Queen of Venus (Impossible Worlds Trilogy Book 1) by Mark Lawrence

Author:Mark Lawrence [Lawrence, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Estella Publishing
Published: 2024-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

6: Exile

Working in the plantation hospital gave Mei the first palatable drink of water she had known since Holo-Phoenix. Not that the plantation woman serving in the canteen seemed pleased for her. Sizzling in front was labmeat. Burger-shaped patties landed straight out of their Petri dishes onto the hot-plate. The apron tied around the plantation woman’s overalls implied some attempt at hygiene. The look on her face depressed Mei immediately. She would have preferred someone a without melancholy glance reflecting how terrible everything was.

‘I’d like some of the paste from the other pan’.

The plantation woman looked up, as if pained to reply. ‘What pan?’

‘The one with the ‘Free Venus’ graffiti scrubbed out on the side’.

The woman gave her a dead-eyed look. She breathed out in an impatient huff.

‘The third or fourth from the right. Down there’.

‘Just pointing would have done the trick’.

Slop. Well fuck you, too, Mei thought.

Back on the ward Mei had his first maternity case. A wide-eyed woman was clasping her hands behind her back and rocking back and forth. She belched involuntarily. ‘In think I’m about to have the baby’.

‘No, you’re not’, Mei replied. ‘You’re twenty-five weeks gone. But we’re on the way.’

We, Mei thought. The hackneyed pronoun of solidarity had rolled off her lips without thinking. ‘It’s indigestion, Dawn … Indigestion’, Mei repeated, as if the patient were hard of hearing. ‘When your waters break for real you’ll feel all sorts of positive emotions. Let nature take its course’.

Mei had a dozen patients in her care. With her incomplete medical training she was expected to save them. Yet she knew that nobody was coming to save her. The strip of textile workstations flanking the hospital had been removed and replaced with sandbagged guard posts with clear sightlines. Rumours of ‘free Venus’ had spread amongst the plantation women. Mei was too jaded to hope what it might mean. The plantation view was a reminder that nursing was better than narcking. Working at something she knew how to do was a guarantee of solitude. She got to wear a nurse’s outfit instead of the drab overalls on the plantation. The uniform was dated, but so was everything else, and at least it reminded her of Earth. Her bump would not be noticeable for a few more weeks. There was something to be said for the floppy overalls after all. The skirt she was given would only do the trick for so long. She had to think about this, fast.

But her mood soured once she saw Verity being admitted with a swollen belly. There was no avoiding this woman. The commandant looked exhausted, tired of being bed-bound and pregnant at forty-five, or whatever her age was. Mei hadn’t noticed Verity’s pregnancy when they worked in the laundry weeks before. The overalls covered bodies well and Mei had no desire to see her body anyway. And she was old, so how did this happen? It was as if the old skank’s body had not got the memo. Mei knew that a successful birth would see Verity garlanded out of the plantation and into the world beyond.

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