Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

A gentle shake brought Kopper out of sleep. Her eyes snapped open and she realized that she had been resting her head on the respected guard’s shoulder. He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t seem upset that she had been sleeping nor that she had been doing so while resting her head on him She collected her reading pad from the pocket in the wall in front of her even though she didn’t remember putting it there. The guard had stood up and was walking toward the exit while one of the blue guards indicated that she should follow. Her face felt grimy even though she was sure it looked clean, so the smile she offered the guard was weak. The guard looked as alert and fresh as when she first saw him and didn’t seem to notice her attempt at smiling. So she trudged on in the direction that her embroidery clad, silent leader had gone.

Just outside the transport doors, the hood looked back at her and then it swiftly took off again. He led her to and then through and area that was marked restricted. Along one of the walls was a door labeled as a bathroom and Kopper suddenly was aware of how much she had to go pee. Fortunately the respected guard seemed to have anticipated this because he had stopped on the other side of the door and made it clear she was to go in. Kopper rushed in, peed, and then did her best to feel better by washing up at the sink. She emerged in slightly better spirits, but she still have a fairly dim view on her prospects of ever being treated as an actual, present person again.

Again, they traveled for a while on foot before emerging outside. The blue guards were traded for black ones again and then a car pulled up. This was the first car that Kopper had seen since she had gotten back to earth. She thought everyone had converted to traveling by bus by the lack of cars, but maybe that had just been that region. Her leader got in the car and then she was herded in by the black guards. One of them joined them in the back seat while the other rode next to the driver. There was plenty of room, but Kopper felt oppressed by having a guard on either side of her and missed her window. It seemed this city was much like the last one and they were taken swiftly to an entrance gate where the driver got out of the car. He filled out some paperwork while a guard, like the ones already in the car, went around and scanned everyone’s wrist. Apparently they all passed the screening because the gate opened and the driver got back in and drove them to a large gray stone building.

Kopper was ushered inside the door, up two flights up steps, down a short hallway and into a rectangular room. The floor was stone, but carpets were in convenient places in the room. There was one in front of the neatly made bed, one under the chair in front of the desk and one in front of the window. There was a lamp on the desk and on the table beside the bed. Another door stood partly open opposite where they had entered and a peek told her it was a bathroom. The room was also decorated with two elaborate wall hangings, Kopper thought perhaps these were what were called tapestries. They were made from bright colors with one showing a scene of a shepherd and his sheep and the other was what Kopper guessed to be some artists vision of the parting of the Jordan River for the Israelites.

The guards had all stood outside while she entered the room so she presumed this was to be her room; she had feared a cell. She walked over to the window and saw that it looked out over a large, green park that was dotted with trees and flower beds. She heard someone enter the room behind her and then jumped a bit when she heard the door close. Unsure of what she would find, she turned to meet what she supposed could be her doom.

Instead, she found that she was facing the respected guard who was loosening his cloak. He dropped the cloak onto the bed and then walked over to the chair and turned it around so he could face Kopper when he sat down.
“If you wish to stand, you may. If you wish to sit down I’ll ask for another chair to be brought here,” he said in a light tone. Kopper just shook her head no and continued to stand.

“I am sorry I did not talk earlier, I couldn’t risk that you would recognize me eventually. You didn’t recognize me on my first visit to your room did you?”

“I, uh, thought you were familiar but I wasn’t sure why,” Kopper responded and then without thinking asked, “Why would it be problematic if I did recognize you?”

“Ah, well since you don’t know much about what is going on in the world right now I expect the long explanation would mean little to you so I’ll stick to the short one. I couldn’t be your confessor if I knew you and I feel I will be the best confessor you could get. Don’t look too troubled, I’ll try to explain as much as I can to you. Although, for now I will have to explain only a few minutes worth. Dinner will soon be served and we will both be expected at the lower table in the dining room. You have become a popular topic of conversation here and as your confessor I am expected to accompany you to all functions until the end of the trial.”

Kopper opened her mouth to say something about this information, but she couldn’t decide what and so the man was not interrupting when he continued in a few seconds.

“Let’s see. I suppose the first order of business is to have you remember who I am. Admittedly I am a tiny bit disappointed that you did not already recognize me, but I guess that is to be expected. I didn’t recognize you either, I had to read your file to find out your identity. While you waited to depart from the holding cell I was reading the file and reports on you. I almost jumped up and ran back to the cell when I read your name. Fortunately, my brain stopped me from doing so since that would have exposed the fact that I knew you from the past. Yes, Kopper Light Elgin, I know who you are from more than just what others have written about you. I imagine your friend, uh Florid? Flounder?”

