Jasmine had plopped herself into the bar room’s couch and propped her feet up on the armrest, making herself comfortable while Xant, in turn, positioned a stool and glass coffee table so he might continue their work. The human had been busy pouring herself a small sample of each of the ‘drinks’ available, having fun describing the taste to Xant, who could only feign comprehension as to what ‘smokey’ ‘sweet’ or ‘fruity’ meant.

Rynard had been sent off some time ago to retrieve the dogs and what he could carry of Xant’s tablets and they were waiting for his return.

“I think this will be the last one,” she mentioned, dropping less than a mouthful of an amber liquid into the glass, “last thing I want is a hangover with no way to cure it.”

“I can still administer the depressor as before?” Xant noted watching as Jasmine savoured the sipping whisky, she shook her head in reply. “I recall you saying they were ‘impressive effective’,”

Jasmine chuckled, mulling over the offer in her head.

“No, it's alright, hangovers should serve as a proper deterrent, don't want to get too attached to the unreplenishable supply,” she replied wistfully.

“Are you going to be comprehensible enough to go over some more data?” he asked, wary of the last time she was under the influence.

“Provided you're not going to ask me to write up some legislative documents, I should be alright,” she answered before taking another sip.

Rynard returned with a shout and a chorus of barks,

“Jasi! incoming!”

Rumbling from the lower decks, the dogs ran away from their keeper, off to explore and find the namegiver while Rynard started hoisting equipment over the deck. Xant’s ears stood on end as he saw Rynard throwing his dataslate case on the deck, jumping up from his stool to scold the captain immediately.

“Captain! Those dataslates are irreplaceable, they’re not standard equipment to be tossed around!” another crate double the size landed beside the dataslates, filled with the rest of their equipment. Xant gripped the railing as he glared down at the captain. “You will break the wooden deck at this rate!”

Rynard took a short run up before leaping onto the deck himself, making the very yacht shake. Xant fell back on his tail as the old soldier looked down with a smirk.

“Break the deck?” Rynard lifted his foot to look underneath it, “Seems fine to me,” he lifted both crates in his enormous arms, “Jasi, I brought your things,”

The human appeared from the bar room stretching her arms and legs.

“Thanks Rynard, but, could you please be careful about throwing things?”

The captain had to laugh.

“The Doc’s just overstressing, these cases are shatterproof,” he dropped the case in front of the pair, “they can be hit by artillery and be fine,”

Jasmine and Xant blinked in unison, before the human broke out laughing and the zenthi rubbed his temples.

Xant reached for his dataslate crate while Jasmine watched Rynard unload.

“You really did bring everything huh?”

“Everything that would fit in the train, had to leave the terminal behind though, those things dont move from the wall, we’ll have to get one installed here on the watership,”

“Yacht,” Jasmine corrected, “i’d thought you’d be more comfortable back in the barracks?”

“I’d be a pretty awful body guard if I were not active while you rested Jasi,” the captain explained, pulling a capsule from the crate, and fiddling with the buttons.

“But, don't you need to sleep too?” Jasmine asked, genuinely curious. Rynard tossed the capsule into the empty pool, and after a few short beeps the canister released the familiar gel mattress, filling up the entire pool.

“Sure, maybe in [a week] or so, if i don't take any stims,” he shrugged, “my model can go a [month] if we absolutely have to, built tough remember,” Rynard gave her a toothy grin, and Jasmine conceded.

“Alright, well, don't push yourself on my account, you enjoy the down time too okay?”

“Yes, Namegiver,” he laughed

Jasmine returned to her couch while Xant readied some subjects for them to talk about.

“I have a few subjects for your approval,”

“Alright, list em off,”

“Judiciary concepts,”

“Ugh no, waaay too heavy,”

“Alright, how about economic systems?”

“Even worse,”

“What about interstellar communications?”

“... Xant, I don't have a lot of brain power left so we can do a quick fire session and then get stuck into the nitty gritty of the details, after I've had a night sleeping in an actual bed, deal?"

