A few days passed after Hayley had received the bad news about her extended sentence, and she finally decided it was time to get up and move around. Her body was stiff as board from her lack of movement beyond the regimented trips to the maintenance station she experienced twice daily. And she was growing tired of her surroundings. The lonlieness was getting to her. The lack of seeing real people. The absence of people’s voices beyond her own and the emotionless droning of the Warden. She decided it was time to go to the arcologies.
Setting off on the main paved road, she began the push forward, the looming pyramids in the distance rarely leaving her sight. On the way she passed by a number of other maintenance stations set up along the road, each seemingly position in regular one to two kilometer intervals. The closer she got to the arcologies and civilization, the more frequently she was seeing other Exiles. Commercial road traffic also began to increase, forcing Hayley to walk off road. She didn’t mind, considering the flat pavement was harder on her feet than the softer soil. It was just easier to follow the road which was why she generally kept on it.
The four identically sized and shaped arcologies laid just ahead of Hayley, spreading out across the horizon like a massive wall of steel over four kilometers long. Each of the massive structures had taken nearly eleven years to build over the span of a 60-year-period. Once the symbol of Federation ingenuity and human cultural expansion throughout the galaxy, they now stood as symbols of oppression and cruelty. Unfortunately, they were the only ‘civilized’ areas she had any access to, even if she didn’t technically have access to any of them. Still, the streets surrounding each arcology were not unlike the street of major cities; vendors, merchants and what have you lining them. The shantytown spread out around the base of the arcologies. In realty the shanties weren’t a single conjoined town, but rather five or six large clusters of mobile structures, each cluster divided by a space of a few hundred meters. Hayley probably would have rather gone there, but as she’d been informed during her pre-Exile briefing, they were off limits to Exiles. Everything surrounding the arcologies was maintained and manicured. The grass within the many parkettes surrounding the four giant structures were perfectly groomed and tended to, the grass appearing greener than the grass in the wilds and always appearing trimmed. There was little if any litter blowing around the streets or walkways. The street themselves were immaculately maintained, barely a crack in the pavement- surprising given how variable the temperatures tended to be on the planet.
Ground vehicles were sporadic, but some did move up and down the main roads. Air travel seemed more common- vessels constantly buzzing around the four towers like bees around a beehive...or four beehives in this case. Hayley saw more Exiles. Many more. Some sat along the roadways with their heads down, others puttered about, a few leaned on the walls. All seemed pretty much miserable. One thing Hayley noticed immediately about the ones here as opposed to the ones she’d encountered further away from the arcologies were that these ones did not appear to be in as good as shape. While there were a few out there that were in reasonable condition, most were average or just slightly above average like her. She figured part of that had to do with the fact that the newer Exiles seemed to be drawn to the urban settings, while the older ones apparently preferred the solitude of the wilderness. There were a number of promenades along the perimeter of the arcologies. These were where the shops and vendors were located and where most of the regular people seemed to congregate outside the towering structures. Regular people, Hayley thought with mild resentment directed at herself more than anyone. Is that how I’m seeing them now? They’re regular people and we somehow aren’t? The promenades were designed like small outdoor malls. An exquisitely decorated fountain with a tall statue centerpiece inhabited the center of the promenade concourse, water churning out from holes along the base of the statue. The sculpture stood nearly twelve feet high and was of a man wearing flowing robes adopting a heroic pose with an arm reaching to the sky, his hand cupping what appeared to be a small Vega IV globe. The inscription plate near the base identified the subject as ‘Aldrich Heissler –
Father of the Republic’. She shook her head disdainfully at the statue. Heissler. The self-proclaimed Supreme Chancellor of Vega IV. A despot if ever there was one, and the whole reason why Hayley was trapped as an Exile for the next year and nine months. Everything about the statue made her blood boil. The man. His opulence. The treatment of his citizens and non-citizens alike.
Heaving a sigh, she moved away from the statue and deeper into the promenade. She spotted a few other Exiles here and there. Many of them looked longingly at all the happy people merrily carrying on with their lives, totally indifferent toward the black latex suited convicts in their midst. Although Hayley caught a few glances in her direction, most simply ignored her and the other Exiles altogether. She did witness one thing that made her heart ache.
