Alien Alliance (11 page)

“Who would be likely to sponsor us or
negotiate for us? Initially to get us the right to work?” asked
Dan. “I am aware that if People listen to a problem/plea for help,
then often this indicates a willingness to assist. Would you assist
us, if only with education and advice?”

“I would,” Iwygin replied. “And there are
some things you should consider,” it said and proceeded to outline
some strategies.

“Would you be able to come tonight and offer
advice?” asked Sarah. Iwygin agreed and they arranged a time and
place.

Iwygin went back to its apartment and
started to organise its notes. It was interested in the reactions
of these little creatures when they discovered just how bad a mess
they were in. Slavery was inevitable. This was fascinating. Also
these were leader types; high functioning and high ego. Such people
had a hard time coping with impending slavery and adapting to the
reality. They would kick up a fuss. They would fight very hard to
avoid slavery. They would not accept it meekly; either the slavery
or the inevitability of it.

This was very good timing. It would make a
great study on Interplanetary Law and problem solving of First
Contact Species. This could be worth recognition. When it had
proceeded to explain what rights it could negotiate for them and
what ways they could improve their immediate situation their
reactions were revealing. They didn’t like the option of selling
their children themselves, while they were still the legal owners
of them. Interesting. Each two children could have freed one adult.
They rejected that suggestion with distaste and repugnance. A Race
that nurtured and valued their offspring. Not something Iwygin
really understood. It did not approve of it either. Its Race did
not hold such attitudes. It was counter-productive to nurture they
believed. Offspring needed to earn their place in civilized society
not just be granted it.

*

To Mathew’s fury, Sarah called a meeting and
explained to the whole group what a predicament they were now
in.

“You mean we can’t go home?” Shouted one
man. “We’re trapped here?”

“What about our children?” called out a
woman. “We bought our children!”

There were cries of horror and disbelief as
people realized just how much trouble they were in and that they
could not even get back to Terra. They were trapped here.

Sarah called out, “There are options. We are
working with some local lawyers. We are going to lay a
complaint…”

“You say there was no invitation? But if no
one invited us here how come we got in without visas or passports
or whatever the equivalent. We have diplomatic status and that
proves it!” Yelled Mathew.

It was some time before order could be
established, various people argued while Iwygin said to Sarah,

“He has a good point there. You must have
been smuggled in.”

“We came in late at night.”

“Ah. Paswalda could have bribed Customs
Officials. This could help your case,” it said annoyed it had not
thought to ask how they had got in without documents or data
bracelets. And no money. It was illegal to be here without means of
support. “How did you register at the hotel?”

“We didn’t. We just were allocated rooms by
one of the crew.”

“I wonder if Paswalda told them you would
pay after he cleared your cargo. If so, we can claim that cargo is
yours. I will look into this,” Iwygin said thinking which students
could be assigned to that task.

Sarah turned back to the meeting and
explained what Iwygin had just told her and, “I disagree with
Mathew. Where are the People who invited us? Think about it. Would
you invite people to stay and then not meet and greet them when
they arrived? Would you leave the hotel with no one to bill? The
hotel Manager told me Paswalda booked us in but assured that we
would pay.”

There was great anger. Those who in good
faith had brought their children were the most upset. Paswalda had
encouraged them to bring children because he said it was a sign of
good faith and trust. This would help to negotiate Treaties,they
had been told. Paswalda had not told them that children were
popular as slaves. Iwygin had told Sarah but she decided not to
pass on that further worry. She called for silence then went
on.

“We assumed Aliens with a high level of
technology would be civilized. Most seem not to be. In the main,
they have turned out to be rude, unethical, immoral, arrogant,
extremely competitive and self centred. And we’ve only been here
three days. In the political league we Terrans are just not in
their league having just enough awareness to see that we are
missing most of the cues. We are 418 mis-matched Terrans, mostly
scientists and politicians, 34 being children under the age of 16.
It is up to us whether that is our strength or our weakness.” Sarah
looked around at them.

“Think of every way you can make money, save
money, earn something, do something.”

“What about music, busking?” a voice called
out.

“We need to catalogue what we brought with
us and what we can sell. Some of us brought trade goods, samples.
We did. We have a large data base.” Sarah looked over for the
speaker. He was one of the men that had come with Mathew.

Dan called out, “We have been recommended
another trader, a firm, to negotiate sales of goods.”

“This is on a commission basis,” called out
Helene, “and we have promised future sales commissions to this firm
in order for them to take minimal commissions now. They are
gambling on a future monopoly for trade for Terrans. Remember,
there is a potential novelty market for everything you bought with
you because it originated on Earth.”

“There are heaps of clothes thrown out,
mostly those cloak things, out of date due to style and colours. We
can wear them and sell our clothes,” called out one child.

“But they won’t fit most Races.” Called back
another child.

“They might fit their children or they could
buy them just as a novelty,” the young girl’s voice shot back. “Can
we sell to rival fashion houses?”

“Do they have fashion houses?” Asked another
girl.

“Find out,” said Sarah. “We’ll have to start
washing ourselves and our clothes in water, we can’t afford the
Cleaners.” There was a collective moan but the point was well
taken. Nothing here was washed in water which was thought of as
being dirty and primitive. Water was not drunk by itself except by
slaves who had nothing else. Sonic type Cleaners were built into
every accommodation place. This meant the housework and all washing
was done at the touch of a button. But the button was expensive. A
charge was levied every time it was used. Yet it was considered
essential, as a sign of civilization, that all people and their
clothes be scrupulously clean. Mainly so they could minimise smell
which was unacceptable.

Li and Stella looked at each other. Li
wondered if Stella was regretting her insistence on coming. Yet she
herself wasn’t.

