The Terrorists of Irustan by Louise Marley

Author:Louise Marley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, American, General, Fantasy
ISBN: 9780441007431
Publisher: Fairwood Press
Published: 1999-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

twenty-two

* * *

Assimilation of any Port Force employee by the indigenous community will result in immediate termination of employment, without exception. This requirement is mandated by both the board of directors of the ExtraSolar Corporation and by the national governments that grant the corporation its charter.

—Offworld Port Force Terms of Employment

Jin-Li strolled through the busy market. The Medah was crowded with Irustani just leaving their Doma services. A few Port Forcemen visited the outer stalls, buying trinkets, a cup of cider, a fiber shirt. Jin-Li headed into the heart of the market, where the stalls were set so closely their canvas walls flapped against each other, overlapping patterns of blue and green and yellow. The fish vendor, in his little blue-striped booth, caught sight of Jin-Li and called out.

“Good reservoir fish, kir!” the little vendor cried loudly. “Fried fresh by my wife not a moment ago!”

Jin-Li went closer. “How many drakm this time, kir?"

The vendor reached through the back flap of the stall to take a basket from his wife’s hands. He held it up, white teeth flashing in his brown face. Fragrant oil still sizzled on the filets, and salt fragments gleamed in the dusk. “Only four drakm for loyal customers!”

Jin-Li dug out the coins and handed them over, took a seat on one of the two stools in front of the stall. A tide of people swirled through the market. Miners, freshly scrubbed, mingled with housemen and a very few heavily veiled, escorted women. If there were three hundred people in the square, Jin-Li guessed, no more than twenty of them were female. Not counting, that is, the women who labored over hot stoves or juice pressers behind the stalls. Beyond the square, Jin-Li caught sight of one of the unveiled ones in search of custom. The Port Forcemen would find her if they wanted to. Though it was against the Terms of Employment, such violations were tolerated. Miners, too, were enjoined against whores, but as Jin-Li watched, one approached the woman, and they disappeared together into the shadows. It seemed Pi Team could look the other way when it wanted to.

Jin-Li ate the last of the fish and gave the basket back, then wandered away in the opposite direction from three laughing Port Forcemen.

Except for the market vendors, few Irustani were friendly with Port Force. They kept a distance, a margin between them, a space defined by their differences. Most Irustani found it difficult that some Earthers dressed and decorated themselves strangely, that gender identification could be a complex thing. Jin-Li doubted they were capable of understanding how blurred the line could be between male and female, heterosexual and homosexual. Some of the miners, young men at the peak of sexuality, had been caught in liaisons with each other, and the penalty was hideous, and final. It was one of the crimes Pi Team would never overlook. Port Force, of course, wouldn’t intervene in any Irustani jurisdiction. Port Force and the directorate were as separate from each other as Jin-Li, strolling alone through the bustling square, was separate from the Irustani.

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