Childers

by Richard F. Weyand

  "Hey, she found me," Harry said.

  At the end of the Exam, the computer directed Jan to leave the Exam room and go to the conference room at the end of the hall. Jan went out into the hall and down to the door at the end, where she found Harry Voss and a woman a bit older than Harry waiting for her at a conference table. Harry waved Jan to sit, introduced the woman as Donna Schmeckel, and then got right down to basics.

  "First thing, Ms. Childers, I want to tell you that you passed the Citizenship Exam. The computer has already logged you as a citizen of the Commonwealth of Free Planets. Congratulations."

  Jan didn't comment, but looked around the room. There was an interface on the side table. She got up and went to it, and swiped her thumb.

  "Yes, Ms. Childers?"

  In a quavering voice, Jan asked, "Am I a citizen of the Commonwealth of Free Planets?"

  "Yes, Ms. Childers. Citizenship date recorded is today's date."

  Jan collapsed into the nearest chair, held her face in her hands, and wept. She had done it. For so long, her attentions had been focused on this one event. All her possible futures had narrowed to this one point, and now they opened out in bewildering array in front of her. Her relief was a palpable thing in the room.

  Donna Schmeckel came and sat next to her.

  "We don't need to talk about anything else right now, my dear. Let's get you some food, and some rest, and we can talk about your future later."

  Donna nodded to Harry, softly said, "Ask Jackie to meet us." She helped Jan to her feet and led her out of the other side of the conference room and deeper into the consulate building.

  Donna led Jan down the hall to an elevator, then to a small room on the fourth floor of the consulate.

  "This will be your room for a while, Jan. I'm sorry it's so small."

  It looked huge to Jan. A palace. A full-sized bed, a small writing desk and chair, and a private bathroom through a side door. The desk even had its own computer terminal, with a sleek VR rig. She was in Wonderland.

  "Th-thank you," she managed to stammer.

  A young, slim, blond woman in her twenties came into the room.

  "Ah, there you are, Jackie. Thanks for coming. Jan here is a new citizen. She just passed the Citizenship Exam," Donna said.

  "Congratulations," Jackie Tanner said to Jan.

  "Thank you," Jan said.

  "We need to get Jan settled. A bath, I think, some food, and then some sleep. Jackie, could you please help her with those things while I see if we can't find some clothing in her size?"

  "Certainly."

  "Excellent. Jan, Jackie here is personal assistant to the Consul's wife. She spends her days making life easier for other people, so please trust her to take good care of you."

  "Umm, OK."

  With that Donna bustled off, and Jackie walked past Jan into the bathroom. She started to draw water in a bathtub that looked huge to Jan. She could lay full length on the bottom of the thing, and it must have approached two feet deep.

  "Uh, ma'am? I can't swim."

  Jackie laughed, a pleasant tinkling sound, like silver bells.

  "Oh, this isn't so big and deep as all that, Jan. You'll be safe. Come, get those rags off and get into the tub."

  Jan hesitated. She had not been naked in front of another human being since she had escaped the last rape attempt, after they had torn off what meager clothing she had had. She fought the terror that welled up from the depths of her mind, the flashback images of that and earlier, even less pleasant, incidents. The terror threatened to pull her under. She teetered on her feet as she struggled to remain in the present.

  Jackie, now adding some kind of soap to the water that resulted in bubbles from the splashing stream of the faucet, noticed her hesitation.

  "If you wish, I'll turn my head aside."

  Jackie's kind offer, her pleasant voice, called Jan back to the here and now, gave her an anchor to cling to in the storm of memories. She fought back against the terror, and won a temporary victory.

  "No. No, that's OK. Just bad memories."

  Jan peeled out of the rags and dropped them to one side, a discarded relic of a life she had left behind. She climbed into the water gingerly, and sat bolt upright lest she sink beneath it.

  "Here, lean back onto this section here. You can hold those handles if you wish. That's it. Now, relax. You're safe here."

