The Council

The Council is the ruling government of The Union, made up of The Lesser Court and The Greater Court. Each person selected to be a part of The Council is carefully selected after many years of observation and analysis, and at the age of eighteen, members are selected from all the many schools of the cities to take a test for application to The Council, which is reviewed along with recommendations given by their teachers and guardians (children are brought up in homes separate from their birth parents) and all evidence acquired through observation. Those who are admitted are sent to the part of The Lesser Court judged to be their appropriate place for "cultivation". Those who are not accepted are sent home and assigned jobs with the rest of their graduating class that help their given city of residence. Those who are found to be undesirable are sent to The Special Education center for reeducation by the Disciplinary Council, a chosen group under the direct supervision of The Greater Court (more on that later).
There are three groups that form The Lesser Court, The Safety Office, The Mech, and The Hall of the Knowledge Seekers (Seekers for short). The Safety Office is the organization that secures and monitors every single Sphere in The Union. From the moment they enter the new "members" are put through a grueling training schedule for two years, learning to fight with hands, shock staffs (with special gloves that allow them to touch the staff without getting electrocuted), guns, and gamma cannons. They learn how to work alongside the AI Security Droids that are assigned to their squads, how to use the Droids' abilities to help them in both urban and open combat. They also learn to operate the many different forms of observation that The Council uses to keep track of The People, such as Satellite Drones, Observation Drones, security cameras, and all the information passing through the network of supercomputers that provide all forms of communication in the Spheres, though most of this is sifted through by AI computers for specific words and phrases that suggest that someone is not doing what they should. The final thing they learn is the operation of a Sphere, which controls the weather, ozone, air quality, and the testing of the air in various places to see if there is any irregularity in its content (they prevent most airborne diseases this way, though they can also pick up things like gun powder and smoke). Once they graduate they are assigned to either Safety Patrol squads or Observation squads for specific cities (usually not the ones they grew up in), where they will stay until reassigned.
The Mech is The Council's giant technology construction and maintenance factory, where those chosen to be mechanics or Mechs are assigned. All new Mechs are trained for two years on the building and maintenance of the many droids, computers, and other technologies created by The Knowledgeable (Those of The Greater Council). Everything is built in The Mech and then shipped to the Spheres, and any droids or AI are brought back either every six months or when they need repair or to be scrapped. All tech sent to The Mech is given full maintenance and recalibration, and if necessary a memory wipe, in order to restore them to perfect working condition. That which has been destroyed or found unable to be fixed is disassembled and the pieces are either scrapped or melted down to be recast for some other use. Whenever someone from The Greater Council has invented something, they bring the blueprints and whatever prototype they have made to have it reconstructed and put on the assembly line. They oversee the work of the chosen Mechs that they wish to help them and work out the bugs before putting the thing to mass production.
The Hall of the Knowledge Seekers is the center for all knowledge gathered by The Council and is also the training facility for all those who are chosen to be teachers in the many schools inside the Spheres. Those not chosen to be teachers are trained in the art of seeking for knowledge (hence their name, Seekers). The Hall of Knowledge Seekers is the only place that contains all the hidden documents and information written and recorded in the distant past that has been found or preserved, and it is here that the Seekers are able to look through these documents to understand the past and sift out those that are contradictory to the rules of The Council. These are marked as such and stored in The Library of Ignorance, and they are rarely looked at again. Here also they find such historical accounts and documents that are judged worthy of knowing and teaching, so that the given documents are used to adjust the knowledge taught in the schools. There are also those that are given the task of recording the history of The Union and writing documents that explain the different parts of The Council and the history of The People, such as the portion taken from a recent entry by a relatively new graduate Seeker that was acquired soon after it was written (See "The People"). It is an interesting fact that many of those who work for The Risen inside The Council come from the Seekers, as they are the few people who are able to read documents that contradict the "knowledge" they have been taught throughout their lives, allowing them a different perspective on the rules of The Council. Seekers also assist the Knowledgeable in scientific and medical experiments (besides those involving technology, as that would be done in The Mech), sometimes even traveling to Unity's Special Education Center to help conduct experiments using the prisoners. Then finally there are those who call themselves "True Seekers," the few chosen to venture out into The Wastes, traveling in groups of four in one vehicle made for the task and accompanied by security droids to protect them from Outcasts and wild beasts, they take with them all the tech they need to find documents and data in the ruins of the ancient civilizations. There is quite a lot of risk involved, for many Outcasts formed their own tribes and live in The Wastes (not all who wish for a better life than the rules of The Council find or are found by The Risen), and they will often attempt to raid Seekers who venture outside of the Spheres. Added to this the fact that almost none of The People know anything about surviving outside the Spheres or the vehicles made to protect them from the outside world as they travel, and it is understandable why more than a few Seekers have gone missing while exploring The Wastes.
