STAR TREK: PHASE ONE
The Agony of it All
John Gill's Secret Island lair off the coast of Australia:
John Gill walked next to Colonel Green as both men walked past the massive Botany Bay, which was kept hovering, at stations keeping, via a magnetic field.
"She is a marvel," Green said. "And unlike her Unites Space Agency counterparts, she will be built for battle, not exploration."
Gill nodded in agreement. "True," Gill said, "but I don't want to go to war with the United Nations, I just want the world to know that there is an option to the kind of world the UN promises. We have seen the kinds of governments the masses can produce; now it's time for the elite to have our turn."
"I know we do not want war," Green said, "but in four months the United Space Agency will launch the Lexington, and if we stay on target, we will launch one week later. When we do launch the Botany Bay, I am quite sure the world will be surprised, and the UN will not be happy."
"Of that," Gill said with a smile, "I have no doubt. The non-aligned nations will fall in line behind us on that day as well, and the UN's role will be, at last, subservient to ours."
As they walked past one of the office rooms, screaming could be heard coming from beyond the door. It was the scream of a woman.
"What is that screaming?" Gill asked.
"One of the welders, a female, was caught with an unauthorized cell-phone," Green told Gill. "We decided to try out the new Agony-booth on her."
Green opened the door. At the far end of the room a woman, naked, was inside of a totally transparent chamber. Her wrists were restrained to the wall inside the chamber, as were her ankles. Several electrodes were fastened to sensitive parts of her body. They were wireless devices that fed off of an electric field that was generated inside of the chamber. Her screaming had stopped, due to the devices being turned off. One of the men who stood outside the booth spoke into a microphone.
"We know you had the phone, and according to your own phone-log you were talking to your child in Manila just one hour before you were caught with the device. Do you understand that this lack of discipline is why you are here?" the man asked.
The woman, who was obviously dazed, nodded in agreement. "Yes, I am sorry. I will not do it again."
Gill looked to Green. "I do not wish to see this," Gill said.
Green nodded, and then closed the door just as the screams continued.
"How long must she endure the Agony-Booth?" Gill asked.
"I would guess," Green said, "another hour, if she can last."
The two men walked on, and Gill felt a small twinge of guilt in his stomach at the thought of such a device being used.
But Gill had hired Green for such reasons, and his strong desire to run a disciplined outfit. And although Gill felt sorrow for the woman, and the pain she was enduring, Gill also knew it was sending a message to all the other workers at the secret lair. The message was simple: Stray from the rules and regulations, and you will pay dearly.
"In case you're wondering," Col. Green said to John Gill, "an Agony-Booth will be part of the Botany Bay's security section. Not only for the discipline of the crew, but for any visitors that we might get the opportunity to use it on."
"You mean Kirk, don't you?" Gill asked, pointedly.
"Yes," Green said with a fiendish smile on his face. "James T. Kirk represents everything I hate about the new UN and its United Space Agency. You might say that his is the face that the UN and the Space Agency want to use as an ambassador to all the people in the world to join their idiotic cause. Someday, Kirk will be in our custody aboard the Botany Bay. And when he is, his clothing will be stripped off, and he will be tortured for the entire world to see. If we can break the will of Superman, and humiliate him, then we can break the will of the world."
They soon entered the massive mission control ops center, which was still being put together. Wires twisted, and crisscrossed, from drop areas and out of every hole in the wall.
"Impressive," Gill said.
"I had hoped for an entire wireless mission control," Green said, "but this will do. The extra funds we had to modernize the wiring were funneled over to the D.A.T.A. program."
Green pointed to a strange, blue colored device that sat, blinking, inside of a glass container.
"Is that it?" Gill asked.
"Yes," Green said, "that is the Data interface. It is just as advanced as the Spock interface program that the USS Enterprise has."
"Those stolen specs were useful?" Gill asked.
"Yes," Green replied. "They included the final command override differentials. You can tell Tom Garak that if he is done with the girl, Christina Pike, he could always bring her here to me. I could find something," Green paused, "amusing to do with her."
"Not now," Gill said. "I know she is the daughter of your nemesis, Christopher Pike, but we may need her in the future. So you can stop salivating over the thought that she can be your toy; at least for now."
Green nodded, "I can wait," Green agreed.
The Agony-Booth was being cleaned out. The young Filipino-Female worker, who had been caught with the cellphone, had died from the stress of the Agony-Booth. Her blood, sweat, and feces stained the interior and gave it a very putrid smell. The Chief of Security, Jomia Kor, nodded his head in genuine displeasure as the dead woman's corpse was zipped up inside of a body bag, and was dragged out of the room.
"Such a shame," Kor said to the four men who were cleaning out the booth. "She was quite lovely. And now that she is dead, who will care for her two children back at home?"
The men cleaning the Agony-Booth had no answer. They had learned to never engage Kor with idle talk, only to listen to it. To do so might garner one an appointment inside of the insidious device.
"NOW CLEAN THIS BOOTH UP!" Kor yelled at the workers suddenly. His anger was pure, and loud. "IF I SMELL THE SCENT OF HER DEATH IN HERE WHEN I COME BACK, YOU WILL ALL FEEL THE PAIN THAT CAN COME FROM MY AGONY BOOTH!"
Kor laughed at the four workers as they began to scrub the inside of the chamber at a much faster pace.
Continued….