Distopia

By Vaughn Ohlman

Produced by Moravia Barnyard

www.vonsbooks.com
Distopia Chapter 001: Spending time

It walked down the hallway, holding its offspring by the hand. It was tired and looked it, and the energy
of the offspring, released from the confines of their school, threatened to overwhelm it. The corridor
was filled with others on similar errands, some with offspring, most without. The corridor walls were
covered, wall to ceiling, with three levels of large doors... most closed, some open... some of the open
ones with people climbing out or in.

Soon, but not too soon, they arrived at their own particular section of the corridor. A ladder next to their
door... neither the ground floor door nor the highest one, allowed them to climb up and in. The meter
tall, two by two and a half meter compartment should have seemed confining but was, to the tired egg
donor, a welcome relief. The offspring moved quickly to the far wall of the compartment, stripping off
their clothes, eager to turn on the vision screen. It followed their example, as far as the clothes were
concerned, and called the offspring to it.

Every evening they went through this same battle, with the offspring eager to watch vision screen, and
the parent eager to bathe them and put them to bed. They had fed at school, so there was no need to
take anything for them from the food dispenser. It merely had to fight its way through the inevitable
battle.

They were down in the shower, and it was watching over them with its legs dangling into the
compartment, when the door opened again. It was Jarl.

There was no name, at least no name that decent people would be willing to pronounce, for the
relationship that it and Jarl had. Indeed, they both would have been shocked if anyone had used the
word 'relationship'.

Exclusivism was not actually outlawed. It was technically legal. One could go to the magistrate and
register as an 'exclusivist'. But this was not only a practical form of suicide; it would produce results
contradictory to the nature of the registration.

Most 'normals', especially of the lower classes (not that anyone ever admitted there were classes) were
allowed to 'spend time' (the current euphemism for copulation) as often as they pleased, with whoever
they pleased... with the deliberate caveat that one could not be an exclusivist unless one registered.
Each free period one would register on the vision screen, either listing ones availability to a chosen
group of possible partners, or choosing a partner that had already registered with you... along with
details such as time, and length of encounter. At the appointed time one or the other (as agreed) would
come over, you would 'spend time' as agreed, and the other would leave again... unless the agreement
was for a longer period of several hours.

However exclusivism, while legal, was considered to be fraught with dangers of emotional blackmail.
Thus each jurisdiction set a limit on how often the exclusivity must be tested... i.e. you were forced to
'spend time' with someone other than your exclusive partner, as was your partner, and then re-register
as exclusive again. Some localities made the time frame as short as one week.

Jarl and Eorne had not registered as exclusive. Neither one, tonight nor most nights, put themselves up
as 'available'. According to the authorities, Jarl was not even here, and they were definitely not
'spending time'. Some nights they would register with each other. However, more frequently each
would register with someone else... but someone who, like themselves, would be just going through
with registering to look good with the authorities. Of course, if one made a mistake, or misread an
innuendo, then one would of course go through with 'spending time'. A failure to do so could lead to
deep trouble. And occasionally, particularly during Eorne's time of the month, Jarl would register with
someone with whom it did wish to spend time.

Jarl removed its clothes and waited, and Eorne soon had the offspring out of the shower and back to the
vision screen 'for a few minutes'. They entered the shower and 'spent time' in the hot water... they both
were somehow more comfortable spending time when the offspring were occupied at the other end of
the bed compartment, even though they knew that these feelings merely reflected outdated social
thought. They would, of course, never confine their spending time to the shower, but, still, they often
did it there.

Back in the bed they moved the offspring away from the vision screen and into their sleeping position.
By mutual consent they requested the screen to show them the latest installment in that earthshaking
trial, the trial of Fleet Commander Jensen, the trial that had started several days ago...
Distopia Chapter 002: The first campaign

Prosecutor Nralna paced back and forth in front of the enormous star map that, in a stylized way,
showed the position of the 27 planets that, once again, made up the Republic of Man.  His presence at
this trial signaled clearly that the guilt of the accused was a foregone conclusion.  Occasionally lesser
prosecutors would be seen to lose a case, a testimony to the justice and mercy of the Republic. But the
chief prosecutor, never.  The witness it was to interrogate having been sworn in, the prosecutor began
his questioning.

"Sub Commander Toala," it intoned, "Would you please review for the court the position that your
forces found themselves in at the beginning of the first campaign."

Sub commander Toala’s answer droned on.  The last thing in the world Toala wished to do was draw any
attention to itself and thus away from the chief prosecutor.  Thus it droned.

It explained the position that the Republic had found itself in when, with a shocking suddenness, the 12
worlds of 'the rim' had suddenly declared themselves an independent Republic. The 11 core worlds, and
4 secondary worlds, held the bulk of the population and the overwhelming force of industry... as well
as a political grip on the entire republic. The rim worlds, however, were over stocked with ships, and
supplied a disproportionate number of naval personnel.  So they had been in a position, when
independence was declared, to take with them (willing or unwilling was not known) over 1/4 of the
entire naval force of the Republic and render inoperable another ¼.

The nature of the lanes between stars, where the quantum drive would allow ships meant that the two
Republics 'met' at only three locations. The admiralty, recovering from their surprise, had established
three fleets, which they named, with amazing lack of imagination, first, second, and third fleets. Fleet
Commander Jensen, with Toala as one of its intelligence officers, had commanded second fleet.

Political leaders being what they nearly always are, they issued, basically, one command to each of the
fleets.  One command buried in a mass of verbiage and threats. One command. 'Attack'.

And each of them did. Fleet Commander Carlsen, commander of first fleet, flung its forces forward. Its
blind prejudice against the outer rim led it to vastly overestimate the power of First fleet in the face of
their opponents.  Attacking down a lane in space, as any attack ever has been that is forced into a
confined space against a prepared opponent, demanded overwhelming superiority. Superiority it had...
but not overwhelming superiority.  Outmatched, and out generaled, the flag ship destroyed, the Fleet
Commander dead, First fleet came limping back, crushed.
Fleet Commander White, commander of third fleet, did not do much better.  It *knew* better. It was an
excellent strategist, as excellent as anyone could be in a fleet that had never fired a shot in anger but
that had drilled repeatedly over the years.  It would never have attacked on its own accord.  But the
command from on high, and the threats that hedged it about, forced its hand. Third fleet moved
forward, slowly, carefully.. and was defeated quickly and overwhelmingly.

Fleet Commander Jensen, while not such an excellent strategist, was a better tactician and, what was
more, a better politician. It knew all three fleets would attack. It knew all three would be defeated. Its
goal was not victory, but a lesser loss than the others... a loss that could be played into a victory.

And so second fleet moved forward, not overwhelmingly (as did first fleet) or carefully (third) but
flashily. Units were sent scurrying here, and there... but it was careful never to join the fleet anywhere
where they could be overwhelmed, and never to mass critical units. Thus when the defeat came, as all
knew it must do, it was able to put up a brave show of resistance, and yet to flee with second fleet
largely intact when the 'overwhelming nature of the enemy became obvious'.

Not that Toala explained any of this. It did not believe that such an explanation would help it... or even 
its Fleet Commander.. .whom it would have attempted to save, had not everyone known that that was
impossible.

The position for First and Third fleet, after the defeat, was then almost the opposite of when the war
started. They faced an enemy that out gunned them, but not by enough to attack down their lanes of
space. Second fleet, on the other hand, still had enough ships to easily defend their space lanes, and still
attack the enemy with approximately equal force.

Fleet Commander Jensen had taken advantage of the situation. Calling in every favor, utilizing every
scrap of status that it had, and every ounce of humiliation that the others had suffered, it culled the
other fleets to the bone, pulled strings, and managed to change the makeup of the fleets.

No longer was there a First and Third fleet.  They were given the name of glorious heroes of their first
battle (first fleet being named after their dead Admiral), given glowing praise, and relegated to
defending their star lanes.  Half of Second fleet, the lesser half, the older half, was also renamed, and
also given a defensive position.

The other part of Second fleet was named after a hero of the Republic, but what the members of the
navy would call it, and what its assignment was, was 'attacking fleet'.

Fleet Commander Jensen made speeches, made demands, pulled strings, and in the end got what each
fleet should have had in the beginning... time to build itself up from the massive industry of the core
worlds.  Ships, trained personnel, poured forward, and it was ready to actually begin the offensive.
Distopia Chapter 003: The day of our victory will arrive

Again though, only a clever listener, listening between the lines, could have understood all of this from
Toalas testimony. Jarl and Eorne fast forwarded through much of it.

---

Jensen then had the fleet advance.  The Rim fleet, after some minor skirmishing, had conceded their
advance, and Jensen had taken back the first of the Rim planets.  Much time (more than strictly
necessary, but Jensen knew the fleet still needed strengthening) had been taken over establishing a
government of occupation on the planet. Of course, the planet protested its innocence.  It hadn't any
power at all over the fleet that ruled its skies.  Still, the former governor was deposed, education camps
were established, the mental aberration of Theism was actively  hunted down, and the aberration of
exclusivism was subtly if forcefully attacked.

While the fleet was rebuilding and the planet was being 'pacified' Jensen sent out scouts and skirmishers
down the two lanes leading from the newly conquered planet. It discovered, to its surprise, that the
'lesser' lane, i.e. the one leading to two less important planets, was by far the best defended.

The defensive fleet had come up after the planet was conquered.  Leaving it there, Fleet Commander
Jensen had led the fleet out... down the greater lane.

No other decision was conceivable.  One way led to two minor planets. The other, into the heart of the
Rim.  Two lanes down, they could join up with First fleet, and then later with Third fleet.  The other way
would lead them into a dead end.  Everyone had agreed: the political leaders back in the Republic, the
military leaders on the ships, and the political handlers surrounding the Fleet Commander. Everyone had
agreed, and the strategy had worked.

One after another, the wealthier and more populated planets of the rim had fallen.  Eventually, with all
the fleets combined, they had worked their way down the line.

Soon, all of the other planets conquered and pacified, they had come back, almost leisurely, to the lane
that they had left behind.  The lane where the defensive fleet sat, unchallenged, waiting for an attack
that never came.  They came with all of the fleets combined, prepared, and attacked...
And won, but it was an expensive victory.   More expensive than almost all of the previous battles
combined.  The Rim fleet fought with tenacity, as if reluctant to  yield even an inch.  Only at the definite
last minute did they withdraw down the final lane.

The fleet had then definitely paused.  Shaken, with many officers sacked, and ships taken off the line for
repairs, they were forced to rebuild for an assault after a period of assuming that all that was left was a
cake walk.  Jensen, still very much the hero of the Republic... especially since it had almost worn out its
welcome before the latest attack in warning people to 'be ready', and counseling how hard the attack
would be. It held power in its hands, and it used it to build up the fleet, reactivating factories that had
already shifted from shipbuilding into other, more lucrative, production.

Finally it was ready, and launched his fleet to the attack. But this time they found... nothing. The fleet
was gone.  Only automated mine layers and other such lay in their path.  They blew through these and
found strange debris and abandoned factories around the last planet.  Confused, they lay in orbit and
began conferences.

Meanwhile, undetected by the fleet, a series of drone ships had gone back the lanes the fleet had come.
They squirted a message to the planet there and continued on their way. Tiny ships, message carriers,
only a few were detected, and fewer destroyed. Soon they had passed their message on to each
planet...

And on each planet a secret installation turned itself on, and began its only task, broadcasting a message
to the people of each planet, and eventually to the entire republic.

"People of the Rim Republic. This is President Toaraltan. I congratulate you on our victory.  The plan that
we spent 12 long years to implement has come to fruition.  At our last count, enough ships have been
sent away, with  targets enough, to colonize 524 planets with the young people that we culled from
each of our planets, young people sent to continue our Republic, and our fight for freedom.  Before the
corrupt 'Republic of Man' can even find all of them, they will have grown into a power that they will not
be able to put down.

We have not surrendered, and I do not surrender now. Wait patiently, and teach your offspring to wait
patiently. The day of our victory will arrive."
Distopia Chapter 004: A prisoners last speech

For the next few days and then weeks the news from the trial became rather boring.  A multitude of
small witnesses confirmed what Taorl had said, details were added. The prosecutor, having basically no
case at all but with a necessity of conviction, was determined to hide its lack of a case in a wealth of
details.  And then, after calling hundreds of witness..

---

Jarl hurried down the corridor.  It was very confused; although it couldn't have said why. Indeed it didn't
have the vocabulary even to express the feelings.  It was on its way to a spending time with one of its
friends.  This was an expected and encouraged activity. It was an activity that all of the teaching of its
youth had emphasized was in support of the unity of the society. It built bonds and encouraged free
expression. It fought against the selfishness that was contingent in 'exclusiveness'.  And yet, whenever
that time of month came around, and it sought out another egg donor... it didn't feel as if it was helping
the community.

It was also disturbed by the trial on the vision screen. It knew what the verdict would be, everyone knew
that. And yet, just a few weeks ago, everyone was watching Admiral Jensen on the vision screen and
thrilling to its victories.  Even though they didn't live on one of the 27 planets that were members of the
Republic, but on a small mining colony on a planetoid, still they were citizens of the Republic, loyal ones,
and thrilled when the revolution was crushed.

---

A prisoners last speech was, for those who chose to take advantage of it, an amazing gap in the
otherwise extremely strict (if subtly managed) control that the Republic exercised over what its citizens
heard. Not that most took advantage of it.  It was said and felt (with total inaccuracy) that the 'last
speech' was also the first act in  a prisoners 're-education'.  The frequent glowing scenes of the
reeducation camps led many to naively assume that these camps actually reflected the films, and that
prisoners who participated could actually eventually be released. So most prisoners listened to the
coaching they received and gave tearful and repentant confessions... some of which were actually true.

Admiral Jensen was not so naive.  And its captors, perhaps guessing at this personality and definitely
guessing at its certain fate, had not even bothered with any coaching.

"Citizens of the Republic.  Much has been said during this trial, and most of it has been accurate.  So
much so that I wish to correct those few inaccuracies that did exist.

First of all I wished to congratulate those brave beings who fought, and in many cases died, in this war.
Their example shows that, should any enemy ever arise against the Republic I have confidence that they
will adequately defend it.

(Ironically, most of its audience, accustomed to subtlety but not to irony, completely missed this dig at
the prosecution in light of the recent war.)

 Secondly, I wish to point out something that perhaps has been misstated in my trial.  The people of the
rim are good offspring of the Republic. While many of the rim were among those who made up the rebel
fleet, it must be remembered that the rim provided the overwhelming majority of the officers and crew
of the fleet. Without the rim, we would have had no fleet.

Thirdly, the rim produces much of our agricultural and industrial production…
Distopia Chapter 005: If they could have spoken honestly

If they could have spoken honestly to each other, perhaps they could have done something. But they
had not risen high through the ranks, gained the inner circle of the ‘advisors of the Republic’ by speaking
honestly. And the fact that their proceedings, however trivial, were always filmed made the situation
even more difficult.

“Citizens, we have a situation to deal with. Deceived by traitorous leaders (there could, of course, be no
other official explanation) and aided by the treachery of our unfortunate Fleet Commander (who was
already at the ‘re-education’ camp) vast numbers of confused citizens have been scattered around the
galaxy, far from all of the important and necessary government functions; trapped in the deceptions of
Theism and Exclusivism. It is important that we protect them, that we restore them to their place in the
Republic.” 

Everyone was in agreement on that point. They were also in full agreement that it was impossible…
although that they could never say so. The speaker continued… 

“It is necessary that, after making adequate provision for our defense should the traitorous fleet return,
that we send out ships, ships prepared to either bring the fugitives back or, should there be too many
for that to be carried out successfully, to resume proper governmental control over the new colonies. I
have asked the Defense Ministry to prepare a plan for this task.” 

Here the Speaker sat down, and the Defense Minister stood up. It was extremely nervous; but little of
this showed on its face. Had its face been the kind that would have shown such things, it would not have
risen to the position it now had. 

“Before I present this report, I believe I need to be clear on the difficulties we face. Although we are not
clear on the exact composition of the fleet that has vanished, it is clear it is of significant size. Not only
was a large portion of the warships of the rebellion involved, but, it has become more and more clear
that there were numbers of transports. In light of the message from the traitorous leader, it seems
possible that these transports were carrying large numbers of young people and colonizing supplies.” 

“Our information systems specialists assure us that the enormous number of planets mentioned in the
last speech is erroneous… that there is no way they could have settled over 500 planets. However even
ignoring the obvious exaggeration, we face the task of finding and re-governing various new colonies.” 

“At the same time, we face the permanent potential of attack from the rebels fleet. Ordinarily in this
kind of situation we would like to send out scouts, individual scout ships, to find the new colonies, and
report on their level of technology, defense, etc. However we cannot afford to send individual ships out,
where they could be easily destroyed or captured by the enemies fleet.” 

“Given these two problems, my ministry has made a proposal…” 

-- Jarl and Eorne, no less than any others, watched with fascination as the Defense Ministry laid out its
plan over the next few days. Naïve and poorly educated, they took the plan on face value… an irony
considering what they had just witnessed over the last few weeks.

 
Distopia Chapter 006: One common thread

However Fleet Commander Nestin was neither naïve or poorly educated… at least not as far as military
affairs were concerned. A veteran of the Second Fleet, it had been tapped by the Defense Ministry to
lead the new fleet, called the re-governing fleet. It understood exactly what an assignment to this fleet
was… a death penalty. Or, at the very least, a life sentence. Unlike the Defense Ministry spokesman it
had seen the figures on the fleet that had left, the transports they had taken, and a rough estimate of
the number of young people that had gone with them. It didn’t scoff at the 500+ idea of colonized
planets. And since the plan called for the entire fleet to move as one unit, the idea of re-governing all of
those planets within the lifetime of anyone in the fleet was ludicrous. 

There was one advantage in commanding a fleet that would never return. If it once seized true control
from the political masters on the fleet, then there would be no problem later with the powers-that-be.
Or, better yet, if it could co-opt them. The only real difficulty would be keeping its intentions, if not
hidden, at least irreproachable, until it was outside of the possibility of being arrested and tried. 

And it now had a meeting with those various leaders. And it had its plan. It was thrilled that these
meetings were considered so important that they were all put on the vision screens live. It entered the
room, and walked to the head seat. 

“Citizens. I am very pleased that we are able to meet as a group at last. And that our fellow citizens will
be able to watch our deliberations live.” 

“The Defense Ministry has given us an excellent plan. Truly they have left us very little to work out on
our own. (This blatant flattery couldn’t hurt its position). However we do have some things on our
agenda to work out. The first concerns personnel. The Defense Ministry has normal protocol for the
defense workers, but we need to establish guidelines for some other workers.” 

Nestin had its own idea for this, and knew just how it could get them across. First step… 

“I would like to go around the table, just seeking ideas.” 

Given that the meeting was being broadcast, this put everyone in a tough position. Everything that they
said would be scrutinized… 

And so they each took turns mouthing platitudes. But in each of the platitudes there was a common
theme. A theme that it knew would be there, and it wanted to take advantage of. When they were
done… 

“Thank you citizens. You all gave some excellent ideas. I think that we can agree on one common thread,
and vote on it immediately.” (It watched their faces. Even with their training it could see the
nervousness on their faces. A vote, immediately?) “You have each touched on something that I myself
have worried about. Can we agree that the priority we must use in selecting these other workers, these
patriotic souls who will help to populate and re-govern any planets we cannot evacuate, must be their
loyalty? In that we can be pleased that the Ministry of Education and Training has placed at our disposal
a Loyalty Index. I propose for our first decision that we vote to choose workers based first and foremost
on their loyalty index.” 

It could see the relief on their faces. It could tell that they were assuming that this was just a pro forma,
look good, motion. But it was the basis for its entire plan… 

-- Jarl and Eorne were sitting in the park… or rather laying together in the park… watching the offspring
play. Nowhere on the planetoid could be considered safe as far as listening by the authorities was
concerned. But the park was probably the least likely place to be listened to… and when a couple was
spending time together they were usually considered a little bit ‘off limits’. And of course Jarl and Eorne
were of the lowest class (not that anyone would have dared to use those words) and thus were almost
immune from prosecution. They were almost considered ‘off limits’ due to their lack of ‘contaminating
influence’. In reality, of course, they were off limits due to the fact that they had no power, and so no
one was worrying about them. 

But still, to be safe, they were having this conversation in the park while ‘spending time’ together… an
activity that society encouraged strongly. 

“Have you been getting the same vibes I have about this trip?” Jarl said. 

“Many of my partners have been hearing the same thing. It sounds like they are encouraging…” Eorle
paused… “those who are more flexible to go along on the trip. That the housing on the ships will be a bit
tight, and they will accept applications of people willing to be flexible, and have a permanent co-
assignee.” 

“I have heard that, since they are taking only extremely loyal people, there will be no need for an
assignment list, no need for constant monitoring.” 

Jarl and Eorle belonged to that class of people who had a 100% loyalty rating. Loyalty ratings were
almost completely negative and applied almost entirely to the ‘upper’ classes; those who helped move
and distribute goods (what their grandparents might have called ‘the merchant class’), those who
helped educate and train the youth, and those who made decisions. Lower class people simply went
from day to day with no black marks… thus 100% loyalty. 
‘What do you think?” Eorle asked. 

“I’m thinking of applying for a position.” However private that their conversation was supposed to be it
wanted to put a government friendly spin on his statements. “It will be a great sacrifice, surely. But our
fellow citizens in the fleet are preparing a great effort. Surely the rest of us can do something.” 

Eorle had participated in too many of these conversations, and was able to read between the lines.
“You’re right. We should be making sacrifices as well. Perhaps I should sign up. I think I heard that they
were looking for people with assigned offspring, that we could be useful to the cause.” 

“I heard that too.” Jarl responded. “But I heard that they were preferring applications that included an
egg donor, a sperm donor, and registered offspring.” 
Eorle paused as if thinking, and then asked the questions that lay at the heart of the discussion, and one
that they had now set up for Jarl to be able to answer honestly. “So, do you think that you and I should
register, together?”
Distopia Chapter 007: Please resubmit

The bureaucrats looked at each other in silence. There was nothing they could say. Their carefully
manipulated list had been rejected, but not for any reason they could complain about.  They stared
down at the memo:

“Please resubmit list using only persons with 100% loyalty rating.  Sort list according to ability to accept
flexible assignments, housing requirements, and other requirements approved by council. Fleet
Commander Nestin”

They all knew that such a list could not include any of the people that they would want to send off on
this expedition.  They couldn’t include those powerful decision makers that they wanted to reward with
status, nor could they punish those bureaucrats foolish enough to stand in their way. 100% loyalty plus
flexibility could only mean… their minds had no words for it, but others might have called them… lower
class.

Almost a minute passed before their leader took the only decision left to them, “Perhaps we have not
paid close enough attention to our instructions, and made our job harder than it had to be. Computer;
search the database for 50,000 volunteers best meeting the following qualifications:

a)     100% Loyalty rating

b)    Willingness to accept flexible assignment

c)     Availability of co-signature of acceptance of housing assignment.

d)    Maximum number of assigned offspring.

Print the list to our screens.”

The list printed, and each bureaucrat applied their selective searches.  Each was appalled. None of the
people that they wanted was on the list, or almost none.  But each used the time to think. This method
also meant that none of their opponents desires were there either. And what choice did they have?

--

Jarl hurried back.  It climbed the ladder and opened the door, crawling in. It saw by the look on Eorles
face that it too had seen the list. They were on it. They, and their offspring, were assigned housing…
permanent housing, together.
They had put in their names with great dread. They had heard, from those who had been braver, that
that was what the fleet was doing; that they were actually accepting applications together… that of an
egg donor and a sperm donor, along with any registered offspring. Accepting applications and assigning
them housing together. One set of housing for adults and offspring.

Oh, the applications had been hedged around with all sorts of talk of ‘sacrifice’, but all of the talk under
the radar among their set had been that the government was actually looking for closet exclusivists.
That they were forgiving their social deviancy because it was actually needed for the ‘secondary fleet’
purposes.

And even the fact that Eorle had several registered offspring, instead of the social embarrassment it
usually was, word was it was an advantage.

At first they didn’t say anything. They didn’t understand these new rules, and didn’t know if the
government was merely testing them, or what.  But all that they did the rest of the evening showed to
each other how excited they were. Finally Eorle hit upon a subject that she thought would be safe
enough.  A completely natural subject, but one that would let it express some of its excitement.

“So, what do you think it will be like, on the secondary fleet?”

“I have heard a lot of rumors, but there hasn’t been much on the vision screens about the secondary
fleet. One thing I have heard is it is mostly made up of big transport ships, ones that usually haul ore
from the meteor belts and things.  They are filling them with small containers.  Each container will be
taken by a shuttle down to the planet where they will be establishing a new government.”

“What’s in the containers?” Eorle asked.

“That’s the really interesting part. One half of the container will be filled with things that the new
colonists will need, the other half will be their housing.”

“We’ll live in the containers?”

“That’s what I hear.”

Distopia Chapter 008: Rules that officially didn’t exist

Finally the fleet was ready. Fleet Commander Nestin had found the task even easier than it had
imagined. The politics of this fleet were different from anything it had ever done before.  Whereas
normally people would be pulling strings to get on a fleet, here all of the important (and useless) people
were pulling strings to get off. It had not been hard at all to focus on technical competence for the crew
of the fleet.

And to focus on… other issues… for the personnel in the transports.  Issues that it couldn’t even admit to
itself. Rules that officially didn’t exist had been broken to smithereens… destroyed as if their destruction
had been a ‘sacrifice’ on the part of those volunteering.

The end result was the fleet that it knew it would be spending the rest of his life in. A flight sent to
accomplish an impossible task, and one that might… if not succeed, at least not fail miserably.

--

Jarl and Eorle settled into their couch. They did not believe that it wasn’t monitored, so they said
nothing, but their looks and actions spoke volumes. They had indeed been assigned to the same
quarters, they and their offspring. And there was no assignment list. Indeed, with the housing and space
situation, ‘spending time’ with someone other than your… they were calling them co-assignees… would
be a bit problematic. Where would you do it? Oh well, no doubt they would figure it out.

And the schooling… there were no schools! It was explained that this was one of the sacrifices the new
colonists would have to make. That the offspring, along with the adults, would need to ‘do school’ in
their own quarters. And that school would include many ‘primitive arts’; farming, mining, etc. Even
cooking!  There were simulation rooms set aside for learning that had a physical component.

The end result was that they would be spending almost all day together. Indeed, except for some
simulations, there was nothing on the schedule that took place outside their housing!

“Have you read the most recent memo?” Eorle asked.

“Sure. What part of it interests you?”

“In that long list of sacrifices that we were making, they gave us a list of things that were allowed and
not allowed in our housing.”

Jarl looked at it. “Was there something you wanted to do? We’ve never had housing as big as this
before. Of course, it is not just housing.  It’s our whole life.”
It got up and paced. “So what do you want to do?”

“It says here that we can move the furniture around as we wish.”

Jarl looked down the compartment. At the far end was the section for the offspring. On one side were
three beds, bunked.  Across from them, cabinets for clothing and a vision screen. In the middle section
was the adults bed, also matched with cabinets and a vision screen.  Between that section and the
section nearest the door was a set of cabinets, facing the front door. In the front was the table, along
with an area for ‘cooking’ and food.

“I don’t see much that we can move, except for…”

“Except for the bed and the table.”

Jarl studied Eorle. Long years of living under totalitarian rule, where every conversation was monitored,
had led to their being able to say a great deal without saying anything.  In its current position the adult
bed was directly under the eyes of the offspring.

The teachings of their society told them that that was a good thing. That children needed to be exposed
to a continual view of sexuality.  The rules normally called for the sexuality to be between a whole
variety of different adults, of course.

But many people, no doubt because of some deviant anti-sociality, found the situation… awkward.  Jarl
understood Eorles feelings. But what to say for the recorders?

“Eorle, I think you may be right. I think it might be a good idea to move the bed and the table. I know
that you have problems sleeping with the offspring and their noise. You have never before had any
space. Now that you do… it would be a bit of a sacrifice, having to haul the food around the corner to
the table, but it would probably be good for your health.”

Eorle looked at Jarl. It was one thing that particularly impressive about their relationship, the way Jarl
could always come up with solutions to problems.

--

“Fleet Commander, this schedule…”

The chief bureaucrat for planning held up the sheet. It had decided, after some near disasters for itself in
the last few meetings, to confront the fleet commander privately.

‘Yes, minister? You have questions?”

The minister paused. It had no idea how the commander would get out of this… but it could tell by the
Commanders smile that it would.

“The schedule for the secondary staff (no one could quite bring themselves to call them ‘colonists’,
although everyone knew that’s what they would be), it leaves them in their housing for almost 24 hours
a day every day. How are they to be properly socialized? The offspring will be… perverted… being so
exclusively with one set of adults.”

The commander looked at it, almost sadly. “Yes, I realize the sacrifice they will be making. We are all
being called to make sacrifices for this noble cause.   I am sure that you understand the exigencies of
housing that have caused the need for this? The sheer numbers that we need to take with us; and our
need for them to be adequately trained in skills that are almost forgotten?”

The problem with these conversations, the bureaucrat decided as it walked back to its office, was that
there were things that everyone was supposed to understand without saying it. How could they allow
these people to spend night and day together without promoting exclusivism? But since the people
themselves were being ‘forced’ into it as a ‘sacrifice’ instead of promoting it themselves, well, it couldn’t
accuse the government of promoting exclusivism!
Distopia Chapter 009: With much fanfare

The fleet, with much fanfare, began its voyage. It was organized into three parts.  The  first was the
scout ships, which moved ahead of the main body, silent and stealthy, seeking any trace of the rebels
fleet.  Following them came the main body of warships, large ships staffed with high quality crew…
higher quality than any crew yet seen on Republic ships; since in large part the political climbers had
been left behind. Indeed, once the handwriting had been clear enough on the wall, and enough subtle
hints broadcast, every sailor that was in any political trouble at all… or had an idea that they might be
one day, had signed up for the fleet.

It had become known, subtly but clearly, that the fleet would not be returning.  That the fleet life would
become the entirety of life for those going along. And fleet life, actually on the fleet, had always been
different from ‘home’ life.  The sailors on the fleet had always been given more latitude then ‘ordinary’
citizens. Their ‘sacrifice’ had always been seen as giving them a certain immunity.

And the composition of the  political side of the fleet was also becoming known. While the fleet would,
of course, have a political component (no part of their society could possibly exist without political
handlers, watching over everyone to be sure that they behaved in ways that their society mandated) the
political handlers on this fleet were seen as being ‘different’.  All of the best-connected and most
powerful political handlers had had the pull to get themselves out of this fleet.

So those that were left… were different.  They were those who, for example, often committed the ‘error’
of becoming too close, emotionally, to those that they ‘guided’. Of seeing them so much as ‘people’ that
they failed to recognize them as ‘citizens’; failed to correct and guide them when they erred into
exclusivism, theism, paternalism… or any other ‘ism’ that was not allowed.

So those who practiced one of these ‘isms’ could, in the secondary fleet but also in the navy, join the
fleet, and have the feeling that the control would be lessened.

This competition for slots by citizens not interested in political power or advancement, combined with
the pressure from the Fleet Commander, meant that the recruiters were able to pick, for each slot, only
those persons who were the most competent.

In the middle of this fleet, protected by it, was the ‘colonizing fleet’, or, as it was officially known, the
‘secondary’ fleet’.  Due to the rules established by the committee, and enforced in a way no-one had
imagined, this fleet was staffed almost entirely by the ‘lower classes’.  Packed in along with their
supplies, they had almost no spare room.  Each ship had a minimum of crew, and a maximum  of
passengers.

In another way they had a maximum of passengers. <awkward. Due to another otherwise impossible
application of the rules, the list of ‘colonists’ included, as one of the guidelines, a maximum number of
offspring.  No one had put it that way, of course. Instead they had spoken of ‘maximum utilization
without overcrowding’ and ‘re-governing population potential’; euphemisms for ‘lots of kids’. And due
to another set of ‘euphemisms’  most of the women had arrived at and delivered their children by
methods that used to be called ‘natural’ and were now referred to by a variety of pejorative words.

The first few lanes out from the planet were well known, and the fleet traversed them cautiously but
relatively quickly. Indeed, the first couple of them included some small mining colonies.  The fleet had
already sent out scouts and minor warships. The colonies had been stripped of personnel and
equipment, but were otherwise untouched.

It was five lanes in, single lanes so far, that they came to the first real junction of interest. A dead solar
system, but the mathematics showed that there were five lanes leading out from it. It was a known
problem, and the fleet already had a solution.  Squadrons of warships and scouts moved forward.

“Fleet Commander!”

Nestin stared at the young sperm donor standing in front of it, ramrod straight. Obviously one of the
new recruits, one of the ‘naïve’ contingent… one of those who believed all of the nonsense the vision
screens spouted. The regular crew had used them to fill in a variety of ‘hey you’ positions… including this
one of delivering a report that could have been delivered just as easily by vision screen.

“What is it sailor?”

“Commander, the scouts report that the lane is clear.”

“Very good. And what do they say of the planet…”

Distopia Chapter 010: Plan B

“So there is no way for us to root them out?”

Nestin stared at Serano, the bureaucrat that had been its  political ‘adjutant’ for the last few years.  It
didn’t trust it. You couldn’t, by definition, trust politicals.  But it  at least understood it to some
extent.  High level politicals needed to be different than their lower level counterparts.  Society must
function, and in order to function it must have functioning authorities.

So while those authorities had politicals, and in the highest cases had their own individual politicals,
these politicals exercised their control in a much looser manner than their counterparts. So the two
almost managed to be friends.

“No.  They obviously knew that this might be one of our first stops, and they decided not to try to
defend it. So instead they buried their colonists deep, and separated them well. I imagine they supplied
them well. So we could spend years here trying to find them all and dig them out.”

“Or we could…” Serano answered.

“… we could proceed with ‘Plan B’; the plan that we all knew we were going to have to use.”

“Do you have the first colonists picked out?”

“Yes. We are going to send some from each ship. Those with the oldest offspring.”

