Terra Sequoia

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Chapter 1

The interior of the Court building resembled a massive hall, in
part because it was one of the newest structures built since the
revolution. The large domed ceiling stretched to a great hight
overhead, echoing whispering voices until they became an
unintelligible hiss.

People sat in the visitors area, animated in conversation as they
waited for the presiding Justices to return. A decision was supposed
to be made today on sentencing of a guilty verdict, of the single
person standing in the defendants dock. A single woman with her dark
red hair tied up on the back of her head, leaving two braided pieces
hanging on either side of her face.

She was wearing a cleaned and restored uniform of the Pan-Terran
Military Forces. It had plasma scorches here and there, but it
showed signs that someone had spent some time to patiently clean the
stains out and repair the damaged stitching. Even the silver badges
seemed to shimmer light up at all those who looked down to the dock.

The Captain of the Sanchez, Scarlett Sequoia stood right there,
amongst it all, hearing the whispered comments from people across the
other side of the room. The words calling her a murderous whore,
traitorous bitch. And worse things, like the Executioner of Epsilon
V, where she'd performed a raid on a sizable military base for
supplies.

She didn't care much for what they said. None of it meant anything
to her. Everything she'd done, had being in the name of freedom, and
the restoration of a democratic government. The fact that she was
responsible for lives lost, both militarily and as an outlaw, did not
weight on her conscience, it was the fact that one person she had
once called a close friend, was responsible for the revolution. A
revolution that had led to countless more deaths, the disbanding of
the Pan-Terran Military Forces and its defence of the space between
Terra and all its colonies.

There was a seat in the dock right behind her that she could easily
have taken without offending anyone, but she didn't want to sit. She
wanted so show them, everyone at the sentencing, what a Military
Forces was capable of. That she could stand right there with her
hands clasped loosely behind her, and wait until the Justices
returned.

But she hadn't expected them to take the rest of the day. She'd
thought there were only two choices that they could have gone with.
A death sentence, or life imprisonment. She didn't think it would
have taken much more than an hour to decide on something so simple.

Wanting to know what was happening, she called to a guard nearby.
"What the hell is taking them so long?"

"Shut up in there," the guard grunted at her.

"Come and make me you fat bastard pig," she called back in spite.

Another guard came round the box, "Shut your mouth, or we'll put a
vocal binder on you." He tapped on the field that surrounded the
dock with his pistol, making the surface quiver.

The field wasn't there so much as to protect her, but to stop her
from escaping. The numerous guards that stood about the court room,
armed with both with energy pistols and sharpened swords, were also
there to see to that.

Scarlett grinned. "I guess the pig comment hurt, or was it the fat
bastard?"

Before the guard could react to her comment, someone from the crowd
of onlookers threw a piece of fruit, which bounced harmlessly off the
field right next to the guard, and landed amongst the other debris
that already littered the floor around the dock.

Whether it was thrown at the guard or at her, Scarlett couldn't
tell. But it distracted the guard's attention away from her,
possibly saving her from the threat of a vocal binder.

A vocal binder would have been annoying to say the least, if she
couldn't say a single sentence without it mangling the meaning of her
words.

There was another thought though, that kept her standing there
waiting. It was the single idea of what she'd do if she had just one
chance to get close the Harlan Sato.

Her stomach grumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since
earlier in the morning.

For a brief moment, she felt like asking one of the guards for
something to eat. Maybe one of the pieces of food from the floor,
just to see if they open the field up. They'd had enough chances to
eat, since the guards had already changed shifts three times, and the
people in the crowd had come and gone several times. She was the
only one who hadn't moved once.

==={ ~~~~ }===

Harlan Sato thumped his hands down flat on the large table. The
three Planetary High Justices looked up, startled at the noise.

"You've had hours to read through the information. Why are you
taking so long to agree?" He demanded.

The Justices looked at one another nervously, trying to decide who
would respond to Harlan.

Harlan being the Leader of Terra Nova, which is the ruling body of
the planet, was formally known as the Supreme Chancellor.

Justice Goldstein was least nervous of the threesome, being the
only Military Justice assigned to the case, and the shortest as he
demonstrated when he stood up.

"Whilst we value your input sir..." He bowed his head in
recognition of Harlan's position over them. "This decision has to
come from due process."

