The Watchers Chapter 3

IN THE TENTH YEAR OF RECAB, KING OF DISHON
"The five hundred twenty six thousand, six hundred seventy second meeting of The Watchers will come to order. I am president for the year, Jistap. The purpose of this meeting is to vote on the prediscussed options for handling the Iceler situation. Option one is to convert our city so the Icelers can also inhabit it. Option two is to transport the Icelers to a colder climate via our ships. Option three is to shut off the satellite. Option four is to," Jistap grimaced, and read the last option with a disgusted tone, "do nothing, and let the Icelers die." Jistap had changed the wording of the last option, which originally read, "Let the Icelers handle this themselves." Many of The Watchers applauded for option four. "The choices will remain displayed on the many monitors located around the room, while each of you types in your vote on your ballet."
It had been two days since the memorable meeting where Bakes had first introduced the Iceler problem. Since then, debates had raged furiously in the lengthy meetings that were to follow. Only the fact that people were so sick of talking about the subject after the meetings kept it from splitting the city. During those days, Hans had even made two speeches at the meeting, both in favor of helping the Icelers by any means necessary. To his frustration, however, he felt like the message had fallen on deaf ears. The mind of the people seemed to be to let the Icelers die.
"All the votes have been sent in" said Jistap. Hans put his head down in frustration. He knew how the people felt. For the first two days he had hoped he might be able to change their minds, but he had given up all hope now. For the first time in his life, he felt ashamed to be a Watcher. "Option two has won. The Icelers will be transported to a colder climate." Amidst the boos and hisses, Hans stared at the front of the room in disbelief. Slowly, a broad smile broke over his face. Next he began to laugh with delight, he tried to stop himself but he could not.
Rodens who was sitting next to Hans, at his left, said quietly in disbelief "That's not right. That can't be right." He revoiced his opinion with more volume. "That can't be right!" He wasn't heard over the commotion present. He stood up and shouted "Mr. President, it's not right! Something is wrong, that's not how the vote went!" A hush went over the crowd as they stared at Rodens in amazement at his audacity. Everyone waited for Jistap to answer.
"Rodens, I can assure you that is indeed how the vote went. You are acting out of order. Please sit down." As the look on Rodens' face changed, Hans could tell he was slowly realizing what he was doing, having before acted just out of impulse. He slowly sat down, still looking somewhat confused.
"Now," said Jistap, "on to the business of a leader. I nominate Hans to lead the mission, based on his reliability, honesty, virtue, and the fact that he is one of the most vocal supporters of this idea."
Hans broke out in cold sweat. He had never expected anything like this to happen before, and the stares of everyone around him made him feel somewhat self-conscious. "I accept your nomination," he hoarsely replied.
It took another half a day before the nominations were completed. When the vote came through, Hans won. Again Hans was surprised by the outcome, since he wasn't as popular or as well known as many of the people nominated.
"Hans has won." Jistap voice boomed over the speakers. "Anyone who wishes to volunteer, please meet Hans at the front of the room. This meeting is officially dismissed." The shock of winning caused second thoughts to fly through Hans' mind. Could he make all the decisions necessary? Could he take all the pressure? Hans waved the thoughts away, not allowing himself to get worried by thinking about them.
As Hans made his way to the front of his room, he was starred at by about everyone he passed. A few people congratulated him, others just gave him hateful looks.
At the front of the room, Hans was introduced to many volunteers, two hundred and thirty seven all together. Hans didn't bother writing their names down, because he knew the Teacher would remember them for him. To his surprise, one of the volunteers was Rodens.


"I never expected to see you volunteer. Have you changed your mind?"
"Hardly," grunted Rodens, as he and Hans walked through the city. "I'm going to be watching you. I'm going to make sure you don't jeopardize our city any more then you have to. I'm going to make sure you don't do anything the rest of the city wouldn't approve of, because if you do their going to hear about it."
Hans smiled. "It almost sounds like you don't trust me."
Rodens stopped walking and turned to face Hans, his face an accurate mirror of the anger inside him. "The vote was wrong, something went wrong. Do you honestly think that a majority of the people voted to save the Icelers? Almost everyone I talked to was against it."
"Oh now lets not be sore losers. Your proposition was defeated in the good old democratic way. You just-"
"Hans the vote was rigged. It was fixed. It was fake, phoney, pretend, mock, meaningless! Are you so conceited to believe you actually were voted leader? There were many more qualified people running. There were scores of people who were more popular. You're just an unknown guy who happens to favor shipping the Icelers all over the whole damn planet to save them." Rodens face was bright red with anger, but he quickly calmed down to his normal color after he finished talking. "I'm sorry. I just can't believe this is happening. That vote can't be right."
"It's okay. I understand your frustration." Hans answered without really thinking about what he was saying. His mind was racing through all sorts of possibilities.


Jistap sipped a cup of tea, as he watched leaned back in his chair and read a book. He was quit comfortable when Hans burst through the door. "Hans," Jistap said as he rose to his feet. "What can I do for you?"
"What the hell is going on?"
"I beg your pardon."
"The vote, it was fixed wasn't it. Option four really won didn't it. You lied to us."
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're-"
"I'm not done yet," growled Hans. "I didn't win the vote either. That part was also fixed wasn't it."
"Hans calm down! Have you lost your senses? What is this nonsense your spouting?"
Hans looked straight into the eyes of Jistap. "Don't even try that. I'm in no mood for your games." His voice had an unusual hardness to it.
Jistap sighed and shook his head in frustration. "All right then, shut up and follow me." Jistap pressed a button on his wall before he left. Hans was about to ask him what he was doing, but before he could, Jistap said, "Don't ask. Just shut up and follow me."
Jistap lead Hans to the super elevators. He instructed the Executor to send both Hans and him to location seven. Hans was very curious as to what location seven was, since when people wanted to be taken, they usually identified their destination by name, not by code. The super elevator zoomed Hans and Jistap to a room Hans had ever seen before. Several other people were in the room.
"Alright Hans, you want answers, I'll give you answers."
Hans looked at Jistap. "Where are we?"
"Were in a secret meeting room. By pressing that button on my wall before I left, I summoned my team here. Your right, we did alter the vote. Originally it was overwhelmingly for option four, letting the Icelers die."
"You can't do that," stammered Hans. "This is a democracy. The opinion of the public must be the law."
One of the members of the "team" stood up. Hans recognized him as Bakes. "Are you saying you would rather let all the Icelers die then deceive a few people. Hans were talking about hundreds of lives here. The Icelers in these mountains number about two thousand."
Hans felt dizzy. He slowly sat down in a chair, and held his head in his hands. "There's got to be another way."
"There's not," Jistap replied. "You know as well as I do, our people want to wash their hands of the Icelers."
"But where do you draw the line?" Hans asked, looking up. "Once you start doing this, you could twist the vote every time, to make sure your will is always implemented."
"Damn it Hans," Bakes shouted, "We're not talking about drawing a line. We're talking about saving two thousand innocent lives."
"Listen, Hans," said Jistap, "We made the vote so you would win. We did that because we knew you could trust you. We knew that you would do everything you can to save lives, to save the honor of your people. We've taken a lot of risks to bring you here, to tell your our secret. You realize if you tell anyone about this the vote will be redone, and you know as well as I do, that would result in the death of every single Iceler in these mountains."
Hans lowered his head in thought. If he joined up with Jistap and his team, he was essentially destroying the democracy he loved so much, but if he exposed them, the Icelers would die. "Alright", he said, "alright, I'll join you, on one condition. After this Iceler problem is solved, we go back to being a democracy."
"You've got a deal" said Jistap as they shook hands. "You've got a deal."