The first thing Davi felt was the cold. Not the sharp, biting cold of metal against skin — though that sensation didn’t follow too far behind — but a heavy, inner cold. A lethargy, deep in her limbs, a numbness in her heart, and lungs, and breath.
The second thing she felt was the motion of the ship.
The ship?
She struggled to open her eyes, and waited for them to adjust to the dim light of the room.
Not a room. A cell.
After a moment, her vision cleared and she took in the metal walls, so close together she had been curled into a twisted position just to lie down. Along one of the walls was a door — though there was no handle from the inside — and high above the door a small barred window showed… more metal.
Still, from the deep rumble of the floor and the soft side-by-side motion she felt in her growling stomach, Davi had no doubt she was on a spaceship. A spaceship to where, she didn’t know.
The last thing she remembered was the carriage, just outside the Courthouse. The enforcer had said-
Davi twisted her aching body — how long had she been contorted into that position, just lying there? — and drew her knees to her chest. She let out a shuddering breath. And then another.
Her breaths soon turned into sobs, which turned into whimpers, which turned into silence. Waiting. Wondering.
Fearing.
Some time later — it could have been hours or minutes, she had no clue — the door to her cell slid open. A dark figure clomped in, covered from head-to-toe in armored gear. Not an inch of skin was visible.
They dropped a tray of… sludge?… onto Davi’s toes. “Eat,” they said, their robotic voice echoing through the mask.
“Wait,” Davi called, one hand outstretched as if to stop them.
The figure didn’t hesitate — they whipped out a baton and brought it down hard on Davi’s hand.
A sharp zap shot through her, spreading like fire from her arm to the rest of her limbs. She yelped and pulled back, cradling her hand.
“Don’t try that again,” the figure snapped.
“Where are we going?” Davi called as they stepped back into the metal hall. She caught a brief glimpse of rows of cell doors, like her own, before the figure spun back around.
“Schad ‘If,” they said.
The door slammed shut.
***
Over the next innumerable days — it really was hard to keep track in her windowless cell — Davi cried. A lot.
Between bouts of sobs and curses at the walls, the window, the people who appeared like clockwork to feed her, she mustered up a mental list of everything she knew about Schad ‘If.
(a) It was a small atmospheric planet, which meant it was technically inhabitable.
(b) It was a desolate desert of stone, which meant no one actually wanted to inhabit it.
(c) It was where the members of the POLIS sent the worst of their criminals: murderers, slavers, traitors, political prisoners… people they wanted to disappear.
(d) It was nearly twelve days’ travel from Port Havre. Davi didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious, and she didn’t know how long they’d been travelling. But, after a certain number of sludge-like meals, she imagined they had to be getting close.
And then, one day, the door slid open, and two guards stepped in. She’d long-since realized her monotonous watchers sounded like they did because they were, in fact, droids.
Droids were humanoid robots with a certain level of sentience and emotional capability. At least, they were supposed to show some level of emotion.
Her guards must be broken.
The two guards reached down and hoisted Davi to her feet. Her legs ached and her limbs felt weak. She was sure tear streaks scarred shiny paths down her cheeks.
She watched numbly as they hooked something to her waist, then moved to the next cell, then the next. Slowly, prisoners shuffled out of their cells. Some, like her, sported puffy eyes and sorrowful faces. Some, like the woman who stepped out right after her, just looked… scary.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Large, muscled, scarred and burnt. Davi wasn’t exactly short… except suddenly she felt tiny. This woman could crush her in an instant and, from the look in her eyes as she took in Davi’s puffy face and gangly limbs, she knew it.
“See somethin’?” she growled.
Davi averted her gaze and shook her head. The other woman laughed.
She kept her gaze on the ground as Davi and three other prisoners were half-shuffled, half-dragged down the cargo ramp of the ship. Only once they stepped onto solid land did Davi pull her gaze from her torn boots to stare around them.
They were in a shipyard. Prison ships — like the one she’d been on — towered all around them, monstrous, foreboding. Beyond the ships, a tall metal gate stretched towards the reddening sky.
“Move along!” one of the droids barked. Davi felt a tug on her waist, and jolted into motion.
They were shuffled into a room, and made to change into loose tunics and trousers that Davi had to tie at the waist to stop from falling down. When she tried to keep her boots on, one of the droids pointedly pulled out their stun stick.
She quickly slid them off her feet.
“In you go,” monotoned another droid, pushing them into a moving pod.
