Sorin stewed as he watched another one of Shei’s harvests e in. This time her yields were nearly double his even though he had expanded his plots as new areas opened up with the gradual repairs of Eden’s End.

  It wasn’t the fact that she was outprodug him that irked him the most, however, it did py into his reseowards her. The main reason he set was because he was losing trol.

  His family had been the primary provider of food for Eden’s End going oy years. With that position came some well-earned resped a few added bes that went with that power. Now that resped power were being eroded by Shei and other farmers who had quickly hopped onto Kane’s bandwagon and shoved his meager efforts aside.

  When Sorin had first met Kane, his impression of the man behind the mae or alien if the rumors were to be believed, was one of indifference. When he made that bet with his infuriating terpart, he assumed Kane would provide minimal assistance if he provided any at all.

  Instead, the bastard went and provided her with state-of-the-art farming tools and access to knowledge that he didn’t have.

  Sorin was too proud to admit he was wrong or ask Kane for a handout. And he wasn’t going to join the idiots who were w for him for tribution. That was just credits by another name and Kane trolled that process pletely. Sorin’s grandfather had taught him to urn over trol because once you did, you were nothing but a puppet to someone else.

  With those things in mind, Sorin knew he was going to tio fall further behind and his standing within the unity would be pletely eroded, leaving only the other things people whispered about him behind his back.

  It didn’t matter that they were all true.

  He o even the pying field. With o sneer, he turned and walked off. Shei may have friends, but he had his own as well.

  That evening, he ihem to a fancy di his house. He hem on his side so he spared no expense and pulled out some nice wine he had purchased a few years ago from one of the merts that visited. All of the food was fresh as well, no freeze-dried or ed nonsense for this little soiree.

  His wife had been livid by the expense and waste, but she had been even more upset by the fact that he had excluded her and their son Charlie from the eveniivities.

  “This is a business meeting, dear. We discuss your feelings ter,” he told her pointedly, shutting down the woman’s pints.

  His wife wouldn’t uand the reasons behind what he po discuss in this meeting. She had never been the smartest woman, but she was beautiful and g for their son. He did this just as much for them as he did it for himself. If he left things the way they were, her quality of life would quickly deteriorate and he couldn’t have that.

  Sorin shook the hands of his guests as they arrived and showed them to their seats. He had even brought his most trusted worker, Elijah. The man wasn’t here for his opinion though. He was here to serve his guests.

  The man did so without pint.

  Sorin ehe meal and made sure to join in on the light banter, but soon it was over and drinks were all that remained.

  Anita swirled the drink in her gss slightly before speaking up. “Sorin, dear, while I’m sure I speak for everyone present that the meal was delicious, I ’t imagine you invited us here simply to indulge in yenerosity.”

  Sorin enjoyed Anita’s pany. Especially when it was just the two of them, unfortunately, tonight wasn’t one of those nights. As much as he loved his wife, after she birthed Charlie she found the act to be too painful and as a man, he had his needs. He tried to keep things discreet betweewo of them and so far he hadn’t heard any rumors floating around Eden’s End about him and Anita.

  The blonde-haired woman was a unique character. Anita had been a movie star ba one of the core worlds before her gambling habit got her into trouble and she was forced to hide from the people she borrowed money from. She liked money and power. Fortunately for Sorin, there was no money on Eden’s End, so she gravitated to those in power instead. Most of the time the woman worked as a fairly capable seamstress.

  If there was ohing he didn’t like about her, it was the fact that she stantly pined about her calloused hands after they made love. Everyone worked as a drifter, it’s just the way things were. Would he prefer things to ge, certainly. That didn’t mean he was going to pin about what was.

  “I did not,” he stated as he set his nearly empty wine gss down. “I’m sure you’ve all beeively affected by the ges that Kane is implementing?”

  There was a round of grumbling agreements at that. Much like Sorin, these seven individuals made up the main movers and shakers of Eden End’s society. It may have not been much by the standards of the STO, but it was something. At least that was the case before Kane came in and fucked it all up for them.

  “How many of you have seen old ers turn their backs on you for the ease and simplicity of Kane’s tribution system?”

  “I’ve lost nearly half my ers,” Anita said with a pout that got more than one man’s attention at the table.

  “Focus, please,” Sorin said. Anita probably wasn’t the type of woman to stick with just one man, but if that was the case, he didn’t want to know. “I have a pn that should see us ba top and not just back to where we were before Kane showed up.”

  “Oh?” Rowan asked. “Do tell. This wine is lovely by the way. I wish we could groes here, I could do a lot with them,” he added wistfully.

  The facility's main alcohol provider was a bit of an enigma to Sorin. Obviously, something had caused him to bee a drifter, but whatever his story was, he kept a tight lid on it.

  “Easy, we simply take Kane’s power away from him,” Sorin stated.

  While his statement got looks of shock from everyone, Dex snorted loudly. “I’m sure that will be super easy,” the former enforcer stated.

