Ji’an rushed down the glass halls of the VEN Centre [1] and was just in time to catch one of the Commuters into the Main City. Leaning back into one of the comfortable white armchairs, she tried not to fidget. She was late. And she hated being late, especially to these appointments. The Commuter glided through the transparent transport tubes in silence, the City rushing by, glass and lights flashing through the glass ceiling. A caterer offered her a cup of arica, which Ji’an took gladly.
The Commuter was fairly full, most of the men and women Ji’an saw were from the VEN Centre, their crisp black suits and skirts always stuck out. Crossing her legs, Ji’an suppressed the urge to remove her shoes. At the end of a long day, the heels started to get uncomfortable, but as a member of a VBA, [2] she couldn’t afford indecencies in public, not even the slightest. During her training she hadn’t cared, ignoring the surprised looks, but now she had to keep form. She crossed her legs instead.
Ji’an drank from her arica and sighed. Other Commuters flashed by, men and women in black suits and skirts entered and left at the blue-lit stations. It was half an hour from the VEN Centre to the Main City, half an hour Ji’an took to lay down the busyness of the day. The Commuter finally stopped smoothly at Cartin Place, the cabin was almost empty now, only a small group of trainees sat in the back talking in low voices.
*
Rushing through the blue-lit station, Ji’an checked her timer. Five past already! She hurried to the glass elevators and watched the city grow smaller as she rose in a swish to the seventh floor of the building. It was already twenty seven floors above the ever-busy JDCs.[3] Up in Cartin Place, the air was peaceful. The sun was setting and bathed the entire City in warm light. They said there had been many parks before the Reconstruction, large patches of communal greens far larger than any House Garden. Ji’an couldn’t imagine it. To her the City was always glass and silver, flashing with windows.
The elevator came to a silent stop and the doors opened to a small foyer. A stylized crane graced the marble floor in shining black and gold tiles. It was spread out in front of the milk-glass sliding doors that opened the moment Ji’an walked across the polished floor. The entrance had its usual luxurious simplicity, whites and greys accentuated with the bright colours of flowers from the Low Don in enormous vases. The usual faint smell of incense lay in the air, and the young woman at the check-in desk nodded when Ji’an walked up to her.
‘Hello Sila,’ Ji’an said.
‘Ms Taiyge,’ Sila nodded, scanning through her monitoring screen with a flick of her hand.
‘I have an appointment. I know I’m late.’
‘She’s already waiting,’ Sila said, taking the card Ji’an handed her. ‘Will you be staying?’
‘Only the usual,’ Ji’an answered. Sila nodded and slid the card into the respective slot.
Ji’an thanked Sila as she handed her her jacket and her new Lexen, a perfect piece of yula leather. They would be kept in one of the private lockers until she returned. Turning, Ji’an checked herself in the mirrored wall, all was well. She walked to the office on the far side of the left corridor. There were vases of flowers in intervals, and the soft hum of faraway music. Ji’an stood out in her all-black outfit, her glossy heels clicking loudly on the marble, reminding her of the VEN Centre and all the business there. The milk-glass doors to the office opened noiselessly and Ji’an stepped in to the white space.
‘My apologies, Mistress Koun,’ she said immediately. ‘I had a meeting I couldn’t get out of. I’m not too late, I hope?’
‘No,’ was the calm reply.
Mistress Koun, dressed in her usual flowing dark robes, stood at her aquarium feeding her rare and poisonous fish, small and flat and very beautiful with delicate gossamer fins. Their watery world was the only colourful thing in the entire office. The windows behind the glass desk overlooked the sparkling City, awash in sunset colours.
‘Have a seat, please,’ Mistress Koun said in her calm voice, returning the fish-food into the long array of milk-glass jars next to the aquarium. None of them were labelled. Ji’an always wanted to ask how the Mistress knew which one to choose.
*
Mistress Koun walked across the room, looking as if she were gliding over the white carpet to the opposite side of the wide glass desk. She was tall and thin, and her face reminded Ji’an of the mysterious dark birds that sometimes flew around the VEN Centre. There was something almost too serene about the Mistress, even as she sat down in her spacious armchair and fixed Ji’an with her calm, grey eyes. They said Mistress Koun was from one of the Haldan Moons, but who knew. She was striking, that was certain.
‘I tried to get out as soon as I could, Mistress Koun, but the meeting was rather important,’ Ji’an tried to explain, but the Mistress waved her hand as if it didn’t matter why she was late. She was late, that was a fact that could not be changed. Ji’an fell silent and tried to look as calm in her seat as the Mistress.
‘Well,’ Mistress Koun said, and tapped the desk’s surface. The hologram screen appeared, showing the lists both to Ji’an and the Mistress.
‘Since your request was a little unexpected,’ the Mistress said, scanning through the names, faces flickering past the screen in flashes, ‘choices were limited.’
Ji’an nodded, she had expected this. It made the fact that she was late a little worse. She hated being late to these appointments. Mistress Koun had a way of ignoring Ji’an’s discomfort that made it all the more clear that she didn’t approve of the delay.
