Cold Hell - 1. Cold Hell

Redemption5S77: The Pavilion

Everest Evreux watched The Closure drop out of the sky.

He knew he should be impressed. The Closure, with it's sleek design, was far more advanced than the obsolete technology he'd grown up with his whole life; if it wasn't for the hangover he might have felt the child-like thrill that passed through his fellow tribesmen when news of the arrival of new prisoners surfaced, but at the moment it felt as if an ice-pick was being driven into his skull. Too much bootie before bed.

That's what Mikael called it - bootie, the stuff that tastes like battery acid. The only reason why Everest bothered drinking it was so he could get to sleep.

Mikael Runnu stood to Everett's right. “Goddamn,” he said, and kept repeating it as if it was the only word he knew. “Goddamn.”

And there was Dinah Fezald, Clan Wuxia’s leader, standing at the front of their little group. Wind and snow ruffled her jacket. Her face was reddened from the snow but emotionless. If Everest did not know better, he would have said she had frozen to death. But all three of them were lifers, and were used to the cold. They knew how long they could stand outside before frostbite started to kick in. Everest looked around, wondering when the leaders of clan Lukas and Mureen would show up. He knew Dinah had wanted to be the first to get here so she could stake her claim on the delivery.

The Closure eased down onto the dock. For a moment Everest had a perfect view of the ship's belly. He wondered, briefly, what it would feel like to be crushed by it. Would death be instantaneous or would there be pain?

Everest danced on his feet, thankful for the heating poles spread throughout the landing pad. While it didn't warm him completely it kept them from freezing to death in the below-zero temperature - literally.

The door to the cargo bay slid open and a ramp was lowered with a mechanical hum. White-blue light hit the dock from flood lights on top of The Closure and bounced off the snow. Three men climbed down the ramp, donning white armor. The two at the rear carried rifles twice the size of the rifles Mikael and Everest had strapped to their backs. If they were to shoot us with those, there would be nothing left of us, Everest thought.

His brow creased. He glanced at Mikael and saw the other man looked just as confused. The wind ruffled Mikael’s hood so Everest could see the tattoo printed on the side of the man’s face, marking him as a member of Clan Wuxia - a W laying on its left side with two dots on top; Everest had one too. Both men had gotten their tattoo on the day they turned eighteen. Everest turned his back to the Earthers.

The third man, the one at the front was pushing a CryoSleep chamber, only one. When The Closure made its scheduled drop every three years - this was the only time when a delivery had come early - there were usually a dozen CryoSleep chambers being carried off. Everest pondered the unceremonious nature of this delivery but quickly pushed the thoughts away. He needed to be alert should a conflict break out. His job, along with Mikael’s, was to protect Dinah at whatever cost.

The armored men stopped just feet away from Dinah. The air around them became more frigid with tension. With their visored helmets and respirators, the people from The Closure seemed more like robots. It was impossible to tell what sex they were. The only thing separating the one group from the other was the CryoSleep chamber. Everest could just make out the form of a human figure inside but not much more. Snowflakes fell against the glass.

“Is this the only one?” Dinah asked. Her voice was strong, authoritative. Everest couldn’t help but respect her. Even though she was freezing her ass off she forced her voice to sound even, showing the people from Earth what dignity they had left. We’re not just the animals you think we are, the act said, you’re on our planet now.

“Yes,” the person at the front said with a male’s voice. His voice crackled out of speakers on both sides of his helmet.

“Why just the one? Why the unscheduled drop?” Now Dinah was starting to sound perturbed.

The man shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’m just here to make the delivery and get the hell off this ice bucket as fast as I can.” He handed her a flash drive with a gloved hand. “This is the prisoner’s file with everything you need to know on him.” Each word accentuated the difference between the Earthers’ and colonists’ accents. Dinah rolled her eyes in frustration.

The Earther had said him. It was the first clue on who the prisoner was; the person inside the CryoChamber was male. Everest shivered and drew his shoulders in closer to his chest. How much longer is this meeting to go on? He just wanted to go back home, stretch out on the couch, and go back to sleep. But it would be a while before then, so he would have to settle for getting out of the cold; even a lifer such as he could only stand being out in the cold for so long before it was physically impossible.

Dinah took the flash drive with a frown. She looked down at it as if it was something she’d never seen before.

The man motioned for the two men behind him to head back to the ship. Everest, Dinah, and Mikael watched them climb back into their ship, snow snapping beneath their booted feet. The ramp slid back into the ship behind them like an insect’s appendage. Just like that, they were gone. Such was the exchange between the people of Earth and Planet Redemption.

“Let’s get out of the cold,” Dinah said shortly to her two squires. “I take it you boys can handle this?”

“Of course,” Mikael grunted. Course came out sounding more like cawse. While he spoke with the dialect on Planet Redemption his words carried the Russian lilt of his heritage.

