Engineered Empress - The story of Bia

Engineered Empress Part 28

Chapter 28

The next morning Bia got two messages on her DOA, the first was from Jon Neight to tell her that the court appointment was for 11 am and the second was from Grant and read.

'Dear Bia, thank you and your crew for freeing me again. I'm not sure how to thank you enough for this. I already found a job in the hospital here on Keplar III and decided to stay here until I get news of my family. My parents were in about to move from Aurora to Hala and help colonize it. They always wanted to become ranchers. The inquiry about their whereabouts takes time, at least three weeks, but up to six is more realistic. For the next 6 months, I will stay here and if you ever need my help, give me a call, as long as I am able, I will do my best to help out. Thank you again Bia. I am in your debt. Sincerely

Grant'

Bia was happy for Grant, that he found himself employed. She liked him and was looking forward to hearing from him again, to find out where life will take him.

At 10:45 am Bia stood in front of the court room and waited to be called as a witness. When she was called in, she gave testimony about how she found the forged algae starters, the chandler's threat towards her and about her kidnapping. In detail she described in detail the thugs that jumped her and that they were talking about how they were ordered to kill her, but they wanted to make money off of her. When she told them of the purge of her nanites even the judge winced in empathy. Nick, Zar, Alistair and Damon were asked to collaborate her testimony and Richard Carter was found guilty of forgery, 22 counts of negligence, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit assault, human trafficking and tax evasion. His assets were seized, and Bia got half of their monetary value. Furthermore, the judge sent him for life without parole to Heidao, a prison colony.

Glad to have that behind her Bia stared at the 645,756 credits that went into her account. She was surprised that Richard Carter had so much money and assets. She was not new to money but always lived frugal and took no notice of her own wealth and for the first time in her life thought hard about what she could do with it.

"Ceri, do you know what you plan to use the money you have on Wandu for?"

"No, Bia. At the moment I linked the system of Wandu to the Core and asked it, to monitor for gross negligence and assault on slaves. If one gets flagged as such, I pay off the fine and free said slave. The Core explained that freeing all slaves at once would upset the society and plunge it into chaos. That would be more harmful to my goal of freeing the slaves than what I do now. Because of the interest rate I get it's a zero-sum game. I spend as much money on an individual as I get interests. Those I freed, I put up in a mansion I bought. I will need to charter a ship to get them off Wandu, but for the moment they are safe." Surprise showed on Bia's face.

"How are you communicating with them?" Ceri chuckled.

"The good thing on Wandu is, there is nobody checking who I am. At the lake my transmitter is in I bought a mansion and ordered a high band communication suite installed. At the moment there are 5 people living there and I speak to them over the installed internal coms. Though I really am thinking about looking at the slave market for professionals that could help those I freed. I am just not sure if that is the right way, because then I would use the system selfishly and would be their first owner, even if I free them right away."

"Do you think it is morally wrong or what are your thoughts, Ceri?" asked Bia thinking about the ethics of Ceri's problem.

"Yes, I do not want to support the human trafficking. If more slaves are bought the demand is higher and more pirates go and take them. But if I free the slaves that are treated badly that individual has to replace them and he or she loses money, again and again. Slowly bleeding the accounts until it is too expensive to have a slave. While others who aren't abusive won't get drained in the next ten years. That way I don't plunge the society into chaos but change it slowly.