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Earth Date: 29th Jan 2242
Log: Agent Amanda Forrester
Location: Planet Verius VI
The council passed another law recently. The law states that no woman is allow to be employed in any position in management
or above, and any woman currently employed in those positions must be reassigned within a month or the company employing
them will be fined by the council. Almost overnight, a whole host of women were out of a job.
The council softened the blow by vowing that they will try to find jobs to any women displaced by the law but that vow was
a hollow one. I know of a woman who was the manager in a public cleanliness company, lost her job, and was offer a job as a
road-sweeper. Needless to say, she rejected the “offer?as did most other women. Even though I am just a lowly clerk at the
Restart Tax Department, I was also affected and I was transferred to another section.
When I enquired why, I was told that under the new laws they have to ensure that I do not handle any sensitive materials.
The word from the council rang loud and clear; Women are not to be trusted in Restart.
I would like to say that women of the city rose up and protested against this injustice but the truth was quite different.
As I had said in my last dispatch, women are viewed with suspicion in Restart and although there were some complaints, most
members of Earth Return ‘understand?the new law. The public greeted what should have been a controversial law as an
unfortunate but necessary measure to maintain the independence of Earth Return.
In fact more than a few members of the public are happily acting as agents for the council by sending tips to the security
forces of the city. A few businesses tried to go around the new law by demoting their female mangers to a lower position,
but with the same pay and acting as ‘advisors?to the new managers. The council quickly stamped out this practice and when
the “Head of Women’s Affairs?Andrea De Cruz resigned from her post in support of the law, some women came out in public to
support the law and said that it was a necessary sacrifice for the good of Earth Return. With public support from prominent
women in Earth Return, complaints against the new law died down and discriminations against women in Restart became the new
status quo.
However with the sudden loss of income, most of the women found themselves in financial trouble. The council then opened up
12 recently constructed buildings in the centre of the city and offered them to any women who wish to live there at no rent.
Women jumped at the chance to have a roof over their head without having to pay any rent and all the rooms were quickly
occupied.
It was a glorious trap. Even those women who didn’t lose their jobs joined in applying for free housing in the Pen. The Pen
(as the whole area is called) is surrounded by a wire fence with only 4 gates for access. Women can only pass through the
gates of the Pen after DNA verification. The woman need to press her hand against the lock at the gate, the lock will
verify their DNA before opening the gate for them to either enter or exit. Any guest to the Pen must sign in and give DNA at
the gate as well.
No males are allowed in the Pen expect for security officers, however the council wisely station male security guards at
the gates and only female security guards are seem inside the Pen itself. I find it laughable that the authority of female
security guards extends only to the gates of the Pen. They are nothing but prison guards in a comfortable prison.
However I am the only one who can see the Pen as what it is, a prison. Most women who live in the Pen loved it. It has all
the facilities they wanted or needed including a swimming pool, library and several small stores. The only complaint I’ve
heard from the women was regarding the small size of the room they were assigned. However it’s free so most of the women
have a “beggars can’t be choosers?attitude to the whole thing. Every part of the Pen is wired with security cameras, and I
wouldn’t be surprised if some of the women living inside the Pen are agents of the council as well.
As no man is allowed inside the Pen, married couples lived outside the Pen in the city of Restart itself. I believe this is
a deliberate effort by the council to separate the single women of the city from the rest of society.
It’s the perfect way for the council to track all the women and any potential Federation agents in the group.
Unfortunately for the council, I had escaped their plans. I’m still under probation and still living with Glenn Lively and
Jennifer Cahill. Under my encouragement, Glenn Lively had joined the Veritas group and had sponsored both Jennifer and me
into the group. With our membership into the group however, came the rules. Both Jennifer and I are required to wear the
official uniform of the group.
Earth Return’s logo is “Blue sky, Green fields?so both of us are required to wear a green or blue long sleeves blouse and
long skirt at all times. We are also required to wear the peak bonnet with the face veil connected to our collars. I
managed to get away with the veil by selecting one that is semitransparent. It looks like something that comes out of the
Arabian Nights, it doesn’t hide my face, and it doesn’t impair my vision but it is still technically a veil. However I
couldn’t escape the collar.
I can’t begin to say how humiliating it is to be seen wearing a collar in public, it’s even worse than my time in jail
because I had no choice then. Now this is seem as a choice I made out of my own free will.
The things I do for the Federation.
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