It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for another chapter of The Polity!
In Chapter 2, I got over myself and finally wrote some real dialogue. It’s… ok? I don’t know, getting the talking right is really hard! Starting from zero here, I’m honestly pretty happy with it.
And don’t worry mom, there are women in this book, I promise! Everyone on Dex’s team is male because the Aldans are probably kinda sexist. But this chapter we’re taking a break from the sausage fest — what a breath of fresh air!
“I just don’t understand why we can’t find a compromise here,” the pudgy Aldan was saying “we’re both reasonable people. All I’m asking for is a reduction in visa issuances, down to a more appropriate level.”
Lin regarded the man coolly. He was too confident, too smooth-talking, and more than a little condescending.
“Then let me reiterate: the Aldan visa program is a crucial pillar of our cultural integration mission. We appreciate your input, and will factor it into our decision-making as we do with all local information. But we absolutely do not expect to be curtailing issuances, and in fact expect the program to grow in the coming years. Is there something else I can help you with?”
“Now hold on just a minute!” the man sputtered, in thickly accented Politan. Lin spoke fluent Aldan, much better than this man’s Politan. But Politan was the language of official business in the Empire, and she was not in a mood to give any affordances right now. “Isn’t the whole point of your office to help local industry? Well here I am, and I’m telling you this policy is ruining us! We’ve been forced to pay wages sometimes 30% above when you started handing out visas. Our business won’t survive! Mark my words, when Aldan shipbuilding collapses, your career is over!”
“You think this is my problem?” Lin shot back, anger rising in her voice. “I’m sorry your business depends on cheap labor, I really am. But I’m not going to be responsible for suppressing their wages on your behalf.”
“That’s the problem with you people,” the man huffed, “always so high and mighty. Never a thought for what it’s like in another’s shoes. How am I supposed to compete with Politan salaries? I’m sorry we’re not all so wealthy here in Altheim.”
“I think we’re done here,” Lin said as she touched her earpiece. “Cal, we’ve wrapped up, could you show Mr. Drekt out please?”
Cal appeared in the doorway. His concerned expression indicated that the whole office could hear the heated exchange. Cal was always too worried – she could handle people like this. Truth be told, she enjoyed it.
Drekt looked back at her as he headed for the doorway.
“You’re going to regret fighting me on this.”
“Thanks for your time, sir.”
Mercifully, Drekt shoved past Cal and left her office. A short while later, Cal returned.
“Drekt really is well connected,” he said, “you know what you’re getting into, Commissioner? You’re staking your whole career on this fight, I can’t understand it.”
Many in the economic ministry would not have tolerated this tone from a subordinate. But Cal was a friend from their days in the Academy, and this wasn’t their first frank conversation.
“It’s not just a petty fight Cal, you know that as well as I do. These people spent a century being lorded over by people like that. Now we have a chance to tear the whole thing down – we can’t let the Oligarchs of old Altheim intimidate us!”
“Our mission is to ensure economic stability, not to dismantle Aldan social hierarchy. You’re on a shorter leash than you realize.”
“Didn’t we win the war? What did we even fight for, if not this?”
“Don’t be naive. You really think all of that bloodshed was to free the Aldan people? Our propagandists must be better than I thought.”
Lin sighed. “I know, I know. I’d just like to see something good come of this.”
“I do too. Just… be careful – you could drag the whole mission down along with your career if you’re not.”
Lin dismissed Cal. Two arguments for the price of one, lucky her.
Alone at last, she rubbed her eyes and turned idly to the window. Hers was a nice office: spacious at ten by fifteen meters, furnished with a genuine wood desk (she could be sentimental), one wall completely taken up by a floor-to-ceiling window. The walls could take on any color or pattern, but right now they were the station default – a sort of sterile cream color. Soft white light emanated from nowhere in particular.
She decided to go stretch her legs for a while – no more meetings this afternoon to worry about. She left the office and started walking. The largest structural element of the station was the Atriums, each one rising through the entire twelve-floor height of the ring. Atriums served as the heart of civic and social life on the station, modeled after plazas in the old Politan cities. These were connected by a series of thoroughfares, broad streets with high ceilings, lined with restaurants and shops. There were no vehicles on the streets, or really anywhere in the station. If you needed to get quickly to a different part of the ring, there was frequent train service to get you there. Conveniently, there were only ever two directions you might need to go, spinward or antispinward.
Branching off thoroughfares, a lattice of gradually narrowing corridors connected residences, offices, and other businesses to the rest of the station. Lin found it strange that the corridors didn’t conform to an orderly grid, instead taking twists and corners at apparently random points.
