Chapter 56: Chapter 55: Civic Duty

Alex watched in near disbelief as Serrano gave his speech, one that had been designed to offer everything under the sun to the inhabitants of Vesta.

“The mines that we have in the foothills are just about bottomless,” said Serrano to the crowd. “If we extract enough gold from them, we can make everyone on Vesta a millionaire or even a billionaire! My platform revolves around expanding the mining operation as quickly as we can and making sure every citizen gets a fair share of the pie!”

The crowd loved him for it. There was even more of an applause than what Alex garnered. For the first time, Alex began to suspect that Serrano was definitely going to win one of those seats.

“I can’t believe that man!” raged Annette. “It’s not as simple as he likes to make it. There’s not enough gold for that. There’s barely enough to keep the colony afloat, and that’s primarily what the gold is for anyway. It’s not about making everyone filthy rich!”

“Most of the people don’t know that,” replied Ellie. “He’s playing on their ignorance to gain votes. It’s despicable.”

“It might be despicable but it’s winning,” said Alex right as a loud cheer went up after Serrano left the podium. “I think he’s going to win the first slot. What are we going to do if only I get on the Council?”

“It would suck and it would mean our faction staying in the minority,” said Annette. “But I think we’d still be able to save Ellie. They wouldn’t have the numbers for a full conviction.”

“But that means we won’t be able to turn around all the stupid shit that Belladonna has ushered in, right?” asked Jenna.

“Basically,” confirmed Ellie. “Which is why it was essential that we get two slots.”

“We’re going to be lucky to get one,” mumbled Alex.

After the last of the speeches, there was a short recess before the actual voting began. All of the voting took place on an app that was on everyone’s P-com, and the results would be displayed in real time on a big screen that was positioned just outside Biosphere One.

Before it was time to vote, Alex was approached by Vitale.

“Great speech, Alex,” said the man known as the mad scientist. He flashed a thumbs-up. “I really hope you get one of the spots.”

“We’re going to need all the help we can get,” replied Alex. “I think I’ll get one but I’m not sure. I don’t trust the other side not to pull any dirty tricks.”

Vitale grinned. “They might try but they’ll be trying it on my software. I wrote the program for the voting app and I’ll be alerted to any irregularities just in case someone tries anything funny. It’ll be all right, Alex. The crowd loved your speech and you have name recognition. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“I feel better now that you have eyes on it,” said Alex. “At least I know nothing will get by you.”

“Not a chance,” promised Vitale. “By the way, I’m almost finished with your new I-Mate. Can’t wait for you to see her! Just give me another week or so and then stop by my lab.”

Alex promised he would just as an announcement flashed on the screen. It was now time to vote.

Annette soon separated from Alex and the others, joining Belladonna and Cassara on the main stage just under the big screen. As the only current members of the Council, they each beckoned the people of Vesta to give their votes to the candidate they liked the best.

“And remember everyone, vote for the person that’s truly going to better your life on Vesta,” urged Belladonna. “Don’t be swayed by empty promises!”

Alex rolled his eyes at the obvious endorsement for Serrano. He only hoped that most Vestans saw through their bullshit.

Once they were finished speaking, the screen changed to list all six candidates as well as a vote tally next to each name. Voting had officially begun.

Before watching the screen, Alex logged into the app on his P-com and placed both of his votes for himself and Jenna, hitting the confirm button at the end. Within moments, he looked up at the screen to see a very tight race playing out.

There were no surprises about the front-runners. Both Alex and Serrano shot to early leads while the other four garnered a minimal amount of votes. There was a small segment of the population that waited to see who the front-runners would be before casting their votes, not wanting to vote for someone who was going to lose. Once they saw the two in the lead, they placed their votes as well, increasing the gap.

The more the gap increased, the more Alex began to accept the likely outcome. Though they might not get a majority on the Council, at least they’d be able to save Ellie if only Alex won a seat. It wasn’t perfect but it was something he could work with.

And then all hell broke loose.

It happened nearly instantaneously. One moment, Alex and Serrano were the two obvious front-runners with a very large gap between the other four. The next moment, Ross shot up like a rocket to take the number one spot, gathering over five hundred votes in a matter of seconds and placing him on top of the entire list.

With this outcome, it would mean that Alex didn’t get a seat at all. And it would mean Ellie was consigned to likely death.

The people noticed the quick jump and started to grumble. Many of Alex’s supporters started to look around, trying to figure out if some game was being played or whether there was some glitch that caused this. When it didn’t change, they started to get angry.

“Tough luck, Hawthorne. I guess there’s always the next election.”

Alex turned to see Serrano looking at him with a shit-eating grin. It became beyond obvious that the men knew something.

