Uranium in the Drinking Water
Chapter 1: The three wives
** I ** II ** III ** IV **
Disclaimer: Daria and associated characters are owned by MTV and Viacom. Honor Harrington series, characters, and settings are the property of David Weber.
This is fan fiction written for entertainment only. No money or other negotiable currency or goods have been exchanged.
** I ** II ** III ** IV **
Daria was contemplating how to proceed to the next part of her new book; she knew what was supposed to happen in the next scene, knew the events that leaded to the scene as well as the consequences that would follow, but for the Tester she couldn't find a way to describe the scene itself. Frustrated with the attempt she decided to better watch for a while how Jane did the final touches to her latest sculpture with a few carefully applied hits of her hammer on the stone. Sitting alongside her Quinn was working under the light of a lamp in a new dress, using her thread and needle on the pink fabric to great effect.
In a way she was quite envious of her fellow wives, not that she would tell them even under pain of death, since they had interest that were more than acceptable for a Grayson woman. At least their husband encouraged and helped her with her own literally endeavors, if in a covert manner.
They were lucky to successfully court Tom Sloane, Fielding heir, despite their relatively lowborn status. Jane especially being a commoner from the Lane clan was lucky to even having the chance to speak to the eldest and sole heir to Angier Sloane name and fortune, much less to being in the position to court him in such unconventional way. Even for Grayson women who had a numerical (dis)advantage of a three to one female to male radius and therefore were forced to get quite competitive to get a place as one of the wives of any gentleman, the hurricane like approach that Jane had taken in which she had shown him some of the more popular parts of the city of Lawndale, parts that many of the noble families didn't knew existed, much less someone as highborn as the young Thomas had been the way to capture and keep his interest in a point of his life that he was weary of the multitude of balls, state dinners and a myriad of inane social gatherings.
It was through Jane that the two sisters of the almost extinct Morgendorffer clan had come to met Tom. Quinn, who at the time was still more worried about social status than anything else had used the opportunity to try to woo him, mostly to brag to her fellow members of the Lawndale Young Ladies Association that she had a future Steadholder holding her bags and buying her dresses. For some obscure reason Thomas Sloane was not a man who followed the usual conventions when women were concerned, he had the traditional respect that every Grayson gentleman had for the fairer sex, but he always took a deep pleasure bringing down social climbers and hypocrites who tried to get into his good graces; and chief amongst those were Sandi of the Griffin clan and of course Quinn. It wasn't until after Quinn surrendered to the fact that with him in love with both her sister and her best friend she didn't stood a chance, and showed him, completely by accident at that, her more natural and complex personality that they finally felt in love.
Daria had being a special case even then. Unlike the other women she hadn't be the one doing the courting in the Grayson tradition, her confrontational personality being such that she had already turned away with extreme prejudice a couple of suitors arranged by her mother to improve the social status of their branch of the family, and not all of them on purpose either.
She still felt guilty of the way she had treated Ted DeWitt-Clinton, she hadn't realized just how isolated he had grown after fighting cancer in his early years. The fact was that he survived, but for years had lived virtually alone while his immune system recuperated and while having an excellent education had lacked any kind of meaningful social development with peers his age. Ironically enough it had been his broad knowledge the thing that had attracted her long and hard enough to try her had at courting him, just to be brushed aside in a way that for a Grayson teenage boy could and was considered quite insulting, in the end she had ended the day with a broken heart.
The only reason she had being anywhere near Tom was that her friendship with Jane, even then the best way to describe her feelings for Tom was a deeply dislike, if not outright hate, borne out of her resentment about the gradual lost of her best and only friend. In the end that resentment might have been enough for Jane to drift away from her forever if not for the fact that for some reason unexplainable to her Tom had been smitten hard by her sharp tongue; and gradually the spiteful battle of wits between them grew into a reluctant respect for him when she finally learned that behind his infuriatingly smug persona was a surprisingly progressive and caring man quite unlike his own apparently distant father. From then on their mutual respect grew into real affection, and finally in the end she accepted that she felt in love with him.
