Although many had received the plan with enthusiasm, some had preferred the old layout and a few had downright refused to part with the houses they had built with their hands; houses that had seen children born and parents, husbands or wives die. It soon became clear that what were shabby huts to some, were palaces of dreams and memories to others. This had sparked furious debates. Despite the fact that the majority repeatedly voted in favour of the plan, the affair had dragged on for years before finally getting implemented, leaving a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth. There had been angry accusations of inefficiency, leading to many demanding a way to push through decisions in a swifter manner. The affair had split the community, and the wound had never fully healed, Croix knew. Reminding them of that debacle ensured that many would take a more favourable look at his argument.
He pursed his lips. “I’m not suggesting we create a dictator, of course.”
Nervous laughter met his words.
“The captain will simply propose new laws, and the council will vote for them. All I’m saying is that this will allow you to focus on enjoying your life instead of having to gather here every other day for endless debates.”
People started murmuring, and he gave them a stern look for a moment, before continuing. Now for another nudge. “On another note, I’ve heard many of you complain about some court decisions. I, too, am uncomfortable about any system that gives a single person ultimate power over life and death.” Barrett twitched on her seat, as if the chair were made of pins. Take that, bitch.
“Wouldn’t it be better to have a second arbitrator as well, making sure that everyone has a second chance at being heard? What if a justice has an off day? Wouldn’t it be in everyone’s best interest if someone was there to notice it?” He stole a look at Barrett and almost laughed at her hard, ashen face. Then he glanced at people’s troubled faces. He had confused them. That was good: confusion was his ally.
“Therefore, I propose that the captain has a final say on these matters. Just as a precaution, of course. One would hardly ever need to question our good justice’s decisions.” He noticed with satisfaction that people now started murmuring their arguments. “Finally, as we all know, we’re not alone on the planet.” He had to shout to be heard over the commotion. “We saw the monster that attacked us when we first arrived.”
Lucas started to protest, but Croix cut him off with a dismissive wave of his hand. As there had been but a handful of people around at the time and the captain had been incapacitated, it was Croix’s word against Lucas’ on what had happened. By now, the majority of people believed that Croix’s bravery had saved them from an unprovoked attack by savage monsters.
“Sure, they’ve left us alone so far, but how’re we to know this is not because they’re gathering their strength, preparing for an all-out assault – perhaps even as we speak? You’re busy ploughing your fields and raising your children, while an unseen enemy is making plans to wipe us all off the face of this planet.”
He paused to examine their stunned faces. This, too, was good: fear was an even better friend than confusion. “Shouldn’t we have procedures in place for such an event? And that’s just one of the dangers surrounding us. We simply don’t know what we might face in the future. Yes, we’ve been lucky so far. But are you willing to stake your lives – no, your children’s lives – on our luck holding out?”
People twitched and covered their mouths with their hands. Might I even make someone faint? No? Perhaps in a little while…
“I’m not suggesting anything new. In times of crisis, there has to be one person responsible until the crisis is over. On a ship, that’s the captain. Can you imagine what would’ve happened if during the accident we had to co-ordinate our actions with committees and secretaries?” They nodded. It’s time for the final push.
“Therefore, I propose that the captain is solely responsible for keeping peace in the event of a catastrophic event. Just until the crisis is over,” he was quick to reassure them.
His words pushed the nervous crowd over the edge. Someone shouted, another one pushed, and before long, loud arguments broke out. Barrett and Lucas rushed into the crowd, yelling. Richard pulled Croix’s sleeve, but he shoved him off and continued talking, shouting to be heard over the clamour.
“That’s what I’m talking about, people! That’s exactly what I’m talking about…”
He raised his arm to motion the Armbands into the crowd, waving their wooden clubs, their eyes fixed on his hand. When it dropped, they attacked.
Lucas
The small assembly read like a regular who’s who of their community, with Joe, Richard and Barrett sitting around a small table. Katie sat down next to Lucas. She had discovered her cooking talents on the planet, acquiring quite a reputation among their friends. They had gotten married five years after that first fateful meeting at the crash site. She touched his hand, making a forced smile appear on his face.
The dinner on their plates would have been wolfed down any other day, but now everyone seemed to have lost their appetite, playing with their food. Everyone but Joe; having spent much of his life as a poor farmer, he never let a good meal go to waste. Only the crackle of a small fire in the corner and the sound of Joe’s wooden spoon attacking his clay plate interrupted the quiet of the small, dark room. Lucas was the first to break the silence.
“Thank you all for joining us tonight. I thought it’d give us an opportunity to discuss last week’s riot.”
The riot. That is what Croix called it afterwards, minimising his and the Armbands’ role in it. Mercifully, no-one had died, although a great number of people had been injured. Still, the physical damage was nothing compared to the wedge it had driven among the survivors. Croix had presented it as an affront to both Lucas and the memory of Captain Kibwe, and as an unfortunate proof of the validity of his arguments. Lucas had been surprised at how many supported Croix. Most had been frightened enough by his words to trust him and his new army with the city’s safety. They called themselves Loyalists to display their loyalty for their late captain and, by extension, his erstwhile first mate. Lucas felt pretty sure Kibwe would have resented that, but the man’s statue was unable to protest.
