Literary plot genre: science fiction; utopia | San Francisco, 2422
Main characters
Alex Norb is a senior chemical engineer, most highly regarded in the scientific community. It is his creation of the LIFE 250 vaccine that self-repairs diseases of all kinds. The mandatory worldwide dissemination of the vaccine has pushed the average life span of the population beyond 250 years, creating a host of problems that Alex Norb had not imagined.
Alex Norb enjoys the extraordinary economic and reputational benefits that the invention has brought, but with each passing day he realizes that the consequences are tremendous. Clarissa Born is Norb's housekeeper, a single, widowed woman with two children. She lives in the worst suburban neighborhood in the city. She has not administered LIFE 250 to herself or her children. She belongs to that minority opposed to administration, but she has lied by falsifying documents.
The call to adventure
The first effect of the vaccine was to create overpopulation on the planet. Pollution was a direct consequence and the environment became hell. Another phenomenon has been the increase in poverty and violence; as well as the emergence of rebel factions wishing to destroy the laboratories where the vaccine is produced. However, large multinational mining corporations exploit longevity and excess demand to recover cheap labor for use on remote planets by recruiting on Earth.
Those who are not vaccinated cannot work even if they would have the skills. When Clarissa's son falls ill she desperately turns to Alex. The man follows her to the neighborhood where she lives and realizes the true situation of the population. This prompts him to remedy it and he begins to study a virus that will spread freely and nullify the effect of LIFE 250.
The conflict
For Alex, the transition to the new faction is complex. He lives under escort and outside contacts are limited to a small circle of people. Meanwhile, Clarissa has affiliated herself with one of the rebel factions and is ordered to kill Alex, but she does not want to. She senses Alex's goodness of heart and his heartbreak over the situation. Despite pressure, Clarissa does not carry out the crime; rather, when she realizes that the man can create a remedy for LIFE 250 then she becomes his accomplice and allows him to escape by leading him to her neighborhood.
The key
The regime will try by all means to stop Alex, but his intentions are divulged and become hope for the poorer people. More and more proselytes ally themselves with the rebels. The manhunt turns into a civil war, burning first neighborhoods and then cities and nations. The war does not end even when Alex releases the new virus into the air.
The alternatives
Like all utopian themes, it is sufficient to leave the main structure unchanged by incorporating simple but significant changes: locations, character traits, a complex antagonist. In addition, one can move toward elements of fantasy or steampunk.