"I apologise if I sound overbearing," Harlan said.

Goldstein opened his mouth to say something, however Harlan
continued.

"But you have being looking over the information for the Jamison
-Wong device for the last few days. I would have hoped that any
decision for or against it would have being made by now."

"Sentencing is no trivial matter in a case of this magnitude. But
we are..." Goldstein looked to the other two Justices, "close to a
decision. But we do have a couple of questions for you."

"Anything."

"Well, we believe that banishment would have to be permanent and
complete. With no prospect of return. Yet the Jamison-Wong device
allows travel in either direction, from this Sphere to another, and
back again."

"Yes, that is what I understand."

"What is to stop, say another such device in retrieving a banished
person?"

"There is only one Jamison-Wong device. It is the only one to have
being completed," Harlan said.

"What if someone were to steal the device, or to steal the plans
for it and build their own?"

"Both are kept under the tightest security, along with the
operations manual. Even I have trouble getting near them without
clear validation of my identity."

Goldstein held up a hand. "Just suppose that someone is able to
steal it, and operate it. Just suppose. How difficult would it be
to recover a banished individual?"

Harlan's brow furrowed in thought. "That depends on two factors.
Whether the person moved far from their transit point, if the
coordinates of the transit were kept on record. I understand it's a
standard procedure to keep record of all transits, though such data
could be erased I assume. As for how far a person moves from their
transit point, I would only guess that it depends on where they land."

Goldstein mumbled in low tones with the other two for a moment,
until both nodded in reply.

"We believe that we will use the banishment in favour of execution
or imprisonment," he said. "Though we will need a few more minutes
to discuss details between ourselves."

"That will be fine," Harlan said. "I'll watch the rest of the
proceedings from my room."

Goldstein nodded in reply, and was already seated and discussing
the details of where to send the defendant with his colleagues before
Harlan could leave the room.

Two guards flanked him as he left the room by the rear exit, and
headed for the closed security room.

"Details, details..." he mumbled to himself. "It will be all well
and good when it's over and done with."

==={ ~~~~ }===

Shifting the muscles in one leg, she prepared herself to continue
waiting when the door to the back chambers opened.

The bailiff immediately called out "All rise. Case number
PHCTN25356, the Planetary Government versus Scarlett Sequoia
continues. The Justices Goldstein, Erickson, Pochi residing."

The three Justices took their seats, as Justice Erickson beat a
gavel against the desk.

Erickson cleared his throat. "There is no doubt in anyone's mind
that we have spent a lot of time on this conclusion. The seriousness
of the crimes within this case, deemed it necessary to fit a
punishment that has never being utilised in all our history."

There was some mumbling in the gallery behind Scarlett, but she
concentrated on the Justice, wondering what he was getting at. If
she wasn't getting executed, then what was it?

"In fact, if it wasn't for the Supreme Chancellor's efforts, this
decision may have gone another way."

The Chancellor? Scarlett looked around quickly, wondering where he
was, but couldn't see him anywhere. She thought that Harlan was
probably hiding away from her somewhere

Erickson looked down on her now, speaking formally.

"Scarlett Sequoia, former Captain of the Sanchez of the Pan-Terran
Military Forces. Do you have any last words to say before we pass
sentence?"

Scarlett looked up about to say no, but then thought better of it.

She took a breath and spoke up loud so everyone in the room could
hear her.

"I see the faces around me," she said as she looked around, making
sure everyone saw her face clearly.

"Those that have come today to see someone who has being marked as
a traitor to this planet we call home get sentenced to imprisonment,
or even death."

"Yeah, die you bitch!" Someone screamed from the visitors gallery.

"That is what you all want to see, isn't it?" She asked everyone.
"You want to see me die. You may get that wish, but I won't be the
last person to die. 8.2 Billion people live in the colonies that are
not part of this planet, and now your Chancellor has disbanded the
Pan-Terran Military Forces. They have no protection now from the
likes of pirates and corrupt military forces."

Justice Goldstein purposely made a noise as he cleared his throat.
"This court did not find evidence that there was any corruption in
the military forces."

"That may be because it did not look for any," Scarlett shot back.
"Because there is always an amount of corruption in any organisation.
Finding no evidence of any, only proves that either the system for
finding corruption is corrupt in itself, or totally infective."

