Eric Flint - The Rats, the Bats and the Ugly

The senior council member gaped at her. "But… but we might all be murdered in our beds! These Vats are getting out of control!"

Ginny stood up. She'd been totally terrified of speaking in public at first. But, if she didn't, Chip would be doomed. As it was, all she could do was speak, until probate was passed and the shares became legally hers. Funny, how they'd been happy to accept her proxies, but not her actual vote. Well. She'd just have to use her voice as well as possible.

"This colony, fellow Shareholders, was set up to escape tyranny and repression. To build a new utopia, for all the people of Harmony and Reason. Not just some of us. The right to free association and public assembly is set out in our constitution. That right does not just apply to Shareholders. We have no need or right to have a repressive organization, with basically unlimited license and no controls, here on Harmony and Reason. If, and this is a very big 'if,' the Special Branch is not simply disbanded as it should be-as I intend to demand that it be-then the Council must move and move swiftly to take proper, accountable control over them."

The Chairman was at his most icy. He knew he had little to lose. He was a well-known Cartup family loyalist. When she wielded her votes, he was going to be out of that position. "We already have someone who is responsible for the Special Branch, that you want removed. Talbot Cartup is only implicated by your accusation, Ms. Shaw. A man is innocent until proven guilty."

She looked down her nose at him. "Not that Special Branch has ever respected that legal axiom. But leave that aside. Firstly, if you suspect a man with bloody hands of axe-murder, you take his axe away and put him in custody while he awaits trial. If he is given bail, there are strict conditions set to stop him committing another crime. The trial will establish his innocence or guilt-but you don't leave him on the loose with his axe, Mr. Chairman. And secondly, by giving all responsibility for the Security portfolio to one individual-without any checks and balances on that power-we, as the Council, must accept the blame for that individual's actions. We need to set up those checks and balances. We also need to at least suspend Talbot Cartup from that post, until the courts decide on his innocence or guilt."

"Those seem fair calls to me, Mr. Chairman," said one of the younger councilors. "Shall we put that to that to the vote?"

The two motions passed… by the slimmest of margins. But when it came to direct action against the Korozhet, unless they returned Charles Connolly, Ginny had less luck. The Council refused to do more than issue another amorphous, weak-worded request, without time limits or the intimation of threat.

Afterwards, still seething with fury, Ginny spoke to Bronstein.

"Look, Bronstein. I've changed my mind. You've got a deal right now. But I need your support. This is the deal I am offering…"

Virginia looked out onto a sea of faces. Meilin's VLO was far larger than the Special Branch had reported… or the public's curiosity about the guest speaker was larger than anyone had guessed. There was a whole stadium full of Vats. Many of them were women with young children, the men and unmarried women being off at the war-front. They hadn't cheered when she'd stood up to speak. But they hadn't booed her yet, either.

Virginia cleared her throat, and flung straight into it. "I'm here because one brave soldier made me realize that Vats are not second-class citizens." A ripple of surprise ran through the crowd.

"I am here to tell you I am going to stand by you and for you." They liked that, but didn't trust it. Well, she wouldn't have, either. But if the Special Branch could play dirty, so could she. "And here's my first-and unconditional-demand. Abolish the Special Branch. Destroy it, root and stem."

They cheered wildly, then. She had them.

"It is the system that has to change. You can change a system in two ways. Either you can smash it, in which case a lot of people are going to get killed. Our people as well as their people. Or you can take it over, and nobody has get hurt. Nobody but the Special Branch." She smiled at the crowd. "They've always said 'anyone can become a Shareholder, just as soon as their debts are paid.' Only… the longer it takes the deeper in debt you get. Twenty-two percent per annum, compounded, interest on interest. The Shareholders get rich and you get poorer."

Now the crowd booed. She held up her hands for silence, and they were still.

"I intend to break this. Completely. No Shareholder child is expected to pay for his or her upbringing. But to do this legally, without bloodshed, I will need votes. And to get that I need Shareholders to support me. And we need to do it without fighting on the streets, except in self-defense, because if we fight they can repress us. As soon as I have legal control over my fortune-and I own one-third of all the shares in the colony-it is going to be given to the Bat Credit Cooperative."

A sea of tonsils stared at her from the open mouths on the stands.

"To explain, I am going to hand this microphone over to one of the organizers. Michaela Bronstein."

The stunned crowd watched a bat on the podium tap the microphone with a wing-claw.

"Indade, we're planning to break the stranglehold of Shareholders. We don't wish to make money out of this project. We bats have no interest in money. Ask those Vats who have fought beside us on the front lines. All we want in exchange is freedom for the uplifted creatures. We want you to vote for us to be recognized as sentients. As well as the rats." Bronstein shrugged her batwings. "I can talk and think. But any human can legally kill me as they would sheep. We will support you, but we want your support in return. We need to stand wing to shoulder against those who oppress us. We've fought as comrades in arms in the trenches. Will you stand with us here?"

The clapping was hesitant at first. Then, as Virginia held out her arm, and Bronstein flew onto it, the clapping became a wall of sound. Virginia raised her arms and hushed them.

" 'Tis a vile underarm bouquet you have, " said Fal, with a snigger from his perch just inside the podium.

Somehow, that made the rest easy. "And when we have those votes, we'll move on three things. Firstly, we want to move to a 'one person one vote' system, instead of the votes being weighted by shares. Secondly, we want a debt cancellation for the rearing of clones. Thirdly, we want recognition of full sentient rights for the uplifted creatures."

She waited for hush again. "We are going to do all this because we can. Because when we start to organize there is no force that can stop us. We are going free Chip Connolly. We are going to drive the Magh' and… their allies off Harmony and Reason. We are going to build a free society of equals. We are going to do this-"

She stood in the dramatic position she'd assumed, frozen.

Literally.

The bullet that interdicted the slowshield Liepsich had fitted saw to that.

Eric Flint

The Rats, the Bats amp; the Ugly

Eric Flint

The Rats, the Bats amp; the Ugly

Mostly in the nest area of the head of the Ratafia.

After the sort of day she'd had, Ginny thought, nothing should faze her. The paratroopers had killed the would-be assassin. That was perhaps unfortunate, since it might have been better to capture him and make him talk. But…

The paratroopers were more concerned with completely, thoroughly and utterly terrifying the police-especially Special Branch. They'd practically blown the assassin into shreds.

Afterward, Ginny and Bronstein had calmed the crowd. That had taken some doing. If she had been killed, a riot would indeed have occurred-which, clearly, was what Special Branch had intended.