Two and a half Titan months later…

“How are we doing in here?” Sorcha asked walking into what was once the canteen of the Titan compound.

For the last week it had been acting as a temporary shelter for around twenty thousand Humans who had arrived on the last transport and had no homes to go to.

“Alright.” Manka said and walked down the red lined path in the centre of the room. “A few fights here and there. Nothing we can’t handle.”

“The latrine is stinky…” Myrell added.

“You’ll just have to empty it more often then.” Sorcha said and turned back to Manka.

Had she been paying more attention to the petite, pink haired Titan she would have seen her head briefly, but rapidly twitch as she controlled her immediate instinct to attack her boss and gouge her eyes out with her fingers.

“Will do boss!” Myrell said cheerily.

“I’ve got to make a judgement call here.” Sorcha said. “We need you out there working the construction equipment and helping get homes built for these people.”

“I’m not sure if that’s the best place for me…” Manka replied sceptically.

“I know, you’re our best crowd control person. But the longer it takes to get homes built the more tension builds up in here. I think we’re safer overall to have you out there building and Myrell in here keeping an eye on things.”

“I can do that.” Myrell said cheerily.

Manka sighed. “And Myrell can’t operate the lifting gear?”

“I can do that if you like.” Myrell chipped in.

“You’re faster.” Sorcha said. “It’s a judgement call. Not one I wanted to make but we don’t have much choice.”

“Ok, ok…shall I go now?” Manka asked.

“Please.” Sorcha replied.

“Who’s my partner?”

“Joseph.” Sorcha said.

“He’s still in bed. Do you want to wake him or shall I?” Manka smirked “I guess he’d prefer his girlfriend waking him than me throwing a bucket of cold water over him.”

“I’m not his girlfriend.” Sorcha said unimpressed.

“Oh totally.” Manka grinned and headed for the door.

“We’re friends.” Sorcha protested.

“Friends who sleep in the same bed every night, wake up half the team banging the bed off the wall, eat meals together and spend all their down time together?”

Sorcha rolled her eyes. “Just head down the construction site. Joseph will be with you shortly.”

“I’ll not hold my breath.” Manka joked and made her way out of the compound.

“You got things in here Myrell?” Sorcha sighed and turned to her colleague.

“Of course!” She said with her signature cheerfulness. “There’s never a problem when I’m in a room full of Humans. I could just eat all these little cuties right up.”

“Not creepy at all Myrell…” Sorcha said giving her a concerned stare.

“Sorry.”

“Just…let me know if you need a hand.” Sorcha said and made for the door.

“Will do boss!” Myrell called.

Sorcha strode down the corridor and tapped her entry code into Joseph’s door. She quietly walked inside and lay down beside him in the bed and gently stroked his forehead.

“Hey.” Joseph said opening his eyes.

“Morning.”

“Is it that time already?” He asked.

“It is I’m afraid. You’ve had twelve hours.”

He sat up, groaned loudly and stretched before pulling Sorcha into a hug.

“I’d prefer thirty…” He said and released her and swung his legs over the bed.

“Wouldn’t we all…” Sorcha said and got up.

“Got time for a shower?” Joseph asked with a wry grin.

Sorcha shook her head. “I’d love to but I’m already five minutes late for a briefing with the Deputy Floor Leader.”

“That sounds fun.”

“I’m sure there will be many laughs.” Sorcha made for the door. “Now go on. Manka is waiting for you.”

“In the shower!?” Joseph confused.

“Go n-ithe an tochas thú!” Sorcha shouted and left the room and marched down the corridor to the stairs to the first floor.

“You know I don’t speak klingon!” Joseph yelled after her.

Sorcha rushed into her office and dropped into her chair. Her paid automatically connected to her desk monitor and Sorcha tapped away to join the meeting.

“Glad you could join us.” The Deputy Floor Leader said.

“Sorry, it’s been a busy morning.” Sorcha said.

She noted the usual people on the call; Lessy, representatives from the Avalonian construction teams and resource teams and Ammer Smit.

“I imagine it has. “Loona said. “Where are we?”

“We’ve still got around twenty thousand in the canteen. Another forty thousand are doubled up out in the city. Not ideal but it’s working for now.” Sorcha said. “We’ve got crews working around the clock. Titan teams are now down to one hour’s down time and eighteen hours rest a day. Me and Joseph are on less than that.”

“We’ve crews scheduled round the clock helping to get the three by three units in place.” The construction manager said.

“How many per building?”

“Two people per apartment, eight apartments per floor and thirteen floors.” Sorcha said “So two hundred and eight.”

