Oxygénia

desire for those drops even at home. The Oxygénia Trust brought
them into circulation in colorful bottles. Doctors, scholars and
artists protested against that, too..."
"And what else was in the transcript?", Peter asked.
"At that time, the situation on our planet must've already been
terrifying. A giant cruise ship crossed the ocean. It brought children
to a field trip to a marvellous palm island. At the port of the island,
however, they were refused to disembark because their bodies were
covered with rashes over and over. The vessel was sent back to its
home port, to the city UR. But the port police didn't allow its
landing there, too, since the ship's doctors had detected that the
pest had spread out on the vessel. Even the doctors weren't allowed
back on the land."
"And what happened to the vessel?"
"It's unknown. It was supplied with food by helicopters for some
time... What happened later is unkown..."
"Incredible."
"It was stated at that time that the ocean was infested. Because
of the huge amounts of spilled oil and millions of tons of chemical
waste, fish perished, the plants rotted, and insoluble plastic
amassed in it. On the call of scientific academies, tests were
started. A species of microbes that dissolved the macro molecules
was bred and spread into the ocean in huge quantities. The result
was horrible. The microbes multiplied by division. They needed a
hundreth of a second for it, which meant that only after half a
second, five hundred trillion bacteria existed which continued to
multiply in the ocean. In just a few days, the whole ocean turned
into a single bacteria breed. Their black, dense, foaming mass ate
everything, living and dead matter alike, and even started to get on
the coastside rocks. The following was a fight for live or death. The
coastside cities depopulated. The population fled to the inland of
the continents. This resulted in even more traffic, more dirt, more
concentrated industry. On the seasides, however, chemical barriers
were erected, as well as concrete dams covered with chemicals. In
the scientific institutes, symposia, debates and discussions on how
to save Oxygénias water, air, the inhabitants, the fauna and flora,
didn't stop. The various tribes were forced to make peace with each
other; international committees for the rescue of the biosphere were
formed. The Oxygénia Trust got into the hands of the one hundred
most influential families of the planet. People with money, generals,
bankers and politicians came from those families. The number of
their factories and corporations was giant. They managed canned
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