Chapter 3: Con Express
“Are we ready,” Corithia asked.
Most of her MPs had been brought in from the outlying areas as more and more people were now living in the city. The towns were mostly empty. The Evacuation command was lifting close to 25,000 souls a day. What citizens who were not being evacuated to Home were booked on interstellar flights to their new worlds where work awaited them. Most of those people were now gone and only those who had no place else to go but to Home remained. A little over five hundred thousand people remained on Trena. Of those remaining on Trena were criminals serving prison sentences. These were not the most violent, or the most harden criminals on Trena. Any prisoner that had been within a year of their parole or release had either been paroled or released, with strict instructions that they would be allowed to go on to Home; but should they break the law on Home they would serve the rest of their time on Dungeon, a prison world operated by several star nations where the worse of the worse felons, and others were incarcerated.
Now the remaining prisoners who had been serving sentences in local jails all around Trena had been transferred to the prison outside of Trenaport. Now with all the prisoners accounted for and those that could not be released or given their parole were being transferred to a prison barge that would be towed to Home and would become Home’s medium security facility.
“Yes,” the major in charge of the prison answered, “When the first landing craft comes in we’ll march out the first lift.”
“Let’s do it then,” Corithia replied keying her communicator, “Evac Command this is Companion 1."
“Go ahead Companion 1,” Corithia realized it was a human voice and not the AI who normally ran the communications section for the Evacuation. She had heard that many of the AIs were being uplifted to their evacuation transport in preparation to be taken to home.
“We are ready to go with Con Express. I want one Elsy on the Ground and one in holding.” Corithia commanded, “As per the plan.”
“Rodger Con 1 in route.” the voice said.
“Okay let them know,” Corithia told the major.
“Again,” The major said and keyed his communicator, “attention in the prison. We are starting your evacuation. You will be taken out in groups of two hundred and put on a landing craft. If you try to escape the MPs will not hesitate to kill you. We don’t have time to chase you down we don’t have time return you to the brig. We are determined to get you to safety; but if you give us any trouble the entire lot will be dealt with severely.”
The first landing craft landed, and the prisoners were let out. They were checked prior to leaving the mess hall where they were being assembled, and again before they boarded the landing craft a MP checked the name against their list. No one was in shackles, no one was in handcuffs. They didn’t need to be. As they left their cell block earlier in the day they were strip searched, and thoroughly examined. They were documented and moved into the lobby of the mess hall. They were then allowed dress in an orange jump suit then allowed into the mess hall. They had started at sunrise and now the population of 2500 prisoners, were ready to be shipped to the barge. Once again the guards told the prisoners that if there was a problem with any of the prisoners, that the pilot would open the front ramp to space and they would all die.
There were no problems. The landing craft made ten trips to the barge. In six hours the prison was evacuated. The guards went through the prison to see if they had missed anyone. They were certain that they had cleared the cell blocks that they had gotten everyone; but still they checked. As they checked the cells the major was called to the central receiving station where the guards were depositing what they had found. Nearly a hundred knives, two homemade guns, several socks filled with rocks, one still and more than one hidden store of contraband drugs.
“And we thought we were in control of the prison.” the major shook his head in amazement.
Finally they were done leaving the major one last job. To shutter the prison.
“Okay let’s lock her down,” the major commanded.
“You want this place locked down with the doors locked down.” The assistant warden confirmed his orders.
The major nodded and went to the computer room where an old friend waited for him.
“Hello major,” Warden, the artificial intelligence that had run the prison for nearly a hundred and fifty years, greeted him. Over the past few months she had started to age. She had gone from a middle age woman in appearance to that of a very old woman. She had written an old age program that would allow her to age and to have a natural death. She had made a decision a few months before that she wouldn’t emigrate to Home or another world, she would just die of old age in the prison computer system. Today would be her last day. “It’s nice of you to stop by. It’s been a couple of days since we’ve talked.”
They had talked earlier in the day. She had, had to release the prisoner’s records before the transfer. He was amazed at the amount senility that the computer had programmed in.
“Yes it has, “the major said playing along. This was painful to him. The warden AI had been his companion and assistant for years. She had been his companion ever since he had reported to the prison as for the first time years before. When he became the human warden of the prison the computer had virtually lived with him every day in his quarters. To the extent that his wife had threatened divorce because he spent more time with her than with Lucy, his wife.
“I haven’t been feeling too good today,” the warden complained.
“Oh?” the major replied knowing what was coming next.
“Yes, just sleepy, can’t seem to stay awake,” the computer spoke with a nearly inaudible voice, “it’s so hard to stay awake.”
“Well why don’t you just go to sleep?” the major said, that was the key phrase in the computer software that would cause the computer to strip her program from her ram and destroy her back up. There was no way the computer could be resurrected.
“Okay,” the computer said, appeared to fall asleep in an easy chair. The screen faded out and was replaced with the word “Fatal Error. The Artificial Intelligence has suffered a fatal system error and will need to be reinstalled.”
The major wiped a tear from his eye and walked out of the computer room. He inserted an old fashion key in a locked control panel cover and then swiping his ID through a card reader he shut the computer down. He shut and locked the panel then carefully took his service laser and welded the cover shut. There was little chance that the warden would ever come back to life. He threw the next switch and every light in the place went off. He walked out the main gate and sealed it. He wished he could destroy it. A prison was the biggest symbol he knew of societies failure to prevent crime. He wasn’t certain that there wouldn’t always be a need for a prison to punish those souls that couldn’t abide by society’s rules.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 227
