Roth of Mercury

    17th of May, the first words to pass through Tabitha Roth’s mind on the 17th of May 2152.  Today, Tabitha had no idea what to expect, it was frightening, but at least it wasn’t boring.  Her eyes stung from the sickly glowing lights above her, she rubbed them and slowly eased her painful eyelids open.
    Everything started out like normal, Tabitha was woken up by the music, and guards came round to temporarily release the prisoners so they could put in a good eighteen hours down in the Pit.
    Tabitha stepped up and readied herself by the threshold, she found herself waiting longer than usual.  Tabitha looked up to see the procession of guard-lead yellow-clad inmates pass her by.  No one stopped to let her out, no one even looked at her, they all left her behind as if she was a ghost who didn’t belong here.
    All the terrible people of Tau-Block ascended the stairs at the end of the walkways and up to the assembly hall to face their day of forced manual labour.  Tabitha could hear each step up the stairs echo throughout the level, then that sound was replaced with the heavy clunk of the main doors opening and closing.
    After that, all was quiet, it made Tabitha nervous.  She hadn’t been this alone since she was given the day off for her broken nose.  This reminded her of something; she entered her bathroom area and stared at herself in the mirror.  Tabitha’s eyes were bloodshot, but that wasn’t what she was examining, she was inspecting her nose.  Slowly, Tabitha peeled the bandages away to see something that could only be described by the made-up word, ‘Unpretty’.
    She grimaced when she saw the oddly coloured flesh around her nose, but it didn’t bother as much as she thought it would.  Appearances didn’t matter at Jotnar; she conceded that maybe this place does have some advantages when compared to Earth, but not enough.
    Tabitha noticed a significant dent in her nose, it looked permanent, but she didn’t mind.  Tabitha could remember a few times in her life when she complained that her face didn’t have enough character, she enjoyed personality.
    She suddenly realised that she had been putting a positive spin on many things of her new life.  Was it because of the drugs in the food?  Was it because of all the time she’d spent with Jane?  Maybe Jane was only like that because of the drugs in the food.
    “Come out where I can see you Tabitha,” a voice said from behind her.  She peeked a head from around the grey partition to see Eric Lancer standing just in front of her active threshold.
    “Hello there, precious,” he said.  “Come on, it’s your debut today.  Make me proud.”
    Eric moved over to her control panel, deactivated the Sensitivity Field with his key card and beckoned her to follow.  Instead of to the left, as Tabitha expected, Lancer took her to the right and she silently followed.  They passed all the saddening empty cells that Tabitha had never seen before.
    Tabitha followed Eric to the end of the walkways, where the two skywalks combined in an elegant curve in front of what appeared to a dead end.  Eric pushed a large rectangular button with his palm, which looked like a wall light; the pad slid slightly into the wall and glowed a mild blue.  Tabitha gazed in curiosity as part of the wall lid away, revealing a spacious lift within a hidden wall compartment.
    Eric ushered Tabitha inside, where he pressed a smaller light blue button and elevation soon followed.  Soothing music circled round Tabitha’s mind as the lift raised her out of the dungeons.  The lift eased to a gradual halt and the doors gracefully slid open revealing a place of pleasance and tranquillity.
    Tabitha and Eric now worked through corridors with thick comfortable carpeting, walls and floors of a shade of blue so calming that it was just verging on violet.
    “Where are we?” Tabitha needed to know.
    “The guards’ quarters,” Eric said.
    Tabitha was mesmerised by their beauty, Eric lead her past rows of silver doors of a shimmering material.  Tabitha used to feel sorry for the guards of Jotnar, having to live here for such long periods of time without committing any crime to warrant their presence.  Now, she could understand why their quarters would need to be so luxurious.  The two travelled through the main corridor that ran along the entire level.  They arrived at the equivalent of a crossroads and Tabitha noticed the door to the left, which lead to the adjacent block.  Down the other end of the horizontal hallway was the door that lead to the second block adjoining Tau-Block.  Tabitha made note of the fact that halfway between these two doors was a much larger door against the wall of the corridor, she managed to read the inscription of the doors before being moved along by Eric.  It said that this room belonged to the ‘Patrol Supervisor’.  All other doors she saw on her journey were identically nondescript.
    Tabitha noticed that there were no cameras in the corridors of the guards’ quarters as there were down in the Pit and the dungeons.  The only monitoring Somnus did on this level was through the small flat circular cleaning robots that she occasionally saw gliding on the carpet.
    Eric eventually guided her to a set of metal stairs against a wall and proceeded down them with Tabitha following soon after.  Down the stairs, Tabitha saw the assembly hall for the prisoners, but it was empty.  Eric quickly swiped his key card in the control slot and the main doors swung open.
    Eric began to move faster now, he hurriedly took Tabitha outside and they entered a surface buggy, which was conveniently waiting for them.  Eric drove Tabitha in the direction of the Pit; she looked up at mighty star that still hovered lowly above them.
    “You’re fighting a woman from Omega-Block,” Eric said on the way there.  “I hate the captain of Omega-Block and I’ve placed a large bet on this.  You might call that foolish for first time fighter but it made the odds great and even though his fighter is more experienced, I just don’t think she has the natural affinity.”
    Tabitha didn’t say a word all the way there, not when they left the buggy, nothing on the lift journey down and she still remained silent as Eric Lancer escorted her through the tunnels of the Pit.  The passageway they travelled down was a particularly dark one; it came off directly off from the central pit and on a higher level of the mines than Tabitha was used to.  There were no turns and she could see dim traces of light not that far in front of her.
    Soon, Tabitha and Eric arrived in a large open chamber with bright lights placed in the corners and the only camera of the room was attached to the upper corner next to Tabitha and it was deactivated.  The bright red lights that usually surrounded the circular lens of the cameras was turned off on this one.
