Rarefaction

The small country was overcrowded and had long, hard winters. It was a powerful country, with many uninhabited islands. It started a “rarefaction” movement, encouraging citizens to move to the uninhabited islands near the equator. The country would give the citizens land and grants to build homes and businesses. The government promised a Garden of Eden, fertile land, and good business, as well as generous subsidies.

A wealthy business owner flew by private jet to one of these colonies. His girlfriend, who he had been living with for five years, had broken up with him suddenly and disappeared, leaving no forwarding address. Her cell phone service was canceled. He found she had left behind some brochures advertising an island to go to for rarefaction. There was a lot he wanted to tell his ex-girlfriend. He also had a diamond ring he wanted to propose to her with.

The only signs of humanity he could find on the island were the remains of what appeared to be a family who had previously tried to relocate there, found not far from the landing strip. He looked around and realized that although thousands of people had gone to relocate to that island, none of them were alive. He came back and reported his findings to a news outlet. Shortly after the story broke, the business owner was arrested for treason. The news outlet was shut down by the government, also for treason, but the story traveled by word of mouth.

A protest movement started, without a central organization. The citizens refused to file their tax returns or show up for jury duty. Some people were arrested as examples, but the dissatisfaction became widespread, as lawmakers, police, and the military no longer cooperated with the government or showed up for work. The government collapsed without violence. The former leader of the government was jeered and isolated. The business owner who originally reported on what happened to the people who took part in the rarefaction movement was released by the prison guards, and the news outlet that had been shut down was reopened and was the people’s first choice for finding out what was happening.

College professors of political science were given access to classified documents. They wrote reports which were then turned over to the news outlets. The documents showed that nothing was done to create any infrastructure in the colonies, and the people who relocated there didn’t have access to food, plumbing, potable water, or any way to communicate. They all probably died within a few days of moving there. All night vigils sprung up around the small country mourning the loss of life on the islands.

Diplomats sent to other countries returned home because of the collapse of the government. A country run by a dictator started making moves toward taking over the small country. Word of how the people of the small country made the government fall spread to the larger country run by the dictator. Enough people, including people in the Secret Service, found the dictatorship oppressive so that the small country’s government collapse became an example to them. The dictatorship also collapsed.

Overpopulation was still a problem for the small country. The faculties from the civil engineering departments of several universities came together and put together a new rarefaction development. They started by planning desalinization plants for drinking water and sewage systems and other infrastructure for the uninhabited equatorial lands. Very few people were sent, and they were well supplied with provisions. They went three weeks at a time and then were replaced with other people and more provisions.

Once airports, drinking water, sewage systems, communications, and an electricity grid were in place, they built houses with central air conditioning. Communities were planned and created, with business districts accessible by foot, bicycle, or motor vehicles. Fields for planting were cleared. Factories, hotels, and hospitals were built. Finally, people moved in for long term living.

The business owner who had originally revealed what the original rarefaction campaign was about wrote a memoir. He had only gone to that island to find the love of his life. Finding only the remains of many people there, he had to let go of ever finding her alive. The memoir became an immediate bestseller.

On the day of the release of the memoir, his girlfriend showed up at his door again. His mouth dropped at the sight of her. He paused for a moment and they didn’t say anything until he regained his senses and invited her in and asked where she had been.

She had lost her job months before she had broken up with him, and thought he wouldn’t respect her if she didn’t keep up half of the expenses, and she was too embarrassed to tell him. She had been considering going to those islands until the news that people only died there. In the meantime, she had let her cell phone service drop and she crashed at the apartments of various friends. She now had a job teaching high school civics, and shared a crowded studio apartment with a couple of other friends.

She came by because she read the beginning of his memoir and was moved by it. She wanted to thank him for investigating the conditions of the island she would have gone to. The love he expressed in the memoir touched her deeply. He brought out the diamond ring, and they agreed to marry.