The Slave Planet

by Seven Steps

  I can’t go against my mother. It would shame her. It would shame me. She put her hand on her heart, tried to stop it’s furious beating. This must be how it starts. This decision, this moment. This is what makes a woman turn Rogue.

  “Stop squirming!”Amerish chided.

  Eva crossed her arms in front of her and tried to keep her body still.

  “I’m sorry, mother,” Eva said.

  What she was apologizing for, she didn’t know.

  Chapter 9

  Nadira took a deep breath, trying to calm the banging in her chest.

  After the morning she’d just had, the thought of presenting the bill she’d been working on for the past few days to a Council committee nearly paralyzed her.

  These women are powerhouses, masters of the game. I don’t even know the rules, Nadira thought. They’ll see right through my plans.

  She felt distinctly light headed.

  I wish my mother was here.

  She closed her eyes, tried to remember why she was here.

  Do it for Kiln, she thought.

  “And now we’ll hear from Empress Nadira Marie.”

  The eyes of twelve committee members, three from each Habitat, watched her as she stood, and stiffly walked to the head of the table.

  Breathe Naddie. Just breathe.

  “Thank you for hearing my proposal today. I know that I’m new to High Council, but I do have a bill that I’m sure you would agree is both forward thinking and practical. I call it, the Self Sufficiency Act.”

  The twelve women picked up their touch screens.

  “When women first came to Venus, the necessity of self sufficiency drove us to innovate, to build, and to grow. That, however, is no longer the case. Our technology and innovations have stalled, and we haven’t improved our habitats in over a hundred years. We are struggling to keep up with the universal markets and sickness has made a return, as was the case with Empress Drell. I believe the answer to that is self sufficiency. Going back to what made this planet great to begin with. I am proposing that we re-learn how to take care of ourselves. Re-learn how to address problems in order to grow.”

  “Isn’t that the job of the scientist and engineers?” Empress Addle asked.

  “Yes, it should be. But can you name anything significant that they have done in your lifetime?”

  Empress Addle closed her mouth.

  “No one can,” Nadira said, feeling her confidence building, “because they are not doing anything. They are not challenged. While other planets are struggling to survive, creating in order to address issues that are important to them, finding the value in those creations, and making them profitable, we are coasting along, no new problems to fix, no new issues to address. Our struggle is gone, and therefore there is no need to innovate.”

  “And then what happens?” Arees asked. “Let’s say that we pass this Act, it goes into effect, and we fulfill all aspects of it. Then what?”

  She sees through me. She knows what I want to do.

  Nadira paused.

  Now’s not the time to panic. Say what you came here to say.

  “We grow. We improve. Build new habitats, dispense with the slaves, terra form a second home maybe.”

  “I’m sorry, what was that second thing?”

  Nadira cleared her throat. “With no further need for them, we can free the slaves.”

  Several councilwomen burst into laughter.

  Arees held up a hand to silence them. “Empress Nadira, if we freed the slaves, where would they live? Would they work? Who would control them? They’d become a blight on the planet.”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “Look at Earth. It’s a prime example of what happens when men are let loose. Is that what you want, for us to be more like Earth? Think about it. We’d be teetering on the verge of destruction because of some man’s inept decisions. We’d be poverty ridden. We’d be mauled by nuclear war and pollution. Women would go back to being disrespected, and laid low, judged only by our outer beauty, and not for our minds. No, men cannot be allowed to be free. It will signal the death of us all.”

  Someone clapped.

  Nadira continued. “Although an outcome of it, freeing slaves is not the purpose of this bill. We need to teach girls from infancy how to be self sufficient instead of depending on a slave, how to innovate instead of maintain, and how to move our planet forward in the right direction instead of sitting idly by as it falls behind. I am not proposing that we go back to our Earth days. I am proposing that we move ahead, that we struggle to break out of our complacency, that we regain a sense of urgency. We have to give our daughters the drive to reach for something, to strive for greatness that will improve their daughter’s lives, and their daughter’s after them. A society is considered great when each generation improves upon the last. We need to help our daughters improve, and in order to do that, we need to improve ourselves.”

