The underground roomholding the weekly E.R.P.M meetings were always full with enthusiasticsupporters. We used a large room in aderelict underground station, which was now out of use. All the undergroundstations were derelict and boarded up now and had been countrywide since themonorail system was built in 2022.
The room may have oncebeen a large cafeteria, a waiting room or maybe even a newsagent in its time;it was now a meeting room for ‘the organisation’ which was what we called ourgroup to protect its true identity.
The meetings wereunderground in more than one sense and were organised with the highest level ofsecrecy
It is the year 2044 andwe are now twenty years into what the government relished in calling ‘the newworld’ - a woman’s world.
The country had thesecond female prime minister, who had been elected to power for the last twentyyears. This role had been primarily aman’s role prior to and since the late 1970’s when we were governed by MargaretThatcher, the very first female prime minister.
The crown was alsoheld by a female. The Queen was the firstdaughter of King William.
Up until 2012 theheir to the throne was always the first born son to the King and Queen, unlessthey didn’t bear any sons, of course.
Since 2012 it wasdecided that the heir to the throne would go to the crowns first born childimmaterial of what sex the heir was. In the event that the monarch had multiplebirths, the heir to the throne would be the first baby delivered.
Queen Abigail wasthat heir to the throne; she was not allowed to marry, so therefore had noconsort as such, her escort was always her lady in waiting.
Rumour had it thattheir relationship was intimate, but there were always rumours about the Queen andno doubt always would be because unlike over twenty years ago the media werenot allowed to publish anything about the royal family, unless approved by theroyal family or ‘the firm’ as it was sometimes called.
It had taken twentyyears after the death of Princess Diana, William’s mother for ‘the firm’ andthe government to enforce this rule, even though Diana was hounded by the pressand eventually she was killed after being chased by the media in an undergroundtunnel in Paris.
I knew all of this informationbecause I was one of the privileged few to be able to study history at school;very few could do this and particularly none of the boys.
The government did notwant males to get any ideas above their station; they didn’t want a crusade ontheir hands.
To study this subjectI had to sign a contract at the time swearing me to secrecy to prevent me fromsharing historical knowledge with anyone else. The reason that I was lucky enough to have had the freedom to study thisvery interesting subject at school was that I had chosen to work in researchfor the government.
I, like most of usgirls and boys, were made to choose our career path at fourteen and unless wehad medical grounds for this to be changed that was what we had to do.
The boys however, wereonly allowed to study manual subjects like gardening, engineering, carpentry,bricklaying etc.
The girls had whatthe government deemed to be the more academic jobs or national or publicservices, to choose from if they wished.
I chose researchbecause even at that young age I was curious about our roots and unhappy withhow the world was. I wanted to make changes for the better; I wanted the worldto live in equality and in peace and I felt that other than a job in politicswhich was now for the elite of our society; this would get me nearer to my goal.I wanted to make a difference, but this was turning out harder than I thought.
I attended theseclandestine meetings to do just that to make a difference, even though if anyof us were caught, there would be dire consequences. I would lose my job, my home and spend therest of my life ‘working for the government’ but in an institution. I would lose what little freedom I had. Thatwould be the consequences of our betrayal.
