Alternate Conclusions
By H.W.
Chapter 5
"Tomorrow?" She asked.
"Tomorrow," He confirmed, bending over the map a little in hope to find the elusive solution.
Trinka Heglix looked to her left, taking in the profile of her twin brother. They had been through so much together. They had a good childhood, growing up knowing that the age of twelve was still so far away. They were young, careless; innocent. That is until that day. The day they had turned twelve. It had been a brutal awakening. They had been playing catch one day, and the next day Trinka was a sex slave. Six days after that last game of catch, Trinka had been the 'entertainment' at some party, being raped until she lost consciousness.
Her brother had been sold to the same master and had been put to work in the stables. They hadn't seen each other for three months when Olkra walked in to the house to hand in the report he had been ordered to give to the master. That's when he walked in on seeing his crying sister bent over a table and their master raping her. Olkra hadn't thought; only reacted. Minutes later the master was dead and they knew that they were in a world of trouble.
They decided to try and get away. To their utmost surprise they succeeded. They thought that now things would get better; they were wrong. They had nothing but their bodies, and both of them were forced to sell themselves several times. Two years. Two years they lived like that. Until that day.
They had managed to get passage on a smugglers ship, just like twenty other escaped slaves. Their price was to work on the ship and do different task. Trinka's task was the one she excelled at by now; selling herself. It was while doing that that she found something out. The man that owned the ship had a little side business of pretending to help escaped slaves, only to turn them in for the reward. It seemed that they were traveling to a completely different place than they had been told.
Trinka had pretended that she hadn't heard the conversation between the owner of the ship and his Second-in-Command. She had pretended that she had fallen asleep after her... services. Once back with the others later she had told her brother and the others what she had heard. It was at that point that her brother had shown what he on his turn had become good at in those two years. Olkra had killed the owner, as well as the other five of the crew. The inexperienced slaves had managed to fly the ship to their destination; it was the landing that went wrong though.
The ship had become useless, but the slaves had survived. The question then had been; now what? The answer had come in the group of fifteen people that had been drawn to the crashed ship. They had attacked without a word and Trinka's group had defended themselves. Five people were killed, but Trinka's group managed to win.
Trinka had told the people that had attacked them that Trinka's group could not afford to leave a group alive that might attack them again. She had given them a choice; be killed or join them under Trinka's command. Suddenly Trinka had been in charge of a group of thirty-two people. Things had slowly evolved from there with Trinka being the brains and Olkra being the certainly also not stupid brawn.
Now, sixteen years after escaping, Trinka was in command of one of the larger groups on Homestead. Fifteen percent of the planet's livable surface was under her command. A very large part when you considered that the second biggest group had ten percent, and that every other group had less than ten percent. The problem was that her land was surrounded by a whole lot of others that now felt threatened by the size of her group. The others always aligned, or fought, with each other depending on what they wanted to achieve that day, week, or month.
This month it seemed that the others had agreed that for 'stability' no group should be allowed to be bigger than ten percent, and the ten groups that bordered her land had aligned themselves to take care of her. This of course translated to that they had felt threatened by such a big group at their border and now they had decided to take on that big group together. And of course afterwards take her land and divide it amongst them. Now her big group of fifteen percent suddenly faced a group of thirty percent; a group that on top of that could attack her from all sides. Definitely not a good situation.
"How many can we manage?" Trinka asked.
"A hundred thousand, that's including potential reserves."
"And how many of those can actually fight?"
"Well," Olkra said thoughtfully. "Everyone can have a lucky hit with a sword or knife, but truly halfway decent trained? I would say ten thousand. Good fighters? I would say one thousand. I would say that on all counts we are outnumbered four to one."
Trinka looked back at the map. "They know that they can't attack literally from all sides; their numbers would be spread out too much then, even with the advantage. So it all comes down to gambling. If we have our people in the right places we can survive since we are the defenders and can defend from our entrenchments, but if we have our people in the wrong places..."
Trinka didn't continue since both of them knew what the results would be if they had their people in the wrong places. Just like the others didn't have enough people to attack from every side, they themselves didn't have the people to have an effective defense in place all around them.
"A crate full of disrupters would be good about now," Olkra said with a humorless laugh.
"Or at least a crate full of working energy-cells for those useless disrupters we have," His sister agreed. "That way any one of our hundred-thousand would be a decent fighter. You got to love it though; a hundred thousand people that can use a disrupter, and less than a hundred disrupters in total to be had. Good thing that the other side isn't any better off. Alright, decision time. The marches... difficult place; hard to get through, but also hard to defend. If it were me, I would sent a group through there and attack from the rear."
"It sounds like you could really use some help," Someone suddenly said from the door, only to quickly add, "Hey, hey, there's no need for that," When two knives were pulled at the same time.
Olkra moved around the table to the man at the door but stopped when the man suddenly pulled what was clearly a beam weapon.
"Believe me, this one does work," The man said gesturing with his weapon and in that way indicating that he had heard what they had said about working weapons.
"Who are you?" Trinka asked as she put the knife away. She knew that her brother had the more deadly aim with throwing anyway.
"A friend," The man began.