Together Everest and Mikael pushed the CryoSleep chamber back towards the hub, Everest at the front and Mikael at the end. Everest was thankful to be on the move with his racing thoughts. It distracted him from the cold. For the moment his headache was forgotten. He was full of questions but he had the sense Dinah was just as in the dark as he was.

Everest could tell Dinah was pissed off. The delivery had rubbed her the wrong way. He knew she hated the way people came from Earth and talked to her as if she was nothing more than a dog; the people of Planet Redemption were considered to be nothing more than mindless savages. A man was walking purposely towards him across the hub as if he owned it.

“Fuck,” Everest heard Dinah say under her breath. She had pulled back the hood of her parka so her dreads, tied back by a rubber band, hung down to her shoulder blades.

Pasava Miller was the clan leader of Clan Lukas. He had dark caramel skin and unusually white teeth. The mark of his clan, like that of Clan Wuxia’s was imprinted on the side of his face for everyone to see - an L laying on its side with the two customary dots at the top.

“So the new prisoner has arrived, eh?” Pasava said, running a finger over the frosty glass.

“Yes,” Dinah said shortly..

“And you try to break custom by stealing him first before I have a chance to bid? You know the rules. You’re supposed to wait until we all get here. Let’s talk over here.” Pasava ushered Dinah to the side of the hub where they could have more privacy.

Everest blocked out the rest of the conversation; it didn't concern him. Let them fight about their politics, as long as they leave me out. Their “custom” was to auction off the prisoners, their way of deciding who went to which clan.

He glanced at the hub's entrance, where Pasava’s two squires stood. They were young things, probably barely adults. Identical twins. White-blonde hair, androgynous features. Underneath their jackets they wore tight fitting leather clothes and heeled boots. They served as Pasava’s playthings, following him around wherever he went, as well as his bodyguards. When he needed to get off it was their job to oblige without question. In return he paid them well, made sure they were fed, and dressed them up in the best clothes - how he wanted to dress them.

Everest was glad Dinah was only into women.

The two twins stared across the hub at him - for the life of him Everest could never remember their names. The one on the right leaned towards the one on the left and whispered something in his ear. It must have been funny because they both started laughing, a joke. Everest turned his head away and tried to pretend as if he hadn’t noticed.

Let them play their games.

“Adwele isn’t even here,” Dinah said sharply. “Where in the cold hell is he?”

Pasava shrugged casually. “Don't know. It certainly is strange. It’s not like him to miss an event like this.”

“So what? We’re supposed to wait on him all day?”

Pasava and Dinah’s voice dropped to whispers as they began arguing. Everest half wished they would just kill each other and be done with it.

                        …

Dinah was in a bad mood. Part of it was the delivery meeting with the people from Aamodt Corp, the other half from Pasava. Both had left a bad taste in her mouth she couldn’t make go away, not even with a thermos of hot chocolate; worse yet was the dozen cows and half dozen chickens she was to pay Pasava for the prisoner. The hot chocolate wasn’t the real thing but was in fact made from synthetic cocoa beans grown in a vat at the processing plant. Real chocolate was far too expensive, even for the warden of Colony 12.

Mikael sat in the driver’s seat of the rover, tapping his gloved hands on the steering wheel along to a Patsy Cline song. He was the only one in the rover who seemed in good spirits. With Everest it was usually hard to tell what mood he was in. He sat across from Dinah, with his head leaned back against the metal wall of the rover. His eyes were closed, his face relaxed. Dinah couldn’t tell if he was asleep or not. If a hangover was a mood that’s the one he’d be feeling right now, she thought bitterly and turned her gaze out the frost covered window. Not that there was anything to look at, but snow, snow, and more snow, disrupted by mountains and rough hewn glaciers.

She was eager to get back to Colony 12 to see what all those chickens and cows had bought her.

Another hour passed before the buildings of Colony 12 appeared on the ghostly horizon. She caught herself letting out a sigh of relief; It felt good to be home, in a place where she was in charge, where people didn’t treat her like an idiot. She thought back to the conversation she had with Pasava and felt her mood sour once more at the thought - he had a way of making her feel like an incompetent little girl when he talked.

“Are you sure you can handle this? It isn’t just any ordinary prisoner. It's Danni Aamodt the V.”

“I know who it is. I don’t need you to remind me, thank you.”

“You know what will happen when colonists find out who he is. It won’t be pretty. His family has spent the last three hundred years exiling us here...”

There was so much she still didn’t know. What could Danni Aamodt the V have done to be exiled to this cold hell? She couldn’t wait to look at his file. When he woke up from hibernation and was recovered enough she would ask him, and inform him of the situation he had gotten himself into. If what Pasava had predicted was true, Danni Aamodt the V would not last long on this planet.

Why do you want him so bad? a snide little voice in the back of her mind said. Just so you can say you have him?

