The Girl in the Tank: Galactic Consortium, Season 1

Episode Five: Fraternization ch.9

They were still joking with Janda when the door slid open again. This time it was Dan, with a tray of his own. "May I join you?" he asked.

"Of course," Cheyenne said, gesturing him in.

He glanced once at Lana, who was still sitting close to Cheyenne. Cheyenne felt a blush run up her cheek. She wondered, vaguely, if she had enough natural skin on her face for it to show.

I should talk to him about this. He'd understand and maybe he could even help me sort through some of these feelings. If I can find a moment alone, without one of the two healers with me.

"So what have you been up to?" Janda asked as Dan found a seat and opened his tray.

"Talking politics almost all morning," he shuddered.

"We haven't even seen the news yet today," Cheyenne said.

"No wonder you're in a good mood," Dan replied. Cheyenne gave him a look. "That princess of yours sure has her hands full," he said to Janda and Lana.

"She's very capable, if her reputation is to be trusted," Janda said.

"Kamchatcha, right?" Cheyenne said. "More trouble?"

"Some, but that's going nowhere," Dan said. "No, there's been another incident with China, some dissident group called the Falun Gong, or something."

"They asked for help. They only wanted to be allowed to leave China, go into the consortium. Said they feared for their lives," Janda put in. "You can't fault her, or us, for that."

"We don't," Cheyenne said, putting a hand on Janda's arm.

"Any chance of a short term diplomatic end to the conflict are gone, though," Dan said. "And there are people back home, well it's the whole interfering with a sovereign state. Some of the conservatives are really worried about this."

"Good thing mom's sedated," Cheyenne said. "Or she'd be getting herself hyped up on it."

"I don't get it," Lana said. "Of course, I barely have time for our politics, let alone yours. But this whole notion of a sovereign state. I thought that was what the Vatari wars were about eons ago? The whole point of the Consortium was to stop all the little states from fighting, or mistreating their own."

"They haven't been part of the Consortium in over forty thousand years," Janda replied. "And that's assuming Vaishava and his people actually landed here intact, ever set up any sort of system. They don't understand. In time they will. The government is free to do what it wants, yes? But so is the citizen. Somebody must balance the power, make sure the state is not abusing it's authority."

"So the Consortium is like above the government? Do you have a government, like back home."

"Sure, back home and it's democratic," Lana insisted. "In time we'll have the same here."

"You really don't pay attention to politics, do you?" Janda said, surprised. Lana gave him a blank look. "We have it here now." He sounded indignant that she didn't know this. "We're attached to the base ship. The base ship has thirty thousand attached civilians. They live there. Fifteen thousand is a quorum."

"A quorum for what?" Dan asked. Cheyenne watched the back and forth, intrigued.

"For a local council," Janda said. "Any location, geographic or not, that is permanent residence to more than fifteen thousand people has the right to a democratically elected council to assist in governance on their behalf."

"Geographic or not?" Cheyenne asked.

"A long time ago people tried to get around the rules by claiming their ship or station didn't have a fixed location, therefor it wasn't a place. That didn't work, safe to say."