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Of the forty on the first shore leave detail, twenty-three were members of the security team and Ayesha. The remaining sixteen had pulled short straws, including Kim. All those on shore leave were dressed in the ship's colours of flat black with the colourful ship's logo on their right breasts, the security team members wearing what was now being referred to as the Personal Security Suit or PSS. The two exception were Kim, who wore a plum coloured version of the PSS, and Ayesha, who wore a medical white version of the same. The remaining group of fifteen wore standard jumpsuits in ship's colours. Nobody, on the detail, except Ayesha, wore their name tags. As Ayesha was a known entity aboard the ship, and had to contact local medical authority, she wore her name tag.
Kim had Arlene make her a plum-coloured version of the suit because she wanted to stand out, to be seen. Her intent was to draw eyes to her and let the others fade into the background, though Sean could not, due simply to his size, but he would go with Ayesha.
They approached the custom's booth with Kim in the lead. Kim wore her swords in full colour, while everyone else, except Ayesha, was armed in some manner, all openly.
One of the station's security guards stepped in front of Kim.
"No weapons are allowed on the station," he snarled at the diminutive Kim. "You'll have to surrender those 'toys' of yours," he told her in a derisive manner.
"Hand them over, little lady, and I won't spank you for bringing them to the..."
The man had suddenly stopped talking as Kim kicked his legs out from under him, putting him on his knees, and swiftly drew her Tanto and had it pressed against his neck, all so fast that he had not even seen her move. However, he could feel just how sharp her 'toy' was, pressed against the exposed flesh of his neck and how sore his knees were from the impact on the deck!
"These 'toys' you are referring to are family heirlooms and will never leave my person under normal circumstances," Kim told him with a menacing hiss. "Do we understand each other?"
"Kim! Do not hurt the natives!" Ayesha barked at her. Kim withdrew her blade as Ayesha stepped forward to check the guard. "Fortunately, there is no injury, other than to your pride. However, I suggest you not further antagonize the people who are so looking forward to their first shore leave in some time."
The guard nodded and, rising, waved the group through into the station proper.
"Nice pickup," Kim grinned at Ayesha. Ayesha just winked as she and Sean headed in the direction of the station hospital.
The group was confronted by the noise and confusion of the great shopping plaza, a large open area which had all manner of items for sale or exchange. Thousands of people had flooded the plaza, most in their ship's colours with prominent patches on their breast. Almost all had name tags.
They were in the process of haggling with the various merchants in their booths, buying or swapping items for goods the merchants were hawking. Kim took a careful look around and was astonished by what she saw. There was, of course, the usual group of lame goods that any station sold, but there was also all manner of goods that would be highly illegal anywhere in Union space.
There was even a booth that had many naked people in manacles, supposedly being sold as slaves. Kim doubted that they would see them taken aboard the ships. The cost of a slave from the station would be considerably higher than planet side. Those who did business in slaves would know this and not purchase them from here.
Kim did note that they slaves were mostly female, some quite young, with two rather effeminate looking males amongst them. That made her wonder if these slaves were being used more as whores for the visitors. They ranged in all the colours of humanity, slavery here not having the stigma of race attached to it.
As she looked around, Kim noted that very few of the visitors were armed, while almost all the merchants, station staff, and visitors from the planet below were all prominently armed, mostly with edged weapons of sorts though some sported pistols of various kinds. Kim, with her swords, did not stand out amongst them, with the exception of her choice of colours in her outfit, as the locals were usually rather bland in their colour pallet.
Kim was surprised at the numbers of slaves on the station. She had thought they would not be so brazenly exposed to the arriving dignitaries and ship's crews. She realized though, that if you didn't know how to spot them, one might not recognize them as slave as they did nothing to openly indicate their status.
All the slaves wore a special collar, tied to their owner's comps. The collar was small enough to escape notice to those not looking for it, or not aware of it. One of the stalls even sold copies, though she doubted that they had the electronic hardware that the originals did.
The collars the slaves wore had punishment circuits built into them. They could give a rather painful lesson to a wayward slave at the push of the button on their owner's comps. They also contained a thin line of explosive material. If a slave decided to run away, the owner could activate the explosives, violently decapitating a runaway slave at his or her whim.
Phargas had told them that the signal for the collars was tied to the planetary communications system and could reach it's intended victim no matter where they might be. They also had anti-tampering sensors that would trigger the explosives if a slave attempted to remove a collar without a specialized device, a sobering thought for Kim.
The other method that one could identify a slave was their demure attitude to non-slaves. They deferred to everyone, lowering their eyes whenever they passed or spoke to a free citizen regardless if they were locals or not.
To Kim, this was the most crushing thing she noted. The loss of self was the most central item to becoming a slave, according to Phargas. Those who broke quickly, in his words, were better off in the long run, as they would suffer less at the hands of their owners.
The distinctive sound of metal-on-metal being used in combat came to her ears. She looked toward where it was coming from and saw two men, obviously merchants, in a duel with plenty of people around them betting on the outcome.
The two merchants were both of the same height, and reasonably fit. They both had long blades, slightly longer than her Tanto, but still more knives than swords. Kim noted they were evenly matched. Their fighting style was stilted to her eyes, not being near fluid enough to be of a threat to her.
