Fuel – Welcome to Hell

All 200 hundred convicts aboard The Botany Bay, the high-speed prison transport from Earth to the penal colonies orbiting the Wormwood asteroid field were ordered to the mess hall for orientation.  The two-year trip was now only a few weeks from ending.  All convicts aboard the transport would now receive their job duties and begin training. Every country on Earth is represented among the prisoners.  Counties that have their own launch point do not pay a fee for prisoner transportation to the asteroid field.  Earth countries without a launch point pay host nations a fee for sending prisoners into deep space.

All two hundred men and women took their seats in the mess hall.  Officers and auto-guns ensured no one got out of line – or out of their seat.  The floating remote operating auto-guns fire a round not heavy enough to breech the hull of the high-speed transport, but quite enough to splatter human flesh along the hull of the high speed transport.

Over the last year and ten months of deep space travel, each of the inmates aboard underwent various tests that gauged physical strength, mental function and behavioral issues.  The penal system was separating the wheat from the chaff.  The absolutely insane were to receive no job training.  Their lives would be spent living in the lowest levels of the penal colonies.  Doctors and nurses doing an orbital rotation before going back to Earth will study each of the insane inmates.

Male and female convicts deemed physically fit, are trained in mining activities.  These incudes the use of space suits, breathing equipment and the use of mining tools.  Those not deemed completely physically fit will receive training in the use of mining equipment that does not require a large amount of physical prowess. These are typically the learning and mastery of fork-lift like machinery and orbital drills. 

Older convicts and those deemed physically weak are sent to work in the kitchens; doing laundry and infirmaries.  Female inmates are permitted to serve as house maids and servants to the prison officers and their families.  Regular enlisted men and women serving aboard the prison ships as officers and as security in the colonies can use the convicts for menial tasks such as laundry and cleaning of barracks.

Some inmates – both men and women – if their behavioral records are clean, may work on the hydroponic floors growing food.  Both Alcatraz and Rikers are self-sustaining. All liquids are filtered and rotated back into the system with fresh space water.  Space water comes in the form of ice harvested from the asteroid field.  Chucks of ice larger than a battle ship are hauled to the stations by the whales.  The ice is melted and mixed in with the recycled liquids.  Officers drink only fresh water.  Inmates drink the mixed.  Those inmates with minimal sentences – ten years – are eligible for work in the garden and livestock levels of the penal colony to work off their time.  Every third transport sees the arrival of a new batch of cows and other livestock.  Some of the cows have been mated at least twice during the trip from Earth and add to the herd.  All lifers are sent to mining operations – no exceptions.

On the transport shipmen and women are identified and sent out of the room to begin their training.  For the next several weeks each and every inmate on board will now spend the time between wake-up and sleep training.  Breaks during the day are only for meals. During these last legs of the journey toward the penal colonies, every inmate gets to see the last taste of what freedom has to offer out in the cosmos.  Outside the asteroid field, a brief six-thousand mile trip lies The Vegas Strip.  The Vegas Strip is a massive space station built entire fore recreation and vacation.  The Vegas Strip is the last stop between the asteroid field and the planet Siam Un. 

Siam Un received its name from the group of Siamese astrologers that discovered it years ago.  The rings of Siam Un illuminate different colors depending on the rotation of it’s near-by sun and star system.  The space rocks that make up Siam Un’s rings are rich in minerals.  At top speed it is a 48-Earth-hour ride to Siam Un from either of the penal colonies or luxury liner The Vegas Strip.  The luxury vacation space platform offers weekend junkets to the planet, Siam Un, to see the human colonies or purchase artifacts from the indigenous Harpy – a sentient bird-like race vastly resembling the enormous Harpy Eagles found back on Earth.  Thus, the name given to the species as how they pronounce their own species is unable to be pronounced by human beings. Same goes for how the Harpy pronounce the planet.  Humans cannot make such sounds. Their civilization has evolved much in the same manner as man’s back on Earth. 

The newly arrived inmates are allowed one final glimpse of The Vegas Strip and the planet Siam Un before the transport ship docks at the Division Station - an orbital platform where convicts are separated and divided up between the two housing locations prior to heading to their final destinations. The Vegas Strip is not permitted anywhere near mining operations.  This is prison – it’s not supposed to come with outstanding and spectacular views.  If inmates are looking at the alien world of Siam Un, they are usually floating towards it – and their doom. 

