Fleet

F1334. That is my code. My Weren friends gave me the name, "Fleet." That
is what I go by. I live on a slave colony on an asteroid orbiting (some
planet) in the (some system). On this colony, we mine for (some material).
I have lived here since I was two years old. I am now fifty.
When I was a baby, my father and I were put into this colony. I have not
yet been able to find out why I am here paying for some criminal act of my
father's. I am on a search, however, to find out.
I have vague memories of when I was little. My father was not put to work
immediately because he had to raise me. By the time I was five, I saw my
father when he got back to our cell, usually around midnight, until he left
again, always at 5:00am, sharp. Late at night, he would sometimes tell me
about my people and about how he used to live.
"You are young son, but age is not a limit to the skills you have within
you… All of our people have these skills."
"What skills daddy?"
"Nothing that you can learn in this prison. But I will tell you that you
come from an incredible people. Hopefully you will be able to join them
again someday."
"Oh."
"I was among the elite of our people. I could do anything I wanted.
Anything but what I did to get here."
"How did you get here?"
"I broke a code of our people."
"Who are of our people?"
"We are called Fraal. Go to sleep son."
"But daddy, why don't I look very much like you… Daddy?"
These discussions were always short since he would have to get up at 5:00am
to mine. I can remember most of these conversations vividly. These
conversations are some of the few memories I have of my father.
I never saw anything outside of our cell until I was six years old. At that
age, the heads of the slave, or prison colony, believed me to be old enough
to begin work. When I came out of the cell for the first time, I was
amazed. My father held my hand and told me, "Stay close, son, I'll teach
you what you need to know." I looked around and saw many large, hairy
creatures. My father told me that these people were called Weren. He told
me not to worry about them because they were friends and they were slaves
like us.
As did all of the other miners, I did the standard work: breaking rock;
hauling rock; and looking for (some material). Father tried to teach me
something that would help make my work easier. He would stare at the rock
that he was about to chip and on it would form ice and frost. He called it
cryokinetic freezing. He wouldn't have to hit the rock very hard in order
for it to shatter. He couldn't do it very much though. He would always
say, "I am drained." He would also always tug at the collar he had around
his neck and would say that it held his power a lot.
I did not get the hang of the freezing when I was a boy. My father died
before I was able to perform cryokinetic freezing. His death marked my
seventh birthday.
"Dad, why is the rock shaking like that?"
"It is an asteroid quake, they happen frequently. Don't be alarmed."
"Okay, Dad."
The tunnel we were mining began to collapse. It was a strange experience.
I remember my father looking at me with the same look as when he froze the
rocks. I felt myself lift into the air and fly back several feet. This was
all very quick, only about a half a second. The next thing I knew, I was
staring at a pile of rocks which covered my father.
I ran over and started throwing rocks off to the side while screaming for
help. I got to my father and uncovered his upper body. He looked dead. I
can remember a few of the rock shards being lodged in his body. I started
to sob.
"Listen to me son."
"Dad!?!"
He took a rock shard and cut into his left shoulder. He then pulled out a
stone that looked like nothing I had seen before on this asteroid.
"Take this… and… hide it. Don't… tell… anyone… a…"
That was it. A Weren comrade then arrived and pushed me to the side. I
never saw my father again. The Weren that first came to help my father said
that he was taken to the infirmary and the doctors were not able to do
anything.
The Weren miners raised me after the death of my father. I consider myself
Weren… a strange looking Weren, but I relate to these people.
Because of living a sheltered life, I know of no other people except the
human slave owners, the Fraal, and the Weren. I have heard stories of
several different species, but I have not seen any others before.
I suppose I have seen one other type of people, or rather person, and that
is me. The Weren all say that they have never seen any species that looks
like me. I am supposedly "unique." I do look similar to normal Fraal, but
I have obvious differences. I am six feet five inches, I weigh two hundred
pounds, I have light gray skin, and a slightly different head shape then the
Fraal. The Weren joke and say that my head doesn't look quite so much like
a balloon compared to other Fraal!
My physical nature, however, made me a worthless miner compared to the
Weren. The owners of the slave colony, an organization calling themselves
the "CNLI" (Caretakers of Non-Law Abiding Citizens), saw that I was not a
"miracle" worker like my father. He could supposedly do more work during a
day then any other Weren on the colony. The CNLI guards would say that was
because he used his "freakish" powers. Since I couldn't manage any mental
powers and was a worthless miner, the CNLI owners decided to use me
otherwise. When I was twenty, I was dragged out of my cell in the middle of
the night and taken to speak with the heads of the CNLI. They told me that
my new job was going to be to walk the lines of Weren miners and make sure
that they were not missing any of the (some material) deposits. I was also
told that I would have to report any unusual behavior with any of the
criminals.
I really did not think the job sounded too bad. But the CNLI always seemed
to surprise me. After the meeting, I was taken to an operating room and
strapped down to a table. When I asked what was going on, a doctor told me
that I needed some cyber equipment in order to do my new job. This did not
sound too bad until this conversation:
"Well, Fleet, that is what they call you, right?
"Yes."
"You see, the CNLI do not want to waste any more money on you then they have
to."
"Okay, so I won't get the best cyber gear… what am I getting anyway?"
"Oh, a nanocomputer, a cyber-optic eye, and a jack to plug into the mines
mainframe. However, that is not what I meant by the CNLI being cheap."
"Then what do you mean?"
"They are trying to use the least amount of, uh, higher expense supplies in
order to do this surgery."
"Supplies?"
"Just hold still and bite on this cloth."
It took me quite a few months to get used to the nanocomputer, but after I
did, the CNLI began to see me as their prize possession. I was able to
double the amount of (some material) mined in just a year by seeing the
deposits the Weren miners missed.
