Read Retaliation for Free Online Page B

don’t understand what it’s like!” Sha’uri’s voice was hoarse as she spoke through her tears. “In the days before, under Ra, no one knew how long they’d live. Children were the only way to reach toward the future. Of course, Ra took a crueler view. The Horus guards used to say, ‘Breed early, breed often-make more workers for Ra.’ “ She stared at Daniel with red-rimmed eyes. “Things may have changed, but the old ways remain. Some of us-young ones, like Skaara-we see that new times need new customs. But it’s easier to free ourselves of Ra than to change the ways of thinking-especially for the older folk. My father keeps expecting grand-children-the sooner, the better. He hints, and asks, and pokes about...” “Then we’ll have to tell him to wait,” Daniel said.
    Sha’uri’s eyes filled with renewed tears. “There is another answer we could give,” she faltered. “Maybe I can’t free my mind from the old ways, either.” Daniel tried to be logical, pointing out the inconve-nience, the problems, a pregnancy would cause. His fledgling academy would lose Sha’uri as a teacher and translator. She responded that Abydan women worked in the mines almost to birthing time.
    Surely she’d be able to do the same in a sit-down job. Then Daniel played the health-care card. He’d pre-fer to wait until Earth doctors and medicines were available.
    “But they’ll be coming now, under this agreement with the general,” Sha’uri said.
    In the end, there was only one argument left to him, one he didn’t wish to use. Daniel Jackson was scared green of fatherhood. “I’m committed to you,” he in-sisted to Sha’uri. “I love you, I want us to be together. We should be enjoying this time. To bring in a kid-I think it’s too soon.” The discussion went downhill from there. Daniel ended in full retreat, disguised as storming out the door.
    Should have taken the MRE with me, he thought, strid-ing through the dark streets. His stomach was roiling with tension. But when it finally settled down, hunger pangs took over.
    Daniel set a course for the building that housed the Council of Elders. With luck, he might be able to horn into a meal there-eat at government expense. Maybe he could take Kasuf aside, ask him to cool it with Sha’uri-The little square in front of the adobe hall was full of people. Some were shouting, others had their fists raised. Daniel had been on Abydos long enough now to recognize accents. By their speech, these were mem-bers of farmer clans from outside Nagada.
    “We came many miles to bring our petition!” one farmer cried. “Why will the Elders of Nagada not hear us? We cannot spend another day waiting to catch their ear. Let us come to them now!”
    Another man complained more sharply. “These El-ders grow fat on the tools and coins they get from the Urt-men!”
    The linguist in Daniel wondered where the guy had appropriated the English word “Earthmen.”
    Obvi-ously, it was a case of street phonetics, a term repro-duced by word of mouth. Pidgin English had come to Abydos. So, apparently, had protests by the have-nots against those perceived as the “haves.”
    In a way, Daniel was reminded of his college days. There was the same mixture of a few vocal types fronting a large crowd waiting to see what would hap-pen. But this wasn’t campus politics. These were people in deadly earnest, coming before their govern-ment for a hearing, and, hopefully, justice. By Abydan tradition, they had the right to petition the Elders.
    They’d picked a lousy day for it, though. Kasuf and his confreres had been closeted the whole day, listening to General West’s offer, negotiating with him, debating the proposal, then deciding how to imple-ment scarce resources to meet their end of the bargain.
    By now they were tired old men who wanted rest, not wrangling. As far as the farmers were concerned, there were se-cret deals afoot to make the Nagadans richer-and the farming clans poorer.
    The