A shrill, shouted obscenity distracted her. They were passing near the male chimp compound and several of the male chimps had come to the bars to shout insults. Most of them were directed at Martha but a few of the more reckless chimps hurled abuse at Jan as well. Martha chittered angrily back at them, jumping up and down and waving her arms. Jan said, “Don’t waste your time on them. Come on, I’m in a hurry. I badly need a wash and a cold drink.” She continued on. Martha, after a final, angry riposte complete with gestures, followed her. It was a pity, Jan reflected, that the male chimps, unlike the female ones, became so unpredictable after a certain age. Not all of them, true, but enough to ensure that every adult male had to be segregated for safety’s sake. It hadn’t always been like that, she knew; once male chimps had remained as reliable as the females, but about forty or fifty years ago things began to change and the first signs of male chimp unpredictability had appeared.
How unlike human males, she thought. They remained totally predictable all their lives. Every man she knew was of a placid and cheerful disposition, forever being relentlessly optimistic. Even the approaching crisis with the Sky Lord didn’t seem to bother them over much. Why, she wondered—not for the first time—had the Mother God made Minervan men such uncomplicated creatures compared to women? When She had removed the evil from their souls surely She could have made them a bit more interesting at the same time.
As if to prove her point she saw Simon ahead of her. He was one of a party of six men working on a small potato patch. Seeing her he dropped his hoe and hurried to meet her, a wide grin on his handsome and totally open face. “Jan! How good to see you! How are you?”
She felt a flush creep up her neck. Simon was the only male she’d ever made love to. The experience had been interesting but not especially exciting, yet the memory of her intimacy with him made her uncomfortable. “Hello Simon,” she said brusquely. “Sorry I can’t stop to talk. I’ve just got off the wall and I’m dead tired.”
“That’s okay. Maybe we can meet in the tavern tonight.” He was staring at her with such undisguised pleasure he was making her feel even more uncomfortable. She frowned. “Have you forgotten the Council meeting tonight?” she asked him irritably. “There won’t be any time between it ending and your curfew.”
He looked momentarily crestfallen, then the grin was back on his face. “Tomorrow, then?”
“Possibly,” she said and walked past him. In two weeks Minerva might be destroyed and all he could think about was socializing. Men.…
She and Martha entered the town and hurried along the narrow, alley-like streets. There had been much more space until about four or five years ago when the inhabitants of the outer farming settlements had been finally forced to move into town after losing their long battle with the blight lands.
Now newer, and smaller, wooden dwellings jostled next to the older stone buildings, destroying the careful architectural harmony of the original town. But otherwise everything looked deceptively normal. There was no visible sign of all the preparations that were feverishly taking place throughout the town.
Jan and Martha parted company when they came to a long, low building with no glass in its many windows. It was the female chimps’ dormitory, housing over forty of them as well as several baby chimps of both sexes. They said their farewells and Jan continued on towards her home near the centre of Minerva.
Her mother was there when she arrived. She was hunched over a map of the town spread across the kitchen table. As Jan entered she looked up, brushed her silver-dyed hair from her face and gave Jan a weary smile. “Hello, darling. How were things on the wall today? Any problems?”
“Nothing serious.” Jan leaned over her mother and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll tell you later. First I must change out of these smelly clothes.” She poured a mugful of water, drank it quickly, then filled a bowl and took it into her bedroom. She wished there was still sufficient water for baths or showers but now that Minerva had been reduced to only three wells such luxuries were out of the question.
She hurriedly pulled off her thick gauntlets and then thankfully unstrapped and removed the heavy, steel breast plate. Next came the weapons belt with her short-sword, dagger and hatchet. Followed by her knee-length boots, vest, kilt and underwear. Then she washed herself all over using a wet cloth and one of her few remaining pieces of precious soap.
She didn’t have to towel herself dry. It was still so hot that the moisture swiftly dried on her skin, but by the time she donned her favourite blue cotton robe she was feeling greatly refreshed.
When she returned to the kitchen her mother had put away the map but the look of strain remained on her face. As she prepared a meal of potato cakes and salad Jan told her of the day’s events on the wall. She dwelt on the incident with the panther and her mother noticed her uneasiness. “What was it about the beast that troubled you so much?”
Jan frowned. “I don’t know. It was as if it was an. …” She didn’t continue. She didn’t want to tell her mother that she believed the black panther was an omen. It would only upset her and make her angry. She would again accuse Jan of being weak and negative, of letting her down in this time of crisis. Instead she asked Melissa how the preparations were coming along.
“On schedule. Just.” She rubbed the sides of her forehead with her fingertips. “The only problem now is getting the final decision from the Council. If it goes against us tonight everything will have been a waste of time and Minerva will be doomed.”
Hesitantly, Jan said, “I know you’re right, mother, but all the same I wish there was another way. When I think of what’s going to happen I get so, so. …” She stopped but it was too late.
Melissa came over to her and held her face between her hands. “Jan, you are my daughter. You have a position to uphold in Minerva. You cannot afford to be frightened. You mustn’t let yourself be frightened. And you must give me your full and total support!”
“But of course I will support you, mother. You know I will vote on your side tonight. …”
Her mother’s eyes were fierce. “That’s not what I mean. You must be behind me all the time. A few words of doubt to one of your friends and those same words will be used as ammunition against me in the council hall.”
“I haven’t said anything to anyone, mother,” protested Jan. She tried to pull free of her mother’s grip. “Mother, you’re hurting me. …”
Melissa released her but her eyes remained fierce. “I have to win the vote tonight otherwise all is lost. Don’t you realize that?”
Jan gave a fearful nod. “Of course I do. Don’t worry, mother, you’ll win the vote. I know it.”
“If I don’t we will return here after the meeting and fall on our swords together. Better a clean death such as that than what will happen to us if Minerva falls to the Lord Pangloth.”
Jan stared at her mother. Was she really serious about their committing suicide? She couldn’t be! … But the look in her eyes told Jan that she was.
After an uncomfortable meal eaten in silence Jan retired to her room. She’d intended to have a few hours sleep but found that impossible. Finally, she got up, put on a leisure tunic and went out. It was dusk now. In two hours’ time the Council meeting would begin but Jan wanted to put it, and its implications, out of her mind for a while.
She went to the men’s compound. She found her father in the workshop. He was soldering the seam along a sheet metal tube that was about six feet long and four inches wide. He put down the soldering iron when Jan approached his bench and smiled broadly. He was a handsome man with a wide, expressive mouth; attractive grey-blue eyes and thick black hair. Jan knew that, physically at least, she took after him more than she did Melissa. Her mother, under the silver dye of her office, was blonde and her body was long and slim, whereas Jan was short and dark like her father, with the same coloured eyes and black hair.