“What can we do? The man will surely come to his senses.” Joe shrugged, then let out a content sigh as he put into his mouth the last spoonful of pumpkin soup with honey and the tangy yoghurt they were experimenting with.
Barrett twitched on her chair to pull out of her pocket an e-lib. “Will he? How many e-libs are left now?”
“I assume all of them,” Richard said in a soft voice. “Unless you mean how many are left out of Croix’s hands, in which case the answer is I don’t know. Maybe a handful?”
“Am I the only one who refused to give it?” Barrett asked, placing the thin glass frame on the table. “My e-lib contains all the legislation from Earth. Without it, there can be no justice,” said Barrett.
“Sure, but what about his Armbands?” Richard asked. “What will you do when they come to your house? You all know what happened to Fred.”
The old man had tried to stop the boys from entering his house. In the scuffle he had hit his head. He was now in the hospital, and Croix had used the incident to declare unlawful any attempt to interfere with the Armbands.
Lucas drummed his fingers on the table, holding his forgotten spoon in mid-air with the other hand. “Do they even have the right to enter your home like that? What does the law say about this?”
Barrett leaned forward to pick up her e-lib. She tapped on it with nimble fingers, a bemused look on her face. “Whose law? With his amendments voted in, Croix dubbed this a crisis and dissolved the City Council. His word’s now law. So, does that make his actions legal? I have an e-lib filled to the brim with legislation. Any law passed by man, from Hammurabi’s code to twenty-first century common intellectual property rights is in here. Thousands of pages dealing with mergers and acquisitions alone. What good does that do us here?”
Shaking he
r head, she plonked the e-lib back on the table. “On a ship, the captain’s word is law, yet the law’s nothing more than people’s beliefs in what’s right and wrong. As these change, so does legislation. So, what is law? Law’s just people’s preconceptions and common sense put into rules. The law’s what we make of it. Tyrants use it to rule and citizens as protection against them. The worst atrocities have been committed by men believing they were doing what the law, religious or otherwise, required of them.”
“That’s not –” Joe started, but she would not be stopped.
“A nation’s worst shortcoming is when courts uphold the letter of the law instead of serving justice. Man’s natural state is one of cruelty. Only faith in justice can help us overcome this. The first rule of justice is that the law must always be balanced with compassion. Law without compassion allows men to be as cruel as their worst nature. It’s no better than tyranny.”
“Law needs to be strict if it’s to be obeyed,” Joe interrupted her.
“Yes,” Barrett said, “but what kind of law? Allow me an example. A king dreams that a baby boy will destroy him. He orders a general to abandon it in the wild. The general delivers it to a shepherd instead, who raises it as his own –”
Joe rolled his eyes. “Seriously? A fairy tale?”
Barrett’s face tightened. “Actually, it’s told by Herodotus. The story takes place around 550 BC. The king was called Astyages. Now if I may continue…”
She looked around her, but no-one spoke. “As I was saying, when the king discovers this, he punishes his general with unusual cruelty. Not only does he have the general’s own son murdered, but he also serves his body to his father during a banquet. Would you call this justice, Joe?”
He scoffed. “This is ridiculous.”
“Would you?” Barrett insisted, glaring at him.
Joe shrugged. “The general should have obeyed his king. He’s only got himself to blame.”
Katie blushed with anger, while the others looked at him wide-eyed. “What are you saying, Joe?” she rasped. “That it’s OK for everyone to make up their own laws? That we have to obey them, or they’ll murder our children? That’s not law, that’s evil!”
Joe grinned. “Is it? What is evil anyway? It’s considered evil to kill a man, but we’re encouraged to do so in war. In Barrett’s story, the king’s deed is only evil because the boy died so young. Had he died at an old age, it might have been considered natural. And people might consider his death a good thing if he were a criminal. So even death’s not evil in itself. Is there truly evil in the world, or does an action become evil simply because it happens at the wrong time or place?”
Katie’s face turned an even deeper red; she seemed about to have a stroke. “Are you –”
Joe cut her off with his hand and continued. “Anyway, that’s not the point. I grew up a poor farmer’s son in India. I can’t even remember how many times my family almost starved to death. Do you know how we survived? By obeying my father. He made us do things we were not proud of, evil things you might say, but we stayed alive. That’s when I learned my lesson. We must do whatever it takes to survive. Find a strong leader and follow him, that’s my advice. Croix has proven he can be that leader, so I say we let him lead.”
Katie drew a deep breath and Lucas squeezed her hand to calm her down. Barrett spoke before she had a chance to respond.
