Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  Audrey felt as if she was being lectured, she had heard similar speeches by her foster-parents her entire life. Her Hokupi father was a doctor, and he often made reference how so many of their fellow Ailanians had become “chronically ill” of body, mind and spirit. She recalled how he often complained that the hospitals could not cure these “chronically ill people.”

  Aunt Ulu’s voice seemed to get louder. Audrey began to pay attention with curious interest as the stern old woman said, “Take for example, Ronald Harris’ mother…well for starters, she was fooled, by her husband, an immoral man, into believing that he was worth a damn. But according to the tenants of Moralism, that is not an excuse, in the eyes of the Moralist, every single one of us has to accept responsibility for the mess we find ourselves in. That woman was in the same situation as millions of other Ailanian mothers, the fathers of their children are nowhere in sight…all of her life, that young woman had known nothing but immorality and dependency, and the only real belief that she could muster and sustain, was the one that led her to conclude that she was ‘a victim of the system’, and that, ‘she was owed something.’”

  Audrey suddenly realized how she hated what the old woman was rambling on about as she blurted out, “Could you tell me anything else about Captain Ronald James Harris? Was he angry with Moke before he left for Earth?”

  Ulu looked down her nose at her and said, “Agent Winters, please do not interrupt me…there is only one way for me to answer your questions. Before I was a High Senator, I was a Judge in the Ailanian High Court for forty years. Do you realize how many people have stood before my bench with the belief that they were owed something by society? These are people that give no moral arguments against things like self-centered, criminal activities such as producing and selling drugs, or stealing, or even killing their fellow Ailanians in order to get what they believe is owed to them by their society. They truly think that the system is holding them back from the success that eludes them. We must stop them, no matter the cost. And if Captain Harris and Captain Kalapana, the two men who are supposed to be an integral part of stopping these drug producers, cannot get along to do the job, then you must do whatever it takes to make them work together. I don’t know, nor do I care, if my nephew is happy or unhappy with his old friend…just as long as they do what they are told, that is all I care about.”

  Audrey realized that her patience with Moke was running out. She had enough time to think of what her gut feelings were really telling her. “Moke is not telling me everything…he’s hiding something…what could it be? What is he not telling me?”

  Ulu’s dark eyes narrowed with anger as she spoke, “These are the things that we must focus on, Agent Winters. We must provide the citizens of this planet, with force if need be, a guiding purpose in life. We shall hopefully soon become aware of how everyone in this world has a purpose, and that the direction of their life, should be guided by a moral cause that is bigger than they are. Today, my nephew is a good example of someone, who has a higher purpose in life, and it is a good purpose. We all play our role, Agent Winters. We all have our purpose…sometimes, we stray from the path that we were meant to follow in life. As it turned out, sending Ronald James Harris to Earth was exactly what needed to be done in order to ensure that Moke Kalapana did not stray from his intended path again. And if they had some kind of…falling out…before I made my decision that cannot be…”

  Audrey felt herself snap to attention. “What happened? What was the reason for the end of their friendship? How did it happen? What happened? Will you please tell me?”

  Ulu simply stared back in a stoic manner and replied, “What does it matter, Agent Winters? If you asked that question to my sister, she would tell you that everything about a person’s personality is found in its purest base form when a child is five years old. If you observe the behavior of five year olds, it’s almost as if watching a simplified version of all humanoid behavior. Small children will play with each other, in pairs, for ten minutes, and then proceed to get angry with each other, for some egocentric reason, and not want to be friends for five minutes. And then, after those five minutes are up, they will play together for twenty minutes. And then, after getting angry again, they will not want to be friends for ten minutes, and so on and so forth well into adulthood. Who knows why it happens, that is just the way it is…you should just really leave it at that, Agent Winters. As long as these two men can work together, just long enough in order to do what we have ordered them to do, our plan to help the Moralist cause will succeed.”

  “Yes, but in this case…” Audrey suddenly bit her lip and thought, “I think Moke has his own plan that he doesn’t want anyone to know about…”

  Ulu interrupted her, “Again, Agent Winters, I must remind you that we Kalapanas are royalty, and thus we must set the examples…my family has many secrets, some of which are centuries old. The secrets that my family must never tell, could even affect the future of our world. Please trust me when I tell you this, Agent Winters, sometimes…it is best to let the past, remain in the past.”

  Location: EMS Signet.

  Standard Ship Time: 1800 Hours.

  Jhett Jonez stepped out of the crew’s shower room feeling refreshed. After Bloke had let him out of his containment unit and revived him from the coma, Jhett felt the need to take a long, hot shower. He took an extra- long time while he washed his hair and shaved the stubble from his face. He took his time drying his muscular body. After snooping around the locker room, he found a decent set of clothes that fit him. The pants were made of a thick, black fabric and were probably worn by someone when the ship’s engine or other hardware needed to be maintained or fixed. He found an extra-large white T-shirt and ripped the arms off in order to accommodate his bulging muscles. He found a pair of black leather work boots that fit as if they were gloves and he immediately took a liking to them.

