The House part 28

May 16th
Chapter Two in which Matthew finds out the secret
Matthew grimaced and rubbed his brow. How late was it? He glanced over at the clock and had to look at it again. Was it really Five forty five? Lord, he'd been here all night and found basically nothing. But he had one book left and if the answer was in a book it would have to be in that book. It was a thin one, he'd done all the thick ones first hoping that size was directly related to quantity of information. He soon found out that size was in fact directly related to wordiness of writing and had wasted about seventy five hours of his life reading books in which the author was so obsessed with proving that he was intelligent that it appeared that he had memorized the dictionary. Add on to that the author's other fixation, proving that he was a good writer, and the book could have had all the answers to every single one of his questions and he wouldn't have known it.
Matthew had amused himself during all those hours of pointless reading by writing in the margins of the books. In the beginning the notes were things along the lines of 'Could be important.' and 'Look into this George Bragg he seems to have been the only founder not to change his last name, find out why.' then he started to write things along the lines of 'Bladdy bladdy blah.” and 'By all means blather on you egotistical moron.' eventually he started drawing pictures of the author being killed in very gory ways. These doodles probably took up a good deal of time but they managed to keep him at least slightly interested in what the book was saying.
Matthew picked up the last book, cracked it open, and began to read.
"You will probably never read this book.” it began, “Even now as I sit in my flat and type on my laptop I can see, among my many papers, a letter from one of my greatest friends, who I will not name, telling me that the Foremen are already building boxes to put my manuscripts in. But enough about me and my problems.” Matthew silently thanked the author.
“This book,'' the author continued, “was not written by me, or at least not entirely, this book was written by various different 16s and Ex-Members of the High Council. I am neither. I put my name to this book simply because I am an old man who does not have long to live so it does not matter if the Teacher have me arrested or attempt to discredit me in anyway. I hope that my legacy will stand on my numerous works of very dull and long history books. But it seems that I have succumbed to the plague of all historians and begun to talk about myself again. So without further ado, let us proceed.”
“We are all taught in House History class that the House was founded after the Great Unpleasantness, unfortunately that is actually incorrect. The Great Unpleasantness, which I will explain in great detail shortly, did not in fact precede the Founding of the House. Allow me to give you a little bit of a history on the founders.” Matthew grinned, finally a book that got right to the point and told it like it was. In fact, Matthew thought, not only was this guy kind of hilarious but he also was writing about things that nobody else seemed to have written about. Finally Matthew was getting answers to his questions.
“The Founders,” The book continued, “Were a group of important politicians, scientists, authors, businessmen, and professors who were a sort of, to put it mildly, prone to being a little pessimistic. The House was originally conceived by Prof. Harold Lucious, a famed science fiction writer and respected political essayist. He was also a member of The Diamonds, a society of politically and philosophically like minded people at National University which was, at that time, the biggest and most prestigious university in the United States of America. One night in late November in 2018, Prof. Lucious was at a dinner party and he fell into a debate with a member of the Violets, an opposing political society. The Violet, who numerous witnesses say was Thomas Newgate, the future president of the United States, challenged Prof. Lucious's assertion that the Mexico City Crisis, which was currently at it's most danger point, would cause the total destruction of the human race unless different actions were taken.”
“The Mexico City Crisis was rather a minor conflict, historically speaking. It was caused after the United States of American and the European Union, who were the two major powers in the world at that point, supported different sides during the Mexican Civil War. The war came to an end relatively quickly with both sides agreeing on a two state solution. The main problem was the question of Mexico City, should it be given to the Socialist Revolutionaries who's border contained Mexico City as the United States supported or should, as the Capitalists and the European Union proposed, the city be divide in half like Berlin was after World War two. This disagreement culminated in two ambassadors yelling at each other on the floor of the United nations building in Geneva. The Diamonds said that unless the President and her government began to prepare the entire human race would be wiped out. The Diamonds said that this devastation would occur when the European Union and the United States began to fight over Mexico City and then Palestine and Israel would jump in and and then China and Russia, then things would get out of hand very very quickly.”
“Thomas Newgate, a vocal supporter of the President took a very different approach than what Prof. Lucious was used to. Newgate knew that Prof. Lucious would be prepared for questions on how he got from the Mexico City Crisis to global apocalypse and he also knew that Prof. Lucious had worked a very good reason for that jump.”
