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wise policy considering everything, I suppose.
"Every mother has wanted that," I smiled back at the Queen. I supposed
someday she would marry again. She was young, beauti- ful, and the "sort" of a
woman who could have her "pick" of men. She stands about 5'8" and also reminds
me "somewhat" of Darlanis although her facial features are not the "same" as
Darlanis' are.
"I want my children to be `proud' of their mother," Maris said, staring
out into the darkness past the stern of the ship. I could hear the sounds of
men walking the deck above us, the common ordinary noises that one hears
aboard a ship at anchor. The sound of someone hammering on something. A
woman's voice.
"I'm sure yours will be," I said to her. Maris nodded.
"My sister has done well for herself," she said then.
"I did try to be a good mother to her," I answered back.
"Why did you let Darlanis take your daughter?" she suddenly asked,
turning about, looking down at me lying there on the cot.
"I felt it `best' for Sharon," I answered. This has always been a "sore
spot" with me despite the fact that I "know" I did do the "right thing".
Darlanis is a better "mother" to Sharon I feel than I would be. At least
Sharon didn't run off and get herself married at seventeen like Gayle! (I
still think Darlanis had "something" to do with all this, although she denies
it all!)
"You are the `Lorraine Duval' of legend," Maris said softly.
"I am but a woman who `tries'," I smiled back at the Queen.
"And not just a `M.P.S' like me," Maris smiled back then.
"M.P.S?" I breathed, the words strangely "familiar" to me.
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"There was a `book' written back in your time," Maris said.
"`M.P.S.'!" I smiled, remembering. Janet and I had tried to "refute" it
over several nights of "discussion" without success. It had been written by a
"Jerome Bigge" who lived in Muskegon. I had planned to sometime go "visit" the
author, but never got the chance to do so. "M.P.S" (Members of the Privileged
Sex) is a book that tells "truths" that most people tried to deny. While it is
"biased" (I don't consider myself "privileged") I suppose it was once rather
"popular", considering that it is still print- ed here in the 26th Century
although almost "unknown" in Califor- nia. It is often the sort of a book that
a husband will sit and read in front of his wife just to "bother" her a bit.
Especially if he glances up at her from time to time and "nods" to himself!* *
To the 26th Century reader the book in parts makes little sense due to the
changes in technology and the nature of society. The "fact" of female slavery,
the legality of prostitution and por- nography, all tend to reduce the "power"
of women as such. It should also be mentioned here that divorce here in this
era is less "favorable" to women than it was back in my own time. (L.R.)
*****************************************************************
"Hands on deck! All hands on deck!" the bosun cried. We were about to
get "under way". The wind was not "favorable". I was glad that Maris was in
command. I wouldn't have cared to have tried to sail the North Star out of a
little harbor like Sana's in a wind like this. The seas were still high, I
noticed.
"A good ship, a disciplined crew," Maris smiled then to me.
"And commanded by Dularn's finest captain," I smiled back.
"If I had a Warlady...," Maris breathed, regarding me.
"You couldn't `win' against the Empire," I answered her.
"I don't wish to `win' anything but `peace'," she replied.
"Sometimes `that' is harder to win than anything else," I said. It
didn't seem to be something in any case I could "win"!! It seemed that ever
since Sharon and I had flown through that "GATEWAY" into this era that it had
been nothing but conflict of one sort or another. I'd been "responsible" in a
way for a "revolution" against Darlanis, something others had "done" in my
name so to say. Fortunately Darlanis had "understood" the situa- tion,
although I suspected that she didn't "trust" me to much in a way, knowing well
that there were those in the Empire who con- sidered me to be a more
"competent" ruler than she who now sat on the throne of empire. And then there
was the recent "revolution" on Mars that had broken the dominance of the Lorr
over the Women. And the activities of the Priestesses of Lys who had shown all
of us their own terrifying powers. I wondered if they had the power of time
travel? There was also the "mystery" of Domino Tremaine. A woman who would be
born to Darlanis sometime in our future, who would travel back in time to the
20th Century or the early 21st. A woman who would live to become the last
Leaderess of Earth af- ter the death of Janet Rogers. Whose last remains
Darlanis and I had buried there near the ruins of the home of Bob and Carol
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Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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