  When he emerged from the locker room, he took a sharp left and proceeded down the hallway until he found the ship’s galley, where he found Bloke sitting at the table, using a large knife to cut the meat from one of the dead crew member’s arms. Bloke didn’t look up as Jhett entered the room. He just kept to the task at hand. Jhett felt a bit of queasiness boil into his stomach as he watched Bloke stick the slice of muscle into his mouth and swallow it whole.

  “You know…you could….cook that,” Jhett said in a low, patient voice, “they do have a stove.”

  “But I’m hungry now,” Bloke said. “I’m feeling protein deficient.”

  “I’m sure they have other provisions on board.”

  “These assholes were all vegetarians,” Bloke said as he sliced off another piece of arm. “All they have for protein…is tofu.”

  “Individualism, the pursuit of self-interest…Lord have mercy,” Jhett said as he rubbed his temples and shook his head. “You just don’t give a shit what people think, do you? Well, when you’re done with your…meal, could you please assist me?”

  “I’ll be ready in about twenty minutes….want me to save you a piece?”

  “No, I’m trying to cut down,” Jhett said and walked out of the room with a straight face. He turned and began walking toward the control cabin. The door was open when he got there, and the room’s occupants, were just as he left them. Jhett’s thoughts became vengeful, yet contemplative as he looked at his prisoners, “Someday, we shall be allowed to see what is truly written on the hearts of men. Someday soon we will know if their actions the result of principles and honor…or were their choices made because all they know are shame and cowardice?”

  The bound men became immediately frightened.

  “Herb! Bronson!” Jhett said in a happy voice as he strode into the room. About an hour ago, Jhett and Bloke had retrieved the two terrified men from their containment units. Herb seemed to be a bit more stressed than Bronson, and was currently struggling against the locking restraints that held him securely to the pilot’s seat.
Bronson had his head leaned back against the co-pilots seat and was breathing very heavily.

  Jhett walked between the two chairs and leaned up against the control panel. He crossed his arms and smiled at the two men he had securely fastened into place, just before reviving them from their comas.

  “How are you boys doin’? Are ya comfy? I bet you weren’t expecting this to happen, were ya?”

  Bronson shook with fear as he said, “Look, Jhett…I dunno what is goin’ on here but…”

  Jhett raised his left eyebrow and said, “But I gotta let you explain a few things to me, right?”

  “Look! I didn’t know Makula was going to go after Loko Kalaheva like that! I didn’t know anything about what was really happening on Ailana! I was just a consultant! Honestly, I don’t know what the hell happened! I didn’t know that white haired bastard was going to get involved in our plan!”

  “I thought as much. Well, how about you, Herb?” Jhett asked in a kind voice, “Is there anything you wish to tell me?”

  “Listen, I didn’t know anything about this shit either!”

  Jhett said impatiently, “Herb, you might want to know that Bloke is in the galley right now, eating the remains of the ship’s crew. You’ve been such a good employee in the past? Why the bullshit all of the sudden?”

  Herb showed his teeth as he said, “Look, you were taking so goddamned long! I was beginning to panic! He came to me!”

  “Oh he did eh?”

  “Yes! He was gonna kill me, Jhett! He was gonna kill us all!”

  Jhett narrowed his eyes as he said, “so you thought you’d save your own skin by ratting out Bloke, Skelter, Strife, Lynch and not to mention myself, to that murdering bastard did ya?”

  “What the hell could I do?!” Herb yelled in a voice that sounded like it was on the verge of tears.

  “Ya know, Herb, your turncoat attitude really makes me sick,” Jhett said as he crossed his arms. “I mean, we had a good, solid plan. We delivered the goods we brought in with us…because of our efforts those dude, who were playing soldier of fortune out in the jungle nearly choked off Makula’s Makani supply. The whole idea was start a gang war AFTER we had collected all the Cutz we stole from Makula. Thanks to my brains and Bloke’s brawn, we had collected all of the goods we needed to haul out of there, and we even got hooked up with a very nice spaceship, courtesy of Rex Broadstein’s misery and woes with the Ailanian bureaucracy. We were well on our way to having a monopoly over the Cutz production on Ailana…all we needed to do was hope the boys in the jungle would grow and harvest some Makani exclusively for us since we gave them the weapons they needed to keep the gangs out of their jungle villages. Then, all of the sudden, shit goes hittin’ the fan…and you two cowards start panicking and making deals behind our backs in order to save your own skin! Well, look what it got ya…”

  Bronson shouted in pain, “Jhett we had no choice…”

  “Oh there is always a choice!” Jhett slammed his fists down on the control panel as he said, “tell me this Herb, did the guy in the trench coat happen to mention who he was really working for? The Military usually does not require such chaos and mayhem to bring fugitives, such as ourselves, to justice. And we’ve done all sorts of jobs like this before and never once did we have a run in with that white haired, secret agent man…why is he doing this to us now? What is he really doing on Ailana?”

  “I don’t know what he’s doing or why he’s doing it!” Herb yelled and began to sob. “Ya gotta believe me, Jhett! Ya gotta believe me! Oh come on, Jhett…let’s all just shake hands and make up! Look man, we got ourselves a ship now! We can dump all the comatosed prisoners and turn this thing into one hell of a piece of pirates’ equipment! We could be at Balkner Space Station in a matter of days. We could get work and start making some dough again. We can forget this shit ever happened!”

