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"Everything has changed. I can't even understand what's happening, and
we're all having to make decisions."
"Decisions?"
Moriah gave a strange laugh, and shook her head again.
"Well, the station is destroyed, I think you already know that," she
said. "The mining complex and greenhouse are intact, but the rest of it
won't ever be livable again. The men
are dead and now we had to figure out what to do with our lives."
Bethany stared at her blankly.
"I don't understand," she said finally. "Jess hasn't discussed this with me."
"I thought he might not have," Moriah replied softly. "He just whisked you
away and we didn't know if you were even alive. They think you were in on the
plot, that you betrayed us.
Or at least, some of them doÉ" she added, voice trailing off. Moriah
looked away from
Bethany quickly.
"What about you?" Bethany asked tightly. "Do you think that?"
"I think that we would be dead by now if the elders had discovered your
father's body,"
Moriah said softly. "And I think that my daughter and I have more hope for our
future than we've ever had before. You did what you had to do."
"I didn't betray you," Bethany said tightly. "I didn't know about the escape.
They used me, but I wasn't part of it. I wouldn't have done that."
"Not even after the way you've been treated?" Moriah asked softly.
"No," Bethany said. "Not even then."
An awkward silence fell between the two women. Finally, Moriah spoke.
"They're giving us a choice," she said. "The slaves are planning to leave, and
they're going to send us away from here. They said that if they leave us here
we'll die. We have to decide what we want to do."
"Have they hurt you?" Bethany asked again. "Have they, well, you knowÉ?"
"No, nothing like that," Moriah said quickly. "Some of them have wanted to,
but Logan won't let them. Not all of them are like that, Bethany. Some of them
are actually quite nice."
"Have any of them been 'nice' to you?" Bethany asked. Moriah looked away.
"I see," Bethany said quietly. "Was that him, the man who brought you?"
"His name is Kresn," she replied softly. "And he hasn't tried to force me to
do anything.
But he has convinced me I have a choice about how I want to live. You see,"
she continued earnestly, "there are going to be four ships leaving here. One
of them will take women and children to Karos, to the Temple. The Pilgrims
there will help them. The slaves are even sending a load of ore with
them to help pay for their expenses when they arrive."
"That seems awfully generous," Bethany said, confused. "Are you sure it isn't
a trick?"
"What do they have to gain by tricking us?" Moriah said with a harsh laugh.
"Our lives are already in their hands. We don't have any choice but to
cooperate with them. They don't have to treat us this kindly."
"Maybe they want you to like them," Bethany replied. "Maybe this kindness is
just a way to convince you to have sex with them."
"It's possible," Moriah said softly. "But I can tell you that in
the last month I've been forced to have sex more than once by a 'decent'
Pilgrim man. I like Kresn's approach better.
So what if he's being nice to me so I'll sleep with him? It's better than
being blackmailed."
"So you are sleeping with him?" Bethany asked.
"No," Moriah replied. A strange look came over her face, and she
hesitated before continuing. "No, I'm not. He wants me to, but I don't think
I'm ready for that. He hasn't tried to make me do anything I don't want to do.
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He's not like some of the others."
"Give him time," Bethany said darkly. "You can't trust men."
"I think I might give him some time," Moriah said, her face wistful. "We don't
have to go to Karos. Some of us have decided we don't want to be Pilgrims any
more."
"What do you mean?" Bethany asked, confused. "Of course we're Pilgrims. We
were born that way. We can't just be something else!"
"We can now," Moriah said. A little smile tugged at the corners of
her mouth and
Bethany was struck by her beauty. She'd never realized how lovely Moriah was.
She'd never seen her as anything but a frightened young woman she had to
protect.
"I don't want to be a Pilgrim any more, Bethany. I want to be a free woman.
Imagine it! I
don't have to marry anyone. My daughter could grow up and do whatever she
wants. I can even send her to school! I don't even really understand what that
means, but it sounds like a wonderful thing. Did you know that she could even
be a doctor? Like that man, Bragan?
He's been examining all the women who will let him. He knows how to fix all
kinds of things, Bethany. He made the shaking in Marta's hands go away. He
even fixed that thing on Anna's neck! It's been causing her pain for three
years, and now it's gone."
"He's an Imperially-trained physician," Bethany said quietly, trying to
understand what
Moriah was telling her. "He's also the one who took all the implants out of
the slaves so they could revolt. I didn't know women could become doctors. Are
you sure?"
"Oh, yes," Moriah said, face lighting up. "Yes, they can! I asked him about
it. He's been letting me help him."
"So, where is this wonderful place that you might go?"
"It's part of something called the Saurellian Federation," Moriah replied in
an excited voice. "Logan is a Saurellian, and he has a whole planet that
belongs to his family, and we're all going to live there."
"Oh, really?" Bethany asked skeptically. "And you believe that? If Logan is so
important, how did he end up a slave here? I think they're lying to you,
Moriah."
"Maybe they are," Moriah said softly, looking away. "I know I want to believe
them, but I
understand they could be lying. I still don't want to go back to the way I was
living before. For the first time in my life I have a chance to do something
else. We've never had a choice before! How can I just go back to the way I
was living before, knowing that I had a choice about it? I won't do that to my
daughter."
"What if it's worse?" Bethany asked.
"It can't be that much worse," Moriah replied forcefully. "I was being raped
by a man older than my father. He was already talking about a marriage
alliance for my baby. I'm willing to take the chance."
"How many others are going with you?"
"About sixty, including children," Moriah said. "Logan says that when [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]