Consensus at Aditi by Blaze Ward

Author:Blaze Ward
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781644702338
Publisher: Knotted Road Press

TWENTY-NINE

YARMOUTH CARRIER AGGREGATOR

Basant had a working cast and was numb on his left arm from the backs of his knuckles to his elbow from some really exceptional topical pain cream. It would run out in a few hours, but he was clear-headed now.

He’d have liked to have said that he was angry, but that would be a lie. Anger had died two days ago with Zemke on that dueling floor. All he really had left now was fear. And that was one hell of a motivator.

They were all back in that bar again. Not many captains had chosen to undock and flee like whipped curs in the night. A few had. Fewer than he’d expected, honestly. Given some of the names, he expect that someone was going to run to the nearest police station and tell the cops everything they knew, hoping to buy leniency when they were sentenced.

Basant turned to Captain Dexter, sitting across the trestle table and down a little bit like just another captain, rather than the manager of the resort that was the carrier Aggregator.

“I know you and I talked, but that was in private,” Basant said, lifting his voice enough for the other thirty or so captains to hear. “I did all this on your deck, and you had no opportunity to run if you wanted. What’s your decision, Dexter?”

The man scowled, but that was because he didn’t think of himself as a pirate. He was really more of a merchant. A fence who bought stolen and pirated goods. Who traded with a few legitimate businesses for the things he needed on a regular basis.

And provided the ships a place outside the normal chains of authority where crews could just relax.

“I hear your words, Utkin,” Dexter replied. “And while I could probably make a go of it as a legitimate business, I have no interest in that. It might be that the age of piracy in the cluster is fully over, save for the dead-enders who have to go down fighting, but that’s not me, either.”

“We’re likely to move beyond piracy,” Basant reminded him. And everyone else in earshot. “This will be revolution, at the end of the day.”

“A founding always is,” Dexter replied, turning slowly to look at the other captains around him and raising his voice “We’re going to become a nation of refugees and vagabonds, so the duel you witnessed two days ago is the final one. Am I clear?”

A few voices stirred. Growls from the back without words.

“AM I CLEAR?” Dexter snarled at the room. “When we do this—WHEN—then we have to become our own board of directors. No more challenges. No more blood. Basant Utkin will lead us, because he saw early what was happening and chose to make a stand before we were picked off one by one. Starting yesterday, his term of office will run for ten years. By then, we’ll have either been destroyed, or will have succeeded and can figure out what we’ll do next. Questions?”

Basant was a bit surprised.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.