{"id":21,"date":"2012-04-25T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/portfolio\/scribblings\/2012\/04\/25\/down-by-the-ferry\/"},"modified":"2023-03-06T00:15:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T00:15:05","slug":"down-by-the-ferry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eoinodwyer.com\/scribblings\/down-by-the-ferry\/","title":{"rendered":"Down by the Ferry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a change from my rants concerning social media, I thought I’d share another story. I wrote this for the Bundoran Press Blood and Water<\/a> <\/i>anthology. Although it made it to the final round of consideration, it unfortunately was rejected so now I’m stuck with an 8000 word piece of science-fiction Canadiana. I thought I might as well give it to the internets for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ride the Departure Bay Ferry often\u2014it’s my preferred means of getting home to the Island\u2014so those boats loom large in my mental landscape. Some of my friends have been writing dystopian stories set in a future Republic of Cascadia and mentioned the idea of converted ferries being used as gun platforms. From this seed the story idea was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the characters, let’s just say during my time in Port Alberni I’ve met my share of Shannons. Their kids always seem to have big pale eyes. I wrote them an apocalypse they did okay in. I hope you enjoy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Shannon remembered the day they had anchored the ferry, strapping it down with two long chains so it dominated the harbour entrance. The great steel tub was the last one on the Island, the others capsized in the maelstroms that had accompanied the melting of the polar ice caps and the rising of the water. Across the straight, the storms had taken more than just boats, the lowlands of greater Vancouver having slipped beneath the waves, hundreds of thousands drowned in their beds. The Crumbling had taken cities and countries down with it, reducing civilization to a shadow of its former self as the environment went into spasm under the strain of billions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the day when she had come to terms with what had happened. Roy wasn\u2019t coming home, and they\u2019d never see enough gas to ever run the ferry again. They were going to be stuck on the Island for the rest of their lives, minus fishing trips. That ferry, stuck out there by Newcastle, represented the new world in which pirate bands came up from the Republic of Cascadia by night, or where rusty boats from Asia, full of starving refugees, would flounder on the rocks every week or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t all bad however. Sure, there was almost never any power, and you scrounged to get enough to eat, but they didn\u2019t starve. Roy wasn\u2019t coming back either, so they were never going to have fights in which he lost his temper and hit her. She\u2019d never again have to lie about the bruises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than a bruise, his final gift to her had been the gun rack he\u2019d left when he\u2019d been drafted during the Crumbling. She blessed him for that every day. The crossbow that came with it was the best part, a reusable weapon in a world where you counted every last bullet you squeezed off. She\u2019d made her mark by hunting around the edge of Nanaimo, where the woods were starting to envelope the abandoned houses there. With a bit of luck, she\u2019d kill a deer once a week or so and drag it back to town. People would pay a lot for the luxury of meat, so she and Astor didn\u2019t lack for anything, as long as she stayed lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, that rusting ferry represented a dread that always lay in the back of her mind. She had never been much for politics before the Crumbling, but now that things were immediate, and politics concerned the food in your belly or the water that slacked your thirst, the subject was hard to ignore. Vancouver Island and the City of Vancouver, two entities similarly named, but separated by the Straight of Georgia. The Island had been lucky in many ways. They didn\u2019t have much in the way of lowlands, so most of the towns and cities were more or less intact. Unlike the interior, the rain catching mountains protected them from desertification, and the ocean provided a barrier against the armed bands of American refugees coming north. The town had come close to starving once, when Astor had only been a few years old, but the Island\u2019s population had been elderly for a long while. When medical resources dried up, the old started dropping like flies. Now there were ghost towns and neighbourhoods to the north and south, but those who were left had moved closer together, and there had suddenly been enough to go around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the essential problem now, the one that kept her up at night. They had more farmland than they had hands to work it, more clean water than they had mouths to drink it. From the prewar news, she knew the City had put in vast numbers of vertical farms into the City core, but with the desert to the east of them, the drowned land to the south, and the pine beetle riddled mountains to the north, they would still be in desperate need of food and fresh water to keep everyone alive. Half a million hungry mouths, she would think, as she\u2019d go to sleep, will eventually notice we have extra over here. They have only to reach out half a million pairs of hands to