Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  He sighed as he realized that the computer in his skull had deactivated the robotic devices within his body and he was free to make his own decisions again. The man in black took little pleasure in realizing that if it had not been for his swift actions, these four people would have not been captured by these men tonight, or anytime soon for that matter. He stopped in his tracks as his supersonic hearing picked up a conversation that one of the well-dressed men was having over his com.

  “Sir, we have four suspects, one of them is Andrea…but we couldn’t locate Wallace or Ignesia.”

  The man in black felt nothing but disgust as he saw how the brutish men in the suits searched and frisked the helpless people he had helped capture. His computerized ears allowed him to hear a man with a square jaw saying, “Good news, sir! We recovered a computer disc from one of the suspects and it’s big enough to contain at least some of that stolen data we’ve been trying to recover.”

  The human part of his brain realized Van Dien was on the other end of the com and his voice seemed desperate, “He could only find four of the terrorists that we have been tracking? Tell him I need to speak with him! We have to find the rest of their terrorist friends as soon as possible, but some other urgent situation as come up. I’ve just found out that someone is trying to pull off some kind of illegal plan to make themselves rich beyond their wildest dreams. They are breaking the rules I must enforce and are stepping into territory that might endanger our operations on Ailana. I need to find these people or at least find out who their leader is! Get him on the line immediately!”

  The man in black noticed how the four young people being handled roughly as they were loaded into the hovervan. He saw the doors being slammed shut. At that moment, the man in black suddenly realized that he could now make a choice. This choice became easy to make as he saw how one of the well-dressed men was walking toward him, with no remorse on his face.

  “You bastards…” His mechanical heart pumped a bit harder as the human portion of his brain became a bit enraged, “I don’t think so, pal…you and I are going to have a long, heartfelt talk real soon about my working situation…but right now, I’ve got other priorities. Someone else has given me a much better offer for my much needed services. As for you fools…no cash…no kidnapping…no killing…enough said.”

  The man in black sensed how the well-dressed man had started to walk faster. He could see how the man’s face was expressing a sincere desire to convey some important information to him. But there was no time for chit-chat, he had a very busy night still ahead of him since his first target was more than likely out of range and would have to be relocated.

  “Gotta go…gotta make that money…that’s what this life is all about…with money comes freedom, and that’s all I want right now is to get rich or die trying,” The man in black thought as he raised up his arm. A metal stake, attached to a thin cable, shot out from behind his wrist. When it was fifty meters in the air, the metal stake splayed out into a three pronged hook, which landed on the roof of the building next to him and caught on a fire escape.

  Before the approaching human could get a word in edgewise, the man in black began to rise into the air as the mechanical winch in his forearm cranked him off the ground, allowing him to quickly disappear into the warm night air.

  Location: The A1 Laser Highway just outside of Polynea…Ailana.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 2240 Hours.

  The red-haired woman was mesmerized from the Cutz she had just smoked. She giggled as she said, “Oh my gods, mister! Not only are you handsome, you really do live a life of danger and intrigue! What are you, a secret agent or something?”

  “Shut up and let me think!” Marco was shaking as one of his associates handed him another Makani cigarette and tried to calm him down.

  The large man sitting next to him said, “What happened in there, boss?”

  “It doesn’t matter!” Marco shouted nervously, “What matters is we gotta change a few things in this plan of ours! Some shit ain’t right here…there is something happening on this planet that I obviously did not account for. And to deal with it, we just gotta make some slight modifications to our game plan, that’s all.”

  The large man shook his head and said, “I was afraid something like this was gonna happen, Marco…I mean, you have made a lot of deals, with a lot of different people, who have a lot of different stakes in the game here. What if we’re being played by someone we don’t know about? What if there is something else going on here that we’re not aware of? I’m just raising the possibility that we could be stuck in the middle of something really big here…”

  “Shut up!” Marco shouted and took a few quick drags from the narcotic cigarette, “I don’t pay you cyborgs to think! I pay you to do the heavy lifting and killing for me! Now you know I always have a backup plan just in case shit like this happens to us. We just gotta initiate our backup plan and get the hell off this planet as soon as we can.”

  “Well then, what should we do first?”

  Marco seemed infuriated as he said, “Well, Jhett, you metal-head, the first thing we do is find a place to go and hide me!”

  “Sorry…I guess that should have been obvious…I mean, you are the most important person here after all.”

  “Shut up! We don’t have much time!” Marco took another drag and said, “After I am safe, you and Bloke will deliver the last shipment of merchandise to our boys in the jungle. Then you, Bloke, Skelter and Strife are gonna track down my back-up packages that are hidden in the city. Bronson and Herb will tie up a few loose ends with our bad guy friends and then we are going to steal a spaceship and get outta here!”

  “Sounds complicated.”

  “Well then, let’s hope you and your mechanized brothers don’t screw up! We’ve got too much riding on this plan, Jhett! Don’t you guys go messing it up for me or else we’re all gonna end up erased from the Ailanian history books we should be rewriting!”