A specific part of The Safety Office that necessitates its own thorough explanation is The Special Education Center, run by The Disciplinary Council, a specially chosen group from The Safety Office who answer directly to The Greater Council. This place, as the others, has been mentioned in other articles, but here will be given a full description of its operation and purpose. The main base of operations and the main correction facility of the SEC is based in Unity and is connected to The Safety Office through a system of underground tunnels that are the only entry points to the SEC besides air drop, and it is through these tunnels that all prisoners, or Ignorants as they are called, are transported to the main facility. The actual facility is based in its own separate Sphere ten miles from the outer perimeter of the main Sphere of Unity. All Safety Officers in training are assigned three months of work in the SECs, both to observe and learn their methods of reeducation and to get used to the idea of inflicting pain on those they consider lesser beings. All cities have their own SECs, with the worst of the Ignorants being sent to Unity, where the Knowledgeable like to conduct tests from time to time on those who prove resilient to their reeducation methods. Most do not survive. It is usually those who give in when they are in their local SEC that are accepted back as "perfect members of The People", as those who are sent to Unity either die before they can accept the brainwashing or would rather die than give up their free will. Only the most resilient ever make it out of Unity, and unfortunately at that point they are too far gone to save.
All Special Education Centers are based mainly underground, with only one above ground level that is the Safety Officers' living quarters, droid deactivation/recharge and maintenance section (about twenty Mechs are assigned to each SEC along with the SO's every shift change, except for Unity, where all droids in need of repairs are sent to The Mech and replaced with droids sent from The Mech), and the armory. All Ignorants are marked with a permanent tattoo on their face or hand that is made of biotechnology, allowing for them to be tracked at all times (though The Risen have been able to make scanners that deactivate the biotech tracking system), even outside the SECs, and placed in separate cells, completely sealed off from each other, allowing these cells to act as solitary chambers when desired. Any prisoners that prove to be troublesome are put through a kind of torture that also allows for them to be tracked in another way. Their left eye is removed and replaced with a robotic one similar to those of the AI Security Droids, but these send a direct feed to The Security Office of what that person is seeing and where they are. This, like the biotech, can be disrupted so as to prevent The Security Office from seeing anything, but they also require reprogramming to cut that link completely, which can be painful if not done right. Some prefer to keep them, as they offer distinct advantages once reprogrammed, such as night vision and very good sight and situational analysis, with a clear sight range of up to a mile and a half (according to tests that have been conducted). But they can be risky and somewhat uncomfortable at times, so not everyone keeps them, preferring to be half blind than keep what the SEC gave them, though with the more skilled people this is barely an impairment to their abilities.
As far as the security forces that occupy the SECs, they are much the same for each city, with three thousand AI Security Droids specially made for the purpose of controlling the occupants, along with a company of around five hundred Safety Officers (cities have more or less depending on each city's security level) that are assigned to the SEC of their city for one year shifts. All droids and SO's are equipped with shock staffs, gamma cannons, and, in the SECs for cities that need higher security such as 66 and Unity, pistols and small machine guns. The max occupation of each SEC is fifteen hundred, except for Unity. Unity's SEC can house five thousand, and thus has ten thousand AI Security Droids plus twenty-five hundred Safety Officers minimum.
