Banished Worlds (4 page)

“It was cut to match your armor size on record, Agent Danbeu, it should fit perfectly.”

“In the old days, I could be skinny and let the armor be my muscle, like most agents. Of course, on a prison planet I didn’t have armor, so if I needed muscle to do something it had to be my own. I’m a little bigger now than I was back then.”

“You got fat.” Nelson laughed at his own joke and the others followed suit.

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have any larger armor on hand. This armor was produced, in a rush, specifically for the people on this mission. That’s why we went with service record sizes.”

“Just deal with it, convict, or leave it here. You’re fat and we’re unarmed.” The older female looked at me and pulled on her second skin.

“Get to the pad, all of you,” I ordered. “Let’s get this done. After all, I got a cold beer on a space station waiting for me.”

Again Roberts was the first to move and the skinny guy, Price, right with her. Everyone took a place on the descent pad and waited for me to join them. I walked around the pad once, a quick inspection of sorts, and stepped up between the older female and Roberts. Price was one over from Roberts. I looked to Nelson. “Any last minute intel I should have?” I asked.

President Garrett entered the transfer pad area. He was trailed by four more agents in full armor. “Good, I’m not too late. There has been a small change in plans.” Garrett motioned Nelson closer. “I have decided to send you too.”

“You can’t, sir,” Price and Roberts said simultaneously.

Price stepped off of the pad.

Roberts started to, but stopped when I touched her arm.

She looked to me, and I shook my head slightly.

“I don’t have any second skin armor for Agent Nelson and he can’t wear his normal armor Mr. President.”

“And …” Roberts started to add her comments, but was stopped by a wave from the President. “Nelson, get on the pad with the others. This is not open to discussion, or comment. Now, Agent Nelson,” Garrett ordered, “and without the armor.”

Nelson looked from him to me. “This is your fault, Harry.” He grabbed my jacket with his left hand and hit me in the gut with his right which doubled me over. Nelson let me go and stepped away from the pad. He pulled his armor off slowly, one piece at a time. As he did, he tossed each piece in the direction of the storage locker, not really caring where the armor landed. Nelson stepped onto the pad at the opposite end from me and waited for the trip to begin.

This development felt familiar to me, as the people you trust prove not to be worth the faith you put in them. It was like watching history repeat itself, only I was not the one getting betrayed this time. “Welcome to my world, Nelson,” I added. “Doesn’t feel so good on this side of the back stabbing, does it?”

“Send them on their way. Come back with my daughter and all of you will be set for life. Fail to do that, don’t bother coming back. You have a maximum of seven days to return,” the President ordered.

CHAPTER 2

The hum of the energy shield hit the ears like a hammer to the skull. It hurt, but currently we were prisoners, and no one cared if prisoners fake, or otherwise were hurt. I was not too sure how fake our prisoner status was at this point.

The heat shielding folded up around to mid chest level with the energy shield coating from the decking, enveloping the prisoners, us, in a heatproof barrier. The energy shield barrier locked you in place against the launch and the ride down to the planet. The system had been developed and designed to put armored agents on the ground in a hurry. In battle armor, this ride was a breeze.

When the government ran out of people to fight, the drop zone system got taken over for prisoner transfers. It was a one-way delivery system. The second web shield of the pad energized and came up around us, locking everyone in place for the trip. The energy shield that housed the pad wrapped up around the web and encased us in our transfer bubble.

The platform lowered into the launch deck below with Garrett and his agents watching the entire time, as if we could escape the transfer pad at this point. The upper deck opening sealed as we cleared it, then half a heartbeat later we were ejected from the President’s ship, and were a fireball headed to the prison planet, Tirus.

I watched the dead of space for the split second. The flames of entering the upper atmosphere whiteout everything. You cannot feel the heat through the drop zone pad, or the double layer of energy shield, but even with your eyes closed tightly, the brightness of the light hurt the eyes. Between that and the headache from the shield generators hum, the ride hurt.

We hit the lower atmosphere hard with a leg numbing impact, but of course the shields held us locked in place. The white hot brilliance had faded somewhat, and I opened my eyes to see the white flames turn blue, orange, and yellow. I could not turn my head, but I could shift my eyes up to see the column of gray-white smoke trailing our descent platform. The ride would be over in minutes at this point. The energy shield of the landing pad would lock onto us, slow our decent and pull us to the prisoner offload hall. It was all automated, even the power source and controls were sealed deep underground to insure no tampering by the prisoners.

As soon as we were down, the foam guns would coat our energy shields removing the last of the heat from our bubble, then the blowers would come to life and clear the foam. Our mission had begun.

