Ravens of Eternity

257 Skewed Justice, Pt Dressed in an unremarkable bright red jumpsuit, Eva walked into her tiny 2.5 cubic meter cell. Just as she stepped through the threshold and stopped at the center, thick clear slabs of transparent metal slid shut behind her and locked her in.

She sighed as she looked around at the threadbare cell, and realized it was less than half the size of her very first hab in the Federation. At the time, she thought the free hab was tiny, but now she truly understood the meaning of Tiny Hab.

The bed itself spanned the far wall – not that it was a traditional one. It was simply a slab of titacrete that jutted out of the wall by roughly a meter. On it was a thin padding that was supposed to be some kind of cushion or mattress.

It honestly barely counted.

Not that it mattered all that much to her. After all, she didn’t exactly need to sleep. Nor did she really want to. Then again, if she was going to be stuck in here for a while, she might not have any other choice, if only to pass the time.

The two walls that faced each other each had touchpads set into the walls themselves. Eva tapped one set of controls on one wall, which caused panels to open up just beside it.

A sink and a commode both slid out of the spaces behind the panels and locked into position quickly. When she tapped their controls again, they drew back into their recesses, and the panels slid shut over them.

She slid her hand across the titacrete wall, then along the transparent sliding doors, and wondered just how strong they were. She tapped on the door itself, and listened to how it sounded.

It crossed her mind that she could potentially strengthen herself to her absolute maximum and break herself free, just like that.

.....

But she instead shook the thought away. She already had plenty of problems, and didn’t need to add any more. Plus all she would have been able to do was break open the door. There were so many more barriers in between her and the galaxy.

More importantly, she didn’t feel as though she could go her absolute maximum. It seemed almost like a dream in that moment.

She sighed deeply as she plopped on the bed and stared out into the titanium hallway just outside. Despite how close it was, it felt as though it was hundreds of kilometers away.

Eva had never really dealt much with the justice system back in her old universe, back on Earth. The extent of trouble she had ever gotten into was getting ticketed for speeding, then having to go to court to pay her outrageous fines.

She knew there were injustices, but never once had to experience them herself.

But now she understood what all those people were talking about. After seeing what happened with Nightmare, how he was literally able to get away with murder, she couldn’t help but question what justice meant to the Federation.

It didn’t seem to really exist, or at least, it seemed to exist for someone else. It definitely wasn’t there for her, or for some of the people she knew.

“It’s all such bullshit,” she told herself.

She laid back on the bed and stretched out on it. But she found it almost painful to lie on. Not just because of the lack of padding, but because she wasn’t moving.

This honestly had been the longest time she sat still in months. Maybe even longer.

Eva didn’t like it, not one bit.

She quickly stood up and shook off the feeling, or tried to at least. She walked up to the wall opposite the sink and commode and did a handstand against it. Her movements were relatively steady and precise as she leaned forward, planted her hands on the floor, then swung her legs up one after the other.

Once her feet tapped the wall and she was well-balanced, she began to do handstand push-ups. And she was practically relentless about it. Her movements seemed almost robotic as she pushed her body up and down, over and over.

It was almost like she had put her body on autopilot as she dove into her mind and attempted to cleanse it. Which she wasn’t doing a very good job of.

Chase’s assault and unjust incarceration truly ate at her. She felt them tear at her edges, as though they were threatening to completely undo her.

Eva hit a count of 108 before she stopped. It wasn’t because she had finally found some peace of mind. Rather, she had been interrupted by an intrusive buzzing. The wall she was leaning on turned out to be a comms terminal embedded inside it.

She let her feet fall forward, then unfolded her body back into an upright position gracefully.

Then she tapped the touchpad on the wall and accepted the comm. A section of the titacrete wall became completely transparent, and revealed a screen installed inside of it.

On that screen was a stern and gruff-looking administrator. He had a long and haggard face that seemed to be free of any emotion. The heavy bags under his eyes revealed a potential reason why.

“Inmate F.EB-102.932,” he said dispassionately. “Welcome to Helios Holding Pen Gamma-459. This will be your temporary enclosure for at least five cycles. Here, you will wait for your preliminary hearing, which typically occurs after three cycles. It will be then that your final fate will be determined. Do you have any questions so far?”

Eva shook her head solemnly. She honestly didn’t care for any of this, and hardly cared about whatever he was saying.

In truth, what he was saying barely registered.

“Good,” he continued. “I highly advise you to stay on your best behavior until you have your prelim. Every detainee we host here is surveilled constantly, and your behavior may affect the outcome of your hearing. Do you have any questions so far?”

Eva shook her head again. It didn’t matter what the man told her, all she really heard was that she was no longer free.

“Very well,” said the administrator. “Now, as you know the majority of your rights as a Federation citizen have been temporarily rescinded and suspended. Let us go over what few rights you have remaining, and what is considered permissible behavior. I will begin alphabetically...”

