Renegades: Origins

by Kal Spriggs

  * * *

  Pixel stepped onto the bridge a few minutes later than he intended, but he held a pastrami and rye sandwich in one hand and a mug of hot apple cider in the other. “Hey guys.”

  “Wait… we have real food now?” Mike asked. The short Asian had an expression of pure lust on his face.

  Pixel tried to talk around a mouthful. He gave up after he nearly spat mustard and pastrami on the conference table. He swallowed and took a sip of cider to wash the rest down. He tried again, “Yeah, loads of food. Some of it pretty random though.”

  “We should inventory it all before we just go through it,” Simon said. “We could waste a lot of it if we just open stuff.”

  “Hey, that’s a good idea,” Pixel nodded. He stuffed the rest of the sandwich in his mouth.

  Simon frowned and stared at him. Pixel wondered if Simon wanted a sandwich of his own. Maybe he should have brought some for the others. Nah, then I’d be really late, he thought.

  “Well,” Mike said, “We can decide that during this committee, right?” Pixel caught the sarcastic edge in his voice. Then again, Pixel thought it sounded more like a sarcastic hammer or perhaps a mallet. Then again, with some of the team, it might not be enough to penetrate.

  “Excellent, I think that we should establish twice daily meetings to go over our agenda for the day and to review what we have accomplished,” Run the Chxor said. Apparently, sarcasm was not common among the Chxor. “In addition, I require a room set aside for my research, as well as three volunteers for vivisection.”

  “Noted,” Simon said dryly. “And on the subject of meetings, the reason I asked everyone in here is that we have something of a conundrum. We agreed to operate as a team, and to discuss our goals and plans ahead of time. Yet several team members have taken it upon themselves to make some pretty profound decisions on their own. These are decisions that affect the team and much more than that.”

  “I agree, ” Eric said. “Like the decision to head to 443C98, I figured we would just run towards the nearest human space. There’s no reason we have to take the long way back, right?”

  “I made that decision based off information from Ariadne,” Mike said. The short Asian pilot looked around at the group and Pixel saw his eyes narrow as he considered their reactions. “We didn’t have a lot of time and it seemed like the best option at the time.”

  “That’s the problem,” Simon shook his head, “You made the call, without asking anyone else. I can accept a chain of command if we establish one, but I don’t accept an individual making the choice for a group, not when he’s self-appointed.” Simon looked over at Ariadne, “Truth be told, if our navigator made the call on her own, it would make sense. But you said it yourself: she suggested it and you made the decision.”

  “Well, really I made the decision,” Ariadne said. She gave everyone a smile, “It really was the best option, I think. Especially given the dangers of jumping into a military system without any kind of knowledge of how we might be received or the very long route back to Colonial space.”

  “I think they both made the right decisions,” Rastar said. The big Ghornath had taken a seat in one of the Ghornath couches and he seemed absurdly comfortable. Pixel made note that once he had the chance, he should see if there were some way to adjust the couches for human physiology.

  “You would,” Anubus growled. The big Wrethe lurked in the back of the room. His deep voice and sinister emphasis startled Pixel. He had almost forgotten about the jackal headed alien. “You follow Mike’s lead like a stray puppy.”

  “Hey, man, that’s not nice,” Rastar said. “I just think-”

  “Let’s not start bickering,” Mike interrupted. “Clearly, mister by-the-book has an agenda he wants to push, so let’s move past the bullshit and we can see what he wants.”

  Simon gave him a sharp nod, “Personally, I agree with your decision. But I think we need an established chain of command. I think that we need to select a captain.”

  “A captain for the ship or a captain for the team?” Eric asked. He clearly seemed excited by the idea. Perhaps it was just his military training, Pixel thought.

  “Why do we need a captain?” Pixel said. He thought the last thing they needed was someone to tell them all what to do. If anything, he would rather just do his own thing and let them know about it later. The thought that any of the rest of them had the capability to judge his own efforts in science and engineering almost made him laugh. He rubbed his chin, yes, he should probably grow that goatee and work on his laugh. He tapped a note on his datapad.

