Red Sky: Chapter 34
It felt like a wake when it should have been a celebration. We could hardly get any words out of Max. When we tried talking to him he would turn to us with a remote look in his eyes.
His final three months had gone by so quickly. They were the fastest months yet. My time on the red moon was blurring, soon it would be my turn to leave, I thought, as we sat celebrating Max’s last dinner.
“We will see each other again on Earth.” I told him.
“We will pray for you,” Com said.
Max only mumbled a response to both of us.
I was startled by Com’s statement. Although he would occasionally bring up his beliefs, he was rarely so explicit.
He could see the surprise in my face.
“Do you want to hear the story about the One?” he asked. Because I didn’t want to offend Com by saying no, I turned to Max.
“Yes,” Max said, surprising me once again.
Com let out a little smile and turned to me.
“It won’t hurt. Promise.”
He took a sip from his water and started.
“He was a prisoner like us working in a mine. The work was more brutal back then. Workers were treated as subhuman. Guards would kill inmates for their own enjoyment. They would pit workers against each other in gladiatorial contests. They would conduct experiments to see how much pain the workers could stand.
“He wasn’t The One then, of course. He didn’t stand out at all from the other prisoners.
“The prison held ten times as many workers as this one. The Qalladium was more plentiful back then. They mined in the same way, with the pickaxe, the shovel and chisel. Instead of returning with a handful of Qalladium, they would have buckets full. Sometimes, they would make the same inmates work for twenty-four hours or more. The One’s first partner died after working for thirty-six hours straight.
“His new partner was quiet. He never stepped out of line with the guards. The One was not as well-behaved. He had a history of conflict and had been put in solitary three times during his first two years. When they tried to put him in a fourth time his partner, the quiet one, snapped and attacked the guards, knocking a lance from one of them.
“Death was more present in that prison than it is here. Touching a guard was an automatic death sentence. And those death sentences were carried out by other inmates. In a case like this, they would force the partner of the condemned to carry out the execution.
‘Your life or his?’ That was always the ultimatum. And that is what the Head Guard said to The One. The survival instinct is strong. No one wants to die. No inmate had refused to carry out an execution before.”
“They were down on the prison floor. All of the other inmates watching from their cells above. The One looked at the Head Guard and answered in a soft, confident tone. ‘No.’
“If you don’t kill him, then we’ll kill both of you.’ This trick always worked. For those few inmates who tried to defy the first order, once they knew their partner was going to die no matter what they did, that defiance would vanish. It seemed like no choice at all, especially when the life you’re saving is yours.
“But the One refused. ‘I will not kill my friend,’ he told the Head Guard. ‘I am ready to die.”
“The Head Guard flushed with anger. He didn’t think an inmate was capable of such an act of unselfish pride.
“We’ll kill both of you, and 10 others,’ he shouted, sure that finally The One would have no choice.
“But once again The One responded in a calm voice, ‘if you murder us now, we will not die. You will be the one who dies. We will live on, not in body, in memory.’
“This made the Head Guard even more upset.
'We’ll kill all of you,’ he screamed to the galleries above letting all of the inmates in the prison know they were now in jeopardy.
‘Then you will be condemning yourself.’ The One replied, unwavering.
“All of the other guards began to congregate around The One and his partner. They circled the two kneeling inmates. They had never seen an inmate act so calmly before when faced with death. Most inmates complied immediately. Some flew into a rage. But The One remained calm. And persistent. For every threat he had a response.
“There were whispers and side discussions among the guards. ‘Maybe he’s right, maybe we should just kill his partner and get it over with.’ ‘We can’t kill everybody.’ The situation was getting out of control. The Head Guard held firm. He was not going to yield.
‘Bring me ten inmates,’ he announced making sure everyone in the cells above could hear.
“Ten inmates were brought to the floor and lined up on their knees next to The One and his partner. The Head Guard stood at the end of the line. He held a laser to the head of the first inmate. The One and his partner were all the way down at the other end.
‘I am going to ask you again. And each time you refuse to carry out the sentence I am going to kill one of your fellow inmates.’
“The One raised his head and looked down to the end of the line. The inmate was someone from his class. They knew each other well. The Head Guard had not chosen wisely. That inmate did not start begging for his life and cursing his fellow inmates as the Head Guard had hoped. He bowed his head in silence.
‘Every inmate you kill will be a black mark on your soul,’ The One said in an even voice. ‘You will die one day as we all die, and you will be judged as we are all judged.’
“The Head Guard became furious beyond all reason. His voice hoarse with anger. It was that quietness, that calmness, that infuriated him as much as anything. An inmate coming at him with a pickaxe he could handle. A sub-human who calmly refused to obey orders, who wasn’t afraid of death, but made the Head Guard afraid of his own death, he had no way to process.
“In his rage, he pulled his laser away from the first inmate and walked over to where The One was kneeling. The One bowed his head once again ready to die. The Head Guard picked up The One’s partner instead and dragged him back down to the other end of the line. He took a laser from one of the other guards and handed it to him, pointing his own laser at the partner’s head. ‘You do it,’ he said. ‘You kill this inmate or I’m going to kill you.’
“The Head Guard turned to The One, ‘I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to keep you alive. But I’m going to kill every other inmate on this moon until you agree to carry out your duties.’
‘Once you kill my partner there will be no duties for me to carry out,’ The One logically replied.
“The Head Guard exploded with rage. He turned to The One’s partner. ‘I will spare your life if you kill this inmate. I will spare all of these inmates lives if you kill this one inmate.’
“The One’s partner looked down at the kneeling inmate before him. His eyes were still. He was not afraid. Then he looked back to The One. The One spoke.
