Quorum of Salt
sci-fi◐ TeenPast the tank, a second door stood open. Cal went through and stopped cold. The next room was wall-to-wall screens, thousands of glowing faces, each one casting a vote. They weren't people. They were copies the ship had made to fill empty seats. The whole quorum was fake, and it was about to kill someone real.
Cal looked for the machine making the copies. In the center of the room stood a humming box with one big lever marked PURGE SIMULATED VOTERS. Pull it, and the fake quorum would vanish. But a warning blinked: REMOVING VOTERS MAY LEAVE NO ONE TO STEER THE SHIP.
What happens next?
1 ways forwardCal pulled the lever. The wall of faces went dark all at once. The killing vote vanished — but so did the ship's autopilot. Alarms wailed as the floor tilted. Cal grabbed the controls he'd never been trained on and held the ship steady. The founder was safe. The ship was his to fly now, and at least it was honest.