Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode 8: The Sting #9

Lannister watched as the press assembled in the pressroom. He was slowly learning the political dance and how to spin bad news into good, but today was likely to take all of what little skill he had. Worse still, it looked to be a good crowd.

He should have expected as much. The number of reporters who came to these press conferences waxed and waned not so much with any real news, but with any and all rumors milling about on the surface. And the rumors had been thriving for the last couple weeks, rumors of brothels and red-light districts that made it seem like the entire station was about to become one big sex palace.

He had no sooner completed the mundane news of the day before the questions started. "Is it true that there's going to be a brothel on the station soon?"

Lannister paused and then spoke with as much emphasis as he could. "Within the Consortium, certain licensed individuals are allowed to provide certain personal services beyond what would be legal on the surface."

"Like prostitution?"

Not wanting to use that word in public, Lannister said, "Personal services of a sexually explicit nature, yes. Licensed individuals," he repeated. "And there has been some discussion of whether those licenses apply on the station and whether businesses that employ such people should be allowed. The station itself has not approved any such businesses; however, the Shoshone Collective is not under direct control of the station nor of the American government, but instead answers to Consortium law in this matter."

"So, there is going to be a brothel?" A voice called out. "In the Shoshone Collective?"

"Their counsel is meeting about that," Lannister said. "I assume they will make their own announcement shortly, and I would refer such questions to them." Lannister swallowed. He was not cut out to play the undercover cop, but that was just another duty of being ship captain, at least in this case. "The station itself is still discussing how and when to honor service licenses that include these more explicit kind of services. And we have not reached any final decisions yet."

He thought he would have to find a way to lead the conversation here, even though Jack had scoffed at the idea. Turned out, Jack was a better judge of human character than Lannister. Sure enough, a reporter asked, "So what about Americans? Can American citizens get these licenses?"

"Within the Consortium, there are specific guidelines, including health and psychological exams," Lannister said. "There are people available on the station who could help any interested individuals about that." Hint dropped, Lannister return to his primary message. "Again, we are not approving brothels, red-light districts, or any wholesale prostitution. This entire debate has been about individuals who have met certain criteria and are licensed to provide certain services."

"And what about the courtesans? Will they be allowed to continue operating?"

That had been a much easier compromise to work out. "As some of you may know," Lannister said, "courtesans within the Consortium provide a wide range of entertainment and relaxation services. Explicit sexual services are only a tiny part of their day-to-day operation. As such, we will continue to honor their licenses and their profession, but we have asked them to show a certain amount of discretion and respect for our rules about the more explicit services."

"For those who aren't familiar with what the courtesans do, can you elaborate?" a young journalist asked.

"I anticipated that there would be some questions," Lannister replied. "And I've asked one of the station's courtesans, Chandiramani, to be on hand." Lannister turned the press conference over to her with a grateful sigh. She seemed more than capable as she talked the journalists through what you could expect when visiting a courtesan and the kinds of services they provided. She also proved quite adept at dancing over some of the more controversial services. "Really, from our perspective," she said, "your society seems to be incredibly black-and-white when it comes to sex. Whereas ours is far more fluid. At what point does a sensual massage become an erotic massage? And at what point does an erotic massage become sex? For us, the answer is simply this—what does it matter? You and I negotiate a service that I am happy to provide and you are happy to pay for. Does the state have a vested interest in knowing where we personally draw those lines?"