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Banishment by: Shrimp
I said goodbye to my parents and stepped on to the transporter pad at the airport. These things opened up worm holes and took you across the galaxy in a blink of the eye. Well about 2-3 seconds if you were on one end traveling to the opposite end of the galaxy. You simply stood on it, everything began to fade, then blur, then come back into focus and you were there. You either had a pad on the either side for returns on you did something called a hot jump where, like in my case, there was no pad on the other end. You just materialized on the other side's destination and would need to go to the appropriate place to be beamed back. But we were told that we would not be allowed back until our re-education time was up or whatever length that was determined your stay should be. My length of time would be at least 5 years, or so I was told.
I had been given this opportunity or face 5 years imprisonment. Yes I had gotten in with the wrong crowd and had joined a gang. I got a battery assault charge against me from beating up a rival gang member who would have killed me with his knife if I hadn't. I beat him so bad that he's still in the hospital by the way. I also has a slew of other convictions under my belt and felt quite proud of them to tell you the truth. Most of those charges involved me beating the shit out some asshole or another as I was something of an enforcer in my gang being that I worked out all the time and enjoyed fighting as much as I did.
It had been determined by the courts a couple of years ago that due to planetary overpopulation, violent male offenders could be given a second chance if they volunteered to go to this far off planet for furthering their educational skills or vocational depending on their age. Nobody had come back from this planet yet to tell us about it. It's name is Beorg. There has been much speculation that it's a hard labor penal planet but political delegations told us over the news that after inspecting it (due to public outcry), that this was nothing of the sort. It was a planet very much like our own.
We were told that we would have some adjusting to do after we were received but that we would no longer be a menace to those around us. When I asked what that meant I was met with snide smiles by the judge and prosecution team. But whatever it was I just knew it would be better than 5 years imprisonment or so I thought at the time.
I was told that the Beorians look exactly like we do with only one difference. What that was they told me would become obvious as soon as I arrived at my foster home. This home was to have a mother who was 32 years of age and went by the name of Lisa Bechochin. I would have a step-sister who was only 12 and went by the name of Wendy. They had a grand-mother who was 60 who went by the name of Mona and neither of these ladies still had husbands. I suppose they wanted a new man around the house so this seemed like a very enticing situation at first.
And how could they go wrong with me. I was 17, muscular, with cool tattoos on my arms and legs. Oh, my gang tatoos have been removed but all of my others I was allowed to keep.
It was explained to me that their tech level was a little behind ours and was a dead on match to what ours was back in the 1960s. This really pissed me off because being that it's now the year 2065 on Earth, I'd be missing so many cool things like my holocomputer and all of the friends that I had over the intranet. The intranet is like the internet but is much faster and can handle perfect holograms and even send matter material items to your very own holopad that you've purchased from online sources. You just buy it, and as soon as your credits clear it appears on the pad by way of the Intranet. Me and my friends have sent each other weed through it before, he, he!
So, in effect I was told that this these ladies were going to make up my new family and that whatever happened there they were legally immune to the repercussions if so in my own interests I'd better watch my manners over there. Yeah, right. I'd have these ladies washing my socks by the end of the month or so I thought.
I was allowed to take (in fact it was ordered that I did) 20 shirts, 15 pairs of pants, 15 pairs of shoes, 30 pairs of underwear and socks, (why so much cloths?) 3 pairs of swimming trunks, 2 full dress suits, 20 tooth brushes, and one fully functional automated hand body hair remover. The hair remover was a very fancy gizmo that cropped your hair to the length that you set so could double as a face shaver and hair cutting item. This thing was expensive but was given to me and the others free of charge, compliments of the state.
So there I stood on the transporter pad with my huge duffel bag that was pretty damned heavy I tell you. Ready to be teleported to the living room of my foster family. The guards actually helped me carry it to the pad. One of them actually said "Good luck kid" as he was stepping away. Why would I need good luck to live in a foster home and be re-educated? I mean school courses couldn't be that bad.
Just before I was whisked off a legal attorney came up next to me and read me the following from a document- "You sir, known as Dan Teney, having been convicted of 3rd degree assault and battery with intent to kill and who has also waved his rights as a human being, in order to be re-educated are here by sentenced to your banishment sentence.
Banishment sentence? Yeah, banishment of 5 years I smiled. I'll be back in no time and perhaps have enough education to crack encryption codes and steal bank accounts I thought to myself.
The attorney stepped towards the guards as they all watched me vanish to another far off planet.
I watched them turn into a shadowy haze and could feel electricity coursing through my body. Everything, even the air around me began to glow and hum. I at once could no longer see my surroundings. Then, quickly the glowing and humming sound died down. After which time a new haze was visible. This haze rapidly began stabilizing into shapes and lines. Only to be filled in with colors and images. My feet began to sink into a very soft surface that was springy like carpet. I was now fully in their world.
The first thing that caught my eye was in front of me about a 100 yards or so. I saw what looked like redwood tree pillars holding up a massive building. I craned my head up further and on top of this building sat what looked like a drive in movie screen. It was that large. Then I looked up higher and realized that I must have been in a aircraft hanger or stadium as the ceiling was perhaps a thousand feet up in the air.
Then I heard a thunderous giggle from behind and spun around. Looking back now, I wish I hadn't.