“Normally we can build ten a day but we’re working at top speed. We’re up to fifteen a day.” The construction manager added.

“So you’re about three weeks away from having everyone housed?” Loona asked.

“Give or take…”

“Ok, the next group of refugees is scheduled to arrive in just over a month.” Loona said.

“How many?” Sorcha asked and tapped on her pad.

“One hundred and four thousand.” Loona said.

There was a lot of grumbling from the Humans on the channel and Sorcha just quietly shook her head.

“I know it’s a lot to ask…” Loona started before Alesia cut across her.

“I’m sorry Madam Deputy Floor Leader. I know my colleagues working on infrastructure have their objections and you will offer them more resources but I have to tell you, you are risking people’s lives here. We are stretched to breaking point on the education side. Our mentors now have so many mentees they are missing key issues. Suicides are up twenty percent since you upped the quotas, we’re behind on the education program and we have only a quarter the amount of apprentices out there than we intended.” Alesia said bluntly.

“I know it’s a lot to ask Lessy…”

“Don’t ‘Lessy’ me, Madam Deputy Floor Leader. These are people’s lives. And now people’s deaths. You are receiving pressure politically to step up the speed and I’m telling you it can’t happen. We cannot go faster. People are dying.” Alesia snapped. “Either push the next arrival date back by two months of start looking for another Director of Education.”

Loona looked visibly shocked for a moment and shook it off. “I apologise Ms Nonahsdottir.” Loona stressed the “Nonah’ part of her name. “I will do what I can but I can’t make any promises.”

“Madam Deputy Floor Leader.” Sorcha interrupted feeling she needed to be the calm one here. “We have now over one million refugees down here. We are well over a Human year ahead of schedule here. My colleague is right, we can rush construction. But people can’t be rushed. We have hit a crunch point where you now either expand our budget or we carry on as planned.”

“I’d have to agree with Ms Freeman’s assessment. We’ve been getting similar reports into Atlantis for a few weeks now.” Ammer added.

Loona sighed. “Very well. I’ll see what I can do. I can’t make any promises, if I need you to meet me half way…”

“We’ll do our best to escalate construction.” Sorcha said. The absence of a response from Alesia was notable.

“Good. Thank you all.” Loona said and closed the channel rather abruptly.

A second later Alesia’s face appeared on screen.

“Another hundred thousand!? What is she trying to pull!?” Alesia snapped.

“I know, I don’t know how I can possibly increase production. I’m just trying to buy us a bit of time.”

“I mean it Sorch, if she pushes this, I’ll resign in protest.” Alesia said. Sorcha could see her quaking with anger.

“What’s wrong Lessy? Usually it’s me who’s the shouty, angry one. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you talk to Loona like that before.” Sorcha said concerned.

Alesia sighed and looked down. “You don’t live in the city. You don’t work with these people. We’re making progress but we’re leaving people behind. This morning I had to step around a crew of people cleaning the blood off the pavement of someone who’d thrown themselves out their window…I can’t be part of this if we’re actively sending people to their deaths.”

“I…I…thought we had secured the windows?” Sorcha asked unsure of what to say.

“We did! That’s how desperate these people are! There just aren’t enough mentors to look after the vulnerable.”

“Damnú orthú!”

“Ok, I’ll push back. Is there anything we can do to reduce the risks we have at the minute? I’ll string netting down every street if I have to.” Sorcha said.

“I’ll work on a plan to identify the most at need. Try to prioritise them.” Alesia breathed out deeply.

There was a pause as Sorcha tried to think of anything else she could suggest.

“How are you?” was all she could come up with.

Alesia half smiled. “Good, sort of. Apart from this mess my life actually seems to be on track.”

“Moze happy to be living together?”

“He is,” Alesia said. “And so am I. I love it. Love him. And it works well with mentoring. We’re on to our third. The other two are now mentors themselves.” Alesia sighed. “What about you? Doing well?”

“Eh, struggling on.” Sorcha said. “Could do with a bigger budget and more staff.”

“I meant personally…”

“I don’t have a personal life anymore. It’s all work.” Sorcha grumbled.

“Really? Because Myrell told me she can’t sleep some nights from the noises you make. Though for some reason they come from Joseph’s room.” Alesia laughed.

“That little creep! I don’t know why I hired her…”

“She’s not that bad. Takes a little getting used to is all. And if I remember correctly I hired her, not you.” Alesia corrected.

“A fair point. Right, I better get on and get to work. Those buildings won’t put up themselves.” Sorcha said.

“No doubt. It’s impressive work you’re doing though.”