  Location: The A1 Laser Highway just inside the Polynea city limits…Ailana.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 2240 Hours.

  The government limousine flew towards the massive buildings that were lit up like space-aged Christmas trees. Over the years, the Ailanian capital city of Polynea had grown exponentially. The silver towers spired towards the darkened skies, almost in an attempt to escape the sprawling traffic of flying hovercars that swarmed around them like insects.

  Inside the government limousine, two Ailanian women sat across from each other, with stares of indifference and annoyance. The younger woman sighed and began gazing out the window, appearing to be deep in thought before she said, “The third world…”

  “I beg your pardon,” The older woman said in a harsh tone.

  “There are only two recognized planets within The Alliance, Earth and Aurora…the rest are colonies. You do realize that if Ailana is accepted into The Alliance, as a sovereign planet instead of a colony…we will be the third world…which, from my studies of ancient Earthen history, was a term once used by powerful, imperialistic nations to describe undeveloped countries. They were full of poverty stricken people that they considered to be savages and heathens, who’s situation the imperialists could exploit and allowed them to enslave those who lived in the third world.”

  “Kara,” the old woman sighed as she tried to relax and get a word in edgewise.

  “I’m serious, Auntie Ulu…we will be considered to be the third world no matter what happens. But if we become a recognized plant…we will at least be able to feel good about our exploitation by our imperialist masters…”

  “Enough!” The older Ailanian woman said with distain as she perched her glasses on her pointed nose while she looked at the young, Ailanian woman and said, “I decided that I should pick you up from the spaceport myself once I learned of your brother’s unfortunate circumstances.”

  “What has Moke done now that has displeased
you so much, Auntie Ulu?” The younger Ailanian woman said as she folded her arms and put on a defensive face.

  Kara noticed how her Aunt Ulu tried to hide her displeasure as she said, “As the Captain of the Ailanian CIA, your brother has made some tactical errors…but it’s not him I am worried about so much, Kara…it’s you.”

  “Why?” Kara said as she eyed her Aunt’s conservative dress and felt her distain for authority growing.

  Ulu sighed and said, “You are a Kalapana, young lady…you are of Royal decent and we are about to enter a period of history where this planet needs people, like you, to start putting aside some of these personal vendettas and ambitions that you have against our government’s way of doing things. Our government is doing the right thing.”

  Kara imagined how her Aunt sat in the High Senate, on a daily basis, doing things that caused young people, like herself, to develop their personal vendettas and ambitions before she said, “So, what you’re saying is…I need to conform…we all need to give up our individual desires and do what is best for the collective good?”

  Ulu was stern as she said, “We need unity, Kara…this world is falling apart because we lack unity and a common goal.”

  Kara stared out the window with contempt as she said, “Sometimes it’s so hard for me to believe this city is the result of a few dozen star cruisers that landed here…and never left. The humans were supposed to leave ya know. But after the so called war, with those so called, alien creatures…The Alliance decided that the strip mining and industrial farming they did during the war was too profitable to give up…so they stayed and built this massive city to support an enormous and unsustainable new economy…which, of course, gave us all kinds of problems after it all came crashing down. And now, you want me to give up my desires to improve my world?”

  “No,” The old woman replied. “I simply wish for you to go about making those improvements through more…legitimate means.”

  Kara exhaled angrily as she said, “Look out the window, Auntie Ulu. What do you see?”

  Ulu sighed with passion as she said, “A city…and even though it is plagued with social ills, it has the potential to be one of the most beautiful cities in The Allied Planets. That is, if we work hard enough to deserve it.”

  Kara said, “I see people out there who do not deserve what life has so randomly handed to them. I see enormous buildings…with the wealthy Elites living in the top floors of those towers…while the middle class, living below them, fear that they will someday be evicted by their greedy landlords and end up on the lower levels, or even worse, down on the streets below where the poor, neglected and disenfranchised try to scrape by living off the scraps tossed down to them.”

  “Oh please, so many of those people down there lost sight of the Ailanian dream because of the immoral choices they made with their lives,” her Aunt Ulu said gruffly. “Why do you still cling to these Liberal beliefs of yours?”

  “Because your politics make me sick!” Veins popped from Kara’s neck as she said, “You demonize people on welfare as Immorals, yet you routinely deny the common people of Ailana the chance to live their lives free from corporate and government interference.You demand the common people be independent of government assistance, but you deny them the opportunity because you are so busy helping the wealthy owners of powerful corporations rape our middle class and poor citizens! You are nothing more than hired muscle for wealthy people, who only wish to enslave the common man, so that the Elites alone can control all the wealth in the universe.”

  “Kara, please…”

  “Think about it, Ulu…freedom cannot exist on a planet where one percent of the population controls over ninety percent of the wealth! Freedom and democracy cannot be fully realized on a planet where rich, politically connected assholes have the ability to control the laws the government makes and enforces!”

