A few months passed

“Let’s chop the head off this hydra,” Senator MacArthur said in a closed-door meeting of the national security subcommittee. “All those in favor of the sterilization procedure happening today at noon say aye.”

Everyone in the room said, “aye” in unison.

“All those opposed say nay.”

The room was silent.

“The ayes have it in a unanimous vote,” the Senator said. “From what I understand, most other participating countries are ready to begin the procedure as well. I suggest we start the roundup in one hour at noon Eastern time today.”

Raven had been monitoring these proceedings for the past several months and they were ready. She alerted everyone on the network. They convened one final meeting.

“Is everyone ready?” Priya thought to all the 25,000 modified people.

She monitored the replies and they all appeared ready.

“OK then. Make your last-minute preparations because we only have 45 minutes left. We’ll see you all over at the compound 80 miles east of San Francisco. I hope things don’t get nasty. Everyone go back to your work as though you have no idea that anything unusual is about to happen.”

“OK, it’s 3 p.m. California time,” Priya thought silently to Sophie and her friends on their network who worked in other buildings.

“Yeah, but nothing’s happening.” Sophie thought. “Usually, they go for the element of surprise. I wonder what’s going on.”

“I’m not sure,” Warren thought. “But let’s pretend as though nothing is happening. They might be testing us to see whether we’re monitoring them.”

They waited about 20 minutes. Two officers appeared in front of Priya’s building. The front desk paged Priya and Sophie and soon they arrived at the front door.

“Yes, can I help you?” Priya said.

“Are you Priya and Sophie?” The first officer said.

“Yes,” they answered in unison.

“I am required to inform you that you’re being arrested under article 14 of the human species preservation act.”

“I didn’t know there was an article 14,” Priya said.

The officer showed her article 14.

“Where are you taking us?” Sophie said.

“To the main relocation center about two hours east from here,” the second officer said.

Priya called Nisha and staged a phone call as though they were discovering this for the first time, even though they knew about it all along.

“Mom, they’re taking me away again.”

“Where are they taking you? To the same facility? I’ll call the President right now.”

Nisha disconnected and called the President. In a not so amazing coincidence, the President was free to take the call almost immediately.

“What are you doing to my daughter?” Nisha said.

“We’ve decided that it’s in everybody’s best interest including yours that the modified people be sterilized. We’ve already voted and decided on this. It’s now the law of the land. Any resistance will be futile. We will proceed regardless of what they try to do to us.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Nisha said. “You should be ashamed of yourself. “We’re going to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court.”

“You’ll lose. We’ve already tested this, and it will pass the Supreme Court regardless of the challenge.”

“What happened to basic human rights in this country?” Nisha said.

“We still have them. However, the future of the human species is at stake. We have no choice. They’ll still be able to have normal lives and they can still adopt children and have families if they want. They will be able to marry whoever they want. They’ll be able to work wherever and however they want.  We’re not evil.”

“Forced sterilization sounds evil to me,” Nisha said.

She hung up on the President.

“How did that sound?” Nisha said into her encrypted transmission to Priya’s network.

“You sounded convincing,” Priya thought. “You should have been an actress.”

“I’d like to thank the little people who made this possible.” Nisha said.

“You haven’t won the Academy award yet,” Priya thought as she smiled. “Keep listening in, they’re taking us now.”

Within several hours, most of the 25,000 new species people arrived at the compound. Some were being flown in from other countries. They would arrive within a day or two.

“We’ve been here for hours,” Sophie thought. “What’s going on?”

“They’re getting ready for us,” Raven thought. “They plan on beginning the sterilizations tomorrow.”

Priya had been silent for over an hour as she sat on her bunk bed.

“Pree, what’s going on,” Sophie said out loud in order to not raise suspicion.

“Nothing,” Priya said.

“Something’s going on because usually you talk a lot,” Warren said.

“I can’t go through with this,” Priya said.

Then she thought silently to the others.

“I’m not gonna sit here and let them ruin me.”

“We agreed to—” Warren thought.

“I don’t care what we agreed to. I’m not going to let this happen. You can do what you want, but I’m going to do what I want.”

“We have to be together in order to make this work,” Raven thought. “We’ve been planning this for months now. This will work.”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Priya thought.

“Leave her alone,” Sophie thought to the others. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

They tried to go to sleep but nobody was successful. They all stared at the ceiling in the darkness in silence.

At 2 a.m. About 20 armed soldiers with body armor entered their tent and turn on the lights.

“What’s going on?” Priya said loudly.

“We’re taking you to the base hospital.”

“Why,”

“We’re not allowed to talk to you. Get dressed and come with us immediately.”

“No.”

All 20 soldiers pointed their rifles at Priya.

“You will come with us. Now.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Priya said. She raised her eyebrows as she looked at the others. “At least give us time to get dressed.”

“Only you. The others will stay here for now,” The lead soldier said.

“Fine, give me a minute please,” Priya said. Then she thought to the others, “I’m not going to let them do this to me. I’ll fight it all the way with everything I have. Are you guys with me?”

