NaNo 2007: Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Prejudices

On this planet, shuttles and transport pods- any spacegoing vehicles- aren't allowed to land anywhere other than at the spaceport, supposedly to control customs and prevent contraband and smuggling, but in reality a thinly-veiled, pathetic attempt at preventing any military actions by the Peacekeepers stationed here. This planet is nominally part of Peacekeeper Territory, but its residents grumble and resist. In another year or so, it will probably either all come to a head with an attempt to force the Peacekeepers to leave- only an attempt, judging by what Aeryn can see and previous Peacekeeper records for quashing rebellions- or it will fade out with the exception of the usual small pockets of ineffective rebellion.

What this all means to Aeryn is that she has to land at the spaceport and, since there are better things to spend her currency pledges on than transportation- like food cubes- take D'Argo, who's thoroughly enjoying the new experiences involved in leaving Moya to go onto a planet, onto the public transportation system. Aeryn hadn't enjoyed the public transportation the last time she was down on this planet, and she doesn't like it now, even though D'Argo thinks it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, to use one of John's phrases. It's run down and old and smells like somebody had been sick and it had never gotten cleaned up, just gotten absorbed into the floor and seats. There are so many people using this particular section of it that there's no room for most of them to sit, but they're so- afraid, repulsed, wary, she doesn't know which- of Sebaceans, who they believe are all Peacekeepers, that they give her and D'Argo a wide berth. As if Peacekeeper pregnant females and children would be allowed out of the base, she thinks. And even if they were, Peacekeepers keep to themselves when they can. Wouldn't want to become irreversibly contaminated, after all.

Aeryn doesn't have John's optimism and positive outlook on everything, especially people. He would probably think that they could make friends, or at least allies, with these people with a little bit of effort and persistence, but she's more cynical. Even if she made friendly overtures, it wouldn't change anything. The Peacekeepers would still be here, this would still be a Peacekeeper planet, and even if she changed a few people's minds it wouldn't change events from unfolding as they will. It won't stop the inevitable clashes between this planet's people and the Peacekeepers.

Aeryn's glad for the space, with D'Argo and her stomach as large as it is, even if she'd have preferred for one of them to have offered her a seat, but she doesn't trust these people, first because she doesn't know them, second because they aren't willing to even pretend to accept her and D'Argo, and lastly because she doesn't trust anybody outside of the Moyans and ex-Moyans who John claims are like an extended family: "You don't get a choice about who they are, and you might not like them most of the time, but on some level you gotta love 'em." And she especially doesn't trust outsiders when D'Argo is involved. It had taken her a while to get the hang of this whole family thing, but she's thrown herself into it wholeheartedly and she doesn't know what she'd do if anything happened to D'Argo. She doesn't know what she'd do if she knew John was gone forever- dead, because she can't imagine him not doing everything in his power to return if he was still alive and in any condition. John had died, once, and she'd been wrecked emotionally, even though there was another John still living. How much worse would it be if she knew every version of John was gone from the universe? He'll come back to me if he's alive, she thinks. But I don't know he's alive, not for sure; he went down that wormhole in just what he was wearing, and Prowler pilots are liquefied in wormholes. He might not be alive to come back. I have to keep these children safe, for his sake as well as because they're my children too, because they're the only part of him that I know for sure is still alive and in Known Space. Besides the child he'll have with Princess Katralla in more than fifty cycles. She keeps a tight hold on D'Argo's hand, not letting him run off everywhere he wants to run off to, and trying to keep him from pointing at people and commenting on their appearance, especially since he usually tries to combine them into running after people to grab them (usually in some painful way) and say something he doesn't realize is insulting or comment on something that he isn't supposed to talk about.