***

Newly arrived prisoners would normally find themselves standing in the middle of an open area with no one around to even say hi, welcome, or go to hell, nothing. We would land and find the settlement; there would be some kind of a settlement. The prisoners before us would have to live somewhere, and I was betting it was not in the streets.

New prisoners had to find their own way on their new home, which in our case meant locate the crash site, find the President’s daughter, then let Roberts get us the hell off of the planet.

I could feel the pad slowing. Our fireball ride was nearly over, and we could get to work. On the horizon, out and around us, there were buildings in various levels of decay.

It looked like we would be landing in the night cycle of the planet. That would work to our advantage, as less people would see us depart the landing area. There would be a few seconds of confusion at landing, but I would get everyone organized and moving out of the area fast.

We hit the ground, settled onto the landing pad and the foam covered our energy bubble. When the blowers came on and removed the foam, I could see life was not going to be as easy as I had thought, or hoped for. We were surrounded by a crowd of men and women even before the shields dropped and released us, and they were armed with clubs and some very nasty looking edged weapons.

“All of you listen up. You are now workers for The Highman. Your obedience in this matter is expected, nothing else will be accepted.” The man that spoke to our group stood facing Roberts. He was a dirty, little, bald man with a number of scars that covered his scalp.

“What’s this, forced work, are you crazy?” one of Nelson’s agents said back to the speaker.

The bald man turned to the agent. “You’re his property now, yes. Shut up and listen.” The bald man thought the conversation was over and half turned to one of the other men with him. “Seven new workers for red section, tell the office.”

“Go to hell, I’m not working for you, or this other guy you’re talking about,” the agent said to the bald man’s back.

The bald man turned, pulled out a long, rusty looking knife and pointed it at the agent. The bald man held the weapon out at shoulders length.

“There are no weapons on Tirus,” Roberts whispered to me.

“Get that out of my face before I stuff it down your throat,” the agent told the bald man.

In one smooth, practiced motion, the bald man jabbed the agent through the throat. Since he had not expected it, the agent did not even try to move. “Tell the office six new workers for red section.”

A slide window opened at what must be the office they were talking about. “Hey, Bender needs two bodies for the demolition team,” yelled a woman at the window.

The bald man nodded and looked to our group. “You,” he pointed at me. “And you.” He pointed to the older female agent with us. “Go into that office and wait until you’re told what to do.”

“Thanks, at least you didn’t put me with this one,” I said to the bald man.

“Wait.” He pointed to the older female agent. “You stay.” He pulled Roberts from the platform and pushed her in my direction. “You got anything more to say now?”

I grabbed Roberts arm and walked off to the office. I could hear him laugh.

CHAPTER 3

Roberts and I entered the door to the office.

“Hey, who told you to be on my floor, get over there until Bender wants you!” the old woman yelled, the instant we entered the office. She pointed at a dirty mat across the room near a second door.

I could see it in Roberts’ eyes. She was about to comment when I jerked her by the arm onto the mat. “Sorry, it won’t happen again,” I told the old woman.

The old woman pressed a button on her desk and the speakers crackled to life. “Bender, I got your two new workers.” She clicked the system back off.

The mat was not that large which put Roberts and me close, too close for her comfort. She tried to shift position and almost stepped off of the mat. We couldn’t have that so I grabbed her by the belt and pulled her close. “Stop moving,” I ordered in a very low voice. “They killed the other guy for talking, what makes you think they won’t kill us?”

Roberts looked sideways at me, but she did stop moving. We stood there for well over an hour with no one talking to us, no one watching us directly, but I had the vibe that if we moved off of the mat we would be the center of attention.

The second door, the one near us, popped open, and in strolled this man in dirty coveralls and muddy boots. He walked straight to the old woman’s desk and bent over it. Bits of debris fell from his clothes onto her papers. “So, Alice, how’s my favorite girl today?”

“Your two workers are over there. Don’t let them get my floor dirty,” she told the man that had just muddied it up.

“Okay, Alice, I’ll see what I can do.” He straightened up from talking to her and turned to us.

I got a glance, but his eyes stopped on Roberts.

“Hello, I’m Tim, but everyone calls me Bender.” He walked over to Roberts. “You’re with me now, let me show you around.” He smiled wide and something told me it was not at me. Bender headed for the door he had come in through, but stopped at it long enough to turn back to the old woman. “Alice, I’ve taken care of my workers messing up your floor, but you will need a broom.”

The three of us exited the office and Bender turned to face us. “Here’s the deal. You work for me now, I work for Big Chin and we all work for The Highman, clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Roberts replied.

