Traveling Buddy
Half an hour later Kopper was awake and walking after the hooded guard. She carried only her reading pad but he carried a large duffel bag and a briefcase. Contrary to his previous friendliness he had said nothing when he had come to retrieve her for his journey. Kopper followed because there was nothing else she could do, but she was feeling quite sorry for herself. It seemed she was destined to be ignored, at least in space you didn’t have to see people ignoring you. She had wanted to be invisible when she was young, but not this invisible; perhaps she wanted to be visible, just not flashy.
Once they were out of the building, she was flashy. Everyone seemed to know that she was some sort of captive, or at lest something to be stared at. She didn’t think her dress was that different from what she saw some other women wearing so perhaps it was the guard that gave her away. In any case, she didn’t like it. At least when she was traveling with the officer on the train they had been pretty well un-noticed, but now parents pulled their children away and teenagers were making jokes after pointing at her. She wanted to get away from this so she started walking a bit faster, almost stepping on the heels of her guard. He didn’t seem to care and Kopper would have sworn that he slowed down.
Finally they reached a bus stop, one much further away than the one she had arrived at with the officer, although they had emerged from the same building. The woman at the desk did not look at Kopper when the guard checked her out of the facility. Two other guards had fallen in behind her when she left the building and now seemed to be keeping back a few of the more exuberant crowd as they waited for the bus to arrive. When the bus pulled up, they were given preferential boarding privileges by the crowd. People seemed to be giving her personal guard more deference than they were giving the other guards, but she couldn’t tell why this was. She was seated by the window and her personal guard sat by her after stowing his pieces of luggage in a compartment above their heads. The other two guards stood at the front and rear of the bus.
It seemed they were passing through a sizable city, but the industry that Kopper saw seemed different than what she remembered from youth. There was far less industrial activity than she expected and far more buildings with pointy roofs than she thought should be the case. She turned to her personal guard to perhaps ask a question as to why this was so, but he just pulled his hood more deeply over his face and turned slightly away from her. Kopper was about to turn back to the window when she noticed some of the stitching on the hood. She looked up the aisle at the guard in front, who was facing toward her, but not looking at her. He had no embroidery on his cloak or hood. She twisted in her seat and saw that the rear guard was exactly the same as the front guard in clothing and nearly in all other appearances as well. Some sort of rank seemed to be indicated by the stitching, she guessed. The guard who originally stripped her, she remembered had only a small amount of dark gray stitching on his cloak; one could barely see it when more than five steps away. She couldn’t remember anything about the pattern though.
Her personal guard had very elaborate patterns in the hood of the cloak. She supposed this was also true about the rest, but she didn’t look. Most of it was done in the same, or she supposed the same, color of thread that she had seen on that first guard, so it was only visible up close. But among the gray threads there were also some artistically placed colors. A vibrant red thread than ran along for only a few centimeters in the pattern here and a vivid yellow thread only a millimeter there. The effect was stunning. She had to look at it closely to realize that the beauty lay more in close inspection than distant observation. When he had been standing in the doorway of the white room, it seemed to her that he had some fuzz on his cloak, artistically arranged fuzz, but still it looked like fuzz, so she had ignored it. Now she could see delicate pictures of people in the cloak. A particular element in each scene was highlighted by the addition of some colored thread while the rest was the obscure gray. It must be this that the other people noticed on her guard that made them give him more respect.
Kopper wondered at this respect. It hadn’t seemed like the type of respect that someone gives to someone who is a dangerous warrior, it was more like some sort of social respect. But why would a guard have social respect rather than respect for physical ability? And further more, why would such an important person be guarding her? The guard shifted in his seat and she quickly adjusted her gaze to the window. If this man had the respect of society perhaps she shouldn’t be staring at his hood like that. What were the social customs now that she should be following? When they got off the bus she would have to make a point to look at the people around them and see what they were doing, specifically, to show respect so she could copy them and not get into trouble.
Twenty minutes later they were at an air transport check in counter. They had gotten off the bus first, even though they were seated halfway back and clearly others were departing the bus here. The personal guard again led the way and she was followed by the two other guards. Although there was a long line, they went straight to the counter and checked in. It was a quick process: they arrived at the counter, the personal guard scanned what Kopper gathered was the personal identification card (for government workers only or for all people, she didn’t know), and the man at the counter handed her personal guard two metal rods about five centimeters long and two millimeters in diameter, then they left. At what Kopper supposed was a security check point they were met by two more guards. These guards were dressed identical to the ones that had been following her except the cloth was blue instead of black. The personal guard pulled the sleeve of his cloak back to reveal an armband on his forearm and the black guards waved their cards over the band, the personal guard pressed a button on the armband and then the blue guards waved their cards. Then the black guards departed.
