Even the air you breathe is sponged from my account. Well, breathe deep ... so later you might remember the taste.
—Andrew Ryan, BioShock
So I get to thinking, we're paying for oxygen when we got photosynthesizing trees... Hell, we can even sell the extra to the rest of the city and undercut the other guys. Ryan will like that for sure — Fontaine's people have moved into the O2 biz tooth and claw.
—Julie Langford, BioShock
Six weeks into her involuntary tenure on Faraday Station, Cynthia Feuerwerker needed a job. She could no longer afford to be choosy about it, either; her oxygen tax was due, and you didn’t have to be a medical doctor to understand the difficulties inherent in trying to breathe vacuum.
Gustav Marconi, a career Coalition bureaucrat on the station, decided to implement a 3-percent handling surcharge on shipments passing through the station in hopes of raising the bottom line. Less than 5 percent of the Belters buying their air from Anderson were living bottle to mouth, so just under fifty thousand Belters might have to spend one day of each month not breathing. Only a small percentage of those fifty thousand lacked the leeway in their recycling systems to cover this minor shortfall. Of those, only a small portion felt that armed revolt was the correct course.
Which was why of the million affected, only 170 armed Belters came to the station, took over, and threw Marconi out an airlock.
Which was why of the million affected, only 170 armed Belters came to the station, took over, and threw Marconi out an airlock.
—Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck, Leviathan Wakes
