For her part, Tayrey took Ava's cynicism for damage. A spacer sees some of the worst of humanity. Warmongers, thugs, pirates - even ordinary people driven to do terrible things as their colony collapses around them. The difference is that people like Tayrey don't just accept that violence and corruption is inevitable. They stand against it. They demand better, and put their own lives at risk to stand against the evil done by others. They lead by example, living by their own values and expecting the same from those around them.
Tayrey tries, even after all she's been put through, to extend to every stranger the benefit of the doubt. To see the best in them and offer peaceable contract unless she's given a reason not to. That's how you create a better sector, you act as if it's within reach.
'I'd have hated it,' she confirms, 'but that doesn't matter, because you didn't ever have a free choice about it.' Which means Tayrey can't think badly of her for what she did.
What about those old Company values? It's hard to think back to being twelve. It seems unimaginably long ago. 'I adopted Tradeline code when I joined, but a lot of Company values were the same. People made a lot of the differences - ideas of loyalty don't match up, for one, and Tradeliners have a lot more restrictions on our own freedom and some of that grated, but the core values align. My father taught me life-and-liberty-and-property when I was very young. I guess I cared a lot more about voting rights back then, and colonists' Charters. Tradelines aren't democratic.' Tayrey shrugs. 'It seems absurd now that I got asked if a Company girl could ever adapt to the Tradelines. The two are more similar than... well, than anything I've seen from out-of-sector.'
She forgets the points where she'd struggled with adapting, because those difficulties were overcome long ago. She'd wanted to be a Tradeliner badly enough to make it work. Now she looks at Ava, curiously. 'So what would you call your own core values? Not the ones someone else gave you, unless you made a choice to keep them. The ones that matter to you now.'
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Tayrey tries, even after all she's been put through, to extend to every stranger the benefit of the doubt. To see the best in them and offer peaceable contract unless she's given a reason not to. That's how you create a better sector, you act as if it's within reach.
'I'd have hated it,' she confirms, 'but that doesn't matter, because you didn't ever have a free choice about it.' Which means Tayrey can't think badly of her for what she did.
What about those old Company values? It's hard to think back to being twelve. It seems unimaginably long ago. 'I adopted Tradeline code when I joined, but a lot of Company values were the same. People made a lot of the differences - ideas of loyalty don't match up, for one, and Tradeliners have a lot more restrictions on our own freedom and some of that grated, but the core values align. My father taught me life-and-liberty-and-property when I was very young. I guess I cared a lot more about voting rights back then, and colonists' Charters. Tradelines aren't democratic.' Tayrey shrugs. 'It seems absurd now that I got asked if a Company girl could ever adapt to the Tradelines. The two are more similar than... well, than anything I've seen from out-of-sector.'
She forgets the points where she'd struggled with adapting, because those difficulties were overcome long ago. She'd wanted to be a Tradeliner badly enough to make it work. Now she looks at Ava, curiously. 'So what would you call your own core values? Not the ones someone else gave you, unless you made a choice to keep them. The ones that matter to you now.'