Assigned a Guardian (3 page)

The maintenance of discipline throughout the civil order being vital to the survival of the citizenry, the practice of corporal punishment shall be employed throughout the civil administration of Draco, and the planetary administration shall promote said practice for use in the homes of citizens. The foregoing notwithstanding, men are explicitly advised that the right to use any form of discipline acceptable to them, provided it do no permanent injury to the party disciplined, shall not be abridged by the governor or by legislation made in the governor’s council.

Patrick had already seen one of the posters that clearly traced their origin to this article of the Basic Law. It showed two photographs of a young woman, at a guess in her twenties. In the photo on the left, her cheeks were stained with tears, and she was shown in a medium-shot that suggested she was bending over something—a stool or the arm of a chair, perhaps. On the right side of the poster the same young woman was hugging a child close, with a touchingly maternal smile on her face. The caption was in block letters:
SOMETIMES FAMILY HARMONY IS ONLY A SPANKING AWAY.

One of the questions Patrick had been told in his citizenship interview that he should expect to be asked on the test concerned the origin of this article, which was apparently called ‘the spanking article’ of the Basic Law. It had of course been highly controversial at the time of its adoption, but John and Marjorie Leary had given an interview together that won the hearts of the colonists, in which they revealed that John spanked Marjorie regularly, and that they both attributed the strength of their marriage to that practice.

The social disorder on Draco had been very severe at the time. The values coalition’s principal rival, the liberal progressives, had refused to concede that their demands for radical equality had anything unrealistic about them. The day before the Learys gave the interview, several hundred protesters, 70% of them young women, had been arrested when they tried to storm the administration building.

It turned out in the wake of the protest and the interview that most of the colonists were more than ready to embrace something new, especially since John Leary made it clear that part of the values coalition platform was that the government’s power stopped at each citizen’s front door. Patrick had to admit that the notion of keeping order so simply appealed to him as well. Jack Tatum, the official who had conducted Patrick’s citizenship interview, had told Patrick that guidance was readily available to him, should he wish it, on the matter of discipline in the home.

“But,” Jack had said, “that’s probably not something you’ll have to worry about all that soon—although we encourage men to get married as soon as they can find a suitable wife.”

Then came the article about guardianship.

At the age of eighteen, each unmarried woman shall be assigned a male guardian. A woman’s guardian shall be responsible for her conduct. He shall have authority to discipline her in any way he sees fit, so long as he does not cause her permanent injury.

Jack had pointed Patrick to a separate document, titled the disciplinary codicil, which defined the disciplinary rights of a guardian. It appeared that the only thing a guardian was forbidden to do was force himself sexually upon the woman for whom he had responsibility. There was a list of punishments that guardians were specifically and explicitly allowed and encouraged to use as well: spanking, strapping, paddling, and caning were the more familiar types of punishment there. There was also a section on forms of humiliation that the administration found potentially beneficial, and which Patrick imagined had originated in the Leary household. Astonishingly, they included the removal of pubic hair and the dressing of the fractious woman in diapers.

Another, rather propagandistic, document called ‘A Guide to Guardianship’ made it clear, though, that such measures were to be employed only in situations ‘in which ordinary disciplinary measures such as hand-spanking and belt-whipping prove ineffective.’ For the most part, the pamphlet said, the role of a guardian was to check in with his charge once a week, and help her in the process of courtship that would lead to her marriage.

If it were decided by the woman, in association with her guardian and, if necessary, the administration of the colony, that she was unsuited for the married state, she would at the age of thirty move into a facility called Lourcy House, which Patrick saw in yet another document was run by Jane Loggins herself. The women of Lourcy House, it appeared, were engaged in some of the professions not limited to men—research and art, most importantly. They lived under the authority of the head of the facility, leaving their guardians behind when they moved in.

Patrick thought of Kayla, not for the first time since he had learned in the men’s briefing aboard the
Jupiter
about what had happened on Draco in the twenty-two years they had been in transit. Part of him wished he could have been there to help cushion the blow a little bit, but really, how could anything have cushioned
that
blow?