The trip from the spaceport out to the Peacekeeper station here isn't very far, because the Peacekeepers had built close to the spaceport with the knowledge that everybody from off of the planet would have to go through it, including every single Peacekeeper stationed here, but with everything considered it feels like it takes forever. She can't control D'Argo very well in her condition and in his current state of excitement, and it's made worse that everybody's staring at them, which D'Argo takes as encouragement. If John was here, they'd still be staring, but he and D'Argo would be pointing out a window at the sights, equally excited, and not at the people on the transportation with them. Whenever he'd been as excited about D'Argo's activities as D'Argo himself she'd teased him that they were the same age mentally. Of course, if John hadn't disappeared, he'd have been up on Moya with D'Argo instead of the three of them being down here together. For the most part, they'd always been separated when near a planet. Only in the long spaces between stars could the three of them all be together at once.

The public transportation reaches their stop, and Aeryn and D'Argo get off. As she'd halfway expected, the stop is completely deserted and they're the only people to get off here. Most of the planet's residents don't want to live anywhere near the Peacekeepers, much less close enough to use the same public transportation station, so there's something of a no man's land around the Peacekeeper station. And Peacekeepers being Peacekeepers, and having the regulations they have, they don't often leave the station, and even then they usually use their own transportation. And the public opinion of the Peacekeepers around here being as negative as it is, there likely aren't very many Peacekeepers, even the rebellious ones, who are willing to break the rules and venture out onto a planet that hates them for who they were born as. This desertedness of the public transportation station makes it feel a bit eerie; it was designed for a constant flow of hundreds at the very least, and she and D'Argo are the only people in the whole place. It is much cleaner than the spaceport's public transportation station, though; one janitor could probably keep this place clean even if they came in only once a month, but the constant tide of people at the spaceport makes it impossible for even an army of janitors to keep up with its cleanliness.

The streets are nearly as deserted as the public transportation station had been, and she can relax a little and not keep D'Argo as close as she had been, not that she allows herself to relax entirely or even to her own usual planetside levels of vigilance. This would be a very good place for an ambush, if a radical group wanted to attack individual Peacekeepers near the Peacekeeper station. If this wasn't a Peacekeeper planet, and was instead one with more freedoms, the Peacekeeper station would likely be picketed or protested in some other way by an angry mob, but in the past Peacekeepers have dealt very harshly with those who protest their rule, so on most Peacekeeper controlled worlds the protests are confined to anonymous grumblings and the occasional small, bold group that is inevitably held up as an example of what happens to you when you go against the Peacekeepers. There are fewer of those on worlds which have been held by the Peacekeepers for more than a few years, but she's only ever been on worlds newly added to Peacekeeper territory and Peacekeeper command carriers, out of everything in Peacekeeper territory, so she doesn't know if that's because the people are happier there or if it's because they've given up on trying to free their worlds.

Legally, any person can enter the Peacekeeper station, or at least the public parts of it, and do all of the usual things one does with a government: make grievances, ask for protection or amnesty, pay taxes…Aeryn doesn't actually know what people do with governments; she'd only ever dealt with the Peacekeepers from inside, and on Moya she rarely has to deal with any government. Most people don't go to the Peacekeeper station for any of that, anyway, even if they aren't completely terrified of and living in hate of the Peacekeepers, and it isn't what she's here for. She enters through the public door and goes up to front desk and the man who's currently the public face of the Peacekeepers on this planet, who looks like he's bored out of his mind. He's probably lucky to have two people walk through the door in a day.

"I need to see your medtech," she says.

He scrutinizes her, and she knows what he sees: Sebacean, with a pulse pistol on her, but not in a Peacekeeper uniform (in fact, her clothes are slightly shabby; she makes a note to buy new ones), pregnant, and with a child who's obviously hers in tow. "I'm sorry, ma'am, the medtechs are for Peacekeepers only, but I can tell you where to find a hospital." He's actually polite, even though he probably doesn't want to be, but then he's supposed to present a positive side of the Peacekeepers. Likely, too, he isn't one of the best soldiers in the Peacekeepers, to have such a low position.

