The law defined anyone with less than one half Sirusian DNA, as Colonial Labourers. Colonial Labourers had different employment, property, and civil rights. They could not own property on Soma itself, nor equity in Sirusian listed companies. They could not work on Soma, and access was carefully regulated. They could, however, be signed to Indentured Contracts. These could be up to 1/5 of the length of that species lifespan. The years left on the contract could also be sold on to other employers. Indenturees usually entered into an indenture for a specific upfront payment; a wage; sometimes just transportation to a new planet, a new start; or to meet a legal obligation, such as debt bondage. In some cases, the indenture was made with a spaceship’s master, who sold the indenture to an employer in the colonies. Many contracts for work on new planets involved a share in the profits, and others would be offered a piece of land on the planet after the contract was completed.
These were the Irin, the backbone of the Sirusian workforce, and almost all the work in the Colonies was done by this group. Runaways were usually sought out and returned to their employer, though word spread quickly about who were good or bad employers, and this, more than the contracts themselves, tended to drive the market. A network of feedback ensured that planets with dangerous working conditions, disease, extreme conditions of heat or cold, or cruel owners, were soon blacklisted, and securing labour became virtually impossible.