take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t that she was worried about herself; in this world she would be lucky to see another ten years. There was only one member of her family still alive, her daughter, Astor. That made her the one thing that mattered. For all that the Crumbling had brought, it had made her focus on that one fundamental truth\u2014that Astor mattered above all else. Before the Crumbling the kitchen had been full of moldy dishes, her head full of dreams of television fame, and her nights spent in bars whenever she could find a sitter. That was all gone now, cut clean away by the desire to ensure that Astor was taken care of. The trouble was, she didn\u2019t know what to do with the girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon had always been a girl\u2019s girl. Clothes and boys had been her interests, surpassed only by ATV rides in the woods with Roy when he\u2019d still been alive. Hers was a Sarah Palin (rest her memory) school of feminism, where she could go shoot something in the woods and then put on makeup for a night on the town. She\u2019d grown up a lot since then, learned that she didn\u2019t need Roy around to take care of her, or to be happy, but Astor remained an enigma to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon would have called Astor a nerd if they had been in school together. Everyone had their pads and smart contacts when Shannon had been growing up, but they had been used for socializing, or trivial pursuits. Astor was interested in how things like that ticked. She was this pale little wisp of a girl with curly black hair and big moon eyes, her frame so slender you would be afraid she might blow away in the wind. The hair and the eyes were all Roy\u2019s, and her don\u2019t-give-a-damn attitude definitely came from Shannon, but that focus on the working of things was something that her mother was convinced had come from outer space. Astor\u2019s room was a pile of salvaged electronics, and torn apart computers, a dynamo bike in the corner supplying power for her projects. She never seemed to go anywhere without her little toolkit for prying things open and putting them back together in new ways. All she seemed to read, outside of Chronicles of Narnia, were old computer and DIY books that Shannon would find for her when they were tearing apart old abandoned houses for usable junk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon had tried to toughen her up a little bit, make her ready for the day when her mother wouldn\u2019t be around to look after her. None of it seemed to take. Once, when she\u2019d taken her out hunting, Astor had been able to hit a deer more or less accurately, taking it down with a messy second crossbow bolt. There had been this look of distaste on her face when they reached the body, and Shannon had assumed that she was upset about killing the deer and tried to comfort her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018But that\u2019s not it,\u2019 Astor had told her sadly. \u2018It\u2019s that I can\u2019t put the deer back together after I broke it. I don\u2019t like breaking things unless I can fix them up again.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever way her and Roy\u2019s genes had mixed together, something strange had come out. Perhaps Astor had been zapped by a stray cosmic ray when she had been just a zygote. Her brilliant little inventor of a child had been precocious since the beginning, fascinated by the way things used to be before the Crumbling. She\u2019d made a cheap wireless net only a few years ago, so people could send each other short messages through the few unbroken computers and cellphones within the city radius. The network had begun as a small home project when she had wanted to send messages to her neighbour, old Ned, who ran a local computer shop back in the day. The man had encouraged her, and before Shannon knew what was happening, Astor\u2019s local net was hooked into all the neighbours. It served as a welcome replacement to the long defunct phone system, its bytes hopping between old cell towers and still ticking wireless routers. It was held together with gum and cleverness, but most people didn\u2019t seem to twig how unusual it was for a twelve year old girl to have made such a thing. They were just glad they could talk to each other without going out in the rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem, Shannon often reflected, was that Astor had been born too late. She should have been born in a world where sending a few bytes of a message across town would be commonplace, where she would get a scholarship and go off to university and design the next generation of computers or smart contacts or whatever they would have come up with next, if things hadn\u2019t crumbled. Shannon still remembered that time, but for Astor it was a lost golden age, spoken of only in moldy old books, its artifacts rusting on trash heaps or in drawers unused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day a white sailboat came into the harbour, hailing the defending ferry on its slow approach. After it landed, the word spread rapidly along Astor\u2019s patchwork net, a series of whispers saying that the City had sent an Envoy over, and that he had marched into the Mayor\u2019s office with his men and shut the door behind him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They called a town meeting the next day, and Shannon brought Astor along, literally tugging her away from her workbench and her half soldered circuit. They joined the small stream of people making their way to the town hall by foot, bicycle, or horse drawn wagon. Still not enough horses around, Shannon thought. Too many people had become hungry when things had gotten close to the bone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Why do I have to have to come along?