by Jerry Aubin
Zax looked over at the young civilian. The boy was siting a few meters away and had watched wide-eyed from behind Kalare and Aleron as Imair used the medkit to fix up the Boss and check out Bailee.
“Hey, Nolly—do you want to help me tear apart all of the workstations and storage lockers over there to see if we can find something to eat?”
A huge grin spread across the boy’s face as he popped to his feet. He had stopped clinging to Zax in favor of Imair once she appeared, but he seemed thrilled by the prospect of spending time with his favorite member of the Crew. Particularly if it involved an adventure which sounded both illicit and destructive. He sprinted off towards the far end of the cavern.
Aleron stood as Nolly ran off and called out to Zax. “You two check out the far side over there and I’ll search the storage areas on this side.”
It seemed curious that Aleron was trying to be helpful all of a sudden. He must be hoping to restore some goodwill with Bailee if he could be the one to discover food. Zax turned and jogged to catch up with Nolly. The boy had stopped running but bounced on his toes with anticipation. Zax had just about caught up to the young civilian when he saw that Kalare was similarly jogging after Aleron. Kalare wanting to be alone with Captain Clueless was even more strange than Aleron being useful and filled Zax with such consternation that he slowed to a halt to ponder the matter.
“Excuse me, sir. Why are you nice to me?”
Nolly’s question took Zax by surprise and yanked his attention away from concerns about Kalare. He didn’t have an answer so instead responded with a question of his own. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well, no one else from the Crew is ever nice to me. The man who was bleeding forced me to go out into that passageway all by myself. The other man with the white hair scared me by shooting his blaster right behind me. None of the other Crew we’re with have ever said anything to me at all.”
“I can’t speak for the officer or the Marine, but I’ll say that most of the other Crew never have an opportunity to work with civilians, so they might not be very comfortable around you. I’ve been working in Waste Systems for a year now, and you’ve always been super nice and helpful to me. It would be pretty bad of me to not return the favor, right?”
“Thank you, sir. I hope if I get to be in the Crew when I get older that I still get to work with civilians and don’t forget about being nice to them.”
The shock caused by Nolly’s statement nearly made Zax fall flat on his face. How could the boy think he could ever become a member of the Crew? What did the civilians teach their children? Zax had been taught for as long as he could remember how the original Crew were chosen due to being perfectly suited for the mission of commanding the Ship. Hundreds of generations worth of artificial breeding since then had focused on genetic optimization to reinforce their critical traits. Crew weren’t born through the genetic crapshoot of procreation and then influenced by whatever might happen while gestating within a woman’s belly. They were designed by the well-honed algorithms of the Genetics AI and then nurtured through birth within the ideal conditions of the Ship’s artificial wombs.
Civilians, by contrast, were allowed to breed however they saw fit once a female was given permission to have children. Whatever random attraction happened to bring together a man and a woman created offspring which were equally random. They supported the Ship in lower value roles like those in Waste Systems, but it was absurd to think civilians were capable of much more.
Zax debated whether he should be the one to help Nolly understand the proper distinction between Crew and civilian and what his future would hold, but he decided that was better left to whatever crazy system the civilians used for educating their offspring. Thankfully, the discussion was dropped altogether when the boy sprinted ahead and started yanking drawers out of workstations and dumping their contents onto the deck with wild abandon. Zax smiled at the boy’s excitement and set out on his own path of destruction.
The first few drawers Zax checked held nothing interesting, only random collections of paper and the various detritus which collects as someone does their job through the years. Zax couldn’t imagine working all day long in a place which looked so repulsive and smelled so vile, but obviously there were dozens of civilians who had no choice but to do so. The drawers of their workstations looked like their jobs were just as boring and routine as Zax’s.
“Check this out, sir!”
Zax walked over to where Nolly was holding a Crew slate he had found. The device would only work when activated by the biometrics of the owner, so Zax knew it was futile for a civilian to have stolen one. Away from its owner it was about as useful as a rock. There was no sense in risking additional trouble for the workers in this compartment beyond what they already faced because of the medkit, so Zax told Nolly to return the slate to the drawer where he found it and get back to searching.
They checked all of the workstation drawers without success, and then Zax and Nolly moved on to the storage lockers. After a few mins of rooting around Nolly called out excitedly.
“I’ve found some food, sir. It’s amazing!”
Zax’s stomach grumbled at the prospect of sustenance, and he walked to where Nolly stood in front of a locker. The boy pointed inside and Zax followed his gaze to a box of nutripellets.
“It’s nutripellets, sir, I LOVE nutripellets! They’re so amazingly tasty and filling compared to what we usually get in the mess hall. I know Imair is going to be super excited too. Can I be the one to tell her, please? Please?”
The only thing which would have been worse in Zax’s opinion than finding no food was finding nutripellets. The disgusting, chewy nuggets had sustained Zax for days at a time whenever he needed to keep his belly empty for repeated FTL jumps, but he had long fantasized about never eating another once he was Plugged In. Of course, that hadn’t worked out as expected. Zax sighed but took small solace in the amount of delight Nolly expressed. Zax signaled for the boy to grab the box and run off to Imair so he could announce their big find.