"That's for me to decide; not you," Trinka interrupted.
"Alright," The man said slowly. "How about this then? I'm not your enemy."
"Says the man with a weapon in his hand," Olkra said with a snort.
"Oh, and just what do you call that in your own hand? A toothpick?" The man shot back. "Look, as I said, it seems like you need some help, and I'm the person that can help you. Now why don't we all put our weapons away and talk?"
After a moment of hesitation, Trinka nodded and Olkra put his knife away. The man also put his weapon away and stepped closer to the table. He slowly extended his hand, making sure that the other two saw there was no weapon in it. "My name is Tom Paris, and I've been sent here with a proposal for your two."
Trinka looked at the hand for a moment before slowly extending her own hand and shaking hands with the man. "Trinka Heglix, and this is my brother Olkra. Now, who sent you, and what do you want?"
Letting go of Trinka's hand, Tom asked, "Before I answer that, please answer me this; did you happen to see the Grand Assembly a month ago?"
"I did," Trinka said with a frown. "Lots of crap, like normal."
"Not all of it, I assure you. I have been sent here by Intendant Annika Phoenix, with, as I said, a proposal for you two."
"Yeah, sure and I just found me that crate of disrupters right here under the desk," Trinka said amused.
"Well, how about on your desk instead?" Tom asked, before adding, "Carey, can you handle that please?"
"Who are you talking to?" Olkra asked.
"My ship," Tom replied. "Really, you don't think that I would walk into a potentially dangerous situation without preparations, like an open com. link to my ship?"
Olkra wanted to reply but stopped when something sparkled into existence on the desk.
"Well, it's not really a crate," Tom said, looking at the pile of hand phasers and phaser rifles. "That would take a little longer since those would have to be build, energy cells charged, and all that. But you get the idea. By the way, this is really more to show that there is a ship, and not to buy you off with a couple of weapons."
"Alright, I'm convinced that there's a ship," Trinka said, indeed convinced since nobody on the planet had transporter capability. "I assume that this is also how you got in here without any guard seeing you?"
"Right," Tom agreed.
"Alright, I'm listening. What help are you offering, and what proposal are you talking about?"
Tom pointed at the map still lying on the table. "The initial help is in preventing this conflict. There is a second ship, a Klingon ship, and there are over a thousand armed and well-trained Klingon soldiers ready to beam down to secure your borders if needed. Personally I would like to prevent that. Your people would not know what's happening and would also attack the Klingons."
"That, or there would be widespread panic because the Klingons have found us," Trinka added.
"You don't seem surprised by that fact though," Tom noted.
"I'm not," Trinka agreed. "I have known for a couple of years now that one of the factions, and thereby probably all of them, know where we are. At one point we had working sensors that we salvaged from a crashed ship and we noted that a certain irregularity in our space came by on a surprisingly regular basis. It didn't take me long to figure out that we were being observed by a cloaked ship that visited us during some patrol. I have no idea why they would leave us be, but since they did I concentrated on more important things."
"Interesting point to talk about later. For now sensors are how I would prefer to help you in this conflict. My ship has those sensors and a rather impressive weapon's bank, if I say so myself. We know exactly where your enemy is grouping their forces. I would suggest that for now my ship does a few flybys and gives off some warning shots. Your enemy will think that you managed to get your hands on a ship and hold off on the attack without there being any indication that there are Klingons around. This will give us time to put the bigger plan in motion. The bigger plan is something I'll explain to you when I also explain the Intendant's proposal to you."
"And what do you want in return for this help?" Trinka asked wary.
"Absolutely nothing," Tom assured. "See it as a sign of good faith. Well, we would like it very much if you didn't use this to your advantage and launch a counter attack. For now the borders stay as they are."
Trinka thought about it for a moment before giving a small nod of agreement, figuring that even if no counterattack could be made now, the others would still think they would still have the ship when a counterattack was launched later.
"Great," Tom said, glad that things seemed to go so well. He gave a 'do it' to let the listening Carey know that he should do as discussed. Looking around him, Tom asked, "Now, before we begin, um, do you happen to have a chair I could use? This could be a long talk."
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~
Trinka and Olkra looked at each other for a long moment before Trinka spoke up. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"No joke, I assure you," Tom said patiently.
"You really want us to believe that she would give us positions like that in her government?" Trinka persisted. "Us; two escaped slaves? One of which has been leading a group of thugs for the last sixteen years, and one of which made an art out of killing in those sixteen years."
"You seem to forget the bigger picture here," Tom said. "Leading a gang of thugs or being a brilliant leader; it all comes down to how you lead them. We know that situations here aren't all that glorious. It's the how you held yourself standing in the last sixteen years that caught the attention, not the fact that you were leading a bunch of amateurs. In fact, that very point speaks in your favor. You were leading a bunch of escaped slaves, or their children, or children of children of escaped slaves. Yet you managed to do so better than a lot of trained commanders ever could. As for your brother..."
Tom gave an amused chuckle, "You seem to forget there that Intendant Phoenix is in a relationship with Intendant Torres, so as far as trusting a killer is concerned... do you think you can one-up Intendant Torres in the ruthless killer department?"