For several seconds they looked at each other and nobody thought anything. Finally, Raven spoke up silently.

“Okay, I’m with you. We’ll start with plan A, but if we get into trouble, we’ll execute Plan B if you give us the go-ahead. I know we wanted to do this peacefully but once I saw those rifles, I knew we might have to fight.”

“Me too,” Sophie thought to all 25,000 of them.

Soon everyone agreed. They would fight if they had to.

“Stop delaying. Come with us immediately,” one of the soldiers said.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her off of her bed.

“Don’t do that if you know what’s good for you,” Priya said.

The soldiers pointed their rifles at her again.

“Okay, Okay. I’m going,” Priya said.

Priya walked out of the barracks style dormitory and down a long hallway ahead of 20 soldiers pointing their guns at her. Eventually they reached a large pair of doors. They opened into a large surgery amphitheater. Dozens of people sat in the seats surrounding the operating tables. One of them was the President. Several of the most powerful members of Congress were also present. Priya looked at her but didn’t say a word.

“Bring her over here,” the President said.

Priya wouldn’t budge, so one of the soldiers grabbed her arm and she sat on the ground in resistance.

“I’m not your slave,” Priya said. “I’ll treat you with respect if you treat me with respect. So far, you’ve shown me nothing.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” the President said. “I’m afraid I have no other choice. If I let you guys reproduce, eventually your species will dominate the human species. Most leaders of the major world powers agree. If you dominate us, who knows what kind of the world it will be.”

“As if it’s such a wonderful world now,” Priya said. “Several wars are happening. Terrorism hasn’t gone away. People murder each other every day. Women are being raped right now as we speak. A significant percentage of the population everywhere are still racist. People continue to believe in all sorts of hoaxes and pseudoscience. That holds back scientific and societal progress. People continue to read only news articles fed to them by their preexisting preferences despite efforts by social media companies. That increases confirmation bias and the fear of others who aren’t like them.”

“We aren’t perfect, but—” the President said.

“I’m sick and tired of you abusing us,” Priya said. “I don’t like what you’re saying behind our backs.”

The president turned to her Congress members and raised her eyebrows.

“What are we saying?”

“We know everything you guys say and do. We’re not stupid you know. We’re working on lots of problems to help people out. We’re planning to recycle most of our profits to help those displaced. We’re finding cures for diseases. We’re making scientific discoveries in every discipline. We’re lowering the cost of many things people buy every day, including some expensive things. We’re not taking away jobs or companies. We’re not hoarding money. And this is the thanks we get?”

“We do appreciate all those things,” the President said. “You’ll still be able to work on your projects and make all the contributions you wish to make. We’re not stopping you. We’re only saying that you can’t reproduce, because it will disrupt the human species and make us go extinct eventually. You’re going to live to be 300 years old. I’m doing this for my descendants.”

“What about my nonexistent descendants?” Priya said. “Look, if you continue to insist on sterilizing us, we’ll lose our will to work. I’ll announce it to the world. You can’t stop me from doing that. I can do it right now. The stock market will crash, and people will blame you for the next great depression. I see no reason to participate in your world when you won’t allow us to live in yours.”

“You can’t do anything to us now like you did before,” the President said.” We have control over the banking system and the power grid and everything else you sabotaged last time.”

“That’s true. However, we don’t need those things anymore. Go ahead and try me. If you make a move toward me, I will announce our plans to the world.”

The President motioned to the soldiers to take her to the operating table. They forcefully grabbed her, picked her up, and put her on the table. They tightened the straps around her.

“Fine. The announcements are being made to all social media networks around the world. You know I can do it by thinking about it. And I have plenty of help from my friends. Since it’s only 3 a.m., I suggest you look at the London based US stock market futures index which is trading now.”

She turned to her advisers and whispered to them.

“Nothing’s happening, “The President said. “Stock futures are down 1.2% which is nothing too unusual. People know you’ve been detained. Strap her down. Let’s get this over with.”

“Look again,” Priya said.

She turned again to her advisers.

“Yeah, the futures are down about 3% now, but so what. We must make sacrifices in order to save the human race from extinction.”

They tightened the straps so that Priya couldn’t move. Several surgeons came out of a preparation room, along with some nurses and anesthesiologists.

“Keep looking,” Priya said.

The president whispered to her advisers again and they discussed things back-and-forth for a couple of minutes.

“The futures market was halted in trading at the market limit of -10%.”

“Yeah, and that’s nothing compared to what’s going to happen.”

“What do you mean?” The President said.

“Market limits are set because the market could drop much more. That 10% limit is arbitrary, so trading can temporarily stop, and people can calm down. However, people won’t calm down when they realize the financial repercussions of us not working. We’ll be too depressed to work. We’ll go on strike. We will withdraw from society and let your species suffer. Look at the highest pre-market index futures bid, and you’ll see where the stock market will really trade when it opens without limits.”

She spoke quietly with her advisers once again.

“What are they telling you?” Priya said.

“The estimate is the market will open down 55% when it opens for good,” the President said.

