Yates scowled at him. “Is that all you think about?”
He went on before Darrin could answer. “Kailee wants to become an actress,” he said. “Do you think she has a chance?”
“She’s beautiful,” Darrin said. He remembered all the actresses he’d seen. They were all staggeringly beautiful – and utterly untouchable. Word on the street was that they wouldn't put out for anyone unless he had at least a million in the bank. “I think she could make it.”
“Let’s see,” Yates said. “The current population of Earth is roughly eighty billion. How many of them are girls?”
Darrin hesitated, then shook his head. He had no idea how to answer the question.
Yates let out a loud sigh. “Half of them,” he snapped. “Forty billion, to be precise. It is a number so vast as to be utterly beyond your comprehension. Of those women, how many do you think are Kailee’s age?”
“I don’t know,” Darrin said. He wanted to work it out for himself, but he didn't know where to begin. But if male and females came in equal numbers, maybe age worked the same way, with the forty billion women distributed from zero to ... what? He didn't even know how long a person lived! “Divided up between the ages ...”
“At least you’re trying to think,” Yates said, unsympathetically. “For the record, the age of actresses entering the entertainment industry falls between seventeen to twenty-five. After then, the actress is generally considered to be well past her prime. And Kailee isn't the only girl with dreams of stardom. I looked it up, after Janet told me her dream. Every year, millions of girls start trying to find themselves an agent. Tell me, gambler, what does that tell you?”
Darrin gritted his teeth, but answered. “Her chances are very poor.”
“Indeed they are,” Yates agreed. He gave Darrin a thin smile that sent a burst of pride flickering through his mind. “Kailee will be one of millions – and not one of the best, at least going by educational achievements. Her reading skills are only slightly above yours. She will literally be unable to read her scripts, should she get that far. And there are other problems too, Darrin. Most of the really famous actors and actresses have contacts in the guilds, or family connections. The chances are that Kailee will be directed into pornographic productions, where there is no lack of demand for nubile young women, if she gets anywhere at all. She would have to be very lucky to start the climb towards stardom.”
Darrin remembered watching such productions. He’d never given any thought to the girls, either about how they’d joined or what happened to them afterwards. But Yates pushed on, coldly and utterly remorselessly.
“Girls who take part in such productions are often burned out by the end of their first year,” Yates said. “They have been had, literally, in every possible way. The lucky ones might just have made a nest egg; the less lucky ones will go straight into prostitution and never see the light of day again; the really unlucky ones will die on set, murdered by their fellows. And no one will remember them, no one at all.
“Of all of you, Gary is the only one with any real hope of gaining a proper job,” Yates continued. “He’s mastered reading and writing, he’s learned how to study for himself ... he might not go back to Earth at all. But you and Barry ... you’re going to have to decide what you want to make of your lives.”
“But why?” Darrin asked. He felt too stunned to feel anything, any longer. “Why is the world like this?”
Yates laughed. “I could tell you that the Grand Senate prefers to keep you ignorant, rather than give you the tools you need to figure out just how badly you’ve been screwed,” he said, darkly. “Or I could tell you that your superiors hate you so badly that mere death isn't enough for them, that they prefer to trap you in the cityblocks and let you manufacture your own monsters.
“Or I could tell you that no one is to blame, that that government really is incompetent, that you’re all victims of processes that had been weakening the Empire for centuries and those in power have no better idea of how to stop the decline than yourselves. What answer would you like?”
“The truthful one,” Darrin snapped.
“There’s truth in all of them,” Yates said, quietly. One hand started to play with a golden cross hanging around his neck. “I wonder ... do you know how lucky you are to have won the contest?”
“I didn't really write anything,” Darrin confessed. “And I’d bet that Barry didn't either.”
Understanding clicked. “Someone selected us, didn't they?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Yates said. He looked Darrin in the eye. “Do you know what the term ‘self-selected’ means?”
Darrin shook his head.
