The Demi-Monde: Winter by Rod Rees Page A
Authors: Rod Rees
some nuJu seasoning into the racial pot.’
‘Ah yes, how could I forget the nuJus? The Professor is quite correct, there is a quasi-Jewish element in the Demi-Monde – the nuJus – representing a sixth of the total population and spread evenly over each of the five Sectors.’
I wonder what else the Captain has forgotten.
‘But why did you set the Demi-Monde up like this?’ asked Ella. ‘It seems like a recipe for chaos.’
‘That was exactly the point, Miss Thomas,’ answered the Captain. ‘The Demi-Monde was designed to mirror the often divided demographics and religions of the populations and the enemies our forces meet in Asymmetric Warfare Environments. Oh, these disharmonics might have been taken to extremes when we were structuring the Demi-Monde, but remember we wanted the Demi-Monde to be an unstable and violence-prone world. And that’s why we seeded four Singularities into each Sector: these are the type of individuals with the potential to provide the aberrational leadership necessary to ensure that the Sectors are continually fighting one another. The last thing we wanted was peace breaking out in the Demi-Monde. In short, Miss Thomas, the Demi-Monde is the most extreme and the most pernicious of dystopias.’
‘A hell on earth,’ observed Ella as the Captain reclaimed his seat.
‘Exactly,’ agreed the General, ‘and that’s where we want you to go, Miss Thomas. We want you to go to hell.’
8
The Demi-Monde: 40th Day of Winter, 1004
HimPerialism is a religion, widely practised in NoirVille – or NoirVile, as it is sometimes called – based on male supremacy and the subjugation of women (or, as they are known in NoirVille, woeMen). The fundamental HimPerialistic belief is that Men have been ordained by ABBA to Lead and to Control the Demi-Monde and that woeMen’s role is to be Mute, Invisible, Supine and Subservient (the concept of subMISSiveness). Further, HimPerialism teaches that an individual’s Machismo may be enhanced by the exchange of bodily essences – a practice known as going Man 2 naM – which has led to the vile and unnatural sexual practices for which NoirVilians are rightly condemned in the eyes of ABBA and of right-thinking people throughout the Demi-Monde. HimPerialism has a more aggressive brother-religion known as HimPeril which espouses violence as the only means of securing the triumph of HimPerialism in the Demi-Monde.
– Religions of the Demi-Monde: Otto Weininger, University of Berlin Publications
Beria’s interpretation of what constituted an unobtrusive guarding of the Daemon whilst it was kept at Dashwood Manor was totally different from Trixie’s father’s understanding of theword. But then, mused Trixie, as she watched the fifty-strong Checkya detachment arrive that afternoon, Beria wasn’t famous for being ‘unobtrusive’. The Checkya troops, assisted by a gang of slave labourers, had rapidly and efficiently turned Dashwood Manor from a home into a prison. Every window in the rooms the Daemon would occupy was equipped with bars, and the locks on every external door were changed and substituted for ones that were considerably more formidable.
The Dashwood family were forced to endure five hours of frenzied hammering and bashing. Indeed such was the chaos and the vast amount of mud that was tramped so uncaringly into her prized Coven-made carpets that Trixie’s governess retreated to her room in a flood of hysterics. It was as well she did: what Trixie saw the Checkya doing to the Manor’s front gardens was enough to reduce anyone to tears. Obviously fearful that the house would be subject to a full-scale assault – by whom, Trixie had no idea – the silent mob of navvies dug and delved, burrowed and banged until a labyrinth of trenches, pill-boxes and barbed-wire entanglements surrounded the house. The lawn where Trixie played croquet in the Summer was no more: in its place was an implacable military emplacement.
The Commander of the
‘Ah yes, how could I forget the nuJus? The Professor is quite correct, there is a quasi-Jewish element in the Demi-Monde – the nuJus – representing a sixth of the total population and spread evenly over each of the five Sectors.’
I wonder what else the Captain has forgotten.
‘But why did you set the Demi-Monde up like this?’ asked Ella. ‘It seems like a recipe for chaos.’
‘That was exactly the point, Miss Thomas,’ answered the Captain. ‘The Demi-Monde was designed to mirror the often divided demographics and religions of the populations and the enemies our forces meet in Asymmetric Warfare Environments. Oh, these disharmonics might have been taken to extremes when we were structuring the Demi-Monde, but remember we wanted the Demi-Monde to be an unstable and violence-prone world. And that’s why we seeded four Singularities into each Sector: these are the type of individuals with the potential to provide the aberrational leadership necessary to ensure that the Sectors are continually fighting one another. The last thing we wanted was peace breaking out in the Demi-Monde. In short, Miss Thomas, the Demi-Monde is the most extreme and the most pernicious of dystopias.’
‘A hell on earth,’ observed Ella as the Captain reclaimed his seat.
‘Exactly,’ agreed the General, ‘and that’s where we want you to go, Miss Thomas. We want you to go to hell.’
8
The Demi-Monde: 40th Day of Winter, 1004
HimPerialism is a religion, widely practised in NoirVille – or NoirVile, as it is sometimes called – based on male supremacy and the subjugation of women (or, as they are known in NoirVille, woeMen). The fundamental HimPerialistic belief is that Men have been ordained by ABBA to Lead and to Control the Demi-Monde and that woeMen’s role is to be Mute, Invisible, Supine and Subservient (the concept of subMISSiveness). Further, HimPerialism teaches that an individual’s Machismo may be enhanced by the exchange of bodily essences – a practice known as going Man 2 naM – which has led to the vile and unnatural sexual practices for which NoirVilians are rightly condemned in the eyes of ABBA and of right-thinking people throughout the Demi-Monde. HimPerialism has a more aggressive brother-religion known as HimPeril which espouses violence as the only means of securing the triumph of HimPerialism in the Demi-Monde.
– Religions of the Demi-Monde: Otto Weininger, University of Berlin Publications
Beria’s interpretation of what constituted an unobtrusive guarding of the Daemon whilst it was kept at Dashwood Manor was totally different from Trixie’s father’s understanding of theword. But then, mused Trixie, as she watched the fifty-strong Checkya detachment arrive that afternoon, Beria wasn’t famous for being ‘unobtrusive’. The Checkya troops, assisted by a gang of slave labourers, had rapidly and efficiently turned Dashwood Manor from a home into a prison. Every window in the rooms the Daemon would occupy was equipped with bars, and the locks on every external door were changed and substituted for ones that were considerably more formidable.
The Dashwood family were forced to endure five hours of frenzied hammering and bashing. Indeed such was the chaos and the vast amount of mud that was tramped so uncaringly into her prized Coven-made carpets that Trixie’s governess retreated to her room in a flood of hysterics. It was as well she did: what Trixie saw the Checkya doing to the Manor’s front gardens was enough to reduce anyone to tears. Obviously fearful that the house would be subject to a full-scale assault – by whom, Trixie had no idea – the silent mob of navvies dug and delved, burrowed and banged until a labyrinth of trenches, pill-boxes and barbed-wire entanglements surrounded the house. The lawn where Trixie played croquet in the Summer was no more: in its place was an implacable military emplacement.
The Commander of the