Story #6
Page of Swords
Karl ducked inside the little cabin in the middle of the deck during the brown out, awaiting the captain’s orders. Though the howling of the wind, and the constant scratching and pelting of sand against the plexiglass would have sent some helmsmen seeking shelter, Karl just pulled the altered gas mask down over the flight cap to filter out the finer dust, made sure to lock in the spot where the captain would most likely reappear on the upper deck, and propped two large booted feet up on the opposite side of the narrow control panel to wait out the storm, having full faith in the strength of the plexi and years of experience in the desert. Steering a sand ship across the desert floor could be a tricky job, especially in a dust storm like this. Luckily, it was a job that came natural to Karl.
Karl was born Karlotta Sigridotter, but being birthed during a harvest year, her mother and the midwife had recorded the baby’s name as Karl Sigridsen, and the gender as male. Population control had been an ongoing concern in the Dry Lakes region since the bomb, and harvest years meant a literal harvesting of baby girls. Though the place was proud of its matriarchal society, most were in agreement that fewer women with multiple husbands to guide and sons to add to the labor force, was a more practical family dynamic, at least in regards to the work that had to be done to survive in the harsh environment. There were a few holdouts, like her mother, Sigrid, who believed that every person had strengths and value, regardless of what was between their legs.
Sigrid had always rebelled, but she was such a hard worker and so good natured that it was hard for anyone to deny her. She’d never married, and only had one child, unlike her mother before her, Freja, who had birthed children only in non-harvest years, and had dissolved marriages with men who could not produce a female; rebellious in her own way. Sigrid had grown up in a family of ten siblings, only two of which were brothers. Freja knew that the digging, the mining, the tunneling, was the only way for their people to survive, and she knew that as a woman, there were few expectations put upon her outside of producing more workers, taking care of workers, and educating workers. However, she had a different life in mind.
