Now she gained the shipyard and marveled at the feat of engineering these brainwashed people had managed to accomplish. It was a well-known fact that people who were severely dysfunctional in a sociological manner were often geniuses in some spatial skill. Thus this “Bible thumper,” as his wife called him, had an apparent genius for architecture and she had seen several others all with skills . The whole city showed that! If this man had been in the Alliance, his brain would have been re-wired to forget his megalomaniac scheme and utilize his real skill so he would be fulfilled all his life and not cause harm as he was doing here. But… this was a Forbidden zone and simply the fact that Sesha was here would ruin her, unless she could present enough facts to show her interference was necessary. At the least, for the lives of her crewmates and all the money involved with the ship she hoped it would be enough.
Sesha knelt on the corner of the wall nearest the ocean side and reached out a hand to touch the bow of the ship in the making. It was incredible, the labor going into this! The planks were smoothed, coated with something that kept the water from soaking in, the joinings tightly fitted in a sharp V that would cut through the water efficiently. Using the sides despite its continual motion as a brace, Sesha stood up and inched her way along the wall to the land side of the slip. Here was a plank for boarding but she didn’t venture in, just looked.
The main part of the sailing vessel appeared ready. There were the settings for three masts, which accounted for all the weaving going on; they were making massive amounts of a tightly woven, waxy-threaded material. That would be the sails.
Sesha started her singing again, a hearty tune. Vega was a world of few land-masses, mostly oceans and the beings, while water dwellers with full cities and industries below, loved to sail the surface in a wide-variety of ways. They had songs for that, and looking at the ship turned sideways in the dock, it was appropriate.
Been watching the waves, Sesh… about every fifteen minutes there’s a really big one. It’s coming now…
She watched and it sprayed over the left side of the ship, slapping the bow point and pushing the huge thing inwards. Sesha pulled back as the boat bumped the wall. Okay… warn me in ten, I’ll go back out to the end wall. But first… look at this, Shni.
What? The paddlewheels?
Yes… you know history far better than I do. On any other world, did sailors mix sails and paddlewheels?
Now that you ask, no… engines and sails, yes. Paddlewheels have mostly been used in two-person pleasure craft, where pedaling or rowing runs the wheels, in larger craft they were driven by steam. Vegans moved past that quickly because it’s just not efficient.
Well, I don’t think there’s an engine for these paddlewheels. Those are seats on the side and look at the row bars… as one person pushes forward, the next one is pulling back. Four seats per side, short lengths of rope tied around each handle… people will be powering the wheels.
Thinking the women will?
No, the men actually. The men who are valued the least in this camp. Sesha was carefully walking along the wall again, still singing, but the emotional content had changed some, now to wishing the brave sailors the best on their journey, promising to wait for return. She gained the end of the wall and turned, her back to the sea, looking inland.
The woman watching out for her raised a hand so Sesha did too and just stood there, watching the camp in the broiling heat while Allway roared on.
“…And in the book of Exodus we read ‘And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.’ By name, dear inhabitants of the New City! By Name! By Name! Ooh, that the Lord God Almighty would know us by name! And He does, brothers and sisters, I know he does, for we have left the Sodoms and Gomorrahs and traveled here, where we can focus solely and only upon our Precious God and His Son!
“Then the Word continues, ‘Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by.’ Ooh my People, we move ever closer to this cleft, and shortly we too shall see the Glory of God Himself as he passes by…”
The roofs of every building are metallic, highly polished, Shni. That’s why the insides stay cooler. Doors and windows mostly closed by day, opened at night to let the heat out.
Don’t forget they’ve packed straw bound under the roof for insulation.
Now I know why men come and haul the mattresses out and onto the roofs. Pour water on the roof, you’re steaming the things clean and then they dry faster.
Clotheslines too… look at the women’s building, Sesh… the roof is much flatter and poles on each end have lines strung. There’s clothes on it now. Men’s building too.
There’s damn genius here, Shni. This man and his cronies could be advancing their world right now if it weren’t for their desire for complete power over a group of people… bad thought here,
Here it comes, Sesh,
What if only a select group will be leaving here… what if the plan is to kill most of the women – oh! The wave hit hard, jerking the boat and slamming into Sesha.
At that point the woman watching saw Sesha on the top of the shipyard wall stepped back and nudged her husband beside her to notice it too.
“Go,” he whispered, pushing her in the direction and looked at the preacher, whose eyes were closed, his face pointed heavenward as he roared on in the silence of the city.
“And this is not all, sweet Saved Ones! Moses had to come down from the Mount, he had to rejoin the people of the Lord, but now there was a problem! Moses had seen the back side of God, and, the Word says, ‘Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.’ What is the Man of God to do? He had to put on a veil! A soft piece of see-through cloth, because no one could look upon Moses! Again the Holy Word speaks! ‘And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.’ Then -”
The man raised his hand first and when the Most Holy Lord didn’t notice, the man dared to clear his throat. The noise paralyzed the preacher for a moment, in which the man took his life into his hands and said, “Begging your pardon, Most Holy Lord Reverend but Sesha - ? She’s standing on the sea wall… oh!”
