Ersatz Eggs

Ben Johnson sighed disappointedly as he saw the brownish orange hue illuminated by the early morning sun hanging in the sky. He missed the blue. He went into the kitchen and started to make some coffee. As it brewed he started a breakfast of fried eggs and toast. Moments later he heard the sounds of his wife stirring. She found him sitting in the kitchen nook. He was reading a paper while taking sips from his mug. Just to the right of him was a plate with the remains of his eggs.

“You’re not throwing that out?”

“I see there was another uprising.”

“What, are you even listening to me?” demanded Mary Beth.

He put down his paper and looked at her. He was a bit amused by her disheveled, having just woke up appearance but he kept his composure and quickly refocused on the question at hand, “What?”

“I asked if you are going to throw that out.”

He looked back down at the remains. He sighed, “You can have it. I can’t stomach it.”

Letting out a sigh that matched his, “My father does what he can to get us this.”

“I know he does but at this moment this ersatz egg just isn’t sitting right with my stomach.”

“Ersatz?”

“Yes, it’s not a real egg it’s that goop from that plastic carton thing,” he answered in a voice without emotion.

“Even still, my father goes through a lot to get this for us. Ersatz or not it is still better than the gruel with which most must endure.”

“I understand that and I do appreciate it. I do, but it just isn’t settling in my stomach. Perhaps it is just my nerves today.”

She softened her stance a bit, “Perhaps that is what it is,” she agreed and then she sighed a bit as she continued, “We just need to count ourselves lucky because of my father.”

“And I do,” insisted Ben as took his attention from his paper to make eye contact with his wife. When he saw her smile he smiled back and returned to his paper.

“Well, do you mind if I have it.”

“Not at all, it is probably cold by now,” answered Ben not looking away from his paper.

“What’s the temperature supposed to be today?”

“I think it said it should be in the nineties today.”

“Another hot day,” she sighed as she put the plate in the microwave.

“What was that you were saying about another uprising?”

“In California, with the vineyard teams,” he answered in an unfeeling tone.

“Why can’t they just do their jobs? We all have to do our part if we are to survive,” she responded as she retrieved the plate and took a place at the nook. She sat her plate down and just sighed, “I know it must be hard work but they should have gotten an education.” Taking a bite she made a face and reached for the salt and pepper.

“That won’t work,” he stated ignoring her statement, “Here try this,” as he handed the Tabasco sauce to her.

“Thank you,” responded Mary Beth.

“Well, hopefully I can get the funding I need for my project today and this will become a thing of the past.”

“When is your meeting?” she asked a bit excitedly brought to life by the possibilities.

“This afternoon, I will be getting research from the lab in a couple of hours about 30 minutes before the meeting. I don’t want the subjects to be exposed too long.”

“I know you are definitely going to succeed. Why wouldn’t you? I can’t wait. Do they still give out Nobel Prizes? If they do, I am sure you will win. No longer will we have to live in the ersatz world. Fresh food, beautiful house, fine clothes…,”

“Already have your shopping list?” he asked smiling while peeking from around his paper.

Ben adjusted the blind of the passenger compartment of the car service. He looked out and saw a vast wheat field. He watched as he saw the workers by the hundreds wearing what were once bright orange clothes long faded and covered in various stains working their way down the rows. He closed the blinds when he saw the armed guards.

“It’s a bit hard to watch, downright depressing if you ask me,” said Bill looking over the presentation outline, “It’s why they insist on the blinds.

“I don’t know if that is such a good idea.”

“How so?” asked Bill looking up from the carefully prepared outline.

“I just think if we had been forced to look and see what was going on we wouldn’t be in this miserable state.”

“Perhaps,” sighed Bill as he returned to his proofreading.

Ben readjusted the blind so he could look out again. He watched silently as hundreds of acres flew pass the window. All the laborers looked the same at this distance, at this speed. It just seemed so unreal but he knew it was ever so real.

“I just hope I get the funding so we can end this,” he said silently in an almost prayer.

“What was that you said?” asked Bill looking over from his side.

Letting out a breath in a slow sigh, “Oh, nothing, I’m just thinking out loud.”

“Good keep thinking. We need all the thinkers we can get if we are to pull out of this.”

Ben got up to start pacing again. It was a large waiting room. It was meant to be large, large enough to demonstrate your place in the hierarchy. His steps on the stone tile echo in the vast space.

“You need to calm done,” Bill snickered a little as he shook his head, “You’ll be fine in there and I’ll be right there with you, right beside you.”

“I know,” stated Ben while he continued to pace, “I just have all this nervous energy and I just can’t seem to get rid of it.”

“I don’t blame you. Not everyone stands at the gates of eternity with the possibility of actually entering,” called out a disembodied voice from the far corner of the immense room and bounced around a bit. It was a powerful, determined, confident voice and immediately got the two friends’ attention.

