A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 90

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 90

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

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“Coffee?”

“Sure, thanks.”

I was outside on the porch. Maelstrom’s large cabin had a pretty nice view of the valley below. From her home, just walking outside, she could see her efforts. Fields and fields of grain, vegetables, and a few pens livestock. However, what I found the most impressive, were the clusters of towns spread out across the valley.

“We have almost a hundred thousand residents spread out across the region and working with us. Towns with enough population to pick things up and carry on, if everyone else is gone.” It sounded morbid, but after an apocalypse, it seemed prudent. “Perhaps, I can have a colony situated on Mars just in case? Perhaps farther?”

“I’ll give you a discount, but Parvati will need to be the lynchpin of that operation.” I can provide transport, but Parvati was everything from construction all the way to life support. “If you can stomach living there while being under her thumb, you can go for it.”

“You seem more inclined towards working with her now.” ‘Her’ was emphasized by Maelstrom. Of course, she’d notice that change. I’ve been calling Parvati ‘it’ since we’d met.

“It might sound stupid, but she told me the truth: she’d get lonely if we wiped each other out. That’s enough reason for me to believe in her actually wanting to help out… and being a person, I guess.” Maelstrom’s eyes widened a fraction, before she gave a serious nod. Sipping some coffee, I needled her. “So, you were worried too, huh?”

“Yes. But I feel much calmer after hearing that.” Maelstrom admitted and stood next to me. She was also sipping on some coffee. It was instant, but hopefully that’ll change in a few months. We’d already be drinking better beans, if not for the space-faring enslavers over our heads. “She’s frightening with all her ability and strength. She can do far more than I could. I would even say that she’s integral to creating a new world.”

“Having armies of gynoids ready to capture superhumans and act as incorruptible police helps a lot, yeah.” I agreed glibly, and Maelstrom looked my way. She picked up on the implication pretty quickly. “People aren’t going to like it. People will move against her eventually. Things are fine now, but it’ll change once things get better.”

Parvati is great for now, but what happens when people want to start up industry again? Parvati stood in the way of people who’ll want to make money. Tech had been a massive part of the economy. What kind of tech sector can humanity have with Parvati hanging around? It was nearly broken by superhuman scientists with tiny budgets. Parvati is a nation onto herself with no need for money.

The moment people have power, they work towards getting more of it, and Parvati will become the ultimate obstacle. Even if she’s excluded from society’s workings, not the security force nor the army, even just being a trade partner will gut any potential for human industry. No one will be able to compete with her fabricators, and she can just make more soldiers. Hell, because I’ve set her up under the ocean, she’ll be unreachable.

Maelstrom was quiet for a while.

“We can’t go back to anything familiar. What comes after this is closer to science fiction. A post-scarcity economy with a legislature that reflects that.” I almost recoiled at the notion, and Maelstrom laughed. “Currency may never return, but instead be replaced by commitments of time and perhaps favors.”

“Money was already time and favors. Currency stopped being a thing once we went fiat.” I grumbled and shook my head. As much as I disliked the idea, Parvati neatly fit as the cornerstone of a post-scarcity economy and was willing to be that cornerstone for her own satisfaction. Whereas she didn’t fit at all into anything resembling the governments in recent history. Kings and emperors would work better. Just replace the divine right portion with Parvati. She’d enforce her rules, too.  “You’ll need to ask her. Very nicely. If things go wrong… I’m going back to my bunker.”

Maelstrom gave a hum and a nod at my words, while sipping her coffee and continuing to look at the lands she helped nurture and creature after the end.

“It will be an immense change. Perhaps immense enough that we won’t have to worry about the same things as before, which may be for the best. Enough punishment has been rendered for it. It may be the time to move forward.” Maelstrom spoke, and I could only sigh. There it was. The voice where she speaks with her gut like a cabin scout leader. That meant that this was going to go down whether anyone else liked it or not. “We must learn from the mistakes of the past and move forward, while remembering what we held dear.”

