Chapter
1 – No Strength in Flesh
Hmm. Huh? Where am I? The last
thing I remember was being detained by the Ecclesia and put on a prison ship to
be transported to a prison planet. I’m on the ship I remember being on, but…I
feel so woozy and strange as if I drank too much alcohol. This place doesn’t
look like I remember it. It’s all rusty as if it were abandoned for years.
Ecclesia prison ships are either pristine to prepare a person for their
penances or rusty and dirty like this as part of a person’s punishment. I’ve
been on both kinds of ships for the crimes I’ve committed, however, this was a
ship somewhere in between clean and dirty last I remember.
Getting up and going to the door, I
peer through the eyehole and feel my face pressed against something that feels
like a button. Before I can realize it, my vision focuses on the pistol that
see aimed at my eye through the eyehole, and hear it click. My brain tells me
what I need to know in a fraction of a second, so I move out of the way before the
pistol’s bullet hits me. What sick person set up this trap?
“Franco, prisoner one thousand one
hundred and fifty, guilty of murder, theft, lying to the law, and escaping
prison. I’m assuming these are only your known crimes?” a man says from the
intercom in my room.
What’s with this guy’s voice? He
sounds more mechanical than any cyborg I’ve heard before.
“Depends who’s asking,” I reply.
“My name is Genio, and I will be your
aid on our path to create better servants of God.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve already experienced a pretest
to test your new reactions.”
“What if I died during your first ‘test’?”
“If you did get shot, then you
would survive and if you somehow suffered any notable damage, I would send a
medical android to come to repair you. Trust me when I say that you wouldn’t
die. I’ve already seen plenty of prisoners snared by this simple trap.”
“You’re putting more prisoners
through these traps too?”
“I’m putting all the prisoners on
this ship through these traps.”
“How can the Church approve of your
experiment?”
“It isn’t. They don’t know this is
happening fools that they are. They’ve approved of similar experiments of mine
when I helped them create the Divinus Carnifex and Death Walkers, but not this one. When they see the results of this experiment, I’m
sure I will be welcomed back with open arms. Let’s get these tests started so your
freedom and mine can be obtained.”
The cell door opens in front of me
and makes an ear piercing scraping noise that sound like the screams of the
damned. Looking into the hallway, it looks like I might actually be in Hell as I
watch other prisoners be skewered, cut up, impaled, and crushed by traps. Twitching
bodies try moving around and those that appear to be still alive try desperately
clinging to it in the barbed wire that separates the space between us. Walking
through this hellish space leads me up a set of stairs that leads to a walkway full
of spinning blades with barely enough room for me to walk through it.
“Are you serious?” I say aloud.
“Very serious. Your skin and bone
must be tested along with your mind. Go forth without worry and you will emerge
without harm,” I hear in response from a speaker.
I look around me to see what the
other prisoners did on their first trial to see some broken by the trap, frozen
in fear by it, and others sitting in their cell that seem like they are hoping that
starvation will give them a less painful death. Other prisoners are praying,
and the last course of action would be going through the mess of barb wire that
liters the entire area as if thousands of mechanical spiders spun them. These people
that choose to go through the barb wire are caught in them as I’ve seen before,
but the trial in front of me makes me want to see a secret way out through the
wire.
With no choice, I go step by step
through the spinning blades while looking forward. Looking at the blades will
probably scare me into making a mistake. All I have to do is watch my step.
Even as I walk carefully through the blades, it feels like I’m somehow touching
them, and I keep trying to push this thought out of my head since it’s breaking
my concentration.
“Franco?! You’re here! You still
owe me that debt once we’re out of this!” I hear a familiar voice call from
across the way.
This voice distracts me and gets my
head to automatically turn to look at the blade that’s spinning inches away
from my eyes. Just looking at the blade makes me feel like it’s cutting me, so
I quickly look away, ignore the ‘stranger’ since he’s stuck with his own
problems, and continue walking forward until I’m out of the walkway and in
another staircase that leads up with the way down blocked by debris.
