CHAPTER 06

   The room could have easily been mistaken for a classroom laboratory on Earth. It was a little dated but the high black counters with the poles for holding vials and tubes, the sinks set in the counters, and various hook ups made it a dead give away. The periodic table on the wall was severely lacking. That was if Pam was reading the chart right. Pam thought the classrooms looked kind of like the older ones at the University of Michigan in some ways. That was even if the rest of campus did not. At least this lab was in one of the few brick structures. Everything else here, for the most part, looked like a combination civil war fort and shantytown.  

It was easy to get Joey excused. Jack had brought a letter from Lang and a mundane excuse. Joey was more than happy to see Jack and his two travel companions, Pam, and Finny. He had already heard about Red. Jack had sent the boy a letter some weeks ago explaining the situation.  Jack would have much preferred to tell the boy in person but it would have taken too long to do that. It also made the reunion a little less sad. Jack just thought it should be that way.

After Joey sat up on the table Pam unfolded her bag of equipment right next to him, "Joey take your shirt and jacket off please."

She had sounded a bit short. It was not like Pam at all. Judging from his response to her coarse words it was obvious that Joey had picked up a bit of military bearing here at the Academy, "I'm sorry if it's not that big of a thrill for you Pam."

"Don't mind me," said Pam unrolling the blood pressure cuff. She jabbed a thermometer in his ear and got a reading so quick, that Joey hardly saw more than a blur. "It's got nothing to do with you."

"You know, you guys coming down here is great and everything, but... am I dying or something?"

"No," said Pam. She was still very short.

Jack and Finny were sitting in the corner of the room. Jack tired to explain again, "Joey, Red's appendix gave out on him. So far, everybody else looks fine. We don't expect any problems with you."

"None," said Finny. The comments drew looks from everybody. "I mean, Pam and I are just a little bit..."

"OW!" exclaimed Joey as Pam pricked his skin for a blood sample.

"Little bit hell!" Said Pam. "You know back home I was just an up and coming Trauma specialist. Here in this shit hole I'm probably the best doctor in the world, hands down, no competition anywhere. Yet I can't travel on a stupid train without wearing a…”  Her nostrils flared and her face turned red, “DOG COLLAR!”

"Relax Pam," said Jack. They had rudely discovered the new laws, just decreed by the Emperor himself, as they arrived at the train station to come here. Like all of the women now, both Pam and Finny had to wear collars to get on and get off the train. The stations were now filled with Imperial "Inspectors." They were cracking down on women it appeared.  

"You don't have to take it out on me," said Joey nursing his arm.

"Sorry," she handed him a cup, "whip it out big guy. I need some ooee ooee."

Joey took the cup and modestly walked off to the corner of the room. He kept looking over his shoulder. They were all watching him. "Hey, do you guys mind looking in another direction?"

"I don't remember being this modest coming out of Quantico," replied Jack. He stood up and opened the door, "I'm going to have a look at the rest of this place. Who knows, I might have to fight these people one day."

Finny looked up as the door closed. She asked Pam, "What did he mean by that?"

"He's just being a Jarhead scum sucking man. Don't worry about it." Pam stamped her foot and looked at her watch, "Where's my piss at Joey."

"Would you be quiet," Joey was leaning his head in the corner, "This takes concentration."

Pam leaned up against the table with her equipment, "Men! They say that every time they use that thing."


The drum rolls of the cadet corps were sounding in the distance. Joey was glad to hear them, that way, for a change. They were all going out on a road march at the moment. The School Superintendent was big on five miles a day with thirty pound sacks on their back. He liked to do ten when it was raining. Joey was less than enthusiastic about ending his excuse. As Pam ran her tests he nodded to Finny and they went for a walk.

The grove of fruit trees that the cadets harvested to sell once a year was in full bloom. The weight of the strings of fruit were pulling the branches down to the very ground. Joey took Finny by the hand and pulled her under the tree's cover. He sat down up against the trunk. Finny was a bit more cautious, "What are we doing under here?"

"This is where we come hide when we're ducking details. It's great, nobody can see anything under here."

Finny smoothed out her dress and sat down next to him. "Yeah that includes us."