“That’s the easy job. Guide rails and locking tools are predictable. You’ve got the hard one Less, and seeing the settlers joining the construction crews fills me with pride. You’ve done good here.” Sorcha said.

“Oh, stop it.” Alesia blushed.

“Miss you Lessy.” Sorcha said.

“I miss you too Sorcha. Take care.”

“You too.” Sorcha said and ended the call. She looked out across the sprawling city mentally refining her estimates of just how many more people they accommodate here before they had to start another settlement. Though the lashing rain was making it hard to estimate the exact distance of the slope of the foothills.

“Fuck it, let’s get stuck in then.”

****

T’haba Speltay – literally, “The Happy Table” – was not a particularly notable restaurant. It was part of a chain of casual restaurants, with a few dozen scattered around the Federation, Kaeda, and Sheilus provinces.

It was better than a McDonald’s or Yoshinoya; Terrans would probably have compared it to an enormous IHOP or Denny’s, or maybe, on a good day, a TGI Friday’s or Nando’s. It was a cheap, quick place to get a meal, one that didn’t care too much if your kids were noisy or the students in the corner were a bit drunk. They’d serve you consistently average food, and you’d eat it.

The T’haba Speltay in south Krogh Fazala was perhaps the most average of its chain, mediocre at worst, acceptable at best, the kind of restaurant that you’ve forgotten before you’ve left it. The most one could say of it was that it existed.

At least, that was the most one could have said before a few dozen Titans arrived on a clear, warm weekend morning.

It was a bit more business than average, but not excessively so; the management was glad that they’d showed up after the early morning rush. There’d be tables for them.

A few of the Titans looked somewhat familiar as they filed into a booth here, a table there. But nothing anyone noticed; there were others, too, students and retired workers and a single nuclear family, mother and father and two sons.

Had anyone cared to notice, they would have noted only one commonality between the people who shuffled in – all of the parties carried at least one bag.

Nobody noticed until everyone was in place, and one of the Titans, a dark-haired, middle-aged woman with purple eyes, pushed a button on her pad.

Two minutes later, a man walked into the restaurant who was bound to get people’s attention, what with his metallic arms and battered face. He was accompanied by a young woman and an older woman, each of whom carried small bags of their own.

“Frak…is that Councillor Temis?”

The manager, a doughy, balding middle-aged man, looked up as one of his waiters commented. “Oh, frak,” he said. “It is.”

“What…what do we do?”

“Well…show him to a table,” the manager said.

Now, it should be noted that the manager – Alvis Olymembor was his name – was not a particularly political man. He voted Titan Party if he remembered an election was coming up, but mostly because his parents had been Titan Party supporters when he was growing up. He knew enough to know Councillor Temis, and indeed, he’d voted against him a few years back, but he harbored no particular ill will toward the man. Indeed, he felt a bit sorry for him, losing his daughter.

At any rate, Alvis was not a political man, but he knew enough to know that it was best to keep one’s head down. He was adept at not drawing attention, which made him perfect for his job. Having the leader of the opposition at his restaurant was the opposite of not drawing attention. But what was he supposed to do? Deny him service? That would draw even more attention. Best to just serve him and send him on his way.

His party was seated at a table not far from a striking tall blonde woman, sitting with an equally-striking redhead who was just crossing from middle age to old. He nodded to them, and they nodded back.

And Palsa Temis rose.

“Good morning,” he said to the restaurant in general. “I suppose we should have made reservations, given the number of us who came here, but we all know that T’haba Speltay doesn’t take reservations. Or at least, we all found that out after a late-night bar crawl back in college.”

The Federationers in the room laughed at the joke. Heck, a few of the waiters did, too.

“Anyhow, I should note, there are a few more of us who will be eating here. I hope that isn’t a problem.”

The manager mopped his brow a little, but hells, the franchise owner was running a business, Alvis got a bonus based on sales, and Freedom and Equality money spent the same as Titan Party money. “Of course, of course. Depending on how many, I mean. Just…hopefully we won’t run out of room.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Temis said. “I doubt very much that you will. Go ahead, everyone.”

Less than a minute later, Alvis Olymembor had retreated to the back office, that being the proper place from which to frantically call one’s boss.

****

“This is a frakking disaster,” Kris Dicy said. “A frakking disaster. Do you know how angry Ms Dasisou is?”

“I have no idea,” Alvis Olymembor said, disconsolately.

“Really, really angry!” Dicy barked.

The manager winced. He’d met the franchise owner precisely once; she wasn’t particularly interested in her investment as long as it made money and didn’t impact her life much. She left the day-to-day management to Kris Dicy, a young man who was fifty percent buzzwords, fifty percent fury. He would have been formidable even without his family ties. But with them….

