“Yes.”
“We’ve got to there.”
There was an exercise period just after dawn, when Paragon and Anders managed to sneak over to a small shed that lay just off the fence on the inside. Paragon had tools in his pocket, so he could open the lock to the door. They hid inside the shed, and didn’t go back inside the block when the exercise time was over.
“Paragon’s plan worked because the Bastytjaks never keep count of the prisoners.”
“No. A few more or less doesn’t matter to them. We are only perceived as a single pool of souls.”
Shortly after that, a new row of prisoners were on their way over to the mine. There were a few guards in front and a few behind them. In the meantime, Paragon and Anders had loosened a few boards in the shed’s back wall, so they could get out and on to the road. Once outside, they stepped out from behind the shed, and mingled in with the prisoners as they marched by, to hide among them.
No one was surprised that the two remained silent. There were many languages represented on Taurus X, and none of the detainees would reveal the two new ones. After all, there is always unity among prisoners everywhere.
Therefore, no one noticed when Paragon and Anders slipped away from the group and over to the bushes at the foot of the hill. They hid there until the group had passed completely, before sneaking up to the link tower.
At the foot of its pole, sat a cabinet with cable clasps, which Paragon quickly opened. The small handle he always carried around for opening locks without door handles worked beautifully, to Anders’ surprise. Luckily, some elementary solutions are extremely versatile.
Inside the cabinet, there was a sea of wires, but Paragon felt at home.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll link two laterals to those outlets there.”
He took his pair of wire cutters and removed the plastic insulation off two pieces of wire.
“And now?”
Paragon touched the two loose uninsulated copper wire ends together. A spark flashed.
“Be careful. Isn’t that dangerous?”
“It’s not high voltage. Now we have a Morse key.”
“Morse Key?”
“Yes, one of the skills I learned in Basic Supervision of Electronic Equipment course, at night school, was Morse code. It consists of literal symbols consisting of dots and dashes or short and long sparks. The advantage of the communication is that it is extremely robust to reach the receiver and not destroyed even over long distances, and the signal gets amplified along the way. Now don’t distract me.”
Paragon started sending his appeal for help. Who would be listening and whether it would reach its proper recipient, was a big question. But, in fact, they still used this technique in quite a few places. If the signal would be picked up at a single point, a responsible radio amateur would feel it his duty to send it on to the proper authorities. That is an un-written law among all radio amateurs in the universe.
After a few minutes, Paragon had completed his SOS and unspliced and removed the plug wires. He closed the cable cabinet behind him.
“There! Now we can only hope for the best.”
“They may also intercept the signal in the guard office here on Taurus X.”
“They may, perhaps. But, even if they do, it would be too late to stop us from getting help.”
“I guess so.”
“More than that. I would go so far as to say that I hope they register my distress signal in the prison planet's headquarters.”
“You can’t mean that, Paragon!”
“Yes, I do. There’s no reason to believe that the management at this place is corrupt. They have received payment for the storage of prisoners, and they perform that function in good faith. However, if they suspect they have helped to support a comprehensive illegal action, the case might be different. Then they would go to the sponsors and require an explanation. A prisoner planet cannot bear to be associated with criminal activity, and certainly not something with large interstellar ramifications. It would ruin their honor and reputation. Even prison planets have that.”
“Well, maybe. We’d better hide in the bushes to catch the next group coming back from the mine.”
“No, we’ll just go straight back in all openness.”
“Do we dare?”
“Are you afraid they won’t let us in?”
“Well, no. But we might be apprehended.”
“Well then, I will gladly take this opportunity to tell them how things seem to fit together.”
“Hmm….. Then let’s do just that. We should try to catch the attention of guards outside our block.”
“No, not that. It might be more sensible to stick with our soul companions. They seem to need us now more than ever.”
The two companions went back to the prison annex and crept behind the wire fence through the hole in the rear wall of the shed, without being detected. Then they went over to the gate into the prison block. Not being received kindly didn’t surprise them.
“Where have you been?”
It was a pointless question, because no one thought that the souls could understand their language. When Paragon didn’t respond, the guard figured they belonged among the inmates. “Well, get back with the others, this instant!”
They did so without objection.
“I just hope the message will get home in time.”
“Yes, and that they take it seriously and react to it quickly.”
“Now we’ve done what we can for the moment.”
“Yes we have.”
Chapter 23
PRISON REBELLION
Peace rested upon the prison planet. The time was after dark in the rhythm of day the planet. Everything went on normally, but only apparently. There were changes along the way, and they had been going on for a while.
There are always various tensions existing side by side when larger groups must stay close together for a long time. Taurus X was no exception. An astute leadership is aware of these tensions and can at best know how to exploit them to their advantage. If one can promote antagonism between groups of prisoners, that causes more pressure and steam to come from the boiler, which threatens to explode. So, the whole system will shake to its foundation.
