“Well,” he gesturedhelplessly at the town. “This is just… I mean it’s for…”
Oh my gods!Is he turning red now? I’d say something to help but he’s just socute when he stammers…
Thepods did such a good job of teaching that she didn’t even realizeher inner dialogue was currently using Imperial Standard.
“This is a colonytown,” he finally managed. “The walls aren’t for open militaryconflict; they’re just for keeping out wild creatures or whateverbandits might show up.”
“Fine, whatever.”She pointed to the town. “Both the attackers and the defenders inthis story would have been limited mostly to edged weapons, swords,lances, arrows…”
“Wow!” hebreathed, looking down at the wall. “So the wall would have...archers, yes?”
She nodded. “And theywould make it a living hell for enemies to get close to the wall withladders, though that was one of the ways to get a quick victory. Ifthat fails, they have to settle in and build siege equipment –stuff that can hurl large stones at the wall to make a hole.”
“If they had noflight capability,” he began slowly. “Why not just surround thetown and wait? Wouldn’t the defenders run out of food?”
“They would,” sheconfirmed. “And sometimes they did that but it’s costly. Thelonger an army sat still back then, the more men died from disease.”
“Why?”
“There was verylittle understanding about… sanitation,” she said. “Back then,”she added quickly.
“Amazing,” he said,finally taking a bite. “To think that our people came so far injust a few generations.” He pointed a piece of blue fruit at theholographic town. “I suppose the new colonists will feel at homehaving a wall.”
“Is this thenew town?” sheasked excitedly. “The capital of our new colony?”
He waggled his head,still chewing. “It’s an option but they’re probably going tochoose an arcology. It’s more secure and easier to upscale over theyears as the colony grows.
“Did you designthis?”
He swallowed. “No,this is procedurally generated based on the number of inhabitants andtype of colony. This is the standard imperial colony town for anearly community of farmers.”
“Oh, that is verycool!” She leaned in to look down on the buildings. “I do a lotof modeling on my computer back home. I’d love to learn more abouthow this works. Maybe we could give this town a little Earth flair…”
She sat back, shoulderslowering a bit. “Sorry. Just getting carried away. I’m sure thewhole thing is just stuck together from pre-fab components anyway.”
“What?” He shookhis head. “No. The town is built out of locally-harvested materialby a swarm of nanites. They follow the pattern we give them. If youcan change the look of the place…”
“You couldactually build it that way?” sheasked, practically falling off the front of her seat.
“Of course,” hesaid. “It’s no more difficult than the standard model and thiswould make it more… Human!”
She was soexcited that she’d managed to forget how cute the guy was. Untilnow,she thought, her eyes drifting down to his shoulders. Thosedamn under-armor suits don’t leave much to the imagination…
Sherealized she was staring again. She looked up, face red, to meet hisgaze.
“Howold areyou?” heasked.
Dang it!she thought in English. Couldn’the just be the cute older dude that I hung out with and enjoyed alittle unacknowledged tension with? Now I have to admit I’m just ateenager.“I’m seventeen,” she muttered, looking down.
Shewas a couple weeks shy of eighteen but steadfastly refused to addthat. She felt it sounded a little too desperate to look older.
“Thatexplains it,” he mused.
“Explainswhat?”she asked, humiliated.
“Howyou come up with such interesting ideas,” he said. “How you caneasily read this,” he gestured at her tablet with a mild frown,“histrionic friction?”
Shealmost giggled. There was a fair bit more ‘friction’ in thosenovels than her mom realized.
“You’reso much older.”
Shenodded morosely. Wait,what?She let her eyes bore into him now. “I’m seventeen,” shereminded him.
Buthe just nodded, as if that was all the proof he needed for his ownpoint.
She pursed herlips for a half second. “How old are you?”
“I’m six,” hetold her.
Sheheld up a finger. “I’m gonna need a second to absorb that.” Shelooked around the room with new eyes. I’m probably theoldest person in the whole damn room. Well…Shespotted her mother walking in. …Secondoldest.
Don’t come over here, shethought. She watched her veer toward the serving line. “You have toadmit it’s weird,” she said, looking back at him. “You looklike you’re in your twenties but I’m actually three times yourage.”
“Yes, but we’recreated with implanted knowledge,” he said. “We wake up for thefirst time with a lot of context that we have to sort through.”
“You havecontext but how much of a role is played by societal boundaries?”she asked. Look who’s been paying attention in socialstudies! She closed her eyes fora second, not needing to look in order to know who’d just sat nextto her.
“My lady,”the young man bowed his head.
“A perfect example ofsocietal boundaries,” Gabriella said. “My mother sees me talkingto a male of the species and she can’t resist a protectivedisplay.”
“I can’t sit withmy daughter while I eat?” Adelina asked, sounding mildly offended,one of her best performances, really.
“Neither of ushave eaten since yesterday afternoon,” Gabriella said, looking downat hermother’s hastilychosen piece of fruit and a mug of black coffee. Her mom never tookher coffee black.
“My mother,”Gabriella explained, turning back to her companion, “isentirely responsible for me. I’m not yet a legal adult inour homestate…”
“Or on thisship,” Adelina insisted.
“Isn’t thatup to republic law?” sheasked her mother.
“Nope. I lookedit up. The laws of the republic are intended as a stopgap in caseswhere local laws don’t cover something. As far as something like…”
“Age of consent?”Gabriella asked innocently.
Adelina glared at herchild. “Okay, sure. Age of consent. You’re covered by Californialaw.”
“Age of consent?”the man asked.
“It’s the ageyou need to reach before you can legally consent to sexualintercourse,” Gabriella answered, amazing herself with her suddenboldness. I’m the wise old woman here, right?
“Otherwise, you facelegal penalties,” Adelina added, a little more forcefully than sheprobably intended. “And the parent as well, if she murders thebastard who took advantage of her child…”
His eyes grew wide atthe threat radiating from the mother. The entire room had gonesilent. Gabriella looked around at
