Read Online Prisoner 52 by S.T. Burkholder - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: S.T. Burkholder
Ads: Link
led to the armory. "Then you go on response duty. Then you get a weapon. Then you get suited up. You understand where I'm headed."
Tezac nodded and said, "A head start."
The gate that looked massive at the terminus of the long hallway grew larger still as they approached. The thick blast doors were marked 'Armory', white paint over red, and took in the dimensions of the wall. Leargam went to the sensor array embedded on either side of the interlocking center and admitted himself to the electronic eyes of one form or another, of one sight or another.
Thus he stepped back from the scanners and their hardlight console flashed a bright blue before the doors groaned open, sliding into the walls. Pale faces and hunched shoulders tumbled out its ingress like stones let loose into a rive r, held feebly at bay by the dam that takes only a little push if a little push was ever given. They made for tired greetings and paid no attention to the newcomer behind the old guard.
"Armory's all here," Leargam said amid the buzz of all the noise of the huge, alive place.
Tezac watched the next shift step into the supply daises and then as the arms of the machine snatched them up roughly by their limbs. They showed no signs of having noticed. Not even as the hundreds of spindly struts sprouted from their draping feet and went to work at fitting their exo-suits to them. Differences there were among them, but they all dropped when all was done back to the metal of the platform on legs of pliable stone. Used to the storms that come, not caring when they had gone - never truly leaving.
"Come on, you piece of junk." Leargam said as he fought with the console of one of the outfitter-machines.
"Please state designation." It said and he repeated it loudly and thumped its display pedastal.
The thing whirred to life and took him into its manifold grip with a vengeance and thanked him for his passcode. The earth moved beneath the metal at his feet and did not stop until the tiny manipulators grew from the parting floor of the dais as so many blades of grass. The only kind on Cocytus. His armor was partitioned throughout their many hands as crickets the meadow. Tezac leaned against the wind that blew against him only.
"Should have retired this unit years ago." Leargam said to him. "I swear it's older than me. I do."
Leargam dropped to the dais in full raiment. The scaffolding of the exo-suit clacked against itself as he stepped down from the platform and gestured for Tezac to take his place, the servo-motors of its joints whirring as both leg and arm moved. It appeared not to be much, and less so to any being that never laid eyes on such a thing. But he knew the hole that could develop in a man or any flesh-based creature that came into contact with the fist of him who wore it. He had seen it. He had done it.
"Have at it." The old man said.
Tezac brushed past him and mounted one foot upon the dais and the other would not go until he made it to go. His boots fell hollow onto the cold steel of the platform and resounded against the emptiness that lay beneath. It seemed to him that he was already shut in and had already been again imprisoned. He navigated the hardlight console of the outfitter-machine and saw that his fingers shook as they went along the interface and prompted the mainframe that a new user had arrived at one of its satellite gates.
"Please state designation." Its voice said to him, sad. Itinerant in some hidden way.
"Tezac Hotchkins," He said. "Enforcer Code: 51322970608."
"Thank you, Enforcer Hotchkins, and welcome to Cocytus: Penal World and Colony for over 5 million inmates. Owned and operated by: Arbitronix United." It said to him. "Arbitronix United: maintaining discipline across the galaxy. Do enjoy your stay, and we know you will do your duty."
He waited rigid and silent as the arms unfurled from the pylons of the supply dais and closed in around him. He looked nowhere but forward, into the shadows that clung to the far
Tezac nodded and said, "A head start."
The gate that looked massive at the terminus of the long hallway grew larger still as they approached. The thick blast doors were marked 'Armory', white paint over red, and took in the dimensions of the wall. Leargam went to the sensor array embedded on either side of the interlocking center and admitted himself to the electronic eyes of one form or another, of one sight or another.
Thus he stepped back from the scanners and their hardlight console flashed a bright blue before the doors groaned open, sliding into the walls. Pale faces and hunched shoulders tumbled out its ingress like stones let loose into a rive r, held feebly at bay by the dam that takes only a little push if a little push was ever given. They made for tired greetings and paid no attention to the newcomer behind the old guard.
"Armory's all here," Leargam said amid the buzz of all the noise of the huge, alive place.
Tezac watched the next shift step into the supply daises and then as the arms of the machine snatched them up roughly by their limbs. They showed no signs of having noticed. Not even as the hundreds of spindly struts sprouted from their draping feet and went to work at fitting their exo-suits to them. Differences there were among them, but they all dropped when all was done back to the metal of the platform on legs of pliable stone. Used to the storms that come, not caring when they had gone - never truly leaving.
"Come on, you piece of junk." Leargam said as he fought with the console of one of the outfitter-machines.
"Please state designation." It said and he repeated it loudly and thumped its display pedastal.
The thing whirred to life and took him into its manifold grip with a vengeance and thanked him for his passcode. The earth moved beneath the metal at his feet and did not stop until the tiny manipulators grew from the parting floor of the dais as so many blades of grass. The only kind on Cocytus. His armor was partitioned throughout their many hands as crickets the meadow. Tezac leaned against the wind that blew against him only.
"Should have retired this unit years ago." Leargam said to him. "I swear it's older than me. I do."
Leargam dropped to the dais in full raiment. The scaffolding of the exo-suit clacked against itself as he stepped down from the platform and gestured for Tezac to take his place, the servo-motors of its joints whirring as both leg and arm moved. It appeared not to be much, and less so to any being that never laid eyes on such a thing. But he knew the hole that could develop in a man or any flesh-based creature that came into contact with the fist of him who wore it. He had seen it. He had done it.
"Have at it." The old man said.
Tezac brushed past him and mounted one foot upon the dais and the other would not go until he made it to go. His boots fell hollow onto the cold steel of the platform and resounded against the emptiness that lay beneath. It seemed to him that he was already shut in and had already been again imprisoned. He navigated the hardlight console of the outfitter-machine and saw that his fingers shook as they went along the interface and prompted the mainframe that a new user had arrived at one of its satellite gates.
"Please state designation." Its voice said to him, sad. Itinerant in some hidden way.
"Tezac Hotchkins," He said. "Enforcer Code: 51322970608."
"Thank you, Enforcer Hotchkins, and welcome to Cocytus: Penal World and Colony for over 5 million inmates. Owned and operated by: Arbitronix United." It said to him. "Arbitronix United: maintaining discipline across the galaxy. Do enjoy your stay, and we know you will do your duty."
He waited rigid and silent as the arms unfurled from the pylons of the supply dais and closed in around him. He looked nowhere but forward, into the shadows that clung to the far
Similar Books
