What Freedom Means

[tiger]

The office was reasonably comfortable. The others in the room were the lead investigator, the Doctor, and two people whom I had never seen before. One was a judge, and the other was Master's lawyer. There was also a camera and an audio recorder in the room as well, which the judge started. He started into a speech mostly concerning the recording equipment then started the hearing proper, which lasted for about two hours. The lawyer tried to present a case of the property (me) misbehaving, and that Master always took care of me and that I was generally more freedom then what was required. The investigator and doctor countered with the abuse allegations, the fact that I was generally not permitted to socialize either with the public or with other Morphs.

The end of the hearing was to the point: My indenture was to be transfered to the state department for reassignment or resale. Master would be compensated for it's fair value, minus any fines that arose from the secondary hearing for abusing a sentient creature¹. The hearing was over, and I was escorted out of the hearing room. The doctor led me to his ofice where my case was, and drove me over to a farm that had been converted into a boarding house. It was explained to me that it had been purchased and converted for use as temporary living quarters for morphs in such situations. I was led upstairs and assigned a bunk and a locker where I could store my things. I was then instructed that tomorrow I would be tested to see what skills I possessed and see if there was any indentures for a morph with my skills. With that, I crawled into the my bunk and went to sleep for the evening.

Little did I know that the next day would be the start of a whole new adventure for me.

To be continued.

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¹: Although created being are treated as property, the fact that they are sentient means that they are granted some rights and protections. Hence, the Department for the Welfare of Created Beings was created to serve as an overwatch to ensure that Morphs were treated with a minimum of respect and dignity that all sentient beings deserve.