A Pleasure to a Prequel

"Yes, your honor." I said.

"That was the same game where you won Lola Yence's services, correct?"

"Yes, your honor." I said.

"So one thing in the game was real and the other wasn't? I don't understand."

"Your honor, the man is a foreigner. He was unaware of our community service laws." the government guy said.

"Nonsense. The company made an agreement with you about what laws he had to obey while he's here. If he leaves, who's going to make the girl work?"

"We're ready to release the girl to any other owner." the company lawyer said. "At no cost." he added.

"The girl's crimes are serious. And she has not worked for two full days because her master was busy trying to leave the planet with all of this money he got tax free. No. I do not accept this. This is completely and totally irresponsible. The girl was spared capital punishment with the expectation that she would work and provide value back to the community. Is she working today? No. That makes three days. This will not do. No. No. This will not do at all."

"Your honor, we propose that the girl should be returned to her previous owner and she should continue ..." the government guy was saying.

"Back to Tsadda. No. He lost her when he never should have been gambling away a work contract. I have half a mind to revoke his license to bid on new ones."

"Your honor, if I may speak." the lawyer said. "Perhaps waving the one year requirement for transfer of ownership would be best in this case."

"And have you Imperials coming down and rigging the system so owners could start speculating again. No. I'll not hear of it. The way forward in this case is not that. I think I'm ready to rule but before I do does anyone have anything to add to this or do I have all of the correct information?"

No one was able to say anything more. I wanted to ask the judge to please just let me leave the planet but I remained silent.

"Brandon Pecarius, welcome to Brazfix. I am ordering the government to issue you a two year visa. I don't know all the different visas you can get." the judge started and then he turned his attention to the government. "He has to have one the let's him travel and let's him work if he wants to work. You said it was beneficial for the government to do business with his company, well he'll be here. And while he's here he has to obey ALL of our laws so you better make sure he knows." Then the judge turned back to me. "Once the one year transfer block on Lola Yence is over you can sell her contract to someone else provided they can pay the proper amount of money for her work contract. Not one cred less. You hear me. Not one. And she has to work. You have to make her work. That is your duty. That is your obligation. You have to make sure she has accommodations and you look out for her basic health and you MAKE HER WORK. I'm issuing a fine of one hundred thousand for every day she doesn't work starting from when you acquired her. And before you foreigners try to find a way around complying with the system you should know that it is illegal to make her clean your house for you over and over again when it isn't dirty. She has to provide services to the community. That means you find her a job. One that pays money. You have to earn a profit on her. Is that clear?"

"Now other matters." the judge continued without letting me answer the question. "I don't want this to be a repeat thing of some temporary visitor ending up in my court like this again. This is ridiculous. As part of my ruling the government must amend the law so that a community service worker's contract can not be transferred to anyone who is unable because of lack of visa to fulfill their duties. That doesn't retroactively apply to Mr. Pecarius. He is the example to others. For the future, I don't want this happening again. Court adjourned."

...

So the aftermath of the court hearing was me getting yelled at by the lawyer because he wasn't allowed to punch me here. It was likely that I was going to get yelled at by my boss through email or they might even come all the way out here to punch my lights out before they fire me. I was going to have to live on this planet for a year. The fine for the girl not working was not going to be covered by the company. I had to pay it. Ouch. I mean, I did now have the money but ouch. I didn't even know where the girl was or how to get in contact with her. I had to get that sorted. The penthouse was still paid up for a bit but I had to move out soon. Well good thing I owned a piece of property.

The government guy escorted me from the court to the immigration office and oversaw them issue me a new visa. The workers hopped to it when they saw who was ordering this special visa and I was out of there in no time. As we were leaving a cop car pulled up and in the back seat was the girl. She was dressed in normal clothes. The government guy pointed to where the labor office was. The girl protested that there was another way for her to earn her work for that day but the government guy snapped at her.

