by Aaron Frale
“There is a translation field covering the prison,” the bug said.
“What do you mean, I was under sedation?” Kal said. She still wasn’t sure about this creature.
“They sedate all criminals during interstellar travel.”
“I am not a criminal!”
The bug laughed. Unlike Sarge, the bug had a slow wheezing laugh. Kal still didn’t quite know what to make of laughter. She had no room for it. The nightmares of her village were too fresh in her mind.
The bug must have sensed that its laughter made her uncomfortable, and stopped. It reached out an appendage to comfort her. “Do not fret my dear. Everyone here believes they are not criminals, and you’ll find that some do belong here even if you do not.”
Kal pushed the thing’s arm away. “I do not need your sympathy.”
She turned to inspect her cell, finding two metal cots. One small cot for her and a large one for her buggy cellmate. The walls were smooth and metal, with bars lining one side. There were two toilet facilities, one for a humanoid of her size and another for something larger. The toilets were located in two coves on the back of the cell, providing at least a little privacy from her cellmate, though a guard standing on the other side of the bars had a full view of both coves.
“I don’t offer you sympathy, my dear. Only advice. You will find friends hard to come by in this place.”
“I don’t want your advice, either,” Kal snapped.
“As you wish. You could have had a worse roommate, you know. Grannork’s cell also has room for one more.”
“Oh yeah? At least Grannork probably won’t talk as much as you.”
“Grannork is Orcandu from the Tristar cluster.”
Sarge had told Kal about the Orcandus. They were brutes, and one of the few species that the Teristaques feared. They were massive creatures of pure muscle with a jagged horn on the center of their forehead and fierce, razor-sharp teeth. Almost every ritual in their culture was meant to induce pain. Rumors spread that Orcandus had miswired brains, and they experienced pain as if it were pleasure. Kal shuddered to think about what it might be like to share a cell with one. At least an old, disabled bug could be managed.
The bug finally gave up and dragged itself back to its side of the room. Kal traced the cold metal wall with her fingers. She thought about the village that she practically rejected, even though it had embraced her despite her differences. Now, she wanted nothing more than to be a part of it again. She thought about the warmth of her bed and the wood grain of the ceiling. She used to see faces in the wood grain and would make up stories about them. Now the ceiling was a smooth metal surface with no defining features. She could almost hear the humming of her mother from the kitchen as she drifted off to sleep.
_______
A loud buzzer sounded. A distant female voice garbled over a speaker. Kal fell out of her cot from the rude awakening. “Prisoners will proceed to formation for morning roll call. Prisoners will proceed to formation for morning roll call.”
Kal realized the bug was poking at her with its disgusting limb. “Get that thing away from me, or I will break it off.”
“You shouldn’t miss roll call. They don’t need to do it; we have all have trackers surgically installed. Roll call is just a ritual to remind us who is really in charge.”
Kal stumbled to the toilet to relieve herself. As she peeled off her prison jumpsuit, she noticed the scar on her chest for the first time. The scar was in the same location as the leaf Sarge had used to heal himself. Kal felt the bumps where her flesh had been seared together.
The bug was sliding itself out of the door with its slow shambling gate. “Hurry up. Hurry up. You make me look fast.”
Kal forced herself to stand. Her legs were still extremely weak. She felt as if she could barely move as she, too, shambled to the open cell door. Her earth brothers and sisters used to watch a comedy show of a figure that moved with the aid of string. She felt like one of those figures now: her movements were awkward and clunky.
“You haven’t used your body in a while,” the bug said. “It happens on long space flights.”
This wasn’t exactly how she imagined seeing the stars. On the outside of the cell, she almost fell off the railing into a deep abyss. Their cell was located in a large spiral of cells that seemed to stretch to infinity in either direction. The interior was bigger than any cave she had ever seen. She felt woozy at the size of the cellblock. Star species of all shapes and sizes trudged down the spiral walkway towards the bottom. Every being was new to Kal. Mother Earth had devised all new and wonderful ways to construct life. If Kal hadn’t been a prisoner, she would have been awed and would have wanted nothing more than to watch the creatures pass by.
