Where Is home?

Possible Plan

Rye sat back then waved at Fennel.

Fennel leaned in close and his face split into a wide grin.

"Okay. So they send a new group of prisoners down there every month. We keep a record of who all is sent and we're trying to determine how they choose. We know that if anyone acts up or causes issues in the prison they get sent but there aren't very many people that do that at all anymore," Fennel said as he pulled out a hollopad.

"Woah wait. You have a hollopad?"

He looked confused.

"Yeah. We all have hollopads. They don't take those away from us. They just restrict communications. It's a block I can easily get past though."

Hazel turned to Clover, confused.

"He's a hacker."

"No, I got that. Why didn't I get my hollopad back? They took mine when I was arrested and never gave it back."

"That's odd. It's in the law that a hollopad can not be denied to a person. There's actually been talk about installing them into people's arms when they're born so you're never without it. It would also act as an ID for every person," Fennel said, looking up from his own hollopad. Hazel took a second to make a disgusted face.

"They're taking us so far from our natural state. First they remove us from our home and now they're trying to insert themselves into our bodies. Disgusting," she spat.

"Well, when you say it like that..." Fennel drawled.

"Don't tell me you actually like the idea of that?!"

"I'm into tech!" he defended.

"You would like to have people be able to hack into your body?! Who's to say they wouldn't put a chip in your brain and turn you into a walking talking flesh-and-blood robot along with it! Are you insane!? You're alright with children being maimed at birth just so they can be bar coded for government identifying?"

Everyone sat silent at the table staring with wide eyes.

"You certainly put things in perspective." Fennel said.

"Wow, you're a spitfire," Ruby said, "How does the government not just surrender to you immediately?"

"I wasn't really the one who did all the talking. That was left for Birch, the coward."

"Definitely a Zabky." Rye nodded agreeing with Kudzu.

"Sorry. It's just... no one can leave things in their natural state. No one understands natural beauty. They ruin it with their technology and their own opinions. I mean, there has to be a reason things were made the way they were made, don't you think? I'm not against technological advancement but please can't we just leave the technological and the biological separate?"

"No. I'm sorry for bringing it up. You're probably right. Some things are better when you leave them alone," Fennel said.

"Anyway. I'm assuming they probably took your hollopad away to see if they could find any information on it about Project Home."

"That's no issue I'm not stupid. I erase all that stuff and most of the time I don't even do It on my hollopad. Almost everything is written on paper or discussed face to face."

"Old fashioned. I like it," Rye said nodding. Hazel smiled and shrugged.

"Good, good. I would talk with a guard around here or something and see if you can try to get that back though. I consider the hollopad about as necessary as my right arm and I believe that everyone else should consider it at least as essential as a toothbrush. But be careful, a lot of the guards here aren't so nice if you know what I--" Hazel cut him off.

"Yeah I can do that. I've got a guard that I'm friendly with on the night shift. I'll see if I can get him to help me out. What time does the shift change?"

"Wait. Friendly? You didn't tell me you had any one you were friendly with," Clover said.

"Yeah, well, you didn't tell me you were vice president of the prison so we're even. Plus, we're not friendly like that. We're friendly like normal people are friendly. Weirdo," Hazel muttered. Kudzu laughed.

"You are a funny one Zabky. You make even the guard friends with you. Well done, little one."

"Yes. I'll admit. Well done. One day in and you already have a guard under your belt. You might make a good addition indeed."

"The guards shift over at 1800. So your friend will get here in about five hours. You can talk to him then about getting your hollopad back. In the meantime let me fill you in on all the info we have so far."

"Every month the prison sends ten people down to Earth. There are plenty of prisoners here to choose from, seeing as we're pretty much the only actual prison on the moon. I mean, of course they have the area jails and whatnot, but the best of us get sent here. They've been doing this pretty much ever since Rye can remember and he's been in here the longest of all of us. Him and Clover. I have a couple bugs planted around the prison and I can hack into all of the cameras with my hollopad, so I am the eyes and the ears of this team. Most of the time things are only spoken about in code, but by listening in for as long as we have been we've figured out some of what they're talking about. So far, we've figured out that they send them down to Earth monthly. They're asked to do this by the government. They aren't just doing this for themselves. They are obviously doing some kind of testing on them, but they act like it's very important and there are a couple more moons that are sending their prisoners down as well. It sounds like they're allies of the Earth Moon only, and since we're the closest, we are the head of the operation."

"Are all of the guards in on it?"

"Not completely. Only the higher ups and the warden know what's actually going on with the testing but all of the guards know that some of us are sent to Earth."

"That rules out my guard. He's not a higher up. I thought I might be able to use him to get information, but I guess not."

Hazel wasn't positive why, but she was slightly relieved Cory wasn't in on the operation. She actually liked Cory. She didn't want to have to lie to him or use him. She didn't really want to use anybody and she actually liked being friends with Cory.

"Actually, maybe you can get information out of him. If you can convince him that you think something fishy is going on maybe you can convince him to try and find out more info. Just don't mention our involvement. You can use your status as leader of the Tree Huggers as your reason," Ruby said.

Hazel thought about it. If she could convince Cory about the testing as herself and he agreed to help, she wouldn't be using him He'd be wanting to do it himself; to help her as a friend. She couldn't force him to do anything he didn't want to do. That would be fine.

"Yeah. I'll see if I can convince him to work his way inside."

"Fantastic."

"What's our next step though? We can have all the information in the universe and it wouldn't do anything if we don't take action," Hazel said. The group glanced at each other as if deciding whether or not to tell her.

"The next step would be to send someone down to Earth. One of us."