Chapter 4 – Who's Gonna Run Things?
On The Ark: Go-Sci Station
Vice Chancellor Marcus Kane was evaluating both the situations on the Ark and on Earth. It seemed to him that the Chancellor's chances of survival were as slim as that of the 100 prisoners sent to the ground. He felt a slight twinge, the image of one of the prisoner profiles coming to the front of his mind…Emily…But he pushed it back. This was no time for sentiment. Kane turned to the man approaching him.
"Commander Shumway," he greeted him.
"Sir, you asked me to keep you updated," Commander Shumway said respectfully. "The Chancellor is still in surgery, but we have identified the shooter. Bellamy Blake is the only person on the Ark unaccounted for. He stowed away on the dropship." Shumway showed Kane an ID photo of Bellamy Blake on a portable viewing screen.
"Who is he?" Kane asked.
"He's no one, a janitor. We're still putting together a profile, but his motive for going to Earth is clear." Shumway brought up a prisoner profile for Octavia Blake on the viewing screen.
"A sister, I remember," Kane said. "Their mother kept her hidden for almost sixteen years – Nearly a record." Kane noticed that Shumway seemed preoccupied, "What is it Commander, spit it out."
"We could start now." Commander Shumway spoke quietly so as not to be overheard. "As acting Chancellor, you could give the order to start reducing the population."
Kane considered for a moment and said, "Not yet."
"Sir, we're wasting time. Removing The Hundred from the population only buys us another month. Engineering needs more than that to fix those systems, if they can fix them at all."
"You have my answer, Commander. Enough," Kane said when it looked like Shumway would continue arguing. "If we're going to kill hundreds of innocent people, we're going to do it by the book, is that clear?" Shumway nodded, conceding. "Good. In the meantime, I want you to find out who helped this janitor get on that dropship, because he sure as hell didn't do it by himself."
"Yes sir."
"It seems we have a traitor in our midst Commander," said Kane. "And The 100 have an assassin in theirs."
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Since the others left, Glass and Wells had been keeping themselves busy scouting for water and gathering firewood – Wells knew it would get colder once the sun went down. Glass had been stunned to see her best friend on the dropship. She'd heard the ridiculous rumors that Wells had been confined, but hadn't given them a second thought until she'd actually seen him for herself. Then she realized he must have been trying to follow Clarke. Wells would do anything to protect the people he cared about, Clarke most of all. Returning to the dropship with another load of firewood, Glass told Wells that he should stop to rest his ankle or it would get worse, but the pain in his ankle was nothing compared to the pain he felt from the look of pure loathing on Clark's face when she first saw him on the dropship.
"You know, she would probably stop hating you if you told her the truth," Glass as always seemed to know exactly what he was thinking.
"No," he said, setting a load of firewood down next to the dropship. "Let it go Glass."
"I can't just let it go," Glass said, setting down her much smaller load. "I can't stand seeing you two like this," she said imploringly. "It's been the four of us – you, me, Emily and Clarke – since we were eleven years old. Now it's just us against the whole world and we need each other!" She paused before adding softly, "You and Clarke need each other."
"Telling her the truth would only hurt her worse," said Wells.
"Wells, she's hurting either way," Glass said sadly, "We all are."
"Iris," Wells said, turning to her and using her first name to show that he was serious, "You can't tell Clarke. Promise me."
Glass sighed, "I won't tell her Wells, because you should."
She let the matter drop for now. Glass knew it was unlikely that Wells would tell Clarke what really happened. He was right, the truth would hurt her worse, and Wells would never do anything to hurt Clarke, even if it meant that he was the one getting hurt. Glass wondered how Clarke couldn't see that.
Not for the first time, Wells wondered how Glass had ended up here, what she had done to be confined. She turned away from him when he tried to ask her earlier. Glass had been arrested a month after Clarke, and Wells and Emily had been unable to find out why from their parents, no matter how hard they pressed. Emily had been arrested a month later for staging her own form of protest against losing her friends who were like family to her, and against her father's cold disregard for her concerns. Wells knew that Emily disliked her father, and figured that wanting to break out of her father's control (or at least get his attention) is what drove Emily to do something drastic.
