Attack of the Neptunian Space Beetles from Space, Part 37

The new world power that emerged after the departure of the bees was peculiar in several respects. Firstly, it lacked the intelligence, or the image of intelligence, common to most governmental systems. It made no attempt to form any reasonable structure; on the contrary it almost actively, or perhaps indifferently with an unconscious desire, sought to obfuscate and confuse the channels of governance to the point of utter non-functionality. For instance, world-wide elections were held in order to appoint the myriad of the most minor candidates; the highest offices were held by the winners of a convoluted butcher knife duel/emotional solitary butterfly divination process. Secondly, it prohibited all other states or administrative systems to arise while doing little itself to govern. In fact, it was as though its primary purpose was to suppress any attempts at effective or even the most meagerly productive governments. In effect, the earth was without any true system of administration, and the infrastructure eventually fell into ruins and the people moved back to the farming country life.

Even here, however, the useless Earth government interfered, placing most permitted farmland in places with questionable arability. For instance, the majority of farmland in Asia was situated in Outer Mongolia and the Himalayas. All previous productive farms along the Yellow or Indus Rivers were converted into farm museums and carefully tended overgrown fields., whose creeping vines and wild grasses were of the highest gene pool and were carefully trimmed and watered.

Cindy was aware of the difficulties that the Earth faced. She suspected that the Earth Government was in the control of a bee agent, or at least a puppet government somehow bound by contractual obligation to the bees.

(OP: Ben, January 9 2008)