Port, who’s your mom, travel plans…
“Mandy,” Sarita said, “I saw you with that woman off Beth Ann’s ship. Is she your mother?”
“Yes, she came from Refugio and now sails with Beth Ann. I have a couple of half kin that live on the boat. Mom paired up with one of the crew when she got pregnant with my brother.”
“How do they check for inbreeding?” Sarita remembered the extensive relational checks before a couple could be approved for children in Utopia. The pool had been small, after the deaths during the first years after landing. She knew that was one reason the prince was trying to pair her up with his son. He and his wife were related to most of the original families.
“Well, as long as you stick to your own age group, it might be a half at the worst. So far, we haven’t seen any mutants or other problems. I want to listen to what folks are saying.” Mandy sat up taller and turned to hear the discussion about goods to trade.
Sarita resented many of the restrictions placed on young people in Utopia, especially when one was seeking an amancara. She didn’t consider the ramifications of genetic closeness. She had almost balked at the nude pictures her mother and uncle had made of her for the marriage contract, but it was required in Utopia. It was said that More had required it in the book so that a man and woman “knew what they were getting” — as if that really mattered, to her way of thinking. The psy relationship had been her first consideration. But now, she was not as sure.
***
“I have to let my hair grow?” Mandy was shocked. “Really? What about bugs? And, those long things, a skirt you called it. Do I really have to do all these things? Why can’t I look like me? The rest of the women in Port look this way.”
“She has a point, Mama,” Sarita said. “Who will believe her as the Port representative if she looks like a woman of Refugio?”
“I sure they won’t, if I have long hair and keep tripping over that long thing,” Mandy snapped.
Sarita teased her. “If you can’t walk in a skirt, they’ll know you aren’t from Refugio.”
“Well, you have a point,” Rita admitted. “Sarita has to look like a woman of Refugio to convince the Overlord’s representative she is of a Council House, but you don’t.”
“Mandy, are there new clothes in stores you can get for the trip? Showing up in worn, torn, clothing might show how bad off your folks are but that would be a bad bargaining point. As for the bugs, that is one thing Blackie brought back that will really help everyone. It kills the bugs.”
“I’ll check with Jill. I am due for a new set of clothes after a blow. We get two sets per year if the weavers can get enough fiber out of the swamp. Some years, the storms blow the water weeds out to deep water and we have to do with one set. One year, someone brought back a bunch of cloth from ‘Topia and we had some really good bottoms, but no one was able to get it again. That will be something else we can trade for.”
“I need to discuss this with Tony,” Rita said. She was sure the agreement was being made with the wrong group. Port needed to set up trading with Utopia. So much of what was needed came from there. “The cloth they make in Refugio is wool. That would not work here. The linen and hemp are what you need here, and they mainly come from Utopia. They brought the plans for the big looms from Terra. The rest of us had to build our own from their plans.”
“That must be why we make things out of strips, not big pieces of cloth,” Mandy said. “We don’t have much wood here, so anything that needs a lot of it is just out. The people who make the clothes love it when we get some stuff from ‘Topia. It is wider and you don’t have to stitch it together.”
“Okay, Sarita, back to practicing building a block against compulsion. You are going to need to have this.”
Rita got the women back to what the evening was supposed to be about, getting ready to leave Port.
***
The small box hovered over the table and then gently settled back to the tabletop. Sarita slumped against the wall with a gasp.
“Now I understand why this psy power is more cursed than welcomed. I am exhausted and all I did was lift a tiny box.”
“Think about that you were asking that box to do,” Rita smiled. “The physics of levitation is extraordinary. There are beings who can actually move spaceships with this, but their brains are far different than ours.”
“You are joking, right?” Mandy said.
“No. I have never encountered one, but the beings resemble giant reptiles, and their ships have a very odd way of propelling through space. One of my friends studied about it but no one is quite sure how it works.” Rita had amazed the two young women. “Now, no more lifting boxes, Sarita, you need to rest and eat some of that dried fish. You need protein and sleep.”
***
The preparation for departure went quickly. Spacer had some rumors that some of the ship captains who were most active in the raiding were not planning on stopping. He was not sure what he could do to end the piracy, but this agreement was too important. Their numbers were growing and there was only so much land here on the islands.
He was going to miss Mandy and was having mixed emotions about his relationship with Sarita. What he had done was wrong. Before the young woman created the block in his consciousness, he needed the help of a buffer, and it had always bothered him that force seemed the only way to get one. The damage done by being a buffer kept women away from him unless forced. He owed Sarita and was not sure how to make it up to her. He approached Tony, who sat on the dock to watch the sun set.
“I’ve heard that Sarita was going to be married when you got to Refugio. Seems I have also heard that your folks value all brides being virgins, right?”
“True, but it is the hope of my sister and I that because Sarita was forced, it may be overlooked.”
Space had an idea. “What if I write a letter to the man she is to marry and explain about the buffer and how sorry I am it happened to her? Do you think that might help?”