  “I think we need a leader for the team,” Simon looked around at them all. “We spend too much time in discussion and, in the end, the individuals tend to do what they want regardless.”

  “I agree,” Mike said with a nod. “In fact… well, Simon might use my decision as a negative example, but I agree with him. A self appointed individual shouldn’t make the decisions. We need a charter or contract, and we all need to agree to abide by it, no matter who gets selected as captain.”

  “We know who will get that choice,” Anubus growled. “There can be only one obvious selection.”

  “I agree,” Simon nodded. “And I think we all have the same person in mind. Still, we all agree to abide by the decision?” He looked around and met everyone’s gazes.

  Pixel frowned when Simon looked at him, “I’m not good on this whole leader thing. I mean, what’s the limits? Do we have any way to appoint a new captain if the old one does something we disagree with?”

  “Of course a good leader does something you disagree with,” Eric said. “Military leaders have to make the best of bad decisions, some of which will lead to the death of their people. We can’t have a democracy, or we’ll have an election every day. If we select a captain, we do it until the captain can no longer serve.”

  “That sounds more like a king than a captain,” Ariadne said. “And though we have weapons and now a warship, I must note that we are not military. In fact, if our goal is to form some sort of militia, I think we should rethink that. I mean, we can do so much good if—”

  “A general election, among our team?” Eric cut her off.

  “Yes.” Simon nodded. He glanced at Mike, “And I thought that the captain would select officers, an XO, and so on and so forth.”

  Mike nodded, “Makes sense.”

  “But what about…” Pixel trailed off as the others stared at him. He wanted to tell them all the problems he saw, but he found his confidence fail, “Never mind.”

  “So we vote verbally?” Eric asked.

  “Of course,” Mike nodded. “And I assume just a simple majority of votes selects the captain, right?”

  “Yeah, but I feel pretty certain we know who this will go to,” Crowe said. “There’s one obvious leader in the group, but let’s get the showmanship over with.”

  Pixel looked around at the others. Each of them seemed certain they knew who would win, yet he felt no certainty himself. For that matter, given the choice of who he would elect as what amounted to the reigning tyrant, Pixel couldn’t say which choice he felt the least bad about.

  Eric killed the Chxor prisoners and he caused the primary weapon mount to explode within five minutes of when he came on board, Pixel remembered. Mike had a tendency to micromanage, to the point that drove Pixel almost insane as he had to stop and explain every detail of his engineering efforts. Simon did not seem to know anything at all about ships beyond a basic knowledge of how to use sensors and communications. Rastar seemed like a decent enough fellow, but he knew less than Simon about ship operations. Anubus would probably kill them all…

  “Alright, let’s put this to the vote,” Simon nodded. “I’ll start it off. I think we all agree that the crew and ship needs order and rules.” Pixel saw Mike and Eric both nod. “Therefore, I vote for myself. I have the experience in organization to get things straight.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Eric asked.

  “What?” Simon looke
d at him sharply, “Of course I’m not kidding, I’m the obvious choice in that regard.”

  “Maybe not as obvious as you thought,” Pixel said lightly. He flushed as Simon and Eric both glared at him. “Hey, I’m just saying. Don’t we have a vote to continue?”

  “We do,” Anubus growled. “And I for one say that the obvious choice is the strongest and most powerful of the group. I vote for me, and I dare any of the rest of you to challenge me.”

  “You do know that command by threat just means someone will try to kill you, right?” Mike asked. The pilot voiced one of the comments that Pixel had refrained from voicing earlier.

  “Someone will try anyway… best to get it out of the way,” Anubus growled.

  Rastar slapped Anubus on the back, “Hey, Annie, come on man, you know we love ya.” The big alien managed to get his hand back before Anubus’s jaws snapped closed, but not by much. Rastar gave a slightly nervous chuckle, “I think that the obvious captain for a Ghornath ship is a Ghornath of course. I mean, this ship rightfully belongs to my people and any of them we encounter will want to make sure that they are properly represented. So I say I am the obvious choice.”