  Jan lay back against the slanted end of the tub with the warm water up to her neck. It was a wonderful sensation, and she felt years of tension begin, at least begin, to drain away. She surrendered herself to Jackie's skilled ministrations, and reveled in the wonder of it all.

  At some point during Jan's bath, Donna had come back with clothes one of the staffer's daughters had outgrown, hung them in the tiny closet or arranged them in the drawers of a small dresser behind the door, and departed again. Jan found the array of clothing astonishing, but Jackie was unfazed.

  "Not a lot of choices, I'm afraid, Jan. Oh, here. This will do. And these. Let's see. What do we have for underwear and a bra? Ah. Just the thing," Jackie mumbled as she rummaged.

  With Jan dressed in a pair of informal slacks and a not-too-frilly blouse, Jackie went after her hair. She had washed it in the tub, but a comb or brush had not made its way through that plentiful mane in years. Even with some special kind of soap Jackie had called "conditioner," it was slow going.

  "Let's get something ordered for you to eat while I work on this, shall we? Something not too rich. If you're not used to it, you can get a very sore tummy."

  Jackie was still working on her hair, with the occasional murmured imprecation, when the food arrived. A young man brought it on a small cart. It was a feast fit for a king. A bowl of soup, still hot, with chicken and vegetables and noodles. Two pieces of bread with butter. A piece of grilled pork, with some potato wedges and green beans. Slices of fresh fruit in a bowl. Jan had never seen so much food in one place since the orphanage, and that was shared among how many kids? The smells were incredible. They assaulted her with their rich power. She had forgotten what fresh food smelled like, if indeed she had ever known. Her stomach growled, and she realized how hungry she was, not having eaten anything since the previous day. She set to it with gusto.

  "Hmm. Lessons in table manners would be good, too."

  Jan was too hungry to be embarrassed. Eat first; manners later.

  Jan rolled to the ground in the darkness, landing crouched on the balls of her feet, her clawed hands at the ready before her. Her eyes were the darting eyes of a prey animal as she took in her surroundings. By the wan light coming in the window, she recognized the room in the consulate, and the previous day's unbelievable events came rushing back to her. Slowly she uncoiled, straightened up, relaxed. She ran a hand over her now untangled hair, then crawled back into the warm bed and was instantly asleep.

  Jan was under the VR rig doing a bit of research when Jackie came back the next morning. Her education had skipped some things. Day-to-day things. It turned out these people ate like she did last night as many as three times a day. It was amazing they weren't all a thousand pounds and simply rolled everywhere they went.

  Jackie had brought "feminine supplies."

  Yes, Jan knew what a woman's menses were. It was part of the basic curriculum she had had to pass before moving on to college material. No, she hadn't had her first menses yet. Jackie seemed surprised.

  "Well, that's what malnutrition will do to you," Jan said.

  Breakfast showed up. Another young man with another incredible cart of food. Two boiled eggs. Three links of sausage. Two more pieces of bread with butter. Another bowl of sliced fresh fruit. And a glass of cold orange juice.

  Jackie held her back, however. Time for lessons in table manners. No longer on the brink of starvation, Jan allowed herself to be instructed in all the peculiar customs of the eating ritual. She wouldn't always be eating in her room, it seemed. That was apparently the arrangement for now to spare others the sight of her enthusiastic de
struction of whatever was put in front of her.

  The customs themselves seemed rather arbitrary. One was supposed to eat the sliced fruit, for example, with a spoon, not simply shovel it into your mouth with your hands. It seemed silly to Jan, but she supposed it did keep one's hands from getting all sticky. On the other hand, it was acceptable to eat the bread with one's fingers, as long as one had used the knife to spread the butter.

  One advantage of being slowed down by table lessons. Jan savored the taste of every bite, every morsel. The greasy chewiness of the sausage, the soft piquancy of the egg yolks, the tart sweetness of the fruit, the texture of the bread in her mouth, the saltiness of the butter, the sweet tang of the orange juice. She could really get used to this, she decided.

