THE QUEEN OF TIME
2570 A.D.!
A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Twenty Five
"Hillary was `right' about me," Janet spoke, standing there at the window after the others had left. "There are a number of `parallels' between my `NEW ORDER' and the `Third Reich'," she smiled, turning to face me. I knew Hitler had called his own "society" by the same term, as Hillary Clinton had often pointed out in her own speeches against Janet Rogers. "And I told her so some years later after there was no `doubt' about things then..."
"You `did' what had to be done," I said, putting my hand on her shoulder as those of my caste do. The sword at Janet's hip leaving no doubts that she truly was of the same caste as I am... Only someone like Janet Rogers could have "reversed" things then. Gave Mankind the few glorious decades that are still remembered.
"I'm glad history didn't judge me too harshly," she smiled.
"Just `what' did she `attack' you on?" I asked, "curious".
"Almost `everything' you could think of," Janet smiled back. "My Medicare `cut backs', `flat rating' of Social Security. my use of `means tests'. The EPA, the FDA, a couple of government agencies that had exceeded their own `missions'. Withdrawal of support for `organized labor', civil rights laws, and so forth. Repeal of the `Americans with Disabilities Act', she added then."
"Everything that should have been `done' decades before," I smiled. As a doctor I was well aware of the need for "cost con- trols" when you have any system of "government health care". My own profession being masters at extracting the maximum amount of money from "Uncle Sam", who was seen as being a "sucker" anyway!! "Padding" the bill, ordering extra and unnecessary "testing"... Her other actions had been to reduce the "cost" of government, to now bring the country's expenditures in line with its own income! Crushing the "power" of organized labor had been necessary to make the USA "competitive" again with the rest of the world here. As for "civil rights", this was a "mistake" that should have been "corrected" decades before, had the leadership not been "soft headed" about such matters as they'd been back then. Under the political systems of the 26th Century, of course, such "concepts" can never get anywhere due to the "veto powers" of the national monarchs. In any case Blacks are no longer "numerous" enough to represent any sort of a political force here in the 26th Century. And those Blacks I've known here in the 26th Century have held to the same "culture" as the rest of us, their own behavior being no "different" than anyone else. Proving I feel that it is really a matter of "culture", not "race" as such that counts in this case! Several of the Warrioresses in my personal guard being "Black"... My own "black" Captain of Warrioresses, June Colt, tall and slim, being perhaps the best "example" of what I'm talking about here.
"You think highly of me, don't you?" Janet said to me then.
"You're probably `just what the doctor ordered'," I smiled.
"I sent people by the thousands to `Corrective Labor Camps', the Guard spread a `reign of terror' among those who opposed me," Janet Rogers breathed slowly then, turning her face away from me. "I never executed anyone, but with electronic hypnosis there was no `need'," she added, looking out at a scene far "different" I knew than the peaceful harbor that I saw there beyond the quay...
"You did what needed to be done," I said, giving her a hug. *****************************************************************
"If we could get Janet Rogers to speak before the Senate..." Maris "breathed" as the four of us stood there on the rooftop of her palace looking out over the harbor just after sunset. Maris' own Royal Scribe now there below no doubt feeling she was "gath- ered in the arms of Lys" in getting this chance to "ask" Janet Rogers herself the sorts of "questions" that have had always puz- zled those of that "learned" caste. Maris' words bringing back "memories" of what Darlanis had once hoped to "do" with me five years ago. "Using" me much as we now hoped to use Janet Rogers!!
"What can she SAY that we don't already know?" I asked them. Except for certain technical details, Janet Rogers certainly was of no actual "benefit" to us except just to "awe" the Senators... It had been a once in a lifetime pleasure to meet Janet, but I'd gotten the impression that Janet herself wasn't all that "proud" now of a lot of the things she'd done, and while she was no doubt "justified" in everything that she'd done, that still didn't mean here that Princess Tara's "troublemakers" might not be able to counter even this "legend" from the past that Tais had given us!* * There is a regrettable tendency to "believe" that Janet Rogers "solved" every "problem" that Mankind ever faced, and that all we have to do now is to find out what she did during her life here! This is commonly felt to be more a "Californian" trait than one a Dularnian would follow, although Maris apparently felt otherwise. The same "problem" was known in my time in reference to the writ- ings of the founders of the United States, who while highly "in- telligent" men, were still yet "limited" by their own technology.
