Microstory 652: Feeding Starving Thralls

< > Table of Contents

The last taikon was not the only one involving thralls today. On the other side of the galaxy, a land vehicle was rolling along the road of a negative civilization planet. A negative civilization, or civil-minus, culture is one that chooses to reject many forms of technological advancements. They are nearly exclusively isolates, leaving themselves outside the interstellar economy. They generally have no problem with the way people who are different than them live, but also do not interact with them. This particular world was aptly named Pastoralis, and consisted primarily of farms and their farmers. They trade with other settlements in the area, sometimes spreading across the planet, but mostly keeping to themselves. Other civil-minus worlds do not even possess any thralls, because of their separation from the galactic markets. Pastoralis is relatively new, however, and was founded by someone who had worked his way into the position of jarl, which awarded him his arkeizen myriad. It is a well-known fact that arkeizens don’t need to eat as much as humans. Afterall, they are significantly smaller than us. Still, somehow Pastoralis managed to run so low on their own closed resources that they were forced to make sacrifices. In order to protect the lives of the humans, rations were passed down to the thralls last; sometimes not even at all. On this day, however, of all days, the Pastorales were feeling exceptionally charitable. A produce transport tipped over on an uneven road, just as the boils began forming on the slavedrivers at the convention. Though this food could have been cleaned and made like new, the people of Pastoralis agreed to spoil the lot on their ledgers, and let the nearby thralls have them instead. It was a small gesture, even with the food shortage, but it was significant enough to fulfill the requirements for the prediction of the fruit of kindness, which is really all we care about.