Chapter 9

Our ‘flotilla’ of four ships departed the Home World’s moon together. I had no doubt that the naval authorities knew that Thor was part of the small ‘flotilla’. They showed little interest in chasing us despite the slow freighter acceleration that we limited ourselves to for our return trip.

On the outbound trip, I had Alara advise the Home World authorities that the two freighters had undergone name changes to reflect their new ownership. One became Bellatrix and the other Tabitha, as each related the to the hunter’s arrow within the constellation; pointing to the future. I wasn’t a poet by any means, but the symbolism it represented spoke to me.

They joined Saiph and Rigel as Martinson Enterprise’s growing fleet of freighters. Our inventory of space craft now contained the four freighters, Thor herself, the destroyer Avenger, two patrol gunboats Wasp and Dauntless, and the passenger liner, Memphis Belle. An impressive collection of nine spacecraft, and that didn’t include the attack shuttles and various smaller craft. But as you might already be thinking, I was never going to be blamed for being laconic. I was almost certainly becoming a bit full of myself at the moment.

Our first stop was Thor Base where the cement was off-loaded and a complete interview of all two hundred and two ‘slaves’. These were not dead-beats or businessmen who had gotten in over their heads. The majority of them were college graduates who had gotten jobs just after graduation. With the advent of debt slavery, companies soon recognized that slaves could do the same work for almost nothing.

As the economy had deteriorated, their jobs were terminated, as their positions had been outsourced to slaves. These professionals found themselves penniless and owing huge college expense debt. Employers were soon buying the same people back as slaves for a fraction of the cost of salaried workers.

That is exactly what happened to the eight women Tina had photographed. Their human resource administrator, Walter Franklin, had terminated them and ordered their debt monitoring the very next day. When their first payment for education loans was due and unpaid, he had each former employee arrested as debtors, and processed for sale at the first upcoming auction. Their Walter had blackmailed auction employees to group certain of his former workers in the same Lot to be sold as slaves. Then his stooge of a buyer would make the purchase of that Lot.

Evidence presented at his trial indicated that he had done this for months. And to further exacerbate the debt slave situation, Walter had returned all undesired slaves back to the auction firm, to be re-sold for whatever price they brought.

It was not really any loss to him, just a necessary business expense. Thus, an ever-increasing quantity of slaves were offered for sale each month, with net proceeds for their eventual sales, in general, getting lower as the situation persisted. It was after all, an issue of supply and demand; Macro-economics 101.

Neither Sean nor JD was going to solve this problem on the Home World. At least within JD’s realm, slavery had been abolished. Not that it would ever satisfy those who had been wronged and found themselves living on an isolated colony far from friends and relatives. Stuck on a new world they had to adapt to life on the planetoid. Many became miners and construction workers. There were always needs for supervisors, just not the kind of supervisory positions college grads might have anticipated.

Ultimately most became crew for the spacecraft and Marines to fully staff the Assault Shuttles on Thor. For the first time JD realized that he had real boarding parties to train. Weapons familiarization and individual qualifications took time and practice. Then crew and small unit tactics had to be demonstrated. While sleep training provided basic knowledge, it couldn’t replace muscle memory and practice. Besides, sleep learning was now becoming more of a premium resource for operators and technicians.

Naturally, some of the ‘slaves’ just refused to adapt, becoming a drain on society. Those were ‘drafted’ into service as Marine recruits. Earning little pay but having three squares and a cot, it covered their basic needs until their attitude was ‘forced’ to adapt. Just the threat to return undesirable slaves to the home world for re-sale was usually enough to straighten them out.

Unfortunately, there are always a few who have to force the issue, thus Sean and Tina made the trip back to Home World a few months later with a dozen of those miscreants with the worst attitude. Realizing too late that they had sealed their own fates, they were a gloomy and morose a lot during the passage.

JD had insured that several thousand kilograms of precious metals were transported along for deposit in their account on Home World. Sean was to look for any AIs from scrapped or salvage ships that might be for sale. Tina was to investigate ways to find more emigrants for the colony.

Upon arrival Sean focused upon finding a secure transport to deposit the bullion in their bank. Once this was accomplished, he had to deal with the misfit slaves. He was glad to be rid of them when he reached his hotel for that first night.

Sean found the slave auction situation only slightly improved, but learned that the courts had adequately punished Walter Franklin, the former human resource administrator most responsible for the slave fraud. Also punished the blackmailed auction employees, and even the underworld buyer who knowingly perpetrated the fraud at the slave auction a few months ago. That discovery led Sean to examine the records of any trials resulting from the return of the Titan Industries Pirates.