  Dex had been responsible for security before Damien showed up with his brother and voluptuous girlfriend in tow. Their ideas of security had cshed aill sported the scar on his lip from when Damie some seo him.

  While Sorin appreciated the added safety of not having as many criminals, things had certainly been more iing when Dex had been in charge of that duty.

  “It will be,” Sorierated. “We have a few options when it es to stripping Kane of his power. The first is simply trolling all of the food. Without access to food, people will riot. We simply o make it look like this was Kane’s doing. The sed but much harder option will be taking over the cil. He has essentially given them carte bo do as they please. If we trol it, we trol him.”

  “Why not just go after his kid?” Dex asked befulping down anss of Sorin’s small supply of wine.

  “Do you want to end up like the st two people who tried to harm his kid?” Sorin asked pointedly.

  “What’s to stop Kane from doing the same thing when we enact this pn of yours, hmm?” Dex asked iurn.

  “Kane won’t care. I’m pretty sure he is incapable of g about most things. Maybe it’s a dition associated with his supposed illness or these rumors that he’s an alien, who knows? All I know is that I’ve never seen him lift a finger unless you threaten his daughter or his work. We won’t be doiher of those things. We will only be putting him to work for us.”

  “Fuck it, I’m in,” Dex stated. “Not like I got much to lose. I’m pretty sure Damien’s already sniffing around for my new drug b. Once he finds it, he's going to toss me off the p anyway.”

  “I ’t go back to how it was when I first arrived,” Anita stated. “I’m in.”

  Rowa out an exaggerated sigh. “With Damien’s crackdowns and the opening of trade, my position as the main supplier of fine alcohol to Eden’s End was ing to an end anyway. I might as well see if your scheme will py out.”

  The rest of the people agreed as well and they pnned.

  The meeting had goo the night and they all had a few good ughs as they imbibed some more drinks and plotted how to bee the leaders of Eden’s End.

  Ohing that Sorin had kept to himself was that he had no pns of sharing this power with any of them. The reason for that is what Kane had done only a few weeks ago. To think the man had somehow figured out how to get the STO this shithole as a nation. It astounded him. It was also too good of an opportunity to pass up. His grandfather had taught him that lesson.

  Now Sorin just needed some leverage to ehe cil voted the way he wanted and didn’t try t things out. Nancy would be easy, she would vote yes if she saw that as the only way to prevent possible violence. Damien would be impossible to vinless he found some dirt on the man to bckmail him, and even then Sorin wasn’t sure that would work. The Head of Security was more likely to lead with his fist than his head.

  That left Gabriel and Shei to lean on. He already had a pn in mind to undermine Shei’s position and force her to ask him for a favor, whily left the lovely Gabriel.

  From Sorin’s experience, women like that didn’t choose to bee drifters, they were usually forced to because of somethiher they did or something their families did. Si paid to know people's dirty little secrets, he had asked one of the traders to look into it for him back when she first arrived and the man came through for him.

  Ohe group left, he turo Elijah. “I have a job for you as well.”

  Elijah wasn’t the most astute person, but he was loyal.

  “You do, sir?” the man asked.

  “I do, and it’s an important one. I want you to fake an injury and go speak with Gabriel in the few days.”

  The man looked fused by the request. And he should. Sorin wao muddy the waters so the cil would be more ameo accepting his nomination to the cil. Ideally, he would want to get equal seating to the cil, but he would be fih a single seat at first.

  If the cil failed to accept the four seats right away, he would simply let Gabriel’s secret slip out. It would be iing to see how the very strict Damien would react to the information that his dear girlfriend had murdered her former fiahe man was so bd white when it came to administering the w that he probably wouldn’t even care that she had had a good reason to do so.

  That pn might also get Damien off the cil but he couldn’t t on that.

  If they still refused to cooperate, he would have the rest of his group tio cause problems until he vihe remaining cil that it was in their best is just to let more join. That part mostly hinged oher or not Dex could do what he promised.

  “I want you to tell the woman that I know why she fled the STO, and that if she doesn’t agree to our terms when we e in front of the cil, so will everyone else. you do that?”

  The man nodded.

  ***

  “Dex do this, Dex do that. What am I a fug errand boy?” he grumbled as he moved through the hallways to his destination.

  In some lucky ht, the maie did not currently have a guard on it. It probably had something to do with all the shifting around of guards after the kidnapping. It wasn’t like Dex made it a habit of visiting this ste room to know for sure. Either way, he would take it.

  He would o be quick though, even if the room wasn’t guarded at the moment, there would be a patrol ing through soon enough.

  If Sorin hadn’t vinced him that he had plenty of seed to make up the difference, Dex would have shot the man’s idea down. Starving was not something he wao experience.

  With a st look dowher end of the hallway, Dex slipped into the room.

  Like with most rooms on Eden’s End, this one wasn’t all that rge, but it was rge enough to house tainers of pnt seeds and the chemical fertilizers that were a new addition since Kane’s arrival.

