NOVPUB“Settle down!” Sorin demanded to the room full of individuals.
They didn’t quiet down immediately, but he could hear himself think after only a short wait.
“You all know why I asked you here.”
“And who put you in charge?” someone from the back of the room demanded.
“Yeah!” another voice shouted. “We have a Council, shouldn’t they be here?”
“Stars above!” Sorin threw up his hands. “Are you stupid? We’re here to discuss the Council and all the things they are changing against our will, why would we want them here?”
His statement finally got people to stop and listen. A few grumbled, but he could hear muttered agreements from most of the people in the room. Sorin took this as a good sign and continued.
“Ever since that damned robot arrived, Damien and his cronies have had their lips firmly planted on its feet in supplication. I experienced this firsthand when Sheila made a bet with me that she knew she would win because of his meddling. I have no issue losing a bet, but when it’s rigged, that’s different. It cost me and my family most of our spare food stocks and I was forced to go begging to others to survive after harvest. And that put me even further behind.”
His statement about being a poor loser wasn’t true. He despised losing. He had only agreed to that bet, knowing it was a sure thing. Then that damn robot stepped in and ruined everything.
“How many of you have had your lives changed because of Kane?” he demanded. “Don’t be shy, raise your hands.”
Out of the fifty or so people he had managed to gather, most raised their hands. He wasn’t surprised by this. After his losing bet, Sorin kept an eye out for people who were affected by the changes going on there. While not all of them were likely to be suffering the same as him, the rest didn’t like the way things were changing any more than he did.
“We’re all drifters, we are no strangers to struggling for survival!” he shouted above the murmur of the crowd. “Yet we don’t see our fellow drifters struggling, do we? They grow fat and lazy off the teat of our robot overlord!”
His words stirred the assembled people’s hearts and he received shouts of agreement and words decrying Kane.
“Oh, sure, we can share in this bounty, if we bend the knee in supplication to Kane. I say, NO! We are drifters! We are a community! We came out here to be free of government intervention and oversight because every time governments get involved, it is the normal man who suffers. As drifters, we should be sharing resources when times are tough, not sitting back and watching our friends and neighbors struggle when we have a way to ease their pain!”
The words had whipped the room into a fervor and Sorin was about to continue his sermon when the doors to the room burst open and a dozen armed security guards along with Damien entered the room.
“Speaking of government overreach!” Sorin spat, changing his speech on the fly. “The head bootlicker and his cronies have just arrived.”
The room turned to glare at the new intruders.
Damien didn’t look at all moved by Sorin's words. The man coldly looked around the room, making a few men close to him flinch back. Almost everyone who had been on Eden’s End prior to Kane’s arrival knew what Damien was capable of in a fight.
“You can disperse, or you can spend the night in lockup, your choice,” the man stated dispassionately.
Before tempers could get out of control, Sorin spoke once more. “Do not let your emotions cloud your judgment, fellow drifters. Go back to your families and think about my words. We will speak again.”
The men filtered out of the room, giving the guards dirty looks as they did so. It was not unexpected considering the tension Sorin had purposefully fed into the crowd tonight. He knew Damien and his people were going to come and break up his gathering, and he wanted people to see them as the bad guys. He also noted some of the guards looked unsure, and he smiled internally at that. Perhaps not everyone who had tasted Kane’s forbidden fruit was lost.
Sorin was the last to leave the room, but a stun baton blocking his exit brought him up short.
“Not you,” Damien said. “You’re going to spend a few nights in lockup.”
“Oh?” he demanded. “And what law did I break?”
The shorter man narrowed his eyes at Sorin. There was a moment of tense silence before he lowered the stun stick. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”
Sorin snorted and walked past the man, making sure not to brush against him. That would just be an excuse for Damien to toss him in jail. Becoming a martyr for his movement might be a good choice, but not now, not when he was just getting started. He needed time to get people on his side. Until then, he would remain well within the asinine little rules this Council made up.
***
Damien watched the infuriating man walk down the hallway, his grip tightening on the handle of his stun stick until his knuckles went white.
This was the third time this week that he had been forced to break up these meetings since Kane had pointed out the growing discontent to the Council. He felt stupid for not seeing it sooner, but he saw it clearly now. Some of the people who attended them were the same individuals, but he was seeing more and more new faces among the assembled dissidents. And that’s exactly what they were, dissidents and troublemakers.
If it was up to him, he would lock every single one of them up until they came to their senses. Even though he was the head of Security, he couldn’t do that. They did not have any laws in place stopping people from gathering like this or having differing viewpoints against the Council.
Had this sort of thing happened prior to Kane’s arrival, Damien would have simply beat some sense into Sorin and called it a day.
***
A few days later the Council gathered, but not because it was their choice. Sorin had requested a meeting. Damien hoped the man was going to show up to apologize for his actions, but he somehow doubted that to be the case.
