Becoming Chosen

This is the Way of the Chosen

Gods of Earth, teach us

Here is the sacred knowledge

Gods of Earth, we will preserve the knowledge

Live as an example for all the Chosen

Gods of Earth, see us

Keep these commands, always

Gods of Earth we remember

The Chosen Litany of Faith

When Miri had started sharing the true mission with her fellow Chosen, she hadn’t thought they would insist on her being their leader. Anna, as she often did, managed to make her feel stupid for this failure.

“What did you expect? You were the one to kick the mule hard enough to get it started, now you are the only one it will listen to.”

As annoying as she was, Anna had become her second. She might give Miri a world of grief in private, but in public she was like the trees of her habmo, steadfast, strong and immovable. The fact was, Miri would have put up with the annoyance from twenty of Anna, if twenty could be had.

Instead she was saddled with the new Elders, and another ten of the Most Righteous as her council. For a people who all believed the same thing, it was stunning how little they seemed to agree on anything. Which meant everything was a negotiation, done in a meeting. Meetings were all Miri felt like she did anymore.

The new Council had taken over the Meeting Hall. The blond wood pews had been removed and tables and chairs brought in. It certainly made it more comfortable, but Miri was starting to think it was too comfortable. Idly she wondered if having the chairs taken out would make the meetings shorter.

Probably not, they’d just sit on the floor and talk, and talk and talk some more. Right now, the argument was about how to make a stand against the oppression of Nesbit. The ideas were just so dumb!

“It’s simple,” said Elder McDunna, a raw-boned man from Habmo6. Miri remembered him as a judge at the cart building. “We outnumber the Tech ten to one. If we move as one against them, they can’t stand up to us.” There were a lot of bobbing heads showing their agreement at the table.

“Oh, aye,” Anna said, her voice hard, “And then what Elder? What do you know about antimatter? Or electronics? Or keepin’ the Breath Sucker at bay? The Tech train their whole lives to do the work they do. Do you really think we can learn it in an instant?”

McDunna opened his mouth to speak, but Anna cut him off. “There are other problems. As Miri tells us there is only the one elevator to the Tech levels. And they control it. Let’s have no more talk of silly ideas.”

That put the cat among the chickens. Everyone at the table had an opinion and tried to voice it at once. Miri let it run for a bit. Better for them to get it off their chests all at once. Finally, she’d heard enough. Miri picked up her wooden cup and banged it sharply on the table three times.

“Fightin’ the Tech is not the way to win this. Our problem is not with all the Tech, just Nesbit and his cronies. We must put pressure on him to resign as Captain.”

“And what pressure can we bring?” asked McDunna.

Miri didn’t know, but saying so wasn’t an option. But she didn’t have to.

“Food,” said the quiet voice of Elder Delhim. The old man had been a voice of reason from the first day. Everyone looked at him to see if he had more to say. “These Tech, they don’t grow any food. No meat, no grain, no vegetables. The excess we grow has always gone to them. It seems to me that if they started to be hungry, it would make it hard for Nesbit to hold out.”

A rare silence followed as everyone thought about it. It was the first workable idea they’d had all day, so Miri jumped on it.

“That could work. But it has to be all of us, and it has to be coordinated.” There was a general agreement. Still there was always one, wasn’t there?

“But we get things from the Tech for that food. Medicine, tools, repair of our machines. How will we do without that?” whined Carlos Alvarez, one of the Most Righteous on the Council.

“Do you have pig shit for brains? If we don’t do this, then the Tech will rule us for all time! Try to keep the Gods mission in mind!” Delhim said with quite thunder.

Miri held up her hands to stop the argument before it devolved even further. “Carlos has a point. We can’t do this if there are doubts. What happens if one of the habmo’s starts tradin’ again? Then we have shown our opposition, but backed down. Resolve, my fellow Chosen, we must have the resolve of our ancestors if we are to prevail. But we can’t just order it, that’s never been the Chosen’s way. If this is the plan we’ll follow, it falls on everyone here to convince the rest of their habmo’s.”

It was one of Miri’s biggest frustrations, not being able to travel to the other habmo’s. The armed guards in the Town had begun to ask every Chosen they saw if they knew where Miri and Ronan were. They were even armed with pictures. Any attempt to move to from where she was, would surely end with her in Nesbit’s hands.

“We don’t have much time, Most Righteous Blaylock,” Elder Byron, the new Elder from Miri’s home. “The anger that the Elder were killed is growin’ among the younger Chosen. I fear some will soon take matters into their own hands.” More nods.

“Right, then this is what we should do,” Miri said briskly. “Everyone here will go home. Talk to as many in your habmo as possible. Make sure they are behind our cuttin’ off food to the Tech. Use it to keep the hot heads quiet. If they must do somethin’, have them practice fightin’. It’ll keep ’em occupied. Gods of Earth know, we’ll probably need them before this is over. Do we have an agreement?”