Therefore, there was constantly a strategic incentive to direct the inevitable tensions away from the prison’s management towards other groups of prisoners. Management was quite pleased that they had succeeded in implementing these tactics over a long period.
Taurus X had a problem, though. When many life forms from distant parts of the galaxy reside in one place, there is a problem with opposing circadian rhythms. Some creatures have rest periods up to half the day, while others only need to rest a tenth of the day, and their own planets’ days did not have the same overall length of the prison planet.
Circadian rhythms for each life depended upon the velocity of the home planets and their associated moons, and they could not change. Some adjustments necessitated adherence to the particular life forms’ built in circadian rhythm.
Therefore, the prison administration had to divide Taurus X into sectors, each with its own circadian rhythm. Up in the Security Service headquarters, there were 27 different clocks showing the time of day in each sector, and which daily rhythm was in force currently. A difficult logistical problem was caused due to the requirement for occasional communication and exchange of material and service messages between sectors.
Virtually all attempts at prison wide revolt happened when most of the sections were in their local night mode. Certainly, there were constantly staff members awake in the administration wing, but all were tuned to comfortable routines, related to whichever life form they belonged.
Therefore, one would expect that he could relax a bit more during resting periods in most places. But those periods are precisely the times when supervisors and guards should be extra vigilant. This is fact is well known. But almost all creatures become complacent with routine. Therefore, it should
come as no surprise to you that a new prison revolt was developing just as 21 of the 27 time zones found themselves within some portion of their rest periods. They did not revolt in Yellow Sector, as The Gluvarpes, Malfides and Sponklates were well controlled under the same administration, as they had been incarcerated longer, and management could better anticipate their tendencies. I am not sure what you intended in the previous sentence.
The rebellion obviously had a cause which had triggered it. Here it was the Malfides’ home planet, which had changed the law, placing certain large groups of inmates into prolonged imprisonment. This, of course, would result in mass protests. The planet's leadership was well aware of that inevitability. But, perhaps, naively, they hoped it would not have adverse effects. They assumed they would be able to handle whatever protest actions would occur. It was some time since the new legislation had been introduced, so they thought they would avoid a reaction.
Then it happened that a group of political prisoners among the Gluvarps were scheduled to suffer from another change in policy. Current conditions weren’t much worse than they had been. But the political winds on their home planet blew in the direction that their people were to be punished with deteriorating living conditions. There was collective harassment and their free companions were hated. Soon, their freedoms were restricted and their property confiscated to cover budget deficits caused by war costs, for which they were blamed.
This naturally increased the hatred among the portions of Gluvarps, who belonged to the hinterland, but also other Gluvarps who sympathized with them.
As Gluvarps and Malfides constituted the vast Majority of the inmates in Yellow Sector, the mutual bitterness grew to a point where the pressure needed an outlet. It was, thus, a poor strategy to house large amounts of those two species in the same sector. There was no greater or lesser chance that a prison revolt would succeed at this particular time, but the inmates didn’t care. They had just had taken all they could, and something had to give. It was probably no coincidence that it happened just at the time when most other prisoners slept.
Over in the 'Soul Cabinet', which the block where the souls stayed was jokingly called, Paragon and Anders were on their way to find Chris.
”I wonder where he's gone?”
”Maybe over to see Victoria?”
They went over to look under the stairway, but there was no one there. Later they found him on the second level, where he had been questioning some soul groups staying there. Then Paragon and Anders approached him.
”You look a little worried, Chris?”
”I am.”
”Well, it’s understandable. We all are. Do you have any additional reason?”
”Yes, Victoria has gone.”
Now Paragon became extra worried.
”Are you sure?”
”Yes, I'm afraid some Bastytjaks have led her away. According to what some of the souls have seen, the description of one of them fits Rumanol, the guard with whom Victoria thought she had tuned onto the same spiritual wavelength. I think she's in an isolation cell over behind the Bastytjaks’ guard room.”
”Then they probably have been able to detect and track her remarkable faculties.”
”Yes, there are indications to that. They probably didn’t intend to risk her finding out more of their secrets and leaking them to others.”
”No, they could easily come to believe that would pose a security risk.”
Anders objected.
”But we can’t do anything about it anyway.”
”A security risk can also cause an additional problem. If a panic-like anxiety were to spread through a large group of prisoners, the Bastytjaks may well lose control. And, of course, we are many times more numerous than they are.”
”You’re right. And we should probably encourage that - don’t you think?”
”Maybe. But it could also end up dangerous for us.”
Chris sounded skeptical.
”Perhaps it already is. If they can read her thoughts, they’ll know that she’s already informed us, and they’ll come to abduct us.”
”Should we try to nip that in the bud?”
”You mean by creating panic?”