‘Yes, I know,’ Ji’an said. ‘I received the invitation only yesterday. Someone else should have gone but then – anyway, I was told only yesterday.’
‘That is why I would advise you to keep a permanent residence, Ms Taiyge,’ Mistress Koun said, eyeing Ji’an through the hologram screen.
Ji’an dropped her gaze. She couldn’t admit that she couldn’t afford permanent residence yet. She had just been promoted. It was not appropriate to make such expenses now, but it would have taken too long to explain that.
‘Well, fortunately, I did find something suitable,’ Mistress Koun said.
Ji’an smiled with relief. Mistress Koun was famed for never letting her clients down, even if they weren’t one of the illustrious patrons of the House.
‘You’re 4.5, am I right?’ Mistress Koun asked.
‘Yes.’
‘No specifications?’
‘Not too young please.’
Mistress Koun raised a graceful eyebrow but nodded.
‘Well then, I have just the right one for you. Come with me.’
The older woman tapped the glass table’s surface and the hologram disappeared. She rose in a soft rustle of expensive cloth, Ji’an got to her feet and followed her. The milk-glass doors glided open to the Main House a moment later. The smell of incense was stronger here, and her tread was mute on the thick white carpet, despite her heels. They walked across the Garden Path, crossing the spacious House Garden in a high arch of glass. As always, Ji’an would have liked to stop and look down, but that was not done. There were House Rules and it was a given that one didn’t break them.
*
They reached the end of the Garden Path that opened to small foyer. The second milk-glass doors slid open, and Ji’an could already hear the murmur of the residents in the main rooms, distant and deep like quiet nights at the coast. It was every Citizen’s dream to once cross the forbidden threshold and see how it really was behind those doors, but the djan, the House Guards, only let the majar and Mistress through. The djan stood motionless on either side, their hands clasped behind their back, their long white robes and expressionless faces showing they would tolerate no disobedience. It was said that they would kill if it was necessary, and that no Magistrate would put them under the law for it. Ji’an always felt that terminating an intruder’s life was going a bit far, but then again this way privacy was guaranteed.
They had hardly reached the open hall when a tall, well-built man of at least forty approached them, dressed in simple white robes and the characteristic red belt of the majar. There was a short exchange between him and the Mistress. Then the majar nodded and walked past the House Guards into the depths of the forbidden premises. Ji’an followed Mistress Koun into one of the chambers.
It was like all others, a spotlessly clean, white room, with a high ceiling and broad windows overlooking the Main City. The gliders flew along the skyways crisscrossing the darkening sky and the Commuters raced like caterpillars of light through the tubes. Inside the room, there were the usual recliners. Round, wide and made of a soft material she never could name, they reached a little higher than Ji’an’s knees. Two people fit easily on them and there was one on each side of the room.
*
The sun was setting in bright colours, the first reds and oranges were already turning the white room into hues of rose and pink. The Mistress nodded ‘Ms Taiyge’ and left, the sliding door closing quietly. Ji’an stepped to the wide windows and watched the gliders and Commuters as the sun set. The City was a maze of skylines and skyways reaching far into the darkening blue, showing its overwhelming scale. It was the largest civic settlement this side of the Low Don and was still expanding. One day it would fill out the whole Shelf and maybe reach down to the Valleys.
Not long after the Mistress glided out of the room, there was the three-knock signal at the door, but Ji’an didn’t turn. She heard the door slide open and knew without seeing that the majar came in followed by one of the residents. There was another silky slide of doors, which meant that the majar had left the room. Ji’an was still at the broad windows overlooking the City with its glass towers and domes. It was said that ten million people lived in its expanse, and seeing all the windows glitter in the setting sun, gliders passing up high, Commuters halting and racing on, Ji’an believed it.
She had always wanted to see the entirety of the City, maybe even go into those parts that were considered dangerous, apparently full of relics of that dark time before the Reconstruction. There was talk of ghosts and strange creatures that lived and fed in those dark spaces. Ji’an had seen some holographs of what was said to live down there, some were disgusting. Well, maybe one day she’d book a day-pass and take a guide down, but it would be a while until she could afford to ask for such freedoms.
Ji’an turned right then, the resident stood in the middle of the room, waiting. He was about her age, which was a relief, she never liked the young ones, she always felt inadequately responsible for them. He had the usual black ger on, loose Low Don cotton that reached to his knees, showing off well-shaped calves. His build was perfect, but that was to be expected, Mistress Koun only took the best. His hair was very dark, which was a surprise. Usually Mistress Koun gave her fair-haired ones. Then again, she had sent the request rather late. Ji’an stepped away from the window. She didn’t have all day after all, and the House’s fees were high.
* * *
[1] Vidan Eldin Noli Centre, named after Vidan Eldin Noli, one of the first to open up the trade routes after the Reconstruction
[2] Van Benem Associates, one of the various Providers, i.e. trading conglomerates in the VEN Centre
[3] Joint Development Centres, one of the many places of commerce and leisure in the Main City
©2014 threegoodwords