“Settle down!” Sorin demanded to the room full of people.
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,” he continued, unbothered by the noise.
“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 that 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 the 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 for the worse 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 that. After losing his bet, Sorin kept an eye out for people who were affected by the changes going on. 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 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,” Damien 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 the 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.
That was the third time in a week that he had been forced to break up those 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 at each, 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 were 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 that or having differing viewpoints against the Council.
Had that sort of thing happened prior to Kane’s arrival, Damien would have simply beaten some sense into Sorin and called it a day.
***
A few days later, the Council gathered at Sorin’s request. 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’.
Neither of the women seemed happy with whatever they were discussing, but he didn’t butt into their conversation. Damien assumed that if it was something he should know, 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.
Seeing an opportunity, Damien spoke up. “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.”
“No, absolutely not!” Nancy stated, “You’re advocating to prevent people from gathering and speaking out. Just because you don’t like what someone has to say, 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.
Damien grunted in annoyance, but turned to his girlfriend. If Gabriella agreed with him, at least they could push for Alex to make the deciding vote. The look in her eyes told him that wasn’t going to be the case.
“While I am all for upholding security and unity, I don’t think locking people up for having a difference of opinion is the right choice. Do we even know why they are upset? Perhaps we should ask them first. Are we in agreement?”
The three women nodded, leaving Damien the odd man out. “Fine,” he grudgingly agreed. He knew the proposal was a long shot when he suggested it, but he hadn’t expected Gabriella to side with the other two. He wanted a tie so Alex would weigh in.
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He thought they were making a mistake by allowing Sorin to continue sparking discord, but he had been outvoted. Despite the vote, 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 after his request. He should be there right now, but the 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. Damien recognized most of them from the rallies.
Not being in the mood to lead the meeting, Damien let Gabriella take control. 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 responded evenly. “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 the meeting, he would have simply called the man out for 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 the meeting. It was a good thing he was just a silent bystander this time around.
Damien cracked a small smirk as he saw Sorin bristle at Gabriella’s question. 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 to strike. 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 weren’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 had settled, Gabriella continued. “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. “I can’t agree with four seats, not without knowing what they are planning. I say we placate them with one for now and see how things play out.”
“Why even entertain them at all?” Damien demanded. “Sorin is the head of the snake, we know nothing good will come of allowing one of his cronies on the council. Is something else going on that I should know about?”
“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 being left in the dark.
Gabriella cleared her throat. “The council has made a decision to vote on a single council seat for now. If that is acceptable, we can move forward with the vote.”
Sorin narrowed his eyes, but nodded.
When the vote was called, Nancy voted in approval, and Damien wasn't surprised by her choice. She was so averse to confrontation that she would vote on whatever choice led to the least friction. He couldn’t rightly blame her for that; a lot of the drifters felt that way, which is why they left the STO in the first place.
Sheila seemed to be 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. The 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 a single additional seat.
With that declaration, Damien’s vote no longer mattered. He still cast his vote, just to ensure his vote was recorded and to remind himself that he had done the right thing by voting against the proposal.
“The vote has passed,” Gabriella called. “Present your candidate for the seat.”
Despite Sorin claiming otherwise just a few minutes ago, the man stepped forward. “I will be taking the seat.”
His statement was met with applause from the people who came with him.
“Welcome aboard, Councilor Sorin,” Gabriella nodded curtly. “Now that the traditionalists have representation, hopefully, you will come to us to discuss any issues instead of hosting secret meetings.”
Sorin scoffed at that. “Until the traditionalists receive equal say in how things are run, we will continue to meet in private. I wouldn’t want our esteemed Head of Security to think we were up to no good. Then again, his decision-making is suspect at best, considering he is dating a criminal.”
Gabriella frowned at the statement, and Damien looked over at her in puzzlement, trying to figure out what the man was referring to. Before he could ask, Sorin continued.
“We will be taking our leave now. I expect to be notified of any council meetings in advance. If I find out you are meeting without me, I will not hesitate to point it out to my people.”
That sounded an awful lot like a threat to Damien, but Sorin turned and made to leave.
“What about our agreement?” Sheila called out, surprising everyone.
Sorin turned back, looking confused, but Damien could see the slight smirk on his face. “Agreement? I don’t recall ever making an agreement with you. I do admit that my memory is getting a bit spotty with age, though. Do you have a contract for this agreement?”
Sheila sputtered in outrage. “It was a verbal agreement, you prick!”
Sorin’s face darkened. “As if I would agree to anyone as vulgar as you. Good day, council.” The man turned once again and stormed out.
“Fuck!” Sheila cursed quietly before standing and hurrying off.
“What was that about?” Damien asked the woman before she could get too far.
Without stopping, the woman called back. “I have to get back to work. Have Gabriella explain it to you.”
Seeing that the meeting was over, Nancy also stepped out to avoid the inevitable conversation Damien was about to have with Gabriella.
“What was that about?” Damien asked.
Gabriella sighed. “You remember I told you that my old fiancé was abusive?”
The conversation was a difficult one, but Damien listened and didn’t interrupt Gabriella’s retelling. He also didn’t judge her for her actions. Lord knows he had done his fair share of violence that he regretted. It was one of the reasons he was so harsh on people who broke the rules. He knew how slippery a slope it could become. At least Gabriella had a reason for hers; most of Damien’s mistakes were based on greed or anger.
“Is that why you voted in favor of Sorin?” he asked.
She shook her head. “A man who threatens to use blackmail is not someone you should ever trust. I voted in favor of their request because I do believe the traditionalists need representation. I didn’t think Sorin would use that as an excuse to make himself a councilor. I have a feeling he isn’t going to be happy with only one seat instead of the four they originally wanted, but that would have been a foolish choice, even if he had a gun to my head.”
Damien bristled at the reminder that one of Sorin’s goons had tried blackmailing his girlfriend. If it wasn’t for Gabriella holding his hand right now, he would have jumped to his feet and stormed off after the man, repercussions be damned, but Gabriella knew that, which is why she held his hand comfortingly.
He took time to cool off before speaking. “You know we have to tell Alex, and he isn’t going to be happy with what we know, or suspect. Especially where it concerns the food seed.”
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