KORDA

Chapter Four

Selena had a vidphone but didn't feel safe using it. She packed bag lunches and vegetable snacks in our backpacks, along with bottled water. We waited for my damp plimsolls to dry completely despite my eagerness to get moving. I slung the blue backpack over one shoulder, tossed back my long, blonde locks (eliciting a giggle from Selena), hitched up my stolen bloomers and raised an eyebrow; Selena nodded and off we went. The next stop on the Ingram line was two miles off, and closed. We followed the track four miles to the next station: closed. We sat on a bench and lunched. Another four and a half miles of trudging brought us to an open station and we sat and waited for the Ingram trolley, but when we heard it would be delayed for at least another hour, we got up and walked the six miles to Jeayes, the first of the stops served by the express from Sabu. I was ready to interrogate the cosmetologist but Selena sat me down and politely asked her about the next train (a local; we had seen an express zoom by, eastward, during our hike), the weather, batona scores in Selten and whether any two women in odd attire might have passed through the station recently. None had.

I was worried about the train that had passed us; what if Nyssa and Tegan were on it? If so, we needed to double back. Selena shook her head. We had no way of knowing whether my friends had passed us on the express but even if they had, we would have better luck traveling on my "ship," wouldn't we? "No," I explained. "She's rubbish at short hops. We could end up in another century, or in Other, or both. I just need to see if they made it back to her. That would solve a host of problems."

"For you," sighed Selena. "But yes, that's what we're doing today, and for however long it takes. I have to remind myself sometimes: saving the world all at once would be nice, but one person at a time works too."

Selena said she had allies at just about every stop but didn't want to call upon all of them, as each meeting put multiple parties at risk.

We were pretty footsore when we reached Selton, the next express stop after Jeayes. Selton was Korda's second city, a proper rival to Ingram in size, population and cultural activity, although from the little of that last we'd seen in Ingram, that wasn't saying much. There were two cosmetologists at the Selton station, and a cross-country line as well. Neither cosmetologist had been on duty the day before and there were no records to check. Today, no one unusual had come or gone.

We were too beat to walk anymore so we did call upon Selena's Selton ally, Ventura, whose wife, Sepulveda, was also an ally; they were both retired and owned three men, one with a Moe Howard haircut, one with a crew cut and one with fuzz just growing out. They did not wear ankle monitors but I was wary. "Rescues," explained Selena.

"Keepers," corrected Sepulveda.

"I'll explain later," whispered Selena.

Our hosts had trolley schedules so we knew when we had to be back at the station. They also had a hot dinner for us, a room for Selena and a sofa for me. I even got to bathe and change into pajamas, and in the morning I was presented with a pair of boots not dissimilar to Nyssa's. I was certainly glad to be out of the wig and especially the pinching headband; my head ached, rather.

Selena went to the station alone despite my contention that I was needed there to recognize my friends if they turned up. She insisted that it was too dangerous for me to go out more than necessary and I should take advantage of our temporary shelter. Our temporary shelter made me slightly uncomfortable, not because of the marriage of two women (I was aware that on Earth, even up to the time of its destruction, there had been some backward folk who still objected) but because I felt insecure about my personhood in that household. By the women I was treated civilly, even warmly, but the presence of Gower, Franklin and Wilcox baffled me. Were they rescues, slaves or both, and how would they regard me? My safety, and by extension the safety of my missing companions, might depend on how they regarded me. Sándorton was still painfully fresh in my mind.

Feeling quite rested – and restless – I spent some time getting the three men to help me draw up a trolley map of the continent. Wilcox, or "Moe" as I thought of him, had been requisitioned on his way from Other to visit his ill mother, who'd had him spirited across the sea as a toddler. Other, I learned, is not what people on Other called their continent; they called it Rózsa and called the smaller but more dominant continent Powell. People on Powell always called their continent Korda, as if it were the entire planet. Moe was finding it difficult to adjust to life on Powell and was even antsier than I, but knew so little about the trolley system that he couldn't help me with my map and I couldn't distract him with my project. Franklin, of the crew cut, knew every stop on every line.

Gower was recovering from being recovered: he had run away and been caught and returned to his owner, beaten, tenderized and put up for auction, where he'd not fetched the reserve price. Sepulveda had witnessed his capture and knew from experience how likely a runaway was to end up on the auction block, so she made a point of being there and, with some allies, effected a pretty dramatic escape. A manhunt was still in progress, and a door-to-door citizens brigade had already visited but failed to find him (he was hiding in plain sight, disguised as an old lady, with plenty of makeup to cover his injuries). Gower never said a word the whole time I was there, although he did cry out loudly enough in his sleep for me to hear him from my sofa in the parlor.

Selena came back with the not-unexpected information that there was no information; Nyssa and Tegan had not been seen. I was ready to go, wig (and dreaded headband) and all, another box lunch and bag of snacks in my blue backpack, and comfy boots on my feet (my plimsolls were in the backpack too). I'm not sure why, but I hoped I at least looked cute. Sepulveda and Ventura hugged me and kissed Selena. We both got hugs from Moe and Franklin; Gower did not see us off.

At the station, I was permitted to pay for our fares to Veidt, the last express stop before Ingram. I hated to have the wig trimmed but Selena said it would be less suspicious if the longest-haired party paid. Selena's red hair was shoulder-length (because she was a spendthrift, she said). For once we didn't have to wait long for the express. It was a long ride though, as Veidt was actually a suburb of Ingram. As we zoomed past small stations, Selena told me, sotto voce, what she had promised to tell me "later."

