“There isn’t a single blemish on my record,” Curt yelled. “Why am I here?”
“Ah, yes, Curt,” the voice said. “From information we received this week you have been taking bribes from tobacco sellers for years.”
“That’s not true!” he hollered. “Who told you that?”
“It is true according to the officer who followed you on your rounds at the Hub last night.”
Curt opened his mouth to reply then closed it. How had they found out? He’d been so careful. “Georg,” he muttered. “That bastard must have squealed on me.”
“The minimum stay will be five years,” the voice continued. “It will be lengthened if you continue your activities there. For the first year you will be on quarter wages, which will be put into your accounts here. You will be clothed, housed, and fed. After that first year you will be paid full wages and will then have to buy your own food and clothing.
“As of this moment, you are all relieved of your duties. Since none of you have a spouse or children there will be no need for a long goodbye.”
“And what if we refuse to go?” someone yelled.
“Yeah! You can’t make us!”
“You will be charged with your crimes. Those of you with the lesser offenses will be sent to the Fringe. Those whose crimes have anything to do with drugs or tobacco will be sent to the orbital prisons and maybe onto the colony planet. It is your choice.”
There was a stunned silence in the room. The sudden turnaround in their lives left them speechless. A few glanced about as if hoping someone would jump up and yell it had just been a joke. No one did.
“You are expected to be ready to board the shuttle by five o’clock tomorrow. You may bring one bag of clothes and personal items.”
Slowly, a few desperate whisperings began.
“What am I going to do now?”
“They really can’t send us there against our will, can they?”
Then they became more defiant.
“There must be a way out of this.”
“They can’t make me go!”
“Who do they think they are, taking over my life like that?”
The door clanged opened startling everyone. They anxiously turned in that direction. But nothing happened. No one entered. It took a few minutes for them to realize it signalled the end of the meeting. It was time for them to begin their preparations. After an initial hesitation, the group of former Megalopolis One police officers filed out. There was no talking now; most of them walked with their eyes downcast. Their life, as they knew, it was over. And they had no control over what had happened.
Curt shook off the shock and was one of the few who determinedly pushed their way through the crowd in the hallway. He wasn’t going to accept this like they seemed to be doing. No one could make a decision like that about his life. He was going to fight back. He knew some information about his police chief but he figured people higher up had made this decision. He tried to recollect the list of people who owed him a favour. There had to be someone with enough authority who could help him and help him fast.
“I’ll get you for this, Georg,” he muttered as he left the building. “I’ll get you.”
* * *
Gwin shuffled along with the rest of the prisoners as they were shunted past the cages in the hall of the Ceriem. Once she’d been found guilty, she’d been returned to her jail cell and in the middle of the night the ones who had appeared in the Low Court during the past week had been shuttled to the prison ships. She’d sat in the midst of the murderers and tobacco and drug dealers, feeling out of place and yet looking as if she fit in. They were dirty, she was dirty; their clothes were rumpled, her clothes were rumpled. She was glad when the ride ended but now she would give anything to be back on the shuttle.
The ring on her head hurt and the noise, the smell, and the bright lights were overwhelming. She wished she had one of the guards’ masks. Claw like hands on spindly, white arms reached for her through the bars. She tried to avoid looking at the thin, pale faces.
They stopped at a cage and the guards ordered the women inside to get on their bunks. When they had complied, one guard unlocked the door while another took off the ring. They motioned for her to enter and when she stepped through the doorway, they slammed the door shut behind her.
There were six bunks and five women. Gwin headed to the empty lower bunk but the woman in the top bunk jumped down in front of her.
“What’s your name?”
Gwin tried to push around the woman.
“I said, what’s your name?” The woman put one foot up on Gwin’s bunk to block her.
Gwin sighed. This was obviously the welcoming committee. “Gwin.”
“Who did you kill?”
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
“Oh, another innocent.” The woman laughed and the others joined in as if on cue.
“Why don’t you leave me alone?” Gwin asked. She didn’t need this right now.
“Because, I’m Shela and I don’t have to.” Shela raised her hands to Gwin’s shoulders and gave a little push.
Gwin took a step back. She really, really didn’t need this and she could feel her temper rising. “Get out of my way!”
“A tough one.”
“Look, I’m in no mood for this.” Gwin could see the other women watching the exchange intently.
“I don’t care what your mood is.”
Gwin tried to control her temper. Her feelings had gone from frustration to anger and from bewilderment to fear over the past two days. This was something concrete to direct her anger at, but she knew that for some reason this little charade was important to the women in the cage.
“Maybe your mood will improve if you slept on a bunk with no mattress.” Shela turned around and began to lift the mattress.
“Leave it there,” Gwin stated firmly.
“What did you say?” Shela looked over her shoulder.