Alvis Olymembor had learned in his three years of management to avoid Dicy’s wrath – or indeed, recognition in any way, positive or negative. Neither usually ended well.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Dicy,” Olymembor said. “I really am. I didn’t want to kick Councillor Temis out, I thought that would bring us publicity….”

“You thought. You thought. That’s your frakking mistake. You aren’t paid to think. All right,” he said, “and their frakking traitor friends are protecting them.”

“They are,” Olymbembor said. “You saw. They’ve said they’ll only go after we serve the…um….”

“Right. Not gonna happen, not if we want to do business on this planet again. But don’t worry, they’ll leave soon. I’ve called my brother.”

Olymembor winced again. “Your…your brother. Do you…are you….”

Kris chuckled, and for half a moment, he almost looked sympathetic. “Look, I’m pretty gorram angry, but not at you. Frak, gotta get ‘em out of there, and the frakking peacekeepers in this town, they’d be more likely to wait ‘em out. I’m not willing to take the hit on sales for the rest of the day, or week, or whatever. And as long as you don’t mind…well, stepping aside a bit….we’ll take care of it.”

“Whatever…I’m not going to argue with you, or your brother. Not suicidal.”

Kris laughed uproariously at that. “Maybe you’re smarter than I thought you were, Alvis. All right, you and your staff…well, other than the two friends of my brother…take a walk. Be back in an hour.”

“Yes…yes sir,” Alvis Olymembor said. He didn’t hesitate, ducking around to the back entrance and quickly evacuating all but two people from the staff.

The two who remained had already been contacted by pad. They knew who was coming.

About five minutes later, a dozen men and women, dressed in black leather and black pants and black gloves, walked up to where Kris was waiting. The man who led them was the mirror image of the middle manager, apart from a few scars and a formerly broken nose.

“Frakking humans frakking up the whole gorram Federation,” Karon Dicy said.

“Gorram right. As far as I’m concerned, you can throw the lot in the fryer.”

“I’d love to. But can’t. You know we can’t exterminate ‘em.”

“Why not?” Kris asked, with mild surprise.

“Comes from the Guide himself. Doesn’t mean we can’t, you know, rough ‘em up a bit. But he’s got a plan. We follow his plan.”

“Well, if that’s what the Guide says, that’s what we do,” Kris said. “All right, I’m giving them one last chance. I wave to you, you know what to do.”

“Just like old times. You know, you’re gonna have to….”

“I always am happy to help out the Block. You’re instilling good values in our youth. True Federation values. I’ll talk to Ms. Dasisou, I’m sure she’ll be quite grateful. And I’m sure she’ll be happy to express that happiness with plenty of credits.”

“Good to hear. We all are in this together,” Karon said, pulling his balaclava over his head. “If things get messy, and I have to run, well, I’ll see you at mom’s for dinner next week.”

Kris laughed. “Right,” he said, pushing his way through the door.

Things were much as they’d been the first time he’d entered the restaurant, half an hour ago. One of the humans was speaking using some sort of amplifier, droning on about equality and so forth. Kris walked into the center of the room, and shouted, “All right, that’s enough. We’ve given you plenty of warning. It’s time to go.”

He ignored that three pads were filming him; what was coming would only help business, he thought.

“Sir, we’ve yet to be waited on,” Councillor Temis said. “I was hoping I could have some soup, and I know my friends are hungry.”

“Stuff it,” Kris barked. “You have two minutes to clear out. If not…well, there are some friends of mine who are waiting for tables…they’re rather agitated. I think it would be best if you didn’t provoke them further.”

“Assault warning!” shouted a dark-haired woman, and at that, the Titan allies moved quickly, getting up from their seats and standing around the humans, encircling them with linked arms.

“Frak, you’re a bunch of idiots,” Kris grumbled. He waved to the door.

“You know, it’s not as pretty in Archavian,” Yamanu called over his megaphone, “but we want them to understand it. Sing it loud. ‘We shall not, we shall not be moved….’”

The others joined in, as the Block charged in.

We shall not, we shall not be moved….

Karon led the assault, pulling out a baton and striking Temis across the cheek, swinging off the backhand to catch Terta on the back of her head.

Just like a tree that’s planted by the water….

The Block swarmed the ring of protectors, pounding them with all they had. Aezhay was howling the song in pain, as a pair of brass knuckles had cracked a rib; Leny was resisting with all her strength – she could easily defeat the punk kid who had kicked her in the stomach, but they were a nonviolent resistance group. They would not fight back. This was the battle. To not retaliate. To not respond. To be better than those who struck them.