“What the hell did you do?” asked Alex, pointing to the screen. “This looks like your handiwork.”

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Serrano shrugged carelessly. “This is just the will of the people, Hawthorne. And let’s face it—they like my side much better than yours. You gave it a good fight and all but it’s a done deal. Ross and I will be taking our seats on the Vestan Council.”

The tally was just about over. Votes were coming in much slower now as most of the population just awaited the results, although some with increasing fury about what they were witnessing.

“Piece of advice for you, Hawthorne,” said Serrano as he moved a little closer. “Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt to have a sure thing. I’m not above doing what needs to be done in order to get what I want.”

“So you tampered with the software then?” demanded Alex.

Serrano chuckled. “Not me, never me. But let’s just say I know a guy who was willing to do it.”

Serrano said nothing more as he moved to rejoin Belladonna. Alex chanced a glance at her face and she met his eyes, all the while wearing a very satisfied smirk.

That was the last straw. Alex raced over to find Vitale, who was still monitoring the results of the voting via his own P-com. One thing was certain right from the start—Vitale was troubled about something.

“Serrano found some way to hack into your software,” said Alex. “That’s why Ross suddenly shot up in the vote count. He’s trying to steal the election!”

“That explains all this foreign traffic that I’m seeing,” replied Vitale as he brought up the back end of the app. “Someone was in here tampering but they made a huge mistake. They assumed I wouldn’t find out.”

“Can we do anything about it still?” asked Alex as he glanced at the big screen. The vote tallies weren’t even changing at all by now. “How can we stop this?”

Vitale started to shake his head. “I can’t reverse the total of votes that was added to Ross’ count. And we can’t do a recount using the software as it’ll leave us open to more interference. But I know what I have to do, and I can’t believe you’re getting me to say these words out loud.”

With that, Vitale raced to the podium. “Everyone stop voting now! My software is malfunctioning!”

The reaction from the crowd was varied. Many of Alex’s supporters let out a sigh of relief and they called for a recount of the voting. On the other hand, Serrano’s supporters (which in turn made them Ross’ supporters) started to rage.

“They’re trying to steal the election,” yelled Serrano, his voice being the loudest of all of them. He pointed his finger at Vitale. “That little, fucking nerd is trying to get his friends in power!”

Serrano’s supporters started to turn against Vitale and many threats were issued to him in the minutes that followed. The situation was starting to spiral out of control, especially as Alex’s supporters stepped up to defend Vitale.

Inevitably, it was those people in the middle—the ones that weren’t ardent supporters of either Alex or Serrano—that demanded a paper recount of the voting.

Their voices were a small minority at first but then it started to catch fire with the two factions, and the demand became even louder still.

Finally, it was all that the current Council could do to maintain control.

“People, please! The voting app is not malfunctioning,” yelled Belladonna, trying to control the crowd. That backfired spectacularly, as most of them knew something was wrong because of Vitale’s own admission and from witnessing the vote count jump. Belladonna was jeered loudly, and for the first time that day, Alex saw Serrano’s confidence waning.

Finally, the crowd got what they wanted as Belladonna relented. “Fine! Get some goddamn paper and let them vote the old-fashioned way!”

“I’ll get the paper,” announced Annette. “But we’re going to do this privately, and we’re going to let someone impartial count the votes.”

For the impartial part, it was decided that one member of each faction, plus a neutral party would be there to personally count each vote. That neutral party turned out to be Vitale, mostly because the vast majority of Vestans saw him as honest (if not a little weird).

With that development, the people of Vesta set out to vote again. Several tables were set up along with dividers to create each station. A blanket was laid over top of the dividers, creating a sense of privacy for each voter. As each person wrote down their preferred candidates, they handed the scrap of paper to Vitale, who was then supervised by both Annette and Belladonna. Vitale kept the count.

It took much longer to do it this way—nearly an hour and a half before all the votes had been given and then a further half hour to do the counts. Finally, Vitale had all the votes accounted for, and he gave the two chosen names Annette and Belladonna for the announcement.

The city of Vesta awaited the results with high passions. This had been the most contentious election in recent history and everyone wanted their candidate to win. It was Annette who would do the honors, and she took her place at the podium, all the while looking at the piece of paper in her hands.

Alex looked for any sign in her face that might give away the results but Annette wasn’t showing anything. He began to fear for the worst.

“Well, this is definitely an unexpected outcome,” said Annette finally. “Our winners are . . .”

She never got the chance to finish her sentence. At that exact moment, a cracking roar filled the air, getting everyone’s attention. It was joined by another and then another still.

Alex knew that sound very well. He also knew why everyone became paralyzed with fear.

It was the roar of the bears.

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