“That is my mattress. Leave it alone.”
Shela stood and glared at Gwin, but Gwin didn’t back down. Shela was obviously in charge of the cage and she was establishing her authority. Gwin didn’t care if Shela wanted to be the boss. She did, though, want a mattress for her bed.
“Look,” she said. “I can see that you are in charge here and I have no problem with that. Just leave my mattress alone and I’ll concede that you rule.”
Shela stood still. There was silence in the cage. Gwin waited, their eyes locked. She knew she’d basically given Shela an order even as she was being submissive. Suddenly, Shela grinned.
“At last, someone with some backbone, someone I can relate to.” She looked at the other women. “Gwin is now Assistant Marahanee. You will do what she tells you and share your clothes and food with her.” She turned to Gwin. “Do you want to change out of those clothes now?”
“Maybe later,” Gwin said. “I’d like to rest first.”
“Sure thing.”
Shela climbed up into her bunk while Gwin gratefully sank onto her bed and closed her eyes. She didn’t even notice the lumpiness of the mattress as her mind immediately began to review the past days. She’d already had plenty of time to go over it and she still couldn’t figure what had happened. There was no way she had killed anyone, even if she didn’t remember those few hours. She was not a killer. She thought it might have been a mistake, but there was the needle in her arm and she was sure the contents of it had made her lose consciousness. And her scarf and purse had been found with the body. Those were deliberate acts. And those acts led her to wonder if she had been framed.
But even that idea seemed absurd. Why would anyone want to frame her? For the past three days she’d tried to think of a reason and hadn’t been able to find one. That left her with no explanation for being here.
No amount of pleading on her part had convinced the police of her innocence. Even when she’d shown them her arm and asked to be tested for a sleeping drug, they’d ignored her. She’d asked to make a phone call and was re
fused. In spite of her fear and panic she’d struggled to remain calm while presenting her side of the story to the judge. She’d actually thought he’d believed her, until that awful person banged into the courtroom and the judge’s mood instantly changed. He’d arbitrarily pronounced her guilty and sentenced her to this prison.
Her only hope now was that Britt and Mikk would be able to do something. They’d know she was innocent. Maybe they could find a lawyer to plead her case to the courts. She’d heard of it being done but it cost a lot of money, money no one she knew had. What bothered her the most was that she hadn’t been able to phone her mother to assure her that her daughter wasn’t a killer. She didn’t think her mother would believe the story, but she hated the idea that a small amount of doubt might creep in.
And what about her marriage to Mikk? What would happen to her apartment, her plant and her status with the Space Organization? She’d spent years building her reputation with the organization and had been thinking about making her first application for promotion. Now, everything was lost: her reputation, her job, her life.
“I’m going to have to clear myself,” she muttered. “Somehow, I’m going to have to find the killer or at least who framed me.”
Another thought crept in. She was in one of the orbital prisons. Was it one that was being sent to her planet? If so, how would she prove her innocence from there?
Chapter Fourteen
Leader Nine brought the meeting of the Leaders of the Global Alliance to order. It was time to update the progress of the Prisoner Relocation Program.
“Were you able to find enough police officers?” he asked.
“I’m afraid there were plenty of corrupt police officers to choose from,” Leader Three said.
“There were?” Leader Nine sounded disappointed. “That’s not a very good testimonial for our society.”
Leader Three nodded. “We finally had to narrow it down to those without immediate families.”
“Where are they now?”
“They will be boarding their transport tomorrow. We decided that if we gave them too much time, some might try leaving the megalopolis or the planet.”
“What about a judge?”
“The Judicial Committee recommended Judge Jym.”
“Isn’t he the one who spends a lot of time on Harlot Row?”
“That’s him.”
“There doesn’t seem to be much difference between the convicts and the people who will be maintaining the law,” Leader Six said.
“How many spaceships did you acquire, Leader Four?”
“We have five,” Leader Four said. “The Wenelyn, Federer, and Nostra from the Extraprobe Series and the Andron and Treachen.”
“Is that the training ship Treachen?” Leader Two asked.
Leader Four looked through her metal sheets. “Yes. According to my reports it was a training ship then was sold to a travel company and used as a cruise ship.”
“It can’t be in very good condition. I used to fly in it when I was training for a space officer. And that was years ago.”
“I have a report that states it has been completely reconditioned.”
Leader Two shrugged.
“Two transports, the Bodilyn and Condoren, are going for protection,” Leader Four continued. “One will carry the police officers, scientists and craftspeople while the other is for the farmers, animals. One spaceship, the Federer, will remain on the planet. At the end of the year it will bring back everyone who was staying to help establish the colony.”
“Isn’t a transport being left to guard the colony?” Leader Seven asked.