Ben and Bill both looked over into the dark corner where a door had opened. They saw a silhouette of a tall, strongly built figure outlined by the light flooding in from the open door.

“I’m sorry, you must be Governor Breton Franklin Skinner?” asked Ben squinting a little from the light as he approached the figure.

“If you insist then I must be,” replied the figure, “I came personally for you because I like to size people up prior to their pitch. I am ready for your presentation. If you will just come into my conference room, we are ready to be impressed.”

Ben looked at Bill and Bill shrugged then gathered up their materials with Ben’s assistance. When they had turned around they saw that the Governor was gone and assumed he had passed into the lighted doorway. In quick, purposeful steps they headed towards the open doorway.

Upon entering they found a rather plain but well lit room. There were no windows. Ben looked around to see where to set up. He saw the Governor was seated at the center position of a long, white, plastic folded table. On either side there were six persons of various ages and sexes. Ben thought they were advisors to the Governor and members of his cabinet. About ten feet from the Governor’s table was a smaller table with a small portable ‘A’ frame white board with different colored markers in its tray standing next to the table. Ben and Bill both moved to this table. Ben placed a container gently on the table while Bill wrote some numbers on the white board.

“I’ve heard you two have some really good news for us today,” said the Governor as the two prepared their material, “When you are ready just start.”

“It’s been about ten years since we entered into this dark period in our world’s history,” started Ben in a surprisingly calm voice, “I believe it is on the verge of changing to the better.”

“How many were injured in the uprising yesterday?” asked Bill, “I think I read just over one hundred. I don’t think this will be the end of these uprisings.”

“Why do you think that?” interrupted a lady sitting to the right of the Governor.

“Well, we see them on the news a lot,” responded Bill.

“When there are difficult times in which strong leadership is needed to be applied there is always a period of adjustment. And these are very difficult times. I am certain we did what was best to ensure our survival. I am certain history will show we did do the best. Now, I believe if you research the data on these so called ‘uprisings,’ you will find they have diminished greatly since the beginning of the emergency state,” corrected the lady in a confident and even tone with just enough emphasis placed on key terms.

“Then I stand corrected. Thank you,” conceded Bill.

“Quality and quantity of food has also been steadily improving as we all become accustomed to the situation at hand and have developed solutions,” stated another man who reminded Ben and Bill of a bulldog.

“Please, continue gentlemen,” urged the Governor not taking his attention off of the two men for even a second.

“Okay,” started Ben, “I’ll just cut to the chase. As I am sure you are aware we have managed to clone a queen and several honey bee drones. She has mated and is laying eggs as we speak. I think we soon can create more and reintroduce them into the environment helping our ecosystem to recover.”

“We think that the days of masses of workers tromping through various fields and on many of the plants as well as trudging and climbing in orchards with their cotton tip swabs is about to be numbered,” added Bill in a hopeful tone.

“Interesting,” chirped up one of the nameless women to the left of the Governor, “How did you manage to clone these bees?”

The Governor’s full attention still remained on Ben as he explained, “It took some time experimenting with wasp and ant eggs. We have numerous individual honey bees in cryogenic suspension. Sampling their DNA we were able to insert it into eggs we had managed to make infertile through the removing of their respective DNA.”

“Where do you keep these cryogenically suspended individuals?” asked another man.

“In the lab at our university,” answered Bill.

“And you have managed to breed compatible queens and drones?” asked another nameless person behind the panel’s table.

“Yes, it took some time and a lot of failures but we managed to finally succeed. One of the biggest problems being that the DNA produced a queen near the end of her life as well as the drones, but the great news is she that she is producing eggs and they are hatching as perfectly healthy bees creating a colony which will soon be able to replace her with a fresh queen and drones.” responded Ben echoing the effort and the drains of tireless, dedicated work developing the procedure in his tone.

“This is where we need the funding,” entered Bill, “As you can imagine this effort took a lot of time, resources, and personal funds. But now that we have perfected the process it is just a matter of funding to get the whole thing going on a scale large enough to make an impact.”

“What exactly do you require to get this going on a scale large enough to make an impact,” asked another nameless woman.

“With a large enough sterile and well equipped facility and a highly trained staff we could produce enough individuals to generate colonies throughout the Midwest and it would only be a matter of time for these individuals to spread and generate other colonies. Possibly in ten years the world could be full of the natural pollinators it so desperately needs.”

“There would no longer be a need to force millions to take their cotton swabs and pollinate anymore. People could be free to follow their pursuits possibly a lot more conscious of how their actions impact the environment,” added Bill.

“Help me to understand this, sir,” asked a man sitting on the governor’s right looking right at Ben, “You want to reintroduce mating pairs of honey bees into the environment?”

“Yes sir,” answered Ben quickly.

“I don’t understand the point of that at this time.”