A mother and a young child had just left a merchant store and were moving briskly across the promenade on their way to one of the food vendors. The child, a beautiful young girl no older than 5 dropped the stuffed animal she’d been carrying. Despite her pleas, the mother kept pulling the child ahead, totally ignoring her. A lean bodied female Exile happened to notice this at the same time Hayley had. Whether by natural instinct or for some other reason all her own, the Exile scooped up the teddy bear and ran after the mother and child. When the mother and child reached the café-style food vendor, the Exile knelt down and handed the child her toy. With all of the innocence in the world, the child smiled and politely thanked the Exile. The mother on the other hand exploded and furiously berated the Exile and her child and forced...forced the child to tell the Exile to leave her alone and go away. Of course the child complied with her parent’s wishes. It was the look in the Exile’s body language that made Hayley begin to tear up. She sauntered off with her head dropped, her shoulders hunched and her arms hugging her body. The poor woman was just returning the child’s belonging...something the child’s ignorant and despicable mother should have done.
The female Exile noticed Hayley standing several meters away and glanced up toward her, coming to a stop. Hayley pressed a hand against her chest over her heart, symbolizing her grief over how she’d been treated. The other Exile seemed to genuinely appreciate the gesture and nodded her head, sliding a finger down her helmet from where her eye would have been to her chin, as if to suggest a tear. She then walked off, leaving the promenade altogether. Hayley felt her anger boil. She turned her attention to the mother and her child, noticing that the mother seemed more interested in whatever she was doing on her DPAD than her young daughter who was attempting to get her attention. That was the final straw. Growling beneath her helmet, she marched directly up to the woman seated in the outdoor café and backhanded the digital device right out of her hand. The woman gasped as the DPAD cartwheeled through the air a number of feet before hitting the ground with a satisfying clatter.
"You ignorant bitch!" Hayley yelled, thrusting her helmeted head toward the woman whose horrified face was reflected in the smooth midnight black surface. "Stop ignoring your daughter and show a little damn appreciation, you uptight cow!" Hayley’s body was suddenly overwhelmed with an intense, crippling pain. Her body lurched backward away from the mother and daughter, and spilled onto the floor. Sheer agony in ever sense of the word filled every part of her body from head to toe in radiating waves, causing her to cry out loudly between each wave. Her body jerked, twisted and contorted with each successive wave.
The child looked on with a worried expression while her mother simply got up, picked up her discarded device then summoned the small girl. "Come along. Lets leave this thing be."
As Hayley lay there, wracked with such pain she could hardly imagine, the world continued to go on around her. People walked by, a few throwing casual glances her way, but nobody concerning themselves with her.
"Major Offense. Assaulting a Republic citizen. Punishment level 8 administered. DIS has been dispatched to your location."
It wasn’t until two uniformed DIS agents appeared that Hayley was finally released from the Warden’s agonizing death grip. She cried out as she was finally able to regain her senses, drawing in her knees and wrapping her arms around herself as she continued to sob.
The DIS agents looked around then glanced at each other through their gasmasks. "You see any witnesses?"
"Nah. Whatever. I think the punishment is enough. Lets get out of here."
The other DIS agent nodded, snickering as he looked down at the silently sobbing Exile at his feet. The two then marched off, leaving Hayley alone. Although the punishment had left no residual pain at all, the experience, the absolutely horrible experience had left a mark on the young woman. It had crushed her. Mentally and physically. She felt like a timid little mouse at that moment, the giant arcologies looking down at her with contempt. It was almost twenty minutes before she could pick herself up and leave the promenade, feeling as exposed to the world as if she were stark naked. That wouldn’t be the worst of it though.
She’d left the area immediately surrounding the arcologies and ventured out to the bay that day, finding herself a little spot amongst some wreckage to call her own for the time being. She remained there for the next week, only venturing back toward the arcologies for her regular maintenance cycles. It was at the end of that week that she’d gotten the worst news yet. Smacking that woman’s DPAD and incurring an assault charge had cost her dearly.
