**WARNING** This contains graphic descriptions of _s_e_x_ual intercourse, sadomasochistic activities, and torture between adult males. If this offends you, is not appropriate for viewing in your location, or you are **not** of legal age, don't read it.
**REMARK** The stories in the Survival Canyon series are set in a futuristic world where the Government uses publicly shown torture of criminals as a means of control. If you have not read the initial story, 0. Backdrop, you may find a given episode disorienting.
Any resemblance of characters in this story to the living is purely coincidental.
(c) 1997, TopLegal. Permission is granted for distribution via Usenet and the Web in full.
Foreward
The foregoing are my collected memories of my years as a Canyon Guard. Much has been written about our roles and our lives, but never before has a guard discussed his or her part in our Justice system.
I worked the Canyon for 6 years and had many prisoners during that time. I was the last Guard to leave the Canyon before it was destroyed in the rebel -- I mean New Government -- offensive. To my knowledge I am also the only surviving Canyon guard since when the attack came, I had just departed by two days.
My shuttle was captured en route to Chiron 7 and I was imprisoned on the penal colony constructed at Milano Prime. After 30 years of imprisonment I have been released by the new government, "reformed" of my evil ways.
Now, I want to take some time to share with you the details of my life in the Canyon as no one else can.
T. L. ORION IV RES-HAM-NORTH Jan 1, 6039
**Yes, Sir** I bark loudly. I turn quickly and head for the showers. I've just finished a 5 year tour of duty in the corps, my last mission to Bophat's small moon to contain the spread of the VZ-7 virus had been a success. Now, I was home and my tour was over.
What now. I showered quickly and then headed back to the small office I had used when at base here on Polima. I flicked through the channels on the videoscreen. The government network, Channel 1, was replete with success stories about the containment of the virus.
An interview with me discussed the peaceful -- what a lie -- techniques we used to contain the infected population without endangering ourselves. Thank goodness, nobody but the corps had easy access to planets like Bophat or its moon.
On channel 2, I watched the predator beasts mauling prisoners sent to the canyon for execution. 24 Hours of executions. With our government's reach spanning 50 solar systems with seemingly countless planets, moons, mining asteroids, and space stations, there was never a short supply of prisoners and evil doers. The government had a simple policy, first crime, 2 years in the canyon, second crime, death.
The canyon's location is kept secret and aside from the ajudicators and the guards who work the canyon, nobody knows the location. All prisoners for either type of sentence are deposited in the canyon at the start of the month after sentencing.
Those who have a prayer, are escorted by guards for their 2 year torture and confinement. Those who don't, usually die over the course of days. In the more exciting months, a prisoner will elude the predator beasts for a whole month. Those who do are usually former members of the corps with good survival skills and a healthy dose of luck. Betting over how long such a person will survive becomes heated. The record according to the commentators on 2 is 79 days back in 5952.
Channel 3 is gender segregated, Channel 3 Male offers the hover cam shots of male prisoner torture and confinement and Channel 3 Female offers the same for female prisoners. Ratings for both channels are higher than for anything else. The prisoners are brain wiped fairly thoroughly before torture confinement and the various contortions that go through over the 2 year sentence and the tortures gets to be highly entertaining. Especially because this is the closest thing to entertainment available on the videoscreen.
I had signed up for the corps at 18, and now at 23, I had successfully graduated into the ranks of the officers -- in the field during our last mission -- and could probably have stayed on if I passed the final evaluation.
On my desk was a message from Chiron 7 where most of the government has been based for a century, I looked at the code number on the message and could not determine the origin, perhaps a private home? But who did I know on Chiron 7? Besides, nobody but government official lived on Chriron these days.
I entered "Chiron 7: XX79AV999BIK" into my videoscreen and the Corps logo popped up along with the "Call Processing Screen". Mentally, I computed the trip time, ten weeks in a ship, so that would be 10 sec by phone.
And roughly, 12 seconds later, a young woman appeared on the screen and indicated that she worked for prison services and that they could use someone like me. My mind went blank, the black clad prison guards that worked the canyon were some of the hottest items in the realm, holo-cards, holo-vids of special tortures all got sold throughout and they got a chunk of the money, so I heard. One rotation, 2 years, in the canyon, if you were liked, had a good Z-rating with the audience and you could be a multi-billionare.
The credit signs flashed in my head and the rest of the conversation passed with it.
I was on my way to Chiron for an audition.
Ten weeks later, my shipped arrived at the Chiron 7 spaceport. The young blond, Adjudicator Nan met me at the port. We took a skimmer down to the planet's surface, talking only briefly about the audition and training process.
By mid day, I had been given one of the black suits and was standing in front of the first audience. Turn, this way, turn that way, flex your muscles. Show your ass. Strip. Masturbate. This was the Z-rating estimate, the government found that the more attractive the torturers, the more people watched, and that was good for the government it meant people knew what happened to law breakers. Few people watched Channel 2 unless there was a good prisoner making the month, and in that case it was to track bets. Torture was easier to watch.