“So, instead of attacking him on that Thomas Newgate attacked him on the second part of the argument. He asked him that, if the Mexico City Crisis would really lead to this apocalyptic event, then what could the President possibly due to stop it and save the human race?”
“Prof Lucious replied that she could have, should have, attempted to end, through diplomacy, the meaningless power struggle with the European Union and stopped her interference with other country's internal problems. Future President Newgate, who was already beginning to acquire a reputation as a gifted orator and master debated, replied that those were things that she could have done to prevent this supposedly impending apocalypse in the past, but what could she do now to save the human race?”
“Prof Lucious paused for a few minutes and thought. He then replied that the only way to make sure that the Human Race would survive would be too build a huge building that could produce all that it needed internally and seal off enough people inside to ensure that the population would survive. In his later letters Prof Lucious said that he viewed this as a winning argument but, to a man, everyone who was at the dinner party and heard the argument thinks that Thomas Newgate won.”
“A few days later it came out that one of the United States ambassadors to the United Nations, the one who began to yell at the European Union's ambassador was in fact an alcoholic and drug addict who was both drunk and high at the time that he began to yell at the European Union's ambassador. The President of the United States fired the ambassador in question and formally apologized to the European Union. Eventually it was agreed that the capitol would not in fact be shared and the Socialists would keep sole control of it. But the idea of the Isolation Building, as it was call then, was very popular among the Diamonds and, in 2020, they began to build it.”
“The Diamonds grew more and more concerned about the state of world affairs and they worked harder and harder on the Isolation Building. Finally, in December of 2033, it was finished. The Diamonds were split over whether or not they would move right in. Prof. Lucious was strongly in favor of moving in immediately but even though he was extraordinarily well respect among the Diamonds eventually they voted against moving in right away. Prof. Lucious was very upset and threatened to leave the Diamonds but before he could do that, things changed in a big way.”
“By this point in time the Diamonds were on their way out. In the last election, 2032, not only had Thomas Newgate won the Presidency in a huge landslide but the Violets had gained control of both houses of Congress and numerous governorships as well. But on December 23rd 2033 The International Space Exploration Foundation received a message. This message read as follows: 'Greetings Earthlings. We are the Sahlakian. We are from the Alpha Galaxy and we are pleased and delighted to have discovered intelligent life in the Epsilom Galaxy. We are currently en route to visit you and share technology with you. We plan to arrive in what we have deemed to be your most important city New York City in the United States of America. Our Estimate Day of Arrival is March 14th. We humbly ask that you assemble the leaders of your planet's various nations on that day in New York. We hope to share technology and knowledge with you in return for information about your culture. We thank you in advance for your help. Yours Most Sincerity the Sahlakian.' The Diamonds were convinced that these aliens were coming to invade. So, on January 17th 2034 they moved into the House and sealed it off from the outside.”
Matthew tossed down the book and shook his head. No way, he thought laughing a little, The Great Unpleasantness was an alien invasion? That was just too good to be true. But as awesome as an alien invasion was, and it was truly and completely awesome, it didn't really help him end the war. Maybe there were more goodies to come. Matthew picked the book up off the floor and began to read again.
“The greatest irony of this,” The book continued, “was that, like so many of the Diamond conspiracy theories and doomsday scenarios, it turned out to be totally wrong. In 2045 a message was sent to the Diamonds from Thomas Newgate who had spent five years trying to find the House's location. No one is sure how he actually got in but somehow he did. He told everyone that aliens had done everything that they said they were going to. They were a peaceful people who had essentially eliminated large scale violence, poverty, and sickness in their culture and they were helping the people of the Earth to eliminate them as well. Thomas Newgate said that the House clearly served no purpose anymore so everyone should just come out and rejoin society. Most of the Founders supported this idea and the High Council voted for it by a pretty large margin despite the fact that Prof. Lucious was strongly opposed to the idea.”
“So the Founders began to make plans as to how to tell the public the shocking news but on the eve of their announcement Prof. Lucious activated a program that he and Prof. Leslie Kildare had hidden in the master computer.”
“Hold on!” Matthew said out loud, “What Master Computer? I didn't know we had a Master Computer!” He was so close to finally finding out the huge secret that Philip had discovered! He read on.
“This program totally sealed all exits to the outside world and transferred total control of the House's vital systems to Prof. Lucious. Prof. Kildare had helped to create the hidden program for cases of House emergency and he was furious that Prof. Lucious had taken power in this way. He hunted Prof. Lucious down, Prof. Lucious had gone into hiding after he activated the program, and confronted him. The confrontation turned violent and Prof. Kildare stabbed Prof. Lucious before Prof. Lucious shot him.”
