Refugee (16 page)

“You folk must have had a bad time,” the Martian officer said in Spanish, looking about as his men followed him through the air lock. All were clean-cut and wore side-arms, not swords. “We discovered quite a mess in your air lock. It's all right now; we dumped the stuff in space and fumigated the lock.”

My mother was in the “innocent” group of women. She had roused herself from her grief to participate in this, for she knew she was only one of many who had been abruptly widowed, and that someone had to carry on. Even as we children had to protect her, she tried to protect us. That was part of what it meant to be a family; I was coming to appreciate the full significance of it in this adversity. Major Hubris had been lost, but his family carried on, as if his strength had been bequeathed to each of the survivors. “We were raided by pirates,” she said. “All our men were killed.”

“Well, that's over now,” the officer said. “We shall carry you on in to Jupiter, where you will be granted refugee status. Collect your things; we're on a schedule and haven't much time. Don't bother with extra clothing; we'll issue you uniforms from our stores.”

Slowly I relaxed. This was almost too good to be true! If they towed us the rest of the way in to Jupiter, our hunger and fear was over!

I turned to meet Helse's eyes. The two of us had been relegated to the center chamber of the bubble, the doughnut hole. We were deemed too old to be innocent children and too young to fight. But we would fight, if it came to that, to protect the precious remaining food stores. As it was, we were out of the action but could see everything plainly.

Helse did not seem to share my relief. Her eyes were squinting, her mouth grim. That renovated my alarm; did she know something I didn't?

Uncertain, the women in the Commons below looked at each other. “Leave the bubble?” my mother asked, and I realized the officer had not actually spoken of towing, but of carrying.

“Obviously you can't remain here,” the officer said reasonably. “Drifting in space, your supplies diminishing, vulnerable to the vagaries of fate. You are fortunate we spotted you. Fetch your valuables; you don't want to be classed as paupers when you arrive.”

The women seemed almost reluctant to believe their good fortune. Slowly they dispersed while the merchantmen smiled at the children. One man produced a box of bright candy balls and proffered it. He was promptly the center of juvenile attention, as the youngest flocked to accept the goodies. We had not seen candy since leaving Callisto! Even Spirit, suspicious at first, in due course sidled close to the friendly man and accepted a treat.

My mouth watered. I was not yet so old that candy didn't appeal. “Look what we're missing!” I muttered.

“Never accept candy from a stranger,” Helse said grimly. I thought at first she was joking, then was doubtful.

The smallest child abruptly sat down. She had been greedily consuming the candy. She did not seem sick, but she did not get up.

Another child joined her, then a third. Soon all of them were sprawled on the deck. Spirit was one of the last to go, and I could see she was fighting it, but her knees buckled and betrayed her.

Señora Ortega marched up. “What is the matter?” she demanded, alarmed.

The officer faced her. “The candy is drugged. But don't worry; we have the antidote. The children will not die if it is administered within an hour.”

“Drugged!” Señora Ortega gazed on him with wild surmise. “Then you are—”

“Merely men who labor hard on short wages, and who have been too long in space,” the officer said.

“You are the leader here? Have your women deposit their valuables with us.” His eyes traveled across the others, who were now frozen in horror. They had actually fetched their most precious things at the behest of this man! “We are not bad fellows, if you treat us right. We are not interested in killing anyone, or even hurting anyone. We believe in honest quid-pro-quo. Any woman who desires a unit of antidote may purchase it from one of us.”

My mother was one of the first to understand. “My child is among those drugged. How may I purchase her reprieve?”

“You have money?” the officer inquired. “Gold? Gems?”

“None,” my mother replied.

“Then you must earn it.” The officer glanced meaningfully at his men.

After a pause, a burly older crewman stepped forward and gazed at her. For a moment I saw her through his eyes: a woman in her forties, no young thing but still a fairly handsome figure of her sex. The kind a middle-aged man would find comfortable. I began, inwardly, to curse the condition of masculinity, then felt Helse move slightly beside me and remembered her lesson. The evil was not the use, but the abuse!