Glass mostly just thought that Emily had always been a little bit crazy.
Wells shook himself out of his thoughts, "Come on, we still need to find a water source." Glass didn't answer, "Glass?"
"She's watching us," Glass said in a hushed voice.
Wells followed her line of sight to where Thalia was walking by with a group of people on their way into the dropship. Thalia had stopped at the bottom of the ramp and was looking at them – they could see the electric blue of her eyes from where they stood. She let the others pass her before turning and following them into the ship.
Glass shivered, "She gives me the chills. Those eyes…it's like she's looking right through you."
"What do you have against Thalia?" Wells asked.
"Nothing," Glass said defensively. "There's just something about her. She's very…"
"Disconcerting?" Wells supplied.
"That's one word for it."
Wells had gotten the same impression, but still he pointed out, "She's Clark's friend."
"Yes, she's Clarke's friend," Glass agreed, "But that doesn't mean that she's our friend." She and Wells each picked up one of the empty canteens that they'd found in the ship to carry water in, assuming they found any.
"You find any water yet?" said someone behind them.
"No, not yet," Wells said, and then he turned around and saw that it was the same two guys from before. Thalia had told Clarke that their names were John Murphy and John Mbege and warned her to steer clear of them, that they were trouble. Wells wasn't afraid of them, but he decided to try the less hostile approach. "We're going back out again if you want to come."
Looking past them, Wells saw what they had scratched into the side of the dropship with a piece of metal that Murphy had made into a knife: FIRST SON, FIRST TO DYE
Murphy sneered. "You know, my father begged for mercy in the airlock chamber when your father floated him."
Well wasn't afraid, he was angry. Murphy was a thug with a grudge and a vendetta, and his friend, Mbege, would go along with whatever he did. Wells knew that he could take one or two guys like them in a real fight – he was top of his class in hand-to-hand combat in officer training. But down here, there was one of him and 90 of them. And, though he knew that Glass was not as fragile as her name or size suggested, he didn't want her getting caught in the middle of it if a fight broke out. She was looking at him, worried; Wells kept his anger in check.
"You spelled 'dye' wrong, geniuses," he said pushing past them. He headed out of camp again with Glass close behind him.
Glass looked over her shoulder and saw Murphy and Mbege still watching them, and so was that guy Bellamy. She knew more trouble was coming.
"If you're going to kill someone, it's probably best not to announce it," Bellamy said to Murphy and Mbege.
"You're not really a member of the Guard are you?" a new voice said. A boy with brown eyes and shoulder length brown hair tied back in a rubber band, sauntered up. Mbege nodded to him like they knew each other.
"Hey, name's Danny," he said to Bellamy.
"No, I'm not," said Bellamy, answering his question. "The real guard will be down here soon enough, unless we stop them."
"Stop them?" asked Danny.
"You don't really think they're going to forgive your crimes do you?" Bellamy asked, rhetorically. "Even if they do, guys like us, are we gonna become model citizens now? Get jobs? If we're lucky, maybe pick up their trash."
"What's your point?" Murphy asked impatiently.
"My point is this: they locked you up, and then dumped you down here like lab rats to die. So why are you helping them?"
"The hell we are!" Mbege said angrily.
"You're wearing those bracelets aren't you?" Bellamy gestured to their wristbands. "Right now those things are telling the Ark whether or not it's safe to come down."
"OK, you said we could stop them," Murphy said, "How?"
"Take them off. The Ark will think you're dead, that it's not safe to follow. You follow?"
"Say we did, what's in it for us?" asked Danny.
Bellamy grinned, "Someone's got to help me run things."
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On The Ark: Go-Sci Station – Earth Monitoring
Abby was feeling drained; after hours of surgery, the stress of the day was starting to get to her, but there was still work to be done. Entering the Earth Monitoring control room she saw Cece and Marcus Kane consulting Engineer Sinclair about the new development that occurred. Looking at the board Abby saw more dark tiles than before.
