Chapter 2

Where Thomlin was Going

 

2.1

Sterile white light filled the small, empty room.

Thomlin couldn’t remember how he got there.  It was all a bad dream—or at least he hoped it was.  He lay uncomfortably on the floor in a room with no apparent exit.  His upper right arm throbbed where the brunt of the stunning rays had hit him.

It all came back to him when he stood up.

“Darond!” he yelled.  “You bastard!  What did you do to me?”

He spun around inspecting the four sterile walls.  There were no doors.  There were also no cameras.  He noticed a slight orange tint in the light.

“Let me out of here!” he yelled in desperation.  “I’m not Darond Hywater!”

He pounded on the walls.

“I’m Thomlin!  He set me up!  Listen to me!”

The sounds of the pounding and the yelling were strangely muffled.  He wondered if anyone outside the room could even hear him.

“Hello!” he yelled as he pounded harder.  He kept pounding and yelling until he could do it no longer.  Exhausted, he collapsed to the floor.

That was when one of the walls lifted.  It opened into darkness.  As his eyes adjusted Thomlin saw someone standing still in the shadows.

As he stood up again, Thomlin said, “You have the wrong guy!  I’m not Darond.  I can prove it.  You’ve got to help me get out of here.”

The shadow person said nothing.  He was amazingly still.  Thom suddenly feared for his life.

Fluorescent lights flickered on behind the figure, revealing a long hallway.  As the light increased, Thom realized it wasn’t a man who stood before him.  It was a robot—a large menacing metallic shape of a man.

Thom flushed.  His mother had told him stories about robots and the planet Justice.  Seeing a robot meant you were pretty much dead, and here stood one—slightly taller than Thom, and much heftier—reinforced with strong metal.  Where a face should be a frozen angular mask stared without expression.

Thom could imagine the robot pounding him to death with one stroke.  He wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go.  Instead, he fainted.

He didn’t know how long he was out.  It couldn’t have been for long.  When electricity flowed through his body, he immediately woke up and jumped out of the room, which had gone dark.  As soon as he cleared the open wall, it closed behind him.  

The robot was down the hallway about twenty meters, walking slowly, clunking with each footstep.

Thomlin watched in utter disbelief, realizing there was only one way to go.  He had to follow the strange bucket of bolts in front of him.  Or he could remain where he was, as the robot didn’t seem to be paying him any attention.

The lights directly above Thom turned off suddenly, and ants were crawling up his leg.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Thom said as he moved to a lighted section of hallway.  The sensation of ants disappeared.  After another thirty seconds, the next section of lights turned off, and the ants came back.  Thom reluctantly ran toward the robot.  Once he caught up, he laughed, because the robot wasn’t going any faster.

Thom looked desperately for any means of escape, but there was none—just the scary robot in front of him and the dark electrified hall behind him.

After another ten minutes, they came to a door.  It was the outside of an airlock.  The robot slowly opened the door, and walked inside.  Thom wanted to shut the robot inside the airlock, but knew the lights in the hallway would turn off and he would be trapped outside.

Don’t I have any other options?  What can I do? 

The robot stood at attention while waiting for Thomlin to enter.  He waited until the hallway went completely dark.  He walked past the robot.  Another airlock door inside was closed—protecting them from whatever was on the other side.

When the robot closed the first airlock door, the change in pressure nearly burst Thom’s ears.  Then he realized that there were no spacesuits inside the airlock.  His stomach started eating itself when he saw the robot moving toward the other door.

“WAIT!” he yelled at the robot.  “You can’t open that!  I don’t have a spacesuit!”

The tall metal man ignored Thom and pushed a few buttons on the wall.

“No!  I’m not a robot like you!  I’ll die!”

He quickly got in between the robot and the other airlock door and said, “You’re not opening this!  You’ve got to listen to me!  I didn’t do it!”

Thom didn’t know the true nature of the planet Justice.  What if it was just a story?  It was supposed to be a place you stayed until you died, but what if it was simply an airlock into space?  Is that where criminals really went?  He didn’t want to die like this—an ignominious death in the cold vacuum of space—without a fair chance of defending himself.

The robot got closer and paused as if considering what to do with Thom, who was now shaking and cowering before the large mass towering above him.  After making its decision, the robot said in a mechanical voice, “YOU DO NOT NEED A SPACESUIT,” and it forcefully pushed Thom out of the way prior to turning the wheels on the airlock.

