Dark Brandon

Alexandra Hanlon - September 10, 2024

Sitting down for a discussion with the person considered to be the leader of the free world was a serious undertaking, and what I wore for the occasion had to reflect not only the solemnity of the meeting but also conform to the expectations of how leaders on the surface dressed. I broke with the look I had worn earlier, designed to cause those on the other side to underestimate me. Meant to make me look slightly ridiculous, the black skirt and blouse, both embroidered with bright and colorful flowers, had projected an image of an older woman clinging to her youth, susceptible to flattery perhaps, and easily dismissed as none too bright. This time, I needed to be taken seriously and simultaneously send a symbolic and subliminal message to those in power.

Chris Kyros and I became great friends after my assistant, Clarissa, introduced us. He was part of a co-op focusing on clothing for special occasions. He was also invaluable in helping me find clothing that appealed to me and helped me project the images I wanted out there, reflecting my inner self as best as I could. Over the years, we had also prepared attire appropriate for public situations I might be thrust into, so I was ready for this occasion.

I entered my office wearing a softly draped pantsuit embellished with a pattern reminiscent of dark clouds rendered in swirling shades of black, gray, and purple. Beneath the open jacket, my top was softly lit in the same pattern, this time in shades of purples, oranges and reds. I wore no other ornamentation except for the simple clip holding my hair back.

Once I sat at my desk, my interface lit up, showing two separate screens; the one on my left was lit with the face of Effie Tabir, our Foundation Board member and someone I considered a friend. She would be the only person to interact with me and act as the conduit for all our board members, themselves watching from every habitat. Her purpose was to quickly give me the information I needed to respond to questions on the other side and communications from the board.

The other screen was filled with a video showing the seal of the President of the United States. I was acutely aware this conversation would not simply be between the two of us but would be observed in real-time and made available to others in the days ahead. I had no idea how many world leaders and their staff would be watching live, but on our side, I knew our board members, every Liaison Head, and those running LCS would be, and we would later stream the video to everyone in the habitats. I felt nervous and inadequate, certainly not capable of handling a serious diplomatic situation such as this one. At the very least, I had to remain calm and objective.

The face of the President of the United States replaced the seal on my screen. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., 46th President of the United States, was an 81-year-old man who regularly showed diligence, compassion and integrity, no matter the unsubstantiated slurs brought by the Republican members of Congress. ₍₁₎ They had tried to bring him down by shouting conspiracy theories about him on their disinformation networks and bringing sham investigations into him and his son once they narrowly squeaked out a majority in one of the houses of Congress. Nothing had stuck, but disinformation, along with his age and stutter, had caused him to drop out of the 2024 Presidential election in favor of his Vice President. ₍₂₎ Even under all that pressure, he was an able and effective president. I had to remind myself that no matter how kindly he looked or how plainly he spoke, he was a shrewd political player both within this country and on the world stage. ₍₃₎ I knew I needed to keep all of this in the forefront of my mind when framing my responses to him.

He greeted me as Mrs. Hanlon, which, while proper for his culture, was not how I chose to be addressed, so I asked him to call me Alexandra. It felt appropriate to use my formal name since I was, in effect, protecting my chosen humanity in the form of everyone who resided underground scattered around the planet.

He acknowledged my request and began, "Alexandra, we'd like to speak with you about your little show from a few hours ago.”

"Mr. President, I'm pleased to discuss this with you, ask me anything you wish.”

"The first thing I want to know is who the hell gave you permission to announce a nuclear war?"

I was puzzled; neither I nor the video we had shown had mentioned those words, even when we were discussing the Foundation's history when we simply used the phrase "catastrophic event.”

Effie sent me the information I needed so I could respond. "We did no such thing, sir. My team is sending you a copy of our video feed and a transcript. You will notice that I did not push anyone for a direct answer when I asked why they were knocking at my door. To my understanding, Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the members of Congress who appeared at our fictitious doorstep, brought a person with video equipment emblazoned with the Fox News logo. We understand all five were wearing microphones, synced to the Fox video. At some point, Fox cut off the video portion to air our feed, but the microphones were still live and continuing to broadcast on Fox over our stream. I understand Paul Gosar and Matt Gaetz were discussing a nuclear weapon they had brought with them. Representative Gaetz was the first to reference it as a bomb, and I followed his lead.

