The Last Overseer

(This is the 2nd edition of The Last Overseer, edited and revised in August 2013) In 2033, a sudden change in the Earth's axial tilt compromised the magnetosphere forever; and the result was devastating. With only a compromised magnetosphere for protection, people were no longer protected from the hyperactive sun. Temperatures soared, ice caps melted, and natural disasters were as common as rain. To make matters worse, solar flares bombarded every facet of the globe, and in just two years, over two-thirds of the planet's population perished due to radiation-induced cancer. Those who managed to survive did so with horrible physical mutations and mental degradation. Alarmed by the crisis on Earth, several owners of an extra-terrestrial mining company decided to step out from the shadows and disclose their existence to whatever remained of Earth's disbanded governments. With their arrival came bold claims, announcing themselves as being the Overseers of planet Earth for a very long time. At first, no one appreciated such a surreptitious delegation, especially after the Overseers announced that they would only take Earth's most prominent citizens with them on their ships, leaving many less fortunate survivors to rot on an irradiated Earth. However, the hard feelings subsided rather quickly after Earth's new benefactors introduced advanced molecular medicine to the public--medicine that would cure radiation sickness for good and become the key to humanity's preservation on Earth. Ten years later, humanity's population began to rebound and all seemed well. Until one day, several citizens began rejecting the Overseer's mandatory medical care, including a keen observer by the name of Charlie Beasley, who along with his new girlfriend Elena, claimed that the Overseers' mandatory inoculations did a lot more than just cure people of radiation sickness--and that a much more sinister agenda was at play.