‘Don’t have to tell me twice.’
‘Yes, I did,’ Kyle said. ‘More than twice, actually.’
‘I know. It’s stupid. My parents are so backward.’
‘Amédée does say that the Garavain clan is exceptionally traditionalist,’ Yuzuki said. ‘She’s our eldest daughter. She’s the senior Alliance liaison officer on Garavain Prime.’
‘It’s not my place to say, but I pity her that assignment. She’s right about my clan. Well, I wouldn’t call them traditional. I’d probably use a less complimentary term. But not in front of Michiko.’
‘It’s something rude then,’ Michiko said sadly. ‘No one ever says anything rude in front of me. I’m ten, you know. I’m not a child.’
‘Legally,’ Nava said, ‘you are until you’re fourteen. Then you’ll be a young adult, like me, Suki, Chess, and Mel. And when you get to seventeen, you’ll be called an adult.’
‘“Called” is the appropriate word, Nava,’ Zackery said. ‘Some of those in the adult bracket behave like they never transitioned to young adults.’
‘And some grow up far too fast,’ Yuzuki added.
‘I grew up too fast,’ Michiko said, all seriousness. ‘Everyone says so.’
‘Then you should slow down, Michiko,’ Nava said. ‘Take time to be a child. You’ll never get the opportunity again.’
‘That sounded like the voice of experience,’ Kyle said into the silence which followed the statement.
‘Yes.’
Michiko was not silent for the same reason as the older people in the room. She was pondering Nava’s suggestion as she seemed to consider everything adults – or young adults – said to her. ‘I will take that under consideration, Nava. Thank you for your advice.’
‘You are most welcome.’
Alliance City, 235/5/10.
In some ways, Alliance City was not what you might expect of the capital of a vast, interstellar alliance. On paper, it was two hundred and thirty-five years old, but that ignored the fact that Alliance City had been New Kyoto prior to its renaming on Alliance Day of the first year of the Clan Worlds Alliance. When you included the time before that event, the city was four hundred years old and a lot of its architecture dated back three hundred years when a major round of civic works had happened.
There were modern buildings, more on the outskirts than the central region, but a lot of the city owed its style to a period when the inhabitants had got comfortable, society was stable, and they had looked back toward the architecture of old Earth. The city owed a lot to European architecture from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of the old calendar. However, the majority of the settlers had originally come from Japan, so there was old Japanese architecture dropped in among the stone buildings with their columns and tall, arched windows.
‘It’s all rather generic, when you really get down to it,’ Mitsuko said as the group of six walked down one of the main shopping streets. ‘The buildings are generic. The brands in the windows are generic.’
‘I think you’re being a little cynical, Suki,’ Nava replied. ‘When you get down to it, everywhere is really quite generic, but if you’ve never been there before, it can still have some charm. Until you get used to it, anyway.’
‘What I can’t get used to is the prices,’ Melissa said.
‘They’re not especially high,’ Mitsuko pointed out, frowning at a window display.
‘Technically, you’re right. But I’m used to Avorn dollars, not everything priced in Alliance Solars.’
‘Oh, right. Yes, I suppose that would take a little getting used to.’ Alliance Solars had been designed to not use any subdivisions. Most of the clans had their own currency, most of them were called dollars, and most of them had either cents or pennies. The exchange rates varied, but you could generally count on a hundred Solars being one clan dollar. Shinden was the only world in the Alliance that used the Solar as its basic currency, so someone visiting had to cope with everything appearing to cost a hundred times as much on first inspection.
‘The school doesn’t help you to get used to it,’ Melissa added. ‘Everything’s charged to your account. You never really see the prices unless you go looking.’
‘I look,’ Nava said. ‘Mostly so that I know how much of a nest egg I have for emergencies. Or shopping trips with Suki.’
‘I somehow doubt that Rochester and I will be spending much money,’ Kyle said.
‘Chess is wearing beige, knee-length shorts and a short-sleeved shirt with palm leaves printed on it,’ Mitsuko said. ‘If he doesn’t buy himself more normal casual clothes, I will.’
‘What’s wrong with–’ Rochester began.
Melissa put a hand on his arm. ‘She’s right, Chess. Just accept it. How many pairs of jeans do you own?’
‘I, uh… Well, just the one.’
‘I know just the place,’ Mitsuko announced, and she set off with renewed vigour.
Nava shook her head as she stretched her legs to keep up. ‘Give the girl a mission…’
~~~
The small boutique Mitsuko had dragged them all into after an hour of other, varied boutiques had changing rooms in the back, lots of racks of products, and several seats beside the changing area’s entrance upon which men could sit looking either uncomfortable or expectant. The product – Rochester in particular refused to describe any of it as clothing – consisted of various amounts of different materials arranged in patterns which tended to afford… strategic coverage. It was a lingerie shop and, more or less as Nava had predicted, Rochester was not handling it that well.
‘He’s out there imagining you in various flimsy garments,’ Nava said. ‘Let’s face it, he just has to look up to provide him with fantasy fodder. Imagination is only required for what you look like.’
‘Why me?’ Melissa asked. She was currently trying on bras because getting a good fit was not a trivial matter for her and this was an opportunity to check out new manufacturers. Melissa had foundationwear issues.
‘You are neither that blind nor that naïve. And I don’t think you’re into that much self-delusion either.’
‘No one who is uninterested would spend that much time trying to teach