He glanced off to the side of the room where Gabriella and Sheila were having a hushed but heated conversation. He only caught a few words here and there. Something about ‘not being able to delay it’.
Damien assumed if he was meant to know what they were discussing, they would have asked him to Join or Gabriella would tell him about it later.
The door opened and Nancy stepped into the room.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said as she hurried over to her seat.
Gabriella and Sheila must have finished their conversation as well because they headed over to their seats as well.
“Since we are all here, and our guests have yet to arrive, I propose we enact a law to prevent gatherings meant to foment civil unrest,” Damien stated.
“No, absolutely not!” Nancy stated, “You’re advocating to prevent people from gathering and speaking out. Just because you don’t like what someone is saying, doesn’t mean you have the right to silence them.”
“As much as I despise Sorin, I’m going to have to agree with Nancy,” Sheila added.
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Damien grunted and turned to his girlfriend. If Gabriella agreed with him, at least they could push this issue to Alex for the deciding vote. The man wouldn’t overlook a problem of this scale. The look in her eyes told him that wasn’t going to be the case though.
“While I am all for upholding security and unity, I don’t think locking people up is the right choice. Do we even know why they are upset? Perhaps we should ask them first. If we can’t come to some agreement, and things further spiral out of control, then I will change my vote. Are we in agreement?”
The three women nodded and Damien grunted. “Fine.” He knew it was a long shot when he proposed it, but he hadn’t expected Gabriella to side with the other two. He wanted a tie so Alex would weigh in.
He thought they were making a mistake here, but he had been outvoted. He would discuss the problem with Alex and see what the man suggested they do.
Damien had finally gotten a meeting with the workaholic to discuss what issues he had uncovered. He should be there right now, but this Council session had been scheduled last minute.
A short time later, eight people entered the council chamber and stood in front of the four councilors.
Not being in the mood to lead this meeting, Damien let Gabriella speak. With her position as head of Medical Services, she probably had a better standing with the general populace anyway.
“We have scheduled this meeting at the behest of the people. Please state the purpose of your request,” she gestured to the group.
No surprise, Sorin stepped forward. “We want equal rights and access to amenities,” the man declared.
Undeterred by the man’s forceful tone, Gabriella replied. “You have access to housing, food, security, and medical services. What rights and amenities do you feel you are being denied?”
Gabriella and Damien both knew what the man was getting at, but she was forcing him to state it for the record. If he had been leading this meeting, he would have simply accused the man of being a lazy leech and demanding compensation that he wasn’t owed. That would have surely sent the little rats scurrying into their holes, ruining the entire purpose of this meeting. It was a good thing he was just a silent bystander during this meeting.
Damien cracked a small smirk as he saw Sorin bristle. That alone was worth remaining quiet.
“We want access to the advanced medical services, and all of the other luxury items we are being denied by Kane,” the pompous and self-entitled man demanded.
Gabriella gestured to a console on the far wall. “The job board is available for anyone on any console in the facility. None of those items are being withheld.”
The man turned back to her, red in the face. “That’s a form of control, and you know it. We have jobs, we can’t afford to be away from them to help Kane destroy our lives further.”
“If you don’t like the job board, speak with Kane. There is nothing this Council can do about what jobs and contributions are offered. Those are resources owned by Kane that he provided at a rate far fairer than you would ever see in the STO. If you would like to discuss other options that don’t involve the contribution system, we can do that.”
Sorin seemed to recover quickly from his outburst. Damien frowned slightly at that. The man’s actions reminded him of martial artists who tried to deceive you into thinking they were injured when in fact they were just trying to lure you in. One of Sorin’s people grabbed the man by the shoulder and whispered into his ear. The man pulled away from the hand after a bit but nodded.
“Fine. Since we are being restricted from these services unless we become indentured workers, we have a second proposal.”
Damien would have rolled his eyes if he wasn’t so on edge. They had relented far too easily for something they claimed to have wanted badly enough to host secret meetings.
“Go ahead and state your proposal,” Gabriella responded.
“We want an equal say in how things are run. For too long, the Council has unanimously decided the course of Eden’s End. They have not once taken any input from the residents on these decisions. That needs to change.”
“You want a council position?” Gabriella asked.
Sorin shook his head, making Damien relax a bit. Having him on the council would be a monumental disaster.
“We want four seats. Equal rights, require equal power.”
“Abso-fucking-lutley not!” Damien shot to his feet. “This is what you’ve been after since the beginning, isn’t it?” he accused the man.
“I’ve only ever been after fairness. And if your declaration is anything to go by, it seems like we never would have gotten it if we remained quiet.”
Damien was a moment from jumping over the table and throttling the man when Gabriella placed a hand on his arm.
With great restraint, he sat back down.
Once the room settled, Gabriella spoke up. “You want four council seats.” Her words were a statement, not a question. “And what aspect of life on Eden’s End will you be in charge of? We already have a head of agriculture.”
