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Category: Fantasy/Young Adult
Description: It's a privilege to be chosen to work on the communication lines that unite your world. But it helps if you really like cats, because carrying a group of them around with you is part of the job.
eBook Publisher: Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust, 2012
eBookwise Release Date: June 2012

1 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [18 KB]
Words: 3270
Reading time: 9-13 min.

"Another cat?" I stared at Sister Gabriela, hoping my feelings did not show on my face. "But, Eldest Sister, I already have the required five cats." This should have been obvious to the Sister in Charge; five heavy cats were draped in slings around my body, each one's copper collar attached to one of the braids in my hair. The braids also had copper wires in them; it was the easiest place to keep the wires so that you'd always have them when you needed them.

"You need another one," she said firmly. "We're upgrading our segment of the Line from Cat 5 to Cat 6. It will increase the traffic capacity a hundredfold."

I nodded, gave a respectful bow, and went back to my room to redo my hair and reposition the cats.

Our order, the Daughters of the Line, is in charge of maintaining our segment of the Line. The Line, in case you don't know, is the communication network the unites our planet. After the sea rose and the lowlands flooded, the population moved to the mountain ranges, and the Line was strung between Habitats so that we could communicate with each other. Some of the longer segments are made of more advanced materials, like spun glass, but our segment is made of lots and lots of copper wires twisted together in a particular way so that electrons flow through them--in patterns that can be decoded and rerouted at the next Node.

In addition to the Habitats at the Nodes (where our segment meets the adjoining segments, we have the House of the Daughters of the Line, and we have the Studios. There are copper trees at the nodes at each end of our segment which broadcast the Learning Shows made at the Studios through the air to other segments.

I used to work at the Studios when I was a child; I was a dancer and singer on the most popular of the Learning Shows. I can still sing the alphabet both forward and backward, and I know all sorts of songs about math, but I was a better dancer than singer. My mother didn't care; as long as I was making money that she could spend, she didn't care what I was doing to earn it. She didn't know about Line Dancing.