  Murmurs.

  Nadira caught Arees’ eye, held it.

  Arees nodded.

  “Thank you, Empress Nadira. Committee, we need three votes to move this proposal into the discovery phase. Please vote yes or no.”

  She pointed to the woman in the far corner, and made her way around the table.

  “No.”

  “No.”

  Nadira’s heart fell.

  All of my hard work and my bill won’t even get out of proposal.

  “No.”

  “No.”

  Empress Star of Beta looked pointedly at Nadira. “I, for one, would like to see the research you have on our planet falling behind in the universal markets. I vote yes.”

  Nadira kept her excitement at bay.

  “Thank you, Empress.”

  Arees pointed to the next Councilwoman.”No.”

  “No.”

  Empress Sashess of Beta frowned, “Please present your information on stalled technology and innovation. Yes.”

  One more vote, and it’ll go to discovery.

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “Emphatically no.”

  The last was Empress Baleen of Beta. She looked at Nadira. Nodded. “Yes. Please present your research at discovery.”

  It took all she had to keep in her elated scream.

  Arees looked at Nadira, clearly impressed.

  “Congratulations Empress Nadira. Your bill is moving into discovery phase. Well done. You have given us a lot to think about. I’d enjoy the opportunity to talk further about this bill with you in my chambers later.”

  Nadira nodded. “Thank you, Czarina.”

  “And now, Empress Icev will present.”

  *****

  “Empress Nadira, a word please.”

  Nadira, fresh from her committee meeting, turned as Countess Jun-Su rushed to catch up to her in the hallway.

  “Countess Jun-Su. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

  “May you’re mother be well,” Jun-Su huffed. She seemed as if she had been running. “You’re just the person I was looking for.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. I would have commed you but, well, you can’t trust those things these days. They tell too many secrets.” Jun-Su looked up and down the hallway, then back at Nadira. She had small breast, a flat stomach, and wide hips and thighs. Jun-Su’s olive skin was flushed, her heart-shaped face drained of blood. “How is your mother?”

  “She’s fine.”

  “Good. Please tell her that I inquired after her.”

  “I will.”

  “Perhaps you will know. Has your mother been to Zenith lately?”

  Nadira shook her head. “Not lately.”

  “Is she planning on going back soon?”

  “Not that I am aware.”

  Jun-Su’s dark eyes scanned the hallway again, looked back at Nadira and nodded. “Very well then. Do you plan on seeing your mother soon?”

  “I wasn’t particularly-”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I have a letter for her. I’d be grateful
if you would deliver it to her for me.” She calmed a little, stood straighter, and smoothed invisible wrinkles from her fire red jumpsuit.

  “A letter?”

  “Yes.” Jun-Su handed Nadira an unmarked white envelope.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather comm her yourself?”

  “No. Its most urgent that you deliver this for me. I will be forever in your debt, I swear it.”

  Nadira’s eyebrows furrowed as she took in the sweat that had formed across Jun-Su’s brow. The woman searched the hallway again, her eyes narrow, her body tight.

  Nadira plucked the envelope from Jun-Su’s hand.

  “I’ll be sure to deliver it,” she said.

  “Tonight?”

  “Yes. As soon as I leave High Council.”

  “Thank you, Nadira. Rest assured that I owe you a great debt for this. And please keep our conversation to yourself. I would be most pleased if you did.”

  “I will.”

  Jun-Su nodded slightly, her eyes flittering around the hallway. She turned, and walked briskly in the opposite direction, leaving Nadira standing alone, wondering what the woman was about.

  Chapter 10

  “I must say, Kiln, I’m impressed.”

  Kiln kept a friendly smile on his face as the Headmaster of Habitat Alpha’s Servant Education Center, a woman named Shira, looked over her glasses at him.

