01 Taxilas Children

TAXILA'S CHILDREN
"You look as if you are overdue for a good hiding! For two credits, I'd give it to you.
Instead, I'll give you this!"
He dragged her closer and kissed her full and hard on the lips. She fought him but he
persisted, then he released her. She jumped back ready to use the switch again. He was too
quick, snatching it from her and throwing in into the forest.
"What you need, my girl, is a good man to keep you in your place."
She was quick enough to lay her spare hand hard across his face. She turned on her heel
and stalked off along the path he had walked earlier. He nursed his stinging lips and didn't try
to stop her. He watched as she vanished into the trees. Sometime later, he heard a rhythmic
beating on the ground, which diminished to nothing. He sat down against the bole of a tree
and reflected on the appalling mess he had got himself into. He had, in all likelihood,
accosted the daughter of the local landowner. He might be accused of anything, including
rape, if the kiss could be construed as such.
He considered flight and then cancelled the thought, there were several good reasons why
that was out of the question, not the least being that he had nowhere to run and no strength to
run with. He knew nothing of the people or their customs. Touching one of their women
might be punishable by death.
He tried to steady his nerves, telling himself that the circumstances were going to change.
The girl had read his mind and knew that he was from the stars, that was certain to change the
circumstances when she told someone. He could have imagined the impact such a story
would have had on Mars or Old Earth. Especially, if a daughter had come home highly upset
and told the story that a man from outer space had accosted her in the forest!
He had lost his zest for walking. His first excursion could have ended in disaster. He
returned to the house taking much longer than before. He met no one else on the return
journey. He thought about the Scarn. Clearly they were a subhuman species. He promised
himself that Jabez or Hara were going to be subjected to a good deal of intensive questioning
on the subject.
He spent the rest of the day doing what he liked most, laying under the radiant heat of their
star and letting it beat into his body. He was nearly fit again, it wouldn't be much longer
before he would leave the house of Jabez. He stayed up to watch the return of the community.
It was almost dusk before they started to trickle into the cluster of houses. He didn't make
himself conspicuous, he stayed in the shadow of the wall, close to the window entrance. They
came home in family groups, plodding wearily. They were subdued, as if the last strength
could not be spared for idle chatter. Perhaps, when they had eaten, it would be different but
thinking about it, he had never heard any sounds of evening entertainment coming from the
community. They probably ate and went to bed.
They were little more than slaves; work horses for the privileged ones who owned the land.
The same privileged ones owned the population, body and soul. His sense of outrage started
to rise. He told himself to keep his nose out of matters that could not concern him and which
he couldn't change. The problem was that he was descended from Martian stock. On Mars,
they did not take kindly to working under the thumb of a tyrant. Martians were fiercely
defensive of their independence and he had been born and raised in an atmosphere of
agitations and rebellion.
He saw Hara at the rear of the main group, she was surrounded by about twenty children.
They didn't make the sort of noise one would expect from the young of any species. He felt
his anger rising, children ought to be allowed to run and play, that didn't seem to be the way
with these people. The older ones walked with shoulders slumped, subdued and exhausted.
The younger ones looked almost too tired to put one step after the other.
30