Hundreds of Teristaques hovered in the center of the abyss on floating platforms. They all bore tattoos like the ones who burned Kal’s village. However, they must have been from a different faction because the tattoos were not an exact match. The Teristaques had thunder clubs similar to the ones who murdered her village. There was a commotion a couple of levels up, and a few of the Teristaques hovered over to break up the fight with quick and brutal force.
Once the progression of star species made it to the lower floors, Kal saw the prisoners banging on the cells near the end of the line. They weren’t the barred cells like the one she and her cellmate shared. They were solid metal doors with only a small food slot on the bottom.
“Why are they doing that?” Kal leaned over to the bug.
Her cellmate looked back, “Don’t let anyone know you’re new; they will target you. But if you have to know, the last few levels are the cells for Teristaques. They get their own cell block because most of the prisoners here would kill a Teristaque for sport, even if it meant the rest of their days in suspension.”
Kal wanted to ask more but kept quiet. She banged on the Teristaque cells as she passed, enjoying her moment of tormenting the Teristaques. She hoped that every bang would horrify the occupant of the cell. She imagined the Teristaque cowering in the corner, and it made her feel good. She was far from the peaceful path her elders had taught her.
The prisoners all lined up in rows in the center of the spiral cellblock on the ground floor. The egg shape could be seen much more easily once Kal was in the center. She didn’t notice the dirty looks at first but saw some of the prisoners staring at her. Her cellmate’s words of warning echoed in her brain, and she stopped gawking at the ceiling.
The warden, a Teristaque with markings similar to the leader who killed Kal’s village, stepped onto a raised block in front of the assembled prisoners. Other vicious looking Teristaques surrounded him, pointing their thunder clubs toward the prisoners. He called out prisoners’ names, and the prisoners screamed their response. It was slow and methodical, and Kal didn’t know if she had the strength to stay standing. Her bug cellmate was named Haath-Nlo. The list seemed to be endless, even though her name was close. Her head grew heavy and knees weak.
“Stay strong,” an ethereal, feminine voice said from a distant plane of existence. She wasn’t sure if she heard the voice or if it was in her head. Kal swore that it was her mother.
“Kal’Da’Hak!”
“Sir! Yes! Sir! Kal’Da’Hak reporting sir!” Kal screamed like she had heard the other prisoners scream. Kal remembered watching her mother fall at the gun of a Teristaque. She wanted to go home.
_______
After roll call, the inmates were herded into a giant eating hall. Kal noticed the other prisoners eyeing her. They stared her down with various forms of ocular biology. Some of the beings assembled were giant. Some were small. Some had arms. Others had tentacles. Any way nature could evolve forms of sentient species seemed to be represented in the cafeteria. None had the deep eyes of the Teristaques. There were no Teristaques in the room, but there were plenty walking around with thunder clubs on the metal grate above.
Several food machines dispensed meals according to the dietary requirements of the species. Kitche
n staff operated the machines. They would punch in commands on a screen, and a meal would be created from various tubes and lasers. A human male wearing a white apron operated the machine in Kal’s line. His face was much smoother and less creased than Sarge’s had been, so Kal had to assume he was younger. She found him attractive even if he was a bit scrawny. Not that Kal had ever dated. She was too busy proving herself to the village to worry about chasing boys. Now that she was in a place where she would never date, she almost wished she had.
“What’ll it be?” The male asked, pulling Kal from her thoughts.
“Do you have banjer meat?”
“If by banjer meat, you mean protein supplement number three, we got tons of that,” he said as he dialed a few numbers on his pad and a meal was created in seconds. As he handed it to her, she looked at the giant bowl of slop, a protein slab, and bread.
“I don’t think this is banjer meat.”
The male laughed, saying, “You’re funny.”
