the student problem 4

 I think a better title for this would be Civics for Insurrectionists

Chapter 4

 

From the diary of Serenaa Kerofin, following the return of the first assignments.

 

Well, I confess I am delighted and surprised to have had an ‘A’ on my assignment for Citizenship studies. Old Asaki never gave me above a D before he fell into the fountain and drowned when drunk. I was surprised that he even knew how to have enough fun to drink, let alone lose his inhibitions enough to drown, but I don’t think anyone misses him much. He droned on and on, and was never clear about what citizenship actually entailed. Professor Lime looked... almost hurt that I was surprised. I wonder if I should tell him about my former grades? I doubt it helped, being associated with Lisilli and her coterie, but I did try, I just never understood it before. Professor Lime is a brilliant teacher, even if he is the most sarcastic bastard in the known universe. I am actually looking forward to doing the next assignment, and I am going to be really daring and pick three physically similar worlds with different political outlooks.

I hope it will be acceptable.

 

Assignment; pick three different worlds and list their main difficulties, and then guess their take on law regarding their likely outlooks. Compare with the actual laws.

I have picked Earth, Wiłu, and Tallis, all with a similar gravity, atmosphere and within similar designations as garden or near-garden worlds; but with radically different socio-political backgrounds.

Summary of the worlds

Earth is the cradle of mankind, and has homed our species for millions of years as we evolved. Its long history of fragmented nations has led to a plethora of laws under different socioeconomic groupings, which have had to be streamlined into a planetary code.

Wiłu was settled by humans deposited there by the Forerunners, and consequently not native. The large number of potentially poisonous plants and some insane war robots left by the Forerunners has led to a conservative outlook, and an unwillingness to experiment, which has pervaded the whole psyche of the Wiłanu.

Tallis is a colony world on the frontier of the Imperium, where the population is sufficiently low, yet has a high enough tech, to make legislation and governance a matter of plebiscite decision. The population is mixed [largely Solcentric] human and Babari.

Earth

For a long long time, Earth was the only home known to the Solcentrics, and during their history there were crises of both resource availability, and climate change caused by pollution. Although the problems regarding resources have been eliminated by space travel, I posit that there are harsh laws regarding pollution, and potential destruction of humanity’s birthplace. The population is also high and all-pervasive, so I would suspect legislation regarding invasion of privacy and murder to be punitive.

 

Wiłu

Wiłu was also resource poor, and I believe there are laws regarding profligate wastage, which may not be invoked very often, with the foray into space, but which are retained on the statute books to use ‘as seems fit.’ I expect there are also very positive laws banning any kind of artificial intelligence.

 

Tallis

Tallis accepts the code duello for the settling of disputes.  I suspect that offences against person or property favour the use of the old concept of wergild, an Earth-human historical measure of the worth of a person [life or reputation] or item of property if destroyed, killed or defamed. The Babari concept of Raw’chrzii is similar, and with a mixed population, it seems reasonable to suppose that, with every person being valuable, that execution is seen as unnecessary. I imagine many disputes are over water sources, and the diversion of a water source would be of some importance, but likely settled by duel or negotiation.

 

Actual laws regarding these factors.

Earth

The fouling of land, sea, or air is forbidden and will be punished if proven by heavy fine, as well as the loss of trading privileges, where contracts may be withdrawn without penalty by the government or any third party.

Murder falls into three degrees. Third degree, accidental or careless actions leading to loss of life; the punishment for this depends on how reasonable it might be to suppose actions to be likely to cause danger and may be punished from anything from community service up to life imprisonment with hard labour. Second degree, including crime passionel, a sudden rage over untenable actions on the part of the murdered, usually is the only crime ever likely to be committed by the perpetrator and is punished by community service and psych evaluation/therapy. First degree murder is a premeditated and meticulously planned crime and there can be no leniency; life imprisonment, possibly encompassing hard labour.

Invasion of privacy is a serious crime and can lead to the psychological damage of the invaded in causing him to commit second degree murder. It is treated in the same way as operating machinery without due care and attention in a way likely to cause harm to others, and may be punished with a heavy fine, up to life imprisonment for the persistent offender.

 

Wiłu

It is forbidden on pain of death to make, modify, or introduce any artificial intelligence to Wiłu or its environs.

Profligate wastage of resources is punishable by exile[note; Exile is worse than death to the mind of many Wiłanu.]

Murder is punishable by exile.

 

Tallis

Stealing of water sources is to be handled by those suffering the loss unless a state of feud ensues which cannot be settled by duel, negotiation, or other non-invasive means. The planetary government will declare and decree on a case by case basis if other agreement cannot be reached.

Causing death of another is punished by a ‘blow of anger’ from a relative, or by settling a sum appropriate to the economic value of the one killed. The ‘blow of anger’ may not use the dewclaw, natural or artificial.

 Death ensuing from a ‘blow of anger’ as death in duelling is not murder.

 

 

 

The diary of Serenaa Kerofin, following this assignment.