He amply demonstrated his love and respect for his wives by allowing them to pursue openly both the fashion designer hobby of Quinn, as well as the diverse and often controversial art of Jane and then nurturing those until they reached the point they were well established and renown in their professional circles and then acting as an business manager, setting banks accounts on his name only to go around the laws forbidding women from legally owning property. The money they earned they could use as they saw fit, with no restrictions whatsoever on what they could or couldn't expend. Their satisfaction of knowing that the money they expended was earned and not given, despite the fact that any petition they made to Tom, no matter how weird, was done without questions or complain, brought a deep sense of accomplishment that they wouldn't get otherwise.
In Daria's case the matter was far more complicated. Sewing, knitting and all fashion related activities are a respected activity for a woman to have, and even selling those creations is an honorable way of earning purse money for the household as long as they don't earn more than the husband of course; and the arts are an acceptable hobby for a lady as well, one that with the correct spin could be sold or displayed in any of Grayson's galleries without any particular stigma; even if some of Jane's works did push the limits of tolerance quite a bit.
On the other hand female writer are limited to a few select topics. Books about cooking, cleaning, and other household activities are usually written under a woman's name, poetry, and children books while a little less common could also be openly published as they are related towards the so called emotional side of the 'weaker sex'; however the kind of violent suspense novels Daria has always wrote was the kind of lecture than any woman in Grayson would not be strictly forbidden by their mothers and no editor could ever publish such a book under a woman's name without the fear of being censored by society and church alike.
When Tom read the first of her short stories about Saint Barbara Bancroft he arranged for her to have full access to the Sloane's private library, including their climate controlled library, which had been steadily growing for the last few centuries and had some original records of the civil war and even a few paperbacks from the Landing, in order to carry on her research. He also took it on himself to pass her all the notes and recordings of his history classes and do all of his relevant homework alongside her and his other wives when requested; and when it became absolutely necessary he did some consultations in her name to Doctor Gregory Paxton, his teacher at the Mayhew University. They had been careful enough but still Tom confessed that he was quite sure that Doc Greg was more than a little suspicious of the true origin of his questions and while the good doctor threw a not so innocent barb or two about how much smarter were his pupil's questions after a day of two to reflect on them, especially after she published a couple of articles directly related to topics Tom asked, he never acted on them.
Years later when she finally was satisfied with her manuscript he sent it to a series of editors under many different and almost paranoid layers of security including an assumed name and bank account, all of them with supporting documentation. Contact was done through mail, and payments were laundered by the steading's bank in complete anonymity. Her first book 'Melody of Power' became an instant bestseller, praised for the rigorous research of the events that led to the bloody civil war as well by the revolutionary interpretation of the saint that saved Grayson from destruction. From then others books followed describing such events as the harsh life of the first generation colonists and an obscure theological text with interpretations of the scriptures analyzed with an historical perspective that resulted in a constant interchange of letters with reverend Sanderson of the Church of the Humanity Unchained.
"Hey sister, when does Tom get back from the ministry?" Quinn asked. It was quite curious how many meanings did the word sister had in the Sloane house. Traditionally the wives of a same man called themselves sisters, but Quinn and Daria were blood sisters as well, a rare but not unheard occurrence. To muddle matters even more, Quinn was the first wife to be married in their multiple wedding, a place that was given to her neither by seniority nor pedigree; with Jane coming second despite being the first one to successfully court their husband; and Daria, the oldest of the Morgendorffer clan, being the last one to marry, even if the other two took her cue in most matters. Such weird arrangement came after one tense meeting between the prospective wives and her mother in law from the fact that Jane genealogy was completely unbecoming for the first wife of a future Steadholder, and of either of the Morgendorffer sisters Quinn was far more socially capable and therefore the one who was less likely to step on the toes of the politically connected acquaintances that their husband would frequently met.