“As the one who must do the negotiations for the marriage contract, I have to say yes. The family is insisting on a daughter of our family and Sarita is the only one of age and unmarried. We have the advantage, but a letter might make it easier for them to accept Sarita.”
“I’ll get it done right now. What is his name?”
Tony hesitated but realized that Spacer might not be aware of the status of Megal. “She is to marry Megal Morales.”
“Blackie said that the Overlord’s name is Francos Morales. Are they related?”
“Yes, he is the son of the Overlord. Please do not let that interfere. They will be happy to have her back safely.”
“I may have ruined the whole deal. I’ll write the letter and have it for you to take to the family. You understand, don’t you Tony? It was what I thought I had to do to survive and still take care of the people in Port. I always felt bad for the women, but most got over it pretty well. Sarita did put an end to that, and I’m glad. “
“Be sure she knows that Spacer. It will be important for her.” Spacer wished him a good sleep and went to write his letter. Tony sat on the dock until it was dark and walked to the shelter wondering how this would end.
***
Spacer carefully sealed his letter in a thin pouch of fish skin. He had used a lot of reed paper for the letter but wanted Megal to understand Sarita was not to be blamed. He alone was responsible. After delivering the letter to Tony, he walked to the main house and asked Sarita to join him in the drying yard. She sat on the bench cut into the wall as he tried to find the words to explain.
“I know what I did to you was wrong, but I felt like I had to do it or go crazy from the noise in my head,” Spacer said. “That doesn’t make it easier for you. Tony said you are going to be married when you get to Refugio, but I know the Regals want women to be virgins when they marry.” He wanted to see her face, but she was in the shadow of the wall. All he could tell was that she was listening. “I talked to your uncle and decided to write a letter to Ser Morales explaining what happened and why. Tony has it. I want you to know that even though I am sorry it had to be the way it was, drugged like you were, it changed my life. Can you forgive me, Sarita?”
Sarita was startled to see tears running down his face. She still could not explain how she felt about what happened. He had raped her. It did not matter that she had been drugged. To be intimate should be an act of love, of caring, of sharing the unleashing of your psy powers and joining with your partner. His act had robbed her of that experience, but it might not be that way with Megal. She had resigned herself to that possibility but hoped for better. Spacer was awaiting her answer and he showed remorse.
“My forgiveness is conditional,” Sarita said, then rose and faced him. “You must promise me that what happened to me will never again be allowed in Port. Any woman brought to Port, willingly or unwilling, must give her full consent. No, more than that. It will be for all the people. The ones born here and the ones who come. Anyone, male, or female, should be punished if they rape. Even with the drug, it is still without consent. It must have been that way on the transport ship, was it not?”
Spacer was startled. “Yes, I was told something like that, but I guess we let it slide because the drugging kept the woman from burning out or burning out the male. You have my word, Sarita. Come to think of it, everyone will probably like it better that way. I will put it in the official pronouncements.” Spacer extended his hand, “It is an old Terran custom to close a deal with a handshake. Will you shake mine?”
Sarita took his hand and smiled at him. “I expect the women of Port will welcome this.”
“You know, I think I need to have Portia go over some of the other GC regs to see what else we have let slip. My granddad always said that they might show up and demand an accounting. Been a long time, but stranger things have happened.”
***
The wind was high off the hills on the south of the island so the water would be flowing out of the harbor. It was time to board the ship. The day to leave had finally come. The community had gathered to say their goodbyes. Rita and Sarita had made friends among the residents of Port. Mandy was a vital member of the community, and many were concerned about her leaving. Mandy’s mother hugged her daughter and warned Rita about her seasickness.
“Took her with me one time on the fishing boat and the child was sick the whole trip. Crazy her forgetting that, but maybe she outgrew it.”
“Momma, did you have to bring that up!” Mandy’s face turned red with embarrassment.
“She is your mother, Mandy. I would expect this from her, but she may be correct. Some people outgrow motion sickness.” Rita assured her that she knew some tricks about motion sickness.
As the food baskets were loaded, someone noticed that Jill had brought more food than usual.
“We’ll be tacking this trip, so it takes longer,” Blackie explained to Tony and Rita. “We have to catch the wind, so we sail one way and then tack back to the other. It is an old practice, as old as sailing on water, but it works. Wind blows against us in this season.”
***
Blackie greeted Sarita as she joined him on deck several days into the voyage. “How is Mandy?”
“Mother has been working with her and she is better.” Sarita had finally admitted the relationship and had received much teasing about how everyone had suspected it from the beginning. They looked too much alike to not be related. “I was really surprised that she reacted so badly to the sea since she grew up on the island, but she said she rarely went out in the boats. This is really a new experience for her.”
“Funny how it affects some people more than others.” Blackie called to some of the crew to mind the sails since the wind was shifting. He had explained that it was fortunate that one of the original GC crew lived on a sailboat as a child. “We would never have figured this out on our own. It is a very old technique she taught us.”
The trip was slow but uneventful. Even Mandy began to enjoy it and joined everyone on deck. The crew had to work harder than on a sail before the wind. When they reached the psy point, they notified Refugio they were on their way.
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