EFFECTS OF SECRECY / CH. 3:TRANSIT
SHIPBOARD RECREATION ROOM, TUESOL, NOV 15TH, 2276
“James, you're a hard man to track down,” Ruth said. Ruth was a few years younger than him, one of the single women on board, and James had heard her decide James looked like a good catch.
“Hello, Ruth. I thought I was a creature of habit.”
“Yes. You're always talking to someone about something, as long as it's not me, or failing that you see me coming and all nonchalantly go away.”
“Sorry, Ruth.” he tried to put some finality into it.
“Sorry as in you're sorry you've been avoiding me, or sorry as in sorry you're gay, or....”
“Sorry Ruth, for all sorts of reasons it's not going to work.”
“Because?” she pressed.
“Do you need a complete list? You're an attractive woman, but I'm fairly sure I'm not the man for you.”
“You are gay? You don't want to try life on the straight side of the road? Just for fun, even?”
“I'm not gay, Ruth. But I am a civil servant sworn to uphold the good name of the crown, which means no casual dalliances, and I'm also under strict orders direct from the palace not to get romantically involved on this flight, and last but not least, I am also a committed Christian, which means 'just for fun' doesn't come into it.”
“That lot sounds pretty absolute.”
“Sorry for not being brave enough to say anything earlier.”
“You've known I was after you?”
“It's been pretty clear to me, at least. Yes.”
“So... what happens if you disobey orders?”
“I don't know. I've take an oath to obey them. I probably don't get pushed out of an airlock, but I might get sent to prison or reassigned to something uncomfortable.”
“An oath?”
“Yes.” She swore, in his mother tongue.
His surprise probably showed on his face.
“Sorry. A curse in a language I know,” she said.
“God judges oath-breakers,” he said, matter of factly, in English, “and it strikes me that Mars is just as inherently dangerous as swimming around sharks.”
She felt like she was glued to the spot, then she shook it off, deciding he couldn't have known how much that resonated with what she'd grown up hearing.
“Ruth?” he asked, “I know you've probably been rejecting God-talk for most of your life, but... if you've any questions, feel free to ask, OK? I expect Rachel would be a good person to ask too.”
“Will's wife?”
“Yes.”
“Are you saying that if I become a Christian and wait until we land then things might be different?”
“We don't know each other, Ruth, but... honestly, I must say your 'just for fun' offer just now really puts me off.”
She blushed, deciding she'd been an idiot to pretend she was like that, “I made myself sound like... like...”
“A Canaanite?” he offered. Knowing that it was the term she was most likely to think of, if she were truly from his home.
“Exactly,” Ruth agreed, then realised that wasn't a comparison she'd heard in English at all. “How?”
“We scorned them, daughter of deeps and shallows, we do not emulate them,” he said, in the language he'd learned from his mother.
She gasped in shock and fled to her room in tears.
James went to his own room, to pray for her salvation and for wisdom.
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JAMES' CABIN, WEDSOL, 1617TH NOV, 9AM
“James? Can I have a word?” it was Rachel.
“Hello, Rachel, of course.”
“Can I ask, what happened between you and Ruth yesterday? She's been sobbing her heart out and saying things like you're a good man and she misjudged you and now she's lost you.”
“Lost me? She never had me.”
“I guess she means lost any hope of getting you. What happened?”
“What happened was she rather threw herself at me and I said no, and urm, that the way she threw herself at me really wasn't appealing.”
“That's all?”
“No. Then... I reminded her of important things she'd forgotten. I think that's what brought it home to her.”
“Things she'd forgotten?”
“After I'd rejected her, she said some things that let me guess she's from the same background, the same upbringing as me. So I said something to her, reminding her... I guess you could call items of cultural pride. Me saying them... I don't know if it was wise, but I said them, and I guess she realised what a bad impression she'd made.”
“And what a good catch you'd have been?”
He shrugged. “She's not a Christian, and for all I know she might be my second cousin. But if she were a Christian and we're not relatives, and she hadn't started off like she did ...” he shrugged, “we've probably got quite a lot in common.”
“And if the way she'd started off was just an act?”
James looked at Rachel, “I'm not supposed to be forming emotional relationships on board. I told Ruth that too.”
“James, she's very vulnerable, and quite possibly suicidal. Can you come, please? Offer her friendship at least.”
“I'll come. Please stay, even though you won't know what I'm saying to her, though.”
“You're going to speak another language?”
“No, just name some names which are meaningless to you.”
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RUTH'S CABIN
“Ruth?” James said, “Sathzakara Evangelia?” he named his most famous ancestress.
Ruth drew a sharp breath at the implication, and said “Yes. Kostas Atomworker?”
“No,” he replied sticking to English, “Rose, Vaccine bringer.”
“You give me hope, distant cousin.”
“Cry no more, cousin, what I said was to rebuild, not destroy. Perhaps, in time, we might speak further, of other lines.”
“I would like that, very much.”
“But I will not dishonour my God.”
“I would not ask you to.”
“And we probably have closer ties.”
“It is likely, even.”
