[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Everyone knows that the Consortium expects colonists to put in ‘X’ number of years to work off their passage and earn their homesteads.What they don’t know is that they charge you for every member of your family, no matter how young they might be.”Lirzhan’s eyebrows lifted, and she essayed a bitter little smile.“Oh, yes, that’s how I got thrown on the foster care system.My mother wanted off Gaia — I really don’t know why she even had me.Probably one of those ‘oops’ things, even though our methods of contraception are extremely effective…when used properly.Anyway, she met someone new when I was a little over a year old, and ended up marrying him.Neither she nor her husband had any substantial prospects, and they fell for the GEC’s propaganda hook, line, and sinker.Problem was, declaring me as their child would add another five years to their homestead mortgage.”Someone else might have thought she kept her gaze downcast merely because she was focusing on the downward slope of the ground beneath her feet, on navigating around the outcroppings of native blue-gray rock or the low shrubby bushes that had begun to supplant the trees in these lower elevations.Lirzhan knew better, however.Still not looking at him, still picking her way between the various obstacles in her path, she went on, “Anyway, neither of them was from a family with any money or any position.The most they could look forward to was living in a dingy high-rise and working in a factory or low-level service job.The robot labor force that generations past expected would create utopia still hasn’t materialized, and it’s people like my mother and her husband who do most of the dirty work.”Lirzhan hadn’t really thought about that aspect of Gaia’s technological development.His own world had always focused on sustainable technologies, and never had much in the way of heavy industry.No greater status was assigned to, say, a university professor than someone who helped in the manufacture of starship parts.All these tasks were useful and necessary, and so no one’s status was elevated over another’s.But he decided to keep these facts to himself for now, partly from fear of interrupting her, and partly because he certainly did not want her to think he believed his people were superior simply because their ways were so different.She glanced up at him, as if expecting some sort of comment, so he nodded in what he hoped was an encouraging way.Apparently it worked, for she went on, “When my mother realized she’d have to give the majority of the earnings from the homestead to the Consortium for fifteen years instead of ten, she and her husband decided it would be best if they left me behind.After all, they could always have another child — a child that was both of theirs — once they were settled on the homestead.” A pause.Lirzhan could see the muscles working in her fine jaw.“So they went, and I was placed in foster care, because by that point I was almost two, and most people who are looking to adopt want infants.The government pays the foster parents, so while I’m sure some of them do it out of the kindness of their hearts, not all do.The ones I had certainly didn’t.”“And you had no relatives who could step in?”“None that I was aware of.My mother had left her family when she was young.They probably didn’t even know I existed.I must have some relatives, but I never bothered to find them.Why should I? If they knew anything of what had happened to me, they certainly didn’t do anything to change it.” She gave a shrug, and in that one small gesture Lirzhan read all the years of anger, of doubt, of wondering why she should be thrown out like a piece of rubbish.He said softly, “But you’ve done very well for yourself, despite them.”Another lift of her shoulders.“I suppose so.‘Compensating by overachieving,’ as one psychologist put it.It’s done.I survived.I just told you that story so you’d understand why sometimes it’s hard for me to be too gung-ho about the Consortium’s policies when it’s those very policies that ruined my childhood.Anyway, that’s enough story hour for now.”She picked up her pace and he followed, watching her with sorrowful eyes.How different from his own world, where every child was a blessing, especially these days, when a birth was an increasingly rare event [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]