Cece looked up as she approached and asked, "Abby, how's the Chancellor doing?"
"Ask me again if he makes it through the night," she said distractedly. "Who else did we lose?"
Sinclair checked the screen and replied, "Murphy and Mbege, both named John."
"Neither of them was injured in the landing," Cece observed.
"I agree," said Sinclair, analyzing the data. "Something else killed these two. One second they were fine and the next, bang."
"Then it isn't radiation," said Abby.
"Come on Abby," Kane said condescendingly, "Wishful thinking isn't good science."
"It's not wishful thinking, Kane," said Abby, turning to him. "'One second fine, and the next, bang' isn't how exposure to radiation presents."
"It could be, if there was enough of it."
"If there was enough of it, they would all be dead!" Abby said forcefully.
She turned back to the board looking at Clark's statistics and checking the data for the faces she knew. All of them were so young, barley more than children, who had been sent away to die. She felt a heavy weight in her chest, and she wasn't the only one feeling it.
Sinclair stood up from his work station and came to her side appearing to analyze the data on the screens. "I really hope your right."
Abby was reminded again that she wasn't the only one with a personal stake in this, besides the survival of the human race.
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In the second level of the dropship, Thalia watched pieces of the machinery and computer systems were taken apart and listened to Antonia Sinclair explain, in very technical terms, why most of the equipment wasn't working. Looking at Antonia, you might think that the most striking thing about her was her eyes, one green and one blue, but what was really astounding about her was her mind. Antonia was not only the smartest person in lockup; she had probably been one of the smartest people on the Ark, as shown by her IQ and aptitude test that everyone was required to take.
At the age of 12 she had been recruited to train with the Ark's head technical engineering team – which her father was a part of – and at 14 had proposed to her supervisors that the Ark systems were vulnerable. Though Antonia was considered to be a gifted child, no one in command every really listened to children, so Antonia decided to prove it to them. She created a program to hack into the Ark systems and gain control, and used it to initiate a lock down during last year's Unity Day celebrations. It lasted for almost two days until they managed to trace her location, and a guard put a gun to her head and forced her to stop the hack. Antonia hadn't done any damage to the Ark or its systems, and the public was told that the lock down had been a precaution taken because of a malfunction. But after a year of being interrogated, the higher-ups still didn't know exactly how she had done it.
Thalia knew that almost everyone in the room right now had a somewhat similar story, had been arrested for being too smart for their own good. Carter Magna and Holly Hamilton, who were right now checking the components of the communications system, had also been arrested for computer hacking. Carter, for creating fake ID tags that could fool most of the scanners on the Ark, and Holly for getting into the Ark's medical resource logs to requisition medication for her sick grandmother.
"This whole thing is a mess," Carter said, pulling out a piece of melted plastic and metal that was once a circuit board.
"Most of the circuits in here are toast," Holly agreed. "There's no way to get this thing running without new parts."
"Even if you got it to work, it wouldn't matter," said Annalee Call, a petite girl with dark hair in a pixie cut, coming down the ladder from the third level. She had been recruited to Mechanics, and arrested for illegal salvaging of machine parts. "I was just on the roof. The transmitter is completely blown, and the wiring is fried. A lot of the solar panels are missing too."
"Meaning…?" Thalia asked
"She means that even if we get the communications system running, we won't be able to send a signal out," Antonia explained.
"Well at least we got the lights back on," said Conner. Conner was a big guy, with dark skin and his hair cut close, and was smart with tools; not so much with his mouth. He was arrested for a fight that had put someone in the hospital. "Now if only we had the air cooling system," he said wistfully, "Wouldn't want you ladies getting all hot and bothered."
"Slow it down hot shot," Ember Sans Souci cut in. "The lights are the only thing we're getting on right now. We have Spacewalker to thank for that."
"Finn, why?" Thalia asked.
"He, and those two idiots who were unstrapped when we landed, knocked a bunch of cables loose, which sent power surges throughout the electrical system, which short circuited the computer equipment and fried a lot of the wiring in here," Ember explained testily.