“When someone chooses to sign up with a colonising consortium and leave Earth, it means that they are selecting themselves as colonists,” Yates explained. “It means that they have enough awareness to understand that Earth is doomed and enough determination to try to make a home on a new colony world. But you ... you and your comrades were all picked at random, just to see if you could make it out here. None of you selected yourself for this; in fact, I don't think that any of you actually wanted to win.”
“But here we are,” Darrin said. He rattled his handcuffs mournfully. “Trapped.”
“Maybe,” Yates said. “Your teachers have been forbidden from speaking bluntly to you, or saying anything that might impact on your self-esteem, or even disciplining you for your minor offences. In doing so, they have taught you and your fellows that there is no discipline and the law of the jungle – might makes right – rules supreme. Unsurprisingly, you lack even the awareness to understand why you, as well as Barry, are in trouble here.
“I can speak bluntly to you and I will. Being on this trip, if you choose to make use of it, is the best thing that has ever and will ever happen to you. On Earth, you have no future – and I think you know that, don't you? Here ... you can make a new life for yourself, if you choose to put in the effort. But you have to have the determination to try.
“No one here is going to push you forward or do the work for you,” he added. “But no one is going to hold you back either.”
Darrin felt a strange mixture of hope and fear. Part of him wanted to try, remembering that Fitz – assuming the man had survived – would want to kill him the moment he returned to Earth. The other part of him doubted his ability to do anything – and knew that the colonials now had good reason to distrust him. And, by extension, everyone else from Earth.
“They hate me,” he whined. “And I can't pay for the vehicle.”
“No, you can't,” Yates agreed. “I have spoken to the owner. The vehicle will be repaired using funds I brought with me, for various reasons. However, you will not be allowed to walk away unmarked.”
Darrin swallowed, but listened.
“Austin didn't realise that you had no experience with guns,” Yates said. “It was careless of him, but the local culture here frowns on denying anyone access to weapons. And in any case, he was not responsible for you and Barry screwing around with them. However, the end result was that you caused damage – you could easily have killed someone, whereupon I couldn't save you – and you have to pay.
“This isn't Earth. Petty criminals are not given a slap on the wrist. You and Barry will have to take a whipping before you rejoin us, after which the affair will be considered closed.”
“Oh,” Darrin said. He remembered Fitz lashing him with the belt while he'd been in a drunken rage. The welts had taken weeks to heal. “And if we refuse?”
“While the rest of us are exploring the planet, you will spend the rest of your time here,” Yates said. “And then you will be either shipped back to Earth or assigned to an indent work team. It will not be a pleasant experience.”
“I’ll take the whipping,” Darrin said. He could handle pain, thanks to Fitz. “But can I really make a living here?”
Yates hesitated. “I was just like you once,” he said. “I grew up in the lower levels of Brit-Cit and, like you, I had
few prospects. I sneaked to the upper levels and stole whatever took my fancy, right up until the day I was caught by the Civil Guard. They beat the shit out of me and threw me into a cell. It turned out that the Imperial Army was having a recruiting shortfall, so the recruiter gave me the choice between signing up or being exiled as just another indent.”
He smiled. “If I’d known that there was fighting going on ...
“But I did make it,” he concluded. “And you can do the same, if you’re prepared to work at it. Because no one can make you a success. You have to do it for yourself. And if you fail ... at least you will have tried.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Should a teacher clash with a student, the student would not only have the full support of the system, but an advocate willing to stand up and speak for him. The teacher, on the other hand, would not only be forced to stand alone; he would also face an automatic presumption of guilt. Unsurprisingly, students were able to get away with almost anything.
- Professor Leo Caesius. Education and the Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire.
Gary was not surprised that Darrin and Barry had managed to get themselves into trouble.
What had surprised him, when he and Steve had returned to the house – which James had told them was called the lodge – was that they had both been arrested and thrown into a prison cell. Gary had seen the two bullies scrubbing the decks, but he’d assumed that Yates had only been able to punish them so effectively because they were onboard ship. But they'd been arrested on Meridian ...
