GONE TO SEA : World of Sea : Science Fiction : Part 5
De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)
WORK IN PROGRESS (Word count unknown at this time)
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“Mister Angerson laughed when she said that she was hurt. He told her to pray to her worthless gods for healing. Then he said that she was clumsy for falling over. He wouldn’t let her go to the infirmary.”
Pele was only back from the hospital for an hour or so. Mala'klea was sitting in her lap but when Pele tried to hug her daughter, Klea winced and pulled away. Concerned, Pele asked her, “What is the matter, Klea?”
“Let me hug you, Mommy. It hurts when you hug me.”
Before Pele could say anything, the door chime interrupted. Hugh opened the door on two station policemen. Mala'klea froze as she saw them. She tried to hide behind her mother, holding still and keeping silent. One of the station policemen asked, “Is Mala'klea Barant here? It is important.”
Mala'klea slumped in her mother’s arms and began to weep.
Marcus Angerson pressed the door chime again. Still no answer. Vastly irritated, he dug out his key card and opened the door to the apartment. The lights were off. Waving his hand over the switch plate failed to bring any light. With a snarl, he pulled out his tablet and turned it on.
In the glow of its screen he could see that the apartment was still a mess. The dining chairs were all over on their sides or backs. The table was displaced. The smear of fish and sauce splattered the wall. The shattered platter and smashed mess of fish and seaweed on the floor had not been cleaned up. The doors to the children’s room, kitchen and his room stood ajar.
“Come out!” Marcus demanded. “Show yourselves and explain this mess! Why are there no lights?” Only silence answered him.
The small voice that Marcus knew to be God Himself spoke from the air, just behind him and to the right, as it always did. ((Perhaps their disobedience extended to a failure to pay for the power. If it is not paid for, it will be turned off. No human agency is needed for that. It is done in a computer. It is easy to check. Just look in your tablet.)) As always, the voice was quiet and utterly reasonable. It calmed Marcus somewhat. He called up the link.
He stared in disbelief. “These bills haven’t been paid for weeks! We have delinquency notices and overdraft charges! That’s impossible! There is plenty of money in the account for everything!” The small voice pointed out what he could plainly see, once he actually looked for it, ((In the main account, yes. The household account has been empty for weeks. It appears that you have not been paying attention to details, like signing the transfers to the household account. Perhaps you should apologize to Trisha when next you see her.))
Marcus was still digesting the possibility that HE had done something wrong, however trivial, when the police Swat tazer, fired through the open door behind him, struck his back. The painful and powerful shock of it knocked him out.
Pele looked up from her tablet and told Hugh, Ben and Lora, “The station police have taken Marcus into custody.” She paused to bite her lip to keep from tears and went on, “They are just finishing a cast for Mala'klea’s arm. Marcus broke her right radius. It is a green-stick fracture but it is broken and will need weeks to heal. They have taped her ribs. When he knocked her over her desk he cracked several of them.”
Crouching down to Ben and Lora’s level, she gave them a straight look in the eyes and said, “Your mother is in very bad shape. The doctors are still operating but they are now sure that she will live.” Gathering the children into a hug, she told them, “You two saved Trisha’s life. If your mother was only a few minutes later getting to the hospital, she would have died. I know that it is hard to accept, but you two are heroes.”
The trial was very brief. Macus Angerson listened in disbelief to the verdict. Guilty on all counts. Domestic violence, guilty. Deliberate assault resulting in grave injuries to his wife, guilty. Attempted criminal entry, assault and threatened property damage, guilty. Abuse of the school children under his care, by both threat and physical attack, including one physical injury, requiring hospital care, guilty. Multiple violations of the Station’s Charter regarding freedom of religion and conscience, guilty.
Mister Torres, sitting at the judge’s bench, listened too. Sadly he shook his head and bent his gaze on Marcus. Brow furrowed, he pronounced, “Marcus Angerson, this court has found you to be guilty of all charges. You must serve the station without payment in whatever capacity is required of you for a period of ten years.
“This sentence along with the restrictions and liberties allowed will be posted in due time on the station’s Data Net. For now, you may not come near to any child of the station and, in particular, your family. You will be moved to single person sleep cubicle.
Marcus Angerson was led away by station police.
He still could not believe it. THIS was where he was supposed to live? The room was so narrow that it had no chair. There was a small table that would fold down from the left wall as you looked in from the hall. There was a narrow bunk that would fold down from the right. There was a clothes press closet with two drawers under it at the far end of the room. That was all.
One policeman showed him how to fold down the bunk as a chair and then lower the table. Both had to be folded up to open the clothes press and its drawers. It was lit by an LED fixture behind a hard plastic cover.
Seating himself, Marcus Angerson lowered the table. There was a wireless dock for his tablet. Putting it in the dock caused a hidden screen in the wall to light and keyboard to appear on the table.
Satisfied, the two station policemen left him, shutting the door. The calm, clear voice of God, just behind his shoulder said with satisfaction, ((We could not find a wilderness here. Solitude will have to do. Now, you may begin to fulfill your purpose in My Plan. Start writing. THE NEW COVENENT OF GOD FOR MANKIND IN SPACE, dictated by the Lord God Almighty to His servant, Marcus Angerson …))
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