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Know your rights, all three of them – The Clash

"So we are agreed?" Arnis asked, a bit anxiously.

"Yes, yes, of course. I appreciate your supporting my research into finding a cure for thylacine paramyxovirus," Doctor Rechal said.

"And you will not say anything?"

"As we have agreed. The blame will lie with the secondary, and we will say that she was jealous of your attentions with respect to the last caste female."

"Plus the secondary has had two daughters recently. Who's to say she isn't having another?" Arnis complained. "Useless."

"You know that I can check the gender of her fetus as well."

"Don't," Arnis said, "I have enough going on right now. We have contacted that Federation of Planets. They are going to send representatives here. Elemus is now on the Council and he met them a few years ago. He says they seem to have different ways but their ships look to be powerful. They are odd, though, humans. They even had a female captain on one of their vessels!"

"Perhaps it was some special program," Rechal said, "maybe she had men advising her. I cannot imagine a female being put in charge of anything so important and complicated."

"They may be strange, but I think they can help us with the Klingons. And I don't need the distractions of a murder trial while I am negotiating with them. I will now contact the authorities, and have them take Mistra away and have her pay for the death of the boy child held by the female vessel from the last caste."

=/\=

"Daranaea?" Erika asked, "So it's them again."

"Yes, I feel it's important to bring you in, Captain Hernandez, as you've had contact with the Daranaeans before," Admiral Gardner said.

"I think I remember that name," Jonathan said, "There was a First Contact report a few years ago. But I can't recall the details. Intelligent marsupials?"

"Captain Hernandez?" the admiral asked.

"Actually, Doctor Nguyen spent the most time with them. Care to talk about them?" she asked An Nguyen, her Chief Medical Officer.

He looked a little green around the gills. "I, it was a few years ago. We were contacted by a pleasure craft and I was asked to look at a patient. When Captain Hernandez and I got there, we learned they had a doctor, but that he had refused to treat this patient, a pregnant woman."

"But why?" asked Jennifer. She patted her own belly. Ines wasn't due for another seven months.

"It is," An continued, "they have a rigid caste system, but it's apparently only for the females. This woman was in the middle caste. Evidently only the upper caste is allowed Daranaean medical care, or at least is allowed it under all circumstances. So this, this secondary, she was basically being kept barefoot and pregnant. She told me that she had become pregnant while still pouch-feeding her youngest."

"My," Malcolm said, touching a dull grey metallic cuff on his left wrist. He often touched it when he was troubled or upset. It was a gift from her – Declan's mother – and he never took it off. Touching it made him feel a bit like she was there, with him, when he was away and needed her the most.

"There is also a third caste," An stated, "they aren't let out much at all. I was able to give her an examination, but it was after a lot of convincing of her husband. She was not supposed to get medical care at all, despite the fact that she, too, was pregnant. And," he took a deep breath, "I'm not even so sure that husband is the right word. Owner seems more correct. They used the terms husband and wives, but those women were all purchased."

"Yes," Erika added, "the first thing that the Prime Wife said to us, not even a hello – she told us that she was very expensive. It seemed like a point of pride with her. The secondary told us that she was somewhat expensive. As for the third one, she didn't talk until Doctor Nguyen had her alone in Sick Bay. I am thinking that being cut-rate isn't something to brag about."

"And now they want our help?" Jonathan asked.

"Yes," said Admiral Gardner, "they have Warp capabilities and they have a militia, but they aren't really set up for space battles and the like. Now, I realize that dealing with them might be difficult, but they are in a strategic location and they are trying to be friendly. Elemus, the owner of the pleasure craft from First Contact, reportedly set up the connection. Elemus is now on their Beta Council. Their Alpha is the leader of their government, a man named Arnis."

=/\=

Mistra was still a little shaky, so she did something that often made her feel better. "Come here, children, and we will do more learning," she said, and led them back into a room devoted to that, which had a small board and writing implements.

Even Vidam came over, although he knew all of this already, for he was beyond home learning and attending a big school in preparation for his maturity. He was already in the sixth year of ten, and had received more big school learning than Dratha and any other Prime Wife on Daranaea. But then Seppa came over. "No," he said to her, "this is not for you. It is Father's rule. You are last caste. You must go in the other room."

Seppa did as she was told but she cried a little. She was only a little child, and didn't seem to understand.

"All right, ready?" Mistra asked, looking a little sad-eyed that Seppa could not join them, but that was Arnis's rule. "We will look at the picture writing today. We put pictures together and make bigger words. Here, now," she drew on the small board, a figure eight on a forty-five degree angle, "what is this?"

"That is the symbol for sun," said Cria.

"Right! And this?" Mistra drew a kind of backwards J character, with a double line.

There was silence. Finally Vidam spoke up. "That means up or high."

"So when I put them together, what word do I get?" Mistra asked.

This time the second-born son – her own son, Trinning, who had had a year at the big school, answered, "Sunrise?"

"Right!" Mistra smiled, "You are all so clever. Arnis, Dratha and I, and, Int –" she almost mentioned Inta, "We are very proud of you."

"Why doesn't Seppa learn?" Cria asked.

"Seppa is in the last caste," Vidam explained, "they aren't taught to read and write. Father says that they don't believe in it."

"But Seppa wanted to be here with the rest of us," Cria insisted, "she has no mother now, and is afraid to be alone. She is but a little thing."

"She was wrong," Vidam said, "for Father says she does not belong here. When she is older, she will understand better."

There was a sound and the door of the children's learning room opened. It was Arnis, with Rechal, but there were also two armed security officers. Mistra stood up as quickly as she could. "What, what is this?"

"Are you Mistra?" asked one of the security officers while the other one sniffed her.

"She is from the secondary caste," concluded the sniffing security officer.

"I, I am Mistra," she said, getting scared.

"You are being charged with the death of a boy child," said the first security officer.

"What? I do not understand."

"The last caste female. When you killed her, she was carrying a boy child. This act carries with it severe penalties," said the second security officer, "and execution is not uncommon."

"I did not – Arnis! Arnis, tell them! I did not hurt Inta! I would never hurt Inta!"

The children all looked up, furry faces framing big, alarmed eyes moving to gaze at one parent's face and then another.

Arnis was silent and impassive. The two security officers took Mistra's hands and put them together. One of them shot a magenta beam from a wand. "Do not try to move your hands apart," he said, "or the paralytic field will become bigger. Come with us. You are to be incarcerated. Your penalty will depend upon whether you, too, are carrying a boy child."

"Arnis! Please! I am, am, I am innocent!"

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