“I cannot oppose such negotiation skills”

Xant began the recording:

Jasmine: Oh har har, right what's the subject then?

Xant: Judiciary concepts, Law and order in user speech.

Jasmine:Heh, law and order, you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, you have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney one will be provided for you… I don't remember if there's any more.

Xant:What was that exactly?

Jasmine: Miranda rights, you're informed of your rights as you're arrested, well, in the movies anyway, haven't had the pleasure of experiencing it first hand.

Xant:I would hope not, (else I've made a terrible mistake)

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Jasmine: What was that?

Xant: Nothing, how about we start with a list of crimes and punishments?

Jasmine: Suits me

Xant: Theft of personal property

Jasmine: Defo a crime, people work hard to earn their things, thou shall not steal. That's a basic one.

Xant: Basic as it may be it is still best to be thorough.

Jasmine: I think it's mostly a fine, depending on how much you steal, prison time as well, a couple of years. Of course, but like, if you stole something small you'd prolly get off with a warning, like a small lolly or something.

Xant: Steal food? Is sustenance not provided for by your government?

Jasmine: Err, if you can't afford it yeah, but we don't monocrop like you do, we eat more than jerky plants. 'Sustenance' is also a commodity.

Xant: ah yes, I've seen how you presented food, it does not surprise me in the least. The council provides its citizens with all its sustenance, and commercial wants within contribution credit reason.

Jasmine: Well if the government provides everything then what's left to steal,

Xant: Sentimental items, clothing, personal data.

Jasmine: Oh so same stuff then, so, fine and small time in prison is the usual punishment.

Xant: Theft is also a crime in the GC, the perpetrator is removed from the population. The next topic is Fraud.

Jasmine: Removed from the population hmmm? *snort* that's not ominous at all, but Fraud? Really? Wasn't expecting that so soon on the list.

Xant: Fraud is a devious and abhorrent crime, stealing the contributions of another. It's getting harder to prosecute without physical trial now.

Jasmine: Ahhh cause you guys are all clones, DNA wouldn't help you and galactic paper trails must be a nightmare.

Xant: Indeed, many have lost their retirement rewards only to expire before correction. Terrible, the perpetrator is removed from the population.

Jasmine: I'll say, fraud isn't as severe, normally a hefty fine or, as you might understand it, limiter on your earnings.

Xant: Illegal substances

Jasmine: Now we're getting into tricky stuff, most human illegal substances are performance enhancers or impairments that are highly addictive and destructive, cept for certain plants, it changes mostly.

Xant: GC substances corrode the mental capacity of our citizens or outright destroy their nervous systems, poisons would be the common term.

Jasmine: Heh poisons are only illegal if you try to poison someone with them, then its murder or manslaughter one of the two.

Xant: What? Two kinds of murder? Is it, like a duel?

Jasmine: No, one's a crime of passion, justified or not, the other was premeditated.

Xant: Justified murder of another sentient? Did they go rogue?

Jasmine: *Shrugs* I dunno, it's your hypothetical, the point is that murder and manslaughter can both be punished by life in prison, isolation if its particularly awful. Taking illegal substances is a bit more lenient, closer to a handful of years if the government is particularly shitty.

Xant: If a GC citizen is caught with illegal substances, the perpetrator is removed from the population. Next is Freq aggression

Jasmine: Well uhh, I'm not sure we've got an equivalent, Since I've only been accused of it rather than experienced it.

Xant: It is to expose someone to debilitating pulses of freq over and over and or to coerce them into acts of violence otherwise.

Jasmine:… Huh Guess we do have something similar, we call it abuse. Very high on the scumbag list of horrible crimes. Typically the harshest punishments…

Xant: Another we agree on, typically the aggressors are removed from the population, if the military cannot make use of them they're terminated. Piracy.

Jasmine: Ah yes, pirates! Ha, well which kind of piracy?

Xant: Which kind?

Jasmine: We got two, one on the high seas and the one on the information highway.

Xant: Despite the translators best efforts neither one of those translated correctly

Jasmine: Ha ha, one is cargo on ships, earth is covered in water, so we still corridor on giant shipping containers, we get pirates nicking commercial goods in narrow transit ways and off coasts.

