Page 20 of Captain Santiago and the Sky Dome Waitress
“Notthrowing thingsatpeople is a law,” Santiago said. “Causing any bodily harm of anyone in the city will terminate your residency.”
“Oh.” Lucie thought about that.
“There isn’t a similar law on your world?”
“There are alotof laws,” Lucie assured him. “Many of them dealing with causing harm to others. Some of them are conflicting. Darwin is a very old world.”
“There is just the one law here. It makes it much easier to uphold it, and obey it.”
“There are no exceptions made, ever?”
“Occasionally, yes. But they cannot be used to argue the merits of any future trial. Each exception is decided upon individually. The last exception was made at least a hundred years ago.”
“How often is the law applied?”
“More than once a century, but not as often as you think. Peoplelikeliving on Charlton.”
“Yes, I’ve gained that impression,” Lucie admitted. “I thought everyone wanted to live on Charlton or visit Charlton because it is where Varkans first coalesced as a demographic, but it’s really nothing to do with that. It’s just…nicehere.”
“A law that kicks you off the city if you hurt someone else is part of that,” Santiago pointed out.
“Yes. I can see that. I can see why Roderick wanted to make it clear if Shearer had deliberately harmed anyone.”
And she had not. People might have earned nicks and scratches from flying debris, but the woman had not aimed at anyone. Not even Lucie, who had offended her enough to send her into a tantrum of gigantic proportions. But it had been such a minor offence….
“I don’t think I caused the woman’s tantrum,” Lucie said.
Santiago glanced at her, surprise showing once more. “No?”
She shook her head. “She said I gave her the wrong coffee blend. But I didn’t. I gave her the one she asked for. Then she just…exploded.”
Santiago thought about that. “Edme was certain Shearer had taken something that caused the reaction.”
Lucie thought back to the moment when Sona Shearer had held up the coffee carafe and pointed to it. Her gaze had been steady. So had her hand. Her voice had been firm and clear. “I don’t think she was.”
Santiago slowed his pace, his gaze down at his feet, frowning. “She deliberately caused the scene? Why?”
“You know her better than me. She’s only been to the restaurant six times. You tell me.”
Santiago looked startled again. Then he smiled. “Good point. But I don’t know her well at all. She’s a tankball player. I don’t watch the games.”
“Tankball can be…they fight, in the games.”
“In zero gee, no one fights very well at all. It’s all show, for the audience.” Santiago dismissed the idea.
They walked in silence until they reached the entrance to Celestial and turned into the village. The city had rotated enough to bring twilight back to the village. The streetlights with their antique shapes and leaded glass domes, spread amber pools of light across the main road through the village.
Originally, the main road had ended in the center of the village, where the market square was located. But as the city grew, more domes were added to the edges of it, and to reach them, one had to go through the older villages. Celestial’s main street had been extended to the other side of the dome, where it continued into Cerule, an angular, modern village, then on to the villages beyond Cerule.
So the main road was always busy with foot traffic, hand-pulled carts and anti-grav sleds hauling loads, and a few licensed and approved personal ground vehicles. It should have been noisy, but the twilight and the soft, warm amber glow of Celestial’s streetlights seemed to encourage quietness. Traffic passed through the village with a mere susurration.
Lucie’s little house with its tall walls was only a few dozen steps away from the main road, but the noise dropped to almost nothing and the house could have been kilometers from any traffic.
“You live here?” Santiago asked.
“It’s a temporary rental. I paid for forty days. It was cheaper than the transient hostels.” She put her hand on the lock pad and the gate unlocked with a soft click and wavered open a few centimeters. Beyond the gate, the house lights came on. “Is that a problem?” she asked curiously. Was he back to being a bear now?
He shook his head. “I know the history of this house.”
