The Truth About Thalia

Everything you think you know about Lunar Colony Three is a lie. I can say this with the boldness of having been there. Not a dissenter, who for validation paints a portrait with dark colours, but a component of the Movement.

A component who held minor positions in the Liberation Movement, the Luna Liberation Party, and finally the Government.

Yes, I was one of them.

And now I am one of the fifty who volunteered for the mission to 'New Earth',
four light years away. By the time you read this I will be dead or beyond sanction.

Let me begin with a taste of history, I won't dwell on it, you've studied it at school.
You know that citizens of LC 1 and LC 2 participated in creating LC 3.

We had the experience of creation, development and importantly, residence. We
were not explorers but average people who had gone to the moon as settlers
wanting a better life.

The Thalia crater, as we came to call it, was on that line between light and
darkness. It was just under a kilometer in diameter and just over one hundred
and thirty meters deep.

We had eight tunnel diggers then, taken from LC 1 and LC 2, and went into the
crater with exuberance.

I wish I could capture the excitement, the commitment we had riding down into the crater. We'd held a lottery to determine who'd drive the diggers.

A ceremony we made of it, carefully lining up the diggers to take that famous photo, before racing into the sides of the crater to start digging, while others constructed the furnace to manufacture slabs of gaglas.

I suppose you're familiar with that pseudo material, a semi-transparent plastiglass. It covered the walls of the tunnels and the living tubes which were inserted into the side corridors.

I don't know when you'll read this, assume gaglas is still being used, as it's cheap enough.

Us oldsters used to call it 'plastic ', though of course it wasn't, but if you read
anything written in those days referring to plastic, we're talking gaglas.

Anyway, there were over two hundred of us working on the tunnels. Wanting to work on the tunnels. We started with two hour shifts to allow everyone to have a hand in.

We liked that system. Work two, be relieved, sit on the ground attached to the
purifiers until the shift came around again.

Connecting to the purifiers came as close to ecstasy as we could get.

Remember no intoxicants were allowed on the Moon in those days. Sure folks
tried to make wine out of the fruits grown in the garden section, but the law was so stiff that one bottle wasn't worth arrest and deportation.

But getting on a purifier, well there was a minute there where the carbon dioxide was being sucked out that the air got a bit thin and the oxygen coming in gave a high unlike any other. It was only a minute, maybe two, but it was good.

I don't want you to think we worked on LC 3 just for the high, no, that was extra. We worked on its creation because we had the first chance to bust Earth Law.

Our first opportunity to lock out stupidvisors who forgot we weren't robots or clones
or mind dead minions, but people. People who wanted to live and enjoy life, not be
lab rats.

We began building when those who would push rules and regulations were giving
their reports to the United Nations. We'd jerked around the starting date on L.C. 3
until it coincided with the departure of our bureaucrats. Then we behaved as if we
were only digging because we had to.

That's a lesson I want you to learn.

People have a streak of evil running up their backbones. If they think you want
something, they will deny it. It gives them a blush of power. If they believe it's a
matter of indifference, they'll give it to you because it makes them feel they aren't
pleasing you.

The reason we fall in love is because someone tries to please us. Think about it,
when you get the chance.

Anyway, our bureaucrats, thinking that the work teams of LC 1 and LC 2 were
going to build LC 3 because they were required to, left Luna with more than a clear conscience.

The construction of LC 3 went non-stop from beginning to end. The tunneling
machines never shut, the furnace never stopped squeezing out panels of gaglas
and we never left the site, putting up envirohuts for down time.

Considering the hassle of suiting up and going out, then unsuiting and coming
in, we pushed ourselves to the limit.

We had feeders in our visors, so would suck Go Juice, that overly enriched mixture
of whatever which, in those days, tasted like grapefruit, but later on, flavours were
introduced.

For hours we'd be out there, working, getting 'hits' of oxygen from the purifiers,
drinking Go Juice, until our brains shut down. Then we'd be taken to an envirohut,
wiped down, put on a cot.