“How do you mean sir?” asked Ben.

“Well, isn’t what annihilated the honey bees, you know, drove them into extinction still present and wouldn’t that just kill your pairs? I think if you reintroduce them they will just simply die. Then what is the purpose of funding your project if we are just creating bees to die?”

“I will have to agree with my colleague’s thoughts on the subject,” agreed another advisor.

“We have been monitoring air quality, soil and water samples. Residue of pesticides in all three has decreased significantly. Air qualities have improved although there are still high levels of dust from the lost of plants but with your efforts with pollinators various parts have been reseeded and are growing. Our ozone has been rebuilding. Weather patterns are getting closer to what they were before prior to the mass colony collapse. We still have wild flowers which bees depend also growing in the lab and have collected millions of seeds for reintroduction into the world,” stated Bill.

“Thing is,” started Ben, “Things are not exactly ideal but they are borderline. We believe that either it is too soon or possibly things have recovered enough that either we can jump start it with the animals we have now or if they don’t get it going one of the other successive groups will make it happen. Even the mites which added to the death of colonies have disappeared because their victims have been gone. I think it is worth a try.”

When Ben had finished Bill quickly added, “Besides, even if we get the funding today, I mean the actual cash in hand, it would still be about a year before we get it all set up and are able to produce breeding pairs which means more time for things to improve. It might be the right time. It might just be enough for our pairs to hang on and produce hives which will all add to the continuing improvement of the planet.”

“Is your breeding pair in that container?” asked the Governor very calmly.

“Ah, no, they are in a controlled environment in the laboratory at this moment. Well, the drone has died which they do after mating but she is laying eggs and they have been producing workers. What we have here is two others we have produced,” answered Ben sounding a bit proud.

“May I see them for myself?” asked the Governor standing up and starting to walk around his table towards the container.

“Yes, by all means, that is why we brought them,” answered Bill quickly.

“Very impressive,” commented the Governor as he peered at the two bees, “Which one is the queen?”

“She is in the right container. Of course the one on the left is the male drone,” answered Bill.

“Of course,” echoed the Governor not taking his attention from the small beings before him.

Ben looked at Bill as the Governor seemed to be mesmerized by the container’s inhabitants. Bill smiled a little in eager anticipation. Ben looked a little pleading to Bill. Bill smiled and nodded in acceptance that it would be his task.

Breaking the silence Bill asked, “So what do you think?”

“Oh, I am very impressed,” answered the Governor taking his gaze from the two bees to look at Bill, “I am very impressed. I must say you two have done an incredible job. This is truly an incredible thing.”

He moved from the two men and started to head back to his place between his advisors.

A bit confused Ben asked, “So, will we be able to count on your assistance?”

Not answering until he took his seat the Governor answered Ben in the same calm tone, “I am truly sorry. You have done a great effort and have had impressive results but I will have to pass.”

Bill let out an audible breath and Ben fired back in a pleading tone, “But why? This is the future of the planet. This is the lives of possibly billions.”

“Look, because you have done such a great job I shall explain,” responded the Governor sitting back in his chair.

“Yes, please do,” demanded Bill.

“Since the beginning of history we have had the majority of the people working for masters who guided them. People were happy. They had a mission, something to keep them occupied. But there was a problem. How do you keep people from straying from these happy missions? How do you maintain the structure which makes it so? The answer is far too complicated to explain in detail but the situation of the world made it necessary for the average person to cling to a strong leader for guidance and to help them maintain this happy existence. But then a problem arose in the form of the United States.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand,” complained Ben with a confused look and tone.

“It’s okay, there is no need for you to understand,” replied the Governor as he continued with his explanation, “America presented a problem for the established world order. You had a nation which was rich in resources that was just going to be handed over to the average person. This as you can imagine, if it had succeeded it would have created some issues for the ruling class throughout the world.”

“If you don’t mind Governor,” started another person at the table, “One thing most people fail to realize is that the world, the people have been able to survive at a certain level of prosperity because these rulers were able to maintain a certain degree of stability in the communities. They gave them jobs in the various sectors of the community and kept everything in balance. Sure, they may have been peasants but they lived at a reasonable level of existence and could depend on it and be sure of the survival of their offspring.”

“But the people had a focus to keep them in line. They had their division of the labor to keep them on path,” continued the Governor, “Through all of the individuals doing their part, and that is just it. They saw themselves as doing their part so their community as a whole could not only survive but also prosper. Their rulers gave them a purpose. The people had a calling. They needed to help maintain the strength of their community to survive against the numerous enemies. It gave these people a mission.”