"The only times we used the phrase 'catastrophic event' was in our explanation of how we came to be and how we see ourselves as a sane response to the possibility of an event catastrophic enough to harm the chances of humanity's progress. To build a series of underground self-contained bio-spheres, which could shelter a small portion of humanity and the genetic material and knowledge we would need to restore the earth after such an event. While we sprang out of concerns for a nuclear war, we also know climate change could also be a catastrophic event, so we purposely left it vague. If you're going to blame anyone for the clown show, blame the clowns who showed up in the middle of nowhere and thought it was a good idea to try to take over a luxury bomb shelter by force.”

Biden looked perplexed and asked, "Then what was the purpose of the stunt?"

"Sir? I think the video explained it clearly: we are 2 million people, recruited and volunteering worldwide, to live in our small cities underground. We hope we are now a source of hope to the billions of people across the surface of the planet who have lived with the enormous stresses of these times: political unrest, our climate becoming unlivable in many areas of the world, and the endless and increasingly vicious wars across the world. All of which trigger a population migration, most commonly viewed simply as a refugee problem. ₍₄₎ All of the hatred fanned by the flames of disinformation is being stoked in hopes of triggering authoritarian rule around the world. ₍₅₎ Everyone monitoring this call knows how many times Vladimir Putin has threatened nuclear war since he invaded Ukraine over two and a half years ago; in fact, it is my understanding, sir, that you personally dissuaded him from the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. ₍₆₎

"Whether he follows through on those threats is almost immaterial. The stress he causes is debilitating for most people worldwide because none of us have any control over the situation. We want the fact of our existence to give the ordinary populace hope for the future. The Habitats contain the seeds of bringing humanity back from the brink, no matter how dire the situation.”

He sat back, seemingly absorbing what I had said, but I knew he was also getting much the same feedback from his side as I was getting from mine. "Is this Foundation for real? What are these seeds?"

"We're real, Mr. President, very real. My team will be sending you information attesting to our authenticity. As to the seeds, sir, we are. We contain the necessary resources to bring back civilization with the skills, knowledge and wisdom accrued over humanity's lifetime. It's why we named ourselves after Isaac Asimov's science fiction series. Azimov wrote of bringing a galactic empire back from a collapse into a dark age by saving as much knowledge and skills as possible, precisely the purpose for which we were formed. Our mission has caused us to seek and store the genetic material of as much of the world's flora and fauna as we've been able to collect over the past seventy years.

"Through contracts for safe storage with universities, museums, tech companies and others, we store the items they consider essential. We've agreed to hold data and document archives, software, movies, music and digitizations of art we can't physically hold in return for allowing our residents access. Fertility clinics have contracted with us for the safe storage of human genetic material as well, all of which will be safely retained until it can be reclaimed. We've also contracted with most of your governments to store sensitive data in encrypted form. While we also hold the decryption keys, they remain locked until 100 years from the day of a catastrophic event if there is no earlier governmental withdrawal of permission.

"Our residents were recruited from diverse backgrounds and cultures based on their knowledge and skills. Our only restriction on who we recruit is psychological; we prefer those with high-conflict personalities or who covet power for power's sake or crave a strong authoritarian rule to remain on the surface. Everyone living in the Habitats follows the Charter, a document embodying our choices for an inclusive community. We live by its clauses, especially those that consider every person, whether bound by their signature as an adult or as the child of a signatory, to be of equal worth and value and treated equitably. We are not only sheltering from the storm, sir, we are also working towards creating connections within and between our individual habitats while retaining the best parts of our individual cultures, food, arts and crafts, cultural histories, myths and legends.”

I could see him considering what was before him and wondered if he knew. From my talks with the Board, I knew surface government data transfers had been set up in many countries by secretive executive orders decades before and hidden in ways not easily discoverable. Not every country's leader would know at one time, but some of them probably did.

He became more animated as he asked, "Just how long do you plan on being down there?"

"The Foundation's mantra from the beginning is 'Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst.' While we hope the worst never happens, we are prepared to be down here for generations. The habitats are self-sustaining biospheres with room to accommodate a growing population. In the worst case scenario, our scientists will continue working on expanding humanity's grasp, and our skills and knowledge will be passed on until, at some point, it's safe to return to the surface.”

Again, he was silent as he processed what was coming onto his screens and then shifted the subject. "Fine, what I want to know now is how the hell did you know when to do this? I doubt you could put the whole thing together in a few days, and I want to know about this technology you say can contain a nuclear explosion.”

I didn't do a good job suppressing my amusement, and I wondered if his eyes would start flashing.

