We Shadows

Chapter 4: a little bit of salad, a little bit of diplomacy

I opened the door, letting Tyson into the room. I had heard from Levi that he had been using Marcus's old clothes. I found so odd because he was nothing like Marcus; I wouldn't have thought that Marcus's clothes would have fit. He glanced down at holo on the kitchen table and all my notes crowding the screen.

"You've been busy," he noted.

"Dashiell basically told me he'd fight me until he was captain again," I pointed out. "I'm not giving him the chance to catch me unawares. There is so much I don't know. Do you like cucumbers?"

"Yes?"

"Good. I made salad and chicken. Give me a moment; would you rather sit at the table or on the couch?"

"Um, the table is fine."

"Sunshine."

I finished the bowls of chopped vegetables, drizzling the lemon juice over the top and adding a bit of mint. Tyson took the bowl with one hand and pulled out the other chair for me to sit next to him. I was unused to the help; Levi couldn't have managed so deftly.

"So what did you want to know?" he inquired as he sat down.

"I want to know about the election process," I explained. "At least on Earth. Dashiell was talking about campaigning, and I don't know what that is. The video logs don't mention it."

Tyson had his mouth full of lettuce. He gave an apologetic smile and quickly swallowed.

"Sorry," I laughed.

"Don't be. Though, you should really message me these questions, I would have time to think about them."

"I know," I admitted. "I just would rather talk through my questions."

Tyson took another bite, pondering my question.

"So, campaigning is about a candidate getting his or her name out there, and familiarizing the public with their policies. The idea is that you want to be the one telling your story, your side and that you can change public opinion while you run."

"How many candidates run?"

Tyson shrugged. "At first, usually dozens. But for president they would have primary races and the winner of those would run against each other. So by the end it was only four or five candidates."

"And that's it? They would just tell people what they were about and people would vote for them?"

"I mean, on Earth, they would usually smear the other candidates and they would get endorsements from prominent members of country."

I pulled out my holo-rib as Tyson explained how endorsements worked, and why people would endorse one side or another. Honestly, we had many of these practices here on the base, but they didn't have names or written down procedures. I didn't think these were things I would bring up in a congress meeting, but I wanted to keep this in mind for later, if I decided to run for captain. Mostly, I wanted to know how Dashiell thought. He had campaigned before on Earth for millions of votes; this was a much simpler place.

"So what was your papa to Dashiell?" I inquired.

"Titus? He was the Vice President. If something happened to Dashiell, my father would have become President."

"Oh," I reflected. "We need that. I think on the Canary they had a position like that; Cameron was Anita's second."

Tyson frowned at me. "Anita?"

"Anita was the captain of the Canary. We merged when they landed. Cameron was her daughter and her second in command."

"Cameron from personnel?" Tyson questioned. "Really?"