Xant: And you're not concerned about this activity??

Jasmine: The companies that have the giant ass ships have their profits in the billions, probably billions more than the GDP of the countries that the pirates come from! Those companies aren't going to miss a shipping container or two, it's often easier for them to pay off the hostage money than to persecute the pirates.

Xant: But, those are good stolen from the needs of the people…

Jasmine: Nah, most of it would be commercial goods, frivolous stuff, like rubber ducks, honestly the stealing info is a lot more concerning for the regular Joe, information stolen, identity theft, you were talking about retirement stolen because of fraud? Same goes here except they can also open loans with your name that you can get stuck with, destroy your reputation and just generally wreck lives, it's awful.

Xant: Are you saying that data is more important?

Jasmine: I'm saying the impact on ordinary people concerns me more than a company's bottom line.

Xant: But companies help raise new citizens and help with diversity within the GC population, they help create different cultural and biospheres organically as well as differing novelty products.

Jasmine:… I think we have completely differing concepts of ‘company’.

Xant: I think you are right and we are starting from the topic at hand, piracy is a criminal offense, and the offender is removed from the population.

Jasmine: Xant, what does ‘removed from the population’ mean?

Xant: I would have thought it was self explanatory?

Jasmine: Yeah, but what happens after that? Are they kept in penitentiary cells? Are the rehabilitated? Are they stuck on their own planet or station?

Xant: … Ive, never thought about it before.

Jasmine: Never?

Xant: I’ve never needed to…

Jasmine: Maybe we should stop the recording.

Link terminated

Jasmine sat up from the couch to a clearly distressed Xant, walking over to comfort him.

“Hey.. are you okay?”

Xant looked down at his dataslate.

“I am a researcher, i didn't need to know what happens to criminals, only justicars and enforcers need to know,” he looked up at Jasmine, genuinely confused “why would i ever need to know if i never committed a crime? Why have I never questioned it before?”

Jasmine sat down beside Xant “Sorry, but all of this, the galactic council still kind of scares me, and when you say things like ‘removed from the population’ it doesn't translate to anything other than ‘insidious’ to me, but Xant, I trust you, above all else.”

Xant slumped his shoulders and furrowed his brow.

“What does ‘removed from the population’ mean to you jasmine? How could it be insidious?”

Jasmine faltered. Holding an arm defensively.

“Sometimes, people use wordplay to disguise or down play horrible things, collateral damage instead of civilian deaths, reeducation for brainwashing and torture or final solution…” The last words were so ominous it sent a chill through Xants cartilage bones, “Xant, not all humans are as nice as me, and I want to believe it’s just unfortunate phrasing, but i guess I can’t help thinking of the worst. The unknown can be terrifying”

“Jasmine, if the galactic council simply killed those who did not obey, then we would be no better than the Rajava,” Xant replied "but on the subject of the unknown, we can agree."

“It's very messy and I'm not qualified to talk about this at all..”

“Jasmine, I should not have pushed you so close to your rest time.”

“It's alright, you were only trying to get me to do ‘my job’,” she joked trying to lighten the mood, “i should get some rest, I’ve definitely drank too much…I don't think any of my responses are valid, how about we delete that session and do a new one in the morning?” she patted Xants shoulder and offered a tired, drunk smile.

Jasmine slowly made her way down into the ship's depths leaving Xant alone to contemplate the conversation.

There was so much he didn't know that was outside his field of knowledge. Was there a reason that such things were kept from the citizen population? Where did those who were removed from the population go? There were answers to these questions of course, they would be available to him on the civ-net, perhaps even the Mil-net if he were allowed access.

But, festering in the back of his mind, his secondary voice was asking other questions, ones that answers would not come as easily.

Why would humans use such innocuous words to disguise intentions? How 'shitty' were their governments that Jasmine feared them?

Her voice echoed in his memory, and he remembered the shiver that went down his spine.

'Other humans are not as nice as me'

Why did that sentence scare him so much?