This work schedule was our first 'defiance', as according to 'law' we were to 'work'
no more than four hours in succession.

In those days, tunnels were precisely one half klic long. As soon as the magic number was reached, the digger would back out, a bombot would go in, the far wall be exploded, (hopefully in a circular manner) which would create the 'lollipop', a large room at the end of a tunnel which would become a garden. The tunnel itself would be dug to hold twenty Living Tubes.

You've had to have seen early Living Tubes. They were three meters long, two meters wide, only enough for one person. That was what we hated. Think about that a moment.

Unless you're strapped into a chair, you've got more space then we did.

Space, that's what we wanted.
We wanted space.

And so, while our 'cats' were away, we 'mice' decided not to bore three meters into the side tunnels, but ten.
Why ten?
Three living tubes could be shoved in with a meter extra.

That was our second major act of defiance. Taking three precious tubes for one colonist.

Our third, and best known, was capping the entire crater so that we had one big empty space where we could manufacture oxygen. Cause that was our intention.

Manufacture oxygen, so we could leave our Living Tubes in whatever clothes we desired, walk the corridor into the crater, breathing as easy as we would on Earth.

We believed by releasing a little carbon dioxide from our huts and 'farms', (with the addition of mined oxygen), within a few months we'd fill the crater.

I'm sure you're still working on it. And probably one hundred years from now the crater will have ten percent more air than it did yesterday, about 23% of that on Mount Everest.

However, this was a time of hope, of belief. And we capped the crater to prove
it could be done, and we could do it. And it was ours.
It was our colony.
Not Earth's, not the Agency we worked for; ours.
And we weren't leaving.

Now you only know what you've been taught. Let me tell you what is not in the history books.

When our 'bosses' returned from their important meeting on Earth they were angry, they wanted to arrest and deport us. They threatened, insulted and altogether got on pretty badly.

We, well, we were armed.
Yeah. We were armed.
We were young and revolutionary and for our 'cause' would have splattered them all over the lunar landscape. And they knew it.

They numbered twenty decent bureaucrats. Persons who entered data well, used politically correct diplomatic jargon.

We counted over two hundred lunar rough necks.

But you have read history. You 'know' how Ann Baker and Norm Finchester and Bob Craig and the other bureaucrats reported on the 'surprise' they found on return to Luna.

They spun the story so it sounded as if they knew what was going on behind their backs, but hadn't alerted Earth because they didn't want to hold out hope, blah blah blah.

It's all lies.

They were presiding over a revolt which could be a great technological achievement. As it had been done and they didn't want to be done in, they chose to be heroes rather than victims.

Your great heroes, celebrated on Heroes Day, as if they were part of L.C.3. All they were, to tell the truth, were scared.

Here's another lesson for you, most 'Greats' are victims of events. Other people
attribute courage or brilliance to them.

When Ann Baker, C.E.O. of Lunar Colonisation, saw LC 3, she didn't say, "Now we control the moon!" , she actually said; "What the ras did you do? And who the ras is paying for it?"

That never went into the history books. Guess it wasn't inspiring.

The two hundred and seven colonists who worked on LC 3, (soon to be joined by
newbies from Earth, for with eight tunnels, each dug not to hold twenty but two
hundred side corridors awaiting Living Tubes), we had increased the safe size of
a lunar colony.

Then we decided we needed a name. LC 3 became Thalia. It was a battle of words between Earth and Thalia.

They'd communicate; "Come in LC 3",

we'd respond, if we felt like it, "This is Thalia."

Our defiance or recalcitrance captured the imagination of Earth. Thousands of Immigrants wanted to join us. With so many anxious to arrive, we dug more tunnels. Eventually we ended up with two hundred and seven, in honour of the first workers, for whom they were named.

One of them, btw, is named for me.

What we (and when I say we I mean the Lunar Liberation Movement; LLM) decided, was that those cleared to live in Thalia shared our 'vision'. Those who didn't were 'unsound', and would have to go back to Earth.

