59. Address

Beacon

Residents of Beacon.

For the first time in our history, you have a choice to make.

This choice will change all of our lives forever. We will give you a month to discuss it – in families, in communities, with the residents’ committees. You must not make this decision lightly, just as we have not made the decision lightly to make this address.

You were told when you first came here, when you were born here, through your school, your family, your training and from us, the council, that Beacon was designed for a purpose and that purpose was to be an independent country that would serve as a light, an example to the rest of the world.

Those of you who were selected for training here when you were sixteen were chosen because you were the most talented and gifted of your generation in your respective fields. We chose you to come here, live here, work here and raise families here.

You are all fulfilling your purposes and you are all valued residents. However, it is our duty to tell you that this is simply not the whole truth. This story, which has, since the start of this community, been the message has never been the true purpose of this community.

As you have learned during your education here, this community was born in a time of great uncertainty. War had ravaged the world and new tensions were always presenting. This, coupled with the rise of nuclear weapons, threatened life as we knew it. Therefore, the United Nations agreed to establish this community. All this you know. However, what you don’t know was that, in the face of such uncertainty, the UN decreed that an emergency contingency plan must be implemented in case of further global warfare.

This plan was to create a community that would be self sustaining and would keep up with all advances in technology say that in the event of a disastrous war something would hopefully survive – if there was a community that nobody knew about, then it was unlikely to be a target of war. Beacon was that contingency plan.

You were raised in order that humanity might survive and might be better than what we once were.

We wish to apologize for misleading you. The story you were told was created by the first settlers here in order that those recruited to serve would accept being brought here and we have had to sustain it ever since for the same reason. This week, we met with the United Nations and have collectively decided that the unrest here illustrates a deeply felt conviction that you want your voices to be heard, and to make a difference. We want to put the future of this nation in your hands.

Go home, go to work and discuss with your friends and your families what your choice would be. There are two options. Do you want this community to fulfil the purpose you were told about, to be a beacon for the world, or do you want it to fulfil the purpose it was really designed for, to be a community that will survive whatever happens?

Note that to choose the former might make us a target and expose us to all kinds of danger but to choose the latter means that you will never leave, or be able to communicate with the rest of the world in order to preserve the safety of this community.

We recognise that this decision is almost too enormous to make and so we would ask you to take your time there will be residents’ meetings and literature available to discuss the options in more detail. In a month’s time, there will be a vote. If 75% or more of the population are in agreement, we will accept whichever choice you make. If not, we will continue discussions with a hope to reaching some consensus at a later date.

We appreciate your cooperation at this testing time.