“Yeah, I got it.”

“Good, let’s go see Big Chin.” Bender led us down a hall and through a door.

When the door opened, a strong burnt odor struck my nose. There was an open wall which provided a glimpse of the area near us. The landing platform was in a warehouse style building, the missing section of wall showed the battered remains of a city. It was only a quick look, but I thought I saw a fence of some kind between our warehouse and the city. We headed up a rusted metal staircase to a second level and along an open air hallway where there were two men at a door.

Bender stopped and turned to us again. “No talking in here, I do all of the talking. Below this level, the compound is divided into three sections. You’re in demo yellow section, that’s all you need to remember for the moment.”

We entered the door and walked into a large, well lit, room. There was an icy chill to the air. Big Chin had air conditioning in this area. I glanced around the room as we walked to a large table. At the table, with his back to us, sat a man with broad shoulders and greasy blond hair. Over his shoulder I could see a piece of red meat, rolls, and potatoes.

“Big Chin, these are my new workers for the demo team.” Bender twisted our direction. “Hey, you two came with names didn’t you?”

“Danbeu and her name is Roberts,” I said. I noticed Chin did not seem to care whether we were there, or not. The food on his plate was more important.

“Yeah, yeah, Danbeu and Roberts are my new guys. I know you like to meet the new demo team workers, Big Chin, so I brought them by. We’ll go now.”

“Wait,” Chin ordered. “What’s their job?” He still did not turn to face us, but he did lay down his knife and fork.

“I’m down two members on one of my yellow section demolition teams. I’m putting them there, unless you got a better place for them.”

I looked from Chin’s back to around the room. It was in sections with guards at every door that I could see. In one section, there was a set of couches and pillows and several women. Panic struck me that Roberts might be put there. She was a kid of twenty-two, but a cute kid.

“Demolition team, fine. First light I want them out working.”

“Yes, sir, Big Chin, first light, you bet.” Bender grabbed Roberts and me by our shoulders and all but dragged us to the door and out of Big Chin’s quarters.

Our little group headed back into the hot warehouse area. We went down the stairs, through several halls, and came out into the main body of the warehouse. Bender stopped us there.

“This is the main hall for yellow section.”

“So that was the boss, huh?” I said.

“Okay, here’s the deal. I’m your boss, that’s all you got to remember. You got lucky with your arrival because we are just starting the down shift for demo teams. All demo teams go out together and come in together. Most teams are that way in all of the sections except the area guards. Yellow section, your section, eats and sleeps in the same hall.” Bender started to walk off.

“What is a demolition team?” Roberts asked.

“Tomorrow. We’ll go over your jobs tomorrow. Tonight eat and sleep if you can, and tomorrow you start work.” He continued through the hall. It was crowded and smelled of crowded, unwashed bodies. As we cut through the crowd, people moved for Bender. He came to a wall and pointed. “Red section is on the other side of that wall, beyond that is blue section. You’re yellow section, so do not go into those sections. It is unsafe for you if you’re not with me. This is your hall, just this area.”

“Yellow section, got it,” I said. “What’s in the other sections?”

“Area guards, managers, and alpha leaders can move between sections. Blue section is the techs. They are to the far right in that area. Between the blue section and the yellow section is the cruncher, red section. All you need to remember is stay in the yellow section.”

I looked over at Roberts and she was staring in the tech direction.

“Roberts, yellow section only, remember that,” I told her and touched her arm.

“Yellow, yeah.” She turned to Bender. “Didn’t you say something about food, I’m starving.”

Bender grinned. “Come with me, you too, Danbeu.”

It was a short walk across a crowded area to a long line of men and women. Bender walked up to the next man in line to be served and elbowed the man back, then waved Roberts and me into the line ahead on him. “Demo team here,” Bender told the person dishing out food. He said this loud enough that no one grumbled about us cutting the long line. The fact that these people did not stop us, made me worry a lot about the new job. “Demo team!” Bender repeated louder.

The person serving, placed a thick piece of yellow bread in a steel dish, and the next person ladled a scoop of a grayish colored stew on top of the bread. He then handed the dish to Roberts. I got the next one and Bender took the one after me.

With our food in hand, Bender led us to a row of almost empty tables to eat. Around us were heavily filled tables with some people eating standing up. I noticed Bender watching me as he sat down next to me. Roberts sat down across the table from us.

“This table is for demo teams only,” Bender explained.

“Like the bread, just a little something more,” Roberts commented which told me she had been paying attention when she seemed distracted by the blue section.

“Yeah, a little something extra for the special ones.” Bender reached across the table, laid his right hand on her left, and smiled a little wider at her. Roberts did not move her hand and smiled a little smile back at him.

