Aldous’s face paled. “What?”
“You heard me,” Rich said, his smile remaining fixed. “You’re not the chief anymore. You’re nothing. You’re not an authority, and you don’t have the luxury of tolerating anything or anyone anymore. And I just lost my family and I’m a little on the pissed-off side as you might expect. Plus, you insulted me, so I’m going to beat the living daylights out of you to make myself feel better. Comprende or no?”
Rich’s hands were balled into tight fists, and Aldous could see his companion wasn’t bluffing. He reminded himself that, in their current situation, normal ethics didn’t apply. He held up his hands in surrender.
“Richard, I’m sorry. You are completely right, and I was completely wrong. I apologize for being rude. I should’ve taken your feelings into deeper consideration.”
Rich was stunned by the totality of Aldous’s retreat and his own victory, so much so that he was flummoxed for a moment. Rich was an average-sized man at best, as was Aldous, so to see the chief cowering instantly was unexpected. He suspected a trick and replied dubiously, “Uh, you know, you’re saying you’re sorry, but I don’t really feel like you’re sorry. You know?”
“Richard,” Aldous quickly retorted before Rich could move in and attack him, “I am sincere. My only excuse is that, like you, I’m worried about my family. The stress is making me lose my patience—I am so, so sorry. I’ll not treat you as anything other than an equal again. Of that, you have my word.”
“Wow,” Rich replied as he lowered his hands. “Now I’m not even mad. I just feel really sorry for you.” He backed away, his expression still confused before he turned back to his seat in the pilot’s chair.
“The question still remains,” Aldous began, after allowing a few moments to pass to make sure the tension had settled, “where are we headed?”
Rich sighed. “I’m open to suggestions from the peanut gallery.”
“Venus.”
“Venus?” Rich replied, stunned. “You do know James annexed Venus to the Purists, right?”
“I was aware when he did it,” Aldous confirmed. “It was rather obvious when vessels that could carry hundreds of passengers started ferrying back and forth between the planet and Purist territory. It wasn’t a decision I agreed with, but then, James and A.I. haven’t given a lot of consideration to my opinions lately.”
“Uh, I know this is probably a sensitive subject, but James said you hate the Purists.” Rich held out his hands, confused. “So…why…”
“It’s the most logical place for us to go. It’s a lower priority for the androids, there’s no strong A.I. mainframe for them to attack, no post-humans in need of assimilation. Although it’s likely that the androids detected the activity of the Purists by now, it still remains the best location for us to regroup and, hopefully, post-human survivors will have made it there alive.” He locked his eyes earnestly on Rich’s. “Your family could be there.”
“But how would we ever find them?” Rich asked. “Without the A.I., the range of the mind’s eye communication network is total crap.” He held his hands out in frustration at the sophisticated instrument panel in front of him. “Even this ship’s sensors are nearly useless. Everything depended on that mainframe! I can’t even scan Venus to find out if the androids are amassing their forces around it or if they’ve launched an attack. Hell, I can’t even send a message to Venus! We might as well be on a raft in the middle of an ocean.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Aldous replied. “While we can’t communicate instantly with them, we can send them a message with radio signals.”
“Radio?” Rich replied, aghast. “Dear God, are we savages now?”
“Venus is approximately 150,000,000 kilometers from Earth at the moment, so—” Aldous began before Rich contorted his face in disbelief.
“Whoa, how do you know that off the top of your head?”
“Richard,” Aldous replied, “I am—was—the chief of the governing council. I’m aware of where the planet we were supposed to be terraforming currently is in its orbiting cycle, especially when I see thousands of colonists being transplanted there without my clearance. Venus is currently at very close to the halfway point in its distance from Earth, and if we calculate the speed of the radio signals, then it should only take approximately eight and a half minutes for a message to reach them. Assuming they reply while we make our way to them, closing the gap in the meantime, we should have some sort of answer within fifteen minutes.”