Soceity

The next morning Kopper was standing next to Martha and a mule outside the building that she now realized she had grown attached to in the last two weeks. She fidgeted with her sleeve and scuffed her new shoes on the cobblestone drive. Martha finished adjusting the load on the mule and turned to Kopper in a way that suggested Kopper might be more of a problem than the complaining mule, which was now reaching around and trying to pull off its load. Martha administered a slap to the mule’s nose that told it to stop it without hurting it greatly and she grabbed hold of the halter to keep it from turning again.

“Sister, I know you are still getting used to all this, but know that I do care for you and what you are feeling. Since I was observing you and Father Matthew during the last two weeks I know more than those who just saw you as a show during the council meeting and dinners. You and Father Matthew seem to have a history that goes beyond just these two weeks, but I will not reveal this knowledge to others and I do not want to know any more about it. Something more that I saw was that he loves you in a way that the clergy are not permitted to and that you love him despite your disagreements with him regarding everything in this society. Yes, I noticed that you are not the person you presented at the trial, but I do not hold it against you. Honestly, I play the game like Father Matthew does but I disagree more with what is happening, or perhaps Father Matthew is a better player of the game. In any case, I think you will find life at the convent not so horrible as you may think. I saw your face fall when the verdict was announced yesterday, even if everyone else did not. Why else did you think I was there? Through the grapevine Florin was able to send word that someone needed to take care of you after the trial and she didn’t want it to be someone unsympathetic to your attitudes. So when word came to my convent that we may have a new member, I made it clear that this ‘new member,’ that I was supposed to not know the name of was very welcome and it would be considered a great blessing if you came. The rest of the three convents petitioned for their situation in accepting a new member were not so eager since they only knew that you were a political problem of some sort. Political problems accepted to convents are rarely a boon because they frequently cause more problems than the convent can handle and the woman is usually sent to the convent to be contained. I can’t say that I was initially considering being welcoming to you either, but the underground word was that you were not a problem maker, you were merely stuck in a problem.

“But back to what I must say before we start our journey. Father Matthew, even though he loves you or rather because he loves you, will not be coming out to say goodbye. Say your goodbyes in your head or out loud if you want. I will wait by the mule and in two minutes we will leave. It is a long journey we have ahead of us and we must reach our first way point by dusk for there are those that would harm us merely for wearing the garb of nuns. Do not weep though, you can do that later, but here you must know there are those watching us from a distance that would report that your actions were not becoming of one who was joyful to accept the position of a nun, as you said you were yesterday. It is best that we leave as few doubting people here as possible. I am not sure what we are going to do with you yet, but I have a feeling that God kept you in space, uncontaminated by the events of this earth for a reason I have not yet fathomed. This purpose may be more easily accomplished if you do not attract the attention of the government, so we will leave as quietly and unobtrusively as possible.” Martha stepped away and finished the final adjustments to the load and double checked the mule for its soundness to travel. The council had granted them the gift of the mule on their travels and for use at the convent as a recognition that Kopper deserved something for her contrite behavior and dramatic conversion. Hush money of a sort, Martha mused. Although she doubted that Kopper would realized the magnitude of the gift until she saw the convent.

After Martha had delayed as long as she could, she untied the mule and walked it to where Kopper stood stoically looking at the park. Without any words they started down the road and didn’t look back as the host of buildings receded into the distance.

