First Work
Contract Marriage #6
Fenestra stared at her office building as her bus pulled up to the stop, and kept looking at it as she got down. This wasn’t the last time she would see it, but it was close. That is, unless she decided to come back after her tour on Libertas. Come back as an acknowledged Trade Master.
She would have stood longer, but a light rain and a biting wind started up, so she hurried in. She passed the safety, who nodded at her, having watched her come up from his desk at the door. The bus stop was a big part of his responsibility. She turned just past him to the left and walked briskly up the stairs. Her job involved too much sitting, and she didn’t want to get ‘chunky’, as her daughter put it. She would lose too many dating opportunities that way. And, besides, she had her self-respect. So she always walked briskly up the stairs and used the office gym quite frequently. She had gotten good at holding meetings while pedalling or walking.
She made it to the fourth floor, which was a completely open-plan floor. Trading was not something that was ‘private’, at least not amongst the other traders, and opaque screens and noise dampers gave one a bit of peace to think and to research. Which was mostly her job: researching opportunities and thinking and calculating them through. Finding the best goods to ship at the cheapest price and the least transportation…
Cindy, who had the desk next to hers, bowed ‘Much Congratulations’ and Fenestra grinned. So the news had made it to the trading floor. Well, it would have. There would probably be at least three promotions because of her move. Someone into her spot, someone into that spot… at least three, she would think. Or maybe a new hire.
She sat down, opened her screens to large and opaque, and, without bothering to silence, opened the dating cyclopedia entry for ‘Master Trader Galloway’, her predecessor on Libertas. She could schedule a formal hold for briefing, but if he looked at all interesting… oh, he did!
She scanned through the reviews. Eager, active, had actually sired a child before he had left for Libertas. Interesting. And he would have done so on Libertas, as well. She had never dated a man with that many children. No bad habits, well, except he liked to use up your water allowance. Well, she didn’t care, she would be exo before the next cycle anyway.
Fenestra: Would love an informal briefing from you, for me and my daughter who will be going with me.
No answer came immediately, so he was obviously in a meeting or something. She opened up her trading screens. She had some trades to finish before her training started. And then she heard rain against the window and turned to look. Nasty rain, dark clouds, temperature no doubt dropping. She hadn’t even looked to see what the weather was like on Libertas!
MT Galloway: Sounds fun! What night?
Fenestra: I have nothing going on tonight, and my daughter should be home on time.
MT Galloway: Sounds good. Let the safety know. Last week I had one have to snip up. Really ruined the mood.
She stared at the screen. Most men would have made it official by now, but she guessed she didn’t mind making it last minute. Jellia would be embarrassed, but she would have to grow up.
Fenestra: Snipping him now. Let’s say 14:30?
MT Galloway: I’ll be there. Looking forward to seeing you.
She snorted and turned back to her screens.
“Date for tonight, Fenny?” Cyndy asked her. “You have that look.”
“Sort of. He wants to last minute it, I guess.”
“Some men like that.”
“Working date, though. He’s the last Master Trader on Libertas, so I’m going to pick his brain all night.”
“Useful contact for later?”
“I hope so. He is a Master Trader.”
“They tend to be useful. Say, I’m going to be taking over some of your trades while they transition. Anything hot to tell me about?”
“Umm, yeah. There’s this brand new type of hot pepper… can’t stand them myself but they look like they’ll do well exo. I’ve been working on the contract for two months. You might want to look it over before you get called into a meeting about it.”
“Snip it to me, will you?”
Contract marriage is an adult dystopia examining the issues of marriage. Like 1984 and Brave New World, Contract Marriage treats the relations between the sexes as a fundamental aspect of how a society is formed and, thus, how a society can go wrong.
Unlike those dystopias, Contract Marriage isn’t all horrible all of the time. The characters for the most part have a good time and get along in their society. But the issues of sexuality, of marriage or not, monogamy or not, faithfulness or not, and gender roles… keep coming up and causing tension and conflict and joy and pain.
My desire is that my readers would be thinking along with my characters about these issues and perhaps even arrive at the same place (minus the flying cars).
I love comments, agree, disagree, rewrite… all sorts. So feel free!
Links
Contract Marriage Chapters, Newest to Oldest
I would like to give credit for the genesis of many of these ideas to the Liaden series by Mr. and Mrs. Steve Miller, which is available for free on the web. They do a great deal of cultural exploration, although they rather dramatically skip the moral exploration. (And their math doesn’t work.)
Other concepts were taken, in one form and another, from the book Freehold by Michael A Williamson.
Is "snip up" in your glossary? In context, it doesn't seem to make sense as an email.
They certainly do have casual sex, don't they? "I want to learn about this planet, and btw let's have sex."
So, they have a date-night at 14:30. That would be 2:30pm. Late afternoon would 16:30-18:30 (4:30p-6:30p,) and night would be 19:00 to 23:00 or 7p-11p.
I didn't check your version of timekeeping, but I shouldn't be that far off, depending upon if the Ephymra has a 24 hour rotational period.