“No,” Kati responded. “But then, I’ve been spending time with children for a long time. I think I used the need to look after the children on Gorsh’s slave ship as a way to avoid thinking about my personal situation, and it’s possible that I’m doing the same at the crèche.”
Marga nodded.
“Right. I can’t fault your grasp of the situation,” she said. “Although intellectual understanding is not the same as emotional healing.”
*****
“Will you come with me to the Social Services Office?” Marga asked Kati once they were inside the building. “I will be talking about you, and I’d prefer not to discuss you behind your back.”
“I’ve no pressing commitments,” Kati replied with a smile, and matched strides and direction with the smaller woman.
“Caryn r’pa Voris is in,” Marga added after a second’s silence which Kati had come to realize meant that the person was consulting her node. “So is her supervisor, Londes r’pa Fortes.”
Both names were familiar to Kati. Unfortunately, her assessment of their job performance was not flattering to either of them. In the three weeks that she had been in residence at the Transient Quarters, it had seemed to her that neither of the two had been very helpful. They had to know that everything on Lamania was completely new to Kati, yet, except when she had specially asked for assistance, they had offered little help to her about the ways of this world. Caryn, her personal Social Worker, had not bothered to explain how everyday procedures worked. She had been ushered into her room-and-bath the very first day, without a word of explanation as to how even the toilet worked. Fortunately she had been on Gorsh’s space vessel for some time, and the Lamanian facilities were not that different from those on that ship, so she had been able to figure it all out. However, when her stomach had started to rumble with hunger, she had had to ask for help from one of her fellow residents in the Common Room. The teenage boy whom she had approached, however, had cheerfully showed her the coolers and the dishes found there.
“So you’re brand new here, from the Wilder Worlds?” Lank—he had introduced himself simply as Lank, and he definitely was not Lamanian—had asked when they had settled down to eat their meals at the round dining table which occupied a glassed-in corner of the Common Room.
“That’s about it,” Kati had replied, forking into her mouth some of the concoction Lank had recommended that she try. “Mmm, this is good.”
Lank had grinned at her, pleased.
“Have they assigned you a Social Worker yet?”
“Yeah, she’s the one who showed me up here and into the room. Caryn somebody. She left so fast that I didn’t have a chance to ask her anything! If I hadn’t been able to figure out the toilet for myself, I couldn’t have gone for a pee!”
She had been annoyed enough to forget her usual discretion.
Lank had laughed out loud.
“These Lamanians are so used to living with the Star Federation advantages that they forget that some of us don’t realize how helpful our nodes can be,” he had said.
“Oh yeah, I do have one of those,” Kati had answered, chagrined. Of course the Granda could have told her anything she needed to know about the living arrangements. “Right, Granda?” she had subvocalized to it.
“Right,” it had responded. “Just ask me when you don’t know something. If it’s beyond my expertise I’ll let you know, and then you can talk to that joke of a Social Worker. And once you get information, I’ll keep it filed so you’ll never have to ask the same question twice.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t think to ask it about food,” Lank had added with a grin. “This way I got to make your acquaintance.”
*****
“What I’d like to know,” Marga said as soon as she had Caryn and Londes seated comfortably on the couches that took up half of the Social Workers’ office, “is whether or not the two of you have had any training in dealing with the Wilders who arrive on our doorstep, here in Second City?”
Kati, who sat slightly apart from the other three, could see that Marga was senior to the others, even if she was not their direct supervisor. They glanced at each other in some alarm at the question, before turning to answer the woman in blue.
“Well, of course,” Londes answered. “We deal with newly arrived Wilders all the time. They’re a large part of our job here at the Transient Housing.”
“Shouldn’t you be making certain that their interests are being looked after? Don’t you explain to them how Lamania works? What their rights and obligations as residents are? How and where they can obtain information about everyday life, things that you might well take for granted but that might be mysterious to someone new to this world?”
“That is one of the purposes of the existence of this office,” Londes replied.
“Well, one or both of you haven’t been doing your job, at least when it comes to Kati of Terra, here,” Marga said, with an edge to her voice that surprised Kati. “Why wasn’t she told that she is entitled to Professional Level housing, for one thing? And why did I find this afternoon that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast this morning because no-one had clarified to her the fact that she could walk into any cafe or restaurant in the city—or all of Lamania, for that matter—and obtain any food she wanted, with a flick of her left thumb across the Identifier?”
Caryn’s pale face turned pink.
“I didn’t realize that she didn’t know these things,” she said, eyeing her toes. “I mean, she’s Kati of Terra and everybody’s talking of her exploits on Makros III. She’s an ESPer, has a Granda node, and saved Mikal r’ma Trodden from the slavers, and then fled across the primitive planet with him, escaping from the slavers chasing them. I guess I just assumed that she’d know things....”
“How was she supposed to know anything and everything?” Marga’s tone had turned acidic. “Did you expect her to figure things out telepathically? Did it not occur to you that the conditions on Makros III might have been more akin to what she was familiar with, than those in a Lamanian city? Isn’t that why we call them the Wilder Worlds? Because they haven’t been civilized for a millennium and a half?”
