Justice Read Online Free PDF

her back on Nova and strutted
away, ending the conversation.
    “ Well, I tried,” Nova muttered to herself.
    As it turned
out, Zorka was the friendliest of the Confederacy officials she
spoke to. Nova didn’t spend much time with people from the Inner
Galaxies and she was beginning to see what Aart was talking about.
There was a definite class system, at least in their eyes.
    Nova returned
to her chair and surveyed the room. It was getting late, most of
the bar room had cleared out. Jack and his friends had staggered
out an hour ago, shouting and yelling. Nova shook her head;
hopefully they would have recovered by the next day. She took a
seat which put her back to the wall where she could see everyone
coming and going. It was also conveniently close to a nearby table
where Goffredo was regaling some ladies with stories of the Inner
Galaxies.
    “ What about the riots?” one girl asked.
    “ Yes, we heard about them. It sounded awful,” said
another.
    “ It was a bloody mess,” Goffredo said. “The Confederacy had to
send in a whole unit to subdue them.”
    “ What happened?” The first girl’s eyes widened.
    “ Well, and you have to keep this to yourself; we’re not
supposed to talk about it in case the others get ideas.”
    “ Of course.”
    “ Some of the outers got it into their heads that they were
being mistreated. Decided to go on a killing spree. All of a sudden
they up and started killing their supervisors.”
    “ That’s horrid!”
    Nova had to
stop herself from snorting. She’d travelled to the Resources
District on a few occasions and the way the supervisors treated the
workers was appalling. The supervisors were installed by the Human
Confederacy, probably by Goffredo himself if he was in charge of
trade, while the workers were born into the work.
    The labour was
backbreaking and punishment for not meeting quota was medieval.
But, of course, the Confederacy didn’t do anything about it. As
long as they kept getting their precious metals, there was no
problem.
    “ It was bad,” said Goffredo. “We had to kill over a thousand
rioters. They couldn’t be saved; too insane you see.”
    “ Of course.”
    “ We couldn’t have them going off and hurting more people. Then
we had to lock up another five thousand. They’ll be released back
in the lower mines, once they’ve been reprogrammed of
course.”
    “ I would have gotten rid of the thugs completely,” the girl
said with a sniff.
    “ There’s no media there at the moment. The place is a
wasteland. No food, all the water is contaminated, and the air is
filled with smoke. Half of them probably won’t survive anyway. It’s
their own faults, mind you. They’re the ones that set fire to the
fields and the shipping bays. We’ve blocked all transport except
for Confederacy vehicles, at least until the situation calms
down.”
    “ It’s such a shame. They should just appreciate what they’re
given, you know? I mean, we do,” the girl said, taking a long sip
on a tall red glass filled with sweet liqueur.
    “ You have to punish them, you see, to keep them in line.
Otherwise they get all these ideas and before you know it, you’ve
got rebellion on your hands. Can you imagine if steel production
suddenly stopped? There’d be chaos! So we have to rule with an iron
fist,” Goffredo explained.
    “ Of course.” One of the girls giggled.
    “ Anyway, they like it. They would be nothing but savages
without us. Just look at some of the other Outer Galaxies, the way
they run around half naked throwing sticks at each other. It’s
barbaric. And that’s exactly what would happen to the Resources
District if we went soft. I mean it’s not their fault, they’re just
born with less intelligence, so it’s our job to make sure they stay
on track.”
    Nova bit her
tongue and tucked her hands deep into her pockets. There was only
so much pompous crap she could listen to in one evening. She’d
found no information for Aart but at least it was money