The judge in the center hung his head in shame for a few moments.  When he looked up at Ulnor there were tears in his eyes.  His mouth quivered as he spoke. 

“Mr. Gangst, you are the bravest man I know.  You knew there was the possibility of execution if you dared liberate a single slave.  But you have liberated enough to occupy an entire city.  If you weren’t a man of God, I would consider you arrogant and maybe deserving of death.  But you are doing something I must admit is right.  We should no longer have to depend on slaves to do many jobs.  Your exchange of humans for synthetics and their excellent work for their masters has indicated to me that maybe it is time we liberated all slaves and exchanged them for synthetics.

“We will go back to the Capitol, discuss what has been said in these hearings with the Imperial government, and give our recommendations.  We can’t pronounce a sentence of death on you.  At least I can’t and I believe my associates concur.  Instead, we will recommend that you help us continue the transition from human slavery to the use of synthetics.  In the long run, it will be cheaper and better.  Those who have never lived in dignity and freedom may finally be liberated as a people.  Thank-you, Mr. Gangst.  You may return to your home and continue your salvation efforts while we discuss the matter with government leaders.  And if you have been able to get away with exchanging humans for synthetics for over a decade, you have my personal blessing to continue that effort.   You may have broken the law.  But it may be well past time the law was changed.’

The judges stood and the central judge said, “You may stand and return to your home.  This court is adjourned.”

Ulnor returned to his home and continued his work as if nothing had happened.  More slaves were exchanged for replicates and others were scanned for duplication.  Three days later, a video message arrived at his house.  It was the Emperor himself sitting in his royal conference room with his ministers at the conference table.

“Mr. Ulnor Gangst, the judges that were sent to Brankenforn have given me their recommendations and I must say you are indeed a brave man.  And you are also very wise.  We should have realized decades ago that human slavery was antiquated.  We have used synthetics in the place of humans for nearly half a century.  But human slaves were available, so we used them as we use them today.