Lechowski arrived at the state hall a little early so that he could file some things before he went to the inactive meeting. The inactive meetings, though not required for representatives, were almost always attended, sometime more often than the official ones. At the inactive meetings, possibly the most inappropriately named thing in government, things were decided. The votes afterwards in the official meetings were nothing more than a formality.

They were also, he remembered as he opened the door to his office, where you got your bunker assignments. Though no one actually expected the Transbekis to launch a carbon bomb, there was a theoretical chance that they would, apparently enough of a chance that district representatives would have bunkers that they could live in if there actually was a launch.

He moved the last file from his palmcomp to the virtual file cabinet and turned them both off. It was almost nine and the meeting was scheduled to start in a few minutes. He closed the door behind him as he left and walked the short distance down the hall to the large conference room where inactive meetings were held. Only a few people were there already, a conservative from a southern district he didn’t know very well, and Smith, the moderate liberal from the district next to Lechowski’s own. “Hi Lech.” Smith said as Lechowski sat down.

“Hi Smith. How’s it going?”

“Oh, you know, same old. Having some trouble sleeping with those Transbekin carbon bombs out there.”

“I know what you mean. Never know when they’re gonna strike.”

“I know I’ll feel safer once we’re assigned our bunkers, have a place to go.”

“Me too.” Lechowski said. The conservative across the room scowled at them. Apparently he took the threat slightly more seriously. Another conservative joined him and together they talked quietly about the energy policy.

Slowly more people trickled in, and sat in their usual spots in the room, liberals grouped on the left, conservatives on the right, everyone tending to sit near people who districts were near theirs.

Finally the Prime Representative, Tray of the 16th district, arrived. “Sorry folks, my hover broke down. Right in the middle of the lane. Nightmare trying to get here on a bus. Anyway I’ll read the bunker assignments and we can get on with everything.”

People talked quietly as Tray put down his briefcase and took out the papers with the assignments on them. “There’re three bunkers for us, they’re assigned by district number, apparently.”

Lechowski looked through his palmcomp files without purpose as Tray read off assignments for the first and second bunker. Lechowski represented the 20th district of the 22 in the state, so it was obvious where he would be assigned.

“…Bunker three, Branson, me, Smith, Uliton, Nenyin, Lechowski, and Kijiv. So now you all know what to do if the Transbekis actually get a launch together and decide to do it. I hope you feel safer now.”

“I see that I’m one of two liberals in my bunk, thanks.” Said someone in bunker two.

“I’ll get your back.” Said the other liberal.

“Oh all right then. Never mind Tray, no worries.”

“I don’t have any say in it,” Tray told him, “Like I said, they’re by district. Go get elected by a different one if you don’t like it. Moving on, first on the agenda is Nenyin’s health plan…”

The meeting went well for the liberals, they were the majority this term, and Lechowski walked to his office with Smith afterwards.

“So, we have Branson and Nenyin. Nenyin’s a good guy but I’d hate to live with Branson for 20 months.” 20 months was how long a carbon-bombed area was expected to remain a serious health threat.

“Wonder what Uliton would be like. I don’t even know what he ran as.”

“I think he ran as a conservative. He’s pretty libertarian I think.”

“Socially yeah, economically not really.”

“True.”

They reached Smith’s office and he unlocked his door. “See you about that fund-raising thing at lunch?”

“Yeah, noon good?”

“Noon’s good. See you then.”