After Zax checked the last few lockers to no avail, he returned to where the group had spread out to wait. The others among the Crew must have felt the same antipathy for the nutripellets because the box, along with a pile of empty wrappers, sat between Nolly and Imair. Nolly had such a look of pure contentment on his face that Zax could not help but grin out of appreciation for the boy’s innocence.
Zax’s smile melted away when he noticed that Kalare was back sitting next to Aleron again. Even worse was discovering that they were engaged in an animated conversation which involved both excessive smiling and frequent laughter. Zax wanted to march over and investigate what was behind this disturbing turn of events, but movement in his peripheral vision drew his attention to the Boss. The Omega was unsteadily trying to stand as he barked a question.
“Why is everyone just sitting around?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Permission to speak freely, sir?
Imair bolted up to assist the Boss. “Sir—with all due respect you really need to rest for another forty-five mins. If the protective matrix doesn’t have a chance to completely gel, you’re just going to start bleeding all over again.”
The civilian tried to guide the officer towards a nearby chair, but he brushed her aside. She stood back only to pounce once more when he stumbled and nearly toppled to the ground. He accepted her assistance the second time it was offered and wobbled his way to the chair.
“Damn sedatives—they get me every time. If anything else happens and you need to use that thing on me again, make sure you instruct it to skip the anesthetic.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Boss looked at Sergeant Bailee who had stood when the Omega stirred but had remained a few meters away and kept a close eye on Imair’s interactions with him. “Sergeant—sitrep?”
“Situation is exactly what you see, sir. The medkit patched you up and we’ve been waiting for you to wake. Unless the boy has managed to eat them all, the
re are nutripellets if you’re hungry enough to eat those. Otherwise, we’ve got another forty-three mins until the medkit says you’re cleared for action.”
The Boss made a sour face at the suggestion he eat a nutripellet. “How’s your arm, Sergeant? Did you get that patched up while you were waiting on me?”
Imair started to open her mouth, but the Marine shot her a glance and she changed her mind. He replied to the Boss.
“I’m fine, sir. Thank you for asking. What’s the plan once you’re mobile, sir?”
“I’m thinking that through, Sergeant. Give me a few more mins to gather my thoughts, and then I’ll be looking for your input.”
Imair went to sit down, but stopped and addressed the Boss instead.
“Sir—I’m assuming this is your first chance to visit Waste Systems. I’m curious to hear your thoughts about it.”
The Omega stared at the civilian for a long moment. Zax assumed the man would react with displeasure about the woman trying to start a conversation with him, but he must have been still suffering from the aftereffects of the sedative because he eventually smiled instead.
“It sounds like there might be an ulterior motive behind that question. Is there something you would like to say to me?”
“Permission to speak freely, sir?”
“By all means. I suppose I can entertain a frank conversation in exchange for you telling us about the medkit.”
Imair paused for a moment and appeared to gather her thoughts.
“Sir, please take a good, long look around you. Accompany it with a deep breath. When we walked into this cavern, the two officers over there who are responsible for it immediately puked on their shoes. A group of civilians risked the severe punishment involved with stealing that medkit because this work area is so dangerous and toxic they felt they were left with no choice. Too many of their coworkers had died needlessly. Don’t you think an awful lot about this cavern would be different if it was Crew who spent their lives working here instead of civilians?”
It took all of his focus for Zax to prevent his mouth from dropping open in shock. Imair was outright challenging the second highest ranking officer on the Ship about her perceived slights around civilian working conditions. Sergeant Bailee tensed substantially, and the Marine’s finger tapped next to the trigger of his blaster. Kalare wore an expression which signaled she was struggling to stifle an inappropriate laughing fit. Aleron and the Waste System’s officers had pointedly turned away and were pretending to ignore the conversation. Nolly smacked his lips in blissful ignorance as he chomped on yet another nutripellet. The Boss’s eyes narrowed as Imair’s words sunk in.
“Those are some tough observations, but I appreciate hearing that feedback from you. The Omegas are always thinking about how we can make life on board the Ship as good as we possibly can for everyone—Crew and civilians alike. Unfortunately, we’re always faced with the challenge of balancing those desires against our precious and limited resources. Every gram of consumable mass we spend making the equipment here safer means one less gram which can be used for the fighters and ammo which protect the Ship. Every moment we spend improving this facility is one less moment we can spend caring for others which are more critical and often in even more dire need of maintenance.”
“I understand, sir, but it sure seems like the balance of those resources is tipped mightily towards the needs of the Crew. You should have seen the look on your face when the Marine suggested you eat a nutripellet. To you that is a disgusting fate not worth contemplating, while for Nolly and me it is a rare treat beyond measure. The boy would probably have been even more ecstatic about them if he didn’t already have an apple in his belly given to him by Cadet Zax earlier today. The cadet thought nothing about gifting a piece of fruit and was genuinely shocked to hear it was the first the child had ever seen in his entire life.”