'Culling' immigrants was not as hard or as simple as you are imagining. (I assume you are imagining how this was done)

Members of the LLM (at the time it was a secret organisation) held authority. Anyone who was in charge of anything, was a member of the LLM.

Here's another lesson; don't create an ideology, don't even talk about it. Don't give the people anything to think about. Just go and do whatever it is and let them concoct whatever reasons they want, for soon enough a pedagogue, spin doctor, or other opinion maker, will tell them what they think.

The new folks from Earth didn't need to know what was really happening, they needed to be investigated in the friendliest of manners to reveal whether or not they could be 'one of us.'

Those who 'failed' were defined as maladjusted to the Lunar Environment and returned to Earth.

Hard?

Consider that we did the interviews and even though we reported to the goddess Ann and gods Norm and Bob, they weren't going to harm the 'good feelings' between us by doubting our 'expert' reports.

Think of it as a Board Meeting.

The Chairman only needs to be a competent Chairman. His views can be diametrically opposed to yours. But you have, over the years, been a reliable Board Member.

The Board is considering a proposal; call it a tender. You have a reason why you don't want it accepted. But you don't have to give a reason. All you have to do is say;

"I'm not comfortable with that proposal," (or the agency behind it, or whatever).

The members of the Board have no strong feelings either way so will put the
proposal aside for further study which may never happen.

You have, without needing a reason, knocked down a proposal. No one is going
to waste a brain cell looking for a motive.

That's how we did it.

Studies had already shown that a good thirty percent of all arrivants were not
suitable for lunar residence. To go to forty, even a fifty percent discard, wouldn't
raise an eyebrow because so many volunteered 'all of a sudden' the vast
migration was suspect to begin with.

Hence, we were able to fill the colony with persons who could become members of LLM.

It's not, pardon the expression, Astrophysics. How hard is it to stack the deck when you're the one who is counting the cards?

Our first creation was the Lunar Citizens Welfare Project. You've been taught this was a do-gooder agency, mixture of Welcome Wagon and Social Services.

It wasn't.

It was a front for the LLM. Being a member of CWP required the highest 'clearance' from the LLM executive. Think of it as being a member of the Secret Police.

Right under the snout of Ann and Norm and Bob and their gang of administrators
we created the CWP organisation.

I want you to know I, and those I associated with, had the best interests of the
people at heart. We were young, we believed.

Here's another lesson, the worst atrocities are performed by people certain of their
rightness. People, sure they are good, bloated with integrity, willing to do whatever
it takes. Often it takes the form of oppression.

Anyway, you're going to want to know about our famous heroes. History claims David Dart our 'leader'.

David Dart is a man everyone feels strongly about. There are those, hearing his name, get a pious look on their face as if he were a Saint, and those who hate him with ferocity.

I knew David. He was one of us. He was no more our 'leader' than I or any of the two hundred and seven were. We shared a vision.

We weren't getting orders, we were following our conscience. Sure we might differ in degrees, but not direction, practice but not policy. But let me talk about David for a few lines, not knowing if you're reading this as if it is the tale of a great leader or if your face is contorted with mindless hate.

He was handsome and strong, had a voice you wanted to hear. He was charming,
intelligent and compelling. I don't know if there's another way to describe it, but
he had magnetism. He pulled people to his side.

Yeah, a lot of women, sure. He was a man who loved women and knew how to
make love to women, and there were women who felt they should be more than
one of many.

Some of these women twisted their love into hatred because they felt betrayed.

Ignore anything these women say, because it's exactly opposite to what they said, then.

There were men who felt a certain admiration for Dart they couldn't control and
some of them lusted after him, but he had no sexual interests in men, so they,
like their female counterparts, grew hate at being scorned.

Ignore everything they say. In fact, every man who cursed him had sexual problems.

I'm writing about people I know. Men who tried to be straight, tried hard, and in
varying degrees, failed.

