EFS Enterprise, Council eting June 15th, 004 SDE; 1700 hours:
"The loss of the Coto and Umikaze is a blow we couldn't really afford and people have noticed."
Greyman sighed, as he fingered his pistol. Not entirely sure why Countryman had told him to bring it, but he brought it. The etings could be tense, but he wasn't sure they'd ever get tense enough to warrant a firearm.
Williams spoke up, "We can bla the damn machine for that, he sacrificed both of them just to cover our retreat."
Drake spoke, "Sacrificing the Umikaze was my idea, she wouldn't have held up without a proper refit. The ship was practically a lost cause anyway."
"All things considered, I believe the raid went quite well. I'm rather pleased with the death count, sure we lost two ships but less than two hundred people were killed during the fighting."
Williams glared, then scoffed, "You were just lucky more didn't die, but regardless the loss of those two ships was a disaster. I demand we move for the imdiate removal of Captain Countryman from his position. He is clearly unfit to command."
"Of course you do," comnted soone.
Reynolds frowned, "I don't think we could have expected much better. We knew going in that we were taking a risk. Honestly I'm surprised we got away with any ships at all. There was a mont there that I thought we would all sink."
Drakes gave his opinion, "Agreed, we knew going in that the mission was basically suicide, but it was our only chance to survive. We were dead either way, the fact we got away with the Enterprise is practically a miracle in itself. One we desperately needed."
"Precisely why, we shouldn't squander it by continuing under the wrong leader. It was a mistake to put a machine in the position in the first place. Just look at what he is doing replacing perfectly good people with robots. Rose and her sisters are just the beginning, your jobs might be next."
Countryman sighed, "And you think cloning is better? Controversy aside, it would take a decade before we see any aningful results and we need them now more than ever."
Richards interjected, "If there is any good news, my team was able to extract vital materials from both ships before they were lost. That includes their entire complent of fighters and shuttles, along with a good store of spare parts."
"That's nice, but it doesn't change the fact that under Countryman's leadership we lost two vital vessels. Materials are nice, but they are no replacent for the hos that have been destroyed."
Greyman interjected, "People have noticed, but they seem to be taking it well. We can adapt and ships can be replaced. The lives we lost cannot, and I think we are all pleased that things weren't worse."
"True, but people did die."
"They will be mourned, I have a few ideas for a proper funeral for them."
"Funeral!? We don't even have..."
"Not the first ti nor the last that a military funeral would be conducted with an empty casket. Their families will be taken care of and I have a speech planned that should help smooth ruffled feathers. Nothing else can be done beyond that."
Williams looked around, then shook her head, "See he's utterly uncaring, now I move that we vote on his removal from captain."
The faces looked around, and then started to vote.
Unsurprisingly, no one other than Williams and a couple of her lackeys actually voted for that. Her face turned red, "You're all fools, but no matter, I cover my bases. It's ti things changed around here one way or another."
The door slid open and armored n rushed into the room, as Countryman started laughing. Greyman frowned, this looks serious, why the laughter?
After a mont the laughing slowed. "Did you seriously think I never saw this coming young lady?"
"Young!? I'm not a child and it doesn't look like you did. I have you surrounded, now we can set a few things right."
Countryman sighed, "I'm afraid you don't see how things are going to go. It's a sha really, if you'd just learned to set your bigotry aside and accept things. We might have been able to work together. Still, you don't get to my age without learning the ga."
She frowned, and Greyman had to agree. It looked like she'd won. He fingered his pistol, wondering how that would help.
Countryman turned to the nearest armored man. "Fine evening isn't Thomas?"
"Very fine. I'm not sure how I feel about things."
"Yes I don't envy you, but how's your daughter doing?"
"Better, thanks to you."
"I'm glad to hear that."
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringent.
Williams, clearly not believing this, "Why are you just chatting with him? Arrest him."
Countryman sighed, "You know Williams, while you were busy recruiting disgruntled leaders, I was busy too. Only I was actually caring about the n, getting to know them and fixing their problems. There is more than one way to earn loyalty, I took the ti letting the n know that I actually care about them. I think this makes the choice clear."
"Sorry Ma'am, but you are under arrest for attempted Mutiny." Thomas declared as he closed on her in an instant. Several of the others proceeded to arrest her lackeys. Down the table Greyman could hear Evanov shouting to be unhanded. "I'm your commanding officer! Unhand this instant, you imbecile!"
Countryman comnted. "I'm glad you chose to do it this way. It makes things so much cleaner. I'll see you at the trial."
As Williams was being forcibly removed from the room, Greyman spoke up. "You knew this was about to happen?"