\u2019 Astor asked her. \u2018It\u2019s all just silly politics. I hate politics.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon stopped in the middle of the street and sighed. She didn\u2019t really want to bring her along, but Astor had to learn, quickly and soon. \u2018I know you do baby, but these days politics are about food and water and who gets them. If we don\u2019t pay attention to politics, we might not eat.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astor looked up at her with those big moon eyes, and Shannon wasn\u2019t certain if she was thinking or just confused. \u2018It\u2019s like how we have to eat our vegetables,\u2019 she went on. \u2018Remember back when you were in grade one and we had that scare of people getting scurvy? All those people with the black gums? We have to do some things we don\u2019t like, so we can do the things we want to do.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astor nodded, but then tilted her head. \u2018Can we do anything to stop it? All the people from the mainland coming over here to steal our food?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018How do you know about that?\u2019 Shannon asked her. Her little girl was already filled with political worries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Some of the kids were talking about it at school. Jane\u2019s dad is going to fight to keep them out, that\u2019s what she said.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon sighed: it was Devon Young, up to no good again. He was the leader of the local militia, a former classmate of hers who had taken to this new dystopian world with excessive eagerness. While she dreaded the thought of a fight here over land and water, Devon would welcome it with open arms, as the small tussles that the militia had with pirates or refugee bands were now boring him. Once upon a time, Shannon had been one of the chubby kids at school, but the Crumbling had made her lean, attracting Young\u2019s dangerous eyes. He would often corner her in the market\u2014just to talk he\u2019d say\u2014and from those exchanges she knew he was eager for something with higher stakes, wrapped in a vague notion of liberty. Liberty, she thought, what good is it if you\u2019re dead, or can\u2019t get enough to eat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Those guys are idiots Astor,\u2019 was what she said. \u2018If the City is coming, we\u2019ll have to negotiate if the Capital won\u2019t help us.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What if the town decides to stay and fight?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kid was asking all sorts of awkward questions today. Shannon started walking towards town hall again. \u2019Then we run towards the west coast. The Alberni Valley is inland and the road hard to breach. If the City takes Alberni as well, we can go further out to Tofino. The highway there can be blown in a dozen places to make it impassable. It wouldn\u2019t be worth the effort to pursue people through the pass. We could fish and hunt to get by. Old Ned says the fish populations are returning\u2014some sort of mutant salmon that can stand the higher ocean temperatures.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astor looked troubled by the plan. \u2018We won\u2019t be able to bring my tools with me if we run that far, and they won\u2019t have much in the way of electronic leftovers out on the coast. There weren\u2019t many people there before the Crumbling.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon put her hand on Astor\u2019s shoulder. Dream, they had told her in high school. You can achieve whatever you want if you try hard enough. For Astor\u2019s generation, however, they had to teach them how to put their dreams away in order to survive. \u2018Astor honey,\u2019 she said, \u2018even if we stay, even if we fight off the City, you might not get to mess around with circuits much longer. There are people saying that the network we now have is enough, that there\u2019s too few leftovers for tinkering anymore.\u2019 Devon Young had told her as much, and even Mayor Brown agreed on this. Back in the day, they hadn\u2019t built electronics to last, and the remaining working devices were beginning to show their age. Every repair cost a component that could not be replaced, and Astor liked to experiment, fusing the old into the new, in a way that was costly in terms of parts. What she made lasted longer than the old pieces, and used memory and power sparingly, but all everyone else could see was that their monitors were yellowing and decaying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Politics,\u2019 her little girl said. \u2018Everything is politics.