Message-ID: <59260asstr$1248963002@assm.asstr.org>
From: John Darts <johndarts@gmail.com>
Subject: {ASSM} Life and Its Little Oddities Ch 23 The End (By: TheSearch4)
Lines: 226
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:10:02 -0400
Path: assm.asstr.org!not-for-mail
Approved: <assm@asstr.org>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d


This is a fictional story. Any relationship to truth is in your mind. This
is a story owned by the author and may not be sold or used for commercial
purposes. It may be posted in full to any site where it is freely given to
any and no fees are required to join or belong.


Life and Its Little Oddities
By: TheSearch4

Chapter 23

Building a country is not an easy task. Each group coming in feel they
should have rights and privileges others don't. No one could see the cost
they add to the government and that fact that no taxes were collected for it
did not register.

But John slowly started absorbing areas that he could reach agreement with
and keep others out. If you were not in you were very much out and no trade
or access to the new country was allowed. He made sure this could be
enforced and it was with zeal. The one big weapon was that they had stressed
food production in the areas they now controlled. With food and money you
owned the people.

He now had the northern border well closed off and guarded. They had blown
bridges and people coming into cities were scanned for their RFID seeds. It
took little time to catch those who felt they could cheat.

General Zane was proving very good at protecting these borders. This to him
was a large game of chess and he loved it. He had drawn preferred border
lines and shown John why he needed them. So it was a game of the two men
finding ways to protect the new country.

Virginia was all now in his hands and much of North Carolina All of West
Virginia had come into the new country. The Naval base at Norfolk was the
Navy's chief location for planning and protecting the shores. It had been
massively down sized and many ships were now in mothballs. The ones that
used nuclear power were operational, as they did not stress fuel supplies.

Of course yards were kept open to support the ships and provide dry docking
if needed. New Port News Ship Building was now a government facility. The
push now would be for smaller faster well armed vessels. The old aircraft
carrier was going to be a thing of the past.

This meant many ships would require being scrapped to reuse the metals in
them. Not all of it would go back for use in a ship either. This would for
some time fuel the countries needs for some types steel and copper. Each
ship had miles of copper wire running through it. Many of the cities were
reselling their extra wire to build new distribution grids.

Any home or building being taken down was required to be salvaged for all
usable materials. Not doing this was punishable and that was strictly
enforced. The south had no major ore mines it could use for new materials.
So recycling was critical for it to stay viable. This was much the same
problem Japan had being resource poor.

But John did have gold and far more of it than anyone knew. His plan for the
future was to buy mines out of the country and run them to make profits. He
would take the profits back to the Federation in ore and not money. That
would be sold to industries for gold backed currency and he would profit
from that a well. The plan was to keep the Federation as closed cycled as
possible. By selling to the world and sending profits home as ore, it
required no gold from the Federation. So just the initial investment was a
drain on the gold at all.

Of course John's corporate trust would own the mines and over see their
profitability. The cost of ore would be something of equal value like oil,
food and many other trade items that could be bartered elsewhere. Or it
could be brought in and sold by the foundation for cash here. It allowed him
to build up wealth outside the Federation for the day it revolted. He was
sure something that was too good would one day soon be destroyed. Some way
people always felt they could get a better deal? So a revolt at some point
was a sure bet. But he had made sure it would cost them dearly.

The power most felt he had was nothing like their dreams. He worried about
jobs, transportation, power grids, communications and getting people
financed into business. There were so many things that needed to be covered
and few he could trust to do it right. A major part of the problems was the
ability to communicate so quickly and the Internets ability to bring news
fast. It often was inaccurately reported.

The news media was starting back on a track to trying to direct thoughts.
That John put a stop to as fast as he could. For sure a few liberals had
crawled out from under their cover and started to attempt to cause dissent
in the public. That caused John to have people brought into court and placed
on trial to defend their actions. He made sure this was all seen and
documentation was available for the people to see as well.

He knew this was only going to buy some time before it happened again and
often. But he did buy an island nation that did not survive the collapse
well. It was well away for the old USA and had a very small population of
people. He knew it would never be a rich nation or one that could supply
minerals. So its safety was somewhat assured. He had a group of ten islands
and nuclear devices to defend them. A good part of his navy moved to that
location, as did some of his Special Forces people.

There was one landing strip on the islands and it was concrete paved. So he
moved F-22's, F-117's and B-1B's to that location. Into one of the mountains
he had a vault built and a lot of the gold he had mined was shipped there
for safe keeping.
The islands had good oil wells just off shore and he had a refining plant
build to refine and be able to ship fuels to other countries. He had several
fueling aircraft for in air needs on the island and here for his escape one
day. The two B-1B's he had to take family and friends were always ready,
with the 2 large Airbus A380 planes for may others. It has been set up with
external fueling abilities. That gave him 1100 seats for staff and people
close to him. The plan was to allow a take over attempt and for John to
address the people one last time.