All eighteen ‘pirates’ had been released and their charges dropped after Titan Industries had lobbied that their presence at Diamond Asteroid was mis-interpreted. To clear the way for the dismissal, they even refused to press charges of piracy against John David Martinson. The vessels involved in the attack were listed after the fact as Diamond Enterprise’s property that were merely being returned to their rightful owner. Thus, you can’t pirate what you already own.

Then the prosecutor had wanted to charge Martinson with murder in the killing of the twenty-two attackers, but couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the deaths were anything but self-defence. After that the charges were dropped and the prosecutor even agreed with the judge’s dismissal with prejudice on all counts. One problem though, the warrant was still in the system and could be served, until it was rescinded by court order.

Sean retained a lawyer on Home World to represent John David Martinson in all matters, to include any legal filings relating to Martinson Enterprises, and his legal ownership of Martinson Asteroid, Thor Base Planetoid, and any criminal or civil issues within the Alpha Centauri system related to the firm or its employees. A ten-kilogram pure rhodium ingot buys for a lot of billable hours. And there was more available where that came from. Within a day, the arrest warrant was rescinded and purged from Home World’s records system.

Maureen had impressed upon Tina that she should purchase any teen girls and small children that were now orphans due to their parents being sold as slaves. Thus, her first stop was the auction site to check upcoming sales activities. A dependent auction was scheduled for three days in the future. With parents being sold to off-world agents, dependent auctions were becoming more numerous. Currently the laws of Home World precluded dependents of slaves from leaving the planet through the sale of their parents.

Whenever a parent’s sale resulted in them being shuttled to the orbital platform, the dependents were kept at the auction site until they were redeemed by other relatives paying any debts due, or they were sold as indentured wards, until they reached their majority.

In a strange quirk of fate, dependents that were sold as indentured wards, could travel off-world, should their owner wish. This seemed unconscionable to Maureen. Why indentured anyway? Well, that was meant to indicate a definite release date; usually upon reaching their majority.

While Sean started making inquiries of shipyards and salvage operations, Tina visited the auction site determined to find adults that had dependent children. While not as numerous, most were sold in family lots, at least until their emigration was apparent.

There appeared to be no way around families of slaves emigrating with dependents. But what if the parents were redeemed? Of course, if Martinson Enterprises could pay off their debts; they were no longer in jeopardy of any slavery statutes. It would cost more, but would ultimately save their families.

Tina set out to make a list of all parents being held with dependents. She discovered eighteen families, with forty-two children ranging in age from seventeen to four. Next came determining the funds necessary to redeem the parents. Well over eight million credits, about a twentieth of what they would bring as slaves. Or the other way around, it would cost twenty times more to pay off their debts than to just buy them as slaves.

Visiting their lawyer, Tina had binding contracts draw up that guaranteed a parent’s debts being paid off if they volunteered to emigrate to Thor Base, a planetoid within the closest asteroid belt of the Alpha Centauri system.

They would work for Martinson Enterprises without pay until their debts had been repaid. Room and board for their whole family, along with space flight to and from the asteroid belt, would be at the cost of Martinson’s Industries. This offer required that all dependents accompany their parents, but that no one in the family would be subject to slavery or indentured servitude.

Upon the satisfaction of all debts, paid for by Martinson’s Enterprises, the parents and any remaining children were free go anywhere they pleased, or by their contract, continue to work on Martinson’s planetoid, but earn full pay and allowances.

This effectively made debt slavery for families a moot point in Home World; but only if the parents both agreed to emigration.

The lawyer thought the idea was great and volunteered to assign one of his legal clerks full-time in identifying possible emigrants, processing their paperwork, and handling the payment of their debts.

In exchange, Martinson Enterprises would provide an escrow account that the legal firm could access for paying those debts, his employee’s salary, and any costs of supporting the emigrants before they left Home World.

“What if I purchase a couple of fully qualified ‘slaves’ to handle the identification of and processing of the Contracts of Emigration. Could your full-time clerk manage them and an accountant to run this program?” Tina proposed.

“Sure. But how will you find any ‘slave’ qualified to do that.”

“By taking the first of our Contracts of Emigration to the next slave auction and interviewing new lawyers and accountants that are pending their sale into slavery.”

Within the hour Tina was on her way back to the auction site. Her first stop was to the sympathetic auction administrator who remembered her from their previous encounter. After reading the contract that she carried, he chuckled as he replied. “This could put me out of business.”

“I doubt it, sir.” Tina said. “But it might reduce your increasing number of sales lots by a bit.”

Turning to his secretary he related that she should gather any information Tina needed and facilitate the scheduling of interviews starting ASAP.