I hit him across the jaw line with an open fist. It gets a person’s attention, but does not do any real damage. It got Bender’s attention and others around us, including Roberts.

Bender stared at me. I stared back at him, and after a minute gave him a slight shake of my head. Slowly, he drew his hand back from touching Robert’s hand.

“Problem, Bender?” I heard someone ask from behind me.

Bender continued to look at me. “No, no problems. Jenkins, this is Danbeu and Roberts, the new members of your demo team.”

I glanced at Roberts, who did not look pleased with me. She stood up and extended her right hand to this Jenkins guy behind me. “Mia Roberts.”

Jenkins shook her hand, and she took her seat again.

“Danbeu,” I said and turned in my seat to face him. He was skinny, but that did not surprise me with what I had seen of the food, so far. With the exception of Big Chin and his guards, everyone looked like they were slowly starving to death.

“After dinner, I’m going to show them where to bed down,” Bender told Jenkins.

“Bender, report to my office. Bender, my office,” came over the loud speaker mounted on a structural load beam near our table. I noticed a large iron hammer hanging there from a chain.

“Jenkins, after they eat, show them where to bed down. Tomorrow get them working. No free lunches here.” Bender left the table his bowl in hand.

Jenkins leaned over the table. “Two things you need to know. First, we start early and work long hours, so you are going to want to get your rest. I’m headed to my rack soon, so don’t take long eating.”

“What’s the second thing we need to know?” Roberts asked.

“The second thing is, problems for Bender are problems for the crew and the demo crews solve their problems quickly.” Jenkins left.

Roberts and I finished up in silence and the minute we stood, Jenkins joined us. He waved for us to follow him which, of course, we did, and then led us to a door.

Inside, there were two rows of bunk beds, some double and some triple. It seemed to me there were a lot more people than beds. We stepped over people sleeping in the aisles, and saw lots of people sleeping two to a bed. There were people standing in the aisles almost shoulder-to-shoulder. Even the sleeping people looked tired.

Jenkins led us to one corner that had dirty tape on the floor. Inside the taped area were more beds than people.

“Demolition team section I take it?”

“Yeah.”

We crossed the tape and the area was not crowed, like on the other side. There was room to walk without touching the people around you.

Jenkins walked over to a bed and pointed at it. “This is Alpha leader’s bed, my bed. Don’t ever let me catch you in it. If you need something after we’re done here, this is where I’ll be. You’re new, and nobody cares about that. Don’t bother people and they won’t bother you, much. Find yourself some beds and get some rest. No one will bother you until we start work.”

I spied an open set of bunk beds against a wall; most of the beds against the wall were empty. I took Roberts in tow. She resisted, at first, but followed easily after a step, or two. “We’ll sleep here,” I informed her.

“Fine, do you want the top, or the lower bed?”

“We’ll both be in the bottom bed.”

“No. We have two beds.”

I smiled, then leaned close to her ear. “I just punched their boss in the jaw for touching you. We’re joined at the hip, clear?”

“About that, I don’t need you or anyone else defending my honor. I can smile at anyone I decide to, clear?”

“Here’s the problem. You’re my ticket off of this planet, so until then, you don’t smile at anyone but me. You sure as hell don’t share a bed with anyone but me, and you do not sleep alone if at all possible.”

Roberts looked around the room at the men and women in and out of the taped off demo section.

I could see she had now taken notice how many eyes were on her, not us, but just on her. They all watched the new female of the area. “Yeah, you got a fan club,” I pointed out to Roberts.

“Okay, I’ll take the inside next to the wall.”

“Hate to do this to you, but no. No one in this place is going to put a knife in your back to get to me, but they will try to go through me to get to you.”

Roberts looked around at the crowds of dirty people. Their lives were unpleasant which made most of them, if not all, hard people. Putting a knife in one person’s back for something they wanted was not out of the question with these folks.

“We’re each other’s shield.”

“Yes.” I crawled into the bed up against the wall.

Roberts followed me. She tried to keep her distance in our bed and still be comfortable.

I pulled her close. “The bed isn’t big enough for us to sleep apart. I’ll be a nice guy, we need each other.”

“What’s the bundle I’m feeling, pressed against me, Mr. Nice Guy?”

I smiled, reached to the bundle and showed her.

“Where did you get that?”

“I got it on the ship when Nelson was ordered to join the mission and he punched me. He pushed the weapon into my hands while I was doubled over. He likes to cheat and probably thought to get it back down here, but our team got split apart right away.”

“What’s the charge level on that Taser?”