The men moved around the circle of spectators they found themselves in, each working hard to get to the other. Finally, one of the men slipped through the defences of the other and cut the man on his arm. The man lifted his blade and showed the blood on it, crying out in victory.
The loser bowed to the victor and turned away, a string of slaves carrying items following in his wake. The victor moved to an empty stall and began to set up shop.
So, thought Kim, they were fighting over the last available stall.
That didn't surprise Kim. She was more surprised by the fact that the duel was so openly engaged in considering the number of visiting dignitaries. But duelling was ingrained in the local populace, according to Phargas. They probably cared less that they were duelling in front of non-natives, so intent were they on having that last stall.
Kim had her comp open, as did everyone on both leave teams, surreptitiously recording everything, hoping that all she noted was captured on her comp. She quietly continued to look around, even buying some souvenir items in the local stalls. The only downside to her afternoon, was the poor state of food on the station. She would get Riley to make her a dessert crêpe when she got back to the ship. She smiled at the memory of her birthday, her left hand gently gripping one of hilts of the most precious gift she had ever received.
Hospital, Handren Station, New Hadria, Frogus System
Ayesha and Sean made their way through the plaza and entered the station hospital. She identified herself to the receptionist and presented her license. A moment later, an older woman came out and greeted her.
"Good second shift," she spoke in formally standard to Kim. "I am Dr. Elizabeth Oren, one of the administrators of this hospital. From your patch, you are from The Wanderer. This is your fist time in this local, I assume?" she asked, noting the patch with the word 'Doc' over the name Seito.
"Yes," Ayesha replied. "I am Ayesha Seito, DNP. I am the ships 'doctor'. Our medical team consists of myself and one other who has former experience as a Navy Corpsman. I am here to present my licence and determine my authority under local laws and customs. I received my certification and training at Malihan Regional Hospital on Green's World."
"We recognize the certification from Green's World," Oren stated. "The standard for Green's World applies here, so you will have no issue with understanding local restrictions. What of medicines, medical devices, bandages, and such? Do you need anything we can provide?"
"No, our ship is relatively new and still fully stocked. The material is still well within best before dates," Ayesha explained.
"So our business is concluded then," Oren said, fiddling with her comp. "You are registered as DNP with our system. Should you need a doctor's authority to administer certain drugs, we can send you a prescription electronically. Let us hope that is never required while you are with us.
"Now, who is this beast of a man with you?" Oren asked taking in Sean standing behind the diminutive Ayesha.
"This is Sean, he is my fiancé and a member of the ship's security team," Ayesha explained.
"I could make comments about that, but I'm sure he has heard them all," Oren quipped.
"And then some," Sean acknowledged, in his deep, gravely voice. "The women are the worst though, often making comments that make Ayesha blush."
Ayesha hit Sean in the arm, blushing though at his comment.
Oren smiled at the interplay between the two. "Welcome to the Handren Station hospital, Ms. Seito, I hope your stay will be a quiet one."
A sentiment that Ayesha heartily agreed with.
The Wanderer, Parking Orbit, New Hadria, Frogus System
The shore leave detail returned to the ship laden down with trinkets from the plaza. It was all for show as their real purpose was to get recordings of the activities on station.
Regardless, the Boatswain made everyone turn out their packages to ensure that no illegal substances were brought aboard, though alcohol was allowed in larger quantities than they would normally expect.
They all downloaded their comps into a secure computer, each giving a running account of what they saw. Their comps were checked to ensure no bugs were brought aboard and they were released to the duties.
Kim, Ayesha, and Sean sat down in the VIP conference room to brief what they had noted. It was not good. Imagery showed the obvious display of slavery with the naked women and men waiting to be purchased, while Kim speculated they were likely being sold or bought for an hour or so as whores, the price on the station to purchase them as slaves not being competitive with the planet.
Kim explained the duel for the stall she had noted and the substandard performance of the duellers.
"I don't think our crew will have an issue if we have to go into combat against them, from the performance I have seen, but that is only one duel, so I would be hesitant to classify those two as the pinnacle of capability of the locals," she said.
"The guard at the customs gate was incredibly stupid and arrogant. I think they are more used to dealing with drunks and slaves than determined security people. He was completely surprised to find my Tanto at his neck. Fortunately, Ayesha stepped in to defuse situation and allow us to enter the station proper," she finished.
"Medically, the slaves are mostly underfed," Ayesha informed them. "I think they are deliberately kept slightly malnourished to keep them passive. It will make them more susceptible to disease and other medical problems, but they owners don't seem to care about their slaves that much as indicated by the nudity on display on station that Kim noted. Because of its size, the station is not particularly warm. The nude slaves will likely be more than happy to rut with someone in a warm room in one of the stations hostels if they are in fact serving literally as sex slaves.
"Most of the free citizens are in good shape. Most are used to fighting their own duels, only the elderly or the rich employing champions to fight for them.
"I found the food on the station to be barely palatable. That is odd considering that it is the premier meeting place for the many ships that come to the planet. I suspect that the merchants are just cheapskates and don't want to spend money shipping fresh foods to the station. We did bring back some samples, so Riley might be able to tell us why it is so poor," she finished.