“Florin?” Kopper offered.

“Ah yes Florin, told you that you may not want to use your last name. You see it is a bit infamous, although your parents are still held as reasonably respectable people. The whole thing is quite coincidental, but I’ll get to that later. For now, I recommend you submit an official request to be called only Kopper Light.”

She stared blankly at him. There was a long silence that Kopper wished to keep, she didn’t know if she wanted to hear what this man had to say, so she turned back to the window.

“This is probably quite difficult for you Kopper, I can’ t imagine what you are having to go through. We’ll deal with the name thing tomorrow. Back to the matter at hand. Please look at me.” He waited for her to turn around then he offered her the chair and he stood up. In a playful gesture he turned around as if he was modeling his uniform for her. From that movement Kopper thought she saw something, but couldn’t quite place it.

“I see you recognize something of me, but are unsure where to place it. It is good enough that you only vaguely remember me. My current name is Father Matthew Steadfast, hence the embroidery and other symbols of my office, but you know me as Loyal Fairchild. Now you are wondering if they won’t look up your records and see that we went to the same school. The answer is that most of the school records from that time have been destroyed so they won’t even bother looking. I think we are safe from being discovered.”

Kopper was shocked. She remembered L now, she had never known that he knew she even existed. How odd. As for the title, what did “Father” mean? Well at least she had someone smart on her side, whatever her side was. Unless this was all a ruse to get her to trust him and then...well what would they want from her? She didn’t know anything. But maybe they didn’t know that. Kopper just about jumped across the room when Father Matthew crossed the room and then she did jump out of her chair when he knelt in front of her.

“I have long wondered what happened to you, Kopper. I worried for you when you disappeared and then I worried for you during the wars. When I read the papers that said you had returned to earth in a sun catcher escape pod I nearly cried. Had I known you were up there, oh I don’t know what I would have done, but I would have done something. Whatever you need, I’ll be happy to get. If I can serve you in any way, let me know. For now, I ask you follow my advice and I will get you through this trial. Right now, we have to go to diner. There will be some clothes for you in the closet, put on something that you like, but no trousers. Come out when you are ready, but try not to take longer than five minutes, we are late already.”

He got up after this, gave her an awkward hug, rehung his cloak around his shoulders and went out the door. Kopper nearly fell over before finding herself sitting on the bed. A short knock and the door opened again without waiting for her to respond. The now slightly familiar hand reached in the crack and tossed a small box onto the carpet near the window and then the door closed again. The box was one of the things that Florin had packed for her. It was some pills that would help her regain her energy and there was a months supply inside. After that, Florin said she had to do the best she could, which should be pretty close to normal, since Florin had no more pills to pack. So Kopper went over, opened the box and swallowed one pill. She set the box on the desk and then went over to the closet. How much time had passed? Unsure she selected a dress at random, pulled off her tube of a dress and then stepped into the stiff dress from the closet. It had a high neck and made moving a bit difficult, but the stiffness gave her some support even though it followed her body’s contours a bit more closely than she would have wished. The laces in the back were troublesome so she only got them done about two thirds of the way up her back. She ground her teeth and decided that it didn’t matter what her dignity said, she had none left. So she opened the door and found Father Matthew, it helped her to just think of him as Father Matthew for now, and asked him to finish the lacing. He was happy to do so and finished it up with swift dexterity and then he offered her his arm as they walked down to the dining hall.

They reached the hall where around a dozen long tables were with about a dozen people around each of them. Father Matthew seemed to know where they were to sit so Kopper just trailed along beside him trying to ignore the looks and whispers directed toward her. At the table she found herself seated to the right of Father Matthew who was at the head of the table and to the left of another guard. This guard had colored stitching in his cloak as well but there was less of it and she saw his chest contained a smaller badge of office. Kopper permitted herself a few moments to wonder that wearing cloaks all the time seemed to be normal and also a bit of pride in showing up with someone who apparently had some rank as the rest of the table and several other tables seemed to have lessly colored guards at them.

