Rescuing Ash

Chapter One

The shrill sound of an alert snapped Sadie Lawrence out of a dreamless sleep. The noise made her heart rate jump so high that the sound of it’s thudding began to rival the shrieking noise. Sitting up quickly from her bare cot, she clasped her hands around her ears trying futilely to muffle the noise.

It was always the same and honestly, it was like they watched, waited until she slept until they woke her up with the horrid alarm. Sadie supposed it was better than the first time they had woken her. The first time had been cruel.

The prison she was being forced to work at, nearly a prisoner herself, would often raid her room in the middle of her sleep cycle. Officers in battle armor would come in and yank her out of bed before tossing every item in her room around for what they called a ‘toss up’ to check for contraband and to just generally ‘fuck shit up.’ Back then, they would strip her naked and poke and prod to be sure she didn’t actually have any contraband. The whole thing had scared the crap out of her. Though, learning long ago that struggling would make things worse, now she just stood up and placed her hands behind her head when she heard her door lock disengage.

Sadie studied enough in college to know that what they were doing was a way for them to control her with both with fear and exhaustion. She also knew that they were monitoring her somehow in order to know exactly when she entered stage 4 of her sleep cycle or REM. The rude awakenings always happened then. The only reason she even knew that was because when she awoke she was disoriented and confused for a few seconds. That only helped to serve them by scaring her more.

Now the alarm shut off as the officers--or guards came in with their gear. Black and silver dominated their uniform. Helmets with a reflective visor covered all of their faces so she was never sure who it was tormenting her. Sadie couldn’t help but feel bad for the guards. They were all military, as this was a military prison in orbit around Sonar 7. The guards before her were nothing but faceless puppets for the government. They weren't allowed to have personal identities and instead went by numbers to dehumanize them.

The military figured it was easier that way for the newscasters to skate over deaths because who cared if Officer 25934 died? Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Some people did care; for instance, their families.

“General Roubideau requests immediate genetic testing on cellblock X.”

Sadie stifled the urge to roll her eyes. “You mean you want me to swab their cheeks,” she said flatly.

Only a nurse/lab tech, she wasn’t qualified to do the actual genetic testing, though that is what she’d wanted to do before being pulled from her program after defaulting on school loans. Now, because of it, the government owned her until she paid back her debt.

Midway through her thoughts she realized what he’d just said.

“Did you say cellblock X?”

One of the three guards snorted at her. “Yes. Now get your kit and lets go.”

Sadie blinked. Cellblock X housed only the most dangerous of felons from across the galaxy. How could they ask her to go into those cells? The answer was clear, she was expendable. Being owned by the government meant that her rights as a human were stripped away. The fact that she was even given a bare cot in her room was a kindness as was the fact that they laundered her clothing.

Being used to the midnight alarm, she’d quickly learned to bathe with a cleansing cloth and put on her scrubs for the next day rather than wait, otherwise she wouldn’t be allowed to change and would be taken out of her cell in a nightshirt. It had happened a one too many times.

Sadie reached down and snagged her bag of medical supplies. They kept it full for her so that she didn’t have to venture further than they wanted her too. Before she could even turn to head out the door, one of the guards gripped her arm and yanked her out of her 7x6 room. Or dungeon.