He sighed. At the very least, he hoped to be able to use the influence it appeared he had by virtue of his position at Lourcy Industries to make sure she had a guardian who would be understanding.

There was a knock at the door of Patrick’s little room.

“Come in,” Patrick called. The door opened, and Jack Tatum poked his head in.

“Sorry to disturb you, Patrick,” he said. “We’ve got a bit of a situation with Kayla, and I’m hoping to consult with you.”

“No trouble at all,” Patrick said. “I don’t mind having a break from studying the Basic Law.”

Jack laughed as he came in and sat down on Patrick’s bed. “I know what you mean.”

“What happened with Kayla?” Patrick asked.

“Well,” Jack said as if not wanting to break bad news but knowing he had to, “she got paddled aboard the
Jupiter
.”

“You’re kidding,” Patrick said.

“Nope. Marjorie Leary thinks she’s going to have significant problems adjusting. Obviously we need to choose her guardian well, and we need to give him as much support as we can in figuring out how to help Kayla get used to her position. I’m afraid to say that Marjorie is inclined to assign her somebody with a very firm hand. What I’m hoping for from you is a couple of things. First, I’d like to make sure we keep you in the loop. Do you have any objection to reading over weekly updates from Kayla’s guardian?”

“Not at all,” Patrick said.

“Great. Thanks. Second, I’m hoping you’ll talk to Kayla and make it as clear as you can that she’s got to toe the line. If she doesn’t, she could end up in a very bad position—and I’m not just talking about having to go over her guardian’s knee once a week or more. The governor, as you can understand, is going to watch her case very closely. He’s not going to tolerate Kayla Lourcy trying to stir up trouble. You can see his position, I imagine.”

“Of course.”

“Thanks. I hope that between her guardian and you, you’ll be able to persuade her that there will be plenty of things she can do here that will make for a very nice life on Draco. It’s obviously not what she was expecting, but maybe it will help that she’s making her father’s dream come true.”

Patrick couldn’t help saying, “Lawrence Lourcy would be pretty unhappy about the Basic Law, though.”

Jack chuckled. “I don’t dispute that. But Mr. Lourcy was a bit more utopian than it proved possible for his colonists to be. He put way too much confidence in the ability of people to reach consensus when those people have to spend most of their time trying to keep themselves alive in conditions that were completely unfamiliar to them. And remember that the Basic Law was reapproved two years ago.”

“Just barely, right?” Patrick asked.

“That’s right,” Jack said. “And maybe that means we’ll have a new Basic Law in eight years’ time. Until then, though, Kayla is going to have to live Larry Lourcy’s dream according to the one we’ve got.”

Chapter Three

“Alright, Kayla,” the nurse said. “Up on the table, please.”

“What’s this examination for?” Kayla asked. She had been on Draco for three days now, and she was feeling a little stronger, but not very much. All the women of the
Jupiter
had had regular physicals from nurses on the first day, but this exam had been scheduled specially, and only for the single women, in and around their exercise sessions, and their informational sessions—classes, really—about life on Draco. They were housed in what Marjorie Leary had assured them was the largest building on the planet—the administration building, which apparently served as capitol, courthouse, hospital, and school.

“It’s a screening to make sure you’re cleared for sexual activity, honey.” The nurse was, like everyone Kayla had met so far, an original colonist: everyone on Draco had either come in the first ten ships, with their fifty passengers each, or were the children of those who had. At the indoctrination session that morning, Kayla’s second morning on Draco, they had heard that there were now four hundred eighty-six children of the originals, and that since the passage of the Basic Law, the fertility rate had tripled. Of the four hundred eighty-six, only one hundred had reached majority so far: part of the reason for the passage of the Basic Law had been the alarm many colonists felt at how few children had been conceived in the colony’s first ten years.

