THE PLANET THAT LOVED PEOPLE (standard:science fiction, 1572 words) [5/18] show all parts
Author: Danny Raven	Added: Mar 04 2016	Views/Reads: 1861/1297	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
PART 1 - CH 4

FOUR 

Pull out Space Chart 108, look up grid references 1A – 75Z and you've
found the Empty Quadrant. You'll see that it stretches across billions 
upon billions of square space miles and that all the planets are 
coloured black, denoting uninhabited. 

Way back when it was first explored and the data finally assembled,
no-one could believe an area so vast could be so barren. Puzzled 
Astro-Geologists visited the area and confirmed that it was true then 
came up with the reason for it – the Empty Quadrant contained the 
oldest planets in the known Universe, old before planets like Earth and 
Ordana and Baltok were born and like everything old, they were dying. 

Trace your finger through the Empty Quadrant amongst the many hundreds
of planets scattered there and maybe you'd touch Sirene. A black dot 
amongst other black dots. Distinguishable by one fact – Sirene is a 
penal colony. 

When the Supreme Court eventually abolished the death penalty to the
delight of the humanitarians and the horror of the realists, an 
alternative had to be found for those offenders whose crimes would 
previously have warranted execution. The alternative was imprisonment 
on Sirene. For life. 

No-one was ever heard of again after they were transported there and
many thought the planet didn't exist, that it had been invented by the 
Supreme Court and that anybody sentenced to imprisonment there was 
quietly liquidated somewhere else. Sirene did exist however, in all its 
bleak horror. A dying planet revolving in space. 

It had one tired sun whose weak rays hardly ever penetrated the
permanent grey clouds that made up its skies. There were harsh rocky 
mountains, wide empty valleys, sluggish dark rivers and desolate moors 
of thick, coarse grass. Most of the trees and bushes were a dull green 
and the seas were murky and flat. The rain fell six days out of seven 
and the wind blew cold and chill. 

Amidst all this desolation there was one building on the entire planet,
known by the hundred or so prisoners as the Block. It was a long, grey 
concrete building where each prisoner had a single room which had a 
toilet and shower. There was a large communal dining area and a 
recreation area for movies, gambling and organised fights. It was in 
the Block that the prisoners ate, slept, killed time, killed each other 
and gambled for Dreamtabs and tobacco. 

Dreamtabs were the only concession granted to them by Earth and
grudgingly at that. Those small blue tablets through which a man could 
take part in any realistic three-dimensional fantasy for about six 
hours, once a month. 

The only remote connection the prisoners had with the outside world was
twice a year when an android crewed Transporter arrived. A crowd always 
gathered, just to watch. It landed on the same area of desolate moor 
every time, about a mile from the Block. After a fifty yard force-field 
was established round it, supplies, any new prisoners and Dreamtabs 
were deposited. Then it took off. There were no communications with the 
prisoners. No messages from family or friends. Zero. 

So what was to stop any friends of the prisoners from trying to free
them? There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. After all there were no 
guards on the planet or Fleet Ships prowling round the area. They 
weren't needed. The Empty Quadrant was enough of a threat on its own. 
The friends might find their way in, they might even find Sirene if 
they were very lucky but they could spend the rest of their lives 
trying to find their way back out, so incredibly vast was the Empty 
Quadrant. So no-one bothered and the prisoners knew this. 

Some gave up hope soon after they arrived and were dead within a few
weeks. Some died equally as quickly, though not so painlessly, in the 
organised fights or the unofficial fights which frequently broke out. 

Eventually the planet would break some of them. In which case Sirene had
many high cliffs – a Dreamtab, a walk into the wilderness, a climb 
half-way up a cliff and a step off into the gloom. There were many 


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