Oops.
Letting the security bots capture me was probably the hardest thing I’d ever done. All my instincts screamed at me to fight, struggle, run away, do anything other than passively stand there and let them take me. But that would just make things worse. Fighting another orphan was bad enough. Resisting a matron would be a thousand times worse.
All I could do was surrender, and hope for the best.
That sounded like a smart idea right up until the first bot sprayed me with capture web, and then it was too late to change my mind. But I had a horrible, sinking feeling. I’d never seen the bots use capture web before. What did they think I was going to do, go crazy and kill everyone?
By the time the bots had carried me up to the Discipline Office I was wondering if I’d made the right choice. Matron Gisel’s lecture didn’t help.
“In all my years at this institution I’ve never seen such a barbaric display,” she fumed. “Violence! Actual, physical violence, in my orphanage. What were you thinking?”
I opened my mouth.
“Not you!” She snapped. “I want you to sit quietly, and think about what you’ve done.”
Well, I certainly wasn’t going anywhere. The security bots had wrapped me in enough capture web to hold a dozen adults, and the sticky strands were firmly attached to the hard wooden bench I sat on.
There were two of the benches facing the desk in Matron Gisel’s discipline office. Dika was perched next to me, free of restraints and being careful not to touch me. Ulin and Kovy cowered on the other bench, looking ready to bolt out the door if I so much as looked at them funny.
It was hard to suppress a smirk at that. Whatever happened here, they weren’t going to bother Dika again anytime soon.
There wasn’t much to look at in the office. It was just a medium-sized room growing out of the trunk of one of the housetrees that made up the orphanage. The walls were bare, as was the huge desk of dark wood that grew from the floor. The windows along the wall to my left looked out onto a solid mass of foliage, admitting light without providing much of a view.
Matron Gisel was pacing in front of the window, instead of sitting behind the desk like she usually would. That was probably a bad sign.
The matron was a typical dryad, barely ten cems taller than me and with no muscle tone to speak of. Physically, I had nothing to fear from her. The simple green dress she wore matched her hair, but was worthless as armor. She didn’t carry a weapon, and I doubt she could have brought herself to use one if she did. The settlers who had colonized Felicity a hundred years ago had done their best to engineer away the human capacity for violence, after all.
But there are worse things than direct violence. As head matron she had ultimate control of all the orphanage systems, including the security bots. She could order me confined to sensory isolation in the ‘Quiet Room’, or have me sent for Adjustment, and the bots would carry out the sentence. I wasn’t sure what else she could do to me, but I had a sinking feeling I was going to find out.
“Kovy, what were you doing in Dika and Alice’s room?”
Kovy glanced at me, and swallowed nervously.
“We were just trying to talk Dika into a little friendly petting, ma’am,” she said earnestly. “She never lets anyone touch her, and that can’t be healthy.”
Matron Gisel frowned. “Is that true, Dika?”
Dika sniffed. “Yes, ma’am. I just… I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make anyone feel rejected. I just haven’t felt anything like that yet. But ma’am, I was trying to tell them no and they wouldn’t listen. Ulin was holding me down before Alice made them let me go.”
“Come on, cutie, don’t you know it can be fun to play that way?” Ulin said.
“We were just testing you,” Kovy insisted. “I thought you might be looking for someone who knows how to be pushy. We would have let you go if I didn’t get a reaction.”
“You have neurostim projectors in your fingers!” Dika objected. “Anyone would react to that.”
“If it feels that good, then what do you have to complain about?” Kovy replied, sounding smug.
Matron Gisel put her hands on her hips, and frowned at the girl. “Kovy, we’ve talked about this before. You can’t just go around using your enhancements on anyone who catches your eye. You’ll end up leaving a trail of broken hearts behind you, and that isn’t kind.”
Kovy’s eyes fell. “Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry, ma’am. I really was trying to help her.”
“Forcing me to feel the way you want me to isn’t helping, Kovy,” Dika said harshly. “Please don’t do that to me again.”
Kovy hung her head, and did her best to sound contrite. “I’m sorry, Dika. I promise, I won’t.”
“That’s more like it, girls. We’re a community here. Do try to act like it. Ulin? Do you have something to say to Dika?”
Ulin was silent for a long moment. From her expression I couldn’t tell if she was thinking, or just sulking.
“We caught Dika climbing in through her window,” she finally said.
“The window? My word. But you’re in the upper dorms. Is this true, Dika?”
Dika winced. “Yes, ma’am.”
“What in Gaia’s name were you doing out there? Something to do with Alice, I suppose.”
“I woke up, and she wasn’t in our room,” Dika explained.
“So you immediately decided to climb out the window? Somehow, I suspect there’s more to it than that. Ulin, why didn’t you call a matron then?”
“I was going to,” she claimed. “But Kovy and I had been talking about how to get through to Dika, so I was already thinking about that. I, um, kind of made her think I might not tell on her if she cooperated.”
“That’s hardly proper behavior for a good girl, Ulin. Were you really going to let her get away with improper behavior? Or were you offering an agreement you didn’t intend to keep? Neither option reflects well on you.”
“I, um, didn’t really think it through, ma’am.”
Matron Gisel wasn’t impressed. “Lack of foresight is also a fault, young lady. Is there anything else you need to tell me?”
“I think Alice messed up my arm, ma’am. It hurts pretty bad right now.”
“Yes, and now we get to the heart of the matter. Alice, where were you this morning?”
Well, there was no point in lying. She’d just send the security bots to do a forensic sweep if she wasn’t satisfied with my explanation, and I certainly hadn’t covered my tracks well enough to fool them.
“I was in the upper branches watching the sunrise, ma’am.”
“Breaking curfew,” she noted. “And endangering yourself.”
“I can’t really be hurt by falls, ma’am,” I disagreed. “Even if I land wrong, the worst I could get is a few bruises.”
“A bruise is still an injury,” she noted. “Also arguing with a matron, and setting a dangerous example for your peers. Go on. Why were you up there? Did you just have an irrepressible urge to see the sunrise?”
“I was hunting, ma’am,” I admitted.
“I see. Is that why you have blood on your face?”