"Most marriages," she explained, "are traditional Earth marriages." I raised an eyebrow. "Business arrangements. There are women who love women on Korda but even they need men if they wish to procreate, and on a colony such as Korda, that's quite important. But you can't marry a possession. So we marry each other."

"You're not married."

She was silent for a moment. "Well," she finally said, "only a few people know this, but… I am married. To a man. I don't own him. He is free."

"On Rózsa."

"Yes."

"A business arrangement?"

"No," she laughed. "We love each other." She sighed. "I miss him but there is much work to be done."

"So I see," I said, and then, perhaps naively, "I don't understand what that whole thing on the trolley was. The robbery part I understand. Not sure about abducting the four women. Ransom? But no one has heard from them, right?" Selena nodded. "And me… what was that all about? Why would a man be part of that, and how would he? If they were trying to rescue me and send me to Oth… I mean Rózsa I think they'd have let me in on it or at least stopped trying to terrorize me once we were alone."

Selena was slow to answer. "There are all sorts of people in this world…"

"Or any other," I agreed.

"… and we'll never understand what motivates some of them. I am sure they had ill intentions toward you. Why a man would collaborate is beyond me but then so is the whole war."

"War?"

"My grandmother told me what her grandmother had told her. The original colonists were men, women, children, all working together, and they made a good life here. For generations there was equality, cooperation… yes, I know, I'm making it sound perfect. Nothing is ever perfect. But it was good."

"That's how I remember it. What changed?"

"No one knows why the war started. It was Rózsa against Powell, or Powell against Rózsa, maybe a trade thing, maybe some official taking offense at what some other official said, who knows? War is war. Men and women went to war against other men and women. The patriarchy once known on Earth became a way of life on Powell, but not, or at least not for long, on Rózsa. Women didn't like it one bit and then, when a lot more men were killed than women in the war, we - I say 'we' but I wasn't born yet; my great-grandmothers were not born yet – we rebelled and then the population became even more skewed. Men became a commodity. That's how it started."

The driver called out the approaching stop, Veidt, and I realized with a start that he seemed to be speaking Gallifreyan. The TARDIS was not exactly next door but it was close enough to translate. I pride myself that my English is of native proficiency, in several dialects, even; sometimes if I am not paying particular attention I don't even know which language I am hearing and that's fine with me but I always make an effort to speak a local language if I know it – and I know lots of languages. English has become so natural to me that I don't have to make an effort. With these happy observations I followed Selena out of the trolley and over to the lone cosmetologist, where Selena made small talk and worked in her inquiries about my friends. The cosmetologist remembered no such passengers, coming or going, but suggested that not many people, other than residents, did get off in Veidt. We should check in Ingram, she said. We knew that would be unnecessary; if my friends were in Ingram, surely they were in the TARDIS.

We didn't have to wait for another express; the next (and last) stop for all trolleys on that line is Ingram.

Once at Ingram station, I led the way. I knew just where we'd left the TARDIS and the prospect of being even temporarily within the safety of her dimensionally transcendental walls perked me up; Selena could barely keep up with my eager stride. And there she was, beautiful, shabby old box. Selena was amused. "That's your ship?"

I opened the door and bowed, waving her in with a flourish. " Entrez!"

Of course I hastened in after her to enjoy her reaction; I was not disappointed. She was in awe, speechless. I went to close the door and could not miss the note wrapped around the knobbed lever and tied with a maroon velvet ribbon I had more than once seen in Nyssa's hair. I untied and unwrapped it, and waved it at Selena, who was wandering about the console room examining everything but the very floor. She came over and watched me as I read aloud:

"Doctor, we are so worried about you and hope you somehow make it back here to see that we, too, made it back. We are unharmed and in no danger that we know of. We have a plan to find you. Nyssa will go to the north coast and head east, and I will go to the south coast and also head east. Everyone says you must have been taken away by boat and we trust you have not gone to Other, so you may be somewhere along the coast. Nyssa has bought us bicycles and given me her little bags of change from the trolleys, so that I won't be broke. Why did I ever decide to keep my hair short? We'll meet at Sabu station. If one of us finds you, you can fly the TARDIS to Sabu and pick the other up, right?" I stopped reading and looked at Selena. "Easier said than done," I sighed, then read on: "I don't know how long this will take. I hope you find this. I hope we find you. Please be all right, Doctor. We love you." I looked at Selena again, too moved to speak; I handed her the note.

"It's signed 'Tegan,'" said Selena, handing me back the note.

"Yes." I rolled the note up and tied it carefully with the ribbon, started to put it in my coat pocket and then realized I was wearing my stolen dress; my coat was in my backpack. I put the note in the backpack too.

"So can we use your ship to help us find your friends?"

"I wouldn't want to risk it. What are our other options? Have we any other options?" Then I fetched the note right back out of the backpack. "Look here; the note is dated. May 12. What day is it, Selena?"

"It is still May 12," she replied.

I hastily wrote "STAY HERE!" on the back of Tegan's note and, with Nyssa's ribbon, tied it back onto the door lever.

"Where can we get some bicycles?"

Selena said, "We need to do better than bicycles, Doctor."