”Well, what do you think?”
Over in the other end of the large room an unrest had spread among the soul groups. It seemed to increase.
”Maybe that development will us. I wonder what's happening over there?”
They went over to the groups discussing among themselves.
”What's wrong?”
”There seems to be a prisoner uprising approaching.”
”Where?”
”Reportedly over in the Yellow wing.”
”It’s one of the largest sectors.”
”This could become serious.”
”Chris and Anders, come with me.”
”Now what, Paragon?”
”The Bastytjaks are on their way towards the initiation compound in Yellow wing.”
”I can see that.”
”We can use this opportunity to examine the guardroom.”
”Do we dare do that?”
”Do we dare not?”
”You’re right. Let’s sneak over there.”
Outside the guard room they stopped. The door was ajar, but there only seemed to be a single guard back there. Paragon switched on his transmutator.
”Come out here.”
From inside the guardroom came a reply.
”Anything happening?”
”I don’t know... Maybe.”
The guard came out and he got a whack on the neck with the handle of the broom Paragon had seized on the way. It broke at the blow. The guard collapsed.
”Take his key ring.”
They quickly ran through the guardroom, and then over to the other side of the room, where a door led to a narrow corridor. The corridor was sparsely lit. But down the corridor, there was a door to one side. Paragon looked into the room. There was Victoria.
”Victoria!”
She didn’t hear anything, as she had returned to her place “the right one. Even when the door opened, she didn’t react. Chris “ to go over to her and touch her as he had done earlier, before she perceived someone else had entered the cell.
”It may be you have acute senses; but it’s difficult to get in touch with you in an ordinary way.”
She got up and went out with them. They walked down the corridor. Chris was concerned.
”Have they been hard on you?”
”No, not at all.”
”So they will not take revenge on us for the knowledge they have gained?”
They didn’t say anything about that. They were more interested in finding out if they could learn more about us so they could talk in more detail with us.”
”It could be either good or bad. They will certainly try to persuade us to go along with their plans without complaining too much.”
Paragon had now found a key that fit into a locked door down the corridor.
”This way.”
They walked down a stone staircase and came out into a paved courtyard between several wings. There was dusk outside in the circadian rhythm, which belonged to the planet Taurus X, itself.
Over in a corner of the yard, four prisoners stood smoking long sticks that emitted a greenish-brown smoke. The creatures were yellow-orange with long tentacles and a broad head on a short thick neck. The four walked over towards them, and Paragon switched on his transmutator. It calibrated into a language it sensed, from its memory bank. He turned the box to its “two-way translate” setting, and spoke.
“Hey, who are you?”
“Some alien knows our language?”
“We’ve come from the soul wing.”
“You look like the same species as the guards there.”
One of the others chimed in.
“They look something like the prisoners as well.”
Paragon had to tell them why.
”They are Bastytjaks - a life form f
rom Cassiopeia. They have arranged it so that we look similar to them. But we come from planet Earth. I don’t know why, but I think it's because the Bastytjaks have something underhanded going on, which they desperately need to keep secret.”
“So you come from Planet Earth?”
“Yes, in a way.”
“So! Visitors from The Whipped Cream Planet.”
Paragon didn’t know if the transmutator box translated correctly, but he could reuse the word and perhaps be retranslated the same way.
“The whipped cream planet?”
“Yes! Don’t you know your planet’s reputation around The Cosmos?”
“I guess not. Why is it called that?”
The prisoners laughed. A few of them took some tremendous puffs from their yellowish-green stinking sticks.
“Because you lead such an enjoyable life there. I met some half androids once who knew about the living conditions there, and they were excellent. No luxurious conditions were unknown on the planet. Everything you could dream of and which you asked them about got confirmed. They always answered immediately. 'Yeah, we’ve got that, too. Haven’t you?' It was just before you were annoyed hearing this. Those luxury creatures took it almost for granted that everyone else had it just as comfortably. Almost insulting I dare say.”
Paragon had to admit that the story could well be true.
“I see what you mean. Many other life forms are quite envious when they hear what they have accomplished on Earth. I can understand that. Most souls would prefer to be reborn there, if their share of the cosmic consciousness has reached that level.”
”We understand that only too well. In a way, it’s because those rumors have spread, that it’s possible to arrange that we are here as prisoners today.”
”Really?”
”Some of our local leaders had informed themselves on the conditions on Earth. They had discovered that one could avoid the worst repression and the worst inequalities. You could get things to work, even though all pretty much had their freedom of thinking and expression. In addition, they had also managed to eliminate most epidemics, as well as the most terrible governmental strategies, such as dictatorships and one party systems. Unbelievably, freedom of religion had also been introduced. Most of the creatures had a bearable life, and in many places there were not entirely unjustified differences between rich and poor.”
Paragon- Ghost Hunters Page 19