The pod had glass walls, and offered the prisoners a perfect view of their shiny new life. They flew over the gates of the shipyard, passing over another yard where dozens of little figures no bigger than Davi’s pinkie finger moved around. As Davi and her fellow prisoners watched, all the figures in the yard turned their heads up.
Suddenly, she felt like a monkey in a zoo.
The woman next to Davi growled, “well, fucking h-” but broke off in a yelp. When Davi looked over, she cradled her shoulder.
“No talking,” barked a droid, “until you meet The Warden.”
***
[human female… Terran… 6327 days old… 176.88 centimeters… medium strength… emotional detection: anxiety 92%… risk of aggression: 12%]
The Warden paused. Gears whirred in their brain as they took in the final prisoner on their incoming roster.
[rescanning]
Numbers scrolled across the screen of their vision.
[human female… Terran…6327 days old… 176.89 centimeters… medium strength… emotion detection: anxiety 80%, fear 97%…risk of aggression: 11%]
The girl in question stood silently, watching The Warden with wide, brown eyes. Her heart rate scan skyrocketed high beyond the safe recommendation for human life, though this was nothing out of the ordinary for new prisoners on the planet.
Her hair, a kinky mass of dark brown, stuck out in random directions. Sweat perspired on her brow.
The Warden whirred their gears again. This prisoner was an anomaly. They didn’t like anomalies in their prison. One was enough. Two?
Something had to be done about this.
[searching for documentation]
The Warden stared at the girl, unblinking.
[Judge: Consulate Ambassador Graham Vilter…Prisoner Sentence: high treason…collusion with Major Bonna… attempts to undermine Tzannic sovereignty]
One of the delivery droids slid forward. “The Consulate Judge sent specific instructions with this one,” it droned. A comm drive glistened in their outstretched palm.
“I don’t understand,” the girl said, her voice ringing The Warden’s ears.
One of the droid lifted their stun stick, but The Warden raised a hand. “Continue,” they ordered.
The girl blinked, as if she hadn’t expected the order. “I…he said I was innocent. The judge said he’d release me. I don’t understand why I’m here. Please.”
[emotion detection: depression 50%, fear 83%]
Tears threatened to fall from the girl’s eyes.
Something whirred in The Warden’s cold, manufactured heart. They quietly took the comm drive from the other droid and scanned the information. Then they looked back up.
“Please,” the girl pleaded. “I don’t understand.”
The Warden took pity on the girl, if such a sentience was possible within their minimal emotional pal programming. “Very well. I will explain.” They rolled closer, and the girl’s eyes widened.
[emotion detection: fear 99%, curiosity 64%]
“The Consulate Judge has sentenced Edmara-comma-Davi to solitary confinement on Schad ‘If Planetary Prison,” they said.
“But why?”
More whirring. “An anonymous comm informed the Consulate office of Edmara-comma-Davi’s treasonous acts. Suspected sender: unknown. Location: Mercey’s. Time: Thirteen days prior.”
“Mercey’s? But-”
“Comm drive found in Edmara-comma-Davi’s possession confirmed suspicions. Edmara-comma-Davi sentenced thirteen days prior.” The Warden whirred back to their place and turned to the delivery droid. “Orders initiated: bring the prisoner to cell 34.”
The droids dragged the girl out of The Warden’s office. The Warden returned to their work.
[scanning…]
***
Bring the prisoner to cell 34.
Davi didn’t know what to think. She didn’t know whether to cry, or shout, or scream. As it was, she didn’t think anyone would hear her, deep in the underbelly of the prison planet.
After meeting with The Warden — which had left her with more questions and despair than answers — the droids had dragged her down what must have been twenty flights of metal stairs. Each step rang in her ears, a dull music that made her want to dig into her skull and pull her own brains out.
They’d reached cell 34 — a dank room surrounded by metallic plates, with a single window high in the ceiling nearly ten feet from the top of her head. The window itself was no larger than a loaf of bread, and a beam of light cast a single stripe of silver across the ebony stone floor.
They’d shoved her inside, and Davi had taken her chance to run for it, shoving desperately past the guards.
She made it three steps before four stun sticks dug into her back, sending her convulsing to the ground.
The droids rolled her lifeless body into the cell and slammed the door shut.
Hours later, when Davi managed to pull some movement back into her limbs, she crawled directly under the window and stared into the night sky. Three blinking stars twinkled down at her.
She knew them, in her heart.
Janae Black-2, Hesperita, and Kasper G-H.
“Help me,” she whispered, her ragged voice barely a whisper, and yet she knew they heard her. The stars. Her friends.
“Help me.”
The stars held silent vigil as Davi drifted off into a fitful sleep.
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