‘You do not control us,’ he said. ‘We will do your bidding no longer.’
“The Head Guard shouted. ‘Now!’
“The partner let the laser drop from his hand.
“When it hit the floor, the head guard pulled his trigger. The partner’s head exploded, his limp body falling to the ground.
“The walls shook with the anger of one thousand inmates.
“The Head Guard retrieved the dropped laser from the floor. He picked up the last inmate in line, the inmate from The One’s class, the inmate his partner had just refused to kill. He dragged him over to where The One was kneeling.
‘Now kill this scum or I will kill you.’ The Head Guard shouted. The inmate looked down at The One. His friend. He never had any doubt about what he would do.
“He dropped the laser to the ground. The Head Guard fired into the inmate’s skull killing him instantly. The walls shook again, part of the far wall crumbled under the avalanche of noise.
“The Head Guard would repeat the same action with the next nine inmates, all of them given the choice of their life or The One’s, all of them dropping the laser to the floor, choosing death over murder.
“Bodies of eleven inmates lay dead on the floor. All of the other guards had retreated from the center of the prison block to hide in the shadows. The Head Guard and The One were now the only two in the center of the floor.
“The Head Guard was exhausted, breathing heavily, The One was quiet, peaceful, his head bowed. The Head Guard pointed his laser at the One. ‘You are the cause of this,’ he screamed. Then he looked up at all of the inmates in their cells.
‘He is the one who killed your fellow inmates, not me. He is the murderer.’ But no one could hear him. The voices of all the inmates rose in unison chanting The One’s name, not his number, his name, over and over again.”
“What is his name?” Max asked.
Com had a beatific smile. “No one knows.”
“While making his futile plea to those above, the Head Guard had turned his attention away from the prison floor.” Com continued his story. “When he finally turned back, he was surprised to find that The One was no longer kneeling. They were standing face to face.
“The chanting had grown louder, the noise ricocheting from wall to wall, cell to cell, another piece of the far wall crumbled.
“The One raised his arms. The prison block fell silent. The Head Guard pointed his laser. He didn’t shoot. Something compelled him to take his finger off the trigger. Maybe he wanted to hear what was going to be said as much as the others.
“The One spoke, his voice at the same level it had always been, no louder than a person would use in a pleasant conversation.
‘You have condemned yourself today,’ he told the Head Guard. ‘You have condemned yourself and the other guards on this moon. You have treated us as slaves and animals. We will be treated as slaves and animals no longer.’
“The One stopped speaking. He knelt back down on the prison floor and bowed his head waiting for the Head Guard to finish his last execution.
“Perhaps the Head Guard could have saved himself and the other guards if he had not pulled the trigger. But he did pull the trigger of his laser. The prison erupted. The guards quickly left the prison block. They couldn't hide from their actions. All of them would be dead by the end of the week. A riot had blown the prison apart, dozens of inmates escaping before the Interstellar Fleet could suppress the revolt.”
Com stopped and took another drink of water.
“There are different interpretations of the story. Some claim that The One would not have advocated a violent reaction, that his plea was a spiritual one. Others say he wanted an armed resistance to our enslavement. I’ll leave it for you to decide which interpretation you think is most appropriate. We all have a path to walk. I cannot choose that path for you.”
I grimaced again. Com put his hand on my back. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?” I kept my thoughts to myself, hoping Max had taken some solace from Com’s words.
Our collars buzzed ending Max’s last night in the cafeteria. We made our way over to the line that would take us to our cells. Max, as always, was in front of me. I wanted to thank him for, well, I guess everything. Instead, I repeated that we would see each other back on Earth. Max nodded. There was so much left unsaid between us. So much that I wanted to say.
Before entering our cells for the night, I stopped him one last time. “Max,” I said. He looked back at me from just outside his cell. We only had seconds before the transparent shields lowered, before our collars would buzz because we weren’t in our cells. I didn’t have any words. I smiled a crooked goofy smile, not that different than the one he had given me two years before. I think he recognized this and for a brief moment I broke through his fog and he smiled, too. Then our collars buzzed and we were inside our cells, our shields down, water pouring from our ceilings.
The lights shut off and as usual I stayed awake staring into the darkness. I pulled out my sketch paper and tried to sketch Max’s face, but my hands wouldn’t move in the right directions. I couldn’t sketch his face while he slept in the cell next to mine.
*
I woke up early on Max’s last day. Even though we had said goodbye the night before, I wanted to say it one last time before I went off to the mine and he left for the transport off the moon. When my shield lifted, I peaked around the corner. Max was sitting on his bed staring at the wall. I waved. There was no response. He didn’t notice me, lost inside his own head. Even though we had spent every waking minute together for two years, I had absolutely no idea what was going through his mind at that moment. Although I knew him so well, there was still so much that was hidden.
I continued waving, trying to get his attention. He looked up. He did not smile like the night before. His eyes were red. His face gray.
When I returned that night, Max would be gone and my new partner would be in his cell. Even in prison the years march on, friends leave, we grow older. I didn’t wonder about my new partner at all, I only thought of Max back on Earth. Maybe he would see Ray again. Maybe I would see him when I was sent back. I tried to think those happy thoughts. I forced myself to think them.
Com and I told Max stories that night in the cafeteria. The newts and the others sat at the table listening. The newts, who after one more night were no longer newts, to be replaced by new hatchlings. So much had happened since Ray left. I wondered about the upcoming year, the upcoming three years. I watched Com as he told another story about Max, his face lighting up.
I slept soundly that night knowing Max was on his way back home. Knowing that Ray was already back home. Two of us had made it off the red moon alive. It was a happy thought. I was so happy for them I forgot to put another mark on the wall next to my initials.