  "You have a meeting at 10:00," Jackie told her when lessons, and breakfast, were completed. "They want to tell you about the options you have, and get some idea of what you want to do. I'll take you down there when it's time. Right now, I have to run. See you in a bit."

  They were in a small conference room within the consulate. Attending were Donna Schmeckel, Fred Becker, and the military attaché, Lieutenant Commander Richard Murdock. Fred Becker chaired the meeting.

  "The Exam computer is pouting today, Ms. Childers. It's still licking its wounds from yesterday," Fred said.

  "I'm sorry, I don't understand," Jan said.

  "A bit of a joke. The computer found it impossible to measure your intelligence, Ms. Childers. Then it tried to put upper and lower bounds on your intelligence. Finally, it settled for putting a lower bound – a very high lower bound – on it. Which means you have a lot of options. Many more than usual. A new citizen – when we have them, which is not often – has his options limited by his intelligence score and by his performance on the specialty portion of his Exam. Your options are not limited in that way. Which leaves us at something of a loss to explain your options to you. You can pretty much do whatever you want.

  "Now, a new citizen does get an endowment in their financial accounts right away, and an allowance for the first five years as they find their place in society. Those considerations, of course, apply to you as well. The more interesting question is, what do you want to do to earn your ongoing livelihood. What are your interests?"

  "Wait. Back up a second. I have money?"

  "Yes. Both the initial amount and the ongoing stipend for the first five years depend on your performance on the intelligence test. It is in our best interest to ensure those with higher abilities, and who will attempt greater things within our society, have more resources to pursue their interests, and a bit more time to find their niche. Which is something of a problem in your case, since we do not have a definitive finding on your intelligence. I'm not sure such a finding in your case is even possible.

  "However, your initial stake is no less than 20,000 Commonwealth credits, and a stipend of 1,000 credits per month. We're still trying to work out the details in your case."

  "The exchange rate is what, something like ten to one?"

  Donna answered, "Yesterday it was 11.2 Earth dollars per Commonwealth credit."

  Two hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars. And yesterday Jan was digging in garbage for her breakfast – unsuccessfully, at that. She just shook her head in amazement.

  Fred Becker continued. "Part of the reason for the large initial stake is so new citizens can purchase passage off-planet, to a suitable Commonwealth world. Such passage is not inexpensive. Have you thought of which Commonwealth world you would wish to relocate to?"

  "No. I didn't see very far past the Exam. Getting off-world period was my goal."

  "Understandable. You have some time. You should do some research on the planets of the Commonwealth, with an eye toward where you might wish to live. Also, what occupation you might wish to pursue. For example, I believe any of our university math departments would be pleased if you decided to pursue a career in mathematics at their university."

  At this point, Lieutenant Commander Murdock cleared his throat.

  "And I believe Commander Murdock may have some thoughts to offer as well."

  "Yes, sir. Ms. Childers, the military has many roles for people who are both very intelligent and skilled in mathematics. We have research and development operations that recruit some of the finest minds in the Commonwealth. In tactics, logistics, strategic planning, propulsion systems, weapons systems, and the list goes on. Refining computer pattern-recognition algorithms for deep space search and detection is a major area right now, for example. The Commonwealth Space Force would be pleased to offer you an officer's commission on completion of Officer Candidate School. People like to think of military types as stupid grunts, but, truth be told, the military is no place for stupid people. They get themselves killed, and others get killed right along with them."

  “Officer Candidate School? Commander, I’m fourteen years old.”

  “We select our officers on the basis of abilities, not age, Ms. Childers. Even so, you wouldn’t be the youngest officer to ever serve. Military service is one of your options, ma'am. One you may wish to consider.”

  "Thank you, Commander. So you see, Ms. Childers, you have a lot of options. I'll message you some literature we have for new citizens. I'll also send you some of my ideas for things to look into, as will some of my colleagues. And if you have any questions, we'll be here for you."

  "I have one question right now. How can you afford to do this – in time, in money – for every new citizen?"

