Switching Gears
Min changed gears. The 'Monger's databases were enormous; containing everything they had uploaded from the planets they destroyed. It was messy to search, nothing connected to anything else. That was a good thing though, it meant she could copy and delete anything she found without it being missed. She looked for Earth news from 30 years ago. Self-important upstarts in galactic history, they sent their news everywhere in the assumption someone, somewhere, cared. Now someone did.
She found nothing to do with Furyans. In thirty years the word never appeared. Fury was mentioned once, in passing, relative to it's demise at the hands of the 'Mongers. Earth debated briefly amongst its nations about getting involved as more planets fell, but passed defense initiatives instead. 'Let 'em try that shit here' was their response as they increased their military 1000 fold across the board. It served them well, she supposed, and she rather liked their attitude. Earthlings understood power and mythology. When not warring with other empires they practiced amongst themselves.
She switched gears again, looking for Riddick, specifically.
'Nine-Year-Old Convicted Of Murder.'
Headline news, all right.
'Richard Bennet Riddick was convicted today of the stabbing death of his legal guardian, 68 year old Bennita Abrianna Riddick, in her home in the Lower West Side, New Chicago, of the United American Conglomerate. Riddick becomes the youngest juvenile sentenced to an adult penitentiary in that state in 20 years. He will join others in the new underground SuperMax prison opened in that state this year dubbed Murderer's Row by locals. Yankee's fans call foul.'
Cold-blooded killer? Psychopath? Something wasn't adding up. None of those names were Furyan, who was Bennita Abrianna Riddick? And why did Riddick kill her?
Min searched more broadly.
The Lower West Side was apparently not a nice place to grow up in. Min started to notice a pattern. Children, not the locals who knew Bennita Abrianna Riddick and sung her praises at Riddick's trial as the neighborhood grandmother who had treated them all so well, but transient children, had been disappearing in that area for years. She found article after article about 'street kids' gone missing and the authorities that had no leads.
Authorities who were cracking down on crime around the spaceport in 'New Chicago' had no time to look for children who probably just moved on with their transient parents, the articles bemoaned.
Then, the articles on that subject stopped almost entirely.
Min went back and re-counted. Between 15 and 25 children a year, depending on the news source, had been disappearing for over a decade... the same length of time the spaceport had been operational.
Min's intuitiveness leapt to one simple conclusion: slave trade.
Slavers avoided the 'Mongers. The 'Mongers had more than once 'confiscated' slaver ships in space and added their contents to the breeder ship and laboratory roles. Almost always children of varying heritage, almost always orphans.
It didn't explain how a Furyan ended up as far away as Earth. Or how he ended up in the hands of a black market slave trader in the guise of a friendly neighborhood grandmother. It did explain a Furyan with the unlikely name of Richard Bennet Riddick.
And it explained how Riddick himself ended up in prison so young.
Had he figured out what she was doing? Or had he simply gotten big enough to sell? Or both?
Min went back and searched the public record of his trial. It was never mentioned. Apparently he never said a word to anyone during his trial. It had saved him from execution; the judge felt he was incapacitated in some way and not responsible for his actions. Not that it saved him. The rest of his convictions were murders that took place in various prisons after he had been sent into space as part of a labor crew and escaped. His recapture record got spotty over the years as he got better at what he did best.
He survived.
She smiled to herself. She definitely liked this man.
The voice in her head was silent for once.