Free Exiled to the Stars by William Zellmann Page A

ourselves established first. We don't know their situations. We have no choice with our "sister" dorm, since we share the mess room. But as far as others are concerned, as the Captain said, if they lack imagination enough to use the computer to help themselves, chances are some strong man who does have the imagination will end up taking over; and I would prefer such a man not know of us." He shook his head. "No, let us get established, and watch events in those dorms. It may be that we will have allies, but not yet."
    Raymond Koh greeted the news of the batons with a mixture of skepticism and delight. He barely let Ron finish his report before dragging him off to the training room to look at the VR program for training with the side-handle baton. What he saw impressed him. The batons were almost as much defensive as offensive, and in the type of hand-to-hand fighting they could expect, they would give the properly trained user a definite advantage over a barehanded or knife-armed opponent. He asked how Ron had come to know of them.
    Ron shrugged. "A few years ago I saw coverage of a food riot in some middle-eastern sector. The riot police moved in with shock batons and these side-handle things. I saw one of the cops attacked by a man with a club of his own. I was impressed with the way the side-handle let him deal with the man. I checked, and learned that EarthGov had stopped officially using them several years ago, because there was too much risk of killing someone. Frankly, I don't consider that a drawback in our situation!"
    Raymond grinned. "Neither do I." He shrugged. "Well, we'll see if the Captain really comes through with them. Meanwhile, I'll step up the planning for the militia." He clapped Ron on the back. "Excellent job, Ron. You've done well."
    The next day Ron, Vlad and Susan were deep in their struggle to devise a training schedule when two packages appeared in the delivery chute, one large and one small. Ron hurried to the chute, and opened the smaller one. He turned to Susan with a triumphant grin and said "This one's for you, Susan, compliments of the Captain."
    Susan squealed with delight as she examined the hygiene articles. She had done her best, but hygiene had been a problem for her ever since her arrival in Dorm 7.
    Actually, all of the westerners were having problems adapting to the lack of privacy in the unsegregated dorm. For centuries, the western cultures had devised complicated and often contradictory attitudes toward nudity and sexuality, which resulted in these subjects acquiring a mystique and influence far out of proportion to their actual importance. In the more crowded orient, these attitudes were more casual, and more natural. The Asians had acclimated much more easily to the communal bathing and casual nudity enforced by dorm life.
    In a ghetto, it was common for an entire family to live in one room. In such circumstances, nudity was unremarkable, except in public, and children grew up watching their parents have sex. In some ghettos, bathing took place in the street, due to a lack of running water. Usually wearing clothing, of course. Sexually, though, they were very conservative compared to westerners. Casual sex with multiple partners was a definite taboo, especially for women. That a man might have a mistress was accepted with casual disapproval; but for a woman to take a lover was to unleash a flood of condemnation.
    For the westerners, though, body shyness was common and public nudity scandalous. And Susan had been having the hardest time with the new mores. A child of privilege, she had not encountered communal showers since college, and had never encountered communal toilet facilities. She had never even considered that "communal" might mean, "Used by both sexes at the same time!"
    She had been wearing her shipsuit into the showers, stripping it off and hurriedly rushing a shower, using as little of her donated half-bar of soap as possible, and then, since she had no towel,