A woman rushed forward, her hands balled into fists and her face scarlet. “She has a daughter. Take her daughter for pawn, put her child on a ship to who-knows-where, and make her wonder every day for the rest of her life if her child is safe or even still alive! Make her have to sign the papers for the pawn if she wants to eat!”
Now at last someone had touched a nerve. The woman from Above who had been complaining, and who had caused the entire situation, staggered backward. Her face went the same color as curdled milk. Her mouth opened and closed weakly, and her hands came up and then dropped back by her sides. “You cannot take my daughter! She’s well-educated and bred! She’s polite and mannered! She was born for her life!”
The woman who had rushed towards her glared at her. “My daughter was beautiful. My daughter was well-educated as well. As well-educated as one can be in the Below. She was smart, and she was beautiful, and she was strong. When her father lost his arm to the machines that ran the air into the Below, machines that you in the Above knew needed to be replaced for years and did nothing about, we had no choice. We had to pawn her. We thought we could pay it off. We truly did. We couldn’t, and now she’s gone from us, taken on a bride ship to some distant planet where we will never see her again.”
Margie’s gut twisted. The Federation had been in cahoots with many of the slavers. They would claim that the women who were being forced into cryo-chambers aboard ships that were supposedly headed to distant planets where women were necessary as brides, but what really happened to those women was a far worse thing.
They were taken to pleasure planets and forced into slavery to the brothels there. And that was if they were lucky. There was many a stern pleasure master eagerly taking shipments of women whose lives would consist of living off the sex traffic on streets and in ramshackle quarters. They were usually force-fed pleasure drugs that stripped them of their beauty and their health. Once they wasted away and were of no use to the pleasure masters anymore, they were either summarily killed or sent off to labor camps where they would live out the rest of their lives bent under the lash of an overseer.
The woman from Above snarled out, “Your family’s inability to handle their credit is none of my concern; as far as I can see, it is only your fault that your daughter had to be taken to the pawnbroker!”
Okay, that was it. Margie stepped forward, intent on kicking that woman’s ass so far up above her shoulders that she would be able to kiss her own back cheeks. Jeval’s hand whipped out and caught her by one upper arm. She glowered at him, but all that she could read on his face was a faint amusement.
Of course, he was enjoying this! The bastard was about as cruel as they came!
Jeval spoke, “This is what we are going to do. You do not seem to be happy, Madame,” he jerked a finger toward the woman from Above. “I, for one, can stand no more of your rancor. Your mouth is like the mouth of a serpent. It only takes one bite to infect a person’s soul. You seem capable of infecting many. For that reason alone, I deem you unworthy to live upon this planet. You shall be immediately taken to your quarters and barred within.”
Marik said, “I feel that is too harsh punishment.”
Talon, who had been standing silently on the sidelines watching the whole thing unfold, said, “I do not. I think he is right, in fact. We cannot allow this poison between those who feel they are due more and those who deserve the exact same thing as everyone else to continue. What we will have is open civil war. I refuse to have that here. I have fought for you. I have bled for your kind. I have given lives from both my crew and blood from my own body to help rescue you and to save that planet of yours. I will have peace, even if it means sending a woman to her quarters until she can be removed from this world.”
Renall sighed and stared at his feet. It was very clear that he did not want to be the deciding vote in the situation. So far it was two against one. If he spoke against barring the woman and then removing her from the planet, they would have to have a Council. If they had a Council then the entire citizenry would be able to speak.
Margie held her breath. If the citizenry had their way about it, everyone who was from Above would be set immediately packing. She knew that. She also knew that many of those who had lived Above were actually trying to help. Some of them were rebels who had worked to topple the old hierarchy. It would be unfair to send them all back.
Renall must’ve considered those things because he spoke as his head lifted and his gaze met the gaze of his brothers. “I agree. She will be barred, and she will be sent back. However, we shall feed her more than just the nutro-loaf and water. Even I am not cruel enough, and Jeval, I cannot believe even you are that cruel, to give her nothing but that. If there was hunger upon the planet, and we had no other choice, I would agree, but for now, I can’t agree with the last part of your decree. Those are my conditions.”
The woman began to cry. Her hands jerked up into the air and tangled into her hair. She yanked at it, obviously agitated. “You cannot send me back to Old Earth! It is a hellhole! I will die there!”
Jeval said, “You should’ve thought about that. You have forced us to make you an example. It is not what we wish to do, but we have no choice. Let it be known here and now that any and all who find themselves unhappy with the system that we have here, the system of democracy, that you too may return to Old Earth and immediately.”
Someone cried out, “And what of her daughter? Should she be sent back as well?”
Jeval said, “Will any of you speak for her?” Torn between an agony of conscience at what her actions had helped to create and rightful indignation, Margie swallowed back a hard lump and stepped forward. “Her daughter is a decent worker. She’s trying anyway. If she complains, I have never heard.”
The woman began to weep and wail, still tearing at her hair as several people grabbed her and hustled her toward her hut.
Jeval said, “Then you’ve spoken for her.”
Margie had not meant to speak for the girl, but she had, and there was no taking that back. She knew that. Her head nodded up and down. “I do.”
Jeval said, “Then she is your responsibility. If she creates havoc here, then not only will she be returning to Old Earth, but so will you.”
Margie glared at him. “That is hardly fair.”
He said, “I no longer care about what is fair when it comes to the situation. I care only about averting a war that you humans seem intent upon bringing to this planet.”
He turned and walked away. His brothers all followed him. Margie stood there looking around at herself. The crowd began to dissipate, everyone heading back to the tasks that they had been given. It took a lot of work to keep so many people fed, clothed, and housed. Everyone had to help. If even one person refused to aid in their survival, they could all very well die.
She sighed as she turned to head back to the greenery house. Just what she needed, to be trapped with the responsibility of some Above woman!
And Jeval…
Oh, how she longed to slap his smug face! The two of them had an uneasy relationship, and always had.
