Slaves
A commodity found on the F8 markets screen.
As the most ubiquitous spacefaring species, humans prefer humanoids as slaves.
Various other races also put a premium upon humanoids, but they would rather have human slaves.
Traded in TCs & stored in the Cargo Hold for trade. The price includes the special container with life support installed.
Illegal to transport unless protected by special Navy or Gal-Cop permit.
Ethics
The ethics of slavery were circumnavigated in some versions of Classic Elite which titled them "Robot Slaves" instead.
For those concerned about the ethical issues involved, try out the Illegal Goods Tweak OXP which, while introducing a new penalty for docking with contraband on board your ship, does allow you to hand them/it over and receive a small recompense in return.
Other concerns involve eating slaves (eg. lobstoids), the functioning of the slave trade, the existence of anti-slavery societies, etc.
New Cargoes OXP
New Cargoes is an OXP which allows trade specifically in such items as budget tourists and lobster slaves.
The major specific variants of the slaves commodity are
- Budget Tourists: While it is illegal to transport tourists and other passengers in cryo-suspension in your ship's hold, this does provide a cheap way for people to see parts of the galaxy they could otherwise not afford. The high risks involved mean that Galcop is unlikely to decriminalise the practice any time soon, but even with the danger money paid to the hauler, it's still cheaper than a berth on a real liner.
- Avian slaves
- Feline slaves
- Frog slaves
- Insect slaves
- Lizard slaves
- Lobster slaves
- Rodent slaves
Links
OXP's
- Illegal Goods Tweak OXP - enables AI to enter your Ooniverse, greeting you when you enter a system with slaves on board (Capt. Murphy 2012-20)
- GalCop Missions OXP - allows AI to send you on missions freeing slaves (Phkb 2017-21)
- Escape Pod Slave Fix OXP prevents scooped escape pods from only holding slaves (Phkb 2018).
- Free The Slaves! NGO - an activist non-Galcop organization (NGO) which will nag you if you accidentally buy slaves at a Galcop station.
- Refugee Adder - some of these are slavers rather than refugee carriers.
- Mining OXP - buggy - managing slave-run mines
Lore
- Amnesty InterGalactic (AI)
- S.I.R.F. - read the background
- Erlage - see the OXP's: Famous Planets section on the Erlagian slave corridor
- Larivear - see OXP's: New Cargoes entry
Discussions
Note that Commander Maegil spent years dreaming up a Spartacus Brotherhood oxp which never got off the ground, but featured in early discussions.
- Passengers == slaves? (2006): what are slaves?
- Free the Slaves (2007): Programming issues
- Emancipate the Slaves (2008): the thinking that led to Illegal Goods Tweak OXP
- Freeing Slaves (2010): Dogscoff's Anti-Slavery Union OXP & Phantergorth's Free Slave OXP.
- 2012 list of earlier discussions on freeing slaves.
- OXP Missions regarding slaves (2015): Do you find slaves in Anarchies or in Corporates?
- Announcing Schlongs of Elite v1.0 (2015): Ideas for emphasising the morality of dealing in slaves