“I don’t think there is a need for it. The planet is off the space trails and no one knows the colony is being established on it. And there wasn’t any mention of inhabitants on the planet itself.”
“How is the loading of the ships and transports progressing?” Leader Nine asked.
“It was slow moving the supplies just at night so we began moving trolleys during the day also,” Leader Five replied. “It will be completed by in two more days. The animals are on their way in from the farms and will be loaded tomorrow. Takeoff is scheduled for the day after tomorrow.”
“Have you chosen cooks for the trip and to stay on the planet?”
“There are a large number of cooks among the prisoners. We have requested volunteers and there is a long list. We have forwarded the list to the captain in charge of each spaceship who will do the choosing.”
“And a doctor?”
“Again we went through the files of the prisoners. There are three doctors and five nurses. We are sending medical supplies for them to use in case of accidents.”
“What about illness?”
“The Medical Board is giving the prisoners and everyone else going to the planet their annual inoculations as we speak. The director believes that this should be sufficient to keep them healthy on the trip. He did comment, however, that he didn’t know how their immune system would react to bacteria and viruses that may be there.”
“Has a historian been selected?” Ever since the Great Change, history had been an important part of the planet. All that had been salvaged from the time before the change was in a huge archive on Ground Level on Megalopolis One. Every modification to society, every alternate to the previous life, every adjustment to make life better in the past three hundred years was recorded.
“Sari from the Archives has volunteered to go and record some of the background of the colony inhabitants and all the events that take place during its establishment.”
Leader Nine nodded and turned to Leader Eight. “Could we have the report on what was decided about money for the colony?”
“For the first year, the police and judge will receive quarter wages that will be deposited in their accounts here. They will have to construct their own shelters with the help of the builders sent for that purpose. At first, all the prisoners will be housed in large tents that they will erect. Once they are comfortable they will begin constructing more permanent buildings. A store will be established and everyone will be fed and clothed from the provisions sent with the fleet. The first crop of grains and vegetables and any animal products will be given to the store for dispersion. Sometime in the future, land, animals, and seeds will be allocated to each of the prisoners. They, too, will have to build their own house. When the prisoners have land and are raising their own crops, they will be able to sell them to the store to make their money. At the same time the police and judge will receive wages to buy their own food and clothing.”
“So they will slowly set up an economy similar to ours?”
“Yes. Eventually the Bank Council will build a bank. Prisoners who wish to can sell their land and start businesses, and marriages can take place. By then the effects of the treated water will have worn off and families can be started.”
“Aren’t we assuming that everything will go perfectly?” Leader Six asked.
“We will monitor them, of course, and they can buy provisions from the planet Pidleon if they are needed.”
“We still need someone to govern the colony,” Leader Nine said. “Someone has to be in charge of making decisions over problems that we can only guess at.”
“No one has answered our notice for it,” Leader Six said. “Everyone knows it will be a long and difficult job.”
“Someone has to be found today,” Leader Nine said. “Or we will have to fall back on our plan to send Leader One as a temporary governor.”
“Judge Jym could be put in charge until we can send out a governor,” Leader One said, hastily. As the lowest of the Leaders she would have to agree with their command if she wished to maintain her position.
“Judge Jym can’t be trusted to make a court decision,” Leader Six said. “There is no way we are going to put him in charge of the colony.”
“I don’t think it is fair that I have to go,” Leader One said. “I’ve done nothing to be punished for.”
“That’s right, you haven’t
,” agreed Leader Nine. “But the success of the colony will depend on the guidance of a strong governor and we need to send someone with the authority to fill that role.”
“As we’ve told you before,” Leader Seven said. “If you don’t want to go, then find someone who does.”
At the end of the meeting when everyone stood to leave the room, Leader Two motioned for Leader Three to remain seated.
“This program is working out better than we thought,” Leader Two said.
“Yes,” Leader Three agreed. “Not only are we getting rid of our prisoner problem, we’re also able to clear out some of the corruption in our police and judicial systems.”
“And speaking of corruption, I believe I’ve found a governor.”
“You have? Why didn’t you mention it at the meeting?”
“Because the person doesn’t know it yet.”
Leader Three laughed. “Then I don’t think you can say you’ve got the governor. No one seems willing to go there.”
“Under the right circumstances I think this person will.”
“And who is this person?”
“You.”
“Me?” Leader Three asked in astonishment. “I don’t want to go.”
“It’s not a question of you wanting to go, it’s a matter of you getting packed and ready for the trip.”
“What makes you think you can force me into going?”
“The matter of your wife.”
“My wife?” Leader Three frowned. “My wife is dead.”
“We know and we also know it was no accident.”
“It was an accident and I think it is very callous of you to even bring it up.” Leader Three stood angrily. “I don’t need to stay here and listen to any more.” He walked towards the door.
The Criminal Streak Page 12