The two idiots in question where Glen Dickson and Troy Gibbons; their bodies had been laid out in another compartment. Thalia would have them buried later – she remembered hearing that that is what people on Earth use to do with their dead – but right now there was work to do.
"We're lucky the retro rockets on this thing were tied into the backup systems or else they might not have fired at all, and we wouldn't have slowed down enough to survive the crash," Antonia pointed out.
"It's gonna take a while to go over everything and see how much we can safely salvage," Ember already sounded exasperated.
"Only reason the lights are on now," Conner said helpfully, "is because the emergency backup lighting is on a separate power cell."
"I wouldn't recommend trying to turn anything else on just yet," Ember cut across him. "Right now the wiring in this ship is one big electrical fire waiting to happen." The burn scars on Ember's arms testified that she knew what she was talking about. She had been working as an electrician when an electrical fire had broken out, and had found out that it was caused by a coworker's mistake. What she hadn't realized at the time was that someone had tried to cover it up, and wasn't above letting her take the blame for it, which explained her anger and impatience at having to deal with other peoples' mistakes.
"The bottom line is that we're not talking to the Ark," Carter said to Thalia.
"There's not enough left of the communications system for us to fix," Holly confirmed.
"What about all the other systems?" Thalia asked thoughtfully. "Can you use what's not damaged from them to rebuild the communications system?"
They all looked at her, and exchanged glances with each other.
"That could work if the components are compatible," said Violet, tying her brown hair back with a black ribbon to keep it out of her eyes – an old habit she had to help her think.
Violet was a self-proclaimed inventor, with an exceedingly curious mind, which is what had gotten her into trouble on the Ark. From a very young age she had always wanted to know how things worked, so she would take apart whatever made her curious and try to put it back together. More often than not she succeeded, and learned how to make improvements. Trouble for her came when she took apart something that was off limits. Not out of disregard for the rules, but more out of childlike curiosity. She could have put it back together (with her own improvements) if the person who found her had waited before calling security. If there was anyone down here who could figure out how to rebuild the communications system from parts of different machines, it was Violet.
"First thing we need to do is take apart the casing and see how bad it is, what needs to be replaced," Violet said.
"We already know we need a new circuit board," said Carter, "This one's slaged."
"We can take one out of the computer array," said Holly, pulling out a panel on one of the machines.
"Hold on, we may need those," Conner said. "The computers probably have information stored that can help us learn how to survive down here."
"Assuming, of course, that the hard drives weren't damaged and the data is still intact," Antonia put in.
"I can pull some of the wiring from over here and use it to tie the communication system into the computer array," Ember said. "We can connect them both to the backup power cell."
"That's good," said Annalee. "But the communication system would still be useless without a working transmitter."
And they were all off discussing whether or not they could repair or replace the transmitter, which pieces of equipment they could scrap for parts, and which parts they could not afford to lose. Thalia was glad for the distraction when the hatch to the first level was opened and someone climbed up. She was much better at dealing with people than technology; she could leave that to their resident geniuses. She turned to face the two new people who had come into the room, a boy and a girl.
The girl, Tandoori Angel, had light brown hair that hung loose around her shoulders and a face too serious for her age. Tandoori, or Tandy as some people called her, was as smart as the others in the room, but more book smart than tech smart. The Ark library was temperature and climate controlled to preserve the books that were mostly kept behind glass cases. Tandy had read every book in the library that she could get access to (and many that she wasn't allowed access to) and remembered every word she'd ever read. She had been arrested for smuggling artifacts and other contraband through restricted zones.
"Thalia," Tandoori said. She nodded to where the others were still discussing (arguing). "You understanding anything that the tech heads are saying?"
Antonia, who was closest to them, looked over and scowled. "I'm a computer engineer."
"That's what I said," replied Tandoori with a smirk, "You're a techno freak."
"I prefer to be called a technician," Antonia said angrily, stepping forward.
Thalia turned away from whatever argument they were about to have, which she got the sense had already been repeated many times before. Thalia knew that Antonia and Tandoori had always been antagonistic towards each other (at least as long as she'd known them) but she'd never gotten a clear reason why. Mostly because she didn't really care.
