Thendara House Read Online Free PDF Page A

among Terran barbarians now and you have to allow us our tribal customs. It makes record-keeping simpler that way. You’re sharing quarters with Haldane, aren’t you? Well, there you are.”
“Yes, but I am a Renunciate, and it is not the custom to bear the husband’s name - “
“As I say, it’s our custom,” said the man. “Do you have any proverb which says, When in Rome, do as the Romans do?”
“Who were the Romans?”
“God knows; I don’t. Some old territorial people, I imagine. One could translate; when living among barbarians, follow their customs as well as you can.”
Jaelle thought it over, felt her face crinkling in a smile. “Yes; we say, When in Temora, eat fish.”
“Temora, as I recall, being a seacoast town,” he mused. Then he began tapping on the odd keyboard with remarkably nimble fingers - she hoped they wouldn’t ask her to use any machine demanding that much dexterity - and silent lights streamed across a glass plate before him. There was a beep, and he raised his eyes at the series of letter-lights on the glass.
“I forgot. Get her prints, will you, Beth?”
“Finger or eye, or both?”
“Both, I think.”
Bethany led Jaelle to another machine and guided her hand against a curious flat glass plate; it flared lights, and Bethany guided her face against another with a place for her chin to rest. She jerked back, startled, as lights hurt her eyes, and Beth said soothingly “No, hold your head still and keep your eyes open; we’re taking retina prints for positive identification. Fingerprints can sometimes be faked, but eyeprints never.”
It took two more tries before she could conquer the involuntary response, twitching back and her eyes squeezing shut. Finally they clipped a laminated card to her tunic, with her picture in one corner and the odd squiggles which were, they told her, coded prints. Bethany said, “You really have to wear the uniform, you know. Twice already today you tripped the monitors with an intruder-alert - they’re programmed to ignore anyone wearing uniform, because of the codes inside the tunic patch.” She guided Jaelle’s fingers to examine a roughness as of metal between the thickness of her uniform neck’s cloth; Jaelle thought it had been torn and repaired, but it was evidently intended that way.
“Fortunately, the man on the main gate saw your pass and warned us that you were out of uniform today. But wear it tomorrow, won’t you, like a good girl? Makes everything so much simpler.”
Simpler; to have everyone looking just alike, like so many painted toy soldiers from a box!
“I know you’re working under Lorne,” the man went on, “but she got away with it because, working in the Boss’s office as much as she did, she could pull rank.” Lorne, of course, was the name Magda used in the HQ, she knew, but none of the rest of it was intelligible except that for some strange reason, perhaps a superstitious ritual, she must wear the uniform to keep from touching off alarms within the building. It probably wasn’t worth arguing about.
“It’s all right for today, your first day,” the man added, “but tomorrow, show up in uniform, all right? And wear the badge at all times. It identifies your department and your face.”
Jaelle asked, “Why should I have to wear my face, when I am already wearing my face?”
“So that we can see that your badge matches your face, and no unauthorized person gets into Security areas,” the man said, and Jaelle, who was already confused, decided it was not worthwhile to go on asking why should anyone want to go where they had no business? It wasn’t as if there was anything interesting in here to see.
“Take her on up to Medic, Beth, we’re finished with her,” said the man. “Good luck, Mrs. Haldane - Jaelle, I mean. Where are they going to put her, Beth? They can’t put her in the Boss’s office. He tends to make - ” the man hesitated, “rude remarks. About certain people’s -