“Do you want to be responsible for the destruction of tens of trillions of dollars of market equity and retirement savings? No? What if we go work in another country? I think even China would support us better. Countries without us will be left behind. Let me go now before the market opens and nobody will be any poorer.”

The president continued to whisper to her advisers. After a few minutes she motioned to the soldiers.

“Put her back in her quarters for now,” the President said. “We’ll consider our options.”

Once Priya was back in her barracks, she announced the news that she had not been sterilized yet. The pre-open futures markets rebounded to a loss of only 5%. It was only 4:30am pacific time. The markets would open in two hours.

“What do you think guys,” Priya thought to the others.

“I think we’re in trouble,” Warren thought. “I’ve been reading the polls. It’s a 50-50 split. Half of the people support us, and half want us sterilized. 10% of the non-supporters want us exterminated. You wouldn’t believe the stuff they’re saying about us.”

“Like what?”

“Like we should all be thrown in the gas chamber. Some people think they’ve built gas chambers in this facility.”

“Really?” Sophie thought. “Have they?”

“No. We’ve been monitoring this place closely,” Raven thought. “But they’ve built this place for long term habitation. At least we have our telepresence robots.”

“Yeah, I can keep working from here,” Pablo thought.

Two hours passed quickly. There was no word from the President. It was 6:30 and the stock market opened.

“How is it looking, Warren?” Priya thought.

“The market has opened down 7% so far.”

“What do you think we should tell people about our predicament?” Priya thought.

“I think we should tell the truth,” Warren thought. “But we should let the markets know things slowly so that there is no panic. Or at least nothing worse than what’s happening now.”

“They know we’re in prison,” Priya thought. “People know this will affect the economy if we stay here.”

“We’ll let word of mouth be how people discover what’s happening,” Pablo thought. “I’m listening to the news and the word is out.”

“The market is now down 8%,” Warren thought.

“Yeah, they know,” Priya thought.

The president met with her cabinet members and neighbors of the opposing party in a private encrypted conference call. Priya and her friends listened in as usual, using floating drones that Raven made that are the size of the period at the end of a sentence. The President’s security team detected faint transmissions from the drones but could not identify the source.

“Are we being monitored?” the President said.

“We can’t be sure,” the security officer said. “There are faint transmissions, but we we’ve scanned the room for drones and devices and haven’t found anything.”

“Okay. We’ll proceed. What should we do about this situation?” the President said. “If we sterilize them, they will withdraw from society. A great deal of money will be lost, and the world would be thrown into an economic depression.”

“My estimation is half the equity in the entire global stock market will be lost if we sterilize them,” the treasury secretary said. “By the way, trading on the market has been automatically suspended because it’s down the daily limit of 10%.”

“If we don’t sterilize them, the human race will go extinct,” Senator MacArthur said. “Who knows what kind of a world those mutants would make?”

“How do we know this for sure?” the President said. “So far they’ve done wonders for the economy and they’re still small in number.”

“They’re reproducing,” Senator MacArthur said. “They can make thousands and millions of copies of themselves quickly and efficiently. They will definitely take over the world. They aren’t human. They’re unnatural. Over 50% of the population agrees with me. You’ve seen those protests. We need to nip this in the bud now before it’s too late. Yeah, I’ll lose millions of dollars in the stock market, but the safety of my children is what I care about the most.”

“Yeah, we’ve been talking about this over and over now for a few months,” the President said. “But now we face the reality of bankruptcies and financial disaster if we do it for real. Let’s meet again in the afternoon after I make some calls.”

They disconnected.

“What does all that mean?” Sophie thought.

“It means that half the population of this country wants us sterilized,” Priya thought. “I think for now we’ll keep a low profile and continue to run our companies as usual, but we should hold back working remotely in our jobs outside of our companies. Especially while we’re being incarcerated. We’ll let people understand the effect this will have on the economy.”

“I guess for now we’ll do nothing,” Warren thought.

“Agreed,” Raven thought. “I’ll continue to monitor what’s happening.

New species people from all over the world continued to arrive at the facility throughout the day and into the next morning.

“How’s the market doing this morning?” Priya thought.

“It opened limit down 10% again,” Warren thought. “It’s strange how nobody has told us anything about our situation. There are no updates or anything.”

“Yeah,” Priya thought. “Fortunately, we have Raven. What do you hear?”

“They don’t know what to do. For now, they’re going to keep us locked up. They’re hoping we voluntarily submit to the sterilizations.”

“Yeah right, as if,” Priya thought. “It’s going to cost them. And it’s still not going to stop us. Let’s start an Ascending Circles tournament. We gotta do something while we’re stranded here.”

They agreed. Shortly thereafter, a massively multiplayer game of Ascending Circles started among the 25,000 of them trapped at the compound. It went on for days and then weeks with no clear winner in sight. The stock market continued to drop lower in a way similar to how it did in October 1929. By the end of the month, it was down 50%, but there was no rebound like after the 1929 crash. The market anticipated an economy without the mods. They received no official news about what the government would do to them. They knew what was happening however, because they monitored most government meetings and communications.