Olkra didn't reply to this other than crossing his arms.
"I didn't think so," Tom said before adding, "Look, it comes down to this; the Phoenix Alliance is all about new beginnings. Intendant Phoenix does not care about how people survived until now, she just wants to make sure that they will continue to survive from now on. Of course, there are some people that Intendant Phoenix can't trust; she knows that. However, she also has her ways of finding out who she can trust. If she knows that she can trust you, she will offer you a job, even if only a week before you were still wanted for murder. On the other hand, if she can't trust you, you won't get the job, even if you didn't do anything wrong in your entire life."
"Alright," Trinka said slowly, "Then tell me, why me? Olkra I can understand. He is more than qualified for the job. On top of that, if my brother is the Secret Service Commander, Intendant Phoenix doesn't have to worry about the loyalty of that Secret Service Commander since he will be loyal to me, and therefore to Intendant Phoenix as well. After all, I can only function as a Sub-Intendant as long as Intendant Phoenix leaves me in that position, and she will only do that for as long as she feels she can trust me."
"Right. Intendant Phoenix figured that as well," Tom honestly admitted. "She hoped that you would realize that the fate of you and your brother would be intertwined. Not the most noblest of ways to ensure loyalty, she knows. But in these early beginnings she will have to take what she can get. She only knows you from files the Klingon made of you both; if she can get loyalty out of your brother by entwining your fates, so be it."
Looking at Olkra, Tom added, "No disrespect to you, of course. I hope that you will understand the delicate balance between trusting and trusting too much that the position of Secret Service Commander brings."
"No disrespect taken," Olkra assured. "However, you still didn't answer my sister's question; why us, why her? There must a lot of other people that are also suited for the jobs. So why two escaped slaves? What is the gain?"
"The gain is your sister's known name," Tom said, coming to one of the many things that had indeed brought the decision down to Trinka. "The problem is that a lot, if not even most, people still think that the whole Phoenix Alliance concept is some kind of scam. No matter who Intendant Phoenix hands the positions of Sub-Intendants to everyone will still think that these people are nothing more than puppets; some loyal slaves that will do and say whatever they are told to."
Tom looked back to Trinka as he continued. "However, for over a decade now the name Trinka Heglix is known amongst escaped slaves as the name of an escaped slave that has become the leader of one of the factions on Homestead. Even the four other planets that the escaped slaves live on have heard of you. You are known as a strict, but fair person. Someone that actually cares about the people under her command, and that isn't just out to use them."
"The name of others is just as known as mine," Trinka noted.
"You mean like Trakan the Brutal, or LiyiL the Harsh, or maybe Waioliang the Butcher?" Tom asked amused. "Somehow I don't think people will flock to us if we would give anyone of them the position of Sub-Intendant. Now, Trinka the Fair; that's something we can work with."
"Ah, so there's your real motive," Trinka said, pointing her finger at Tom. "You want people to 'flock to you'."
Tom spread his hands and agreed readily, ."But of course. That's the next reason that I was going to mention. You see, Intendant Phoenix is in the rather interesting position that she now has a whole Faction to command, that billions of people are now her subjects, yet she doesn't have a single person that can work for her... well, she has about two hundred. Kinda hard to build a whole faction with that. We need people, manual labor, but all the Phoenix Alliance subjects are in long contracts now."
He gave a small shrug. "Besides, even if they weren't, the whole thinking behind turning the slaves in to long contracts was to make sure that people wouldn't suddenly lose their entire workforce. That very reason is also why we can't suddenly go taking millions of those workers away to start working for the Phoenix Alliance directly. However, the latest information we have, which is based on sensor readings of the Klingon ships that monitor all five places that escaped slaves live, is that in all five places combined there are a little over twenty million escaped slaves, or their children, or their children's children, or... well, you get the idea. If we could get those people to come work for us, it would solve two problems. First, we would have our workforce, still a relatively small workforce, but more than enough to start the process of growth. And second the problem of what to do with the escaped slaves."
"Here's an idea for you, you could give them the papers that make them free Phoenix Alliance subjects," Olkra said.
"I'm afraid that won't work. Believe me; if it was up to us we would do it. It would actually work in our favor. If we could simply make them free people then this would show our good intentions and they would still come and work for us, or at least most of them. But there are the other Factions to consider; they won't allow it. Those slaves escaped out of their territories, their subjects had financial damages because those slaves escaped."
Tom made a small hand gesture to indicate Trinka and Olkra. "Some even killed or maimed in their escape. While escaping itself doesn't make the slave a criminal, killing during the escape sure does. So a lot of those slaves are wanted for crimes they committed."
"So?" Olkra merely asked.
"So," Tom repeated, " When allowing the creation of the Phoenix Alliance the other factions, and not to forget the Chancellor, set forth conditions that have to be kept. One of those conditions is that escaped slaves won't be 'rewarded' for escaping by getting their legal documents while all the slaves that didn't escape have to work to gain those documents. So an escaped slave, or their children, will first have to serve a long contract before they can become legally free. If they do so, the other Faction will waiver the prosecution for any and all crimes that escaped slave has committed and the slaves start anew in the Phoenix Alliance."
