Intergalactic Summit

Don't insult us by trying to rose-tint slavery, pilot.

I'm prepared to accept that it's not as wide-spread and prolific as I had thought, but if you think there's anything "holy" about treating another human being as property, then your definition of holiness needs to be thrown in the incinerator.

Service to a higher cause willingly given by a free person is one of the most valuable things in all the worlds.

Serving a higher cause because if you don't, you suffer, shares none of that nobility. Not a scrap of it.

Ah, a question I can answer, thank you Miss Rella!

Unskilled labour is not a commodity of great value in the State. We've never had huge amounts of it available and so our industries are just not set up to make great use of it. Certainly, I'm sure we could find work for these people - breaking rocks, for example, but it would be useless busy work. We would be compensated for it at a very nominal level.

Yes, they could be trained to operate complex machinery - most of them are ship's crews, after all - but this would open our industries up to the possibility of sabotage. In addition we just don't know how long they'll be in custody for, since there is no fixed or minimum term they'll be with us.

Thirdly there is a labour force shortage in the Kingdom. They don't have enough slaves to do the sort of labour that slaves do, culturally, within their economy. The Holders struggle to provide sufficient manpower to their retainers and the retainers struggle to modernise their economy. Modernisation is ongoing, but it may be a century or so before the Khanid industrial base is transformed to something more, uh, forward looking.

Hopefully the war and its prisoners will be LONG gone by then.

The final matter is one of the conflict of interest. I agree that I am not an unbiased or impartial observer, but when the news of this new program broke, a number of capsuleers came to me and demanded that I 'do something about it'. I told them I would no submit POWs that I captured to this program until I had investigated the situation for myself.

I did this and I make my report public, for what it is worth. Understand that this is me, personally, concerned about my image with people who are important to me. Pyre Falcon Defence Combine really doesn't care what you think of it, unless you're a voting shareholder. Their officers couldn't be more aggressively disinterested at your opinion of them, for the most part.

No, not at all. Whilst I'm sure they're rolling their eyes at what they consider to be appeasment, the Chairwoman gave her permission for me to do this.

The Question is then whose Puppet is Tali Ambraelle.

The Hatred directed at Pyre Specifically would suggest a Person with a Grudge against Pyre.
Recent persons with Grudges against Pyre could include elements of Alyxva Paradox, who recently fought a War with Pyre.
Less Obvious persons would include Persons who wish to Frame elements of Alyxva Paradox, because they have a Grudge against Alyxva Paradox.
Some Potential candidates for This sort of Subterfuge have been Identified.

Since being Identified as a Puppet, Tali Ambraelle has become Silent, having been Thwarted.

While I'll admit I'm not an unbiased party in this debate, I do feel compelled to point out that this change in policy on the part of Pyre stems from the failure of their earlier policy of "POWs will be repatriated, we encourage our foes to do the same".

When I say "failure", by the way, I mean "their foes largely did not do the same".

I would encourage all militia members chiming in on this discussion to give as forthright a report of the disposition of any POWs they capture - and what percentage they leave on the field.

This is key. The ideal, of course, from my perspective, would be for Pyre and Villore to stop shooting at eachother. Failing that, while I can't exactly bring myself to take Pyre at their word, they're the most transparent of any of the belligerents.

Really, I believe the Federation should not be lagging behind in the area of "humane war" -- to the limited extent that that phrase isn't an obscene joke.

Jailer. Not Slaver. Jailer.

And actually, my duties don't include supervising the work camps, so I'm not even that.

Well, we could gang up on the Republic...

Could work.
But first, we should gang up on the Federation.
This den of scum and villainy must fall.

Coming from a bleeder with a penchant for odd capitalization, I find your label to hold little value.