Scarlett looked around wondering if she was getting through to
anyone. "This planet is not safe anymore. Its citizen's are not
safe anymore. That is what is happening here. I have done my best
to stop this from happening, but I am only one person."

She looked back to the Justices now, steeled for the fact that she
may be about to be sentence to death.

"I am ready for your judgement," she said.

The courtroom was unusually quiet when she finished.

Erickson looked around the visitors, wondering if there was a
reason for the quiet.

"Since that is all. It is this courts ruling, that you are to be
exiled forthwith from this sphere..."

Several voices broke out in the gallery as soon as they heard the
ruling.

Erickson continued on, raising his voice in an attempt to finish
the ruling. "...to an unpopulated sphere where you may live out the
rest of your natural life."

Scarlett stared up in shock for a moment before she opened her
mouth.

"What?" She finally called out.

"What do you mean an unpopulated Sphere?" Scarlett screamed at the
Justices.

"Details of this case will not be released to the public at this
time," said Justice Erickson

"Harlan did this didn't he? It's all that bastards fault!"
Scarlett screamed in frustration. "Where is he?" She felt like
strangling Harlan. This was no sentence. He was getting rid of her
without the overhead of having her killed.

Justice Erickson looked around the court. With a nod from Justice
Pochi, he cleared his throat. "The Defendant will be transported
tomorrow morning to the Crexis Facility, where she will be sent from
this sphere."

"Damn you Harlan!" Scarlett's voice echoed over Erickson's.

"This session is now closed!" Justice Erickson slammed the gavel
down hard, wishing to be out of the court as quickly as possible.

==={ ~~~~ }===

The cell in which Scarlett waited was quiet. A bed in the corner
and a toilet against the opposite wall, and a seat fixed to the wall
between was that furnished it. There were no windows. Just the
single locked door.

She sat on the bed with her back to the wall, her boots on the
floor and her jacket folded on the seat as she stared at the opposite
wall, trying to understand why she was being exiled.

Her thoughts drifted to how she'd being captured, she'd attempted
to rescue what they'd thought to be some of the few living members of
the Democratic Council that had being imprisoned on Outreach, the
ninth planet.

It had being a trap all along. They'd known it would be, but they
needed to verify that the information they'd received about
imprisoned government staff.

It was the worst mistake she'd made. Her rescue squad of five were
captured, after her ship was driven off by a fleet of newly
commissioned destroyers. It left the command the DC Sanchez, in the
hands of Brin, her first officer.

She'd heard no word from anyone of the Sanchez, but neither had
they told her what had happened to the others who had being on
Outreach with her. It seemed they were only concerned about her.

Maybe she shouldn't have gone into Outreach, but how would they
have found out otherwise?

Scarlett sighed.

There was a buzz at the door as a voice came through. "You have a
visitor."

"I don't want to see anyone," she called back, wondering who would
want to see her.

About the only person she wanted to see was Brin, storming in to
break her out. It was a crazy thought. Sure he could command a ship
proficiently, but he had no skill at managing people. He had no idea
how to formulate a raid, let alone carry it off.

"Didn't you ask to see me?" Came a voice.

Scarlett turned her head as soon as she heard the familiar tones.
Her body flinched as she held back the desire to beat to a pulp the
man that stood safely behind the now transparent wall.

"You don't look too surprised to see me," Harlan Sato said.

"I thought it might of being some banker, you know, coming to
settle my affairs of state before I get launched out of this Sphere.
But then I remembered, oh all my credit and possessions were
confiscated by the Government. I don't have anything left to
settle," she finished in a sarcastic tone.

"I could have whatever possessions was taken from you, and
distributed to whatever family you have still living," Harlan
offered. "Isn't you father still living on Terra somewhere?"

"Somewhere," she muttered. "What are you here for Harlan?"

The door suddenly clicked. Scarlett looked from Harlan to the
door, as it swung open by itself.

She looked back to Harlan as he quietly walked through the door
into her cell.

This isn't right, Scarlett told herself. There's no way he'd come
into a room alone with me. He's got to have something protecting him.

The door swung shut behind him, as the wall opaqued again, hiding
the outside from view.

