Leo Frankowski

universe is a big place and all of us are
just little people. We do the
best we can, but it is impossible for us to know
what all of the results of our actions will be, and some of our actions will be wrong. So sometimes we cause needless damage, suffering, and
death.
    “But if we waited
until we were sure of the results before we took action, we would never take
action at all. And when something must be done, it is better to do something wrong than
to do nothing at all. Anyway, we’ve
been able to fix up some of our mistakes.”
    “I wish I could
do something for the families we killed, my lord.”
    “Look. We are
out to change the world, Dirk. We have the power to do it. But whenever there is
great power,
there is also the possibility of great error. When we are done, the world will
be a better place. In the meantime,
we can only try to cause as little suffering as possible.”
    Dirk trotted into
Pinecroft’s subbasement. Heinrich Copernick was waiting for them.
    “So what was so
important, Heiny?” Guibedo asked as he got a leg down.
    “War, Uncle
Martin. War against us within six months.”
    “The Russians is getting uppity? I
thought everything was going smooth there.”
    “No problem in Russia. After the
first year, when we were a capitalistic trick, Ivan noticed that he never had
solved his housing problem. Now we’re the natural cul mination of Marxism Leninism. Aliev is also claiming that you studied under Lysenko.”
    “Hooh! That’s a
good one! So, China?”
    “No. China and all the eastern
nations, except United India, are raising
tree houses as fast as they can. We’re banned
in India, of course.”
    “I always
figured they’d be on our side, for religious reasons. With a tree house, you don’t
have to kill anything to live.”
    “They would have
been, if the Neo-Krishnas hadn’t found the birth control chemicals you were
putting in the food. They figure they’ll need the excess population for their next holy
war.”
    “Heiny, it takes a half an acre of
land for a tree house to support a family. India was so close to the edge, I
had to do something.”
    “Oh, I agree
with you. But we’re still banned in India.”
    “So who we
gotta fight?” Guibedo asked, exasperated.
    “The United
States, and most of Western Europe.”
    “Ach! So by
‘us’ you mean you and me! So why does our own country want to fight us?”
    “We are
upsetting too many apple carts, Uncle Martin. While only four percent of the U.S.
population is living in tree houses, housing starts have been virtually zero for the past year. Property values
have dropped over fifty percent in some areas. The average home owner owes sixty thousand dollars on his home.
Right now he can only sell it for
forty thousand. You can’t blame him
for being upset.”
    “So let him move
into a tree house,” Guibedo said. “He won’t owe anybody anything on
it.”
    “People have
been doing just that, Uncle Martin. But to get out from under their old debts, they
have to declare bankruptcy. There were over two million bankruptcies in the last
year, and there will be ten times that number in the next. The banking industry will
collapse under
the strain.”
    “So what you
need with money in the bank for, anyway, when you got a tree house?” Guibedo
said. “It takes care of you.”
    “What we are
doing is great for the individual, Uncle Martin, but it’s death to the system. And the
system is about
to start fighting back.”
    “System! You
mean the big shots!”
    “Call it
anything you want,” Heinrich said. “But they’ll fight us
until the last conscript soldier fires the last taxpayer’s bullet.”
    “There’s got to
be some way out of it, Heiny. It takes two sides to have a war.”
    “But only one to
have a massacre. There is a way out of fighting, but the cure is worse than the
disease.”
    “So what is it,
Heiny?”
    “Kill the
trees. I’m sure we could come up with some kind of a blight.”
    “Kill my trees!
What about the people living in them?” Guibedo said.
    “They’d mostly die. And that’s not
the worst of it. The CCU has done a
fifty-year analysis on present and potential
world trends; he’s been on it for nearly a year. CCU! Give Uncle Martin
the analysis you gave me.”
    “Yes, my lord.
The following analysis is based on the premise that bioengineering was never
developed. It is also valid in the event that we take no aggressive action in the near future—as,
if we don’t, no engineered life