“You’re holding up the line!” A giant hulking star species yelled. It was an Orcandu with a horn that looked as if it had been through many battles.
“You better take your banjer tartar before Grannork makes you his next meal.”
The male shoved Kal along. She sniffed the meal, and her nose crinkled. Whatever he was serving, it smelled barely edible. She turned to the metal tables and benches filling up with prisoners. She found her bug cellmate among a table of equally crippled star species. For a lack of any better options, she walked toward the table of rejects. Haath-Nlo whispered as she sat down, “If you sit here, you’ll appear weak. Now hit me and grab some of my food.”
Haath-Nlo’s food was a plate of writhing bugs and worms. Kal slammed Haath-Nlo’s head on the table and stuck her hand in a mass of writhing critters. Some of the other prisoners and even a few of the Teristaque guards turned to watch the spectacle. Kal was committed now. While keeping the pressure on her cellmate’s head, Kal scooped up a handful of bugs and chewed. It was disgusting, and she could feel them writhe in her mouth and down her throat. She grabbed one more handful for good measure and took her own plate of slop from the table.
Kal controlled the urge to vomit and turned away. She saw an opening on another table and sat down. A gray looking star species with a snout and beady eyes sized Kal up and said, “You like that bug junk?”
Kal noticed that this star species food was very similar to Kal’s. “No, I just don’t like him.”
Kal took a sip of her slop and found that it tasted like boiled water.
“It’s better than this crap,” Kal added for emphasis.
The star species laughed and slapped Kal on the back. They broke out into prison conversation: what are you here for, hate for the Teristaques, the equivalent of prison small talk. The Orcandu gave her a cold stare from across the room. Kal tried to ignore it and focused on the group at her table.
_______
After mealtime, they all gathered again in the roll call area. The guards called out the duty shifts, and the prisoners grumbled. Kal noticed that they mostly kept their complaints to themselves and never argued with the Teristaque guards. The prisoners dutifully accepted their shifts. Kal glanced around for the human male among the crowd but couldn’t find him.
“Kal’Da’Hak,” The Teristaque guard said. “You’re in training.”
“For what?”
“Ore processing.”
“I don’t know anything about ore processing.”
The other prisoners laughed, and her snouted friend, Seayolar, patted her on the back, “You don’t have to.”
_______
Kal stood on a platform overlooking the chamber, waiting for her shift to start. It was massive and smelled like a chemical cocktail. A thick haze permeated the atmosphere. Soot covered the prisoners and despite their breathing apparatuses, Kal could still hear painful, wheezing breaths. Kal’s thick rubber gloves, giant apron, breathing piece, and goggles all looked new, but she knew it wouldn’t take long before she looked like everyone else.
The room was divided into many sections. The ore and raw material tumbled through massive tubes into bins where the largest star species sorted the rocks into carts. Other prisoners pushed the various carts to giant furnaces that would burn and strain the impurities away, leaving only a pure element. The liquid metal would pour from the furnace into giant caldrons that would eventually be dumped into brick-shaped molds. The bricks were cooled, then packed. Every step was staffed by prisoners. The machinery was giant, and the room was hot.
A prisoner with several eyes and flowing wisps of white hair said to Kal, “I bet you wonder why they don’t just get robots to process the asteroids.”
Kal didn’t know what he meant by a robot. She was mesmerized by the scale of the operation. The furnaces looked like rock demons, breathing fire and bellowing with rage.
“It’s cause robots cost more than us!” the wispy white-haired prisoner continued. “They don’t pay us, and barely feed us. Robots need maintenance and technicians. You fall in the caldron, and that’s one less prisoner to feed. An expensive bot falls… That’s unacceptable.”
“Have many people fallen?” Kal asked.
“More than you’d think.”
A whistle blew, and the platform lowered down into the depths below. Once the prisoners from the previous shift were lined up, the Teristaque guards counted. Kal couldn’t fathom why they would do a head count at the end of the shift unless they were attempting to ascertain if anyone decided to commute their prison sentence early by taking a swim in the cauldron.