Eva spaced out as the administrator spoke. He blurted out line after line of what was “good” behavior, but she heard almost none of it. She simply spaced out and let the man ramble to his heart’s content.

Though she nodded every once in a while to give him the impression that she understood.

This wasn’t just because of Tiamat’s Transcendence. She simply didn’t care, and didn’t have the emotional space for it.

Eva decided to simply keep her head down and stay out of the way, at least until her hearing. If she didn’t do anything or talked to anyone, then there couldn’t possibly be any chance for a single rule to be broken.

Or for more rights to be taken away.

All she needed to do was sit and think about it all – which was supposed to be the whole point of it all. Criminals and offenders were supposed to use this time to think through their transgressions.

It was so they could atone more properly.

Except Eva was hardly a criminal. And she didn’t even feel remotely sorry for killing the commander. As far as she was concerned, she was absolutely justified.

It dawned on her, even as the administrator droned on, that this wasn’t about serving justice. It was there to make sure that people were docile. Long lists of rules of what was “good” and what was “bad” pervaded everyone’s lives.

Their actions were dictated by unchanging, faceless laws.

Should anyone break those laws, then the full weight of the Federation would be brought down on them, and make them act the “right” way. And correct them.

Of course, she understood many laws were necessary – don’t harm others, don’t steal from others, and so on. But it all required nuance and deeper understanding to determine who was just and who was crooked.

After all, a victim who killed their assailant should not be as guilty as a psychopath on a killing spree. But for whatever reason, Helios’ anti homicide laws made them the same.

Blanket rules that were absolute served no-one. Except, perhaps, the prison industrial complex.

“Do you have any questions?” asked the administrator.

“No,” Eva replied. “I understand.”

“Good. I would hate to have to repeat myself. These are simple regulations and you should have no problems following them. Ensure that you keep your name out of my reports.”

He then winked off the screen as abruptly as he came on, and left Eva alone once again.

She realized that he never actually introduced himself and said his name. Or hers, for that matter.

It made her feel utterly dehumanized, that she really was just a number in a room, in a building, somewhere. On top of that, she was to behave like their drone.

“This is such bullshit,” she told herself again.

~

It was little over two hours later that a heavily armored guard came up to Eva’s cell. He tapped on the glass doors with his stun baton lightly, just enough to get her attention.

Eva snapped out of her trance and withdrew Ascendant Form as the guard hit some controls and slid the door open. She then hopped up from her bed when he beckoned for her to get closer.

“Mandatory mealtime,” he said.

He pointed down the hall with his baton and urged her to follow the others.

She quietly complied, left her cell, and joined the few others who were headed to eat. As the throngs of them went down the halls, she noted guards at every corner. All wore heavy armor and wielded robust stun batons.

Eva couldn’t help but assess them, and knew she could easily take them down. Maybe not all at once, but one or two would hardly pose a problem.

More than that, she noticed that the facility itself wasn’t very large. She estimated that it only held a couple hundred prisoners at the most. At least, judging by the amount of cells she saw.

This wasn’t actually a jail, after all. This was simply a temporary holding facility, like the administrator had told her. This was the jail before the real jail.

She couldn’t help but imagine how oppressive the “real” ones actually were.

Their walk didn’t take long – it was only a couple of hallways and a few security checkpoints between their dorms and the refectory itself.

The refectory was a large room with a high ceiling, from which hung multiple inaccessible walkways. Guards walked all along them and watched as the inmates ate down below.

The walls were ringed with numerous foodcraft kiosks, and the center was filled with rows of standing tables. Some of the truly early birds were already at a few, and eating to their heart’s content.

Eva walked up to an empty kiosk, which scanned her briefly. Her prisoner information came on the kiosk’s screen. Or, at least, her dietary information did. It showed her various macronutrient levels: carbohydrates, fats, sugars, proteins, and so on.

Though, thanks to her frozen metabolism, they never changed despite what she ate.

The kiosk quickly displayed what meal she would be having, based on her nutritional needs and restrictions. Since she didn’t really have any, it simply gave her the most standard and boring meal it was programmed with.

It didn’t take long for it to start printing various foodstuffs onto a tray inside it. She watched through a little window as it was all built together by nanite swarms.

The food itself looked appetizing enough, if plain. It had a bed of grains, leafy greens, diced meat, and some sort of sauce. Mildly colored. It also came with a refreshing-looking drink and a plump fruit.

It dinged once it was done, and the window unlocked with a CLICK.

She reached in, grabbed her meal, then walked over to a table. As she did, she noted that the food actually smelled decently, and caused her stomach to grumble a little.

Eva broke open the tray’s side compartment and pulled out its utensils, then dug into the food in front of her.

It was as ordinary as it looked, and she most certainly had much better food in her life. But it dawned on her that this was likely going to be the most interesting portion of her time here.

She decided to make the most of it, and quietly ate her plain food in silence.