Anthimia 11, 230 AC

Continuing the nouetic and audio feed from the Surakosan rescue and relief mission in earthquake-struck Eridu…

Just seconds after the lifter crash, Barandigi the nouergist awakes making an awful squalling noise, bursting into tears. "MASTER LIATRIS!" she cries. Everyone in the operations tent turns to look, everyone except Tanheu who is still unconscious. She is making incoherent noises, until two of our medics come to move her away from Tanheu, whose status might be made worse by a nouetic outburst near him.

We had no idea that they were emotionally connected, whether as kin or sex partners or master and student, or any combination of those and more. Most of us did not know Liatris, not that the crash hasn't disturbed and saddened us. But we can't have a hysterical and not-well-controlled nouergist in our midst. Ariadne applies calming programs and the wailing turns to whimpering. Barandigi grabs hold of Ariadne.

"They'll come for me now and take me away! Liatris was my protector! I can't stay here!" she says, hardly able to catch her breath. Is Barandigi here illegally? No one knows, not even Mereth Kahn, who worked with her on the Enlil house demolition. She is cited in the database as an employee of the Beka corporation, a construction firm based in Marut, in the northern Mid-River area.

Ariadne has quickly gathered some information from Barandigi via nouetic transfer. Liatris is (was) her teacher and her controller for many construction operations. They are not kin and were not sex partners. When the earthquake happened, Liatris decided quickly to take her along as a resource. He handed her over to Tanheu when they needed another heavy-duty nouergist at the nuclear plant. They should never have been separated! She should have been with Liatris all along!

What is Barandigi's status at Beka? Was she kidnapped by Liatris? Did she willingly go with him? Tell us the truth, Barandigi! The young nouergist goes silent, then points at herself. "I am third class," she says. "I am property of Beka Corporation. I can't leave. I am third class. Bad. Ugly," she says, gesturing toward her round, snub-nosed face.

We don't understand. Is this some Tisari cultural thing? What does she mean by third class? Why is she saying she is ugly? What does that have to do with anything? Can she explain? (And is she radioactive?) "I didn't pass the test. I didn't even make second class. I have to serve." Serve what? She's getting frustrated, after such a terrible night, losing her ability to talk coherently. "Three classes of fems," she says, trying to find a way to make it clear to us. "First class, they are hot. They are pretty. They are tall. They wear the good stuff, they do the good things, they have the fun lives, you see them on TV, they hang out with the beautiful people, they have money. Yes?"

Go on, we say. "Second class," says Barandigi, "they are all right, they aren't as pretty as the first class but they can still pass. They work. They can read and write. They can have improvements. They can even go out by themselves." What is the test? "Test for beauty and pretty at age 6. Again at age 13. All fems must have the test. Males are tested differently."

And third class? "Short. Ugly. Fat. Defective. All in third class. Third class is service worker. Cleaning, loading, animal care, toilets, game rooms, hotel rooms, cheap sex parks, heavy factory work, fields, mines. You get it now? Third class must answer to controllers. Liatris my controller. If I did not have gift, I would be cleaning toilets and sweeping mall floor. Liatris my protector nouergist now gone and he cannot explain, I am now fugitive from Beka. They will track me and take me back. Maybe punish me if they don't believe he took me.…" She couldn't go on, sobbing bitterly at the mention of Liatris.

We had no idea that women in her part of Tisaram were sorted by their appearance. We had always known that Tisari women were gorgeous. Never thought about the ones that might not be. Now we had an unexpected situation, and we didn't think the Tisari would respond to diplomacy. Was Barandigi requesting political asylum? Did she want to defect? She couldn't answer those questions because she didn't know what that meant. But, she said, Director Professor Tanheu said that she could study at Surakosai, become a real nouergist like Liatris.

Unfortunately, Tanheu was not available to make that decision, or any decision. He showed no sign of waking up. If he didn't improve, we would have to call on one of our Gateholders to evacuate him, and some of the other seriously injured folk, back to Surakosai. And they would have to regenerate their nouergic energies before any such operation could work.

As the sun rose over the devastated city, Durvan Karaman stumbled into our camp. He was carrying a large bottle of wine. He had saved most of it for us. We shared wine at dawn, in the land of the dead and the half-dead.

TO BE CONTINUED

Posted at 3:05 am | link

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