A person once asked, on a sanctuary planet full of predators, and a town full of therapists and other staff that live there as potential "prey", what stops the worst of these predators going after the innocents within those towns, and deliberately doing... well, what got them "recruited" into Pax Humanis in the first place? -- Anon Guest
People who hear about Pax Humanis Sanctuary Planets always get the wrong idea. They think it's a zoo of sorts for the most criminal of criminals that Humanity could possibly offer. They think it's a reserve for those Humans who are not very far from being animals themselves.
Those people are wrong.
Psychopaths and Sociopaths alike know that there are limits. There are things that will get them on the wrong side of a good deal. Killing the Therapists, Caregivers, and Companions will break the deal they made. It's a very simple deal: If you insist on behaving like an animal, you will be caged like one.
For everyone else, there are the Sanctuary Planets. Wildernesses of all kinds for all comers. Civilisation as the rest of the Alliance knows it is in small clumps, as if the starports and city life is cowering from the rest of the planet.
For a world made to house known killers, it is one of the safest places to live. There are safeguards upon safeguards. Security upon security. Just in case someone decides to go back on the deal.
The people who work there work in the clustered cities. Those who live there, live in isolated little cabins far from anyone else. Where they can sate their bloodlust and live life according to their own principals.
This works out well for a great many of them. A lack of societal pressure, all the interaction they want when they want it, and the occasional job that suits their predilections. For them, all is well and the status quo is amenable.
There is always, however, one who is never satisfied. Brought in from the Edge, or taken surgically out of a Deregger polity, they do not believe in the deal. They want to keep killing no matter where they are, or who they hurt.
Just as long as they can make terror, hear screams, and see someone else's blood.
There's one now. Roaming the streets in the darkness. Looking for an easy victim and finding none. Unaware that the chip embedded in their body during administration has already triggered a lockdown.
Regular cities have all kinds of amenities. The ones on Pax Humanis Sanctuaries also have Panic Booths. They stop working when a chipped resident is too close.
Kayden looked into the windows as he walked. His knife, as he would say, was thirsty. Someone, as he would say, needed killing. Alas, all he could find was plasma-proof re-inforced windows, and every door locked tight.
He also found a kettle, crewed by what looked to be marines in full-combat livesuits. He smiled.
Soldiers in armour. Cute. Kayden knew well that every suit of armour had its weak spots. All he needed was a chance, and the blood would flow.
"Resident," intoned the nearest Knight of the Law. "You are out of bounds. You have been classified armed and dangerous. Drop your weapon and submit, and we will escort you to your designated residence with only one demerit on your record."
Kayden laughed and slashed at their neck.
Blood did not flow. The thirsty knife encountered nothing but rings of metal that guarded the best wiring and servos that B'Nar could engineer.
Flakking robots!
Did everyone have to spoil his fun?
He had just enough time to think that before the Stunner blasts took him down.
When he woke, he was in a Safe Space. Soft walls padded with cellulose fabric. A large mattress made of the same stuff. An idiot-proof personal hygeine unit.
Everything was blank and grey and soft and dull. Even the entertainment screen was impossible to sabotage. The only colour in the place came from the bubbling algae tubes in the mandatory garden space.
Unbreakable.
His clothes were also cellulose fabric. If he tore them, the niche would print him a new set. If he wrecked anything, somehow, it would repair itself.
What could be a victim was on the other side of a plasma-proof window that covered one wall. "Congratulations," she said, "you blew it. You had a chance to play with others and you chose destruction. We will attempt remedial education, but if you insist on acting like a wild animal," she dared look him in the eye, unflinching and unafraid, "we'll cage you like one."
Every once in a while, there's one who insists on being a danger to everyone. They're not dangerous for long.
[Image by Marjan Blan | @marjanblan on Unsplash]
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