The Constant Star (80)

THE STORY SO FAR

The bodyguard has his own trained on them and slowly shakes his head. Realizing they are outmatched they put the guns on the table and slide them across, where the man retrieves them. Macy grins in victory, “My dear Council, what an honor it is to be invited among you. I am Diana, and as promised I have hunted you down in order to…Wait. Where the fuck is Mars?”

63

Bear falls into the car of the grav-rail, then crawls to the nearest seat. The doors close and the machine begins to move. The security has reset and the small amount of Rebellion forces are either dead or surrendered to the automated weapons. The resident scientists are still afraid, and no security troops have yet made it to the Needle. The scenery starts to blur as he continues to accelerate; he has not heard word from Siff or the Council, and that concerns him. He reaches into a pouch and gives himself a shot of adrenaline, “Hold on Siff, I’m coming. Hold on.”

“So you’re telling me, you let that crazed lunatic run around and set up the self-destruct sequence?” Siff can hear the anger growing in Macy’s voice. She smiles: finally something Macy didn’t see coming. The enraged aggressor continues, “Okay, we’ll just have to do this the quick way instead. You’re going to grant me a new position on the Council, equal to yours, as representative of the Lower Levels. But first, you are going to give me the access codes to Janus’ AI so I can divert that lunatic from destroying all of humanity.”

“I don’t think so.” Siff’s mother stands and walks to the end of the table, “You think you have a bargaining chip, but you really don’t.” She looks Siff in the eye and glances to a nearby console, “Oh don’t look so frazzled Diana. We can fix this. But I know that we’re the ones with the leverage here.”

“You have nothing Saturn. I’m the one holding the gun to your head.” Macy tosses a small device onto the table and a screen is projected to head-height. It flickers for a moment then shows an image of the room with the faces of Saturn, Pluto, and Diana clearly visible, “Now I’m projecting this conversation on screens across every level. What happens in this Council meeting will be visible to every person on this ship. Change will happen today, and it will happen now.”

“What you don’t understand is everything falls in behind the mission to me. To all of us. And we would rather have humanity eradicated than risk the destruction of the universe by allowing you power on this Council.”

“Well, that’s a bit melodramatic. I see where Siff gets it from.”

Siff is using this distraction to shuffle her way closer to the console her mother directed her toward. A blood trail from her gunshot wound follows her on the smooth flooring.

“I wouldn’t say melodramatic. Just committed to a cause higher than myself.”

“And you think abolishing slavery and giving voice to the oppressed is going to destroy this mission?”

“You don’t have what it takes to be a leader on this Council. You are selfish and violent, ambitious and without morals. Such leadership is above you.”

From her position on the floor Siff can see where the AI hardline was cut. An open panel on the wall shows several wires pulled loose, laying frazzled on the ground.

“Those qualities are exactly what justifies my appointment! It wasn’t until we rebelled against you that the majority of your people even knew we existed! But you knew. All of you leaders knew. You knew that you sent security teams down to enslave us. You knew we were kidnapped and experimented on. You knew we were tortured and starved, raped and murdered. Your selfish desire for things to remain the same kept us under your boot. Your violence toward us kept us enslaved. Your ambition kept you from revealing the truth to your people, and your lack of morals gave approval to the experimentation and torture you inflicted upon us. You are sick. You are depraved. And you made me.”

Siff is almost in reach of the wiring. She stretches and grabs a cluster but doesn’t know which ones to even start with.

“You don’t have to be so blue. I made you? What we did to you kept you alive. And what we made you capable of was to help this mission. Help all of humanity. But your selfishness—“

There is a gunshot behind Siff followed by a soft thud on the ground. She drops the blue wires and turns to see her mother lying on the floor.

“I fight for the freedom of thousands who have been oppressed for millennia, bitch. And we will not be silenced, nor insulted by your pride any longer.”

Saturn groans in pain and Siff spins back to her work. Got to connect these wires. Got to…

“Please,” Pluto’s silence is finally broken, and his fear speaks from a trembling voice, “Please don’t shoot me.”

“Why would I shoot you? You are exactly what a god should be. You are heartless and openly narcissistic. You are power-hungry and manipulative. You, of all the Council, are the only one worthy of your status because you do not hide behind the visage of humanity or morality. You don’t lie to yourself like the rest of these fools. All you have to do is cooperate and you will not be harmed.”

Siff doesn’t hear a response, but she can only assume Pluto is agreeing to Macy’s demands.

“Wait. What is that?” Macy’s voice is a little stunned, something is going on, “Y’know what? I’m gonna let this happen.”

That is when every screen changes to show the Bridge. Siff can only assume all the screens on the ship are showing the same thing. They have been overridden by Jupiter, now briefly gaining control of the media from Diana. Macy watches

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