They sat there. They sat there some more. Joey said, "So did your Dad make you go back to school?"

"No," replied Finny. "Did you really climb that tree outside my room? My Dad was mad!'

"Uh... yes, and yes."

Finny went into a giggling fit. "I wish I had been there to see that one. I bet it was funnier than the time I kicked you out of my room when we were playing poker."

Joey's face turned red, "I was hoping you would have forgotten that by now."

She slapped him his arm, "Do you really think I just let anybody take my clothes off. How could I forget something like that?"

It dawned on him, "You knew! I mean... no, that's not what I mean. It was a fair game."

Finny grabbed his arm and pulled it around her, "of course I knew Joey. I had been watching Red and Pete playing poker for a long time before that. I knew you were cheating."

"Ah!" Joey looked her dead in the eye, nose to nose. "Then why did you throw me out?"

"It was simple Joey. I belonged to Jack. Not that I didn't have a lot of fun that night. Matter of fact I had a lot of fun on that entire trip with you.” She slowly let her nose get closer to his, “Maybe more than I ever let on."

He brushed his nose against hers as he shook his head, "I don't believe you."

"Remember that town with the manacle store right across from the train station. I let you pick them out and put them on me, didn't I? Remember when everybody was camped just below my Dad's house. I knew you were in the bushes when I was down at the lake bathing. I didn't cover up did I?"

"So what are you trying to say Finny?"

"Joey... I don't belong to Jack anymore."

His nose slid to one side. Her eyes closed as they fell into a deep kiss. Joey's free hand slid up under her arm and around to her back. He pulled her in close. Joey's eyes opened wide in amazement. He looked down at hers that were still closed as they still kissed. He couldn't believe it! This was the girl of his dreams! Literally in this case because, oh boy, had he been dreaming about her for a long time. Now he was really kissing her! Joey backed off for a second.

Finny looked puzzled, "What’s wrong?"

"Your Dad, he's going to kill me if he ever finds out about this."

She smiled, "You let me worry about my Dad. Matter of fact I'm going to talk him into letting you buy me. You want that don't you?"

Joey sat back. To have a beautiful girl at his beck and call from now on was not exactly a tough one to call! The problem with it was that the academy would not allow him to buy a girl while he was still a cadet. Then there was Finny herself, "wait a minute. I thought that you..."

Her fingertip pushed the end of his nose. "We can be kind of like Jack and Dee. You know, what do Pam and Pete call it, uh....  married."

"You want to marry me?" said Joey in complete surprise.

"Well since you asked, sure!"

That was not what was on Joey's mind. Again, having the girl of his dreams with him the rest of his life was one thing but married was something else.

Joey had some very bad memories of what marriage was. As a matter of fact he kind of liked it the way these people did it. He had grown so used to it. Sometimes those memories of back on Earth would surface. He easily remembered the night that his father left. His grandparents had dropped him off at home after a weekend out of town. His mom was waiting at the door. She told him straight up, "Daddy's never coming back." She was resolute and firm on that. She was also right, he never did.

Finny laid her head to rest on Joeys shoulder. She put her arms around him. "You all right?"

Joey bowed his head, "I don't know. I was just thinking about Mom. I hope she's all right. If I'm going to get married I want her there. For years she was all I had."


_____________________


When the porter called out the station of Luftmot, Vitosk breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad to be back. It was an interesting experience at least. It was just that he had a bad feeling about all of it. Something was not adding up here. The story of the slave revolt in the East had finally broke in the papers. Vitosk had spent a good deal of time on the train ride reading all that he could about it. He was sorry to find the newspapers here just as miserable and uninformed as those back on Earth.  

Living in a nation such as Russia required a certain political sixth sense in order to just survive. As a result, Vitosk had a very keen sense of which way the winds were blowing in that arena. The men back in Daltop, those who sat in a garden paradise, separated by walls and guards from the world in which they ruled almost exclusively, were worried. It was justifiably so as far as Vitosk was concerned. Any bastard that treats other humans in such a way, as these people did their women, deserved every wrinkle and worry line on their face. The problem with this situation was, what were those who were developing those wrinkle lines going to do about their well-placed paranoia?