“All according to plan.”

“Yes.  By always choosing those with oldest offspring we increase the viability of the colony; by choosing
some from each ship we increase the room for the remaining. And hopefully we can use some of that
room for proper socialization.”

Nestin said nothing, and Serano went back to its office.

--

Jarl stood outside their ‘cabin’, holding Eorle by the waist. “I don’t think they can hear us now.”

“First time in our life.”

“Are you happy we made the move?”

“Happy like I have never been. But how about you? Are you OK?  I never really did enjoy spending time
with anyone else, but I know that once a month you liked to…”

“I did it. But I never felt good about it.  I didn’t like leaving you.”

Two of the offspring came running out of the cabin, the older sperm donor chasing the younger egg
donor… grins on both their faces as they raced down the path in the plowed fields.

“Do you wonder what they will be like as adults? We live so far away from any others, how will they be
properly socialized?” Jarl said, as the two of them watched the offspring.

“Do we want them to be properly socialized?  Would that even work here?” Eorle asked.

Jarl turned to it. “What do you mean? How would they, I mean…” its voice trailed off.

“That’s one thing they never taught us in all of those ‘natural living’ courses we took on the trip.”

“Well, perhaps six months wasn’t long enough to get to that part of the course.” Jarl grinned.

“We have a lot to work out, here.  They will have to live with all of our mistakes. We don’t know what
we are doing out here.”

Jarl turned to it. “We’ll do it. We’ll figure it out.  People have been around for a lot of years, some in
worse conditions than this.  They’ve all managed.”

“Worse conditions than this? I can’t imagine better conditions than this.  Alone, with you and the
offspring.”
Distopia Chapter 011: A new plan

Serano called the Fleet Commander into its office.  This was never a good sign, but the Commander had
been expecting this call for a long time. Outside of their specialty politicals were ignorant; it was one of
the primary job requirements; but their ignorance did have its limits.

“Fleet Commander, I am very disturbed about certain aspects of the plan.  I realize that all of this was
approved, at least, piece by piece, but I am not sure that anyone every really looked at it in its entirety.”

“Do you realize that we have just left 5000 colonists on a planet without effective governance?”

“I understood that your people put together a plan for proper governance.”

“Yes, but what good is it? It presupposes population centers. And yet the plan doesn’t call for any
population centers for three generations. How is the plan supposed to work three generations from
now?”

“Didn’t your people plan for that? Didn’t they put a system in place for that?”

“Yes. A system that is completely untried.  A few politicals scattered around with extra
supplies.  Expected to visit dozens of different housings each month. And…”

“Yes?”

Serano lowered its voice. It was comical, the chief political for an entire fleet lowering its voice, but it
obviously couldn’t conceive of having this conversation in a normal tone. “How can they possibly work
under those conditions? Why, each of the housings we placed are miles apart, they have no
transportation, and we have placed… we placed one egg donor and one sperm donor in each of those
housings! How are they supposed to combat exclusivism when we have practically forced them into it!”

“This was all part of the political wings responsibility. All of those things were factored into your plan,
no?”

“Well, yes. And no.  Each part of the plan looked Ok on paper.” Serano got up and paced the room. It
knew the plan was wrong… but it was a plan that it and all of the other signed off on; all of the political
leaders from the political wing.

“Look, you tell me what you think will happen to that colony.  Do you think, when we return in ten years
that they will be there, all nice and properly governed, ready to join the Republic?”
Nestin had been preparing for six month to have this conversation.  It had its operatives all prepared in
case things went south. And it had its subordinates listening in on this conversation .

“I will tell you what I think. I have gone over the information that the rebels left behind. At the very
minimum I calculate that the rebels will be able to colonize over 300 planets. Now this planet cost us six
months to plan and colonize. And it was the easiest one… we knew where it was, we had a plan all
prepared.”

“Now, I know that you did your basic math.  A minimum of 300 planets, a minimum of six months each…
how long does that make?”

Serano sat down… “One hundred and fifty years!”

“That’s right. And that is the minimum.”

“But the plan called for ten years! We can’t stay out here for one hundred and fifty years!”

“You would prefer to go back and announce that we failed?”

It was hard to get a true political to act human, but Serano was practically crying. “What do we do
now?”

Nestin looked at it. It had a shapely body, and one that it had sampled before… always in the name of
‘socialization’, of course.

“Well.  If you are willing to talk ‘off the record’ for a minute’…”

Serano looked startled, “I can’t guarantee that,  you know that for the good of the Republic all
conversations are recorded.”

“Almost all conversations.” Nestin said, and looked at Serano.

“This seems like an odd time.” It replied.

“A odd time for proper socialization?” Nestin replied.

Serano reached over and pushed the button on the wall that indicated that it was ‘spending time’ with
someone. As it began to remove its clothing it said, ‘You know, I can’t guarantee…”

“I can,” Nestin replied.

“What?”

Nestin motioned it over onto the bed. “I have had this room, and my room, and several other rooms,
rewired.  My people are in control of the fleet now.”

“You have two choices.  If you wish to play the noble martyr, we can arrange a horrible accident for you,
or just round all of you up and lock you in some spare housing.”
Serano stared at it. Never in all its life had it felt such overwhelming loss of control.  “And my second
choice?”

“We are going to be spending the rest of our lives on this fleet.  Except for those who will be leaving
onto planets. We have hundreds of planets to colonize, and will need thousands more colonists.”

“We are going to need thousands of offspring, and we didn’t bring any of the normal ways of having
them.  So we are going to encourage each egg donor to join in housing with one sperm donor. The
medics will then see to it that… we have more offspring. I was thinking it would make sense for you to
move into my housing with me.”

Serano looked the sperm donor. Its whole life was suddenly turned upside down. It had joined the
political wing in order to gain power. And now everything that it had known, and all of its sources of
power, were turned upside down in a single instant.

But while it may be ignorant of many things, it had a good sense for sources of power. And under this
new system it seemed like the power would reside with…

“That sounds, sounds like it would definitely advance the goals of the Republic.” It replied.
Distopia Chapter 012: Three years they waited

Three years they waited. Three years while their culture shifted, cut off from the politicals.  Three years
while they tried to figure out how to behave with their new freedom; tried to figure out what they
actually *wanted* to do instead of what they were *supposed* to do.

Their scout ships, shut down to practically no emissions, had watched the emergence and disappearance
of the fleet, had seen them contact the mining colonies, and move on. They had sent messages off to
the hidden fleet.

It was not the rebels entire fleet by any means. That was out planting and guarding new colonies.  Just a
few scout ships and warships. Intended for just this task…

“Commander, the squadron is moving forward, as ordered.”

During the three years they had not been idle.  The scout ships had recorded, and the others had
analyzed, every coming and going of the various transports. Few indeed went on past this mining
colony; and those that did seemed obviously bound for the mines at the next solar system.  Few if any
ships seemed willing to chase the fleet they had sent.

Their analysis had revealed a pattern in the movements of the transports. After the first few months
they had settled down into a routine. A routine that the fleet commander was now prepared to exploit…

The commander watched on his screen. Not any direct sensory impressions from his ship, the others
were far too far away for passive sensors, and it would never  have allowed active sensors to be used.
His display came from a broadcast from one of the scouts that accompanied the warships, their passive
sensors easily picking up the unstealthed transport, and showing their compatriots location due to their
tightly beamed beacons. The beacons also allowed the commander to view the cameras on the various
ships bridges.

They had practiced this maneuver for months. Only if the first transport was taken by surprise, and
prevented from sending out a coherent signal, would there be the possibility of capturing more, and of
taking mining colony without casualties.  The ships glided forward, using every possible trick of stealth
against an unwary transport… a transport whose sensors must have been minimal anyway.

The transport continued blindly down its lane, following the route and the routine it had followed for
months now. For all the warships knew, it was on autopilot, the crew off enjoying what little
amusements such a life held.  They continued their maneuver with all the precision and care as if they
stalked a scoutship of the Republic with all of its formidable sensors and an alert crew.
After what seemed like an eternity to all concerned, the six warships, surrounded by a dozen scouts,
surrounded the transport.  Silent and stealthed beams flew between ships, confirming the timing and at
the same moment as the scouts activated powerful jammers the warships fired.

The jammers reached out into space, attempting to keep any signal from the transport from reaching
back to the colony.  The beams from the warships were designed to keep any signal from even being
sent.

And they did their job. The powerful pulses hit the ship from all sides, burning out all of the sensors, and
reached through the various antennas to destroy any signaling capacity.  A hardened warship would
have had backup capacity. But this junky transport barely had the capacity to transmit at all, let alone
hardened backups.

As soon as the beams had been sent, shuttles filled with Marines had flown away from the
warships.  Fully armed, they nevertheless had orders to use every means possible to avoid loss of life.

And in the end, it was easy. The transport only had a crew of four, and they had all rushed to the bridge
when the alarm had gone off. Used to equipment malfunctions, they were puzzling over what
malfunction possibly could have contrived to knock out all of their sensors *and* broadcast capacity at
the same time, when they had heard several loud banging’s, clanging’s, and ripping’s from elsewhere in
the ship.

Still convinced of a malfunction, and now of a drastic malfunction, they had been bent over their
readouts when a voice from the open doorway behind them had revealed their mistake.

“If you wouldn’t mind putting your hands over your heads.”

They had turned, and there, framed in and practically filling the doorway was an armored and suited
figure, casually pointing a large weapon of unknown type in their direction.  Utterly confused they had
obeyed; turning and having their hands and feet bound as well.  Then a cloth had been put over their
heads and tied down.

“Commander, the captives are here. As directed, no one had talked with them since their capture, and
they were bound, blindfolded and separated. If you wish to view, the interrogations are on-line now.”

The commander did indeed wish to view, and set its vision screen to the indicated channel. It was aware
that dozens of others, on all the ships, would also be viewing.

The captive, a middle aged sperm donor, sat in a chair. It was scantily dressed, having obviously been
caught in bed when the alarm sounded.  It still had the bag on its head.  Behind the captive, who was
bound to a chair, stood two guards… guards dressed in the uniform of the Republic… at least the
uniform that had been used when the rebels had fled. They could only hope that the uniform was still in
use. <it or she?>
The commander had obviously been informed of the event in time to miss none of it, for it was fully two
minutes after it tuned in that the door opened and an egg donor walked in. Dressed, not as a guard, but
as a high ranking political. And wearing a face that matched the uniform; as indeed it should, as before
the rebellion it had been a high ranking  political; one of the rebellions most successful plants high in the
Republic ranks.

The egg donor, staying in character, nodded coldly at the guards, and one of them lifted  the bag off the
prisoner’s head. At the sight that awaited it, all color left its face, and it seemed to sag in its chair.  One
advantage of the life of a transport crew was that they tended to avoid the notice of the politicals. As
long as the transport arrived at the proper point with the proper cargo at the proper time, little notice
was taken of the behavior of the crew; who, in any case, tended to stay on their ship.

However the sperm donor recognized its position. It had no idea of what crime, real or imagined, it
could be accused of. But to be interrogated by a high ranking political meant almost sure conviction.

“Citizen,” the egg donor began, “I have information that I require, for the good of the Republic. You will
answer all of my questions as accurately and fully as possible.”

Almost the sperm donor began to hope. Perhaps it was just caught at the edge of some greater crime,
perhaps some high level power had been shipping goods where they should not have gone. Perhaps…
perhaps… information was all that would be required of it.   There was almost no chance of its ever
being released, ever going back to it life and its friends; but some hope was better than no hope, and it
prepared to do its level best to answer whatever questions it was asked. It knew that if it itself was
concerned in the crime, that it was as good as convicted already. Its only hope was to be an excellent
witness to someone else’s crime.

As the questions came it was puzzled. The questions seemed remarkably general, including events over
the last few years, events anyone could have seen on any vision screen. But its puzzlement was a minor
emotion compared to its relief.  No matter how many questions they asked, nothing seemed designed to
implicate itself.  Indeed, almost no questions concerned itself, or even any of those which it might have
been reluctant to implicate.

Days went by. Its bonds were removed, food was provided. It was forced to sleep on the floor. The
various political interrogators came by at odd times. It was subjected to an entire array of medical tests.
Distopia Chapter 013: We have a favor to ask

“Commander. I believe that we have extracted all of the information that we can from phase one. It is
time to move to phase two.”

“Very well. I have been pleased at the reports reaching my desk, even if the end result is somewhat
confusing. It will be interesting to hear what will come from the next phase.”

 --

“Citizen.” The political sat across the table from the prisoner. “My superiors are very pleased with your
cooperation and loyalty.  Our investigation goes well.”

“We have not been pleased that our efforts so far have had to deprive you from  proper housing and
socialization, but it has been necessary.”

The prisoner sat looking at the political, the same egg donor that had first interrogated it, with what it
hoped was the properly deferent look on its face.  It couldn’t care less about housing and socialization. It
was just happy that it had not, so far, been accused of any crime.

“That phase of our work is over. The next phase might take quite some time, and it has been decided
that it can be effective  with proper housing and socialization.” It nodded to the  guard standing behind
the prisoner, and the bag was again placed on its head, and its hands tied behind its back.  Thus bound,
it was taken out and led down a hall to a room.

The group entered the room, and waited. Soon another, similar group came from a different direction,
leading an egg donor.  When both groups were in the room, the guards unbound the prisoners, and the
first political spoke. “These are your new quarters.  Your next interrogation sessions will be tomorrow at
0900.  We expect your behavior to reflect proper socialization from now on.”

With that the guards and the politicals left the room, leaving the prisoners alone.

--

“So they were closet exclusivists?”

“All the evidence points that way.” The egg donor acting the role of ‘political’ paused in the act of pulling
off its hated clothing.  “The scientists checked the housing on the transport and it was obvious that
practically all of their  sexual activity was with one partner.”
“The partner we have now placed them with.”

“And the partner that we have practically ordered them to copulate with.”

“And so as the days turn into weeks and no other partner is provided…”

“They will be much easier to persuade of our bona fides, and much more likely to give us information we
need for the next phases of the plan. They, or their compatriots.”

For three transports in total had been taken so far.  Odds were that the next transport would not come,
as the powers must have noticed that the others had not returned. The plan now gave them a month to
convince this crew to help them with the next step.

--

The sperm donor prisoner, whose name was Akasimi, had not been worried about housing or
socialization. But that didn’t mean that it wasn’t enjoying this time.  For three weeks now it had been in
the same housing, with the same partner.  Surely even the politicals couldn’t accuse it of ‘exclusivism’
when they only provided it with one partner. And by sheer chance to have provided him with Hosanu…

“Enjoying yourself?” It asked

Akasami looked at its partner, and ran its hand down its face.  ‘I always enjoy being with you.’ It
answered, honestly.  It was nice when one could answer honestly in spite of the recorders.

Suddenly they heard footsteps in the cooridor. They sat up at the table where they had been sitting. The
door opened.

Standing there in the doorway was the egg donor that they had seen so often,  particuarly Akasami. But
it was dressed entirely differently than it had been. Instead of wearing the  uniform of a political, it was
dressed… Akasami had never seen anyone dressed like that before. Instead of pants it wore a wide piece
of cloth around its lower portion.

And it was standing with a sperm donor, who was dressed in a fleet uniform, or something almost a fleet
uniform.  There were very different insignia on the sleeves, shoulders, and chest. And the two were
holding hands… an act that, outside of offspring, was tacitly forbidden.

“Greetings.” The sperm donor said, looking directly at Akasami. “I hope you have enjoyed  your new
housing, and your partner.”

“I, we, are grateful.” Akasami managed, in shock.

“Good. I am afraid we have a  bit of a confession to make, a bit of good news (at least we hope you will
look on it as good news), and a favor to ask.”

Akasami stared at the speaker, who continued, “Oh, my name is John, and this is my life-partner Mary.”
At their expressions, John continued ‘Probably names you have not heard before. But let me continue.”

John and Mary sat down at the head of the table, John having closed the door.

“First the confession.  My life-partner, Mary, is not what it has been pretending to be. It is not a political.
In fact you are not, as we have led you to suppose, captives of the political wing of the Republic. In fact,
you are not captives of the Republic at all. You are on a ship of the rebellion.”

It paused to let them digest this, then continued. “That is both our confession and, I hope, good
news.  You are accused of no crime, and will be freed soon.  Freed, with certain conditions.”

“However in the meantime, we have a favor to ask of you…”

Distopia Chapter 014: Like clockwork

“Station X95C this is Freighter 112A, requesting docking clearance.”

“Freighter 112A, you are cleared to dock at Dockpoint One.”

Having finished the formalities for the record, the Station operator relaxed, “Akasami? How was your
trip?”

“Same old stars, same old stuff, Greschkin.”

“Well, in your business like in ours, no news is good news, eh?  How is Hosanu?”

“I will let it tell you itself.” Akasami said, a teasing response indicating that Hosanu had news that would
be of interest, and even implying what that news was. And hopefully insuring…

--

Akasimi, Hosanu, and their two partners sat on the bridge. They had all willingly agreed to the proposal,
especially once they had been given a tour of the Rebel ship.  They watched the screen and hoped that
Akasimis gambit had worked.

--

Greshkin stood with the others at the opening to the airlock.  The entire mining colony staff consisted of
only 20 adults and their offspring, and the arrival of a freighter was about the most interesting event in
their lives. And Akasami’s comment had led them to believe that Hosanu was pregnant. They all knew
what a risk that would be for it, politically, and wanted to lend their support.  They stood and waited for
the seemingly interminable process of the airlock door opening.

There were three soldiers, and they were the best. They had trained months for this one, trivial,
operation.  They had competed and won against all of their peers.  They were fully armored with the
best their fleet could provide, although armed only with non-lethal arms.  Their fellows on board ship,
who could emerge within seconds, had more conventional weapons. Months of training, and seconds of
action.

From the airlock a specially designed light burst forth, as soon as its sensors registered that the lock was
open enough for the beam to reach every individual in the room beyond.  The beam, consisting of a
single wavelength of light, was designed to cause pain, pain enough to force the individuals to all close
their eyes and leave them closed for the crucial initial seconds.
The first soldier, having gotten a snapshot view through the opening airlock, a special camera having
been installed for the purpose, leapt through the airlock as soon as it was open, long before anyone had
their eyes open, and even before most were aware that they had closed them. It raced across the room,
dancing between people and even leaping over one or two offspring, and went through the far door.  It
then punched the ‘emergency close’ button.

While the alarm rang throughout the colony, the second of three soldiers followed his compatriot across
the compartment. In its hands it held an acoustic cover… designed to cover the compartments
microphone, and a different cover intended to cover the camera.  At the burst of light the camera would
have automatically shut down, and there was a continual play of light over its lens, keeping it from
recovering.

In all the entire operation had taken four seconds.  The door closed, the microphone covered, the
camera covered, and the soldier inside racing toward the bridge.  Four seconds after which came three
significant messages.

The first was from the computer monitoring the operation. It had been told, and had described to it, the
crew of the colony. It looked, it judged, and, once it was allowed (no message being allowed during the
first crucial seconds except from the live crew or representing an emergency) it reported: “All Crew
present.”

The second message was from the third soldier, who had stood in the doorway monitoring its
prisoners… prisoners who were still screaming about their eyes and rubbing them, none of whom had
yet even begun to analyze what had happened. It too had had the crew described to it, and had spend
long hours in simulation practicing finding and counting each of them. It confirmed, “All Crew present.”

Meanwhile, on the bridge, the four crew of the transport, who had been told that, while they had
volunteered for this mission, any treason on their part would be punished by death, performed their
own, slower, count. A count of individuals they knew well, and confirmed as well, “All crew present.”

The crew racing to the bridge heard and acknowledged this information, but, as all had agreed, it made
no difference to its job.  Through some bizarre twist of fate, all the counts could be wrong, or some
earlier transport could have left someone new. It continued its headlong flight to the bridge.

Once there it first sealed the door behind it.  Then it began its other work.

Long seconds passed. Seconds in which each adult, and then each child, was gagged, blindfolded and
bound… often before they even knew anything untoward other than that blinding flash of light had
occurred.  They were each searched, but no weapons were found.  Long seconds until, finally, the soldier
on the bridge reported, “No crew found in any compartment.  Records reveal no other crew than those
known.”

Even then the plan continued to the next stage. The door was re-opened and several soldiers filed
through to search everywhere.  The prisoners lay on the floor, bound.  Minutes passed, until, finally.
“Squad reports station unoccupied.”
At this report, the soldiers began moving among the prisoners.  Having memorized their faces, and their
offspring, the soldiers moved each egg donor and their offspring to a spot on a wall.  Then they un-tied
the egg donor, and told it that it might untie its offspring, but to keep them quiet and calm, and for none
of them to move.

These preliminaries done, the soldiers went back and, after re-searching them, took the blindfolds off
the sperm donors, sitting them up on their knees.  When all was ready, Akasami and the others came
down into the room.  Many were the panicked looks that came their way.

“Peace.” Akasami said. “It has been a hard time, but that is almost over.  I have something to tell you,
something which I think you will appreciate, and then we can start getting our lives back together.”

“You, we, are prisoners of the rebellion. They left a portion of their fleet here, and for the last few years
they have been observing us… your colony reformed, our transports coming and going.”

“But, for prisoners, we have some really good options open to us.  They are going to ask you to train in
some replacements here, and then you will go live with the fleet.  We don’t know much about life on the
fleet, but what we have heard we think you will like.”

In another audience this statement might have led to loud protests. In previous generations its audience
might have objected to just being told what to do. But having lived in a totalitarian society for all their
lives, this objection didn’t even occur to them.  But many other groups in their own society might have
loudly objected to the idea of ‘liking’ to live with the rebels.

But people who worked in mining colonies were far from the standard, indoctrinated masses.  Everyone
understood that in order for the society to work, some forms of work must be done in situations that
were not ‘normal’. And in those non-normal settings, non-normal people worked. And often these non-
normal people were those whose ‘habits’ went against those of their ‘normal’ counterparts.  Since these
knew that Akasami shared some of those habits, they took its assurances calmly, and even with hope.

And over the next few weeks the inhabitants of the colony found out more and more the truth of
Akasamis statement. But it didn’t take that long for them to find out that his careful implication in his
radio broadcast was actually true.

“Hosanu, you *are* pregnant?”

The egg donors had gathered (in a gathering that would have been very politically incorrect on their
home world) together for a social time together. Sineskin and Hosanu had been talking and something
Hosanu had said, and the way it had placed a hand on its stomach…

“Yes. Yes, I am. And what is more… our captors are excited.  Apparently they don’t, that is, all of them…”
It broke off.  Long years of hedging about this subject, combined with a lack of vocabulary, made it
difficult for it to say what it meant.  She tried again.
“All of them have their offspring as a direct result of spending time together.  Because they do so
exclusively, both the egg donor and the sperm donor for the offspring are known without tests. Thus the
offspring that emerges, which they have almost always naturally, is registered under the care of both.”

“What is more, they have names for, for some of these things.  An egg donor and a sperm donor, joined
in  an exclusive relationship; along with any of their registered offspring, they call ‘a family’ [i]. It is a
recognized unit in their culture.  The sperm donor offspring they call ‘sons’[ii]; and the egg donors they
call ‘daughters’[iii].”

Her listeners, at least those that hadn’t heard this already, sat in shock.

“But, how did you manage?”

This question came from Jiltaru, the other egg donor captured with Hosanu.  They had been kept
separately until just before the capture of the station, and Hosanu hadn’t had time to tell it about its
upcoming pregnancy.

“You don’t have to ‘manage’ anymore.”

The others thought about this, but didn’t understand. They just stared at it.

“Do you know why it is that we *can’t* normally get pregnant?”

The others looked at it. It had brought up a forbidden subject, at least forbidden in their old society.
Jiltaru, who was beginning to get used to the new freedom from forbidden subjects, recovered first and
responded, “It has always been said that there was something in the water…”

Indeed, this idea was the basis for most of the ‘natural’ pregnancies that existed; as opposed to the
artificial, test tube and artificial womb ‘pregnancies’. An egg donor would arrange to drink something
other than tap water. Various expedients were tried, some of which worked, others were less
successful. A successful pregnancy was always seen, back in the Republic, as an ‘accident’, a failure of
the societies precautions.

“Yes. And the water here does not include it. The water here is clean.”

Jiltaru gasped, realizing the implications of what Hosanu had just said. Hosanu looked at it and grinned.
Distopia Chapter 015: What is your status

Akasami clapped its friend on the shoulder, “Now that you’ve gotten what you’ve always wanted, you’re
afraid of it, eh?”

Greshkin grinned back at him, wryly.  It had deliberately gotten itself assigned to the remote mining
colony, along with Kriska, in order to have a clandestine exclusive relationship.  However even on the
mining ship it had had to pretend non-exclusivisity, visiting the other egg donors occasionally.

And now it didn’t have to. It could, if it wished, ‘spend time’ exclusively and uniquely with Kriska. And it
had just expressed some apprehension at the idea.

“Seriously though, do you know why the Rebellion wanted to capture us?”

Akasami answered, “Yes. A couple of reasons, actually. The first is to test the resolve of the Republic in
regards to this colony. Are they bold enough and dedicated enough to come and take it back?”

“Secondly, they wish to cut off the fleet and any planets they have colonized from any sources of control
or communication.  That was why this fleet was left here. They gambled that the Republic would not
string out its defenses all the way out here.”

“The third reason is perhaps the more natural. They can use, for their fleet, what is produced here.”

--

The scouts reported the fleet coming through. The mining colony was warned, and immediately
evacuated as per plan. Hopefully that would be a useless precaution.

“Seven scouts, three destroyers, and one Cheffey class Carrier.”

A far too small fleet for any serious attempt to reconquer, but the carrier was annoying. It meant that
they would attempt a bluff, and if that failed, would have to destroy the fleet. So the bluff would have to
be good.

“Station X95C this is Republic destroyer 98YZ, please respond.”

The radio relay, one of several deliberately placed upon possible lines of advance for the fleet, was
precisely placed so that Greshkin, although well out of the way of the fleet in a small, stealthy scout
ship, could answer in an appropriate time.

“Go ahead 98YZ, this is Station X95C.”

As the incoming ships were still almost a light hour from the station, Greshkin had plenty of time
between responses. At the same time that meant that this would be a long and boring exchange.

“Stand by X95C for Admiral VanDroit.”

A short pause and then.

“X95C, this is Admiral VanDroit. What is your status there? We have received no outgoing ships from
your sector. Three separate freighters have failed to return on schedule. Did they arrive at  your
station?”

The first part of this message, ‘What is your status’ was a code phrase that demanded a certain
response. One facet of the attack on the station was to ensure that the code responses could be
downloaded from the computer and not erased. So Greshkin began his message with the code that
meant ‘All is not well here, but we are in control of the station.”

“The sky is green Admiral.  We have stopped receiving freighters, none have come for the last four
months.  All freighters before that left here fully loaded and on-time. We heard no distress calls or other
problems.”

There. That was the message that they had agreed to. The computer had overlayed the message with an
entire series of security codes in response to the ones that had been in the Admirals message, verifying
that it was indeed speaking to the station and that Greshkin himself was logged on. All faked of course.

They hoped that by acknowledging that something was indeed wrong, but by not giving any particular
details that they didn’t already know. And indeed, the plan called for them to be very nervous. Now if
they were just as incompetent as they hoped they were nervous.

The fleet moved forward slowly and cautiously. They were moving into unfamiliar territory. Few of them
had been in the ‘old’ fleet (which had undergone a massive purge) and had no idea of what had
happened in this system.

And the rebels didn’t make their job easier. They had planted, at random locations in front of the fleet,
small, remote controlled units. On command they had these blow up, producing a burst of sensor noise,
and then no discernable trace.

Each of these explosions put the entire fleet on alert, of course.  So as the days crept by and the fleet
crept forward everyone on it, from the Admiral to the lowest sailor, was kept at a state of tension, and
exhaustion.

Meanwhile, unseen behind them, the rebel fleet crept into position between the republic fleet and the
star lane. Slowly, cautiously, and at maximum stealth.  Easily twice the size of the Republic fleet, it
needed to watch the lane behind it in case reinforcements suddenly started to appear.

Finally, when the rebel fleet was in place, and the bomblets had completed several days of almost
continuous work, the final stage of the plan was implemented.
“Admiral, admiral!” The sailor burst into the admirals room where it was slowly putting on its uniform in
response to yet another red alert. The first in an hour this time.

“Admiral, there is a fleet. A rebel fleet! Hundreds of ships! And we are surrounded!!”

Now the admiral moved. Moved with a speed reminiscent of the first few days of their advance. Soon it
was on the bridge, and staring at the screen itself.

Surrounded was perhaps too strong a word. But there, spread out in front of them, were the signals
from hundreds of ships. And, in position behind them, blocking their way back to the star lane, was
another fleet, perhaps 5 times their size.

Before it truly had a chance to take it all in, the message arrived,

“Admiral VanDroit. This is Admiral Fineshin of the rebel fleet. So good of you to join us. We have been
waiting quite a while for you all to send a follow up fleet.”

“You have two choices. We can destroy you as you stand, or you can surrender your command.
Instructions for the surrender will be issued immediately following my message. If your surrender
message is not speeding in my direction within 10 minutes after you receive this message, or if your
ships do not immediately begin to comply with the surrender instructions, your fleet will be destroyed
out of hand.”

The Admiral looked around in panic. Surrender the fleet? How could he? And yet, it couldn’t fight this!
Look at all those ships.

The message from the rebel admiral had been replaced by a list of instructions, giving each ships name
and how they were to comply with the surrender instructions. A minute into those instructions, there
was a pause and the Rebel Admirals voice came again,

“You now have nine minutes to announce that you are surrendering.”

Then the instructions resumed.

The Admiral looked at its political handler, who had a panicked look on its face. It began speaking in a
panicked voice, practically squeaking, “We cannot surrender the fleet! High command would never
approve! We must die to the last citizen rather than let these rebels and their perversions capture any of
us! Death is preferable…”

At these words the executive officer, who was wearing his side arm as part of the standard dress for a
red alert (in case any crewman might panic and attempt to abandon his post) drew it and fired, tearing a
large hole in the back of the ranting political officer.

“Well, if it prefers death, it has it.” it looked at the Admiral, “Will you announce the surrender, or should
I?” it asked, holding the sidearm in a neutral position between pointing it at the ground and pointing it
at the Admiral.
Distopia Chapter 016: Johusas need

It was always a mistake to linger over breakfast, and today proved no exception. Johusa was still working
on his second (or was it his third?) helping when the last of his brothers left the table to go to the barn.
As soon as he was out the door…

“I think Johusa needs a girl in his bed.” Receba, his youngest sister in law said.

Johusa put his head down, and concentrated on his eating. Not that it helped.

“It’s all very nice, dear,” His mother put in, “ to speak of his getting a girl. But where is he to get one?
You know there is no one in our clan of age. It will probably be three years before a girl who is not of our
blood comes of age.”

“Well, he can’t just wait around,” His oldest sister-in-law, Srah, put in. “He should go walk about to
another clan.”

“That would be a long walk.” Receba put in. “Do you think he’s got the will?”

Johusa had now finished, and practically fled from the room.

Everyone had always thought that the meeting would come about by accident.  The mountain dwellers,
descendents of the rebel colonists, had watched the colony of the Republic fleet as it moved across the
plain; as generation after generation over the last 45 years, came closer and closer to the mountains.  It
was known that plains dwellers, like the mountain dwellers, hunted in these hills.

So everyone thought that one day one of the mountain dwellers would run into one of the plain
dwellers while hunting. No one feared them anymore. Enough had been done in plain view to convince
the mountain dwellers that not only were the plains dwellers radically divorced  from their original
culture, but they had no particular advanced technologies that they used in their farming outside of a
few simple power plows, thus they probably had no great technology for somehow, finally, seizing
control of the mountain peoples.

But, in the end, it was not an accident.  Johusa was a sperm donor, and he[i] was getting older. And
there were no  available egg donors, at least of a proper age and not already in life-partnership,
anywhere in his area.  Five hundred people in their clan, and not a single egg donor (not limited by ties
of blood) within five years of his age. And as in his culture this was his problem to solve while the others
in his family expressed sympathy, and gave options, and had discussions (as they had this morning) in
the end they had left the decision of what to do up to him.
And he had come up with a solution that none of them had considered, a solution he was now
implementing.  He had crept down to the forests edge several times, and had identified his targets.  And
now he lay in wait for them.

He had planned well, and the three sperm donors came up the trail right where he had thought they
would, and the trail turned just in front of him.  He watched them come. They certainly were dressed
differently than he was. They had short sleeved shirts, and wore nothing over their legs except a short
piece of cloth wrapped around their waist.

And the cloth that they wore seemed so light and flimsy, as if it would rip at the slightest catch of a
branch. And cold.  Although perhaps not cold now, at the height of summer and the middle of the day…
well, the middle of the morning anyway.

He waited on the ledge, behind the bush, until the boys turned the corner in front of him. Then he stood
up quietly and said,

“Hello.”

There must have been something in his voice to alert them that the person addressing them was *not*
someone they knew. Or perhaps he hadn’t kept his voice as steady and calm as he had intended, and
they had caught some of his tension. Regardless, they whirled to face him.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

The boys stared at him and didn’t say anything.

“Can we talk?”

Finally the oldest boy spoke back, “You, you are… of the mountains!”

His accent was not different enough that Johusa couldn’t understand him, but it definitely marked him
as a stranger.

“Yes. And you are of the plain. Can we talk?”

The youngest boy, who didn’t seem to be all that impressed with the whole ‘mountain vs plain’ thing,
commented, ‘We are talking. At least you and Festin are. What’s your name?”

Johusa decided he liked this young boy, “My name is Johusa. Whats yours?”

“I’m Aflin.  This is Festin and Cardin, Festins oldest of us all in our house, and Cardin, it is older than me,
but younger than two of the egg donors. Festin already has married.”

Johusa was a little confused about some of what that meant, but he understood vaguely that the boy
was telling about the boys and girls living under his father. So he decided to return the favor:
“My father had three boys, and no girls.   The two boys older than me have each taken a girl to their
bed.”