“Before all this madness, we’d been talking with Richard about starting our legislation from scratch. I believe we all agree that help is not going to arrive after all this time?” She looked around her and everyone nodded. “Then, we agree: we’re probably spending the rest of our lives here. So, I propose we put forward a motion to start our legislation afresh, to write our own Declaration of Independence, so to speak. A constitution to guide us and our children through the days to come. The problem with our legislation is that it’s too detailed and complex. That makes people come up with tricks and ways to ignore it. The more the prohibitions, the more the law-breakers. That’s why law only needs general principles. Judges shouldn’t worry about the letter of the law. They must focus on people’s actions: do they comply with the spirit of the law? I mean, God only gave mankind ten commandments to follow. So few, you may say. And yet, if everyone followed half of these, we wouldn’t be in the sad state we’re in.”
“That’s great, but what if Croix refuses?” asked Katie.
Barrett stroked her e-lib to remove an invisible smudge. “Croix proves how desperately we need a constitution. But that can’t help us now. Even if we accused him of breaking the law, who’s gonna arrest him? We have no police – except for his henchmen.” She raised her eyes and looked at them. “My friends, make no mistake: we now live in a dictatorship. How the hell did it come to this?”
“Even more important, what are we going to do about it?” Richard asked.
Joe looked at the baffled faces around him. “Am I the only one to think this is crazy? Before we do anything rash, can’t we try and reason with him? I’m sure the man’s not the monster you all seem to think.”
“There can be no reasoning with a madman,” Richard retorted. “We should–”
Lucas raised his hand to stop him. “Joe is right. How about the two of us go and talk to him before we do anything drastic?”
Barrett and Richard exchanged uneasy looks. “He has broken every law I know,” she said. “I can’t let him get away with it.”
“Sure, and how’re you going to convince him to surrender?” Richard asked.
Instead of replying, Barrett returned to her preoccupation with the invisible blot on her e-lib. Katie looked away while Lucas rubbed his temples, lost in thought.
“So, we’re all agreed the two of us go and talk to him?” Joe asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
“Well, you can go if you wish” said Richard. “Me, I’d rather make an army first. If push comes to shove, I want to know I can defend myself.” He turned to Barrett. “Jenny, I need your advice on this. Will I be breaking the law?”
She sighed and looked up from her e-lib. “I don’t know, Richard. I really don’t know. Let them talk to Croix and see what happens. In the meantime, you do what you must. Speak softly and carry a big stick, as the saying goes.”
They kept talking well into the night, breaking up their gathering long after midnight. Katie cleaned up the table while Lucas did the washing up. It had been their agreement since moving in together. She was a great cook, so it made no sense for Lucas to try that, but he took pride in his washing up, now possible to do indoors thanks to running water, his pride and joy. He placed the leftovers into a wooden barrel for the chickens to eat and spent a minute staring at it with unseeing eyes. His next project would be a plastics factory, he decided.
Katie saw his troubled look. “Are you worried?” she asked.
He knew she was not referring to the plastics or the leftovers. With an absent-minded look on his tired face, he rubbed a dark spot on the clay plate in his hands, until it disappeared under his fingernails.
“Yes. Very,” he said in the end.
Croix
When Croix first heard that Lucas and Joe wanted to talk to him, he was drinking from a gold goblet, almost choking. He had expected Barrett and Walker to be the ones to kick up a fuss. Unless they were all in it, of course. Together. He now saw he’d have to proceed with extreme caution. They’d want to undo everything he had accomplished. They were a great threat, just as the whispers had warned him.
At first he considered refusing to see them. Then again, it’s always better to keep your enemies close. He had not accepted right away though; first, he needed to learn more. To make the necessary preparations.
It had taken him a week, but everything was now in place. He sat relaxed on his chair, leaning back, hands locked behind his head, waiting for them. The door opened and a young boy with a black armband showed Lucas and Joe in to his office.
“Thank you,” he said, and the boy saluted before marching out o
f the office. Turning his attention to his visitors, he beamed a wide smile at them. “Welcome, my friends! Always a pleasure to see you!” He stepped out from behind his desk to shake their hands with both of his, noticing Lucas’ split-second indecision.
He motioned them to sit down in front of his oversized desk. Lucas seemed tense, an uneasy look on his face, while Joe’s features were more relaxed. “What can I do for you on this fine day?” he asked when they had sat down.
Lucas threw Joe an uneasy glance before answering. “Thank you for seeing us, I know you have a very busy schedule.”
Croix circled his wide desk to sink back into his chair with a heavy sigh. “Not enough hours in the day, I’m afraid. But that’s to be expected when one’s responsibilities never end. I’m sure you know how that feels. You’ve both been among our most helpful citizens, working so hard for our survival. We owe you a great deal of gratitude. I’m sure Joe’s statue will be standing right next to yours in no time, Lucas.”
He grinned at them, which seemed to make Lucas uncomfortable. He enjoyed that, letting the awkward silence linger for a moment. Again, Lucas broke it first. Joe had never been one for words and seemed to be there for moral support alone.
“Well, we wanted to talk to you about what happened at the ceremony.”
“Yes… Such a sad affair. It pains me terribly to see people act like that,” Croix said, a deep frown crossing his brow.
“They didn’t so much act as react, actually. It was your Armbands and your speech that started it,” Lucas blurted out.
Pearseus Bundle: The Complete Pearseus Sci-fi/Fantasy Series Page 113