Since I have a moment to sit down,
I sit on the steps to catch my breath before heading up the stairs only to
almost step into a trap of spikes because of a loose step that gives way as
soon as I step on it.
“Your reactions are amazing! My research
is proving to be fruitful with you,” Genio says over a speaker.
I look up at the camera and give him
my best disapproval look that I can.
“Come on then. If you want your
freedom, then you must continue on.”
Alright then. I carefully make my
way up the stairs while making sure each stair isn’t a trap. The next floor is
a medical area. Of course, I’m limited in where I can go with debris and barb
wire everywhere. At least I can see that I wasn’t crazy and somehow right when I
see spider robots cutting up barb wire with people stuck in them and almost
instantly making more. They come and go to make sure to cover every inch as a
medical android drags the barely alive people into the darkness.
Right, so I’m not going to deal
with that, and I go on my own path to an operating room that locks me in when I reach
the center of the room. The room itself is cut in two by some kind of leathery substance
strung up by barb wire and I think I can see someone on the other side.
“It’s a good thing that you woke up
when you did because your partner has been waiting here for almost an entire
day,” Genio says from a speaker in the room.
I see the person on the other side
sit down on a chair near the leathery wall and say something as their arm goes
through the wall. Seeing as how this person is my partner, I sit by the chair
and look at the table between us then cautiously put my arm through the other
hole only for it to be gripped by something metal. I then hear a buzzsaw start
up and see it through the wall. Looking at the table, I see that we’ve put our
arms on some kind of cutting table. Why do I make such bad choices without
thinking them through?
“This will be a simple, yet, complex
trial I like to call, ‘Judge and be Judged’. I will tell you all your partner’s
crimes and you have to judge whether or not they would go to Hell if they died
this instant. If you don’t answer within ten seconds, your arm will be cut in
half. Judging wrongly will also result in the dismemberment of your arm. Only judging
rightly will ensure that you will escape with both arms,” Genio says.
The buzzsaws start to move our way.
“Franco, your partner is guilty of rape,
torturing his victims, abusing his power as an official of the Church,
silencing those who would expose him, and much more. What is his sentence?
Heaven or Hell?”
I’d say he was bound for Hell, but
what answer would Genio accept? Wait! He didn’t tell me if he repented from his
sins yet! The Church offers you a chance to confess to a confessor before
shipping you off to a prison planet while also having priests on the ship and at
the prison planets to hear confessions. There’s also the chance that he could’ve
confessed to God and somehow made an act of perfect contrition.
“I wouldn’t know because you didn’t
tell me if he repented or not!” I scream at the speaker.
Come on, come on, answer already! The
buzzsaw is getting so close. Ah! Huh? It stopped before touching me.
Unfortunately for my partner, he lost half his arm and has to be carried away
by a medical android.
“Correct! You are one of the few
prisoners to get this question right,” Genio says as the operating room doors
open.
Going out the door, I go through a
hallway and continue up a flight of stairs while making sure to step lightly
until I reach the next floor, which is…a room full of barb wire. Barb wire that’s
sharper than what I’ve seen before with heads, limbs, and bodies stuck on them.
If I never see this stuff again, it will be too soon.
“This is your final trial. The simple
yet challenging room of razor wire,” Genio says through the speakers in this
room.
Oh, razor wire. My bad. As if that’s
any better. Okay, last one. I can’t let any slip of pain or my fear distract
me. Freedom is so close. I have to get back home. I’ve made it through sticker
situations than this. Come on! Almost there! Ah! I touched the razor wire and knocked
a loose arm off the razor wire that hits my face and makes me go headfirst
into a mess of wire. Don’t think about the pain! Just take your face out of the
wire and keep going! Keep going! I can barely see because of the blood on my
face but I’ve made it to the end where an open elevator waits for me. Going into
it, I press the only button that doesn’t look broken.