“What does that mean?” Kayla asked, once she had complied. She wore a blue hospital gown, with, of course, nothing under it. She had learned the hard way not to cross authority on Draco in any obvious way—her bottom was still quite sore—but she had no intention of being led blindly down the path of Draconian womanhood, the way it seemed all the other women from the
Jupiter
had no problem with doing.

“The doctor will explain,” the nurse said. “Feet in the stirrups, please.”

“Can’t I wait?”

“No, you can’t wait, Kayla. The doctor is a busy man.” She sighed. “Honey, we all know how hard a time you’re having.”

Kayla felt her face go red in shame and anger. Yes, fine, she was having a hard time—a very hard time—but dammit, they all needed to stop saying that. If life on Draco were anything like life on Earth, everything would be fine.

The nurse looked into Kayla’s eyes and gave her a kindly, if also a little frustrated, smile. “I voted against the Basic Law, honey, and I still am not a huge fan of it. I was a doctor back on Earth, and now I’m a nurse. But it
works
.”

“Are you married?” Kayla whispered.

“Mm-hmm.”

“Do you get spanked?”

The nurse laughed. “Now and then. Not often, and not very hard. Here’s the thing: having more social definition, if you will, really helps when you’re trying to keep people fed and alive.”

A knock came at the door, and a man entered quickly. “Why isn’t she in the stirrups?” he asked gruffly. He, too, was an original.

The nurse sighed. “Kayla here has a lot of questions, doctor.”

The doctor made an impatient little sound in his throat. “Kayla,” he said, “lie on your tummy for me, with your backside raised a little.”

“Why?” Hadn’t the nurse just told her to get her feet in the stirrups?

“I’m going to remind you why it’s important to do as you’re told when you’re in an administration facility.”

“What?” Kayla asked in disbelief. “You mean… spank me?”

“Yes, you silly, spoiled girl. Spank you.”

“But… but… you’re a
doctor
.”

He gave her a look that demonstrated that he was indeed a doctor, and that he wanted her to know she was wasting his time trying to pretend that he didn’t know what she needed better than she did. “Yes, young lady, I’m a doctor, which makes me very good at telling when a spanking is necessary. Please don’t make Lydia here—” he nodded to the nurse, “—call the orderlies to hold you down.”

“But that matron woman said that women got punished with the paddle over their clothes. And she said that only female—”

The doctor cut her off. “I feel sure she didn’t say
only,
Kayla. I feel sure you
thought
that was implied. Lydia, do I have authority to spank my patients if necessary?”

“Yes, doctor,” Lydia said.

“Do I have authority to spank them on their bare bottoms?”

“Yes, doctor.”

He turned back to Kayla. “Now please get yourself on your tummy, and raise your bottom for me. I’m going to bare it and spank it, and then you’re going to get your feet in the stirrups and we’ll proceed with the exam. Do you understand?”

He sounded frustrated with her, but not angry, really. Kayla felt herself starting to cry in her own anger. “You won’t,” she said, trying to sound firm but knowing she couldn’t manage it.

“Doctor?” Lydia asked.

“Yes?”

“I don’t think we need the orderlies.”

“No, you’re probably right,” he replied. “She’s still got cryo-weakness.”

Then, without further ado, Lydia was coaxing Kayla over onto her belly. The hospital gown, of course, instantly fell open, so that the doctor wouldn’t even need to bare her backside. Kayla tried to take that as a small victory, and failed miserably.

Kayla struggled a very little bit, but the cryo-weakness was real, and though Lydia did have to hold her down gently, because Kayla kept trying feebly to raise herself up and protest, the nurse had her on her belly and tugged at her hips to get her to raise them slightly, which seemed to make it much, much more humiliating—just as having Sandra tell her to push out her bottom, three days before on the
Jupiter,
had been the most shameful part of the whole thing.

How could she possibly be getting spanked
again?
She tried to remember that she was Kayla fucking Lourcy, but that had begun to seem inadequate to life on Draco. Even if she weren’t Kayla fucking Lourcy anymore, she would be again, or she would be someone better—someone who didn’t get spanked and humiliated.