For the next several weeks, Jael worked with her patient on a daily basis, helping him rehabilitate from his injuries as Jahn's leg wasn't the only thing wrong. The blow to his head had also slightly affected his motor skills, but as she worked with him, they quickly returned to normal.
As the rehab moved along, Jael did her best to explain the way things worked on the planet of Vondume. She told him the planet was colonized about 1500 years ago by some long defunct mining corporation, but when the ore proved to be too low-grade to make it worth transporting from so far out on the Outer Rim they abandoned the project, although not before shipping in several large nerf herds.
When the company decided to leave, many colonists chose to stay thinking that the nerf herds would sustain them, knowing full well that they may never see another freighter from the Republic again. The nerfs didn't do very well in the climate as it was warm, dry and arid, with little water or vegitaton, and as ranches failed and farmers failed to grow enough crops in the rocky soil to satisfy their colony, and the number of people who couldn't pay their debts began to grow.
The makeshift government did the only thing they could. They bailed out the people who were in debt, in return for manual labor on government projects, building dams, canals, roads and buildings.
In time, the population grew and a vast gulf began to seperate the wealthy from those who had nothing. The government bailout became mandatory once it was determined a person couldn't pay their debts in order to keep the labor force stocked. Rarely did anyone ever pay off their debts and usually died after years of hard labor, indebted to the government. The debtors became little more than indentured servants.
It didn't take long before the rich wanted in on the action too, and the government was only happy to oblige, allowing private citizens to then buy off an individual's debts from the government, thus making the debtor beholden to whichever person or company bought them.
It had all started out innocently, but by the time it was recognized what had truly happened, only the rich were left in charge and there was no way they were going to change it at that stage. The only thing that ever kept the debtors from rising up and revolting was the vegetable dangling on the end of the string, the hope the could one day pay off their debt for good.
The problem was that the few who actually managed to do so quickly found they had worked themselves out of a job and a home and often became destitute, living a miserable existence on the streets or would find a way to get back into debt, just to have somewhere to go.
Jahn couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Legalized slavery?" he asked incredulously. "That's madness."
Jael shrugged. "It's reality. The thing is, it also ensures that people work hard and get an education so they don't end up a debtor."
Jahn agreed that it might have its benefits, but in his mind he could easily think of dozens of ways to corrupt a system like that, and if occurred that quickly to him, it had probably been thought of by others long ago. He was willing to bet just about anything that there was a whole world under the surface that Jael didn't know about.
As the weeks passed, and Jael helped him rehab, the doctors often came in to check on him to make sure he was progressing and they always seemed pleased. They also seemed to wonder why Jael was spending so much time with this one patient. A few times he caught them asking her if she had other patients to attend to, or they seemed surprised that she was working that day.
The big man didn't mind. The sooner he got out of here, the better he'd feel, and besides, he enjoyed her company and the fact that she was easy to look at didn't hurt matters either.
Finally, the day came when the doctor entered the room and told him he was well enough to leave. "You've made an amazing recovery, faster than we expected."
"I had a good therapist," Jahn Dhoe said, smiling over at Nurse Thracen.
"I know you don't have your memories back, but that's something you'll have to work on from outside the hospital," the doctor informed him. "We can set you up with some therapist appointments in a few minutes but first..." The man in the white coat paused and picked up a stack of paperwork, then looked at Jahn.
"But first, we need to figure out how you're going to settle your bill."
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