The Alcatraz location holds the worst of the worst regarding inmates.  The space station was placed close to the planet, Siam Un, for a number of reasons.  One of those reasons is that executions can be carried out safely.  Prisoners are ejected into space.  The bodies burn up on entry into Siam Un atmosphere spreading nutrients over the planet.  The Rikers facility houses mostly low-level and minimally-sentenced offenders.  The Rikers facility is also a bit closer to Earth so the shipping of inmates back and forth becomes a bit more expedited. 

There are nearly ten million convicts housed between the two orbital facilities.  One million service men and women, some with their families, also live on the facilities.  Tours of duty and rotation flights back to Earth occur monthly.  Every month a new ship arrives with supplies, more inmates and more soldiers.

Prisoners exit the transport ship at either Alcatraz or Rikers holding only a rubber crate that contains all of their belongings.  Prisoners are only allowed to have a fresh set of prison issued clothes.  A fresh pair of socks and underwear.  An extra pair of prison issued slippers as well as all toiletries are provided.  Inmates are greeted at each facility with belongings in hand by the same video.  The video is played in a central holding area broken up into pens that fill up with men and women who speak a similar language.

The video begins.  The government paid a good price for the voice actors reading the vital information to the inmates.  Inmates are separated into pens by language so that everyone gets the same message at the same time. “You are now the property of the Universal Penal System of Galactic Command.” An image of the corresponding Warden of each facility appears on the screen while the message plays. “Your time here will be what you make of it.  If your sentence is life, then this is your life.  Out here among the stars – slaves for those back on Earth.  The Earth is through with you.  Earth has thrown you lifers away.  Accept it now.  If you are here for only ten years, then get used to that idea. We own you for the next eight years at least, before we send you home.  Some of you may not live out your sentence no matter how long you are scheduled to serve. Such is life at the orbital penal colony.”

“Each facility shares one set of rules.  Break those rules and there are consequences.  Consequences range from time in the hole to being shoved out into space.”  The image on the screen showed frozen corpses floating among the asteroids and meteors in outer space.  “We leave the bodies floating around the asteroid field as a reminder to all.  Should any of you commit one of the more serious crimes, you will join these folks out in the vacuums of space.  Serious crimes include: Rape, murder, harming of staff.  Should you continually break rules with no hope of rehabilitation, you may be shoved out into space or become a whale rider.”

The screen showed one of the whale riders in action.  The genetically modified whales are transformed for a life in space.  The once human rider receives instructions from the command center and relays them as visual images to the whale.  The whales can swim through the asteroid field far better and far safe than piloted craft.  Whale riders are male and female inmates who have been sentenced to life without parole.  Their arms and legs are surgically removed and replaced with inputs that allow them to connect with the whale directly.  Eyes, ears, nose and throat are all closed off.  Breathing is accomplished via an apparatus installed where the convict’s lungs once were.  Blood is drained and mixed with a solution that allows what’s left of the human form to operate in the cold void of outer space. “These whales also feed on the frozen bodies as they deteriorate.  In essence, break our rules and we transform you into galactic whale shit.”

“We will not allow any of rules to be broken.  Inmates do not run this facility.” The voice from the video went on – in over a dozen different languages simultaneously.  “Your first day begins now.”  The video ended.  Inmates are first led into the check-in area.  A skin graph with a bar code is surgically implanted onto each prisoner’s forearm on the trip over.  The bar code can be removed on those who complete their sentence.

Once each prisoner is scanned in, the new group is led to the housing area.  Rikers and Alcatraz facilities are both as large as the island of Manhattan back on Earth.  Each facility took years to construct.  Alcatraz was completed first with Rikers opening a decade later.  A subway system was installed to move people and supplies rapidly around each facility.  Convicts are loaded onto one of the hovering train cars and are taken to where each one will live out their sentences.

The ride takes only a few minutes from Central.  The housing areas in both facilities are designed the same way.  Individual cells line the outer walls.  Rows of cells for a spiral heading up.  Three rows per pod.  Hundreds of pods make up the prisoner housing areas.  Sections as larger as ten-story buildings house prisoners serving time in the hole. The shouts and yells and screams around the clock that come from the men and women in these cells can’t be heard by the prisoners on the hover train.   