Tom saw them look at him in clear disbelief, so he assured, "Even if they killed a thousand people, they won't be prosecuted for it, but if they kill once more after having gotten this new chance, they will be prosecuted for that killing. Now, before you say it, let me say it. Those children didn't choose where they were born. That's true. However, if they had been born on a slave planet they would be slaves now. The only exception to all this are the children that aren't twelve yet. If they reach the age of twelve, they will have to enter the schooling system."
"And what if they don't want that?" Trinka asked.
"Schooling is mandatory for every single child in the Coalition," Tom reminded. "The children of escaped slaves can just as little choose not to go to school as a Klingon child can choose not to go to school. However, let me point out that one of the first things Intendant Phoenix will introduce will be a new schooling system. Every child in the Phoenix Alliance, be it a Human or a Orion, or a Gorn, or a Risan, will first enter a basic schooling that lasts for two years in which they get taught common knowledge and also about the different jobs there are to be had in the Phoenix Alliance."
"Slaves started work at twelve," Trinka reminded.
"No," Tom corrected. "They entered the system at that age. Only the ones that weren't trained in anything, like you two back then, were directly... pressed into service, shall we say. But the others went to some kind of school at that time. They went to Risa to train for years to become a sex slave or body slave. Or they were sent to teaching factories where, granted, products were made that were sold, but they did get taught to do all aspects of their job. Or... well, anyway, they too had some kind of schooling, most of them at least."
"Most," Trinka reluctantly agreed.
"Well, Tom continued, "Under this new system at the end of those two years of basic schooling, when they turn fourteen, they themselves will make a choice which profession they want to follow. They will at that point know all the pro's and con's of those jobs, and if it applies to that job, what job they have to do first before they can get the job they want. No longer will children be pushed in to something and be told to like it or die. They will choose, after having studied for two years what the different jobs are all about, just what they want to be."
"Sounds very noble," Trinka said, silently wishing that she herself had gotten such a silent introduction in to the harshness of life. "I can actually see people that have children turning to the Phoenix Alliance so that their children can follow that schooling, but what about the rest? Why would they go back? They are free now, why would they give that up to be bound to contract for ten years?"
"Oh yeah, and what a wonderful freedom it is; living from day to day," Tom said before asking, "Tell me, what do these free people have? Do they have a law that protects them? Can they go complain to someone when someone else beat the crap out of them and stole what little possessions they had?"
Looking directly at Trinka, Tom asked bluntly, "Can they go complain when someone raped them?"
Seeing the flinch of Trinka's eyes, Tom continued. "You are known as one of the few fair leaders that are to be found, can you assure me that that in your part of Homestead no rapes happen? Well, as workers for the Phoenix Alliance those people would be covered by laws, fair laws, that are enforced,"
"So you say," Olkra interrupted.
"Enforced," Tom continued, "by security troops that are selected on their desire to uphold the law and not use the law to better themselves. And on top of that..."
Tom looked at Olkra, "checking if laws are being upheld falls directly under the Secret Service Commander. Upholding them doesn't fall under the Secret Service Commander since that job goes to security and police troops, which eventually fall under the Admiral Supreme's command. But checking if those laws are being upheld falls directly under you, Olkra, if you take that position."
"Why would I be able to check it, but not do anything about it?" Olkra asked, deliberately not answering the question about being able to assure that certain things didn't happen in their part of Homestead. They knew they did happen, but there really wasn't much they could do about it.
"Because Intendant Phoenix thinks ahead," Tom explained. "She knows that she can trust the people she gives positions now; trust them to do the right thing. But she also knows that nobody lives forever. There will come a time when there is a new Intendant, new Sub-Intendants, a new Secret Service Commander, a new Admiral Supreme. Because of that she is dividing things a little. She has to give people powerful positions in order for them to do their job. The powers you would get as Secret Service Commander?"
Tom shook his head at his own question. "She can't curb those. If she did she would also be curbing your ability to do your job. So what she does is set up things in such a way that people get that power they need to do their job, just that there is at all times someone, a second person, that checks that those powers aren't abused. You as Secret Service Commander would be doing a lot of that checking, but most of that will be instances where the Inspector General pointed something out to you that might warrant an inspection. However, there is nothing that says that you can't check things without such pointing if you thing something warrants an inspection. There is nothing that says that you can't have an interest of sorts, wanting to make sure that this or that is done right and focusing on it a bit."
Tom pointed to Trinka before continuing. "You sister here, if she takes the job of Sub-Intendant, would also be subject to inspections of the Inspector General, but she can also ask the Inspector General to check something out. For instance if she thinks that one of the other Sub-Intendants is doing something they shouldn't. As I said, anyone in the government will be subject to inspections. Intendant Phoenix wants to create an atmosphere where those inspections aren't dreaded, but part of the norm. Where people think; 'I have nothing to hide and this inspection will prove it'."
"Unless they do indeed have something to hide," Trinka pointed out. "But tell me, if everyone is watched, who is watching Intendant Phoenix?"
