Punishment(2)

I remember the coffin that I would be sent lying inside the capsule. It is long and black like a coffin, the capsule is as uncomfortable as a coffin. The capsule is filled with thousands of electronic devices, these devices will be responsible for lulling me to sleep for a long time. I was sitting in a hard chair, various people were busily walking around me, checking the equipment one last time. Looking out the window, spaceships of various sizes and shapes are scattered, and white smoke is coming out of one or two, I will be sent to one of them, I also feel some curiosity about which spaceship is being prepared for me. I wasn't doing it. All my senses seemed to relax. It didn't feel like waiting anymore, it seemed like the sooner it was all over the better.

Once I was taken to sleep in the capsule, it is not clear from the outside, but the inside is very comfortable, maybe because it is made according to the size of my body. A brunette girl was carefully applying the monitors to different parts of my body. He smiled sweetly every time he met my eyes. The girl is probably a nurse, she has probably been taught to smile when needed, and her smile is probably the measured smile of a professional nurse, but I still wanted to believe it was a kind-hearted smile.

It took about forty-five minutes to finish everything. After three or four different types of people checked everything, the lid of the capsule was slowly lowered. I thought that the blackness of the grave would descend immediately, but it did not, a very soft lamp lit up and spread a dim light inside the capsule. Very slowly a sweet smell began to waft inside. A very familiar smell, but I couldn't quite place what it was, the air inside must have started to circulate. I didn't know there was a screen near the head, this time it slowly brightened, something must be seen on it. Just when the inner silence was becoming unbearable, a very sweet voice rang out from somewhere.

I don't know how much time has passed, it could be a minute, it could be an hour, and time has no meaning inside the capsule. I was feeling a bit drowsy, must have been a reaction to some drug, not supposed to be drowsy in such a state. Suddenly the face of a man appears on the front screen, the man is middle-aged, and his hair is close to his head. Seeing the expressionless face, and two red stars near the shoulder, I understood that many high-ranking people. "This is the last stage of your execution," the man began to speak without introduction. And within five minutes you'll be asleep, the medicine you've been given shouldn't take much longer to start working. As soon as you fall asleep, your normal life ends. Although sad, there is no denying that your life is relatively short because you have not fulfilled your responsibility to the world as a human being. But at present, the Central Council has no complaint against you for that because you have been duly punished. The maximum penalty for illegally accessing a Crugo computer is the death penalty, you get it. Being a death row inmate and helping a Robotron escape requires some additional punishment. We have decided, as punishment, to turn your impending sleep into a painful experience.

No, I cried like a madman, you have no rights; No rights.

I was surprised, not a single word came out of my throat, I jerked and tried to sit up, but it was no use, my whole body became paralyzed, and I could not even move my fingers.

The man starts talking again in a monotone, our equipment says you're trying to do something. You probably don't need to be told that in response to the medication you've been given, all bodily functions other than seeing, hearing, and thinking have completely stopped. As soon as you are told and shown all the things you have to say and show, you will fall completely asleep.

However, you will be given information as punishment for helping Rostron escape. We believe the horror of the information will be seared into your brain, turning your long slumber into a long nightmare as a result. You were previously told that the spaceship would take you on a mission, where you would die of some sort and your body would be brought back to Earth. This is not true. You will be transported near a planet. There will be a change in you for some reason, a change so terrible that it is tantamount to death for you. You will no longer be you, that altered state of you will be brought back to earth. You are being sent there because the physical and mental changes that will happen to you are difficult for ordinary people to understand, and no sane person can be convinced of that mission. You will now be shown the change visually as punishment for helping Robotron escape.