Dan turned away from the group he'd been standing with and went to mingle. The conversation had taken a turn that made his head hurt. McHugh and Smith, two of the captain's wannabe spies, were trying to get Tellki to explain how the artificial gravity worked. It had to do with potentiality field variance, whatever that meant. The best Dan could comprehend was that just as the laws of quantum mechanics could, under the right circumstances, override the every day laws of newtonian physics, something called potentiality physics could alter quantum laws. McHugh and Smith weren't making much more headway.
They had been watching pod racing. Pod racing was a huge sport in the Consortium. The pods were a standardized cockpit equipped with a bounty of safety features, which were needed because the rest of the spaceships were all custom made and often highly experimental. The racing was fast and dangerous. The turn out to watch the race had been good, with consortium crew yelling at the viewscreen like the best American sports fans.
Daksha, predictably, had ran bets at the back of the room. Dan had assured Captain Lannister that it was nominal stakes. He hoped that had been true.
Now the two crews were mingling and talking. The news was playing but largely ignored. As he walked by his attention was caught by the newscast. "Over shadowed by the G21 summit," newscaster was saying. Dan's head swiveled to catch the rest. "Kamchatka, Kolyma, most of Russia's eastern seaboard, now declaring their full independence from Russia."
"The cause?" the newscaster's co anchor prompted.
"Princess Sarasvat has indicated her support for a non-violent referendum on Consortium membership. Russia has flatly refused to discuss any such thing."
"What are the odds of a referendum now?"
"It's essentially a foregone conclusion. Over ninety percent of the local population supports the measure."
"How will Russia respond?"
"Even without the Consortium's presence, it's not clear how much they can do. Insurgents have sabotaged the trans-siberian railway east of Siberia. The entire region is so remote, it's unsure how many troops Russia could get there. If the Consortium uses it's most common tactic, sabotage of vehicles, it would be a long cold hike for foot soldiers."
"How many troops does Russia already have in the region?"
"Quite a few, the area has always had a lot strategic importance. Unfortunately for Russia, the desertion rate has spiked over the last two days, many of the insurgents are Russian units. Analyst can't give exact numbers but it appears that the newly minted Eurasian army outnumbers loyal Russian units and there has been talk of voluntary surrender of many forts."
"What is driving that?"
"Hope. The desertion rates are highest among the rank and file, particularly soldiers from poor areas of Russia."
The newscast broke to scenes of people dancing in the street, oversized soviet style concrete buildings in the background. A reporter was interviewing a young man with a buzz cut. "Mother Russia, bah!" he spat out, through a translator. "I go to live among the stars." He pointed at the sky.
One of the viewers turned to a porthole window in the ship's common room. "Don't do it," he shouted, "it's crowded up here."
This proclamation was greeted by laughter from the crowd.
"Only here, silly," a healer said. "On other ships and on the stations, plenty of room. You come someday and I'll show you. Big open markets the like of which you've never imagined."
Dan smiled and continued his leisure stroll of the room. In one corner he saw two crew men he barely knew. They had Kavi cornered and were talking, low and close. The sight made Dan's blood curdle. He paused, trying to see what made his gut clench about the scene. It seemed harmless enough. The men, they weren't ones to fraternize much. Perhaps that was it. Maybe they were finally coming around, he thought and moved on.
#####
Dan stopped in the hallway in front of his door. He should go in, go to bed. What was stopping him?
He couldn't shake the feeling he had when he saw the men, Klempke and Green, he now remembered. All they had been doing was talking. He'd seen them leave with Kavi in tow. That in and of itself wasn't unusual. Fraternizing had become almost commonplace.
Something, a look in one of the men's eyes, had triggered a deep suspicion in Dan. Kavi had been oblivious. The Consortium women struck him as incredibly naive. Generations under an omnipresent surveillance system, security that could be activated at a word, virtually anywhere in the Consortium and a culture that seemed to lack the sexism common on Earth, it seemed an ideal place in some respects. But it meant the women didn't have any caution around men like that.
He turned around, still unsure what to do but knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep until he knew for sure. He pulled out his slate and consulted it. Klempke and Green were bunkmates, in a small two bunk room. He sighed, his fears worsening. He saw where it was and made for it.
When he got there, he paused again. What if he walked in on an innocent scene, or worse still, a consensual act? He pressed his ear to the door. He could hear a low murmur of conversation, male voices. He couldn't hear what they were saying. Then he heard it, a low squeaky noise. A noise that spoke of fear.
He steeled himself and whisper, "open" at the door. The mens quarters were smaller than Dan's. They had a small rounded area at the back, like Dan's room, but with no port window. They had lowered the table and covered the entire thing with a cushion to make a round bed of sorts. Kavi lay naked on the bed, her arms bound behind her, a gag in her mouth. Klempke was nearest to Dan, in nothing but a pair of boxers. Green was on the bed, near Kavi's head. Dan didn't want to know what he'd been doing there. "What is going on?" he demanded, his voice tight.
"Just having a little fun," Klempke said, his face flushed and his eyes bright. He leaned and added in a conspiratorial whisper, "she can't trigger security if she can't say the words." He seemed enormously proud, he'd beat the system. Fool doesn't even realize, the surveillance grid is still recording, even if no one is watching. The second she is free, they will be found out. "Bitch let us do it, even. Thought it was game," he added.
Dan glared at him. "Can't say the words? I need security now?"
"Now what'd you go and do that for?" Green spat out leaping off the couch. "Fucker."
"I could ask you the same, fucker." Dan snarled, trying to control his rising wrath.
"Just having a little fun," Klempke said. "These bitches think they are better than us. Bring her down a peg."
"She is better than you, you goddamn redneck motherfucker," Dan barked. Klempke's face hardened. He lunged towards Dan. Dan's fist was already moving to meet his jaw. Klempke's jaw gave a satisfying crunch. Then his weight fell against Dan, pinning him against the wall. Green was on him in a split second, landing a blow against his jaw that causes stars to flash in front of his eyes.
The door slid open and the three of them spilled out into the hallway. Dan had a momentary glimpse of Fox looking down at both of them, a long wand like instrument in his hands, and then the world went black.
This is the end of Episode Five: Fraternization. Thanks for reading.
Next installment is Episode Six: Are There Closets in Space?
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