"You stupid, stupid piece of trash. You know what you almost caused. This could have been an international incident. Don't you know where that man is from. The EMPIRE. You stupid, stupid girl."

The girl cringed and then silently followed as I was brought to the labor office to have her assigned a job. She was ushered away to do manual labor for minimum wage, however much that was, and then I was told that the girl could not just live in the penthouse with me because the law required that she have her own room where she could have privacy for at least an hour a day. I was also informed about other rules for her. I couldn't beat her unless it was in self defense or as punishment for not obeying or not working. I couldn't kill her unless I witnessed her breaking the law. Sunday was her off day. I could not make her work that day. She also didn't have to work on Saturday if I had her doing domestic duties. For the rest of the days of the week she had to work. Besides the laws there were things referred to as traditional customs that applied to slaves but I wouldn't get in trouble for ignoring those. I just had to obey the law to stay in good standing.

While the girl was doing her hours of work I was trying to make calls to see what business I could do for the company. If I had more deals in the works and more money to make for the company then maybe I wouldn't be fired.

Night time rolled around and the girl got off work. She didn't look very good either when she was brought to the penthouse just as I was about to order dinner. The government lackey who worked under the previous government guy from earlier in the day did not look amused at having to work past his official working hours. Me and him waited for the girl to finish a shower and get presentable and then I sat with the girl in the car while the government lackey brought us to the homeless shelter the girl had stayed in for the previous nights because Mr. Flashy Man had put her out. It was the homeless shelter that had noticed she was a slave and had reported the situation to the government. We collected the girl's things and then we went out to the home I now owned which Flashy Man left fully furnished due to hastily moving out. I took a quick look around and from the looks of things this was a seldom used vacation home. I quickly decided which room would be mine when I would eventually have to move in and then I assigned her one of the other rooms. I ordered food for her and told her to report for work again the next day.

She didn't talk back to me. She just looked down and nodded to accept what I said. She had not looked at me in the car either and had tried to keep physical distance away from me. It sort of made me sad that she might be thinking that I was some bad guy who was going to harm her. If only I had earned more money I could afford to pay that stupid fine and she'd be free. But then again just because she was beautiful and I had liked her dancing was no reason I should be trapped on this planet. That wasn't exactly her fault but I felt like it was a bit due to her. It was certainly Tsadda's fault. I'd have to have some strong words with him the next time I saw him. As for poor Lola, if she didn't want to have to deal with me then fine, I'd leave her alone for as long as I could. She knew what to do and I'd come take care of it if she didn't do what she was supposed to do.

I told her I didn't want to be disturbed at all so she had to go to work and come home and keep the house clean while I was gone. And by gone I meant going back to the penthouse where I could enjoy myself for a few more days without feeling the guilt this was bringing to me.

...

After two days I got word back from the company. Instead of being upset they were overjoyed that I would be staying. The lawyer had used the situation to make it sound like he had negotiated for me to get a longer visa and then he had convinced me to stay longer. Now I was free to stay there and make all kinds of more money for the company and this meant the company could actually establish a branch office there. The lawyer was not going to come down to the planet unless he had to so he was going to stay at the Imperial outpost station only flying over if I needed him. I found out later he moved his whole family there.

As for me, the company would not pay for the penthouse any longer even if I was the new regional manager. I had to move out and so it was time to go play house with my slave.

Man, just the word sounded so stupid. Slave. So distasteful. Maybe I could rent her a little apartment somewhere and she could move out.

...

"Wow." I said as I entered. The place was so nice. I mean, I had seen a bit of it before but at the time I was just rushing to get back to what I needed to be doing. Now I was really looking at the place and it was so nice. The house was a big square or maybe rectangle. It had an open air courtyard in the center. The living area of the second floor was thinner than the first floor so that there could be an outside walking area that looked down on the courtyard. The back of the house had a great view of the lake both from the first floor and the balcony behind the second florr. From the back patio there were stairs to go down to a second patio and a dock. At the dock was a jetski and a boat. At the time I first saw them I mentally told myself not to touch them because it might be theft and theft carried the death penalty. I found out later that I owned them as they had come with the house when Tsadda transferred it to me. I was pretty happy when I found out because I had always wanted to own a jetski. Something about the form and function that all came together in a perfect shining package for going out on the water appealed to me. Wow.