  “Your qualifications are impeccable,” she said. “And the Headmaster of your last school highly recommended you. She says, and I quote, that you are excellent with the boys, and give them a good role model to look up to. You are what an exemplary servant should be. End quote.”

  “Thank you,” Kiln replied.

  “So why are you here, Kiln? Why did you leave the Outer Ring?”

  “My Empress accepted a role in High Council. We moved here to be closer to her work.”

  “I see. Empress,” she looked down at the screen in front of her, “Nadira.”

  “Yes.”

  She clucked her tongue. “High Council, huh? Well, please put in a good word for our school. The most important part of raising a good slave is an education, as I’m sure you would agree.”

  “Yes, Headmaster. I was educated in this very school until I was seven.”

  “And we welcome you back,” the Headmaster said. “Well Kiln, you are well spoken, bright and well kept. There’s nothing else to say but to ask if you can start today?”

  “Thank you headmaster. Yes, I have a P.A.S for the rest of the day. I can start immediately.”

  “Good. Let me show you to the room you’ll be working in.”

  Kiln smiled as he stood, excited to work in a school again. There was something deeply satisfying about giving these boys a good start, even though some of them would have a hard life ahead.

  Nothing’s wrong with giving them a little hope, a few tips to help them survive. By Venus, they’ll need it.

  Shira escorted Kiln down a corridor to the main schoolroom.

  Along the walls of the corridor was painted a mural of one of the Founding Mothers, Mary Lou D’Onofrio. Short curly hair, and slightly tanned, Mary’s emerald green eyes seemed to follow Kiln as he progressed down the hall. She was famed for owning the first slave, a man named Vincent.

  Mary Lou was one of the first girls born into the colony in the year 2035. She married Vincent D’Onofrio at the tender age of seventeen, and he filed for divorced from her in the year 2055, only one month after Roe was assassinated. After her divorce, she moved to Habitat Zephta to start over. There, she used her life savings to purchase a hydrogen mine and processing plant. For a newly colonized planet like Venus, any ambitious colonist could purchase a mine and work it for next to nothing. Mary Lou began her company with only five employees. Within ten years, she owned half of the mines in the Habitat. It was around this time that her ex-husband came back to her. He had fallen on hard times, having been fired from several construction crews, and he needed a loan to stay afloat. He heard of Mary Lou’s good fortune, and thought that she could help him for old time’s sake. Against her better judgment, Mary Lou complied, loaning him the money in exchange for a single year’s labor in the mines. After his year was up, Vincent asked to renew their terms. This time, Mary Lou was prepared. She bought Vincent before the High Council, anxious to put into writing their agreement. Vincent would work for Mary Lou for the rest of his life, in exchange for housing, food and clothing. The Council voted on the matter. The agreement was passed.

  Slavery had officially begun on Venus.

  Shira entered the large classroom filled with boys. She clapped twice, and the boys immediately went down to one knee.

  “Boys, this is Kiln, a Prime Servant from the Outer Ring. He will be working with you. Please give him the same respect that you would give any teacher here.”

  “Yes, Empress,” they replied in unison.

  Shira smiled at Kiln, pride beaming from her eyes. “They are very well trained, aren’t they?”

  “Yes, Empress,” he replied.

  She walked Kiln to the far side of the room where three other men stood.

  “Kiln, this is Geo, Alexander, and Po.”

  The three men nodded and smiled in Kiln’s direction.

  “I will leave you four to your task.”

  “Thank you, Empress,” they replied.

  Shira beamed at Kiln again before disappearing through the corridor.

  The boys rose, and continued in their activities.

  “Welcome Kiln,” a red haired, red eyed man said. “Have you taught before?”

  “Yes,” Kiln replied. “In the Outer Ring.”

  “Good. Then you’ll be familiar with our courses.”

  The man, Geo, stepped away from the other two men, and walked Kiln around the room.