The crowd turned, seeing the assigned woman hurrying her way, Sesha touching the boat, not seeing the water coming behind her as she was looking into the city – the wave hit and there were gasps and screams as the force knocked her into the water. Several young men broke away from the group and began a flat-out run towards the building dock as the Reverend screamed at them “hurry, men of God! Rescue her!” He also was running as fast as he could, and was easily outstripped, even by Jeremiah, whose limp was permanent now.
Sesha was bounced off the side of the ship and fell into the water below. As soon as she sunk feet first into the cold wet, the woman bent over and stroking hard, kept the plunge going downwards. She was chilled instantly; Nestram was a hot planet, and its occupants had developed a natural form of heat regulation. Their bodies ran at a cold temperature, so they chilled easily. Nestrams usually didn’t visit planets that had winters; or if they did, only during the hottest seasons. They didn’t care to swim much either.
But Sesha and her family had been swimmers for hundreds of years. Ten generations back her ancestor had married a Vegan and to the surprise of everyone, reproduced a female child, a beautiful cross-breed. She in turned married a Nestram man, that only child also female. Two generations before Sesha there were male and female children with the dwindling Vegan blood in them but kept a few characteristics.
Sesha and her sibs had gills, because of this. Normally no one could even see anything but smooth neck skin; usually the
gills never came into use. But when submerged for one standard Alliance minute, the gills opened up. But only when completely under. A bath or shower wouldn’t activate that code since she could still breathe air. But since she couldn’t now, well, now she would be fine, but only for a couple minutes. They were small gills, meant for short submerges. What family there was now didn’t have the gills; two generations had passed while Sesha slept in her travels and she still visited ‘home’ to keep up on the relatives, so had learned that.
Sesha stroked down hard to a darker part of the water and turned off the wrist-gem hologram. Squeezing the black band, scratching the surface and sliding a finger underneath, stretching the tendrils so the water could get to every bit cleaned the band well. Now she called up the normal program she used and was delighted to see the pad nice and bright; the computer reported all functions at 100%.
A disturbance in the water above her told her the “rescue” had arrived, so she went limp after resetting it to the bracelet look. Moments later her hair was seized and she was pulled to the surface, where in the melee of the men handing her off to other men, she managed to get enough of a breath to seal her gills tight. They pulled her over the wall and she was carried to the flat part of the sand where, she saw through thin-slitted eyes, a barrel waited. She was laid on her belly on it and her back, albeit gently, was pushed on. So she let herself throw up the water she’d deliberately swallowed and gasped heartily. From the barrel she was carried to the Infirmary, stripped and nightgowned again, swaddled in blankets and put to bed. She was so cold now she was a dusky blue all over, causing major panic in all of them. Men rushed to heat bricks in fires to swathe and put next to her to warm her cold body up.
“What could have caused her to do this?” Florence asked. She hadn’t been at the meeting; she never was. Either in confinement or in the Infirmary tending patients, for there was always someone in need of care in this city.
“Do not know,” was the answer but they weren’t able to speak anymore because The Most Holy Lord Reverend Peter Allway strode in.
“We must start preaching the Word to her fiercely, wife,” he snapped. “It is a most grievous sin to kill yourself.”
“She didn’t try that, husband,” Beulah sighed. “Ashton says not, also Greta, who did take her time to watch when Ashton rejoined the congregation.
“Woulds’t speak with them,” Allway began and Grace put her head out the door, calling the pair.
Ashton took off his hat, lowered his face and reported. “The lass did build a house in the sand, Reverend. Then a plank did wash ashore and Sesha did clutch it, weeping. She did allow me to remove the wood, which I cast away and attempted to give verbal comfort. She would not; in her anger did wreck the carving and would not let me take her to the Righteous Lady, but rose and moved away, singing dirges.”
“And thou, Greta?”
“I dids’t watch, Lord Reverend, as the child became entranced with the ship. She did go to the land wall and look upon it, sometimes singing, sometimes silent. Then Sesha went back to the end wall and I believe she was looking upon the city. I did alert my husband,”
He was behind her. “That be what she be doing, looking over the city. Thou knowest, Reverend, that waves sometimes be larger, an’ it was. Did hit the ship hard, splash the lass and spill her into the water.”
Allway dismissed the couple, then turned back to his wife and Florence. “The Monitors believe Sesha did fall in a’purpose; Ashton states the Laken wast grieving, thus we must preach steadfastly to her so that the word of the Lord can comfort her in her so great trial.”
“And how will that be accomplished?” the question was asked in a dry tone. “While her speech improves, it is slow and many of our concepts be foreign to her. From her comportment accompanied by her speech I deem the child is very innocent – mayhap even slow in understanding wrongdoing. It is a possibility if we teach her what sin is that we may cause her to commit said sins in her attempt to understand them.”
The Reverend Allway stared at his wife in astonishment. The fact that she dared say such a thing to him, Called of the Lord - ! But then he realized that she was right. He must teach her about Holiness and not sin. Then he smiled at his wife and it was not a very nice smile either.