"She's `JANET ROGERS'!" Darlanis breathed, looking at me as if I'd taken leave of my senses for even suggesting such a thing!
"And if Tais teleports us George Washington, Thomas Jeffer- son, Winston Churchill, and say Ayn Rand, would it do us any more `good'?" I challenged them back as we stood there on the rooftop. "This is a `problem' we have to solve ourselves, not by sitting back and `hoping' that someone from the past will do it for us!"* * It was the writings of the 20th philosopher Ayn Rand who first gave me the ideas that I in turn then gave to Janet Rogers here. It was Ayn Rand's writings that formed the basis of the NEW ORDER in the philosophical sense, although I'm doubtful that Ayn Rand would have approved of some of the things Janet Rogers did here. On the other hand Janet did remove the "government" from people's lives to a great degree, repealing most of the "mistakes" that had been made ever since FDR's "New Deal" ushered in "liberalism" as the American version of Europe's own "democratic socialism"...
"I think she is `right'," Maris then breathed, regarding me. "We have to learn to rely upon ourselves, not upon a `messiah'." I suspected that Tais had wished to show us that by giving us the opportunity to meet with Janet Rogers. To talk to this "legend"! I wondered if our approaching "doomsday" had any effect on Tais? Was she trying to "teach" us how to live together in peace here?
"Perhaps Janet can `advise' us," Darlanis offered hopefully, apparently not yet "convinced" of the wisdom of Maris' comment... "Tell us what we should `do', what we should `say' in this case."
"She is completely `unfamiliar' with our societies, and her own was so utterly different from ours that I doubt she could be of much help here," I pointed out, a bit "annoyed" at Darlanis for not understanding the "lesson" that Tais was trying to teach!
"Then `what' do you `suggest' we do?" Darlanis now snapped!
"I am, I suspect, the most `qualified'," I answered back.
"I think you are the `best qualified' for this," Janet said to me as I told her what the decision had been. I was fairly fa- miliar with the past, as much as any Scribe might be, and as the Queen of Trelandar, I was also familiar with the social problems of societies like mine operating at a low level of technology... "What we `seem' to have here now is `something' more like Hillary Clinton's `idea' of a `proper society'," Janet smiled then at me. The concepts of a system of basic health care available to "all" paid for through increases in taxes, along with a system of "poor relief" of the sort any of the 20th Century would have recognized for what it was left few doubts of Princess Tara's "involvement"! While she herself was apparently not "involved" here personally, she still did have her famous "organization" capable of "making trouble" anywhere in North America. While the first proposal did make "sense", the idea being one I'd been considering myself, the second was just another "welfare scheme", with all the "flaws" that any "government operated system" of "welfare" naturally has!
"Hillary did have a `book' of her own," Janet pointed out.
"And if Tara got her hands on it..." I mused thoughtfully.
"Hillary had a `mind' as good as mine," Janet added then.
"Wish I could have seen those `debates'," I smiled back.
"We have a `visitor'," Janet spoke, looking past me.
"Like to take another `trip in time'?" Tais smiled.
"Lorraine!" Hope Simmons breathed, looking up at me as she held a little knickknack there in her hand, the gray silken gown and the silver chain about her throat leaving no doubts now that she was the Queen of 24th Century Trelandar! Hope looking lit- tle "different" from when I'd last seen her there in the arena. "I'm sure glad you're back," she added then with a warm smile for me, leaving no doubts in my mind that things were not going well!
"Trouble?" I asked, now taking her hands in mine, suspecting that this was "why" I was here. Amethysta had ruled with an iron hand, and I supposed that neither Hope or Amethysta's son, Prince Albert were up to doing so. Trelandar was no doubt starting to fall apart into feudal fiefdoms, not to be "reunited" until 2565.
"There is a local `warlord' who has been giving problems," Hope answered, a bird chirping out the window, a view of blue sky leaving little doubts that it was "summertime" here in this era.
"And you have need of the `services' of a `Warlady'," I now smiled back, well aware that "professional help" was needed here! The thought also occurring to me that I dared not alter history!!