LAMBENT STARLIGHT

"You have reached the end of your intern" the voice echoed around my cell. It gave me a bit of a shock, I must have lost count of the days in my head, I thought I had a few to go. I put aside the metal meal tray and stood up. You always had to stand up when the voice spoke.
"You will proceed to washing and health check facilities now." She meant it too, if you dilly dallied, electric shocks were jolted into your feet via the floor - don't ask me how they do that, but it bloody hurts.
My cell door clanged open, I walked out into the corridor. On the wall opposite a flashing green arrow pointed the way I had to go. I looked up and down the metal corridor, parts of it were still wet from the tidal wave of disinfectant that sluiced down it every 24 hours, but hey, at least it washed all the crap of the prisoners out of the way. I padded down the corridor, only then did my hopes rise, my heart sing - freedom!
It took a few minutes of clanging doors and passing guards with shielded faces, to work my way towards a part of the habitat where it looked and felt as if humans should live here. Instead of clanging metal, the floors and doors were of a more pleasing construction. Pastel colours crept in, the floor was soft and warm to walk on, people passed me by without a glance. Many of them weren't carrying electro prods, and wore no face shields.
The green arrows led me to a sign outside a door that said "Washing - Decontamination Area", I went in and found myself in a metal room, it was bare and sterile, my heart felt leaden again, this was all too familiar territory.
"You will disrobe immediately".
OK, so I disrobed immediately, holding my coverall in my hands covering my nakedness. "Put your clothing in the bag."
Bag? What bag? I don't see no f... a ceiling hatch opened and a polythene bag fell onto the floor in front of me. I picked it up and put the coverall inside it.
"Put the bag in this hatch". A hatch opened in the wall near the door, I popped the bag in, it shut with a snap. Glad my hand wasn't in there.
"Stand in the middle of the room please"
Please? Please? - what's with all the politeness now? My thoughts were interrupted by jets of warm soapy water sluicing at me from every direction. I yelped as it started to turn hot, yelped again as a jet of it went up my ass, just as another jet hit me in the face, filling my mouth with not unpleasant tasting fluid.
After a minute or so the water sluicing stopped, and grills opened up in the walls and ceiling, blowing warm air at me. I dried off, enjoying the feel of warm air blowing through my clean hair.
"Please proceed into medical." Another door I'd noticed on the other side of the small room opened, so I walked in.
"Put on the under clothes you will find on the table."
There was a table, not the harsh angular table of the prison, but a nicely designed table, looking like wood, and painted. There were three piles on the table; A pair of shoes with socks folded on them, a pile of white material that looked like a vest and pants, and then the third pile of coverall and a jacket. Hey, I was nearly human again.
As I put on my pants and vest, a woman walked in. She was dressed in a white coat and carried a pad and stylus. A medi- tool hung from her belt.
"Mr....?" she cocked an eye brow at me expectantly.
"Allen" I said, "my name's Allen". It was strange to say that, as for my intern, I had been a series of letters and numbers that collected a beating or electric shock if I got them wrong.
"So that is your family name?"
"Yes it is Ma'am" I liked that bit, I thought a bit of respect would help me along.
"So what is your first name - can you remember?"
"My first name is Key" I sighed inwardly, as I could tell I would have to explain yet again, why I was named after a tool. Thanks Dad.
"So you're called Key Allen.." a smile twitched the corners of her mouth. She would have to be careful, that was nearly quite nice.
"Looks like your memory checks out anyway." She smiled at me, yup she was gorgeous.
"Do you have any ailments or disorders?" she was looking at her pad, there was a list on there.
"No I'm fine thank you." She asked more questions, shone a light into my eyes, I said "aaaargh" as she shoved a probe down my throat. I was just getting used to that when I heard a sharp click and a prick on my earlobe.
"Just taking a blood sample" she murmured. She put the swab in a phial of fluid and swished. She held it up to a coloured chart "looks like you're human anyway" she smiled again.
"You're passed fit for public access" another smile "welcome back to the real world Key Allen." she moved towards her door, and then hesitated. "Did you enjoy the shower Mr Allen?"
"Well sort of - quite invigorating, nice to be clean again" I added lamely.
"So glad" she said "I was directing the jets - always enjoy that bit." She winked and left the room.
The room beyond had a shelf on one wall, I recognised the bag on it, it was the one I'd filled when I had been admitted to prison all those months ago. Everything was in there, including my phone. I put it all into my pockets.
"Please place your left hand on the lit pad on the shelf" I did so, my hand was scanned.
"Key Allen, please leave the intern area via the door opening now. There is a map on the wall to show you to your new quarters, also directions have been loaded into your phone."
I switched on my phone, after a few seconds it beeped a hello, and indicated that messages were waiting.
I exited through the door, and all of a sudden, I was in the normal world again. The door slammed shut behind me.