He could tell from the boys look that his speech had been as confusing as Festins was to him.  As the
subject was very important to him, he said, “I guess that didn’t make much sense to you. Our language
has changed since the rebellion.  Did you understand anything that I said?”

Festin responded, “Not much.  What is a ‘father’?”

“A father is a boy, who takes a girl to his bed, and they then have boys or girls.”

“That didn’t help much. What is a boy?”

“You are a boy, Alfin and Cardin are boys, I am a boy. A boy has…” he pointed down between his legs,
“Girls don’t.”

“So, you call sperm donors ‘boys’, and egg donors ‘girls’?”

“I guess.  Girls, at least older girls, have breasts as well, does that help?”

“OK,” Festin responded, “So what is a ‘father’ again?”

“A father is a boy like you or me, who takes a girl to his bed… you know, they get naked and all…?”

Festin blushed, and nodded, so Johusua continued, “And then, after a while the girl has a baby… maybe
a boy or a girl.  So then she is a ‘mother’ and the boy is a ‘father’.”

“Oh. So a father is a sperm donor of a house, when he has married, and has offspring.”

“Married? Is that what you call getting naked and…?”

“No. I mean, not quite. We don’t talk about that part much, especially not with younger offspring
around.  ‘Married’ is when the sperm donor of your house gives an egg donor… you would call her a
‘girl’… to a sperm donor. Then they go and form their own house.”

Johusua thought ‘form[ing] their own house was a funny way of talking about sex, but he got the idea.
But something Festin had said, “You say your father ‘gives’ the girl?”

Cardin finally spoke, ‘Of course!  Do you think it is right for a sperm donor to just come and steal her?”

“Not ‘steal her’. It’s just that, among us, the boy has to go to the girl, not her father.”

“Go to the girl?” Cardin said, “You would suggest marriage to the girl?  What does she have to do with
it?”

“Well, she is the one who goes with the boy back to his house, no?”

“But…” Cardin looked at his brother.

“The problem with that is that then the girl might -choose wrongly. Or, if she turned the ‘boy’ down,
then, for the rest of her life, she would have that one on her mind, even when she was given to
another.”

Johusua decided that it was silly of him to stand here having a discussion over the proper way of getting
a girl. The point was, he wanted a girl, he wanted one soon, and he now knew how these people went
about getting one. Or at least part of it.

“How does one go about talking to the father then?”

Festins eyes narrowed, and he said to those with him, ‘You two go down the path there and wait for
me.’

When they had left he said, “One thing you don’t do is to talk to the younger sperm donors of the house.
In general it should be your ‘father’ who would come to mine to ask for her.  But I suppose you didn’t
know that.  You wish to marry one of the egg donors of their house?”

Johusua didn’t understand why he said ‘their house’, but the end result was the same, “Yes.”

“I understand it would be awkward for you, or your ‘father’ to go to my ‘father’ yourself. I will bear word
for you. Are  you prepared for a standard bride price?”

“I don’t even know what that is.”

“I suppose not, since you expected to go straight to the egg donor.  Among us, a sperm donor… ‘boy’ if
you prefer… must go to the ‘father’ prepared to pay for the ‘girl’. Not pay like you would for an animal,
but ‘pay’ as a recognition of the wonderful thing that it is, and the loss that those left behind will face
when it leaves.”

“What is the ‘standard price’?”

“The standard price, usually paid by people such as us that do not have much in the way of goods, is that
the sperm donor works one week for the house before it takes the egg donor back to its house.  Then
the two come back for one week each year, and it works again, indeed the two work.”

“Then in addition, when the first egg donor comes into the world from the marriage, when it stops
sucking from the breasts, then it is brought back, and given to the house from which the egg donor
came.”

“This is the standard bride price.”

Johusa thought about this for a minute.  Certainly he had never heard of anything like this.  He had
imagined having to go down and convince the girl herself (and hadn’t been looking forward to it), and he
wasn’t sure if he liked or didn’t like this method.
But, he had thought through this. It was time for the two people to meet. And he wanted a girl in his
bed. And… and he liked the idea of bringing someone ‘different’ home, of having done something brave
and new.

And there was something particularly interesting in the concept of his having to work for the girl he
brought back.  There was nothing more important in a young man’s life then the girl he brought home.
And yet this relationship began with a series of conversations, and the girl just ‘decided’ to go with the
young man.  Except  for convincing her, the boy ‘paid’ nothing for her.

Johusa wondered how he would think about a girl for whom he had worked a week. Indeed a week
seemed a short time…

“Very well. That would be fine.”

Festin thought about  this for a minute. “You have you fathers authority to seek this egg donor in
marriage?”

“That is an awkward question. Our way is for the boy to go and find the girl himself.  I can say that I have
his authority to seek *an* egg donor, and he has given me the authority to choose which one.”

“As you say, that is awkward. But I will speak with my… with my father on the issue. How can we meet
again?”

“I can meet you here if you will tell me when.”

“Such things should not be delayed.  I will meet you here tomorrow, at this same time, with my father’s
answer.”

The two shook hands, and went their separate ways.

Distopia Chapter 017: This is my father

Johusa walked off up the hill, retrieving his crossbow from behind the tree where he had left it.  It would
look odd if he came back from his hunt without anything, and he didn’t really want anything to look odd
today. Tomorrow perhaps, but not today.

But tho he came home with two rabbits and a goose, he still managed to get his share of odd looks…
especially from Receba. But no one said anything. Perhaps they figured he was thinking over what they
said this morning.

Waiting at the turn the next morning, he found himself literally trembling.  He had no idea how it had
happened, but he suddenly desperately desired to ‘marry’ this girl he didn’t know. Perhaps it was in
talking with her brother.  Perhaps something of his love for her had come through.

Suddenly he saw something through the trees. Two something’s, in fact. Two people. The boy that he
had talked to, and an older man.  His heart beat even faster.  That must be the father of the girl. Was
that good or bad?  How had he gotten himself into this mess?

Festin came up first and said, “This is my ‘father’, the ‘father’ of the girl you would like to marry. I have
told it of your request, and it would like to talk to you.”

With that Festin walked off down the path, walking the same path he had sent his brothers on
yesterday, and Johusa was left alone with the father. When he was out of earshot the father said,

“So, you want a wife?”

“Yes.  I hadn’t heard that word before yesterday, but yes.  I am of age, according to our people. My
sisters-in-law have been bugging me for a while now to bring home a girl to my bed.”

Obviously Festin had taught his father the new vocabulary, as the father didn’t bat an eye at all the
‘new’ words. Instead he continued, impassively,

“And you are prepared to pay a standard bride price?”

“Yes. I hadn’t heard of that either, before yesterday, but Festin explained it to me, and I have been
thinking about it. No one in our culture has done anything like that. But the more I have thought about
it, the more I see it gives me a sense of valuing the girl.”

The father looked at him quietly for a minute, then continued, “When Festin came to me yesterday, I
was not inclined to agree. But you had really impressed him.  I guess having just been through the whole
marriage process, it was impressed with the courage that it must have taken for you to go through what
you have done.”
“In the end I agreed to come. I believe that it will be a good thing to have a marriage between our
cultures. No one among us, at least no one that lives anywhere near us, believes in the ancient feud, the
nonsense of a ‘Republic’ that tries to control men’s lives.  Perhaps someday the fleet will come back, and
attempt to control us again. But until then we need to live our lives in a way that works.”

“But now I am pleased.  In addition to the bravery that you showed Festin, you have showed me that
you will value my ‘daughter’.  And have given us a gift of some wonderful new words.”

“I have to go back now, but I have authorized Festin to finish the negotiations with you.”

He went over to Festin, talked to him for a minute, and then walked back down the trail. Festin came
over.

“We only have a couple of things to work out… when do you want to come for my sister, and what work
you are good at.  If my father is going to get a week of your work, it wants to know what you are good
at.”

Johusa looked at him, “Well your first question is easy…’ and he grinned.

“As for the second question, how about we get our weapons and go hunting together.  Then I can tell
you all about myself, and what I do.”

In the end they got a deer, which they split, and they figured out what Johusa’s task would be.
Distopia Chapter 018: I thought about what you said.

Dinner was just about over, soon the women would be picking things up and washing the dishes, while
the men planned out the next day’s work. Johusa looked up from his plate, and looked at Receba.

“I thought about what you told me the other morning, and I did something about it.”

Everyone stopped eating: the girls because they knew what he was talking about, the men because of
the girls attitude. Everyone looked at him. He turned to his father.

“Father, I have decided to bring a girl home to my bed.”

His father only looked at him.  He was aware of the difficulty that  this entailed, and had been wondering
when Johusa would take some action in this direction.

“I have arranged it. I went down to the edge of the valley, and met with some of the boys from the
plain.  I then met with their father. In a few days I will be going down there to get the girl. It will take a
week.”

Silence reigned for a time… and then the questions began. When the girls had fleshed out the details of
this arrangement, alternating between shock and amazement, his father finally spoke.

“I am pleased that you have taken this step. It might have been better if you had talked to me first.”

“Yes. I realize that, especially after talking with Festin’s father. But, I was afraid. If had come to you and
told you what I was thinking of doing, I would have to had actually do it. And until I popped up behind
that bush, I wasn’t sure I could do it.”

“When do you go?” Asked Receba, seeing that father had fallen silent again.

“I am not exactly sure. I need to be ready to go, and then I will watch each day. Neither the father nor
Festin knew where the girl was in her time.  I am not sure of all the details, but they don’t live like we do.
They are going to light a smoky fire in the early morning the day before they want me there. Then I will
go the next morning and meet Festin on the trail.  That’s Festin’s house we can see from the rock.”
Distopia Chapter 019:Twelve long days

It turned out to be twelve days, twelve long days, before he saw the fire one morning. The next morning
he set out, tools in hand.  He managed to arrive at the meeting point an hour before Festin.

“Greetings.” He said, as he hove into view, grabbed some of the tools, and began leading Johusa down
to his house.  “I am sorry for your sake that you have had to wait so long, but it has been good for me. I
have gotten together some boys to help you, and we have cut and shaped a lot of the wood that you
said you would need.”

“My wife and I are really excited about your coming. We dig cold houses… but it probably would have
been a year or two before I could have gotten it done.”

“So what are you going to do to pay back your father?” Johusa asked, “since you are stealing my week
from him.”

“Oh, that’s not hard.  It knows what I am good at, and I have already worked off a couple of the days.

Some of Johusa’s nervousness wore off as they walked and talked about the upcoming job.  As a
mountain dweller, organizing and digging a hole in the ground was second nature to him. He had
probably helped dig his first room in the ground when he was four years old…

The walk back was long, even for two active young men… active young men who were forced to carry
some heavy tools. It was about 2 hours later when the two of them came over the last hill and Johusa
got to see Festin’s house for the first time close up.

It really was an amazing structure; totally unlike anything that Johusa had ever seen before. It was a
half-cylinder, completely covered by sod. He had watched them build it from his view on the mountain,
and knew that under the sod was a framework of what was called ‘bamboo’.

The front of the house was set back under the roof, and seemed to consist of mud, or dried clay. The
front door was woven from bamboo… larger pieces forming the frame, and smaller branches filling in
between.

He didn’t have much time to examine the door, or the windows, before the door opened and
a girl stepped out.

Johusa blushed.  It was impossible to see anything about individuals from the mountains, so the only
prairie people he had seen up to now was the boys and Festin. They had been dressed scantily enough,
in their light fabric and their short garment they called a ‘kilt’ on their legs.
But they had been boys or men, and the rules of modesty for boys and men were always less strict. But
to see a girl dressed like this outside of her own house with her own family! Her dress was scandalously
short (he could see her knees!) and light… the light shining from behind her cast her legs into relief. And
she wore nothing at all on her arms past the first couple of inches. Her head was at least covered, with a
beautiful long veil.

“Festin,” the girl was saying, and moving her baby to the other arm came and kissed him… outside of the
house! Johusa looked away.

“Mistine”, Festin said, “This is Johusa. it will be helping us build our cold house.”

Mistine came over to Johusa, and seemed to expect something. Johusa looked frantically at Festin.

“I’m sorry,” Festin said, “you must have different greetings then we do. As your betrothed Sister-in-law
you should kiss it.”

Johusa leaned forward, and Mistine helped him by turning her face to one side, and then the other. His
heart was beating wildly within him. Not by the kiss, the greeting was common enough in the clan, but
standing so near to someone not of family and dressed so scantily. Her clothes looked like they might
blow away at a the slightest breeze. And he hardly knew where to look.

“You will be staying in the barn,” Festin said, “come and I will show you where to put your things.”

They walked to the barn, a structure much like the house, and when they came in the door Festin
stopped, turned toward him, and asked, “something is wrong. I know our cultures are very different. We
need to be upfront and clear, so we don’t offend accidentally. What happened? What was wrong?”

Johusa blushed again. “Our cultures dress is very different from yours. Except within the family, and in
the house, no one of our women would wear… what your wife was wearing. Nor would a husband kiss
his wife outside of their house… or some  other private spot. Never in front of people outside.”

“I am not saying what is right, but it is our way.”

“I see,” Festin replied, “well, it is to be expected. We dress differently here even than where my wife
comes from. Thank you for sharing that. I suppose that there will be a lot of adjusting that all of us will
have to do.”

“Anyway, right up that ladder is where you and the boys will be staying. It is a loft full of hay, and my
wife will have left a stack of clean blankets. Put your things up, I will be right back, and we will go in for
lunch.”
Distopia Chapter 020: Is your bread that different?

Johusa climbed up the stairs and found a huge pile of hay with a path leading down the middle. He
followed the path and found an area with piles of blankets. He put the bag containing his clothes down
and went back down the ladder.

He was examining some of the animals in the barn when Festin came back in and they went to the
house.

He was pleasantly surprised, entering the house, to see that Mistine was wearing some additional
garment… kind of a long robe. It was still short sleeved, but it covered the entire rest of the body down
to the floor. She glanced at him somewhat oddly, but soon the three of them (the baby laying on a
blanket in a corner), were seated at a table.

The meal was extremely odd. There was no meat, and there was this other strange thing. “Excuse me,”
he asked, ‘But what is this?”

“That?” Asked Festin, “you mean the bread?”

“Is your bread that different?” Mistine asked.

“We almost never get to eat bread,” Johusa replied, “And when we do it is very flat.”

“Ah, well this is risen bread. Do you like it?”

‘I think so.”

“You’re supposed to use it to wipe up the sauce,” Festin commented after watching Johusa.

Johusa wasn’t too fond of the sauce, but he did as directed. It was all vegetables… although there might
have a been a few flecks of meat in it, or maybe it was made from boiled bones. Very odd.

Lunch wasn’t over when there was  a knock on the door and the two boys came tumbling in along with
another boy about Cardin’s age. They ran to Mistine and kissed her, “what can we do?” They asked,
looking to Johusa.

Festin interjected, “Go play outside until we are done here.”

But Festin himself now seemed on edge, eager to get going, so Johusa quickly finished, and said, “shall
we get to work?”
Distopia Chapter 021: We need to talk

Something was going on, but I couldn’t figure out what.  A few days ago the sperm donors of the family
had come home, and after a brief talk, the sperm donor of the family (which everyone had just started
calling ‘father’) had gone off for an hour.  Then, coming home, it had called aside ‘mother’ and they had
talked for an hour.

And mother had given me some weird looks when she had come back in the house.  Climbing up to my
room that night, I had felt as if all eyes were on me.

I hoped that father had finally arranged my marriage.  For two years I had been waiting. I knew it was
problematic. Here we lived at the very edge of the colony. Who saw me from day to day? Who even
knew I existed?

It was easier for the boys. Father had seen when Festin was ready for marriage and had gone on a
several day trek to get Mistine, even taking along a bride price.

So I came down the next morning hoping to hear something. But nothing.  Father had  gone off most of
the next day… I wasn’t sure where. But the looks had continued. It had been 12 whole days now, and
everyone was still giving me funny looks.

Today was worse. The boys were going off to Festin’s for something. They would be gone all week, and
no one would tell me why!  I felt like throwing the dishes across the kitchen instead of washing them.

I started, as ‘mother’ had come into the room behind me while I was lost in thought.

“Restina, we need to talk.”

My heart pounded almost out of my chest. Perhaps this was it. Perhaps she was finally going to tell me
what was going on. Mothers voice sounded so nervous.

“Restina, we need to have a talk about what happens between two married people.”

This was it!  This was *the* talk. The talk that only happened…

“Mother! Who is it?”

“Who is who, dear?”

“The ‘boy’… the sperm donor.”

“Sit down dear.” When I was seated, she continued. “I can’t tell you dear, not until it has finished the
bride price.”
“You mean it has started already?”

“Yes.”

“But, where is it? I haven’t seen it!”

“No, and you won’t. Not until it is done. There are some unusual things about this marriage. You will just
have to wait. But in the meantime, we need to have our talk. I will lay out the basic issues today, and
then over the next few days, whenever you want, you can ask me more questions. We haven’t talked
about this at all before, but it is now time. And you can ask me any questions  you wish.”

I got up and started washing the dishes nervously as mother began explaining the process of
impregnation and birth.  Children, especially girls, were discouraged from asking or thinking about all of
these issues… until ‘the talk’. I had tried sounding out a couple of my married girl friends, and even
Festin’s wife, but had been rebuffed… with great blushings. Even by friends that I had known relatively
well before they were married. They had all assured me that mother would tell me just before my
marriage everything I needed to know.

And as mother talked I blushed; and realized why my friends had been unwilling to tell me any of this. I
was having a hard enough time hearing it from my mother.
Distopia Chapter 022: Of course I worship God

Two days later I was washing the dishes again and I had an idea. I would be able to find out who the boy
was at worship! It was the only day when we all got together with other people. Everyone in
our  community would be there. Surely I could figure out who it was… it would be the only stranger
there!

--

“Do you want to come with us to worship on Seventh Day?”

Johusa paused in the middle of dumping a load of earth. He had the other boys so busy working he was
mostly just supervising. He had done most of the digging the first couple of days, creating the doorway,
etc. But now that they were hollowing out the interior, there was room for the boys, and they were
digging furiously. He was teaching them the whole time… especially about the bracings. It was all very
well for shallow rooms like this to use halfhearted bracings, but he wanted them to know how it should
really be done. Some of what they had wanted to do… He shuddered.

“I have no idea who or what you worship on the Seventh Day.”

Festin rocked back on his heels. “That’s a question we never talked about.  Perhaps we should have.
Do  you not worship God?”

“Of course I worship God. How could anyone look at the world and not worship the Creator?  But that
doesn’t exactly tell me what, and how, you worship.  Besides which, are you and your father ready to
produce me at worship?”

Festin looked at him.  “That is a very good question.  I will have to discuss it with my father.”
Distopia Chapter 023: Father is not coming to worship?

The next day Festin came up to him again. “I talked with my father, and what it decided is that it will
come, along with my brothers, and worship with us here at home tomorrow. Then you and it can discuss
what we each believe. it was appalled that it had not thought of this before.

‘I hope it is not reconsidering our agreement.”

Festin looked almost angry, “That cannot be. My father does not go back on his word.”

Johusa hurried to calm him, “I wasn’t implying that he would. You forget, I don’t know your ways. I don’t
know at what point you consider your word on a marriage to have been given.”

“You are right. I should not have been so hasty.  But unfortunately what I thought you implied has
happened. Some fathers have agreed in marriage with another father, and yet, even tho the boy paid
the bride price, refused to give his girl to the young boy.  I am sorry, I am sure you meant nothing of the
sort.”

--

“Fathers not coming to worship?”

“No. It is going to worship at Festin’s, it and the boys. You and the girls and I will be going to worship
together.”

“But, why?”

“I cannot tell you all of it. But I imagine that you have guessed already that it concerns your marriage.”

“He cannot come to worship, this boy?”

Suddenly mother smiled at me, “oh, I see. You had planned on trying to figure out who it was at
worship. I hadn’t thought of that.”

Mother took me over to the table, and had me sit down, sitting across from her.

“My dear, I am very sorry that this time is so difficult for you.  Believe me, it is difficult for all of us. But
be assured that your father is working very hard on your behalf, and it loves you deeply.”

I suddenly realized how my behavior must look to mother. “Oh, mother, I’m sorry. It’s not that I’m not
grateful, I’m just curious, and nervous.”
“Of course, dear, I understand that. Even  under the best of conditions, this time is not easy. And we live
so far away and you have been waiting so long.”

“And I just have two more days to wait… it is two days, isn’t it?”

“Yes dear. You will get to meet the boy in two days.”
Distopia Chapter 024: He's a brave boy

But it wasn’t two days that I had to wait… not for some of my questions to be answered, anyway. Father
came home from his worship time looking very serious, but satisfied, and called a family council.

“I believe that the time has come to let Restina in on what has been going on.”

He turned toward me.  “Restina, as you know, a while ago I accepted a proposal for your marriage.  The
young sperm donor will be doing his last day of work on the bride price tomorrow. it has been working
at Festin’s house, and Festin will pay us back here.”

“We have kept the identity of this sperm donor from you, because there is something very unusual
about him. I was, at first, reluctant to agree to his proposal of marriage.  However, Festin urged it upon
me, and now I and the ‘boys’ here are glad that it did.  Over the last week, but especially today, we have
been impressed with this young sperm donor.”

“Restina, I don’t know how to break it to you except directly, so I will tell you straight out. The sperm
donor is not from our people. it is a mountain dweller.”

He paused for a moment to let this sink in.

“An incredibly brave boy, it found and met Festin and your brothers in the woods a couple of weeks ago
and told them that it sought marriage with one of their sisters.  Festin interviewed him, and told me. I
interviewed him, and we agreed to his proposal.”

“For the last few days it has been working, with your brothers, over at Festin’s.  And we have been very
impressed with him. Today I spent all day with him, first doing worship together, and then going over
what it believes.”

“I won’t lie to you. What it believes is, in some ways, different from what we believe and teach. But I am
convinced that it does worship God. And I have been impressed with what it has had to say. It has given
me much to think of.”

“And, I suppose you have noticed that our language has changed a bit recently.  This is due to his
influence, words that it taught your brothers.”

“Well, I have been talking long enough, do you have any  questions?”

My mind was in a whirl.  I hadn’t even dreamed of this, however bizarre my imaginations had been.
Many things were whirling around in my mind, and I couldn’t process them all.  Two things stood out,
that father was impressed with this boy, and that it was coming for me the day after tomorrow.  I sat,
silent, processing.  Eventually, however, I did think of a question, that interested me greatly…

“Do you know anything of how they live, these mountain dwellers?  I imagine it is very different from
how we live.”

“Cardin.” The father answered, “Perhaps you could answer that. You have been spending more time
with him than I have.”

“They live up in the mountains. His home is hours from here up that hill. Their family is like ours, the
farthest out from the rest of their people. And they are the farthest toward us of their ‘clan’, whatever
that is.”

“They live really different from us.  They are really good at digging and stuff. You should see how it built
Festins cold storage…”

As Cardin went on and on about the excellent construction of the Festin’s cold storage, I had a chance to
think.  Did it matter what it was like, or how it lived?  What mattered was that I would be marrying this
boy in two days, regardless of what it was like, or what it lived like, or how it built cold storage
areas.  What was important was how I could succeed at my new life.

I looked at my mother. It had had to come from far away, to this ‘boy’ it hadn’t known.  It had done it, I
would too.
Distopia Chapter 025: He had cast his lot

Johusa walked with Festin over to Festin’s fathers house. He was extremely nervous. He felt great about
how the cold storage room had gone, and he could tell that Festin and his wife were pleased about it. He
was tired, but really this last week hadn’t been that hard work. It was just that they didn’t know that
much about how to dig and shore these things. 

<Boys had taken tools up before hand>

But he was extremely nervous about this whole ‘wife’ and ‘marriage’ thing. What would the girl be like?
What would she think of him? This was about the hardest walk he had ever had to take, harder even
then the walk down to where he had originally made to meet the boys on the path. This walk was
harder. Then he had known he had a choice, known that at any moment he could change his mind and
return to actual hunting. 

But now he had no further choice. He had cast his lot. The talk with the girl’s father (they still hadn’t told
him her name) had been an incredible experience. He hadn’t thought about the role of a husband/father
in leading his wife and family in Godliness. So now he not only faced bringing a girl to his bed, but in
placing her under his spiritual authority. 

He had been so focused on his thoughts, that he had failed to notice that they had come over the last
hill, that he could now see Festin’s Fathers house. 

And more than the house he could see, standing in front of the house, several figures; two standing in
front of the others. Behind stood the two boys which he knew, Cardin and Aflin. With them stood two
girls and one mother. 

In front of them, and he could feel his heart beat faster, was another girl. He couldn’t see any of her
features. She stood on the far side of her father, for one thing, and wore a covering over her head (as
did all the women here), which she had wrapped in front of her face. 

But he felt her eyes upon him. Her body was straight, her face pointed away from him, but he could tell
her eyes were examining him, even as his were examining her. 

He had thought the walk before was hard, but this walk was impossible. He put one foot in front of
another, but he had no idea how. His mouth was dry, his throat was closed. 

But even interminable things come to an end, and eventually he and Festin came up to the father. He
was very glad that, according to what he had been told, he had nothing that he needed to say, for he
was sure he could say nothing. 

“Johusa, of the house of Recabb, as you have agreed to the bride price, and fulfilled the conditions
which I set, I here present to you as your wife Restina. Take her, and let her be your wife.” At this he
took Restina’s hand and placed it in Johusa’s hand. 

After he had done that, her mother, from behind her, with her sisters echoing, said ‘Restina, our sister,
go and have offspring to the hundreds of thousands.” 

One nice thing about the plains culture, they didn’t stand on this ceremony. Perhaps because the boy
usually had to take the girl a long way back to his house, the ceremony was short. Johusa let go of
Restina’s hand, and she went and hugged her mother and sisters. Johusa shook hands with her brothers,
and kissed her sisters and mother. Then he shook the fathers hand solemnly and grabbed some of the
bags that Restina had left on the ground, and stood and waited. 

Her goodbyes seemed to take forever, but eventually she turned to him. Still veiled, he could see her
eyes darting a brief glance at him, as she reached down and picked up what he had left. When she had
them, mostly on her back, he led her off toward the hills. 

They walked a full five minutes before either of them spoke. 

“My husband,” Restina said, “can you tell me of your people? I know almost nothing of them, besides
what my brothers have told me.” 

“My people?” He stammered. “We live up there,” (he gestured with his head, his hands being too full)
about five hours walk… longer with all of this.” 

“We, that is, in my house, there are the seven of us, eight of us with you, in the house.” 

“The house itself is not very big, not compared to your house; but of course our underground aspect is
rather large, and we keep most of the stuff down there.” 

Johusa realized he was rambling, but had no idea what to say. He kept up the same almost meaningless
ramble until they were well into the forest at the foot of the hills. Then he turned toward her, and put
out his hand, stopping her. She turned to face him, and he reached out slowly toward her face. He found
the clasp that held her veil in place, and undid it.
Distopia Chapter 026: There it is

I was partly relieved, very sore, and still incredibly anxious.  Among my people, at least according to
what mother had told me, most husbands removed their wife’s veil at the doorstep of their house, not
in some clearing in a woods.  But at least that anxiety was over.

What caused me to be nervous now was what I had learned of his family arrangement on the walk up. I
had thought that we would live alone, my husband and I, until offspring came. But now I found that we
were to live in his father’s house! Along with two older brothers and two sisters in law and a bevy of
offspring.

And I was exhausted. It had been a long, long day… all uphill traveling. And from what Johusa had told
me, it was almost over. Which meant the next phase of my journey was just about to begin.

I glanced sideways at the boy, a man and my husband now, walking beside me. At least I would have it
with me.

“There it is,” it said, interrupting my reverie, and I turned back startled. There it was indeed.  A house
such as I had never seen. It was right it was small.  Tiny, in fact… especially considering that it held (or
would hold as soon as I moved in) eight adults and all of their offspring.

It was made of wood!  Living on the plains as I had all my life, I couldn’t imagine having that much
wood.  Of course, I had just been walking for the last three hours through woods, and I could hardly see
the house for the woods. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been that surprised.

And it backed up against the hill. There was some wall or something at the edge of the hill, but the
house butted right up against it.

And it had something funny in the walls. Some large silvery things. And there were no windows, at least I
didn’t see any shutters for them.  Of course, with the walls all being of wood, how would I know?

A small offspring, I thought a sperm donor (a ‘boy’. I would have to remember that), saw us and raced
into the house.  A few seconds later various offspring began piling out of the house, followed, a minute
or two later, by the older members of the house. They all stood for a minute at the doorway, and then
the offspring (except the one in one of the egg donors arms, and another that clung to the others leg)
started running  down the slope toward us.

“Johusa, Johusa!” The oldest one was yelling.

They all tumbled up to him, and Johusa stopped, making a great pile.  I stood and watched.  Some of
them, particularly the egg donors, I noticed glancing at me; but mostly they were just celebrating
Johusa’s arrival. Eventually, with much struggle, it freed Itself from the pack. Taking some of my luggage,
and some that it had been carrying, it loaded the offspring up with them… calming their ardor
somewhat.  Then together they walked up the hill… Johusa, now having a free hand, taking mine in his.

“Mother, Father, may I present my ‘wife’ Restina.”

The ‘father’ gave me a small bow, but the ‘mother’ came over to me and gave me a hug, and a kiss on
each cheek. “Welcome to our house, my daughter.”

After it finished the two other women came up and similarly greeted me. The one looked to be even
younger than me.  The various offspring gathered dutifully around, the girls suffering themselves to be
kissed, and the boys gravely offering their hands.

As they did so, I noticed their dress.  They each were covered almost head to toe, seemingly with many
layers; long dresses on the girls, long sleeves on everyone.  The girls each wore a tightly wrapped
kerchief on their heads, and the boys each wore a cap of some fur.  I felt odd with my lighter, shorter
dress, short sleeved; and my draping headcovering.

But no one seemed to notice, or if they did, didn’t say anything. Instead the mother ushered us all into
the house, where, the comments of the offspring assured me, they had been waiting dinner.

Entering the house my sense of strangeness almost overwhelmed me. Again the overwhelming amount
of wood. And the room!  It seemed to be all one big room. Directly in front, and to the right, stood a
long table. On the wall next to the table, sat… something. Something big and black. Next to that and all
along the wall stood a series of what must be cabinets… cabinets made entirely of wood.

But what really stole my attention was in front of me. In the middle of the room, separated from each
other by blankets hung from the ceiling, were three beds. I couldn’t see the  back of the room, it was
totally curtained off.  The offspring pulled me over to the right of the room to one of the beds, and
began unloading the luggage they were carrying at its foot. My heart beat its way into my throat. This
must be my new bed, mine and Johusa’s. I suddenly understood why it had taken my veil off in the
woods.

I didn’t have much time to think about it, as soon as they had dumped their loads, and helped me off
with mine, they drug me off to the table, where I was put onto a bench. At first I thought they had just
thrown me randomly down, but when everyone was seated I saw it wasn’t so. I was placed to the right
of the youngest ‘wife’ (whose name I had learned was Receba), who was to the right of the older ‘wife’
(whose name was Srah), who sat at the end of the bench. Then the ‘father’ sat at one end of the table,
and the men (including my husband) were ranged opposite their ‘wives’.  The ‘mother’ (Genima) was at
the other end of the table from the father, and the offspring were either sitting on the bench toward the
mother (the girls to my right, the boys to Johusa’s left) or standing behind the bench.

I barely had time to notice all of this when the father began to pray,“Our Father, Great Creator, we
thank you for this day. We thank you for all that you have blessed us with, including this newest
daughter. We ask that you would help us to do your will in all that we do.”
“May it be.” Everyone at the table intoned.

I waited and watched, to see how the meal would go. But however many other rules there was in the
house, there didn’t seem to be many concerning helping yourself to food.

And there didn’t seem to be much food. And I couldn’t really say that I enjoyed it. Oh, there was plenty
of meat, which we didn’t get that much on the plains, but there was almost no bread, or potatoes, or
anything like that. And there was some kind of nut in the dish.

Dinner was over quickly, but no one left the table. Instead the father, from the end of the table, began a
discourse on the nature of God.  I tried to concentrate, but my eyes kept straying, and my mind followed
it. Looking at each person I could see, I wondered what they would be like.

When dinner was over, the women and girls rose to clear the table and wash the dishes, while the men
sat at the table discussing the events of the day, and the plans for tomorrow.  Apparently we women
were supposed to remain silent during the men’s discussion, so, although they gave me frequent
glances, no one spoke to me, and we finished the dishes in silence. Soon… and I couldn’t tell if it was too
soon or not soon enough, the discussion was over, and everyone withdrew to their own beds, the
children each having a place under their parents beds.
Distopia Chapter 027: We didn't get to talk last night.

The next morning I lay in bed and watched Johusa dress and leave and listened to the sounds of all of
the others getting going for the day.  I didn’t know if I would ever be able to get used to this kind of
living, all together like this. And as soon as it walked past the curtain, and I heard it open the outside
door…

“Hi!  We didn’t get to talk last night.”

It was Receba, the youngest of the wives, and obviously the dress code for breakfast was not the same
as it had been last night!

“Come on,” the 'girl' said, dragging me out of bed and past  the curtain, “we need to get breakfast on
and I want to learn all about you.”

“But…” I said, blushing furiously, but the 'girl' paid no attention, and soon I was pulling plates and things
out of one of those huge wooden cupboards, beet red, and the focus of everyone’s attention.

“So, how many brothers and sisters do you have?” Receba asked.

“I have three brothers, and three sisters.”

“Great.” Receba said, “I had five brothers.  Srah… tell him Srah!”

Srah was obviously shyer, and had been dealing with a younger egg donor (‘girl’!). It straightened up,
and said, “I had eight brothers… four older, and four younger.”

“Wow.”

I moved around, trying my best to fit into the rhythm of the kitchen. But I felt much like an extra wheel.
But no one else seemed to notice, especially as Receba kept pelting me with new questions… some of
which I had to try several times before my answer made any sense to my listeners. Soon breakfast was
on, and the sperm donors came in.
Distopia Chapter 028: Here, try some of these on

After breakfast Receba brought me to her ‘room’, and it quickly got dressed. Then it started pulling more
clothes out of her trunk. “Here, try some of these on.”

