I was planning on posting a snippet yesterday, but REAL LIFETM intruded, and while I got all my words, I never made it back to the blog. I got all my words again today, so at the the moment, Suzee Delight is sitting at 5888 words out of a planned 20,000. More than 25% done.
Here’s the setup. The famous courtesan Suzee Delight is confessing to five murders before Pact Worlds judges, and both legal and illegal datastreams of her confession are going out into space, jumped through the origami points that connect the worlds of Settled Space to an audience of billions.
Charlie, who is the mandatory Pact Covenant Observer and enforcer of Pact regulations on the treatment of convict on the Longview Death Circus, is watching BOTH streams on side-by-side flat screens (not as cool as holoview, but much more practical for tight spaces). I’m bringing you in mid-interview…
NOTICE: This material is copyrighted, unchecked raw first draft, probably buggy. Please don’t post typos or corrections (I do my edits at the end of the first draft of the project and will not see your comments when I revise). This material may not survive to publication. Do not quote or repost anywhere or in any format. Thanks.
Left-side Suzee said, “I am ashamed of my actions. I betrayed the trust of five men I loved, and used my position of trust to murder them because I envied them their power.”
Right-side Suzee said, “I am not ashamed of my actions. These five men betrayed the people they served and used their positions of trust to attempt to enslave free human beings.”
The cutwork on the official version had been skillfully done. Charlie couldn’t see or hear the blending between the segments that were actually her words, and those that had been inserted.
Most of Settled Space would see the raw version. Most people living on Pact Worlds would only have access to the official version, which had little enough truth in it.
Left-side Suzee said, “I failed my government, my educators, my selectors, my trainers, my clients, and my profession, which is the highest calling to which any woman can aspire.”
Right-side Suzee said, “I accuse my government, my educators, my selectors, my trainers, and my clients for creating laws that make being a courtesan the highest work to which any woman can aspire.”
“Damned right,” Charlie muttered. Charlie had been lucky enough to be born homely and lacking in any discernible entertainment skills, and also infertile—she had been channeled into a low-level government job from which neither her intelligence nor her competence would ever elevate her. But her other government-designated career track had been D-3 Convenience Prostitute, and only the tremendously high suicide rate in the D-3 Pact Covenant Observer career field had saved her from that fate.
In front of her, left-side Suzee said, “Because I am guilty of five murders of men designated A-1, and because I freely confess that I committed these murders by intent…”
Right-side Suzee also said, “Because I am guilty of five murders of men designated A-1, and because I freely confess that I committed these murders by intent…”
Left-side and right-side Suzees both said, “I waive my right to trial in order to save the Pact Worlds the cost of such trial when the outcome is already certain, and instead elect to sell my death to the highest-bidding Death Circus, where my execution will be streamed for all viewers on all Pact Worlds.”
Charlie didn’t hear Suzee’s final words, however.
She was out the door and shooting herself toward the Longview’s Bridge, screaming “I need to speak to the owner, I need to speak to the owner now!” at the top of her lungs, over and over.
Shay, the owner’s representative, was on the bridge waiting for her when the passenger transport unlocked.
“Suzee Delight is selling herself to the highest-bidding Death Circus now,” Charlie shouted.
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