  “Kara,” Ulu said as she shifted her legs nervously in her seat. “You are not a member of The Evil are you?”

  The young woman gazed at her Aunt with a bit of surprise as she said, “No! But there are days when I wish I could join their cause! However, I still haven’t given up hope that I could influence the government in more legitimate and effective ways.”

  “I’m serious, Kara…your brother just discovered a terrorist cell leader who seems to have followers with a radical agenda.”

  “And what is their agenda?” Kara giggled, “to be able to elect someone to a position of power who might say yes to some fresh, new ideas, instead of someone who keeps saying, ‘no, that isn’t possible because it goes against the ideology of the Moralist party and might affect the bottom line of those who bought us our elected positions within the government’?”

  “Kara…the members of The Evil do not have good intentions. You do realize that their desire to remove the rich and powerful elites of this planet from the equation of power on this planet could potentially lead to a Socialist revolution? Reflect on your ancient Earth history Kara, there are many examples of how groups of people, who envied the rich and powerful to the point of wanting them removed from their places of power and prestige, caused entire nations and civilizations to collapse? Governments must not punish and steal money from those who are successful Kara.”

  “Oh my gods? Are you kidding me? Stop trying to defend your trickle-down economics to me Ulu…most of the rich and powerful people on this planet got that way because they bribed the right government officials to pass laws which ensured they wouldn’t have to pay taxes, play fair, or pay their workers a living wage. Besides, what can these people in this underground movement really do? Are you scared the members of The Evil might create another computer virus that will write obscene words on High Senator Klunka re-election advertisements? That was funny how they put the word ‘asshole’ across his forehead by the way. Did they manage to hack into his election website and insert their educational material into his propaganda pages?”

  “This is not funny Kara…we have a feeling that these people are up to something…and if you have any involvement in their little, illegal club…then you had better cease what you are doing and sever any ties you have with these people.”

  Kara laughed as she said, “This is so like you, Auntie Ulu. We haven’t spoken in years and now you show up out of the blue and accuse me of being friends with people the government considers terrorists. These people are not terrorists, they are considered to be enemies of the state because The High Senate has failed to update the Moral Codes. We still have many wartime laws on the books that do not apply to our modern age. Did you know that during Earth’s ancient times, there were corporations, which made cigarettes that killed people? Cigarettes used to cause cancer and these corporations were still allowed to legally sell them because governments bought into the idea of free markets and Laissez-Faire Capitalism a little too much…did you know that?”

  “Kara, what does that have to do with anything? Tabaco is still around today, but our modern technology has made cigarettes harmless.”

  “Has our modern technology made cigarettes harmless? Or did the soulless media moguls of this planet get rich by accepting advertising dollars from Capitalists without any morals? Propaganda can make anything harmless, Ulu. Those with money can pay to make the public believe anything.”

  “Kara, please…the media and news outlets of this planet are not conspiring with Capitalists or government officials to do anything of the sort…”

  “Are you sure, Ulu? The point is that even back in the Dark Ages of Earth, corporations were allowed to create and sell harmful products, or overcharge people for services like health insurance, but in those days people were allowed to protest against those companies and boycott them. And they were actually allowed to complain to their government as a way to create change.”

  “Kara, our government is essentially good…”

  “The hell it is! Right now, on Ailana, we still have wart
ime laws that could punish people for telling their fellow Ailanians that The Hydroplantations are not only financially unsustainable but they sell the people of this planet an inferior, nutritionally unsound product, which actually causes their bodies harm. And since our government officials are allowed to accept undisclosed amounts of campaign money from the owners of The Hydroplantations, they essentially get to operate as government subsidized monopolies. Thus, they can legally put organic farmers out of business and declare those people in The Evil to be criminals when they point out how asinine and screwed-up our current system of food production really is.”

  “Kara that is absurd! Why is it that everything you Liberals complain about stems from a conspiracy theory, which the vast majority of good, moral people on this planet refuse to believe anyway? ”

  “Why is it that free speech is tolerated on Ailana, just as long as it doesn’t affect the bottom line of these huge corporations? That’s just frightening to some of us Ulu…and you should be afraid. The number of people who believe our so called conspiracy theories are growing with each passing day in which the good, moral people don’t see their lives being improved by a government who claims to be defending the Ailanian dream.”

  “I’m serious, Kara…it’s bad enough your brother is starting to irritate the wrong people in the High Senate…I can’t even think about what would happen if you…”

  “If I what?” Kara started to sound angry as she said, “You have always been more concerned about your political clout and well-being than anything else! Especially when it came to our feelings, concerns and beliefs! Our Royal duty was always your first priority, you never cared about how Moke and I truly felt about any of this bullshit that was being done to our people and our culture!”

  “Now you listen here, young lady!” Ulu’s voice became harsh as she pointed a boney finger at Kara’s face. “I am only trying to do what is best for both of you!”