The Breaking of Kandathu
Sci-Fi Flash Fiction for Flash Fiction February (Day 2)
Welcome to day two of my February Flash Fiction Challenge! Today’s prompt was: “That’s where we keep all the criminals and political prisoners. We sleep easier knowing they have their own planet and we have ours.”
To submit your own, simply check my subscriber chat each day for the prompt and publish your piece as a note or post and mention the challenge!
Elias Quill wasn’t a bad guy, yet he found himself trapped on the prison planet of Kendathu, almost an entire light-year away from his wife and daughter. He was packed into a cell with a thin laser wall and only enough beds for half the number of men trapped in its walls.
The wardens of the prison served a corrupt leader named Daran Tusk, the first of homo sapiens to rise to the classification of homo immortalis. Elias stood close enough to the laser wall to feel the hairs on his arms standing up from the static electricity. So much as a sneeze, and he would be reduced to dust.
On a mounted screen outside his cell, Elias watched Daran Tusk spew more of his hateful rhetoric to an adoring audience. His skin, a sickly orange hue, stretched tight across his skull as if it would tear at any moment.
Despite the fancy names he gave himself, he wasn’t perfect.
He’s just as human as the rest of us, and that fact terrifies him.
“That’s where we keep all our criminals and political prisoners,” he explained. We’ll all sleep easier, knowing they have their own planet, and we have ours. Ours is the best planet, I’m told. Ask anyone,” Daran said, grinning with a plastic smile.
Elias turned away from the screen, wishing he could shut off his ears like the cybernetic hybrids living in the slums of his home world. His friend, Malik Nox, walked over, having just wrapped up a shift in one of the bunks that lined the walls.
“Morning,” he said, his eyes glancing up at the screen outside the cell. “I see the idiot-in-chief is spouting his bullshit again?”
Elias nodded. “Doesn’t matter, not after today. You still with me?” he asked.
Malik nodded. “Till the end, brother.”
Elias shut his eyes and counted in his head.
Three. Two. One.
A massive explosion rocked the building. The lights in the cell flickered as sparks rained down from the laser wall. It flickered once, twice, and then disappeared.
Attagirl! I knew you’d get it done.
The inmates all rushed out of the open cell like a tidal wave. Alarms blared through the facility almost immediately. Elias and Malik entered the hall for the first time in years. Freedom felt good.
“Holy shit, she actually did it!” Malik remarked.
Elias winked. “Did you ever have any doubt? Come on, we need to get to the spaceport.”
Malik reached out and grabbed Elias’ forearm, crinkling his neon yellow jumpsuit.
“Hey! What about my idea?” Malik asked.
Elias stopped to think about what Malik had suggested.
The experimental wing. The super-soldiers. Dangerous, but it would do some damage.
“We can’t leave them behind, Elias,” Malik said, his eyes ablaze with conviction.
Choice:
Do you head to the experimental wing and unleash the horrifying creations that were once your fellow inmates? Or will you head to the spaceport and return home to your wife and child?
Click here to choose the spaceport (Or scroll to the “Path of Faith” if you’re on the app)
Click here to choose the experimental wing (or scroll to the “Path of Vengeance”)
The Path of Vengeance
Elias nods. “You’re right, brother; we can’t leave them behind. And, besides, their wrath will show our wardens that we will no longer live beneath their heel!”
Malik pumped his fists in the air. “Follow me!”
The two men pushed through the tide of escaping prisoners coming from other cells, heading through the gray metal corridors. While they had never seen a map of the prison facility on Kendathu, it was easy to find the experimental wing:
All you have to do is follow the screams.
Malik threw himself against the wall outside the wing and peeked around the corner. He pointed to his eyes and then raised two fingers.
Two guards.
They had discussed their strategies so often that Malik didn’t need to say anything else. He stepped around the corner, his hands raised.
“Don’t move, prisoner!” A synthetic voice shouted.
Elias peeked around the corner, watching as the guard moved to handcuff Malik. When his back was turned, Elias tore out into the hall, sprinting at full force toward the guard.
He lowered his shoulder and tackled him as Malik stepped out of the way. The guard’s metal exosuit skidded across the floor as Elias picked up his laser rifle. He checked the safety, saw the green light near the clip, and knew all he needed to know.
No prisoners. Not anymore.
Elias pointed the gun down at the guard on the ground and fired. A burst of green light tore a hole in his chest like it was acid. He heard another laser blast and looked up as Malik ended the other guard’s life.
Elias vented the heat from his gun, sending a blast of steam out the left side. The green light illuminated again, and he fired at the door panel leading into the main storage area.
Elias and Malik ran inside, pausing only a moment to look at the rows of glass tubes holding what used to be their friends and fellow cellmates.