"If they have something to hide they don't belong in the Government and will be flushed out, which is one of the reasons these inspections exist," Tom reminded. "As for who watches Intendant Phoenix, well, there is still the Chancellor. Believe me the Intendant of the Phoenix Alliance will have to dread inspections a lot more than anyone else in the Phoenix Alliance."
"Alright, so you'll have the laws and protection we can't offer here," Trinka said, conceding that point. "But that won't be enough to entice people to step forward. They will want something they know; something they can look at and say 'so that's what they are offering me'. What is it? I know, if you strip it all down, that Intendant Phoenix wants me as Sub-Intendant so that I will pull the others in. I don't have to ask, I know that one of her first tasks for me will be to try and get as much as possible escaped slaves to come and work for the Phoenix Alliance. To do so my nice words of 'trust me' won't be enough. So tell me, what can I offer them, what will they get for working for the Phoenix Alliance?"
"No credits," Tom said, deciding that it was best to clear that up first. "Fact is, the Phoenix Alliance is just starting so we simply can't afford to pay wages to millions of people; those credits are needed for other things."
"That doesn't leave much," Trinka noted.
"To the contrary, that leaves a lot," Tom disagreed. "Tell me, seeing that you are the leader of your faction, I assume that you live better than most. Granted, you don't hog it all like some of the other leaders do, but you get your food, you have a decent size home. Tell me then, do you get your three meals a day? How about the people you command?"
They answered the question by not answering, so after a moment of silence, Tom continued. "We won't be paying with credits, no, but we will be paying with a contract that is pretty damn nice. Three meals a day. Housing. Now granted, not everyone will get their own set of quarters, those will be reserved for families. The rest will be housed in dorm like housing. Everyone will have their own bedroom with lockable door and with attached private bathroom, but they will have to share the kitchen and other living quarters with the other people of that hall."
"Lockable door?" Olkra asked, wondering why Tom had pointed that out specifically.
Tom slapped his forehead. "Oh, sorry. Where I come from that's a housing term. 'Lockable door' points to the fact that, well the door can be locked and only an emergency override can open it then. It basically indicates assured privacy that you control... up to a level because eventually you do have to leave your room for food or work. Anyway, besides that there is Medicare; full cover. Besides that there will be a system of replicator rations they will get every week. They can use them for things not covered by what I just mentioned, or save them up to 'buy' luxury items that will cost certain amounts of replicator rations. Besides that there is also the holodeck time. We,"
"Holodeck?" Olkra interrupted. "You want to tell me that you will give everyone access to a holodeck?"
"Limited access," Tom corrected. "It's a system we have used for some years now, and it works great,"
"Who is we?" Now it was Trinka that interrupted.
Tom opened his mouth to answer, but then thought better of it; they didn't have 'that' much time now. "Um, it's a long story. Tell you what, if you decide to come with me I'll tell you all about it on our journey, if you decide to stay here, the information really doesn't matter anyway."
"Alright," Trinka agreed.
Tom rubbed his hands a little. "Good. Now, holodeck. Just like there will be replicator rations there will be holodeck rations. There will be one holodeck for every certain amount of people. The holodeck time will be divided between those people. So, let's say that everyone get's one hour of holodeck time every two days. You can use that one hour, or just like the replicator rations, you can save them and use the holodeck for one block of five hours every ten days. There is a simple program that is available to all by accessing the computer. In it you see which times the holodeck is still free and reserve that time if you want, and have the hours of course."
"And what if people want to do something together?" Olkra asked. "They both lose their time?"
Tom shook his head a little. "Good point, but no. People can use their own time to do a group thing, or people can put time together. Meaning, I can take an hour of holodeck time and then invite you two to do something together. That would only cost me that one hour and you nothing. But it was more common that we all offered some time for the fun. With us, friends would often do something together and, say, four friends would reserve an hour each behind each other so that they could do something together for a block of four hours with it only costing each of them one hour."
He smiled a bit ruefully. "Of course, there is a limit on how much time you can reserve. We don't want someone to save so much time that they can block out the holodeck for a month. The really interesting part is, since there will be shifts the holodeck can be used around the clock since no matter what time it is, it's always time off for someone."
Suddenly Tom snapped his fingers. "Shifts, that brings me to the work time. The work day will exist out of twelve hours on, twelve hours off. Later, when the Phoenix Alliance has enough workers this will be brought back to three shifts; eight hours on, sixteen hours off, but since we won't know when this will be there will be no promise on that and people should assume that the work day will be those twelve hours."
"Slave times," Olkra noted.
Tom shrugged his shoulders. "If that's what you want to call it. I personally disagree. Tell me, slaves worked for twelve hours, but how long did the free supervisor work? Wasn't he there for those twelve hours as well?"
"Yeah, but they got a lot of free days," Olkra persisted.
"And so do workers under our new system," Tom countered. "The work cycle will exist out of six days of work, two days off. So that right there is sixty-six days off every standard year, and on top of that there are also twenty-four days that people can plan themselves when they have off. They can take a whole cycle off, and with the days they didn't have to work anyway, those six days they will use then will give them ten days off in a row. They can do that four times a year. Or they can save those days to take four cycles in a row off, or they can choose to simply take an extra day every so often off; it's up to them."
