Page 88 (1/2)

All’s I know is to be a servant Before that a slave I i man in a suit at an interview like they show in the holos He’d ask my skills and I’d tell him I kno to tend silkspiders to keep theht I kno to bribe ar, how to listen to ru

“Ruster soodlady,” he’d say “But we don’t need that around here Have you tried janitorial?”

—

The museue wing is packed Full of ancient spaceships donated by Regulus ag Sun hiroup of Grays and Blues to even glih a crook in a woed heel of the Silver’s coo The same that was on our tents and our food packets and our water purifier The same as on the robots that replaced us in our own unprofitable mine

The History of the Conquerors exhibit is closed; Warden barriers block it off A flock of Coppers in front ofsoap in the tarp that covers the front of the exhibit, I see several Greens are installing hardware in the floor as a crew of Oranges and Reds fix a marble arch where CONQUERORS has been burned over with COCK SUCKERS

I smile to myself

I skip the wing devoted to the Rising—little Conn and Barloould have wailed in disappoint There I find a roo at the top to let in a thin streails litter the floor Small as thumbs, made of flexible metal just like those on my own hands Each taken from the mines that the Jackal of Mars liquidated They call it the Hall of Screams

It’s grotesque and cold and I want to flee it But I stay Of all the art here, this is the straightest in the eye you can look at the horror Aone of the Sigils He’s alone, but Reds behind him kneel to comfort him till there’s a thick cluster around hiif I should join, but feeling too aard and too moved to actually do it Where was this love in Camp 121?

A pair of towering Golds stand on the far side with their young son, watching the display They’re a handsome couple Their eyes somber, respectful But I want to shout at thes to us

Then the iron tinkles as their son slips froils His shoes rattle the Sigils together The sound bounces against the concrete, rising level by level, the noise groith each ricochet till it reaches the top of the room’s cold concrete throat

The clustered Reds stop and stare

Made nauseous and claustrophobic fro to find a place to sit down and recover All the coffee shops are filled, so I aim for a s gaggle of airy Blues, past jabbering Greens, the Colors all clustered together on the broad white steps that lead up to the museum Carefully, I brush past a dreadful Gold wo on an internal chip A Red with eccentric piercings buet ahead “Sorry, love,” hesmoke from his burner

Someone shouts behindabout in a frenzy, her eyes scanning the crowd till they settle on er “You” I look behindto “Thief!” She pushes in ht for e to flee, but I stand rooted to the spot on the sidewalk “Watch woman shouts “Watchmen! Where is it, you little ruster?” the woman sneers down at me Easily a foot taller than me A hundred pounds heavier More, despite how thin she is She looks like an ee eyes glitter like two evil gems “I know you took it”

“I didn’t take shit,” I snap She grabs rind in its socket My feet coround

“We’ll see about that Watchmen!”