I got another A! And Professor Lime read out my assignment in its entirety! Wukash Ruhe also had his read out. And no, Professor Lime does not give the names, but he has a strong bent towards literature, and he’s the only one doing straight literature, not literature and semantics, literature and advertising or whatever. He researched his planets by reading their detective stories. I get on fine with Wukash, and he’s less standoffish now he doesn’t think me so much of an airhead. But oh dear, he can be dull.

My book arrived, the one by Gunny Kowalski, and I am looking forward to reading it. I could wish now I had not been talked into taking a major in Fashion, but at least I can take social issues into my essays about it. I have already had good marks for my essay on the growth of more and more outrageous fashions at the upper end of the market, in an attempt to exclude the masses by the exclusivity of the extremes of fashion. I have also been given good marks for a planned social experiment of introducing a fashion which includes an exclusivity factor.

 

 

 

From the diary of Serenaa Kerofin, two weeks after Professor Lime arrived.

 

Gunnery-sergeant Kowalski’s book is an eye-opener, even in the first chapter. It’s odd, but somehow I feel as though I know him. I wonder if I met him as part of Daddy’s guard when I was younger?

One phrase which struck me particularly is ‘information is currency.’ Something which is not of immediate use to one person might be traded for other information from someone else.

Lisilli was quite put out with me changing my hairstyle. She called it ‘betrayal.’ What, does she think I am going to copy her in all things? She’s not exactly leader material. I was surprised to be looked at with naked dislike by her cousin, Vereelsuelle Faruu. Now, she could lead, so why does she leave it to Lisilli?

Oh, stop it, Serenaa, you’ll be building conspiracy theories next, out of shadows and spite. And anyway, I’m going to be doing my own trend-setting. The mono-ringlet is only worn by some of the elite, in any case. I am going to pioneer the natural look as part of my social experiment because one might as well be given class credit for something one plans to do anyway. I  also plan to use the ability of shdawvush silk to have variable opacity set into it by electrical current passed through it to make a jump suit which is sheer at the lower legs, becoming less and less transparent as it moves up, and again for shoulders and arms. The style of wide-sleeved silk jumpsuits with beaded embroidery on the cuffs and ankles linking to hand jewellery and sandals would suit it well, or with jewellery under the sheer fabric. There, that’s a more sensible thing to wonder about than what Vereelsuelle is up to. Her mother is a bitch, anyway, always carping about the Imperial administration, and Xander’s reliance on woodsy sorts of nobles like Lady Kelso, who makes jolly good adventure films. I firmly call the girl ‘Suelle’ as it diminishes her from her outsize Wiłanu background.

 

Next day.

Today I decided to befriend Rauf Guffah. He’s a Wagrin, and Suelle was excruciatingly rude to him on the first day. And is snide whenever she can be. She and her clique call him ‘Doggie.’  I confess I was nervous when I approached him with an offer of friendship, in case he saw me as like them, but his tail wagged so enthusiastically, and he said, “you smell of truth.” I told him that honestly I can’t see any point in racism, and he said that if I had not spoken to him, he had been thinking of asking to withdraw from the academy. He says his father is a count, of a system with mixed Wargrini and Humans, and that he has a human as well as a Wargrin mother. I was a little shocked; mixed race love is very much a taboo, but he explained it is only for administrative purposes so there is a countess, or indeed, count-consort of both races for people to go to. The human partner is free to marry for love and children, so long as they spend time helping to raise the puppies of the current count, and being close to the family.

It’s an interesting way round the problem, and Rauf’s father wanted him to learn more about Imperial administration to see if their own methods could be improved.  His family have retained leadership of all the system’s Wargrini for six generations without anyone trying to challenge, which is pretty amazing. Rauf puts it down to having human consorts, so that there is the ‘inscrutable human element’ in the leadership, which keeps Wargrini sufficiently in awe of his family. Wargrini see humans as inscrutable, apparently.

 

 

Some week or so later

 

Well, here I am home for reading week, which Mumsy seems to think is a holiday, not a study period, and I am horrified by some of what I am hearing and seeing on the social circuit, which I have never even noticed before, and it is not good.

Mumsy isn’t terribly bright, but you’d think that even she would recognise... no, actually, Mumsy wouldn’t recognise treason if an insurgent jumped up and said ‘BOO!’ to her. She’d probably say ‘shoo!’ and flap at him.

I have to write to Professor Lime and ask him if I’m seeing treason where it is not, because of being over sensitised by his course.

I have to note that my use of shdawvush silk for evening jump suits has been very successful. It’s just daring enough to make a statement without being vulgar, and it teams well with an evening bustle of frou-frous of silk. Because of the opaque part of the jump suit, I can wear a one-piece under, without an added bodice over leggings. Lisilli was in the new leggings which have frills to match the bustle from the knees down. I thought it a prodigiously silly. It would work better if the whole garment had frills, and a plain bustle caught over them. Maybe I’ll try that at some point. But with solid enough underwear to effect a quick change at need. I wouldn’t want to be running around in skivvies when looking for a vacc suit, for example; form-fitting sportshorts to the knee would be more dignified. Or even plain leggings in case the whole look excited nothing but ridicule.

