Into the Flames - Chapter 5.5

     The sale was finalized and Jonette’s ownership information was transferred to Fiera. A pair of sandals was found to fit her narrow feet and they headed out. While Fiera wasn’t body shy after living with so many siblings, Lady Sung would be as a genteel lady wouldn’t be around the rest of the household without clothing on – let alone hundreds of the members of the public.

     Linden led her to a small shop just outside the port. A white haired woman dressed in a long, flowing crimson skirt and a peasant blouse greeted them. “Director Fiscella, I hope you weren’t giving me a split circuit about this,” she said.

     “Katida Machan, let me introduce you to Lady Fiera Sung,” Linden said with a bow.

     “Lady Sung,” Katida said, bowing. “Welcome to my shop. I’ve closed it down so we can outfit you without any distractions.” She glanced at Jonette. “Are you leaving your indent here to help, Linden?”

     “Jonette belongs to Lady Sung now, Katida,” Linden said. “You know what difficulties she’s been causing for me.”

     Katida snorted. “Yes I do, and you brought those down on yourself. You should’ve taken the boy,” she said. “Now, go run your port. I’ve got a beautiful woman to clothe so she can go home.” Linden chuckled and headed off. “Lady Sung, if you’ll step up on this platform please? This way I can get your proper measurements.”

     Fiera did as she was asked. “I do not have inexpensive tastes, Katida. I hope you have something I consider worth my time.”

     “Most likely not, but right now you can’t afford to be too picky if you don’t want to go all over the city in that robe, my lady,” Katida said bluntly.

     “Forgive me for speaking out of turn, my lady, but Katida’s right,” Jonette said.

     “I’ll get you into the finest I have, my lady,” Katida said. “I’ll even cut my prices down ninety percent so you don’t have to pay that much.”

     “It’s the best deal you’ll get, my lady,” Jonette said.

     Fiera gave a disdainful sniff. “I suppose it will have to do, though I find this a very displeasing situation,” she said.

     “I’m sure,” Katida said dryly.

     It took several hours, and some false indignation on Fiera’s part, before she was presented with several elegant dresses and some more casual outfits. “You have been most helpful, Katida,” Fiera said, paying the bill. “I am pleased with the results, though they are not what I am useful.” She paused, and then added a larger number of credits. “I offer what I think products are worth, should I be charged less than what I agree with. Thank you for your time.”

     Katida glanced at the amount. Her eyes widened. “My lady, this is more than what your clothing is worth at it’s normal price.”

     “Then consider this a bonus for you and your shop,” Fiera said. “I will also praise your shop highly when I review it in the system.”

     “Thank you, my lady,” Katida said, beaming. “A positive review means a great deal to a small shop like mine.”

     “Come Jonette,” Fiera said. “We need to leave.”

     “Yes my lady,” Jonette said. The two women left. Fiera went to a public comm system and called the private limousine company and inquired about the ride that was supposed to have been sent for her.

     “It’s still at the port, my lady,” the woman said, after checking. “He’s waiting in parking section three.”

     “Very good,” Fiera said. She ended the call. “Jonette, show me where parking section three is.”

     “As you wish, Lady Sung,” Jonette said.

     The limousine driver was very irritated where he’d been waiting for them until he heard what had happened. “My lady, you’ve had a terrible experience,” he said. “Do you wish me to take you somewhere you can relax? Or do you just want me to take you home.”

     “I wish to go home,” Fiera said. “I am quite weary and I wish to rest.”

     “Of course, my lady,” the driver said. He opened the door for Fiera and Jonette.

     “Do you have the proper address?” Fiera asked, pulling up the information on her pad.

     “I do, my lady,” the driver said. “If you wish to confirm I’m heading to the right place, I can read you off the address I have on file.”

     “Please do,” Fiera said. She confirmed the information with what Kelan had given her. “That is what I have. Thank you for verifying that for me.”

     “Of course, Lady Sung,” the driver said.