Kopper was still not as strong as she wished to be, but she was pretty close to being able to walk the whole day at a slow pace. Martha was in excellent shape since her only mode of transportation, most times, was her own two feet and everyone at the convent had to help keep the farm going to feed themselves. However, she had anticipated that her travel time from the convent would be much shorter than her return trip and had arranged for lodging at proper intervals for the return trip on her outgoing trip. It was interesting, she noted, that while Kopper had been granted the privilege of traveling on the train, the bus, and the air transport, Martha was required to get to the trial on time without any such advantages, and she had hardly any time to prepare for the trip. In fact she had spent long days walking quickly to arrive in time for the Sunday services since she knew Kopper would need her help and that nobody else would think of such a thing. It was almost as if Father Matthew had deliberately planned to not let Kopper see the true state of affairs until her trial was over. Kopper would have thought all those forms of travel perfectly normal since they were easily accessible by any member of the Arts. However, now those forms of travel were strictly regulated and handed out as privileges to those who the government favored and mostly it was reserved for those who held high positions in the government. It was good that Father Matthew had pulled the strings he could pull to get Kopper almost the full two weeks under his tutelage, because he she had traveled by the usual methods afforded to people of her current station, she would have had barely a day to prepare and the results would doubtless have been more punishing to Kopper. Though Kopper probably didn’t understand how things could be worse for her. Martha mused about all this during the first day of walking while Kopper merely looked around in wonderment.

The council had elaborate grounds and the people were all healthy. Now that they were off the main route to the council grounds and on a normal track of degrading biocrete, Kopper was amazed. The surrounding area was deteriorating back, very quickly, into an agrarian society. Large buildings that had been technically advanced were crumbling as they were not used or were mined for materials for other things, like barns. The people were not in good health. Every member of the Arts was in nearly perfect health, with some of them enhanced to much better health. Now most of the people had no health care and did not live in what would be called the cleanest of conditions. So people were blowing their noses on dirty hankies and some were limping slightly from a foot or leg condition that just would not heal. At the end of the day there was a small house that accepted them, fortunately Kopper was tired and it was dark so Martha didn’t have to explain much to Kopper. They downed some soup that was heavy on the water and some bread that was heavy then collapsed into some pallets made up before the fire.

In the morning, Kopper woke up and almost panicked. At eye level was a clump of straw that was a tiny bit musty and it rustled, a bit further away was a cat that was eyeing the straw intently. Kopper was about to sit up and try and figure out where she was and why she was sleeping on a hard floor that appeared to be dirt, when the cat jumped on the straw and came up with a mouse. She did sit up quite suddenly when the cat pounced and was impressed enough by the cats adjustment to the mouse’s movement which was a response to Kopper’s movement that she didn’t yell out. Martha had woken before Kopper and came over to her with two bowls and a two rough spoons. She knelt beside Kopper and handed her one of each with a good look that said, “Be grateful and quiet.” Kopper ate her lumpy porridge quietly and ate the whole thing even though she wasn’t enthusiastic about the taste or the texture. Martha took the bowls back to the corner of the room that Kopper interpreted as the kitchen where she scrubbed them and put them away. Before Martha was done scrubbing, Kopper realized that Martha had folded up the sleeping materials she had used so Kopper did the same. She dusted herself off and realized she would be wearing these clothes for more than one day and night and bathing didn’t seem to be a possibility based on the surroundings so she did a good job of dusting. Martha was heading out the door so Kopper did the same and was grateful when they stopped at a well and drew a bit of cold water to splash their faces somewhat clean, as well as draw water for the mule and for their water skins for travel that day. Martha retrieved their small amount of bedding from the house and loaded it on the mule. Out of nowhere, or at least it seemed so to Kopper’s untrained senses, the woman that had greeted them the night before arrived at Kopper’s side. Martha said some polite words of thanks and Kopper managed a few as well, then they were walking on the road again.

“I take it, err, that quite a lot has changed since I uh last lived on earth?” Kopper tried to give a vague question to Martha in the hopes that it would yield some useful information without insulting Martha.

Martha sighed, “Yes. I suppose it was too much to expect that Florin had told you about how things really are and certainly Father Matthew wouldn’t have told you. I guess that leaves me. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you... it just may be rough on the edges. Don’t ask questions until the end, please.”

“Okay.”

Just about the time that Kopper was going to ask if Martha was going to tell her everything now or when they got to the convent, Martha started talking.

