Crime and Punishment

Copyright 2009 by Zeta

All rights reserved

This story may be freely distributed in electronic form but must include this copyright.

Crime and Punishment

is a work for pure fiction and all locales, names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or living persons is entirely coincidental

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1: Crime

Chapter 2: Induction

Chapter 3: Inducement

Chapter 4: Preparation

Chapter 5: Humiliation

Chapter 6: Auction

Chapter 7: Training

Chapter 8: Wedding

Chapter 9: Servitude

Chapter 10: Punishment

Epilog

Crime and Punishment

Book I of the Zax Trilogy

Translated into Archaic English by Zeta.

Translators Note

This translation was undertaken as part of a thesis on archaic languages. The archaic period selected is the 21

th

century, as measured using pre-modern reckoning. The particular dialect chosen is the American version of English, as spoken and written during the period approximately 50 standard years either side of that millennium. Modern names and terms have been, where possible, translated into their archaic equivalents. Names and terms without equivalents have been assigned archaic expressions that (would have) provided an accurate linguistic description (in the translator's opinion) to individual's of that era. Fortunately, the text contains only minimal usage and discussions of modern devices and methods, greatly simplifying the translator's task in this area. As such, it is the firm belief of the translator that a native speaker of the chosen archaic era would readily understand and grasp, in its entirety, the resulting narrative contained in the text. Furthermore, the physical environment and social customs depicted are essentially timeless and, could, with minor adjustments to the technological instruments employed, have occurred in any era. In short (and using the archaic vernacular) the text is

not

a work of science fiction.

The translator would like to thank her advisor as well as the tireless work of her editor and the toleration of her friends and companions during the execution of this work. She would also like to thank the few existing readers of archaic languages for keeping the past alive and especially those who may encounter this text and take the time to read it. It is you few whom this text is dedicated, for you are surrogates to what unfortunately must remain a true science fiction fantasy: a reader from the pre-modern archaic era.

Zeta

North American Federation, 2410

Justice is incidental to law and order.

J. Edgar Hoover

"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons."

Dostoyevsky

Prologue

Every century in human history has its various associated revolutions and epochs: the Age of Enlightenment in the 18

th

century, the Industrial Revolution in the 19

th

century, the Information Age in the 20

th

century, and the Genetic Revolution in the 21

st

century. The latter actually started in the 1950s with the discovery of the structure of DNA and accelerated after the mapping of the human genome in 2003. By the end of the 21

st

century sufficient advancement had been made so that cures for cancer and other stubbornly persistent diseases had been found along with cures for more mundane afflictions like the common cold and other viral infections. In addition it became possible to extend the average life expectancy by 200 years or more as well as prolong health, youthfulness, and vitality. Science was now finally able to engineer the human form eliminating deformities, improving intelligence, and enhancing physical appearance. The only area that was left untouched was human nature itself which remained unaffected, untouched, and most importantly untamed.

Despite man's ability to create wealth and prosperity and to enjoy the fruits of his labors, crime persisted and wars (although not large or global), still flared up across the planet taking thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of lives at a time. Bad government and poor management still resulted in famines, genocide, pollution, and regional conflicts that offset many of the gains made by the latest advances in science and technology. In addition, as mankind began its first serious expansion outwards into the solar system, these problems increasingly threatened to interrupt the future prospects for developing the unlimited and untapped material resources that were finally within grasp. As the 22

nd

century dawned the focus of generic research shifted from the physical to the cerebral in an attempt to solve this last remaining problem. It was not sufficient to just improve man's body; his mind must also be enhanced if true progress were to be achieved. Thus began the

New Age of Reason

with scientists applying their knowledge and skill to improve the very nature of man's mind; genes and proteins responsible for aggressiveness and anti-social behavior were isolated and examined. The human genome was re-engineered to reduce, but not eliminate the worst of these traits. Bioengineers realized that a total solution was not possible. These same genes were also tied to inquisitiveness, curiosity, and intellectual drive. If eliminated, the race would flounder and die. So an acceptable engineering trade-off was sought and found. Or so it was thought.

The aggressiveness of the human male was identified as the culprit and as such would be decreased while that of the female increased. Not significantly, just slightly. The trade-off would be a slight increase in homosexuality in the general population. Rates would increase from approximately 10% to 15% among both males and females. However, the resulting reduction in aggressiveness, (especially among males whose late teen and early twenty age-group were responsible for most of society's antisocial problems), would dramatically reduce crime and war. The slight increase in female assertiveness would also serve to further reduce and check the remaining aggressiveness left in the male population as well as further empower women and their role in society (which had long been recognized as a positive and stabilizing force). Creativity and technological advancement was projected to slow by only 2%, on average. Overall population would decrease by 6% or so.

