Chapter 7

Special Forces units loyal to General Chang had been deployed all over China as their unit commanders returned from what was believed to have been an extended training session. In short order they moved to take charge of the last remaining superpower's military infrastructure with a minimum of bloodshed. In most cases the paperwork they presented passed muster and they were able to gain control with little or no real protest. With years of following orders without question having been the norm there were few who would begin to question them now.

To the citizens of the only pre-plague government left in operation, the changes seemed to be coming fast and furious. A government spokesman who had been addressing the populace ever since the plague had struck made an announcement that shocked all who heard it. Due to their advanced age, most of the three thousand members of the National People's Congress had not survived the plague. The day to day operational power core of the Chinese government, the Standing Committee of the NPC, was reduced to its lowest numbers in history and was appointing a powerful General to head up the nation's vast security and military forces. The polished and distinguished career of General Chang was presented to the masses in a most flattering biography. Next a clip showing the NPC members voting to appoint the General to this newly declared position of power was shown. After the clip concluded, the most senior NPC official still alive was at the podium making what was perhaps the most startling revelation yet; he told the people that the Standing Committee was declaring martial law effective immediately. For hours the programming on all of the media repeated the same news and promised that more information was to come in the near future.

Less than thirty hours later General Chang spoke as he addressed much of the Chinese population via state television. "The Sun is rising on a new day in China!" the General promised the people. "No longer do we need to face shortages of food, oil, medicine, or other necessary goods."

The general spoke for over an hour stating that he would erase poverty throughout China and that China must take over the world and re-make it in her image. He talked about the superiority of the communist way of government and the new opportunities that were now present and waiting for the Chinese people to take hold of.

"No longer do we need to concern ourselves with the meddling of corrupt nations billing themselves as the superpowers that all other nations must bow to. We are the only remaining superpower! China is the greatest nation in the world today! The world is now our Oyster farm and we will harvest it!" he declared in frenzied passion at the close of a lengthy tirade.

Vyagar had used his probes to map out the newly discovered military outpost hidden under the mountains in the Gansu Province. Dale was sickened by what his AI friend had to show him. The General had plans to "purify" the earth using the remaining non-Chinese population as slave labor until they died out. He had extensive tools and weaponry at his disposal to accomplish his goals and plans to capture and re-deploy the military assets of former world powers to achieve his desired ends. In addition, Vyagar discovered a great deal of information outlining the research that had gone into the creation and deployment of the plague that had destroyed the lives of so many. All of the death caused by the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and other genocidal dictators in earth's past combined together didn't compare with the number of deaths directly attributable to the plague General Ju Chang had released upon the earth.

While General Chang busied himself with his attempt to become the most powerful man on earth, many others were busy taking action to prevent his success. The General's confidence that he was the only purveyor of military might was not quite accurate.

After the plague, Dale had redeployed Mayan Tech and his other six large conglomerates to focus on new projects. One of these projects involved securing the naval, air, and ground assets of the worlds now defunct military organizations before they could fall into the wrong hands. All of the military ships, aircraft, and other weaponry were recycled. Some of the materials became components for a weapon fortified version of the transport platforms Mayan Tech had added to their product line. These platforms remained cloaked and in stealth mode as they maintained an ever vigilant patrol of their assigned sectors. Most of the rest of the material was formed into parts to be used in the shipyard being constructed to orbit the moon.

In addition to the military craft, countless non-military ships and vessels needed to be attended to. Oil tankers and barges were a top priority as were tanker train cars and trucks that were used to haul chemical compounds. The more hazardous of these compounds were added to the cargo of the massive space barge weeks earlier. Now the barge was on its way to a rendezvous with the inferno of the sun where it and its perilous contents would be completely incinerated.

The Beta Males were pulling things together and using the Gamma Males talents and their skills to do so. The Wizard and his servants aided the Beta Males in developing trade between their various groups. Knowing that people need to be productive to stay out of mischief, the Wizard had long ago determined that the OAIs would never become robot slaves to mankind. Dale wanted to build a society where the talents, knowledge, and skills of its members were duly appreciated including those of the AIs. The various newly formed community units under Beta or Gamma control had enough material goods and wealth to get along until more formalized plans were made; but from the very moment the transport platforms were made available to them, the Beta Males began to institute trade. Many crops that might have gone completely to waste were exchanged for meat and other goods that were in demand.