"That's a lot of free time," Olkra noted. "What is the 'but' part?"
"There isn't really one," Tom assured. "Of course, just like normal, there will be conditions on just how many people in a workplace can have off at once since work will have to go on, but people will get the chance to take all those days off. Which will also be mandatory; we don't want people to save for years to then suddenly take several months off and leave the workplace understaffed, so the days off will have to be used in the years the people get them."
"But how will you offset that free time?" Olkra persisted. "Masters will have to hire extra people just to cover the time off."
"Ah," Tom said. "But I wasn't talking about other employers. They will have contracts that they need to negotiate. And there it will probably be less free time simply because the employer won't agree to so much time off. But I was not talking about them; I was talking about what people get that work directly in contract of the Phoenix Alliance. Our own work forces, that do things we need. That build infrastructure we need. That maintain our machines. That staffs office buildings for us. And there we hope the cover the extra work by the workers doing their work willingly."
"Work them harder you mean," Olkra interrupted.
"No," Tom disagreed. "Have them work willingly. We all know that slaves only work hard enough to escape the next beating or being killed. Hey, I would do the same. You want to take it that little bit slower so that you don't burn yourself out and then still get killed because you are of no use to them anymore. But we all know that people can work harder if they truly want to. We want to give them that environment where they want to, simply because it's a great contract with great benefits. And on top of that they don't have to worry about burning out because the next free day is just around the corner."
He looked at them both for a moment before asking, "Now, you tell me if that's a decent deal or not? That's better than most long contract deals, just that we won't offer any credits on top of the deal while other long contracts do. That's why we compensate in offering a better standard of living."
"It is indeed a better deal than a normal long contract is," Trinka had to agree. "There's just one thing; how will people know they will truly get that? You can promise them all kinds of great things, but as soon as they step forward you arrest them and force them in to work."
"You know only too well that there is no guarantee I can give you," Tom had to admit. "The only thing I can give you is a 'trust me' which means nothing since you don't know me and I could be lying for all I'm worth right now. Fact is, you don't know, and neither will the other people. They won't know until they step off the transporter ship, see the quarters, and have to work for the first day. Installing that trust for people to take that chance for a new life, this will be your job. Just remember, or even tell them, of two things."
Tom held up a finger. "First, they always thought that the planets where they live on weren't known and that they were safe because of that; you know that's not the case. If we really wanted them we could simply beam them off the planets straight into holding cells."
He lifted a second finger. "And, if they ever want to be really free, ever want to have the documents that will allow them to travel free through the Coalition, they have to earn them. If they don't serve at least one long contract with the Phoenix Alliance they don't get those documents, which will mean that their children also won't get those documents."
"Nice, twist people's arms with their children's lives," Trinka said sarcastically.
Tom shrugged. "As I told you, and this is the message you can try to convey if you want, Intendant Phoenix, and the Phoenix Alliance as a whole, will be all about new beginnings. We are offering people that new beginning. It won't be a free giveaway, but it will be a fair deal. Now the choice is up to them; do they want to continue with cowering in the dirt, living from day to day, hoping they will be alive the next day? Or will they take that chance and build a real life? No more worrying about the next meal, no more seeing friends die because there isn't a doctor around to cure the disease, no more sleeping outside between deadly insects and pesky critters. Do you know anyone on Homestead that isn't dreaming of a better life? Well, we are offering that better life. Will it be a perfect life? No. Will it be ten times better than what they have now? Yes. On top of that, until now they were surviving; now they can finally live again."
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~
Over in the Federation universe.
Kira sighed as she looked around the table. Staff meetings just felt so different nowadays. Before there was the pressure of a war going on, but that war did serve a good purpose; it had made them one unit. Before the war started they had been on different footings. Friends, mutual respect, or 'I don't really like you but we have to work together anyway so let's be nice to each other'. During the war this had changed to it being 'us'. It had been 'us' against 'them'. Them had been the bad guys, and us had been the good guys. It didn't matter if you liked the person or not, the person was an 'us' and that had been the only thing that had mattered.
Now the pressure of the war was gone, people didn't worry as much anymore, but people also were becoming individual persons again. There was no more 'us' as such. At best the 'us' had shifted to departments. Engineering now was an 'us' as was security, as...
Kira made an effort to listen to Nog's report. Lieutenant Nog, Kira corrected herself. The young man had surprised everyone. A Ferengi, not to be trusted, they said. Yet here he was proudly wearing the Lieutenant's pips and the Federation Uniform. Kira found it ironic that she trusted this Ferengi more than most other people on DS9. There weren't many she trusted with her life, but Nog was one of the few that she did trust like that.
Her eyes drifted to her left where the last two people of the old senior crew were sitting beside each other. One of whom was the ultimate paradox; being literally centuries old, and yet being a young insecure woman at the same time. Ezri Dax was sitting beside her lover Julian Bashir. At that very moment the lovers shared a small smile, clearly both thinking of something that had absolutely nothing to do with the briefing that was going on. Seeing that tell-tale smile only lovers could share made Kira wonder how Odo was doing.
