Chapter 2: Exiled to New Beijing

So my Dad’d told me we were going to New Beijing, where he’d been appointed Party Secretary by the Chairman, and it was only a day or so after that dreadfully scary incident I just wanted to forget all about, and I was still bruised and aching everywhere, but the doctor had said nothing was actually broken and there were no permanent injuries. It didn’t feel like it, let me tell you, even with the painkillers, and I didn’t even notice that my Dad looked kind of grey and exhausted. I was too wrapped up in how bad I felt.

“What?” I’d squealed, and then winced, because squealing hurt my ribs real bad. “Why the Moon? It’s ... it’s worse than Tibet ... or ... or... ‘‘

I couldn’t actually think of anywhere worse, except maybe New Zealand, because, you know, sheep, or maybe Mars, but they were just starting to really open Mars up, and it was still dangerous, even after all the terraforming, and lets not even talk going out-system to one of the colony planets. I wasn’t in to dangerous. Like I said, I was a New Shanghai girl, and we have a reputation to maintain. New Shanghai girls are smart, fashionable, and we enjoy men. Not brave though. We leave that to the guys. All of those applied to me. I started dating when I was old enough to appreciate boys, but I moved on to men real quickly.

Well, one man, anyhow, and it turned out to be a lot more dangerous than I thought.

That nice Wentan Zhao, in my class, his dad was Chief of Security for Gold Mountain Province. His Dad, that was Security-General Zhao, he was always very friendly when I was dating Wentan, and I was at his house all the time because we were neighbors, and when I explained to Security-General Zhao one day how I was having problems with physics, and my Mom was really rather rude about my marks in maths and physics and science, he very kindly offered to tutor me.

I started visiting him at his office after school, and actually I did learn a lot because he was a really good tutor, and my academic grades went up, and then he had that talk with the school about how good a student I was, and how my marks really were not commensurate with my aptitude, and my marks skyrocketed, which I was really happy about, and my Mom was really happy about my marks too, although she didn’t know that Security-General Zhao had been to my school, and all the teachers were really nice to me after that, and spent a lot of extra time to help me, so that went really well, and when I told Security-General Zhao that, he was really happy too, and he called up my school to tell them that, and they were really happy too, because I was doing so well.

Other things went well too, after quite a while, because I did get to know Security-General Zhao better and better, because of all the time we were spending together, and his secretary used to give me these really knowing smirks when I came in to see him, which was totally embarrassing, because we always left the door open, but I did decide that I did like men more than boys, and I did tell Security-General Zhao how scared I was of that compulsory draft into the military, because that was back when the fighting with the Spiders had really picked up, and it was all over the news.

Peoples Security-General Zhao understood, and he was so reassuring, and he mentioned that if you were an officer in the Security Directorate, you weren’t drafted into the military, because Security did have priority if they decided they did, and a Security-General could authorize the retention of a promising young officer, and he offered me a commission right away in the Security Directorate as a Third Lieutenant, and then a position as his Aide-de-Campe after I graduated from University, after I told him that one afternoon when he was, you know, tutoring me in physics while I sat beside him.

Of course I believed him. That’s how young and silly I was.

New Shanghai. There were still a few subversive and unreformed “old American” elements existing, even after a couple hundred years, which seemed weird to me, but not everyone was Chinese, and we did tolerate minorities as long as they assimilated and behaved, and knew their place, but not all of them did, and the Security Directorate needed informants in schools too, as well as everywhere else.

Commission? Draft exemption? Security-Third-Lieutenant Stardust Wong? I liked that, and Peoples Security-General Zhao commissioned me himself, and of course, I took my new role seriously. So did Security-General Zhao, and we started to meet undercover, because he wanted me to have a uniform, and he asked for reports on subversive elements three times every week.

“It wouldn’t do for me to be seen meeting with you at the office now, Third-Lieutenant Wong,” Security-General Zhao said, drinking his tea in the café in the hotel foyer as he slipped the room key across the table to me, and he was explaining why he wasn’t wearing his uniform, and why we were meeting in a hotel room, and I should go up first, by myself, and wait for him. “It might arouse suspicions.”

