In A Starship's Wake

Chapter One: An Ancient Story

The food wasn't bad for a diner on an unaffiliated planet. The eggs and meat were fresh, if not spectacular, leading Joseph to think there were probably some farms near the small shipping port. It was clear that the hash browns weren't made of potatoes; some substitute that probably grew better locally replaced them, but they still tasted alright.

Unfortunately, his meal was interrupted by a little drama that had been unfolding at the front of the diner since he'd walked in. A young lady was sitting at a table near the middle of the diner arguing with a man dressed in expensive clothing as they ate breakfast. Despite attempting not to listen, he'd caught snatches of the conversation. The volume had been steadily increasing, and it was harder to maintain the pretense that he didn't hear.

"I'm grateful that you helped me come here, but I'm not comfortable with what you're asking me to do." The young lady stood up. "I can find a job somewhere else."

"Oh can you?" The man stood up into the table in his anger, knocking it into her, and she fell back into her chair. "How about where you're living and the food your eating? There's a price for that and right now you aren't paying."

The girl stared up at him in horror, on the verge of tears. Joseph guessed that this was a side of him she hadn't seen before. "But...but you said..."

"I said I would bring you to the city." Joseph muffled a disparaging snort; the port wasn't much of a city, just a collection of businesses around the starship docks for loading and unloading transports. "I said I would pay for you to come here and work for me."

"You didn't tell me what the work was, I thought you ran a dock, I didn't know..."

"It doesn't matter what you thought the work was." The man was yelling now. "You're here, and you're obligated to do it. You have a debt to pay. And don't think you can go crawling back to the farm, back to mommy and daddy. They won't take you back now, I'm all you've got."

The whole picture rapidly solidified for Joseph. That was the classic strategy of a pimp forcing a girl into prostitution. It was an approach that went back thousands of years: convince the victim that you're their only protection, the only support they have, and that if they alienate you they'll be left in the streets to die. It was also a patently false statement, assuming the girl's parents were worth the air they breathed.

Joseph sighed and discreetly loosened his pistol in its holster. He should probably stay out of it. He probably wouldn't.

"Face it Allison. I own you." The man sat back down, appearing to have regained his temper. Allison was eyeing him nervously, not at all reassured by his apparent calm. "You'll be on stage in the club tonight. I don't care whether you want to do it. If you aren't there will be consequences, and I can guarantee you won't find a job anywhere in this town."

The man rose again, put some money on the table, and walked out of the diner. Allison dissolved into tears at the table. Joseph sighed and moved his hand away from his pistol. It wasn't quite "crisis averted," but at least he hadn't had to shoot anyone. Well, so far. It could still come to that.

"Who was that?" Joseph demanded of the diner's owner as he arrived with the bill.

"Local thug," the owner shrugged. "Terrence Reed is his name. Owns a nightclub near the docks."

"And forces his employees to become prostitutes," Joseph added blandly. "Does he conduct that kind 'business' here often?"

The owner gave him a half-surprised, half-offended look . "I don't particularly like it, but there's not much in the way of law enforcement out here to stop it. A starman like you ought to know full well what unaffiliated worlds are like. He's with an organization that runs most of that kind of thing on Temoran, and all of it here in Nevarris."