BSE Chapter 3-40

It took two full days before Alexander got a follow-up response from the leader of the Asgardian people, Katalynn Char.

“I agree that Harlow is a threat that needs to be dealt with,” the woman stated without preamble as soon as she connected, “but your terms are too vague, your demands too one-sided. I need more clarification about these stipulations before I can make a final choice.”

She wasn’t saying no, that was a good sign. Now he had to put his demands on the table. Alexander had specifically left them vague because he knew the Asgardians would balk at them.

“The first stipulation would be to stop all piracy,” he stated.

The woman snorted. “We are not pirates, Kane, despite what the STO might have you think. We do not make raids into STO space, but we will defend our borders from all interlopers. The reason the STO labeled us pirates is that we didn’t capitulate to their demands. They think they own all of human space, they are wrong. Their policies and war with the Shican nearly got my ancestors killed. We will never be under their yoke ever again. So your piracy concern is a non-issue. What other stipulations did you have?”

Alexander froze, he wasn’t sure how to respond to the woman’s reply. While it was true that those engineers he brought back claimed as much, he never actually believed them. He would need to get access to a database that tracked lost ships or something to try and confirm her words.

He gave a mental shake to free himself from his thoughts and laid out his next requirement. “You will also need to stop any form of slavery. I refuse to work with a society that allows this.”

The woman quirked an eyebrow at the demand. “I assume you sell to the STO, Kane?” she asked instead of answering his question.

“…Yes?”

“Then you are a hypocrite. What do you think the STO corporations do with people that displease them? Those they don’t kill off that is.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

“They are made into indentured workers. A fancy name for slavery, but slavery nonetheless. It's true that we take prisoners from ships that cross into our space and that they are forced to work and pay off their freedom, but they have the option of freedom, unlike the people forced to pay back what they owe to the corporations. We allow any non-violent criminals to live as anyone else does on Asgard and the other worlds. They are only required to do the tasks they are given. Once they have worked off the debt they have accrued by breaking our laws, they have the choice to return to their lives back in the STO or become an Asgardian in name. Most choose to stay because our way of life means they can actually make something of themselves. I’m told you implemented a similar system on Eden’s End. The only difference between our handling of criminals and yours is that our criminal debt can be bought off or traded. Have you given your people that option, Kane? If not, I would say our system is far more fair and just than yours is.”

Alexander was quiet for a moment, as he processed her words. If true, that meant Asgard was just another political entity akin to the STO. He wasn’t about to take her words at face value though.

“You will forgive me if I don’t believe you. Can you prove you aren’t just feeding me lies?”

The woman bristled. “If you were an Asgardian, I would take great offense to that question. Since you are an outsider, I will let it slide this once. If you wish to tour the worksites to prove my words aren’t all lies, I can arrange for that to happen.”

This could be an elaborate ploy to get him back on the ground and to an easier place for them to capture him, but he somehow doubted it. Katalynn Char and her people had been pretty upfront this entire time.

“I accept your offer, please send me the coordinates.”

After receiving directions, Alexander once again returned to the surface with Pembrooke. A different Loki was there to greet them and take them to the new destination. When they arrived, Alexander was surprised to be greeted by Katalynn Char in person.

“I wasn’t expecting you to show us around personally,” he admitted as he stepped out of the train car.

“It has been some time since I have toured the growing areas, I might as well do that while proving my words aren’t all false.”

He winced internally at her rebuke. It sounded like she took the question of her integrity far harder than he thought.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to question your honor, I just needed to see for myself.”

“Of course, you didn’t,” she said, continuing to walk without looking at him. “You are simply a product of the STO… despite your strange origins. Honor and integrity mean little in that cesspool. There, they are just words that are used or thrown away at a whim.”

“What about your people? You can’t tell me every single Asgardian is completely honorable and has flawless integrity. I already know that isn’t true.”

“As much as I would like to think otherwise, you are correct. Jarl Isbjorn is one such person who has no honor or integrity. He was the one leading the fleet I faced off against when you arrived and a good example of how anyone can rise in our society.”

“What do you mean?” Alexander asked as they stepped through a set of doors and into a massive underground complex that had water dripping from the roof and a huge array of growing lights.

