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EARTH SURVIVED the multitude of physical and social disasters leading to the apocalypse. Contrary to popular expectations, the Apocalypse didn’t arrive with a single incident such as a massive asteroid strike from space. Instead, it crept up slowly on earth’s people. They endured a slow incremental slide into world-wide catastrophe. The United States and Canada had programs for disasters in place of course, but these contingencies had not been designed for nation-wide emergencies which kept on for years. As the series of disasters mounted, many governments simply ran out of funding to continue them. The political structure of many nations, which had already been in turmoil was under attack and in danger of collapsing. A series of pandemic viruses the authorities seemed unable to check swept over the planet. The Draconian measures used to stop the spread of plagues further damaged the global economy. Businesses who were required to shut down or drastically cut back on their workforce simply didn’t survive. When the pandemics had been followed by global-wide earthquakes many governments simply collapsed. What took their place had been anarchy, rioting and urban warfare.
Scientists had predicted for years the tectonic plates holding the continents in position were due to move. No one had believed this was imminent until it happened. The Pacific Rim of Fire was the first. Massive eruptions of the volcanos along the rim set off earthquakes along the three main fault lines running down the spine of the Americas.
North America and parts of Europe had declared Martial Law and so kept a semblance of their former governments intact, albeit with some radical changes. Armed government soldiers did their best to help beleaguered police departments keep order in the large cities, where gangs of loosely unified 'protesters' periodically organized marches invariably leading to rioting, looting. and destruction of businesses, homes, autos and anything else they could find.
In more rural areas, the fiercely independent citizen's militia groups protected citizens from both the government agencies who seemed more interested in sweeping aside citizens' rights than protecting them, and from the spread of criminal gangs fighting for control of the cities.
Thus matters stood when scientists discovered a way to escape to another world by opening a planet-based wormhole the scientists dubbed a Portal. The fact was it took relatively little energy to power a gate, making taking advantage of these new worlds doubly attractive to government and industry. Prospective settlers lined up in droves to emigrate to these new worlds and much money was made providing access and supplies for the new colonies.
Eager to restore their crumbling economies, Earth governments and industry banded together to control this knowledge, creating the Portal Settlement Acts. Creating a portal didn't require a lot of scientific knowledge and despite attempts to regulate the information about how to make a gate, Portals appeared like fleas on a dog in summer. A mishmash of different smuggling rings, eager to supply the illicit colonies with badly needed tech, supplies and anything else they needed or wanted jumped into the fray.
An uneasy alliance developed between the smugglers and the militia, who were anti-government control, and fiercely protective of citizen's rights. These groups resented the Portal Settlement Acts on general principal and were disposed to help circumvent the agents assigned to enforce them.
Desperate to stop the flow of money slipping away, Earth governments created the Portal Authority, giving its agents powers similar to those given to police and military authority to combat the smugglers, and investigate and arrest violators of the Act. The act and the behavior of the first agents enforcing it created fertile ground for rebellion.
Laughing Mountain was about an hour's drive from the rebuilt city of San Demos. The high-priced homes of the rich and famous who lived there were slowly being rebuilt as governments regained some control of the cities. Martial Law was slowly being phased out of urban areas.
Gradually, the rich and famous returned to rebuild cities along the new coastlines, bringing their money and idle lifestyles back to the areas they had abandoned. They often spent an idle afternoon shopping in the small towns in the mountains, followed by lunch or tea at the boutique cafe's catering to their trade.
The isolation of the smaller towns and settlements had helped prevent the spread of the pandemics, and communities such as Laughing Mountain had taken steps to prevent the spread of the social unrest plaguing their brethren in the larger cities. In these small rural communities, life had gone on much as usual. People worked, grew food to feed themselves and their neighbors and children attended school. No one talked about the Portal Gate outside of town, or the flow of traffic going through it every month.
The Portal in Laughing Mountain was a gateway to more than one colony. Besides St. Antoni, the town had connections with Barsoom* (named after the planet in ERB Martian books). Although the colonists claimed to want to live in the style of the renaissance, they were much too fond of their high-tech gadgets to give them up. Unlike St. Antoni, this colony was deliberately developed so they would have control of their connection with earth.
THIS SERIES IS A SHOOT off from the Forbidden Colony series. Each book is set on a different Colony reached through the same Portal serving St. Antoni. Each colony was created or designed with different society and cultural values. Forbidden to exist by Earth’s Governments and the Industrial Giants who control the Portals, they manage to thrive and survive under the noses of those governments...
