"Wait, you're serious?"
For once, Reizo's skepticism was met with murmured agreements. Getting into the Council was far from being a simple matter, especially for someone that hadn't even gotten through the Assigning Ceremony. Actually, the idea of someone like Kai being able to penetrate the inner sanctum of the great halls of governance was so laughable that he may as well have said that he wanted to learn how to walk on air. In the name of democracy, the Council had determined it expedient that the will of the people play no part in the actual decision-making process of nominating new members. As a result, a large majority of the Council comprised of an incestuous web of family connections and legacies that stretched back to before the Earth had perished. This insidious web of cronyism and nepotism seemed impenetrable to the average citizen, whose only real choice in the daily affairs of governance was to decide which colored flags happened to occupy which roles at the moment.
There was little chance or hope of anyone breaching that ivory bubble without dedicating their lives to the cause, and that required forming connections early and fast. Ideally, parents who wished to find an in with the Council set out to get their children acquainted with those within the Council's sphere of influence before they even learned to walk. As far as Kai's friends knew, Kai hadn't gotten himself friendly with any would-be princelings or dynastic offspring, so he was facing an uphill battle if he wanted in on a slice of the pie.
However, Kai himself didn't seem perturbed or daunted by any of this. "I know what you guys are thinking, but I know what I'm doing. There's a bunch of lower offices that anyone can run for if they meet the credit requirements. I've built up a lot of it over the past few years, and with the elections in seven months' time, I'll have plenty of time to get on the ground running. That should explain everything."
"Don't worry, it didn't." Reizo quipped.
"I wasn't asking you, jackass."
"Kai, I know that none of us exactly like what the Council's been doing," Kat began, "but you're wasting your time if you think winning one local election is going to make any difference. We all know how democracy works on the ship: you're either with the big boys or you're not!"
"I don't see why he shouldn't try." Zina argued, "Any lower officer can have their own suggestions submitted to the Council for review, and if Kai's careful enough, he could maybe find an in to influence things for the better."
"You need to be at least 18 in order to hold office, don't you?" Ravi questioned. "You'd have to wait a real long time "
"Actually, I heard that they're lowering the age requirement to 14 or so." Kat corrected. "Something about wanting to engage the greater populace right out of the gate. But it doesn't matter, Kai's never going to be able to manage to get even a postal office to his name. You know you're not the most charismatic guy in the S.S. Pacific, right?"
Kai wished he could be surprised by how little faith his friends seemed to place in his chances of achieving his goals, but honestly, he didn't blame them. The Council's notoriety for insularity preceded them, reaching all the way into distant corners of the galaxy and even other ships that happened to store humanity's last survivors. The idea that he, a regular average guy who barely skirted along with passing grades, could penetrate that iron fortress, seemed patently laughable.
Yet he wasn't going to give in before he even made it to the starting line. Sure, it would be hard, and he probably wouldn't even succeed, but if he decided to give up here, then he effectively already lost. One thing was for sure, Kai was no loser, and he was determined to prove it to everyone.
"Look, I know you guys are skeptical. You have every reason to be. The Council's not exactly known for its inclusivity, and any chance I have of getting even a chink in that armor is going to be long and hard." Kai looked towards the other, determination forged on his face. "That's another reason why I brought you all here today: I'll need all of you guys help to make what I'm planning possible."
"Should've known you weren't just looking to shoot the shit." Reizo blandly quipped. "What exactly do you think these bozos are gonna do to help? Like Ravi. Who the hell expects Ravi to do anything useful?"
"Hey, I-!"
"Think of it as hedging my bets, Reizo," Kai answered, cutting Ravi off before he could get going. "Unlike some people, I know better than to turn my nose up at whatever help I can get. There's only so many of us humans to go around, and I want to make sure we get our act together before some aliens decides to do it for us. The Council's sure as hell not up to the task, so like it or not, I need all the support I can get."
Kai looked at his friends and let out a small smile. "So, are you all in?"
~~~
"Look, I know it's not perfect but think about it. This is much more human and intimate precisely because of its flaws, its restraints, its imperfections. It's entirely, uniquely human, and it'll stay in my mind far longer for that alone."
"That's a whole lot of words to say humans suck and make worse food."
For the past hour or so, some alien and a guy with chrome-dome head and a red polyester suit have been arguing nonstop about the value of human verses Joliva art. For whatever reason, just about every alien liked to talk astronomical amounts of shit about humans, especially the synthetic "perfect machine" types. Even the ones who held themselves up as "enlightened" stewards looking to help humans out, did so more out of a patronizing need to "show humanity a better light" and to "uplift them".
Kai nursed his temples and leaned back onto the folding chair he was sitting on. Lord above, he felt like complete shit. You'd think a quick trip to a Flora bar to get one of those smoothies that made everything rainbow-colored would perk a man up, but all it did was weigh him down even more. An oppressive fatigue dragged him down like a milestone on his psyche, . He blamed the artificial sun glaring down on him - the stupid thing always shone about 15% brighter than it should, and it was raining absolute hell on his circadian rhythm. He didn't know why the upper-class ladies on the higher floors of the ship hadn't complained already; they certainly wasn't shy about bitching about everything else.
"It could've gone worse." Ravi tried to assure his best and only friend. He had a strange looking green drink in his right hand that he occasionally sipped out of with a bendy straw. Kai wished he could slap it out of his hands. "None of them said they'd outright wouldn't support you. They're just not committing to anything."
"That's as good as saying they won't support me, you idiot." Kai gave Ravi a quick box up the ear for good measure. "Shit will sing before you grow a brain, I swear!"
Ravi rubbed the back of his ear, not even registering any pain. Kai had done this so often that he'd more or less gotten used to it. Some people would think that Kai was being abusive, but really, it was nothing to fret about. This was just what friends did all the time - they talked shit about each other and gave a couple slugs here and there when one of them acted up. Sure, Kai only ever seemed to slug him, and he did it frequently enough that something would feel off if he hadn't done it at least twice a day, but those were just details. "Well, maybe they're just waiting for the Assigning Ceremony before they make a commitment either way?" "I mean, I support you."
"Yeah, thanks, that means a lot."
The thing was, Kai had his own ideas for why they were stuck in this mess; dangerous ideas. He dared not say them out loud, lest he be sent away to a institution, but he had his suspicious regarding what was really going on beyond the scene.
The Council said that they were the only hope for humanity's survival, but that was all just an elaborate ruse, the lie that barely held this sham of a society together. The truth was, the Council lived for nothing but torturing people. At every step, they had separated the S.S. Pacific into the haves and the have-nots, and they found the latter forever wanted, forever deserving to be spat on and stepped upon. He read up about the Earth from the few books he was able to get on the subject, and from what he saw, humanity had everything they needed to make life good. They had fusion energy, they had AI that did all the hard labor, they had genetically modified food that could grow anywhere and never run out. All the ingredients were there to create a true post-scarcity paradise, one with no need for strife or warfare.
There should have been no reason for the planet to die, yet here they were, stuck on a barge in the middle of nowhere. He was going to change that, one way or another. He had to. Otherwise, it wouldn't be long before everyone on this wretched starship died off. Whether it was a sudden alien attack, or a sudden catastrophic failure of a critical system, it didn't matter. The Council only cared about themselves, about fattening up their bottom line and keeping themselves. Something had to change, for all their sakes.
"L-look." Ravi looked Kai straight in the eyes. "It doesn't matter what happened before. Letting yourself get hung up on the past is just dooming yourself to failure before you've even started."
"Maybe." Kai shrugged. "I don't see you doing anything to-"
Suddenly, out of the blue, the two teens are accosted by:
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