“Isbjorn’s family was captured when he was only a small child. They worked their way out of servitude and he challenged the previous Jarl to single combat for leadership over the man’s territory. Isbjorn took over as Jarl and as much as I hate the man, his territory has flourished under his control. His methods to make that happen are not something I would praise him for though.”

The woman stopped and Alexander stopped next to her. She gestured around to the workers. “As you can see there are no collars, no chains. Nothing to force these people to work. They aren’t forced to work with their hands or in substandard conditions either. They are given all the tools they could need to produce the best results possible.”

She motioned for one man to come over. The shorter man jogged over and pressed his fist against his chest in a sign of respect. “Lagertha. What can I assist you with?”

“Tell my guest how you came to be here.”

The man scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. “Well, I thought I could make some easy money by mining rare metal asteroids outside of STO space since there are no claims out there. I was wrong. After I was discovered, my ship was disabled and I was taken prisoner. I started as a farm hand and eventually worked my way up to supervisor after I paid off my debt.”

She nodded at the man. “You may go.”

Katalynn turned to him. “If that is not enough to convince you, you are free to speak with anyone you like. I will wait here so you can’t accuse me of coaching the people on what to say.”

Alexander had planned to do just that after asking her, but he had a few questions for her first. “What’s with the water dripping from the ceiling?”

“The concrete on the ceiling is specially designed to let the water seep in at a certain rate. The surface water is toxic to humans if you drink it, but it is full of the chemicals needed for plants to grow.”

“You’re fertilizing the plants with the surface water?” That was a rather ingenious solution to a complicated problem.

“That is not all we do with the water. The water is then filtered through the dirt, rock, clay, and charcoal beneath the growing beds where it comes out nearly pure. It is pumped from there to storage tanks for final processing into drinkable water.”

“You seem to know quite a bit about this process,” Alexander commented.

“It is only a poor leader who doesn’t make an effort to understand the systems that keep their people alive and happy.”

With no more questions for the Asgardian leader, Alexander walked around and spoke to random people. Some were less than talkative. Most of that probably had to do with his appearance, but others practically demanded he help them get back to STO space. A great deal of the workers were rather apathetic to their plight.

“Yeah, I guess you could call us slaves,” one man shrugged. “This still beats my last job.”

Alexander found that hard to believe but he still had to ask. “And what was that?”

“I was a butler for this rich corporate prick. He treated everyone like dirt and never paid his employees on the ship. I hadn’t received a single credit the entire time I worked for him.”

“Why not just leave?” Alexander asked in confusion.

The slightly older man snorted. “His guards would have stunned me if I tried to leave the ship. I witnessed them doing this when other people tried to escape. With the STO laws preventing people from entering hangars unless they have a warrant, it was easy to hide these misdeeds. The only people with any autonomy were the flight crew and the guards. The rest were simply there to carry out the whims of our boss.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

The man shrugged again. “Like I said, this isn’t so bad, I get to leave at the end of the day, I get to talk to people, and I even met a nice woman. Getting boarded and getting to watch my boss thrown out an airlock was the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“…Um, thanks for telling me your story.”

After he had finished speaking with every person in the agricultural cavern, he returned to where Katalynn was. Someone had brought her a chair, table, and umbrella to keep the UV lights from burning her skin while he had been absent.

She was speaking with a few people but their conversations petered off as he approached and they dismissed themselves.

“My advisors,” she said as she saw him look their way. “They are keeping me apprised of certain issues that are ongoing.”

“The Xin attacks?”

“Among other things. So, Kane, are you satisfied now?”

“There are a decent number of people who would like to go home.”

“Of course there are. Prisoners are rarely happy to be told they are prisoners, but unless you plan to buy up their debt, they will remain that way until it is paid off.”

“What are their crimes?” he asked.

“Varied, I’m sure. So did you want to buy up their debt?”

Alexander looked back over the workers before turning back to Katalynn. “No. And yes, I’m satisfied that your criminals and prisoners are treated fairly. I hate to admit this, but I think I’m going to have to implement some changes to my own criminal system.”

“Excellent,” she said, motioning for him to sit on a metal crate across from her. “Now that your conditions were met, we can discuss what I want.”