“I'll give you my little vial of fluid, woman,” the crewman said. He held a small bottle, but his entendre was obvious. These were more sophisticated rapists; they compelled the women's cooperation without overt violence. But for all its nonviolence, it remained rape. My muscles clenched.

“Don't do it!” Señora Ortega cried to my mother. “They're bluffing.”

The officer shrugged, glancing at the collapsed children. “We are not killers, certainly; that decision is yours. We can only remain with you for an hour—after which time it will hardly matter. Any woman who prefers to take a chance with her child is free to do so. As I said, we do not wish to coerce anyone.”

The hypocrite! I started to move, but Helse put her hand on my shoulder and though her touch was light, it held me back. Helse had known better than I about the candy; her judgment probably remained better.

I sank back, my teeth clenched.

My mother looked at Spirit, who was now unconscious. She wavered, afraid to gamble with her child's life. Probably the men were bluffing and had only put knockout medicine in the candy. They seemed more like unscrupulous opportunists than hardened killers. Surely men who spent much time in space did get hungry for women, though why they didn't bring women along with them in their ship was a mystery.

But they were also pirates, and we knew how careless of life pirates could be. If they were not bluffing—I felt the same stress my mother did. That was Spirit, my little sister! If I let her die when any action of mine could save her, how could I even endure myself?

I tried to use my talent to determine the intentions of the men, but I simply had not interacted with them enough to judge. I could not tell to what extent they were bluffing.

“I will buy her life,” my mother decided.

The crewman smiled. I started climbing down into the Commons, going through the hole in the netting and using one of the guy ropes that held the netting in place so that I would not sail down sidewise and attract unwanted attention.

“No!” Helse hissed. “Don't do it, Hope! You can do nothing except make it worse!”

I paused, knowing she was right. Yet how could I remain idle while my mother prostituted herself to save my little sister?

While I debated this, hanging on to the guy rope, my other sister, Faith, approached me. She had put on makeup and arranged her luxuriant hair, and looked like a goddess. She wore a rather tight skirt and blouse. The half rations seemed not to have diminished her at all; probably she accepted them as just another diet. “I can't let this happen,” she said.

A new horror gripped me. “Faith, stay out of it!”

She met my gaze. “You understand, Hope.”

The terrible thing was that I did understand. Faith felt she had nothing to lose; now she could redeem her lost honor in some measure by saving her mother and sister from this awful dilemma.

“You promised, Hope,” she reminded me.

I could not say her nay, though I hated every aspect of this. Slowly, unwillingly, I nodded.

Faith made a tiny quirk of a smile. I had, in my fashion, given permission, and this was a thing she required. I had implicated myself in the decision, and would have to defend it. I was sending her in to be raped—again.

Faith took a breath and walked up to the men. She was slender and full and lovely and young, standing out like a beacon amidst gloom, and in a moment all their eyes were locked on her. It was obvious that none of these men would choose any older woman if he had a chance at this young one. I could appreciate the feeling myself, shamed as I was by the thought; I would choose a girl like Faith instead of a woman like my mother. God! What abominations infested my thoughts!

“How many children can I buy?” Faith asked them softly.

“Faith!” my mother exclaimed, shocked.

“Better me than you, Mother,” Faith replied. “I am already lost; you must care for the family.” And Charity Hubris could not deny her, any more than I could.

Faith turned back to the men, breathing deeply—and when she did that, she was spectacular. “How many?”

“All of them,” the officer said, impressed. “Given time.” His gaze flicked to a lieutenant beside him. “See to the valuables.”

“No,” Faith said. “You shall not rob us also.”

“No?” The officer seemed amused.

“Take me—on your ship. Nothing else.”

“Faith!” my mother repeated.

The officer glanced again at the other men, whose mouths were virtually drooling. Yet again I could appreciate their thoughts, though I resented my very ability to do so. To have a creature like this with them all the time, no one-hour stand—

“You drive an interesting bargain, young woman.”