“It’s my fault,” Londes said in a conciliatory tone of voice. “I’m the one who runs the Orientation Sessions. I should have scheduled Kati for one, even if Caryn overlooked to do so.”
“Of course it’s your fault!” Marga snapped. “It’s obvious that neither of you were doing your jobs! You’re both here four days out of six but it looks like you’re putting in only two days, if that, of actual work every six! If you’re not prepared to work for more than two days in six, don’t come in more than two days! Let someone who’s keen to do a proper job do it the other two!”
Kati realized that she was gaping at Marga, and shut her mouth. The compassionate Counsellor of the earlier afternoon had transformed into an angry tigress before her very eyes.
“We don’t report to Mental and Emotional Health,” Caryn muttered sullenly.
“Caryn, don’t go there,” Londes began, and was cut off.
“No, you don’t report to Mental and Emotional Health,” Marga said coldly. “But Mental and Emotional Health ends up picking up the pieces when you fail in your duties. This case is only one such, and not the most clear-cut. Kati here could have used my services even if you two had been doing a bang-up job. Nevertheless, for her to have been left to wander about the city by herself, without having been given the most elementary information about how Lamania works, amounts to neglect of a newcomer and shames the residents of The Second City. I have heard complaints about this office before, and I decided to take the opportunity to warn you. Londes, you need to fix the operation that you’re running here, or expect to see yourself transferred somewhere where you can do less damage. The Social Work Central will get my complaints tomorrow, so conduct yourselves accordingly.”
She rose from her seat, gesturing Kati to do the same. Without another look at her chagrined colleagues, she swept out of
the room, with Kati following her. They headed for the stairs leading into the housing units and Kati’s quarters.
“I apologize for putting you through that,” Marga said as they climbed. “I am afraid that I decided to deal with the situation on the spot, since it really does make my blood boil. There have been reports that newcomers are falling through cracks that this office is supposed to keep from opening up, but this is the first time that I, personally, have dealt with the results. Caryn didn’t think that you needed orientation, what a crock! The girl is lazy, and that Londes isn’t any better! Supposedly they’re working four days out of every six here, but they didn’t even schedule you for an Orientation Session, and you’ve been here for twenty-one days! You should have been through a session within the first six days!”
She came with Kati into her unit’s Common Room.
“Kati, here you are at last,” Lank greeted her from where he sat at the dining table. “I was starting to worry, since you were gone longer than you usually are on your forays to explore the City. But I see that I needn’t have.”
He smiled at Kati and Marga while three other non-Lamanians in the room looked on curiously.
Kati introduced Lank to Marga, while alerting the Granda to the fact that she had forgotten the names of her other “roomies”, none of whom she saw as regularly as she did Lank. The Monk obliged her, and she attached names to faces for Marga’s benefit, smoothly enough to earn a grin from Lank.
“Since I’m here, I’d like to ask all of you a few questions if I may,” Marga said, speaking softly once again. She looked about the room, at each of the people there.
“Sure, go ahead,” Lank responded amiably, while the others nodded.
“Have all of you been through an Orientation Session?” was Marga’s first question.
“I have,” Lank replied right away. “A while back, but then, I believe that I’ve been staying here longer than anyone else in the unit.”
Rakil, a young, sturdy, bronze man whose nape was covered in curls down into his shirt, in what Kati knew as a Borhquan wedge, shook his head.
“I’ve been here six days and nobody’s said ‘boo’ to me about any Orientation Session,” he said. “Yet, I was led to understand on arrival that such was standard practice.”
“I don’t really have any need of Orientation,” explained Logan, a very thin, almost spidery-looking fellow with black hair and a beard. “This isn’t my first time on Lamania, although they’ve slotted me in with a unit of newcomers.”
“I’m scheduled for Orientation tomorrow,” said Mira, a twenty-something young woman who looked to be several months pregnant.
“There’s one scheduled for tomorrow,” Marga said, turning to Kati. “Are you free tomorrow?”
“I can be,” Kati replied. “Lank was going to show me the City Cash Market tomorrow afternoon, but I’m sure that it can be rescheduled. Right, Lank?”
Lank nodded but Mira interrupted:
“The Orientation is in the morning,” she said. “Caryn told me that it starts at eight, and will be finished by noon.”
Marga walked over to the communications console which stood unobtrusively in one corner of the room. She pressed her left thumb against the nodal connector in a casual gesture that still gave Kati the shivers. She had had to do it when she made her nodal reports, and the sensation had been one of having her brain sucked out through her left arm and thumb. Even though she had believed the explanations that nothing untoward was actually happening, the experience had been very disconcerting. She had avoided the nodal connector since, preferring to pass her left thumb across the little ident-screen instead, and communicating via the video-audio set-up with which the communications consoles were also equipped.
“All right, that’s arranged,” Marga said as she returned to the middle of the room. “You’re in that Session now, Kati. And Mira’s information is correct; you won’t have to change your plans for the afternoon.”
Then she turned to Rakil. “There’s plenty of room in that Session. I instructed Londes to add you to it, as well, presuming that you have no scheduling conflicts.” She looked at him questioningly.