It didn’t arouse any suspicions in me, which just goes to show how silly a girl can be when she’s after a draft exemption and a cushy number in security. I liked the Third Lieutenants uniform he’d brought along for me to try on, too.

So did he.

“You look gorgeous, Stardust,” he’d said admiringly, after I came out from the bathroom.

I’d never realized a Security Directorate uniform could look so, well, sexy. The skirt was so short and tight, and I’d never imagined I could look so hot in a uniform. The black leather G-string panties were hot too, and really tiny, and I did sort of half think it was kind of a weird uniform item, and the black lace bra was just gorgeous, and my boobs were “generous” enough even back then that the bra looked really good on me. The black leather-lookalike shirt made from some kind of stretch material just clung, and as for the knee high black snake-skin boots, I just loved them, and so did Security-General Zhao. The little black beret just rounded the whole uniform off so beautifully.

And then there was the draft exemption, because if you were in Security, and you had that exemption, you didn’t get drafted, and I had my Third Lieutenant’s Commission, written on this beautiful rice paper, and signed by Security-General Zhao himself. But it was the draft exemption that I’d really wanted, and I had that special exemption signed by Security-General Zhao too. I mean, the military was so dangerous, what with the ghastly alien Spider things we were fighting somewhere out there, and taking care of subversives and everything was easy by comparison, and safe, and the real problem was, I was really aware that I wasn’t some nobody.

I was the New Shanghai Party Secretary’s daughter, and everyone expected me to do my duty, enlist, train, volunteer for the glorious People’s National Liberation Space Navy, and go fight to liberate oppressed aliens from the capitalist yoke of the fascistic and speciesist Spiders. If they hadn’t already been eaten, which, it was turning out, was what the Spiders did, no exceptions. The news clips had been awful. And I’d be expected to serve as an officer of course; that went without saying, which was even worse, because officers were expected to lead. From the front. Which meant all the guys following me would be watching my butt.

And not to keep me out of trouble either.

That, and I’d be expected to look hot while I was leading from the front, for the embedded-media, because the workers needed inspiring role models, and that really crass and horrible Space Navy recruiter who’d come to our High School and sort of leered at me, and said I’d be really inspiring to serve under, he’d said my boobs would inspire guys to sign up just for the chance of seeing them, and the Space Marines, they’d follow a butt like mine to hell and back.

No need to mention that he was a Space Marine.

No. Way. I didn’t want guys like him following my butt.

Or being inspired by my boobs. I’d had experience with that happening.

And worse, those spiders ate people. I wasn’t going off to fight them, and get eaten, and my boobs weren’t there to inspire guys, and neither was my butt. Well, they were, but not to fight Spiders. So to say I’d been happy about that draft exemption was an understatement. So of course when Security General Zhao asked me to sit on his lap in that hotel room while we did all the paperwork, because we could get through all the signatures faster that way, I was happy to help him, because it did make sense that I was right there to sign when he needed my signature, and there was only one chair and no table in the hotel room, and I really wanted all that paperwork signed.

Afterwards, after all the paperwork was taken care of, Security-General Zhao helped me adjust the fit of my uniform, which was actually rather exciting, and then we had a long talk about my future, and draft exemptions, and careers in Security, and how Security-General Zhao could help me, and how I could help Security-General Zhao even more after I finished University and began to work as his personal assistant, and we moved to the bed to continue talking, because he needed to adjust his uniform, and he said looking at me in my uniform inspired him, although by then it was only the boots and that black leather G-string that was left that were inspiring him, and he was very very inspired.

However inspired he was, he wasn’t inspiring me into letting him take my G-string off though, because I was a good girl, and I did understand I had to remain a virgin until marriage, or I’d totally bring shame on my family, besides being sent off for Moral Reeducation, and Security-General Zhao understood that too, when I explained why it was staying on, so he showed me how my family honor could remain satisfied while at the same time I could guarantee my draft exemption, and ensure some guanxi of my own, and it was very educational.