Chapter One

WAR COUNCIL
PROFESSOR CONSTANZA JARUFSKY

"I think," whines the President of the United Planets Secretariat; "we should listen to Professor Jarufsky."

Well this was novel!  Someone actually advocating I be listened to!

It was too late. I assumed they wished to know where they erred so as to cast blame elsewhere. As usual.

I had watched Terrans lockstep to the chasm; my warnings garnering insults and contempt. Now that we've tumbled over they are interested in what I have to say.

I looked about the conference room aboard the Herkimer; one of the 'secure' bases of the Terran Space Fleet; I wonder if the word 'secure' was now defined as not yet attacked.

I had recently departed another of these vessels, the John Glenn, hoping I would live long enough to see this season's roses. My yacht had been intercepted and I was 'requested' to liaison with this ship.  As the Governor of Xenos III I earned the polite command of a request.

Before conceding, I had glanced at my chrono thinking the time frame about right. War should be raging, the first major losses tallied.

Now, they wanted to hear me.

"I have no doubt the planet of Limo 2 was destroyed by the ZerShaz Cosmic Forces for the purpose of avenging the dishonour done to one of their species; eDapktchoy."

I deliberately mispronounced his name as Dap Kat Choy so they would understand it.  In Shaz the first letter is written in common form as it is not pronounced but framed to effect the enunciation of the subsequent letters without syllabic break.

It is a tonal language, similar to Chinese. It is a language about which I'd written extensively. Of course, none of these great leaders and intellectuals would have read anything I wrote so I had to offend my own sense of rightness by saying his name in a manner no ZerShaz would recognise.

I continued my exposition.

"Among them the perception of honour and dishonour goes beyond our views of laws, crime, retribution--I have mentioned this previously and been ignored."

"Yes, we know---" An Admiral snapped.

He had been one of those on the John Glenn, an odious man who would be responsible for bringing the human race to annihilation. I stared at him, waiting for him to retract before I would continue. Under my gaze he found interest in the screen before him as if there was something worth reading upon it.

I sipped a glass of water, my eyes trailing the beltline of the room, aware one could tell time on a ship by the changing colours of the light strips.  I didn't remember the 'code' but knew there were six colours to signify the watches. I believe the blue-green shade was somewhere in the middle of the thirty six hour 'stand' that was used in space instead of a twenty four hour day.

Having obtained respectful silence I spoke again.

"The undetermined disaster which took the 64th battalion--."

"It was a collision--." Hoped the President.

I didn't bother to disturbe his fantasy, continued;"followed by the destruction of Limo 2, the entrance of the ZCF into the 11th Sector, invasion of Shalimar, and destruction of the Lymogyene's homeworld of Ubern--."

"The truce has been broken." Realised the Vice President.

I wondered where he had been for the past ten days.

"Sending eDapktchoy to Miunow broke the truce." I proclaimed.

"Prisoners are incarcerated in prison, Professor. Miunow is a prison."

Did the Admiral assume official nomenclature would override actualities?

"Miunow is a concentration camp." I state without deflection.

"Miunow is a prison, Professor." Growled the Admiral.

"We do not engage in torture." The President tried to soothe; he was a consummate politician.

"I have been to Miunow!" I nearly shout. "I know what it is! Have you been there?"

The Admiral became pontifical; "Professor, I will not argue this point with you. A member of the Terran Space Fleet deserted, was tried under the U.C.M.J, found guilty and sentence was passed."

I wondered if the Admiral believed he could impress me. If he thought I was one of his mindless minions willing to suspend belief and acquiesce to official propaganda.

Miunow was a concentration camp. Few actually knew of its existence; it held low grade security classification. Miunow was where those found guilty of Schedule 1 offenses were incarcerated.

There are no visitation rights to the prison called Miunow. One of the clever tricks of propaganda. To punish an offender they use 'reward and the withholding of reward' and it sounds so very humane.

A component of punishment is the denial of personal visits. I have no idea what lie they feed the convict's family but assume it's effectiveness.

The convict drugged, constrained, stacked on a Class 6 cargo vessel as so much meat is transported to a planet called Limo 2. It is approximately the size of Earth but having suffered a cataclysm eons ago, it was dying; useful only to be mined for silicates and the housing of prisoners.

The Lymogyenes managed the prison. They turned the prisoners into 'organic robots'. Implants were made into a convict's brain and he was operated from a central office.

Upon completion of sentence the ex-convict is unable to commit further offences as he is incapable of thought.

An interesting element of the punishment is that the convict's return to society must be paid for by his family. If the family can not, will not or if there is no family, it will be done by the State.  As great opprobrium is enticed for S.1 offences, most families change their names, addresses, to prove their total disengagement with the criminal.

This results in the State paying for the return of convicts and recouping by selling the individual to a hospital. From the body of the criminal organs are harvested.

Crime is low, there are no recidivists. Unlike ancient days when the bulk of the prison population was made up of those serving their second plus sentence, none of our prisoners are recidivists. This is our

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 04.10.2021
ISBN: 978-3-7487-9627-5

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