The Guiding Principles

Prologue

Men destroyed the world and women rebuilt it. After The Storm and the subsequent wars, the humans that remained on Earth rallied around the Guiding Principles drafted by eight of the top surviving women scientists of the time. Dr. Aadya Taylor is credited as the main author. She added the line “Gender is a construct; however, if we must categorize and organize, we would do well to put those that are female presenting and non-binary in charge.”

The twenty-two-page manifesto outlined recommendations for government, housing, agriculture, urban planning, renewable energy, societal norms, and more. The writers took the best principles from the old world and cautioned against the behaviors that led to war.

The descendants of the surviving humans from the old world currently lived in 15 mega domes around the world. The domes protected people from the harsh climate outside. Climate change and war had made the surface of the planet uninhabitable. Each dome city had its own government and way of life, but all of them used the Guiding Principles as their cornerstone. Each dome had 3 dome leaders and a council that ruled the city.

As Dr. Taylor recommended, most of the leaders were women or non-binary. It wasn’t that men weren’t allowed to be dome leaders, there certainly were some very popular ones through the years, but most men worked as shopkeepers, childcare providers, or in teaching positions. Women tended be in government, agriculture, or business. Many people identified as gender neutral. The new world didn’t have the rigid beliefs of the old world. But the biggest change between the old world and new world, wasn’t the gender norms or even the dome living, the biggest change was the peace. Governments ran efficiently. There wasn’t the extreme income inequality and excess of the old world. Everyone in the domes had housing and food. Life felt surprisingly calm compared to the wild chaos of the land outside the domes.

The first dome took 16 years to complete, the last dome to be built was completed 10 years ago, dome 15, and it only took 4 years. Apparently, it had the worlds largest waterfall and a real mountain that took 7 days to climb housed within it. Everyone speculated on when and where the next dome would be created. People would joke that they were going to move to dome 16.

Amy had of course read the Guiding Principles many times in school, but she could only recite a few popular passages from it word for word. She had been meaning to reread it, it was on her to do list. She liked to imagine herself outside of the dome on a discovery mission and an argument would break out among the group and she’d recite from the Principles so perfectly that everyone would go speechless. Never mind the fact that she had never been outside her dome or had any possibility of ever going on a discovery mission. She worked a very inside the dome job.

2 Days Before the Party

Two days before the wind storm that would make her dome unhabitual, Amy Stone, an extremely practical twenty-six-year-old, who grew up her whole life in dome 7, was uncharacteristically shopping. She was preparing for her upcoming birthday. She had been very deliberate with her work stipend the past 10 years, buying only the essentials and avoiding unnecessary spending. She kept most of her digital coins saved in digital wallets. She was saving up for a trip to one of the major water domes like 3, 8, 11, or 15. She learned to be thrifty by watching her parents and doing exactly the opposite of what they did.

Her moms loved spending money on everything and anything, but especially on art and vintage items. Her parents were artists and flat design consultants. Living quarters were relatively similar for most families in the dome, so people had to get creative to outshine their neighbors. That’s where her moms Sam and Sarah stepped in with S&S Design. They’d prided themselves on being able to transform a room on any budget, but they preferred the big budgets. They got their big break designing the updated Pier Restaurant, after the owner saw their flat design featured in the digital magazine ran by graduates of the CAPA program. Sam and Sarah were proud alumni of CAPA. Amy did not attend the CAPA program like everyone had assumed she would, instead she went on to study mathematical theory and computer engineering. Her mom Sarah lovingly called her “a very smart numbers person who does a computer thingy and will be a dome leader someday.” Her mothers didn’t understand that even though she technically had the qualifications to be a future dome leader, she would never make it that far in city government. Although she had graduated top of her computer engineering program, she was not dome “leadership potential.” As she was often reminded in her annual review, she didn’t exhibit the spirit of compromise, which was one of pillars of the Guiding Principles. Her best friends from work, Jemal and Kiara, teased her about this nonstop.

Amy smiled thinking of her friends’ reactions to her flat this coming Wednesday at her party. She was so used to it, she forgot how extraordinary it was. Her friend Chris had broken down in tears when he saw it for the first time, a fact that she brought up often. Every room in her house was a different color and theme, but the crowning jewel was their main living room. The west wall that let in all the light from the dome’s artificial sun had a floor to ceiling stained glass mural her mother Sam made herself. The ceiling of the flat was covered in hundreds of recycled paper leaves that her mother Sarah had individually cut/dyed and attached to the wall with miniature lights. The leaves became concentrated in one corner leading to a tree trunk, which was crafted out of actual oak tree bark. The effect of the tree and the leaves and the lights made it feel as if they were living in a jungle. It was very impressive, especially considering how few materials were available for decorating and the rules on using only recycled items.