  "Ms. Childers, very few people take the Exam, and most don't pass it. For those who do, we can afford quite a bit of our attention and funds. They're the people we really want. They are why this consulate, and others like it in other big cities, exist at all."

  "Why do so few people take the Exam? Who wouldn't want to get off this planet? And how can they not pass it? It's not like you don't tell everyone what they need to do to pass."

  "Most people on this planet, Ms. Childers, appear to prefer virtual reality to actual reality. As for passing the exam, if it comes down to actual work, they're even less interested."

  Jan spent the next several days in research. She researched the customs of her new tribe. She researched the various planets of the Commonwealth. She also researched the military. She was surprised the Commonwealth maintained a large military, given that Earth and the Commonwealth were reconciled and at peace with each other.

  She found there were two justifications commonly given for the large military. First, while Earth and the Commonwealth were now reconciled and at peace, it had not always been so. Earth had fought the attempt to form an independent polity among its colonies. Second, while Earth and the Commonwealth were at peace, the Commonwealth was not at peace with several of the outer colonies. There were a lot of them, and some were hardscrabble affairs. Commerce raiding of Commonwealth merchant ships by outer colony raiders was an issue.

  Finally, she sent word to Fred Becker through Jackie that she had made her decision.

  “I’ve decided to join the Commonwealth Space Force, and take that OCS berth Commander Murdock mentioned,” Jan said.

  It was the same group as before, Fred Becker, Donna Schmeckel, and Lieutenant Commander Richard Murdock.

  “Can I ask the reasons behind your decision, Ms. Childers? I’m not questioning it. I just want to know your considerations,” Becker said.

  “There are a number of factors,” Jan said. She ticked them off on her fingers as she talked. “First, the kindness you have shown me is astonishing to me. Not since my parents died ten years ago has anyone showed me kindness of any kind. And it is a dimly remembered kindness at that. More amazing still is it seems to be your normal way of doing business. For that, for another chance at life, for the stake the Commonwealth has spotted me, for all that and more, I owe the Commonwealth a great deal. I want to pay my way.

  “Second, if I take the OCS billet, the CSF will pay my passage off-planet, pay for my further schooling, and pay me a salary. My initial stake and the
five years of stipend will go untouched while I am in the military. Rather than working from limited funds, I will be accruing additional funds from the start.

  “Third, I have no idea which Commonwealth planet I might want to move to. I have no experience on which to decide. Having never been free to live where I wanted, I'm not even sure I know how to decide. And, while I know who I am now, I don’t know who I will be once I am out of the environment I have been living in. The military gives me time to figure out who I am, as well as the opportunity to visit places that might be of further interest.

  “Finally, for years anyone I met was someone to escape from if I could, or to kill if I couldn’t. For all that I can express myself well due to my education, my social skills are basically non-existent. The military has a smaller and better defined set of customs than civilian society. This will make it easier for me to learn how to live among my fellows.”

  “I expected your decision to be well thought out, and you don’t disappoint, Ms. Childers,” Becker said. “Dick, I think this is where you come in.”

  “Yes, sir.” Lieutenant Commander Murdock turned to Jan. “Ms. Childers, an OCS billet for a civilian joining the CSF is negotiated with the service before signing them up. As the local recruiting officer as well as the consular attaché, I cannot advise you on your options. It’s a conflict of interest. Another military officer staffed to the consulate is in a great position to advise you, however. Lieutenant Davidson is a JAG officer. Part of her job is to represent members of the military in dealing with legal issues. I would like to have her brief you on your options, and help you determine the best way to proceed.”

  “That would be great,” Jan said.

  Quito Elevator

  Lieutenant Commander Murdock had administered Jan Childers' oath "to protect and defend the Charter of the Commonwealth of Free Planets." She was now officially a member of the Commonwealth Space Force, the CSF, and on her way to OCS on Jablonka. She stood on the consulate roof with Murdock and waited for the quadcopter. No one on Earth really traveled any more – it was much easier to go anywhere in immersive VR than to endure the rigors of actual travel – so all real travel was a one-off.