Countryman nodded, "I did. You know, I grew up detesting politicians. And here I am, a century later, as one. Although I'd like to think I am better than the ones I hated."
Drakes laughed, "That was worth it just to see her face when the n she was using turned on her. How'd you pull it off?"
Countryman smiled, but didn't elaborate, "Mutiny aside, I believe it's ti we discuss her trial and punishnt."
"Not planning to waste ti, are we?"
"This cri is serious, if humanity is to survive we need to remain unified. At least on the surface, any dissent should be raised here and discussed. Resorting to violence just because you were outvoted, looks bad. That sort of thing can't be allowed."
"Right, this is a rather serious cri."
Greyman leaned back. "In the past, she'd have been taken before the admiralty board for this. They'd have likely stripped her of rank and booted her out of the military, dishonorable discharge."
"That was a more recent developnt, before that, traitors were hanged for their cris."
Greyman surveyed the faces around the table. No one was happy with this, why now? They had enough problems, they didn't need this.
"Well I don't know what to do, for a cri that serious the best we can do is toss her into the brig for life."
"I'm not sure that would be good enough, she does have her supporters. I doubt she will leave it at this."
People started chatting back and forth. Finally soone said, "You know it might be best if we took a look at the death penalty. I know it's not a very popular sentence but..."
"Not popular? They did away with it decades ago!"
"Yes, well we don't have the luxury to lock her away for life and we need every person to contribute. A permanent drain would not..."
"I get the point, but the death penalty is barbaric."
"Not entirely, it used to exist for a reason. Williams is too dangerous to be left alive, as the Captain said, we need to be unified. She's done nothing but breed dissent."
"So you want to kill her? Does that extend to her accomplices as well?"
"They will have to be punished as well, but perhaps not to the sa extent."
Greyman sighed, this was going to be a long eting. Very long, from the sound of it.
Sali stepped out of the showers and donned her slip. Today had been a fun day at Hydroponics, she'd been working in the rice fields today. Many of the plants were mature and ready for harvest so a lot of extra hands had been pulled in to harvest the alien rice crop. It had been really interesting, especially with the little fish swimming past her feet. A smile graced her lips, as she thought about them. Robert had been there too, with less factory work, he'd turned to the fields. It helped that the farms didn't require experience for many of the tasks.
Technician Redfox had been there to give the newbies a quick lecture and there were plenty of people who did it often enough to know the job. As such whenever she or Robert were unsure, they'd just been able to ask soone what they needed to be doing.
Over the last few hours they had pulled in so much grain she'd lost all track of it, but it wasn't really her job to count the harvest. That was soone else's job. Her only job had been to harvest it and plant the new seedlings to replace what they had harvested. Her muscles had been a little sore after all the work, but a hot shower after had been nice. Not to ntion Robert had been there.
Leaving the little hub, she passed several other female prisoners before entering the main hall. Only to stop as she noticed a commotion to her left. Coming from around the corner were nearly a dozen guards leading a number of fresh faces she hadn't seen much of down here, but Sali recognized a couple of them. Her fellow prisoners watched the scene as well, a few were quietly whispering to each other.
An older human woman was being pulled towards a cell, screaming obscenities. While her fellows looked sowhat subdued. "You are making a mistake! Fools all of you! He's an alien loving machine, he'll replace you all with robots and blue skinned freaks!"
The guards laughed, and shoved the woman into a cell as a familiar face from the cell just next to hers comnted, "That's Commander Williams, she leads the Humanity First faction. A bunch of hypocrites all of them, but they do have so weight in the council."
Sali frowned, "A political arrest?"
The other woman looked over the group, "Looks like the entire group has been arrested. I'd say sothing big has happened."
A guard comnted. "You two could say that. I heard they were arrested for mutiny. There are so firefights and a few holdouts elsewhere, but from what I heard things have been pretty confined."
"A mutiny? They tried to overthrow the Captain? Why?"
The guard didn't say, rely shrugging but her neighbor said, "So people don't like him, he's part machine and that unsettles them."
Sali frowned, "For sothing like that?"
"Well people have also been sowhat unhappy lately, the factories closing didn't help. I've also been hearing talk of the Coto and Umikaze sinking recently."
Sali nodded, she'd heard the sa thing while on the farm. A lot of people were talking about it. "So they figured now was their chance to advance their agenda and overthrow the captain?"
"That seems to be the case."
Sali shook her head, "Idiots." Then headed back to her cell. She yawned, it was late anyway, and she figured it would blow over by morning. Who knows? Maybe she'd get to watch the trial? Then again it was a bit of a sham around these parts anyway, the council would decide their fate.
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