Eternal Debt, by UnamusedMonkey
Axel had never met his father. When he had been told of his father’s death, he wasn’t sure how to react.
It had been another dreary sunless day. Axel was preparing to head for his early morning classes. A knock had come from the door. The rail thin monkey boy had hastily thrown on his uniform before answering the abrupt knock.
Two tall, stone faced felines were waiting for him. The pair were dressed in black gold-laced uniforms that Axel recognized as the attire of a revenue officer. The officer on the right cleared his throat and spoke in a monotone that betrayed no emotion.
“Are you one Axel Stone?” Asked the officer.
“Yes, that’s me.” The young teen said, a nervousness waver in his voice.
“Axel Stone, it is regrettably my duty to inform you that your father, the late Clive Stone has passed. You have been found to be his next of kin, being the oldest male of his many offspring.”
“I… don’t understand…” Axel squeaked.
“It is also regrettable that I must inform you that you are the heir of Clive’s various debts.” The officer continued. “Clive had a vast network of debts before his untimely demise. These debts were purchased in full by Shine Holdings, which I represent. The entire sum of this debt, passed on to you, is no less than two hundred million credits, with an interest of twenty percent of any unpaid amount by the end of each cycle it exists.”
“I-”
“We have thoroughly examined your bloodline and should another heir be found, the debt will be passed on to him. The margin of error of our research into this is only a half of a percent.”
Axel wasn’t sure what to think.
“We have informed your headmaster. You are not expected to engage in your classes today.” The officer said, holding a small tube. “This holotab contains the information of your debt, your father, and any additional data seen fit to be given to you. You are expected to remain here and will be fetched in twenty four hours. Any attempt to leave the boarding world of Asios will be met with capture, summary execution and resurrection in service of Shine Holdings in the hereafter until the end of eternity. Do you have any questions?”
“I-I-I-” was all the monkey teen could stammer.
“If you are overwhelmed by this, don’t be. We at Shine Holdings are not without mercy. Your debt sentence will be incredibly lenient considering the amount. Before I leave, I must confirm… you are not employed?”
Axel finally found his words. “No, I’m not. I’ve been a student here for my entire life.”
“And you were to graduate next cycle?”
“Yes.”
“Machine part replacement?”
“Yes, that was my designation.”
“The median income in that job line is fifty credits per cycle. You should have entered the workforce four cycles ago.”
“There was a matter of paying tuition…”
“Can I ask what machines you are to replace?”
“I have been trained to replace assembly arms and pressure holdings for almost all standard equipment.”
“Thank you for that. It will be important for the hearing.” The officer said, tipping his cap. He turned to leave.
“Sir… is there a possibility I could… not have this debt?” Axel squeaked out meagerly.
“No. You have already received the debt. The hearing is merely to discuss payment plans and citizen status. Have a nice day.”
The door closed and Axel was alone.
He wasn’t sure what to do. His entire life had been taken away from him from a man he didn’t even know. Granted, life as a replacement assembly arm wasn’t much of a life, but it was something. It was largely what he knew. He sighed, looking down at his blue school uniform. He sat down on the firm wooden plank bed.
His head fell into his thin fingers as he rolled them along his brown hair. He tried to think of what to do, but there was nothing to be done and he knew it. He looked at the small tube now in his hands. He’d used holopads before, but never in his bed. It was a strange, alien concept.
He pressed an indent in the tube quickly. Out came a faint blue screen. The holopad purred lightly as it was turned on. The operating system of the pad displayed three files: Debt Details, Clive Report, and Axel Report. Axel’s fingers trembled as he looked at the glowing display. A sense of fear kept him from opening the first file, but a sense of curiosity, as cruel as it can be, made the second one of interest.
Fingers shaking still, the monkey boy pressed on the second file. Suddenly a document was on display. Axel considered himself fortunate that he was literate, as many in his school of education were not. He began to read and scroll through as follows:
Subject: Clive Stone.
Sex: Male
Age: 30 (at time of death)
Species: Monkey
Spouse: None.
Citizen: Legal full status.
Assets: None known.
Occupation: Various, last known as a bounty hunter.
Alias: Known alias are Big Stone, Mr. Rock, and Bang Bang.
Mr. Stone’s history is not well known. He was the next of kin of the BazzCorp fortune after his father, Maximilian Stone died of a heart attack at age 35. The 12 year old ran the corporation to the ground within months. After this he lived quietly with the money he acquired via the liquidation of BazzCorp. At age 15 he served the Union Navy for a short stint. Known history after this is spotty. He was known to be a compulsive gambler and womanizer. He had various jobs as a pirate, a mercenary, as well as a bounty hunter. His track record with these jobs are not known.