     The drive took three hours. Fiera watched as they passed through several different neighborhoods. One of the first she recognized were the tall, segmented houses of the Arpathi. The blue skinned, black haired aliens were vicious fighters but were also highly intelligent, good strategists, and remarkably compassionate for a race that was nearly wiped out by the humans during their first few encounters.

     She didn’t know as much about them as she wanted to. They usually lived in twin pairings, often several in the same compound as families seldom separated unless there was a need. She’d seen a handful of the family complexes on various worlds as she tested the Lady Sung identity on her fellow Colonists.

     The ones in the Colonies were blocks of color on some kind of stilts separated by walkways. The ones here in the Core weren’t much different, other than appearing to be made of tenscrete instead of the more natural fibers.

     “You’ll want to stay away from the non-human districts, my lady,” Jonette said, peering out the window from her place beside Fiera.

     “Why is that, Jonette?” Fiera asked.

     The driver snorted. Jonette glared at the back of his head. “My lady, the non-humans and humans don’t mix except in very specific circumstances,” Jonette said. “I believe there is a Kwarron who teaches first term physical education at the University, and I’ve heard of Arpathi teaching a couple courses there too.”

     “There are Arpathi and Kwarron teaching fighting techniques at specially regulated, human owned schools in the city where they can take human students,” the driver said. “They have their own private schools as well, and those are completely closed to humans.”

     “I see,” Fiera said.

     “Wasn’t there any kind of separation like this on Coenus, my lady?” Jonette asked.

     “The city I lived in held no non-humans,” Fiera said. “Coenus is also a high gravity world, and I have seldom heard of either the Arpathi or the Kwarron coming to such worlds.”

     “The Kwarron don’t care about high gravity,” Jonette said. “Their only requirement is a lot of saltwater. The Arpathi I’m not as sure about. They always look so fragile.”

     “Try being on the receiving end of their claws, girl. You won’t think them so fragile,” the driver said, a hint of anger in his voice.

     “You have a personal experience with this?” Fiera asked.

     “Not me, my lady,” the driver said, his voice tight. “My younger brother. He’s a sec op.”

     “Sec op?” Fiera asked.

     “It’s what we call security operatives, my lady. It’s easier than constantly saying the full thing,” Jonette said.

     “Ah,” Fiera said. “What happened to him then? I can only assume he was injured in the line of duty.”

     “He was,” the driver said. “This was five years ago, when the Assembly passed new laws on the regulation of how the non-humans could do business. I don’t even remember what they were now. But the Arpathi and Kwarron rioted. All over Sio they poured into the streets, ignoring the laws that forbade them from meeting in groups above twenty, and went on the rampage. They originally targeted the Assembly members themselves. When they proved too difficult to get to, they went after the ordinary people on the streets.”

     “This sounds like a terrible thing to witness,” Fiera said.

     “It was,” the driver said. “My brother was one of over two hundred sec ops sent in to quell the rebellion. They tried peaceful measures first. They had people fluent in both the Arpathi and Kwarron languages come in and try to talk them down. They used non-lethal methods to disperse the groups. When nothing else worked, they were given the order to use as much force as necessary.” There was a moment of silence. “It became a bloodbath.”

     “How many humans died?” Fiera asked, though she was far more interested in the non-human death toll.

     “Fifty seven,” the driver said. “Two hundred and seventeen others were critically injured, my brother among them. He was lucky. His injuries didn’t stop him from going back to work. But around half of those who were hurt in the riots couldn’t go back to work and are now living on the planetary welfare system, assuming they don’t have family members to support them.”

     “How many of the Arpathi and Kwarron died?” Jonette asked.

     “Four hundred and sixty three,” the driver said. “And another one hundred and eighty three survived, were treated for their injuries, and were put on trial for the riots. They’re currently serving life sentences in various hard labor camps on multiple worlds.”

     “That doesn’t seem like justice though,” Jonette said.

     “What would you have recommended?” the driver asked.