It took me a while, and a lot of help, before I could figure out how these clothes worked. They were
almost all made of leather, or wool.  My skin itched from the undergarments. And I was covered up
completely. With several layers. I was hot, itchy, and very uncomfortable.

“There, now you look like one of us. It doesn’t matter how you dress before breakfast; well, it does, but
in a different sense. But once breakfast is definitely over, we could be getting visitors from outside the
family, and even outside the clan. And you must be decently dressed.”

“Your old clothes won’t do for us here.”

I felt like crying, I was so overwhelmed. All of my life had been turned upside down in the last forty eight
hours.  But I had known from the beginning that it would be hard, so I just turned to her and said, “So,
what do we do now?”

But it heard more than I said, and it came and hugged me. Then we broke off, and it said, “Come, let us
see what other new things you have to learn.”

We went through the kitchen and it showed me where things were. Eventually we came over to the far
side, and I got to ask, pointing at the black thing in the corner, ‘What is that?’

“That?! That’s a stove.” It stared at me oddly.

“What, what’s a stove?”

Now it really looked at me oddly, and the other women and children stopped what they were doing to
stare at me. I decided to face this head on, “Look, I’m not being silly, I really don’t know. I can assure you
that if I were to take you to live in my father’s house, there would be things you wouldn’t know.”

Receba was the first to recover, and it began explaining.

“It is like a little metal box, and we make a fire in it. Then we can cook on the top of it here, where it gets
really hot. And it keeps the house hot.”

“Metal? It is made of metal??! It is all metal?”

“Yes.”
I was in shock. In our whole house we had exactly one knife of metal. And these people had an entire
box made out of metal? Why, it must weigh a hundred pounds!

“How much did it cost?”

“Oh, I don’t know. It wasn’t cheap. But, you have to have a stove… or at least I thought so. What do you
people do instead?”

As I explained what a ‘fireplace’ was, my mind was awhirl. Truly I would have to talk to my husband. And
as I saw more and more metal in the cabin, I became more and more convinced of it.
Distopia Chapter 029: What happened to your face?

I had just finished my explanation when the door opened and one of the boys came in. I gasped, “What
happened to your face?”

For it was indeed a sight. There was blood pouring down over one eye. it looked at me from the other
and said, “Oh, I was just fighting with Tnedson.”

Srah went over to him and pressed a cloth on the cut. it winced, and it asked, ‘What is Tnedson doing
over here so early?”

“He came to borrow our two-person saw.”

That seemed to settle the question as far as Srah was concerned who continued to staunch the bleeding
and then wiped his face. But I couldn’t help asking, “Why were you fighting?”

He looked at me in amazement, “Why? I dunno. He’s good, though. Got me over the eye like this and I
could hardly see for the rest of the fight..”

With those phlegmatic words the boy went back outside.

I looked at Srah, “Aren’t you going to punish him?”

Everyone looked at me, but it was Receba that answered me, “Punish him? Why?”

“For fighting!”

“Punish a boy for fighting? Why? Would you punish a girl for combing her hair?”

I mused over that bizarre comparison as we went back to work.

Distopia Chapter 030: Can I talk to him?

We kept working, and Receba kept explaining things to me. The more I saw, the more I got excited.
Finally, after an hour or two,  I could stand it no more, and I asked her, “I don’t know the rules here, or
how you do things. There is something I need to talk to my husband about, can I talk to him?”

Receba gave me a funny look, “Sure. If he’s around. I’m not sure what he is doing today. Didn’t you
know?”

“He’s in the barn,” Srah put in, “I saw him there when I was giving the slops to the pigs.”

“Didn’t I know what?” I asked Receba.

“You are always allowed to go and see your ‘husband’. It is one of our rules. Whenever you want to or
need to.”

“And it won’t mind if I interrupt it?”

Srah laughed, “No, he won’t mind!”

I hurried out of the house, and over to the barn. Sure enough, Johusa was there, working on some
leather strips. “Johusa.” I said. “I need to talk to you.”

He almost jumped, and turned toward me. Why, he was blushing.  “Good morning, Restina. Sure, come
on over here.” With that, it led me over to the edge of the barn, where there was a ladder. it led me up
the ladder and into the hayloft.

“Johusa, I don’t know about your culture, and what you all consider important, and all, so please don’t
be offended by anything I say.”

“Don’t worry about it.” it said, “You are my wife. If you say anything that is out of line, I will just tell you,
and tell you why it was wrong, and how  you should say it next time, or what you should do differently.”

“I have just been going over things with the women in the kitchen, and I… I was always told that a wife
was supposed to be a blessing to her husband. And, and I believe I have found a way to bless you.”

“You have already blessed me incredibly.” And as it talked it started taking off its clothing, which
explained the odd looks in the kitchen and the blushing.

When I got done blessing it in that way, I started talking again.

Distopia Chapter 031: Did you notice...?

“When you were down among our people, did you notice that we ate differently?”

“Well, yes.” it answered, pulling on his clothes. “You don’t have much meat to eat, but you seem to eat
a lot more. At least I was always given a lot more to eat. I wasn’t sure if that was just because I was a
guest.”

“You are right. We eat less meat, but we eat much more. At least, food is very cheap among us. Not
meat, but vegetables and grain.”

“And… did you realize that we have almost no metal?”

Johusa looked at me. “Well, I didn’t see any metal while I was there. And the boys seemed very
impressed with my tools. But I guess I didn’t take any particular notice. What are you trying to say?”

“My husband. My father’s people have almost no metal, and they value it very highly. In my father’s
house we had exactly one knife.  My father would pay dearly for another one… perhaps as a gift to
Festin… who has no metal at all.”

After a while Johusa said, “And they have food, particularly grain, food to trade.”

“Yes, my husband.”

“My father must hear of this. We will speak of it at lunch.”

Distopia Chapter 032: That both might gain

Lunch seemed a long way off, but the amount of work that I had to do in the meantime, the amount of
new things I had to learn, meant that the time went by quickly.  I actually spent most of the time in the
barn, learning to milk and care for the animals.

They had some neat animals; mountain animals that they had domesticated.  The one I found the most
interesting they called the ‘Shta’. It was a large, placid animal, with six “legs”. It could walk on  all six or it
could stay on the back four, and  use the front ones as ‘hands’; stripping leaves off of trees to eat.

It was kept for its milk, and for its fur, both of which it only gave in the summer. It usually gave birth to
twins, one male and one female, which it nursed from nipples buried in pouches.  Thus milking the
animal was rather difficult. But as it gave an incredible quantity of rich milk, it seemed it was well worth
the trouble.  The young were kept on the animal all night, and all day, and it still gave milk at four
different milkings!

It took me a long time to understand how to get my hands into the pouches, and direct the milk stream
down into a leather bucket that hung from the animal. Most of my milking was contaminated by having
been sprayed against the animal (which gave it a very odd taste… as Receba made me learn by tasting it)
so we gave it to the ‘pigs’.

Their pigs weren’t like the animals we called by that name, but they both had rather similar
habits.  Theirs liked to dig, though, whereas ours liked to root.  The pen they kept them in was rock lined
to a depth of almost five feet, or so I was told, so that the ‘pigs’ dens, which they dug themselves, didn’t
manage to get outside of it. The den (so I was told) went down about three feet, and then back up
slightly. The pigs would then lay in them most of the winter, requiring almost no food. Then, come
spring and summer, they would emerge with their newest litter and eat like mad, and eat just about
anything.

Their biggest need, penned as they were, was water. The crazy things needed a ton of water. The
nearest spring/creek was a 15 minute walk away, so the men had spent time that morning going back
and forth with water yokes, filling various barrels in the barn, several of which were dedicated just to
these pigs. And we women were responsible for filling and refilling their water trough several times
during the day.

But lunch finally came.

“My father.” Johusa said.

“Yes?”

“My father, Restina and I have been talking, and we have an idea that we think will bless both our family
and hers.”
The entire table looked at Johusa with interest, except for a couple of the younger egg donors who, at
the sound of my name, looked at me instead.

“Yes? What is it?”

“My father, you know that you have always taught me the rules of trading. That each is to seek what
they have more of than what they need, and what they have less of than they need. And to seek in the
other the same thing, so that both might gain from any trade.”

“You were listening then,” the oldest brother put it, “not just goofing off?”

Apparently Johusa had not been the greatest of students, always a bit too impatient to go do other
things. Johusa ignored his brother and went on, “Restina has noticed that we have some things that her
family lacks, or that they have little of. And that they have things which we lack, or have less of. And
these are not a small lack, or an isolated one. But a large difference.”

“So, some trading is in order? What is it that they lack?”

Johusa leaned forward. ‘Metal.’

“Well, that’s awkward. Metal is so expensive and rare among us too.”

Receba suddenly leant forward, “is that why you asked me about the stove?”

“Our stove?” the father asked, “Why, it was very expensive. Stoves are a lot of work, besides being a lot
of metal. How much do your stoves cost?”

“Father, they don’t have stoves! We had to explain to her what they were.”

“Well, if they don’t use stoves, then they probably won’t want to buy them.”

I began to laugh and everyone stared at me. I felt almost hysterical. “We… they… they don’t buy them
because they can’t imagine anyone owning that much metal.”
Distopia Chapter 033: Ice cream? What’s that?

I sat back, exhausted, and listened to the rest of the conversation. Eventually everyone got an idea of
the incredible difference between the price of metal among the plains dwellers, and the price of grain
among the mountain dwellers.  Apparently the lunch conversation lasted much longer than it normally
did, for the father dismissed everyone very abruptly and we all hurried back to chores.

I was drying some dishes and putting them away, when I noticed one of the offspring going over to our
room, and taking a lantern off the wall and lighting it. My eyes followed it as it went to a large double
door in the wall and opened it. Receba saw what I was looking at…

“You haven’t seen our cold rooms, have you? We don’t open it much during the summer. Come and I
will give you a quick tour.”

I followed her over to the door, which was set on a slant into the wall of our house which was the side of
the mountain.  Inside there were steps leading down. I followed Receba and my eyes grew wide when
we reached the bottom, having closed the door behind us.

In front of us stretched a long corridor. It must have been three times the length of the house! Narrow,
with doors leading off both sides. The offspring in front of us went quickly down the corridor about four
doors and opened a door to the left. We followed it and glanced in, into a long narrow room, itself
almost the size of the entire house, crammed with shelves. It took something from one of the shelves,
and we followed it back out.

“Wow,” I said, “It’s huge down here!”

“Yes. During the other seasons we spend quite a bit of time down here. But in the summer we don’t like
to let the heat in. It melts the ice, of course.”

“Ice? You keep ice in here? Why?”

“Well, several reason. First of all, to keep the place cold. During the winter we haul in a huge amount of
ice and fill the top shelf of each room with ice, packed in straw and such.”

“Then we use the ice for ice cream.”

“Ice cream? What’s that?”

We had now climbed back out the stairs.

An offspring standing near me burst into shouts at that, “She’s never had ice cream!! She’s never had ice
cream!!” and several of the children turned and stared at me wide eyed.
Receba grinned, “Oh, you’ll love ice cream. Mother, do you think we could…”

“Yes dear. It is a fine time for a celebration anyway, and now that the word has been mentioned I would
get pestered to death if I refused.”
Distopia Chapter 034: Help me to be a good wife

The ice cream turned out to be great. But as I lay in bed that night, my tired and contented husband by
my side, I wondered if I could survive. I had never known how private our life was until I was tossed into
this maelstrom. And I was sore. So much of the work here was different from what I was used to.

Not necessarily harder, but different. And so I ached in muscles I didn’t know I had. Unable to sleep, I
turned to prayer, “Oh, God, you know I am here, and you know what I need. Far more than I do myself.
Help me to be a good wife, a good daughter, a good sister-in-law, a good aunt…”

My mind trailed off as the very list I was reciting reminded me of some of the blessings of my new life.
Surely it was awkward to be sleeping one curtain and  about four feet from Receba (or her husband,
whichever slept on the side of the bed toward me). But what a blessing it was as well.

And Srah, while shy, was steady. I already knew I could count on her.

And the offspring. I loved offspring. I always enjoyed Sabbath, with them running all over.  Surely it was
awkward with them as well. I never had a free moment, they ran in and out of everything. Especially the
girls. They gave me no modesty, no privacy.

But the way they looked at me. I loved that. And that little one, I didn’t even remember her name, but it
was already coming up and putting her hand in mine.
Distopia Chapter 035: Tonight is last night, no?

The next few days passed quickly, although the nights still seemed interminable. Going from my own
room with its own door to… this. It would have been hard enough just sharing a bed, with all that
entailed. But to hear every sound, every sneeze from all of these people all night. I hardly got any sleep.
And then came last night…

“Johusa,” I said. I had gotten used to being allowed to go out to him any time it was around. We would
climb up in that loft together.  And it never minded, “Johusa, tonight is last night, no?”

“Last night? What does that mean?”

“The night before Sabbath.”

“Oh, yes.”

“Do we, do we do anything different tonight?”

“Tonight?  No. Oh, do you mean this afternoon? We go bathe this afternoon.”

“Oh.” I didn’t quite know how to take that way of putting it. ‘We’ bathe. I had been through so many
shocks already. “How does that work?”

“Well, you girls go first. You take all the offspring, well except for the older boys, and you go bathe. In
the spring. You’ve been to the spring, you saw that there were seats there, places to hang your
clothes?”

“It’s Ok. All the different families have their own place. No one not from the family will come.”

Well, that was a relief. Very different from the way we did it, of course. But still, girls and small offspring
only.
Distopia Chapter 036: Its always cold until you get in

And cold!  I stood shivering at the edge of the spring. The offspring seemed not to mind, but I was blue
with the cold.  Receba looked at me from where she stood in the spring and laughed. “Cold?” she said,
and splashed me.  “Get in. Its always cold until you get in. You should be here in the winter. This is warm
compared to that. Get in or I’ll have the offspring pull you in!”

I shuddered and moved a few steps further in. Warmer, eh?

“What time do we go, tomorrow?”

“Right after breakfast. Further!”

I took another few steps, “What time does it start?”

“Start? I don’t know. Srah, you used to live near the clan hall, what time does service start?:

“Oh, right after breakfast. We were sometimes the first ones there. We’d wait around a few minutes
and then the clan leader would come and open the service. Further in Restina. Wash well. It will be your
first Sabbath meeting with us, and you want to make a good impression.”

I shuddered and moved further in. “How is it that  you don’t know what time it starts Receba?”

“Oh, we never get there when it starts. We’re hours later than that. We live a long ways away.”

Oh, this water was cold. “They don’t wait for you?”

“No, why would they? We get to participate when we get there. It’s not like anybody stays for the whole
thing.”

I finished washing, thoroughly confused.

Distopia Chapter 037: Did God have a Law?

It was indeed a long ways, especially walking with all of the offspring.  Johusa had had me pack extra
food for the two of us as well, since we would be spending the night. And wearing all of these clothes
made the trip even harder (in some ways!) then it had been with Johusa.

But we got there eventually. We came over the last ridge and there, right below us, was the clan hall. A
large building with a house rather like ours off to the right.  I didn’t see anyone else coming up to it, but
there were some offspring playing around outside the door.

I felt really awkward walking in, but at least I was with the (my) entire family. And, when I walked
through the door… there were no chairs! No chairs, no benches, nothing! Everyone was sitting on the
floor. Everyone that is, who wasn’t standing around the edges. Men, women, offspring.  Sitting all
around.

Except.  The men were all on one side, and the women on the other. The offspring were scattered all
over, but the men and women were sitting on separate sides of the building! I didn’t have more than a
few seconds  to wonder before Receba had me by the hand and led me off to sit with the women.

When we were seated I was able to pay attention to the speaker.  it was standing kind of at the front of
the room, going on about Gods Law. Gods law as revealed through creation. My people, my former
people didn’t talk much about Gods Law. They talked a lot about relationships, and  a lot about how God
was like a farmer, planting and growing. And how we were His plants.

Did God have a Law?  A standard for our behavior? I thought back to what I had learned from my
father.  Perhaps it was the same, in different words.  My father had always talked about fruit… how each
plant needed to bring forth fruit, good fruit for the farmer.

Was ‘good fruit’ the same as following a Law?

The boy in front sat down, interrupting my reverie. I wondered what would happen next. Soon another
boy stood, and began ?reading? something from a book. But it wasn’t really reading. But it wasn’t
singing either.

When it got to the end of the first line, everyone else joined in, in this weird half-singing way. Repeating
what the boy had said.

I recognized some of the words, even while being totally confused by the way they were ‘singing’ them.
While I was working my way through trying to figure out how to join in with this whatever it was I felt a
small hand slip into mine. It was that same offspring.  She looked at me, with a confused look. I could
read it in her eyes, ‘Why wasn’t I ‘singing’?’
Distopia Chapter 038: Are you sorry you came with me?

And so I tried. Song after song. Then after several songs I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Receba. She
motioned me to get up and follow her.

She took me, and the offspring which had followed us, over to a table standing along the side of the
room. A table which had people standing around it.

And had food on it. What was this?

Apparently it was Ok to eat during service. Which was nice for us, but I found it totally weird. I was
hungry though, so I ate.

--

The meeting lasted the rest of the day. It broke up in the late afternoon, with one family after another
leaving.  Our family left fairly early, having far to go. Johusa and I came out and sent them on their way,
and went back to the meeting.  Two hours later, two hours of talks and chants later, Johusa and I were
alone.

Alone, not for a few minutes, but for the rest of the afternoon, and evening, and night. Just me and
Johusa. Just me and my husband.

--

“That was a fantastic time.” The two of us were sitting eating the breakfast I had packed. Altho I was
spending more time talking and playing with his hair. Don’t ask me why I liked playing with his hair, but I
did.

“You have a hard time at our house, don’t you? Are you sorry you came with me?”

I looked around at his face. “Johusa!”

He was staring at me.  My mother had worried about this.  She had told me that men were fragile
creatures where their wives were concerned.

“Never! I won’t deny it has been difficult. But I have never been sorry!”

“So, are you ready to go see the blacksmith?”

“Sure.” We got up and got dressed, and I threw together our stuff, “where does it live?”

“Just up the road. Follow the smoke.”

Distopia Chapter 039: How many do you have on hand?

As we left the door, I saw what it meant. Just up the hill, perhaps a half mile, was a pillar of
smoke.  Straight up the hill. I was never going to get used to walking around up here. It was just a five
minute walk, but my calfs were burning by the time we got there. And I knew we had a long walk later
today.

“Johusa? You stuck around!  You want some metal work done?”

“Tnedson.” The two shook hands. “No, we have come to buy something, or several somethings, if they
are for sale.”

“Well, that sounds promising. What do you need, picks? Shovels?”

“No, knives.”

“Ah. A basic item. Not that exciting for me, of course, as something with a little more profit in it.”

“Well, that may change. What do you have?”

“Standard knives mostly. Not much call for anything different, so if someone wants them they need to
order them. But I turn out standard knives, picks, and shovels whenever I don’t have orders for other
things.”

“How many do you have on hand?”

“Well, about 10 I think. What do you want with 10 knives?”

“I think I may be able to sell them at a profit.”

“That would be strange. Pretty standardized price for knives, you know, one packet of skins.”

‘Yes, well, I am wondering how much a knife would cost in sacks of grain.”

“Sacks of grain? That would make for an awkward trade. Heavy to carry and all that.”

“Yes, but that is what I think I will be able to get my hands on. So what would be your price?”

“Wow, that is awkward. I hate to cheat you but… how about two sacks of grain? We are talking standard
sized sacks, no? About yeah high?” He held his hand up to his waist.” Johusa looked at me, and I
nodded. Two sacks??! I knew the price here in the mountains would be less than we would pay on the
plains, but only two sacks?
“That would be fine. One thing tho, I may need to take the knives on consignment. I will take all ten, and
try to sell them. And even if I don’t, I will give you a heap of skins for your trouble.”

“Trouble? The possibility of selling ten knives at a single sale trouble? No, you take them. I mean, how
long  would it take you to figure out if they would sell?”

“Well, we will get home tonight, and I can find out tomorrow or the next day. Then, if they don’t sell, I
will send an offspring back with them.”

“Great. Take them. You try to sell them, and you don’t need to pay me anything if they don’t sell.”

“Thanks.”
Distopia Chapter 040: How can you cheat him like that?

 I didn’t say anything until we were a ways down the trail. “Johusa! How can you cheat him like that?”

“Cheat him, what do you mean?”

“Only two sacks of grain for a knife!”

“The whole point of trade, my dear, is to buy low and sell high. Did he seem unhappy to get two sacks of
grain for each knife?”

“Well, no. it practically threw them at you.”

“So, there you go. In a good trading situation everyone wins. Tnedson will be very content with his two
sacks per knife, at least for a while. And I am sure your brother will be content with the deal we give
him. And in the process we will gain as well. Everyone gains. Speaking of which…”

We had just gotten to a fork in the path and Johusa led me on the left hand one (uphill, of course).  It
wasn’t long before we got to a house, and Johusa led me over to the barn.

“Greg!” it said, shaking a young man’s hand who we met just inside the door.

“Johusa. What are you doing here?”

“On our way home. We stayed the night at the clan hall, we had some business with the blacksmith. And
I have some with you.”

“Yes?”

“I need some bags carried, a long way, heavy bags. And everyone knows you have bred the strongest
sons in the mountains.”

“OK. What price are you proposing?”

“Well, it will be a long porting.  Very long. So I am proposing one in ten.”

“One in ten! That must be a long porting. What is the material?”

“Grain.”

“Grain? How many bags are you thinking?”

“I’m not sure. At least seventy.”

“Seventy bags of grain? Where are you going to get… well, not my business.  When do you want us?”
“I will send one of my brothers. It might be the day after tomorrow, or it might be longer after that. It
might even be in two stages.”

“OK. Seven sacks of grain. My wife won’t know what to do with all of that!  Call us when you are ready.”

We walked along and I thought about what had just happened. So now the price was closer to three
sacks of grain per knife… two for the blacksmith and one for the porter.
Distopia Chapter 041: Our week is up

I was tired by the time we got back. Very tired. I could see that Sabbath days were going to be hard on
me until I got used to walking around these mountains. I almost cried when, as we approached the
house, Johusa said, “So, tomorrow morning we will need to get up early to go down to your Festin’s
house.”

He saw my look, and said, “Don’t you want to come?”

“Oh, I would love to go see Festin and Mistine again. But I am very tired from the walking yesterday and
today.”

“Well then, I can take Hekeza. He has been dying to learn more about your people. And I was going to
take him anyway, to bring word back to Greg and his brothers.”

Hekeza was indeed excited when we told him. He could hardly stop talking about  it all through the day
and at dinner. And then that night, soon after dinner was over and everyone had gone behind their
curtain, our curtain pulled aside and he and Ruh came into our little chamber, undressed for bed and
with blankets over their shoulders.

“Yes, Hekeza?” I asked, but Johusa said,

“Ah, come to sleep? That’s right, our week is up isn’t it.” At my look it continued, “it’s a rule. Kids aren’t
allowed to sleep under a bed for the first week after someone brings a girl to his bed. I remember
waiting impatiently for Receba’s week to finish.”

“You were still sleeping under peoples beds when Receba came home?”

He looked at me, “I was still sleeping under peoples beds until you came home! Did you think we wasted
space on a bed for me before I had you?”

I had indeed thought that, but didn’t say so, “so how do the kids know where to sleep?”

“Well, they can sleep wherever they want as long as it isn’t too crowded.”

“I always thought that they slept under their parents beds. That is where they go each night.”

“They go there to get undressed and put their clothes away. Then they mix around. Some of them like
just one spot. But Hekeza is like me, always moving around. And I think Ruh just wants to be near you.
You pray with Ruh, and I will pray with Hekeza.”

That was awkward, but we prayed. I really did like Ruh. But I wasn’t exactly looking forward to having
her under my bed.
Distopia Chapter 042: Where is Johusa?

The next morning I felt better, at least as far as my tiredness was concerned. In spite of the kids under
our bed I had slept better than I had since I had come here. I was getting used to all the noise, and the
walking had really tired me out.

I almost thought of changing my mind. But Hekeza was so excited about going on the trip, just it and
Johusa, the two of them, that I hadn’t had the nerve.  I packed a lunch for them, and kissed them on
their way.

But the rest of the day was nerve wracking. It seemed to go on forever. And it seemed like I could do
nothing right in the kitchen or in the barn. I had thought I was beginning to get the hang of these various
jobs and the way they did things, but today nothing came right.

And as time went on, morning, lunch, the afternoon, I began to worry. Where was Johusa?

I was actually in bed, and almost crying, when I heard a thumping from outside. I threw something
around me and ran to the door, only to have it open practically in my face. “Johusa. Why are you so
late?” I asked, and then,

“Where’s Hekeza?” came from behind me. It was Srah.

Distopia Chapter 043: They had a proposal

Johusa answered her, “I left him at Greg’s. He is going to go with them tomorrow morning down to the
rendezvous to get the grain.”

He hugged me, and since I wouldn’t be going outside, I took off the robe and hurried over to the stove
where I had left him some dinner cooking. It and Srah and Srah’s husband all came over to the table
while it told the story. (I also noticed a couple of small heads poking out from underneath the curtains,
but none of the offspring came to sit with the  adults.)

“We went down to Festin’s. The same way we came up,” it said to me, “and arranged the whole thing. I
gave him one of the knives as a present, for his work in arranging the marriage and his hospitality and
all. And then we arranged for the rest of the knives… nine sacks of grain each!”

It hurried to reassure me, “And he was thrilled! First of all with the knife, of course, which he told me he
had figured he wouldn’t have been able to afford for at least two years. But he is sure he can get a full
ten sacks of grain for them, easily. So he will be gaining nine sacks of grain. And nine sacks of grain, he
tells me, is about a third of his normal harvest. So to just have that dropped on him like this… he was
incredibly excited.”

“He is going to bring the first part of the payment tomorrow, and then go on to market. He has twenty
sacks of grain at his house, and he says your father has at least another twenty sacks, which he is going
to borrow. Then he will go off to the market and come back the day after tomorrow with the rest of the
payment over the next two days.”

He looked at Srah and her husband. “I left Hekeza with Greg. He and I went to Greg’s house straight
from Festin’s. We found what we hope will be a quick, or as quick as possible, way from Festin’s to
Greg’s.  I will trust to Greg and his sons to figure out how to get the grain from where the plains meet
the forests to us and to the blacksmiths.”

It looked back at me, “but the big thing. The really big thing, is what Festin and your father and I talked
about. I was thrilled with this trade, and talked to Festin and said something about ‘this should cover me
for a while’ or somesuch. And he insisted I go and talk to your father.”

”They sat me down and… came up with a proposal. They proposed that we build a house at the place
that we found today. A house and a trading ‘place’. Instead of bringing all of our grain up here, we build
a storehouse for it there. And then people can bring metal items, and meat, and skins, and anything else
that we have a lot of in the mountains down to our storehouse. And the plains people, particularly
Festin, can come and trade things there. Then Festin can take it to their market and sell it for a profit,
and bring back even more things to trade.”
Distopia Chapter 044: What do you think of bread?

It was a whirlwind next few weeks. We used up almost all of our profit from the first sale buying lumber
and labor.  Everyone was as excited as we were, everyone realized how good this would be for both
peoples. And I think many of them were equally excited to meet people from the other peoples.

We ended up with a perfectly enormous storehouse, a nice house, an equally enormous cold storage
area, and a ‘store’… a separate building with an area to display smaller items and keep records and
things. And we also had a nice variety of things already for sale.  People were so sure that we would sell
them for a nice profit (especially since they had a chance to talk to Festin about how much they would
bring at the plains market) that they just left the things there and didn’t make us pay for them until we
had traded.

Oh, and one very funny thing happened. At least I thought it was funny. It was toward the end of the
building, when our house was already in place, and we had just about everyone in both communities
there that day. I decided to bake bread. It was fairly easy to feed a large number of people with bread.
So with Srah and a couple of her egg donor offspring helping me, we made an enormous batch of bread
the night before, and spent all morning (we got up very early) baking.

So the kids from the mountains got their first taste of bread. I was wandering around serving everyone,
when I got to the circle of children, all of my new nephews and nieces. So I decided to ask them, “What
do you think of bread?”

They looked at me, and finally one of them said, “It’s good, but not as good as ice cream.”
Distopia Chapter 045: It’s a bit lonely

Two weeks after we had everything built, and Festin had already made two trips back and forth to
market, causing a tremendous uproar there if he and Hekeza (now that was one excited boy, getting to
go to the plains market) were to be believed, when I lay in bed with Johusa.

“So, wife, how are you enjoying our new life?”

“Oh, it’s wonderful “I said,” only…”

“Only what?”

“Only, it’s a bit lonely.”

He laughed, which miffed me a bit. But then he asked, “So, you wouldn’t mind a little company?

“I propped myself up on one elbow, “What do you mean?”

“Festin is talking about moving here, to live with us. And Hekeza would like to come down. It looks like
we will be able to use him in the storeroom and wandering up and down to the blacksmith to arrange
things. He has really taken to us and this idea of a store.”

I thought about it. I really would like to have someone else to come and live with us, “that would be
great!”
Distopia Chapter 046: And how do you mountain people go about doing
that?

We were sitting at the table, Mistine and I, and I looked down the table at Hekeza. I was sitting in the
‘mother’ slot, as this was Johusa’s house. Johusa and Festin had just gone outside, but Hekeza was
helping himself to more food. I turned to Mistine, “I think it is about time that Hekeza brought a girl
home to his bed.”

She grinned at me, “I agree. And how do you mountain people go about doing that?”

“We leave it to the boy. He has got to figure out where to get the girl. But don’t you think Hekeza is
getting old enough?”

The poor boy was staring at his plate and blushing furiously. And so of course Mistine poured it on,
“Well, it is better than having him sleep under me. He certainly has matured recently.”

The boy stuffed his mouth with the last of the food on his plate and rushed, out. Mistine and I looked at
each other and laughed, and I levered myself and my enormous stomach off the chair and went to my
bed to get some clothes for the day.

“My father-brother,” said Hekeza that lunch, “I would like to have a girl in bed.”

Mistine and I glanced at each other. I certainly hadn’t expected him to respond so soon. Bold boy. But it
wasn’t our job to say anything.

“My brother-son,” said Johusa, “it is well that you are thinking of that. Our house could certainly use the
addition of another beautiful girl. What are you going to do?”

“My father-brother, I would like to ask you to get me a wife. From the plains.”

Johusa sat back, and looked at Festin,  “leave us, Hekeza, I would talk with your father-brother, and
mother-sisters.”

When he had left, we looked at each other.  “Not a bad choice, as far as I can see. Another mountain boy
married to a plains girl would make a nice addition to our store here. Festin?”

“Hekeza is perhaps a bit  young, as is Justina. But it is not the same with you, and unless I miss my guess,
it was my sister and my wife that put him up to this.”

Johusa looked at me, and I said, “we said it was time for him to get a girl to his bed…’ my voice trailed off
and Mistine continued.

“But we hadn’t thought that he would wish for Justina, nor had we really thought he would take us up
so soon.”
“Do you think he is too young?” Johusa asked her.

“No. No not really. He has taken amazing initiative, coming to live with us, and working in the store. I
think he will do well with a girl, as well as any of you boys can do.” She grinned, which lightened the
mood.

“Do you think it will be hard to convince your father?”

Festin looked at Restina, “No, I think we can manage.”

Distopia Chapter 047: Finally

It took a month to finish arranging and for Hekeza to bring her back. And Johusa made the young couple
sleep ‘under bed’ for the first four months (which I objected to. But in the end I think it did help
Justina  adapt to the new life quickly. And she came into it younger than I did, which I think helped).

He had threatened to make them sleep there for the whole year, as was the rule for many mountain
people, but when Justina came up pregnant after three months he relented and made them the nicest
bed in the house. 

--

“Finally.”

The commander read the rest of the report, and turned to his lieutenant who had brought it to him, “I
don’t think the rest of it will take long. Now that the first marriage has happened, they have a trading
post set up, and the linguistic changes are spreading like wildfire…”

“So, soon we can contact them, and begin building up industry.”

“Yes.”
Distopia Chapter 048: Get the children inside

We sat around the dinner table,   Johusa and I, along with the half dozen offspring from our families.
Hekeza and Justina were off to the blacksmiths for something, and Festin and Mistine were visiting her
father.

Receba… not the Receba my sister in law, but Receba our oldest daughter, came running into the house,
“Mother, Father, come quick. There’s a fire!”

We went running out of the house, following my beloved daughter. I still remembered the day when she
was weaned and we had had to take her off to my parents house. I had thought my heart would break.

But of course my parents, living only a two hour walk away, had let us see her often. Now that she was
able to make the walk on her own, it seemed that she was here with us as often as she was with them.
And beloved by all.

Outside the house we saw what she was referring to. It wasn’t fire, not a grass or forest fire anyway. It
was flame and smoke in the air. High up in the air and coming closer. Closer and closer to us.

“Get the children inside,” Johusa yelled, “into the cold room.”

I wondered what good that would do, and perhaps he did too. But what else was there to do? Certainly
the cold room would stand a fire, but what was this thing? I had been trained to obedience not
foolishness, and I grabbed Receba and the others (who had followed us out). “Receba” I said, get the
baby, come to the cold room!”

She nodded and raced off, while I herded the others. Soon we were all in the farthest corner of the cold
room. I wondered what was happening outside.
Distopia Chapter 049: He still stood and waited

Johusa watched, with one corner of his eye, Receba and his wife herd the children into the cold room,
while the majority of his attention was focused on the incoming spaceship.

For that was what it was, he  was sure. His parents had passed down to him what had been passed
down to them, the story of the founding of the rebel colony. Warnings to hide and breed and prepare
for the day the fleet would return to take them back in victory.

And Restina’s father had had an even more dramatic story. How in the beginning his great, great,
grandfather Jarl and his wife Eorle had come down from space along with thousands of others, to settle
this land. He had even seen their original house, an ugly box of metal (but not a useful metal. No one
could get it to melt.)

