. That vision to an extent mitigated our sorrow at the adults’ misfortune, because we were convinced that at the cost of their leaving we had obtained a wonderful new world. But to look at it now, the world remains as dull and boring as ever. Is this the new world we wanted? No, absolutely not! We are seeing disappointment at the new world envelop the globe. This cannot be allowed to continue.”

After a round of applause, Davey went on, “We are gathered here today to establish a new order for the children’s world. What is the foundation of the new order, you might ask? Not the ideology of the Yalta System, nor the economic development of the post–Cold War period. There can be only one foundation: games! Games are to our era what religion was to the Middle Ages, what exploration was to the Age of Discovery, what ideology was to the Cold War, and economics to the late Common Era. These things served as a basis for existence, a starting point and a destination for the world. Now, in this new world, the dreams of our time ought to become reality!

“Luckily the world’s children have more or less realized this and have already begun to play. The purpose of this meeting is to begin games on a global scale, and to turn our entire world into a world of fun!

“Naturally there are an infinite number of possible ways to play, but the games we’re going to start here must satisfy two conditions: They must be played between countries, and they must be thrilling. And there’s only one kind of game that can satisfy both conditions: a war game!”

Davey held his hands out palms down to calm the applause, and remained in that pose for quite some time, as if the whole world were cheering him on. But in fact there was no applause, just a spell of silence as the world leaders stared blankly at him.

“The war games that American children are playing right now?” asked one kid.

“The very same. But we’re going to do it on a national scale to let the whole world play.”

“I object!” Huahua shouted, and then leapt up to the dais and said to the children below, “This game is just a disguised world war.”

The children flipped their translators to Chinese, and when they finished listening to his words, Russian president Ilyukhin jumped up on the dais and said, “Well said! It’ll turn the children’s world into hell!”

The other children echoed these sentiments:

“Right. We don’t want a world war.”

“We’re not going to fight! We won’t play this game!”

“That’s right. Let the American kids play by themselves.”

Davey remained composed and smiling, as if he expected this development. Standing between Huahua and Ilyukhin, he clapped his arms good-naturedly about their shoulders, and then leaned toward Huahua and said, “Don’t get carried away. It’s just a big game. We’ll adopt the format of the Olympics. It’ll be the first Olympic Games of the Supernova Era. The war games will be played entirely according to the rules of sports competitions. Every country will compete fairly at a prearranged location, with heats and finals, and gold, silver, and bronze medals. In what way is that a war?” Then he turned to Ilyukhin. “How’s a world of fun going to go to hell?”

“A bloodbath Olympics?” Huahua retorted furiously.

“It’s just play. Everything has its price; where would the thrill come from otherwise? Besides, countries will participate voluntarily. If you don’t want to play, then forget it.”

“You’re the only country that wants to play,” Ilyukhin snorted.

Davey waved a finger back and forth in front of his face. “No, my dear friend, once things have been made clear, I guarantee you that all countries, including yours, will voluntarily take part in these irresistible Olympic Games.”

“You’ve got to be joking.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?… Now, let’s discuss which country will host the next Olympics. That ought to be a major agenda item for this meeting. If I’m not mistaken, the next city scheduled to host in the adults’ era was Manchester.”

“Absolutely not!” shouted Green, as if he’d been burned. “Do you really believe England will permit the world’s armed forces to enter its territory and turn it into a battlefield?”

Davey smiled faintly at the prime minister. “So is the British Empire simply abandoning the honor it fought so hard to win in the Common Era?” Then he turned to the Turkish president. “How lucky you are. If I recall correctly, Istanbul received the second-highest number of votes after Manchester.”

“No. We won’t do it!”

Davey looked about him, and then clapped Ilyukhin on the shoulder and pointed down at the prime minister of Canada. “Russia and Canada have the largest uninhabited areas. They’re fully capable of holding the Olympics there.”

“Shut up!” the Canadian prime minister yelled.

“Since you all proposed the war games, the Olympics really ought to be held in America,” Ilyukhin said, to a round of applause.

Davey burst out laughing. “I expected it would come to this. No one wants to hold the greatest Olympics of all time in their own country. But in fact this problem has a simple solution. You’re all forgetting that there’s a place on Earth that doesn’t belong to any country, and is entirely uninhabited. It’s as distant and as empty as the moon.”

“You mean Antarctica?”

“That’s right. And don’t forget, it’s not too cold anymore.”

Huahua said, “That’s a gross violation of the Antarctic Treaty!”

Davey smiled and shook his head. “The Antarctic Treaty? That’s an adult treaty. It doesn’t affect our play. Antarctica was an icebox that would freeze you to death in the Common Era, and that’s the condition underlying the treaty. If it had the climate it has now, hah! The continent would have been carved up long ago.”

The heads of state were silent, their minds racing as they realized the true nature of the question before them. Antarctica had turned into a habitable new continent since the supernova, and that fact had not escaped the world’s attention. For the many countries that had lost sizable portions of land to rising waters, that continent was their last hope.

Davey gazed meaningfully at the young leaders below him. “Once again, I note that participation in the World Games is completely voluntary. Perhaps, as President Ilyukhin said, no one will be willing to attend apart from us. Very well, we’ll go. The American children will go to Antarctica. Now let’s see which country doesn’t want to play!”