  “Right, well, I vote for the one person in the room with enough military experience to matter,” Eric said. “I was a senior NCO and I know the fundamentals of tactics. I vote for me.”

  “Ground tactics,” Crowe said. “Which is not the same thing as space tactics. And you blew up the main gun when you tried to power it up. Pixel even warned you not to mess with it. I think we can safely say that you lack the right credentials.” Crowe looked around at the group, “I can’t believe no one has realized me as the obvious choice. I haven’t failed at any task yet, and I’ve the ability to plan ahead far better than any of the rest of you. You’d be lost without me at the helm. I vote for me.”

  “This is crazy,” Mike said. “We get no where if everyone votes for themselves.” He glanced around. “To break this stupid deadlock, I vote for Ariadne. She’s a skilled navigator and we can all agree that she has concern for the crew.”

  “No way!” Ariadne shook her head, “You will not saddle me with that job.” She looked around at the others frantically. “Look, I respect your feelings about this, but I’m the wrong person for that job. I vote for Mike.”

  “Your behavior is illogical,” Run said. The little Chxor shook his head. “Your self interest blinds you to the fundamental choices you have received. To go with an emotional and inferior species is to limit yourself to mere mediocrity. The obvious choice is the one member of the crew whose intelligence, logic, and superior reasoning skills have made the difference for our continued survival. Therefore I say that I should be the ship’s commander. I will of course accept the rest of you changing your votes to my favor at this time.”

  “Good luck with that,” Eric said. “I will change my vote though, I vote we space the little twerp.”

  “Noted,” Simon said, “but we’ll table that particular discussion.” He looked over at Pixel. “Well, you’re the deciding vote, it appears. Whoever you vote for, as long as it’s not yourself, will be the captain.”

  Pixel looked around at the others. He felt sweat break out all over his body. “Yeah…” He took a deep breath. “I don’t think this whole captain thing is a good idea. But if we have to go down this road, I think a deadlock is the best thing, it forces everyone to really think about this. So I’ll abstain, in the interest of forcing some thought into this.”

  “Really?” Crowe shook his head. “That’s what this comes to?” He looked around, “I can’t believe that no one else voted for me. Look at everything I’ve done for you guys!”

  “Um, what have you done for us?” Ariadne asked.

  Crowe scowled at her, “A lot, freaky mind girl, that’s what. Or would you like to try to program a translation into the ship’s computer yourself?”

  “Well… since we have a deadlock, can we decide on the other stuff we need done in the meantime?” Pixel asked. “If we’re just going to set here and bicker, I’ve got some work to do.”

  “Right,” Simon said. “I think it best if we do a complete inventory of the ship.”

  “We should talk to the other prisoners, learn if any of them have useful skills that’ll help out, and most of them have nothing else to do besides help,” Ariadne said. “I’m sure they can be a big help. And that will make them part of our crew, build up morale, and…”

  “And, if any of them are dangerous, give them full access to the ship,” Eric said.

  “Which is why we’ll interview them,” Mike answered. “Ariadne and I can handle that, unless anyone objects?”

  “I will inventory the armory,” Rastar said.

  “There’s an armory?” Eric asked. “Where?”

  Pixel brought up the schematic on his data pad, “Second deck, near the elevator to the bridge.”

  “I’m there already,” Eric grinned, “let’s wrap this up.”

  “Right, any other business?” Mike asked.

  “When do we have the next election?” Simon seemed resigned more than anything else, Pixel thought. The former policeman’s shoulders slumped a bit as everyone looked to go off in their own direction. Pixel didn’t understand that. As an engineer, he knew machinery worked best when designed and controlled, but from his experience, people worked the opposite way most times. Or maybe that was just how he worked, either way, he didn’t see the problem with the current plan. Hopefully he could show that to the others.

