En-drek Contract

Contract Marriage #2

Room 412 was an open-plan room with a few chairs in the middle facing a screen and a chair at the front. The room was fronted with transparent aluminium so she was able to see the man at the front before she went in. He rose, bowed, and waved her to a seat.

“First of all, do you know anything at all about Liberta’s laws?” he began rather brusquely.

“No, not at all.”

“Well, perhaps that is better. Second, do you have an en-drek contract?”

“En-drek contract?” she asked, shocked. “No. Does anyone nowadays?”

“Here on Ephemera, very few. Vanishingly few. Perhaps one-half of one percent, and most of those live rural. On Libertas? 100%”

“What?”

“Yes.”

“So… I will stand out then…”

“No. It is the law on Libertas that everyone be in an en-drek contract.”

“What? Even exo’s?”

“Indeed, especially exos. So we can stop this briefing right here if that is not possible for you.”

“I don’t… I don’t know where I would get a man to contract with me and come exo.”

“That is not a problem. Their system will provide you with an en-drek.”

She stared at him.

“Well, is that a problem?”

“Of course it is a problem!”

“Well, then, we can end the briefing here…”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it… I said it was a problem. I will have to think about it.”

“Very well. Now, would anyone be travelling with you? Any legal dependents?”

“Yes, I have a daughter in advanced classes.”

“Then the same thing will apply to her.”

“But she can’t sign a contract at her age.”

“Anyone can sign a contract on Libertas, although it is much harder to get a valid contract with someone who is very young. But if she is in advanced classes, she is certainly old enough to sign a contract on Libertas.

“Now as to whether she is obligated to form an en-drek relationship, they have very strict rules about when that is that involves a medical exam and psychological testing.”

“Well, I will have her meditate as well.”

“Yes.  That is required. Now that we are past that, the issue that makes it almost impossible for us to recruit for Libertas. Let me give you a more generic briefing. You know that all planets have their own rotational periods, both for the planet around itself, as it were, and for the planet around its primary?”

“Yes… We call them days and years. But I can’t say I know much about it.”

“Well, what you will need to know for Libertas is that the day there is much longer than here on Ephemera. Thus, for the first few days… probably about forty days or so, you will struggle every day to stay up till bedtime, and you will be tired and cranky pretty much all the time. Brew will help, obviously, but your body will still struggle to adjust.”

“I see,” she said, almost yawning involuntarily.

“For your dependent, there will be several changes. For one thing, their schooling will be very different…”

Links

I would like to give credit for the genesis of many of these ideas to the Liaden series by Mr. and Mrs. Steve Miller, which is available for free on the web. They do a great deal of cultural exploration, although they rather dramatically skip the moral exploration. (And their math doesn’t work.)

Other concepts were taken, in one form and another, from the book Freehold by Michael A Williamson.