Lin found a lift and took it up, all the way to the ecolayer on the inner side of the ring. Easy access to open spaces, light, and greenery was a core principle of Polity station design. But Cosmos class stations were the first to feature an entire, uninterrupted park around the entire inner rim of a station ring. In theory you could start at one point and keep walking in one direction until you ended up right back where you started, though the trip would take a healthy person several days. The ecolayer consisted of many different biomes, one after the other along the length of the ring. Looking up, you could see alternating swatches of various greens and browns, marking the beginnings and ends of the regions.
This particular part of the ecolayer appeared to be a temperate rainforest – the trees overhead were dense enough that she couldn’t actually make out the ring above. Paths snaked away in several directions from the lift, citizens walking pensively on them alone or in pairs. Some parts of the ecolayer would be filled with children playing and adults picnicking, but this area inspired a more introspective attitude. Lin chose one of the paths at random and started walking.
The past week had been trying. Drekt was a pain in the ass, obviously, but in some ways that was the least of her problems. Unrest had been building in the lead-up to the election – many Aldans, still rankled by their integration into The Polity (“occupation”, they called it), were boycotting the elections entirely. This wasn’t strictly speaking her office’s concern. Violent unrest was handled by Polity security forces obviously, and the running of elections was outside their jurisdiction as well. Still, the ever-growing scope of the economic ministry’s responsibilities could not be denied. Ambitious bureaucrats at the top had carved out an increasingly expansive view of their mission. Social cohesion and harmony was the foundation of economic success, was it not? So if elections went poorly, people would ask what the ministry had been doing and why they hadn’t helped more.
She reached a clearing – the forest was giving way to rolling grasslands. The grasslands curved smoothly upwards further back in the distance, arcing up to be perpendicular in the distance and then bending back overhead. Even after seeing it all these times, it still took her breath away.
Feeling rejuvenated, Lin took a nearby lift – different from the one she’d taken up – back down into the inhabited floors. As the lift doors opened up into Atrium 14 – one of the two nearest her office – the sounds of anger hit her like a wave. The sight of public disorder in Aldenstadt spaceport was unfortunately not that uncommon – in spite of station security’s best efforts, unruly Aldans would be Aldans. Lin didn’t endorse the crude stereotypes and jokes her peers would laugh about at their expense, of course not. But at times like these she had to admit to herself how exhausting the whole thing was. Couldn’t they see that The Polity was here to help? They didn’t have to be allowing these people civic participation.
Irritable once again, she walked over to a clump of blue-clad station security. As she approached, one turned towards her and flipped up the opaque visor of her helmet. The insignia on her shoulder indicated the rank of Captain.
“Afternoon, Commissioner” the Captain grunted.
“Spaceport security on top of things as usual, I see.”
“All according to plan,” she said with a wink “let the malcontents raise a bit of hell, then roll ‘em up. They might as well paint targets on their backs.”
Lin cast a wary eye towards the ‘malcontents’. Two hundred strong now, they had encircled the civic plaza and taken the high ground, threatening anyone who approached with bits of furniture and construction materials. Real geniuses.
“Three seats my ass,” the Captain retorted “they should be lucky to have any. Honestly I can’t see why we bother.”
“The Politan virtue of tolerance, in the flesh. Do you ever get tired of being so magnanimous?”
“Alrighy Commissioner, don’t you have some beans to go count? We’re about to start the fun, wouldn’t want you catching a stray fist.”
Most of the security corps was insufferable, but Captain Val was alright. Rumor had it her test scores had been high enough to join the Economic Ministry – Lin was at a loss for why she’d chosen this profession instead.
Val was probably right – her unit was gearing up for action, and Lin would be worse than useless if she stayed here. Carefully skirting the edge of the Atrium, she gave the mob in the center a wide berth as she picked her way through the crowd.
A meaty hand caught her arm in a vice-like grip.
“Go home!” the man bellowed, centimeters from her face. “We don’t want you here!”
Lin stood for a moment, frozen in shock.
And then everything went to hell.
The floor shook violently. The man grasping her arm let go in surprise and she was able to shove herself away. The floor heaved and then dropped an entire meter, knocking nearly everyone in the Atrium off their feet. Overhead, pops and cracks rang out – Lin took these for shots fired from balconies above at first, but realized in horror that it was the trees of the ecolayer collapsing. Some of their trunks tumbled down into the Atrium. Amid the chaos and destruction, a gut-wrenching noise pervaded – at once a piercing wail and a bone-rattling roar. Lin covered her ears and prayed.