EXODUS * Episode 20

STOCKHOLM, 23-rd CENTURY

Stockholm had changed a lot since her childhood.

In fact, the city had dramatically changed since the 21-st century with the weather changes going dramatically from the one extreme to the other.

Stockholm used to have a crowd of smaller islands out there, in what used to be an archipelago.
Then that changed as the water had risen and now half of the city was under water, the rest under protective domes.

Christinas’ father used to tell her stories his grandfather had told him, about the old Stockholm.
This 1,000 year old city has a rich history of architecture, some of it preserved in modern times.

The city started as a harbor for iron ore, and later, as Sweden became a European superpower, grew quickly in both size and inhabitants.

Before the sea started to rise, it had nearly 1.5 million residents.

Now, the water level was as it had been nearly 3000 years before.

Her father passed away just a few years earlier, but not before he had managed to record some of the stories passed on to him.

Once in a while she would play a few of those recordings, if not for other reason just to reminiscence her father.
It also reminded her of the importance of her work.

One of her last visits to her father was in the beginning of the century.

They would sit in one of the domes, sipping coffee and eating “Swedish dreams”, the sweet cookies, chatting about this and that, and look out at the rain and the sea and the drowned islands.

She recalled the years up at the Uppsala University, and her happy visits to her father (often just to get some cash or getting the laundry done) – and at sometimes even her mother would be visiting Stockholm to see her.

Once she moved to USA and the MIT, these visits were no longer possible due to her tight schedule.

And then, he died and she was alone.

Stockholm at the turn of the century was now just sweet memories: Most of the city was gone, most of the population had moved to other areas and there was no longer any Gamla Stan, not even a central railroad station, some more areas under water, other areas simply ignored and in ruins.

This was symbolic for the country as such; Sweden no longer had any industry.

The economy was in ruins, the only remnants were some wheat farms and a few sea farms up north.

The downfall was slow, like a feather falling to the ground: It had started nearly 200 years earlier, when the two car companies fell – one being sold to the Chinese, the other hopelessly bankrupt.

With that, thousands of highly paid jobs also were lost – and with that, the loss of tax income to the state.

Families had to relocate, cities fell apart.

The frustration increased as both the sea level got higher, and the climate changed to worse.

And then the first hurricane from the East came, killing hundreds and demolishing wooden houses and cars.

After that catastrophe, the wheat plague hit Sweden as well.

After the meeting with the other two girls, Christina decided to never return, just keep her memories.

In fact, one of the later versions of her managed to get the Northern part of the future Azania named Sweden, and the areas’ administration Stockholm.

THE TULIPS OF THE NETHERLANDS

There once was a rush for tulips in the Netherlands, a classic story for all economy students.

In the 21-st century new dike protection were being built, to ensure the country would not be flooded.

Daan was a civil servant and worked at the dikes, keeping the maintenance robots busy most of the times.

Now, it was no longer possible for a human being to do the job, as the protection systems were underwater.

He liked to play a bit on the stock exchange – not too much, of course.

After all, he was a Leiden boy! Still, it was interesting for him to see how good he was at guessing the next ups and downs.

He had read about the tulips, and knew very well to stay away from shares that quickly became valuable – and not due to natural causes. Still, it was intriguing to follow the shares of this new enterprise established by that Saudi corporation – the solution to the water raising.

Daan liked the idea, even as it would possibly end his job in the future:
To produce fresh water from the salt water, and then use that water for food production; thus lowering the sea level.

It was not a new idea, but this Saudi corporation was well funded and could actually pull it off.

He decided to invest some in it – still not much, but why not?

Three weeks later he had invested all his savings, as the price of the share kept going up, and it looked like it was never going to stop. .. Daan was thinking: This is my pension.

Then the first waves; half water, half ice arrived.

They came across the Atlantic, from the North.

The barrier support for the dikes had no chance against the many millions tons of ice – they were not built for protection against icebergs!

The automatic defense system broke down shortly thereafter, leaving the dikes in a worse shape than ever, as the new system was supposed to replace the old-fashioned one.

Shortly thereafter, the first waves hit Schiphol of Amsterdam and flooded the tarmac.

Many planes still there were tossed aside, and two of the airships lost their anchoring and drifted away.

A professor of mathematics said in an interview that the Saudi company had to be a fraud as it would take 10,000 pumps of 58 m3/sec and 20 years to lower the seas by half a meter.

He added that the Desert Water Corporation had tried to convince the world to do just that, nearly two centuries earlier – but nobody listened.

For Daan this was a catastrophe. The shares for the company he had invested in, dropped sharply after that interview – and the dike he was supposed to take care of, had gone.

Shortly thereafter the PM announced on the TV that the country was to be evacuated, to the north of Africa.

Daan having lost all his savings, he felt just like those idiots investing in tulips some centuries earlier.

His hope now was in the future of living in the new continent.

... to be continued.

next: EXODUS * Episode 21 goes on with:

"HOPE" / stay tuned...

... TOMORROW



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