The first backlash in the west had already begun. At every train station, on the way back to Zeat, Vitosk had seen Imperial inspectors and soldiers. Women were being checked for papers. Some were being taken from their owners. All of them were wearing collars with pull chains dangling from them. They seemed rather a useless measure in a practical sense but, Vitosk could see the twisted logic behind it. It was all psychological. The emperor was trying to remind women of who they were.  

If what Vitosk had seen so far held true, everywhere, then this "leash law" was about to blow up in their face. The "fines" that were levied on masters by killing his animate property, like the demonstration that Jack saw in the desert, were not used in the West. Nor were other more draconian measures like the impaling that he read about in the articles on the eastern slave revolt. Women in the west were seldom even beaten and then only in the most capital of cases. It was rare that one was even hanged. Death by hanging was the punishment for violating the feminine disobedience ordinances but women here had never really been that disobedient to warrant such measures. They seemed to be treated well enough by the more civilized peoples. They even seemed to enjoy a certain amount of freedom that was obviously lacking in the East.  

It was a strange contradiction in that the East had fought its war with the Empire so to allow their women to read and write. It was a desperate measure on their part to stave off an economic collapse that was being caused by strict breeding laws in the first place. The west had a far larger, a much older, well-established middle class. Hence the ownership of women filtered down to lower levels of the populace and there was a more stable society. It had been far more peaceful as well.

How were all these people going to react to these new restrictions on women? How were these people going to react to a crack down on long since over looked breeding laws? Up until now, the Daltop regime had only concerned itself with interracial breeding which was strictly illegal and harshly enforced. A conception of an interracial child normally meant death for all involved, man, woman, and child. It was accepted however.

This collar law was not. Every time a train left the station, Vitosk quickly noted that every woman on the train took the leather strap off, only to put it back on when the next station came within sight. They, and even some of their masters, seemed none to happy about it.

Five men brushed right past Vitosk as he stepped onto the station platform. He had seen them earlier riding in the dining car. They seemed to be in an awful hurry. Vitosk knew their type from seeing other such men on past trips. They were bounty hunters to be sure. They were men who chased down run away women. Vitosk never would forget the eyes of the poor young girl that he had seen being escorted by the likes of those. The sorrow, the fear, and the pain had cut right into him. He could have seen his wife sitting there, tied, gagged and bleeding from multiple cuts on the face. It made his blood boil. It was something that he would have killed over.

The bounty hunters stopped at Luftmot’s station office, met one of the Imperial types, and were gone in short order. Vitosk bowed his head and wished the best for whomever they were in pursuit of. When he looked back up he saw a familiar face down at the end of the platform. He walked to that end but, whoever it was, had now left. He thought it had been Gary. Maybe he was mistaken?

Shrugging that off, Vitosk walked on out into the street and looked for a copy of the nearest newspaper. He planned on watching the events unfolding around him very carefully. His sixth Russian sense was screaming alarms. Vitosk smelled war.


The Soldier stepped directly in Pam's path as she was trying to board the train. She had her bags of equipment thrown over her shoulders. They were not that heavy but, they were very bulky and hard to manage. Pam was already angry, not to mention uncomfortable, with the leather strap around her neck. All of this combined to put her in a bad mood to begin with. Now she had this guy standing in front of her, blocking her way.  He was deliberately trying to be an asshole. Pam was used to the way things were back home where the men would see a woman, such as herself, struggling with luggage, and actually help her!

"I've got my collar on and I had my rabies shot, thank you! Now would you please get out of my way?”

Finny drew back with a bad look on her face. It confused Pam for a moment who was used to talking to Detroit Cops in her ER anyway she pleased. When Pam looked at this man with the long rifle and a real sharp pointed bayonet on the end, she realized she had just made a big mistake. From his scowl it was obvious this soldier was not used to being addressed in such a manner, by man or woman.

"Both of you, where are your papers?"

Finny quickly pushed Pam back and started going through her bag, "I have them right here." She took out a set and handed them to the soldier. By this time two more had waded through the crowd of the train platform and were standing by.

