Star Kitten Read Free

a half century (in
Earth years) the population grew and grew—from a couple hundred to
over a hundred thousand convicts, guards, and administrators living
and working there. The different planets in the galaxy—even the
cultures who were hesitant about it at first—found they could send
convicted felons, murderers, rapists, political agitators, and
other social undesirables to this colony.
    But it didn’t take long for things to
degenerate….
    Planets could simply discard all their
dangerous male criminals and traitors instead of incarcerating them
on their own planets. It was less expensive than prisons that was
for sure! And it was easier on every planet’s society to simply
part with its malcontents and sociopaths, rather than to face the
collective guilt of failing to reform them; then endure the
consequences of releasing prisoners back into society where they
might continue their criminal behavior. Even more convenient was
not having to resolve the social ills of their societies which led
to crime and discontent in the first place.
    Oh, and it was quite lucrative too, as the
mining operation yielded more and more extracted mineral ores,
gemstones, silver, and even industrial diamonds year after year.
The Earthmen simply took a page from their barbaric history and
used the concept of the prison farm to make the whole operation
profitable: use forced labor to produce a good or product (or
extract a raw material) then take a portion of the revenue to pay
for housing and food for the laborers, staff, and machinery or
tools required. Every dollar after that, was pure profit for all
the six planets to split. Economies in the galaxy grew and quality
of life (at least for the wealthy classes on the home planets)
blossomed. As the earthmen put it every galactic year at the
Convention, “this really is a win-win scenario.”
    Only the Slartigifijian elders reserved
judgment on that lofty description of Rijel 12. But then again,
even Slartigifij started shipping criminals to Rijel 12 after a few
Earth years too…. and delighted in their tidy share of the profits
(as did everyone else in the galaxy)! It was just too easy to fall
in with the whole scheme.
    At first, the sentences were reasonable,
spanning three to twenty years, with only really violent offenders
sentenced there for life. The planet itself was of course
completely barren and devoid of life, covered on the surface by
global deserts, volcanic mountains, and extremely forbidding
temperatures during the day. At night, temperatures often plunged
into the teens, but during the day it could get over 150 degrees
Fahrenheit. It was certainly unrealistic to live on the surface,
but far underground the planet possessed massive caverns that
extended for miles and miles in every direction.
    On Rijel 12 there was just
enough atmosphere to create a breathable oxygen for most creatures,
but the Interplanetary Authority chose to expand the already
existing system for manufacturing purer oxygen for the caverns
below so that workers could maintain better health when engaged in
heavy physical exertion. The planet’s oxygen was too thin for
breathing and could lead to
light-headedness and fatigue during prolonged exposure. Therefore,
the mining operation was sealed off from the surface and the oxygen
production system could be added onto in phases as the mine
expanded. Blowers moved the fresher less toxic manufactured air
around the caverns and tunnels to keep the workers healthier and
more alert (initially anyway).
    The Rijel 12 planet interior had hundreds of
underground glaciers located miles below the rocky barren surface
and protected from the incredibly hot sun. Subterranean aquifers
closer to the surface provided water to the new inhabitants, but it
had to be filtered to be completely potable. The original miners,
years before, didn’t actually drink the water from the aquifers.
They imported purified water from nearby planets; and it was very
expensive to do so. However,