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Chapter Four
He shows generous amounts of ambition in any task he sets his mind to and focuses well on assignments given to him. Has a slight social awkwardness that is quickly overcome when with friendly company. Very Polite. Emotionally sound and well balanced psychologically, however has poor physique and strains to perform physical exercise for extended periods.
It is suggested that he be therefore encouraged to better himself physically as to deal with potential threats in the future that he may undertake due to his military life.
Often spends good amounts of time with the other enlisted men and shows no fear in the presence of larger and more dangerous men...
-Extract from Lt. Aimes' report to Col. Graff
Artemis' lauchie group didn't have any classes the first day so most of the group went out exploring the Station looking like a bunch of meerkats on guard for a hostile. Artemis stayed in the room though, he was exploring his desk, no internet of course. Artemis knew that they wouldn't have access to the web though, what he was really checking on was the desktop security. He had always been a cautious person, another trait he had picked up from his father he realized. The desk had very little security he soon discovered as he hacked into the other computers in his group, he chuckled to himself as he thought of how he could use this system to his advantage. He then went ahead and set up some firewalls for his own computer.
Slowly other members of Artemis's launchie group dwindled back into the room, Artemis had occupied his time by playing a Fantasy game he found on his desk. He marveled at its complexity, he had never encountered a game that allowed him to interact so thoroughly with his environment. Eventually Hawkins came back into the room, Artemis wanted to talk to him, but didn't know what to say. He was still too socially awkward to really know how to interact, so he pretended to be busy on his desk. Hawkins however noticed the occasional glance that Artemis was giving him and took the initiative to message Artemis on their desks. "Have you given any thought to your leadership?' He wanted to know.
Artemis was strangely pleased that Hawkins had messaged him but did his best to hide it. Artemis typed back "Yes, I am not too sure how a group such as this can be led though. I thought back to the leaders I had studied during my education but for some reason I don't think Alexander, Khan, or even Hitler could handle this group of boys. Maybe Stalin." Hawkins laughed when he got the message and quickly typed his response.
"Stalin would kill them all because they were threats to his leadership"
"Good thing they aren't training us to be killers or anything up here then." Artemis responded, Hawkins didn't laugh this time when he read the message though. Was that not funny? Artemis wondered.
"That's not the type of leader you would want to be though." Artemis read the message a few times when it appeared on his screen. He didn't know how to respond to that, so after a moment he quietly switched his desk off and lied down on his bed. He silently realized that the reason the message had such an effect on him was because it was true, he didn't want to be that type of a leader. But what kind of leader should he be?
The room slowly grew more noisy as the excited voices of the children grew to a dull hum. This roused Artemis out of his line of thought as he turned his attention to the room. He quickly noticed that Greg Finch wasn't there though a few of the members of his group were lingering in the back of the room and occasionally casting glances towards the girl who had defeated their leader. The girl in question was on her desk apparently oblivious to the world. How am I supposed to lead these kids? Artemis asked himself for the 10th time in the past couple hours.
Artemis was the first to notice it when Ben walked into the room, and stood up turning towards Ben as he had seen some of the men do in the Barracks on earth when a superior walked in the room. After a moment many of the others also stood up turning towards Ben.
Ben waited for silence before he spoke "Glad to see your all getting along. It is now 1745 dinner starts at 1800, today I will escort you there and show you where to get your food and where to eat it." Ben looked towards Artemis "After today it will be your responsibility to remind everyone of such things, Artemis." Artemis nodded and Ben addressed the group again "Now please remember that after supper you do have free time, and I know that you may be tempted to take a nap, but I would strongly advise against it. Go to sleep at Lights out and your body will adjust to the time difference much more quickly. Any questions?" No one had any. "Good, I'll give you a few minutes to wrap up whatever your doing and then we will head down."
They all left shortly after to go to dinner, as they got into line for food however Jon pulled Hawkins aside saying he needed to talk to him. Artemis went ahead and got his food with the others, the cafeteria was larger than any Artemis had seen before, and along one wall was a giant scoreboard which Artemis thought was curious. As he was looking for a seat, a couple of the boys from Greg's group bumped into Artemis nearly causing him to spill his food. Artemis watched them all sit down together and decided he wouldn't eat with the rest of the group, sitting with them while they were still picking on him would make him appear subservient. Instead he picked an empty table to sit at, Artemis had only been sitting there a few minutes before a bigger boy came and sat down next to him. "Hey, you must be the bugger, right?" Artemis looked over towards the bigger boy apparently confused by this boys comments. "The bugger, ya know? the member of the group that no one else likes? My name is Mick, that was me too, nobody important, just kind of glided along. Still doing it too, I am almost old enough to be a commander but there is no way..."
