Andou's Rebellion

Chapter 8: Tending the Crops

For a week the girls of the Examination side to the ship held their ground and set up barricades to prevent those of Escalator faction from entering their part of the ship. "This is the captain of the ship speaking. If you do not surrender now, this will be considered mutiny, a crime punishable by expulsion from the school system...." the message started.

"Ugh, they've been playing this crap for days now. If they really meant it, they'd have done something by now," stated Marcé to Andou.

"They can't call this mutiny, we're protesting their tyranny. I thought mutiny was rebellion to lawful orders. Is it lawful to use tanks on a peaceful demonstration?" asked Andou.

"The only issue is how do we prove that they started it?" asked Marcé. "We'll need to have a trial before the school board if we are to find justice in this mess."

"I don't want to be expelled," frowned Fontaine. "I'd hate to go home from here. This is my home. I love this ship."

"Hey, don't worry about it, kid. None of us are gonna get expelled and all of us are staying on this ship until we graduate. We just need to get some help in sorting out the mess we have now, before we worry about what comes next."

"This is the captain of the ship speaking...." began the message again.

"Hey, will someone find that damn speaker and get rid of it!" yelled Marcé. When no one answered, she stood up and said, "Fine, I'll go find it. I'll see you two later."

Andou looked over to Fontaine who still looked a bit upset and sighed. "You can't let this crap get to you, kid," said Andou to her new friend. Fontaine looked to her and pulled her face to try and hide her frown, but failed to do so. "Come on, let's walk, yeah?"

The two got up and walked through the streets of their side of the ship. "What are you doing in class?" asked Andou.

"Huh?" asked Fontaine.

"You know like, what's up? You guys do anything fun in class?" asked Andou, trying to be relatable.

"I guess. I mean class is alright, but to be honest I mostly joined this school for the extracurricular side of things, and to join the Sensha-dō team. It's not all I care about, Sensha-dō that is - if I did just care about that, I probably would have gone to Kuromorimine," said Fontaine, before thinking a bit, "I like the atmosphere here. I love French culture. Did you know that France was home to the philosophes: some of the early Enlightenment thinkers. They began applying reason to things beyond abstract ideas. Implementing it into life. And some of that enlightenment thinking has become the foundations of our world still. It has created the doctrines by which many of us live by, and I guess I came here in search of that."

"Huh, I never really thought about that," said Andou. "I mean, I know about the Enlightenment. We learn a fair deal about these things in our cultural classes, but I guess it's easy to think of those things as past, when they still apply today."

"But not just the ideas of the time, the idea that ideas are all said and done is absurd. But, the principals from which these ideals are derived should be held still, too. Should not we still challenge our own world views? That is Descartes' thinking, no? Puisque je doute, je pense; puisque je pense, je suis – J'existe? I doubt, I think, I am. We must doubt to think; to exist," stated Fontaine.

"Man, you're thinking like a real philosophe, aren't you," joked Andou.

"What? You don't think about these things?" asked Fontaine.

"Not usually...." started Andou.

"What's the SitRep?" asked the headmaster to Marie and Oshida.

"The Examination students have barricaded us from entering their side of the ship from the deck. But some of the mechanic's club have informed us of paths we might take to that side of the ship from below deck. There are, of course, ways to get across from the reactor unit, but it is a dangerous path we think. A better way we have found, is to go through the cargo elevators to the lowest bay for receiving small vessels at the water level. Then moving to the Examination side of the ship and taking similar routes up, but that's a long trip. So we found an experimental path, that takes us to this tunnel here and straight across to their side, but I don't know yet what this tunnel is," said Oshida.

"Why not go by air?" asked Marie. "We could fly in the helicopter and land on the other side, and just try talking to them."

"Perhaps that could work in other times, but these students have already shown an affinity for violence," said Helena as she entered the room. "What exactly is the plan once we enter their domain?" she asked.

"Helena, I didn't hear you come in," said the headmaster. "Excuse me while I pour myself a drink."

"The streets of the Examination side are very narrow. And they're filled with buildings and shops on each side. Driving a tank column through such territory is dangerous. One risks being cut off from either side and quickly being overrun. We to run a war of attrition. If we can get below deck we can sabotage their resources," reasoned Oshida.

"Sabotage their resources, yes," said the headmaster, somewhat drunkenly, "How?"

Oshida rolled her eyes then stated, "Cut off their water, power, and gas. Starve them out.

"Why can't we do that from here?" asked Helena.

"The Examination students are the larger part of the manual labor force. Though the ship is split down the middle, the reactor is in space controlled by them. There are ways to get there from our side of the ship, but it still is in their control. We don't want to shut down the reactor though, as that powers the whole ship, we just want to find any utility lines or power stations we might cut them off at. That said, we know only that the top deck is secure, not the lower parts to the ship. I imagine people are still taking care of the lower parts to the ship, but I don't know to what extent and how much the Examination force knows." explained Oshida.

She thought for a minute before turning to Helena. "Maybe you, new friends, could do some digging for us. The student's aren't likely to recognize you as they would us," said Oshida before turning to Marie. "Only those on the Sensha-dō team really know all of them. Helena, can you have one of your girls take the route we know so far to the other side and have them find out what exactly they know?" asked Oshida.

"Honestly, this is such a mess, don't you all think we should ask for outside help?" asked Marie.

"No!" the other three said in unison.

"The Sensha-dō and school boards would have my head over this!" exclaimed the headmaster. "Honestly who's idea was this, mess?" he asked, downing more of his drink.

"Yours," replied Oshida.

"Oh, God," he muttered.

"If we call in outside help, how do we know Andou and her little group of revolutionaries won't spin this stuff against us," replied Oshida.

"Besides, I think we're all resourceful enough here to get this done on our own," said Helena. She then turned to Oshida and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll have Lisa get on it."

"Great, let's go," said Oshida, taking Helena out of the room with her. Marie looked back to the now crying headmaster and shook her head as she left the room.

"Looks like I might have to do things myself, I hate getting my hands dirty," muttered Marie to herself.