Rebirth Page 9

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  One hour earlier, the ageing starship Constellation had left the troubles of Earth behind to begin its seven-day journey to Persephone. The ship had been bought by the Church of the Universe some twenty years ago to convey its followers to the many colony planets that it had set up in the Milky Way galaxy. It had originally started out its life as an Ore carrier/freighter but as it aged it became more expensive to run, and so its owners had been happy to sell it at a very low price. Apart from its cheap price, it had been bought by the Church because of the size of its holds. The inside of the ship had been altered to make it suitable to convey a large number of colonists in one trip, along with the many things necessary to set up a colony.

  Colonies comprised of many different sorts of people, some were running away from Earth and its many troubles. One such trouble was the battle to keep the population from growing any larger, but as the main religions still forbid contraceptives, only stricter and stricter controls linked to harsher punishments finally brought the population of Earth down to below ten billion people. This amount was now dropping even faster as the poorer people could no longer afford the rising child producing taxes, or the risk of the punitive punishments for those who could not pay the taxes. The majority of those who chose to pay are forced to work seven-day weeks, with no holidays at all, so as to be able to afford to bring up their child, and for two children you needed to be extremely well off, and two was the limit set by the Government. If the parents, or indeed the adults, who could not afford a child, managed to reach the age of eighty, most did not, they could retire, if they had a private pension. If they did not have a private pension then they were forced to carry on working, unless they had someone willing to take them in and provide for them. Many died from the strain of working for so long before they reached this age. These were the main reasons why so many people chose to become new world colonists, and to travel far away from their homes and their families.