Sins of the Father

The inmates had a custom. They’d go around, one by one, and sound off planets. Not just any planet, but the planet. The one they’d ask to be taken to when their time was up and they got their free ride to anywhere in the galaxy. A lot of names came up. Some just wanted to go home. Some – most – dreamed of more exotic locations – Rydia, Loriaxa IV, Etrydia. All gorgeous planets, all filled with luxury, all places that restricted ex-cons to the starport.

Aurora never came up, and with good reason. It was a backwater planet, just at the edge of the Imperium, close enough to be considered civilization, if barely, and far enough from the rim that it didn’t have to worry about border raids and constant warfare. Ninety percent of the planet was barren rock. The rest of the planet was made up of small pockets of green hidden under protective domes. There was no naturally occurring water. Everything that wasn’t rock and dust and air had been brought to this remote hell-hole of a planet, part of an insane noble’s idea to build his own private pleasure planet, at least until he wizened up and realized exactly how much it would cost to turn a planet made entirely of rock into a lush garden.

His father had likened it to an old Earth joke, something about an ice land and a green land and their names being reversed. Talor never got the joke. He’d never cared enough about history to look it up and his father had never cared enough to explain. His father had had a wife on Aurora, which was another thing he’d never explained – why her, why that planet. It had never made sense, not until he was caught and his true lineage was revealed.

The shuttle sets Talor down outside of the New Carthage dome, amidst a loose array of parked personal craft starships. A dry wind blows over the plain, carrying a small amount of sand with it. Twelve more domes rise up in the distance, doting the landscape like artificial mountains, their protective covers glinting in the sunlight. The prison shuttle plank starts to retract the second he puts his feet on the ground. He doesn’t turn to watch it go. That part of his life is over, for now and he’s not sorry to see it go. He only has eyes for the future and the future lies inside New Carthage.