“Soon after you left for your mission, things on this planet got a little complicated. The Blesseds, as you may or may not recall, asked their citizens to perform and act of piety every year or so. What you may not know is that when someone converted to being a Blessed, or as you knew it immigrated, the immigrant was required to perform an act chosen by the immigration board. The ‘accident’ that killed your parents was actually an act by one of the lab members who then became a Blessed. They had nothing against your parents, they just didn’t like the work they were doing. Not long after, it became quite fashionable to make political statements using such terrorism even though the governments didn’t approve of it and they were killing their own people in the terrorism. So the very integration that was supposed to stop the whole terrorism was ineffective. The Arts were slow to respond, but they did decide eventually to withdraw into their own compounds. That is when they recalled the sun catcher crews. I am guessing that you did not get that message for whatever reason. Honestly I think that they didn’t think about the recall that much. When the crews returned they found the moon base populated, at least those who immediately returned did, but there was no ground support. It was impossible for the Arts to protect all the facilities they had and the sun catcher facilities seemed to be at the bottom of the totem pole. There was a rumor for a time that the only reason a recall was issued was because someone in the program thought it would only be fair to recall the crews and not because there was an official action to recall. That might explain why a direct message was never sent to the crews, but it didn’t seem to be problematic since only about five crews were unaccounted for and all the crews but you were much older and were considered dead when they didn’t return.

“Actually I am surprised any ex-Art was allowed near the old base since the Blesseds generally decided that letting Arts continue in their ways would be allowing them to sin and therefor the Blesseds would be responsible for not teaching them. In any case it is a good thing that someone knew what to do when you came down. The last two crews that arrived a little late didn’t fare so well. Their touchdown was immediately reported and they were taken away. Unfortunately they weren’t taken care of in a way that they should have been and I think currently they are pretty well immobile due to spinal injuries from the ‘recovery’ time.

“The Arts successfully repelled the Blessed attacks for quite a while, but eventually they ran out of enough power to defend the outposts and so they got smaller and smaller. The Blesseds also launched a propaganda war in which they told people to convert now and God would not punish them. Some Arts converted and were assured of a better life now and after they die if they took out some Arts and Art facilities on their way out. So the Arts deteriorated even more. Incidentally, the Nats converted almost immediately. They had no defenses and were rapidly integrated into being a lower class society within the Blessed structure. The Gleaners were never really a nation so they were also rapidly absorbed into the people you see around you now.

“The Arts did make a war and even now there are a couple of places that they still claim as Art territory. Realistically though, the last major battle was completed a year ago. A large compound near where you grew up, actually, was the last place the Arts effectively defended and held a lot of people. It was slaughter. One of the Arts inside knew that the compound was going to fall within six months since the power was running low, so he decided to make the conversion and gain a position in the Blessed society. He set a self distruct of sorts and then snuck out of there. You should know he was one of the bishops that was sitting behind the cardinals at your trial; word got around that he wanted to have you beat and then sent on your way to the convent without me or this mule. An evil man that doesn’t want any competition, although how you could offer him any competition I am unsure.

“So that is how it is now. Some of us Arts quietly surrendered and tried to take up minimal roles in the Blessed society where we could help others. I was fortunate enough to get the job of nun and I rose within the internal ranks to my current position as head of the convent. We have tried to maintain a disconnect of sorts with the main government without attracting any attention. Although we try not to keep track, I do know that there are Arts, Nats, and Blesseds in the convent. Try to make friends and not think poorly of any of the other sisters. Ah what am I saying, you have shown a willingness to be friendly to everyone thus far. I think you’ll fit in quite well. You will have to get used to being in the company of others though and we do a lot of work to keep ourselves fed and somewhat comfortable. Don’t worry, we’ll teach you what to do and nobody will expect you to keep up physically, at first.

“Take a look around you as we walk. Get used to the country life, perhaps traveling through it before you have to take up permanent residence will help you adjust. I will answer questions about the life, but for now, I prefer to not answer questions about history. We have one sister, sister Agatha, who has shown great dexterity in helping others adjust to this life. She is quite good at picking up on other people’s needs for mental nourishment.

“No questions for now, just walk and think and organize. Then you can ask.”