Or was it hiding the inside from anyone who might be watching? She
thought, suspicious of everything he did.

Scarlett's eyes narrowed, as she watched Harlan move about the
cell, before settling himself on the end of the bed.

"You know, I can still have you pardoned. All you have to do is
swear your loyalty to Nova."

"That's all? I don't have to mind probed for un-Nova like
thoughts?"

"Your crew are still to be trialed for being traitors. Swearing
your loyalty now, will lessen their sentences. They may get executed
or exiled otherwise."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"It's not up to me Scarlett. It'll be up to the Planetary High
court. They'll pay attention to anything you decide. It's your
decision."

She could only stare at him, surprised at how he threaten her crew
so causally.

"You don't trust me," he said, putting a hand down on her bare foot.

The contact was nauseating that she drew her knees to her chest.

"You're still... you're still in love with me?" She managed to
get out.

Harlan turned and sat back further on the bed. His eyes caught
sight of the jacket on the seat. He bent over and picked it up,
looking over the badges of commendation and Silver Rank insignia for
a Fleet Captain.

"You know, it's being a while since I saw one of these. We were
both naive before that."

She thought for a moment, that he was going to smell the jacket,
but he placed it back down. He looked up at her with a look in his
eyes that could have enraptured a tiger.

"Sometimes I wish we could go back to then, when it was just us,
without all the responsibilities."

She felt as if he was staring through her clothes, with more on his
mind than just talking about the past.

Harlan moved closer again, almost trapping her at the end of the
bed against the wall.

Once long ago, she had felt something for this man. Had feelings
of love and passion, as much as any man and woman could have
together. Memories of long nights of ecstasy, encased in one
another's arms were brought unbidden to Scarlett's mind, that she had
to try hard to remember the reasons why it had changed, so she
wouldn't throw herself all over him now.

Those days were long past, she told herself as she climbed off the
bed and stood close to the opposite wall, putting as much space
between them.

When nothing was said for a minute, Harlan climbed off the bed.

He brushed imaginary dust from his robes.

Scarlett stood her ground when he approached her, standing with his
face close to hers.

"You won't swear loyalty to Nova, even for the sake of your crew?"

"Not a chance," she said straight to his face.

He turned away, moving towards the door that opened again without
his touch.

He stopped just inside the doorway, turning back for a moment.

"You'll not change your mind?"

"You can send me to hell for all I care," she called at him.

He turned forward again, stepping out of the cell. "You have until
to tomorrow to change it," he said as the door closed.

Scarlett stood there for several minutes, shaking at the relief
that he'd gone. It was only later, that she realised that she had
him alone and hadn't tried once to kill him.

==={ ~~~~ }===

Harlan returned to the Chancellor's office after visiting the
holding cells at the court. He poured himself a strong drink to
drown his emotions.

He had felt something there, some remnant feeling that had come to
the surface when he sat alone with Scarlett once again.

Images kept floating through his mind of her sitting there on the
bed, with her singlet on, seeing the shape of her breasts beneath.

He shook his head, and poured himself another drink, and thought on
her last words.

"It's just as I thought. She's not going to change her mind. Not
even if we capture the Sanchez between now and tomorrow, and use the
whole crew to get her silence."

One of his aides spoke up. "What is it you want done sir?"

"She's as pig headed as I remember her. Stuck up, smart arsed
bitch. She said send her to hell for all she cared. So guess what?"

"We're going to kill her?" The aide inquired.

"Better than that. Where we're sending her, she's going to wish
she were dead. Get out contact inside of the Crexis facility. I
want to find out if we can get those coordinates changed for where
they're sending her, and have them shifted to some hell hole of
place. Somewhere nice and hot. Cause somehow, I doubt that she's
going stay banished forever."

==={ ~~~~ }===

Scarlett stood behind the scanning equipment, naked except for her
briefs as she held her arms up.

"Is this a medical room, or just some bizarre experiment?" She
asked.

"Just hold you breath for a moment please," the Doctor said,
concentrating on a medical console attached to the scanner.

"Yes, that's good, uh huh," the Doctor seemed to mumble to himself
for while, then scribbled down some stuff on a note pad.

He stood up and started to walk away, when he remembered she was
still standing with her hands up.