“I’ll be there,” he said, favouring her with a charming, warm smile.
CHAPTER TWO
“Isn’t there another person in this unit?” Marga asked. “According to the schematics I just accessed, it is fully occupied.”
“There was an empty room yesterday,” Kati said, looking around.
It had been the one next to hers. When Kati had arrived, the room had belonged to a semi-permanent resident like Lank, a newcomer to The Second City in no rush to get settled. She had been working the two days out of six, and spending the other four exploring the city, and figuring out what it was that she wanted to do. A few days ago she had come in, in a high state of excitement. A chef at a local restaurant had offered to take her on as an apprentice, she had told her fellow residents. She had done some professional cooking on her home world, and was very interested, even though the opportunity meant longer work hours than the Subsistence Level required. She could live in the building which housed the restaurant, and that to her was also a plus. She had packed her bags that evening, and put them on maglev transport to her new address; then she had said her good-byes, checked out of the Transient Quarters, and left in high spirits.
Kati had watched her go, instructing her node to pay attention to the details involved. The knowledge about moving from one residence to another might come in useful some day.
“Caryn brought a girl in around noon, today,” Mira said. “She looked pretty fragile, and went right inside the room. She hasn’t been out since. I wasn’t sure whether or not I should ring her door and ask how she was, and if she wanted anything. Really, Caryn or Londes should be doing that, don’t you think?”
“They should be,” Marga responded. “However, they don’t seem keen on performing their duties properly, so until that can be fixed, I’d ask that you look after one another, and, if you see anyone else in the building who seems to need assistance, help them if you can. Go to the Social Services Office with them, and make a fuss if that’s what it takes. We cannot have people falling through cracks because the Office is staffed by incompetents. I mean to change that, but it might take a bit of time.”
“Sounds like you’ve got the clout to do it,” Logan said laconically.
“I do.” Marga grinned at him and then walked over to the door of the room which had been empty that morning. She pressed the button that activated the entry-request chimes inside.
Nothing happened.
After a couple of minutes she pressed the button again. When that act had the same non-result, she went to the communications console and its connector button.
“Kati, could you please wait outside her door and see what’s what when I open it?” she asked before she engaged the connector.
Kati walked to the door which was to the left of hers. Lank got up to join her. He stood a few feet behind her as she settled to wait.
“I’ll provide back-up,” he explained with a grin, when she raised her eyebrows while glancing behind her.
“Let’s hope it’s not necessary,” she replied.
Whatever overrides Marga was using functioned, and the door slid open. At first the room was dark, then the lights came on. It looked empty, then Kati realized that there was a motionless mound on the bed, small and completely covered by bedclothes.
She sprang into the room, to the bed. Her heart pounding, she began to peel off the covers. It only took a moment; whoever was under them did not move, or object in any way, and Kati was frightened that she would find a lifeless body.
It was not that. However, it was not the girl that Mira’s words had her expecting, either. She gasped in recognition when she finally saw the head, the face and the form. She was looking at an emaciated specimen of a boy like the ones that she had known on Gorsh’s slave ship! He was one of what she and her companions from Earth had called “Murra’s
boys”; approximately half of the thirty children in the room where she had been held prisoner, had been them! Murra, the young friend who had been an ESP adept and had wakened her to her own PSI talents, had been the oldest one. Judging from the length of the body that she had now uncovered, Kati thought that this boy was about Murra’s age when she had known him; she had judged him to have been about twelve in Earth terms. This boy had the same oddly shaped face that Murra had had; also a long, sharp nose, and a wide mouth in a generous jaw. His eyes were tightly shut so she could not judge them, and the black, abundant hair which had been beautiful on Murra, was dirty and unhealthy-looking.
The boy lay on his right side, more or less fetal; but there was a terrible openness in the position, as if he was expecting abuse, and knew himself to be unable to resist it. Kati recalled how good-natured “Murra’s boys” had been. Someone had taken advantage of that good nature, probably in a very ugly manner!
“I don’t recognize the girl’s humanoid type.” Lank had come to stand behind Kati, to study the child.
“I do,” Kati answered, her eyes searching beneath the boy’s left ear for the lump of a translation node. “And he’s a boy, not a girl. He’s a child, but he shouldn’t be that skinny; somebody’s been starving him!”
“You’re right about his being a boy.”
Marga had entered the room and was looking from Kati to the child on the bed, her large eyes bright with interest.
“I was just communicating with Londes in his office,” she added. “He said that a Vultairian couple arrived just minutes ago, looking for this boy, claiming him as their adopted son. He’s going to come up here with them, shortly.”
“No!” Kati turned to face Marga, her eyes blazing. “They’re not taking this child except over my dead body, whoever they are! He’s nobody’s adopted son, I can tell you that with certainty. He looks like my friend Murra on the slave ship, and like the smaller boys from Murra’s world! Murra told me that his world had been the target of abductions, of boys only, for several years before he was taken. This boy has to be from one of the earlier shipments, which means that he’s a slave, not anyone’s adopted son!”
On Assignment to the Planet of the Exalted Page 3