The super-soldiers, suspended in green liquid, had unnaturally large muscles, with veins that bulged beneath the skin. Their heads were bulbous and lopsided. They undoubtedly had a miserable existence but weren’t meant to be happy.
They were meant to be vengeance incarnate for the powers that be.
“Open the tanks,” Elias said.
Malik nodded, pressing buttons on a nearby console full of dials and switches.
The sound of liquid draining filled the room, followed shortly by the shattering of glass and the roar of pure agony. Elias was paralyzed as he saw the hulking monstrosities moving like a force of nature through the room, searching for a target.
This was a mistake.
Elias looked at Malik and saw one of the hulking monsters approaching him from behind.
“Malik, look out!” Elias screamed.
He ran towards his friend, placing himself in the path of the super-solider.
“Stop, we are not your—” The crack of shattering bone cut through Elias’ last words.
Mailk turned around as the super-soldier tossed Elias’ limp body to the side like garbage.
“Elias, no!”
He barely had time to move before the beast curled its hand around his throat. Malik dropped his laser rifle as his feet lifted off the ground.
“Brother, please!” he sputtered.
The beast crushed his throat, ending his life.
Within hours, Kendathu was evacuated and declared lost. The public was led to believe that a freak accident, an explosion, destroyed the entire facility.
The story claimed that the explosion killed all the prisoners and made the planet uninhabitable due to toxic radiation.
Only the souls that remained on Kendathu knew the truth of what happened that day…
The Path of Compassion
Elias knew how important freeing their brothers and sisters was to him, but in Elias’ mind, they were already lost.
Those things in the experimental wing are no longer the people we knew.
“I’m sorry, brother, but we don’t have time. I know you care deeply for them, but we must escape first! We can come back for them,” Elias said.
Malik’s eyes narrowed. “I will hold you to that, friend.”
The two men joined the fray, becoming one with the torrent of people all seeking a way off the prison planet.
The last door leading outside to the spaceport was guarded by a throng of soldiers in silver exosuits, brandishing laser rifles.
One of the soldiers stepped out with a megaphone. The only thing loud enough to reach the crowd of enraged prisoners.
“Any aggression will be met with overwhelming force! This is your only warning!” The guard said.
The crowd stopped short of charging the guards. We could clearly overwhelm them, but the cost would be high. Elias and Malik pushed through to the front, feeling the shocked gazes of their fellow prisoners.
The guards all adjusted their aim as the two men emerged with their hands up.
“Do you speak for them?” the guard with the megaphone asked.
Elias looked to Malik and back to the prisoner behind him.
“I do, and we do not want bloodshed,” Elias said.
The guard gestured back the way they came. “Then go back to your cells! Now!”
Elias shook his head. “We cannot do that. We seek passage off-world.”
The guards all laughed. The one with the megaphone just shook his head.
“You’re prisoners! You belong in a prison!” he said.
“Then I ask you: what is our crime?”
The guard just stood still. Silent.
Malik turned and pointed to one of the men in the crowd. “You! What is your crime?”
The man’s wide eyes darted around the room as he felt everyone else's gaze upon him.
“I…I spoke out against Tusk,” he stammered.
Elias pointed to a woman in the crowd. “And you?”
“I stole food to feed my family!” she cried.
Elias turned back to the guard. “Are these criminals to you?”
The guard’s words were uncertain. “I…the laws are clear, and I…”
“Enough! There is a human beneath all of that metal and wire. I am speaking to him, appealing to him, and asking him to do the right thing!”
The guard turned toward the others behind him. “Lower your guns.”
“But, sir!” one of them protested.
The guard tore off his helmet. Elias saw compassion in his eyes. “I said lower your fucking guns!”
The guards did as they were told and stepped aside. The doors opened, and the prisoners felt sunlight on their skin for the first time in years. They rushed to the spaceport, where ships sat docked that would carry them back home.
Elias and Malik stopped to thank the guard who had spared them.
“You did the right thing. I hope you know that,” Elias said, laying his hand on the guard’s shoulder.
The guard nodded, his eyes glistening with tears. “They taught us to see you as things, not people. I’m so sorry.”
Malik turned toward the sunlight. “All that matters is you saw the error of your ways.”
Elias nodded, joining his friend as they stepped through the threshold.
Perhaps there is hope after all.
Thank you for reading! Here’s Your Musical Pairing
Listen to this track after reading, much like how you would pair a glass of wine with dinner!
I knew I chose the wrong choice but I'm still sad about it lol
"I'm told ours is the best planet" 😂😂😂 I see you
I love this story! I love that we kind of chose the same sort of avenue to take our stories down 🥰
Love this, and I absolutely chose the wrong choice at first too. The conflict resolves a little too quick in the Path of Compassion, but given the constraints of the prompt and challenge, it was very well-done!