“It would be a lot easier if we could just call everything before crazy, but I guess too many people have survived… and we’re still fighting against it.” I shook my head. My coffee was just a little above warm, so I drank it quickly. Look at Maelstrom, I found her gaze set to the horizon. Just like it always was. She nearly always forgot to look at the ground she stood on. “Let’s just… do our best to not become crazy authoritarians? Usually that’s how things go with situations like this where people decide they know better than everyone else.”

Maelstrom didn’t laugh at my words, and thankfully took them with actual care and nodded.

She’d be a dangerous warlord/dictator, since she’d be willing to do anything for the sake of her dream.

“I’ll be sure to ask you if I’ve turned into one, Egress. I’m relying on you.”

Oh great, now I have to look out for Maelstrom while she creates a new form of human civilization.

…

“I saw you speaking with Maelstrom. What did the two of you speak about?”

“You should really just set up listening devices everywhere, so that I don’t have to tell you everything again.”

“I would rather not be privy to everything everyone says, Egress.” I was back at the factory complex and teleporting a few more satellites and other fun stuff up. It was about an hour or two before I’d go to sleep, so I didn’t see a problem with getting a few more chores done. Setting up a sensor network so we don’t get ambushed from outer space was a pretty important project. “You seemed agitated after that conversation. I simply want to know if I could help.”

“Maelstrom wants to make you the cornerstone of a post-scarcity civilization while not turning into an authoritarian tyrant herself. She’s wants me to speak up if that happens.” I admitted. Not much point in lying to Parvati about it. She’ll figure things out the next time Maelstrom, her, and I were in the same room as one another. “Not exactly sure how I feel about it, except stressed.”

“She knows that you have a firm moral code, as well as extensive experience working with dictators and warlords.”

“Just for experience and just for a couple of years. I mostly worked with government agencies after that… okay, yeah. Plenty of dictators and warlords. You’re right.” What was I supposed to do? Ship grain around the world? Why would I do that when I could go to Point A and bring some super-fighter to Point B in an instant? The last two years I worked gave me eighty percent of the money I needed and a 100% of the money that I wanted for. My bunker was originally going to be pretty simple and sparse. The hydroponics, the self-pool with UV lights, the weapons room, the micro-fusion generator, and every other luxury were all thanks to those contracts. “I had to work with a lot of people to get what I needed, then I worked with them to get what I wanted. That just makes it clear that I shouldn’t be the baseline that Maelstrom should be using.”

“You worked within the grey zone of the law, but you still worked within it. None who live now can call that wrong, Egress. You worked within the system. Never did you seek to destroy it, upend it, or challenge it.” That sounded like a lot of negatives in my opinion. I gave up on trying to get others to listen and seek safety. When the bombs started falling, instead of being a hero, I got into my bunker with my dog and just entertained myself and ate what I wanted for years. “Egress, you are a leftover of that time. Everyone else has changed. They have compromised, they have bent, and they have been changed by the times. You… have not.”

“You’re saying that I’m a relic of a bygone era.” I grumbled.

“The fact that you say such lines reflects that it is true.” Parvati pointed out.

I couldn’t help but grumble, then just take a moment to look at the back of my hand.

Then, I recalled how Clancy and Quinn didn’t change either.

“Honestly, I think we either find a way to separate humans from superhumans forever, or find a way to bridge the gap.” The differences are stark. Even in a post-scarcity economy, superhumans are going to have an advantage. We’re longer-lived by default. We have skills that they don’t. Even if need is eliminated, a society based on want will still come into being, and that will result in stratification and classes once again. Those with superpowers have, while those without don’t. “We breed true, right?”

Parvati gave a nod at that question, though I was sure of it already after seeing the breeding camps, Seran’s ability to just make superhumans, and Nori’s clones being just as intelligent as her.

