World Peace Initiative
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on the Poseidon and ready to return to Earth, Mark could tell something was bothering Rayven. Figuring it was because he had left her on the ship today, he apologized for not taking her to the surface.
Rayven just hugged him and said that wasn't what was upsetting her, as she started describing the call she just had with Annabelle about an hour ago, "There had been a situation at the Port of Atlantis with a couple going through security. The man went through security first and, as soon as his wife removed her head covering, it was clearly visible that she had been beaten, but the shocker was that the 'wife' was a child. The man made a scene, security took him into custody, the girl went into a medibed, now she's cured and she doesn't want to go back, obviously, but the man hasn't actually committed a crime on Atlantean soil and he is technically her legal guardian. How can a 'civilized' planet such as Earth allow such an atrocity to happen?"
Mark said, "Sadly, not all of Earth is civilized and that practice is criticized by almost every country on the planet, it only happens in a few areas. Annabelle's probably a mess too, I think we should give her a call!"
As he and Rayven went into his office to make the call, Mark notified Adam that something had come up on Earth and he needed to make an important call before they engaged the FTL drive.
On the way, Mark asked, "
Cricket, what
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s the process for underage refugees?
"
Cricket replied, "
I
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ve already talked to Annabelle, there are refugee laws, but basically this child falls under the vulnerable persons or persons at risk law, despite the fact that her legal guardian is her abuser. Those laws don
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t require a person to be a citizen or of age. The catch with minors is that she has to be cared for by a government approved sponsor or organization until she reaches 16 years of age, although she can take the citizenship test as early as 13 years of age. She has already requested help and we have photographic and video evidence of her abuse. So we don
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t have to give her back, but we do need to setup government monitored care for her.
"
As Rayven sat in Mark's lap at his desk, they made the call to Earth and Annabelle answered from one of the parks near the palace.
Annabelle breathed a sigh of relief and a big smile came across her face, "I love you! I'm so glad you called! Did Rayven tell you what's happened?"
Mark said, "Rayven told me, but I'd like to hear it from you, just in case she missed anything, because she is pretty upset about all this."
Annabelle then outlined the sequence of events, "I'm sorry I upset her, I didn't mean to. There was an incident at the airport just after 10:00 when a young girl removed her head covering when going through security. Everyone could see that she was just a child that had been badly beaten, as she pleaded for Taryn to help her. Her 'husband', if you could call him that, got mad and tried to break into the security booth. Security locked him up, while medics took Imaren and put her into a medibed. Just after lunch, Imaren came out of the medibed and security escorted her to the palace and my attention.
After talking with Imaren for a bit, she told me that her mother had died a couple of months ago and that her father had recently sold her and her older sister.
Cricket told me that she fell under the persons at risk law and that we didn't need to give her back, but we did need to setup a government monitored facility to care for her until she is 16 years old, so Solara and I came up with some ideas and, while she was working on a design, Imaren and I decided to go outside and relax in one of the parks.
Since the man hadn't actually committed a crime on Atlantean soil, they released him around 13:00. He, of course, immediately asked where she was and they told him she was being cared for at the palace. He took a lift to the city centre and damaged everything he could in the interior of the lift along the way, so security was waiting for him when he landed near the palace. When they told him he was under arrest for damage to public property, he started causing another scene. It's a good thing the lifts auto-reset the interior between trips, as he totally wrecked the interior of the lift.
As we left the palace and were walking to the park, the man spotted Imaren and started threatening both of us. It wasn't until he said, 'That bitch is my wife! I've paid for her! She belongs to me!', that I approached him, and thanked him admitting that he paid for her, as that made her a slave... regardless of what other names he might call her. Slavery is illegal in the Federation!
I then told him to enjoy his cell until his flight back to wherever he came from could be arranged.
After the man had been taken away, we went to relax in the park, hoping you would call... and here you are!"
Mark then outlined, "You don't need to actually create a refugee care facility, I mean we really should probably create something, but it's not a priority, as long as you can find someone to foster her until she's 16. I would say, for now, give her one of our rooms in the palace, until we can find someone to be a foster family."
Annabelle then had a big smile, "Maybe mom and dad would foster her!"
Mark nodded, "That would be awesome if they did!"
Annabelle widened the call and introduced Imaren to Mark and Rayven. She was a pretty little thing now that all her bruises had been healed and she had a big smile, knowing she was finally safe.
Annabelle then asked Mark, "Any ideas on how to locate her sister?"
Mark said, "Hi Imaren, you don't have a picture of your sister do you?"
Imaren said, "No, I wasn't allowed to have any possessions."
Mark asked Cricket, "
We have the technology to see people
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