"I don't want to go to a hospital, I want to see a medtech like I did three days ago," she says, and pulls out her ident chip. When the Treaty had been signed, all of the Moyans had been given limited special rights as a form of reparation. No amount of special rights can ever truly make up for everything that had been done to them over the years, but they've come in useful a handful of times. They've always been cautious about using their rights; they might have the rights, and they might not be wanted any more, but they've always thought that it's better to be safe than be sorry. If they stay off of everybody's radar, they're relatively safe. Nobody major is after them, and they can take care of most of the minor enemies without much difficulty. This time, however, she doesn't have a choice about using the special rights unless she wants to have someone who hates her help her give birth. Not that the Peacekeepers are necessarily much better, considering the reception she'd gotten on the command carrier she'd grown up on, but at least here there's a chance, even if not a good one. And she doubts anyone here would dare mess with someone with special rights which came straight from High Command; there would be an inquisition that would end badly for every Peacekeeper on this planet. She can't say that for certain about the citizens on this planet, not with the way public opinion is at this time.

She puts her hand in the slots to have her fingerprints taken, and the Peacekeeper reads something on his screen, presumably about her special rights because his eyebrows shoot up and he darts a look her way like he's trying to reconcile what he reads there with what he sees in front of him. High Command doesn't exactly hand out special rights like they're candy (not that they hand out candy either), and they entitle her to a lot more than just getting looked at by the medtech.

"Well?" she says expectantly.

"Uh, yes, ma'am!" he says, and seems to want to salute, but she isn't a Peacekeeper officer so he doesn't. "I can show you to the medtech."

"Can I have my ident chip back?" she asks pointedly.

"Oh, uh, y-yeah, yeah sure," he says, and fumbles the ident chip out of its slot and hands it to her. "Here you go."

"Thank you," she says, because she could use a little good will here, even if it's just from him. The Peacekeepers here are likely to look down on her because she isn't a Peacekeeper, and because she has children of her own that she's raising herself, even if none of them know who she actually is. If any of them do know who she is, and her history, there's likely to be outright hostility. She can only hope that the medtech knows nothing about her other than what they see and that she has special rights. The one she'd seen a few days earlier to get the fetus unlocked hadn't had any issues with her, but they doubtless have more than one medtech for all of the Peacekeepers on this planet so it might not be the same one.

This Peacekeeper station seems to be laid out more or less the same as other Peacekeeper installations she's been in; the differences can probably be accounted for by the fact that before she came to this station, she'd never been in one on a planet, and they undoubtedly have to build differently on land and in space. I never would have thought about this kind of thing before I met John, she thinks with amusement. He's changed me so much, and all I've done is taught him how to fight.

The Peacekeeper station, nearly colorless as it is, and with every hallway looking much like the others, holds far less interest to D'Argo than the public transportation had, full of strange and brightly colored beings the like of which he'd never seen before. Peacekeepers might be strangers, but they look much like Aeryn and John. They don't have feathers covering them from head to toe, or tentacles, or tails. Perhaps they should pay a visit to Hyneria, so D'Argo can spend some time with people besides herself and John, and the baby she's about to have, and learn that not everybody who looks different from them is to be avoided, that they have friends who aren't of the same species as they are. Not that she and John are the same species, but that's a distinction too subtle for a three year old to grasp, since he can't see any differences between them besides those brought on by them being different people. So he's less difficult to keep close to her here, or to keep relatively well behaved, which is a relief because she isn't willing to be separated from him. If she's separated from him, there isn't anywhere for him to go, and he's too young to be on his own. Plus it could be dangerous for him here, among Peacekeepers, because they might automatically assume he's a Peacekeeper too, when in reality his upbringing has been much different, her memories of how Peacekeeper children are raised tempered by John's softer upbringing on Earth and her own desire to keep D'Argo from growing up to be as cold towards outsiders as most Peacekeepers are.

His hand feels so small in hers when she thinks of all the hopes and dreams she has pinned on him, when she thinks of the generations of Peacekeeper tradition she's flaunting. When she remembers how the odds have always been stacked against her and John. It will take great strength to stay safe against the typical amount of opposition the Sun-Crichtons face, and she isn't sure she can give it to D'Argo and the baby on her own.