Her answer came into a monotone that sounded far sharper than the words contained would have warranted. "No idea Quinn, Angier sent him to the Ministry of Industry in Austin City to settle the details of the incoming merchantmen from Manticore, and that means that he's going to cross swords with Jared Mayhew for the next few days. You know how than man thinks that the economic might of the Star Kingdom is going to crush the local companies despite the fact that all our economic relations already do so by having an industry hundred of years ahead of us, not to mention that their lack of spiritual commitment is going to corrupt the mores of all us good little Graysons."
At the mention of Jared all three women couldn't help but to grimace, the Minister of Industry was one of those men who excused their backwards habits and spiteful personality within the mantle of tradition and strict adherence only to the scriptures that matched their beliefs. He sincerely believed that women were to b protected due to their lack of any valuable quality other than having babies, and on the social gatherings he expected them to be brainless mannequins that only served food and drinks to their husbands and then stay quiet in the corner while men discussed important matters.
On the few state parties they had coincided he didn't bother to hide his contempt towards either Quinn passion for fashion or especially Jane's artworks, much less about the fact that they dared to sell their creations. The only reason he didn't criticize her books was that he didn't know she wrote anything at all, or for that matter that she could write at all. She didn't felt left out anyway, he was still a little too angry about her well thought retorts against his own deeply biased rhetoric and when she responded some of his stock rewritten scriptures with the correct unedited versions she was for a moment hopeful that he would strike her in public, an act that would mean the end of his political career and quite a few months in jail, not even the second in line for the Protector's title could harm a woman. But alas Howard Clinkscales, a man just as traditionalist but with far more class stopped his ally from committing such a mistake. The stern talk she had with both of the senior Sloanes as well as her mother, and the following half a year of etiquette classes under Madame Li were more than worth the effort.
"Well, I hope that they at least they bring some cute new fabrics to work with, spider silk is good and all, but I would love to have something original to work with for a change." Once again Quinn was sounding like the high school airhead who almost failed classes on purpose in her belief that men preferred women who did not think too much, and as always Daria automatically felt the need of remind her just how she sounded.
"Yes, since spaceships are known for carrying bulky and cheap clothes as bribes for independent nations instead of useful things like high tech to modernize us, medicines for our many, many issues, and a weapon or two to keep those psychopaths of Masada from our backs."
"If it's any consolation I doubt that they bring any art supplies with them either Quinn, at least not in the first load… Who knows what kind of things will they bring when we open lines of commerce with them?" Jane responded, having finally finished with the hammering. Sweat soaking her tight working clothes, that no male would never be allowed to see, she took a water bottle that was safely out of range of the dust cloud resulting from her art and was about to drink it when she noticed the orange colored stripe that stood out in the black bottle . "Yuk, the water filtration system must be down again."
"Let me see." Quinn approached the bottle and carefully checked the stripe, "Orange again, that means heavy metals, right? One of the filters in the water purifying system must be overflowing again. I'll call the staff." In any other of the thousands of worlds that humanity had colonized such a statement would require the immediate evacuation of the household to a safe place while Hazmat teams were called in. However in Grayson humans there was no such safe place, the whole planet was composed of the heaviest metals ever found in a colonized planet.
"Don't bother, this is the third time on this month those damn filters have stopped working and I fancy surviving lead poisoning long enough to develop lung cancer. I'll take a look, I need a break anyway." In any other planet repairing a water filtration system capable of dealing with the quantity and toxicity of the materials they were working with would have required a technician with some quite exotic qualifications and a full hazmat suit. However in Grayson every woman by necessity knew more about overpressure and filtration systems than most engineers would, lack of formal college education notwithstanding.
Grayson was a deathworld, one of the cruelest ever colonized by humanity, where the water, the ground, and the air itself were sooner or later lethal to its inhabitants, and that sustained life only due to the stubborn determination and sacrifice of its people. To bother about minor things like Uranium in the drinking water would be simply unbecoming.
** I ** II ** III ** IV **
This is going to be a fusion between the Honor Harrington series, starting on HH2: Honor of the Queen and detailing the series of social changes that Honor brought with her as well as the dark days of the Masadan Aggression from the eyes of Quinn, Jane and Daria Sloane, wives of Thomas Sloane heir to Fielding.