Though few realize it, it's often best to be in second place. In an organization, it's a high ranking position that often exerts great influence over the way affairs are handled, yet rarely appears in the limelight. The more publicity the top spot gets, the more anonymity the second spot gets. And with anonymity comes the ability to exercise that influence and power without many people knowing or caring.
The Star Cult is a large organization. The more than 1000 members that followed their leader aboard the Circle's Edge were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The ongoing hostilities along the X-Y border drew more recruits into their fold. But almost every colony had a representative minority of Children of the Expanding Light among their numbers.
Not many know the history of the organization. Its presence was felt as the humans pushed out from their homeworld and created colonies and outposts on other planets, asteroids, and space stations. But few know how far back the organization stretched. Some say the first spacemen, the "astronauts" as they were called at the time, were the founding members, as they were the first ones to hear the Words of the Stars. Others say they set a chain of events in motion but that it was back on the homeworld, after the return of the astronauts, that people starting listening to what the Old Ones would say. And others have said that the history stretches farther back than that. The earliest civilizations looked up into their night sky and saw the patterns, the constellations, night after night. And they began to tell stories about the stars and the patterns they formed. They gave them names and described their deeds.
People were happy, in a way. And with the light-speed barrier, certain information would never be known. Once faster-than-light speed became more than just a theoretical notion, and creating settlements on far-away worlds was practical, there were those who stood at the very edge of the terminator of the dawn of a new era in human history and dragged their feet. There were those who thought it too risky, that it would attract attention from others lifeforms (it did) and herald the destruction of humanity (it didn't). And then there were those who thought of ways to make a profit, to gain power and material wealth from these new ventures. They did not want to risk the time and effort involved in creating a colony. So instead they decided to dodge the issue. They followed in the wake of the Discoverers, but instead of tools and an insatiable thirst for knowledge and achievement, they had a wide range of excuses, of lies, and reasons why they needed to be along for the ride but could not directly participate in the risky activities. Though they did not realize it, they were part of the nascent Star Cult.
The excuses became stories, and the stories became history and lore. And as they passed from person to person, the tales evolved and changed, as the situations demanded. The old gods were universal to the world, and the level of knowledge at the time, but were thousands of years out of date. The new stories aimed to correct that, to update them. Certainly the skies were filled with stars, and they were well understood. They were unattended nuclear reactors, locked in a battle between a firestorm of atomic energy and gravity from their mass. They were not alive or sentient. But the Stars, they were different. They were powerful, unknowable, often disguised as mere stars, but with an interest in the lives of humans and abilities to intervene in human affairs. This was all couched in terms like orbits, gravity, mass, and more that made it seem like a science, made it seem legitimate.
And with each tragedy, each surprise event, the Star Cult grew in numbers, powers, and influence. They added followers, offering the masses pat answers to their questions while offering the top few a pretty cushy life.
The Star Cult organized itself with various rankings and titles derived from types of stars. The rankings may offend some astronomy purists, but that was the least of their concern. The top rank is the Black Hole. And similar to a real one, almost no direct information about him escapes his event horizon. It is only based on secondary effects and observations that much is known about the Star Cult's leader, assuming such a person really exists.
The Neutron Star is the second highest rank in the echelon. Space is divided into eight parts along arbitrary orthogonal cardinal headings: east/west, north/south, up/down, and each octant is under the control of a Neutron Star. Lon Kalopello controlled the West/North/down octant. While not the most populous octant, it had the highest number of cult members (somewhere between 2 and 5 billion) and the highest density of cult members.
Word of mouth spreads remarkably fast, even on such a big ship with other pressing concerns, like falling into a white hole and dying. Or dying while falling into a white hole. Nevertheless, stories about the new Neutron Star quickly permeated the ship.
A typical exchange between those in the Star Cult might be: "Brother, have you heard? The Neutron Star was slain after having diverted from the true path set by the Stars. Brother X'til brought his grievances to the Leader. He then officiated and witnessed the Star Sacrifice. He has now been granted the title of Neutron Star and will be making a proclamation soon, perhaps sometime this morning. We should all hail the new Neutron Star."
A typical exchange between those not in the Star Cult might be: "Hey, have you heard? There's a new leader of the Star Cult. Name is Brother X'til. Yeah, he's an X'tonu'u. Who would have guessed? The last one? Not sure...he was killed by one of his own. Yeah. Some woman, a crazy with knife. X'til killed her, some say with some sort of 'star blast' but it was too late. The old leader was already dead."