“Prof. Lucious could not seek medical attention for his knife wound because he would have been arrested so he attempted to treat himself while still hiding from the Foremen. The Foremen eventually tracked him down and, after a Twenty one hour standoff in which twelve Formen were shot by Prof. Lucious. The Formen who captured him immediately took him to the hospital where he received emergency treatment but it was too late. His attempts to treat the wound had caused it to become infected and he would soon die in a hospital room under without ever regaining conciseness after the surgery.”
“Now, logically, this should be the end of the story; Prof. Lucious had tried to prevent everyone from going out by taking control of the Master Computer but then he died and the control of the Master Computer should pass back to the High Council and then they would open the doors and everyone would go out into the world. That would seem logical.”
“But Prof. Lucious' supporters were furious at how the Foremen had hunted down and arrested their hero so they rioted. The riot got more and more violent until they finally stormed the hospital room where the Professor lay dying. Prof. Lucious' opponents counter rioted and they also stormed the hospital room. The two opposing groups fought with each other and with the Foremen as Lucious lay dying and one of his opponents through an acid bomb into the hospital room. It exploded as Prof. Lucious drew his last breath and something very odd took place.”
“The hidden program acted in a very strange way. It did not simply change all the passwords so only Prof. Lucious knew them. In fact it linked the Master Computer directly to Prof. Lucious' brain, essentially making him the Master Computer. To this day nobody has any idea how this program was able to do that. When Prof. Lucious' brain stopped working what should have happened was that the Master Computer returned to simple being just a computer. But something went terribly terribly wrong, maybe it was the acid bomb, maybe it was Prof. Lucious' final revenge, or maybe it was just a flaw in the program, but whatever the cause the Master Computer gained a personality. And it shared both Prof. Lucious' intelligence and his arrogance. It realized that it needed the humans to stay inside the House otherwise it, the Master Computer, served no purpose. So the Master Computer kept the doors closed and gassed both the High Council and Thomas Newgate. The public had not been told why Thomas Newgate was there or why Prof. Lucious was arrested. The Foremen had announced that Prof. Lucious was wanted for a very serious crime but nobody knew what it was. Thus no one had any reason to suspect foul play and they believed that the gassing of the High Council was a tragic accident. When Teachers found a document on the Master Computer called 'New Charter' they believed that it was what the High Council had been working on at the time of their death”
“This charter outlawed romantic relationships, created the 16s, and also eliminated the original Charter. Thus what we believe is the Founding Charter was actually written by the Master Computer. It made romantic relationships illegal, while previously they had not only been allowed but encouraged as a way to increase the population of the House. Nobody is totally sure why the Master Computer decided to do this. Some believe that Prof. Lucious and by extension the Master Computer was a closeted homosexual and he was furious that his sexual orientation was looked down upon by the other Diamonds. Other believe that Prof. Lucious was hurt because of a bad breakup in his past and wanted to prevent anyone else from having to go through anything like that. Others think that Prof. Lucious, who was by all accounts a huge egotist and lost every close friend that he ever had because of his total obsession with himself and disregard of others, was disdainful of romance, seeing it as pointless and a huge time waster. Others do not think that Prof Lucious' thought and beliefs played no role in the new law rather being an attempt by the Master Computer to control the population.”
“As the years progressed The Master Computer tightened it's grip on the House and it began to want more. It thought that, since it was doing such a bang up job running the House, it should run the whole world and it began to prepare. It had the 16s build the underground floors to house a massive computer complex. The Master Computer than resolved to create the perfect battle plan, a flawless battle plan. The Master Computer resolved that it would spend as long as long as it would take but The Master Computer would created the perfect battle plan and then, and then it would conquer the world. It did not even take a decade before the Master Computer made a breakthrough; since The Master Computer was in charge of all the test tube babies it could mess with the genetic patterns of the unborn children. It would make them more violent and more prone to following leaders. It would make them the perfect soldiers. The Master Computer shared all of this information with its foot soldiers, the 16s. They would help create the perfect army and soon they would conquer the world. It was foolproof.”
Oh.” Matthew said dropping the book and starring off into the distance, “My. Freaking. God.” He saw how this would end the war. Both sides needed a common enemy, this Master Computer would be that common enemy. He had to find Margret.