Day 28: Bus 2
The group hadn't made it to the Twin Pines before the nurses started ushering them back to the buses. Sanji didn't believe the small sack dinner he was handed would make up for the meal they would have had at the restaurant, and aside from that he'd still wanted to check the place out. Now he had no way of comparing it to what they served at the
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Well, an exploration of a strange city could go worse, he knew from personal experience. In all, he hadn't learned much... it seemed to be an Earthlike world, or a very well terraformed one, but with the potential of alternate dimensions that gave him no real sense of direction or location. The choice of historical settings was another peculiarity. The smell of exhaust from the buses that had been waiting for him was a bit nauseating, after the busy day. Or, that might just be stress mixing with hunger.
Sitting towards the back of the bus, he set into his sandwich immediately.
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The comment about hoping police still existed brought a nod from Mark, although not exactly a smile. He could appreciate Javert's high rank as an accomplishment, but his own encounters with official law authorities had never been pleasant. At the very best, they tended to show up with the right intentions but too late, and at worst, they were shooting at him. "Yes, we've police as well. They differ from planet to planet, but the Earth police tend to be rather reliably dedicated to their cause of keeping the peace and defending the law." It hadn't been their fault Mark had been on the wrong side of the law most of his time on Earth. At least they weren't like the police on Jackson's Whole...
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"Reliably dedicated, eh? An improvement from my time, then." He smirked. "Any idea how they manage it? Any advice would be more than welcome."
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"I can only imagine it is due to the time to refine the role, since other worlds in my experience don't do so well," Mark answered, raising his eyebrows. "On the world where I was born, the police essentially function as a way of gathering income through bribes or through bail payments. The law consists of whatever is dictated by those with the most money and assets."
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"Speaking of worlds," he added curiously, "how many are there in your time? I should think quite a few, based on what you've said thus far."
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He took a deep breath. Ranting about injustices on Jackson's Whole would be enough to take up an entire bus trip. "But there are many other worlds. I've only been on a handful; some people never even leave their homeworld. Plenty of planets, but only a few dozen major inhabited ones. All are different, have their own way of living." He paused. "You haven't talked much about where you came from. I know from history that it wasn't a very peaceful time, especially in France, but I'm not an expert. I wouldn't mind knowing more."
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He shook his head. "It isn't - wasn't particularly peaceful. It was, of course, infinitely preferable to the revolution some thirty years previous, but the last few weeks have been - were - somewhat difficult for us. Student uprisings, general unrest - the streets weren't safe. A general by the name of Lamarque had just died of tuberculosis - he was a member of the parliament; the poor thought him their champion. Naturally the students chose the days following his funeral to revolt; the last of the barricades fell mere hours before I arrived here." Before he killed himself. No - don't think about that.
"M. Mark, I'm afraid I'm not entirely certain what sort of information you're interested in; if it's to do with politics, you'd be better off reading one of your history books. I'm out on the streets more often than I am inside reading the papers. Was, rather."
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"I suppose I was wondering what your daily life was like. I don't mean to pry into your personal life, but I'm interested in the details that tend to be left out of history books. The individual experience that ordinary people..." Well, maybe he was ( ... )
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He had the impression that his own life had been more varied than most, but to describe it...that was difficult. At the moment, he couldn't come up with anything more descriptive than 'interesting,' and he doubted that would satisfy Mark.
"In a way, I'd imagine life in my time isn't terribly different from anyone's now. People are people, no matter the year - I expect I'd need a more specific question." He smiled slightly. "You must realize it's rather difficult to describe what's normal for me."
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Though he didn't think an inspector was a poor choice for learning about life. Even if it was the criminal life, he knew from personal experience that criminality was not always the result of depravity or corruption, and that the economic and social climate of a place could sometimes be divined simply by the types of crimes committed there.
"I imagine you're right--human nature in my time, in your time and in this place is probably generally all the same at heart." A few monsters, a few saints, and mostly people somewhere between trying to muddle along.
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