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They were sleek, fast trains like nothing ever seen on Earth, but they had
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the unmistakable sound and fury of the classic steam engine. The network was
particularly remarkable because of the inability to use a telegraph or
maintain the integrity of an electrical signal through the tracks.
Nonetheless, they had a fine safety record, and the trains of Mixtim ran on
time.
In fact, it almost seemed as if the whole population were involved in running
or servicing the trains. While the trains occasionally passed clusters of
high twisted mounds filled with teeming denizens of the insect world, after
more than two hours there wasn't a sign of a major city and the villages they
passed were more likely trade centers and farming communities. On the other
hand, there appeared to be one every time two different rail lines crossed,
and there were an awful lot of rail lines in Mixtim. Juana Campos was
counting on that and the fact that they had little in the way of computers or
even written records for nonroutine shipments. Everything like that was more
or less off the book. The natives crammed into cars and resembled festering
colonies, but there was little provision for visiting travelers. On the other
hand, the Mixtimites had plenty of surplus boxcars along every siding, and it
was no problem at all to hook one on for special purposes.
The society was, as expected, totally communal, so there was no money or other
favors exchanged for services, but outsiders were in fact valued and expected
to pay, the fees going to whatever local jurisdiction for the purpose of
buying imports. Some of these were specialized or customized farm tools and
implements or finely machined parts for irrigation systems, and some were as
simple as candy and other delicacies.
The largest import, however, was chemical fertilizer, and that made Mixtim and
its railroad less than ideal for visitors. The Mixtimites, it seemed, either
had no sense of smell or liked the smell of it. The stench of fertilizer was
everywhere.
"This is totally gross," said Audlay, one of the two former roommates with
Campos back in Buckgrud, as they sat on a layer of wheat or some kind of grass
on the floor of a boxcar heading into the hex.
"Look at it this way. At least we won't have to worry about gaining weight
here," Kuzi, the other roommate, responded in a tone just short of
I-think-I-have-to-throw-up. "Quit complaining!" Campos snapped at them. "I
don't like the smell any more than you do, but what do you want me to do
about it? You knew it would be rough when you decided to come along. You also
knew when you came that there was no going back. Not for a long while. Now,
make the best of it!"
"Yes, Juana," Audlay responded, sounding almost like a small child. Campos had
dominated the other two since she'd moved in six months earlier. They were of
an all too familiar type, very much the kind of people the old Juan Campos
thought most women were. They seemed to live in fear of almost everything,
and in spite of their protests, they liked being dominated. What power and
confidence they had they drew from another, and that other was the one whose
power they feared. They were both afraid of Campos, but it wasn't just out of
fear that they'd agreed to come along. They both felt that this was the only
way out of an existence they didn't like and one which had no real future.
Audlay almost defined the word "bimbo." If there were two thoughts in that
head of hers, they were jumbled from being blown around by the air passing
between her ears, Campos thought. Still, she had just enough pride and sense
to realize when she was being humiliated, even if she didn't understand the
joke. The men had her do silly, ridiculous things and played all sorts of
pranks on her when they weren't insulting her or slapping her around. She had
found herself oddly attracted to Campos from the first, though. There was
something inside the strange woman that radiated the power, the authority,
and occasionally the attitude of the men she'd known, yet Campos wasn't a
man. The newcomer had often defended Audlay against some of the more oafish
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lieutenants. A woman capable of standing up to the men and protecting others
had been an unbelievably attractive individual, and Campos had shown her all
sorts of new and different positions and turn-ons she had never dreamed of
before. She would do just about anything Juana said, but not without whining
and complaining about it all the time. Kuzi was different. Older and tougher,
she was very much the product of a rough and morally ambivalent life and had
taken everything she could get. She, in fact, had only one fear, and it
wasn't Campos; she was getting older, and while she was still attractive,
every time she had looked at herself in the mirror for the past year or two,
she'd seen more and more bloom coming off the rose. Her man was coming by [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]