After a light on the wall flashed green, the outside door opened—not to the empty darkness of space, but to another hallway.  Thom was confused.  He was happy to be alive, but he couldn’t figure out why an airlock was necessary.  On top of that, the robot spoke!  And it seemed to understand what Thom was saying.

This hallway was shorter.  It led to a miniature port where a single shuttle waited for them.  Thom realized he had little time left.  If the robot could respond, it was worth a shot.  He had to try something before they got into the shuttle.

“Hey, robot!” he said, voice wavering.  “Do you ever capture the wrong man?  Do you guys ever make a mistake?”

There was no response.

“Why don’t you answer me?”  He jumped in front of the robot and stood there obstinately.

“Come on!  I don’t even know what I did!  You have to give me a chance to prove myself.  I can’t go to Justice!”

The robot paused and looked at Thom.  Then it kept walking, pushing him aside.

“You do make mistakes!  Don’t you?  You just won’t admit it!”

“GET IN THE SHUTTLE,” answered the robot simply as the shuttle door opened.

“Not until you answer my question,” insisted Thom.

The robot pushed Thom through the door, delivering a shock.

“Ow!” said Thom as he reluctantly entered the shuttle.

Inside, there was enough seating for eight people, and there were no windows.  Inside sat a solitary filthy and unshaven man.  He said, “It’s about time you showed up!  I’ve been waiting at this blasted station for hours!”

“Why don’t you guys go on without me?  I don’t belong here.”

“Who cares?  The sooner you sit down and shut up, the sooner this stupid robot can get us away from here!”  There was no reaction from the robot.  It did seem to be waiting for Thom, though.

What’s the use?

He sat down, trying not to show his body shaking.  Escape would have to wait.  The robot was armed.  The shuttle doors were now closed.  There was nothing he could do.

2.2

The robot pushed some buttons and the shuttle began to move.  In less than a minute, gravity disappeared, revealing that they were already in space.  Thom wondered when he was moved off the surface of Niobe.  It also meant they could be anywhere. 

The other passenger sat in his seat, sneering at Thom every time he looked at him as if saying, “Don’t talk to me!”

I’ve got to get a grip, Thom thought.  I’m showing weakness.  But what else can I do?  I’m not Darond.  I’m not the mega quintillionaire!  He would know how to handle this situation.  I’m so dead!  They’re going to eat me alive!

I don’t know what to do.  I don’t belong here, not like this other guy.  I have a life.  I have meaning.  It’s not much, but it’s enough.  I don’t care what Darond says.  It really is the good life.  Or at least it was.  I had friends and I had Doryth.  What I wouldn’t give to see her again!

Is it really too late?  They can’t convict me.  Indisputable Evidence is supposed to be perfect!  I didn’t kill or rape anyone.  I haven’t embezzled.  I haven’t even shoplifted!  I’m only guilty of playing a stupid game!

Now I’m a dead man—doomed to live out someone else’s sentence!

That bastard—Darond!  I’m going to make him pay!  Whatever it takes, I’m going to get out of this mess, and then I’m going to kill him!  

He’s the one who should be sitting in this seat.  What would he do?  Could he escape?  He’s the ultimate negotiator.  He would make friends and build connections.  If there is any way to escape Justice, he’d find someone who knew how to do it.  

Maybe that’s what I need to do.  If they think I’m the infamous Darond Hywater, maybe they’ll listen to me.  It’s worth a try.  I can start with this weirdo, but I don’t know what to say.

Thom smiled awkwardly at the man, who only shot Thom a nastier look.

Oh, come on!  I know I can do this.  If I ever hope to escape, this is how it needs to be done.  Action!  That’s what Darond would do.

He said to the man with a forced cheerfulness, “Hi.  I’m Darond Hywater.  What’s your name?”

The man answered strongly, both in volume and in smell, “Why don’t you leave me alone?  You pansy!”

Exuding patience, Thomlin tried again.  “Look.  We’re in the same boat.  I was just thinking that perhaps you and I could …”

“What is your problem?” the man said with sudden forcefulness.  “I’m not doing ANYTHING with you!  Don’t you know where we’re going?  Down there, it’s every man for himself.  Anything goes!  I can tell you—when we get there, you better RUN in the other direction, because I’m not going to waste any time cutting you down!”

Thom was taken aback.  That was not the reaction he had hoped for.  Not wanting to show any weakness, he stared evenly at the guy and asked, “Was that supposed to be a death threat?”