“This is not Earth,” Yates told them, after a terse explanation of what had happened and why. “The rules are different here, as your friends have just found out. Tomorrow, they will be publicly whipped to make the point clear. I suggest that the remainder of you bear it in mind at all times.”
Gary shook his head in disbelief. What sort of idiot would let Darrin and Barry handle a loaded weapon? Gary had seen Barry and Moe damaging large parts of the school – including Gary’s work – simply because they could. From what Yates had said, it was pure dumb luck that no one had been injured or killed. And yet the hell of it was that a whipping was much more punishment than either of them would have gotten on Earth.
“After the process is completed,” Yates continued, “you will not mention it to them or anyone else. The whole affair will be considered closed. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” Gary muttered, when Yates’s gaze fell on him. “I understand.”
He wouldn't dare mention the whole affair to anyone, but that wouldn't stop him enjoying the thought of the two bastards finally getting what they deserved. Gary allowed himself to imagine them being lashed, wondering if the person holding the whip would strike them hard enough to draw blood. It wasn't a nice thing to wonder at all, he knew, but he remembered everything they’d done too clearly to do anything other than delight in their misfortune. And maybe it would be good for them.
The thought kept dancing through his mind as they ate dinner – a meat stew served with crusty bread that tasted so much better than school food that Gary silently promised himself that he would never return – and went to bed. It was astonishing how much better he felt without the two bastards around, Gary knew; he washed himself, settled into bed and fell asleep quickly. Normally, he would lie awake for hours, just knowing that they were near him. He had never had a comfortable night.
He arose the following morning, took a long bath and slipped downstairs. Somewhat to his surprise, Austin was lighting the fire again; the colonial boy looked oddly pensive when he saw Gary. Gary had never seen Austin show any real doubt before; he'd just faced whatever the world had offered him and tackled it. But, when Austin nodded to him and turned to walk into the kitchen, it was clear that he was moving oddly, as if he were in pain.
Gary followed him, worried. “Are you all right?”
Austin nodded, one hand rubbing the seat of his trousers. “I’ll be better soon,” he said, shortly. “Is it really true that there are no guns on Earth?”
“The one you carried at the spaceport was the first I’d ever seen,” Gary admitted. “Why did you teach Barry and Darrin how to shoot?”
“I never even thought about it,” Austin confessed, as he started to heat the oil. “Basic weapons safety is so ingrained into us from an early age that I didn't think they'd be so stupid. They could have been shot! Or shot themselves!”
Which wouldn't be a bad thing, Gary thought. Barry was a thug; Darrin picked on Gary because there wasn't anyone else. But he kept that thought to himself.
“Father told me that Earth-folk just do as they’re told,” Austin added. “And you’re never allowed to succeed or fail on your own.”
“No one really cares,” Gary said. He cursed the easy confidence he'd seen in Austin’s eyes. “There are more people in our school than there are in the entire city” – the briefing notes had said as much, when he’d reread them to see what else they’d missed – “and most of them are absolutely hopeless. You can do nothing and still get by with a degree. It just so happens that the degree is worthless.”
“Sounds awful,” Austin said. “Why do you put up with it?”
Gary hesitated, then admitted the truth. “Because we don’t know how to take care of ourselves,” he said. “And because we’re scared.”
He found himself wondering, again, just what would have become of his long-term plan if he hadn't won the contest. Yates had pretty much hinted that Imperial University wasn't as well-regarded as Gary had thought, although some of its courses were required for promising careers. But his studies of the starship’s database had suggested that the courses actually had nothing to do with the career, whatever it was. They’d merely been tacked on to please the educational bureaucrats.
“No wonder no one wants to go back,” Austin said. “Even the indents wind up fitting into our society. Or dead.”
Gary blinked in surprise. “There’s no one who wants to go back to Earth?”
“No one,” Austin confirmed. He hesitated. “I won’t say that there aren't a few people who have doubts, but they generally stay here and eventually fit in.”