Odo, now there had been a disappointment. Kira had loved him, and she still did, but she knew that even if he would come back right now they could never be close again. In Kira's mind Odo had betrayed her. One day telling her that he loved her and that they would be together forever, and the next day telling her that he wanted to go back to the Great Link. And just as always the reminder of Odo made her think of the fact that life had been good to her in that regard. It hadn't taken long before life had come knocking again.
She looked to her right for a moment, taking in the profile of her new lover; figures that she would fall for the Chief of Security again. It was interesting though, her lover had flat out refused to speculate about their future, had even warned Kira to never expect some lame commitment about being together forever.
Her lover firmly believed that you can't predict the future; all you can do is live the present. And that's what they were doing; living the present. The interesting part of that was that by living like this, Kira truly felt that this time she was in for a long, long relationship. It was a feeling she never had before. Before she had hoped, now she was so certain of it that she would be surprised if things turned out in any other way.
Her lover looked her way for a second and they shared the same kind of smile Julian and Ezri just shared. Prophets how Kira loved that face. Hair so short that it slipped through your fingers if you tried to capture some while clutching your fists in ecstasy. Dark and broody eyes that were accompanied by eyebrows that seemed to be stuck in a constant frown. A broad, rugged jaw combined with high cheek bones gave the face something of a bulldog look, Kira had to admit.
But Kira loved it all the more because her lover also had something of a Bulldog personality. Stubborn and protective; perfect for a security chief, and once Kira's lover let you close enough to get to know the personal character you would soon notice that the other two Bulldog traits fit as well; friendly and playful.
Kira loved the combination, loved the soft and fun loving side Kira got to see every day, that their friends got to see every day, just as much as she loved that no nonsense mentality her lover portrayed on duty. Kira let her eyed drift over her lover's body for a second. Strong but lean muscles gave the body a certain power radiance, especially since her lover did have something of a stocky frame. Kira liked that as well. It once again fitted the Bulldog picture perfectly; like Kira's lover was ready to bowl everything over that would dare to come in the way.
How had Julian called it jokingly at Kira's birthday party? They formed the perfect 'butch' and 'femme' couple, which of course had resulted in him having to explain the meanings behind those old fashioned Human words. Maybe he was right as far as looks were concerned, Kira had to agree, but other than that there was no butch or fem in their relationship, there was just plain and simply them; two women that loved each other like crazy.
Kira smiled when she realized that, yes the overall feeling of 'us' may no longer exist on DS9, but in return she had gotten a most wonderful two person 'us'. Kira guessed that there was some truth to the old Bajoran saying after all; there must be a balance to everything, otherwise the Universe would have collapsed under its own unbalance long ago.
But still. Kira missed the others. Odo, lovers they could never be again, but friends... she would love to have her friend back. Worf, he too was gone; ambassador to the Klingon Empire. Miles; teaching at the Academy. Sisko; the man she once hated because he was the embodiment of the Federation sticking its damn nose where it didn't need to be, only to then turn around and prove to be nothing like that. Then she had come to respect him, only to then come to admire and yes, even worship him. In the end she had come to love him. Love him as a strange combination of a mentor and brother she never had.
Kira favored Nog with a short nod of thanks when he finished his report and sat back down. Her lover cleared her throat, being that she was the next to give a report. Of course, Kira knew that now she would get the toned down version. In the privacy of their quarters her lover had been more blunt about just what a pain in the ass the visiting Vice-admiral William J. Ross could be.
Kira had been tempted to wind her lover up a little more since it was extremely funny to see those temperamental explosions her lover only ever showed in private. But seeing that the matter of annoyance was an Admiral and Kira really didn't want her lover in trouble, Kira had pointed out that Ross was actually a decent man and a good commander.
He just had the tendency to be dismissive of people that hadn't proven their worth to him yet. Something, Kira assumed, came from the fact that as Admiral he had to deal every damn day with people he didn't know. In the long run that was bound to make you ignore new faces until those faces proved to be of interest. So, Kira had told her lover to just suck it up and bear it; eventually Ross would turn around.
Though as much as she told her lover Ross would be alright, and as much as he really was alright, for an Admiral at least, Kira still hated to deal with Starfleet brass. At moments like this she wished even more that Sisko was back so that he could deal with all that crap.
And just like that... he was.
Suddenly from one moment to the other, Sisko was standing in the room and looking around to see where he was.
A chorus of voices went up and Sisko lifted his hand to quiet the people around the table down. "I've been told by the Prophets that my presence was required in linear time so they sent me back."
"Why is your presence needed here?" Kira asked, knowing that the welcome back greeting would have to wait for a more private moment.
"I don't know," Sisko admitted. "The prophets can be a bit shortcoming with adding information."
Before anyone else could say something they were interrupted by a hail from the bridge. "Colonel, a spatial anomaly is forming two thousand kilometers from our port position."
Even before the Ensign was finished speaking most of the senior staff had already reached the door and were filing through it. Sisko lifted his eyebrows for a moment and then followed the others. Seemed that there wasn't any time for long hello's.
"Report," Kira said shortly, already looking at the screen.
The anomaly is still growing, it's a kilometer across now. I... Colonel, sensors are picking up a ship in the center of the anomaly."
"Can you tell which ship?" Kira asked.