The risks and trade-offs being acceptable, the

Decision

to proceed was made. Within a generation, crime and war were dramatically reduced. In some cases, serious crime dropped to zero. Within another generation war became sporadic and many prisons were closed. No perceptible decrease in technological progress was noted, however homosexuality among the general population was slightly higher than projected, especially among females where rates reached 22%. Overall, these trade-offs were found acceptable and the world entered a

New Golden Era

of peace and prosperity unlike any before it.

But no miracle is perfect. Although disease and plague had long been eliminated, this was not because the cause had been annihilated but, rather because technology could rapidly find and counter new viruses and germs. It thus came as a great surprise in the middle of the 22

nd

century when the male population inexplicitly began to die suddenly and in great numbers. At first, the world remained calm believing that a solution would be engineered within a few days, if not hours just as it always had in the past. But this was not to be. Within 24 hours 20% of the male population died and concern began to rise. Within another 24 hours 50% of the male population was dead. Panic set in. All the resources of the world were brought to bear on the problem. Within a week a solution was finally found and the

Great Plague

completely arrested. However 95% of the male population was gone.

To prevent an unthinkable recurrence of another

Great Plague

the human genome was re-engineered again. The previous tinkering with humanities DNA had left a vulnerability within the new genes. This vulnerability was subtle and could have persisted for centuries or even millennia without incident, waiting for just the right combination of environmental random chance and human fault to trigger the defect. But fate had spun her wheel of chance early and a catastrophe had occurred sooner rather than later. In the resulting aftermath of relief and recrimination a foolproof solution was demanded. As is the case in such circumstances, the solution was both as heavy-handed as it was simple. Its consequences were also equally profound. Female assertiveness and aggressiveness was greatly increased while that of the male decreased still further. The result was a female population that was almost exclusively bi-sexual and heavily homosexual. Males became largely asexual. This combination was chosen to preserve the social gains of the

New Golden Era

while eliminating any chance of another plague caused by weak genetic pairings. The new genes were no longer susceptible to disease, man-made or otherwise.

Other forces were at work here also and had been since before the

Great Plague

. Women had come to enjoy their new more powerful roles. In addition, they also realized that the male population (which was increasingly viewed as having caused all of societies problems) was largely superfluous. Within the decade before the

Great Plague

, science had progressed to the point where reproduction now occurred almost exclusively

ex utero

. This had many advantages and few, if any, disadvantages. In fact, the need for a large male population had been eliminated from the point of view of reproducing the species. A relatively few males could insure sufficient genetic diversity to maintain the race as long as the female population remained large. Gender selection which had long been a matter of choice became an increasingly

female

choice. With their new sexual orientation, the vast majority of women choose to have more and more female offspring and as a result the overall male population had been dwindling for well over a decade. The net effect of the

Great Plague

was to accelerate this trend by exposing to society (what soon became known as) the

Gender Crisis

. The

Gender Crisis

however was not so much a crisis of numbers but a crisis of attitude. The female population was, increasingly, quite happy and quite willing to live without the company of its male counterparts. In fact, some argued (albeit sarcastically) that they had been essentially doing this for time immemorial. The male population on the other hand was largely apathetic and ambivalent to this shift in societal attitude.

The social momentum had therefore permanently shifted toward increasingly more female independence and power (especially political power). This occurred at the obvious expense to male influence, opinion, and political standing. Endless debates over the increasing female role and decreasing male presence within society ensued with members of both genders arguing vehemently on both sides of the issue. The

Gender Crisis

finally came to a head at the yearly Conference for Gender Affairs, when fate again intervened, with one of its more dramatic (and socially galvanizing) examples of meddling in human affairs. This

Perl Harbor

like incident had, as usual, an emotional impact that far outweighed its actual practical effect. For several years prior to this incident, several radical female political factions had been calling for the elimination of the entire male population. Their proposal was to stop all male births and over time, completely eliminate the entire male population through natural, if not accelerated, attrition. Enough male genetic material was to be stored to ensure the continuation of the species. At the start of the Conference this opinion was clearly and firmly in the minority. However three days into the meeting an unknown male terrorist group bombed the building where the Conference was taking place killing almost 1000 attendees (mostly male) and wounding several hundred others. Conspiracy theories appeared almost before the dust from the explosion had settled and demands to resolve the 'male-problem' once and for all gained such momentum that a political crisis was precipitated. War had been declared by the male population against the rising dominance of female political power. Unimagined violence (which had not been seen in almost a century) had suddenly exploded into the present, and once again it was the male population which was responsible for reintroducing such rough tactics into the debate. However society was not about to give up its hard won gains or be intimidated by what was clearly a small group of fanatics trying to strong-arm their way back into power. This would not and could not be tolerated under any circumstances. As a result the opinions of radical females once dismissed as too extreme and bizarre now began to be taken seriously by a growing number of those in the middle of the debate. The fact that a large number of males had been killed in the bombing further underscored the precariousness of the current situation in the face of uncontrollable and random events. What if another unforeseen disaster occurred that wiped out the remaining male population? Could the human species survive such a catastrophe? Demonstrations calling for the confinement and management of the male population swept through the streets surrounding the bombed-out conference building. Those in political power suddenly found themselves in the midst of a growing crisis of which they were rapidly loosing control. Clearly public opinion on the matter had shifted irrevocably to the right on this issue and a compromise must be quickly found before the more extreme elements in the debate prevailed.

