Chapter 15
After waiting twenty minutes, the guard came back for Rose and Aaron. He directed them down another set of passageways that opened up to a laundry area.
A large women came over to them. "What are your names?" She demanded.
"I'm Aaron, this is Rose."
"I am in charge of the laundry. You may call me Dava. Let me explain to you what to do. Each compartment in the complex sends their laundry on a specific day of the week. The laundry is sent in a canvas bag with the owner's name on it. You will dump the laundry and the canvas bag into one of the soapy pools and stir it with this" She held up what looked like an ore.
"Then you will take the clothes and put them in the rinse pool. When the items are rinsed, you fish them out with the stick and put them through the dryer. When they are dry, but them into these baskets," she pointed to some baskets beside her. "You then take them outside and hang them up on the clothes line. Be sure to put the bag were each family's clothing begins. When all the cloth's have been washed, we dumped the water tubs out and refill them for the next day. You then may go home and make lunch for your family. After lunch, you come back and take the clothes you have washed off the line and fold them and put them back in the family's bag. And place them in that area for the family's to pick up." She pointed to a small area and the far side of the laundry area.
"Any questions?"
"No." They both said.
"Good." she said and gave ore's to them. "get to wok!"
There were about ten women in the laundry area. Aaron and Rose went to work and tried to carry on conversations with some of the workers. By the end of the day, with Aaron's help, Rose knew were everything was. They also found out that the controls for the force field were in Snake's quarters.
At the end of the day while they were dumping the tubs, Aaron spoke to Rose, "The cool thing about this job is that we get to take showers here before we refill the tubs. We don't have to clean ourselves in the dirty water in the public baths."
Rose was quite happy to take a shower since she hadn't had one since they left the TARDIS. Surprisingly, the water was lukewarm, unlike she thought. Finally, she and Aaron were paid for today's work, three tokens, and were sent 'home'.
Aaron sighed, "At least I got more thenI did whenI worked in the mines."
"You worked in the mines?"
"I did, after I was taken as a 'mate' I managed to convince Paolo to get me a job in the mines. You know, he's a nice man once you get to know him. He's really a teddy bear, unless he's following orders from Snake. He's actually saved my ass a couple of times."
"Really?" Rose asked as they turned the corner to their 'home.'
"Yep! And thanks to him, I got these beautiful prosthetics."
"Maybe we can use him?"
"What?"
"Well, if he helps you a lot, we can use him to get to Snake and escape!" Rose explained.
"You are one smart women!" Aaron said and they laughed.
After waiting a half an hour, Luce, Theta, and Jack finally arrived returned. "Finally!" Aaron exclaimed. "So how much did you make?"
"We all managed to get seven tokens each. What about you?" Jack asked.
"We managed to get three, but that's better then what I used to get." Aaron said and collected their tokens.
"What did you usually get?"
"One token a day, and I worked in the mines!" Aaron sighed in frustration. "Anyways, I'm going to take Rose shopping while you three go find the baths." They nodded.
On the way to the 'shops', Rose counted the tokens, "So, is 27 tokens good for a day's work?"
"Well, since we only arrived, it is very good, but we should get more later."
Soon the two women arrived at an area where vendors had set up booths selling their various wares. "Our first stop must be at the food stand."
Aaron led Rose to the largest of the booths where fresh food was laid out on tables. It reminded Rose of a Farmer's Market. "Where does all this come from?" She asked.
"There are farms a distance from the mines. They send meat and produce to the mines everyday."
Aaron had brought a small wicker basket that she barrowed from Rican in which to put their purchases. She walked up to the vendor with authority. "We need 1 pound of the cubed meat, 5 potatoes, 5 carrots, 2 onions, 5 pounds of rice and 2 loaves of bread."
Rose just stared at her friend as she rattled off the list of items. 'Well she has been here before,' she thought. The man behind the table nodded, wrapped the meat in paper, pulled out a cloth bag of rice and counted out the carrots, potatoes and one onion. "That will be 9 tokens."
Rose handed the tokens as Aaron put the items in the basket. "Hmmm, next we'll need a knife…" She said.
"They allow the slaves to own knives?" Rose asked incredulously.
"Were you present yesterday for the punishment?" Aaron asked.
"Yes…" Rose said warily.
"Then you should know that the punishment for using a knife as a weapon is death."
Rose swallowed hard. She had considered carrying the knife around as protection from Dace.
Aaron picked out a small knife with a serrated edge and Rose handed over 5 tokens.
"What else do we need?" Aaron asked herself and tapped her head. "Oh yea! We need some fire chondrite!" She said and made her way over to another booth.
"How long were you in this slavery thing? It seems like you know everything!" Rose exclaimed.
"I was in here for two years, and then I managed to escape because of an earthquake, just got lucky I guess." Rose nodded in understanding, not wanting to bring up bad memories.
Aaron stopped at a booth and spoke to the man, "We need a 10 pound bag of fire chondrite." She stated to the clerk who hefted the bag on to the table.Rose handed over 7 tokens and Aaron drug her off to the booth where blankets, towels and pillows were sold.
"How many tokens to we have left?"
"Six."
"Then we can only buy one towel, it four tokens. We will also need a bar of soap, that's two tokens."
With all the tokens spent, they went back to their compartment. They then started the task of making a stew with the ingredients they got. By the time the men returned from the baths, the stew was actually beginning to smell quite good. They and their adopted member, Luce, ate their stew, Aaron told them about the outdoor area in the laundry and force field.
"Since the controls are in Snake's quarters, I could pretend that I am finally giving up and….."
Jack cut her off, "No Aaron! Don't even think about it! You wouldn't come out of there alive."
She knew he was right and felt completely frustrated and useless with the restraints and expectations that were put on her as a woman in this society. She hated it when she was twelve, she hates it now.
"Ok, I'll warn you now, use of a knife as a weapon here is an offense that is punishable by death."
"Well that's good to know. I wish I had my sonic screwdriver, then we can get out of here." Theta said. Aaron nodded. Their meeting was interrupted by a tall man entering their compartment.
"My lady," it was Paolo, "My lord wishes to see you."
Aaron rolled her eyes, "Fantastic." She said and got up. Before she walked away, Jack grabbed her wrist.
"Be careful." She nodded and left.
so what do you think? should i continue? please tell me!