The girl was at work when I first arrived there so I was free to just look around at my own pace. The kitchen was stocked as I had ordered it to be. I had this really weird feeling being there. Back home I was a nobody. Not a complete scamp but still pretty much a nobody. Now I was richer then I thought I would ever be but I felt like I couldn't tell anyone. I couldn't show anyone. I could send a message to all my friends back home but unless they could see this with their own eyes they'd never believe me. How had I been so lucky and also so not lucky at the same time? But one thing I could hold my head up high about was that I was the youngest regional manager in the whole company's history as I was less than one year out of the service.

I wasn't doing anything particular when the girl arrived back from the manual labor job. She didn't know I would be there so she was surprised to see the lights on.

"Hello?" she called out.

I didn't hear her call out. Instead the house's systems had played a soft chime when the door was opened. I came out of the master bedroom to come find her. When she saw me she knelt down in front of me and lowered her head. She was dirty and she smelled bad. I admit I had mixed feelings about her. I could remember her dancing and how amazing that was but now all that beauty was concealed. Then there was the fact that she was the reason I was still here and I was essentially a prisoner in this expensive and extravagant cage. But that was not her fault. I should blame Tsadda for that. I felt like I wanted to be kind to her to counter all the abuse she suffered from Tsadda and the government guy but then I remembered that she was a slave now for breaking the law.

However, there were all kinds of laws here that didn't make sense. For example, on Blelm it was legal to buy and sell boxes of chocolates but illegal to give them as a gift to anyone not in your immediate family. It was illegal to wear a hat taller the person's forearm. It was illegal to hunt elephants while riding a hybrid mule. It was illegal to wear a fake mustache. It was illegal to charge more than one cred for an hour of babysitting but at the same time it was illegal to pay less than 20 cred for such babysitting service. Oh, and the one that almost got me in trouble the very first fucking night I was on this planet if not for the agreement between the company and the government, it was illegal to not sleep naked. The sleeping naked law didn't carry the death penalty but can you imagine if it did?

I would have loved nothing more in that moment than to be able to not care about this girl but as to the facts my morality was telling me that I didn't know enough about this girl to judge her or her situation. In the absence of a reason that was her fault for me to be angry with her I decided to treat her with the same respect I would treat anyone.

"Welcome home."

"Thank you, master."

"Uh, you don't have to call me that. My name is Brandon."

"I know master."

"So just call me Brandon."

"Thank you Master Brandon."

"You can leave master out of it. Just Brandon."

"Have I displeased you?"

"No. I'm just trying to make this easy for you. You can get up. You don't have to do that."

"No one told you?"

"Told me what?"

"I am required to treat you with respect."

"You don't have to do all of that for me to feel respected."

"I guess because you are a foreigner you don't know but I must call you master. I have already brought ..." she swallowed hard. "too much shame."

I held out my hand to her but it took her a moment for her to notice it. When she did she took it and I helped her to her feet.

"Wash up and let's talk."

"Yes, master."

"Say, instead of master do you think you can just call me sir."

She looked at me like I was an elien for a moment and then nodded. "Yes sir."

The girl left to wash up and I was just relaxing as I watched the water of the lake sparkle. Wow this place was beautiful. I wondered if this planet was already like this when humans first found it or if in long ago ancient days lost to history it had had to be made to be hospitable.

"Breaking news" scrolled across the window I was looking out of. I was curious so I took a look and all the windows on that side of the house formed one continuous display.

"King Veltus of Ha has been assassinated. As yet there are no suspects and the ..."