\u2019 As they walked to the hall, she was very quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were at best a few thousand people left in town after all the deaths in the Crumbling, a fragment of a fragment of the original population. A few hundred had come out for the meeting, heads of families or representatives from the farm communes further out. Politics might be life, but work still needed to be done in the fields. The hall was packed, most of the people outside in the overflow, so the mayor had rigged up some speakers to allow everyone to follow along with the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devon Young and a few of his militia were close to the front, paying close attention to anyone who made it into the main hall. The militia were all hotheads with guns, many of them friends of Young\u2019s even before the Crumbling. Shannon used to have a prodigious DVD collection\u2014now dying from oxidation\u2014and Devon and his friends had often borrowed her action movies, usually without asking. Now here was an opportunity that they might actually live out the gun slinger dreams that drowned Hollywood had promised them. They made some catcalls in Shannon\u2019s direction when she entered and took the seats that a friend had saved for her and Astor. She gave them the finger and avoided eye contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Brown brought the meeting to attention and introduced the Envoy from the Independent City State of Vancouver as it styled itself now. Shannon noticed a few men in gray around the main stage she didn\u2019t recognize\u2014bodyguards she guessed. The Envoy, a tall thin man in a suit and tie, stepped up to the podium, and went straight into his speech. The City had claimed a right to the town, he told them, as well as the surrounding land on account of the general failure of the old provincial government down in the Capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Next month, an administration team along with a security force will arrive here,\u2019 he told them. \u2018The team will set in place an equitable system for the division of unused farmland between the five thousand settlers who will be arriving here over the course of the next year.\u2019
A gasp went up from the audience: the number was greater than the town\u2019s population. The Envoy hesitated, trying to feel the mood of the crowd before pushing on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Food and water are tight in the City,\u2019 he continued, \u2018and so all excess produced here will be shipped across to the mainland. You will all be put on our ration system, with the same allotment of food as our citizens.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Don\u2019t we get a say in this?\u2019 Devon Young yelled, jumping to his feet. \u2018What happened to democracy?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Envoy looked towards the questioning voice. \u2018You will be allowed to elect fifty percent of the council that will handle the transitional period of the settlement. During that period you will be granted conditional citizenship of the City. This region used to all be one province. It is the City Council\u2019s opinion that due to the ongoing food shortage on the mainland, we have the political right to take whatever actions are necessary, within reason, to ensure the well being of our citizenry.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone began yelling at once, and the meeting descended into chaos. Shannon stayed quiet, relieved that the City wasn\u2019t just going to come in guns blazing. She remembered that ache in her stomach when things had been rough and the feel of Roy\u2019s rifle in her hands when she\u2019d stayed up late at night, wondering if she\u2019d have to use it on a neighbour so her little girl wouldn\u2019t starve. Hunger reduced everything to a terrible simplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Brown tried to wave everyone down. \u2018The Capital won\u2019t reply to any of our messages. They\u2019re not going to stop the City folk coming over here if they want. It\u2019s my opinion that we agree to this offer while it\u2019s still available.\u2019 He looked over at the Envoy, who gave him a weary nod. They were both trying to avoid the worst, Shannon realized, two men trying to make the mad world a little more sane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She should have never counted Young out. What he really wanted was power: power to tell people what to do, to kill who he wanted, and to do what he liked. Mayor Brown had kept him from controlling things in town by outmaneuvering him with words. By the end of this meeting, Brown would make everyone come around to a negotiated peace. It was what he did best, talk and convince, but Young had the advantage when it came to violence, and he had finally come to realize this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only when she noticed that Young\u2019s men were creeping close to the stage that she realized something was wrong. By then, it was too late to do anything. The large number of people trying to squeeze into the hall had resulted in the crowd hemming in the speakers at the front, preventing an easy escape. In a matter of moments, the militia rushed the stage, taking down the Envoy\u2019s guards with knives and pistols before they knew what was happening. Young himself walked up the Envoy, pulled out a worn revolver, and shot the man in the chest. Mayor Brown cried out and tried to shield the fallen man, only to be shot himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon was deafened by the screams, and she pulled Astor close to protect her. Amid the chaos, all she could make out was Astor\u2019s rapid heartbeat next to hers. Politics, she thought to herself, politics is life and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The room suddenly went quiet, as Young began to speak. \u2018We\u2019re not going to take this anymore,\u2019 he told the shocked crowd. \u2018The City meant to come and take what\u2019s ours, to take away our lands, our rights, and eventually even our lives. If you think they\u2019re going to let us keep what we have now, you\u2019ve got another thing coming. There\u2019s more people than food and water to go around, and they\u2019re going to choose their own over us, when push comes to shove. We\u2019ve got only one option now, and that\u2019s to fight off these bastards till the Capital realizes what\u2019s going on and sends help. You hear me? We\u2019re going to fight!