Volume 11: East of Eden
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I stared at him for a long moment, then burst out laughing. "You seem pretty sure of yourself," I said. "Oh, I am," Dragon countered, grinning widely, "Remember, I have direct access to the kind of behavioral modeling the PA undertakes on a routine basis, and so it's easy to predict anyone's reaction with a fair degree of precision." "Well, I'm not going to disappoint you," I replied, "It sounds like a real adventure." My answer had not been in doubt for quite some minutes now. I was in truth keen to rescue my sister - like some adventure story from olden times - and I fully confess to having been highly intrigued. "Great!" Dragon enthused, "Now there are some preparations - some further preparations, I should say - that you need to undertake." "OK," I replied cautiously, "What kind of things?" "For a start, we need to get you properly dressed." I was confused and it must have shown on my face - or perhaps the automation was feeding an analysis of my reactions direct to Dragon in a way I could not detect. "The people in Eden," Dragon continued, "Have rather quaint and old-fashioned ideas about a number of things - many of them centered on sex. Public nudity is prohibited, and even displaying skin other than face and hands is frowned on." "So I'm going to have to wear a costume?" I asked. "Well, yes, if you like," he replied, "But you should bear in mind that they will regard this as normal everyday dress." Dragon put down his coffee cup and stood up suddenly. "Come inside with me," he said, "Time is of the essence." I followed him back into the living area of the house, where a large pile of black and white cloth had materialized on one of the couches. He picked up some large item of white cloth and held it out to me. "This is the approved underwear," he explained. I took the proffered item and slipped it on, then turned to look at myself in a mirror instantaneously provided by the automation. I confess I laughed aloud. The shapeless knickers covered me from waist to mid-thigh - concealing more bare flesh than the short skirts I normally wore. Under Dragon's guidance, I struggled into the remaining clothes: a voluminous white blouse with long sleeves, a heavy black skirt that hung nearly to the ground, a jacket of the same material and a headscarf. Dragon helped me tie the scarf under my chin. "There," he said approvingly, "You look like a proper goodwife now." At first, the garments felt like some kind of fancy dress, but I found myself becoming gloomy and depressing as I put them on. They were so cumbersome, so heavy and restrictive and above all, so un-sexy. I took one last look in the mirror - I hardly recognized myself - then turned to Dragon. "What next?" I asked. "I'll take you to the compound," Dragon replied, "In my car." We traveled together for about an hour. Dragon explained that the Eden commune was a carefully-constructed Primitive society, technologically stuck somewhere in the later part of the Twentieth Century, although with a moralistic culture from some much earlier point in history. About ten thousand people lived inside the NNZ, tilling the land and growing their own food, and breeding children, a process involving something called 'marriage' which I did not quite understand. These people lived and worked for perhaps sixty years - I was already many times that age - policing their own lives and business according to some loosely defined set of rules called the Commandments. After the briefing, we said companionably for a while, Dragon in his loose-fitting Kimono and me in the scratchily uncomfortable cover-all clothes he had foisted on me. Eventually, the limo came to a halt in a quiet wooded area, and the car door swung open silently. I moved to get out, but Dragon took me by the arm. "Take care," he said earnestly, "People can get really hurt - even killed - in there." With that chilling thought, I exited the car. The door closed softly behind me, and the car turned around and quickly accelerated away in the direction from which we had just come.
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Part 2