"Sir? We didn't know when something might happen, but we began planning for the possibility about eight years ago. We used the concept of a honeypot trap in the cybersecurity realm to lure a particular personality type within Congress. We laid temptation before those members of Congress in the United States who were particularly mendacious and desired the trappings of the office without actually doing the work of serving those who elected them. The fake bomb shelter entrance was finished over a year ago. The technology you are referring to was a bluff; we have no science to contain any explosion. Almost everything you saw was sleight of hand; call it smoke and mirrors, if you prefer.

"When we realized who had taken our bait and gamed out as many scenarios as we could think up, we realized there was a high probability at least one of them could bring some sort of destructive device. While we wouldn't have been harmed, others living on the surface might have been. Our psychological studies of those who ensnared themselves informed our choices. We knew the only way to guarantee they wouldn't trigger a device was to convince them their own lives would be in danger if they did. And so we did the best we could with what we had: light, color and patterns.”

"And the warning not to leave? Was that a bluff, too?"

"My warning was valid; if they had tried to leave, the lines beamed across the road were from industrial cutting lasers. As to the timing, we obviously never had a precise timetable for when the situation might occur; instead, we set our own project end date, and once the scenario was set up, we waited.”

Again a pause, then he broke into a grin and said, "I just want you to know all of those idiots just showed up at Fort Deitrick demanding to be taken to the shelters for Congress; I've ordered their arrest for holding and transporting a nuclear weapon and disclosing classified information to the public.” ₍₇₎

I couldn't help but smile, "couldn't happen to a more worthy group, sir.” I swear to you, for just a part of a second, I could see the lasers flashing out of his eyes.

He again turned serious, "What do you know about the situation? I'm sure your people have gamed out your options based on what we do; tell me what your Foundation thinks is the best path forward.”

It was my turn to pause as I scanned my screen for a response from Effie. "I'm sure our information isn't as good as any you have, but our sources have made us aware of at least four and possibly five countries taking significant steps that indicate they are setting up to launch nuclear weapons. Whether they all launch or just a few, it's a serious situation. While most of the push is being driven by Putin and his disastrous war, Iran, China and North Korea are willing partners. Since Ukraine began bringing the war into Russia, it's starting to affect the areas of the country he's most concerned with. Along with reporting indicating he's seriously ill, it seems he simply wants to burn everything to the ground. ₍₈₎

"As to the best path forward for the surface? As we see it, if diplomacy fails, you have three basic choices, none good.” His face tightened, and I continued. "If you don't respond, your countries will eventually be taken over by those who had no problems beginning this. Your land and those who live upon it will ultimately be subjected to an authoritarian rule, supported by those who crave it.”

Biden interrupted me, brows drawn together, his lips pressed tightly as we spoke, "Kneeling to fascism is not an option.”

I inclined my head in acceptance and continued, "The next choice would be what most might call a limited tactical nuclear war, which I gather boils down to one country detonating a nuclear weapon somewhere to cause damage and having the country it aimed at, retaliating in the same manner. In this scenario, even minimal casualties could be in the thousands.” I saw him nodding in agreement, and then he stiffened as I continued, "Of course, by embarking on this choice, you've opened a playbook on the accepted use of tactical nuclear weapons. Each time it happens will be easier to justify; more will die, and more land will be laid to waste. How many bombs, how long until humanity's safe harbor is gone?"

"The last choice.” I paused, not wanting to voice the obvious. "The last choice is terrible, in and of itself. I can't even consider the last choice to be a choice at all. I'm fairly certain all of you listening to this call, including those on my side, know what's at stake.”

We sat silently; on my side, we had nothing more to share besides what I had already voiced. We had revealed ourselves, and the world's response was out of our control. We had no autonomy to proactively or pre-emptively do anything more than we already had and could only respond to the world's actions.

Biden spoke once more. "We're interested in this Charter you mentioned and your lives in these cities. Can you tell us more?"

"The Foundation is organized and registered as a non-governmental organization; the Charter is the document we sign as part of the by-laws adopted. ₍₉₎ Internally, we are governed by a representative democracy, with elections held every two years for every office. The Charter lays out the rights and responsibilities of both individuals, the Foundation Board and our elected representatives. The Charter assures that all our signatories, now our residents, are considered to be of equal value and worth and requires each to be treated equitably. It safeguards our resident's rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by guaranteeing the benefits of physical security and the security of having health, rest and leisure. It secures individual privacy and restricts official coercion.

