Imagine That: Justice

The one-man craft skimmed across the water, raising a spray of violet drops, like a soft cloud in its trail. Ed Hurley, the pilot, searched the land ahead for a suitable place to land. He banked slightly and slowed as he swept over a gentle slope and dropped down into a valley. This would do. This was perfect.

He hovered for a moment as he made sure the ground under his craft was solid, then he reduced the rocket thrust and settled gently. Even before the engines had wound down Ed was pushing the cockpit open and stepping out.

"Not too bad," he said with satisfaction.

The air was sweet with perfume. It came from the purple flowers that grew everywhere. Ed took a deep breath and stretched. He was tired.

"Might as well get on with it"" he muttered as he pressed a button and watched as the door automatically opened in the fuselage. Several smaller machines unfolded themselves from the side of the craft and went into action. Repetition and experience had made this a matter of dull routine. Ed turned his back and ignored it.

Ed was the first man to step on to this planet. But he was not meant to be here. When he had left earth, some three 'sleep' years ago, he had been wanted in five countries for crimes ranging from murder, perjury, theft and tax evasion, but he had got away. He had outsmarted every cop on the planet. His hand-crafted robot, personalized to fit his character, had stood in the dock, while he himself took part in one of the most daring escapes of the century.

Even as the judge was pronouncing the sentence, "Forty years in prison under extreme hardship, isolation sector 9," the World Federation of Space Sciences was unknowingly sending a stowaway passenger into a distant quarter of the galaxy. Ed had waited until the mothership was well on its way before he had crept from his hiding place, then he had killed the one awake crew-member and taken over the ship. Paradise. Now he had all the food he wanted, recreation rooms, TV, video, hologram, every luxury a mothership affords . . . and freedom from justice. He laughed as he lay back in the lounge. It was utterly impossible for anyone to punish him now.

The ship itself had been programmed to fly to various possible sites, and pass into orbit around 'likely' planets. Ed couldn't change the programming, so he had put himself into cryogenic suspension and left the ship to itself.