The soldier slung his rifle and began thumbing through the papers, "These are for only one of you."

Finny shrugged, "Well you know we can't read so I just grabbed what was on the table when we left home. I'm so sorry we won't leave them again like that."

"Which one of you is the girl Finny and where is your Master?"

Jack was taking care of some last minute business across the street at the hotel they had stayed in. Finny told the soldier this. He looked them over very careful and then put Finny's papers in his pocket. He pointed to a side door in the station, "You will both come with us."


The little man with the mustache paced the floor in the train station’s back office. Pam was sitting in a chair in the center. He kept circling her. The man was a Zeat! His name was ZeLunz! He wore an imperial uniform however but, did not carry himself, or identify himself as an Imperial Soldier. Instead he called himself an "Officer of Internal Order and Chattels." After one or two circles he would walk to the table at the front of the room. It was flanked by two of the soldiers from the platform. On it were the contents of Pam's medical bags.  

After he rummaged through it again Pam, by reflex, almost jumped up to tell him to be careful with the electronics. ZeLunz turned to face her and leaned up against the table. He played with his mustache and looked to the corner of the room where the third soldier stood next to Finny. ZeLunz had not looked at her papers but, then again, he felt he did not have to. His soldier had already said they were in order. ZeLunz made a gesture and Finny was escorted out of the room.

No sooner than the door shut, "I will ask you again. What are these items you were carrying? Who do they belong to? Why were you boarding a train of the Imperial Rail System with them? Are they some sort of bomb?"

Pam felt a vein stick out on the side of her neck, "I told you already. It's medical equipment."

"And you are a Doctor of course?”  Pam had to bite her tongue at the condescending way he said that. “Why not let us stick to something more believable. Of the few doctors I have ever met I have never seen a medical bag that was lacking a saw, or a probe, or a splint. These bags have none of that. As a matter of fact I have never seen anything like these items before in my life. I ask you again, are they weapons?"

"NO," this man was making Pam very mad now. How many times would he ask the same questions?  

He walked over to Pam.  ZeLunz reached out and gently tilted her chin up with one finger. "May I remind you that you were caught in an Imperial Regulated Facility without your papers. The least of which could happen to you is a lashing."

Pam was slowly adjusting her hands on her lap. Her forty-five automatic was stuffed in a special pocket of her dress. She began sliding a finger down into the ruffle of her skirt. She felt the bottom of the magazine. She rested her hand there for now.

At Jumani pass Pam had fired hundreds of rounds into the Assur camp. It was dark and too far for her to have seen the results of her shooting. Right here, right now, she was looking three men in the eye. The situation was going from bad to worse and she was now thinking about how to kill them. She was not even sure if she could bring herself to do it. She was a doctor! Could she do something like this? She knew she had too but looking at these men all she saw were living breathing humans with families and people who cared about them. She could not get that idea out of her head even if they were not returning the favor.

One of the soldiers walked around to the back of the room. Pam realized that would make this more difficult. The other soldier slid his rifle down off his shoulder. Seeing that weapon come down was a momentary shock but, then the rifle was propped up against the wall as the soldier began handling some of her equipment with ZeLunz.  

Pam looked down very slowly. They had looped the chain that hung down from her neck around a chair leg and put a lock on it. No big problem since the leather strap itself was a buckle. It would take time to get it off though and she didn't know what the guy behind her was doing. Pam slid her hand down further and wrapped her fingers around the pistol grip.

ZeLunz motioned toward the back of the room and then looked at Pam, "You do know what the penalty for a woman, who so much as even touches a weapon, is?  It’s death girl. You are going to have to convince me that these things here are not weapons."

"They’re not weapons! I told you, they're medical equipment and supplies."

"I don't believe you but then again I really don't know what these things are. However," as ZeLunz said this the soldier at the table picked his rifle back up.  

Pam used her thumb to flip the safety off the forty-five. There were more soldiers outside. She would worry about them when the time came. ZeLunz nodded to his soldier in the back of the room, "If these are some kind of explosives. If you were trying to plant them on the train. Then it would stand to reason that more than likely you have a pistol or knife somewhere on your person.”  