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a quiet rumble in the crowd, and then the militia took up the chant. \u2018Fight! Fight! Fight!\u2019 they yelled, and then everyone else took it up. Shannon pushed her way out of the hall, Astor in her arms, not certain of what to do. Behind her, she could hear Young calling Mayor Brown all sorts of names, like \u2018collaborator\u2019 and \u2018traitor\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Is this what politics is normally like mum?\u2019 Astor asked her, once they were clear of the crowd. She was trembling a little. Sudden violence was a too common occurrence now, but you never really got used to it.
\u2018Sometimes baby,\u2019 she told her. \u2018Sometimes.\u2019 Young had killed them all, she thought. What the Envoy had promised them had been the best they could have hoped for. There were no doubt others in the City who thought, like Devon Young, that there wasn\u2019t enough to go around and it was either mainland folk or island folk who got to eat. They would get their turn now, and when they were done, there wouldn\u2019t be a soul left alive in town. A half a million hungry mouths would soon be marching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She made her way back to their house quickly, Astor in tow. They would need to run soon, preferably tonight, but it would take time to get things together. When they arrived, however, three of the militia were already waiting there on horseback. They must have ridden by another route to cut her off, as soon as the meeting had ended. Young must have been planning for this for a long time, laying the groundwork when nobody had been looking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Can I help you boys with anything?\u2019 she asked, drawing Astor close to her as they walked up to the three. She only recognized Raymond Hunt, who slung himself off his horse and tipped his baseball cap to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Shannon, we\u2019re here on behalf of the militia defense planning committee, the new MDP.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Oh, you\u2019ve already thought of an acronym for yourselves? That\u2019s clever.\u2019 Shannon tilted her head as she smiled at him, or tried to.
Raymond just laughed, which was a good sign. \u2018Got that lip on you as always Shannon. Well you were at the meeting, you should know why we\u2019re here.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Slipped out before the end actually.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Well they passed a motion, just at the finish, where we\u2019re supposed to round up all the guns and weapons in town and distribute them out for the purposes of defense. You\u2019ve got that old armory of Roy\u2019s in the back there and you can\u2019t fire all those guns by yourself.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She hesitated. The guns were her wealth, her way of making do. If they had to run, they would need as many of them as they could carry. \u2018Well I suppose if that\u2019s what the town\u2019s decided to do, I\u2019ll have to hand them over,\u2019 she said carefully, trying to keep the tremble out her voice. \u2018But I get my living by those guns. If I don\u2019t hunt, my girl and I don\u2019t eat.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018If we don\u2019t fight off the mainlanders,\u2019 one of the mounted militia members snapped at her, \u2018then none of us eat!\u2019 The other, a blonde woman, spat on the ground, but didn\u2019t say anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raymond waved at him to be quiet. \u2018I understand that. We can let you keep three weapons: a pistol, a rifle, and your crossbow. That\u2019ll allow both you and your girl to hunt and defend yourselves. There\u2019s no sense in denying a skilled markswoman a rifle, after all. We\u2019ll write out a list of the ones we take, so you can get them back when all this is over.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When all this is over, Shannon thought, we\u2019ll all be dead on account of Young\u2019s foolishness. \u2018Anything else I miss at the meeting? Any other new laws that Sheriff Young is bringing in?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Mayor Young now,\u2019 he informed her. \u2018You can\u2019t leave town. I know you\u2019d rather be heading west with your girl, out of harm\u2019s way, but we need every sure hand ready to defend the City. You\u2019ll have to check in each day so we know everyone is still around.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Ah, you know I\u2019m up for defending the town,\u2019 she lied, \u2018I just don\u2019t like Young is all.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunt laughed at that, and the tension passed, the three members of the militia presumably convinced that she was on their side. To further the appearance of her feigned civic pride, she submitted calmly to the orders and brought out the contents of her gun cabinet. They carefully listed and tagged all the weapons, including the ones she kept for Astor and herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the militia were safely away, she and Astor packed everything they might need in two rucksacks that they sat near the door. They cleaned the two remaining guns, and checked their ammunition. Astor did everything she was told without asking any questions, but broke her silence when they were finished packing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We can\u2019t leave now,\u2019 she said dully. \u2018We\u2019ll never make it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I know baby,\u2019 she replied. On foot, they couldn\u2019t outrun militia on horseback. They would have to plan this one. \u2018We just need to be ready. First hint of the invasion, you get back here, even if it\u2019s a school day. They\u2019ll be too busy fighting their little war to notice us disappearing.