Chaos in the Night - 4

Chapter 4

The Company advertised heavily their forward progression on human rights, and although the union was a thing of history not even taught in the company run schools anymore, common laborers had all the advantages of their managers and the ever watchful inspectors. Or so they said. The quality of services and health programs was diminished by the quantity of providers. Jobs were abundant however, and since the great mid century die-off there were never enough bodies to go around. Economic misfortune had caused all of the 21st century's superpowers to splinter and eventually break, and the Great Lakes territory was purchased by Moon State Tech, which had holdings all over the continent. The greens simply called Moon State 'the Company,' and they were as much slaves to the territory as they were citizens. At birth the people were processed and gained either a blue or green aura. It was a caste system, but remaining a blue wasn't a given. Crime, civil disobedience, or mental instability could easily earn a demotion. And the Company's hovering satellites acted as a steel cage to keep everyone in line.

The advertising was aimed at adding citizens to their list of holdings. And if a person ever came to work for Moon State on one of their countless properties throughout the solar system, he or she had better read the contract before signing on the dotted line. World courts didn't have much power across territory lines, and Moon State was never one to play nice. They also engaged in legal piracy and shanghai protocols, especially in instances of interstellar travel and keeping up a good rotation for the mining projects.

Which is why Stephen and Draybeck were being secured in the back of a large vehicle to be shipped off to Saturn's largest moon.

Annie reacted quicker than she might have believed possible. An adrenaline situation like this had never surfaced before in her rather mundane life. She sprang from her low chair and leaped down from the third story balcony onto the second, and then down to a ground level awning and with one arm swung to the tarmac, just as the thugs had tossed Draybeck and Stephen into the rear of the lectruck. With a surface gravity of .138 of earth's, one might suspect Titan wouldn't have equipped Annie for such accomplished jumping about, but because the moon had such a low grav, she spent hours each day in a high grav workout suite, tighter than earth's, and the internal rotation of the human transit vessel was also set at a +/-.05 earth-grav. Her muscles were well tuned for the conditions of this new planet, but had she thought twice, Annie probably wouldn't go jumping out of buildings every day.

Jarl and his accomplice climbed into the cab and moved forward into the alley; they had a list and before returning to the loading district expected to have a full cargo of conscripts. With these two, their work was done. Lining the interior walls were another eight men, either handcuffed to rails or unconscious. Harried and bloodied, unwilling, but good enough for what the Company demanded in the mines.

Annie turned the corner as the lectruck lurched forward, and she closed her grip around the rear door's handle. It didn't open. She held on tight and balanced on the bumper, bending her knees and hoping she was unnoticed by the driver. The trip wasn't lengthy, and in minutes the truck entered the docks. Annie dropped off the bumper and jogged off to the side of the street, keeping an eye on the vehicle. Shortly it drove into a secure area and she couldn't follow.

“Shit,” she said. Not because the chase was lost, but because of the sign on the fence. 'Loading for Titan'. A big cargo container fitted with three Tri-photon cage shuttles was sitting on a launch pad getting the full treatment. Crates were onloading via electric ramps and a big crane was dropping megaton cargo into the hatches. Stenciled onto the container was 'Y. Penslar' – the interstellar ship Annie had just slept in on. Now she knew; the guys were headed to Titan, and the way they were going was a one way trip. The shanghaied were never documented, and when they finally succumbed to overworking and death inside the deep mines of Titan, they would be jettisoned toward Saturn and never seen again, except perhaps as tumbling pieces of its giant rings.

–

“Where do I sign?” The legless Squidge transmitted a standard Company form onto the glass surface and Annie scrawled her legal identity-code onto the designated line. So much for gaining a hard earned life on Earth; she was headed back to squalor and claustrophobia, and for two guys she barely knew. Soon Annie would be placed into a second hand coffin that had seen who knows how many voyages here and back again. If she was lucky, then she'd make the twenty plus year journey back to Titan, and a moon she had prayed to escape from for most of her life; and if unlucky – well, then the life support would fail and inside the rotating coffin her organs would roll, and Annie's body would twist into a pretzel, folding onto itself like a hopeless origami poker hand. What the fuck was she thinking?