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complexity. He does, however, have access to the operating instructions and can run them.”
    “Point taken,” Hawks replied. “All right, so we savages can manage this thing. I think the time has come to have a council meeting and decide just what the hell we are really going to do.”
     
    They sat in a circle on the bridge, relaxed but interested, not all of them understanding what this more formal meeting was for.
    “I called this meeting, but that may be a temporary usurpation of authority,” Hawks began. “Among my people, this would be a tribal council convened to create rules, objectives, and policies for all. We come from different places and different backgrounds. We think in different tongues, and some of us have less in common with one another than even we might think. However, we come here with a common bond. We are all fugitives. We all live under a death sentence or even worse. We also share a secret, of sorts. We know that there is a way to beat Master System. We know that there is a way to totally destroy the dictatorship of the machine. We are all here, together, with no others to share our bond, and we are, in a sense, stuck with each other, like it or not. We are all escaping now, but not to a specific place or a specific set of objectives. Before we can discuss the future and set those objectives, we must have someone in charge, not as dictator or chief but as chairman, as it were, of a collective.”
    “You’re doin’ fine, Chief,” Raven said. “I’m content to let you chair the meetings and bang the drums. Some of us know about the different parts of humanity and some of us know a lot about machines but you’re the one person here with the education to see the big picture. Any objections?”
    There were some nervous glances from side to side, but nobody seemed to be unhappy with that.
    “Very well, I assume the leadership, but when a majority of you is dissatisfied with it, I will step down. I will appoint our China, here, second in command and with full authority. I think the two of us are better at planning than in direct action. Very well. We then proceed to the first really important item on the agenda. Captain Koll, just where are we heading?”
    “In the bush, sir. A region two punches off any known interstellar routes. It was crudely scouted in the old days by Master System and there were some early experiments on some planets there, but none proved out. There are several stellar systems there that show some promise and might possibly sustain a land base with the support of the Thunder. We can’t be expected to live in this can indefinitely. It’s not healthy and it’s a sitting duck. If we’re tied to it absolutely we’ll just have to accept a life of constantly being on the run, or heading this thing out and just punching until we’re so far away even we couldn’t find our way back. If we’re gonna stay close enough to Master System to do some damage, then we can’t ever have all our eggs in one basket. Somebody’s gotta survive, with the information on the rings and the story of all this.”
    “I find the ship more than adequate,” China responded. “It can be modified to support many more of us, and it gives us mobility. We do not seem a likely group for survival on a hostile world.”
    There were several nods, but Hawks understood what Koll was saying.
    “This is not and cannot be a passive vessel,” he told them. “We are going to have to get what we cannot make for ourselves. The interstellar shipping system is totally automated and runs that way. Right now it is vulnerable, perhaps wide open to us. We need smaller, more practical interstellar vessels. We need backups to our systems. We will also need information channels, and that will mean direct contact with freebooters and the like, those who live outside the system. We will need to pillage and plunder, as it were, and also to reconnoiter our target systems without advertising our presence to Master