by Jim Rudnick
"Here, Tibah, we're here!" Mari-ah yelled at them, and Tibah was glad to see they were at the farthest stall onto the field side of the Market, yet she groaned when she realized they had more than 100 cases to slug over that far.
"Okay, let’s get set up. We open in less than an hour," she said and kept on walking slowly with that big box still in her arms.
As they continued to set up, around them in the stands, people were arriving and taking seats, but soon they noticed the Farmers Market and worked their way down through the stadium stairs to pop out on the field and see what they could find.
Buskers, of course, were everywhere and took that opportunity to try to cadge the citizens to watch and be in awe and then donate a credit or two. The unicyclists were a hit as they climbed up the stadium stairs then came bouncing down and did whirls and flips as they did.
Singers were there too and the sound of that four-part harmony done by the Altos from Randi was reverberating all around the stadium.
Dancers too were there, and they did a conga line throughout the aisles of the Farmers Market that was a real hit. Tibah felt like joining in but realized she had no time for that. Arranging the fancies took some time, and as soon as they had some of the newest ones up, citizens quickly lined up.
She smiled at Mari-ah and noted that the young woman’s idea about bringing along frozen ices to scoop into some of the fancies was proving out. The queue in front of the ice station at the far eastern side of their stall was the longest she could see.
Throughout the day, Tibah tried to help all of the various spots in their stall where new products were needed by doing the running between the boxes and the counters so her crew could keep their sales going. As if the money mattered, she thought, and then realized if she began to think about the day, and what it would mean to her, she would be lost.
Better to think about Olbia, her home planet, and what today would mean for her family and her planet's citizens.
Today would mean more to Olbians than any day in her past.
She smiled at that.
No matter what it might cost her and her family … and Nusayr too.
#
It was obvious the mayor was nervous. It was up to him to start off the Celebration evening ceremonies, and he was still standing at the back of the stage going over his index cards..
Amateurs, Tanner thought and then smiled too. He had never had to do this kind of thing, he would admit, standing up in front of thousands and thousands of citizens to welcome them all to the 100th Anniversary Celebrations of No Escapes off Halberd, but then again, he was sure the mayor had never had to fight aliens either. Sounds about right, he thought and maintained his position at the far western edge of the huge stage that sat on the field at one side of the fifty-yard line.
Surrounded by the force field, the stage looked slightly blue in color. Tanner and the XO were the only ones on the actual stage that were handling the security of the heads of state of more than two dozen worlds or realms. His XO was off on the far eastern front corner of the stage, armed with the same Colt that Tanner also wore on his corner, and the rest of the stage was comprised of tiered seated heads of state.
Behind the stage under the empty stands he could see as he turned, he knew the security details and the SWAT teams were being housed and held there in case something happened. That made Tanner smile a bit, and he wondered if they'd be asleep with all the speeches that were yet to come.
He turned back to the main stage to take inventory. After all, he was the officer in charge.
At the back end of the stage, in seated rows, sat the not-so-important folks who had rated a seat but not near the front. Tanner had personally checked each and every one of them, and while he did raise his eyebrows at some of them, they all were vouchsafed by a real live VIP already on the stage. He wondered why the Eran had included someone he had stated was his "vibration master" and what kind of vibrations that meant. He wondered why the Lady had included some kind of a Carnarvon college professor who looked totally out of place. The fact that the XO said the guy was a whiz when it came to Confederacy laws, made him wonder what that had to do with sitting on the stage. Also he noted, there were a couple of EliteGuards, a brace of Ramat bodyguards for the Caliph, and the Chief Provost, who had brought his wife and kids. Why was beyond Tanner, but then that wasn't his job today.
Closest to the slightly raised dais and microphone that would be the center of attention was the Sharia al Dotsa, the Caliph, who as the Vice Chair of the RIM Confederacy Council would be the real Master of Ceremonies this evening. At the moment, the Caliph was focused on his wrist PDA and obviously frustrated at something.
Beside him sat the Duke d'Avigdor, in his best sashed Duke togs, Tanner saw, and he smiled at the Duke whenever they glanced at each other. Beside the Duke was his newest boss, the Lady St. August, who Tanner had to admit looked dashing in her royal magenta outfit with that sash that held some kind of Barony heraldry.
Beside her, as luck would have it, sat the Eran head of state. The Eran head of state was called the Nizami, and he sat carefully on his huge industrial-sized chair, almost totally blocking out the view of the few behind him in the next tier of seating.
That row Tanner had no attention for, but he did glance over at the other side of the stage to note that the mayor’s chair was empty. The admiral looked askance at the Max Island warden and the Farm warden who sat there followed by several more of heads of state or their ambassadors. Finally, he looked at the end of the row where Craig, his XO stood, who gave him a nod as if to say what a way to spend an evening.