The conversations at other tables started once again since Kopper had sat down and the gentleman to her right tried to start a conversation with Kopper. Father Matthew rescued her with and apology that Kopper was still quite worn out from her journeys and that wouldn’t the Father (apparently this other man was also a Father) wait until another evening to ask his questions to Kopper. Tonight he would be happy to tell anyone what they wished to know about Kopper in her stead. He said this all with quite the silver tongue and the man was pacified to only a little resentment for the rest of the meal. Kopper was quite hungry, but she remembered Florin’s advice to pace herself so she took small bites and chewed carefully. At least the food was good. There was a variety of vegetables and a bit of fruit, she avoided the potatoes, ate a little bit of the slice of meat that had appeared on her plate, and ate several pieces of bread. Some sort of conversation seemed to be going on between Father Matthew and the rest of the table, but Kopper didn’t have the desire to listen so by the end of the meal she was unsure what others had been told about her. Snatches of phrases like “quite well,” “eager to be in service,” and “no harm done” were all she could remember, but they didn’t seem to connect into sentences or coherent ideas.

After sipping her way through three quarters of the hot spiced cider she had been given she put the cup down away from her and looked at Father Matthew. She wanted to say something about how she would like to go back to her room now, but didn’t know how to phrase it without sounding pitiful and weak. Father Matthew seemed to intercept her frustration because he rose and said, “I apologize again for myself and my contrite daughter,” Kopper assumed that was her and wondered what kind of title that was, “but we have had a long journey and so we will be retiring now. People nodded and murmured things of understanding. Kopper got to her feet and then, as it seemed to be expected, took Father Matthew’s arm as they retreated back upstairs.

“There is a brief and very biased history, about events while you were gone, on your reading tablet if you feel like reading. My quarters are next door if you need anything. A guard will be posted outside your door so you’ll have to ask him to get me. My position requires that I have at least a couple of attendants most of the time, but I will try to meet with you alone most of the time. Do not worry, my child, the Lord will take care of you. We will begin your confession after breakfast tomorrow morning. Your breakfast will be delivered at seven.”

Father Matthew’s last few sentences were said more loudly than the first part which was barely a whisper while they were walking up the stairs. She supposed that this was for the benefit of the guard at her door, which she could now see and the attendants, a whole gaggle of them, waiting at Father Matthew’s door. He ushered her into her room and then left her with, “God’s blessings on your rest tonight, child.”

She managed to squirm out of the dress and found a flannel nightgown in the chest at the end of the bed. After sliding into the covers she picked up the tablet to read, but found she couldn’t concentrate. She got up again, found a robe in the closet, walked to the door and opened it. The guard turned around, not quickly nor in a menacing manner, more like a polite, but old butler. She asked him to arrange for a wake up knock at 5:30 am. His eyebrow went up a bit, but he agreed. She then returned through the door and closed it softly behind her. The rug near the window had a nice fuzziness and so she turned off the lights and stood in front of the window looking at the stars while curling and uncurling her bare toes in the carpet. After what she guessed to be an hour she felt her way to the bed and crawled inside. After some worried thoughts about her future she fell asleep.

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.

Moving Along

During the train ride, Officer 487 did the following: read Kopper’s file, made notes about Kopper’s file, completed his report regarding the power drain, completed the report about Kopper’s arrive, wrote a recommendation for Florin’s penance, and started a recommendation on what to do with Kopper. Although Kopper was sitting next to him, looking out the window, she was enclosed in some sort of field device that the officer had activated and put on her. He gave her one sharp glance after he read her name and after that did not talk to her. The scenery passed in front of Kopper without her actually seeing it. She wondered what was in her file that made people look at her so funny. But she didn’t have the guts to ask this officer what was so amazing and had been waiting to ask Florin since she hadn’t thought their time was limited.

She was confused. What was this council of Trent and why did they determine her fate? Mostly her feelings were confused. It was relieving to know that the world was still as big as she remembered it being; it didn’t just consist of just the station where she had landed. For a while she had wondered what great catastrophe had reduced the Arts to only having one person at the station. It was relieving to hear that there was still some government in place and they were the reason that there was only one person to meet her. On the other hand it was disturbing that the world had changed so drastically that none of what she had been familiar with was the same. The government, or was there still multiple governments, functioned in an entirely different manner than she remembered the democratic and open Art society. She was also not even remotely familiar with how a religion works; Arts were permitted to practice religion privately, not communally.