     “Were any of those put on trial the leaders of the riots?” Jonette asked.

     “It does not matter, Jonette,” Fiera said before the driver could answer. “The goal of the trials was not justice, but punishment. The survivors were made into examples against future acts of rebellion.”

     “Why not just kill them then?” Jonette asked.

     “Look Colonial, don’t you know your own history?” the driver snapped. “We kill them, they become martyrs. They’re something to rally around, to give others of their kind a rallying cry to fan the flames of rebellion. Look at what’s happened over the years as the Duyelia Sector has tried to shake off the Aureliya Sector’s rightful dominance. You fight, we win. We execute the traitors. Someone else steps into their place, using their names as the rallying point. It never ends.”

     “The Assembly has learned much in the sixty years of war between the two sectors,” Fiera said. “Do not forget though that they also have at their disposal the greatest minds in the twin systems. Should they be moved to use this advantage, they could do so much more.”

     “And what’s that supposed to mean?” the driver asked.

     “Historians, tacticians, scientists, engineers, shipbuilders,” Fiera said. “Those whose gifts lay with computer programming, or in the very act of combat itself. Do you truly think they are unprepared for such things?”

     “If they’re so prepared, why didn’t they see the effect their new laws would have on the non-human population?” the driver asked.

     Fiera relaxed into her seat and steepled her fingers. “Forgive me for seeming to be rather foolish, and I am not a politician so I do not entirely know how they might think, but who says they did not know?”

     The driver stiffened. “You’re saying the Assembly deliberately caused the riots?”

     Fiera raised her hands in a gesture of helpless confusion. “As I said, I am no politician. I cannot even fathom what goes into making the decisions the councilors do. However, I would be interested in knowing the larger picture of what was happening at that point. What was going on here, in the rest of the Aureliya Sector, in the Duyelia Sector? What could have led to the restrictions being laid when the Assembly had to have known it would lead to riots such as the one you described?”

     “My lady, you aren’t from here. You don’t know how the Assembly works,” the driver began.

     “Did I not already say that?” Fiera snapped. “You are merely repeating what I made very clear. You are also beginning to irritate me for your lack of listening skills. Now, let me state this once more plainly – I am not a politician. I am, however, something of a scholar of history. I have seen this same pattern play out in all millennia of our existence, so for some reason no matter how often it happens, the human race does not learn from it. So I am led to assume, based on this information, that we will continue seeing such things until the end of our existence.”

     “What pattern is that, my lady?”Jonette asked.

     “When a government wishes to hide things, they choose a scapegoat and then they do something – pass a new law that spawns protests and violence, or create a scandal so captivating that the media focuses on it to the exclusion of all else,” Fiera said. “Once the public’s eye is drawn to what they want them to see, they do what it is they truly intended to do in the first place.”

     “You sound like some kind of anarchist, my lady,” the driver said scornfully.

     “Do you know any who study politics? Or history?” Fiera asked.

     “My younger brother,” the driver said. “The one who was hurt in the riot. He went back to school.”

     “Then ask him if he has seen anything like what I have just told you in his studies,” Fiera said. “If he has not, then perhaps I am mistaken. I am just a woman from a very isolated city, after all. However, I spent what time I should been engaged in my societal duties studying instead, so I do have a very good secondary education.”

     “We’ll see about that,” the driver said. “Now, traffic is getting worse. I need to focus. If you absolutely have to get my attention, I’m sure your indent knows how to get my attention.” The soundproof forcefield went up.

     “My lady, I don’t know how to –,” Jonette began.

     “Do not worry, Jonette. I do know how,” Fiera said. “I am aware of the functions of everything on this control panel.” She gestured to a small pad on the door. “I can also override his control and lower the forcefield.”

     “Are you going to do that now, my lady?” Jonette asked.

     “Why should I? He says he needs to concentrate, and as I am unfamiliar with the streets of Sio, I will take his word for it,” Fiera said.

