The Lost Seal by Victoria Bell

Author:Victoria Bell [Bell, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-09-22T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

We’re locked up again, though it’s in a nicer place than before. Instead of being stuffed into some shoddy cells without any spare changes of clothes or efforts to preserve our dignity, we’re placed in what can only be described as a hotel mansion.

It’s a place of luxury, and we have aliens catering to us. I notice that the staff is a mix of male and female Yaru, and two females greet us at the reception. It’s clear from the treatment the women received, that they expect to be respected and revered. There’s some kind social construction here I’m unaware of. Almost as if the oppression a few centuries ago in the Yaru timeline has reversed. I wonder if this is the ultimate progression of all space faring nations. More equality in society. More opportunities. If the petty squabbles put us through is what stops us progressing.

It does feel like that sometimes, especially when you see people fanning their rage and hate for no reason other than that they can. It gets tiring. I did it a lot, back in the days of Facebook and Twitter. I body shamed girls, defended our current president against haters by calling them soft and snowflake-like – not because I believed in our president, but because I liked watching people get frothing mad. Like poking bears with sticks just to see their reactions.

I wonder if it’s people like me that stop us from being more than what we are.

The thoughts make my head hurt, and I fast dismiss them out of mind when I settle into my new abode. The Yaru indulge in art – there are paintings all over the rooms, depicting places I’ve never seen, cities, unlike any structures I’ve seen ours. Where we have block skyscrapers, busy single roads, and monuments, the pictures show bubble houses, whole segments devoted to greenery and plants, and many structures with bark-like walling. There are some futuristic places like the space port, but the surprising amount of nature based paintings makes me think they must have reached the issue of climate warming at some point in their world as well.

My fingers trail over the paintings. I explore the room, which is a rustic, light brown color, with a dark wood bed covered in white sheets. The toilet is a hole in the ground, and a shower is set in a separate compartment, unlike the rather charming toilet and shower combination we experienced back on the ship. There are clothes in the wardrobe which I try on, though most of them are simple body suits like what I already have, just in different colors. The room itself has similar structures to the interior of a human’s hotel, but architectural choices are different. The beds by the door, the wardrobes, and places where belongings are put are at the far end of the triangle shaped window. The window itself is on a hinge, so you can push the top to swing it down, and peer down at the streets and buildings below, whilst leaning on the glass.

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