“What your words implied yesterday...”
“Stupid lies.”
“I heard that from you before. Ruth, even if there is never more between us, we are cousins, and I am a newsbringer, stay in touch.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“I will.”
“Then I'll stop confusing Rachel and leave.”
“Might I get an explanation of what's just gone on?” Rachel asked.
“Probably not.” Ruth said, with a smile.
“You see, Rose, for politeness sake, we spoke English, but we've taken vows of silence about our past.”
“But my distant cousin has just said some very nice things to me,” Ruth said.
“How distant?”
“Very.” James said, “at least far as we've worked out so far.”
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MESSAGE TO ALICE FINDHORN-BUNTING, MARS, WEDSOL 1617TH NOV, 9PM.
Maam,
I find myself wondering about the slings and arrows of fortune that, even now the planet is independent, bring social cases to Mars with reduced claims. If it was poorly justified before, as it seemed from your pre-independence article, why is it still perpetuated? There is such confusion in my powers, that I dare not judge on this matter, though there is one such, a most distant relative but no daughter of my King, who pesters my mind and cries 'what if' at my barred gate. Were she to claim her ransom, it would be hard to ignore her pleas, I fear, for indeed she is most comely and her oath binds her as closely as my own.
James.
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JAMES' CABIN, THUSOL, 18TH NOVEMBER, 9AM.
[James, is now a good time to talk?] Alice asked.
[Thank you for responding so quickly, Maam.]
[Just how many quotes did you put in there?]
[Only two as far as I'm aware. Just once I'd started in that way, I thought... why not carry on?]
[Do I gather that you're feeling attracted to a non-Christian?]
[So far, not very. But... she is from home, and she rather threw herself at me, before either of us knew that.]
[Threw herself how?]
[She was chasing me, has been for the past couple of weeks, and she finally found me alone yesterday. I said sorry it wasn't going to work, that I wasn't the right man for her. She thought I meant I was gay, and pretended to be interested in a liason 'just for fun'. I'm pretty sure that wasn't her real intention, and she was reportedly inconsolable for about fourteen hours when she thought I'd taken it as typical of her behaviour.]
[But you didn't?]
[She'd mentally cursed herself for an idiot at telling me such lies about herself when she learned I was a Christian.]
[And she's from your mysterious home?]
[Indeed. Which made it rather easy to cheer her up, but implicit in that cheering up was me admitting that I was at least a bit interested in her, with lots of ifs and buts. And I am, if only from the perspective of not wanting her to degrade herself.]
[And from your message, she's on a social ticket?]
[Yes.]
[I've been meaning to finish an article on that issue, so I'll send you the first draft. But you also said she was a distant relative?]
[Yes. We're an insular people, and inbreeding has always been a risk. I named a famous ancestress, which was how I cheered her up. If you're not interested in someone you don't start comparing family trees. We got a match, but then that was about twelve generations back, so that's not surprising.]
[Twelve.. Wow. You're making me revise my guesses about your people.]
[Ooops. She was kind of famous though.]
[Have I heard of her?]
[I very much doubt it.] James said.
[So, you've been isolated for at least two and a half centuries.]
[Please don't pass that on.]
[I won't. So, you're relatives, just about, but before you're serious, you'd need to compare family trees to make sure that you don't share a great-grandparent or something?]
[Yes. And she needs to become a Christian.]
[Of course. But you've been praying she would.]
[Of course.]
[And it's early days, yet, so there's plenty of time?]
[Urm, probably, yes.]
[Probably?] Alice asked.
[Almost certainly.]
[Think to me, James. Explain.]
[Culturally, we don't do long engagements, maam.]
[She's not a Christian, James. Don't make her choose Christ to get you.]
[No. We will not explore family trees more, we will not date, not unless she turns to Christ.]
[But you're saying that if she does, and you felt attraction overriding common sense...]
[It's better to marry than burn. But before we get to that we need to make sure we're not close cousins.]
[And you need the approval of your ambassador.]
[Yes, Maam.] James agreed.
[At the moment, you don't have it.]
[Thank you for making that clear, maam.]
[I also ask that you tell me her whole name.]
[Her whole name? Or the name your records know her by?]
[Assume I know of nothing else, James.] Alice rebuked him.
[Of course, Maam, sorry.]
[It seems you are letting her proximity affect your judgement, James,] Alice thought to him. [You're still bound by your oath, and yet you're explaining things as though giving a guided tour of your home. I don't mind learning more about where you grew up, but as a warning... when you launched you were feeling great separation from where you grew up. You've met someone from there, and I think you're both excited at the thought of someone you can reminisce with. But that and her chasing you does not add up to her being your future wife.]
James didn't let himself reply.
[Sorry to pour cold water on your thought processes.]
[I needed to hear that, Maam, I think. Thank you.]
[James, if you swapping family trees is a precursor to anything else, then please don't do it until you get to Mars. Adjusting to a new culture is not the right time to made life-changing decisions. That's one of the points of first harvest. Remember you're officially jits now, and I don't want you making a jit of a decision. Feel free to tell her these are your ambassadors words, relayed to you by the gifted person on Mars.]
