The Ethical Way

Members of an advanced alien race harvest survivors from a radioactive, post‑bomb Earth and transport them to estates where they are legally designated as personal and laboring slaves, justified as an ethical alternative to outlawed thinking machines. The narrative follows selection, transport, and the imposition of a slave code that regulates workhours, reproduction, education, and welfare, showing administrators amending rules to manage dissent and practical problems. The piece explores how moral language, bureaucratic reforms, and purportedly humane measures are deployed to normalize and disguise systemic exploitation and domination after a catastrophe.