Tom Godwin - Space Prison

To JOE AND BLANCHE KOLARIK,whose friendship and encouragement in the years gone by will never beforgotten.

For seven weeks the Constellation had been plunging through hyperspacewith her eight thousand colonists; fleeing like a hunted thing with hercommunicators silenced and her drives moaning and thundering. Up in thecontrol room, Irene had been told, the needles of the dials dancedagainst the red danger lines day and night.

She lay in bed and listened to the muffled, ceaseless roar of the drivesand felt the singing vibration of the hull. We should be almost safe bynow, she thought. Athena is only forty days away.

Thinking of the new life awaiting them all made her too restless to liestill any longer. She got up, to sit on the edge of the bed and switchon the light. Dale was gonehe had been summoned to adjust one of themachines in the ships X-ray roomand Billy was asleep, nothing showingof him above the covers but a crop of brown hair and the furry nose ofhis ragged teddy bear.

She reached out to straighten the covers, gently, so as not to awakenhim. It happened then, the thing they had all feared.

From the stern of the ship came a jarring, deafening explosion. The shiplurched violently, girders screamed, and the light flicked out.

In the darkness she heard a rapid-fire thunk-thunk-thunk as theautomatic guard system slid inter-compartment doors shut againstsections of the ship suddenly airless. The doors were still thuddingshut when another explosion came, from toward the bow. Then there wassilence; a feeling of utter quiet and motionlessness.

The fingers of fear enclosed her and her mind said to her, like thecold, unpassionate voice of a stranger: The Gerns have found us.

The light came on again, a feeble glow, and there was the soft, muffledsound of questioning voices in the other compartments. She dressed, herfingers shaking and clumsy, wishing that Dale would come to reassureher; to tell her that nothing really serious had happened, that it hadnot been the Gerns.

It was very still in the little compartmentstrangely so. She hadfinished dressing when she realized the reason: the air circulationsystem had stopped working.

That meant the power failure was so great that the air regenerators,themselves, were dead. And there were eight thousand people on theConstellation who would have to have air to live.

The Attention buzzer sounded shrilly from the public address systemspeakers that were scattered down the ships corridors. A voice sherecognized as that of Lieutenant Commander Lake spoke:

"War was declared upon Earth by the Gern Empire ten days ago. Two Gerncruisers have attacked us and their blasters have destroyed the sternand bow of the ship. We are without a drive and without power but for afew emergency batteries. I am the Constellation's only survivingofficer and the Gern commander is boarding us to give me the surrenderterms.

"None of you will leave your compartments until ordered to do so.Wherever you may be, remain there. This is necessary to avoid confusionand to have as many as possible in known locations for futureinstructions. I repeat: you will not leave your compartments."

The speaker cut off. She stood without moving and heard again the words:I am the Constellations only surviving officer.

The Gerns had killed her father.

He had been second-in-command of the Dunbar expedition that haddiscovered the world of Athena and his knowledge of Athena was valuableto the colonization plans. He had been quartered among the shipsofficersand the Gern blast had destroyed that section of the ship.

She sat down on the edge of the bed again and tried to reorient herself;to accept the fact that her life and the lives of all the others hadabruptly, irrevocably, been changed.

The Athena Colonization Plan was ended. They had known such a thingmight happenthat was why the Constellation had been made ready forthe voyage in secret and had waited for months for the chance to slipthrough the ring of Gern spy ships; that was why she had raced at fullspeed, with her communicators silenced so there would be no radiationsfor the Gerns to find her by. Only forty days more would have broughtthem to the green and virgin world of Athena, four hundred light-yearsbeyond the outermost boundary of the Gern Empire. There they should havebeen safe from Gern detection for many years to come; for long enough tobuild planetary defenses against attack. And there they would have usedAthenas rich resources to make ships and weapons to defendmineral-depleted Earth against the inexorably increasing inclosure ofthe mighty, coldly calculating colossus that was the Gern Empire.

Success or failure of the Athena Plan had meant ultimate life or deathfor Earth. They had taken every precaution possible but the Gern spysystem had somehow learned of Athena and the Constellation. Now, thecold war was no longer cold and the Plan was dust.

Billy sighed and stirred in the little-boy sleep that had not beenbroken by the blasts that had altered the lives of eight thousand peopleand the fate of a world.

She shook his shoulder and said, "Billy."

He raised up, so small and young to her eyes that the question in hermind was like an anguished prayer: Dear Godwhat do Gerns do tofive-year-old boys?

He saw her face, and the dim light, and the sleepiness was suddenly gonefrom him. "Whats wrong, Mama? And why are you scared?"

There was no reason to lie to him.

"The Gerns found us and stopped us."

"Oh," he said. In his manner was the grave thoughtfulness of a boy twicehis age, as there always was. "Will theywill they kill us?"

"Get dressed, honey," she said. "Hurry, so well be ready when they letDaddy come back to tell us what to do."

They were both ready when the Attention buzzer sounded again in thecorridors. Lake spoke, his tone grim and bitter:

"There is no power for the air regenerators and within twenty hours wewill start smothering to death. Under these circumstances I could not doother than accept the survival terms the Gern commander offered us.

"He will speak to you now and you will obey his orders without protest.Death is the only alternative."

Then the voice of the Gern commander came, quick and harsh and brittle:

"This section of space, together with planet Athena, is an extension ofthe Gern Empire. This ship has deliberately invaded Gern territory intime of war with intent to seize and exploit a Gern world. We arewilling, however, to offer a leniency not required by the circumstances.Terran technicians and skilled workers in certain fields can be used inthe factories we shall build on Athena. The others will not be neededand there is not room on the cruisers to take them.

"Your occupation records will be used to divide you into two groups: theAcceptables and the Rejects. The Rejects will be taken by the cruisersto an Earth-type planet near here and left, together with the personalpossessions in their compartments and additional, and ample, supplies.The Acceptables will then be taken on to Athena and at a later date thecruisers will return the Rejects to Earth.

"This division will split families but there will be no resistance toit. Gern guards will be sent immediately to make this division and youwill wait in your compartments for them. You will obey their orderspromptly and without annoying them with questions. At the first instanceof resistance or rebellion this offer will be withdrawn and the cruiserswill go their way again."

In the silence following the ultimatum she could hear the soft, wordlessmurmur from the other compartments, the undertone of anxiety like a darkthread through it. In every compartment parents and children, brothersand sisters, were seeing one another for the last time.