The Forever War

The next 10 months in space involve a dull revisitation of basic training: calisthenics, lectures, and work details. Mandella worries about forced re-enlistment, but Potter thinks he’s paranoid. Meanwhile, he thinks about retirement: 26 years’ salary in one lump sum. They arrive at Stargate and find a massive compound housing nearly 10,000 servicemen and women and 78 battle cruisers. The ship designated for their return to Earth, the Earth’s Hope II, lost much of its crew in its last battle, and since transporting a mere 39 people back to Earth is not “economical,” the soon-to-be retirees descend to the planet.

While waiting for a transport, a general tries to persuade Mandella’s unit to re-enlist, arguing that technological improvements have made combat safer. He also offers them non-combat training positions at extra pay. Civilian life on Earth, he cautions them, will be very different: Everyone they know will be 21 years older (or dead); due to the war economy, their large payouts will be taxed at 92%; and lastly, jobs are scarce, so it will be difficult to make up the lost income. Next, Captain Siri—in white face powder and lipstick—informs them that countries on Earth have begun encouraging gay and lesbian relationships as a means of birth control. At 9 billion, the Earth’s population is unsustainable. Blights and insect infestations have decimated the food supply, so the United Nations has instituted rationing. When a black market for food arises, it creates class stratification, which then leads to class warfare. The “Ration War” has killed about half the world’s population, but self-farming practices have encouraged a spike in birthrates, so the rationing continues. In fact, the soldiers’ payouts are not even in currency but in consumable calories.

They are scheduled to return in several weeks, so they spend their decommissioned time catching up on current events. After time spent at the library and the officer’s club, they board the Anniversary for the trip home. 

Back on Earth, Mandella and his comrades receive the celebrity treatment, “a week-long whirl of banquets, receptions, interviews, and all that” (122). When the clamor fades, Mandella moves in with his mother, Beth, in Columbia—just outside of Washington, DC—until he can find a job; his father has died during Mandella’s military service. Beth and her bodyguard, Carl, meet him at the monorail station, and they drive back to her housing complex, a conical-shaped building sprouting trees and foliage on its exterior. Carl leaves, and Mandella and his mother ride the elevator to a huge food mall on the 47th floor and buy meat, lettuce, and olive oil. She explains the complex food rationing system; Earth has switched to a single currency—kilocalories—and citizens are issued ration books with which to purchase food. After buying food, they head up to Beth’s apartment on the 92nd floor. Even at this height, she has bars on her windows and four locks on her door.

The job situation is dire. The Employment Board only assigns jobs to the neediest. Jobs, however, can be procured through a “dealer,” a sort of liaison into the underground jobs market who connects job seekers with employees looking to quit, or, more accurately, to “sublet” their jobs. The calculus of income distribution is complicated and weighted heavily in favor of the dealer, but the current economy demands drastic measures.

The next morning, as Mandella prepares to leave, Beth advises him to either carry a gun or hire a bodyguard. On the elevator, he encounters a “rider” who pulls out a lead pipe, but Mandella threatens to “caulk” him, and he backs off. On the 47th floor, he purchases a gun, ammunition, and body armor, and then he rides the monorail to Hyattsville. Getting off the train, he finds everyone either armed or with a bodyguard. He rides a cab to a bar to meet a jobs dealer. At the bar, he meets the dealer, who informs him that a job involving teaching or physics is out of the question. His military service, however, qualifies him to work in the bodyguard industry. Not interested, Mandella agrees to meet him again in a few months.

Mandella returns home to find a message from Margay Potter, now living with her parents on a South Dakota commune. They agree to meet the next morning and book a flight to London. At the Ellis Island “jetport,” they purchase round-the-world tickets with unlimited stops along the way. Then, they rent a small “roomette” at the jetport and make love. After, they smoke a joint and talk about adjusting to the grim new reality on Earth. Potter’s father argues that the Elite Conscription Act is to blame; the best and the brightest are drafted into service, leaving too few inventive minds to solve the problems on Earth. Past wars, Mandella muses, have often sparked technological innovations and social reforms, but the effect of this war seems to be regression.

They board a dirigible for their flight and watch the Manhattan skyline from the promenade deck. A loophole in the food rationing law allows travelers to dine on filet of beef, gourmet cheese, and wine with no restrictions. Dirigible travel—“floating hotels”—is one of the few remaining luxuries, and their three-hour flight to London passes easily, without incident. Over dinner, Potter tells Mandella that her father ended up on the commune to avoid jail time for purchasing counterfeit ration tickets. Communes, she tells him, “provide over half the country’s produce—they’re really just an unofficial arm of the government” (141). Since the communes need farmers, her father is safe from prosecution as long as he continues to work the farm, which, in his mind, amounts to indentured servitude. After dinner, they attend a “cultural translation” of the rock musical Hair, the updated version permitting actual coitus on stage.

Late one evening, Mandella and Potter witness a gang rape on a dark, deserted street. Mandella fires a warning shot, and most of the boys scatter, but one pulls a gun, and Mandella fires again, killing him. Potter tries to drag him away from the scene, fearing that the authorities will “brainwipe” him, but he staggers, realizing he’s been shot in the leg. As he slips into shock, he hears sirens in the distance. The rape victim corroborates his version of events, and the police release him. He and Potter return to the States. Mandella decides to join her and her parents on the commune. It seems preferable to city life.