Abandoned World: The Awakening

He liked to do what he was doing in his own time — not just to head the Enlightenment section, but to teach lessons on his own. He had read somewhere that in schools the headmasters themselves conducted some separate subjects for the pupils, because that way one could not just head the enterprise from on high, but also know all the pupils from the inside. To know what they were capable of, whether they were diligent or not, whether they were smart or not, whether they wanted something from life, and what they represented for the school in general.

Haddock wanted to know all this, but he had a more difficult task. Seven thousand people. And though not all subjects had to be taught to the adult population, absolutely everyone had to be taught history. And that was the subject he taught personally. Every day, without a day off. He had a little bit of class every day. And every day he told what he thought was necessary to instill in the minds of the station's inhabitants.

After all, the history he taught, only he knew. And only he himself had made it up. Of course, a small part of it was devoted to ancient history: Egypt, Sumer, China, Ancient Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Golden Age of Diplomacy, the bloody 20th century and a small piece of the 21st century. To this small piece of the 21st century he gave all his attention, reconstructing it into a huge layer of information, flowing smoothly from the reality he himself knew from records found on various kinds of media, and the reality he created to prove that everyone was on Earth and not somewhere else.

And that's where he really had to work hard. It was not the kind of demagoguery that Peyton Cross could carry on endlessly, adding two plus two and getting the number necessary for any needs. This is quite different — it was necessary to argue, to prove, to build a logical chain with a verified result. This requires not the gift of persuasion, but a smart head on your shoulders, capable of building a systematic approach to imparting this information not only to the younger generation, but also to adults.

Yes, of course, it must be assumed that everyone knows nothing. That they're willing to initially believe anything. But that's just in the beginning. And as time passes: maybe months, maybe years, in any case, questions will appear. And the answers to these questions should already be ready. The earlier the answer is ready, the easier it will be accepted. You could, of course, tell the what and why as the questions come in, as Peyton Cross does, but then you'd have to repeat the same thing fiercely and fanatically all day long. In a way that makes it seem credible. And then it's all about one thing: the endless ability to persuade with emotion. Accordingly, everything will live in this case as long as this ability remains in the same form. And that means that everything will live literally on its word of honor.

And Charlie Haddock wasn't happy with that state of affairs. Everything had to work on its own. People had to tell everything and prove things to each other on their own. People had to argue

with each other, not with him, not with Heddock. That's the fundamental difference between his approach and that of the Elder in charge of all the propaganda on Apollo 24.

And now he was standing in front of a room full of grown-up, established people, and he was telling about how people had once brought the Earth to the state it was in now. How they had overfilled it with themselves, how they had polluted the rivers, seas and lakes. How they spoiled the air. How they disturbed the world balance of everything: the water cycle in nature, the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere, even the tilt of the Earth to its own axis. And it all led to what they can see now.

How everyone had hoped something might get better when a group of survivors decided to put the remaining population of the planet into cryo-chambers, set a thousand-year time limit on their stay, and wake them up afterward. And it was all done by them. By themselves. It's obvious, and it couldn't be otherwise, because they were the ones who woke up in those cryo-chambers, even if they didn't remember anything from their past.

The whole concept could have been contained in a few sentences, but Haddock stretched it out over two and a half hours. There are no superfluous words in confirmation. They're redundant in justification. When you want to disprove something. But when you have to prove something, every extra word is just an extra brick on the scales of your argument.

— Any questions? — Haddock finished speaking and stared good-naturedly at his audience.

About three hundred people were listening to him now, many of them for more than the first time, and he had the impression that he was among like-minded people rather than listeners.

The young lad raised his hand:

— Yes, I have, Mr. Haddock.

— Please. What's your name?

— My name is Austin…