He had learned of the ancient feud, the “Republic of Man” against “the Rebels”. He had learned of the
bizarre and even obscene rules that the Republic had insisted on for their citizens; how a boy was forced
to take several girls to his bed, a different one each night.

And he had learned how the worship of God was forbidden. How those who even mentioned The Holy
Name were taken away to be ‘reeducated’, never to be seen again.

He wondered which of the two sides it was that were coming down now. He was sure that the rebels
still in the mountains, his people, would resist the Republic. From what he had gathered from his father
in law, even the plains people would resist the Republic.

He didn’t even want this ship to be from the Rebels. He was happy with his life as it was, and he didn’t
need some spaceship coming and messing it up.

He was glad that everyone, or so many, of the household were away. Festin was at market, and Mistine
and the baby had gone with him. Hekeza and his wife had gone up to the blacksmith to arrange for the
next shipment. So there was just him, Restina, and most of the kids.

But he didn’t have much choice. It was coming straight toward him, flaring to a landing about a half mile
away. He stood, and waited.

After a few minutes, one side of the ship showed a crack, and a door became a ramp.

He still stood and waited.

Distopia Chapter 050: Greetings

Three people, two boys and a girl, came out of the doorway, and stared across the grass at him. As he
didn’t move, they did, walking across to him. They shaded their eyes against the sun. He supposed that
they didn’t get much sunlight in that ship of theirs.

He stood, and waited.

They came up to him, stopping when they got close. “Greetings.”

It was amazing.  They spoke more like he did than Restina did, even after all these years. “Hello. Can I
help you?”

The girl giggled, which broke the ice some. Johusa couldn’t imagine anyone from ‘The Republic’ giggling.
It didn’t fit any of the stories he had heard. He smiled.

“Yes,” one of the boys answered, smiling as well, “we have come to trade.”

“Well, that is what we are here for. Although we don’t usually have people come to our store in
spaceships. What do you need?”

They had been talking for a couple minutes when Johusa saw Greg and his brothers coming down the
path, stern looks on their faces. “Charles,” he said, “can  you go into the cold room and tell Restina that
they can come out now?”

Charles nodded and went off. Greg and his other brothers came over.

“I would introduce you, but I am afraid I don’t know your name or where you are from,” Johusa said.

“Of course. My name is Greshkin. This is Trantar and the girl in my bed Litinu.”

“This is Greg of my clan in the mountains and his sons Sean, Mark, Henton, and Sandon.”

--

I hurried to my husband across the yard. As I came up with the children he said, “And this is my girl in
my bed Restina, my offspring, and the offspring of others. My wife is of the plains.”

I stared at the strangers. One was a girl, and she and I stared at each other as the silence stretched out.
Finally I remembered my manners and said to her, “will you come into the house while the boys talk
business? I would love to talk to you.”

She seemed startled but came willingly enough.

Distopia Chapter 051: In all the world, you are the first

“I missed your name,” I said.

“My name is Litinu.” she said. 

I turned to her, startled, “You speak like a plains dweller!”

“I can speak both ways,” she said, with an unmistakable mountain accent. “I have been studying both
ways of speaking for quite a while.

We were in the house now, and I had asked Receba to put some tea on. “You have? How did you do
that? Where did you live that you could learn both? I thought this was the only area where we lived
together.”

“It is. In all the world you and your husband are the first to live together.”

“How do you know that?!” I was a bit startled by her claim to knowledge.

“We have been watching you for quite a while. Rude of us, really, but it was our job. We have been
watching this planet and some others for years now, waiting for when the two groups would get
together and how it would go.”

I finally decided to just ask the question that had been bothering me, “Just who are you, anyway?”

She looked at me, and I could see her eyes wanting to go over her shoulders as if to seek her husband
and the other. But in the end she answered my question, “we are from the rebel fleet.”

“May He who Is be praised.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that. I was a little worried that you might wish us to be from the Republic.”

“I doubt that there are ten families on the entire planet who would wish you to be from the Republic. I
can’t say we were looking forward to the rebellion finding us, but we have always heard that the
Rebellion was less hard on certain… perversions, as they were called.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. We find some of your beliefs and actions strange, but we aren’t
here to tell you what to believe and how to live. We are here to recruit and to trade.”

“Recruit? For what?”

“For our fleet. We are going to be going back in a few years. We promised that we would and we are
going to. Both our recruiting and our trading will be to build ourselves up for the day we return.”
“Will you have to defeat the Republic fleet first? The one that my great, great, grandparents came out
on?”

She chuckled quietly, “No. That fleet is no more.” At my look she continued, “no, we didn’t destroy it, it
destroyed itself.”

“We learned the story from some ships we captured. What happened was, when the leaders of the
fleet, the military leaders, realized that they were now in exile, they took control of the fleet from the
politicals.”

This was a popular action, and for a while the fleet went on with its goal of colonizing. But after a while
they realized that there was no real purpose in even trying to obey the commands of the Republic and
they pretty much gave up. This led them to question the authority of the fleet leader, and soon
individual ships were breaking off from the fleet.”

They would take transports with them and form their own little kingdoms. Of course none of them were
strong enough to resist our fleet, so we have been wandering around taking over their governments and
liberating people. Where they needed liberating. Most of them were already pretty liberated.

We left  you all and a couple of similar colonies to the last because you didn’t need liberating at all, and
we were very interested in how you would arrange things for yourselves.”

“So, what are you going to trade?”

She leant over the table, and stared at me, as if deciding if she could trust me. Finally she spoke, “We
are going to trade  you hi-tech goods. We are going to see how quickly we can lift you all up into a higher
tech, so that you can begin producing things we can purchase for our fleet. And, as I said, we want to
recruit, but we need you at a higher tech level first.”

I thought about this for a minute, and then asked something which interested me far more, “So, how
many off-spring do you have?”
Distopia Chapter 052: Oh, I'm so sorry for you

“We have two. My oldest, also called Greshkin, is seven of your years old. And Trista, my daughter, is
two years old.” 

“Oh, I am so sorry for you.” I said. 

She looked startled, “Why do you say that?” 

“Well, if your oldest is seven, and your other is two, surely that means that there were some that were
called home?” 

“Oh. No. We were busy working and decided not to have any children for those five years.” 

My mind was in a whirl. How could any girl do that to her boy? And why would a boy permit it??! Five
years not in bed together? Johusa would have gone insane, as would any of the boys I knew. Johusa had
a hard time lasting the seven days of my time, let alone five years!

She seemed not to understand my shock tho, and said, “And you have five.” 

“Yes, four and the baby. My oldest, Receba, is also seven, just yesterday. Then one after her did not
come forth, and then I brought forth my other four. Seven months ago I brought forth the baby. In five
months we will name it… him. Soon I should be blessed again, if He Who Is wills it.” 

Speaking of the baby, I called Receba to bring it to me, and I put it to the breast. I saw the girl staring at
me. Perhaps she was being reminded of the offspring that she and her husband had refused those long
years. I leaned over my baby and almost cried for this poor girl.

The silence was awkward but Receba, having been called to the table, looked at the girl and said, “What
is that you are wearing?” 

Not a question I would have asked, and I hoped that Receba was young enough for it not to be offensive.
Indeed she was dressed very oddly. She was wearing a skirt, but over pants. And the material was… odd.
A stiff shiny material, but I didn’t think it was leather. 

“These are our clothes. We wear them on our spaceship. They are made out a kind of material called
‘plastic’ that you don’t have. These shiny things are called ‘zippers’ and they go up and down to open
the skirt or the dress or the pants.

What she was wearing was good to wear among mountain dwellers. She was covered over her whole
body, excluding only her hands and face. Even her feet were covered. Her head was bare, tho, which
would not go over well. 

“What do you have on your feet?” Receba asked. We had boots, of course, but women almost never
wore them, and even men rarely did. The mountain people had some soft leather coverings for the legs
and feet which we wore going out to the barn in the winter. But this girls boots looked hard. 

Just then a sound came from the door and I looked up to see Johusa bringing the men in. But the one
who came in right behind him looked at me and said, “Oh, I’m sorry,” and went out. The other stopped
confused, but came in at a wave from his wife. He sat down and avoided looking at me. Was I not
dressed properly? I looked at Johusa, who only shrugged his shoulders.

“My wife,” Johusa said, “this is Greshkin. Receba, bring some tea.”
Distopia Chapter 053: It is one thing to study

We all sat and drank our tea, while Johusa went  on about the things the men wished to buy, and how
they planned on paying for it. “Power plows, as some of your people have, and power axes. I have heard
of power axes, but have never seen one. Our original colonists brought some, but I have never traveled
as far as that.”

He talked for a while and then, at my ever more insistent looks, finally asked, “Greshkin, what is
wrong?”

His wife answered for him, “Among our people the women do not give breast to the children. So even
tho my husband and his brother knew this, they still managed to offend you. Greshkin, go outside and
bring Trantar in. We studied this!”

Greshkin turned to me and Johusa. “I am sorry for offending. It is one thing to study, and another to try
to ignore something that you have always been taught is wrong. The fault is mine.”

And he went from the room. I turned to his wife and asked, “You don’t give breast to the children? How
do they eat and grow? And why?”

She looked at me and began explaining. The boys came back in while she was in the middle of her
explanation.

“You see we were in the Republic. And the Republic frowned on children, especially those that were
naturally born. It was felt that if a child was loyal to his parents they would not be loyal to the state. And
so they did everything they could to prevent the child from being loyal.

One of the things they did was to invent a pill. And this pill, which the doctors were required to give the
mother immediately after birth, assuming that she had a real birth, which was also frowned upon, would
immediately ‘dry up’ the mother, to cause her breasts to cease giving milk. And if a mother had this pill
once, they would even then have a hard time with milk for her second child.

And so the doctors got used to giving this pill. It was routine. And our people, even  once we broke free,
continued this tradition. We didn’t know any better. And our men,” She glanced at her husband and the
other, “got used to the idea that a girls breasts were for her husband only. You wouldn’t take off your
shirt and go walking around outside with nothing on. Just so our women don’t let any of their breasts
ever show to anyone except their husband.

We have talked about undoing this. But no one really dares to go first. They picture everyone staring at
them, and they are embarrassed. And a girl who has already had several children, who might find it
easier, would be unable to do so.
I watched the men and chuckled. They didn’t know whether to look at me or to look away. They were
both red faced. Even the wife seemed awkward around me.

Finally Johusa broke the silence, “say, tomorrow is Sabbath. Would you like to come to church with us?”

Now they looked even more awkward, but Greshkin spoke up, “Sure.”

“Great. We are going to our plains church tomorrow, so we leave just before dawn.”
Distopia Chapter 054: They were limping after the first two hours

I think maybe that they wanted to stay late in the night and talk with us, but Johusa was pretty direct
about sending them back to the ship at night. It was one of the mountain rules, no one but family in the
house at night or in the morning. If they had needed a place to stay Johusa would have done whatever it
took to find them somewhere to sleep outside the house.

But of course these people had their own place to stay, in their spaceship only a half mile away. 

We shouldn’t have had them walk with us. We should have thought about it. Four hours of walking for
people who not used to walking even 100 yards, people who lived all of their lives in a small ship. 

They were limping after the first two hours, and it was lucky that we found a wagon going our way. 

We got to the church just before service. We usually walked faster than the wagon went. So we couldn’t
really talk to anyone before we went in; which was a shame as it was my favorite part of service. 

Not that I didn’t like the rest of the service. Two minutes after we got seated, with everyone staring at
our strangely dressed guests, we began singing. Oh, our singing was beautiful. The preaching was better
at the mountain service, and the whole day service was wonderful, but our singing made all of it pale to
insignificance. Ok, maybe that was a bit strong, because preaching was very important… but I did like
our singing. 

Our guests didn’t seem to know any of our songs; but then Johusa hadn’t when he started coming here
with us either. Oh they were wonderful songs, all about the love of God, and how He created the world,
and how He cares for us. We sang with six parts, three for the women, three for the men. I was an alto,
and I loved it. 

It had taken Johusa a long time and a lot of work to learn his part (baritone), but he enjoyed singing
now, and we sang every evening. Hekeza had picked it up a lot faster, and was a wonderful tenor. 

They didn’t know any of the songs, but they seemed happy enough standing while we sung. But they
didn’t seem at all happy during the sermon. They didn’t say anything, or act inappropriatly, but it was
the way they sat, very stiff and nervous. 

Singing, sermon, more singing, and we were finished. Not like the mountain church. After church we had
to introduce everyone to our new guests. I tried not to discuss business, but people ended up very
excited about the potential for the hi tech goods.
Distopia Chapter 055: We don’t do much preaching

Festin and Mistine were there and walked back with us.  Mistine and I were walking ahead with Litinu,
and after a while I asked her, “So, you didn’t like our service?”

“Oh, it was very nice.”

“I was watching you, and you didn’t seem very happy during the sermon.”

“Oh. Well, it is very different from what we are used to.”

“The preaching in the mountains is different too. They speak much of Gods Law.  Is that what your
preaching is like?”

“We, we don’t do much preaching. We sit together, in kind of a circle, and talk about how to treat each
other. We don’t talk all that much about God.”

I thought about that. All my life I had been learning about God. From my father, and the elders at
church. I couldn’t imagine not talking about Him.

“Don’t you believe in God?” Mistine asked. She sounded as confused as I felt.

“Well, yes. God must exist, somewhere. But we don’t feel that He has much to do with us. I mean, God is
so big, and so far away. He made the whole world, what does he have to do with us?”

“You speak foolishly.” We turned. Festin had come up behind us.

“You speak as if God was a mere man, as if His love was so weak that He didn’t have any to spare for us,
or that His knowledge was so small that He didn’t know about us. But that isn’t what God is like at all.”

“God is there no matter how small an event. God is there when His smallest child is hurt. Do you really
think God knows less about His children than a mother knows about her children?”

Litinu looked as if she was shocked to hear Festin talking so forcefully. But what else could he do? She
had spoken her heresy in front of his children, and all of our children for that matter.

We walked on for a while in silence.

Distopia Chapter 056: You wouldn’t mind?

We were sitting down for lunch, all of us except for Hekeza and Litinu who were still at church in the
mountains, when Mistine said, ‘you should bring your offspring next time.’

Litinu looked startled, “Really? You wouldn’t mind?”

“Mind?” I said, “why would we mind having your offspring come? How many offspring do you have,
anyway?” I asked Trantar.

“Oh, I don’t have any.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Said Mistine.

“No need to be sorry. I haven’t… married yet.”

I suppose we all looked shocked. The boy was old enough to have  been, among us, married for at least
ten  years. Litinu explained, “we don’t get married as soon as you do.  Some of us get married earlier
than others, but most of us don’t get married nearly as soon as you do. But if you would really like to see
our offspring, we can bring them.”

She was assured as to this point, and we sat down to lunch.

I know it is wicked to laugh, even to oneself, at another’s difficulties, but I really couldn’t help it. They
had such a hard time eating our food. I don’t know what their food must be like, but it obviously wasn’t
like ours.

--

“Mum, Da!” Greshkin leapt down from its bunk and rushed into its mothers arms. It embraced the
offspring awkwardly and it moved on to its father, who was holding Trista in its arms.

“Hey Gresh,” it said, “Miss us?”

“Like, wow. The bunk was real lone without anybody here.”

“Well, we said you could go and stay with Gran and Gra too.”

“No, better here anyway. I ate with them, tho, like you told me to.”

“How was it down there?” It asked, and listened for the next hour as its father told it some of what they
had done. Its face was lit up with excitement until the father said, “and we will be going down again on
Friday with the next batch of goods.”

Its face fell, “Da, you don’t have to leave again, do you?”
Litinu had been preparing food, with Trista clinging to her skirt, but at this it turned and bent down,
“would you like to come with? The people there said they would like you and Trista to come. It would be
good for our mission, and they have plenty of offspring…”

It was all ready to go on with the convincing speech, but Gresh’s father broke in, ‘Of course it’d like,
wouldn’t you?” and Gresh’s rapt face answered both of them.

Gresh and Trista were away to school, and Litinu asked, “it really wants to go, then?”

“Sure. It’s a son. It’s in the hormones. Go new places, try new things.”

“Oh, speaking of which, I need to call his teacher and arrange for some intensive language learning for
it.”
Distopia Chapter 057: What would the planet be like?

Gresh had all of its stuff in the shuttle the day before they were to go, it was so excited. Luckily the
shuttle had nothing else to do, and all of the crew were amused to see the excited offspring.  It had even
remained excited in spite of all the extra school, the hours and hours in the language learning
simulation.

They had decided to stick with the mountain dialect at first. Two dialects at once would be a strain even
on its young mind. For Trista they had just used an ‘exposure’ sim to both dialects. No one would expect
an offspring at two to speak well anyway, so they just wanted it to be comfortable.

It was driving them crazy with all of its questions. And the night before was a nightmare for the father
and mother. It was long past Gresh’s bedtime before they could finally get it to sleep. And since its bed
was only two feet from their own, and it had the upper bunk, it was easily able to pester them with
questions.

But the great day finally came, and they sat in the shuttle. Mother was at the pilots controls, and Father
in the navigator seat. In the back sat a young egg donor from their ship, Tristinu, who was coming along
as tech advisor on this trip. It was strapped in next to Trista, while on the other side Greshkin Jr., was
noisily peering out of the shuttle window, which at the moment showed nothing but the inside of the
shuttle dock.

But Gresh didn’t care. It was in the shuttle now, and they were going to go down to the planet. It had
never been so excited, except maybe when mother had told it that they were going to have a daughter
in the house. Which had turned out OK, it thought, looking at Trista, but this was going to be better, it
was sure.

It heard father and mother going over the pre-flight checklist. It knew that was its name was called that
from its classes. It even knew some of the parts of the checklist. It watched the people outside its
window as they got the shuttle ready from the outside, and moved stuff out of the way.

What would the planet be like? It had never seen a planet. Not from up close anyway, not to walk about
on it. It closed its eyes and tried to imagine it. It thought of the hydroponic deck, with all its plants, and
tried to imagine it going off forever into the distance.

But it could  only stand to have its eyes closed for a few seconds. Then it opened them again. Oh, good,
the people were all going away and shutting the doors. It peered through the glass sideways, waiting for
the opening of the big front doors. They must be sucking out (evacuating) the air now. And soon… yes,
there it was, the big doors were opening!
Soon they were all the way open. And now mother would be… yes, the shuttle was creeping forward. It
could see more and more outside, see the stars. Of course it could always see the stars, anytime it
wanted. Even on the bed vision screen.

But this was different. This time the stars were really there, really right outside this little shuttle. It
looked across and could see the stars outside of Trista’s window too. Gresh looked at Tristinu. It was
trying to act all grown up, but it could see that its head was turned toward the window too.

Grinning Gresh turned back to its window. It didn’t care if everyone knew it was excited.  All of the kids
with its class had been jealous and it was getting to go on this trip.  Getting to go down to a planet.

The shuttle was out of that bay now, and it could see nothing but stars out of its window.  The shuttle
started to turn, and the stars skewed in the port. And then Gresh could see the ship.  It had seen the
ship hundreds of times before on the vision screen but it was still exciting to see it from the shuttle.

The shuttle settled into a straight course, and nothing seemed to change for a while. Gresh moved about
anxiously, and Tristinu looked at it, annoyed. But Pa came back,

“Pa! How long till we get there?”

“Not long Gresh. About an hour and we will enter atmosphere. You will like that, it is exciting.” Turning
to Trista, “And how is my daughter doing?”

“Good Pa. Pa, I have to go potty.”

Gresh was used to weightless flight, and the toilet facilities, but it still found watching Pa help Trista
more interesting than the same old stars. And then Gresh went too. More for something to do than
because it needed to. And then Tristinu went. Probably because of all the coffee it had been drinking
while they waited for the shuttle to get going, Gresh thought. Gresh didn’t drink coffee, but it had heard
that it made you pee.
Distopia Chapter 058: They can’t see you

Everyone was done going potty, and Gresh had nothing to do again. It tried watching vision screen, but
that was boring, at least too boring to do while riding in the shuttle. But then it remembered the
program that Ma had set up for it. A program that would be interesting even here.

“Greetings.” Da said, using that funny way of talking that Gresh was learning.

“Hello. Can I help you?”  The sperm donor said back. 

It was dressed really funny. Gresh knew it couldn’t say so tho. It wouldn’t be nice, and its people needed
to trade with these people, and you didn’t do that by upsetting them.

Gresh enjoyed the video, which was really bouncy as it had been taken from Mums wrist. It showed
pretty much all of Mum and Dad’s time with the people on the planet. There was one section which
was  chopped up, with a part of the middle gone.

It was well into the video when Da’s voice came over the com, “Prepare for re-entry. Tristinu, is
everyone buckled in?”

“Yes.” Answered Tristinu, after looking at Greshes buckles. “We are all strapped down.”

Da had been right, and Gresh really enjoyed the re-entry. It couldn’t see anything of the planet for the
first bit, but then the shuttle had turned, and it caught a glimpse.  It was a bit disappointed, as the planet
looked just like it had in the vision screen reports. In fact the vision screen reports were clearer. But still,
this was for real!

Soon it was seeing ‘mountains’ and ‘oceans’ and even ‘rivers’ as the shuttle dropped lower and lower.
It’s heart felt like it was going to beat right out of its chest. Then the shuttle was even lower, and it could
see ‘houses’. And even people! People looking up at the descending shuttle. People looking at itself!

It waved, frantically, at the window.

“Gresh,” Tristinu said, “they can’t see  you.”

It stopped, disappointed. Why could it see them and they couldn’t see it?

But the disappointment was over quickly as the shuttle went lower and lower, and slower and slower,
until finally it flared to a stop over an area on the ground that Gresh could see had already been
squished down by the shuttle last time.

The shuttle was down and Gresh was reaching for its buckles, but Tristinu said, “wait Gresh.”
It waited, impatiently, until finally Da said, “you all my unbuckle now.” And it did. It was the first to
unbuckle, and raced to the door. Not that there was far to go… about four steps down the aisle, where it
stood, dancing up and down.
Distopia Chapter 059: Eager to get out?

Finally Da came out of the pilots compartment and saw him waiting. “Eager to get out, eh? Didn’t you
like your first shuttle ride?” 

“Oh, I loved it! It was great! But I want to see the planet. To go out and see it!” 

“Ok G’kin. Just a sec.” And Da reached over its shoulder and pressed the button to release the door and
lower it into a ramp. 

Gresh waited, as it knew it was supposed to, until the ramp was all the way down. Then it raced down
the ramp, onto the ground… and fell flat on its face. 

It happened so fast it hardly had time to know it was falling before it was face down in, in the loose,
brown stuff with all of the green and yellow stuff in it. And the brown stuff was in its nose, and his nose
was running or even bleeding and it couldn’t really see and it was crying… 

“Hey, G’kin. You all right? You have to be more careful walking around. You aren’t used to how soft the
ground is.” 

Gresh looked at its Da, who was helping it to its feet. At first it couldn’t understand what it had said.
Then suddenly its brain made a shift and it realized that it… he… had been speaking the planet dialect. 

He looked down at his clothes. They were filthy, like they had never been before. It stood up carefully,
feeling the ground shift bizarrely under his feet, his boots. It slapped at its clothes. Much of the brown
stuff fell off, but some still remained. 

‘It’s Ok, G’kin. Ma will wash them later. Come, we’re going to take everybody over to Johusa’s house and
introduce you, Trista, and Tristinu.” That news calmed and even excited Greshkin. It looked around until
it spotted the ‘house’ which it knew from the video. Already it could see offspring coming out of the
house and milling about excitedly. It considered waving back, but was suddenly shy. It had never met
anyone new before, not offspring. An occasional adult from another ship, but never offspring.
Distopia Chapter 060: It's the floor out here

Soon the adults were ready, and with Ma holding Trista they began their walk across the ‘field’ to the
others, who were coming across in their turn. When they got close enough Gresh could see that they
were led by the boy ‘Johusa’ who had first met them, and the other boy ‘Festin’ that had been on the
walk home from church.

The two groups came together, and Gresh and the other offspring stared at each other until finally Da
said, “This is my boy Greshkin, or ‘Gresh’ as we call him, and my girl Trista.”

Johusa stuck out his hand, which Gresh shook, as it had learned on the video. Then Johusa was saying,
“and this is my girl Receba,” and he went on to introduce his other children.

Gresh stared at the other offspring. The older people moved off in a group, with Ma carrying Trista, so
Gresh was left all alone with them. “Do you want to come see our house?” asked the oldest girl.

Gresh nodded and they all raced off toward the house, Gresh considerably in the rear. How did one run
on this brown stuff? Everything was so uneven, it thought it was going to trip again if it went any faster.

He was still aways from the house when they stopped at the door. It saw the boy Nestor  turn and say
something to Receba, who did not seem happy. But she smiled when it came up and they went in the
‘house’.

It was actually very large. Gresh hadn’t been sure from the video screen. But there was room in it for a
big table, three beds, and lots of other stuff toward the front.  It guessed it was twice as big as his cabin
at home. The offspring must like having all this space in their cabin.

Receba was introducing him to her ma, ‘Restina’; and then to Nestors Ma, “Mistine”. Then she said
there was another ma and da out at the barn. But she called them a ‘mother’ and ‘father’. They hadn’t
been in the house long before Restina said, “Ok, kids, outside now.  Since you have a visitor we won’t
ask you to work right now, but you need to get out of our way.”

And Receba took the group outside. They had only walked a few yards before Nestor said, “what’s
wrong with you? Can’t you walk?”

Gresh turned red. That wasn’t a very nice comment. But it supposed it must look funny. “It is the floor
out here. It isn’t what I am used to. It is so soft and uneven.”

Everyone stared at the ground. “Floor?” Said one of the  younger boys.

“He means ground.” Said Receba. “They don’t have ground where he comes from. My Mother and
Father told me that.”

Nestor looked at her, “how can you not have ground?” Then it looked at Gresh.
“We don’t have ground because there is no ‘outside’. Just space. And you can’t go there or you will die.
So we have to stay inside.”

“Weird,” one of the other boys said, “Always staying inside. I wouldn’t like that. Don’t you have any
trees?”

“We have trees.” Gresh said, “Altho not big ones like you have.”

This led to a proposal for a contest at tree climbing among some of the boys. Gresh didn’t try to
compete, and the girls didn’t even seem interested except for watching.
Distopia Chapter 061: Tommorrow it will probably be climbing trees

“Did you have a good time playing with the other sons and daughters?”

Gresh sat on his bunk with his food-tray on his lap, and looked down at his ma where it sat next to Da
and Litinu on the big bunk. Trista sat on a plastic mat on the bunk in front of them where Ma and Da
could keep an eye on her and make sure it didn’t mess the bunk. Altho it wasn’t easy to mess a bunk
with food and drink tubes, it was possible.

“Oh, yes. It was hard though, walking on that stuff. And some of the sperm donors weren’t nice.”

Da looked up at Gresh when it said that, “not nice how?”

“They said intolerant things; things that put me down.”

“What did they say?” Asked Tritina.

“They said I walked funny. Which I did, but it was not nice of them to say so.”

Da said, “They will do that. They don’t live on fleet, they live on planet. And on planet, well, things are
rougher. If something is, they will say it often, even if it hurts a person.”

“It is hard to explain, but they live a hard life, where they can die easily. And if someone sees something
wrong, and doesn’t say it, then they can hurt other people.”

“It is like us with something mechanical on ship. If you see something not right, even tho you are not
old, you can tell someone and they will listen, and not be mad at you for speaking.”

--

“Well, it went to sleep fast.” Ma and Da lay together in the bunk, Da having just checked on Gresh.
Tritina lay facing away from them.

“It is probably tired from all of the different physical activity. Tomorrow it will probably be climbing
trees.”

“Oh, Gresh, you won’t let him will you?”

Greshkin propped himself up on his elbow, “we have to. If it is going to come with us, and play the role
of a child-ambassador as we discussed with the elders, then it will need to engage in their activities.”

“Oh. It is just so hard to think of it falling down, like it did this morning.”

“Hey, it is  a son. Sons are full of hormones that make them want to do such things.”
“I know all about those hormones…”
Distopia Chapter 062: Hey! Where are you going?

“Ma, I’m showered and dressed,” Gresh said. This last was not quite accurate, as it was still pulling its
pants up and fitting its hands in its sleeves, “ can I go now to the planet-house?”

“OK. Be back for morning-meal and school.”

“Yes Ma…” came the voice from the hatch rapidly fading away. Surely it could pull up the zipper while it
ran!?

“Hey!” Where are you going?”

Gresh paused in his headlong flight. One of the ‘boys’, the Pa called Festin, was coming out of that big 
building next to the house.

“I am going to see and greet the boys and girls, offspring, from yesterday. I am Greshkin from the ship.”

“I know who you are. But you can’t come now. No one but family is allowed at the house until after
breakfast. You can come back in an hour.”

“But my Ma said I could come.”

“Not now. Go home.”

Hekeza came out of the storehouse behind Festin, “hard on the kid.”

“Well, he has to learn manners. The only thing worse than the reaction from our women if he had burst
into the house would have been what his own mother would have said when she found out.”

--

“Gresh? Why are you back”

“They said I had to come back, Da. They said I couldn’t come over till after morning-meal.”

“Oh, yes. I forgot. That is an important rule among the mountain people. Unless you are ‘family’ you
don’t ever go to their house before they are done breakfast.”

“You would think they wouldn’t mind for an offspring,” Ma put it.

“You never can tell with cultural rules,” Tritinu put in.  Some of the things I have read about on some
planets. I know one girl who got herself married to a man, it glanced over at Greshkin, “by accepting his
invitation to his house. When it got up in the morning it found it was married. And the elders wouldn’t
let it out of it, either.  They said it should have studied better, or asked. And that they couldn’t afford to
offend an entire culture.”
“Last I heard, though, it was actually rather happy. Says it was the best mistake it ever made.”

“Well G’kin, guess you will have to wait till after morning-meal to go over.” Said Da.

“After morning meal is school,” Ma commented.

“No. Most of its school right now will be spending time with the planet-offspring. Since it can’t do that
before morning meal, or after evening meal, that is when it can do the rest of his school.”

Ma looked as if it might argue the point, but instead was quiet for a minute and nodded its head.
Distopia Chapter 063: He put this stick on his shoulder Ma

Litinu sat in the shuttle, working on the plans for future shipments. Immediately after morning-meal
Gresh had sat on the ramp and watched for the first sign that the planet–dwellers morning-meal was
done, and had raced off when it saw the first person leaving the house.

Soon thereafter wagons had started coming.  Festin took their goods to the local market, but
farmer/traders from other markets had heard of their goods and were coming from far and wide now.

There had been quite a bit of discussion of how to make this work, and this plan was the one decided
on. Soon, probably within a few months, there would be a population center here, and more and more
hi-tech goods could be sold and used. They already had plans for things to sell to the miners to get them
to find the rare metals that the fleet needed.

Suddenly it heard a noise from the ramp and turned from Its seat (at the pilots station. Space was at
such a premium in a shuttle that everything had to do double duty.) and saw Gresh. It gasped.

Gresh was quite a sight. It had blood coming down from his eye and nose. Litinu ran to it.

For the first few minutes it was too busy crying and it’s ma was too busy using the analyzer and then the
coagulator/seamer to get the story. But eventually it said, “they hit me Ma. One of the sons just hit me.
It put a stick on it’s shoulder and told me to knock it off. So I did and it hit me! I got up and yelled at it
and it hit me again! So I ran home.”

“That’s right. We will talk to your Da about it. You must have done something that you didn’t
understand. But still, they shouldn’t hit you. It is never right to hit.”

But Gresh had only been back home for a half hour before it said, “Ma, can I go back now?”

Certainly Litinu wanted it to go back, its fidgeting was driving it crazy. But, “don’t  you want to talk to Da
first?”

Gresh thought about that, “I’ll go back and talk to Da there. It’s just talking with some sons.”

“OK but don’t bother Da. You stand next to it until it talks to you, and then you can talk.”

“Sure Ma.” It knew that, all kids knew that. You never just  just started talking to a Da or Ma who was
already talking to someone.

It ran back. Da was standing in front of the ‘store’ with a couple of other Da’s. It ran up and waited.
Distopia Chapter 064: It hit me Pa!

“This is my offspring Greshkin,” Da said to the other Da's when Gresh came up.

The other Da’s offered their hand, at least Gresh thought they were all Da’s. Some of them were young
enough to be tweens.  But Da had told him that these people didn’t have tweens. One of them said,
“been scrapping, eh? Did you give as well as you got?”

Gresh didn’t understand this and looked at Da. “He doesn’t understand all of your language yet, we
speak somewhat differently.” Da turned to Gresh, “it wants to know how you hurt yourself.”

Gresh figured that this was a good opportunity to let Da know what had happened, “they hit me Da. One
of the sons just hit me. It put a stick on it’s shoulder and told me to knock it off. So I did and it hit me! I
got up and yelled at him and it hit me again! So I ran home. Then Ma said I could come and tell you.”

Da looked confused, “they hit you?”

But one of the men was yelling, yelling loud, “Blendur!! Josh, you tell Blendur to get over here!”

The Da was taking a strip of something off his waist as the sperm donor that it had yelled at ran to get
another one. The second one, the boy who had hit Gresh, came quickly over, its eyes widening at the
sith of the thing the boy was holding,

“Yes, Father?”

“Blendur, did you scrap with this boy?”

“Sure father.”

“You put a stick on your shoulder and told him to knock it off?”

“Sure.” The boy looked confused. He had obviously done something wrong, but what?

“And you knew he was from the space ship? Where perhaps they don’t have sticks to knock off
shoulders? And so perhaps he didn’t know that you were going to hit him when he did so? Did I teach
you to fight dirty like that?”

The boys face went white, and he turned and dropped his pants, causing Gresh to blush. But what
happened afterwards…

And the boy didn’t cry! He just stood up and pulled his pants back on.  Then he stuck out his hand,
“Sorry. Won’t happen again. Of course, now you know.”

