Satrat Special
an excerpt

The TR7 tucked into the landing bay without any turbulence, something I was happy for. Not growing up on the block, space travel was still something I was getting used to. Especially since I had started my degree. After that was the endless wait while the ship was strapped in, cargo disembarked, and I adjusted to G.7. That made me sluggish even though I knew I would get used to it in a few weeks. I was used to G.5 after all, so that's not much of a jump.

Getting out of the ship, I hoped for some sense of wonder. The city looked so large, so metropolitan, as we were coming in. But instead I was popped into the hanger and just like everyone else, I was subjected to shills. I had the "look" after all.

"Hey girlie, you just got off from one of the satellites, right? You need to a good place to stay?"

"Hey girlie, I got a good ship here, will take you anywhere you wanna go."

"Hey girlie, you need to make right with God, right with Ranon? You come follow me."

"Hey girlie, you come to my place, my owner makes really good food for a litey like you."

Hey girlie, hey girlie, hey girlie followed me out while I stared at the floor. I was used to this in a way: I know I have the look of a litey - the translucent hair, the slit, dark glasses protecting my orange pupils from the overwhelming sun, a stature the size of a large child, the sluggish limbs, and the boots to help with hesitant steps, giving it away. But I learned along ago to keep my eyes down. I had memorized where I needed to go from the feed, and it wasn't to any low-down skeezball hotel, eatery to fill me up with cramps, or some broken down Ranon hall so I could sit in a boring ceremonies with a pape who can't read half as well as anyone in the system. Still, I wished I'd dyed my hair at least (although I wouldn't do w/out the boots - never be able to move anywhere).

I did as instructed by the feeds, walked to the doors, took my new card out of the necklace around my neck and swiped it in order to put in my coordinates. A car pulled up shortly afterwards. It seemed sturdy, and once I got into the sideseat, I could sigh in exhaustion.

"Good morning and God bless. Harlow Abbey?" The crisp female computer voice said.

"Yeah." I mumbled.

"I'm sorry. I didn't get that. Did you say yes?"

"Oh. Sorry--" then remembering that I was talking to a computer, I barked, "Yes. Yes. Harlow."

"Very well."

And the vehicle sped away from the shuttle port.

The drive above the buildings of Corpus woke me up despite myself. I looked out in all directions, seeing the center of the city in front of me with the larger buildings. I was surprised by the sense of ordered disorder, then shook my head. I had learned over and over that photos, holios, and virtuals were NOT the same as going through these areas with the full body. Oh, and doing it in an exhausted state and trying to adjust to greater gravity to boot.

I visualized the order that I had seen from the ship and matched it to what I had studied, and what I was seeing at the moment. Ok, I was going northwest (like everything in the system, directions--north, south, east, west--were all based on the prominent movement of the sun). Probably at about 20 klicks. The outskirts of Corpus would be below me soon, showing where the outer wall had been broken through 4 cen ago, when the city was invaded during the last revolution. Before the devastation of the 30 years war, before most of the people in this world moved into the cities. As they left the smaller towns, they left their lovely ruins which I longed to touch with my hands. Towns made of the exotic stones of basalt and oka chip, the things that had drawn me to archeology and architecture in the first place almost two decades before when, as a child, I looked through my grandfather's books--real books--during the frequent, long, eclipse nights in our little house on the lite.

Feeling the time glide by (it was so strange not to feel motion in these electric slight gliders, not like being at home and riding old cattle cars), I knew that soon I would come to the outskirts of the city, and into the rise of the plains hills. I should be able to see the outskirts of the abbey soon, set against the rising hill, the circular plan of which I had tried to memorize already.

I opened my eyes and smiled. I was right about the speed that the transport was going, and about where I was in relation to the abbey.

"Good girl." I thought. No girlie was I.