Nat's Descent: Part I

A guard shoved the girl into the prison. It was a cruel sight. She was only a thief, after all, not a murderer like all the others. But guards weren't allowed to harbor these feelings. They had to keep them concealed beneath those faceless helmets so that to the prisoners they would appear to be anything but human. The automatic sliding door shut behind her as the girl passed into the cell, a loud metallic clank following shortly after. It was an electric lock, not one of those old manually operated ones. Not even a thief could figure these out without frying their fingers off. The girl slumped into the corner like a lonely animal soon after, sitting in the shadows away from the artificial light.
         "Behave yourself," the guard said, unnecessarily. A small and thin girl like that couldn't cause much trouble. He felt a pang of regret as he said it, but, once again, guards didn't have feelings. That was unnatural. The guard turned away from the cell and sat down at his desk, looking over some papers. He used his electronic filing cabinet, condensed down to a single tablet, and scrolled through the various profiles of criminals here. Rapists, murderers, terrorists, arsonists... thieves. He selected the girl's profile, seeing her face among the horrific roster. Her name was Natalie. She had stolen a few things, and ended up stealing from the wrong person. That got her here. There was probably some sort of ulterior motive behind all this, but ulterior motives meant nothing to the law of God.
         Nat was looking out of her small slit of a window in the cell. It was at least a small comfort provided to the prisoners. Showing her how lost she actually was out here. All that could be seen was a black expanse dotted with white stars. Escape was an unrealistic approach. Even Nat knew that the survival rate was zero out there among the stars. It was almost ironic how hard it would be to escape to your death in this situation.
         The guard watched Nat carefully. She reminded him of a girl he knew a long time ago. He tapped his finger on the table. No feelings. He caught himself dreaming again. This wasn't the best place to work. The guard stood up, leaving the tablet and nothing else behind. This girl was distracting to watch, and she didn't need anyone keeping track of her anyways. The guards steps echoed in the quiet room. The pressured door to the main hall opened as he approached it and closed behind him, his footsteps now gone.
         Silence wasn't the best friend. Nat hated it. She wanted to cry, but her eyes were too dry for that and she knew it would be useless. There was no one there to comfort her. She stood up and ran a hand through her cropped hair. Nat didn't even know where she was. The last thing she remembered were masked people gassing her until she blacked out. When she woke up, she was being dragged along these grey, metallic corridors. It was obvious this was some sort of galactic containment center, but she'd never heard of such things.
         "Hey."
         Nat turned quickly, surprised yet unsurprised when the voice came from behind her. She was almost positive that no one else was in this cell room, but her thoughts changed as a man came out of the dim light in the cage next to hers.
         "What do you want?" Nat asked a bit harsher than she meant.
         "Nothing, really."
         "What's your name?"
         "Jim."
         "I'm Nat."
         "Nice to meet you."
         The exchange went by quickly. She wasn't sure why she introduced herself right away. It comforted her somehow that someone knew it. Knowing that at least one person would remember it here made her feel a bit more important than she actually was.
         "Do you know where we are?"
         "Yes."
         "Where are we, then?"
         "The Baptism. It's a ship."
         "The Baptism?"
         "Yeah. A new prison ship. Came out a few months ago. Very big. All criminals are being shipped here."
         "All of them?"
         "Yeah."
         "Like who?"
         "Tal'shok the Betrayer is one."
         "The Betrayer? God's enemy?"
         "That's the one."
         "He died a long time ago, though."
         "That he did."
         "That doesn't make sense."
         "It might if you ever get to meet him."
         A clank was heard in the background. Both their heads turned briefly and turned away. It was nothing. Just ambience. There was nothing to worry about when you were locked up safe and sound like this. All you had to worry about were the marks it made on your mind.
         "You know a lot about the ship?"
         "Yeah."
         "How?"
         "Been here a long time, Nat. You pick up things after a while. I know this place from top to bottom without even visiting all the nooks and crannies."
         "That's impressive."
         "I thought so too."
