A Difference of Opinion

Why is it that the change of a single word can make such an incredible difference?



"Jump" becomes "Hold!" and it is to late, your ship is rematerializing amidst the enemy fleet.



"Murder" is what they call it if you attack a man without provocation. "A kill" is what they call it when you destroy a ship with hundreds aboard.



And a "slave" is somehow different than a "free man", despite both wishing to remain in service, recieving the same treatment, quality of life, and being killed with the same impunity when enemy fire tears your ship apart.

I just don't understand some people.


Let me explain fully. During our month-long operations in the Great Wildlands, we raided numerous Angel Cartel prison complexes. The poor men and women unfortunate enough to be caught in the clutches of the Cartel are taken here to be "processed" that is, stripped of any money or valuables, tortured for any valuable information, and then ransomed. Or enslaved if a ransom is unlikely or not proceeding smoothly.
And so it is when we, in our rampaging machines of death, come crashing into these complexes that these people are able to make it to industrial-grade cargo containers capable of withstanding the damage we create, and are from there taken into my cargo bay.

Really, looking at these people after we returned from the raid, I can see why so many hate the idea of slavery. They are ragged, many broken internally from the shock of it all or the beatings used to force them into compliance. Others still have open wounds from abuse - or yet worse, use - by the guards. Almost universally, however, they wish to go home. Back to the Wildlands. Seeing as how they wished to leave, and I could not remotely blame any form of crime comitted within the Empire's territory on any of them, I had no right - morally or legally - to keep them.

This proved to be tricky in the extreme. Because of my heritage, all I need to do is approach anyone in the Thukker Tribe stations, speak the word "slave" and promptly be met by a wall of stony silence. So I was forced to go to the only person I knew with Thukker affiliations who would listen to me.

Zuzanna Alondra. Again. And initially, it went surprisingly well with her. She didn't cut the line the instant I said I still had (willing) slaves, and I humbly sat through the generic lecture on how slavery is bad. And frankly, I think we would have both come out better for it, except that she just had to pass it by her CEO.

Who promptly refused to have anything to do with a slaveholding Amarrian. Even if it involved slaves being freed.

Because somehow, even if they wish to remain as such, to have a slave is wrong.

As I said, I just do not understand some people. If one brother wants nothing to do with an older sibling and fights to be free of him, is it right for the older sibling to refuse the friendlyness of another younger brother? For the older sibling to say "I am sorry, we cannot be siblings anymore. I can help and tutor you, but I am no longer the older sibling you looked up to and who protected you." ? If someone did that, the older sibling would be called a jerk.

Zuzanna is not an inherently bad person. She obviously wants the very best for people. But really, the words "naieve" and "narrowminded" do come to mind.