by Jordan Rivet
Chapter 3—Leaders
A WEEK LATER ESTHER walked to the council meeting with her father, Simon. There was a bustle in the corridors typical of the hour after the shift change. People greeted them enthusiastically as they passed. Public opinion had warmed to Simon again during the water crisis. He had kept everyone calm until Esther and the others brought help on the Lucinda. Now he was standing straighter and moving with a greater sense of purpose than Esther had seen in years.
“How’s the progress, Esther?” Simon asked. He’d gotten a haircut recently, and he wore his green scarf loose around his neck.
“I’m almost finished building the big separator based on my prototype,” she said. “So far the biofuel is working out. I’ve rigged it so the extracted oil will go straight into the refinery some of the guys from the Galaxy helped me set up. I should be ready to fire up the big engines by the end of the week. I want to finish before Judith has a chance to trade away all of this year’s salvage.”
“That’s great,” Simon said. “I didn’t realize things were so far along. You could visit me more often.”
Esther cringed. Technically, she still lived with her father, but she had been staying in the bowling alley or in the Mermaid Lounge with her friends more often than not.
“I mean to,” she said. “You’ve been busy, though.”
Esther was glad her father was back on the council. It was good for him to be occupied, and it helped to loosen the chokehold Judith had enjoyed for years. But that wasn’t the only reason she had been spending time away from him.
“Are you sure this isn’t about Penelope?”
“That would be childish,” Esther muttered.
“You’ve barely said two words to her in the last month. And I know you’ve been sleeping in your workroom. You should come home. Get to know her a little better.”
Simon had taken his relationship with their neighbor public after Esther’s return from the Galaxy. He’d said something about the crisis making him think about how short life was, as if any of them needed that reminder. Penelope Newton, the woman Esther had always thought had a few screws loose, now had her father’s attention and public affection.
“You two need your space,” Esther said.
She banged on the door to the bridge and pushed it open before her father could answer.
The bridge stretched the full width of the ship. Rows of computer consoles occupied the room, though most had been silent for years. The engine control room in the bowels of the ship was also shut most of the time, unless they needed to move in an emergency. The bridge itself was Judith’s headquarters. She and Manny, her second-in-command, ruled the ship from here while the Catalina drifted. The only other person who worked here was a morose woman named Ren, who still wore her faded officer’s uniform from her early days as a navigator employed by the cruise line.
The floor-to-ceiling windows at the front of the bridge showed a solid blue sky. Judith stood silhouetted against it with her hands on her hips. Her ash-blond hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail, her body all angles and edges. She looked annoyed as usual.
Most of the council had already assembled. Serving on the council was a rotating duty, one that was supposed to be shared equally amongst all the adults on the Catalina. In recent years people had grown apathetic, and the council had fallen into a pattern: Judith chaired the meetings, and everyone pretty much agreed with what she said.
But the encounter with the Galaxy Flotilla had shaken things up. Suddenly, Judith didn’t have quite as much control as she wanted. Dirk was the instigator of most of her troubles. As soon as he learned about the council’s structure, he had insisted on joining immediately as the representative for the former Galaxians.
Dirk leaned against the foremost console, his muscular arms crossed over his chest. He was a big man, in his fifties, with coal-dark skin and deep worry lines in his forehead. He still wore the coveralls that had been his work uniform on the Galaxy Flotilla’s oil tanker, but he had unbuttoned the top part and tied it around his waist, revealing a thin black T-shirt straining over his muscles.
The man talking to Dirk was slightly younger but nearly as large. He had thick curly hair with hints of gray, and three-day stubble on his chin. Reggie headed up the hull repair crew on the Catalina. He was one of Esther’s good friends and was popular with most people on the ship. His turn on the council had begun a month ago. He got along well with Dirk, and they had come to represent the hard labor crews. The friendship between Reggie and Dirk was where the fractures in the Catalina’s community had really begun to appear.
An elderly woman with a steel-gray bun sat in a rolling chair from one of the computer consoles. Mrs. Cordova led a faction of her own: her large and influential family. There had been a Cordova family reunion on the original Catalina cruise, so after the disaster the whole clan had been marooned together. Over the years they had added an entire third generation. Mrs. Cordova, the matriarch, had extended her term on the council by volunteering to take her son-in-law’s place. One of her daughters was up for the council next, and everyone assumed that Mrs. Cordova would be filling in for her too.
“Just because the new water system is more efficient, doesn’t mean we should throw our resources around like confetti,” Mrs. Cordova was saying when Esther and her father entered the bridge. She was pontificating to two other council members. Both elderly former Catalina passengers—a man and a woman—they were firmly in Mrs. Cordova’s camp.
“You’re right,” said one of her sycophants, an older woman with shaky hands and wispy white hair. “We should stockpile. What if the system breaks?”
“Exactly!” Mrs. Cordova said. “It has happened before. It’ll happen again.”
The trio looked up as Esther and Simon joined the group. “It’s about time,” Mrs. Cordova said. “We’ve been waiting.”
“Apologies, Rosa,” Simon said genially. “Thank you for your patience.”