Okay, okay. This is it. I’ve earned
my freedom. It’s over. The elevator stops at a floor that’s a long dark hallway
with a room with lights in it. That better be daylight or moonlight. Reaching
the light only reveals a room with cameras in it and a person in a robe in it.
The person turns around to reveal a man with a featureless face. Does he even
have eyes? He doesn’t have a nose and he doesn’t have a mouth. In the place of
a mouth, he has a bunch of tubes where his mouth would be. This must be…
“Hello, Franco. Congratulations on
being one of the few to complete my trials without serious injuries,” Genio
says.
Before I can say anything smart to
him, I wonder what he means by serious injuries. What he says makes me
look at the injuries on my arms and legs. What…hold on! I instinctively pick at
my skin and accidentally tear off the fake skin off my arms and face. I’m a
cyborg…
“What did you do to me?!”
“I did what I did to every other
prisoner in the ship. You are all immortal human machines just like me.”
Genio raises his claw-like arms
from his robes to reveal his robotic body with his heart and organs in his metal
chest and four pincer legs.
“Why?”
“To make an immortal Church. The
universe is big enough to fit a nearly infinite number of humans and dying only
when God wills it. I have given us thicker skin and quicker reactions to defend
us against all manner of physical assault and diseases. There is no certainty
in flesh but death. The Church rejected my ideas to give everyone in the Church
this option because they suddenly lost the stomach to experiment on the
faithless. I was exiled and my name was erased from everything I created, but I
didn’t let that stop me from using my God-given talents. I spent two years collecting
everything and everyone I needed to conduct my experiment, another year to augment
everyone here, and an excruciating month of waiting for you all to finally wake
up, but it was all worth it for this moment.”
A data drive comes out of the
machine near him that he takes.
“Is that your research?”
“Yes, and with it, the Church will
welcome me back. Come with me and they will grant you your freedom as well.
They will forget your crimes and let you go back to your family.”
I look around the room as I think,
and my eyes focus on a guard’s shotgun close to me. Makes sense that they would
have riot control weaponry in a camera room in the event of a riot or prison
break.
“Okay. I’ll join you.”
“God bless you, sir. Let’s not keep
them waiting for this enlightening information.”
As Genio walks away, I quietly pick
up the shotgun, aim for his chest, and shoot him. The shotgun tears him in half.
His top half twitches and almost seems to be alive, so I blow his head off. It’s
no wonder why the Church exiled him though I do understand why he was mad and
motivated. Still, it’s not a good excuse to do the things he did even to
sinners like me. Now, let’s see if this information will actually give me my
freedom.
I go the way Genio was going to go
and make my way to the hanger bay of the prison ship to find one ship that’s still
operating. Using it, I travel back to my home planet and give the information
to the authorities. After going through it, they tell me that my freedom is guaranteed
and my recorded clean as long as I don’t bring this up to anyone and don’t
commit any more crimes, of course. We agree to this as they promise to send
people to free the prisoners stuck on the stranded ship I was on that was in
the unknown regions. With that done, they give me a ride back to my house.
They come with me to confirm my identity
to them since I was thought to be dead because of my long disappearance. My
family opens the door in shock as my wife and kids step outside to see me. They
look like they were excited at first and now they don’t know what to do.
“I’m sorry I took so long, but I’m
home now,” I say with my arms open to them.
My eyes quickly focus on my robotic
arms and the fake skin that’s hardly covering them. I then realize that I didn’t
do anything to cover this up because of how excited I was to go back home. This
is embarrassing, so I hide my arms and my face as best as I can. My kids run up
to me and give me a hug with tears on their face before looking up at me. Even
though my robotic face can’t cry, it feels like I am. My wife then runs to me
and hugs me as my family welcomes me back home.
The authorities wish us well and
tell me not to forget our agreement before heading off. My wife asks me what
this agreement is, and I tell her not to worry about it. I’m finally back home
and a free man. Thanks be to God.
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