That was the good part of the job, but not the only. The CNLI told me I
was to observe any strange behavior from any of the Weren miners, they did
not say that I was going to be reporting any wrong-doing by the Weren. The
first incident happened when I saw a Weren sneak some food out of the mess
hall, which is against the rules because the CNLI do not want their slaves
to over eat. That night, after I had downloaded my observations for the
day, I heard an awful howling coming from one of the cells. I could not see
which cell, but the painful howling lasted until about 4:00am. The next
shift, I saw the very same Weren, at least I was pretty sure it was the same
Weren, that snuck the food out of the mess hall. It looked like he had been
set on fire. His hair was completely gone and his skin was horribly burned.
I have seen so many Weren get in trouble because of me. I told the Weren
slaves to not do anything against the rules while I was around since the
CNLI could see everything that I could see. This helped deter a lot of the
"illegal" activities that I used to see, but every once in a while a Weren
friend would make a mistake.
The most common punishment would be burning the Weren. The CNLI would also
cut off feet, legs, arms, and hands, as they saw fit. There was absolutely
nothing I could do. I tried tearing the optic eye out one time, but as soon
as I started pulling at it, an electrical shock from the "eye" jolted
through my body and knocked me unconscious. I figured I could get around
this obstacle if a Weren pulled the "eye out for me. No Weren wanted yank
it out because they were afraid of being recorded doing something very much
against the rules. They knew the consequence would be a long, tortured
death.
I even tried walking around one day with my hand up to block the view of
the "eye." Over the next few months, I found out how hard it was to eat
with two severely broken arms.
As time went on, I continued to do my horrid job. I would keep my mind
occupied by practicing the skills my father once tried to teach to me. Over
the years, I became quite proficient with a couple of skills. The freezing,
cryokinetics, became almost second nature. The other skill I was able to
discover and develop is what I know now as a kinetic shield. I could put a
barrier up with my mind that would block or slow down almost any type of
object flying towards me.
I discovered my kinetic shield accidentally. I remember once helping
Arsnok, my closest Weren friend. I would freeze the rocks that he was going
to chip. I froze the rocks a little too much one time. Arsnok hit the
rocks with all his power and shattered a tunnel a few feet into the cavern
wall. This drew some applause from fellow Weren in the cavern. But what we
didn't know is that the new tunnel was now unstable. The cavern around
collapsed in to fill the gap.
Since I did not, and still do not, have very quick reactions, I couldn't
move out of the way in time.
"Fleet! Move!"
"Ahhh!!"
I ducked down in a ball expecting to be pelted by rock. Nothing hit me.
The rumble of the falling rocks ceased and I looked up, expecting to see
Arsnok providing cover. He wasn't there. I looked around and saw rocks and
boulders piled all around me, probably about three feet high. There were no
rocks, boulders, or debris in a small circle surrounding me.
Several Weren were staring at me dumbfounded.
"Arsnok… what happened?"
"The rocks didn't hit you, Fleet."
I looked at him with a sarcastic expression, "You know Arsnok, I can see
that!"
"I know. They seemed to just bounce off the air before they would have hit
you."
Another Weren spoke up, "I think I know how it happened. The rocks that
fell were still cold from your freezing."
"Okay."
"Well, your body heat repelled the frozen rocks away because the rocks
wanted to stay frozen."
Yes, I grew up with several Weren with similar intelligence. I just
ignored him.
Over the next few months, I tried to recreate the invisible shield. My
eventual success occurred with the help of Arsnok. I told him to hurl a
large rock at me.
"What? Why would I do that?"
"I have a theory, Arsnok. I think that my skill came out because I was in
danger. You throwing that rock at me would also create danger."
"Okay…"
"Ow!! I didn't say 'drop it on my foot!' Ow!"
"Okay. How about this…"
"No, wait!"
Arsnok threw the rock at my head. I closed my eyes and put my arm up to
block. I felt a sudden sense of concentration. A bolt of energy flew
through my body. The rock never hit me.
"Fleet! You did it!"
"Were you trying to kill me?!?"
"I had to catch you by surprise in order to really test your theory."
"But what if the rock hit me?"
"It didn't hit you."
From that point on, I became more and more able to control the kinetic
shield. By the time I was about thirty, I could put up the shield easily.
Arsnok and I would occasionally perform a little skit for the benefit of
other Weren. I'm sure it was quite a site. A massive Weren trying to hit a
tiny Fraal. He would try to punch me and get his hand deflected by my
shield. He would throw rocks at me and I would freeze them as they were
coming towards me so they would shatter when they hit my shield. Arsnok's
acting was hilarious. He would pretend to be extremely frustrated; stomping
his feet, pulling at his hair, and similar such actions. The other Weren
would laugh and laugh.
I was not just known around the colony for my comic relief, but also for
helping Weren miners. While I was inspecting the work of the miners, I
would freeze the rocks to make chipping easier. This was very appreciated
by the Weren.
I always found it curious that the CNLI did not put a psi-restraint collar
on me like they did my dad. I imagine that since I wasn't nearly as
powerful as my father, I was not a threat. Even if I was more powerful, I
only used my abilities to make Weren more productive.
There was one thing that I found really interesting; my kinetic shield
disrupts the optic eye. I discovered this when the CNLI approached me about
time segments in my daily logs that were blurred out. After further
investigation, I realized that the segments that were blurred out were
always at the same time as I had my shield up. I could now make my "eye"
useless to the colony. I could interfere with it and not get punished. I
was lucky that the "eye" did not pick up sound because the CNLI would have
realized what was going on and punished me severely.
To still write about:
Accidentally using powers after a rock falls on head and being dismissed by
the CNLI
Paragraph of what he wants to do (find mother, find out father's identity,
free Arsnok and family destroy the CNLI)