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In a dystopian future America has broken up into tribal warfare. A political remnant hires a scientist, one Phil Auktease, to genetically engineer a cohort of people to become the scientists whose abilities will be crucial to security.
I base it on an aspect of the Philoctetes myth from Greek mythology. It is not based on the play by Sophocles.
Philoctetes was a uniquely skilled archer whose ability was crucial in the fight against Troy. But people were so physically repelled at the smell of his injury that they rejected him.
I describe the ambivalence a society feels at admitting a need when the physical truth of that need is disgusting. It also touches on the suffering of the one who meets the need at some expense to himself.
So I took that and turned it into a sci-fi dystopian future comedy.
Written by John McCloskey (USA)