On the planet all women fled, except old ones who can not have more kids. Their laws are cruel to women, so the women left.
note: sorry if it is not worded well, English is not my first language. -- Anon Guest
[AN: You do wording very well for someone not familiar with English. It's a hard language to learn. I've been at it almost 50 years and I still don't know how it all works]
It didn't happen overnight. It just seemed to. Those in charge only noticed when it was their harem that suddenly emptied of all worthy bodies. Only the Nurses were left. Old, sagging, wrinkled Nurses.
It was an epidemic.
Regardless of the security systems. Regardless of the armed guards keeping them in check. Regardless of every precaution. Estate by estate, the women vanished.
In the face of such a crisis, sacrifices had to be made. Those in positions of power demanded that their thralls surrender any wyf in their possession.
There were none.
Even the bawdy shops, where the ugliest and least worthy had all but the essential parts removed[1], were vacant. All that were left were the old, the sagging, the wrinkled... the infertile. Those who were useful only in caring for the youngest of them all.
All male babies were left where they were, under the care of those Nurses. And the leaders were left to wonder what the hell had happened.
An investigation had to happen. The full authority to find out what really happened. And then report only to the leaders so they could decide how to spin it for maximum profit.
What they found was an escalating series of crises that had been ignored, downplayed, dismissed, and covered over until it was literally too big to ignore.
Something emptied the bawdy shops, and the leaders thought it unimportant because they never used a bawdy shop.
Something took the wyfs from the lower-caste slum-rises[2], and the leaders dismissed it because it was lower caste. Replaceable in every aspect.
Something took the wyfs from elevated castes, but none were leaders or people of import. The leaders told them to source new wyfs from elsewhere. Some high-ticket trading went on, but little else changed.
That same something took every wyf from harems all over the ivory towers of the ludicrously rich. Not overnight, because they were all locked up in the gilded fortresses at night. They vanished in broad daylight, as they were exercising and maintaining their tans.
Gone in a blink. Faster than the guards could react. They didn't see anything. They didn't know what happened. By the time they could get through the barriers that kept them apart from the wyfs... they were all gone.
There was even a song about it. Where have all the young girls gone?
The polity of Goldenage did not know.
The Galactic Alliance did.
Tinker Zhen had fooled about with her Hungry Caterpillar to serve as a form of mass rescue, and programmed small vessels to take up dozens of people in peril at a time. With a large enough ship to carry them all, an entire cruiser's worth of people could be rescued at once.
If it were two cruisers, the fleet of rescue drones could prioritise the ones in the most medical distress.
And with a little bit of tweaking...
Goldenage was an unauthorised test. The overpopulated Deregger world had plenty of people in medical distress. And they all happened to be women. Even what Goldenage called "suspicious men" were taken during Zhen's testing of her new system.
An entire planet's worth of surprised, shocked, and suddenly freed people. An entire planet's worth of the unwanted, under-valued, and unimportant.
Zhen had an unoccupied Havenworld for them, and a small crew of Mediks who could do what they could for those... "chewed up" by Goldenage.
Goldenage was infuriated. The Alliance could rightfully claim that this was an action by a rogue "lone wolf" acting without proper authorisation. Whilst also implying that proper authorisation could happen to other Dereggers if they didn't behave themselves.
The freed expatriates of Goldenage settled in to their new world with a sigh of relief, and did very well for themselves. With the help of a lot more "lone wolves" who acted without any authority but their own ethics.
The United Deregger factions would soon learn all about "quality of life".
[1] This is phrasing it delicately. There are some punishments that are in themselves crimes, and also best left to a horrible imagination.
[2] High-rise slums. Think "tenement housing" but infinitely worse.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Vlue]
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