When the hover train comes to a stop, prisoners disembark and head for housing assignments.  The smell of body odor mixed with the scent of whatever food was just served hits prisoners first upon entering the housing units.  Each inmate is given his or her own cell.  Cells are seven feet wide and nine feet long with an eight-foot ceiling.  Men and women do not mix in the pods.  Men and women can interact socially in some areas of the prison.  Showers are permitted two to three times per week.  Prison walls are made from concrete strengthened with asteroid ore.  Bars and the doors that lock in front of the bars are made from a combination of steel and asteroid ore.  Cells have a steel sink and toilet.  Some inmates are granted video privileges in their cells.  They can watch approved videos and take remote learning classes recorded back on Earth.  Some classes are streamed live across the galaxy. 

Prisoners are set on the same schedule they arrived on regarding sleep time and being awake.  All inmates are given eight hours of sleep per night.  After dinner, prisoners can enjoy two hours of time alone in their cells before lights out.  Pods are kept a different eating and sleeping schedules so that the mining operation never stops.  Prisoners wake up and are expected to be dressed fifteen minutes after the light come on.  Cells doors open and prisoners follow the lighted path toward their daily occupation.

After breakfast miners are led to the suit-up area at the start of each day.  There, each inmate, male and female, is given a space suit.  Suits are supposed to be cleaned and repaired between each use by cleaning crews.   Prisoners are not allowed to maintain their own suits.  Sabotage became widespread.  Gang members would tamper with a rival gang member’s space suit.  The loss of pressure explodes the human skull inside the suit like a hamster in a microwave oven.  Inmates can now only use the suits to pass contraband.  Items like drugs, notes, weapons are left in the suits by the cleaning crews, who take a cut for the service.  Sometimes officers intercept the contraband.  Sometimes the passing of contraband goes on unchecked for months.  Cleaning crews change.  Miners are killed every day.  Fuel dust is what’s smuggled the most.  The sandy dust created during the mining process was found to have hallucinogenic properties.  During the early years of the mining operation, some inmates began to hallucinate.  Some early prisoners walked right out into space – without the protection of a space suit.  An investigation uncovered that the dust from the Fuel making process contained properties similar to LSD. Inmates have since discovered ways to cut the dust with other ingredients recovered from the mess hall. 

A regular day for the miners will see male and female inmates being towed out to the mining sites by whale riders.  There, mechanisms in the space suit, keep the wearer safe during the ore extraction process.  Asteroids larger than a skyscraper back on Earth are mined first.  Drone vehicles perform much of the excavation.  Inmates are responsible for all the mining work that cannot be completed by machine.  This includes work within mine tunnels.  All asteroids are mined from the central core outward.  Machines cannot mine until the central core of the meteor or asteroid is reached.  It is within the central core areas of the space rocks that diamonds can be found.  The largest uncovered thus far weighed the same as a sports vehicle back on Earth.  The large luxury kind.   

Some of the larger asteroids, measuring larger than the earth’s moon are in the process of having mining colony outposts built on them.  Once all of the ore has been mined the colony will be scuttled and rebuilt on the next one of equal size.  Moon-size asteroids are expected to take several years to mine before habitation is no longer possible.  Some Administration Officials have suggested moving the mentally insane to a facility on one of the larger asteroids to make room for more prisoners able to do mining work.  The idea had merits in regards to prison facility safety.  The mentally insane are currently housed at the lowest levels of the prison.  In the event that any one of the several hundred mentally and criminally insane should take control of the area, the entire ward can be flushed: clean by the vacuum of space. 

All officers are required to were gear that covers the officer’s entire head and face and will save their lives as well as facilitate rescue in the event of sudden ejection into outer space.  Officers are towed out to mining sites on their own space whale to guard against possible escape.  Some of the wealthier inmates have attempted escape by using high speed space craft to quickly zip into the mining area, pick up their target and shoot out.  It worked on more than one occasion.  The escape ships were hunted down and destroyed.  When prisoners are fitted with the bar code on their forearm, a small explosive charge is also implanted.  The charge has the capability of blowing the escapees arm off.  If a prisoner has the money and is willing to lose his or her arm, then escape is still possible.  Earth is still months away – even at the fastest speeds.