“Just imagine the Pharaoh Khufu if you will,” started another younger man, “He had a nation surrounded by competing nobles all gunning for his position. His nation was on the verge of splitting into many different factions. Each had its own goals and ideas on how to reach those goals. A land of the free was very much like that. Khufu came up with a monumental idea which was to build what we would call the great pyramid. It not only gave the nation a goal but created a unified identity. He was able to secure command of the nation by controlling the grain which created a dependency of his people on him. He gave them a focus, gave them places to live, and fed them. Very few probably objected but they were easily silenced and Khufu had a population of dedicated followers remaining and found the stability he and his nation needed to exist and maintain Khufu in his position as well as his heirs.”

“We have that today,” added a woman sitting at the table next to the Governor, “People have a real mission. We have a real calling. Differences are put behind us as we work together to survive against a very real threat. Sure they are working in the fields with their gel coated cotton swabs pollinating but they know they are there for a very real reason. They feel a very real sense of purpose and accomplishment when they reap the harvest which feeds the world. Ramose the Great would do the same except in a campaign of building temples and of course a monument to himself to remind the people of whom was able to make all of this possible.”

“You mentioned earlier about the uprisings,” started the lady who had corrected Bill about the uprisings earlier, “Yes, there are some. But if you look at the recent uprising of vineyard workers it was a very small part of the whole. If you had noticed you would know that these uprisings are very short lived because out of a thousand workers it may only be ten or twenty individuals trying to stir things up. These are people who think they are bigger and more important than their teams. They seem to remember the Free Market of the United States and the Freedom as a paradise. They fail to remember how capitalism had to step in, curtail some of these freedoms to create stability and a simple unity. Workers were kept in their place, doing what they were told, being guided by masters, a truer paradise of stability and predictability. It was an environment where people could count on the future being there for their children.”

“They are also on the decline,” chirped in the Governor, “In the beginning there were hundreds of thousands of these idealists, pie in the sky utopianists. However, through careful manual selection those who follow the rules and do as they told have been allowed to exist and procreate the next generation of workers while those who cause problems have been eliminated from the rest of the obedient workers.”

“It not only weeds them out but gives a strong message to the rest who do survive by doing as they are told,” explained the riot lady from earlier, “Well, at first it was a warning to get people into line but as the years have gone by more and more have be programmed to accept this as the reality of the world. At the same time it gives the hard workers a focus to blame their miserable situation. They see these agitators and realize these agitators could destroy the food supply or set us back. It gives the workers a boogeyman in the form of these agitators and superheroes in the form or the Governor.”

“It took time for the capitalist state to arise as well,” added the Governor, “In the beginning there were numerous labor unions and major protests even riots. Some were very violent and bloody but as time passed ever more people learned to accept this as the reality and they found that playing the game was beneficial to them. They realized that they owned their living to the one who signs the paycheck and saw the unions as an entity which threatened the stability of those who sign the paychecks. They realized it was their priority to protect the business and the owner. Along with legislation creating what the unions wanted and exposing corruption in the unions helped to minimalize the union’s influence.”

“But that is just it, Governor, sir,” jumped in Ben almost begging, “It was that closed, single mindedness which landed us into this position.”

“It is what will get us out of this situation,” barked the Governor, “We have spent many years and much effort to regain our foothold in this world. We have armies of pollinators and harvesters. We have armies of propagators taking clippings of various plants and trees and producing entire forests. We have purpose; we have gained ever more on stability, and from that prosperity. People have a focus and direction. They know what to expect and have become calm from that. We have an entire hierarchy benefiting from while maintaining this solution.”

“We took years to get here and a massive investment, my all too young friends,” started another man possibly in his seventies, “What you propose would turn the whole world upside down. What are we to do with all of these propagators and pollinators? What is to become of the enforcers or bosses? We have a whole society which has developed around the new normal. To release these bees would cause it all to collapse into chaos.”

“And if we did survive the collapse and resulting chaos we would have to rebuild again,” added the Governor.

“But that is just it,” pleaded Ben, “All of these people will be able to chisel out their own existence. They may create a whole new wonderful if they were freed from the jobs of insects.”

“There would be no guarantee for us though,” retorted another woman, “The current state ensures our positions and survival. I think we will stay with the predictable.”

“So, I guess that is it then,” said Ben moving to gather up his materials.

“You will leave your materials right there,” commanded another of the Governor’s aids, “We will hang on to them for safe keeping. You will instead go with these men.”

Ben and Bill turned to the back of the conference room where the aid had pointed and saw about nine large men approaching them. From their attire both men knew they were field bosses.

“They will help you to find a useful purpose and stay busy,” said the Governor as he stood, “Specialist will take care of your project at the university for you as well.”

Ben asked Bill quietly as they were being escorted away, “What was the purpose to explain that all to us?”

“I think they want us to start an uprising which will just play ever more into their whole strategy,” whispered Bill.

As they were getting into the transport for their new future Ben started to laugh.

“I don’t see any of this as being funny. Are you okay?” asked Bill.

“I’m okay, just thinking of Mary Beth’s shopping list.”