“Let’s call this meeting to order,” Judith barked. She glared at Dirk and Reggie, who were still talking. “Anytime, gentlemen.”
“Hold your seahorses, woman,” Dirk said. “Aren’t we still waiting for someone?”
Judith scowled. Esther had seen her make that face plenty of times before.
“David Hawthorne asked to be part of this discussion,” Judith said, her voice razor sharp, “but if he can’t bother to show up on time . . .”
“Afternoon, everyone!”
David sauntered into the room. As usual his clothes were pressed and his hair perfect.
“Nice of you to join us,” Judith grumbled.
“Mrs. Cordova!” David said. “So lovely to see you again.”
He took Mrs. Cordova’s hand and bent over to kiss it. She blinked and giggled. David greeted her two companions, then shook Judith’s hand formally. She gave him a sharp nod. Next, David turned to Reggie and Dirk. He took an extra second to clap Reggie on the shoulder, but he shook Dirk’s hand every bit as formally as he had shaken Judith’s. Finally, he smiled and nodded conspiratorially at Esther and Simon. Esther couldn’t help feeling that the order and manner of David’s greetings had been carefully calculated before he arrived.
“Okay, first on the agenda: Esther,” Judith said. “Why don’t you tell us what this is all about?”
“Oh . . .” Esther studied the feet of the council members. She should’ve known Judith would get right to the point. “Well, I’ve been working on a separator, and now that it works I—”
“Hold on a minute,” Mrs. Cordova said. “What does this contraption separate exactly?”
“Right. Let me explain,” Esther said. “You know how there has been way more algae on the sea lately. Well, algae has a lot of oil in it, and that oil can be converted to biofuel to power diesel engines. The trick is to separate the oil from the rest of the plant so it can be used. Before the disaster, people were working on this apparently, but they used chemicals, and we didn’t have the right ones on board. Well, I’ve
figured out a mechanical way to do the separation and refine the oil into biofuel. I’ve made the process highly energy-efficient, the same way I modified the desal system. I can run the machine with a battery-powered motor—so, energy that comes from the turbines and the windmills—and produce a lot of oil for the amount of energy required.”
Esther looked around expectantly.
“In short,” Simon said, “Esther has made it possible for us to move freely.”
“Yes, we can produce enough fuel to run the propulsion system,” Esther said.
Silence reigned in the bridge as the council members took in the news. They had been drifting at sea for a very long time. Esther glanced at David, but his face was impassive as he studied the others.
“You mean we won’t need to trade for oil anymore?” asked Mrs. Cordova’s male companion finally.
“Right, but we still need enough power to run the separator,” Esther said, “and we need the algae of course.”
“But there’s plenty of that to go around,” Reggie said. “We can’t get rid of the stuff on the hull fast enough.”
“Yes,” Simon said. “The algae has been growing faster and faster over the past few months. I believe this is due to the temperature changes. You’ve all noticed it’s getting warmer. It’s also possible something in the volcanic ash settled into the seas and made them more hospitable to the fast-growing plant. We don’t have anyone on board with the expertise to tell us for sure, but we do have a rather brilliant mechanic who has allowed us to take advantage of this phenomenon”—Simon put a hand on Esther’s shoulder—“even if we don’t fully understand it.”
“Way to go, mate,” Reggie said. “I knew you’d come up with something eventually if I kept sneaking you parts.” He grinned at Esther.
Judith shot him a dirty look. “Yes, well done, Esther. Now, is that all?”
“No,” Esther began, glancing at David again. He stood casually between her and Dirk, arms folded. “We’re getting to the Amsterdam soon, and this new technology is going to change how we trade with them. First of all, we won’t need any crude. And we should think about how we’re going to share the technology with the other ships.”
“My proposal,” David cut in smoothly, “is that we should sell the separator idea. I’m sure you all know how valuable it is to have an energy-efficient method of travel, especially one as innovative as this. I’d be happy to handle the arrangements—”
“Hold on,” Judith said. “I don’t think we should distribute this system to anyone. You’ve done well, Esther, but the technology should stay with the Catalina.”
“Why not just give it away?” Esther said. “You know how this technology will change things. It’d be pretty self-serving to keep it.”
“Need I remind you, Esther,” Judith said, “that we’ve acquired a rather dangerous enemy in the form of the Galaxy Flotilla? You stole their ship and a group of their citizens. We have to protect the Catalina above everything else. The best way to do that is to keep any advantages to ourselves.”
“I agree with Judith in part,” David said, smiling at her with all of his straight white teeth. Judith was unmoved. “I’m fairly certain the Galaxy captains decided not to chase us when we got away on the Lucinda because it would waste too much fuel. It was a simple cost-benefit analysis, but that doesn’t mean they won’t cause problems for us later on down the line. That’s exactly why we should sell the technology. We have the opportunity to make ourselves some powerful friends.”
“The Catalina is better off without friends,” Judith said. “I think your ‘friends’ on the Galaxy proved that, don’t you? And if we release the technology to anyone else, the Galaxy might get their hands on it.”
“Another option would be to produce the biofuel and sell it ourselves,” Simon said. “We’d control the means of production at least.”