The Greater Court of The Council is made up of a body of chosen people known as The Knowledgeable, who form The Union's ruling government. All laws, rules, and regulations are proposed and passed by The Greater Court, and all inventions, medicines, scientific theorems, and so on, are approved by The Greater Court. The entirety of The Greater Court meet once a month, at least, to discuss any and all problems that The Union is experiencing, as well as to vote on proposals presented by either one of the Knowledgeable or people of The Lesser Court who have managed to acquire a representative in The Greater Court who will stand for them and their proposed idea. But as Democratic and fair minded as they might seem, the Knowledgeable wish for only one thing, greater power over the people. Thus there is a constant struggle between various factions of The Greater Court for control of the majority. Some factions form due to common interests or goals, others because the weak flocked to an apparently strong leader, and so on. While they are not fighting for power, however, they are pursuing whatever interests or ideas they wish, even the least having both great wealth and power to do with as they please. Some create new tech, others seek to further understand the scientific world, and still others try to find new medicines and new chemicals that they can use, either for themselves or for The People, or to improve the capabilities of those trained to be Safety Officers, and an infinite number of other interests and ideas.
Now, as far as how people get into The Greater Court, first one must be chosen to be part of The Council, and so be brought into The Lesser Court, which contains several millions of people in total, about two thirds of which are Safety Officers, the other two million or so being split between The Mechs and The Seekers. Once in The Lesser Court, one must show oneself to be truly great at one's given assignment, superior in everything, and to have served The Council and The People faithfully for many years. Once someone has distinguished themselves from among their peers, they are put on a list with others to be observed closely and judged to see if they are worthy to be selected to The Greater Council. This observation can last years, and very few survive the scrupulous examination. The one or two who do make it are taken to a special training facility where they are educated in how The Greater Court operates and how to conduct themselves when in the presence of The Knowledgeable and when they appear before The Knowledgeable for final judgement. During this time they are presented to The Greater Court as prospects for election, and at that time any of The Knowledgeable who wish to be their mentor may say so, and if there is more than one the prospect may choose which they desire to be taught by. If no one presents themselves as a mentor, each prospect is assigned one chosen by The Greater Court, though the prospect may voice their desired mentor. Now begins their final stage, where they live with their mentor for a year, observing all that they do and assisting where allowed, sitting with them during meetings of The Greater Court and learning the intricacies of The Council. At the same time as they do this, their mentor must evaluate all that they do and present monthly reports on their progress. Finally, if they survive all of this, they are presented before The Greater Court and their mentor gives their final evaluation, and, if the prospect has done well, their mentor gives them their approval before The Greater Court and it is put to the vote whether the person is accepted or not as a member of The Greater Court. If a majority is reached on this, then the person is presented to The Lesser Court and then to The People as a whole as a new member of The Greater Court, and a great feast is held in their honor. They are given a special residence in Unity reserved for members of The Greater Court, and then they begin their lives as one of The Knowledgeable.
It is pretty obvious that it is very hard to make it to The Greater Court, and that is the reason The Greater Court has rarely exceeded one hundred people, though there is room for a thousand where they gather for meetings, and very few have made it before the age of thirty, and no one before twenty. Those who are rejected as prospects are sent back to their jobs at The Lesser Court, unless their reason for being rejected was because they were found guilty of doing something that acted against the good of The People and the will of The Council, in which case they are sent to an SEC and rejected as a member of The Council.
There are those of The Greater Court who are selected by the other Knowledgeable to be the representatives of the different parts of The Lesser Court. These people are usually originally from those specific parts of The Lesser Court that they represent. They present the problems or ideas that the people they represent have shown them to see what The Greater Council thinks of the matter and to have a vote taken on what to do to help resolve the given issues.