The man unbuckled, and threw himself from his seat, throwing his hands up to his face.  In the zero gravity, he shot up to the ceiling and hit his head hard.  Thom couldn’t help laughing, asking himself why people had so much trouble with zero-g.

Rubbing his head, the other man yelled, “I can’t believe this!  You are a moron!”

He maneuvered to the back of the cabin away from Thom and took a seat.  He said softly, but with the same intensity, “You stay right there.  Don’t say anything at all.  I swear I’ll kill you if I hear another word.”

The robot turned around and looked at the other guy.  Thomlin was scared the robot was going to do something ugly, but instead it went back to operating the shuttle.

Thom wanted to say something, just to see what the guy would do, but decided against it.  Instead, he returned his thoughts to escaping.  He tried to clear his mind and start over so he could think logically. 

No one knew where Justice was.  The stories claimed that the Galactic Republic removed the planet’s location from all star maps.  It was still infinitesimally possible for a star hopper to stumble across it, but such an unfortunate traveler wouldn’t have long to live.

There were always rumors of people disappearing after a warp.  Some say they may have warped inside a sun or planet.  Or they may have gotten stuck in another dimension.  Or perhaps they had accidentally found Justice.

Escape was impossible.  All stories agreed on that fact.  Yet, Thomlin had to try.

One way or another, escape would mean taking a spaceship.  That would be difficult.

He looked around at his surroundings again.  If only we could take this spaceship.  If only I could persuade that guy to work with me, we could overtake the robot and take off with the ship.  It would be two against one.

Then again, if we did take over the ship, would we be able to fly it without windows?

He tried to get a good look at the consoles, without attracting too much attention.  What he could see didn’t make much sense.  It was nothing he knew how to control.

The other guy fidgeted nervously with his shoes.

It wouldn’t work anyway.  One robot flying a shuttle big enough to carry eight people?  This robot can shock anyone at the touch.  Surely it could handle eight people!  In this confined place, it could probably kill us all in a manner of seconds.

Thom decided that he would take no action that would elicit a physical response from the robot.  His only chance now, he decided, was to persuade the robot to turn the ship around before they got to Justice.  If he never arrived at the planet, there would be no need for escape!

Now that Thom was seated and not being corralled, perhaps the robot would listen to what he had to say.  He said, “Hey, robot!  There’s been a terrible mistake.”

The robot turned, but said nothing.

Behind Thom, there was a quick noise.  Before he knew it, the other man’s shoelace was around his neck.  It was a thin wire—a weapon concealed in his shoes.  Thom struggled to get the man off his neck.  In the zero-g, the man flopped behind him, hitting the seats and floating in mid-air, yet always holding the wire tight around Thom’s neck.  The man made hateful sounds as he kept pulling and holding.

He said in between quick breaths, “Why didn’t … you listen to … me?  I said … if I heard … another word … I’d kill you. … How do you think … I got to go … on this little trip?”

With no release from the wire around his neck, Thom tried throwing punches, but he had no strength.  He just couldn’t get any air, and the world around him was slowly fading away.

Suddenly, the man let go of the string and yelled in pain.  The robot had the man’s right hand caught in its inhuman grasp.  The man yelled, “Stupid robot!  You broke my hand!”

The robot let go and broke the wire in half.  Then it flipped the man upside-down and grabbed his other shoe.  The man objected as it grabbed the other shoelace and broke it in half as well.

Then the robot said in its metallic voice, “KALDOR BROWN!  YOU HAVE TRIED TO KILL ANOTHER PERSON.  YOU HAVE BROKEN A RULE.  YOU WILL RECEIVE A DEMERIT.”

“Demerit?” asked Kaldor.  “What are you talking about?  Anything goes!  You can’t give have demerits!  What does that mean, anyway?”

The robot answered while returning to the console, “YOU WILL BE FULLY BRIEFED UPON ARRIVAL.”

“Fully briefed?” said Kaldor.  “Don’t tell me we’ll have to follow stupid rules!”

The robot repeated, “YOU WILL BE FULLY BRIEFED...”

“This is stupid!  I’m not arguing with a robot!”

Then there was silence.

Kaldor went back to his seat, evidently giving up.  Thom froze.  He had no idea what a demerit was, but he was sure he didn’t want one.  Could he get one from simply talking to the robot?  He didn’t want to chance it.  Until he understood the rules, he decided not to do anything.

 

Continue to Chapter 3