As they walked off together the boy asked, “how do you get someone to fight you on your ship?”
“We don’t.”

The boy digested this, seeming confused, “I don’t understand, how do you fight then?”

They had joined the other boys. Most of them were boys that had come with their Da’s to the store. It
was an exciting time for them, getting to go with their fathers, seeing the store, the spaceship, and
getting to meet together with other boys. They all listened for Gresh’s answer.

“We don’t fight. It is wrong to hit someone else.”

Everyone laughed. Even some girls, who, attracted by the noise had come up and had the statement
related to them, grinned. Blendur turned around and faced him.

“Form a circle boys, we are going to test this out.” He said to the others, and they gathered in a ring
around Gresh.

“So you think it is wrong to hit someone, eh?”

Gresh was frozen with fear. This didn’t look good. It nodded. That was the right answer, it was sure of it.
Everyone had always said so.

“So even  tho I hit you, you won’t hit me?”

Gresh nodded again.

“What if I do something else? Will you hit me then?”

This was confusing. What could the boy mean? But Gresh knew the right answer, and shook his head.

At this the boys in the circle started calling out suggestions as to what Blendur should do. Gresh didn’t
understand some of the suggestions, but others of them made his blood run cold. And he really didn’t
like it that there were some egg donors at the edge of the crowd listening to his humiliation.

He looked wildly around, and saw a gap in the boys where a couple of the boys, getting bored with the
lack of action between Blendur and Gesh, had started their own fight. He dashed through the hole they
had left, and raced back to his Da.

He turned over his shoulder, but none of the boys were chasing him. They had instead formed a ring
around the other combatants, except for those that were drifting off to look at other things.

He came up to Da, thoroughly confused. He knew he wasn’t supposed to hit, but those boys seemed to
think he was supposed to. And they had made fun of him, which you weren’t supposed to do. But no
one had told them they were wrong.

Where was the sharing circle to discuss these things? Maybe if he stayed with Da for a while, they would
remember right behavior and apologize. Or at least forget about it and leave him alone.
Besides which, it was nice being with Da. He listened to Da telling the men about the power plow. Da
had told him about it too, how wonderful it was for plowing and farming and all. He didn’t know what
that meant, but he was proud that his Da was helping with it.

But that only lasted so long. Soon he was tired of listening and went off again. He went into the
storeroom. Tritina was there, fiddling with something. He went up to her, “Whatcha doing?”
Distopia Chapter 065: Can you wrestle?

She looked at him, her eyes angry, “Nothing. I try to talk to these men and they just listen politely and
nod their heads. But then when your Da shows up they start asking him all sorts of questions and
arguing with him.”

Gresh nodded his head, not very interested in her answer. He went off deeper into the store room.  It
was fascinating. There were huge bags, as big and as heavy as he was. And stacks of something else, all
tied up with string. And they were all packed really high.

He was about halfway down the corridor in the storeroom when he looked up on a stack and saw a
young sperm donor sitting on a pile. “Can I come up?” Gresh asked.

“Sure!” the boy said, and Gresh climbed up. He wasn’t really used to it and it took him several tries.

‘Hey. You’re the boy who won’t fight!” The boy said when Gresh made it to the top.

Greshs heart sank. Obviously the sons hadn’t forgotten the incident. 

“That’s crazy. You can’t stay around here if you won’t fight.  Every boy in the entire mountains will hear
of it, and they will make your life miserable. My name is Laibur, by the way.”

The boy sat up from where he had been laying on the pile, and shook his hand. “Say, you don’t have to
win the fight, you know. Nobody expects to win every fight. And no one is trying to hurt  you. Not
usually anyway. And the other boys won’t stand for it.”

Gresh said nothing, and the boy thought for a minute, “I know. You can fight me first, here, where no
one is looking. That way you can get used to it. I suppose if you’re not used to it, it must be hard the first
time.  Like when your brother brings a girl home and suddenly she is bossing you about. But you get
used to it. You want to try?”

Gresh shook his head, and the boy stared at him. “You. You’re not afraid are you?”

Gresh, if asked that by anyone else, would have said that, yes, he was afraid. But it was obvious from the
boys voice that that would be an unthinkable thing to say, so he shook his head.

“You can talk, can’t you?”

“Yes.”

“So why won’t you fight? You are making me just guess and I am running out of ideas.”

“It is wrong.”

“Why?”
Gresh thought about it. It was a basic belief. He had always been taught it. And  this son was asking 
‘Why’?

“I dunno. My Da just told me it was.”

“So your Da told you you can’t fight?!”

“Yea. I think so.”

“Well, you better ask him again, because you can’t live here if you won’t fight. You just can’t.”

The boy laid back and stared at the ceiling, then he sat up again, “can you wrestle?”

“What’s that?”

“Oh my. Here, I’ll teach you to wrestle. Then you can at least do that. This is a good place, it is so soft.”

Gresh had never heard anyone tell him he couldn’t wrestle, so he nodded his head.

The boy stood up, and motioned Gresh to do the same. “Now, you put your feet apart like this, and you
hold your hands apart like this.”

Gresh thought it looked silly, but he did as the boy said. “Now, the idea is to get the other boy off his
feet. Like this!”

At those words the boy darted in and Gresh found himself laying on his back trying to breathe. “You, you
hit me!” He accused.

“Nope. You’re not allowed to hit in wrestling. Now stand up and I’ll show you what I did.”

“It felt like hitting,” complained Gresh as he stood to his feet and put his hands back in the ‘position’.

“Yea, maybe, but you can’t hit when you wrestle. Now watch. I took my hand and I put it down here and
I pulled.”

Even slow motion Gresh wobbled as Laibur pulled at his ankle, grabbing at his shoulder to hold himself
up.

Slowly Laibur taught Gresh some wrestling tricks. Then he began moving quicker and quicker. Gresh was
brought to the floor each time, although a couple of times he grabbed Laibur quickly enough to pull him
down too.
Distopia Chapter 066: Did you see those bruises?

“Gresh!!” his Ma said, “what happened to you?”

He was standing ready for his shower, and Ma was staring at bruises that covered him from head to toe.

‘Oh, those,” he asked as everyone stared at  him, “I got those wrestling.”

“Wrestling? But I thought I told you not to fight?”

“I didn’t, Ma,” Gresh said, climbing in the combined toilet/shower area and pulling the door closed after
him, “wrestling isn’t fighting. Laibur told me so.”

--

“Did you see those bruises?”

Greshkin looked down into its life-partners face. The kids were asleep, Tritina had duly turned its back in
bed, providing the life-partners with the only privacy that the shuttle could afford.

“Yes.”

“Well, say something. What are you going to do? I can’t have it growing up ‘wrestling’ everyone.”

Greshkin had been thinking about this issue ever since they had seen the bruises. It thought back to the
classes they had taken on planetary cultures. And it considered its own hormonal responses to seeing its
son prancing naked in front of its bunkmates boasting of its bruises.

And it considered the job they were called to do. “I am afraid that you are going to have to.  Fighting is
an integral part of the culture for young sperm donors on this planet, and indeed most planetary
cultures. It serves several cultural purposes.”

“In effect, if we forbid Gresh to fight, we will be making it out to be an egg donor in the eyes of that
culture. Young sperm donors  fight. Young egg donors wear dresses.”

“But when we go back to the ship?”

“It will have to learn to change for that, just like it will have to learn to change language.”

“But it might get hurt!”

“Yes, it will get hurt. That is part of the role of a sperm donor. In fact, that is part of what is supposed to
happen. You see, the sperm donor is supposed to be the one that faces the outside world for the group.
It is supposed to be first to face any danger. So sperm donors are supposed to be doing activities that
prove that they will do this when needed. If they don’t, they will be rejected by the group.”
“That is what happened to Gresh today. It denied its role in society. And the other sperm donors
couldn’t let that rest. So this Laibur thought of a way out, a way for Gresh to show his… testosterone
without violating his Da’s commands.”
Distopia Chapter 067: Big boys don't cry

The next morning, while everyone was getting ready for the day, Tritina  asked Greshkin Sr. a question.
“I was wondering. I suppose that you have studied this culture extensively. I have been having a problem
being able to explain the goods that I am supposed to be teaching about. It has happened that the
sperm donors are always the ones that come to the store. And when I talk they listen, but they don’t ask
questions, or challenge anything I say. And I thought that you might be able to explain why that is?”

Greshkin and Litinu looked at each other. It seemed that this issue of sperm donor vs egg donor was
something they would have to pay more attention to. Greshkin thought for a minute. “That is hard. I
think what we will have to do is to work together. I will produce the product, and then ask you to explain
it. If they have questions they can address them to me, and I can ask you to explain.”

“Perhaps in the future it will be necessary to have sperm donors to introduce products that sperm
donors use, and vice versa.”

After morning meal Tritina took off for the storehouse. Gresh was about to leave, but Da called him
back. “Sit down. I need to talk to you.”

Gresh came and sat on the big bed. “There are some different rules there than on ship. I’m sorry I didn’t
tell you them before.  First of all, it is OK to fight here.”

Gresh’s eyes widened. Da want on, “But there are some rules. Never fight anyone weaker than you.
Never, ever fight an egg donor. Never even touch an egg donor except to kiss her at the right time. You
can ask if it is the right time, they know you don’t know. Always fight fair, don’t cheat. That is what that
sperm donor got punished for yesterday. It didn’t know it, but it cheated.”

“Never hit a sperm donors testicles, never scratch eyes or pull hair.”

“I can wrestle though?”

“Yes, you can wrestle. But you will have to hit some too, or the sperm donors, well, I can’t really explain
it, but you will have to.”

“If you have any questions, you go ask Festin, or Johusa, or Hekeza. They are Da’s, and should be willing
to tell you what the right thing to do is. Some of the offspring will too, but it is best to try to ask a Da.”

“Or a Ma?”

“No. If it is a question about a house, or how to treat an egg donor, then yes.  But not about fighting.”

“Why not?”

“Because only sperm donors fight. So they learn the rules, and the Ma’s don’t.”
“OK Da.”

“Oh. And, don’t cry. Or try not to. They have an expression, ‘big boys don’t cry.’”

“OK Da.”

Gresh hurried off.

“Well, he took that better than I had feared.”

Distopia Chapter 068: Hey, you, stop that.

“You have to admire that Gresh kid.  You know he had never fought at all before he came here?”

“I heard that. And now he’s fighting every day, has been all week. Last three days, anyways, since his
folks told him he could.”

“Not that he’s any good at it.”

“No, but he sure tries. Each new kid even close to his age he walks up with that stick on his shoulder.”

Hekeza left the storehouse with a stack of skins. They kept them mostly in the store house, but he liked
to keep some in the store as an advertisement. As he walked to the store he saw a head leaning over the
well and dropping something into it.

“Hey, you, stop that.”

The head looked up at him, and some nearby kids looked around.  But the kid reached down and
dropped something else in.

“You!” Said Hekeza, putting the skins down carefully and taking off his belt, “you come here.”

The kid pelted away, and Hekeza saw that it was Gresh. He looked at some of the other boys, nodded,
and they pelted off after Gresh. He picked up the skins and continued on into the store.

About ten minutes later the boys, dragging a struggling Gresh in behind them, came into the store.
Everyone stopped what they were doing as Hekeza went over with his belt.

“Turn and drop  your pants.” Hekeza ordered, but to everyone’s surprise the boy said, “you can’t beat
me. It’s not right!” and tried to leave.

The boys with him, although surprised, were able to catch him before he got out the door. Hekeza
looked around, “Bend him over that barrel boys, and drop his  pants.”

If Hekeza had been older he probably wouldn’t have felt the challenge to his authority quite so keenly.
Or if he hadn’t had such a large audience. But he wasn’t and he did, so it was a bloody Gresh and crying
that eventually was allowed to pull his pants up.

Gresh went out with the boys that had captured him. “What were you thinking of, boy? If a Da  tells you
to come, you come! If he tells you to bend over, you bend over. He probably wouldn’t have given you
but a couple of quick licks if you had come right away.”

Gresh was still sobbing, but his brain processed the information. A ‘couple of quick licks’ would have
sounded bad earlier, but it didn’t now.
“Come here,” one of the boy said, “I’ll take you to a Ma so you can get cleaned up.”

Gresh didn’t know what that meant, but he followed the boy. Into the house, “Ma,” said the boy to
Restina, “this boy needs to be cleaned up a bit. He got a nice tanning.”

Restina took him to a bed and took a look. A nice tanning indeed. “What did you do?”

“I just dropped a rock down a well!” Gresh said, wincing at the water she was using to sponge him off.
Restina looked at the boys.

“That’s one way of putting it.” One boy said.

Another boy said, “Hezeka told him not to drop anything down the well, and he dropped it anyway. And
then when Hezeka called him to come for his licking, he ran away.”

“Oh.” Said Restina, “You can’t do that, you know.”

“I know now!” Said Gresh.

“And even when we caught him and  brought him in, he still wouldn’t get ready to take his licking. We
had to hold him over the barrel and drop his  pants ourselves.”

“Oh, Gresh! No wonder you get such a licking. You need to come when called, no matter what you have
done.”

“I know now.” Repeated Gresh. “But how was I supposed to know?”

“Does your Da let you run away when he needs to lick you?” One of the boys asked, incredulously.

“He never licks me.” Gresh responded.

“Oh, you’re that good eh?” laughed another boy.

‘No, I mean, nobody gets a licking where I come from.”

The room turned deadly silent when he said that, and everyone turned to him. He winced as Restina
finished putting the whatever it was on his wounds, “well, we don’t!”

“What do they do then? When you are naughty?”

“They talk to us, and they make us sit in a corner or something.”

Distopia Chapter 069: I don't know if I can

No one said anything about this, and he went out and played with the boys the rest of the day.

Ma said quite a few things that night when it examined his wounds, but after it and Da and Tritina talked
they eventually came to the conclusion that they would just have to go along.

“I suppose that means we will have to too.” Da said eventually.

“You mean beat them ourselves?” Tritina asked.

“Well, we will have to ask about egg donors, but, I think so.”

“I don’t know if I can.” 

“Well, if you are going to work on planet, you will need to live by their rules. Like your friend that got
married.” Litinu said, coming down on her life-partners side.
Distopia Chapter 070: "Gresh, come here."

Gresh walked slowly, and painfully, over to the planet-house and store. This was the first day that he
didn’t want to go over there. This wasn’t as fun as he had hoped. The fighting had been bad enough, but
that was at least a game, if a rough one. But this. He hoped he didn’t see that Da again!

But, just his luck, that Da was the very first person to see him, “Gresh,” he called, “come over here and
move this bag into the store.”

Gresh came, and he moved it.  He had been asked to help with some small tasks like this before, and had
always done so out of a desire to please, and be liked. But now he did so out of fear.

He had no sooner finished moving that bag when Hekeza gave him first one, and then another small task
to do. After he finished the second one he took advantage of Hekeza being distracted and darted off into
the store.

“Hey,” a boy about Gresh’s age sat on a nearby barrel, drumming his legs, “what’s up?”

“Oh, just hiding out.”

“Really, from who? I heard that you weren’t afraid of fighting anyone.”

Gresh looked at him, extremely pleased, but answered, ‘oh, not a kid. A Da… a father.”

The kids face looked extremely serious. “Not again! Didn’t you learn your lesson yesterday?”

Gresh looked at him, “what do you mean?”

If a Father calls you, you need to go, and right away! Who called you?”

“Oh, nobody called me. It is just that Hekeza has been giving me jobs all morning.”

“Oh, he’s tapping you, is he?”

“Tapping?” Gresh asked, “What’s that?”

“Oh, that’s what we call it when a Father, after giving you a good whipping, keeps you with him the next
day.”

“Is it part of the punishment?”

“Ummm, no, sort of the opposite. He keeps you with him so that you won’t go off and brood, and think
he doesn’t love you.”

“Love me? If he loves me he has a very funny way of showing it. I still can’t sit down.”
“That’s the same way that all of our fathers show us that they love us. You think none of the rest of us
have ever gotten whipped?”

Gresh looked at him, “And you say that that is how he shows he loves you?! By whipping you?”

“The church says that if a father doesn’t whip his son, he doesn’t have a son. Hey, I’ve nothing against
your Da, but I can tell you that Hekeza whipped you because he cares for you.”

Gresh thought about that for awhile, and then went outside to try to find Hekeza.
Distopia Chapter 071: The Trainee

The two politicals plodded down the trail on their horses, the older one watching the younger out of the
corner of its eye. The new political, a sperm donor, had recently been assigned to this area. It was filled
with all of the nonsense that they taught at the political academy. It was from the core worlds, and this
was it’s first trip out to the rim.

The older political, Menno, had managed to keep the younger one busy so far with makework and
training tasks back at the office. But the time had had to come to do field interviews, and thus this trip.

It hoped that things would go well on this trip, although it wasn’t sanguine. It was rather fond of
Nershtin. Naïve and stupid as all graduates were, but there was still some spark of likeability deep inside
it.  With all of the energy it had, the conflict would probably come soon, and Menno hoped he would
live through it.

There had been several paths off to the side before they got to the first official stop on their list. The
younger political had looked at them with confusion, but it wasn’t used to farm areas, and hadn’t asked
anything. The first official stop was right off the road.

It came on the same day every two months, so the inhabitants of this farm would be prepared to go
through the motions, to at least put on the proper show. But as they tied their horses up to the very
large house, Menno could see Nershtins eyes getting wide. Officially, one person lived in this house.
Some houses had no one officially living there, and were built merely for ‘traveling’ purposes.

Menno had been coming to this farm for ten years now. It knew that there were at least 6 offspring, and
that the egg donor who appeared at the table for the interview, and whose name occurred on no
register, and whose name was never recorded on its report, was in fact the exclusive partner of Georg,
the officially registered inhabitant of this house.

It had watched, through an unspoken evaluation of the house, the offspring grow up.  Sometimes they
even had greeted him from the side of the road, decently away from the house where they didn’t
officially live. It had even grieved, openly, with the two at the offspring that had died. That had been one
of the few times when it had spoken fully and freely. This would not be one of those times.

Menno went up to the door and knocked. Almost immediately the door opened, and Georg stood there.
Its face was anxious, and it was alone. Menno began the conversation in a cold and formal tone,

“Good afternoon citizen. As your political monitors, we are here for our monthly interview to assure that
you are being properly socialized and conforming to all norms of our society.”

Georg caught its formal tone and responded, ‘of course, citizen.’ It led them to a table in a very large
kitchen. The table looked as if it could hold twelve people, easily. And Menno knew that it often did.
Nershitin stopped inside the door, its eyes widened, and it seemed about to say something. But of
course, this was a training trip, and it wasn’t responsible for the interview. So after a cold look from
Menno and a wave of the hand, it came and sat at the table.

The interview went well for a while, with the obligatory questions concerning sexual habits and other
social contacts, with Georg reeling off a memorized list of egg donors, officially recognized egg donors, in
the area (and some not in the area) that it had ‘spent time’ with. At one point it included the name of an
egg donor that Menno knew to be dead, but it simply didn’t write that name down in the list.

However when it got to the obligatory question, “Georg, I show that you have never visited the birthing
center and helped form a registered offspring, is that correct?”And Georg had duly answered, ‘Yes it is.”
Nershetin burst out with,

“You say you have no offspring?!”

Menno could sympathize with its incredulity.  Both on the outside of the house and here in the kitchen,
the evidence of offspring was simply overwhelming.  The line outside had been filled with clothes of
every description, including diapers.

It noticed Georg tensing up.  Luckily Menno was ready with a very official rebuke, “Excuse me, but you
know that trainees are forbidden from taking part in an interview. Your outburst was entirely
inappropriate, and hardly indicative of proper socialization.”
Distopia Chapter 072: The teaching will have to be firm

This was a powerful rebuke. The senior political in an area had incredible powers, even over other,
lesser, politicals. Nershetin immediately paled, and sat back in his chair. When the official interview was
over, Menno coldly told Nershetin to step outside and get the animals ready. When it was gone Menno
and Georg looked at each other, and Georg said, “I’m sorry. I hadn’t heard that you would have a new
one with you, and we didn’t clean up as well as we should of.”

Menno wave its hand, “it was bound to happen. The fool was already shocked at the size of your house.
It knew full well that no one person lived here, even with the incredibly active sex life that you claim.”

Georg had the grace to grin, and answered the unspoken questions, “twenty-two, and she’s doing very
well, thank you.”

“Twenty-two, what are you raising, rabbits?”

“Yes actually, there are some out in the barn. But my fourth sperm donor has now had their fourth.”

“Good grief.”

“I hear you aren’t exactly celibate.”

“No, It has just had our fifth. Seriously tho, we need to deal with it.”

“Do you think it can be taught?”

“If the teaching is firm enough.”

“Where then?”

“Can you have the teachers meet us at the bend, you know, five miles down the road?”

“It will be tight. Maybe if you delay a bit there.”

“I will send him off alone into the woods there. However necessary, I don’t want to watch.”
Distopia Chapter 073: What exactly were you accusing it of?

“I am sorry for my outburst. I know it was entirely inappropriate. But how could you accept with a
straight face that that citizen had no registered offspring?”

“It was entirely inappropriate. And it demonstrates clearly why we have the system of apprenticeship.
You know nothing of the social pattern here, and the sacrifices these citizens have to put up with to
produce for our society.”

“Now, you are a bright young citizen, and have just gotten out of school. Use that active imagination and
see if you can’t envision a reason for what you saw… a reason that fits well with the excellent citizen,
and well socialized, that I know Georg to be.”

This kept it silent for the next three miles.  Menno was looking forward to whatever it would come up
with.

And the wait was worth it, and indeed it almost made sense,

“As you say, I don’t know the social rules here. But having  been on the road all this time, it strikes me
that it must be difficult for the citizens living in this area to get together for proper socialization.”

“So perhaps they must all get together as a group and…”

Menno didn’t think it needed to hear the rest of that, so it broke in, “Well that is certainly a better idea
than what you seemed to be suggesting back at the farm. I suppose you didn’t bother to look up that
citizens loyalty index before throwing accusations around.”

“Did you learn nothing at school? Here these citizens have been out here making sacrifices for  years and
you are on your very first interview and you accuse that citizen of… what exactly were you accusing it
of?”

“I, its just that…”

“Oh, never mind. Next time study your reports better before coming.”

This was an unjust accusation, as Menno was sure that it had practically memorized the reports. But in
the context of the accusation it sounded true enough, and kept it quiet for the next two miles. Time
Menno used to think of its cover story.
Distopia Chapter 074: Get down from your horse

When they arrived at the bend in the road it was ready.

“Get down from your horse.” Menno ordered.

The trainee did as instructed.

“I want to give you some idea of how these citizens live, and the sacrifices they go through. I want you to
walk, walk not on your horse, over there into the woods. And I want you to stand there for at least
fifteen minutes and imagine what it would be like to be assigned here, instead of a nice office in a
population center.”

Nershetin looked bemused, but walked off as directed. Menno waited, and the fifteen minutes, and then
twenty, passed. Finally he took the two horses and plodded off.

It was huddled at the base of a tree. It was still clothed, for which Menno was thankful. Nothing of that
sort had happened then. It hadn’t thought that Georg would allow anything like that.

But its face showed that that hadn’t been off limits. It could hardly see, the eyes were so puffed up.

When it saw Menno, it tried to struggle to its feet.

“Just wait.”
Distopia Chapter 075: Let me tell you a story

Several painful minutes later Menno had it up in the saddle.  Each step the horse took obviously was
painful, so Menno led it slowly. At first neither said anything but eventually Nershetin managed,

“I don’t understand.”

“Let me tell you a story,” Menno said.  “Years ago there was a brash young political who was assigned to
a population center in the rim. It went out on an inspection trip and found some things it didn’t like. It
called for the five marines it had assigned with it and they came out and took… took a sperm donor, and
egg donor, and several offspring away to detention at the larger population center.”

“That next night there was a terrible accident. The political and all of the Marines were found at the
bottom of a staircase in their residence. Dead. One of them had no doubt tripped and knocked the rest
of them down. And one of them must have been carrying a lamp, for the entire residence burned to the
ground.”

“The local headquarters had the residence rebuilt, immediately. And they sent out another political, and
eight Marines. Unfortunately there was another accident the very night they first moved in.”

Nershetin looked at it. “What happened then?”

“Then one of the politicals from the larger population center, one who had been born on the rim, went
down to the holding center, and convinced the leader there to release those who had been detained. It
got some horses together, and they went back, together.”

“When it got there, it sent them back to where they had been living. And it itself got a room at a local
hotel. It brought no Marines.”

“The next day it asked around, and one of the local egg donors agreed to help it with its work. And as it
was convenient, the spent time together. In fact, neither of them spent time with anyone else. Together
they had, have five natural offpring.”

“And when that political goes out to the local farms, or works in the population center, it asks all of the
correct official questions, and gets all of the correct official answers.”
Distopia Chapter 076: Play the game

They rode on in silence, until the side road that Menno had turned them down came up to a cabin in the
woods. Out of the cabin came an egg donor and a half dozen offspring. Saying nothing, they helped
Nershetin off its horse and into the cabin.

Once its wounds had been tended, and it was sitting up at the table, no one having said anything, the
door opened and a sperm donor came in. It looked at the guests at the table, went over and kissed the
egg donor, and sat down with them.

Nershetin looked around. It’s eyes were wide, but it obviously had no idea what to say next. Menno
came to it’s rescue.

“Do you know how many people there are living in Spring Creek?  The population center where I am
based?”

“The official population is 2,000.”

“Yes. And how many people live there?”

Nershetin just stared at it. How could a population center have more or less citizens in it than the official
figure? Every birth and death was registered.

“Fool,” The sperm donor put in after watching him struggle, “Open your eyes. You walked the streets
didn’t you?  Did it look like 2,000 people?”

“Well, no. It seemed very crowded. I would have thought it had more.”

Menno answered his own question, “Yes. There are about 10,000 people in Spring Creek.”

The sperm donor leaned over and stared Nershetin straight in the eye, “and how many farmers do you
suppose there are?”

Nershetin again fell back on the official figures, “There are 8,000.”

The sperm donor fell back in its chair, laughing. Nershetin looked around the room, confused. Everyone
was looking at it as if it were a  particularly stupid two year old offspring.

“Nershetin,” Menno said, “listen to me. There are over 500,000 farmers in this sector, including
offspring. Eight thousand people, even if every single one were strong, mature sperm donors, couldn’t
even hope to run half the farms in this sector; let along all of the forestry, trapping, and fishing that goes
on.”

“Don’t be an idiot. I like you.  Play your part, like the rest of us do. I will find you a nice egg donor, and
you will spend time with  it . You can grow old here in peace, receiving nice checks from headquarters.”
“But you’ll have to play the game. One bad report back to headquarters and your next accident will be
fatal. And headquarters won’t even accept your report.”

“And,” Put in the sperm donor, “If you even look at an egg donor other than the one you are given, they
will find you nailed up to some wall.”

“I am that political I told you about!” Menno said, almost shouting. “I haven’t touched another egg
donor in ten years. It has had five natural offspring, all of them mine. And everyone is in on it, from
Headquarters down to the lowest Marine.”

“This sector, this whole planet, is in on it. And perhaps other planets, for all I know. When that fleet
went missing, it emasculated central command. They pulled the fleet back to the core, and kicked all of
the rim personnel out of it. And there is hardly any fleet left, anyway. The core planets have no people
left on them. You know how small your class was, and that was to be a political, a top job.”
Distopia Chapter 077: Hey, you want to come up to the ship?

“Hey, you want to come up to the ship? I asked my Da and he said you could come.”

Receba looked at Gresh. In the two months since he had been coming down, she had seen him
frequently, and he was a frequent guest at their house. Except at night or before morning meal, of
course.

“I dunno. We could ask my Da, I guess.”

She was so used to him saying, ‘Da’ that she said it herself with him sometimes.

“Father, Gresh would like me to come up to his ship with him.”

Johusa leaned back, glad to have a break from the backbreaking work of digging this ditch. It would be
nice when the spring water came down near the house, but the work was killing his back. He was a
storekeeper now, and had gotten out of practice at digging. Not that he would have told anyone!

“I don’t see how you can, Keba, they always go overnight.”

--

Gresh went back to his ship, disappointed. In all the time he had been here, no matter how well he got
to know the family, he still was kicked out of their house every night, and couldn’t come back till after
breakfast. And now, for that same reason, Keba couldn’t come  up to the ship.
Distopia Chapter 078: You want to go fishing?

“Hey, you want to go fishing?”

Gresh looked up from the snow covered ground, where he was holding his bleeding nose. Once he was
able to speak without spraying blood, he answered, “sure. Ain’t never been. How long will we be gone,
so I can ask my Da?”

“Oh, I dunno, till lunch?”

The boy and his father had showed up at dawn, waiting in their wagon a discreet distance from the store
while they waited for breakfast. Gresh, thrilled at the idea of being able to play before breakfast had
rushed out. The two had just finished a fight, which had been going well for Gresh until the other had
landed that blow so accurately on his nose.

Minutes later Gresh was back, wearing a pair of fur leggings in addition to the fur coat he had had on
before.

“I can go. Da gave me a communicator, so I don’t have to back at a certain time.”

The two boys plunged off into the woods. Gresh loved winter. They had first landed in fall, with its
leaves falling, which had been fun.  But it was nothing compared to this wonderful white stuff all over
the ground, and the ice on the smaller streams.

As they walked Gresh looked at the pole he had been given, with its cotton string and bamboo ‘hook’.
He had heard of fishing, and seen one or two boys on their way off into the woods with their poles. But
always before he had been to busy working with Da or Hekeza to go.

“Let’s follow this stream up, and see if we can find an open area,” Said the boy, whose name he had
learned was Trendentin, but who was always called ‘Tren’.

It was another half an hour before they came to an opening large enough for Tren. Then he gave Gresh
some bait and the two swung their lines out and in.

Snow, Gresh discovered, got colder, and wetter, if you sat on it for a long time doing nothing. Or, rather,
nothing but talking and playing rock paper scissors. He was beginning to wonder if he was bored enough
with fishing to start a fight when suddenly he felt something strange.

“Pull it, pull it!” Said Tren.

So Gresh pulled. He pulled straight up, and the line went straight up. And the fish went straight up. And
came down, almost straight down. It came down on the ice a few feet from the hole, where the fish
flapped frantically.
Meanwhile the line continued straight up and then over Greshs head, where it landed, unnoticed,
behind him.

Unnoticed because both boys were staring at the fish flopping around on the ice, at times perilously
close to the hole. Gresh lunged forward, flopping out on the ice.

Three things happened at the same time. Gresh grabbed the fish, Tren grabbed his legs, and the ice
cracked.
Distopia Chapter 079: I caught a fish, and I fell in the water...

Farmer boys don’t work all day for nothing, and  Tren soon had Gresh, a Gresh still clinging desperately
to *his* fish, out of the water.

“Look, Look! My fish!”

“Great. But we have to run back to the house or we will both freeze!”

The two boys set off at a dead run, poles abandoned but the fish still clutched in Greshes arms.

“Where shall we go, your house or the store-house?”

“The store house. They always have a nice fire going in their stove. We can warm up there. Besides, my
Ma won’t know what to do with a fish. At least I don’t think so. But Receba’s Ma will know.”

The two boys burst through the door, causing shrieks from two of the beds, and rapidly drawn curtains.
The boys noticed none of this in their quest for the stove.

“Receba!” Gresh yelled, as he and Tren dashed over to the stove, “I caught a fish, and I fell in the water,
and Tren did too, and can your Ma cook it for us?”

Restina came up behind them, and took the fish.

“You are both sopping wet!” She exclaimed, “get those clothes off! Receba, bring some towels. Nestina,
find some clothes for these boys. Mistine, could you put some water on, we will have to bathe them.
Oh, and Trista, go over to Gresh’s Ma and tell her that he has fallen in the water, we are going to be
bathing him… and” she said, looking at the table, “if she will come over I will show her how to cook her
sons first fish.”
Distopia Chapter 080: Misery shared

Litinu showed up so quickly that the water wasn’t ready yet, entering to see  the two towel-wrapped
sperm donors huddling by the fire and animatedly relating their adventures to a rapt audience.

“Oh. Good, you’re here.” Said Restina, “Look at the wonderful fish that your son has caught.”

Ordinarily Litinu would have seen nothing at all extraordinary in the fish. But Restinas words, the look
she gave her, and the slight emphasis she had placed on the words ‘your son’ clued her in that there was
something going on that her son, her rapidly bi-cultural son, was into and in which he needed her
acclamation, “why that is wonderful, Gresh!”

Luckily that was the last thing she needed to say in a long time, as the various children, accompanied by
Gresh and Tren, filled the next hour with an abundance of recitations of the capture and rescue of the
fish, comparisons with other fish, real and imaginary, caught by persons of uncertain relationship, and,
mostly from Restina, how fish were to be gutted and cooked.

It took all of her discipline and self-control for the few seconds after she realized that everyone was
assuming that she would be joining them for lunch, a lunch in which this fish would play the leading role.
Indeed she almost violated all of her cultural training and attempted to refuse, when two things stopped
her.

The first was the look on the face of her offspring. She couldn’t possibly understood why any sperm
donor would feel proud of having enticed a slimy aquatic creature to bite onto a bit of bamboo and then
having pulled it out of the water; but she also couldn’t possibly miss the fact that it was indeed proud.

And the other. Well, they say that misery shared is misery halved, “Receba. Could you go out and tell
Gresh’s father and Stininu (the egg donor who had accompanied them on this trip) all about what
happened and that we will be eating here for lunch?

She had perhaps underestimated her life-partner, or there was something in Testosterone that inured
one to the eating of slimy aquatic animals, for Greshkin ate his portion without batting an eyelid, and
even with seeming relish.

But the look on Sitinus face made the whole thing, the gutting and the frying, more than worth it. The
‘fish’ itself would have been bad enough, but Gresh and Tren had gone on and one about its capture,
and Restina had added and impromptu lesson on ‘gutting’.
Distopia Chapter 081: You hit it!

“He’s going to do what?”

