[□ To read out specific oaths, voice-link REFUGE 43.]

[□ For specific medical procedures, voice-link VASECT 7.]

“Having reached the limits of their endurance, many have agreed to the host nations’ terms. Still, it’s expected some will refuse even this last chance and elect instead the harsh but unregulated life as citizens of Sea State, whose crude rafts already sail the fens and shallows where formerly stretched great, jute estates…”

[View of barges, rafts, salvaged ships of all shapes and sizes, clustered under pelting rain. Crude dredges probe skeletons of a former village, hauling up lumber, furniture, odds and ends to use or sell for scrap. Other, quicker boats are seen pursuing schools of silvery anchovies through newly inundated shoals.]

[□ Real-time image 2376539.365x-2370.398, DISPAR XVII satellite. $1.45/minute.]

[□ For general background, link SEASTATE 1.]

[□ For data on specific flotilla, link SEA BANGLA 5.]

“Already, spokesmen for Sea State are asserting sovereignty over the new fishing grounds, by right of reclamation…”

[□ Ref. UN document 43589.5768/UNORRS 87623ba.]

[Diplomats in marble halls, filing papers]

[Surveyors mapping ocean expanses.]

[□ Time-delayed images APW72150/09, Associated Press 2038.6683]

“As expected, the Republic of Bangladesh has issued a protest through its U.N. delegation. Though, with their capital now underwater, the remonstrations begin to sound like those of a tragic ghost…”

[View of a brown-skinned youth in a greasy bandanna, grasping a rusty railing, staring toward an uncertain future.]