As the Council always seemed to do when she put something forward, they agreed with her. It always caused a small stab of pain in her stomach when they did.

“So, three days from now, assumin’ the other Chosen agree, we will stop our food deliveries. As always if there are problems or concerns, come see me and we will adjust as we need to. Now if you all will excuse me, I have another group comin’ to hear the words of Foster Delhim.”

There were no more objections and the Council quickly made their goodbyes. In a few minute’s it was just Miri and Anna in the Meeting Hall.

“I don’t know how you keep your cool with that collection of boneheads,” Anna said as she ran her hands through her hair. “They get right up my nose, say true.”

“Do you think it will work?” Miri asked. Anna was one of the few she let see her doubts.

“Aye, at first. But we canna push without gettin’ pushed back. These Tech will not quietly put up with us starvin’ them. It will come to a fight eventually. And you best have your next move ready. I doubt they’ll give these windbags time to talk it to death.”

Miri nodded glumly. It was exactly what she was worried about. “Things would be so much easier if we could talk to the other habmo’s without someone goin’ there.”

“Well, that’s your pet Tech’s job, no?”

Miri sighed, “I wish you would stop callin’ him that.”

“I’m sure you do. Still, he has been workin’ on it for a while. When will we have it?”

“I’m afraid it’s one of those things easier said than done.”

“Ah, so it’s a Chosen job. Tough luck for the little Tech.”

Miri wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of seeing her annoyed. “And he’ll keep on it, just like a Chosen would. But I have a job for you. You’re right, we are goin’ to fight, at least some, at some point. I want you to start puttin’ together teams in each habmo. Find the hot heads and then put someone with a brain in charge of them. I only want them to start breakin’ heads when I say, not before. Aye?”

Anna smiled a fierce smile. “Now ye’re walkin’ in my woods!”

Damon Nesbit was sitting in his own senior staff meeting. He was not pleased with how it was going. Not pleased at all.

“Captain, I understand your desire to start the deceleration process,” said Fuel Production Chief Jager. “But it is not as simple as pushing a button. There are many, many safety checks that must be done. After all the main engines have not been fired in nearly six hundred cycles.”

“How can they not be ready?” Nesbit asked, acid in his tone. “What has Fuel Production and Surface Operations been doing all this time?”

Jager sat up very straight, and coldly stared into Damon’s eyes. “With respect, Captain, sir, we have been following the Way. And we will continue to do so.”

Damon heard the unsaid ‘as long as I am Chief’. It would be so satisfying to relieve Jager here and now, but Damon knew he had to wait. Once deceleration had begun, well, as Jager was always pointing out, working with antimatter was dangerous, and accidents do happen.

“Very well, Chief Jager,” Nesbit said, his tone conciliatory. “You are our expert in this regard. Still I must insist on your team making every effort to be ready as quickly as possible.” When Jager opened his mouth to speak, Nesbit raised a hand to stop him. He knew what he was going to say. “With safety as the paramount concern, of course.”

“Aye, Captain,” Jager said. It was the only acceptable answer to an order. He even managed to keep his tone and face neutral. To Nesbit, that just increased his potential as an adversary. They seemed to be everywhere lately.

“If there is nothing else?” Nesbit asked in a perfunctory way to end the meeting. As he began to rise, Chief Anderson spoke up. The Captain managed not to sigh as he sat down again.

“Sir, I’ve a request from Ami Sunderland’s parents. Her mother is a Supervisor on my team. They would like to see their daughter.”

This was the last thing he needed. Nesbit wished he had just had Ferro finish her off. It seemed that keeping her alive just meant more problems.

“Request denied. Sunderland has continued to hide Candemir and Blaylock. While I understand her parent’s concerns, the safety of the ship must come first. As soon as she gives us the location of Captain Collin’s killers, I will revisit the issue.”

It didn’t go down well, he could tell by their lack of expression. None of them would contradict him, not in a open meeting. “As Chief Jager pointed out, there is a lot of work to be done before deceleration. You are dismissed.”

The senior staff stood and filed out of the room. When the door closed, Nesbit hammered his hands against the conference table several times. Rust and Ruin! He was surrounded by traitors and potential traitors. How dare they fail to respect him? They were diminishing the office of Captain!

Nesbit took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair, trying to regain his composure. The door chimed. Finally, someone he knew was loyal to him and him alone!

“Come in, Ferro.”

The door slid back, and the huge Lieutenant eased his way into the conference room.

“You were watching?” Nesbit asked, knowing the answer. As much as he would like to, there was no way to bring Ferro to senior staff briefings.

“Yes,” Ferro said in his surprisingly light voice. “Of the two, I think Anderson is the most dangerous. He resists you without giving any cause for you to remove him.”

“You are having him watched, yes?”