His outstanding debt, valued at 200,000,000 credits was purchased from many companies including various bank and loan offices as well as the provider of his personal spacecraft; The Perched Eagle. This vessel, a lavishly fitted current model Venture Class Pleasurecraft was valued at ten million credits at time of atomization. Mr. Stone’s fate was discovered recently by our Revenue Intelligence when bits of his vessel were found floating by a spacedock. He was discovered to have been atomized during a dispute with a rival bounty hunter. Genetic material found confirms his demise. Though Clive has been known to have fathered many children, most candidates for his debt are deceased. The current and only eligible candidate is his son Axel Stone who had been dropped off at the boarding world of Asios shortly after birth. Due to the destruction of the body, Clive will not be able to be subject to be resurrected in service.
End of File.
Axel wasn’t sure what to think. His finger hovered over the provided image of his late father. His father was wearing shimmering battle skinsuit with a long blaster strapped to his back and a rather chunky looking pistol in hand. Forgoing the standard helmet, his father was wearing a captain’s hat. Without context he wondered if it was truly a post that had been bestowed upon him or a matter of hubris.
The monkey’s finger hesitated slightly as he pressed on to the next file. The document of himself. For some reason, he thought it pertinent to know what they knew about him. Though, in all honesty, there really wasn’t much too know. His eyes scanned the screen as he brought the file up.
Subject: Axel Stone
Sex: Male
Age: 14.
Species: Monkey
Spouse: None.
Citizen: Half Citizen (unplanned/undocumented birth)
Assets: Boarding School Uniform - Valued at five credits.
Occupation: None. Student at Asios for factory work.
Alias: None.
Mr. Stone’s history has only been reviewed recently by our agents. What little gathered is considered to be verifiable and wholly accurate. Mr. Stone was brought to the boarding world of Asios as a newborn by an undocumented female, speculated to the boy’s maternal parent. Having no known estate or money, the boy was given a modest debt and made to enroll in the world’s schooling service. Asios is a world which develops millions upon millions of factory workers per cycle. Students graduate regularly at age ten to join the labor forces of other worlds. Axel was late to enroll and had to work within the world’s own labor force to pay for his tuition. Due to his very lean frame, he is being considered for an apprenticeship in replacing various machine parts in refinery worlds. He has no known contact outside of Asios, and no known spouses or children. He is not a known flight risk. A rough estimate of his raw body value (true value to be determined) is at two thousand credits.
In the event of an untimely demise, Axel is to be resurrected as a labor drone as property of Shine Holdings outright for perpetuity.
Young Axel had heard of this process before. If your body was the property of another and wasn’t completely damaged during death, you body could be revived to keep in service of your owner. Of course, you wouldn’t really be there. Your mind would be gone, only your body remaining. Your flesh would be kept alive by electrical impulses and injections of proteins and vitamins. It was the end result for many criminals and debtors. He shivered at the idea of himself succumbing to this fate. He looked over the last file on the holopad. His body was sweating and shaking. He felt his heart race. He set the holopad down, feeling defeated. He knew he had to confront it, but any moment of respite would be a godsend.
Axel hopped from his bed and straightened his cerulean uniform. He took a deep breath. He still had one day. One day of freedom. He looked back. His dorm was meager, plain even by his school’s standards. The holopad was probably his most expensive possession now, he noted. He gazed at his work desk. It was covered in schematics of machines he had hand copied himself. It was these machines that he was intended to replace one day. He wondered if now, if that day would ever come. It was most of what he knew. The corner of his desk is where all of his personal possessions were. He grabbed the box that contained them and brought it closer to the edge of the desk to look inside.
Inside was: a half of a half credit bill, a small blue notebook, and a pen. He grabbed the notebook and fished it from the box, opening it. Inside was his own personal notes, musings, and the like. He grabbed the pen and found a fresh empty page. The monkey thought for a moment before etching something in. He thought briefly again and grabbed the torn bill. Axel slid the bill into the notebook and closed it. Quickly he put everything in the chest pocket of his uniform.
Quickly the monkey boy scurried to the door. He opened it and walked out, quietly closing it behind him. The holopad glowed briefly before fading into the darkness of the room.
Axel had never been off of Asios. The boarding world all he’d ever seen. Asios was dedicated to creating a factory workforce quickly and efficiently. Pleasures and beauty were a rarity. The school boy felt out of place when he was pushed out of the shuttlecraft door. Before him was a world that was rich with green.
The air tasted sweet to his mouth and lungs. He could hear the noise of… what were they, birds? Birds, yes. He could hear the songs of birds echo in his ears. Dominant in the middle of the green was a large dome-like structure. Clearly this was the courthouse. He wondered if all legal worlds were like this, so full of nature. He felt the cool grass against his bare feet. His shoes had been taken to pay for the shuttle fare.
