The agrarian citizens of Salinas Prime were bemused by the spacer who landed in their midst with a shipful of orphans that he claimed would make instant families for them and be useful contributors to their colony.
"These are good boys and girls," stated the man from EIEIO. "We don't want to see them on the streets, getting involved with a bad element. That's why Judge Falkner created this program, so that these fine young people will have warm, loving homes and opportunities they won't find on Earth."
A lifetime of being shuffled around from one institution to another had given Riddick a bone-deep mistrust of its workings. He figured working on a farm beat the hell out of getting shoved around--or worse--in Rehab. I'd rather do hard work than do hard time.
First, he had to convince these plow-pushing yahoos that free youngsters really were a great deal. He could have asked a nominal fee for transportation, but that might've raised their suspicions, not to mention excluding perfectly good candidates.
I haven't hauled these kids halfway across known space for fun and games. Not just anybody can have one of my orphans; I'm gonna do right by them.