VI
After walking back to the Department of Relocation and getting in Ahska's helicopter, Helmholtz was starting to feel more at home. Watson had never thought he would be glad to feel more at home, because home meant soma and girls and Controllers, but he did. His conditioning ran deep and the more he tried to get rid of things like sex and soma the worse he felt, and the more relish he took in these vises, so the harder he tried to drop his old tendencies, the easier they came rushing back to the surface. After Ahska got in the driver's seat (highly unorthodox) Helmholtz climbed in the passengers side and she started the engine and they shot up into the air. Faster and faster they rose until they had just reached the flying altitude. Ahska stopped and let the helicopter hover there, suspended by its screws.
"That's better," said Ahska. "Now, what were you saying?"
"Ah where to begin!" said Helmholtz. "There's so many questions that I need answered and every answer leads to two new questions."
"I always thought that the best place to begin," offered Ahska, "Was the beginning." Before Helmholtz could comment, Ahska started talking again. "What makes you so uneasy?" asked Ahska.
"This place is so different."
"In what way is it different? Besides the obvious things like the lack of color coding and the child that said 'mother'."
Helmholtz thought for a while before he answered. "Chaos."
"I suppose to you this would seem like chaos wouldn't it? Well close enough, the difference is that there is no caste system here."
"No caste system!" said Helmholtz his voice squeaking a little, "That's preposterous!"
"It isn't," said Ahska, "And I'll tell you why."
"You bloody well better!"
Ignoring the last statement, Ahska continued with a question. "Why were you transferred to an island?"
"Because I requested it." Said Helmholtz defiantly, but then, "No wait, first I was sent to the Falkland Islands. They said I was a security risk, so they transferred me."
"Ah ha," said Ahska, "So was my mother's, mother's, mother's, mother's, mother's, mother's, mother." (Helmholtz cringed slightly at the end, but Ahska continued) After the nine years war, all opposition to the cause was disposed of, however a few of them managed to hide books here in Japan after it had been deemed clean, but before all of them were destroyed. Eventually all the rebels were killed, but the books remained hidden here. About 50 years later, some gammas and betas and a few alphas came upon these books and read them." Ahska paused and as a side note she asked, "You know of your conditioning correct?"
"Know, how could I forget?"
"You don't like it then?" asked Ahska. Helmholtz caught himself before he said no.
"Its comforting," he said truthfully, "but in the same way over and over. The routine is getting old."
"I see, well back then, science had not perfected the system that conditions the children, so these gammas and betas and alphas were more susceptible to the 'evil' that these texts held. All of a sudden, all of them, even the gammas for they were more intelligent then, could see the flaws inherent in the system. You system."
"What's wrong with it?" asked Helmholtz, "It's perfect."
"It's not." Said Ahska, "It's not because it was made by men, and men that knew of Christ and knew of human rights and knew of poverty. All of these things still seeped into your system, because people influenced by them made it."
Helmholtz was looking thoroughly confused, so Ahska tried to simplify it for him.
"You have heard of Christ, God, and Christianity correct?"
"A little," replied Helmholtz, "My controller Mustapha Mond told me a little about them before I was re-assigned. He said that they were brutally oppressive and forced people into small living quarters with each other. Small dirty little houses, living with you … mother and father, and despite the dirtiness and smelliness, it still made people feel more for one person than another. It made them love their parents."
"Good." Said Ahska.
"No not good." Said Helmholtz, "If people love someone more than another person, that reduces productivity and-"
"Let me cut you off there. Is this type of brutal oppression present in our current societal set up?"
"No." Said Helmholtz flatly.
"I disagree." Said Ahska, and then, "What made you answer so quickly?"
"Because I know the answer, just like I know that you are supposed to be a beta and I am supposed to be driving."
"How do you know this?" she asked.
"Because that's the way it is."
"That's the answer I always get. Give me a reason. Give me a logical reason as to why I am should be a beta. I have clearly shown that I am as competent as you and can handle machinery like this helicopter as well as you and yet you still think I should be lower than you, the alpha male. Why?"
Helmholtz caught himself just before he spit out a predetermined answer. His weeks of trying to be different just to see things differently had allowed him to glimmer her point of view. Until two months ago someone else was running his conscious thoughts, so why would his subconscious be any different. In fact, it must be completely controlled by this system of repetitions. The smile had returned to Ahska's face, but this time he was not angered or confused.
"That answer," explained Ahska, "Was programmed into you by someone else. You are a slave to their thoughts. For the most part these thoughts make you feel what you feel."
"This system is so stupid!" said Helmholtz starting to lose his temper.
"Is it?" asked Ahska, "It works doesn't it? Who's to say that controlling civilian thought processes is a bad thing? Bees work the same way as your caste system and seem to be doing fine; but some of your alphas, the most intelligent people in your society, are rejecting their teachings. Why is that?" Helmholtz just looked at her helplessly. "Because they are teaching the wrong things. You said yourself that religion was oppressive right? You were correct."
"Why were they though?"
"You're shedding your previous ways of thinking quickly." Commented Ahska. "They were oppressive because long ago, the world was matriarchal … think of it as having nothing but alphas and betas, but the betas had more credibility … anyway, the land was publicly owned, like it is now, but soon it was split up amongst the males. Because land started to become a big deal and it was hard to find the father of a child, they needed a system to regulate which child belonged to which father."