    In a shadowy corner, Tabitha saw a small group of inmates with their hoods pulled up fully.  The small amount of face that could be seen was enough for Tabitha to recognise her friend, Jane, among the bunch.  In another corner, there was a few guards sitting on what looked like an old piece of mining equipment.  It had thick treaded wheels and a large dirty drill on one end.
    The rest of the guards, which was a lot, were crowded round something in the centre of this round sizeable chamber.  A near perfect circle had been dug in middle of the room; it was very wide and at least eight foot deep.
    Eric took her by the elbow and escorted Tabitha to the outskirts of the circular crowd around the hole.  The few dozen guards were shouting and laughing at something down in the hole.  Tabitha couldn’t quite see what was in the hole but after a few seconds, something was lifted out of it, something yellow.
    Tabitha saw the bloody remains of what was once a man, his face was absent, his clothes were blood soaked and his body was being passed out towards the edge of the crowd.
    “Take it to the incinerator,” a guard ordered a pair of convicts from the group in the corner.
    Eric pushed through the crowd with Tabitha and to the edge of the hole.  Tabitha could see another inmate being helped out of the hole, his clothes were just as bloody and his face not much better.  He was pulled out of the hole and thrown into the corner where the prisoners sat.
    “Okay!” a man on the other side yelled out.  “Next fight, women’s league!  Is Lancer here yet?”
    “Over here,” Eric called.
    “There you are.  You’re late Lancer, we had to start a different fight early just out of boredom.”
    “Well I’m here now,” Eric said.  “Where’s your fighter?”
    “Right here,” the man said pulling a woman into view, she was tall and athletic with hair only slightly longer than Tabitha’s.  “Where’s yours?”
    “Are you blind?” Eric said.  “She’s standing right next to me.”
    “That little creature?” he laughed.  “I thought you brought her to collect the spare teeth off the ground.”
    “Let’s just do this,” Eric said and suddenly pushed Tabitha into the hole.  She fell and landed on all fours, it reminded her from emerging from her pod before she had even seen Jotnar.
    She looked up to see the other man’s fighter voluntarily jumping into the hole, she landed solidly and stared emotionless at Tabitha as she struggled to her feet.  Tabitha was standing in a splattering of blood; she could feel it seeping between her toes.
    A whistle blew, the woman charged and a fist struck Tabitha’s gut.  She felt nauseous for a moment, but then remembered herself and pushed the woman’s face away.  She came at her again; Tabitha caught her in a grapple and somehow managed to overpower her.  Tabitha threw her opponent into the rock wall as the guards above her cheered.
    Her enemy quickly returned and took a swing, which Tabitha ducked and solidly landed a powerful blow into her chest.  Tabitha was surprised how easy this was and also how much she enjoyed it.  
    She grabbed the woman’s throat and pushed her against the wall.  Then Tabitha calmly and methodically took hold of the woman’s face, brought it slightly closer to her and steadily rammed the back of her head against the solid rock.
    Again, slightly more powerful this time, Tabitha shoved her head into the rock, and then again, and again and one more time.  Tabitha hated this woman who she knew nothing about and made sure that she was gone from this world.
    All was silent above, and then she heard a single person applauding.  She looked up to discover that it was Eric Lancer, the only other face in the audience that Tabitha recognised was Jane, she had entered the crowd to observe her friend’s short fight.  Tabitha couldn’t tell what Jane was feeling, her expression was uncharacteristically stoic.
    Tabitha looked down at the woman, she was dead, but it was okay.  She jumped out of the hole, noting how much she loved life with lower gravity.
    Eric put an arm round her and started laughing.  “I trust you’ll clean this up,” he said to his stunned looking rival.  Tabitha passively let herself be guided out of the Arena by Eric, she didn’t look back at Jane, she just felt too numb, and strong.
    “When’s the next fight?” Tabitha asked Eric.
    “I knew you’d like it,” Eric said.  “That’s why I already scheduled another one for tomorrow.  For now, you need to rest up.  Come on, you’re going back to your cell.”
    Eric did as he said he would.  He took her all the way back to her cell, by the exact same route.  As she was placed back in her cell and the Sensitivity Field returned, Eric wandered off in the direction of the guard lift while he hummed a little song to himself, with the sound of contentment reaching back to Tabitha in her cell.
    Tabitha curled up on her bed and hugged her knees, all the time chewing on the collar of her jumpsuit.  She heard the humming and gradually joined in, eventually taking its place as the tune faded from earshot.
    She smiled to herself, there was no real reason, it was just for the sake of it.  There was nothing left for her to do here, she didn’t feel tired, Tabitha would have to make her own entertainment.  It was going to be a long time until she was released for her next fight.  Tabitha supposed that she should be grateful, occasional boredom was probably better than working in the Pit.  The only downside wasn’t the inactivity getting to her; it was the lack of human contact.
    Tabitha was disappointed that she didn’t get to speak with Jane today, she felt that small part of social normality was the only thing keeping her focussed.  Cracking another woman’s head open for the pleasure of jaded guards probably didn’t count.
    She rested her head on her knees, half-closed her eyes and remembered.  Tabitha attempted to conjure up various images and situations from her previous life on Earth.  She struggled, but there were a few memories she managed to recall, mostly from her school days.  One time stood out significantly more than most, it was when she had been alone and her thoughts had wondered.
    Tabitha remembered the time when she first realised that she had never loved anyone in her life, not even her family.  This fact had greatly disturbed her at the time she became conscious of this, and it still did because her state hadn’t changed over the years.  Tabitha looked up at the stinging lights above her and transformed this realisation into one more reason why she needed to return to Earth.