ZeLunz commanded his soldiers, “Search her. If we find something like that I will at least know what it is."

The forty-five almost flew out of her pocket as the soldier behind Pam grabbed her arms and jerked them back. She had waited too late! The soldier slammed her wrists together and tied them with a strap of leather. The other one walked towards her preparing to search. They were going to find the pistol!

The door opened. Everything in the room stopped. ZeLunz looked bemused but, the soldiers snapped straight and erect. Pam looked behind her. Joe ZeTan came walking in and Jack waited by the door. Joe approached ZeLunz, "Just what in the hell do you think you're doing?"

"My Job, General Joe, is to regulate chattel, and provide for the security of the Imperial Rails from possible sabotage. I was only doing that which I am instructed. What is your interest in this girl?"

The firmer ZeLunz held his ground the more he seemed to make Joe angry while doing it. Joe stepped into his face and poked him in the chest, "This girl, you jackass, is my daughter. Those boxes over there are Top Secret Imperial devices."

"That do what?"

Joe poked him again, "Well If I told you it wouldn't be a secret. Now she's traveling in my company. She's been mine since the day she was born. Let her go and give me my devices back or you'll wind up on the Eastern border."

ZeLunz, like anyone else in government service in the region, knew better than tangle with this man. ZeLunz did not feel like ruining his career so fast. After all, he had just got this Inspectors Job! It was a lot more fun than pushing papers in the Schedules Office where he was before. He motioned to the soldiers and they released Pam. Joe tipped his hat and they were gone. ZeLunz let out a sigh and shook his head in disgust, "What an asshole that guy is."


Walking back to the train, Jack was wiping the sweat from his forehead, "Not that I'm ungrateful Joe but, how did you just happen to step off that last train." Jack had left him sometime ago down in Carbough.

"Things are happening Jack. You might have noticed I'll bet. I have some business here at the Military Academy before I go home. Now for my question. What are you three doing here?"

Jack could tell that Joe was somewhat irritated by all of this. He played it humble, "We had to give Joey a medical exam. So we came down to do it. You know, after what happened to Red?"

Joe rubbed his mustache.  "Joey, huh? Well let me give you some friendly advice in the form of an order Jack. When you get home. You and your people stay off the rails till I say otherwise. As you might have just discovered we're not safe in our own damn country anymore."


Jack and Pam went ahead and boarded the train. Pam sat down in her seat and took the accursed collar off. She collapsed in the seat, "God that was close. They almost found my you know what."

Jack shoved the bags up in the storage compartment and sat down next to her. "You're not kidding. I'm glad you had the patience not to cap that guy. That last train that brought Joe in had two boxcars full of Black Shirts on it. Good thing Joe happened along when he did though. Next time you know we might not be so lucky."

"Oh god," Pam felt sick to her stomach. She wanted to tell Jack why she hesitated. She was not really sure she should. Pam had her hand right on that trigger. She could have yanked it and started blasting anytime she wanted too. She just couldn’t get past the faces of those men.  

With a heavy sigh she asked rhetorically, "What in the hell is going on Jack?"


Joe had grabbed his daughter by the arm before she could board the train. "What are you doing down here?"

  "Like Jack said, we..."

"I know what they were doing down here. Now what are you doing here?" Joe was not in the habit of repeating his questions normally. In this case he really did not even need to ask it. "Joey right?"

Finny gave up, "all right Dad, I wanted to see him. He's a good guy. He's a soldier now for god’s sake. I thought you would like that."

"There's nothing wrong with the boy Finny. That keeps going back to my point. He’s just a boy. You know good and well I wouldn't turn your well being over to somebody that hadn't learned how to take care of himself yet."

"Yeah Dad, but he’s not like everybody else. He's one of them. When he gets out of the academy will you sell me to him? Please!"

Joe thought about it for a minute. With any luck, when that boy got out of the academy, Joe would not have to sell her to anybody at all. "We'll talk about this later. Now when you get home. I don't want you running off again. You hear me? I mean it this time."

Finny giggled and jumped up on the train. "That's what you said last time Dad. Love you." The train began to pull off.