 

 

Dear Professor Kowalski  Lime,

Just so you know I’m not dim, and can pick up a style I read and translate it to speech. But I am scared and worried, and I am exceedingly concerned that I have been overly influenced by your lectures and am trying to make a supernova out of a sunflare.

I got home and discovered my precious study time was pre-empted by social occasions so it is not entirely impossible that my own resentment has played on my perceptions.

I am certain Mumsy is not deliberately treasonous. She couldn’t even spell it. But the clique she goes around with are a different matter. Baroness Brontine and her sister, Baroness Faruu – yes, mothers of classmates of mine – have some very nasty views. And one of their views is that the most intelligent humans were those transported to Wiłi by the Forerunners, so that Wiłanu blood is superior to Solocentrics, inherently. And I heard a stray remark that ‘we will not permit ourselves to be ruled by inferiors for much longer.’ And their comments about non-humans are nothing short of disgusting. I wish I could talk to Daddy about it, but I fear he feels that women’s chatter is just that – chatter. And anyway, he’s offworld right now.

Am I being an idiot? Is it just chatter? Advise me, please, I am in need of your wisdom.

I have mailed this personally and not entrusted it  to a servant.

Would it be forward of me to invite you to a grand ball? You aren’t much older, I think, than the senior class, and I could get away with pretending that you were a boyfriend.  Oh damn! There will be too many of my classmates. But could you get invited to Lord Duranor’s ball? I have to go to it, and you have contacts, don’t you? If not... oh, dear, you had better not write to me direct, Mumsy opens my mail.

Serenaa Kerofin.

 

Serenaa was disturbed to see a letter addressed to her, next day, in the distinctively forceful handwriting of Professor Lime, who apparently did not trouble with printing his addresses. She had told him not to write direct to her! And her mother was picking it up, with a frown, and reading it.

“What nonsense!” said Lady Kerofin, “How dare this professor demand that you go back early just to repeat some stupid essay!”

“May I see, Mumsy? It was addressed to me,” said Serenaa. Reluctantly, her mother passed it over.

 

 

My dear Miss Kerofin,

Your essay on the rise of the Alkhalikoi was the most miserable piece of nonsense I have ever read. Plainly you did not research at all. You appear to have scribbled it in the last hour before the deadline, and this is not good enough. 

I hope you are spending this vital reading week doing some work, but I cannot let this go. I am curtailing your reading week forthwith, and you will spend the rest of your time in the library making up for the travesty which is your essay. No excuses! If you do not return, I will be forced to speak to the principal, and your demerits might be sufficient to see you expelled.

Yours, Professor Lime.

 

Serenaa paled, and gasped. Her thoughts, ‘but I haven’t written an essay on the rise of the Alkhalikoi’ morphed quickly to, ‘and he knows I haven’t, and would recognise that it is a ploy.’

“I have to go, Mumsy, it... I was careless and partied when I should have been working and now it’s going to bite me. I need the credit from the essay to pass the course.”

“Well, it’s not as if anyone has any interest in upstarts like the Alkhalikoi,” said her mother, with a sniff. “Perhaps we can pay him off.”

“I suspect if you tried, I’d be flunked forthwith; he’s honest,” said Serenaa.

“How tiresome of him! The lower orders are supposed to be corruptible,” said her mother. “Very well; but try to be finished for Lord Duranor’s ball, he is such a useful person to know, and pure blood of course, not a mongrel with Soll’d  blood.” Serenaa suddenly realised that the apparently sloppy way of describing those descended from Solcentrics was meant to be a pun on ‘soiled.’

“I’ll do my best, Mumsy,” said Serenaa. “Can I leave you to make my excuses?”

“I’m not telling the Brontine girl that you flunked an essay; how her mother would gloat!” said Lady Kerafin. “At least, I would if it was her brat. I’ll tell them that you are indisposed.”

That would have to do, thought Serenaa.

“I’ll go and pack,” she said.

“I thought you left the clothes you go to university in on the campus,” said her mother.

“Well, yes, mumsy, but if I do well, Professor Lime might give me time off for good behaviour, and I may need to change into decent clothes in a hurry.”

“Not that you look as fashionable now you have spoiled your lovely hair,” mourned her mother.

“I like the natural look. I’m a trend-setter, not a Lisilli Brontine clone,” said Serenaa. “She’s too, too far behind the look on Capital, and hasn’t the imagination to set provincial fashion. So sad to be held back by the talentless.”

“I... why, my darling, how clever of you!” sighed Lady Kerafin.

“The natural look is never out of fashion,” said Serenaa, firmly.

She had seen the look of admiration in Professor Lime’s eyes when she had worn her deliberate down-dressing in her father’s old sweater, but she suspected it was the way she had cinched it at the waist as much as anything else, and the understated colour, allowing her own colour to speak for itself. Simple. Simple worked. The boots hadn’t hurt, either.