The 21st Centuryon

Free For All

There was always a succession of days to be counted on to relieve the anxiety of the moment. These days were now numbered short and few rotations on the axis of planet-C remained. Most of the primal humans knew their fate and accepted it with the helplessness of cattle led to slaughter. R-Joon, however, was different.

It had always permeated through his thoughts that nothing was for certain. No matter how persistently the Primal Church leaders incessantly pounded their dogma of non-resistance R-Joon still fought it within his mind every waking instant. Even in his dreams and perhaps even more so in them, he rebelled against their ideas of being a lesser life form. To serve and obey was not an axiom to which he could adhere.

Planet-C twinkled with the first reflected rays from Home Star as evening settled here on K-Bull. K-Bull, everyone’s desired respite from nothingness, was where the power of reality played itself out under remote button pushing guidance. Slaughter Mabel, the head button pusher of the century or Exalted Freak of Nature depending on whose opinion one chose, was just now awakening from the stupor brought from Its latest bout of debauchery. An address from Mabel was imminent. It always felt Its brain-works were at an inspirational peak at this time of day on K-Bull and the players should be attentive.

R-Joon could feel the slight, itching irritation of his control and transmitting collar. Mabel would speak soon and a warning buzz of an electrical impulse summoned all the players to attention. The collars gave a detailed account of the sensations of emotion and bodily functions back to Khan-Troll. They were also a time bomb of manipulation, in case one of the Primals got out of hand their neck could be severed instantaneously by a laser torch concealed next to the skin of the wearer. It made a clean cut and there were worse ways to die much, much worse.

Cypress Kosis remained obliviously snoring to the pulse of his collar. Cypress, Sigh for short, was named after a tree that he was born under in a bug-infested swamp that made up most of the planet Bi-U. He probably didn’t even notice the irritation in his sleep, accustomed as he was to the crawling vermin of his home planet. Corporal Sigh Kosis loved playing the Game and had earned the nickname No-Quarter, from many of the C-lings for his unabashed joy and behavior in combat.

R-Joon kicked him on the shin. Missing Mabell’s address was tantamount to treason and punishable by worse things than death, much worse things. Sigh knew this and gave a glance of thanks toward R-Joon when the slow recognition of purpose finally dawned upon him.

"Mine Fewer!" emanated from the speaker of every collar of the squad. All of them snapped to attention pounded their chest once with their fist and extended their right arm toward planet-C.

‘Mine Fewer’ was one of Mabel’s catch phrases that It started during the latter part of the last millennium. Ice crystals, which are buried deep within planet-C and used for currency, had to be mined. Planet-C was devoid of any potable water source save these concentrated crystals that had been blasted into the planet by a comet long before recorded history. The phrase ‘Mine Fewer’ came about when Mabell was merely the head of Treasury in response to the inflationary glut of Ice that Primals had extracted in mass quantities during a period of hot competition brought about by the lifting of restrictions. The phrase caught on and stuck, helping Mabel win several elections as head Button Pusher. Although the ensuing lack of crystal caused a deterioration in the populace of Primals, due to dehydration, the policy had remained in place even when some of the C-lings’ precious Found-Links had succumb.