Kalare gasped at that last line, and it also managed to catch the full attention of Aleron, Westerick, and Salmea. Apparently Zax wasn’t the only member of the Crew surprised to learn the civilians’ food situation was so different than their own. The Boss smiled, and Zax once again saw the full threat of the man behind the expression.
“Would you have us treat everyone on board equally? Who is more important to the Ship and its Mission—the lowliest cadet who is still wet behind the ears, or the most senior civilian in Waste Systems? The cadet, and it’s not even close. What good would be served if the Omegas degraded the effectiveness of the Crew one bit in an effort to make life more comfortable for you civilians? The next alien threat we encounter might finally be the one which overwhelms our ability to defend ourselves, and then we’re all dead. Or worse.
“The Crew is the Crew because we are the people who are best suited to command this Ship and fulfill its mission. We cannot let anything get in the way of that. Would things be better for civilians if we decided it was more effective to develop automation for all of the work you do and put the whole lot of you into cryosleep? Do you know how much time and energy is spent on the care and feeding of ten million civilians? An awful lot. And in return we’re thanked with behavior like what we’re dealing with today. Like what we’ve been dealing with for the past year. And countless years past when other civilian agitators stood up and tried to question the way things are done. The best and brightest minds on this Ship, descended from the best and brightest of Earth, have been running things just fine for five thousand years. That civilian who keeps getting on the vidscreen to blather at us—what gives him the nerve to think somehow he knows better? Why would any civilian in his right mind have the temerity to think anything like that?”
Imair was unfazed by either the man’s words or his tone and pushed ahead.
“You say things are running fine, sir? Look around us. Does this place look like it’s fine? Everywhere I go around the Ship it seems critical systems are nearing the end of their useful lifespan. You want to consider automating all of the work civilians do? We could pull another ten million people out of cryosleep, put them to work tomorrow, and the maintenance teams would still not be able to fix everything already broken—much less stay on top of the new breakdowns which happen every day. And you think you can somehow automate all of that away with the resources and technology we have available? The best and brightest of Earth may have designed this Ship, sir, but they weren’t smart enough to foresee its Mission would be measured in thousands of years rather than hundreds.”
Imair had crossed the line. The Boss tolerated her initial barbs, but his expression revealed she had finally pushed him past the breaking point. Having once experienced the officer’s full wrath, Zax feared for the civilian. Especially given the current circumstances where nearly any reaction by the Boss, up to and including ordering Bailee to just shoot her, could be easily rationalized. Before the Omega could speak, the image on the vidscreens around the cavern was replaced by a picture of Earth and a civilian’s voice emanated from them once more.
“Greetings to the Crew and my fellow civilians. I’ve come back to you with promising news.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Peace is at hand.
“Since we last spoke, I’ve connected with the Captain to work on an agreement that would allow us to move foward in peace. Although our discussions are not yet finalized, I’m confident they will soon be complete.”
Although the voice coming across the vidscreen was disguised to match the earlier one and the person was speaking as if he or she was indeed the same person, Zax was convinced it was someone different. Something about the vocal patterns was unfamiliar and didn’t match the earlier announcements. In the end, it didn’t matter who was talking on behalf of the civilians as long as someone was trying to put an end to the conflict.
“The Captain has requested access to the communication systems so her Crew can hear from her firsthand. Although we’ve blocked her ability to broadcast up until now, as a sign of good faith I’m going to open up a channel for the Captain now. But I will take a m
oment to remind her that if the statement strays from the parameters we’ve discussed, I’ll be forced to shut her down. Of course, such action on her part would also represent a serious setback to the negotiations we’ve all worked so hard to move forwards.”
The picture of Earth on the vidscreens faded away and was replaced with the Captain. Zax thought she looked as unflappable as always, though the scar on her throat seemed to be a little more vivid today than he generally remembered.
“I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to the civilians who my team and I have been speaking with in an effort to come to an agreement which will end this conflict.
“I’m pleased to announce that peace is at hand. Our negotiations are at least halfway complete, and I fully expect they’ll be completely wrapped up within the next 240 mins. During this time, I implore the Crew to avoid any conflict with the civilians. Get to a safe place and stay there.
“Though I’ll be very frank and say I disagree with their methods, after a great deal of discussion with their leader I have a far greater appreciation for the position the civilians have adopted. This does not excuse the violence which has occurred, but it sufficiently explains it.
“Where do we stand? The good news is that although there was significant destruction and loss of life in the period which immediately followed the FTL jump, there has been very little since. This has been a painful detour on the long path of the Ship’s Mission, but I believe we’ll come out the other end stronger for having experienced it.
“In closing, I would like to reiterate one more time. Peace is at hand.”
The Captain faded out and her image was once again replaced with that of the human spacecraft. Zax looked around and almost everyone seemed quite pleased at the news their ordeal would soon be over. The notable exception was the Boss who appeared troubled as he stood to speak.