David Dart was simply one of us. Everything he said came from us. We chaffed
at our lives in LC 1 and LC 2. We wanted to live on the moon, not be locked into
tiny cells. We wanted the freedom of choice, not be more regimented here than
we had been on Earth.

You don't know what it was like to have lived in LC 1 or 2. Every minute of your
life scheduled, every action analysed; down to the weighing.

Every day we were weighed. If we gained, our rations were cut, if we lost, our
rations were increased. There was no choice at what to eat or when, this was
scheduled by Ann or Norm or Bob.

So that's food.
Now sex.

Imagine trying to engage in sex on the tiny cot that was our bed, unable to sleep with anyone because there simply wasn't room. To live in your toilet because with space at such a minimum there was no way to separate where you slept from where you shat from where you ate.

We built the side corridors of Thalia long enough to take triple Life Tubes to have enough space to put in double beds, push the toilet out of our breakfast, and be able to entertain a few friends just as anyone who lives anywhere would.

That was the big revolution. Space. Space on an empty world. Why, with so much emptiness were we squashed into tiny life tubes?

Don't mention the gardens in the lollipop. Gardens so crammed with growing they became nightmares.

You imagined the gardens places of rest and meditation? Green spaces? Oh yeah. Think of a rain forest or jungle gone mad, where every centimeter is choked with plants killing each other.

Harvester became a job as popular as sewage cleaner. Only certain people would do it.

Why couldn't we have blasted gardens, double, triple the size? With paths and spaces between plants, why was compact considered a virtue?

That was our revolution.
Space to swing our arms.
Space to be alone.
Space.
That's all we wanted, space.

David didn't 'galvanise' us, he didn't 'articulate' our desires, we did it ourselves
with no thought of organisation or hierarchy. David became our 'leader' because
every Movement needs a face.

I could have been the face. In those days our lines of 'power' were so amorphous
no one knew where the other was in the ranks.

Speaking in a strong voice and giving an opinion often sounded like control. Many people thought I was way up there in the leadership because I sounded so positive and often jumped in when there was hesitation, but I was at the fringes.

I'm a Lunatic.

I just want to live on the moon. Not be in charge of anything, just go to work, go home, and do nothing. So don't think these are the words of a thwarted leader who has choked on sour grapes.

A lot of Looneys didn't want leadership.
David Dart did.
And so did others far less capable.

David wanted to lead because he believed he could. Others wanted power. Others spoke of their ability, using the word 'us' when they meant 'me', talking of 'the people' when they meant 'I'.

I recall Eustace Parker making one of his vacuous speeches, this one his concession after losing the election for President of the LLM;

"It must be officially recorded that five people stood for leader and one was elected."

I clapped, defining to whomever heard me; 'one person, four vultures'.

Eustace got the second largest vote, 19% to David's 71%. I forget the figures for the others and am too lazy to look them up.

The LLM now was official. No more a secret cabal, but an upfront organisation. David Dart, President. The face that would confront the goddess and her gods.

He appointed a 'cabinet'; the Four Losers; Eustace Parker, Norine Burke Smith, Juliet Skinner and Caleb Dukaran.

The view of the LLM was that Ann & company should go away and leave us alone.
They should look about building LC 4 without us, because we were no longer
interested in construction. We'd done as much as we intended and now were busy manufacturing oxygen to create a garden in the crater.

The idea of Independence from Earth was not on the agenda. I don't care what you've been taught. I never heard it, never said it, not until 2110 at the Third Conference of the Lunar Liberation Movement.

We had created the LLM (Lunar Liberation Movement) as we did LC 3, before we called that crater Thalia. It had not been an Independence movement, we just wanted some say in how we lived.

It became an Independence movement at the pushing of Eustace and Norine.

I was a member of LLM. A core member, hot and young, and can recall shouting
something at the podium, then unzipping my bodysuit to reveal the tank top on
which was stenciled; LUNATIC.