Mikael reached the clinic, a long square building. Everest and he got out of the truck, opened the back, and hauled the CryoSleep chamber out into the snow. Glad to be able to move around again, Dinah stood up, her knees popping. I’m starting to get old. My knees didn’t used to do that. She was only forty-five but the thought of old age hovered over her like a black cloud; the hell of arthritis in such a cold climate.

Mikael and Everest pushed the chamber down the tiled hallway. The clinic smelled of antiseptic and chemicals. Two nurses on staff at the clinic came and took the chamber from Mikael and Everest, and wheeled it into a room at the end of the hallway.

A moment later, when the nurses had filed out, Natalia Patel, the head of the clinic, came into the room; Mikael and Everest were waiting in the hallway. Natalia’s eyes brightened when she saw Dinah. Dinah gestured for Natalia to close the door. Natalia nudged it shut with her foot and they shared a kiss. Natalia’s breath tasted of mint and rosemary, which Dinah would forever associate with her.

“Things have been so slow today,” said Natalia, feeling her spirits lift for the first time today.

“This should speed things up a little bit,” said Dinah.

Natalia glanced at the CryoSleep chamber. “Who is it?”

Though she knew the door was closed Natalia dropped her voice down to a whisper. “Danni Aamodt the V.”

Natalia’s dark eyebrows arched up towards her glossy black hair. “you jokin’, right?”

“Find out for yourself.”

Frowning, Natalia pulled a digipad from her white jacket pocket and pressed the button at the bottom of the screen. The screen flashed once. She held it before the CryoSleep chamber and scanned the barcode at the bottom edge of the lid. The digipad flashed once more and Danni Aamodt’s file came up on the screen. Natalia scrolled through the information, scanning it quickly. After a moment she looked up. “I take it you want me to keep this to myself.”

“That would be preferable.”

“If anyone finds out...”

“He’ll be raped and brutally tortured before being killed, I know. Pasava told me as much. HE can’t help himself, he has to stick his nose in me business.”

“Should I call in the boys and have ‘em help me muscle our highness on the table?”

                        ...

“I wonder who it is and what they did,” Mikael said, looking over at Everest.

“Whoever it is, it mustn’t have been good,” said Everest, “or else they wouldn’t be here.”

“I bet it’s a mass serial killer. Someone who likes to kill children.”

Natalia stepped out into the hallway. “Can you gentlemen help me? I want to get him out of the chamber.”

Everest and Mikael squeezed into the room. Dinah was standing in the corner with her hands placed glumly on her hips. Natalia went around the chamber and removed the four clasps. Everyone stepped back as far as they could. Water fell onto the floor, splashing Everest’s boots. Vapors rose from the chamber, filling the room. Once they’d cleared, the four colonists stepped closer to the chamber, curious to see who was inside.

“Well this wasn’t what I was expecting,” said Mikael.

Everest could only agree. He hadn’t known what to expect but this wasn’t it. The man inside appeared to be sleeping. His hands were placed over his groin as if to protect his modesty. His eyes were closed, face relaxed, making it look as if he was sleeping and not frozen. His hair was blonde and shoulder-length. His facial features suggested Scandinavian descent: High cheek bones, a square jaw, narrow nose, soft lips. Slim body.

He was androgynous looking. Beautiful. Everest wanted to touch him. He wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Suddenly he was quite hard. He glanced around at the others, hoping they couldn’t see his arousal. He felt like a naughty little boy who had been caught masturbating. Together Mikael and he lifted the prisoner onto a metal table. He watched Natalia take a towel and dry the man off. When she was ready for him to, Everest helped her turn the prisoner over on his back. His skin felt cold to the touch and hard as ice.

“How long will it be before he wakes up?”

“He’ll be awake in a few,” said Natalia. “It takes a bit for the heart to get back going again. After that it will be two weeks of physical therapy to get the muscles back in shape enough to be able to move without support. Transitioning is always hard for the people who are sent here: The change in gravity, the drastic change in weather, which affects the mind psychologically. The integration process is grueling but also crucial. Hmmm...here's something interesting...” She tapped one wrist with a gloved finger. "Look, he was a junky at one point. Wonder what his drug of choice would've been?"

Mikael chuckled, lighting a cigar. “Does it make you wonder why we even bother?”

Natalia glowered at him, an impressive feat since Mikael had a good two feet on her. “If we didn’t have this process the people who come here would die.”

“Most of ‘em die anyway,” Mikael said bluntly. “They get raped from both ends and then get left in the snow to die. Dying now would be merciful.”

“Enough!” Dinah said. She glared at Mikael. “Your ancestors were colonists, were they not? If it wasn’t for ‘em ye wouldn’t be here at all. Now I think you both are done fer the day. Get out of here, get a drink, let Natalia do what she needs to do.”

Everest glanced back fleetingly at the prisoner one last time and followed Mikael out of the clinic.