After more than a week of talking, the men gathered us all
in the common room. The women, as usual these days, were divided by political
argument: Zariah, Yuda, Chloe, Vivien, and Samira at one end of the gray room,
Haven and Budur huddling on the other side, with Natsuki closer to Vivien than
usual, Ghadir as close as she could get to me, and Durada and Ihsan leaning
against the back wall, away from everyone. Yvain made sure I sat near the
front, and sat next to me. Ghadir’s partner Rusul sat far away from her, and
the two barely made eye contact.
“Are things not going well between the two of you?” I asked, as everyone shuffled into their places.
Ghadir shrugged, but said, “I mentioned the union discussions we’d had and he was very upset. I … do not know why he was sent to be with me. He would probably make more sense as Haven’s partner.”
Haven, of course, sat with her partner Vahan at her side. Vahan is a Bakalov, like Haven, and a former soldier, like Yvain. His mousy hair is chopped in the same cut as Yvain’s, but Vahan is younger and does not seem to have any scars. He is skinnier, as well. I presume he spent more time operating combat robots, like Bakalov soldiers normally are trained to do. I worry about a hidden bloodlust in Yvain, to have so many scars.
“It looks like Haven and Vahan suit each other,” I said, “at least from the perspective of caste duty.”
Ghadir shrugged again, and looked away from me.
Kailash stood as front and center as he could manage in the room, and those men not by their assigned partners sat just behind him and looked at us.
“We were sent to Rabbah early, as many of you know, to help this colony negotiate its place with Breathe Easy.” Zariah groaned audibly but Kailash, to his credit, ignored her with perfect grace. “No one here is perfect, including we, the menfolk. We have observed and reported to Breathe Easy these last two weeks, and we have decided on some ways that we believe we can contribute.”
I noticed Zariah’s partner, Suharto, place a hand on her shoulder. Kailash saw it too, and his sparkling eyes sharpened, like the point on a diamond. But he continued without flinching anything other than his gaze.
“Some of you know already, but we too were chosen because we have great skills to add to this colony. We are not here merely to take over the day-to-day management, although we would like to help with that, as well. We are here to lend our physical labor, as farmers, operators, maintenance help. We have come up with a daily schedule,” and here he pulled a tablet from the dining table and turned it on, “so that we can best assist you with whatever it is you regularly do. Then, within a week, we will decide if our skills are best suited to this practice, or if we need to adopt new routines for the sake of efficiency.”
Budur was nodding enthusiastically and looking pleased. Ihsan looked sick.
But that is how it has been for the last week. I was assigned to work strictly in the two areas I am supposedly best at – weaving filters, and working in the garden. I have tried to teach Yvain these things, and while his fingers are too thick for the delicate movements needed for fine mesh, I think he will make a wonderful gardener. He has been very serene while helping me harvest, aerate the soil, ensure all the plants have water, release more bivalve larvae into nets around the colony’s outside walls. He seems to sleep better when we work there, as well. His nightmares have, on occasion, woken me up in the middle of the night.
Vivien did not take immediately to her partner, Dagon, but the two dyed-in-the-wool Ikin are difficult to separate these days. If they were Senfte or Arany, they would walk arm-in-arm everywhere, flashing white teeth at the world. Instead, they walk efficiently and are barely more than six inches apart from each other at any one time.
Natsuki’s partner Fletcher, in contrast, hardly understands gardening and quickly stopped trying to learn. I think he is waiting for this first trial period to expire so he can go back to what he is good at, although I am not clear on what that is. Probably circuitry, since he used to be Araboa. Ihsan’s partner Bulus has not been very helpful with the garden, either. And Cyril, Durada’s partner, seemed to have abandoned the entire concept of gardening after merely a day with his fingers in the dirt. The man is Ikin, you would think he’d understand where most fertilizer comes from.