Oh I got screams and applause and looked like a true born revolutionary, and
probably was. But what I envisioned, what David and the majority wanted, was to
have our own hierarchy.

But Eustace, Norine, Caleb and their crew saw a chance to become demi-gods,
and pushed so hard we could not resist.

At the Third Annual Conference, Independence was on the Agenda, became the Agenda. Before the Fourth Conference of the LLM, we got it.

There were over ten thousand people alive in Thalia, not eight. And the food we grew was not sufficient. The introduction of rabbits for meat was not as successful as touted. And we really weren't ready to go it alone.

But we lied. Fudged a figure here, altered a statistic there, but it was done in good conscience, thinking that we would fulfill our expectations.

To illustrate the situation in Thalia I'll use the rabbit episode, although it comes later in our history, it is an example of the kind of double talk/double think that was in practice.

Caleb Dukaran sold us on the idea of protein in diet via rabbit. Out of an abundance of caution we imported four rabbits, two male, two female. We could have bought a race horse for the amount of money it took to get four rabbits to the moon alive.

Then we had to feed them.

Considering our food supplies were not great we created rabbit pellets after a lot of trial, a lot of error.

Finally, our rabbits were eating and breeding, and Norine thought to keep them in a big glass cage at the center of the crater with their own oxygen supply; (our manufacture of oxygen was not as rosy as we'd told the public).

At the time, we'd built a narrow circular walk of gaglas around the perimeter of the crater. The main portion was still under construction to balance heat (it was like an oven in there) and get enough oxygen to fill it.

We could leave our tubes, our corridors, walk up our tunnel and the perimeter of the crater. Yes, this was a vast improvement over LC 1 & 2 where you couldn't leave your tunnel without a suit, so we did get a parameter. If you lived in Thalia in those days, to take ten steps without a suit on was one hundred percent more than in LC1 or 2.

In the Center, was the rabbit hutch. The big triumph, our masterpiece. Rabbit meat
to eat and rabbit pelts to sell.

We decided not to call them rabbits, but Moonbits.

We did good business with our Moonbit fur. Then some do-gooder complained about how we killed our rabbits. It became an issue we spent what we didn't have on Public Relations, meaning, we lied.

Our rabbits weren't asleep when they were freeze dried. However, we surmounted the storm. We sold the pelts to Earth and ate the meat. Well, not we. For those of us who knew, wouldn't touch rabbit meat.

The majority of Lunatics didn't know our rabbit meat was extremely adulterated with I don't care to say what. I never touched it. I was a vegetarian. However, the point was to present to Earth, (and to the sheep on Thalia), the image of a hardworking, good living, free state, where folks ate well.

To keep the truth from the people, the LLM was split into three 'camps'.

Camp One was lumpen, they didn't know anything.
Camp Two was aware of the us/them and made up the 'body'.
Camp Three was the Elite, who knew there were three circles.

Accidentally, I was a member of the Elite.

There was a moment I had power, but didn't seize it, so it went from me. When David stepped down he recognised there would be a scramble for power. Maybe he thought the best man or woman would win. Maybe he was too much of an idealist. Or maybe he believed that as Juliet Skinner was a front runner she would be elected.

No history I have ever read revealed how truly beloved Juliet was. Then. Then in the early moments of our power she was truly someone.

I remember a rally, and in the midst of David's speech a cheer went up and I instinctively assumed The Dart was coming! But Dart was on the podium, it was Juliet's entrance.

She had a similar magnetism as David, only being a woman, she brought that non-confrontationalistic, sugary compassion no man could muster.

I thought Juliet one of my best friends, and was loyal to her. Now you know my mistake.

David Dart, the first leader of the Lunar Liberation Movement, which became the Lunar Liberation Party on Independence, decided, after a year, to step down. He had been in power from the beginning, there before the LLM had a name.

He made a moving speech, and at the end, realising all positions vacant, I had fought my way to Juliet, who was swarmed by the crowd. Eustace, the forgotten, had called to me, I had waved and kept walking.