\u2019 She tried not to think of what had happened to Mayor Brown and the Envoy. If she and Astor kept their heads down and looked patriotic, they should be okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They went back to their lives after that, although the bags and weapons remained by the door. Under Mayor Young, life was almost the same as usual, but the militia now patrolled through town and along the waterfront, old binoculars and makeshift telescopes scanning the horizon for possible signs of an invading armada. Sometimes they would get overly excited and shoot at shadows in the early morning fog, setting hearts thumping before a false alarm was declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Young made a point of stopping her in the market one day. He remarked how glad he was that they had someone like Astor to make sure there was a decent communication system in town, and that wouldn\u2019t it be a great idea if she came along to one of the defense planning sessions to help make sure all the radios and backup systems were working? Shannon was reluctant to put her little girl even close to harm\u2019s way and told him so, but Devon got this glint in his eye. She pretended to reconsider and told him she would have to ask Astor first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the town meeting, Astor had made a habit of curling up in what was left of the library, working with the local banger of a desktop and going through one of the downloaded Wikipedia caches they had on file. It was there that her mother found her, next to a pile of books, the topmost of which was something called The Prince<\/em> written by some Italian guy. It was a terrible time for her to get interested in boys, Shannon thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To her surprise, Astor eagerly accepted Young\u2019s proposal. When Shannon asked why this was the case, she calmly said, \u2018It\u2019s politics mum. Everything is politics.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamma rays, Shannon thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This strange state of affairs continued for weeks, but there was no sense of relaxation. Some of the farmers out on the edge tried to make a run for the valley, and the militia brought them back and threw them in the slammer. Young made some big speech about traitors and aiding and abetting the enemy, but Shannon just nodded and cheered at the appropriate bits and kept her head down, so it was nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The siren went off one Friday morning, before the fog had finished burning away, the shrill electronic wail announcing that sails had been sighted by the forward outposts. Shannon was in town, haggling for vegetables, and her heart skipped a beat when she heard the sound. The day had come at last, the day to do or die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone ran to their appointed positions, yelling and shouting as they did so. Children and noncombatants went to their basements and bunkers and those who could bear weapons to their posts. Most had been assigned to the main harbour, but some were going to the outposts on the islands of Newcastle and Protection. Shannon had been assigned to Newcastle, which divided the two bays. Anyone posted there would be cut off and killed if the fight went against them. She had no intention of dying with the rest of them, so she left the market and ran to Astor\u2019s school. They would have more than enough time to get away in the chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But at the school she was told that Astor had gone to the library when the siren had sounded, and at the library she was told that Astor had gone towards the town hall where the communications center was. Running over there, she found Raymond Hunt handing weapons into eager, but frightened, young hands. Young was nowhere to be seen. When she starting asking people where Astor was, Raymond informed her he had sent her daughter home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The girl did a good job making sure all the equipment was up to scratch,\u2019 he said, \u2018but Young didn\u2019t want a twelve year old in his communications center. I\u2019ll will be running things here instead.\u2019 He told her go home and get her guns, and handed her an assigned radio, with her name scratched on the back. It looked like Astor\u2019s work\u2014every little thing organized and accounted for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She followed Hunt\u2019s instructions, although she had no intention of returning to fight, and made her way over to the house, which was situated on the hills overlooking the ferry bay. When she got there, however, Astor was nowhere to be found. She called out to her again and again, hoping for an answer, but none came. When she was hoarse from yelling, she sat down by the front door and began to cry a little, not sure of what to do next. She felt as helpless as she had before the Crumbling, in the days when her choices hadn\u2019t been clean and forced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her radio crackled. \u2018Mum?