She was now in it for the next three years.
* * *
The Federation council had been in deliberations for nearly a week and a half regarding the fate of one of their citizens and what they planned on doing about it. Long deliberations usually meant one of two things – the council was considering and preparing for the repercussions of their decision, or the council was split in their decision to act on something. Either way, Max Trainor knew it meant more time that Hayley was forced to exist on Vega IV, aimlessly roaming as one of those black suited Exiles.
Staring out the window of his hotel room in Brussels, Max’s sole thoughts that soggy evening were of Hayley. It’d been nearly three sleepless weeks since he’d seen her last, and his heart was growing heavy from the long separation, both in terms of distance and time. After Hayley’s arrest and incarceration, the Federation had re-established its travel advisory on the planet, restricting travel to Vega IV to military and authorized commercial traffic only. As such, Max had returned to Earth. He wanted to tell Hayley’s parents what had happened to her in person anyway, and had visited them in their home in Montreal. It’d been a difficult scene as he expected. They placed considerable blame at his feet for allowing her to go to such a dangerous and ‘backwards’ world to begin with, and as her manager not taking better care of her and keeping her in check. He conceded that point. She was his responsibility. Perhaps this was why managers getting romantically involved with their clients wasn’t always a good thing – she knew how to push his buttons and he was generally more concerned with maintaining their romantic relationship than he was their professional one. Perhaps if he’d been less emotionally involved he’d have kept her on a tighter leash and not let her go off on her own.
It didn’t matter now though. What was done was done, and now she was back on that world, desperate, scared and alone. It was approaching midnight local time when Max heard a knock at his suite door. Groggily sauntering over to door, he opened it to find Federation Ambassador Davin Kurtis. The look on his face was stolid, which Max knew wasn’t a good sign.
"Mr. Trainor, may I come in for a moment?"
Nodding, the 31-year-old musician stepped back into the suite, flicking on a light switch as he moved over to the kitchenette. "You want a cup of coffee? I just made it."
"No, thank you. This will be quick."
Max bobbed his head in a nod as he poured himself a cup from the insta-brew coffee pot. Taking it black, he carried it over to the small common area where Kurtis had already taken a seat in one of the black leather easy chairs. "I take it you don’t come with very good news," Max uttered, lowering himself into the seat opposite the ambassador.
Kurtis breathed a light sigh. "It’s not the news we were hoping for. But it may be a start. The Federation Council has decided not to push for extradition...for the moment."
"Fuck..." Max shook his head. "Then what the hell are we supposed to do? Just leave her there?"
"Let me finish. The Federation’s decision has created a powder keg. Public outrage over this is almost universal. Further, this incident has possibly done exactly as Ms. Komit hoped her tour would accomplish."
"What’s that?"
"People have been made aware of the kind of atrocities that go on in the Republic. People throughout the Federation see now the kind of oppressive regime the Republic is and are up in arms. The Council has effectively been sandbagged by both sides, the public and the Aegean Republic. As a result, they have decided to dispatch a commission to the planet to ascertain the true scope of the Republic’s oppressive rule. The commission has a deadline of four weeks to conduct their inspection and come up with a plausible course of action for the Federation to take."
"What if the Republic refuses to cooperate with this commission?" Max leaned forward in his seat, cupping his coffee cup between both hands.
"Then, my friend, the Federation will go in with force to ensure that the Republic does cooperate. This is non-negotiable."
"How does this help Hayley at all?"
"Part of the commission’s objective is to determine how humane the Republic’s SCIE program is. They will order it be shut down if they determine it to be inhumane or cruel. Should the Republic choose not to shut the program down, then you can bet the Federation will come down hard on them. It’s only a matter of time, Mr. Trainor," Kurtis pushed himself to his feet. "We’ll be in touch."
Nodding, Max watched the ambassador leave the suit, disappearing through the door as he swung it shut behind him. Only a matter of time. Max breathed a deep sigh as he stared into the black liquid in his cup. Just hold on a little while longer Hayley.