     “My lady, he’s upset with you for implying the Assembly set the sec ops up to be hurt and killed by the Arpathi and the Kwarron,” Jonette said.

     “Would you not be angry to hear such a thing from a stranger?” Fiera asked. She rubbed her temples. She was letting her hatred of the Core get the better of her, which had led to her diatribe.

     Some spy I’ve been, blabbing out my feelings about the Assembly like this, she thought. Father and Jacin would be taking my hide off with a plasma blade if they’d heard me just now.

     “My lady?” Jonette was watching her. “You don’t look good.”

     “I am very tired, Jonette. This incident with the Port Authority has rattled my nerves more than I care to admit,” Fiera said. “More so because of the loss of those personal items that meant so much to me than for the clothing, as those things are irreplaceable.”

     “I thought your ambassador was getting more for you from your homeworld,” Jonette said.

     “Jonette, were there things you left behind in your home that you wish you could have brought with you? Or items that were taken from you when you became an indent? Possessions that held some emotional attachment as well as the more mundane physical?” Fiera asked.

     “Yes,” Jonette said. She dragged out the word, as if she were afraid to admit to such a thing. “I had to give a lot of my things to my parents so Master Linden couldn’t sell them.”

     “What was your most prized possession that you lost that way?” Fiera asked.

     “My jakardi bird pin,” Jonette said without having to think. “It was a gift from my grandmother. She made it for me shortly before she died.”

     “Jakardi?” Fiera asked, already knowing what it was but well aware Lady Sung wouldn’t have a clue.

     “Yes my lady,” Jonette said. “It’s a way of taking bits of cut, polished stones that are too small to be of use for other rings, earrings, and pendants, and piecing them together like scales on a snake into other forms of jewelry. My grandmother was one of the last artisans left on our homeworld that did it by hand. Most everyone does it by machines these days.”

     “It sounds like it would be a very beautiful piece of jewelry,” Fiera said.

     “It was,” Jonette said wistfully. “It was so many different colors, yet they all worked together.” She wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “I knew Master Linden would take it and sell it, so when my brother and I were allowed to say goodbye to our parents, I took it out of my pocket and gave it to my mother. I told her I didn’t want him getting it, and she understood. She hid it from my father, who’d have made her give it to Master Linden anyway.”

     “It is not the monetary worth, but the sentimental that made it so precious to you,” Fiera said. Jonette nodded. “I had several pieces like that in my luggage, gifts from those I will never be permitted to see again. They are now gone forever.”

     “Why wouldn’t you be allowed to see those people again?” Jonette asked.

     “I am neither a son nor a very acceptable daughter,” Fiera said. “It is only through the generosity and good will of my father that I am even on Bouarus. He is slightly more progressive than our neighbors and feels that a well educated woman is not as much of a blight on the honor of the family as they do. However, an unmarried woman in her father’s household is forbidden unless she has taken religious vows – which I refuse to do. So I was given a choice – marry or go to school.”

     “You chose to come to the University,” Jonette said. “Didn’t that make your parents happy?”

     “My father, yes,” Fiera said. “My mother, no. Because my making the choice I did it means I can never return to Coenus. I must live my life away from my home, my family, and everything I have ever known, simply to answer the foolish traditions of my people.”

     “That’s awful, my lady,” Jonette said. “Why doesn’t the ambassador tell your family to let you come home?”

     “He would, but the city I come from is outside his jurisdiction. We were granted a special status due to our desire to continue practicing what the rest of the world has walked away from,” Fiera said. “Many of those in my generation chafe under the laws and traditions we have grown up with and seek ways to change them. It may be that we will be the ones who finally bring the walls down for good.”

     “Walls, my lady?” Jonette asked.

     Fiera shook her head. “As it seems we have some time before we reach my townhouse, let me give you some idea of where I came from.” She called up from memory the stories Eire told her as well as what Jacin and the other members of the Eleven had drilled into her, and spun out the tale of a repressed heavy worlder desiring a new life.