"It also restricts those who hold high-level positions, are elected to any of our public offices, or are in sensitive positions of trust from lying to anyone who has also signed the Charter. This includes our Foundation Board and any journalists or opinion writers. While we encourage everyone to have and express their opinions, all opinions must be based on fact. Anyone in those positions who actively and maliciously lies to those also under the Charter can be severely punished. "

I caught my breath while I watched his eyes move as he read. The charter wasn't long—just over 500 words. Once his eyes were again focused on me, he gave a slight nod as if telling me to continue.

"Each of our habitats is built to the same design, with different floors serving different purposes. We have floors for agriculture and manufacturing, along with storage of the materials the Foundation has purchased since the habitats began to be populated. Our residents live, work, and study on floors designed to emulate the outside surface. We have a variety of entertainment and recreational activities available. We encourage our residents to unite for the common good, promote cooperative living, expand our knowledge and foster creativity.

"We follow a version of the Nordic Economic Model, using an internal digital currency we call units and providing sustenance to residents, in the forms of housing, food, clothing and basic hygiene, in an equitable manner. Everyone is provided with a home, subsidies for basic needs, and a universal monthly income. For the most part, everyone spends twenty hours a week either going to school or working at a position they've chosen and trained for. Another ten hours a week is focused on what we call Community Tasks, those jobs necessary to the well-being of all residents. We require everyone to participate in the essential work of our habitats, which helps promote a level playing field. It's a deliberate attempt to solve the injustice seen on the surface where those of a higher socio-economic level look down upon those who work at those jobs essential to everyone's survival.

"We foster creativity and knowledge and work to keep our residents informed and able to participate in the running of our individual habitats. Further, the group I lead fosters a community of inclusion by creating relationships between the people in all the habitats, enabling all of us to work together to create a cohesive culture. We hope, at some point, we will be able to show the benefits of our experiment to those who remain on the surface.”

Something shifted. We were asked and agreed to allow the various government leaders to interview individual residents in the habitats closest to them the next day. We told them they could have a virtual tour, using the same technology I did when I conducted my virtual listening tours in the other habitats. I was reminded to inform Biden that major media outlets would interview me and others the next day.

Once the call ended, I began to tremble and shake, the aftereffects of going through a traumatic event. I was so afraid, afraid of how I had come across in the call and how it would be received, afraid about the future and how close we were to the brink of something so stupid, meaningless and yet so consequential. I was afraid of how I would deal with all the television interviews I had to give the next day and the attention I would now receive.

I worried about how my position would change because of that day's events. While I had gained some publicity after the Estimate Documentary came out and was regularly featured on the habitat broadcasts, I had, for the most part, been able to insert myself into most of the community as a regular person. I was respected as the head of the Liaisons, but I didn't believe I was considered different. Once past the Liaison Conference, I could finally participate in Community Tasks and spend time within the society of my section, meeting residents outside of my small bubble. It felt good to take those steps and be accepted as an ordinary community member.

But here I was, thrust into the role of leader; this call said I was the equal of those world leaders, the leader of the Foundation. I knew I wasn't; the Board knew it as well. But would the regular residents of the habitats understand? Everyone on my team knew the interviews we had agreed to in return for the networks broadcasting today's event would be travelogues, telling a story aimed to help those on the surface look kindly upon us. But would my fellow habitat residents view my interactions with the surface press in the same way? Or would they begin to see me differently and treat me as something else?

While it mattered to me personally, my path was set. I had been brought in for this, and whatever my misgivings about my capabilities, I had to rely on those I interacted with the most. I knew they trusted me and had no doubt I was up for whatever was coming. It didn't matter if I thought their trust was misplaced. I had to accept it and do the job to the best of my abilities.

My interface pinged; it was a video call from Effie. When I took it, I saw the whole of the Foundation Board was there, each face in its square, arranged on a grid on the screen, even those in Europe, where it was close to 3 or 4 am. For as long as my day had been, theirs had been longer.

"Alexandra, you have handled today even better than we could have hoped.” Rupal Kumar, the board member from IHC, India Habitat Central, spoke, her face surrounded by a green light so I could focus. "Whatever happens now is out of our hands. We simply have to have faith that our efforts will result in the best outcome for humanity.”

I was tired, and I'm sure it showed. "Thank you, Rupal; I certainly hope everything will happen that way. But really, I'm so tired and angsty right now I honestly don't know what the best outcome is.”

Effie spoke, "Go and get some sleep, Alexandra; you have a long day ahead of you. We'll contact Clarissa and Faye if there's something you should know.”

I took their advice. It had been a busy day.