The result was the

Tiresias Compromise

which placed the entire male population into a permanent conservatorship. The World Center for Generic Resource Management was created as the conservator and placed in charge of managing and overseeing the remaining male population. Its first act was to slowly round up all males and distribute them to reservations scatted strategically across the globe. Reproductive rights were stripped from all men. Male births were now tightly controlled and the male population decreased by natural attrition over time. This ensured that sufficient males were available to guarantee the genetic survival of the species while eliminating the possibility of a plague or some other disaster wiping them out. In this way a population of billions was slowly but surely reduced to a well managed and tightly controlled few thousand. Women could still freely and independently make decisions about having offspring including how many to have and when to have them, however the gender of all children would now be female. In the end, the males were relegated to the status of breeding slaves kept exclusively for reproduction purposes. The male chromosome was again tweaked to increase virility but males were henceforth kept in isolation and not allowed to contact (or even know about the existence of) other males.

The

Tiresias Compromise

effectively insured the continued survivability of humankind without any possibility of a return to its violent past. After a few generations, the existence of males completely disappeared from the social consciousness becoming a transparent and abstract reality. Although most women were aware (in principle) of the existence of males (now located in tightly controlled and heavily secured breeding colonies called

Duenas)

, virtually none, ever saw or was allowed to come into contact with the male member of the species during their lifetimes. In effect, males cease to exist resulting in an all female society.

For the female population, this change ushered in a new renaissance of peace, material comfort, and prosperity. Without crime and war, and with the scientific and engineering advances of the last several centuries, even the poorest members of society were wealthy by the standards of previous centuries. However, human nature had not changed completely. Ego, selfishness, and the need for social status remained. These elements of the human id were controlled and kept in check by genetics and law, but nonetheless were still ever present. As the 23

rd

century began, a

New Social Contract

was created. Although government remained distributed throughout the world, the

World Federation

was established as a central authority and given the power to enforce and regulate the conduct of local governments and guarantee the rights of individuals and the prosperity of all. Over the next 70 years or so, new laws were put into effect and a new social elite with the power and status to govern took control. Individual rights and prosperity were established and guaranteed in both principle and fact. With these came the necessary laws and regulations required to insure order and fairness.

By the standards of past centuries the crime-rate in the 23

rd

century was so small as to be almost non-existent. Still it was not zero. The large reduction was due to the material prosperity provided to all and the genetic tinkering resulting from the

Decision

. The latter played a significant role in the types of crimes committed and treatment of crime in general. The genes of modern woman predisposed her to desire social status (just as in the past) but to shy away from overtly aggressive behaviors to attain her goals. In the rare cases where unattained goals resulted in a woman resorting to criminal methods these were almost exclusively non-violent

white crimes

whose sole purpose was to gain greater social status and wealth. However the number of women committing such crimes was small: only a fraction of 1% of the population. The obvious solution, prison, was rejected as relatively expensive to establish and maintain, and ineffective in deterring future anti-social behavior. Instead, the solution provided by the

World Federation

was to re-institute slavery in the form of the

Servitude Laws

as the punishment for all crime.

What had been expressly frowned upon in past eras was seen in the 23

rd

century as the single most effective deterrent to crime. However, this new slavery differed significantly in its application from that in past instantiations. Gone (for the most part) were the whips and chains, the brandings and physical mistreatments. These were replaced by public humiliation and a period of indentured servitude to the victims (or society). Relatively minor crimes were punished with public humiliation or short periods (anywhere from a day to a year) of personal service to the victim (where applicable) or public service. More serious crimes were punished with longer terms of service and the most severe crimes with a lifetime of service and an (almost) complete loss of rights. In the latter case, the offender effectively became a

slave

in the traditional sense of the word and was typically sold at public auction to the highest bidder with the proceeds used to compensate the victims and the government.

Indentured servants however were not completely without rights. Physical abuse for the most part was forbidden and under no circumstances could an indentured servant be physically injured, mutilated, or killed by her owner. In fact, the rights guaranteed to indentured servants varied with the severity of the sentence. Women sentenced to terms less than their lifetimes were termed

servants

while women sentenced to a lifetime of service were called

slaves

with the rights afforded each varying accordingly. For servants having short periods of servitude, most, if not all, legal and civil rights and personal freedoms were retained; the only obligation being to satisfactorily complete the service within the prescribed period. In general, however as the length of service increased, retained legal rights and freedoms decreased. For sentences lasting several years, the servant effectively lost most of her legal rights as well as her personal freedom. For

slaves

, all except the most basic rights to life and limb were lost as well as all personal freedom.