Sweet Dreams

Sweet Dreams (full short story)

  "You see this command device?" he asked, showing the small rectangle strapped to his forearm. "One click and the charge you have in your neck explodes."

Some of them gasped or glowered in anger.

"If you ever try to run away, take it off, or resort to any form of violence, you'll die."

There were twenty people—twenty-five, perhaps—all wearing the same grey outfit and the same handcuffs around their wrists. They were coming from different far areas of the universe, but had one thing in common: they were all criminals.

Our craft had just left Eve, the capital planet of our solar system, to drive these traitors to Noland, an artificial planet, a giant prison lost in space.

I had recently been accepted to join ESA, Eve's Space Army, the squad in charge of protecting the capital from outside attacks, and my very first mission was to make sure these criminals would all, without exception, end their days on Noland.

We were six male soldiers and one commander, a fifty-year-old earthling, whose face was covered with sweat, scars and hatred. My hands were shaking behind my back as a feeling of apprehension and excitement grew in my chest.

"We will land in four weeks. Until then, we will use cryogenics. I hope you brought your teddy bears along, you little craps, because it will be the longest nap of your life. And probably the last true one."

"Be prepared," he added for us only, so we stood more steadily—if that was even possible, for my body was already stretched to the max in my most professional posture.

I took a huge deep breath and pushed a man before me, nudging my weapon against his back when he refused to walk.

"Köloss," he mumbled with disdain and I gathered it was not a compliment.

We moved slowly in single file towards a cold, dark room filled with many boxes, like iced cocoons. They lay down, each in a box. Some steam and condensation appeared on the glass top of the boxes when we started to close them, one by one.

"They look dead," said another soldier next to me and I could not help thinking the same.

They were pale and rigid, like figures sculpted in stone. I swallowed with difficulty.

Creepy.

"Now that they are harmless, we can focus on the next part."

I followed the commander to the meeting room.

A few hours later, I was staring up at the ceiling of my room. Sleep eluded me. Then the spacecraft suddenly quaked. We were probably going through an asteroid field.

For a second, I wondered what would happen if the craft were to hit an asteroid and crash on an unexplored planet. What if I were all alone, lost in the middle of nowhere?

I smiled. It was silly. It would never happen. The ship was shockproof. And if it ever did happen, I would be clever enough to survive.

I fell asleep, dreaming of expeditions through jungles and deserted lands.

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was... a palm tree? Or something that looked like one in the pictures I had seen.

"What the..."

I blinked. There were plenty of trees, everywhere. The buzzing in my ears gave way to other strange noises, like animal cries, somewhere in the dense forest I was in.

My head hurt and when I explored my scalp with my hand, I felt something warm and sticky.

I could not remember how I had ended up there. The only thing I knew for sure was that I slept in my cabin and woke up in the middle of nowhere.