We shall not be moved….

They held tough, but the line broke as it was inevitably going to; two college students who’d come out to support the sit-in were wrenched apart. Nobody would blame them, though each blamed themselves. They had both endured more than anyone should have to, and they had reached the end of their endurance.

We shall not, we shall not be moved….

Gae tried to blink the blood away, which freely flowed from a gash on her forehead. “Breech!” she shouted. With practiced determination, the Titans tried to fill the gap, flowing without fighting, but it was too late; with the chain broken, it was not long before the Black Block had a free run at the humans.

Kris Dicy took advantage of the space his brother’s friends had given him, and stalked toward the tables. “Fithy vermin! Garbage! You know what happens to garbage?” he roared.

We shall not, we shall not be moved….

Dicy sat a garbage can at the end of a table, and with one careless sweep of his arm, he shoved a dozen humans across it and into the abyss, along with plates, utensils, even a water glass. He moved to the next group; Yamanu stared him down as he moved to do the same.

Thurfrit had tried to brace himself, but the swift motion had been too much. It was easy to forget, living among good Titans for so very long, just how much power they had. Just how badly the deck was stacked against them.

The Empire is behind us….

And then he and the second group of humans were moving and falling and landing with a jarring thud among a mass of other humans.

And the singing finally stopped.

There were groans of pain and agony from those who had been attacked, and laughter from their attackers.

Temis rubbed his cheek, and tried not to laugh. The frakkers thought they’d actually won this. Frakking idiots.

Suddenly, the door burst open. “Stand aside, stand aside!” a woman roared. “What the frak is going on here?”

“I’m sorry, Peacekeeper,” Kris said, breathing heavily. “These hooligans occupied my restaurant, and….”

“Hooligans?” the peacekeeper said, spying the glint of artificial limbs. “That’s Councillor Temis! Or are you talking about these Blockers?”

“We’re just standing up for our rights!” shouted Karon, balaclava still in place.

Peacekeeper Fanetemusi Faroto had reinforcements coming on the double. She knew full well that the Blockers were probably in the wrong, and knew full well that no matter how wrong they were, it wouldn’t result in any serious consequences for them.

It annoyed her; she had gone into peacekeeping to administer the law fairly and equitably, and having grown up in this city, she knew that the Blockers were some of the worst offenders. But because she believed in justice, she had at least learned how to make sure that the targets of Block actions did not suffer any greater consequence of their actions than their attackers.

“Right,” she said. “Well, I’m placing y’all under detention. Every adult here. We’ll sort it out at the detention center. That includes you, Kris Dicy. And what the frak are you holding a garbage can for?”

“These frakking humans,” Kris said, “they….”

Faroto shook her head, and grabbed the bin away. She looked down, and looked up in shock. “Now don’t tell me you did this?”

“They were occupying this restaurant! I had to….”

“7-42, we need an HOS pickup, we have several humans who need medical attention,” she said.

“They should go to a hospital,” Gae said, leaning up against a booth in agony. Not from the pain, but from the fact that she didn’t know how badly Yamanu was hurt.

“It’s okay,” a voice called, and Gae relaxed just a bit. “Nobody’s hurt that badly. Just shaken up, maybe a broken bone or two. We would prefer the hospital, but I’m realistic. We’ll go to the HOS for treatment, but we demand that after that, we be taken into custody, the same as the other people here.”

Faroto smiled at that. “You speak for all of your friends, sucre?”

Another voice, this one with a Federation accent, said, “Dr. Neutha speaks for all of us.”

“All right. We’ll get you treatment. And if these folks are still in custody when you’re taken care of, I’ll take you up on that.”

“They aren’t frakking people!” Karon shouted.

“Imperial law says they are, and I follow the law.”

“This ain’t the Empire, slag, this is the Federation. Do you know what frakking side you’re on? Do you know what we do to those who stand against the Poron?” he added, stalking menacingly toward the peacekeeper, his arm raised. She grabbed it and pulled it into a stress position.

“I don’t care if you are the ward boss for the Block, Karon,” she hissed. “You don’t threaten a frakking peacekeeper. That’s a Class One violation I could charge you with. Now, you know I ain’t gonna. You know my commander will look the other way for just a threat. But you and I both know if you follow through on that threat…well, there are things that can be overlooked…and things that can’t. And y’all know gorram well that if a peacekeeper dies after you threatened her, you’re going to end up in prison for a very long time. Right?”

Karon grunted his assent.

“All right,” Faroto said to her fellow peacekeepers, “let’s get them in transport, get them to the station, and get this sorted out.”