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Chapter 2: Nathan

Officially, you had to be 18 to work. But that was a privilege which belonged to the upper castes. For the children of workers, making money began when you could count. For Nathan, it had always been the hustle. He was a smart kid, quick witted. He never missed an opportunity when it presented itself, and that made him successful on the street. Some days he brought home more money than his father. Not that that what was saying a lot. Even in a lucky family such as Nathan’s, where both parents had decent jobs, there was barely enough income to maintain the small 3 room shack they lived in. Not that he had spent much time there in the last 2 years, anyway.

He’d never thought about what profession he would choose. He had no reason to expect he would live that long. In the back of his mind had been the expectation that he would follow in either his father or mother’s footsteps. His mother was a cook at the courthouse, plenty of food and regular hours. His father, on the other hand, was an MKE technician.

The MKE was one of the most important devices of the new age. All 4 of the new governments had outlawed fossil fuels due to the devastating effects, leaving society with the problem of how to generate enough power to run the culture. The Faradayan Brotherhood had solved the problem.

Nathan’s father would go on for hours about the brilliant simplicity of the invention. They attached a battery to an electromagnet called a solenoid. A solenoid effectively operates as a piston, and when attached to a crank shaft can be used to drive a motor. The addition of a solar panel to recharge the battery perfected the unit. The MKE not only solved the fuel problem, it provided power to millions of people without any other means. “Forget all those fancy science words, Nathan” his father said more than once, “Sun and Earth is all you need to know. Combine those 2 and you have life, you have power, you have everything.”

Nathan never saw himself as a technician. Hours of detailed work, bent over a dirty, smelly machine was not for him. He preferred the excitement of the streets. His money depended entirely on his wits. There was no responsibility to anyone but himself. He knew it couldn’t last much longer though. It was already becoming more difficult to get the work he was used to taking. Hustling required a boyish face to make the customer believe he could be trusted. This last year had changed him greatly; his shoulder length red-brown hair was popping up in new places, his voice was cracking constantly, and he’d sprouted to a gangly 1.57 meters.

He was lost as to where to turn next, however. The Security Forces had already made attempts at recruitment, but he couldn’t see himself in the blue uniform. To everyone Nathan knew the S.F. represented an invasive element, an enemy within. They relentlessly enforced and protected the will of the tiny executive caste which ruled the Corporate Union. It was entirely on the muscle of the S.F. that the Union maintained its integrity. Nathan found himself thinking about the Brotherhoods as an option lately, but he had no idea which or how he would choose.

They’d been walking in silence for approximately fifteen minutes, these thoughts racing through Nathan’s mind. Every thirty seconds or so he would look over at Brother Jonas, start to say something and then stop. Finally, Jonas couldn’t take it anymore, “What is it boy?”

“I, uh, I was just-that is, er,” immediately Jonas felt bad.

“Look, Nate, I didn’t mean to yell. You seem to want to say something, is that true?”

“Yes, sir. A question, really, sir.”

“O.k., go ahead, I promise, it’s alright to ask.”

“It’s just that, well everyone says such terrible things about the Franklinites, why would you want to join?”

“What terrible things are they saying these days?”

“Well, you know, about how you can’t be tru-, well because of what happened with…”

Jonas sighed, he was always amazed at how people could be so sure of things which were completely untrue. “Listen, Nathan, none of that is true, at least not the way you heard it. When the Old Ways ended, the Franklinites were the first Brotherhood formed. It was our work that made a new way possible instead of the cycle of chaos continuing.”

“But the rebellion, and Brother George?”

“There was no rebellion, the other Brotherhoods simply decided to support something we couldn’t. The story of Brother George is generally misunderstood.”

“Seems pretty straightforward to me, Brother George was the leader of the Franklinites and he betrayed the Unionists.”

“How did he betray anyone? By saving their lives?”

“He gave away our battle plans.”

“He announced your enemy’s plans as well, all publicly, all long enough before hand to prevent the battles from happening. He was demonstrating his ability to discover what anyone was doing and his intention to announce it.”

“The war could have ended.”

“The war did end. There hasn’t been a battle since. Every once in a while someone tries, and we do it again. And for this they branded Brother George a traitor and killed him”

“But we’re still technically at war.”

“Hey, it’s not our fault if you’re stubborn.”

“It seems wrong somehow, unpatriotic.”

“You say this about the same nation which keeps you in a caste system.”

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