“Yes, Captain, but it is difficult. I have no informant’s senior enough to be with him all the time. Even with access to the cameras, my teams can’t watch him constantly. There is not enough coverage. I have a proposal to fix that, but it will take time.”

“It will have to wait. Once we have access to the Sealed Archives, we will have technology beyond anyone’s imagination. Then we can move on our enemies.” Ferro seemed a little disappointed.

But Nesbit had something to make him happy. “In the meantime, I want you to have Sunderland’s parents watched, and watched closely. Anderson wouldn’t have brought up the girl if they hadn’t been pushing him. They won’t be able to keep their mouths closed when they hear their request has been denied. The minute they say anything against me, I want them in a cell down from their daughter.”

“I understand, Captain. If I may say so, putting them to the question might loosen the girl’s tongue.” The two shared an evil smile at the idea.

Chiefs Anderson and Jager had left with the rest, and had not walked out together. Yet as the crowd walked towards their assignments, they drifted to the back. Eventually they were the only ones walking in that section of corridor.

Anderson had been keeping careful track of where the camera’s and crew were, and when he was sure they were unobserved, he spoke.

“Still think things are fine?” he asked.

“The Captain seems a little agitated, yes, but nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Jason! How can you be so blind? When have we ever had a security division? When have we ever held crew without contact?”

Jager shrugged. “When has a Captain been killed? Nesbit is under an incredible amount of pressure. Collins’ death, and the start of deceleration. New Captains take time to settle in, and he is doing it in crisis. We need to give him time. We owe it to Captain Collins to support his replacement. This you know. It is all part of the Way.”

“Is staying in the ship when we arrive part of the Way too?” Anderson asked, in a tense whisper. “I know that bothers you as much as me.”

“A problem for another day, old friend. There are twenty cycles between now and the implementation of that plan. How many plans have you made and abandoned in that amount of time?”

Anderson shook his head. He wasn’t going to convince Jager today. But then the Fuel Production Chief had never been one to make snap decisions. None of the men and women who worked with antimatter did. It was a survival trait.

“Maybe you are right, Jason. But we need to keep our new Captain from going too far, while he settles in.”

Jager put his hand on Anderson’s shoulder. “I am sure it won’t be necessary, but I’ll watch. You worry too much.”

“I’d worry a lot less if I thought you were worrying more.”

“Ha! I do worry, but it’s about firing the engines. And trust me when I say I am worried enough.”

The light tube was cycling down, slowly turning red, drenching the wooded landscape with scarlet light and deep maroon shadows as the day came to an end. Miri was speaking with her friends Solange and Farhi when Ronan walked up. His grin told her he had some good news. Which she could definitely use.

“I can’t believe what you’ve done,” Solange gushed, for what seemed like the thousandth time. “I’d be scared to death leavin’ the habmos and the Town, but you actually left the ship! And brought back a boy from the Tech! It’s so romantic!”

Had she ever been so shallow as her friend? Miri knew she’d changed since running away, but was it really that much? Solange kept focusing on the wrong things. She just didn’t take the revelations from the Book of Elders and Miri’s experience seriously.

Miri had a horrible realization. This was how the Elders and adults saw the youngsters. Which meant she must have been at least somewhat like Solange. It was too close to home to think about.

“It’s not nearly as romantic as it sounds,” Miri said. “Surface walkin’ was interestin’ right up to the point where I damaged my suit and nearly died. The rest? Well, I was just doin’ one thing after the other, not really thinkin’ about it.”

Solange looked deflated by the answer, but Farhi nodded. She was always quick of mind. Miri hoped she’d been more like Farhi than Solange.

“How bad will things get?” Farhi asked.

“Could be very bad. If Nesbit stays in command, there’s no limit to what might happen.”

Ronan came and joined them.

“Farhi, Solange,” Miri said, “This is Ronan Candemir, of the Tech. Ronan, my friends from Habmo3.”

“Good to know you both,” Ronan said, offering his hand. Solange stepped up first to shake his hand. Miri noticed that his grin faltered a little under the hungry look Solange gave him.

“I’ve never met one of the Tech before!” Solange told him enthusiastically. “Can I ask you some questions?” Before Ronan could answer Solange had slipped her arm through his and was leading him away. It was hard not to laugh at the panicked look he threw her over his shoulder. Miri gave him a comforting smile and waved.

When she turned back to Farhi, she caught the end of a huge eye-roll. Miri’s sprouting political skill had kept her from doing the same. But when she saw it, she shared a giggle with her old friend.

“Our Solange, she never rests. She’s probably scoutin’ out prospects among the Tech boys.”

“A seed always grows into the plant it was meant to be,” Miri quoted to her.

“Aye, so it does. But I do have a question for you. What can we do at my workshop to help?”

“Keepin’ Chosen like Solange focused on our problem is a big part of it. But we will need weapons to fight with, at some point.”