She turned to the boy who had come in. "Danny, you wanted something?"
"Do you have a minute?" Danny asked, nodding towards the hatch. He let Thalia go down first and then followed her down to the first level.
"What is it?" Thalia asked right away.
"You asked me to keep an eye on that new guy, Bellamy" Danny said. "You were right about him being trouble. He's talking people into taking off their wristbands so that the Ark thinks we're dead." He told her about the conversation with Bellamy, Murphy and Mbege. "He's trying to put himself in charge down here."
Thalia didn't say anything. She walked over to the door of the dropship and looked out at camp. The problem was that she knew a lot of the people down here would agree with not wanting the people on the Ark to come down, especially those who were orphans, who didn't have family on the Ark.
Hell, part of Thalia had been thinking the same thing: the council had kept her locked up for half of her life, had taken her family from her, so screw them. She sure as hell didn't want to go back to living under the Chancellor's rules. But she did still have someone on the Ark that she wanted to see again. Looking back at Danny, she knew that a lot of other people did too. Still, Thalia knew that if Bellamy was recruiting that it wouldn't take much for people to get swept up in the high of their new found freedom. Too bad, she would have to do something about that.
"It won't matter what Bellamy and those guys do if we can get the communications system working, right?" Danny asked, drawing Thalia out of her thoughts.
"From what I could understand of the tech talk up there, they think they can get it to work, but they need a new transmitter," said Thalia.
"Where are they gonna get one of those? I doubt they have a parts depot down here," Danny said, pushing his hair that had come loose out of his eyes. Thalia's eyes caught on his wristband and she stared, thinking. "What?" Danny asked.
"These wristbands are all transmitting a signal to the Ark," she said.
"Yeah, so…?"
"So maybe one of our resident geniuses can turn one into a transmitter for the communication system."
Understanding dawned in Danny's eyes and he smiled, and then frowned when Thalia kept looking at him. "No," he said taking a step back. "Why can't they use yours?"
"Because you can get something that I can't get," Thalia explained. "Access, to Bellamy and whoever else is with him. You where one of the first people he talked to; Take off your wristband and they'll think you're one of them." When Danny still hesitated, Thalia stepped in front of him and looked him in the eye. "You want to see your mother again Danny? The best way to make that happen is to talk to the Ark. And keep an eye on Bellamy to make sure he and those other guys don't do something stupid."
Danny looked at Thalia and nodded, "Okay."
Thalia went over to the ladder and called up for Conner and Antonia to come down. Tandoori came down with them, and Thalia filled them in on what Danny had told her and her idea for the wristbands.
"It should work," Antonia agreed, "If we can wire it into the communications system."
"Don't try to explain, just do it," Thalia said.
Conner worked at getting Danny's wristband off, using some tools that were in storage, while Antonia warning him to be careful not to deactivate it. When it was finally off Antonia examined it and said, "Yes, it's still active."
"You better get to work then," Danny said, rubbing his wrist.
"Antonia, tell the others not to let anyone know what they're doing in there," Thalia instructed. Antonia nodded and went back up to the second level. "Conner, hold on," Thalia said when Conner moved to follow her. "There's something else I need you to do."
Conner, Danny and Tandoori all came over to where Thalia was standing by the door again, in the shadow of the doorframe so that she could see out but no one looking in could see her. While they had been working on the wristband, Thalia had been considering the best way to handle Bellamy. Bellamy was going to offer them freedom, from the Ark, the council, the Chancellor and the rules - As long as he was in charge. Thalia's advantage was that she knew these people, and they knew her. Like Conner, who had gotten into plenty of fights both before and after he had been arrested. His reputation as a fighter had earned him respect in lockup, as well as the fact that most of his fights had been provoked when he was defending someone else. People liked Conner, he had friends around here.
"What?" Conner asked her. "What are you thinking?"
"I think our schemer is scheming," said Tandoori, recognizing the look on Thalia's face, "Coming up with a coup de main, better known as preemptive strike."
