Some planets are colonized by volunteers. Others, by slaves. Chudami was colonized by mutineers – mutineers, and their victims.
It was the victims who built this bio-dome we now live under. We are together their descendants; our caste differences do not matter. Rajas or serf, we are all Saranai, united in purpose and in pain.
– excerpt from Propaganda Bulletin, draft version X.1
Issued by Queen Kalia 739 years after the Crash Landing
Chapter 9:
“Who are you?”
Mayah’s eyes flew open. She sat up, almost banging her head into the bunk above her. “Hello, I’m – I’m Princess Mayah.”
She was greeted by a chorus of giggles. “We’re all princesses,” the girl closest to her bedside said. “Dome, queen and flower greet you, I’m-I’m-Princess-Mayah,” another girl mocked, to yet another round of laughter.
Mayah shrank back. She could feel tears in her eyes already; she forced herself to blink them away. “I’m Mayah,” she whispered, desperate to correct herself.
“But where are you from?” asked the girl who had asked Mayah who she was. “And why are you here? I mean, Ca was in this bunk last night –”
“Let’s shut up about it,” someone further back in the dorm snapped.
Everyone froze. Terrified, Mayah glanced back and forth at the princesses on either side of her bed, wondering what in the bio-dome was going on. After a moment, she heard someone by the door sing out, “Come on, we’re going to be late, let’s get going!”
It was so weird. Mayah watched as the girls became unstuck all at once. The girl who had asked Mayah who she was grinned at her. “I’m Qat!”
“It’s… it’s so nice to meet you.”
“Aren’t you coming to breakfast?”
Mayah pushed down the covers and scooted off the bed. There were five other princesses in the dorm. Most of them were by a big dresser-closet that had lots of drawers and sliding doors. It was standing against the wall furthest from the dorm door, and had a space cut out in the middle of it for a round window covered with a blackout curtain. One of the princesses tugged on the curtain; it went snap! and disappeared around a curtain rod. The sudden sunlight made Mayah blink.
“Come on, you have to get dressed!”
Mayah followed Qat to the window and opened the drawer Qat pointed her to. Inside there were lots of different clothes. Mayah wasn’t even sure what to do with all of them. Carefully she watched out of the corner of her eye as Qat and the other princesses got dressed. The underthings went on first, okay, that made sense, and oh, then she had to open the sliding door and, oh, Mayah remembered reading about these, this was a frock, a very nice one too, and ooh, here was a neck scarf!
“Why are you wearing a scarf? We’re going to breakfast, not a balcony.”
Mayah put the scarf back at once. “I was just looking.”
“Come on, come on!” One of the princesses was standing by the door, fully-dressed. “We’re supposed to be on time for breakfast!”
“That’s Shanti for you,” Qat said, rolling her eyes. “So bossy.”
Mayah didn’t know what to say. She was going to do her best not to be bossy, that was for sure. And she was going to stick with Qat. Qat at least seemed to want to talk to her. Maybe Qat would tell her what the weird freezing thing had been all about? Mayah waited until all the other girls had left the dorm before she turned to Qat and asked. “Why did you all stop moving when you asked me where I was from?”
“What do you mean?”
“Back before, you told me someone, Ca, I think –”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Qat said. She seemed genuinely confused. “Come on, I’m hungry, let’s go!”
“Wait,” Mayah said. How could Qat not know what she was talking about? She had been right there. It made no sense.
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“Let’s shut up about it.”
“Uh…” Mayah stopped. Qat had turned away and was reaching for the door. “Uh, okay.”
“Breakfast is waiting!”
Mayah stared at Qat’s back. Let’s shut up about it. That had been the same thing the other princess had said earlier. The exact same thing, in fact.
***
Breakfast was in the biggest place Mayah had ever seen. It was an entire level, and the ceiling was so high! It went up and up and up! And the rows and rows of tables were all filled with Rajas, every single one of them, princesses and princes eating and talking. Mayah tried not to stare. But it was hard. She hadn’t known there were so many Rajas in the entire bio-dome.
“One day we’ll be senior princesses too,” Qat sighed. She grabbed a tray and joined a line of Rajas headed towards a serving window. Mayah copied her. “And then we’ll be able to just go and sit and have servies bring us food.”
