In this new column, EMC staffer Hannah Thompson will write a new short story each Sunday. Leave a comment and tell her what you think about the story! Or add on to what she has! Or leave a suggestion for the topic of a future story! 

Here’s the first Sunday Short! 

Milky Way’s Guantanamo

The lake glistened with the same morning sunlight that shimmered through her hair. She swished her bare feet through the water, breaking the glass-like sheen that had formed on the still lake, and jumped from the shock of contact. Trying again, she stepped forward and promptly fell into the lake, becoming fully immersed before her feet found solid ground on the bottom and she stood in the knee length water. She gasped, unable to grasp the meaning behind this mysterious surface. The small creatures skimming across the top of it seemed to stay afloat just fine . Why couldn’t she?

Shrugging she removed herself from the water and breathed in the brisk November air. “No-vem-ber.” She practiced the syllables over and over, repeating them until they no longer had any meaning (not that they had much meaning to her in the first place). Assimilation was vital to the success of her mission. She needed to appear as inconspicuous as possible in order to obtain the information she needed to bring back home.

You see, war was mounting in her homeland. The peaceful planets which had passively lived under her home planet’s rule had finally had enough. Her mother, the leader of the system, was working to squash the rebellion but the powers of the planets were too strong. Before she had left, the rebels had almost reached the palace and looked set to succeed in their revolution. But her family had a plan, and it involved the notorious Prison Earth.

Millions of years ago, when her grandfather still ruler, the system was plagued with crime and hatred. The prisons were overflowing and fear ran rampant throughout the galaxy. Grandfather’s solution: Adopt the abandoned planet on the other side of the sun. He chose to wipe the memories of the worst criminals of the system and place them there. Alone. Forced to develop a society from scratch, the criminals evolved into a new life form: Humans. These humans developed a far more primitive society. Crime still ran rampant and times of peace were few and far between. Despite their reasons for their animosity being wiped from their memories long ago, enemy species still fought for years. Little changed except that they were away from the system. Away so that they were never worried about, and no one paid them any mind. Until now.

This was her mission. She was to infiltrate the humans within their prison, reinstate their memories, and release them from the bondage of this primitive planet. It was dangerous, she knew and she was likely to never see her family again. However, she knew there was no other choice. Once she releases the humans they will be utilized against the rebellion. An army of the most evil villains in history fighting for her family. It was risky but it was the only thing they could do against the ever growing army of rebels. She was vital to the success of the war and the maintenance of her family’s power for all time. She had to do this.

So, stealing herself against the dangers ahead, she inhaled the thick atmosphere, shook the last bits of water from her hair, and took her first steps onto the rough terrain of Prison Earth.