Sean took over the narrative.
"There are a lot of slaves on the station," Sean began, "many more than I expected to see. With the Union up in arms over the potential of Free Union citizens having been taken as slaves, you would think they would want to hide such open displays of numbers. I think it is more of an 'in your face' type of thing, taunting the Union to do something about slavery, knowing they and five other planets do make use of slaves.
"The few elders that I met were exceedingly arrogant. They seemed to be sizing Ayesha up in a manner that was less than healthy, even though she was dressed in medical white. At times, I was ready to punch one or two of those fools.
"These people don't seem to care what 'free citizenship' means. I get the impression they think that if you are not part of the elite of the planet, then you are fair game for their use. There are supposedly many ways in which a citizens and non-citizens can wind up in 'indentured service' as they call it here.
"Kim is correct in her assessment of the security forces. They are exceedingly arrogant, which leads me to believe that the local courts will back them no matter what. The security actions I witnessed were very heavy-handed. Their standard action seems to be to knock them all out and take them in for processing, no matter who was in the right or the wrong. A bar brawl on the station could wind up costing the ship a lot in money or personnel. Once they have you in the system, getting out of it will likely be difficult and expensive," Sean finished, once again surprising people with his insights and intelligence. Because of his size, he had always been thought of as a brute, thus often catching people by surprise when he displayed his intelligence.
"Good notes, people," Raymond acknowledged. "We'll go through the imagery on everyone's comps to see what we can but, so far, your detailed impressions tie in nicely in what we expected according to Mr. Phargas.
"We are going to need to stay very vigilant while we are on station, and likely while we are in the capital for the festivities. I would prefer that only Liea, myself, and our bodyguards be allowed down to the festivities. The less chances we give our 'hosts' to take a shot at us, the better." Raymond finished, giving a significant look to Henadi.
"The War Room has been working out contingency plans all day," Henadi told them. "I think we are ready to respond to almost anything they throw at us, however, plans only last until you make contact with the enemy, then you have to be ready to modify the shit out of your responses."
Raymond nodded at that thought. It was something he had been taught and had learned the hard way during his career as a Combat Engineer.
"We have to continue as we have been doing," Raymond stated, "letting personnel go for shore leave as we left the impression that it had been some time since our crew has had shore leave. That was deliberate on our part, but that may have placed some restriction on possible options for us. The natives have the upper hand in this place. Their courts obviously back their people, they can decide when and where to attack our people or provoke an action from our people. We are going to have to react to situations as they arise, something I never like to do. Best we can do is to prepare contingencies and act accordingly. At least we have a head start there.
"Right, lets break this meeting up and set things up for tomorrow. I doubt anything unusual will happen to us in the opening ceremonies but keep tabs on all of our people when they are on station or on planet.
"Also, I want all shore leave finished by four bells first shift in three days. I want everybody on board for immediate departure after the Handren visit," Raymond finished.
New Carthage, New Hadria, Frogus System
The opening ceremonies of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of New Hadria started right on time at noon. Except for Hadrian's Planet, representatives of all the major planets with human colonies and the famous families were at the ceremonies.
The planet was suitable for human occupation and the new government decided to do just that. The government was totally ruthless with those who came to the new world, demanding that citizens have the means to be able to fund a farmstead for five years or you would not be accepted as a free citizen of New Hadria. Those that were not accepted as free citizens could work for their citizenship under an indentured service term with those who could establish themselves. Thus did slavery originate on the planet as the terms of indentured service became more and more difficult to complete.
The new government, having been formed by a group of 'elites' who were in fact former pirates, allowed almost all forms of legal and illegal activities on the planet. Eventually, they cracked down on some of these activities, limiting the most lucrative of the illegal activities to the members of the Handren Trading Company, of which the members of the government were heavily invested in. The Handren Company dealt with all manner of trade, both legal and illegal, and soon formed close relations with the major families, all the while hiding the slavery businesses and the conditions for non-citizens on New Hadria.
When the Terran Unification Wars broke out, the Handren Company was one of those that supplied both sides of the war, though they secretly supported the Confederation of Planets because of their belief in slavery. When the war ended, New Hadria terminated open contact with Union worlds, again because of its ideals in slavery. They contacted the other five planets that dealt in slavery and formed a new alliance, known as the 'The Alliance of Free Planets' referred to simply as The Alliance or sometimes as The Free Planets. These six planets began to thrive under their new alliance.
The Handren Company was the main point of contact with the Union worlds for New Hadria as they traded openly with planets of the Union and with the famous families hiding only their activities vis-à-vis slavery. They quickly re-established themselves in the heart of the Union business community.
Rumours had always abounded about the slave trade on the six planets that did not enter the Terran Union, however, as most non-citizens were not permitted beyond the capitals of those planets, definitive proof of slavery was never forth coming. As New Hadria approached its seventy-fifth founding anniversary, it began to be more open about its slavery, though still referring to it as indentured service. This openness was fomented by the arrogance of the major families on New Hadria, lead by the Handren family.
