Zeros 2 Heroes - The People's Publisher

My name is Tomas L. Martin. I'm a fourth year Physics student at Bristol University, England. I also write science fiction. My short stories have been published in Aberrant Dreams #7 and the anthologies 'The Awakening' and 'Satirica'. My short story 'Tremors' was a semilfinalist for the 4th quarter of the Writers Of The Future contest in 2007. My fictional blog 'Mia Without Oil' was a key contribution to the month-long alternative reality project World Without Oil. I write reviews for SFCrowsnest and blog for online fiction magazine Futurismic.com

Fleeing a dying Earth, Castra is a city perched on top of a mountain of engines powering it through the depths of space. The journey to a new planet takes hundreds of years. With nothing to do but wait for their arrival, the civilisation fell into decay. Drugs, crimelords and gangs own different parts of Castra, with the ship/city's alcoholic Captain holed up in his tower, ineffectual. The police only hold certain parts of the city, with others given up to the other more nefarious organisations

Police Detective Roberto has a plan. He's been on Castra all his life, struggling to keep up with his bosses' orders to keep the relatively safe areas of the city still functioning. Now though, Castra is approaching its new home in New Pennsylvania. Each crime lord and syndicate is planning their coup to get control of the planet when they arrive. The adminstration is struggling to keep afloat as it is. Roberto is acutely aware that if nothing is done to bring people together soon, the settlement of the new world will be a catastrophe far worse than Castra is now.

He wants to start a revolution, overthrow the Captain and beat the gangs. Because if they don't regain control in the four years until they reach New Pennsylvania, how will they colonise their new home?