“Gresh and the other sperm donor offspring are going hunting with Hekeza. Apparently winter is an
excellent time for them to lay in a large stock of meat, as they can store it on ice. It helps eke out their
other food. And of course Johusa can add it to its stock of goods to sell.”

But Greshkin, overnight? Sleeping in tents? Do you think it will be OK?”

“Johusa is taking offspring younger than G’kin.”

“But I thought only family could stay after dinner?” Litinu was snatching at straws here, as obviously
Hekeza wouldn’t have invited Gresh if it was improper. Seeing this Greshkin ceased arguing, and instead
came over and hugged Litinu,

“I know. Much of this is hard for you. But you are handling it well.”

--

Gresh was cold, freezing cold, but he had internalized the rules and knew that he couldn’t say so. It
wasn’t a ‘boy thing’ to complain of being cold, especially not when hunting.

And he was thrilled to be allowed along on this trip, and even more thrilled that he had gotten to share a
blind with Hekeza. Of course, it was because he didn’t know anything about hunting, and everyone knew
that. But he was still thrilled, and everyone else still jealous.

So far the group had gotten three deer, one pig, and innumerable rabbits.  And he and Hekeza were
staring at what they hoped would be their fourth deer.

There had been no thought that he would kill any of the animals, of course. He was far too weak to pull
a bow, or cock a crossbow. And even to be allowed to fire one in a hunt he would have to show himself
far better at target practice back at the store.

The deer’s head came out from the trees that separated them. Hekeza had the crossbow out and ready.
The neck followed the head, and then the shoulders.

The crossbow twanged, and the deer leapt out. “Missed!” Hekeza said, then, “come!” He added.

“But, you hit it!” Gresh said, as the two pounded across the snow after the deer.

“I hit the deer, but I missed my shot. I was trying to pierce the lung, but I clipped the shoulder. The bolt
still went in, but not straight through.”
The two had reached the spot where the deer had been hit. Bending down Hekeza rapidly surveyed the
ground, “I hit it, and I think it is badly injured.  But it might go a ways before it drops. Come on, we must
find it before the wolves get to it.”

As they ran Hekeza whistled for the others. “They must be too far away to hear us. I guess it will just be
you and me for a while.

Gresh’s heart glowed at the thought. After Da, he loved Hekeza most. Well, and Ma of course, but that
was different. She was a girl.
Distopia Chapter 082: We have a tradition

An hour later his heart was still glowing, but his lungs were on fire. He ran on, regardless, but Hekeza,
turning and hearing the breath rasping in his throat, stopped and picked him up.

Gresh made to object, but Hekeza hugged him tighter and ran on.

Gresh awoke. Hekeza was still moving forward, “good, your awake.” He said, and rolled Gresh up onto
his shoulders.

Nothing in life could be as good as this, Gresh thought, or he would have thought if he could have put it
into words. And then, to make his joy complete, “There it is Hekeza. I see it!”

The deer was still alive, but just barely, when they got there. Gresh helped to haul on the rope as they
lifted it up and slit its throat.

“Gresh. This is your first hunt, your first deer.”

Gresh nodded.

“Well then, we have a tradition. It will be hard, and you don’t have to do it, but we do it with our sons…”

His voice trailed off. It was obvious that Gresh would walk through a fire for Hekeza right then.

--

And then he  gave it to me Ma!”

“Gave you what, Gresh?”

“The heart Ma. He cut it out, and gave it to me.”

Da knelt down next to Gresh, “The heart  of the deer G’kin?”

“Yea Da.”

Litinu looked at him, confused, “and, and what did you do with it?”

Da and Gresh looked at her, a pitying look on Da’s face, and a fiercely proud look on the face of her son,
“I ate it Ma! I ate the whole thing all by myself!”

As Litinu vanished rapidly into the ship, Gresh confessed to Da, “I got kind of sick afterwards, but Hekeza
said that didn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, does it Da?”

“No. No, it doesn’t matter at all.”

He stood up and stared up the mountain, then bent down again, “If Hekeza is going to go hunting again,
could you ask him if I can come? I don’t think I will do as well as you did, but I will try.”

“Sure Da. I’d love to have you come Da!”

“And I’d love to go with you.”

Distopia Chapter 083: You know that I can't

Receba, do you want to go up with me to the ship?”

Receba looked at Gresh, looked up from the enormous tub of laundry she was patiently scrubbing, and
which he was helpfully rinsing out in the next tub.

“I’d love to Gresh, but you know I can’t. We asked my father, way back in the fall, and he said I
couldn’t.”

Some of these clothes truly stunk.  They didn’t do much washing in the winter, as it was so hard to dry
things. Only underwear and clothes that were truly filthy. Spring having come, they were washing pretty
much everything. Johusa had joked that he was going to have to run around naked if they didn’t stop
washing.

“But Receba, I asked my Da (truth be told he had pestered his Da) and we are going to do a day trip
tomorrow. We will leave before breakfast, that’s true, but that’s Ok at our house, not like yours, and we
will be back before dark. Well, maybe not before dark Da says, but before bed. Do you think that would
be OK?”
Distopia Chapter 084: I always wanted you to come

Receba stared out the shuttle window, her heart beating almost out of her chest. She had always hoped
she would get to ride on the shuttle, and now that it was happening she was scared to death. If she
hadn’t have gone right before, she would have peed herself.

The shuttle was just lifting off, not even above the level of the trees. She could see her whole family
standing outside the store, along with a couple of a dozen other people, all waving frantically. Gresh and
them had gone back and forth dozens of times, but this was the first time for anyone from the planet to
go up to the ship.

Her family vanished so quickly, and soon she couldn’t even see her house. Then she began to see rivers,
and then oceans… all described to her excitedly by Gresh.

“Do you like it?” He asked. She nodded, as she couldn’t control her voice. He didn’t seem to mind, but
kept pointing things out until individual details blurred into a globe. She had had it described to her, but
really didn’t believe it until now. The world was round. Somewhere on that round ball were her mother
and father, her siblings and clan.

Stars. Stars in the daytime. Stars shining in their uncounted millions outside her window. She found
herself squeezing Gresh’s hand, squeezing as she had never squeezed anything before.  She stared out
the window, and he stopped talking. His breath came over her shoulder, right at her ear, seemingly the
only sound in the universe.

Finally, when eternity had passed and she had come out the other side, he said, in a very quiet and
subdued voice, “Look. There’s the ship. Ma is bringing us around this way so you can see it. Do you see
it?”

Still holding his hand, she gave it a brief squeeze. ‘Yes I see it. Thank you so much for bringing me.”

“I always wanted you to come.”

Distopia Chapter 085: Off to school

“Wow.”

Gresh looked at Receba, to whom Litinu had give a shipboard ‘girl’ costume. “You look…” His voice
trailed off. One could get in trouble with that kind of sentence. If he told it it looked good now (which
was true) he might be implying that she didn’t look good in her mountain costume (which wasn’t true).

“Different?”

“Very!” Gresh agreed, glad to be out of that.

“OK, you two, off to school.” Litinu said from behind Gresh.

“School?” Said Receba. Her face fell. She remembered Gresh talking about school, and he hadn’t made it
seem exciting.

“Yes,” Litinu said, “Gresh has to go to school whenever he is on board ship. Da arranged it so you could
go with him."

Unhappy but resigned, the two trooped off down the hallway to Gresh’s schoolroom. Receba kept
playing with her dress, the feel of the fabric a continual distraction.

At the schoolroom the Da in charge, the ‘teacher’ as he was called, showed Receba to an extra seat. “We
will be starting off this shift with come computer work. I  have signed you in.”

Receba had no idea how to use a computer, so the teacher (much to the amusement of the students in
nearby seats) had to do some very basic teaching. After he had finished, Receba started in on testing of
her math skills.

She had not been doing so long when the teacher announced, ‘for our second hour we will be have a
tolerance circle.”

Receba looked at Gresh, who rolled his eyes. This ‘tolerance circle’ thing was not something he had told
her about, but it obviously was one of his less favorite parts of school.
Distopia Chapter 086: The most important thing I know

The teacher soon had the students, including Receba, arranged on the floor in a circle.

“I know that you all know what a tolerance circle is, but I will need to explain for our guest. You see,
Receba, it is very important that we treat each other with tolerance. And so once a day, every day at
school, we get in our tolerance circle. And in that circle we learn about each other, and we learn to
accept each other and all of the things that each of us think is important.”

“For today’s tolerance circle I will be asking each of you to answer the question, ‘What is the most
important thing that you know?’”

“The way it works, Receba, is that we will go around the circle, and each of us will answer the question,
and then we will learn something new about each person.”

“So,” He said, turning to the boy on his left, “Greg. What is the most important thing that you know?”

“The most important thing that I know,” Greg intoned in an almost sing-song voice, “Is Gravity. Gravity is
very important, because it holds all of the universe together…”

As Greg went on and on about Gravity, a subject Receba knew nothing about and wanted to know not at
all, she looked around the room.  Most of the children looked bored, and some were looking at
her.  Two of the girls, especially. And Gresh, of course, he was looking at her, grinning, and rolling his
eyes. He looked away quickly when the teacher looked at him.

Greg was eventually done, and the teacher said, “And you Edmund?”

Edumund took for his topic ‘chocolate’. Which Receba liked, but which hardly seemed to her to qualify
as an answer for the teachers question. As she was going to be next, she gave the question some serious
thought. So when Edmund finished his eulogy of chocolate, and the teacher said, “So Receba, what is
the most important thing you know?” She was able to say,

“The most important thing I know is that the Sacrificed One loves me, and that He is the Lord of all.”
Distopia Chapter 087: But I do know the Sacrificed One

All eyes had already been on her. As someone new and strange they had been very interested in what
she would say.   But their stares were now fixed on her, with quizzical looks on all of the children’s faces
(except Gresh, of course, who was grinning) and the teachers.

The teacher had a confused and worried look on his face. But he put his emotions aside and tried asking,
“I’m sorry, Receba, but most of us aren’t sure what that meant. Could you explain a bit more?”

Receba was glad to explain, and launched into a description of who the Sacrificed One was (the son of
God) what he had done (died for our sins) and how He was now sitting at the right hand of God the
Father and was in control of the entire universe.”

The teachers confusion grew less as it spoke, and its worry grew greater. It’s eyes kept roving over the
children’s faces to see how they were taking her speech. When she paused for a breath, he broke in,
“Oh, yes. I understand. That is a religious belief from your planet. That isn’t exactly what the tolerance
circle was about today. There are days when we discuss religion. Today’s tolerance circle was about
things that you ‘know’. Greg knows gravity from his studies, and Edmund, while I don’t think that
chocolate is the *most* important thing he knows, however much he might think so, knows chocolate
from eating it.”

“So perhaps you would like to share again, and tell us something that you *know*?”

Receba looked confused. “But I do know the Sacrificed One. We worship him every Seventh Day. And my
Ma and my Da have told me all about Him.”

The teacher sighed. He hadn’t anticipated this kind of difficulty when he had been told about this
‘guest’. He had envisioned lots of interesting stories about planet life.

“I understand that that is your religious belief. And I am not saying anything at all against it. It is just isn’t
the kind of thing that we talk about in tolerance circle, because it isn’t something we *know*. Religions
are filled with very interesting stories. And those stories help us when we are organizing our life, and
dealing with other people. They give us hope, nice things to think about, when we go through a difficult
time.”

And on places like where you live, I am sure that you often have difficult times. We on the ship have
been very interested in the stories that Gresh has told us about the difficult times he has had, and the
difficult times he has heard about.”

“But the tolerance circle question today asked about things that we *know*.  A fact. Something that is
actually true, not just something that helps us to make sense of a difficult world.”
Distopia Chapter 088: I know He loves me

Recebba had looked confused during most of the teachers speech, but toward the end her expression
had hardened, and she sat up in her chair.  “The Sacrificed One *is* true. I am as sure that He exists, and
that He loves me, as I am sure that my Da exists, and that he loves me.”

The class was tremendously interested. No one had ever challenged the teacher quite so directly before.
They all hated ‘tolerance circle’, and would (like Edmund) often find ways to make it more interesting.
Or they would, like Greg, merely use it as an opportunity to talk about something they found interesting.

But this was new. The teacher  had told this girl from the planet that what she believed was wrong. And
she had stood up to him and said that he was wrong! No matter how much they might have felt this, no
one had ever dared to say it. To challenge tolerance circle! The thought was delicious.

The teacher saw their looks, and realized that he wasn’t going to win this discussion. Even if he ended up
browbeating this student (which he didn’t want to do anyway) the end result would be that the other
students would pay much more attention to the exchange than if he merely…

“Well, that is very nice, but I am afraid we don’t have any more time to discuss it. The others need their
turn. Susan, what is the most important thing that you know?”

Susan took a moment to answer, being caught off guard at the sudden end of this very interesting
exchange, but eventually came forth with the idea that ‘oxygen’ was very important to her, being what
we all needed to breath.

The rest of the circle was sadly normal, except for Gresh. With a grin on his face he gave it as his opinion
that the most important thing that *he* knew was that his Da loved him; giving copious examples to
back up his point.

Ordinarily this foray into opinion and emotion would have drawn a mild correction from the teacher, but
that individual was of no mind to challenge the look that was in Gresh’s eyes; not after his experience
with Gresh’s guest.
Distopia Chapter 089: Bless me my father

The rest of the school day, ending at noon and broken only by a short break at 10:00, went in the
traditionally boring fashion. Receba had gotten some more math done, and learned some interesting
things about art. She wasn’t quite sure why Gresh disliked school so. Although perhaps if she had to do
it every day…

When they left the school room Gresh said, “I’ll be right back,” and vanished into a door with a picture
of a boy on it. Catching the implication Receba stood in the hallway and waited for him.

However she had only been waiting for a couple of seconds (far too fast for even a boy to finish his
business) when a girl from the class caught her sleeve,

“Could you, would you come with me for a minute? I have someone who wants to meet you.”

Receba trailed along with the girl, who led her down a corridor, and then through a door.

Receba stopped, and stared. Sitting on a bed in front of her was a boy. A very, very old boy. With grey
hair, and the look in his eyes that told her that he couldn’t see much, if he could see at all. All of her
training in clan rituals rose to the fore, and she walked forward, kneeling in front of him, and said, “bless
me, my father.”

The Da started, but his hands caressed her hair, and after a minute he said, “May the Lord bless you, and
keep you, my daughter. May He make his eyes rest upon you, and give you peace. May you be an
obedient daughter, a submissive wife, and a joyful mother. May the nation that you found know no
end.”

Sensing the blessing was over, although it was of a different form than she was used to, she rose to her
feet. The girl who had brought her had closed the door and was standing at the old boys side.

“My daughter,” the old boy said, “I wish to give your Da…  your father… a blessing as well.” He fumbled
in his shirt, and brought forth a package, which he handed to Receba,

“Take this, and hide it. Do not lose it. Show it to no one, but give it to your father.  Do you understand,
my daughter?”

Receba took the package, and, unzipping her dress, pushed it down to her waist, where the waistband
of the dress and her underwear held it securely.

“I understand and obey, my father.”

“Good girl. You are a good girl.”

“Suzy, take it back now, so that no one will know that it has been here.”
The two were back in the corridor, chatting, when Gresh finally emerged.

“Sorry,” he said, blushing.

“Boys!” the girl said, “Apologizing for the silliest things.”

The rest of the day was wonderful. Gresh showed her over the entire ship, and she saw things she didn’t
understand, and met dozens of people, all of who seemed eager to talk to her. She also saw some of the
people that had come down from time to time with Gresh’s Ma and Da. But the whole time she was
acutely conscious, and distracted, by the pressure at her waist made by the package.

What was it? Why had he given it in secret?

Distopia Chapter 090: What is it Keba?

She was very tired by the time they got on the shuttle, and Litinu had to wake her (she left Gresh
sleeping) when they arrived at home.  She awoke with a start, thanked Litinu and Greshkin (and even
Snartin, who had they had brought with them, although he hadn’t had anything to do with it) for
bringing her along, and rushed off home.

She entered the house to find everyone in bed, although not yet asleep. She burst into her parents
compartment, and the noise of her arrival, and curiosity as to her report, soon brought everyone else in
as well.

The first few seconds were taken up with greetings, and hugs, and kisses, and perfunctory ‘how are you,’
and ‘did you have a nice time’ questions. But as soon as there was a pause she broke in with, “My
father, I need to talk to you.”

Silence instantly reigned, and concern grew among the adults and older children.

“What is it, Keba?” Her father asked, bending over.

“I need to talk to you alone.”

There was a gasp of breath by all of the women.  They couldn’t think of many things that would make a
young girl insist on talking to her father alone immediately after going on a trip with others, but none of
them were good.

While her father struggled into his clothes, Receba hurried to reassure everyone.

“Nothing is wrong. I just have a message for father, that I was told to deliver alone.”

This calmed everyone fears, although of course it encouraged their curiosity. They said nothing,
however, and soon she and Father were out in the storeroom.
Distopia Chapter 091: He blessed you Keba?

“What is it Keba? Why all the secrecy?”

“I don’t know, father. A boy, a very, very old boy, on the ship, asked me to give you this…” and she
struggled and finally pulled the package out, giving it to Johusa.

“You say a very, very old boy gave you this?” He said, unwrapping it.

“Yes, he must have at least been a father of fathers. He blessed me.”

At this Johusa stopped looking at the package and turned his attention to Receba, “he blessed you Keba?
What did he say?”

He said, “May the Lord bless you, and keep you, my daughter. May He make his eyes rest upon you, and
give you peace. May you be an obedient daughter, a submissive wife, and a joyful mother. May the
nation that you found know no end.”

“Oh, Keba! That is a blessing indeed. And from a father of fathers among the starmen. I wouldn’t have
expected any of them to know such a blessing, let alone be willing to bless you with it.”

“We will have to take this inside to look at it, Keba, I can’t see much here.”

“That’s OK. He just told me to give it to you in private. He didn’t say that you had to keep it private. I
guess he figured you would know what to do with it.”
Distopia Chapter 092: The book

Johusa put the package inside his shirt, and led Receba back inside. “Get  undressed now, and lay down.
All of you offspring, lay down, and close the curtains. Festin, Restina, Mistine… could you come out here
for a minute?”

Johusa took a lantern from a shelf  and put it on the table. Soon the other three were sitting at the table
and looking at him curiously. He related what Receba had said and took the package from his shirt.
Unwrapping it carefully he put the wrappings into a neat pile, and examined what they had contained.

“It’s a book.” Festin said.

“Yes, an old book. Printed, not copied.”

The colony had very few books from their founding, printed books. Most books that they had were hand
copied on local paper… Hymn books, an occasional book of stories or diaries from the time of the
founding, laboriously hand copied over the years.

“That would explain the  importance, but not the secrecy,” Mistine said, “we had better read it.”

Wordlessly Johusa handed the book to Restina, who was the acknowledged reader of the family.

“Where should I start?”

“At the beginning.” Her husband said, with a grin, “That is always a very good place to start.”

And so Restina turned the book to the beginning and began to read. “In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the Earth. And the Earth was without form, and void, and darkness moved upon the face of
the deep…”

Her voice trailed off, and they looked at each other, “it is *the* book,” Festin said.

From the beginning of the formation of the two colonies, individuals had come forward with stories and
passages that they had learned, things passed on from generation to generation in their families. And 
they had struggled to join these things together.

Then when Johusa first married, and the families had gotten together at the store, the elders of both
colonies had gotten together and compared notes. Much of the knowledge was duplicate, but still a
great addition to the total was made, and distributed. But this…

Hekeza, Juliana, offspring of all, come here!” Johusa said.

When all had gathered, most sitting at, some sitting around, the table, he continued, “none must speak
of this, until we contact the elders.”
“Yes, as you command. But why, Father-brother?” Hekeza asked, “surely all will rejoice?”

“You heard the story,” Johusa said. “Receba was given this book by a father of fathers, one who swore
her to secrecy, to give this to my hand alone, and to tell no one that they had even met.”

A thought occurred to him. “Receba, tell us the story of all that happened that day.”
Distopia Chapter 093: Read to us

Everyone listened with rapt attention from the beginning of her tale of the shuttle lifting off, through her
getting to wear a ship-girl outfit, going to school, and then…

“He said what?” Johusa asked. And he and Festin questioned her sharply, looking more and more
concerned as she gave all of the details of her story of the ‘tolerance circle’.

“And would the father of fathers have known what you said?” Hekeza asked.

“Perhaps. One of his daughter-of-daughters, who had been in the class, brought me to him.”

“Ah.” And the men looked at each other, very concerned.

“So,” Festin said, “you have heard the command. You may speak of this to no one. But,” He added, “That
does not mean we cannot hear it ourselves. Restina, if you would not mind.”

And so Restina read the Word of God to the family. Eventually her voice failed and Festin took over. Late
into the night they read, with offspring dropping off to sleep in each other’s laps and in small piles all
over the floor. Finally even the Da’s and Ma’s enthusiasm was drowned in sleep. Johusa looked around.
All were asleep except the Da’s and Ma’s, and Receba herself.

“Let us to bed,” He said, “and will deal with this in the morning.”
Distopia Chapter 094: We will send

The next morning saw two boys, some breakfast hastily swallowed and the rest shoved into pockets,
moving rapidly away from the store-house; one toward the mountains, one toward the plains. Moving
to call the elders to a meeting, a meeting three days hence… one day for the rapidly moving boy to reach
the elder, and two days for the more sedate elders to come to the store.

--

“And so our worry is that the star people are locked into this idea of ‘tolerance’, an idea which would
outlaw any teaching of anything that proclaims itself as truth, at least truth in the realms of right and
wrong, good and evil. The ultimate heresy to such a system would be a creator God who punishes sin,
and rewards righteousness.”

“And yet, it seems there is a remnant that still clings to the faith once delivered, and who has given us
this incredible gift.” Johusa finished his presentation, and the meeting proper began.

Two days later it was decided, “we will send one of our older sperm-donors, not yet married.” The plains
elder said. “He will make a copy for us.”

“I have in mind a boy, who still has his girl under the bed, and we will send them.” The mountain elder
responded.

“And both of these, and the boys girl-in-his-bed, of course, will come here and we will set aside a part of
the store room, and they will copy the book? And then when they are done, we can have two more
come from other areas?” Hekeza summarized.

“Yes, and the mountain boys girl-in-his… his wife,”  the mountain elder corrected his language with a
grin at the plains elder, “if it is permitted, she can read to both them, so they can copy more efficiently.”
He said this last with a glance at Restina. Ordinarily of course the girl would be required to help with the
household in support of her husband.

“Yes…” She said, “altho perhaps others could alternate so that there is no resentment.” Few things were
considered worse in the mountain culture than for a girl to live in a house and not participate in the
upkeep of that house. Living all together as they did, the rules were fairly strict.

The mountain elder nodded, “as you direct, of course.”

Restina was the undisputed ruler of the house, as Johusa was the ‘oldest ’and thus the leader of the
household. Not that he was actually older, but he and Restina had founded the house, to which Festin
and Hekeza had moved.  She had always tread very carefully in her role, however, especially with
Mistine, always speaking softly and listening carefully. As a result they got along very well.
Distopia Chapter 095: That was intolerant

Gresh was a very nice boy. But he really didn’t like it when someone attacked a friend of his. It was three
weeks later that his family went back to the ship. Three weeks later that he next went to school. Three
weeks until the next tolerance circle.

“The subject for today will be, ‘What is the most intolerant thing I have seen recently?’” The students
sighed. A denunciation. Denunciations were the worst. You couldn’t really accuse someone, of course.
Not clearly, anyway. Or they would just turn around and accuse you. And that might eventually lead to
one or both of you getting hauled before the elders, or your Da and Ma finding out about it.

So you always made the accusation vague, and mild. Or you accused yourself… carefully, of course. But
today was not like any other day, and Gresh was angry. So the normal routine was shattered to pieces
when the teacher asked Gresh the question it had asked all of the other students, and it replied:

“The most intolerant thing I have seen recently was the way that you treated Receba when it was here
for tolerance circle.  You called it a liar to its face, and said that what it believed to be true wasn’t true.”

Silence reigned for a few minutes. The teacher was appalled at the accusation, of course, and that he
had so little control over his class that a student would accuse him. And, by the rules of the circle it was
not the teachers turn to talk anyway, but the sperm donor on Gresh’s right.

And that boy was faced with an enormous challenge. Traditionally, the next offspring would always say,
“That was intolerant” or “Perhaps that was intolerant’ if it didn’t really see how the
confession/accusation was all that intolerant.

So it was faced with the possibility that  its words would be taken as an accusation of the teacher. But
the more is struggled with that concept, the more it thought about what Gresh had said, the more it was
forced to the conclusion it eventually came to…

“That was intolerant.” It said. It said, not intoned. It said, looking directly at the teacher.

The teacher managed to get out the obligatory question again, despite its shock, and the sperm donor,
by the name of Greg, plunged in again,  water frigid cold,

“The most intolerant thing I have seen recently was the way you treated Receba in tolerance circle. It
was a guest, and you were not hospitable. It was in a strange environment and you did not make her
feel welcome. It offered you it’s heart, and you threw  it in its face.”

Greg was the last student in line. The teacher itself was next. But the teacher did not respond according
to form. Instead of looking at Greg, it looked at Gresh. And instead of the obligatory words, it said, “That
was not intolerant!”
Gresh said nothing, the look on its face, and the faces of most of the other students, doing the talking
for it.

“It wasn’t. It’s a teachers job to keep the tolerance circle moving along correctly. It is a vitally important
part of our society, and …”

“Why?” Asked Greg, who was the person the teacher was supposed to be talking to, “why is it
important? I find it boring and useless, and I am sure everyone else does to.”
Distopia Chapter 096: Can I go?

Gresh mused over Gregs question, and the teachers incoherent and inconclusive answer, on the way
back down to the planet. Where the planet society had their seven day meetings, and, he was aware,
times in each family where the father would speak to the Ma and offspring about God… his society had
‘tolerance circles’ and ‘group meetings’. This prompted a thought, and he unstrapped and went to the
front, “Da, can I go with Hekezas family to service tomorrow?”

“Sure G’kin, if you want. You’ll be getting up a bit early after our trip, you’ll need to set your alarm and
get dressed quietly in the morning.”

“Thanks Da.”

“Where are you going?”

Gresh strapped itself into its seat next to Trentarin. A younger sperm donor, one who was still bed
shopping, this was its first trip down planet. It had designed a new wood processing unit, and was eager
to give it a field trial. It would be taking one of the units up mountain to test, and to leave with a house
there. “To Seven Day service.”

“Oh. I read about that. Will it be mountain side or plains side?”

Gresh cast his mind back to last Seven day… “Mountain side this week.”

“Do you think they would mind if I came too?”

“No. They would appreciate it.”

So the next morning the two sperm donors dragged themselves (Trentarins enthusiasm flagging
somewhat) out of bed and into the shower unit. Gresh had just come out and was pulling on its clothes,
when Trista looked up from its bunk and asked, ‘Where are you going G’kin? It’s not  yet after-
breakfast.”

“Service, Trist.”

At that it sat bolt upright, “Can I come?”

“Sure, if you hurry. Shower quick.”

It was quick but the three of them were still barely on time. They emerged from the shuttle to see
Johusa house moving off toward the now very well worn path  in the woods. Some of the offspring saw
them and came racing over, and the two groups soon joined.
Distopia Chapter 097: My father

“This is Trentarin,” Gresh said, “He has come down to…” His voice trailed off, remembering the rules.

“I’ve come down to introduce some new wood machinery…” Trentarin continued, launching into a
description of his project.

Gresh dropped back to walk with the offspring, having done his duty of introduction, and embarrassed
at Trentarins unwitting violation of the Seven day rules. He was sure that Johusa would turn the
conversation to some other topic quickly.

--

Gresh had noticed that the preaching had changed recently. They seemed to be using different words,
and preaching with much more authority. And the preaching  in the mountain church and the plains
church was becoming more and more similar… however much their services were different.

Gresh listened carefully, his thoughts on these subjects made particularly acute after his argument, if
one could call it that, with his teacher. The elder was saying that ‘Christ’… that was what they were
calling the Sacrificed one now, that Christ had ‘redeemed’ us. He was talking about their sins, and how
the price for their sins was death, and how Christ had paid that price. And how our response was to be…

No one thought much of his getting up in service. Everyone got up in service. To eat from the tables at
the sides of the room, to use the outhouses, to meet with family that one hadn’t seen in a week.

Gresh looked around the room, and found what he was looking for. He went over and quietly whispered
in the elders ear, and the two walked outside together. Having ignored him getting up, no one, except
the elders girl-in-his-bed noticed the exchange at all. The offspring were used to someone needing to
talk to their father, or father-brother.

“My Father,” Gresh said, “I would be baptized.”

Distopia Chapter 098: I would be baptized

The elder asked the usual questions, and then one that was not as usual, “And who would you have as
your father?”

The father of  an offspring played a crucial role in their baptism. As most fathers were also believers, this
caused no particular problem. However in the case of someone who had no living father, or who, like
Gresh, had a father who was not a believer, the one to be baptized would pick a ‘father-in-the-faith’.
Gresh hadn’t thought about this issue, but he had no problem with his answer, “Hekeza.”

But then, hesitatingly, he added, “if you think  he would want to.”

“Oh, my son, he will be so proud. You will make him very happy.”

The two walked back into the room, as dozens of others had already done that morning. Gresh went to
the back of the room, to stand with several offspring and even some Mothers and Fathers who wished
to stretch their legs. But the elder walked slowly but deliberately to the front of the room.

Another elder was speaking, but he stopped when it became obvious that the elder on his feet was
proceeding straight to the front.  It was not often done, but the rule was clear, whenever another elder
received something that they needed to say, the one speaking was to stop.

It was an unusual enough procedure, however, that all of the normal activity at the edges of the service
stopped and all eyes were on the elder when he reached the front. And they would have been anyway,
when he said, “Hekeza, come forward.”

Hekeza came, extremely confused. None of his children had talked to him about being baptized, which is
what this sounded like. Normally the child would have come to him, and then he would have gone to an
elder, who would have told the other elders, and then this. But he came forward and when he was at
the front of the room the elder said, “Hekeza, a son of your house would be baptized.”

Hekeza was not the only one confused.  His entire family was looking at each other with surprised looks.
But the confusion ended quickly when the elder continued, ‘Greshkin, son-in-the-faith of the house of
Hekeza, come forward.’

As Gresh began to make his way forward one of his best friends, a boy who often came down to the
store for his father, stood up from where he  was sitting in the middle of the room. No one except an
elder, or occasionally a father, could say anything in service without being invited; but when something
happened that someone wished to particularly rejoice in, or agree with, one could simply stand quietly.

His action was noticed and, with almost one motion, the entire house of Johusa stood as well. Before
Gresh could reach the front everyone in the room was standing.
The elder waited while they stood, and then sat back down. When the room was silent again, he
continued, “Hekeza, this son of yours has come forward to be baptized. Do you know of any  reason why
he should not be?”

Ordinarily Hekeza would have just said “No,” and continued with the ceremony. But given the unusual
circumstances, he instead knelt down.

“Gresh. My son. Do you believe then?”

“Yes my father. I believe… I believe that Jesus Christ came down, and died for my sins. And that God
raised him from the dead. And I would follow him in obedience.”

Hekeza stood up again, and turned to the elder. “My father, this my son believes and would be baptized.
Is there water?”

The elder responded “Yes, there is water,” and the room devolved into chaos.
Distopia Chapter 099: Do you wish to come and witness?

Johusa saw the starcrew standing looking confused. Dozens of boys had darted off out the door, and the
other men and boys were making their way in that direction along with his entire household, boys and
girls alike..

“Do you wish to come and witness?” Johusa asked him.

“If I am allowed, and it would not be offensive.” Trentarin responded.

“Everyone is allowed. In general only boys, and girls of the immediate family come, but everyone is
allowed. And, far from being offensive, a baptism is meant to be a public act to which everyone is
invited. You will be more than welcome as a witness to this act for the starmen.”

So the two of them went along. Not far from the meeting hall was a stream, and slightly upstream the
crowd had gathered on one side of a pool.

Trentarin looked with interest at the scene. The boys had built an enormous fire a few meters away
from the pool, and were lighting it with great gusto.  Just next to the fire, and facing it, other boys and a
few of the girls had built a round shelter, with a large opening facing the fire. Once the fire was going
well, the focus of the crowd shifted to the edge of the pool, where the elder was asking Gresh a series of
questions, none of which Trentarin understood.

Gresh answered all of the questions and then, at a nod from the elder, he and Hekeza, who had stood
next to him the entire time, began to get undressed. The two were soon in the water and Hekeza was
saying, “My son, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” And he plunged
Gresh into the water.
Distopia Chapter 100: How did you enjoy the service?

“Well, how did you enjoy the service?”

The three had arrived back after their exhausting day, and Gresh had headed straight for the shower.

It was very interesting, especially the baptism.” Trentarin said, in reply to Greshkins question. And,

“Gresh got baptized.” Trista added, before helping itself to the snack that Ma had left out for them.

“Baptized?” Litinu said, “Gresh? How could it do that? Baptism is just for members of their church.”

“I asked about that,” Trentarin said, “Indeed I had quite a nice conversation with the elder who had
baptized him. And it turns out that that isn’t true. In fact it was surprised, almost appalled, that I would
have thought so. It seems that baptism is not an act of membership in the church. Or, rather, it is
something that you have to do before you can become a member, but it is not only members that can
be baptized, and certainly not members who are baptized."

"It is some kind of rite of initiation or mark of acceptance. A person who is baptized is baptized because
they have accepted the beliefs of the church. Everyone, no matter where they live, is expected to be
baptized once they have accepted those beliefs. It is, in fact, one of those beliefs, if you see what I
mean."

“But what does any of that have to do with Gresh?” Litinu asked.

“Well, apparently it  went up to that elder during the service and asked him if it  could be baptized. Oh,
and there was another interesting feature. It seems that in order to be baptized one needs kind of a
sponsor. Ordinarily the boy’s father serves, but as you  were not there, and are not a member of the
church, it needed someone to stand in."