All miners eat lunch in space.  Every suit is equipped with a water dispenser and food.  Both are stored in the backpack.  The food is a paste that tastes like whatever the prisoner is told that day.  Somedays the paste tastes like chicken, other days it tastes like meat loaf.  During holidays it tastes like turkey or ham. At lunch time, officers activate the water and food tubes to spring out from inside the space suit helmet. Prisoners just suck in either water from tube or food paste from the other.  At the end of lunch.  The tubes return to their ports inside the helmet.  A prisoner can ask an officer to release the water tube when hydration becomes necessary.

At least one prisoner loses their life every day.  Several lose limbs.  Accidents are frequent.  Inside a mining tunnel, until gravity is controlled, miners can find themselves losing balance, falling and becoming impaled on the razor-sharp crystal formations that form inside each tunnel. Air pressure and the loss of it, can force prison miners to be shot into outer space.  While many are retrieved floating around in the asteroid field a bit later by whale riders, some convicts hit nearby meteors with such force that their entire body is crushed.  Like a bug on a windshield. 

At the end of the workday, prisoners are ferried back to the housing areas by the whale riders for suit removal and dinner.  Some of the minerals inside the mining tunnels are radioactive.  A decontamination washed is sprayed over every inmate returning from the asteroid field prior to entering the housing area.  Radiation sickness can spread. Dinner is comprised of whatever the administration puts on the menu.  There was once a pressure leak at one of the livestock levels.  Six months’ worth of prime steak flushed out into space.  Inmates arriving around that time talked about the frozen cows floating around the space station. Everyone was forced to go vegetarian.

After dinner, there can be shower time.  This is also the time when some inmates receive calls from family and loved ones.  Legal counsel also calls during these times.  Some cases are overturned.  Those inmates who have had their cases overturned are returned home right away on a high-speed transport.  Usually, all inmates report back to their cells for the night after chow.  Some pods are allowed to gather together in the common area before final lockdown for the night.  It is during these times that the pods become the most dangerous.  Fights occur during the time prisoners are allowed to mingle in the pod’s common area. Many of the fights are over something stupid.  Other times the fights are over inmates accusing other inmates of being responsible for someone’s death out in the asteroid field. Drugs are exchanged. With many of the prisoners getting high, tempers can run hot over the slightest issue. Shanks made from space rocks cause the most damage and are highly valuable among inmates.  The rock cuts deep.  Fragments from the rock shank that are left behind in the wound cause a fever and an intense infection in the wound of the victim.  The rock multiples in mass when it comes in contact with human flesh much the same way coral can grow in the wounds of surfers back on Earth. Most weapons made by inmates are from the standard traditional sources: food trays, metal fragments, toothbrushes and combs, chemicals, wadded up toilet paper.  

When violence erupts and prisoners are extracted, they are taken to the hole.  Male and female prisoners in the hole spend every moment locked up alone.  Some never leave the hole.  Some become something besides what they once were after leaving the hole.  Rumors portray the hole as a place possessed with the souls of the men who first arrived at the asteroid field.  Other rumors portray the spirits that haunt the hole as originating from alien beings who once inhabited the planet which was the source of the asteroid field.  Scientists speculate that an incredibly unbelievable destructive event caused a massive planet to explode.  That caused the destruction of the planet’s moons. That debris continued destroying the closest planets. It is theorized that the creation of the asteroid field was a cataclysmic chain of events.  Nothing can be proven.

Once a convict has served out his or her time, they are released two years prior to their official release date so they will be free, back on Earth to the day they were sent up.  Convicts have a choice to serve all time in deep space and then pay for a high-speed ride back to Earth.  There are always choices. The consequences of this choice is that high speed transports are often targets for pirates.  Many ships and their crew have never been heard from again.  Then there is always that chance for convicts to make a return trip.  Once an inmate becomes a repeat prisoner, there is no going back.  All prisoners returned to the penal colonies after committing additional crimes back on Earth after release remain in either Alcatraz or Rikers for the rest of their days. Second time is the charm.