Leo Frankowski

or claiming special divine, scientific, or political knowledge,
gathered flocks eager to follow anyone who seemed to know what he was doing.
Their net effect was beneficial, for many of these leaders led their people out of the cities.
     
    Without electrical
power or water, cities became uninhabitable. Sanitation became nonexistent,
and plagues broke out on a scale unknown since the Middle Ages.
    Mindless looting,
murder, and rape became commonplace. Those authorities that still existed had neither
communications nor weapons nor transportation. They were largely
powerless, and few could do anything but protect themselves.
    Most people formed into
small, local groups and were able to maintain some form of order within their tiny territories as the
lawbreakers were no better armed and generally less well coordinated.
     
    *
     
    A great, silvered
parabolic dish was constructed in Life Valley, targeted on a functioning
communications satellite, and a message transmitted. With nothing else to transmit, the
operators relayed it all over the globe on the commercial VHF and UHF frequencies.
    Consumer electronics
contain little or no ion or aluminum. And those with battery-operated radios
and televisions heard it.
    The voice was
Heinrich Copernick’s, although, for linguistic reasons, the speaker was the CCU.
    “I am Heinrich
Copernick. I have a message that is vital to your welfare. Be patient, and it
will be repeated in your own language. An English-language broadcast will begin in ten
minutes.” These lines, with appropriate broadcast times, were then repeated
in Russian, Chinese, French, German, Hindustani, and fifty-three other languages and
dialects.
    “We are in the
midst of a devastating and historically unprecedented plague,” it
continued in English. “As you are doubtless well aware, it is caused by an
insect that is capable of metabolizing iron and aluminum. It has spread with
incredible rapidity across the entire globe.
    “The biological
metabolism of metals is not unprecedented. Iron bacteria have plagued corrosion
engineers for many years. It
is possible that these insects carry such
bacteria, or have somehow incorporated DNA from these bacteria into their chromosomes.
    “It seems a law
of nature that everything that can be eaten eventually will be eaten. Every
possible ecological niche is eventually filled. Nature has finally caught up with us,
at least insofar as our two most common metals are concerned.
    “Mankind is
indeed fortunate that my uncle, Dr. Martin Guibedo, has developed a means of
supplying food
and shelter that does not depend on the metals we once used. I am speaking, of
course, of the tree houses.
    “You are
doubtless familiar with them. Just previous to the plague, an estimated three percent of
the world’s population was living in them. These tree houses are capable of
supporting, for a few months and at a bare sustenance level, ten times the number of
people currently living with them. There is room for one third of humanity in the adult trees
that already exist, and for all of humanity in the young trees that are now
maturing.
    “Those of you
now living in tree houses are urged to be generous. You must do this because all men are brothers; we cannot allow our brothers to starve
needlessly.
    “And you must do
this for your own self-protection, for a hungry man with a hungry family is a
dangerous man.
The people you invite into your homes can help protect you from the marauding gangs that
now infest our world.
    “As mayor of a
tree-house city growing in what was once Death Valley, I invite anyone who can
come to join us. Our citizens are planting tree houses to accommodate you. We will do
what we can to make your walk here as comfortable as possible.
    “In addition to
this, we have planted ten million food trees across the Earth. Each of these trees
will, in two months’ time, be able to feed one thousand people. Alone they will be
able to feed all of humanity. Eat only the food pods that grow from the trunks.
The leaves and branches are poisonous. These trees were designed by Dr. Martin Guibedo
to combat the present crisis. One of them should now be growing for every five
square miles of our Earth’s land. As each covers forty acres of land, they will be
easy enough to spot. Each leaf has a small red cross in the center.
    “Because of the
emergency, these trees were planted hurriedly and without regard to property
rights. While we normally respect property rights, racial