"And that system was religion?" Helmholtz guessed.
"Bingo! Thus monogamy was born. Now you sleep with whomever you want correct? Well that is what it was like way back then too, that's why it was so hard to tell who the father was. The easiest way to solve this problem was to force everyone to get married and have a nice little family. Now that the male and female were hitched, theoretically any child that came from that woman was the child of that man."
"So what went wrong?"
"Two things," said Ahska, "One, mankind was never meant to be completely monogamous, so there was still some sleeping around and some children being born out of wedlock. Not that big of a deal to you, but it was as wrong dating one girl forever is for you. Secondly," continued Ahska, "As soon as the testosterone driven male got a hold of a little power and notoriety, he realized what he was missing and wanted more, so he used the only tool at his disposal, Religion. The Christians and the Muslims especially built oppressing rules and safeguards into their society. All of a sudden images of women being looked down upon by god were everywhere. Anything from ridiculous rules like women having to cover their heads when they go out, to original sin, the story of Adam and Eve were instituted into everyday life."
"But that would cut down on productivity," exclaimed Helmholtz, "First of all, if women were looked down upon, then people would start distrusting women with tasks and that would diminish the workforce."
"And that happened," said Ahska, "All throughout the Victorian era and into the twentieth century women were not supposed to work. They were supposed to stay at home and watch the children."
"Secondly," said Helmholtz continuing with his idea, "They didn't have the Bokanovsky process, they had to have one child at a time. If women were only permitted to reproduce with one man, then the population wouldn't grow fast enough."
"Christianity, especially Catholicism fixed that," commented Ahska, "it was wrong to have sex outside of marriage, but once you do get married, have babies as much as you can. That why all of them will become Catholic and have plenty of children in their families. This will continue to multiply for centuries, all of them becoming Catholic."
"Fascinating." Exclaimed Helmholtz.
"And the more generations, the more revenue. Religion almost always has some sort of small payment that you voluntarily give to the church. The more children are born, the more Catholics there will be to offer money."
"So it was actually quite intelligent."
"Yes. Do you remember when I said that some of this seeped into your society when it was created?" Helmholtz nodded. "Well that is one of them. When you walked into my office, you automatically assumed that I was a secretary and a beta because the makers of your way of life were predisposed to that way of thinking. They thought that females were below them."
A tiny little voice had said something in the back of Helmholtz's mind when this conversation started. He didn't believe it at first, but it was repeating itself over and over becoming as annoying as an itch you can't reach. Helmholtz thought now would be an opportune moment to at least say it allowed.
"History is bunk."
"Quite the contrary!" said Ahska excitedly, "We can learn immense amounts of information from history! We learn best from our mistakes; even your society knows that. During early conditioning, if a child crawls to close to a flower, what happens? They get shocked! So the next time they see a flower they don't go near it. They have learned from past experiences. History can teach us plenty."
Helmholtz's mind was reeling. He had just had his whole world turned upside down. If what this woman was saying was true, and she had no reason to lie, then his society was no better then the old one. Even after the Nine Years War and all those people died … we've been shocked over and over again, and we still haven't learned.
Ahska saw Helmholtz thinking and knew that she had accomplished what she wanted to do. She had opened his eyes, but she still had to be sure that he was useful.
"Tell me what you're thinking." She said.
"I was putting the pieces together," scowled Helmholtz, "And now I am trying to figure out a way to get even."
"Fortunately we have saved you the trouble." Helmholtz looked perplexed but Ahska continued, "We have had enough people transfer here that we have been able to produce a genome that, if introduced into at least a donor womb, would result in a generation of free thinkers."
"How?"
"It makes them resistant to the hypnopædia treatments, meaning that physically they can still be conditioned, and their overall I.Q. can be regulated…"
"But morally they are untainted!"
"Precisely. Now, I will warn you, there is a danger that they will revolt and spill more blood, but if we have enough people over there working to curb any hatred, then everything should work out fine."
"And that will be my job?" asked Helmholtz.
"Partly, because you are the most recent arrival, we will also have you administer the genome altering serum in England. It will look less suspicious if the man who was moved twice in the past two months decides to move back."
"But I don't work with the embryos."
"You know someone who does don't you? And if not you're an alpha and can get into that area with your access codes. We will train you on where to place it and all that, all you have to do is you'll do it. Say you'll bring down this new age of oppression."
Helmholtz was suddenly aware that he was becoming attracted to this woman. It had taken him a while because he had never felt this way before. He was ready to do anything for her just to be noticed. For some reason, though she was beautiful, he was not attracted to her looks; it was her thoughts he was interested in. The way she thought fascinated him. The logical process was so far unmatched by anything he had experienced. He wanted to hear more.
As Ahska's words started to seep in, Helmholtz knew he was going to do it, but to his conditioned mind, he still needed a reason, any reason, and to his conscious, newly unconditioned mind, he had to justify his actions with a noble cause. Again he thought of the millions that lost their lives in the Nine Years War. The fact that they lost their lives meant little to nothing to him, but death had meant something to John, and so John became his cause.
"I'll do it." Said Helmholtz triumphantly. "I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, but that this folly doubts it."