"You can come out from behind the scanner now," he called back.
"Just don't go anywhere," he added with the wave of a hand.

"As if I can go anywhere," she said, looking at the two guards who
stood on either side of one exit from the room.

She wandered around the room, not really looking at anything, so
much as looking for something to use as a weapon. There really
wasn't much in the room, except for a few things that could either be
swung about or thrown. Nothing that could be considered deadly,
except for the glass container that held a sample of her urine. It
wasn't much to use against two energy pistols.

So she sat on the examining bed, and crossed her arms while she
waited.

Eventually the Doctor came back, wheeling a trolley in front of
him, carrying assorting deadly looking instruments, including a large
syringe.

"Okay, lets start with the small stuff first," the Doctor said,
picking up pressure injector, and inserting the first ampoule and
setting the dosage.

"I need to you to stand up and bend over the bed," the Doctor asked
her.

"What all this for?" Scarlett asked, as she bent over.

"It's S.O.P. Real mix of pharmaceuticals, slow release
antibiotics, white cell boosters for all the new viruses you'll
encounter on the other side."

He injected at least four things into her buttocks.

"Okay, stand up now," he said, before putting two more into each
arm.

He started fooling with the large syringe, inserting something into
the needle, and then just stood next to her appearing to do nothing.

"Ah, what now?" Scarlett asked, curiously.

"Need a minute for the anaesthetic to kick in."

"For what?"

"For this," he said, as he held up the large syringe, that had an
even larger needle on it.

In a moment, he pushed the immense looking needle against her arm.
She felt the pressure but no pain, as he jabbed her with it, sticking
it deep into tissue, injecting the contents before withdrawing it.

Immediately the doctor put a patch on the wound, to stop the
bleeding.

"That's it. You can get dressed now," the Doctor said, rearranging
the things on the trolley.

Scarlett pulled her singlet back on, avoiding the patch on her arm,
before pulling her uniform and boots on as the Doctor talked.

"I wouldn't put any pressure on that arm for a while though. The
pain killers will wear off after a while and you might feel
something, but it'll go away eventually."

"What was that?" Scarlett asked.

"Oh, something special. I wouldn't worry about it too much," he
said strangely evasive, as he headed away with the trolley.

"She should be moved to the main room now," the doctor told the
guards as he left the room.

One guard came forward, taking Scarlett by the arm, dragging her
forward through the door.

She wanted to complain as she was hassled through almost a dozen
sets of doors, but kept her mouth shut as she saw more and more
guards as they went along.

The last room they entered, looked like a large warehouse, with
strange looking machinery standing all about. There were over a
dozen technicians and scientists working on equipment that radiated
out around it, talking animatedly amongst themselves.

"Over here," a couple of white coated figures called when they
noticed Scarlett and her entourage of guards, directing them towards
the very heart of the facility, where a ovoid shaped capsule stood,
with an opening facing them.

"Here we are, just get in here," said a woman.

Scarlett stooped down at the opening, to look in to what looked
like a small closet. It was spherical inside, with burnished
stainless steel, and was barely tall enough to stand in.

"In there?" She queried, before she was roughly pushed in.

"Watch where you're pushing!"

Darkness enveloped her before she could turn around, as the door
sealed shut.

Small lights turned on inside, enough so that she wasn't completely
blind. She started looking around, for a way out.

There was a crackle as a voice came through on a speaker inside the
room. "JW module comms test."

Scarlett ignored the voice as she tried pulling at the ridges
around the doorway, trying to open it.

"Ah hah..." The voice cleared itself. "This is the JW module comms
test. You have to reply, so we know you can hear us."

Scarlett looked up at the speaker, "I can hear you well enough."

==={ ~~~~ }===

Technician Kenyo sat at a terminal and started through the check
list of items prior to initiating the device. It was a big event at
the Crexis Facility sending someone through the JW device.
Experiments had being downsized from remote probes and humans to
smaller sample gathering probes since the Terra Nova had come to
power.

But now, there was the promise of funding and continued boosts in
research grants for furthering the capabilities the Jamison-Wong
device.

When the designated explorer's voice came back, Kenyo automatically
marked off the item on the sheet.

"Ah yes, JW comms check." He said into the mike, not really
listening to what she said.