Mayah wanted to ask what a senior princess was, but she wasn’t sure that was a good idea. What if Qat acted all weird again? Maybe Mayah could pretend to know? No, Mayah was no good at that kind of thing. “What’s a senior princess?”
Qat giggled. “It’s what we’ll be after we get our cycles, silly.”
“What?” Mayah made a face. “That’s gross.”
“How is that gross?” Qat was looking at Mayah like she was the weird one. “It’s the most important thing there is. If we didn’t have our cycles, there’d be no way a queen could be born, and then the bio-dome would die.”
“I’m sorry,” Mayah said quickly. “I didn’t mean it.”
Mayah decided it was better not to ask any more questions. Not until she knew more, at any rate. If she really needed to understand something, she’d ask Sukren. For now, it was enough to be quiet and listen to Qat and the other girls from her dorm talk. “Oshta, your frock line’s coming loose.” “Oh, oops, fix it for me, will you?” “Come on, move, I’m hungry!” “Cool it, Priva!” “Pass me an extra napkin, will you, Mayah?”
Mayah passed the napkin to Qat. They were at the serving window now. Mayah looked through the glass at the servie ladling rice onto her tray. He was dressed in the same black uniform as the servie who’d brought Sukren to Elanex’s room, the servie who’d bowed to her. “Thank you,” she said to him.
All at once Mayah knew she had done something wrong. Qat was staring at her, open-mouthed. And Qat wasn’t the only one. The prince to Mayah’s right, the one behind her in line, was also staring, and so was the princess behind him. “Did she just thank the servie?” she heard the princess ask.
“I think so,” the prince replied.
“No – I –” Mayah gripped her tray with both hands. “I was thanking Qat.”
Nobody looked like they believed her, but then the princess shrugged. Mayah ducked her head so nobody could see her face. It felt hot, like she’d stuck it into a cookfire. She refused to look up until they were past the serving windows. Qat didn’t really seem like she wanted to be near Mayah anymore, but Mayah stumbled after her anyway. Thank the rock-god, there was a spare seat next to one of the girls from her dorm. Mayah sat down and began eating. She wasn’t going to say a single thing, not one thing.
“Painting class, painting class,” the princess, Mayah thought her name was Priva, sang out. “I love painting class.”
“We just started eating, cool it, we’ll get there soon enough.”
Painting class. Well, that sounded like it could be fun. Mayah’s art tutor had shown her how to do depths just last week. Maybe Mayah could do a really good painting and impress all the other princesses. That would be nice. Nicer than the day had been so far, anyway.
The rest of breakfast went okay. At least the food was yummy! Mayah really liked the rice and the fish and the egg, and the juice was so good she drank it down super fast. She cleared her tray before anyone else, but that was because they were talking and eating at the same time.
Then all of a sudden Mayah had to go to the bathroom. She squirmed in her seat. Where could she go? She knew castles had to have toilets like the village had, but at this point she would rather pee on herself than ask a princess where one was. Come to think of it, hadn’t there been a bathroom on her dorm floor? Yes, Elanex had shown it to her last night! Mayah could go to it now, and then –
She stopped. She didn’t know how to get to painting class on her own. If Mayah went to the bathroom on her level now, she would be stuck there. And then how would Mayah show the other princesses her painting skills?
Mayah did her best to hold it in, but by the time the other princesses had finished eating, she felt like she was going to burst. She clenched her teeth and followed Qat and the others out to the lift. Mayah was so focused on making sure she didn’t go right then and there that she didn’t pay any attention to where they were going, not even after they got off the lift. When she next looked up, they were in a big studio, with one of the walls made up entirely of windows. There were also lots of easels and paint-stands scattered around, and a woman dressed in a robe like Elanex’s standing in front of the window-wall.
Mayah went straight to her. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “But I really have to go to the bathroom.”
“Of course,” the woman said, bowing slightly. “This way.”
The bathroom was very nice, and getting to use it was even nicer. After she was done, Mayah felt much better. Much better, that was, until she came back to the studio and saw Qat staring at her again.
“What?” Mayah said, unable to help herself.
Qat shrugged. “So it’s not just servies you like talking to like they’re Rajas, it’s regents too?”
“I…” Mayah bit her lip. She walked to the last row at the very end where the last free easel stood. She turned it so nobody could see the canvas. I’ll start trying tomorrow to show them all how good I can paint. I’ll show them tomorrow. Tomorrow will be better.