Chapter 27
At the same time Lisa was reveling in her dress selection, John was trying to convince the other engineering department heads that the time had come for drastic action. John started off by presenting all the information that the "Sewer Rats" had come up with, including snippets of the snuff films. He followed up with his attempts to bring law enforcement back on earth into this, with no avail.
John followed up with his very emotional personal story. He had fallen in love with this incredible woman and he thought he could help her with her career by doing a show at the Medieval room. Unfortunately, the result had been that the Council now wanted to torture his love in front of audiences. He resisted all their attempts, but when she danced at the new Aladdin room they attempted to publicly rape her in front of the audience.
John relayed how he had jumped on stage and defended Lisa, stopping her public rape. The crowd thought it was all part of the show and reacted positively. However, word got out and John told the engineers how, in several hours, he would be going before the Council to answer for his actions.
John told them that he had reached the end of his rope. He had to protect the woman that he loved and he had to stop people dying during their creation of snuff films. They had all known they were coming into a hedonistic environment, but they all thought the sanctity of life was still preserved. Recent events had shown John that there was no life or liberty here, and anything could be bought for money. John concluded saying, "As long as there are no police or an independent governing body, the thugs in the entertainment division will do whatever they damn well please. So the only options I can see are:"
"1. Lisa and I can hide, try and get off Venus during the next shuttle flight. I think we know how impossible this option is, but that still leaves the snuff films and all the people that keep dying."
"2. We can try political pressure from those on earth and even supplement pressure with strikes and work stoppages from the engineering section. This will be slow and cumbersome, with no guarantee of success. Ultimately, we have to get people on earth to support us and back whatever play we decide to make."
"3. The third option is complete revolution and restructuring of the governing body for Venus Ascending. As radical as this is, I find this the best option. Between all of us we control every aspect of Venus, air, water, communication, electricity, we control everything and we can make it happen. But it can't happen unless we're all completely unified; one person cracks and the whole thing will fall apart."
"On this option people will die, hopefully more on their side than ours. As I said in the beginning, I'm asking for help here because only Lisa and I are the ones in the crosshairs, so none of you have to participate. If we do this, the first thing we would have to do is send one of the waste containers down and destroy the ground station. Otherwise, anything we do, they would be able to undo. We would need to get some weapons here to handle the thugs that the entertainment division has on their payroll. There thousands of details first I would like to see if anybody has an option for or any other ways out of this."
There's a stunned silence for a few minutes then George stood up and said, "Last year the wife of a longtime friend came up here for a vacation and was brutally beaten and raped. It's been a year, and she still hasn't recovered yet. John whether it's you or Lisa or the wife of my friend, we all know that this goes on daily. At some point it has to stop and I'm in for option three."
Ken stood up. "I still have tracks on what we think are 56 bodies they flushed into space. I think one of them is a friend of mine that disappeared six months ago. I'm in for the revolution."
Suddenly everyone had a story about somebody they knew they had been kidnapped, drugged, raped, murdered or just intimidated into doing something wrong. By the end of the meeting everyone had committed and everyone was in. John was heartened a little bit, but he knew the bodies hadn't started piling up yet and the thugs in entertainment aren't going to give up their power very easily.
They divided into teams to tackle all the various issues. They took many of the air force guys to help them come up with tactical plans then the engineering groups would look at how to implement the plans. However, it came down to a divide and conquer philosophy. They had to be able to isolate the council's security thugs, cut off their air, power and electricity and isolate them from their support groups. None of them were prepared for the governmental and political aspects of running 'Venus Ascending', but they figured they could handle that later.
John saw the time and knew he had to leave very quickly for his meeting with the Council. He huddled with Ken and George to create teams that would study every aspect of the plan focusing on what needed to be done. John thanked them for their support and turned to leave for his meeting with the Council.
John left the engineering section and began his long lonely walk to the boardroom. Deep inside he felt like a man walking to the gallows and the phrase "dead man walking" seemed appropriate the way he currently felt. John walked for about 15 minutes slowly meandering through different corridors, through three security checkpoints and was finally at the boardroom door. He took a deep breath and knocked to receive permission to enter.
John didn't know what to expect, but it's not what he got. There were seven men in a semicircle standing facing him. They all came over and shook his hand while John responded with befuddlement showing on his face. He wasn't sure what was really going on here, but for now he played along. All the men seemed fairly young for their position, but a couple seemed more worldly and hardened.
It was one of these gentlemen that spoke up, "John, may I call you John?"
John nodded yes then he continued.
"John, twice now you and your girlfriend have created new, innovative, and more importantly crowd pleasing shows. We didn't know until recently who your girlfriend was, but in every instance we knew you were involved. All of us trust our lives to the engineering staff, so we know everything about all of you ... everything."
His stomach clenched with the veiled threat. Saying he knew everything about the engineering staff, John wondered if they had listened in on their earlier meeting? His mind snapped back as the gentleman continued.
"You are under a contract to the engineering division, but your girlfriend is under a contract to the entertainment division. Your girlfriend will continue her act in the Aladdin room, and the dance of the seven veils will include your addition. Her passion combined with her beauty may be required in several other shows, at our discretion and of course you have no say."
"However, we have also noticed that you have a flair for the dramatic and can create different kinds of shows. So we want you to come and help with the shows, direct and participate in them when necessary. We are prepared to offer you a second contract with the entertainment division which would double your current salary. Your girlfriend would also get a promotion and corresponding raise. What do you say?"
John stood flabbergasted, with his mouth hanging open. This was more money than he ever even dreamed of and this had gone a completely different direction than he had anticipated. He took a couple of deep breaths and responded," Sirs, I am very honored, but I need a chance to think about this and talk it over with Lisa."
The gentlemen's posture stiffened just subtly, "That's fine John, but let me give you a couple of things to think about. First, your girlfriend is already under contract to the entertainment division and we can force her to do anything, anything we want. That includes the original dance of the seven veils, or even some special shows we have in the Medieval room." He paused here and gave John a wink, clarifying that he knew John had been investigating the Medieval Room shows.
"Second, we don't have to bring you in on this or offer you anything; we could force you to do our bidding. We are talking about a carrot here, but don't you ever forget we have a big stick as well. I will give you some time to think about this John, but we will expect your answer within 24 hours."
The gentleman turned his back on John and walked away. Each of the other council members gave John a hard glare then did an about-face and walked away. John watched the mob leave then turned to leave the way he came in. His mind was spinning in a thousand different directions and he didn't even remember leaving the secure boardroom. He wound up back in the disco where he first saw Lisa dance and got a drink.
He started to think about all the options and which ones were realistic. He thought about all the things that he said in front of the engineering managers and how they seem logical when he said them. Now faced with the hardened members of the Council and their even more ruthless minions, John had doubts. After all of them were on a space station and they were removed from any outside influence. They were completely under the Council's control and to them people were just a column on the accounting sheets.
Then there was the unexpected buy off offer. Never in his wildest dreams had anticipated doubling his salary and putting on the golden handcuffs or in this case the golden gag to keep him quiet. It makes sense when he thought of it in hindsight, because that's why they were all here in the first place ... Money. Everyone who took these jobs was exceptionally well qualified and they were paid with an exorbitant salary, so why wouldn't he expect a bribe.
People were used, abused and even killed based on the amount of profit they could bring. The Council could rape, pillage, kill, and realistically do whatever they wanted to anyone they wanted. The only real options were massive changes in the structure and to somehow bring at least a little morality to this place. So they were talking about revolution and those things never go easily.