Hitting another switch and checking the light, he started to speak.

"Event log on and running. Sphere explorer, is ah... Captain
Scarlett Sequoia, age 106, height 1.72 metric, weight 48 metric..."

==={ ~~~~ }===

Scarlett listened to the speaker, as the Technician began to read
off something about Sphere localisation parameters. It was all
nonsense to her. He was saying something about gravity field
distortion variances when another voice suddenly cut him off.

"Captain Sequoia, you have to listen well, as there isn't much
time. Some of the technicians are involved in an underground
movement against the current Government."

"What?" Scarlett spoke up.

"Captain!" The voice said instantly. "Do not speak. Listen.
There is a video and audio feed from the capsule you are in, which is
being watched by Nova security forces, and the Chancellor himself is
somewhere in the facility watching."

"Harlan?" Scarlett thumped the door with her fist, making a
resounding clang inside of the capsule.

"Damn it, time is short. You have to listen! We know you want to
get out of there, but there is no alternative at this time."

Scarlett turned about, frustrated that she couldn't do anything as
the voice continued on hurriedly.

"The original outline from the High court was to send you to some
cushy uninhabited but comfortable sphere. We had plans of our own,
to alter this. We found that someone within out staff had already
adjusted the coordinate data in our systems, to put you in some hell
hole. No doubt someone from the Nova. But anyhow, we've fixed it.
We're sending you to a populated Sphere, with human very similar to
us, though technologically backwards from what we've seen."

Scarlett grunted her annoyance at wanting to talk.

"We know already that they speak a different languages, that's why
the doctor gave you a slow release capsule of drugs to speed up your
brain response time. It will last just long enough for you to pick
up their language and blend in. There'll be a kicker when you come
off it eventually, so be careful. How much time?"

The speaker seemed to talk to someone else for a moment.

"Delay them! Scarlett quickly now," the voice said in a panic.
"On the raised platform below your feet. Look at it quickly!"

Scarlett looked down.

"Now!" The voice said insistently, that she bent down to look at
some carefully drawn pictures.

"Memorize the diagrams. One is the molecular configuration for
Cerotane, which may be useful. The other is circuit diagram for a
Hyperwave beacon. Once you've constructed it, we'll be able to
locate you and retrieve you. Memorise them well captain."

There was a static pop as the previous voice came back.

"We'll prep the Sphere explorer now. Captain, a few things for you
to note. The transition takes up most of the space in the capsule
but not all of it. For your safety to have to stand within the
circle inscribed on the plastic elevated floor."

Scarlett stood up and looked at the circle around her, barely big
enough to stand in.

"Also, please keep your hands down and away from the walls. If you
don't follow each of these directions, the result may be the loss of
limbs, or death, so I need not say more."

Scarlett looked up at the ceiling not far above her head.

"Yes well, there is enough space there for you head, unless you
happen to jump up during transition. So please don't!"

The voice sighed. "Last notes. After transition, you may fee pain
in your ears, this will be due to changes in air pressure. Use the
usual technique to equalise yourself. And finally. When you come
out, you won't be on a solid ground. For your safety, you are
transited to a point above ground. You wouldn't want to appear waist
deep in a rock would you? No, well. So except a small fall. Just
remembered those few things, and you'll be all right. Okay?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Okay, reinitialise the mass crosscheck. Count-down will commence
at T minus 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4..."

Scarlett double checked she was inside the circle with her hands by
her sides. For a moment she considered holding her breath as she
looked up to the speakers.

==={ ~~~~ }===

Harlan watched the monitors, as Scarlett appeared at the last
moment to stare into his eyes with burning at the last second of the
count, before the image on the screen appeared to go haywire with
interference for several seconds before returning to normal.

What is showed was an empty capsule, except for a neatly cut hole
in the raised flooring.

==={ ~~~~ }===

All at once, her world turned upside down and inside out, then
bright light hit her in the face as she turned over once more,
finding the pull of gravity suddenly dragging her in a new direction.

Because of the pressure change, she didn't hear the plastic
flooring that she'd stood, on hit an upright light pole.

She barely saw it as she fell toward it, but too quickly to block
with her arms. She hit it with her forehead, sending her spinning in
another direction before she finally hit the ground, knocked out cold.

End Chapter 1

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