Oh, if only I had stopped!

But I was one of Julie's people and could not dare be seen speaking with Eustace when I could be one of the moons revolving around Juliet.

If a photograph survives from that time one would see Juliet in light, Eustace in a darkened corner. But that was, as much of the LLP, deception.

For Eustace had the backing of the Elite. And they controlled.

Juliet had the public's adoration which wasn't worth much. She surrounded herself with people she could understand. People whose wants she knew and could satisfy. The larger picture, the machinations of politics, were as unknown to her as Sanskrit.

Maybe she was as stupid as Norine always made her out to be. Maybe she was trusting, as the Dart. What it was, Juliet not only didn't understand it or take precautions.

In the Constitution there were a few rules; to belong to the LLP one had to be a member of an LLP group. An LLP group needed ten people. Hence you couldn't join the Lunar Liberation Party, you had to join a group which joined the Party.

Loners, wild cards, people who just didn't join organisations would not be members of a group.

A group elected a Leader and a Secretary, and whatever other posts there were.
But only the Leader and Secretary could vote at Annual Conference for Party Leader.

Hence, the majority of lunatics who were not members of a group had no vote of
whom would be delegated to vote for Party Leader.

You see how the circles get smaller as you get closer to the center?

I needed to explain the Group thing to Juliet, but never could get close, never seemed to realise she was locked into a bubble of ignorance, and that those, like me, who meant her well, who had important information to impart, were locked out.

Hence, though Juliet had the support of the citizens of Thalia, Eustace had the support of the Party delegates. And Eustace won.

It shocked Thalia that of the three hundred and forty delegates, Eustace got two hundred and seventy one votes.

As all small men, he had his vendettas, his never healed wounds, and his agenda. I have no idea how his brain functioned, but he seemed to appreciate he would never be a Great Leader, but could amass power and wealth for it's sake alone.

For all the years he walked in David's shadow, for all the years David's friends
benefited, for the people's love for Juliet, Eustace would make them pay.

And they paid.
Oh, we paid.

When Eustace became Leader of the Lunar Liberation Party , another party
the Thalia Independent Party was formed and was led by Eric Sampson.

Eric was one of those funny looking academics who tended to stupefy the public with facts and figures, percentages, and science. He, and his Party believed being Independent from LC 1 and LC 2, was good, but not from Earth. (Unlike me, unlike David, TIP held their ground).

TIP was flocked by those scorned by David, and after Eustace's election, victims of his vindictiveness.

Others felt leaving the LLP to and join TIP was a 'betrayal' of David Dart and all he stood for. All we stood for. Though Eustace was turning the LLP into something we despised, we couldn't let go.

Before the craterwide election between LLP and TIP, Eustace, as government, made the rules. The first rule was that to vote, one needed to register in one's corridor.

Registration officers, hand chosen by Norine, were able to gauge visits to insure
persons who were not known supporters of the LLP were not registered.

If one missed the registration officer, it was so difficult to get registered many simply could not be bothered. Eustace called snap elections aware that a third of the voters, the majority of them TIP, had not been registered.

This is not supposition. I was one of the registering officers who worked hard to disenfranchise members of the TIP.

Why did I do it?
Why did I, who knew far better than anyone else what was really happening, do it?

Political Parties, members of Movements, become a kind of gestalt, a Mobicus. You do it, you know it is wrong but you do it, because to not do it would mean you joined those to whom it was being done.

I didn't have the moral courage then. I got it a little later. But then, still one of Juliet's people, still thinking that better would come, I did it.

During this term, where Eustace held a large majority, to avoid being considered a dictator, (which he was), he championed a New Constitution and put all his enemies and detractors on it. The 'Constitution' was pure subterfuge to distract them.

At this point, Juliet became someone I used to know. It was not my choice, it was not my withdrawal It was hers. Julie avoided me.