\u2019 she heard Astor\u2019s voice chime out. \u2018Are you there?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She snatched it up. \u2018Astor? Are you alright?\u2019 She could hear the sound of gunfire in the distance\u2014the fight had already begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019m fine Mum,\u2019 Astor told her. \u2018I just couldn\u2019t meet you at home or at school because you\u2019d stop me doing what I\u2019m going to do.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Astor!\u2019 she exclaimed. \u2018What is going on? We need to be leaving now! There\u2019s fighting down in the Bay already!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019m not going,\u2019 she said. \u2018If I run I won\u2019t be able to do what I want. Fix things. Make them better.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her heart wanted to break a little. \u2018Astor,\u2019 she said, \u2018you\u2019re just a little girl. What can you do?\u2019 Then Shannon realized that it was strange she was the only person on the network. Checking the settings, she noticed that her radio was switched to channel five, although everyone else was using channels one to three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019m the little girl who built the local network,\u2019 Astor told her, her voice filled with static. \u2018I\u2019m the little girl who has been talking to people all over the coast on the Ham radio. Everything is politics mum, but I don\u2019t want to just live. I want to do more than that.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Astor,\u2019 she said, stepping out onto the lawn, where she could look down to the water. \u2018What have you done baby?\u2019 From the lawn, she could see the anchored ferry, with all the damn awfulness it represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then she caught sight of the other ferry coming through the gap.
The mainlanders had armored their surviving ferry with miscellaneous sheet metal and strapped what looked like a mounted swivel gun to the front. How the City folk had enough fuel to run it was beyond Shannon. The boat glittered in the pale sunlight, a small fleet of white sailing ships and yachts circling around it. Some of them were going around Newcastle island, peppering the defenders with small arms fire, presumably to try and make a landing in the city harbor, but the battle ferry was swinging around from bombarding the defenses there to face its anchored cousin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I spoke to some of the tech people over in the City, over the AM band,\u2019 Astor told her. \u2018I told them I could give them an easy victory here, if they promised to spare everyone after the fight. All I had to do was compromise the network and tell them where the heavy weapons were.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon flipped over to the other channels, where all she could hear was screeching static. Sabotage, that was the reason Astor had agreed to Young\u2019s request. It put her in the perfect position to betray him. Shannon quickly flipped back to channel five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Young wants the fleet to enter the harbour,\u2019 Astor was continuing. \u2018He\u2019s hidden his zodiacs and RPGs in the old ferry because he thought they won\u2019t fire on it, for fear of blocking off the other harbour entrance. The plan was to allow the mainlanders to wipe out the garrisons on Newcastle and Protection and move into the main harbour. Then Young would hit them in the rear, trapping the fleet in the confines of the bay where they could be picked off with RPGs and fireboats. He could have won this battle, if not the war. Of course, now they know he\u2019s on the ferry, with most of our heavy weaponry.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ferry\u2019s gun spoke, a sharp boom that echoed through the bay. There was a flash and a great spray of water as the anchored ferry took the shot midship, and then the boat cracked in two with a terrible sound. Shannon could see small figures and boats trying to escape from the rapidly sinking boat from either end, giants blasts of water spraying them as the battle ferry continued its bombardment. Smaller boats from the armada moved in to pick off the survivors, and she looked away when she realized that Young and the militiamen with him were done for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She flicked to the main communication channel, the one that Astor had compromised. The static was now gone, with only a message in a deep electronic voice running over and over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Lay down all arms,\u2019 it said. \u2018Surrender.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sound of gunfire elsewhere in the Bay began to fade into silence, as first one platoon and then another acknowledged that this battle was hopeless. Without the weapons to take out the invaders\u2019 boats in the water, they had no hope in a pitched battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Mum?\u2019 Astor called out again. \u2018I\u2019ll need you to come down to the town hall. They\u2019ll be landing in the town harbour once they\u2019ve got everything under control. Bring the bags.