  “We’ve got three more days,” Mike said, “Before it really becomes an issue. I suggest tomorrow night. That gives us long enough to organize and establish a chain of command afterward, and some time for people to state their case before hand.”

  “Right, great, political parties,” Eric grimaced.

  “This election will be won by the person who understands the motivations and interests of the other crew,” Run said. “Clearly that will be myself.”

  “You just asked for volunteers for vivisection,” Eric noted.

  Run nodded, “And as captain, I would require none of you to volunteer.”

  “Your generosity warms my heart,” Mike said. “How can you lose?”

  * * *

  Pixel decided to stop by the galley again before he returned to the engine room. He found a group had gathered there. He saw no sign of the bread or the pastrami he had left out. He looked around the galley and gave a sigh at the mess that some of the passengers had made. He saw a dozen boxes and bags torn open. He also saw a pile of trash next to the recycler, which made him shake his head. He didn’t mind clutter, but that kind of slovenly mess made him angry. The ship seemed so clean. Why couldn’t the others keep things clean?

  Pixel turned around to find Simon and Run. Simon turned an interesting shade of red when he saw the mess. Pixel decided that discretion would be the better part of valor and slipped past him before the other man exploded. Not that he didn’t want to watch, Pixel just felt no desire to get caught up in that level of drama. Besides, Pixel had work to do.

  Pixel pulled up the schematics on his datapad and as he stepped out of the galley, chose a different route back to the engine room. He highlighted a couple areas where auxiliary systems machinery sat tucked away. I should probably check those out on my way through, he decided. He took the stairs down and then opened a small hatch and took a narrow ladder down to the lowest deck. Pixel stopped at the first area. He toggled open the engine space and stepped inside. He gave a low whistle, “Oh, man.”

  He had not had the opportunity to get with Rastar yet to translate the Ghornath text. So until he opened the door, he had no idea what he might find, beyond engineering systems. And his expectation had proven false, to an extent. This was not, strictly speaking, an engineering system. It was a sensor system, unless he missed his guess. He saw the twin beryllium spheres suspended in the electrode solution in the crystoplast tank. He gently caressed the outside of the casing. Clumsy human hands could come no closer the de
licate piece of machinery. The two superdense cores inside the beryllium would react to minute changes in gravitational force, fine enough that in conjunction with others scattered around the ship they could triangulate the location of planets, astral bodies and even other vessels.

  Pixel remembered the theory from his classes in applied gravitational astrophysics but for most of the Colonial Republic, such tech remained just that: a theory. He thought about how difficult just the creation of the superdense cores would be. It required gravity induction forging according to everything he had read. That required tremendous levels of power and better control of gravitational forces than anything he had ever seen outside a lab. “Very cool.” Pixel made a note on his data pad. He would have to come back and check this out later. He couldn’t help but think, Jack would find this fascinating.

  But Jack had betrayed him. More than that, his best friend had died in the process. Pixel lowered his datapad. He felt suddenly far less interested in this new toy. What fun was it without someone to share it with? Why could he not get along with people as easily as he did machinery?

  Pixel stepped out of the compartment. He tapped in commands on his datapad and walked towards the next compartment. Yet even as he did so, he wondered why he bothered. His pursuit of science seemed so empty without someone to discuss it with. As much as he loved to figure out new technology or how to apply old technology in new ways, he didn’t feel free to do that. Part of that lay with the others. Mike seemed eager enough to see some of that, but only in ways that directly applied to their escape. Eric seemed fascinated only with weapons. Anubus didn’t seem to understand or care about anything besides power and the ability to kill. Simon seemed far too driven by his rules. Crowe… had a wealth of knowledge about computers, communications, and sensors but he seemed to view that knowledge as a weapon or tool.

  Of the others, he thought that Ariadne and Rastar would indulge him in his studies, but neither seemed particularly interested in them. Oddly enough, only Run struck him as someone who would share his passion for research and experimentation. Pixel still felt too nervous around the Chxor to even talk with him.