While the scenery passed in front of her eyes she tried to figure out a way to organize what she knew. After the regular, unvaried data that she had received on the sun catcher did not equip her to deal with the incomplete and random data with which she was now presented. Her schooling hadn’t prepared her either. She had left for training before classes had turned to really teaching her how to work with incomplete data. There was a vague feeling that she had been brainwashed to some extent. Not only was her age at the time advantageous for spending the thirty years in space, it meant she was intelligent enough to do the tasks, but still reluctant to totally leave the comfort of letting others make decisions. Faces of past fellow students began to pass in her mind while she wondered what each one of them had gone on to do. Each, she was sure, had done something, had grown up. She however had remained a child, she thought. She had yet to make a life altering decision for herself. So she wept over this silently, her face pressed between her hands and on the window. Officer 487 never looking up to see.

By the time the train reached the station they were getting off at, Kopper had recovered her composure and cleaned up her face in the washroom. At least she was permitted to go to the washroom alone, she thought despondently about if these was because she was no threat or because she didn’t matter too much. At the station they walked briskly to a bus where she was again seated by a window that held pictures she did not see. Desperately she tried to think of a way to start a conversation with this “officer” and find out what was going on. She would have settled for even knowing what they were to be doing next, but no explanation was offered and Kopper could think of no way to interrupt this busy man–he was now finishing up his recommendation on what to do with Kopper. He was pleased with the amount of work he had accomplished on the journey back and was thinking how nice tomorrow’s work day would be. He wouldn’t have to devote any of it to writing up reports on his trip, even though it was more eventful than past one, and could instead return to his data crunching. The data from this trip would prove interesting in his simulations and predictions.

After several handfuls of stops, the officer got up and Kopper assumed she was to follow and they climbed off the bus. There was a government building in front of them, Kopper could tell it was government, but if you had asked her why she couldn’t have said. There was no sign anywhere and there was no guard outside the door, as Kopper was used to seeing. She found herself automatically, obediently following the man inside. At a desk was a heavily built woman with a scowl on her face.
“What do you require of this facility?” She snapped at the officer and Kopper drifted further back from the officer, her walking decreased to almost a halt and the clean, nondescript floor suddenly became fascinating to her. The possibility that she might learn something forced her feet into hearing range of the conversation, but did not get her head and shoulders into a less submissive position. However the conversation did not yield any information she did not know.
“This,” the officer said without even pointing, “is a returned sun catcher crew member that will be sent to the council of Trent. Here is her file and my initial reports. You will send her on the transport tomorrow morning with threat risk gamma-4 security measures in place.”
“Very well,” grumbled the woman, “Please scan your ID badge here to acknowledge drop.”
He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a small plastic strip that he waved over the desk after the woman typed a few things into the computer terminal.
“I will be returning to my office next door for the next two hours to finish filing paperwork related to the trip, please inform me during that time if there is further information that you require. If I do not hear from you, the files will be sealed and sent to the council at Trent and my duties will be complete.” There was no wait for a response, he just turned and left. He hadn’t said a single word to Kopper, ever.

Kopper knew she was to say here because by the time the officer turned to leave, a uniformed man had appeared out of a side door with an eye directly on Kopper. She just stood there waiting for some kind of instructions.
“You, in door,” the guard pointed at both you and door. Kopper immediately felt like she was being treated like a person of low intelligence and abilities. No other possibilities appeared and so she moved toward the door, slowly. The guard didn’t think she was moving fast enough so he came up behind her and propelled her forward by her elbow. Fortunately the door swung away from Kopper easily when she was pushed into it. Once she was all the way in the room and the door had ceased swinging, the guard, quickly and deftly, put her wrists and ankles in holders on the wall. While he was doing her wrists she noticed that the hood and cape of his uniform had concealed a few things from her earlier looks. He was wearing a thin, clear breathing mask similar to what Kopper remembered the poorest Arts wearing (if any of them could be called poor). A pair of clear, well shaped safety glasses covered his eyes while his hands were covered with a thin plastic film along with the rest of his face. After she was secured to the wall, he reached into one of the containers on his belt and withdrew two items. The first item he used to turn off the field device and discard it into a hole in the wall. These tongs were then sent into an adjacent hole. The second item was scissors, which were used to cut away all her clothing.

Kopper wanted to scream at him and yell and struggle. At this point though, she was too tired. It seemed she was no longer a person here and this wore on her more than the physical fatigue. So she just closed her eyes and tried to remember something, anything and ended up envisioning herself bathing in her ‘Squilla with the bots running all over her. She heard the guard finish his job as he stepped over to deposit the scissors in the same hole as the tongs. Another door was opened and Kopper noticed that a larger field seemed to have been enclosing the area as he passed through it. Kopper looked around and saw that there was a control room above her with a glass window that showed one more guard.