He finished frying the bacon, then started to crack the eggs, one by one. “This world is pretty tolerant of what people do, provided that other people aren't hurt or seriously threatened,” he added. “You should consider staying here.”
Gary hesitated, then asked the question that had first came to him in the dead of night. “Can you teach me how to use a gun?”
Unsurprisingly, Austin took a long time to answer. “Yes,” he said finally, “with the proviso that I will personally kill you if you mess around with it. I was not expecting your friends to mess around and ... and I could have got someone killed.”
“I understand,” Gary said. Somehow, he was sure that Austin wasn't joking. “What would have happened if Barry had killed someone?”
“Barry would have been sentenced to hard labour, if someone didn't shoot back in the first few seconds,” Austin said. “There are a handful of work gangs for true criminals where they work hard and pay off their debts. If the person he'd killed owed money, either to the consortium or someone else, they would also have to pay those debts off too. Darrin might have been in trouble too, even though he didn't fire the fatal shot. And I, the idiot who gave someone from Earth a weapon and then turned my back ...”
He shook his head. “I heard on Earth people can get away with murder,” he added. “How do you keep the murder rate down?”
“We don’t, I think,” Gary said. People were murdered all the time, even in school. One day, he’d always feared, Barry and Moe would actually kill him for good. “But I don't know for sure.”
“Ask your supervisor,” Austin said. He flipped the eggs into a plate, then carried them into the next room. “Eat up quickly, mates. You don't want to miss the whipping.”
***
Kailee felt sick as she picked at her food, even the tasty aroma failing to encourage her to eat prope
rly. They were going to watch as Darrin and Barry were whipped ... the thought was appalling, even though she rather felt the two boys deserved it. After all, for all their efforts, they had been unable to earn enough credits to replace the destroyed or soiled underwear while they'd been on the ship. And there had been no place to buy proper underwear either; she’d looked while they were being fitted with colonial clothes and hadn't seen anything more fancy than basic cloth panties and bras. Earth's vast selection of frilly lingerie simply didn't exist on Meridian.
Maybe I should start an underwear shop, she thought, sardonically. Bring the benefits of proper underwear to the natives.
“Eat up,” Janet urged. As always, the older woman had devoured a colossal plate of food. “You need to keep up your strength.”
Kailee didn't dare make a face, although she wanted to glare. Janet had told them, in no uncertain terms, that they were going to see the whipping. She'd refused to listen to excuses, just repeating the same thing over and over again. The whole group had to see just what crime and punishment was like on Meridian, at least when the criminals were actually arrested. Their escort from yesterday had told them, without any dissembling at all, that it was perfectly legal to shoot a rapist if one was attacked.
She finished enough of the food to satisfy Janet, then found herself roped in to help with the washing up. The whole effort of scraping congealed oil, fat and eggs off the plates disgusted her. She honestly didn't understand how Aunt Lillian could spend so long keeping the entire apartment clean and tidy. Austin supervised, ensuring that the plates were cleaned to his satisfaction. Kailee reluctantly obeyed, even though she resented it. Besides, as Janet had pointed out on the first day, if the plates weren't cleaned quickly, they would be eating off dirty plates in the evening.
“Get changed, then follow us,” Yates ordered, once the dishes were finished. “We leave in twenty minutes, precisely.”
Kailee clenched her teeth. Such precise timetables were annoying. It was almost like being stuck in school, although she had to admit that Meridian was a more attractive environment than the CityBlock. Perhaps, when she was a famous actress, she could hold a movie shoot on the planet. If some of the girls decided to stay, as they’d suggested they would, she might meet them again ... she pushed the daydream aside, then walked back into the bedroom and hastily changed into proper clothes. She would have liked to take a bath or shower so she could scrub herself clean, but there was no time. Instead, she merely washed her hands and headed back to the door.
The Empire's Corps: Book 07 - Reality Check Page 19