I don't know why. Despite all the time I've devoted to trying to understand, to recall, to analyse, I can't find the moment she went from being my friend, to a someone I used to know.

This period, the decade after David Dart's resignation, was highly instructive.

I learned that I could not be seen to walk away from corruption. I must allow myself to be pushed as far from it as possible.

The only way to survive, to not lose what you had, was to never put yourself in
contention. Though you might be put forward as the best person to head an agency, realise that if Norine was against you, you were not going to get it, hence, back off.

As a person thought to be a friend of Juliet, (who probably never thought of me)
I was as shut from authority, real authority as the TIP.

And all because on that fateful day, when Eustace called me, I walked away.
That is the truth.
The simple, petty fact that I had scorned him.

The next election was held in 2127. As I mentioned before, one doesn't walk away, one allows oneself to be pushed.

By 2120 I was growing my own food in my two extra Life Tubes. The adulteration of rabbit meat had reached the level where 99% of it was empty calories. The protein content was negligible and children born to eat this garbage suffered brain damage.

As many women were unable to breast feed, (a Moon thing) babies were fed on 'formula'. Formula had been imported from Earth until 2111. After Independence it was declared a waste of foreign exchange.

In the circular rooms at the end of each tunnel were the gardens in which soy beans were grown. As there was not enough to make formula and food and rabbit pellets the decision was to cheat in all directions.

At first I thought it was accident, but as time passed I realised it was policy, policy formulated by Norine herself.

As maintaining Independence was the most important activity, whatever needed to be sacrificed would be. Hence, nutrition was the earliest casualty and resulted in the dumbing down of the population.

Protein deficiency leads to brain damage in children and lethargy in adults. This is a good thing in a colony where there are not enough jobs and the government is not acting in the interest of the people.

Eric Sampson made a speech; 'Starved Minds, Slave Bodies' in 2114.

Shortly after he was found to be subversive and shipped back to Earth.

So here's another lesson for you; don't waste a moment of your life announcing
that the Emperor is Naked or that Soylent Green is people. People do not want
to hear this and those in power will destroy you for saying it.

In 2114 Sampson warned of the dangers of protein deficiency, by 2124 people were extraordinarily stupid. By 2134 virtual morons..

I guess you figured out, well, maybe you didn't, but the Elite were importing their food from Earth via other colonies.

You did notice LC 1, LC 2 and the later Colony 4 never asked for Independence, right? So you must have gotten the drift that they were doing alright. They were bringing up stuff from Earth for free. They didn't buy their groceries, they were issued them.

As I was a driver, there were occasions I'd 'visit' the other colonies and use secret
stashes, (Moonbit money) to buy official items. And also, unofficial items.

The last I was allowed to carry a List there were more personal consumption items for the Elite than for public benefit. When Norine learned I had been the driver, I was never allowed to do purchasing again.

It's no sense banging your gums. If people are too stupid to see it, if people have been made stupid so as not to see it, getting dead is rather an obvious conclusion for the loud mouth.

So I ate my garden and stayed quiet save when called upon to sing the Party song, attend Party Conference, and make the right responses.

When Eustace went for his third term I couldn't even bring myself to vote. I got over because I was over fifty, and Lunatics had a fear of those over forty, save if they were acolytes of Norine.

As you've probably guessed, at least I hope you have, those over forty would have
been born before 'Independence'. They'd have had a reasonable diet, their brain
would have developed properly and the protein deficit would only make them
slower in motion, not in thought.

Those under thirty were permanently brain damaged and their diets insured limitations on activity.

I made plans to leave Thalia. I considered going back to Earth but having lived in
1/6th gravity so long was too old to adapt so volunteered to be sent to 'New Earth'.

I was accepted.
The Party was anxious to get rid of me.
I knew too much.

And so, I sat down and composed this document, and left it on the computer for you to find.

Now you know you are eating food that is hazardous to your health while those
in power feast. That you are being lied to and tricked.

Try to get out of Thalia as soon as possible, before you too turn into a moron, unless you already are