He wanted to run around but the chains on his legs wouldn’t let him. His legs had been bound together, with a loose chain between them. He could walk fine, as long as his steps were deliberate. Anything faster than a walk would result in him tumbling face first into the ground. He wouldn’t be able to shield himself as his hands were cuffed behind his back.
The two officers that had arrived at his dorm were the young boy’s escort. A kick to the rear spurned the boy into moving. Soon the cool, refreshing grass gave way to hard concrete beneath his bare toes. He was guided into the large building. An array of offices and doors were around him. The inside wasn’t unlike the inside of his school. It was less crowded as only a meager hundred or so people occupied the hallways with him and the guards. One officer opened a door and another shoved him inside.
The room was bare save for a desk that an elderly fox was occupying. The fox was dressed in a long, ornate robe with white trimming. He had on a large white wig that made him appear even older than he probably was. He looked at the young Axel with a squint and adjusted his spectacles.
A holoscreen appeared in front of the old man and he read it. “Ahh… yes, you are Mr. Stone, I presume?”
“Yes, that’s me.” The monkey spoke meekly.
“That’s quite a modest sum you owe the company. Shine Holdings has made some arrangements to help you with your particular case. Most of these have been made to assist you.” The fox said in a plain voice. “Though, if you are aware of any legal substitute, you may speak now before we begin with the proceedings.”
Axel didn’t know any of his brothers. Even if he did, he figured he was the oldest of them. Even if there was one older, he wasn’t sure if he could condemn them to such a horrid fate as this. He spoke solemnly. “I have none.”
“Splendid!” The fox clapped his hands together. “You are formally charged with the debt of two hundred million credits in total. Your debt will increase by twenty percent at the end of each cycle. Twenty percent of the unpaid total, that is.”
The fox stood up from his desk and adjusted his wig. “As judge, I am revoking your half status as citizen of the Union. You are regarded now as a quarter citizen, under formal custody of Shine Holdings. We have already made arrangement for your payment plan. The plan is simple, any credits you make is given to Shine Holdings. You will be allowed a personal purse no larger than two credits, and personal property, sans purse, to the limit of ten credits. Of course, Shine can choose to seize either with no prior notice if wanted.”
“How… am I going to make the credits?” Axel asked.
“Shine Holdings had determined that your current line of work is far too slow. They have already auctioned you off to another place of work. Consider it a better career option. Your age and body type were entered into an algorithm. You were fitted with a price and have been sold to the mining vessel Kurata. After this hearing you will be delivered to them and you will be property of Oda Mining Corporation.”
“If… I’m owned by the mining corporation, does that mean they have my debt?”
“No, you still owe money to Shine Holdings. This does not change your sentence. However, a portion of your auction has gone towards your debt. Here…”
The fox held a small blue device. “Stick out your right hand, Mr. Stone.”
The boy’s cuffs were swiftly removed by the officers. The monkey did as ordered.
The judge wrapped the odd blue thing around Axel scrawny wrist. It looked like a watch of some kind. The strange thing made a screech a tightened around the boy’s wrist. Axel let out a pained groan as he felt a stabbing pain. He wanted to pull it off, but he knew that what ever this device was, it was going to be attached for a long time.
“This is your Personal Digital Assurance. This device will track your location, your vitals, and it records everything you are doing. It is not to be removed until you have paid off your debt. Whenever you receive pay, you must use this device. It can accept transfers, credit chips, payments cards, and even scan credit checks. If you receive any notes larger than allowed then your purse, please convert them to a payable amount in a timely fashion. The Assurance is equipped with the means to protect itself and to motivate you. It also has handy functions and an AI assistant to help you with your payment plan. This device is property of Shine Holdings, so it will not impact your personal property value.”
The judge tapped an icon on the device and suddenly a holographic projection emerged. “199,997,000.” The judge smiled faintly. “This is your new total debt. A good head start, I must say.”
“But… I don’t know anything about mining!” The young boy protested. His wrist hurt. He thought he was bleeding underneath the device, but wasn’t sure.
“That’ll be Oda Mining’s problem. Not mine.”
The officers cuffed Axel and he felt the vice-like pressure clamp down on on his skinny wrists.
The fox sat back on his desk. He pressed and made a few motions at the holoscreen in front of him. “With that, you have been formally sentenced and out of my charge. Officers…” The judge looked at the pair and made a dismissive wave. “Get this worthless kid out of my sight!” He made a large sigh and leaned back on his chair. The chair groaned and creaked. “A mere ten thousand credits for that job… what am I reduced to…” He mused quietly while rubbing his paws on his temple. The two revenue officers yanked Axel out of the office. He felt the world seem to fade into nothingness as he was dragged against his will. He wasn't sure where he was being taken, but he didn’t really care. His mind was numb, the overwhelming of it all was too much for his young mind.