Although many of the women have a hard time with their pairings, Chloe has, unfortunately, actively rejected her partner, Abbas. He lives in a different space than she does, and she refuses to let him spend the night with her. On that particular point, I cannot blame her. Such sudden pairings have been difficult for us all - Yvain still sleeps on the floor. I’m starting to think he prefers it there. I thought Zariah, surely, would be the one to reject her assigned partner, but she seems to get along with Suharto well. I don’t know how closely they’ve been working together, but he does sit with her at meals – and she still sits with Yuda and Chloe and Samira, and now Yuda’s partner Guo.
Come to think of it, I hardly seem Samira with her partner, Payam. There is no particular animosity in their separation, and she has not forced him out of her room. However, Payam seems to want to spend each meal with Yvain and me. I bet it is because Payam is also a former soldier, a die-hard Bakalov who spent years in the army. He keeps trying to get Yvain to speak about his time in the military as well, but Yvain always brushes the younger soldier off with clipped sentences.
Ghadir continues her fascination with me, but I think now it is more to avoid her partner, Rusul, who wafts from group to group during mealtimes and chats everyone up. His poorly-executed Senfte charm makes me feel dirty. I think he is trying to spy on all of us, since we were such a disturbed group that we brought up the archaic idea of unionizing. I try to talk about my routine with Yvain that day, and little else, and it looks like our union stumpers Zariah, Yuda, Chloe, and Vivien have all managed to do the same thing. He’s digging where there is little to find, I hope.
Somehow, though, Ghadir has not yet sent him away. I think she is afraid. Chloe has not turned out to be the best example to follow, but she cannot follow mine, because Rusul would never acquiesce to Ghadir’s wants. She says he was a phone room manager for years with Breathe Easy and his love for the company is the only thing he talks about, at night. I feel so sorry for her.
In the meantime, I am glad this experimental week will be over soon, because I would love to work on some other projects. I find that I actually miss cleaning out the air filtrations system, or working with the octopuses. I haven’t had to pilot the ship for this week, however, and the rest is beginning to settle the pieces of my mind that I was barely holding together. Suharto took over the task for me, because he commanded several drone strikes and is much more used to the after-effects of the glasses than I am. He said it has something to do with an inner ear disturbance, that the military trains its soldiers to master. So I haven’t had to choke down pain medication or sleep for an entire day, and I feel stronger for it.
“Are things not going well between the two of you?” I asked, as everyone shuffled into their places.
Ghadir shrugged, but said, “I mentioned the union discussions we’d had and he was very upset. I … do not know why he was sent to be with me. He would probably make more sense as Haven’s partner.”
Haven, of course, sat with her partner Vahan at her side. Vahan is a Bakalov, like Haven, and a former soldier, like Yvain. His mousy hair is chopped in the same cut as Yvain’s, but Vahan is younger and does not seem to have any scars. He is skinnier, as well. I presume he spent more time operating combat robots, like Bakalov soldiers normally are trained to do. I worry about a hidden bloodlust in Yvain, to have so many scars.
“It looks like Haven and Vahan suit each other,” I said, “at least from the perspective of caste duty.”
Ghadir shrugged again, and looked away from me.
Kailash stood as front and center as he could manage in the room, and those men not by their assigned partners sat just behind him and looked at us.
“We were sent to Rabbah early, as many of you know, to help this colony negotiate its place with Breathe Easy.” Zariah groaned audibly but Kailash, to his credit, ignored her with perfect grace. “No one here is perfect, including we, the menfolk. We have observed and reported to Breathe Easy these last two weeks, and we have decided on some ways that we believe we can contribute.”
I noticed Zariah’s partner, Suharto, place a hand on her shoulder. Kailash saw it too, and his sparkling eyes sharpened, like the point on a diamond. But he continued without flinching anything other than his gaze.
“Some of you know already, but we too were chosen because we have great skills to add to this colony. We are not here merely to take over the day-to-day management, although we would like to help with that, as well. We are here to lend our physical labor, as farmers, operators, maintenance help. We have come up with a daily schedule,” and here he pulled a tablet from the dining table and turned it on, “so that we can best assist you with whatever it is you regularly do. Then, within a week, we will decide if our skills are best suited to this practice, or if we need to adopt new routines for the sake of efficiency.”