“That’s easy enough; axes, sharpened hoes. Bows, like the foresters use too.”

“Those are all good, but I’d like to try to avoid killin’, if we can,” Miri said. “In the end our goal is to live with the Tech, find the new world and establish a colony. Anyone we kill will have a relative who blames us.”

Farhi thought for a second, a frown on her face. “Well, if you’re willin’ to have a few broken bones, there are a lot of things we can do. Staff’s, clubs, maybe something like the rice flails they use in Habmo5.”

“Those all sound good, but remember we don’t have much time. If you can convince the Most Righteous at your workshop to work on things that can be ready in a few days, that’s probably best.”

“Oh, I don’t think that will be a problem,” Farhi said, a wicked smirk stealing across her face. “Not when the request comes from the Most Righteous Miri Blaylock herself.”

Now Miri rolled her eyes, “Rust and ruin! Don’t you start with that! I get enough of it from the Elders.”

“Best to get used to it. Like it or not, that’s what you are now. But Solange and I will be around to keep you from gettin’ above yourself, never worry,” Farhi said, then swept her into a big hug. “Now I’d better go collect Solange, before she trips Ronan and pairs with him right here.”

Miri watched as Farhi put her words into action. She felt a little nostalgic. Yes, Solange was a bubble-head, but part of Miri wanted to be that carefree again. Was this growing up? If so, only the Gods knew why anyone would want to do it.

Ronan came over to her after the two young women had left. “Well, they seemed nice.” Feeling in a mood to tease, Miri just raised an eyebrow and said nothing. It was a trick she’d picked up from Anna. It worked like stink on a pig.

“Though that Solange is intense. I felt like a steak, and she was looking for where to make the first cut.”

“Chosen girls can be like that. Did she suggest pairin’?” Miri asked, keeping her voice as neutral as possible. Ronan blushed a bright red. Score!

“Ah, no. No. Um, I would have turned her down,” he sputtered.

Miri laughed, then took pity on him. “You looked a lot happier when you walked up. Did you have somethin’ to tell me?”

Ronan took the shift in conversation in stride. He really had learned to read her. “Not tell, show!” he said as he dug in the heavy shoulder bag he was carrying. He pulled out several tablets. “I raided these from the entrance we came through. I finally figured out how we can use them to talk to the other habmo’s without the bridge seeing.”

“Gods of Earth be praised! You are amazin’!” Miri told him taking one of the tablets.

Ronan’s smile dimmed a little. “Well, we can use them until Nesbit figures it out. Sometime after that, they will find my code fix and remove it. I wish Ami were here. She’s a lot better at that kind of thing than I am.” He dropped his gaze as he thought about the trouble his friend was in.

Miri put an arm around his shoulder and gave him a comforting squeeze. She was worried about the Tech girl as well. “We’ll make it a priority to have her released. The Council has decided to stop tradin’ food with the Tech. It will give us some leverage.”

Ronan looked up to her. His expression was worried. “I don’t know if that will work. The senior officers, they might rally around that rust patch Nesbit. It might make him stronger. And if they do, we had better have a back-up plan ready.”

Miri frowned, ending trade had seemed like such a good idea. “If bein’ hungry isn’t enough to make the officers turn on him, what would be?”

Ronan shook his head. “I don’t know. It would take something like a threat to the ship. That is the only priority higher than loyalty to the chain of command.”

It was like a punch in the stomach. It made everything seem so hopeless. The Tech didn’t have weapons any more than the Chosen did, but who knew what kinds of things they could adapt?

Most of the Tech had never met anyone from the habmo’s. It wouldn’t be very hard to convince hungry people to come and take what they needed. No matter what the cost.

And there was no forgetting how ruthless Nesbit could be. Maybe a fifth of the Chosen actually grew food. He could kill most of them and still have enough to keep the Tech fed.

Miri let her gaze wander. She couldn’t bear looking at Ronan right now. How would she tell the Council? The ringing of a blacksmith at work attracted her attention. Through the open door she could see the forge being pumped up by a couple of sweating apprentices. Blue flame danced over the coals.

Then the idea came. It was huge. It was desperate. Could she really gamble everything? Could she be more ruthless than Nesbit? Because that would be what it took.

“Gods of Earth help me,” Miri breathed. She turned to Ronan. “I think I have a way. But it is all or nothin’. Will you stand by me?” she asked, nearly pleadingly.

“Always,” Ronan said, worried.

Miri’s mind was moving faster than she’d ever known. It could be done, but she needed to be able to show everyone on the ship. The Tech as a whole needed to know what was going on. They had to know what was at stake, not just Nesbit.

“Can you make it so that every screen an’ intercom in the ship broadcasts the same thing, all at once?”

“Uh, probably. I don’t know how long I could keep it like that, why? What are you going to do?”

“Threaten to destroy the ship.”