Faith half turned, and her body accented itself. Somewhere along the way she had learned a lot about sex appeal! “What pittance does anyone here have, compared to what I offer?”

My mother put her hands to her face, but did not speak again. She knew what the rest of us knew; it did make sense.

Once more the men considered. “It's the same deal I made as a child,” Helse murmured in my ear. I had not seen her climb down to join me, since I had been distracted by the uncomfortable drama of the Commons. “I think these really are merchantmen, pirating on the side. It's not necessarily a bad life, if they like the girl. These aren't really violent men; they just don't think it is wrong to coerce a woman into sex.”

“But she's not doing it because she wants to!” I protested somewhat irrelevantly.

“Yes and no. Few decisions in life are completely voluntary. She's doing it for her family. She is making a sacrifice for your benefit—and for every other person in the bubble.”

I had to file this away for later digestion.

“Take this young woman aboard the ship,” the officer said. “Give her decent accommodation.” He reached inside his jacket and brought out a packet of vials, passing it to my mother, who stood in seeming shock.

The men left the bubble and Faith went with them. I feared I would never see her again.

The ship disengaged and jetted toward Jupiter. Faith had bought our reprieve with her body. I could only hope it was a fair deal.

My mother's eyes were glazing with the reaction, but she took a vial and opened it and tilted its liquid into Spirit's mouth, carefully, so the child would not choke. Other women did the same with their children.

I shook myself and went to the group. Several vials were left over. I opened one and put a drop on my tongue.

The fluid was completely colorless and tasteless. It could have been pure water.

I thought about that, then left without speaking. If it was only water, it meant one of two things. Either the children would die—or the drug in the candy was not truly toxic. Either way, the merchant-pirates had deceived us. But what else had I expected?

Helse rejoined me. “What is it, Hope?”

“Water,” I said in disgust.

“I'm not surprised.”

“You suspected? Why didn't you say something before?”

“All men are pirates at heart.” She caught herself. "I mean figuratively. Some are violent, like the outright pirates. Some are disciplined and honorable, like your father. Most are in between, as I told you before.

They take what they can get, but they prefer not to have too much of a fuss. They don't mind lying to get their way. If they can get a woman to submit without violence, without any real danger of hurting the children, such men consider this to be smart management. That's just the way they see it."

“But then Faith sacrificed herself for nothing!”

Helse caught my hands in hers. “No, Hope. She did it to protect her mother and sister from risk or shame. She refused to gamble with their lives.”

I knew this, yet felt constrained to argue. “But if—”

“If we had called that bluff, those men could have turned savage and raped the women violently. They were armed; they could have killed anyone who tried to stop them. The danger was not just in the candy; it was in the men. Honorable men would never have used coercion. Faith understood that. So she offered them something better. Because she was beautiful and willing to deal, they accepted. They weren't all-the-way bad, they just wanted sex. She made it easy for them to be generous.”

“They're still pirates!” I hissed.

“They're fallible men. There's a difference.”

“But my sister condemned to horror—”

“Your sister is so lovely, I think some ranking officer will soon claim her for his own. I have told her some of the arts of pleasing men. In time—”

I turned on her ferociously. “ You told her!”

Helse stepped back. "Hope, she asked me. She wanted to know. I think she suspected something like this could happen, and she felt guilty for hiding when your father was killed. She had to redeem herself.

She had to make the sacrifice the others were making."

I clenched my fists, not answering.

“In time she may command an officer's love and be well treated,” Helse continued. “Her future may be more secure than ours is.”

“By practicing the arts of prostitution!” I gritted. “As you practiced them on me!”

I was sorry the moment I said it, but Helse only smiled. She had learned to accommodate my moods.

She must have done the same as a child, with Uncle. “We do what we must to survive, Hope. Women don't have the brute power of men. Compromise is forced on us all our lives. I practiced my skills on you to help you, not because you forced me. Do not be angry with me, my lover.”