David had already started to move the satellites he wanted to that area so
he could watch out for the islands. John had built pipelines under water to
bring gas and oil into the refinery. The gas was for power production and it
would be used for a time to power vehicles for the military and farmers.
People would use busses and those were electric powered. He had pumps bring
cold seawater in and it being circulated underground in pipes and used to
cool homes and buildings. The sand of the island was a great insulator.

The plans had even allowed the border guards to vote on this decision. It
worked out that ninety two percent wanted to go where John did. That meant
moving an army of twenty seven thousand and their families. So ports were
designated for loading of men and families on to navy ships. They could
bring anything they could get to the dock as four big nuclear aircraft
carriers were going to be docked there waiting for them. Those were loaded
with parts and as many choppers as could be moved from Ft Rucker. They also
brought the small fixed wing aircraft so they had the ability to do low
costs patrols.

One Island had a college built and the computer system for grade and high
school was set up there. There was housing for over one hundred thousand
families and only fifty eight thousand there now. John had moved people out
slowly and over a period of time. He would move another fifteen thousand
this month and it would never be felt.

Japan was now delivering computers and electric cars for gasoline and oil
products. Australia was providing beef and sheep for gas and oil. It was
working well and they all knew the nation did not have a lot, but they were
selling it almost all to those who needed it. Actually they had the third
largest reserve in the world. But why create envy when you did not need to?
John with his purchase of the island had hit on a piece of luck once more.

The islands were of very old volcanic materials mixed with many different
types of rock. The high points were just at 4,000 feet and showed no steam
vents coming out under the lakes. The top of each old volcano was a large
lake now and they supplied much of the water needed for farming. Rain here
was no problem and they could grow year around.

John had carried over his sentiment and called the islands the Shangri-La
Islands. It was just an item he liked, as no one who did not trade there
would have any idea of their name or location. But it kept his old dreams
alive there.

His main deep water port for ships unloading goods and loading oil was well
protected. It was not on the main island where the city was. But ships had
to pass by the city to get to the port. Smaller boats moved goods to the
city and for cars ferries were use. But you could drive your car on a ferry
and go to any of the ten islands. They only stopped running when weather was
really bad.

The key reason for the port not being near the city was the LNG loading area
and storage tanks. When you drop natural gas to -259 degrees Fahrenheit it
becomes a liquid. Water weights 8.35 pounds per gallon and LNG weighs half
that. It was a good way to use excess gas and make a profit from it. There
were many LNG tankers out there now days not being used.

It was the first of the year and a group had started demonstrating and
demanding free elections. It was time and John warned all his people not yet
moved to be moving as he was going to leave. He had enough of the ungrateful
and people so smart they could not see what they would lose.

At promptly eight that night he went on the TV. "You have made it clear that
you want to try to run the country your way. Of course you will not have my
money to do that as most of it has been moved out of the country. The little
left here will not support your money system so expect it to collapse
shortly. No country will sell to you or trade with you. Your banks as of now
are broke and you will need to find the money to restart them. Hopefully you
can keep the communications and power systems working? I have my doubts, but
best of luck. Now tonight my family and I are leaving here and many of our
friends have elected to come with us. Your border guards will be leaving
also and if required will fight their way to the port designated. They are
tired of your bitching about the job they do for you."

He took a drink and allowed that all to sink in. "Now the gold that is left
here will be so irradiated with plutonium it will be around two hundred
thousand years before it has any value. If I cannot have my own money your
not taking it from me. Once we are in the air the town here at Shangri-La
will stop existing, as will the mines. They will self destruct and nothing
can stop that. You really never saw what I tried to give you and some felt I
took too much. Really I took far less than I should have. I did not even get
the interest the country owed me. It just could not afford to pay me and
build the jobs needed to employ you. Now will my family and friend be safe?
You bet we will and where no one here can ever reach us."

He waited to let that sink in. Then smiling at the camera. "Please accept my
thanks for pushing me to leave you. As I have been specking your navy, air
force and most bases were wiped out. So be sure you arm yourselves well, as
the people from the north will be coming to take what you have. Good luck
holding on to it." The screens went black completely and would never come
back on.

Once settled into the B-1B the family was all in the two craft. It was not
completely uncomfortable, but it was spartan. The two A-380's took off also
and the four planes with their tankers were now airborne. It was going to be
a long flight and John knew sleeping was the best way to avoid the pain it
would bring.


The End


The next story will be of Shangri-La Island.


-- 
John
Old age is the most unexpected of things that can happen to a man.
 - Leon Trotsky
<1st attachment begin>

<HTML removed pursuant to http://assm.asstr.org/erotica/assm/faq.html#policy>
<1st attachment end>

----- ASSM Moderation System Notice------
Notice: This post has been modified from its original
format.  The post was sent as an email attachment and
has been converted by ASSTR ASSM moderation software.
----- ASSM Moderation System Notice------

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| alt.sex.stories.moderated ------ send stories to: <story-submit@asstr.org>|
| FAQ: <http://assm.asstr.org/faq.html> Moderators: <story-admin@asstr.org> |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|ASSM Archive at <http://assm.asstr.org>   Hosted by <http://www.asstr.org> |
|Discuss this story and others in alt.sex.stories.d; look for subject {ASSD}|
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+