"Oh shit." I said. Ha was one of those worlds that had a protection agreement with the Republic but it was technically inside of Imperial domain and should have been part of the Empire. It also didn't help that Ha had originally been with the Rebel Republic and had changed over to Legitimate Republic; well if that kind of government could ever be legitimate at all which would never make sense to a good Imperial like me. But that's besides the point. The real point was that a three way war could break out over some stupid insignificant place that nobody really cared about. People would get in ships and blast each other into the vacuum of space. It also meant that the Imperial station in orbit around Blelm's star would be seeing a lot more use and a lot of Imperial traffic would be coming through here. Well, if a war happened. I hoped a war would not happen. The Empire didn't need the hassle. Let the fake Republic and the other even more fake Republic fight it out themselves and weaken. There was no sense wasting Imperial lives.

"In other news, the battle between Dnitsu and Beta Alpha Alpha ended in victory for the Red team. Dnitsu continues their winning streak causing some to question if they are growing soldiers in compliance with league rules. Representatives of Dnitsu did not reply to our request for comment."

The news had moved on to covering the news about fake battles fought by fake armies with fake soldiers that weren't even human but were instead grown in a test tube. Why was it that everything with the Republic was fake. Fake leaders. Fake scandals. Fake news. Everything was fake. Not so in the Empire. Imperials were not interested in large fake armies pretending to shoot at each other with fake weapons. Imperials favored personal one on one combat. Then when a man died in battle it was a real thing, a real loss. Those smaller worlds were happy to throw away thousands of lives at a time because all of those lives were fake. That was why the battles had to be bigger and bigger and bigger. It would be totally different if a real person were to lose their life.

Speaking of real people the girl was now finished washing up so she came to find me. I was silently patting myself on the back for not even thinking to give into the urge to watch her as she showered. Even with wet hair and simple clothing she was stunning. I smiled.

"You wished to speak, master?"

"You don't have to call me that."

"Sorry, ... sir."

"Sit down. Have a drink." I said as I turned off the display and the beauty of the lake was there again. I turned the chair to look towards her and she fumbled with the controls to do the same. Then she reached for the wine I had set on the nearby table and put on her fake smile for me to see.

"So, I'm Brandon and you're Lola. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you sir."

"Right, so, what kind of work do they have you doing?"

She lowered her head. "A lot of digging and things like that."

"I see. If you don't mind me asking, How did you end up this way?"

"I ... I don't understand. You took me from my job dancing."

"But why did you have to become a dancer? Why aren't you at home with your family?"

She looked up but then looked down again. "I did a bad thing."

"Like what?"

Even though she was already looking down she turned to look over to the side instead of directly down. "We played a prank. A boy got hurt. He almost died. Now he's in a wheelchair. I ... I deserve this."

I was going to ask for more details but she started crying. Way to go Brandon.

"How long ago was this?"

"I was fifteen when it happened. The older boy who was in on the prank was hung. We all had to watch when it happened. I thought they were going to hang me too."

"But instead you have to work."

She nodded with her head still looking down and off to the side. "I brought shame to my family."

"How old are you now?"

"I'm twenty."

"How many more years of work do you have to do?"

She shook her head. "All of them."

"The rest of your life."

"Until I'm too old to work. Or too sick. I have to pay back for all the work the boy can never do."

"Just because he's in a wheelchair doesn't mean he can never work."

"I know. I'm not supposed to ask but Tsadda told me before that the boy was grown up and married now and he was working on a degree at university."

"Well, good for him. Did you go to college?"

"Master, I'm not allowed to get an education." she said as she looked up.

"Says who?"

"It's a rule."

"You mean the law?"

"I don't know but I couldn't finish lower school and I can't go to university."

"Well, I have to set up an office here so I'll need educated staff. It'll be cleaner work than whatever they have you doing now and it would be important to me to keep you near me so I could monitor you. I can't have anything go wrong while I'm here so I need you to let me know and stop me before I do anything that would be a mistake."