While she was looking up, the floor dropped away from her and her shredded clothes slid down a chute she could now see below her. The restraints jerked her to a halt before she followed down the chute and this time she did scream with pain. Had any warning been given her she might have not screamed, but it didn’t matter, the control room did not hear her. The room was then irradiated with something that she could feel but couldn’t exactly see for what seemed like an hour. After this, several rinses of various cold water solutions were poured over her and went down the chute. Then a voice came to her, “Close eyes!” So she closed her eyes and felt that something else was being sent at her; electromagnetic radiation, particles, fluid, she could not say what. Toward the end she began to shiver. It was somewhat painful to do so since it caused the restraints to rub her skin. She couldn’t tell how long this lasted, but at the end she was released from the wall suddenly with no warning or command to open her eyes. The drop was too sudden for her to scream but she did open her eyes to find out what was happening. It appeared that she was sliding down a chute which was different than the one that had accepted her clothes and the water. It twisted a few times and came to a level point where she stopped. No instructions had been given to her and so she curled up into a naked ball trying to warm up. She sat like this for a while before she realized the air further down the chute seemed to be warmer so she started to crawl further down. A light blazed up around a corner and she slipped out into a small room. Once in the room a door slid over the chute that she had just exited and startled her with its clang shut.

The room was white and square. It had a gray bed along one wall, a small gray, square table in front of it, a reading tablet on the table, a pile of what looked to be clothes, a toilet in a corner, and a door with a slot in one wall. The room was warmer than the chute, but it still wasn’t what Kopper would call warm. She went over to the pile and found that it was clothes, although ones she wasn’t used to. There were undergarments fairly close to what she had been wearing before, but instead of trousers and a shirt there was just a large tube of material with sleeves and instead of shoes there was only a pair of rubber clogs and no socks. Dressing made her slightly warmer, but the rubber clogs were going to do nothing for her warmth so she crawled under the rough wool blanket and promptly fell asleep.

She woke up because the door had been opened and a tray of food had been placed on the table. The food was a chunk of bread, some water, and a squashy pear. All of these, even the water, tasted slightly funny to her and she thought it wasn’t just because she hadn’t been eating much in the way of actual food until recently, there was something very bland about them all. But she was hungry and so she ate it. Halfway through, her stomach grumbled about it all and Kopper wondered if her bag of supplies from Florin had been destroyed. Florin had packed her some medicine to help her deal with the food a bit better. The blank white walls gave no hope to Kopper that anything Florin had given her had survived.

Soon after she finished the food and had made use of the limited facilities, the door opened again. A man came a half step into the room. He was obviously some sort of guard since he wore a uniform similar to the one who had “greeted” her yesterday, but this time Kopper looked for and did not find evidence of any mask or plastic coating. He waited until Kopper looked at his face, although Kopper did not make it to looking at his eyes, before moving or saying anything.

“We will depart in half an hour. At that time I will come get you and we will travel by bus to an air transport. I will accompany you on the air transport to Trent where your trial will occur. I will be your confessor and guard. Please bring the reading pad with you when we depart since it is now yours and you will not be issued another. I cannot discuss your status currently since I have yet to be given your file and the recommendations of the other officers. I will do my best to direct you in the next days as it is my duty to God,” he said and then didn’t wait for a response to retreat and close the door once again.

At least she was a real enough person to deserve some warning about what was going to happen to her. She sat on the bed and picked up the reading pad. Maybe it would contain some information on what in the world a confessor was and what her trial would be like. Before she started reading she realized that something was familiar about the guard/confessor. She put the pad back down and tried to concentrate on why this would be so.

She didn’t know anyone, hadn’t known anyone really before she left on ‘Squilla. Besides, those people would have changed so much that she likely wouldn’t recognize anyone that she had seen back then anyways. Well, he was only vaguely familiar, so it could be someone from then. On the other hand, maybe it was just the guard that had stripped her, she hadn’t gotten a good look at his face, she had been concentrating on the equipment she was seeing. No, that couldn’t be, that guard had treated her so differently.

Tired, she was still tired. Florin had said she didn’t need to do much, that the whole thing was planned and her participation was just for show. Why bother with all this thinking and worrying then? So she lay down on top of the bed and slept for the half hour.