Tina had ‘saved’ three families by lunch. With their inked signatures, Tina was given temporary custody of them and visited the bank, funding an escrow account that all three could draw from. With signature cards and electronic transfer codes made available, three checks were handed to them.

When they returned to the auction site, the families were released from ‘debt slave’ custody. That afternoon Tina had found and purchased a struggling hotel adjacent to the lawyer’s offices and was busy ensuring that the three families were settled in for the night. Tomorrow they would be introduced to their new supervisor and begin their renewed lives.

With the Contract of Emigration worked out and staff in place, Tina focused on homeless families. Many families that avoided debt slavery had lost their homes and could not afford anything but low-priced apartments. When even those became unavailable, they lived on the streets and homeless centres, existing on welfare.

Perhaps a Contract of Employment would work for them too. Worded almost like the emigration one, the Contract of Employment provided room and board, a space flight to and from the asteroid belt, for anyone willing to work for Martinson Enterprises. They must hold the job they qualified for and would be paid a half wage until the costs of their flight, room, and board were recovered. From that point on, they would earn a full wage and do whatever they wanted.

Back at the lawyer’s office, he reviewed Tina’s ideas. Not nearly so enthusiastic now, he grudgingly agreed to process their paperwork along with the debtors if Tina could hire a few more employees to conduct interviews, explain the contracts, and manage temporary residences for the homeless that signed on to the program and were waiting space flights.

Very quickly Tina found two such homeless families that would sign the contract and work from the hotel. Child care for those pending flights was included at the hotel with the staff now being hired, trained, and housed as Martinson Enterprise employees.

Sean was meanwhile having little success locating any functional AI’s. He did locate an older model passenger liner, that could handle over a hundred passengers.

It was a bargain despite its age. A flight crew would be easy to arrange at the orbital platform where it sat in long-term docking, running up a bill that one day might exceed its commercial value. Sean saw the potential of such a craft in light of Tina ‘s efforts. With the funds available, he approached the owners about a possible sale. Martinson Enterprises soon owned a passenger liner.

The rest of the day was spent arranging for a crew and starting a complete inspection of required, but deferred maintenance. Each day a few more families were reporting to the orbital platform with passenger manifests and Contracts of Emigration and Employment. They boarded the passenger liner and were assigned compartments.

Within a week Tina had to halt sending families up to the ship. Martinson Cruise Lines flagship, Memphis Belle, began her maiden voyage with a full crew and passenger manifest later that day.

Nor had Sean been resting on his laurels after wasting countless hours in a fruitless search for an AI, functional or otherwise. Instead, he had learned from Tina that a private investigator and his family had succumb to their debt due to an unfortunate death of one of his investigators.

A civil lawsuit found his firm negligent in securing information that outed the investigator, who was working undercover at the time. The jury award left him deeply in debt, his home was sold and his firm liquidated to no avail. Sean visited the man in ‘debt hold’ pending his sale at auction the next day. The interview went well.

The man had many friends, was well thought of in the community. His work was respected. And he had been investigating Titan Industries when his lead investigator was found murdered in his rented hotel room.

Sean discussed how Titan Industries had sent mercenaries to steal Diamond Asteroid from his boss. That had happened about six to eight months ago. The attempt failed and twenty-two of those operatives were killed.

When the surviving mercenaries were returned in chains, the authorities attempted to serve a warrant for my boss’s arrest claiming he was guilty of piracy. They failed to arrest him, but the eighteen mercs were subsequently released for insufficient prosecutorial evidence.

The investigator shook his head. “That’s par for the course. The man is Teflon-coated and has many high-ranking connections within the government.”

Sean then set the hook. “What if I gave you this contract and hired you to bring him to justice. Would you be interested?”

Charles ‘Chuck’ Miller carefully read the short contract form before saying. “Your boss has real deep pockets, if he can cover my indebtedness.”

“That not your problem, is it? Will you sign the contract?”

“I’d be more of a fool, if I didn’t.” Chuck replied.

Sean signed Chuck out of the debt holding cells, took him to the bank where a cashier’s check was issued to him and a starting balance was entered into his investigation’s account. The he went back to the debt holding facility and redeemed his total remaining debt. Then one happy man was checked into a room at the hotel across the street from the lawyer, who was given Chucks contract to administer.

Sean explained. “Chuck, your one mission is to find out who ordered those mercs to attack Martinson’s Asteroid, as it is now called. If you can take Titan Industries down, fine. But all I want is a name and some proof. There is no time limit, but when you accomplish your mission; there will be a substantial bonus coming your way.”

The next day Sean’s fast courier ship launched with twenty new slaves and one extended family of two grand-parents, one aunt, and four kids under twelve. The three adults had signed Employment Contracts due to their homelessness. Now their family’s future looked much better.