Artemis cut Mick off mid sentence "Who do you think you are? Maybe I sit by myself because I don't like anyone else in my group, not because I'm a stupid piece of driftwood like you. Get the heck away from my table." Mick gaped at Artemis for a few moments before he stood up and walked away, no launchie had ever said something like that to him before! Artemis didn't look up to watch him leave, people like that annoyed him. Why would you leave your family and everything you knew on earth just to come up here and not even try to excel? But why am I so upset? Artemis suddenly thought to himself that maybe Mick was right, and that's why it bothered him...
"So you can stand up for yourself" Artemis looked up, it was the girl from his launchie group. "Mind if I sit?"
"Seat's taken" Artemis said going back to his food
"Which one?" She said looking up and down the table.
"All of them" Artemis responded without looking up "I like my elbow room"
The girl laughed and sat down in the seat across from Artemis "I don't think your elbows are quite that big.' Artemis shrugged. He was still in a bad mood but was curious what she wanted, first beating up Greg Finch and now sitting with him at supper. Where did she learn to fight like that anyway? and what was she up to? "I don't think we have been introduced, my name is Iris Byrne"
"I don't recall asking" Artemis replied looking up at her, she obviously wasn't planning on leaving any time soon. "What do you want Iris?"
Iris shrugged as she poked at her food "Just figured us buggers should stick together" She winked at him "After all everyone already hates us."
Artemis frowned at her, so she though he was a bugger as well "Everyone hates you, I hate everyone else. There is a difference between us." Was she trying to be his friend? Artemis had never had a friend in his life and was already making two in one day. Soon people might even start laughing at his jokes he mused to himself.
Hawkins arrived then and sat down next to Artemis. "Making friends Fowl? Sorry it took me so long to get here, took me a minute to find you." No mention of what he talked to Ben about, Artemis decided not to pry.
"Kurt Hawkins this is Iris Byrne, she seems to think everyone hates me and came to offer her hand in friendship to poor lil me" To Artemis' surprise Hawkins laughed at his joke.
"She is right though, everyone totally hates you. So what are we going to do about it?" Hawkins asked elbowing Artemis in the side gently.
"We?" Artemis asked with his eyebrow raised.
"Ya, you got a problem with that? Your stuck with me buddy whether you like it or not. Now dig in and eat your chow, we got to fatten you up some."
Artemis grinned, he supposed if he was to have a friend Hawkins wasn't a bad candidate. After all he understood his humor. "What are you boys going on about?" Iris was sitting there staring across at the boys, they turned to her just remembering that she was there.
Hawkins gave her a grin. "We're talking about Arty's little problem with leading our group of endearing little boys"
Iris nodded "So what exactly is the problem?"
Hawkins lifted his hands up as if to say 'Oh my dear child' "Well for starters everyone hates him, then to back that up is the fact that he hates everyone else" Iris nodded "Also he has no idea what it means to be a leader."
"You guys do remember that I am right here?" Artemis said slightly peeved about the comments made and the twinge of guilt he felt when Hawkins called him 'Arty', his mother used to call him that...
"Of course we do" Hawkins grinned at him "Can't your friends talk about you?"
Artemis opened his mouth to say a witty remark but nothing came to mind so instead he said "I wouldn't know, never had any before."
Hawkins frowned at him "What? Friends?" Artemis nodded. Hawkins covered his eyes with his hand "Oh, Mother be praised. Well then think of us as your siblings then. You got one of those don't you?" Artemis didn't look at Hawkins "Your kidding right? No siblings? I couldn't imagine that, me I got twelve brothers and eight sisters."
"What?" Iris asked in disbelief "But the Laws say your only allowed two children. Where are you from?"
Hawkins smiled at her, leaned back and put his hands behind his head. "Brooklyn, we were a special case as I was raised in an orphanage. No such thing as thirds there you see. Although I wouldn't doubt that a few of them were thirds what with them being abandoned and what not."