  “We have stations for reading and writing, math, machinery repair, fashion, communication, cooking, basic medical care, gardening, maintenance, and art. The three of us split the stations, and now that you’re here we can each take two stations permanently and rotate on the third. Do you have any specialties?”

  Kiln thought a minute. “Communication, gardening, and machinery repair.”

  “So you’re a talker, huh? The talkers always ask for communication.”

  “I guess I do tend to talk a lot.”

  “That’s alright, as long as someone is listening, right?” He hit Kiln in the gut with the back of his hand. “I’m more of a fixer. Any machine you put in front of me, I can fix. I’ve always been that way.”

  “Do you live in the Residential too?” Kiln asked.

  Geo shook his head, “Nah. Us three live here with these kids full time.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “We never left,” Geo replied shortly. “We were put here as boys and, when we hit seventeen and weren’t selected, Shira kept us on as teachers.”

  Kiln frowned, feeling pity for the three men.

  “I’m sorry,” Kiln said. “It must be hard not having a home of your own.”

  “A home of our own?” Geo smirked. “I’m a man. I don’t have anything that’s my own. A woman can wake up one day, decide she doesn’t like my face, and have me executed within the hour if she wants. I’m disposable, a tool to use and throw away.”

  He looked at the boys moving between stations around him.

  “That’s why we’re here. These boys think it’s a big thing to be a Prime Servant. It’s our job to educate them, to tell them about life. Any day can be their last. At any time, they could be gone. We have to take away their hope, their silly dreams before some woman does it for them.”

  Kiln’s frown deepened.

  “Not what you signed up for, huh?” Geo said. “You slaves from the Outer Ring are all the same. You come here with your masters and think that it’s all one big party. You’re Empress pets you and she compliments you and you think you’re on her level. Then, next thing you know, the women out here get in her ear, and boom, you’re either out like yesterdays t
rash or being joined by ten more slaves, and you’re left wondering what happened.”

  “Nadira wouldn’t do that to me.”

  “How long have you been out here?” Geo asked.

  “Three days.”

  “Give it to the end of the week. Yours is a tale that has already been told, my friend.”

  He stood in front of the communication station. Three boys sat in front of him.

  “These three boys here need to know how to talk to their Empress to keep her happy.” Geo put a hand on Kiln’s shoulder. “Don’t let them down.”

  Geo took a step back, leaving Kiln shaking with emotion. The sudden urge to run out of this place and back to the Outer Ring rose sharp. He had almost taken his first step when a small voice said.

  “Teacher, are you okay?”

  Kiln looked down into the rounded eyes of a boy no older than six. In a year he would be put in a servant catalogue, and shopped around to Empresses all over the planet. Whether he got a kind one or not was another story.

  Kiln took a deep breath, tried to keep his expression friendly and his tone even.

  “My name is Kiln,” he said. He bent down on one knee, looking at the three young boys. Even at this lower height, he towered over them. “What are your names?”

  The first boy, the one who spoke, answered first, “My name is Seechum,” he said, pushing a pair of glasses up his nose.

  “I’m Kay,” said another darker skinned boy.

  “I’m Jamlin,” said the third boy, much taller than the rest.

  “Well, Seechum, Kay and Jamlin, when you speak to your master, you have to remember three things: be respectful, be brief, and be entertaining when the time calls for it. Can you remember those things?”

  The three boys nodded.

  “Is your master nice, Kiln?” Seechum asked.

  “Yes, she’s very nice.”

  “Will we have nice masters too?”

  Kiln bit his tongue, a lump forming in his throat. He looked back at Geo, who waved him on. He then looked back at the boys.

  “Yes, you will all have very nice masters. Work hard, listen, and do as your told and you will be just fine, okay?”

  The boys seemed relieved by this, nodded eagerly.

  Geo wants me to crush these boys spirit, Kiln thought. I won’t do it. Someone should give them a little hope.