Budur was nodding enthusiastically and looking pleased. Ihsan looked sick.
But that is how it has been for the last week. I was assigned to work strictly in the two areas I am supposedly best at – weaving filters, and working in the garden. I have tried to teach Yvain these things, and while his fingers are too thick for the delicate movements needed for fine mesh, I think he will make a wonderful gardener. He has been very serene while helping me harvest, aerate the soil, ensure all the plants have water, release more bivalve larvae into nets around the colony’s outside walls. He seems to sleep better when we work there, as well. His nightmares have, on occasion, woken me up in the middle of the night.
Vivien did not take immediately to her partner, Dagon, but the two dyed-in-the-wool Ikin are difficult to separate these days. If they were Senfte or Arany, they would walk arm-in-arm everywhere, flashing white teeth at the world. Instead, they walk efficiently and are barely more than six inches apart from each other at any one time.
Natsuki’s partner Fletcher, in contrast, hardly understands gardening and quickly stopped trying to learn. I think he is waiting for this first trial period to expire so he can go back to what he is good at, although I am not clear on what that is. Probably circuitry, since he used to be Araboa. Ihsan’s partner Bulus has not been very helpful with the garden, either. And Cyril, Durada’s partner, seemed to have abandoned the entire concept of gardening after merely a day with his fingers in the dirt. The man is Ikin, you would think he’d understand where most fertilizer comes from.
Although many of the women have a hard time with their pairings, Chloe has, unfortunately, actively rejected her partner, Abbas. He lives in a different space than she does, and she refuses to let him spend the night with her. On that particular point, I cannot blame her. Such sudden pairings have been difficult for us all - Yvain still sleeps on the floor. I’m starting to think he prefers it there. I thought Zariah, surely, would be the one to reject her assigned partner, but she seems to get along with Suharto well. I don’t know how closely they’ve been working together, but he does sit with her at meals – and she still sits with Yuda and Chloe and Samira, and now Yuda’s partner Guo.
Come to think of it, I hardly seem Samira with her partner, Payam. There is no particular animosity in their separation, and she has not forced him out of her room. However, Payam seems to want to spend each meal with Yvain and me. I bet it is because Payam is also a former soldier, a die-hard Bakalov who spent years in the army. He keeps trying to get Yvain to speak about his time in the military as well, but Yvain always brushes the younger soldier off with clipped sentences.
Ghadir continues her fascination with me, but I think now it is more to avoid her partner, Rusul, who wafts from group to group during mealtimes and chats everyone up. His poorly-executed Senfte charm makes me feel dirty. I think he is trying to spy on all of us, since we were such a disturbed group that we brought up the archaic idea of unionizing. I try to talk about my routine with Yvain that day, and little else, and it looks like our union stumpers Zariah, Yuda, Chloe, and Vivien have all managed to do the same thing. He’s digging where there is little to find, I hope.
Somehow, though, Ghadir has not yet sent him away. I think she is afraid. Chloe has not turned out to be the best example to follow, but she cannot follow mine, because Rusul would never acquiesce to Ghadir’s wants. She says he was a phone room manager for years with Breathe Easy and his love for the company is the only thing he talks about, at night. I feel so sorry for her.
In the meantime, I am glad this experimental week will be over soon, because I would love to work on some other projects. I find that I actually miss cleaning out the air filtrations system, or working with the octopuses. I haven’t had to pilot the ship for this week, however, and the rest is beginning to settle the pieces of my mind that I was barely holding together. Suharto took over the task for me, because he commanded several drone strikes and is much more used to the after-effects of the glasses than I am. He said it has something to do with an inner ear disturbance, that the military trains its soldiers to master. So I haven’t had to choke down pain medication or sleep for an entire day, and I feel stronger for it.
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