Once their platform lowered into the pit and the gigantic operation towered above Kal, she became nervous. Most of her life, she had to suppress her fear just to be noticed by the rest of the villagers. Whatever her earth brothers and sisters did, Kal had to work harder. Now, she wanted to disappear. All the fears of her village started to manifest in her mind. What if she was too weak for this work? Would she fall into the caldron, too?
A Teristaque guard yelled “Move it! The last one to their station will get rim duty!”
The prisoners scrambled to begin work, but Kal didn’t know what to do. The guard turned to her and said, “You follow me.”
Kal followed the Teristaque through the web of metal, heat, and ore. The wispy-haired man stumbled on the way to his station and was assigned to the edge of the cauldron. Rim duty involved rotating a giant stirring device around the edge of the liquid metal. The heat was at its worst, and the task was repetitive and endless. Kal began to understand why people wouldn’t last long.
The Teristaque took Kal to where they were sorting the rubble that crashed through the tubes. Grannork was there digging through the piles and putting them into the various bins.
The guard tilted his head and said to the air, “She’s right here. Copy that.”
The guard told Kal to wait, pulled out one of the floating discs from its backpack and lifted into the air. Grannork eyed Kal with disdain.
“They punish us all if someone isn’t pulling their weight,” the Orcandu said.
“The Teristaque told me to wait here,” Kal answered.
“I don’t like you.”
“That’s good to hear. I almost thought you were initiating the mating rituals.”
“You have disgusting parts protruding from your chest and a waist that is so thin it will break like a tree branch.”
“You’re pretty ugly yourself.”
“You dare insult me! I am Orcandu royalty! You will feel the wrath of my-”
Kal tuned out the rest of the diatribe as the guard caught her attention. He had floated up to a level where the Teristaques patrolled. He was engaged in conversation with a Teristaque adorned with different tattoos than the guards. They were the tattoos of the same tribe that had slaughtered her village. While she couldn’t be one hundred percent certain, she knew there was a bird of prey in their insignia. She had to find a way to that level.
“I will feast on your e
ntrails and sacrifice-“
“How do you get up there?” Kal said as she began taking off her apron and goggles.
“What?”
“Up there! The Teristaque level.” The breathing apparatus was the last to go, the air was thick and bad, but she didn’t plan to stay very long.
“I don’t know,” the Orcandu said, clearly confused, “We cannot go.”
“Has anyone ever climbed the machinery?”
“The guards will strike you down.”
“Not if there’s a distraction,” Kal smiled as she picked up a chunk of ore. Before the Orcandu could react, she tossed the chunk at a massive reptilian star species with particularly vicious teeth. Since Kal’s bones would break when she was tackled during Rock Ball back home, she was very adept at throwing. The rock pegged the reptile square in the back of the head and the lumbering creature turned around. By the time it had a chance to survey the situation, Kal had disappeared into the rubble pile, and the Orcandu stood foolishly by itself.
“You will pay, Orcandu scum,” the beast bellowed in a slow deep growl. Its charge was anything but slow. The Orcandu attempted to gore the creature, but it came in low. They tumbled into a fierce grapple. While the two titans clashed, a wave of screams and cheers pulsed through the prisoner population as they all scrambled for a view of the fight. The caldron operator was too busy watching the fight, and the metal overflowed and spilled onto the floor causing a fire. Kal used the chaos to sneak up the rubble pile.
Once she could make it no further on the rubble pile, she jumped to the underside of a metal platform. The Teristaque guards were swooping down on their flying discs to break up the fight and control the flames. No one noticed Kal climbing level after level. Back home, most of her hunting trips ended with her scrambling up a tree after she picked a fight with a beast too big because she always felt she had to prove herself to her earth brothers and sisters. The Orcandu below put up a good fight. Even though the reptile was a size and a half bigger, the Orcandu had training. Maybe he was a prince back home.