An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) by Thomas Gondolfi

outright . It would ’ ve been faster . I didn’t even get to tell my side of the story .” The ramrod Tony received involved only standard operating procedure for those his society deemed misfits or criminals . He’d seen and approved of it in others . Now they turned it upon him . All of a sudden its injustice rankled .
    “ I guess that makes me a hypocrite ,” he muttered. “ Well, girl, I can fight this . I think it ’d probably cost me somewhere around forty thousand credits to get my case heard in front of a judge . Then another quarter million to get any kind of impartial judgment .
    “Now with all this severance pay Nanogate ’ s throwing at me, I probably could scrape that much together by begging and borrowing from friends, maybe a loan from the labor union and another from the Justice Department .” He watched as Cin toyed with a thread from a n antique wool throw rug . “But what am I going to do in the five years it ’ ll take to get to trial ? What would I live on ? Where would I live ?”
    Tony picked up Cin when she managed to pull the thread into a runner . He looked her right in the face . “Worse, my case isn’t all that powerful . Oh, possession of a personal vehicle and resisting arrest would be easy to beat, but practicing medicine without a license — that’s a horse of a different color . I ’ve got several hundred people , not to mention the TriMet sensors, w illing to testify that I helped save the old woman , but that’s about it .”
    The kitten licked his nose and gave him a nondescript m eow . He put the kitten down . She wobbled off to find more fun , the runner forgotten .  
    “Even if the court rules in my favor, nothing would happen . Nanogate and Council Crest Tenant Association would be bound to do nothing . My only compensation would be an almost clean record —almost, because there’d still be those who think I bought the verdict.
    “I guess then I could try and find another position with another corp , but it’s very unlikely anyone would take a chance on me . Knowing Mitch Anson, he took out a full page ad in the Post , the Time s , and every third - hit banner on the net about my morals . So the odds of getting a new job rank right up there with getting a nice warm wind on Pluto .”
    A crash issued from the kitchen . Tony went in to find an open cabinet, and Cinnamon sitting in amongst pots and pans scattered on the floor.
    “Hmm . Seems like you ’ r e having an interesting adventure, Miss Cin .” He began picking up the cookery .
    “I guess I could just accept what’s happening . My money and status will be sucked away . All I can do now is go dig in a mine or something equally pleasant . And that’s assuming I could find something at all . I ’d have to live on welfare in a commune — or worse, a relocation camp . No health care, recycled food to eat .” Tony continued to confide in the cat and shuddered as he put away the last pot .
    “Another choice, if you can call any of these choices, is to chuck everything and out-migrate . But, most colonies require specific skills or a huge quantity of money — more than I’ll ever see in my lifetime . The only other choice I’ve got is to settle on one of those colo nies where you need genetic and prosthetic manipulation just to survive .
    “And then there ’ s being boxed, probably the worst of the choices … ”
    Getting on the floor with Cin and dragging a sock around as bait for her fun, Tony considered his other options . “If I cashed out, I could disappear as a Nil — with no identity and no status . I could do that before they sold my home . But as a Nil, I ’ll have no rights . Anyone could take my property or my life away, just because they felt like it .”
    The rest of the day drifted by . While listening to the soothing vocals of the legendary Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso, he slapped some mayonnaise on bread, following it with salami, turkey , and some accidental horseradish .