On the huge stadium-sized stands in front of him sat almost five thousand citizens, all with their own planet allegiances, and some, of course, wearing shirts and holding up flags of their realms. He could see the twin crowns of the Barony, the Duchy dove, and the Caliphate lion, and more, but he noted there was not a single Navy flag showing, which was normal. Navy is as navy does was true. He had the sudden thought that he'd never have to think RIM Navy again as of tomorrow.
The area behind him, somewhat closer to the other eastern end zone, was the Busker area and the Farmers Market area. The large patio and park areas where citizens could shop and be entertained were also in this area, and at this point was emptying as the citizens were filling in some of the thousands of seats right on the stadium grass in front of the stage. Most were filled, he noted, but then in any group of people, some were always early for things, and as he watched families and folks move to those seats, he realized too that some came late for everything. And above them on the huge digital scoreboard view-screen, the video showed the empty dais and microphone just sitting there, hundreds of feet across.
The mayor cleared his throat in the mic and the resulting snort on the huge stadium loudspeakers made everyone suddenly stop cold.
"Ladies and gentlemen, friends, citizens, and heads of state, it is my pleasure this evening to start off our 100th Anniversary Celebrations of no escapes from Halberd Prisons. So first, please help me by your applause to show our gratitude to the RIM and our Council for the 100th year in a row!" He smiled and began to clap and was joined almost instantly by the almost ten thousand celebration attendees, and the applause was long and sustained.
Tanner noted that even the convicts clapped a bit, though as he had imagined, not anywhere as much as the rest of the stadium. He also noticed that right in the front row about the middle of the grass seating, Tibah and some of her farm crew were seated, and they clapped as much as anyone else did too. He tried to catch her eye to acknowledge her, but she never looked over to his side of the stage. He saw they had brought along some fruits and vegetables to nosh on during the speeches, and that was probably a good idea seeing as the number of speakers was long.
The mayor went on and on but was done in a few more minutes and turned the microphone over to the admiral, who on behalf of the RIM Navy, wished all the attendees a good evening. The admiral turned the microphone over to the Max Island wa
rden.
The warden smiled at the whole stadium, glanced in all the directions, and then pointed out the force field secure end zone that held the more than a thousand convicts of which he was the one in charge.
"What you see here is the total number of Max Island convicts that we currently have housed, other than the ones who are watching these ceremonies but are in our Sick Bay or in solitary confinement. But other than those few men, we are all here and we know, as does the rest of the RIM, that no one has ever escaped from Halberd—and that no one ever will!" This got him a huge crowd response as they yelled and screamed and the applause was loud.
"100 years of no escapes—and we will have 100 years more!" he yelled and received even louder yells and foot stomping in return.
Tanner saw someone in the big stands right in front of the stage start that wave business and the crowd followed suit.
So far, Tanner thought, all was about normal.
For the first time, he realized this would be his final RIM Navy duty—policing the celebrations, watching the clapping and the stands doing the wave, and the boring speeches from head of state after head of state.
Fitting, he thought, that my last duty is to be a babysitter for a prison planet ...
#
In the third row from the front of the stands, Nusayr sat with a few of his ex-Council of Nine crew and noted with some degree of satisfaction that, yes, the stadium appeared to be just about full of Celebration attendees. Ilias nodded at the huge scoreboard screen that faced them down at the opposite end of the playing field and nudged him.
"I never knew the warden had such long hand hair," he said and that brought smiles from the whole group around him.
On screen, the Max Island warden was talking about the responsibility of the management of such a huge enterprise as the penitentiary, and what that had meant to him over the past years, and how he and his trusted staff rose to the occasion day after day. And now with 100 years of success, it had come to pass that there had never been a successful escape. Not now, he emphasized, and not ever.
The only one who smiled was Nusayr and he did so unconsciously.
The speech by the warden went on and on. Then he gave the dais and microphone over to the mayor once again who introduced the Duke d'Avigdor, who rose to speak about the work that his grandfather had done more than those 100 years ago to help the RIM Council even countenance the idea of a communal prison planet. He went on and on about the work that was done and how that could be seen as one of the true building blocks of the Confederacy as it taught the members of the RIM how to work together, how to enable common causes, and yes, even how to share and pay for those common costs too.
"Seems like the Duke is more interested in costs than results," Razin said from the row behind them and Nusayr nodded too.
As head of state after head of state rose to speak, Nusayr was glad they had put up the speakers list on the side of the scoreboard screen. He noted that the Caliph was now sixth in line. He looked out onto the field to see that Tibah had his gaze, and he nodded twice to her.
She smiled back and he nudged Ilias who then nudged Shihah.
"Time—Godspeed and good luck," he said and watched as Ilias rose and moved across their row and began to make his way down to the prison guard who stood at the bottom of the stairs where a landing provided access to the area under the stands. Shihah, on the other hand, went the same way to the stairs but up them to find his quarry.
"Captain, could I please—sorry, I know how important these speeches are—get a trip to the washroom? I'm feeling like I'm going to be sick, Ma’am," he said and sounded like he really meant it.
Captain Terrance shrugged.