“You are correct again my wife. How the Lord does speak through you! When our Miss Sesha is over this fit, we will begin her training in the goodness of the Word.”
“As God leads, my husband.” Beulah knew this was only a brief reprieve in the man’s plan to brainwash this foreign woman. It made her wonder what plans her husband had for her… a premonition of fear raised goose bumps all over her body.
16
Sesha “woke” to see a woman at the bed across from hers, dressing Anna’s genital region. About to make a noise to attract her, she suddenly stopped and made no sound but watched as the young woman was tenderly washed from a gently steaming pot of water, a paste of herbs applied and cloths wrapped around to re-bandage the wounds. The patient moaned and wept in her suffering and it wrenched at Sesha. Then the woman nursing Anna dribbled tea down her throat until she fell back into a troubled sleep.
When the woman bent over Sesha to check on her, she had eyes closed and slow breathing to indicate sleep. The Wrist Gem had caused Sesha to void on the pad of dried leaves just moments before, so the woman gently eased them out and replaced them with a clean set, then gently wiped Sesha’s genitals too. She laid a hand on her breast and counted the breaths and pinched the skin between her thumb and finger. When Sesha moaned a bit, she tucked the blankets around her better and murmured “thou shalt be all right, child.” Then she left and the room was quiet, cool and dark.
After waiting several minutes, Sesha slipped out of her bed and snuck softly to Anna. The poor girl was terribly feverish and dehydrated. Sesha gently undid the wrap and looked at the horrible wounds on the woman. Pus was oozing from everywhere, her entire groin area was bright red and swollen. A few lines of red were creeping up her abdomen - Sesha recognized the signs of blood poisoning. These lines were pretty standard in any bipedal, unfurred, fleshed race. Since this culture was so primitive they had no antibiotics either. This woman would die for nothing if Sesha didn’t help.
Shni, I’ve already broken major Interstellar Law the moment I put the ship in orbit behind their moon; I’m going to break it more, again deliberately.
Sesh dear, this just isn’t breaking laws, this is the bounds of not even an Amnesty group being able to help you! If you’re spared the death penalty, punishment will be a complete mindwipe, loss of all personal possessions of every type and reprogrammed for menial labor, time off spent in a small cubicle with a vid playing nice/nice shows and music until your bedtime, to start up again when it’s time to get up. No independent thinking, no travel, no real pleasure.
Sesha was silent a long moment contemplating one very possible future if she managed to infuse enough water into the Brain to get it going so the crew would wake up.
But I have to, Shni. This is not just for the crew, and damn the goods on board, this is for another species of people who need help above and beyond what they have here on this “Earth.” Lives are going to be lost here… Allway already altered the course of their lives by convincing them to go into seclusion. It’s not going to affect the rest of the civilizations on this world if I free them from him and his minions. So let the Alliance Board do their worst, even the DP… so I’m going to start now.
Sesha found the wet cloth and the now-cool pan of water, dampened it well again and began singing softly to the feverish woman. She had a repertoire full of songs from the Alliance, and she was always humming or singing softly when awake lately, so why not now? Sesha wiped Anna’s face and neck and hair over and over with the wet cloth until she felt the woman’s breathing deepen and slow and her skin cooled down a little. Several minutes into doing this she heard the door creak softly, felt eyes on her, and knew she was being watched. But she acted “innocent” and continued her si
nging and bathing of the extremely ill woman. She almost stumbled into a giggle but turned it into a sob and continued on. Warr’n, Vegan God of Fire - if her crewmates could see her now! They’d be rolling on the floor with laughter! This was not Sesha, not in any stretch of any being’s imagination. What a role this tough, snarly, Pleasure-seeking being was playing! She spoke in a soft, high-pitched voice, acted sweet and innocent and unknowing, like the Pladi tribe on Ackermari First, she cried and threw up a lot, and stumbled about, now she was a naïve waif-like being – Sesha was truly grateful no one who really knew her could see her. What she was doing to save all their kretuckit lives!
After she stumbled in her singing, she heard a soft step and a hand was laid gently on her shoulder. Sesha jumped as if startled and turned rapidly, then gasped for real as the scabs on her back yanked.
“Easy, child.” Beulah sat herself on the floor, her volumous skirts billowing around her. “It’s only me. When did you wake up?”
She shrugged carefully and counted on her fingers. “Song to ‘er,” she whispered out of respect for the sick woman. “She, um, wuh-eep, I come. Why no one he’p her yike you, me?”
“We’re trying. She’s very sick. I’m not sure we can help her anymore.”
“But, um, far’er, green – “ she pointed to a plant in the corner, “ger -row here. Before,” she widened her eyes to force tears to well up, “um, we go no gee-ho and sometimes. I…” she pointed to her eyes, “what is need to make rashni go… home?”
“The plant to break her fever grows here?” Neither Beulah nor anyone else had a complete knowledge of plants and their uses in this region. They used only what they knew about, and that was limited. They had nothing for cough or fever except mustard packs for the chest and putting the feverish person in the ocean to cool off. All too often that led to convulsions and death so they now just washed the person every couple hours with not-so-cold water.
Weathering Storms Page 24