[Thank you again, Maam.]
[Really?]
[I'm not happy, but I sense your concern.]
[And you'll obey?]
[Yes, Maam.]
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MESSAGE TO JAMES MONTGOMERY, 18TH NOVEMBER, 2PM
James, your poetic letter makes me think you're thinking romantic thoughts. Please remember Prince Albert's warning not to. Regarding claims, here is the draft of an article on the matter. Please don't send it anywhere, but you can show it to your friend if you like.
Why don't social cases get a big claim? Is this evidence that Mars Corp's account book is somehow linked to the Mars Council? No, it's not. If you remember, the Mars Council has been in charge of administering claims for decades. Also of course, the United Nations set the initial claim sizes. So what is the logic behind claims? What does a claim size represent? It's quite simple, really. Claim size at heart is a very crude measure that represents how much someone has risked or given up to make Mars work as a colony. If you help the Martian community or society through a public or private act, that is also rewarded. Thus, the ship's engineer who persuaded Scaredy Jim to record his songs for posterity has been awarded a significant claim, because while some strange people don't like folk songs, they are a key part of the Martian community, history and for want of a better word Martianness. If claim size is a measure of risk, then of course the firsters should get the biggest claims, and that amount should decrease over time. The step-wise reduction of it is crude, but at least it is easy to calculate. No one ever said it should be accurate. It's fairly clear then, why someone who's left a well paying job is considered to have taken a bigger risk coming to Mars than someone who was living in relative poverty. What's less clear is why the born-Martians should receive the same claim as people who choose to come to Mars. Well, one reason is that it's not just about risk, it's also about contribution. No student of Mars history has any doubt that the children of the firsters and early second wave immigrants contributed massively to the community, just by living, growing up, and giving hope. This then set the pattern. The time that you first draw breath on Mars is what matters. But for completeness, there are another two categories of claims that I've not dealt with: lecturers and imported spouses. Lecturers are easy: the university has in the past struggled to keep lecturers, probably because (according to my physics lecturer husband) the average physics lecturer does well to remember to get his shoes on the right feet every morning, as their minds are concentrating on the intricate workings of the universe. This also, he claims, is why many haven't graduated to advanced agricultural implements. The contract for lecturers includes a trip home with your toothbrush, but if you abandon your post your claim goes to whoever replaces you.
Imported spouses... well, that's an interesting one. Martian children born before 2250, when the population turned half a million, have the right to import someone to be their spouse, for free, assuming the spouse they import has no relative on Mars, and assuming they exercise the right before they turn thirty. When pressed for quite what they meant by 'no relative' the Council said that meant they weren't descended from a sibling or first cousin of anyone in the first thousand Martians who had living descendants, and none of their second cousins or closer had come to Mars. This is basically about improving the gene pool.
If you get imported, then your claim counts as from when your spouse was born, but you and your spouse relinquish the right to live in the big Mars-Corp dome. And you don't count against the old quota of immigrants.
Where did that rule come from? 2220, to be precise. It was granted retroactively as a compromise between Mars Corp and the Council when the population was only about 7000 and it seemed that almost everyone coming to Mars was coming as part of a pre-existing couple. You might have seen the rather dubious looking sites advertising the opportunity to meet the Martian of your dreams. Almost all of them, as you can guess, are now dangerous scams. However, the rule still applies. There are some unmarried Martians between 26 and 30, and reportedly some of them have informed the council of their interest in exercising their rights under that strange old rule. Some have also taken matters into their own hands and headed Earth-wards in search of academic studies and maybe love. Students dreaming of getting to Mars on this basis... time is running out and if you meet someone younger than twenty-six who claims it applies to them, ask them where their time-machine is.
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SHIPBOARD RECREATION ROOM, 18TH NOVEMBER, 6PM
“Ruth, can we talk?” James asked.
“Of course,” she said, all smiles.
“I've been given some clear instructions.”
“Oh yes?”
“Even if you do decide to become a Christian, no more discussing ancestry.”
“What, never?” her smile vanished.
“Certainly not shipboard. It's sensible, really. I guess I'm going through a sort of mourning. Again.”
“Oh.”
“Has leaving Earth affected you too?”
“Yes. I don't think I like the person who gave you such an order though.”
“She also sent an article, about claim sizes.”
“It was the ambassador?”
“Yes. Her words were relayed to me by the person with the gift on Mars.”
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SHIPBOARD RECREATION ROOM, WEDSOL, DEC 15TH, 2276
James was just thinking that he hadn't seen Ruth around much recently, when she entered the room with tall, gangly Albert — a Martian returning from studying on Earth. They were laughing and chatting together, and James felt a pang of jealousy. He smothered it. Ruth hadn't turned to God, she hadn't even hinted she would, and he had, after all, made it clear to her that he wasn't going to get emotionally involved with her on the flight even if she did. Obviously, she wanted company and was moving on, and his fantasies were nothing more than that. He went back to re-reading the orientation material on the Martian legal system.