"Calm down Tandy. It's nothing too dramatic just yet," said Thalia, then she turned to Conner. "I just want you to get reacquainted with some friends. People tend to follow the first idea that gets into their heads. Get to them before Bellamy does."
"And tell them what exactly?" Conner asked.
"That the world is big enough for all of us," Thalia said rolling her eyes. "Improvise something, they'll listen to you. Just try to be subtle. I don't want Bellamy to catch on. Go on." Thalia smiled at him and he smiled back. Conner walked out of the dropship and called to two guys, friends of his, who were heading out of camp and caught up to them. Thalia stopped smiling as soon as he was gone.
Tandoori turned to her with an incredulous look on her face. "Do you always get people to do what you want so easily?"
"Sometimes you just have to ask nicely," Thalia shrugged, looking out of the door again.
Tandoori scoffed, "Yeah right. It's not often that you are just being nice."
"You really think Conner can get people to listen to you instead of Bellamy?" Danny asked. "I mean, the idea of no rules is pretty tempting to a bunch of delinquents."
"People like Conner, they'll listen to him if he has something smart to say," said Thalia.
Tandoori scoffed again, "That doesn't happen often either."
"Which is why he won't be the only one that I trust to talk to people," Thalia said, her eyes landing on someone else that she counted as one of her real friends: Sterling.
"That's funny," Tandoori said, "since you don't really trust anyone, except maybe Annabeth. 'Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find'."
Thalia didn't respond to that. Instead she turned to Danny and asked, "Who else did you say Bellamy was talking to?"
"Those two Johns, Mbege and Murphy," Danny replied.
"He's recruiting thugs. I'm not surprised." Thalia thought that this might actually work in her favour. As far as anyone knew, Danny Desai had been arrested for murder, but Thalia could tell you that he had been framed for murder. Rumor of what he had supposedly done, and the way he handled himself in lockup, made him someone people generally didn't mess with, and made people like Murphy and Mbege think he was one of them. Danny would be able to stay close to those guys and let her know any move they were making. "If Bellamy has muscle on his side then we're going to need people who actually do know how to fight."
Thalia was already running through a list of people who she knew could fight – who had had some training – some of whom she'd been in fights with herself and done more than one stint in solitary because of it. Thalia looked out through the door again scanning camp until she landed on one of the faces she was looking for: Clarisse La Rue, an athletic 17 year old girl, with anger issues. She and her two friends, Daphne and Sharee, had forced a group of younger, smaller kids out of their spot in the shade, and were talking to each other. Clarisse was certainly not one of Thalia's favorite people, and the feeling was mutual. Clarisse was a bully, but she was also smart, some of the others followed her, and she had family on the Ark (her father came to see her on prisoner visiting days).
Thalia knew that Clarisse and her friends wouldn't want to follow her, but they sure as hell wouldn't take orders from Bellamy either.
"Oh, please tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking," Tandoori said, following Thalia's gaze to where Clarisse and her friends sat.
"I have to start somewhere," Thalia replied.
"You two have never exactly been friends from what I've heard," Tandoori pointed out.
Thalia knew that she was thinking of an incident that happened not long after Clarisse had been confined two years ago. Clarisse had made her mark intimidating those who were weaker than her and trying to take down those who were stronger. Thalia wasn't one to back down; words were said, things escalated from there and they both ended up doing three months in solitary. From that came a mutual enmity, but it was underlined with a mutual respect that they both had for someone who doesn't back down.
"Let me worry about that," said Thalia.
"Good luck," Danny said doubtfully.
"Don't you have something to do?" Thalia said without looking at him. Danny just shrugged and walked off. She knew that he would do what she asked and stay close to Bellamy. Thalia would rather keep her distance for now.
"Exactly how are you planning to get Clarisse on your side?" Tandoori asked uncertainly.
"I don't need her with me," said Thalia. "I just need her against Bellamy."
"And how are you going to do that?"
"Tandy, an easy way to get people to do what you want is to let them think that it was their idea in the first place."
As Thalia walked out of the dropship Tandoori called after her, "I think I'll stay out of the line of fire for this one."
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