“I believe that the human race will all have powers within a three centuries. But you are correct. In that time, there will be trouble even in a post-scarcity society.” I sent off the last piece of and stretched in place for a moment. A gynoid came forward with a pitcher of water and some toast with jam. I scarfed it down. “Means and measures must be implemented in order to prevent that… and I believe that a retro-viral agent voluntarily taken may be the key. The vectors utilized to create supersoldiers and the vectors used to give immense power to my Devas can be moderated and used to great effect.”

I could only sigh at the news.

“It’s better than segregating everyone. If everyone has powers, then at least we won’t worry about tyrants. We just need to make numbers count again.” Powers will make things a headache, but if a person can be buried under superhuman bodies, that means things like a police force or even a military can be used by governments to monopolize violence again. The real problem that kicked everything off so badly back then was that people with absurd power could just do whatever they wanted and fuck over the world in the process. That’ll be less of a problem if locals can police their people. “We’ll run it by Maelstrom. I think she’ll go for the plan.”

“She proposed it.”

“Of course she did.” I just shook my head again, before looking at Parvati. My clock on my wrist beeped. Just two hours before midnight. Time for me to settle in and relax before getting some sleep. “You up to play some games in an hour?”

“I will set up the game room.”

“Thanks, I’ll see you there.”

I’ll pop into my bunker, get a bath in, clean up, and head back here to enjoy some games that I didn’t get to download before the bombs fell.

…

Sometimes, popping into my bunker, I thought that I’d find it filled with people or destroyed, despite having no outside entrances and being in a hollow space pretty deep in the crust. Since I started working with Parvati and got more active outside, I took my re-locatable bunker and started shifting it to other places around the world a kilometer or so down the surface. It was pressurized inside, so I had no trouble just popping and out.

Anyway, since I was embarking on missions that risked my life, I had my new dog watched by some of my customers at Maelstrom’s town.

So, even if the bunker was destroyed somehow, I wouldn’t miss anything inside since I already made the time to backup everything.

Now, it was mostly for storage space for things that I traded for and stuff that I had crates off from before the bombs fell.

Honestly, I was just using the place for sleep and showers now, since I could just kick back aboveground now.

Still, I was keeping everything running and in shape.

It was easy since I’ve already done it for a few years.

“Okay, all lights are green. Pressure is good. Nothing is melting down. Cameras and motion sensors no readings since I left. Good.” I went through the rooms rapidly to check the sensors and systems. Vital rooms in the bunker were only accessible through teleportation. They were also sectioned off so that I could cut them off and just send chunks away if needed. If the bunker was compromised, I knew what to teleport out, before sending everything away into space while going somewhere else. “All clean and ready to go for a bath.”

I got myself cleaned up, enjoying some body-wash, real shampoo and conditioner, and a loofah before drying off.

Since I already showed Parvati my face, I went ahead and got into some pajamas already and a jacket.

Going around everywhere all day in armor, camouflage, and breathing gear is a pain.

I got some stripped pajamas on, made sure I was decent, and then went back.

My gut told me that I would be walking into a trap wearing only some fuzzy slippers and pajamas and that I was being an idiot.

My eyes told me that I walked properly into an air-conditioned room filled with AI gynoid bodies playing away at multiple classic games from decades ago, as a couple more worked on servers to bring other ones online.

“I see that you’ve made yourself comfortable.” Parvati came forward through one of her bodies. The nearest one. She had short hair and wore modest leisure clothes in the form of a long white robe. Looked nice and comfy, honestly. “Hm, did you intend to sleep over?”

I didn’t, but she thought that because I was wearing pajamas.

I thought about it for a moment, and shrugged.

“If you’ve found some good enough games, I might pass out.” I told her simply, and she nodded, while I walked over to an empty chair with a monitor in front of it. “So, how’s this going to work?”

I’ve entrusted Parvati with numerous bases around the solar system and even some where people can never reach.

Being afraid of sleeping around her would just be dumb.