The rest of the flat featured bright colors, original murals, and a few priceless vintage treasures from the old world that her parents had spent more digital coin on than Amy’s full years work stipend. The flat was beautiful, but Amy thought bitterly that if they hadn’t spent so much coin, they could have been able to take an actual trip out of the dome like her friend Henry. Their parent was a famous doctor who had been to several of the domes to give medical presentations. Henry got to go on the last trip to dome 13 and would not shut up about it.

Amy’s room was the most basic in the flat, her parents let her redo it a few years ago and she chose a simple tranquil blue theme, that reminded her of water. Amy often stayed in her room with the door closed. It wasn’t that she didn’t like spending time with her family, she adored her family, but she was very busy with work and she valued her privacy and space, both of which were hard to come by in the dome. It wasn’t uncommon for multiple generations of families to live in one flat. Amy knew she was lucky to have her own space, many of her friends her age still had to share rooms with siblings or relatives. Even her couple friends Arden and Sona, who were saving up for their own flat, shared a room with Sona’s cousin Milla.

Amy was excited to have the whole flat to herself. Her parents and her brothers agreed to spend the night at friends’ houses. She was going back over party arrangements in her head as she passed through the main shopping street toward the lake. The lake was really more the size of what would have been a pond from the old world. It was big enough for a few boats that one could rent by the hour for an insane amount of coin. Amy had been on one twice, both times for a party of Henry’s. The lake was 200 feet deep in the middle and filled with fish. Her friend Henry would tell anyone who would listen about how they had accidently dropped their favorite family heirloom, a vintage heart shaped locket from the old world, right to the bottom of the lake during a boat party that involved a lot of whiskey. Whenever they’d be near the lake, Henry liked to get close to see the fish and see if they could spot the one that was wearing the locket. They’d swear a fish practically grabbed it right out of their hands and threw it over its fins to wear.

Night of the Party

Henry, Arden, Sona, Kiara, Jemal, Chris, and Milla had all arrived. Chris had brought what looked like everything he owned in two giant bags for the night and was arguing with Milla on why he needed 3 different outfits. Jemal and Kiara were talking in Amy’s room, while the rest of the guests stood in awe looking at the stained glass. Amy was basking in all the attention, refilling drinks and shouting out hidden designs featured in the stained glass to Henry. “You are so lucky you live here,” said Henry jealously. Amy told herself she would hug her moms extra tight the next day. She really was lucky to have all their creative energy in her life and she felt selfish for always wanting to leave her dome. She did love it here.

She was just about to serve food when they all heard a loud boom. Then several things happened at once, all the power went out, the emergency sirens started blaring, the reserve lights lit up, Chris shrieked, and something slammed into the stained glass. Amy went into command mode and gathered the group together in less than a minute. The wind was growing louder and the sirens and distant noises outside made it hard to hear anything, but Amy quickly got their attention and led them to the emergency underground bunker in a stunned silence. Every dome building had underground tunnels that led to 4 different emergency bunkers. Each of the 4 bunkers had tunnels that led to 4 different exit routes out of the dome. Amy knew that each of the exit routes had an evacuation plan that involved transporting residents to different domes for temporary refuge. She tried to push from her mind the fact that her and her friends could potentially be forced to evacuate to different domes then their families.

Amy knew the procedures and criteria for evaluating emergency situations. She could tell immediately when entering the bunker that this was bad. She spotted the bunker supervisor who was a division leader from her office. They made eye contact and they ushered her away from the group, “Amy, glad you are safe. You’ve been chosen as one of the pod leaders who will be transporting this bunker to safety. There isn’t time to discuss details. Here are your orders. You will be evacuating your pod to dome 8. Are you able to fulfill your duties?” Amy was shocked, it had all happened so fast, she was still thinking of her mom’s ruined stained glass upstairs. Had she even said goodbye to her family. “Yes” she answered, “wait, why me?” “We need uncompromising leaders during emergency times. Study the procedure, we leave soon.”

A million thoughts ran through Amy’s mind. This is not how she imagined leaving. She tried to focus and remember the passages from the Guiding Principles. She would recite a line to her pod as she led them outside of the dome.