“Absolutely not,” Judith said. “We cannot expose ourselves to regular contact like that.”
Judith had always kept the Catalina as isolated as possible. They only met with the Amsterdam once a year out of necessity.
“You can’t just close yourselves off from everyone,” David said. “Where will we get parts in the future? I’m sure Reggie can tell us that the raw material we have on board this ship won’t last forever.”
“The problem is rust and salt,” Reggie said. “Simple as that. Everything is going all rusty and salt-corroded. If we can’t trade for new shit to patch things up, eventually we’re going to lose the hull.”
“You are correct,” David said. “We need to think about the future.”
Esther frowned. David was walking a thin line. He wasn’t even one of them—not really. He seemed a little too eager to help the Catalina for someone who was planning to leave it. Still, David’s plan could work, and she had been trying to improve their quality of life. He was right about one thing: the Catalina was falling apart. Rust and corrosion were taking an ever more exacting toll. They needed to increase their access to resources—and not just energy—if they were going to sustain their way of life.
Simon was studying David, but Esther couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “If you try to sell it to only one party, you may gain enemies,” he said after a moment.
“That’s true,” Esther said. “Wouldn’t we make more friends by giving the technology away?”
“This isn’t a question of friends,” Dirk said, speaking for the first time. He was definitely a man who picked his moments. “This is a question of power. We’re talking about a replacement for crude oil. That’ll change the world. We just became the most powerful ship at sea. I say we keep it for ourselves.”
Judith stared at Dirk, apparently surprised that he agreed with her.
“But there’s still the question of other material,” Mrs. Cordova said. “All the oil in the world won’t matter if we can’t repair our hull.”
“And weapons!” said her male companion. He was retired navy and a member of the ship’s seldom-used explosives crew. “We’ll need to defend ourselves if the Galaxy comes calling.”
“Will you at least allow me to try?” David asked. “When we reach the Amsterdam, I can do some market research and see if we can’t get an auction going.”
“Not so fast, Hawthorne,” Dirk growled. “Aren’t you taking the Lucinda away? You don’t have a stake in helping the Catalina. And I haven’t forgotten that you were best friends with Captain Boris back on the Galaxy.”
“Those days are over, my friend,” David said. “I’ve—”
“You’re no friend of mine.”
David missed a beat, his polished demeanor wavering.
“Esther, it’s your invention,” Simon said, interrupting the two men before they could take the conversation any farther. “What do you think we should do?”
Judith threw up her hands. “This is not Esther’s decision.”
“It’s her design,” Simon said.
“I’d like to give it to anyone who wants it,” Esther began.
“Mrs. Cordova,” David said suddenly. “What do you think? Many Catalinans look to you for wisdom and guidance. I’d love to hear your opinion.”
Judith pursed her lips. David had shifted to the right as he talked, closer to Dirk. He faced Mrs. Cordova’s chair, as if offering a supplication to her. David had somehow managed to change the focal point of the entire room. Despite Dirk’s provocation, he still wore the smooth salesman’s face that had infuriated Esther when she first met him on the Galaxy Flotilla. As her friend Paris on the Galaxy had put it, David Elliot Hawthorne was too eloquent for his own good.
“I think we need to look after our children,” Mrs. Cordova said. “I say sell it to the highest bidder.”
“I’m still in charge here,” Judith said. “I won’t have you going off with Catalina property—”
“We’re on the council too, remember,” Dirk said, his voice a low growl. “Aren’t we all part of the Catalina community?”
“You’re still stranger
s here,” Judith said. “You only represent a small percentage of this population. Don’t overstep your bounds.”
“Is that right?” Dirk said. “Reg, do you agree that I only represent a small percentage of the population?”
Reggie studied the grease patches on his hands. “As much as I hate to speak against Judith”—she snorted at that—“I reckon Dirk understands what we’re about on the work crews.”
“We’re all one crew on this ship,” Judith said.
“Are we?” Dirk said. “That’s what you want people to think, but you’ve been calling the shots. Maybe it’s time for someone else to step up.”
Judith inflated like a puffer fish.
“Look, it’s my design,” Esther cut in.
Everyone turned to look at her. She hadn’t meant to speak so loudly, but she didn’t like the way the conversation was going.
“It should be up to me.”
“What do you want to do?” David asked, turning his full attention to her. It was amazing how he could suddenly make her feel like the most important person in the room.
“Let me think about it,” Esther said levelly. “I’ll let you know soon.”
“Fine,” Judith said. “But I will handle all other negotiations as usual.”
“I’ll come with you,” Dirk said. “To make sure the whole population is represented.”
“Of course,” David said. “Esther, I look forward to your decision. We could come out of this with some real allies. We need them.”
Esther met his eyes. He didn’t smile this time, his serious face at odds with his earlier breezy tone.
“We have more to discuss today, so if the noncouncil members don’t mind?” Judith said, looking pointedly at the door.
“Sure. See you later, Dad,” Esther said, relieved that she could go.
“It has been a pleasure,” David said, shaking hands all around again. “I do hope to attend future council meetings when the opportunity arises.”
Esther caught Judith rolling her eyes as she and David turned for the door.
Chapter 4—Communications