By concentrating his manufacturing manpower on critical and high technology items, the Wizard was leaving open many opportunities for the emerging societal groups to utilize the manufacturing resources left from pre-plague existence. The worst part of the communist system, from Dale's viewpoint, was that it completely stifled individualism and to a large extent creativity as well. By leaving opportunities for entrepreneurial endeavors for those who might wish to pursue them, the Wizard hoped to provide the economic incentives so essential in a flourishing society.

The Wizard invited the Beta Males to meet together with him every other week. During one such meeting Dale and the Beta Males had spoken at great length on what should be told to the remaining men who were now sterile. The Wizard had asked each man present to think about how they would feel if it were they who were no longer able to father children of their own. One of the Beta Males named Salazar Barone told of the love his adoptive parents had shown him. Salazar said that though he never knew who his biological parents were, he did know with certainty who his real Father and Mother were. Sal, as the group began to call him, convinced the others present at the Wizard's meeting to tell the truth to the rest of the men about their health and reproductive situation.

"Let them choose if they want to Father a child and do not deny them or their wives the joys of parenthood," Salazar pleaded with the others. "After all, we need every child we can produce to grow our population; but only if they are loved and cherished."

Without blaming any group or individual in particular, the Beta Males shared the details of humanity's tragic situation with their new subjects. Though it was very difficult for a man to learn that he was sterile, most of the men who had been spared from the plague by the actions of the Wizard were good and decent men. After the plague had run its course they had already started to build a life of love and companionship with several women. The majority of these men came to grips with the news and talked the situation over with their wives. As the men were examined and given information on their individual medical and reproductive situations, most of those who were discovered to be potent gave their approval for this information to be shared with the Gamma Male they had pledged to support.

Over time it become the norm that when a family wished to have assistance in siring a child, the man and the women in the family would have a private meeting with the Gamma Male who would congratulate them on their decision and help them identify an acceptable male. These couplings were not made without some passion and sexual heat; but consideration for the privacy of the family was carefully guarded and the feelings of the "Father to be" were taken into account. With this situation being the most common, it soon became less of a stigma to all involved and as Salazar had predicted, the most important consideration turned out to be that children were now being born into families that truly wanted and cherished them.

On a daily basis General Chang addressed his nation preaching the merits and superiority of the Chinese race. Some of the people found it easy and "comfortable" to accept the General's mantra of superiority and were eager to join his "Expansion Corps"; but while the General talked of eliminating poverty it seemed that he wasn't in any real hurry to do so. Expansion, Chinese dominance, and quick mobilization, these seemed to be the buzz words of the day. The humanitarian aid groups were pulled back into China and their resources diverted to projects of the General's choosing.

The people's personal freedoms that had been gained over the past two decades were now completely stripped from them. If any of the people raised a dissenting voice, it was quickly crushed by the newly formed secret police. People were on edge and the growing undercurrent of discontent was steadily building.

General Chang hadn't yet discovered the fundamental flaw with his bio-weapon's performance; but soon enough it would come to light and when the public became aware of the tragedy that had befallen them it would let off even more sparks in the powder keg of emotional turmoil that Chinese life had now become.

Over the next six months the General and the cadre of men who had been loyal to him over the years formed a new division of the military dubbed the "Peoples Expansion Brigade" or PEB for short. General Chang had his rank changed to that of "Supreme Commander of the World" and promoted four of his most trusted men to the rank of General in the newly formed PEB. One of the pitfalls of absolute rule is that those underneath you are often afraid to take initiative even towards goals that their leader supports lest an error on their part displease the leader and cause them to drop from favor. Until an adequately defined chain of command is in place with defined levels of authority and known acceptable practices, subordinates are often unable to perform well. Ju Chang knew this, and though it frustrated him somewhat, it was something that had to be dealt with and would take some time.

The four PEB generals had been working together for years and moved as quickly as possible to form hundreds of working units consisting of military personnel, civilians drafted for specific skills they possessed, and health professionals. These working units would be tasked with bringing their assigned region under control, surveying the manufacturing, agricultural, and military assets of the region, re-deploying the current population of the region into work camps, and preparing for settlers to arrive from China.

The years of preparation became apparent to others as training manuals for the working units appeared very quickly along with published guidelines for running work camps and other topics related to the operation of the newly formed PEB. Each working unit was supplied with several large packets of information on the region they were being assigned to that included pre-plague information on the regions economy, geographical surveys, known pitfalls and hazards, as well as post-plague goals for the region. It was hard, if not impossible, for anyone reading through one of these packets to not come to the conclusion that this plague had been planned for. How else would it be possible to have this level of preparedness in such a short period of time? Only if you knew in advance that such a plague would occur could you be prepared in advance and that meant that China had to be the instigator of the plague against humanity!