“At least we’re together,” Stella said
softly. “I might never have known what had happened to Mum and that
would be worse.”

Li nodded wondering if Stella was a mind
reader or were they both idiots?

The meeting went on for hours. The response
was heartening. People were designated to sell, look for
accommodation, sort out busking (was a license needed?), look at
selling music of each type. That started another debate as Helene
told them all that,

“According to the Commercial Law here, there
is no copyright on another planet; copyright is only valid on its
planet of origin. That includes books, intellectual property, art,
music, patents etc.”

The ideas exploded. One woman was a
sculptor. There were several artists. One child had surmised that
all fabrics looked and felt synthetic and if so woollen, silk,
cotton, linen and leather garments might have an added rarity value
here in fabric.

Several people were writers or journalists
and were going to try to get stories published. Several of these
had been bored and written stories on the voyage here.

An engineer, a draughtswoman and a real
estate agent were going to look at selling ideas and designs to
architects. Almost everyone had brought music on varying
storers.

And everyone was delegated to look for or
think of any service, product, ideas, device, invention etc whether
the thing or the design could be sold.

By the time the meeting closed, spirits were
revived and people were rising to the challenge.

Iwygin watched, listened, and
surreptitiously recorded to get accurate and verifiable evidence.
It listened to their suggestions and possible solutions to various
problems. None would solve the problem of course, but it was very
interesting and revealing to listen to how they thought and how
they problem solved.

“We must find a Race or Person to sponsor
us. Iwygin will not sponsor us but has given us valuable advice and
will aid us in other ways. It suggests we ask the Priskya to be
sponsors as this is their planet. The Priskya are large fish that
look a bit like sharks. We can speak with them via the Translators.
Dan and I will try to negotiate this. Alan and Iwygin are in the
process of negotiating the equivalent of temporary work permits for
us all.

Next, on the advice of Iwygin and Helene, we
have altered our debt from a collective debt to an individual debt.
This means we each have the equivalent of 8,400 units, owed to the
Civil Police. We are disputing the debt. We are trying to reduce or
eliminate it claiming false representation and the fact that we
made payment in advance, and for a return journey. We are claiming
the price paid for the return journey, which we now won’t get,
should more than cancel out the debt of the American Team. We are
therefore claiming;

- Deliberate false representation,

- That Paswalda accepted payment for a service
without acknowledging such nor giving a receipt,

- Fraud via paying for something which is now denied
us (the return journey),

- something called ‘intent to cause jeopardy via
debt peonage,’

-‘malicious intent’.

We are claiming to have been overcharged and
to owe nothing, explaining that we paid in trade goods. Of course
the trader claims that he bought the goods off other Terrans, but
at this stage the Civil Police have judged our explanation to be
reasonable. Our Slavery Debt Level has been fixed at 16,800. Iwygin
says that’s reasonable, a bit low but not unreasonable. Going
individual makes each one of us responsible for our own debts but
no one else’s,” she said looking pointedly at Mathew whose
extravagant tastes were well known. There was the sound of a
disruption and Mathew and most of his Toadies walked out. Sarah
ignored them and continued.

“Oh and a 10% interest charge starts from
tomorrow.” There was a collective groan. “Each of us must look for
any way possible, but legal, to both earn money and live as cheaply
as possible. The method must be legal. Penalties here are fines,
slavery and execution. Eat only the food we brought with us, don’t
try to buy any food and waste trade goods.” She paused.

“Our problem though is that we must also
balance the cost of legal action against our lack of ability to pay
for it which will increase our debt. Bit of a ‘catch 22’ there. But
we can start off with the equivalent of pro bono and then legal aid
if we have a good chance. Our status (or lack thereof), seems to be
the main problem, not our actual predicament. There is no one to
guarantee us of course. No embassy. Add to that that we have a
large debt each, no assets, no income, no sponsor and no visible
means of support and we do present a poor financial prospect,” she
said dryly. “Luckily for us, since one of the major incomes from
this planet comes from education, there are students here. A lot of
them. Law students among them. See where I’m going with this? This
is where we get the pro bono and legal aid from. The pro bono from
junior students and the legal aid from the senior year students.
Iwygin is a lawyer and a tutor. It says the law students are taught
via a lot of practical experience. They must complete a certain
number of cases a term. They are marked on these cases. It suggests
we set up several students sort of in competition against each
other by getting several of us to employ several students to each
try a different method of fighting our case for us. Of course a
lawyer we could pay would be a better option but since we can’t pay
Iwygin suggests this system.”

Iwygin wondered at the gullibility of these
Terrans. They believed everything it told them. The students would
indeed be in competition. This would make a good lesson in fraud,
peonage, misrepresentation, commercial law, contract law, etc. It
could be set up as an assignment. Some would win their cases but
most would lose. The winners would get an A pass. The losers would
be judged as to how good their argument was. If it was well
reasoned, they would pass. But their losing clients would be
enslaved. Of course the rest of the Terrans would then know which
student to employ who had come up with the correct solution to get
one of their kind off, but there were no guarantees that Paswalda
wouldn’t simply get a better lawyer and one who fought a better
case. The argument might not work the next time.

Did these Terrans have no knowledge of
adversary legal systems? Right or wrong was irrelevant. It was the
beauty of the argument that won a case and a knowledge of what the
law could be used for. It was this that had attracted Iwygin to
law. It was the gamble, the fight, the joy of the argument, the
besting of one’s opponent. A fight with no risk or injuries and one
got well paid for it as well. Very well. Perfect. Of course some of
the client’s didn’t see it that way when they lost. Especially when
they were innocent and lost. Iwygin switched attention back to
Sarah.