Her personal guard then turned to her and pulled her left hand up to chest level. Her sleeve fell back a small amount to partly expose her wrist. A blue guard then pushed the sleeve back further and put a band around her wrist. The personal guard took one of the metal rods and pushed it into the holder that was on the band and then lifted his left arm, which had the arm band over her wrist. He let go of her hand and pressed a few buttons.
“This is your ticket and tracker. Do not attempt to remove the rod or the wrist band,” the blue guard said without any enthusiasm. The two blue guards then presented her personal guard with their left wrists which also had a similar device attached, although more elaborate, again the personal guard pressed some buttons. After they had been activated, Koppper supposed that is what was going on, they took up the rear positions. Before pulling his cloak over his arm again, the respected guard slid the other rod into a slot on the armband.
The security screening also had a line and again they went directly to the front. It seemed to Kopper that the security personal were very lax in their scans of her personal guard once she saw how rigorous her scan was and the slightly less rigorous scan of the blue guards. After getting through security Kopper remembered that she had decided to observe behavior so she could act appropriately toward her personal guard. As they walked down the long hall with the waiting areas on either side, she watched people they were passing or that were passing them. She had to concentrate so she could differentiate between their reaction to him and their reaction to her, which made her walk more slowly. The personal guard seemed to sense that she was slowing, even though she hadn’t seem him look back at her once, because he told her to hurry up. She scampered to catch up with him and then spent half her time watching people and the other half trying to stay at the right pace.
It took ten minutes for them to arrive at their boarding area. Kopper supposed they would have to wait for a half hour or more before boarding but she was wrong. Her company walked directly to the boarding ramp where the admittance attendant held a wand by each left wrist and then they proceeded on board the air transport. They were the first on, as far as Kopper could tell. An alcove containing two chairs was their destination. Kopper was seated by the window, it seemed this was standard procedure, with her personal guard sitting next to her. Across the aisle was the an area that Kopper supposed was used to prepare food and drinks for the passengers, although right now it was occupied by one of the blue guards. The other blue guard had remained just outside the door of the transport.
Kopper tried to watch people as they boarded, but the chairs were arranged so she couldn’t quite do so and the cloak of the guard next to her obscured more. All that walking had made Kopper tired and before everyone had boarded she fell asleep.
Once they were out of the building, she was flashy. Everyone seemed to know that she was some sort of captive, or at lest something to be stared at. She didn’t think her dress was that different from what she saw some other women wearing so perhaps it was the guard that gave her away. In any case, she didn’t like it. At least when she was traveling with the officer on the train they had been pretty well un-noticed, but now parents pulled their children away and teenagers were making jokes after pointing at her. She wanted to get away from this so she started walking a bit faster, almost stepping on the heels of her guard. He didn’t seem to care and Kopper would have sworn that he slowed down.
Finally they reached a bus stop, one much further away than the one she had arrived at with the officer, although they had emerged from the same building. The woman at the desk did not look at Kopper when the guard checked her out of the facility. Two other guards had fallen in behind her when she left the building and now seemed to be keeping back a few of the more exuberant crowd as they waited for the bus to arrive. When the bus pulled up, they were given preferential boarding privileges by the crowd. People seemed to be giving her personal guard more deference than they were giving the other guards, but she couldn’t tell why this was. She was seated by the window and her personal guard sat by her after stowing his pieces of luggage in a compartment above their heads. The other two guards stood at the front and rear of the bus.
It seemed they were passing through a sizable city, but the industry that Kopper saw seemed different than what she remembered from youth. There was far less industrial activity than she expected and far more buildings with pointy roofs than she thought should be the case. She turned to her personal guard to perhaps ask a question as to why this was so, but he just pulled his hood more deeply over his face and turned slightly away from her. Kopper was about to turn back to the window when she noticed some of the stitching on the hood. She looked up the aisle at the guard in front, who was facing toward her, but not looking at her. He had no embroidery on his cloak or hood. She twisted in her seat and saw that the rear guard was exactly the same as the front guard in clothing and nearly in all other appearances as well. Some sort of rank seemed to be indicated by the stitching, she guessed. The guard who originally stripped her, she remembered had only a small amount of dark gray stitching on his cloak; one could barely see it when more than five steps away. She couldn’t remember anything about the pattern though.