I was dismissed after 4 hours of posing and modeling.
That night, I got the word, I had received a high Z-correlation and would be permitted to undergo the training.
The training itself is a disappointing procedure, you are knocked out with anesthetics and some surgeons put a wetware implant along with some other hardware into your body.
Six days later when you come to, you are set to go.
The knowledge conveyed is immense, and they don't like the guards to have to much time to adjust to it since the audience likes to see the torturer learn the ropes at first.
I was assured that I would be given four hot prisoners for my first 6 months and that at the end of 6 months, if I have maintained high Z-ratings, I will be given more prisoners and a full stint, 2 years with my own option for 2 more.
Now is as good a time as any to explain how the wetware works. I didn't understand this until a good 2 or three months into my first stint in the Canyon, but the principle is simple enough. This also may explain why I found the first few weeks in the canyon, early chapters, so confusing.
The wetware contains electronics and memory information about forms of torture, survival, maps of the Canyon, and instructions. Additionally, the wetware provides additional strength to drive neural impulses; communications functions; and protective modifications to your phermones to keep the predator beasts from attacking you.
According to a book I read, the Federation has outlawed the use of wetware technology since their takeover, and I can't say I blame them. The wetware not only provides me with all this information, but it helps you use it and feel good and _s_e_x_ually aroused about using it.
While I am certain that many humans could torture their fellow humans without this assistance, the wetware makes it an erotic pleasure to inflict pain on others. Because I was captured before my system could be disabled, I am still afflicted with the desire to torture others although the therapist handling my case for release assures me that as long as I don't expose myself to temptation, I should remain in control of the wetware.
Barely awake still from the drugs, I sign the agreement and the profit sharing on the holo-cards and vids. Then, I am clad in a black Canyon guard uniform and equiped. Adjudicator Nan rushes in to the equipment room as I make my selections out of ignorance mostly and hurries me to the courtroom.
Ten young individuals are in the prisoner's docket. The accusation is draft evasion on Paragon. The Paragon system was only recently acquired and to maintain order, newly acquired systems must provide all males by age 23 for a 3 year stint in the corps. This takes place for the first 20 years that a system is within our government. By the end, there is much intermarrying with women and children from distant lands sent home and the population is more heterogeneous.
Of course, there is always resistance. I remember putting down a rebellion on Anax in 5997 during my first year in the corps. We went from building to building capturing rebels. By the time we finished, narry a rebel could be found. All of them were sent to the Canyon for execution. I watched many of the executions on TV on the way back to Polima base, the rebels went quickly and there was little betting.
These resistors were the first batch from Paragon, by the time we hit the Canyon with them, their tortures would be plastered throughout public videoscreens on the planet along with pieces from their sentencing.
I notice two other Canyon guards enter the courtroom and stand next to me.
We watched the trial proceed. Each stepped forward and announced their name and requested leniency. Each received, the minimum punishment, 2 years in the canyon. The trial ended quicker than you can imagine and the young 23 year olds began crying and pleading for mercy as guards hauled them from the courtroom. This was already playing back on Paragon, there would not be much more of this next time the draft division of the corps arrived. These 10 would be examples.
I followed the other two Canyon guards to a waiting area where I was handed a picture of 4 of the prisoners. My wetware beeped audibly and then I put the picture in the shredder and sat with the other guards.
The other guards teased me gently, first time they said. I didn't really recognize them, they were obviously taking the 2nd 2 year stint, but weren't famous yet. I myself had collected guard holo-cards before joining the corps, I had all the hot men, and even a few of the women. When I joined the corps in 5997, I sold my collection, but I kept my holo-card collector subscription and I'm on top of the prices, I didn't know their faces, they didn't have high Z-ratings with viewers. They weren't hot.
We talked quietly about the Canyon and what to do on landfall. I asked if they missed their homes or their families, they laughed, they loved the Canyon and this was their 10th stint. Twenty years, I thought, they were in their forties and still doing this. Not famous, they must enjoy torture.
I wracked my brain to recall them from Channel 3, but couldn't.
Before we left, I called home and left a message, my parents had probably already seen me on the vid-screens, this was such a major trial, but I wanted to just drop a note. "Orion IV: RES-HAM-NORTH-0415," I dialed from memory, no logo appeared, just a "Please Wait" message, they were not home, and I left a brief message telling them I had a great time in the corps, was looking forward to my new job, and I would be in touch at 6 mos after my evaluation.
When we got the page to move to the transport ship, I said good luck to them and they just grinned.
I strapped myself in to the transport ship next to four of the prisoners who I recognized from the trial. They were asleep, drugged. There were at least another 20 in the cabin also asleep, those were executions.
I laid back and felt the needle inject me with a sleeping drug.
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