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon picked up the bags in daze. Astor had delivered a complete and total victory to the enemy, the hungry people who might just kill them all. Not knowing what else to do, she went back to the fundamental truth, and began to walk towards town, where her daughter was presumably hiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was the smell of smoke and gas in the air as she went down the road. On the way, she ran into one of the City patrols, dressed in green uniforms, like they knew what they were doing when it came to war. When they found out her name, they took her weapons and escorted her towards the town. The patrol that took her in was mostly East-Indian and they seemed to think that this all was a funny joke for some reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astor was there in front of the town hall with Raymond Hunt, standing next to a man in military uniform who looked like a general. He was smiling, which she hoped was a good sign. When she came up, Astor ran up to hug her and the uniform shook her hand and introduced himself as General Singh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019m happy to inform you that the fight here was very brief,\u2019 he told her. \u2018Your militia men faded away or surrendered when it became clear they couldn\u2019t win. Mr. Hunt here surrendered very graciously.\u2019
Raymond looked very tired and old, Shannon thought. \u2018What are you going to do with us?\u2019 she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We\u2019re going to take all your guns away and put in place a proper police force instead of these militia maniacs you\u2019ve got running the place here.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Anything else?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You\u2019re going to get to live if that\u2019s what you mean. You\u2019ll even get the same deal that our poor dead Envoy gave you.\u2019 The General seemed mildly amused by this, as if he couldn\u2019t believe what was happening either. He waved for Raymond to be led away. Shannon looked down at her daughter, who looked up at her quietly with those big moon eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Oh yes,\u2019 General Singh said, when Raymond was out of hearing. \u2018It\u2019s all your daughter\u2019s doing, her and those Technocrati. I was all in favor of massacring the lot of you, but they managed to give us the tools for a nearly bloodless victory. It means they\u2019ve earned a lot of sway on the City Council, enough to buy you lot your lives and even get their Electronic Monastery founded.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019m afraid I don\u2019t understand,\u2019 Shannon said, confused by these new terms. \u2018Technocrati? The Electronic Monastery?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astor tugged at her hand. \u2018They\u2019re people like me, mum. They want to fix things, put them back together. They want to preserve the knowledge of how to make things like the network, so they\u2019re going to build an Electronic Monastery, and they want me to help.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Singh coughed. \u2018Well, they\u2019ll need her to make it. They were a little long on the theory and short on substance until now. The Technocrati want to make new computer and networks systems can can run nearly forever, and your girl here is the only one who has been able to make anything close. She\u2019s the real deal.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was still a bit much for Shannon. This all reminded her of something about monks and the dark ages and books, but history had never been her strong suit. \u2018You\u2019re hungry over there,\u2019 she said at last, focusing on the essentials. \u2018Why does a bloodless victory matter to you? You have lives to spare.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Well, I would have hated to lose our ferry,\u2019 the General admitted. \u2018It\u2019s proven useful going up against the Cascadians. I also don\u2019t relish having to fighting more than one enemy at a time if I can help it. You folks come quietly and you\u2019ll be treated right. Now if you\u2019ll excuse me, I have duties to attend to. A new administration needs to be put in place here.\u2019 He gave a polite salute and then strolled off down the street, a guard forming around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was still chaos in the town as the invaders took control, but people were giving up quickly. The fight that Young had put in them had gone out, and they just wanted to get home to their families, to see another day. They didn\u2019t even realize that they\u2019d been sold out by a little girl and her single mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon turned and put her arms around Astor. \u2018You planned all of this,\u2019 she said, amazed at her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I just paid attention to what you told me,\u2019 Astor said from inside her arms. \u2018Everything is politics. I learned everything I needed to from the library and came up with a plan that would allow me to do my thing, to put things back together, to fix everything, even the whole wide world.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ferry loomed in the bay, boats swirling around it, soldiers clambering over its decks. Some day soon it would leave the town and take them with it, over the water to the City. It was the dawn of a new day, Shannon thought. It was the dawn of a new world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The End<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a change from my rants concerning social media, I thought I’d share another story. 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