         Jim let out a cold, dead sigh that only cold, dead souls could emit. The artificial light buzzed from above, adding to their ambience. It was all they had left, really. Sounds were everything.
         "How long have you been here, Jim?"
         "Long enough."
         "Did you do something bad?"
         "I guess so."
         "They say I did something bad, too."
         "I thought as much."
         The silence following was deafening. Though Jim had started conversation, Nat was beginning to think he already wanted to end it. Even when there was a person practically next to her, Nat felt lonely. The hard cot at the edge of the room soon began to look welcoming. Nat walked over to it, sitting on it, the springs squeaking. It was strange how they were still using these types of cots. It would almost be harder to manufacture the old design than the new ones. Nat's head hit the brick-like pillow and a siren rang at the same moment, like she'd pressed a hidden button.
         Red lights flashed and the siren went off for a few more seconds, eventually stopping. The doors to the cells were activated and slid open. Nat wondered if this was happening all across the ship or if it was just some lucky malfunction. Jim was over in his cell, now standing and walking out the cell casually. Nat did the same but not casually. Whatever happened wasn't supposed to happen. That was clear. Nat was relieved she wasn't in the cell anymore, but how long would this live out? There was nowhere else to escape. Jim looked over at Nat. His gaze was relaxed.
         "Let's go, Nat."
         "Go? Go where?"
         "Out of here."
         "Where else is there to go but here?"
         "The Baptism is a big ship."
         "There's nowhere to get to on a prison ship."
         "I want to give you a tour."
         "A tour?"
         "Yes. Then we'll escape."
         Nat wasn't sure what was going on with Jim. It was as if he expected this to happen. Was this planned? Probably not. Jim couldn't do anything here. But now they were both free. Jim could do anything. Nat could too. The playground was open, but the playground was limited. Jim had plans to escape. Nat didn't want to argue with that.
         "Where do we go then, Jim?"
         "We'll head through the three decks here on the Baptism."
         "There's three decks?"
         "Yeah. It's a big ship. Lots of different prisoners throughout. Tal'shok is at the bottom. You have to see him."
         "Why?"
         "You just do. I think he helped us get out of here."
         "Why do you think that?"
         "I don't know. I just do."
         If Nat was correct, Jim was hiding something. His relaxed voice seemed to imply it. It was meant to be calming, but it ended up being disturbing. But Nat trusted Jim. He knew her name, after all. No one else did. Jim could get out of here. If Jim could get out, Nat could get out. Jim told Nat to come on and they walked through the automatic sliding doors into the main hall. It was a long hall. Other doors were lined up to cells just like theirs. The color scheme was overwhelmingly gray and devoid of warm or cool colors. It caused an overall feeling of emptiness within Nat that she didn't understand. Jim looked around a bit.
         "This is the first deck. All the normal people like you and I are put here, Nat. But they aren't good like us."
         "They aren't?"
         "No."
         "Why not?"
         "They just aren't. Violence runs through their veins. We don't need to see them. They will be busy with the guards. Can't you hear them fighting?"
         After listening for a bit, Nat admitted she could hear scuffling and the effect of a taser meeting the flesh of a convict. The sealed doors kept most of the sound out, but a lot of it seeped through. They were lucky that they didn't have a guard. He was afraid of Nat, so he left. It was a strange coincidence. Jim said they'd have to get out of here before the other convicts managed to beat the guards and get through the doors. They'd want to do stuff with them.
         Jim led Nat by the hand to an elevator. It was a pretty big elevator on a pretty big ship. The door opened when they pressed a button and they both stepped in. There was only one button inside the elevator. It was to the second and first decks, depending on where you were at. Nat found this rather strange. Why wouldn't it just have access all the decks in the ship? Jim didn't seem to be bothered by this. He pressed the button and awaited patiently as the doors shut and the elevator began to slide down.
         "I think you'll like the tour."
         "Really?"
         "Yeah. I really think so. Everything past this first deck gets much more interesting."
         "If you say so."
         "Just wait until we see the Tal'shok."
         "Why?"
         "Just wait. He'll be happy to see us."