"Colonel, the computer recognized the ship as the USS Voyager."
"Voyager?" Both Kira and Sisko asked at the same time, both of them remembering the ship from when it had docked at DS9 all those years ago before it had begun its journey.
Before either of them could ask more the Ensign added, "Colonel, I'm picking up a second ship coming in after Voyager. Sensors say it's a Klingon Negh'Var class ship."
The view-screen zoomed in on the name pained across the front of the hull and everyone was surprised to see the name Negh'Var, without any further serial number indication. Though there might have been more of the class, it was obvious that the name without serial number was meant to make it clear that this was 'the' Negh'Var. One other rather strange paint feature was that above the name there was an image of a huge bird holding a bat'leth in one of its claws and a struggling smaller bird in its other claw.
Before they had time to truly wonder about the ship the Lieutenant standing at the tactical station spoke up with clear urgency in his voice. "Initial scan reports coming in; they have their weapons fully charged."
"Shields," Kira ordered immediately after hearing that, but before her order could be fulfilled the sound of transporters was heard and within seconds there were over ten Klingons with disrupter rifles at the ready standing on the bridge.
"Everyone step away from the controls," One of the Klingons said.
"Martok, what in the name of the Prophets is going on here?" Kira asked, wondering why the Klingon Chancellor would suddenly be on a ship that was apparently boarding them.
Martok slowly walked over to the woman and took a moment to simply stand and tower over the woman he had come to despise over the years. "Kira Nerys, in my universe you are dead, I would be more than happy to make it the same here."
He let his eyes drift down her body for a moment, taking in the Bajoran uniform and the Colonel insignia at her neck. "Hmm, I see that things went different for you here than they did in my universe. Maybe you don't deserve an immediate killing after all; we will see."
He turned away from Kira and took a look at the other people in the room, he recognized the young Trill as well. He found it rather ironic how small a large thing like space could be. Two different universes, countless of people in them. Just what were the chances of coming across the same people in both universes?
He hummed while thinking that this was a question he had to remember. He could discuss this with Seven over dinner the next time. Seven was excellent at theoretical conversations and could figuratively beat you to death with calculations of probabilities. Martok had always thought he would hate conversations like that, but with Seven he didn't. Seven was able to make you think without coming across as superior. A true art for the person who had acting superior, if she wanted, down to an art form.
"As for what's going on here?" Martok said as he turned back to Kira. "Simple; we are securing this station."
"What," Kira stopped talking as Martok lifted his hand.
"A moment more," Martok said and started a slow stroll across the bridge.
Within seconds messages started to come in for Martok, informing him again and again that some section or another was considered secured. Besides informing Martok, this also let the other people on the bridge know that this was much more than just a little group of Klingons, and also that the entire station was now under their control.
"Right," Martok said, once again stopping in front of Kira. "For security reasons we had to take control of this star base. Rest assured that we will hand the control back once we know that security is ensured. Even though you seem to know a version of me, let me introduce myself. I am General Martok, Commander of the Klingon Security Department. I'm here to secure this station for the arrival of the Klingon Intendant, and the Phoenix Alliance Intendant."
Kira lifted her hands a little. "Sorry to tell you this, but that doesn't mean a thing to me."
"It doesn't?" Martok asked amused. "Well, I have been told a few things about how things work here, so let me put it like this; Imagine your Federation President, the Federation Counsel, and the Starfleet Commander-In-Chief, all rolled in to one person, and you have a person about half as powerful as Intendant Torres. Intendant Phoenix is a different story. She is not as powerful as Intendant Torres, and her faction only exist for a little over a month now. She is however in control of the former slave species."
Martok looked at some of the people on the bridge and named their species. "Slavery only ended when the Phoenix Alliance was created."
"Seems like they got it all in control back there," Kira said. "So why are you here?"
"I think I'll let Intendant Phoenix answer that," Martok said before contacting the ship and letting them know that he felt that the situation was secure.
A moment later the hum of transporters was heard again as three forms sparkled in to existence; two women and a huge targ.
"May I introduce," Martok said as he indicated the two women in turn. "Intendant Torres, Intendant Phoenix."
He then put his hand on Toby's head for a second before quickly pulling it back with a chuckle as Toby turned his head and snapped his teeth at him. "And this boy here is Toby, Intendant Phoenix's pet."
Seven lifted her eyebrow when Martok introduced her pet, but she managed to hide her amusement.
"You're a Borg," Sisko accused as he came a few steps closer.
"I am," Seven agreed. "I am actually from this universe, just like Voyager is. Voyager severed me from the Collective in the Delta Quadrant."
Feeling a certain animosity coming from the man because she was a Borg, Seven thought that a reminder was in order. "Do you not find it rather ironic that of all people it was a former Borg that brought freedom to Humans? However, I do feel that I have to point out that the general idea for ending slavery came from my Mistress."
"Mistress?" Kira asked.
"That'll be me," Torres said. "My Pet and I have our relationships worked out just fine, just remember that for me she is my Pet, for all of you she is Intendant. Anyway, yeah, it was my general plan, but Seven here made it work. But that's history now; let's talk about why we are here."
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~