"And so they asked Hekeza, who is, I believe, an old friend of the family?"

Greshkin nodded, and Trentarin went on.

“It was a very interesting ceremony. I didn’t understand much of the ritual, of course, as it involved
many of their beliefs. But in the end the father or father substitute gets in the water and the person
being baptized is pushed down under the water. All the way under. I asked, and they said that that was
quite important.”

“Of course it was a very cold day, so the boys had build a large fire and built a shelter, where the Hekeza
and Gresh were able to go and warm up right after the ceremony.”

“Still,” Trentarin laughed, “I imagine that Gresh was quite cold, and that is why it  came right into the
shower. You will probably have to pry him out of there.” 
Distopia Chapter 101: What were you singing?

Hey, Gresh.” Gresh paused in the hallway while Greg came up to him.

“What was that you were singing?”

“Oh, was I singing? Sorry. I get used to doing it down on the planet, and I forget to turn it off when I
come up here.”

“No, I didn’t mind. I wanted to know what it was. I had never heard anything like that before. Is it from
the planet?”

“Yes. From the plains. They sing very well there.”

“Wow. I would love to hear you more.”

“Well, if you are going to hear their singing, you really need to hear several of us. Like my family
together, and even some of the people that have come down with us.”

“Do you think they would?”

“Would what?” Gresh asked.

“If I got the meeting room, do you think your family and the others would come sing for us?” Greg
responded.

“Ummm, I can ask them.”

Distopia Chapter 102: Out of the closet

Word had gotten around. Gresh hadn’t told anyone except for those it had asked to sing, some of whom
had agreed to come. But Greg had told their class, and his family.

So the hall was fairly full when Gresh and his family arrived, going up to the front. Full of children, their
families, some of the singers friends and families. The time for the singing to start was almost upon
them when the door opened again and another group of people filed in.

Susy’s family, and others with them. And then last of all Tendenson. Tendenson was one of the oldest
people on the ship, and rarely left its room.  One of those in the back gave up their chair for it, and it sat
down slowly. Gresh stared, and came to a decision. It walked back and whispered a question in
Tendenson’s ear. The old sperm donor looked startled, then pleased, then nodded.

Gresh walked back to the front of the room. Its Da had already given it the responsibility for the
meeting, so it stood on a chair and began to speak. “I wish to thank you all for coming tonight. We will
be singing some of the songs that we have learned on the planet. It is a tradition on the planet to ask an
elder to bless the meeting before these songs are sung, so I have asked Tendenson to bless the meeting.

All eyes watched Tendenson as it struggled to his feet.  Then it bowed its head, and Gresh followed its
example. “Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of
the LORD.   Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.  The LORD that made heaven and
earth bless thee out of Zion.”

As Gresh lifted its head it noticed that all of those in the back, those that had come in with Trendenson
and Suzy, were also lifting their heads… as were one or two in the audience.

We will begin with, “Oh, sing a new song to the Lord.” Gresh said. I sing counter-alto, my mother and
sister sing Soprano, and my father sings bass. Of these others…”

And it went through the others, asking each of them for their parts, “As you can see there are six parts
to these songs. This song is one of the favorites in the plains church, so we know it the best.”

And the mother gave them a note, and they began:

“Oh sing a new song…”

They sang the first  verse song through several times, and by the time they were done several of the
audience were joining in.  Then there was a pause while Gresh was deciding what to do next. Into the
silence Trendenson said,

“Read from the book now, Neshtin.”

At his words, Neshtin, a sperm donor standing in the back and at the side, a sperm donor about the age
of Da, started, “But Da!” It said.

“Read now Neshtin.”

Neshtin looked at the people with him, seemingly almost afraid. But Gresh said, “the book? You have a
copy of the book?”

Now Neshtin looked truly afraid, but it nodded.

“That is wonderful,” Gresh said. “It would be very appropriate to read from the book now. It is exactly
what might happen  on planet.”

At this the audience, most of them confused but eager, turned to Neshtin, who slowly removed a book
from within his shirt.

“Where, where should I read, Father?”He asked.

But that worthy seemed lost in thought, and Gresh said, “could you read us the story of the birth?”

So Neshtin began,

Luk 2:1  And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all
the world should be taxed.   (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And
all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.   And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of
Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house
and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was,
that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.   And she brought
forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there
was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night.

  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and
they were sore afraid.   And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people.   For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord.   And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God,
and saying,   Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.   And it came to
pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us
now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known
unto us.

  And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.   And when
they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.   And all
they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.   But Mary kept all
these things, and pondered them in her heart.   And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God
for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. 
Distopia Chapter 103: Is it an elder?

Neshtin  finished, and sat down. The group continued with the songs and readings until late. When the
meeting was over no one left, but they stood around talking. Trista came up to Gresh. “Gresh, Gresh?”

“Yeah Trist?”

“Is Neshtin an elder? Is Trendenten an elder? Is it a father of fathers?”

“I don’t know Trist. Let’s go ask.”

“Neshtin. I don’t understand. Are you an elder?”

Neshtin looked at it, “We don’t use that term, usually. We say ‘pastor’. But I understand what you
mean.”

It pulled up a seat, and they sat with it. “Yes. I am the pastor… for this whole ship. We don’t talk about it.
It isn’t technically illegal, but it isn’t ‘tolerant’.”

“And your father? Is it a father of fathers?” Gresh asked.

“Patriarch.” Neshtin said. “The term we use is ‘patriarch’. My father is the only… believer who is, who
has a family, a whole family, offspring who have offspring all of whom are believers.”

There was a silence, and Trista pulled at Gresh’s shirt. “Well, is it Gresh? Is it a father of fathers?”

“Yea, Trist, he is.”

They both watched Trist go over, and kneel at the older mans feet. “Bless me Father.”

“I heard that your friend did that as well. What does it mean?”

“It is a planet tradition.  Each church has only one ‘father of fathers’. In our church, the mountain church
that we often attend, it doesn’t come very often, it is too ill. But when it does come, all of the younger
children are encouraged to go to him it for a blessing. And pregnant women, especially their first time. A
girl or boy newly life-partnered.”

“And everyone will bring their children, as soon after they were born. Excuse me.” It said, and knelt at
the old mans feet.

‘Bless me, my father.’

“Ah, my son. What you have done for us today. Today we have come out into the open. Do you believe,
my son?”

“Yes, my father. And I was baptized three weeks ago.”

“Baptized. What a blessing. And your family?”

Gresh hung his head, “no my father. None of them believe, Except perhaps Trista.”

“We will pray for them. So you wish a blessing?”

“Yes my father,” Gresh said, and bowed its head.

It seemed that Trendensens hands, its trembling hands, rested on its  head forever.

“May the Lord bless you.  Always you will stand between peoples as a peacemaker.  Between East and
West, between North and South. Like a lion you will protect that which is yours. Go in peace my son.”
Distopia Chapter 104: Talking, as boys will

The boys lay upon the stacks of skins, talking, as boys will when they get to a certain age, of girls, and of
sex. And these boys in particular were discussing how these two subjects of conversation could be
successfully brought together in their own beds.

“You mountain boys have it easy,” one of the plains boys was saying, “all you have to do is go and talk to
the girl and bring her home. No bride price. No waiting for your father to decide.”

“Oh, so we have it easy do we? Two things wrong with that theory, my friend.  First of all, with the way
things go nowadays, all you would have to do to get a mountain girl is ask your father for permission to
go get one. It is all the rage, mountain boys getting plains girls and plains boys getting mountain girls.”

“And the only reason you don’t have a girl in your bed, pardon me ‘a wife’ in your bed, is that you
haven’t gotten up the guts to go and tell your father that your underwear is wet every night.”

After the scuffle that this excessively personal and accurate remark caused died down the boys returned
to their conversation.

“What I want to know,” said Gresh, who really did want to know but who hoped the other boys would
take this as a mere conversational gambit, “is how the girls in the store family are supposed to get
married. Are they mountain girls, or plains girls?”

His sally failed, as the remark reminded a boy sitting nearby that the full plumb of the earlier thread
hadn’t been sounded. “How do you all do it anyway? Up on the ship? Does your Da arrange it? Or do
you ask the girl? Or perhaps the computer?”

The boys had all heard of computers, but had only the vaguest idea of how they worked.
Distopia Chapter 105: I haven't done any of this

 Gresh had been hoping the boys wouldn’t ask this question, as he was not at all proud of the answer.
He decided to be very upfront; “you won’t like the answer. Or if you do, you had better not tell me
about  it, because I don’t like it.  I think the plains system is best, but even the mountain system is far,
far better than ours.”

At this all of the boys sat up, all ears.  This was more than they hoped for. After a silence one of them
broke in with, “well. So tell us.”

“Ok. But remember, I don’t like it, so you can’t go and judge me over it. Or my Da. I don’t think he likes it
either.” (At least Gresh desperately hoped he didn’t.)

The boys all nodded, and leaned forward. Except for one or two younger ones at the outskirts, these
were all older boys, gathered here for the building of the new storehouse, and given a temporary break.
Few subject could interest them more than this one.

“OK. The way it works among us is that a boy, when he decides that he is… that he would like to…”
Gresh paused. He didn’t quite know how to put this next bit. His audience waited.

“When he changes and starts thinking about girls.” Gresh came out with eventually. “He goes around
and finds a girl that interests him…”

Gresh paused again, in anguish. He didn’t see how he could relate this next part and preserve a shred of
self-respect. He decided on another disclaimer, “I haven’t done any of this. I want you to know that. I am
old enough, but I will NOT do this. Not even if my Da tells me to.”

This was a strong statement. Among the strongest statements a mountain youth could make, and hardly
any less strong among the plains boys. It meant an action so clearly unGodly that one could not even
perform it under the direct command of one’s father. An action calling for death rather than obedience,
as with Daniel, Shadrack, Meshak, and Abednego.

The boys breath all came quicker, and they nodded. They accepted his implied oath, and his witness.

“And he tells her that he would like to come to bed with her, at her parents. And then he goes over to
her cabin… we call our rooms cabins… and… and he does all that she will let him do with her. And she
does things with him, so that he is happy.”

There, he couldn’t say more than that, he couldn’t be more detailed about what he considered an
abomination. But the next part would be even harder.

“And then, the next night or one later, he… he asks another girl.”

The boys eyes widened, and one burst out with, “a different girl?!?”
Gresh nodded, tears in his eyes. He had just shamed his entire culture in these boys eyes.

“And he keeps doing that for awhile. That is what we, they, do when they are younger. The boy invites
himself, he tells the girl, that he is coming over to her cabin. At first just for an hour or so, and then later
for the whole night.”

“And then, when he is older, he will invite the girl… tell her, really, to come over to his cabin. And there…
there he does whatever pleases him.”

Silence reigned for a while, and then one boy, quietly, from outside the circle, asked, “and then how,
how do the two ever become a Da and Ma? Is it when one of the girls brings forth offspring for him?”

“No. They can’t bring forth offspring at that time. The doctors give them something that makes it so they
can’t. They become a Da and Ma when, one night in bed… we live kind of like the mountain people, only
closer, so everyone can hear us, one night in bed a girl says to the boy, ‘I would like to share  your bed
forever.’”

“When she says this, of course the Ma and Da hear it, for she always says it either in the evening when
they aren’t asleep, or in the morning when they are waking, then everyone is glad.  And they announce
it. And the boy and the girl stand before everyone and pledge that they will no more go to anyone else’s
bed, but share only with each other.” Gresh said this last with a rush, glad to finally be able to confirm
that his Ma and Da, whatever might have happened earlier, did not still have sex with other people.
Distopia Chapter 106: Plains or Mountain?

Silence reigned again, as the boys struggled to accept this earthshaking revelation of a society so
steeped in immorality that boys and girls routinely met up before they were bound forever. But one of
the boys, discerning the distress that this story must have caused Gresh, realizing the significance of his
earlier question, and being of a generous if playful disposition, crawled to the edge of the stack and
looked below. He was in luck.

“Hekeza!” he yelled, causing all of the pensive boys to jump, “Hekeza?”

“Yes?” Said that individual, who had been moving barrels around.

“Hekeza. Your house. Receba. Is she a plains girl or a mountain girl?”

Hekeza having seen the composition of boys that had climbed up the stack and reading between the
lines of the question, yelled back, “And who wants to know?”

“Can’t tell you that. If she’s a mountain girl, the boy is supposed to go to her, not to you. And if she’s a
plains girl, the boy isn’t supposed to be coming and asking at all.”

Hekeza acknowledged the justice of this, and added, “I don’t know, actually. We haven’t discussed it.
You all will be here through tomorrow. Come to me tomorrow after breakfast, and I will try to have an
answer for you.”

The boy turned back to the blushing Gresh, but no one said anything.
Distopia Chapter 107: Is she a what?

“Is she a what?” Johusa asked.

“Is she a plains girl or a mountain girl? The boys want to know, and it’s a fair question. She’s getting
older, old enough even, and the boys want to know.”

“Which boy wants to know?”

“They didn’t tell me that, and I don’t blame them. A mountain boy would be ashamed to be caught
talking to you about your daughter, and a plains boy wouldn’t even be allowed to broach the subject.
But they do need to know.”

Johusa walked out the door, and stared off into the distance.  A mountain boy himself, but… “Plains. And
you can blame Cardin. I can still remember him asking me with shock why I thought anyone would be
dumb enough to ask the girl about her own marriage. Plains. Tell them that. And tell them that a
storekeeper might just demand a stiff bride price for his daughter!”

Hekeza looked serious, “you don’t want  her to spoil on the vine? You’re not trying to scare them off?”

Johusa looked back at him, “Could I have scared  you off, if she were Juliana?”

Hekeza grinned.  “And besides, it is with the father you will be negotiating. You’re just trying to stop her
from appearing as the main feature in too many boys daydreams.”
Distopia Chapter 108: Please don't ask me to

Gresh walked back to the ship, all of the boys eyes on him. All of the ones that were left, that is, most of
them had left with their fathers an hour or so ago. He had been totally unable to disguise from the boys
his reaction to the answer from Johusa, relayed through Hekeza and the boy who had originally asked.

Plains. So he would have to get his Da…

--

“Da. I need to talk to you.”

“Sure G’kin, whats up?”

“Could we go outside?”

The two donned their jackets against the stiff fall wind, and went out the door. Gresh led his father
toward the woods, along a walk they often took, usually with Ma in tow; but Gresh thought that this
conversation was best without  it .

“Da, I’m getting older.”

Greshkin was silent. He had been wondering when this issue would arise. Living on the planet as they
did, Gresh had no opportunity for bed-shopping. And having lived here so long, and visiting the ship so
rarely, especially recently, and…

“And Da. I can’t do it Da.”

“Can’t do what, G’kin?” Asked Da after a long pause.

“Bed shopping, Da. I can’t do it. I won’t do it Da. Please don’t ask me to.”

The two had stopped, and were facing each other.

“I won’t ask you to. But, as you said, you are getting older. I’m sure that you want…”

“I do Da. But I don’t want to bed-shop.”

“What then?”

“I want… a wife Da. A planet wife. A plains wife. And so I need you to get one for me.”

Greshkin was silent, pondering. He didn’t think the elders on ship would object. Far from it. They
rejoiced over every report of how Gresh and Trista were doing on planet, how they fit in with the local
people, how that encouraged cooperation with the various plans that they had for industrialization.
Greshkin didn’t see anything marvelous in it, but the elders were impressed.
Marriage with a local, as long as G’kin didn’t want to go off and farm or something, as long as he would
stay here and help with the education of the locals concerning the various goods they were shipping
down, as he was doing more and more each day now. No, they would not object.

“Is there one particular girl you want, G’kin?”

Gresh reddened, “I… I’m not supposed to say, Da.”

Greshkin went to kneel down, but Gresh had grown far too tall for that to work. He looked around. “Sit
here, on this log.” When the two were seated, he went on.

“Gresh, you are neither fish nor fowl, nor yet animal. You were raised on ship, until we came here. You
have friends among the mountain people, the plains people, and especially among the storekeepers
family…”

He stopped. Gresh had reddened all the way to the tips of his ears, and had glanced suddenly at the
ground. Greshkin laughed internally, and then said, “well, Ok. If that is the way you want it, I won’t ask 
you. Are you ready now then?”

Gresh, still staring intensely at a stick at the base of the log they were sitting on, nodded brusquely.
Distopia Chapter 109: Not to lose a daughter

“Can I speak with you?”

“Sure,” Johusa responded, “Why so serious?”

Greshkin led Johusa off away from the storehouse door, and away from listening ears, before he replied,
“if a father was to come for Receba, to ask for her hand in marriage for his son, would he need to come
to you, or to Festins father?”

Johusa’s face got suddenly grave, “To me. The egg donor is given to the wife’s family, but only to raise.
She belongs to me to give away in marriage, and to collect the bride price on.”

Greshkin had hoped that Johusa would continue, making his next sentence unnecessary, but since he
hadn’t, Greshkin continued with the first line in the official ceremony, “I have a sperm donor of my
household, who is old enough to need a wife. I understand  you have an egg donor in your household
who is old enough to marry.”

Johusa nodded, “I do.”

He looked at Greshkin, and continued the ceremony, a ceremony that he had short circuited so
ignorantly all those many years ago, “But there would need to be a price paid, as she is a beautiful girl
and a hard worker. We could barely stand to lose her.”

That last was form, Johusa thought, but it was also achingly true. Receba, gone. And with the boy being
Gresh, the word ‘gone’ had a whole different depth of meaning.

“I am prepared to pay… what is necessary.”

That was not according to form. At least, it wasn’t the main line. The normal response would have been,
‘a reasonable amount.’ Indicating that the standard bride price was acceptable. Instead Greshkin had
indicated his willingness to pay a much larger than normal bride price. This could be a compliment to the
girl or, as now, could be a recognition of some special difficulty in the match; as for a starcrew
threatening to take someone’s daughter off where she could never be seen again.

The ceremony paused here. As he had been taken by surprise by the question, he was under no
obligation to respond immediately. Indeed by custom he had till sunset.

He looked back at his house, and thought of his wife. His brave wife who had been drug off to a
mountain house and piled into a social life that she could never have imagined in her lonely house on
the plains. His wife who efficiently managed a household threatened by the possible arrival at any
minute of unannounced but vitally important guests.
How could he strip her daughter away from her and send her off. Perhaps Gresh would be reassigned.
Perhaps…

Suddenly he had an idea. He grinned. Not to lose a daughter but to…

He turned to Greshkin, “here is my price. One weeks work shall he pay, he himself and no other, working
for me. Then he shall have his wife. But with his new wife he shall live in my house for fifty one more
weeks, and work for me, while his wife works for my wife.”

Grinning, he added, “then, if he should have to leave on that spaceship of yours, live he ever so long, he
won’t be cheating me of the weeks that he will owe me.”

He got grave, “oh, and one more thing you must promise me. You, your wife, and Gresh…”
Distopia Chapter 110: This was interesting

We finally docked. After all these years of running cargo, including five years at the top of the guild, I still
found the final approach to a space station the most boring event in my experience.

I watched the personnel docking collar approach and mate with the ship. Yotinn would be waiting there,
waiting to cross over to the station and on to its new assignment. An older sperm donor, it had been my
political for five years now, ever since I had become guild leader.  As politicals went, it hadn’t been bad.
Boring, shy, it had always just proceeded with its job and  ignored most of what was going on around it.
At first it had known nothing about commercial enterprises, but it had dutifully studied and learned
more and more over the years.

And now it was off to some new assignment. Teaching, if I had understood correctly. Soon I would meet
my new political. It would be waiting at the opposite opening. Heaven forbid I would go five minutes
without a political.

I was in my office and about halfway through the summary report when the door chime sounded, and
my assistant came in, accompanied by an extremely shapely and young egg donor. I looked at my
assistant.

“This is your new political.”

Well, this was certainly interesting.

“I am glad to meet you.” I said, the first time I had ever meant that when greeting a political.

It wasn’t hard. It was absolutely literally true. It had been  a while since I had done any proper
socialization. And it was certainly more interesting than any briefings I had ever given to Yotinn. About
halfway through I  came to a decision. And a minute or two later I decided how I would manage, and I
surreptitiously signaled my assistant. So we had just finished when the door chimed.

I got up and opened it. I think that that shocked the egg donor a bit, but of course what I did was
perfectly proper… demonstrating proper socialization.

My assistant had a wonderful faked report that it had just had to give me, and I could see it listening
very carefully to my response. The backdrop helped explain my summons, and I could see it struggling
not to grin. It really helped that it was a sperm donor. In the midst of an otherwise absolutely
meaningless answer I inserted the words…

Alone… trip… three… months… urgent… now…

I had trained it well, and it hurried off to carry out my meaningless instructions, and to carry out the
hidden message inside them.
“I’m sorry,” I said to the political, whose name I had learned was Iona, a few minutes later,  “but my
assistant tells me that we have to go on a trip.”

I launched into a long and meaningless description of the reason for the trip… full of convoluted
mercantile language.

“So, what do I have to do?”

“You don’t have to do anything really. Our cabins are in the shuttle, the crew is prepping it for launch
right now. My assistant will show you there.”
Distopia Chapter 111: Possession is nine tenths of the law

 It wasn’t until we were an hour away from the station that Iona realized that there were only the two of
us for crew. During my rise to power in the merchant guild I had learned to pilot a ship, so that was no
problem. And of course my assistant had fully understood my implications, so the other crew that might
normally have come with us weren’t sent along.

 It was one month into the trip when I decided I wanted it to stay that way, that I wished to spend time
exclusively with this egg donor. Besides being very young and very shapely, she actually had a pleasant
personality and was reasonably gifted.

It was two months before I had convinced it, having to overcome its initial training against exclusivity
carefully. But it had never before been in anything close to an exclusive relationship, and I could see the
tension leaking from it's face  with each day that we spent alone together… alone in a perfectly proper
way… forced by circumstances. And gradually replacing its relaxed look was a possessive one.

And it was two more weeks before I had fully fleshed out my plan, exposing facts about the rim to it that
completely shocked it… and then explaining how those facts would help us with our illicit relationship.

--

The planetary governor rose from its seat. A sperm donor, it was tall, broad shouldered, and carried an
unmistakable air of authority. But it had a rather confused look  on its face as it came toward me,

“I am a little unclear as to the purpose of this meeting. Indeed if it had been anyone else I might have
told my assistant to refuse.”
Distopia Chapter 112: I would like to propose a change

“Well,” I responded, “I hope you will not regret seeing me. But, after so long on the ship, I am feeling a
little claustrophobic. Let’s go for a walk.”

We  had been walking five minutes, and I had been talking meaningless banalaties. We passed Iona,
dressed in civilian clothes, and as we did, it nodded, and I began the real conversation.

“Information on all of the material that passes through these planets comes across my desk. If I do say
so myself, I am brilliant at analyzing information. I have known for a long time that almost all of the
information coming out of the rim, the official information, is incorrect.”

He started to say something, and I waved him off.

“The  political control over the entire rim has relaxed to the point of nonexistence.  The population of
the rim is several times that of the official figures, and most of the non-registered are the natural
offspring of non-registered exclusives.”

I looked at it, “don‘t worry, I’m not here to blackmail you or, worse yet, turn you in.”

“No, I’m here to end this charade. We merchants are the only people that still are under political
control, real political control.  The fleet is gone from the rim, having declared victory after their defeat at
the mining station.”

“Even back at the core the fleet is practically non-existent. They are refusing to have offspring, and their
population is declining precipitously.”

“The only groups that are still strongly regulated are the leaders such as yourself… although I am sure
even you get around the regulation routinely. And merchants such as myself… who can’t do so due to
our lifestyle. I propose to change both of those.”
Distopia Chapter 113: I would like a shuttle like that

“Captain. We have an incoming signal.”

“Put it on the screen.”

Everyone on the bridge watched as the screen lit up with a repeat of the sensor readings from the
remote, stealthed sensors.

“It’s not a scout,” the captain remarked.

“No, it’s not even stealthed.”

‘It looks like some kind of shuttle.” The executive officer remarked after a few more minutes.

“If that’s a shuttle, I’d like to have one.” The captain remarked an hour later as the shuttle passed nearby
one of the sensor platforms.  “Ok, this has gone on long enough, open a communication channel.”

--

The ‘shuttle’ came up, and the docking collar snaked out. The captain and the executive officer, along
with four marines, stood at the  exit to the corridor. They waited through the technical formalities, then
the hatch at the other end opened and two figures stood in the opening.

The light shining behind them made it a bit difficult to see them except in outline. But as they walked
forward it became evident that it was a sperm donor, an egg donor, and that they were… holding hands.
Distopia Chapter 114: Test her

So you are telling me that the rim planets are basically liberated? That all we have to do is show up and
the whole place will fall at our feet?”

I sat at a table with the captain, his executive officer, Iona, and a half dozen other officers. Their faces
showed a mixture of hope and suspicion.

I got up, and paced around the room. “I don’t know what to say to convince you. You just won’t believe
how much things have changed. You just can’t imagine the things that…”

I paused. I looked at Iona.

“Test her.” I said. “She’s  a political, you can’t doubt that. Test her.”

They all looked at me. “Test her for what?”

“She’s a political, and she’s pregnant. She’s carrying my baby.”

Distopia Chapter 115: We have received a message

The scouts went first. Maximum stealth, sensors on passive.  They scouted an enormous area before one
of them went back.

The carrier came through next. Hundreds of fighters, stealthed fighters, combed the area the scouts had
covered and then moved past them.

Another scout went back, and the rest of the fleet came through. Not the whole fleet, just the gateway
fleet.  The admiral of the fleet had made the decision itself, calling the entire fleet down line would have
taken a year… and it could see no reason to do that. If this was a trap, then the whole fleet would be
trapped. If it was for real, than this fleet could handle it.

Once gathered, once so deep into open space that there was no longer any possibility of a trap, the fleet
moved off into its pre-arranged plan. A small section moved off down the lane to the other planets of
the rim. The larger section…

--

“Admiral! We’ve received a message claiming to be from a Rebel Flotilla. An admiral ‘Jones’ says it
commands flotilla 157 and is calling for our surrender!”

Admiral Trestin was one of the few active survivors of the original rebellion 50 years ago. As a newly
commissioned ensign he had joined Admiral Jensens fleet near to the end of the end. It had miraculously
been transferred, to a freighter of all places, only days before the transmission had first gone out. So it
had gotten missed in the enormous shake down.

It had then risen in the fleet, slowly and carefully for the first bit of time. But then came the forming of
the grand fleet. It had missed being assigned there by a hair. It had never decided how it felt about that,
even when it had risen to the rank of Admiral.

Admiral of a hollow fleet.  It knew that, having been in the old fleet. It knew that this fleet couldn’t begin
to compare with the fleet it had joined, all those many years ago.

“Well, ensign. I presume we have a plan for this contingency. Activate it.”
Distopia Chapter 116: You have 24 hours

“Yes, Admiral, I can quite understand that your orders do not allow you to surrender the fleet. However
I suggest that you radio back for new orders in the light of our threat. We can easily destroy the planet,
and, unless we recall them, the missiles we have launched will do just that, even if my whole flotilla is
destroyed.”

“My orders are to accept your surrender, or destroy the planet. We will give you 24 hours to  get new
orders.”
Distopia Chapter 117: Can't sleep Keba?

It was their third night in the shuttle, and Receba was finding it very difficult to sleep. It wasn’t the
crowding, or not much. But the noises were… different. She looked over at Gresh, sound asleep. He had
learned…  so much. She remembered his first day when he had fallen flat on his face coming out of the
shuttle, and had walked around the rest of the day as if his feet were made out of wood.

His first fight… she had been so ashamed for him. And then those next few weeks when he never
seemed to stop sporting a shiner and his face had looked like raw meat. She remembered the day he
had run in, freezing cold and dripping wet, with his first fish.

She looked around. She remembered her first ride on the shuttle. Him sitting next to her, pointing
everything out.

And now she couldn’t sleep in it. She would have to learn. She would have to adapt, like her mother had
done. It all looked cold and lifeless, but she would have to fill it full of life.

She pulled back the sheet, and stared at her stomach. One life, anyway, and not that long from now. She
couldn’t see it yet, although she imagined she could. One life to add to these sterile walls.

There was a strange noise, and she saw Greshkin getting up.

“What is it Da?” she asked, climbing out of bed and following him up to the cockpit.

He glanced at her, “can’t sleep Keba?”

“No. New place.”

“Have a seat and we will see what it is.”

When she was seated he reached up and flicked a blinking switch.

“Greshkin!” A face said off the screen that lit up in response. A face that, after a second, she recognized
as Trantar, Greshkins brother and thus her father-brother, “Receba!”

“Trantar, what on earth are you doing? Don’t you all have clocks up there?”

It sounded rough, but Receba heard the laugh and love in his voice.

“Yea, I know, but I thought you would want to hear this news right away.”

Recebas heart leapt. Trantar had married a girl almost immediately after their first visit. The two only
had  one offspring so far, and Receba kept hoping that they would have another. Perhaps…

“What news?”
“A shuttle just came through from the gateway fleet. It’s over. The war is over.”
Distopia Chapter 118: Can I Ma?

The spacemen insisted, and the baby would be born on board, in a hospital. Restina insisted , and no
men would be allowed in the delivery room. The doctor insisted, and Receba would be wearing a
medical bracelet. Restina insisted, and everyone was informed that all females on board that wished to
could attend the birth.

“Are you going to go?”

“Can I Ma?”

“Well, yes.  Your Da and I talked about it. There are a couple of reason why you can go… even, perhaps,
should go. Childbirth for the planet culture is an important bonding time. As I understand it at the time
of childbirth egg donors gather from all around to be there and share the time, even those who are
not  particularly close.”

“Receba is now a life partner to one of ours, but that doesn’t mean it somehow automatically has
adapted to all of our customs. All it's life it has grown up going to birthings, and imagining it's own.
Already it is up here in an environment that is strange to it, with only it's Ma in attendance… only it's Ma
from the planet that is, Litinu will be there, of course. So if some of you egg donors want to go…”

“The other reason is that, well, now that the war is over, most of us are going to be settling down on a
planet. And this kind of thing, well, not so primitive as Receba is used to, but having lots of offspring and
all, is what we will be doing. It is what you will be doing. So we think it is good for you to be there. If you
want to. If you think you can handle it.”

“I hope I can, Mom. But there is another reason.”

Suzy’s mother looked at her, “What's that dear?”

“She’s my friend Ma.”

Distopia Chapter 119: It was time

Suzy’s bracelet buzzed, and her heart jumped. It was Receba. It was time. She hurried off down the
coordidor to the small conference room. Everyone was still freaked out that the birth was going to be
held there, but there were several girls coming, plus Receba, plus Restina… really they wouldn’t all fit in
a med room.

Suzy paused at the door, took a deep breath, and walked in.

“Hey Suzy,” Receba said. My but she looked pregnant. Her belly looked like it was about to explode.

“Thanks for coming, Suzy,” Recebas Ma said, “you’re the first one.”

Not the last though. Before Suzy could even respond the door opened behind her and another girl
walked in. She was followed through the door by two of the Ma’s who had gone down planet. Soon the
whole room was filled.

Everyone except Receba and her Ma were very… awkward. None of them had ever been to someone
else’s birthing before, except for one Ma who was a nurse. And she looked awkward because of the lack
of medical devices and such.

Suzy found shelter with Receba. Most of the other people were wandering around and trying to be
interested, all the while trying not to look at Receba. Suzy went over, and held her hand. Restina had the
other hand and Receba squeezed both of them, “It hurts Ma.”

“Yes, dear. Breath through it.”

Receba bent down and breathed, still gripping Suzy tightly by the hand. After a few seconds she
straightened up again, “walk now,” her Ma said, and the three of them walked around.

“How… how will you know?” Suzy asked Restina, “how will you know when it is time?”

As they walked, Restina told Suzy all about the different parts of labor. It was fascinating for Suzy and it
made the time pass. She noticed lots of people listening in, some openly.

“How long does it take then, all those stages?” She asked, when Restina got done speaking of the
delivery of the afterbirth.

“It depends. For a first baby it can be a long time, even a whole day. But if she walks around, that helps.”

And Receba did walk. And they talked more. And it was hours, and hours. Receba got some rest, women
and girls came in and out.  Suzy just left to eat a couple of times, and once to take a shower. Other than
that she stayed with Receba.

“Stop telling me to breathe!” Receba yelled at her. Suzy looked at Restina in panic.
“Don’t worry dear, it’s the next phase. It won’t be long now.”

And it wasn’t. Suzy had never seen anything even remotely like it. She stared at Receba, holding the
baby on her chest, “oh, Mother, it’s a boy.”

“Yes dear, push now.”

Well, the baby was cute, sort of, but the afterbirth looked awful. Restina was putting it in some kind of
bag, when the nurse came back in.

“What are you doing?” Restina asked the nurse.

“Oh, it’s just her normal after-birth shot.”

“She doesn’t need a shot!” Restina said.

The nurse started to argue, to reassure Restina that ‘everybody gets this shot after their birth’ when
Litinu came over,

“What is that?” she asked.

“It’s the normal after birth shot, dexetrime hydrocholoride.”

“She is NOT to get that! Didn’t the doctor tell you?”

Restina asked me to cover Receba up, the nurse went to get the doctor, and Litinu went to get Greshkin.

“What is the problem?” This from the doctor.

The nurse began launching into her tirade, with the doctor attempting to calm her down when suddenly
she stopped in mid sentence, staring at Receba. Everyone else turned to look at her as well.

“Am I doing it right, Mother?” Receba was asking.

“Yes dear, it looks like he has latched on well.”

We all stared down at the baby nursing busily.

“You see now why she shouldn’t get the shot.” The doctor said. “She is going to breastfeed her baby.
And that shot would ‘dry her up’ and make  her incapable of breastfeeding.”

The nurse stared at the needle in her hand, and Litinu continued, “we promised Johusa we wouldn’t give
her the shot, and that she could breastfeed her babies on ship.”

“She’s the first one to do so.” The doctor said, smugly.

Restina looked around the room at everyone staring at Receba, especially at the younger girls, and
added, quietly, “but I don’t’ think she will be the last.”