"Your an Orphan Hawkins? I thought you were a military brat or something." Artemis cut in.
Hawkins' brow creased "No, Why would you think that?"
"Well back on the shuttle you had seen the movie before right? I mean you were mouthing the words and everything."
Hawkins shook his head "No I am just good at guessing what happens next is all. Some of the kids back at the orphanage used to call it my 'ESP', but it's not really like I know whats going to happen I can just guess really good"
"So you know what..." Artemis started but Hawkins was mouthing his words as he said them, Artemis stared at Hawkins for a second before they both started laughing.
As the laughter died down, Iris looked thoughtful. "What about you Artemis? Where are you from?"
Artemis had finished eating "Ireland"
Iris' eyes lit up "Really? So am I! I never would have guessed you were from Ireland. Transylvania maybe." She winked at him as her and Hawkins chuckled at the joke.
Artemis rolled his eyes at them, Stoker's writings were hardly his role model, and waited for them to stop. He realized they had gotten way off topic though and went back into it. "Authority, that's what I need. Authority is what makes a leader I have decided."
Hawkins nodded "And how are you going to go about getting that"
Artemis seemed distant in thought "I don't know yet. That was one lesson my father never really taught me." Artemis was going to continue but their conversation was interrupted as Ben suddenly appeared at Artemis' shoulder.
"Could I have a word Artemis?" Ben asked smiling down at their little group.
Artemis looked towards Kurt and Iris, and they smiled back. "We'll clear your tray" Kurt said with a nod. Artemis gave him a nod in return and got up to follow Ben out of the room.
Once they were alone in a classroom Ben got out a couple chairs and invited Artemis to take a seat. "So how are things going with the group Artemis?" Ben asked with a smile.
Artemis wondered what was the point of this question? Surely Ben already knew about the fight so did he just want to see what Artemis was doing about it? "A little disorganized I suppose" Artemis responded "As I am sure you know not everyone in the group is happy with my appointment as leader."
Ben nodded "That is to be expected, even if they had voted on it not everyone would be happy. So what do you think is the problem then?" Ben asked with that same reassuring smile.
Artemis shrugged "I guess that I am just not a very good leader" He wasn't sure what Ben was expecting from this little meeting.
Ben looked at Artemis pensively for a moment. "Artemis, on my time here at the station I have seen many different leaders, and each one had their own way of doing things. But it always reminds me of something my father told me before I came up here." He paused for a moment before continuing "My family are sheep handlers in New Zealand and he told me that there are only two types of leaders. Just like when it comes to handling sheep there are two types of handlers. The first type is the sheep herder; he walks behind the sheep moving them from field to field with his stick making sure none fall out of line. The sheep listen to him because they are afraid of his stick and to him each sheep is just another animal."
Ben paused again at this point and Artemis looked at him intently. What was he getting at? "The second type..." Ben started again "...is a shepherd. He walks in front of the sheep and they follow him without being compelled from behind. They follow him because they know that he will lead them to a good pasture, that he will protect them from danger, and that he will look for them if they get lost. To him the sheep are his friends, he has a name for each of them and calls them by that name." Ben looked at Artemis "Do you understand what I am saying?"
Artemis nodded "I think so. You are saying that I can either be a leader who obligates others to follow me or I can be a leader who inspires others to follow me."
Ben's smile widened "Exactly"
"But how would I inspire anyone to follow me?" Artemis wondered aloud.
Ben shrugged "I couldn't tell you, that's up to you. But I will tell you this, if you hate them they will hate you back. If you love them they will love you back."
"Like reciprocates like" Artemis said with a nod.
Ben stood up and motioned for Artemis to do the same. "Why don't you think about that, it's up to you how your going to lead, just make sure you do it well." Ben held the door open to Artemis with a smile.
"Thanks" Artemis said as he walked out the room. He had plenty to think about as he walked off to look for Kurt and Iris.
End Chapter
Thanks for reading!
Are you subscribed to any stories where the author uploads once every couple months or so? I hate that! So I have been trying to upload a new chapter every week but I am going to be getting busy pretty soon so sorry if the uploads start coming slower!
This one came late because I decided to change a few details at the last minute and had to rewrite half the chapter.
If you have any questions or suggestions just send me a message and I will answer you all at the bottom of my next chapter!
sincerely,
TFM
