Chapter 1: Introduction

By the year 4525 the human race has colonized many star systems. Space travel is common place, but even with faster than light (FTL) drive systems it can take months to reach the nearest colonized star system.

Communication between ships and/or planets is much faster but it is not unusual for it to take a week for message to travel the distance between close colonized star systems.

In the year 4525 life expectancy for most humans is nearly infinite, provided you do not get killed in one of the millions of ways to die quickly in the universe. You grew old to an age you chose, usually in your early twenties and you then receive annual treatments to remain that age. In reality, most people die in less than three hundred years, usually getting killed either in some accident or an assault by another person or animal.

One of the technologies that has been developed and is used throughout this story is an “autodoc.” The autodoc is a computer controlled device the can repair almost any physical damage done to a human body using various technologies developed over the centuries. It usually takes less than an hour to cure most tissue damage other than major bone damage (Don’t worry physicians ... they still need you). If you are alive and breathing the autodoc can fix you, but if you are brain dead it cannot. Getting vaporized, incinerated or disintegrated is still fatal.

Corporal Punishment (CP) had returned to mainstream life during the 3rd World War. During the war, there was an enormous amount of anarchy and crime. The major world governments did not have the resources to house criminals. Most of the world was under martial law. People caught committing criminal acts usually were summarily executed. Even in progressive countries like the United States prisons could not hold any more people. The result was that crimes unless they were of a very serious nature were ignored by the police and often vigilante justice prevailed. An example would be that theft punished by various CP methods.

The major governments on Earth collapsed during the war. The remnants of humanity formed a central world government. This government set basic rules for human conduct (BRHC). Failure to follow these rules ended you up either in the gallows or getting the beating of your life. Prisons on Earth were completely abolished after WW3 in 2052, since they led to an increase in crime, which was exactly what they were alleged to prevent.

The human race began expanding into space immediately after WW3. Immediately after the war, large portions of the Earth were uninhabitable due largely to chemical, biological and nuclear contamination. While cleanup efforts began immediately, many people just wanted to get away from the tragic memories and contamination of the war. Eventually things started returning to normal on Earth and ten years after the war, Earth had colonies on the Moon and Mars. There were large super bases of industry in orbit around Mercury and all the gas giants of the solar system. Most of these bases produced goods for space colonies. Returning the product to the surface of the Earth was expensive, dangerous and usually not profitable or practical.

The invention of a first faster than light (FTL) star drive system occurred in 2074 and became commercially available about a decade later.

Earth and the governments of the colonies formed the Federation of Man (FoM) to control, help and protect people in space. The FoM had complete control of space outside a colony’s protected space. The laws of the FoM were simple: follow the BRHC in space. The FoM did not have prisons either.

As colonies formed they changed their BRHC to meet the wishes and needs of their colonists. This meant that the virtual every star system had different rules. Some colonies BRHC were incredibly strict, while others were practically nonexistent. In short when traveling to another star system one had to be very careful what the rules were. You could easily find yourself a slave or dead if you entered the wrong system.

The FoM BRHC between planetary systems was therefore pretty flexible. It read, more or less:

1) War between star systems is not allowed, under any circumstance (if you must blow up a world, blow up your own).

2) Murder, assault, theft, fraud, kidnapping and embezzlement were illegal.

3) Free trade between colonies was required (no tariffs or taxes). Landing fees, planetary transportation taxes and other forms of taxes on the occupants of a system were allowed.

4) System could forbid the trading of various items in their systems. Items forbidden in a system must be clearly documented.

5) Planetary governments had to rely on their own planetary income to survive.

6) Planetary members of FoM were required to pay a percentage of their Gross Planetary Product (GPP) as a tax, to the FoM for its services and protection. This percentage was set upon joining the FoM. New colonies were usually exempt for a period of time from this tax.

If no one broke the rules, the rules would not be necessary. The military arm of the FoM was formed to enforce the rules in space. Getting caught breaking the rules had three possible outcomes:

1) For minor offences, you got the beating of your life.

2) For a major offence, you ended up dead.

3) For a sufficient number of repeated minor offences or at the victims request for a major offence, you ended up exiled to a colony that treated people of your sex as slaves for life.

An example where the third choice was used, when a person was convicted of an assault like rape (a major offence), the convicted person was often spared at the request of the victim. The victims seemed to universally believe that the third punishment fit the crime better.

Even with these punishments, piracy in space on the edges of human space was common place. The FoM patrols could not be everywhere. If a pirate ship was caught, it was rare that the pirates would surrender before their ship was destroyed. If the pirate’s ship was disabled, the pirates would usually self-destruct the ship before allowing themselves to be captured. No pirate wanted to be a slave.

My name is Edward Jones. I am 2568-year-old Earth Human, of Anglo-American decent (White), six feet three inches tall, two sixty pounds, hazel green eyes and dark brown hair. I was born in Ohio, USA, Earth, Sol. I have been lucky and have avoided of the causes of death over my lifespan including several murder attempts, WW3 and a couple of Sol System wars.

I am into erotic corporal punishment (CP) and discipline of women in a consensual or semi consensual environment.

After surviving WW3 on Earth in the middle 21st century, I worked for my uncle, Jonathan Smyth, piloting tourist passenger ships between Earth and Mars in the Sol system, which we all know is the home of humanity. Uncle Jonathan is a genius when it comes to just about anything. He was lucky, was discovered by several rich clients, who had friends, who had friends, and the next thing he knew Uncle Jonathan had a multi-billion credit corporation, servicing thousands of clients touring the Sol system. Sol Tourist Enterprises (STE) became massive. Uncle Jonathan was the sole owner and continued to put most of the profits back into the company. Eventually, the company growth began to slow, mostly because we ran out of new clients. STE expanded to other systems that had natural wonders and started its own FTL passenger service between those planets and Earth. Soon STE had credits coming in from all the places in the galaxy that man lived.