Gary listened with his leg up on the couch, then took on a thoughtful expression as he slowly digested the information. Garath felt like he could see the gears turning beneath the Engineer's beard as he waited for a reply.
"No," Gary finally decided.
"No?"
"No," Gary confirmed. "I've spent the last ten years supervising a team of ten to twelve guys. I don't think I'm the right guy for a couple hundred, let alone planning a community.”
“Oh,” Garath said. His surprise and disappointment must have been clearly visible because Gary quickly apologized.
“That's probably not what you wanted to hear,” he said, looking seriously at the Necrologist. “But it's the truth. I'm not the right guy for that job.”
Garath nodded in understanding.
“Maybe you can bring it up when you make your announcement,” Gary continued. “That we need someone with organizational and planning skills to take the lead on community development. I'll happily work under whoever you find to do it, provided they aren't just some dingus...."
"Alright," said Garath, smiling. The Raid leader didn't want to take the job himself, self-appointing aside, it just sounded like a lot of thinking. "That's fair. What about general rules, any thoughts?"
"That one's tough," Gary replied after scratching at his beard. "It seems simple enough to come up with some guidelines but..."
“But what about the consequences for rule breaking?” Garath interrupted. “And where is the line between reasonable expectations and...”
"Establishing something like a government?" it was Gary's turn to interrupt.
Garath nodded his agreement. “Exactly. I've been thinking about it a lot and I have some ideas, but nothing concrete. I want The Band to be a place where people can be safe and housed and fed, sure. But more than that, I want it to be a place for humanity to be able to recover and develop. It's been less than a week, so maybe I'm being insensitive and everyone just needs a little time to heal but we only have twenty-four days left until these other races are just going to move right in and who knows what that'll be like. We need to prepare for the worst. We can't afford to have so many people just freeloading and moping around.”
“We all lost loved ones,” Gary agreed with a broken look in his eyes. The bearded man forced a smile onto his face. “But you're not wrong. What are you thinking?”
“Something I learned back when I used to manage a sales department is that most people will rise or fall to meet the expectations of their leader. At the barest minimum, most of us used to get up and make it to work on time to meet the expectations of keeping our jobs. It was necessary to pay bills and buy food and whatever but it isn't anymore. The way I see it, we have two choices. We can let our grief and melancholy indifference cripple us and waste the time we have left wallowing in self-pity or we can be the ones to pave the way for humanity to rebuild. Anything in between will just leave us at the mercy of the races arriving in a few weeks.”
Gary was leaning back into the couch with his arms folded and legs stretched out with his feet crossed at the ankle, smiling and listening to Garath's unplanned soapbox rant. He lifted one eyebrow, nodding approvingly.
“If I can make a suggestion?” the bearded man asked.
“Obviously.”
“Write down everything you just said and use that to open your announcement. That was pure gold, friend,” said Gary. The Engineer even clapped his hands together a few times in applause. “Then follow that up with benefits and expectations to join the Guild. As our Raid leader, your authority didn’t mean anything. As a Guild leader, you would have to invite members. Right?”
“Right.”
“Well then, the expectations you set for us will shape the community, Garath. Just like you said, people will rise or fall to the expectations of their leaders. Just something to keep in mind. With each person doing their part, I'm sure we can make those rations you and Athios brought back last a hell of a lot longer - those were a godsend, by the way. Not much in the way of flavor but they'll keep us going. Did you get a count on how many there were?"
"We brought back something like a hundred and forty cases, twelve meals each. So what's that, like..." Garath paused to calculate. "About sixteen hundred-ish?"
"Good haul."
"Definitely. What about rules of conduct? How far do we need to take that? Like, do I even need to mention that killing people will be frowned upon? Or stealing even?"
“About that," Gary replied. "In regards to rules, can I suggest we call them expectations instead of rules? I don't like the idea of establishing rules but I think everyone would agree that it's fair enough to have expectations in exchange for a safe place to live. What if we just have a defined amount of time each person is expected to contribute?"
"Then whoever we get to plan the development can allocate that time?" Garath asked, nodding along.
"Exactly."
"I think that's a great idea. For today I'll just let everyone know we're working on some guidelines and ask them to let me know if they have suggestions. Then
