Emergency Town Meeting

“I knew these visitors were nothing but trouble! We should have sent them packing immediately,” a large, matronly woman said in a shrill voice. She was edging near hysteria.
“Thank you, Mrs. Martin,” Kate said. “Your numerous opinions have been noted but can we please let other people speak.”
A voice in the audience called out, “What do you know about this Corporation?”
“Good point,” Kate said. “Portia?”
Portia approached the podium. Public speaking was not her forte. Wasn’t her anything, really. “Good evening. Many of you know I’m Portia Clovelly.”
“We know that, sweetheart.”
“And Captain Clovelly thought I should give you a brief history of what’s happened on Earth since you left.”
The audience grew quiet. Everyone wanted to know what happened on Earth since they left fifty years ago.
“The War Years left the world’s governments in terrible debt. The Bank Federation decided to step in and take over fiscal responsibility since the governments were incapable. In order to save money, the chore of fiscal watchdog was privatized and the rise of the Corporation began. All of this was already in motion when we left. Now the Earth is a global monopoly of the Corporation. It is the largest employer, my former employer, actually, and the wealthiest entity on the planet.
“The monopoly has led to revolutionary urban renewal. Vast areas of blighted city are now de-urbanized zones and turned into green park land.”
“What happened to all the people?”
“They went to debtor’s colonies. The Hope and Crosby were the only voluntary colony ship. Everyone else was force to colonize to work in what are essentially poorhouses. Some take an indentured servitude. It’s not pretty but it solved the over population problem on Earth.
“Now are cities are clean and spacious. Mass transit works. But it there is a deep social and economic divide. The working class, Stationers, have little in the way of rights and are frequently driven into poverty and colonizing.”
“Good thing we left when we did!”
“The Corporation is ruthless. It sends out colony ships to claim copyright on new planets but unless the planets have an obvious source of income, the colonies are abandoned. When the first transmission from the Crosby were received about the Hope being missing, my higher ups ran the Cost Analysis and decided you weren’t worth the fuel.”
A mummer of unrest went through the crowd. “How do you know we can trust you if you worked for the Corporation?”
“Good question. I worked on the old colony terminals. I received the first message from the Crosby and brought them to the attention of my supervisors. When no one would take action, I leaked the transmissions to the media. And then I stole data from the Corporation. And then I stole a ship. And another ship. I don’t think the Corporation is very happy with me at the moment. In fact, I think I’ve been fired.”
“What are we going to do? We can’t possibly fight them, they have unlimited resources.”
Kate stepped up. “I’ll tell you what we are not going to do and that is panic.”
“Right. The Corporation may have unlimited resources but the bottom line is all they are really concerned about. If a venture does not promise enough profit upfront, they won’t invest. Think about all those other colonies they’re left alone? Good people who work hard. Does the Corporation send then the latest in data technology? No. Does the Corporation send an occasional crate of medical supplies? No. What do the cheap bastards do? Nothing, but nothing doesn’t impact their budget.”
“Than you, Portia,” Kate said, gently pushing Portia away from the podium.
A voice in the audience called out, “I don’t understand. How did the Corporation find out about us?”
Portia found Franklin lurking in the back of the crowd.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kate said. “We all knew it was matter of time before some explorer stumbled across our beautiful planet. Now we need to focus on what we can do.”
More comments from the audience. “Can’t our friends in orbit do something?”
Turkish stood up from his seat in the front row. “Actually, the Black Star is a courier class ship, it’s not equipped with cannons or guns or any type of arms.”
“What?” Portia found it hard to believe that the Corporation forgot to equip its most expensive ship without a means to protect itself.
“She’s a fast ship, very fast. She’s designed to run away, not fight. Haven’t you heard, he who runs away lives to fight another day?”
Portia tossed another menacing glance at Franklin. “Yeah, I’ve heard that.”
More grumbling from the audience.
Kate spoke, this time her voice was louder, commanding the full attention of everyone in the room. “The Corporation is not going to come at us with guns on their first trip. Didn’t you listen to Portia’s presentation? They plan to litigate us, wear us down with legal banter, convince us that we have no right to our home.”
A man stood up in the audience, thin and weedy looking. “I use to be lawyer back on Earth. Haven’t seen the need to practice law in fifty years but I can give it a go.”
“Thank you, Jerry. Anyone else willing to admit to being a lawyer?”
Franklin slowly raised his hand. “I…I have a law degree.”
Kate paused before answering. “Okay, you and Jerry put your heads together for our best defense. Everyone else, I want you to go back to your homes and get a good night’s sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”
The audience slowly filed out of the town hall.
Turkish made his way to Portia.
“Franklin has a law degree?” she asked.
“Yeah, put the kid through law school with my ill gotten gains,” he said with smirk. “Figured it would be good to have a legal mind on my side if I ever ran up against the law.”
“Was that his debt?”
“Some of it.”
Kate approached Portia and Turkish. “How quickly do you think they can be here?”
Turkish shrugged concomitantly. “If they’re really hot and bothered, they can take a Drive ship and be in less than a week. Slingshot, maybe a month.”
“This Drive ship,” Kate said, “that’s the kind of ship you have?”
Turkish nodded.
“Good, no guns. Let’s hope for that.”
“Even if we give them a slip this time, they’ll come back with warships, you know.”
“We’ll worry about that when we get there.”