Sorin glanced over at Sheila but otherwise didn’t react to Gabriella’s words. “We are for the people, so our titles should reflect that.”
If he wasn’t so angry, Damien would have snorted at the man’s words. If Sorin wasn’t doing this for some self-serving reason, he would eat his shoes.
“You represent a portion of the populace,” Gabriella reminded the man.
“A larger portion than you do,” Sorin shot back.
“By those words, we might as well have four council members from the new refugees.”
“Maybe you should,” the man responded in kind. “We are not here to discuss what the refugees want, we are here to discuss our needs, and we would like an answer to our request now, not at some time that is convenient to you.”
Sorin motioned for three people in his group to step up.
“We all demand seats on the council immediately, no more will we be left out of critical decisions affecting us,” the three each responded slightly differently, but the wording was essentially the same.
It also sounded like an ultimatum to Damien, and he didn’t like that one bit.
The back and forth was getting out of hand. Luckily Sheila whistled loudly, cutting through the room and silencing everyone. “We know what they want, before we go any further, I say we take a vote. Do we approve four new seats for the present representatives of the traditionalists or not, which will go into effect immediately after the vote?”
Damien coughed into his hand to get the other councilors’ attention. Once he had it, he bent toward the three women and spoke quietly so Sorin and his people couldn’t hear. “You can’t seriously be considering this?” Damien questioned the woman. “Who cares what their demands are? Give them one seat, for now, that should make them happy.”
It looked like Sheila was going to say something but Gabriella shook her head. “We need to decide now. I don’t want to have this same discussion three more times or have to worry about what the other representatives might do if we deny them.
“So what?” he asked. “If they cause trouble, we’ll simply lock them up,” Damien stated flatly, feeling like he was missing something here. “What’s really going on?”
“We’ll talk about it after the meeting,” Gabriella stated before turning back toward their unwanted guests.
Something was happening and he didn’t like it one bit that he was being left out of a decision here.
When the vote was called, Nancy voted in approval, he wasn't surprised. The woman probably thought equal representation with a group of known troublemakers would get them to stop causing issues. Damien had his doubts about that.
Sheila looked on the fence, but eventually voted to approve the motion as well. That was a bit of a shock. The Head of Agriculture always came off as a rather practical woman. This decision seemed completely out of character for her.
Seeing a disturbing trend, he turned toward Gabriella.
His girlfriend glanced at him for a moment before clenching her jaw and speaking. “Having representation for everyone on Eden’s End is probably for the best. I vote to approve the four new seats.”
With that declaration, Damien’s vote no longer mattered. He still voted no, just to ensure his vote was recorded and to remind himself that he had done the right thing.
“The vote has passed. With that being said, I propose a vote for four more seats to go to the refugees,” she added before Sorin’s people even had a chance to celebrate their win.
The votes from the old council were the same, Damien being the only one to vote against more council seats. What nobody expected was for Sorin and the three new council members to vote against something they had suggested.
Damien had foreseen this issue beforehand, which is why he had advised the Council not to vote for four seats. It was clear that Sorin had created his own voting bloc, and now they could easily force votes their way or force a tie. The other councilors couldn’t have been blind to this possibility. Something was going on and he was going to get answers, but first, this change had to be reported to Kane.
Alex would not be happy when he learned of the Council’s choices, but the man had given them free rein to manage the residential population of Eden’s End as they saw fit.
The only time Kane actively got involved was when laws were passed, and a tiebreaker was needed, since this wasn’t a law, he did not need to be involved in the vote.
The four new councilors gave themselves the most pompous and self-aggrandizing titles they could think of. Sorin picked Head of Cultural Identity as his title, but the others were just as bad if not worse. Head of Civic Purity, Head of Judiciary Order, and the Head of Collective Consensus.
If the ridiculous titles weren’t enough to show Sorin and his group of sycophants were up to no good, the grin on the man’s face was.
As much as Damien wanted to shut this down here and now, his hands were now tied. Sorin and his people may think they won something, but once they started messing with Kane, they were quickly going to learn they had no actual power whatsoever. Alex may come off as rather passive and mild-mannered most of the time, but he was not afraid to step in and correct problems personally. Damien appreciated that about the man.
And maybe that would be for the best. The Council, while sounding like an ideal method of government, didn’t really work when most of the people on it didn’t wish to deal with the big issues. To be fair, Damien wasn’t fit for this sort of role either.
When this form of government had been proposed by the people, he had only agreed to the position to ensure the safety and security of Eden’s End. He could do that with or without being on the Council. The rest of the responsibilities of being the Head of Security for the Council are what kept him up at night and made him hate his life.
Damien would task some of his guards to keep an eye on the new councilors but he hoped his fears were ungrounded. It was time to bring this matter to Kane and find out why his fellow councilors had voted the way they did.
