Free 05. Children of Flux and Anchor by Jack L. Chalker

choice of being server or served, the second was better every time.
    "So, what do you think of the place?" Vishnar asked her.
    "It's most impressive," she responded, trying not to sound too much the country hick. "I don't believe I ever saw or heard of anything quite like it."
    "It's based on a set of programs from the old records," he told her. "If our interpretation is correct, it's a good reproduction of the estate of the first military commander on World. Of course, that was up in Cluster One, in the Headquarters Anchor. It was actually of a prefabricated design. Fascinating. The method itself has saved us much misery here in New Eden, but no one expected something like this among the records. Goes together like a jigsaw puzzle, in fact. The grounds, of course, took much longer and are still in the process of development."
    "It all looks fine to me," she told him truthfully. "I can't imagine what one might add to it."
    "Oh, the original had several other features. I'm still considering the big swimming pool. Don't swim myself, but it's getting to be a skill needed in New Eden, what with the Sea and all. The trouble is getting instructors. Until I can, I don't want anything in which someone can fall and drown while we either stand about helplessly or drown trying to save them. Do you swim, by the way?"
    She shook her head. "I'm from right around here, remember. It was never something we had to do. Oh, there were some nice ponds and small lakes—I guess they're still there—but it wasn't something you needed to learn."
    He nodded understandingly. "The odd thing is, we owe a lot to this program. One of the other things it included in its grounds plan was an ambitious two-kilometer steam locomotive at one-tenth scale. It was from that alone, by simply scaling it up, that we developed our railroad system, which is the only thing that really makes such a massive Anchor area as New Eden work as one. The odd thing is, at their level, steam was an ancient and totally outdated method of propulsion. It was sort of like importing bows and arrows when you already had these computer-guided laser rifles. Or—am I boring you with this? I like to talk and sometimes I go on and on. Don't hesitate to say so if it's the case."
    "No, I find it fascinating," she told him truthfully, although she knew his culture was battling his intellect now. "It was his—toy, then."
    "Yes, yes! Exactly that! One marvels at what they must have been like—to be able not only to travel vast distances here and build and colonize a world but to even indulge themselves by bringing such frills."
    She decided it would be pushing it too far to note that such things had always been and still were for the privileged elite only. The average settler or poor working slob, she guessed, probably got to bring two changes of clothes, a watch, and maybe pictures of his or her parents. All but a very few in New Eden would never be able to have an estate like this built and maintained, let alone the whole of World. "I assume that was also true of the carnival things?"
    He gave a chuckle. "Oddly enough, from what we can find out, no. They were apparently built as basic amusements after the Betrayal by some people who'd escaped to the stringers. Oh, they are probably similar to carnival things the ancients had back on the Mother World, but it's not too clear. We've made them grander for this new carnival. Scaled them up, like we did the trains."
    "I'm looking forward to going. The last carnival I attended was here, too, when I was very young. In a way, it was the last innocent time I ever had. A few days later they picked me out of the crowd and sold me into Flux."
    He stared at her for a moment, then started to say something, stopped, took a drink of coffee, and decided to change the subject. He knew her history, at least up to the time she'd left New Eden. He decided he liked her. He wasn't sure he'd like all the girls to be this worldly or forward, but she was certainly