"Speeches are about as interesting as watching you maintenance guys work on machinery," she said but she did nod to him and indicated he was to go ahead down the aisle under the stands toward the back wall.
As they made their way, Shihah had gathered up Muri, a member of the maintenance team, by telling her that Ilias and the captain who had just disappeared down under the stands needed help with the power surge in the sub-station. Being a member of that team, she nodded and they both jogged down the stairs, around the landing, and into the aisle that traveled about thirty yards down toward the side wall of the stadium. Where this wall met the solid brick wall that separated the stadium from the power sub-station next door, there was no force field at all as there were public washrooms and food concessions. But to the right of the main aisle out to the stands lay a small enclosure with the access door to the sub-station. The area around them was empty of people as all the convicts were up above them watching the Celebration event.
It was toward that doorway that Ilias veered off and reached the edge of the entrance doorway before the captain could catch up with him.
"Ilias, this is not a—"
He gave her a short pass with the Needler he held in his right hand, and she spasmed and her back arched. He pushed her within the enclosure right up against the sub-station door. She gasped and reached for her own sidearm, but Shihah, who had caught up with them, stopped her still shaking arm and grabbed her stunner.
Muri was attempting to back away, but Ilias turned his Needler to point it at her.
"Not so fast, Muri. You are a part of this now. Get in here," he said as he pointed at the enclosure, and she moved in quickly.
"Before anyone here gets any ideas," Ilias said, "here is what you need to know. We are going into the sub-station, Captain will use her thumb to get us in, and once there, with Muri double-checking on what I do, we will turn off the power to the stadium—in fact, the whole town. Anyone who does not comply will get my Needler and you know what that can do if I turn it on you for more than five seconds—full cardiac arrest and a death that I hear is anything but pleasant."
He pushed the prison captain over to the access panel, held the Needler right up to her head, and watched as she slowly brought up a shaking hand and inserted her thumb onto the security pad. There were three chimes and the door slid open. They went in and the door slid closed behind them.
Moving quickly, Shihah stayed off to one side to cover the two hostages as they and Ilias moved across the big room that hummed with its power and yet was still cold with the conditioned air that blew from ceiling vents and kept the machinery cool.
Ilias moved directly to the big central transformer and eyed the large red lever.
"Muri, confirm what I know—and if you ever want to return to Hope, you'll be sure to be honest," he said and pointed at that lever.
"As soon as I yank that down,power to all of Andros—the whole city—goes off. Every single house and building and the stadium too lose their power, correct?"
She nodded but then held up a finger, and her red hair swung as her head nodded.
"Almost correct—except that I'd imagine that some buildings like hospitals and government and maybe even Police or Provost buildings may have their own generators that will go on automatically should power go out across the city. Maybe, as I really do not know, but you should think about that," she said.
Ilias looked at her.
"I might think that yes that too would be true. But we know—having serviced the stadium next door—that they have no such generators at all. Who would need to power a rugby game if the lights were to go off?"
"And correct me too, Muri—that this building, the sub-station, would remain powered no matter whether that lever is up or down, correct?"
She nodded.
"Yes, we all on the maintenance team were all informed of that too … that the station draws power directly that will be unaffected by the master breaker switch. But you know what else will happen too, do you not, Ilias?" she said and smiled at him.
"The force fields out in the stadium will also be powered off. There will be nothing at all between the convicts and the rest of the stands or the stage and the heads of state either …"
He smiled at her.
"Exactly," he said as he grabbed the big re
d lever and swung it down to break the circuit, and in the stadium, all the power went off at once.
CHAPTER TEN
The first thing Tanner noticed was that the loudspeakers, which had been busy broadcasting the speech by the Eran head of state, Nizami, who really needed little amplification to be heard at least in a room, went silent.
The Eran was still talking, but the loudspeakers were off, which was probably only an error. Maybe somebody had tripped over a cord or some such little thing, but then he noticed in front of the stage some of the seated people were pointing to the big scoreboard, and as he looked there too, he saw it was black.
No picture of the dais and the giant Eran who continued to speak and—
Tanner immediately looked back at the attendants in front of the stage who were all starting to stand up and look around, and he realized there was no blue glow between him and them.
“Power failure—and the force fields are off,” he said to himself. That thought made him cold inside as he turned quickly to his left to see the stands that held the convicts had also noticed. The convicts were now pouring down the stairs and out onto the field or under their stands in an effort to get away. He saw at least two of the prison guards were being pummeled by convicts and at least one more was down on the stairs being kicked and stomped on ... a full-scale riot was on.
Some were yelling that it was time for an escape that worked, others just yelled at their own heads of state, and cursing was rampant. No matter what they yelled, it appeared they were going to try to take over the stage and harm anyone there. Convicts were still convicts, no matter how theoretically benevolent their keepers were. He swore and knew this was major trouble.
“Damn,” he said and drew his Colt immediately. On his PDA, he punched in the emergency call for support and hoped that it would be both received and acted upon STAT.
