Brave New Worlds

"

    Stanuel could hardly look Pepper in the eye. "I can't believe you left there. "
    "Pan made a good argument. "
    "Pan offered to pay you more. That's all. "
    "There's that, but I won't take it. " Pepper scratched his head. "If I destroyed Pan, what would you do?"
    Stanuel frowned. "What do you mean?"
    "You said the emulations wouldn't be allowed to hold direct control, earlier. Does that mean you'd allow the emulations to come back and decide votes for you?"
    "One assumes. We might have not gotten them right, but if we can fix that error, things can go back to the way they were. "
    Pepper unpacked his suit and stepped into it. It crinkled and cracked as he zipped it up. "And then I'll be back. Because you'll repeat the same patter all over again. "
    "What?"
    "For all your assumptions, you're not quite seeing the pattern. Deep down, somewhere, you all want Pan. You don't want the responsibility of voting, you want the easy result. "
    "That's not true," Stanuel objected.
    "Oh come on. Think of all the times princes and princesses are adored and feted. Think of all the actors and great people we adore and fawn over. "
    "That doesn't make us slavish followers. "
    Pepper cocked his head. "No, but we still can't escape the instincts we carry from being a small band of hunter-gatherers making their way across a plain, depending on a single leader who knew the ins and outs of their tiny tribe and listened to their feedback. That doesn't scale, so we have inelegant hacks around it.
    "Stanuel, you all created a technological creature, able to view you all and listen to all your feedback, and embody a benevolent single tribal leader. Not only was it born out of your unconscious needs, even your own emulations overwhelmingly voted it into power as sole ruler of Haven. "
    Stanuel raised his hand to halt Pepper. "that's all true, and over the last four days we've argued around all this when we found out about the vote. But, Pepper, whether perfect or not, we can't allow a single person to rule us. It goes against everything we believe in, everything we worked for when we created Haven. "
    Pepper nodded. "I know. "
    "And you're going to walk away. "
    "I have to. Because this wasn't some power grab, it was the will of your people. There was a vote. Pan is right, it is The rightful ruler. But," Pepper pointed at him, "I'm not leaving you empty-handed. "
    "What do you mean?"
    He handed over the backpack and pressed a small stick with a button into Stanuel's hand. "the E. M. P device is in the backpack. You won't get anywhere near the tower to take out just Pan, but if you trigged it in the hub after I leave, it will shut Haven down. Pan will have backups, and his supporters will protect the tower, but if enough people feel like you do, you can storm it with the guns in that pack. "
    "You're asking me to. . . fight?"
    "You know your history. The tree of liberty needs to be watered with some blood every now and then. Thomas Jefferson, I think, said that. Most of your ancestors fought for it. You could have kept it, had you just. . . Taken the time to vote yourself instead of leaving it to something else. "
    "I don't know if I can. " Stanuel was bewildered. He'd never done anything violent in his life.
    Pepper smiled. "You might find Pan is more willing to fold than you imagine. Think about it. "
    With that, he stepped into the airlock. The door shut with a hiss, and the spacesuit faded into camouflage black as Pepper disappeared inside whatever stealth ship had bought him to Haven.
    Stanuel stood there. He pulled the backpack's straps up over onto his shoulders and made his way toward the gardens, mulling over the mercenary's last words.
    A hologram of Pan waited for him at the entrance to the gardens, but no goons were nearby. Stanuel had expected to be captured, with the threat of a long confinement ahead of him. But it was just the electronic god of Haven and Stanuel.
    "You didn't understand what he meant, did you?" Pan said. It really was the panopticon, listening to everything that happened in Haven.
    "No. " Stanuel held the switch to the E. M. P in his hand, waiting for some trick. Was he going to get shot in the head by a sniper? But Pan said it didn't use violence.
    Maybe a tranquilizer dart of some sort?
    "I told you," Pan said, "I also created the resistance. "
    "But that doesn't make any sense," Stanuel said.
    "It does if you stop thinking of me as a person, but as an avatar of your collective emulators. Every ruling system