Editing Genius The Transgression/Chapter One: The Cosmos (section)

===And No One Has Any Money, Either===

But Lemuria didn't just curl up like an entomologist and die. One of the bitterest truths of mad science is that Inspiration doesn't pay the bills, and even as the nastiest parts of Lemuria―the eugenic breeding programs and the deranged race theories and the monstrous power games―were being put to the sword, the Peerage realized that Lemuria offered an invaluable service: it provided a screen for mad scientists. The Lemurians had entire networks and cartels dedicated to keeping geniuses safe and supplied.

Even after the destruction of Lemuria, these organizations remained, and the Peerage lacked the personnel and expertise to replace them with its own people. So the Lemurians persisted as administrators and support specialists for those rickety networks.

Picture the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Not the real one; picture it like something out of a caricature of a Libertarian's most fevered nightmares. Now add Stalinist-level paranoia, the bitterness of a lost war, and staff it by people who believe―literally believe―that the Earth is flat, or something equally bizarre. And many of them can whip up a pack of flying monkeys to tear out your eyes inside fifteen minutes. That's Lemuria today. And they hold the purse.

Want to hold down a job better than "sales rat at the electronic store"? Do you want to teach? Do you want grant money? What about―Fermat help you―tenure? Then you need to talk to Lemuria. Foundations and collaboratives can help a little, but when things go wrong and a genius' need is dire, for the "I need five kilos of selenium right now" and for "I need an advance or they'll cut my power and spoil the cryonics," there's Lemuria. It's a rotting hulk riddled with bitter failures dreaming of past glory, but its supply catalog is second-to-none.

And it's not easy to escape Lemuria. A few geniuses make do in their parents' basements, cobbling together whatever they can from stolen components. A few have trust funds or other forms of wealth that might last for a time. The lucky ones can manage a steady supply of resources, such as tenure or a lucrative government job, but even then, one slip and the genius is revealed as a lunatic, a crank with crazy ideas whose inventions break down every time they're tested. Lemuria is always waiting.