The story mutated and grew with each telling. But it was quickly established that X'til was the hero, Lon Kalopello may have been the bad guy, or a victim, and Sister Kendau was the killer. Those promulgating the story, especially Clark and Travers, were happy to see someone else get introduced as a villain and did nothing to correct that bit of misinformation. In fact, they encouraged it.
X'til's acceptance spread rapidly through the ship. A cult with a leader is stable and has a direction. A cult without a leader is a group that is about to fly apart, either because there is no cohesive bond or because the in-fighting for the next leader will become explosive. Most people involved with the Star Cult were happy that events would continue without any chaos or anarchy on their part. Things could proceed normally and the near immediacy of the main problem, the white hole, could be the focus of all attention. Plus, X'til might have some new ideas. Unlike the Y'valatic, the X'tonu'u were the more thoughtful and philosophical ones. If anyone could think their way out of such a problem, it would be an X'tonu'u. If it required a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach, then a Y'valatic would fit the bill.
Even X'til was surprised at how quickly people accepted him as the new Neutron Star. The biggest resistance, in the form of a shrieking assassination attempt, occurred less than a minute after he had killed Lon. After that there was, for all practical purposes, only overt acknowledgment that he the new Leader.
He still wore his brown robe, since the only multicolor robe handy was Lon's, it would not fit X'til, and its predominant color was blood. But he had someone fetch the headgear, and now wore the fancy hat that indicated his position as the cult leader. It also made him easy to spot. Apparently many of the followers viewed this reorganization as an opportunity, their one chance to talk to the man at the top—the waiting list to be a dining companion had over 1000 names on it, and the confessionals were usually manned by other acolytes.
"I DO NOT FEAR THE UPCOMING CALAMITY!" screamed a young man nervously.
"Very good. And very wise," replied X'til.
"MY ARM IS SORE. I THINK IT MIGHT BE THE PROTO-MATTER," shouted another young man to the new leader.
"That is unlikely. Perhaps something more mundane struck it," replied X'til.
"AND MY SKIN CONDITION SEEMS TO HAVE FLARED UP AGAIN. PERHAPS YOU CAN DO SOMETHING, NEUTRON STAR!" the second man shouted.
Before he could think of a reply, a middle aged woman behind three other people yelled, "I HAVE A CHICKEN!" and nodded nervously as she stared at X'til as if she had just asked an involved, philosophical question. Others around her turned and looked at her, some furrowing their eyebrows in concentration, others nodding, apparently in agreement that she had "asked" a good question of their new Leader.
Fortunately, this was immediately followed by a more requests, demands, and questions.
"WHAT DO THE STARS TELL US?"
"HEAL MY UNBORN GRANDCHILDREN BACK HOME!"
"NORMALIZE OUR GRAVITATIONAL CONSTANTS!"
"CAN I HAVE A CHICKEN?"
"LEAD US!"
"SHOW US!"
"MAKE IT STOP!"
"My children!" X'til began, holding his hands out. He was surrounded by a crowd, circling him, 10 people deep, all shouting at him. When they saw him lift his hands up, a hush propagated itself outward from him, as they fell silent.
"Now is not the time for questions," he began. "It is a time for answers. The most important question is what we must do next. What we must do now. I shall tell you."
A small murmur went through the crowd, but in general they remained quiet. He held their interest, and they held their questions.
"Preparations need to be made. Final preparations. I have a number of tasks I must do...alone. Everyone else should, if possible, head towards the C-Section escape pod. Obviously, we will not be cramming all of the Children into it, but it will be the place where we will embark upon our next journey. Together."
The new Neutron Star fell silent and surveyed the crowd. No one moved. He then understood that they were waiting for him. He said, "Go now. Spread the word. And then wait by the pod. May the Stars guide your orbit."
"Brightness and darkness are part of the orbit. Gravity draws us all together!" the crowd intoned in unison and then took their leave. Some bowed to him and said, "Neutron Star" reverently, but almost to the person, they headed off to follow his orders.
"Maybe there is something to this Neutron Star thing," he said quietly to no one in particular. "Would they actually do anything and everything I say?" he mused. "Perhaps there's something to me as well." He smirked and turned to leave, followed by no one.
His smirk became a grin as he realized they were obeying his words to the letter and not interfering with him at all.