Her personal guard had very elaborate patterns in the hood of the cloak. She supposed this was also true about the rest, but she didn’t look. Most of it was done in the same, or she supposed the same, color of thread that she had seen on that first guard, so it was only visible up close. But among the gray threads there were also some artistically placed colors. A vibrant red thread than ran along for only a few centimeters in the pattern here and a vivid yellow thread only a millimeter there. The effect was stunning. She had to look at it closely to realize that the beauty lay more in close inspection than distant observation. When he had been standing in the doorway of the white room, it seemed to her that he had some fuzz on his cloak, artistically arranged fuzz, but still it looked like fuzz, so she had ignored it. Now she could see delicate pictures of people in the cloak. A particular element in each scene was highlighted by the addition of some colored thread while the rest was the obscure gray. It must be this that the other people noticed on her guard that made them give him more respect.
Kopper wondered at this respect. It hadn’t seemed like the type of respect that someone gives to someone who is a dangerous warrior, it was more like some sort of social respect. But why would a guard have social respect rather than respect for physical ability? And further more, why would such an important person be guarding her? The guard shifted in his seat and she quickly adjusted her gaze to the window. If this man had the respect of society perhaps she shouldn’t be staring at his hood like that. What were the social customs now that she should be following? When they got off the bus she would have to make a point to look at the people around them and see what they were doing, specifically, to show respect so she could copy them and not get into trouble.
Twenty minutes later they were at an air transport check in counter. They had gotten off the bus first, even though they were seated halfway back and clearly others were departing the bus here. The personal guard again led the way and she was followed by the two other guards. Although there was a long line, they went straight to the counter and checked in. It was a quick process: they arrived at the counter, the personal guard scanned what Kopper gathered was the personal identification card (for government workers only or for all people, she didn’t know), and the man at the counter handed her personal guard two metal rods about five centimeters long and two millimeters in diameter, then they left. At what Kopper supposed was a security check point they were met by two more guards. These guards were dressed identical to the ones that had been following her except the cloth was blue instead of black. The personal guard pulled the sleeve of his cloak back to reveal an armband on his forearm and the black guards waved their cards over the band, the personal guard pressed a button on the armband and then the blue guards waved their cards. Then the black guards departed.
Her personal guard then turned to her and pulled her left hand up to chest level. Her sleeve fell back a small amount to partly expose her wrist. A blue guard then pushed the sleeve back further and put a band around her wrist. The personal guard took one of the metal rods and pushed it into the holder that was on the band and then lifted his left arm, which had the arm band over her wrist. He let go of her hand and pressed a few buttons.
“This is your ticket and tracker. Do not attempt to remove the rod or the wrist band,” the blue guard said without any enthusiasm. The two blue guards then presented her personal guard with their left wrists which also had a similar device attached, although more elaborate, again the personal guard pressed some buttons. After they had been activated, Koppper supposed that is what was going on, they took up the rear positions. Before pulling his cloak over his arm again, the respected guard slid the other rod into a slot on the armband.
The security screening also had a line and again they went directly to the front. It seemed to Kopper that the security personal were very lax in their scans of her personal guard once she saw how rigorous her scan was and the slightly less rigorous scan of the blue guards. After getting through security Kopper remembered that she had decided to observe behavior so she could act appropriately toward her personal guard. As they walked down the long hall with the waiting areas on either side, she watched people they were passing or that were passing them. She had to concentrate so she could differentiate between their reaction to him and their reaction to her, which made her walk more slowly. The personal guard seemed to sense that she was slowing, even though she hadn’t seem him look back at her once, because he told her to hurry up. She scampered to catch up with him and then spent half her time watching people and the other half trying to stay at the right pace.
It took ten minutes for them to arrive at their boarding area. Kopper supposed they would have to wait for a half hour or more before boarding but she was wrong. Her company walked directly to the boarding ramp where the admittance attendant held a wand by each left wrist and then they proceeded on board the air transport. They were the first on, as far as Kopper could tell. An alcove containing two chairs was their destination. Kopper was seated by the window, it seemed this was standard procedure, with her personal guard sitting next to her. Across the aisle was the an area that Kopper supposed was used to prepare food and drinks for the passengers, although right now it was occupied by one of the blue guards. The other blue guard had remained just outside the door of the transport.
Kopper tried to watch people as they boarded, but the chairs were arranged so she couldn’t quite do so and the cloak of the guard next to her obscured more. All that walking had made Kopper tired and before everyone had boarded she fell asleep.
posted by Unknown at 11:13 AM
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