  Jhett remained quiet for a moment as he found himself lost in thought. His mind seared with images of the man in black standing over him. Jhett felt his heart beat increase with feelings of fear and loathing as he thought about the images the man in black had showed him before he shot him with the stun gun and placed him on this ship with a one way ticket to a maximum security prison on the edge of the colonized galaxy.

  Jhett rubbed his chin as he thought, “Marco got hooked up with Loko Kalaheva so he could obtain the capital needed to finance his plan. Someone else must have been looking over Loko’s shoulder the whole time…and they must have pieced together what Marco and Loko were up to. A plan to steal the planet’s Cutz production right from under the noses of the criminals, who invented the process, now that would be worth causing some major chaos over. Someone is up to something. But it ain’t just about moving drugs…it’s got something to do with The Prisoners of Paradise. The Evil…they knew about The Prisoners of Paradise…and Marco got to know some of those geeks in The Evil…he told em’ he’d steal those bombs for them if they stole him some money from Loko Kalaheva’s accounts. The man in the trench coat…he showed me something…something about where the money in those account came from…Loko got that money from…”

  Jhett’s eyes suddenly opened wide with surprise as he made a mental connection.

  “Oh my gods…”

  A moment of silence fell upon the control room as Bronson and Herb nervously looked at each other.

  “Jhett,” Bronson said sheepishly. “What’s the plan here?”

  “We’re going back to Ailana, Herb,” Jhett said carefully. “We were somehow duped into setting the stage for something tragic to occur on that planet…we could be talking about the deaths of millions of people here. Plus, I have a ship and a large wad of cash waiting there for me…and if the event, which I believe is gonna happen, goes down there after all…everything will be lost.”

  Bronson struggled against the restraints as he said, “Ah man, to hell with Ailana! It’s someone else’s turf now! We don’t need to go back to that bullshit planet!”

  Jhett closed his eyes and sighed with a bit of anxiety and guilt as he thought about what was going to happen on that lonely, backwater of a world that no one else on this prison ship seemed to care about.

  “You’re right, Herb,” Jhett said as he stood up straight and began to walk out of the control cabin. “We don’t need to go back Ailana…however, I do.”

  “What are you gonna do, man?!” Herb whined. Tears were running down his face. “What are you gonna do?!”

  Jhett felt himself involuntarily blocking out Bronson and Herb’s pleas for mercy as he became lost in thought. He couldn’t shake the images in his head that the man in black had put there, right before he and Bloke had gotten caught. He couldn’t ignore the thoughts of guilt as he realized he knew about something important, something that he just couldn’t keep to himself.

  “Goddamn it,” Jhett said to himself as his thoughts became consumed with images of blue skies becoming red with flames and the sounds of millions of screaming people being burned to death. “I shouldn’t have to do this…none of this is really in my self- interest. I should just do what Herb is suggesting and run away from this…destiny…that I have been recently been made aware of.”

  “What do ya say, Jhett?” Bronson said in a pathetic, whiny tone of voice. “Screw Ailana, nothing good can happen if we go back there…just untie us. Let’s go raid the liquor cabinet and make cocktails till we’re so drunk we can’t see straight. We don’t have to make a decision about what we’re gonna do, we can sleep on it!”

  Jhett saw a final image enter his mind as he whispered, “Sleeper cell…”

  “Are you listening to me, Jhett? Fuck Ailana! We don’t have to go back there!”

  “Are you kidding me?” Jhett shouted, “Something really bad is gonna happen! That’s why we have to go back there!”

  Herb looked a bit shocked as he said, “you don’t need to think about those people on that planet! You only nee
d to worry about yourself…and US of course!”

  “Just sit tight, boys…I need some time to think about what is truly in my own self-interests here…and I can’t do that with an empty stomach…even if all there is to eat…is tofu.”

  As Jhett walked, he could hear their panic stricken breathing all the way to the end of the passageway.

  Location: EMS Rousseau…The kitchenette in the Officers’ Lounge.

  Standard Ship Time 0800 Hours.

  “Where did you learn to cook?” Patrick asked as he watched Harris work in front of the stove.

  Harris was somber as he said, “Sometimes I have a lot of free time that needs to be filled in constructive ways.”

  “Oh,” Patrick said while he sipped his coffee. He had nothing at all to do today, so he was more than happy to oblige Harris and ask him some questions. His voice became inquisitive with a sexual tone as he said, “There’s been rumors floating around this ship. As I understand it, you… have made a new friend.”

  “I guess you could say that,” Harris replied dryly.

  “How is she doing?”

  “She’s doing really well. She’s now officially reached middle age. Well, in terms of the treatment that is,” Harris said. “She actually looks quite good now. She can sit up in bed and walk around some. She’s on solid foods now…and she once told me how she loves pancakes. I thought I’d surprise her.”

  Patrick teased Harris as he said, “I saw you walking her down the hallway the other day.”