  “So much wasted potential,” he muttered quietly as he moved through the rows. With Kane’s ability to produce chemicals, Dex could have made a killing selling drugs to the wider universe. He pushed those thoughts aside as he focused on his task.

  He o make this look like an act, thankfully there were some smaller bottles of chemicals that would work perfectly to speed up the spoige. There was also a vely empty shelf above the seeds that looked well and truly rusted. The shelf's unstable dition robably why nothing was stored on it.

  Dex quickly got to work making it look like the shelf had fallen off the wall and that the bottles of chemicals had broken open on top of the rge tainers of seeds below them. It wouldn’t ruin all the seeds, but it would ruin enough.

  Once his task was plete, he moved out of the room and found the hallway as empty as it was when he arrived. If someone had found him ihe ste room, his little ruse would have been quickly discovered.

  ***

  Gabriel was w alone in the medical ter when a slightly older maered with a bleeding arm.

  She hurried over to him after grabbing a bahat’s going to itches and med gel,” she said as she got a look at the gash on the side of his arm.

  “I don’t have any tribution,” he said simply.

  Gabriel sighed. “Look, I’ll use some of mine, but don’t go spreading that around or I’ll run out in no time.”

  She took the mao one of the beds and had him hold the bandage iil she returned with a tube of the med gel and a suture kit. If it was a bigger wound she would have let the auto-dodle it, but the supplies for those maes were limited.

  Gabriel quickly sthered on the med gel to stop the bleeding. O stopped, she started to suture the wound back together.

  As she worked, the man spoke up. “Yabriel from the cil, right?”

  “I am,” she replied.

  “I have a message for you.” He leaned close to her and whispered. “My boss knows what you did before you came out here, if you don’t agree to his requests when he es in front of the cil, so will everyone else.”

  She froze at the man’s words and looked up at him. “Who knows? And what does he want?”

  The man tilted his head slightly, seeming to think about the question before finally responding. “The leaders of the traditionalists. They was on the cil.”

  Alexander had asked the cil to look into the issues with the traditionalists just st night. This couldn’t be a ce.

  Surprised by this, she questiohe man further and mao get a few names out of him. That was about all she could learn though as he seemed to realize at some point that he had said more than he should.

  “I o get back to work. Thanks for patg me up.” With that, he hopped off the bed and scurried out of the room like a cockroach.

  Gabriel narrowed her eyes at the fleeing man. Once her rept arrived, she was going to do some digging of her own and look into this Sorin person. If the man did actually know why she fled the STO, that could be a problem. She had e out here to start a new life away from the mistakes of her past.

  ***

  Shei cursed when she saw the state of the seeds. “What moron thought it would be a good idea to stack heavy bottles of chemicals on a rusty shelf over our seeds?” she asked nobody in particur.

  The three people who had notified her of the issue simply shrugged.

  She sighed and turo her main assistant. “Are any of them salvageable?”

  “Maybe if we had found them right away. Now, the rot and mold have spread to pretty much all of them,” the man said.

  “What about the backup ste?” she asked, rubbing her fa exhaustion.

  “Already spoken for. Yoing to have to ask Sorin if you want to use those.”

  “Seriously?” Shei said in annoyance. “I doubt he evehird of those seeds for his plots.” Sorin was a moal prid he had only gotten worse since she had won that bet against him.

  “They are still his seeds and he do with them as he pleases.”

  What her assistant said was true, and she had been doing the same, trying to build up their seed sto case they o increase produ.

  “Alright, you three up this mess and dispose of the ruined seeds. I’ll go speak with Sorin.”

  ***

  “And why would I do that?” Sorin asked after Shei had id out the problem and asked to borrow some of his extra seed for the growing season.

  “Do you eople to go hungry?” she demanded.

  The man had the gall to scoff. “I’ll be fine, and so will my friends. You and your outsider friends might suffer but I fail to see how that’s my problem.” Before Shei could reply, the man held up his hand. “For the sake of peaceful cohabitation, I may be ined to allow you the use of my extra product. I pn on speaking to the cil in the ing week, if you agree to my proposal at that meeting, I will graciously lend you the seeds you need. Deal?”

  “What sort of proposal?” she asked, narrowing her eyes in suspi.

  “You’ll find out theher you agree no find some crop seeds somewhere else.”

  Most people probably assumed they had a huge surplus of food in case somethi wrong. That wasn’t the case. They had just enough to make it to the harvest with a bit extra. And with Kane’s fleet needing more of their stored supplies, they were barely keeping ahead of demand. The issue wasn’t immediately ing but she couldn’t dey pnting for more than two weeks without running into supply issues before the harvest was due to e in.

  Shei mentally cursed herself for n harder to find more workers so she could have pnted all of her crops o rotation. That would have provided a mueeded surplus of stored food and she wouldn’t have been forced into the position of agreeing to some nebulous terms from someone she didn’t trust. Letting people go hungry was not an option though. With great reluce, she shook the man’s hand.

  “When do I get the seeds?” She asked.

  “After the meeting in a few days,” Sorin assured her.