The Greater Crime

I was just a kid then, way back when Minerva became an independent territory. I never thought I’d end up there, but I got it in my head that I wanted to be a regulator, probably from watching too many intergalactic dramas in my holo-vision center, and for some reason I thought Earth was boring, that freedom was to be found out there on the frontier. The plain truth of it is, there’s more order in the solar system the closer you get to Earth. So the Minervan colony out at the Pluto frontier is where idealistic guys like me go, with fool ideas of setting the world to rights and saving plain folks from outlaws and murderous space pirates.

I’ve been a specialist regulator here in Minverva for fifteen Earth years. Minerva was a Martian penal colony a century back and uses Martian time based on the short rotational period of Mars. I’m still trying to do the math to convert it to SET, standard Earth time, which is probably why curfew here always surprise me. Anyway, being a specialist regulator means I do my own investigating and set my own hours; we’ve got a group of a hundred regulators who work in pairs, but I went in for special training back on Earth, back when I thought I’d stay in the force there. Then when the space pirates hit Minerva, the Minervans got so desperate for law enforcement that I was able to name my terms before I headed to Minerva to work for them.

It’s not easy keeping the peace on the frontier, but not for any reason I ever imagined back on Earth. It isn’t the space pirates or outlaws that I worry about now. The space pirates aren’t the real threat to Minerva. No, I never would have suspected it, but it’s the trading companies supported by Minerva Corps who make the real trouble behind the scenes here on Minerva, and the worst part about it is, they aren’t breaking the law, Minervan or interplanetary.

I remember how it was only a few short years ago. There was an open trade policy among the outer colonies and Sol planets, and every colony, including Minerva, had big, bustling port centers and no curfew. Then some time back, the Minerva Corps took over the Minerva colony by buying out the major dignitaries with bribes. The Minerva Corps decided to regulate the trading and close the free ports so that now, every Earth year, the Minerva Corps reaps a fat profit in taxes. For the most part, they've completely revolutionized the Minervan economy, which used to be a struggling free market. Some say change is for the good, others say it’s the worst thing ever to happen to free Minerva, but at least the space pirates have moved on to maraud the Titan-Ganymede trade line.

I guess my biggest problem with the Minerva Corps is the curfew. The curfew was supposedly a way to keep people from working overtime and to give everyone more time to enjoy in the residential domes by forcing them to stop working past curfew. And maybe that’s how it started, but the curfew isn’t just a friendly reminder to go home and spend an evening with your wife. The first announcement gives you exactly thirty minutes to make it to one of the gateways between the five business domes and the outer ring of residential domes; if you don’t make it through by the second announcement, you’ll be stuck in the business dome all night. That’s worse than it sounds. Because you see, sometimes, they’ll cut off all of the air on you.

It’s a good thing the regulators have special exemptions and special atmosphere packs, or I literally wouldn’t be here, talking so cavalier about the matter. The truth is, I’ve worked on patrol in the business dome after hours. It’s dangerous for anyone to stay there when the system decides to clean or cycle the air for possible space pirate biological weapon attacks, or more likely when the air is diverted to other areas, back to the residential areas, to save money. Air is, after all, the only thing more precious than water and soil out here.