New Contract
Ben’nin’s wrist went off, annoying him. It was hard to concentrate on his work when… Exo bureau?
He went out onto a porch, a favourite place for taking calls and, after staring at the snip for a few seconds, accepted the screeny. In seconds a face had resolved in front of him. An older male ska, looking serious. “Ben’nin Korvau?” he asked.
“Yes, Ska,” Ben’nin said, tapping for ‘under authority’ instinctively.
“We have an En-drek contract for you,” the man said, perhaps tapping back out of sight. “But she is an exo, and will need very careful handling.”
“Umm, yes?”
“She is older, although still fully fertile for several years yet, and she and her daughter are from Ephemera. The daughter is in contract, but still living at home, so you will need to be on your toes with both of them, and work closely with us and her en-drek. We will expect at least weekly snip reports, and snips whenever you run into an issue.”
“What, umm, what problems should I expect?”
“I will send you her confidential file. Mostly you will just have to be very… pro-active.”
“Yes, Sir,” Ben’nin’ said, and the screen closed. An odd man, and an odd assignment. An exo. With a daughter, also an exo. The file came in and he started reading it…
—
Gregory was home for dinner tonight, and was making much of Jellia, who grinned and ate and seemed to enjoy his hands. Indeed Illoh got rather handsy. Well, he was probably thinking about the fact he only had three more decas of access to her. Or maybe he was imagining his next en-drek-a. She had no idea.
Jellia had just pulled a hot desert out of the oven… she had prepared it yesterday and threw it in when she got home, when Fenstra’s wristcom dinged and she looked at it. Casually, as she often got work snips at all hours of the day and night but almost none of them were urgent.
But it wasn’t from work. It was from the en-drek contract bureau.
Exo bureau approved contract
Expect en-drek Ben’nin Korvau 1400 hours third day, three decas from now
Per note on file: reminder: meet him on your front lawn as per code and custom.
She stared at it. “Some problem at work, Mother?”
She looked up. “No. Ummm, no. The en-drek Contract Bureau just approved my next contract. He will be arriving in three decas.”
There was a brief silence, as Jellia stared at her in shock. “Well, Daughter, you know your code and custom… congratulate your ska-drek-a,” Ska-drek said.
Jellia and Gregory duly congratulated their ska-drek-a, and then Bobbin was put through the motions. Finally Illoh came over and gave the kiss lover to lover, “May you be as successful in your next contract as I was in this one,” he said. “I will trust you to raise our kesh-u in honor, and look forward to seeing them grow.”
“Thank you,” Fenstra said, her voice a bit hoarse. She moved into the lover to lover kiss and the two held it for quite a while.
“Well, we will need to celebrate your ska-drek-a’s new contract,” Illoh said when they broke up. “There is a wonderful grilled fish restaurant by the bay that I have been wanting to try. I will make reservations for us for tomorrow evening, if that pleases.”
“Mother?” Jellia asked, as he left the room. She looked down at Bobbin. “Well, he does hardly ever nurse anymore, does he?”
“Hardly ever,” Geoffrey said. “I have noticed it and was wondering when you would make the announcement. You say you have a contract. Can you tell us about him?”
—
Contract Marriage
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).
Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!
Being ‘restacked’ and mentioned in ‘notes’ is very important for lesser-known stacks so… feel free! I’m semi-retired and write as a ministry (and for fun) so you don’t need to feel guilty you aren’t paying for anything, but if you enjoy my writing (even if you dramatically disagree with it), then restack, please! Or mention me in one of your own posts.
If I don’t write you back it is almost certain that I didn’t see it, so please feel free to comment and link to your post. Or if you just think I would be interested in your post!
If you get lost, check out my ‘Table of Contents’ which I try to keep up to date.
Von also writes as ‘Arthur Yeomans’. Under that name he writes children’s, YA, and adult fiction from a Christian perspective. His books are published by Wise Path Books and include the children’s/YA books:
The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid
and
As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations.
Arthur also has a substack, and a website. On the substack you can listen to some of his published books. Free.
Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von
Other Stories
Island People’s is not my only story on Substack. I have two light dystopias, or cultural sci-fi, or one of them is military sci-fi with aliens… Science Fiction can be difficult to categorise :)
Article 17: Intro
She was pretty, popular, snobby, and a planetary governor’s daughter. He was the son of shopkeepers, a social misfit, and a decorated hero. She thought she was there to dance. He had other ideas.
And a fantasy-esque series of morality tales:
Prologue IP0
Island People is a young adult fantasy book centring on a young prince. The book starts with his kidnapping and follows his adventures as he not only escapes from his kidnapper but gains critical allies and friends.