After my visit with Priscilla, I headed home because I knew that Lily would not be home from the labs and I could not waltz into her lab with my accusations. Not with the other scientists listening in.
Chas had finally replaced our TV and I decided to try it out.
From where I stood, I saw that there was some sort of live breaking news coverage.
From time to time we get news coverage from Earth and I figured that this was yet another Earth disaster. Still, it piqued my curiosity.
I grabbed the remote and turned up the volume, “If you are just joining us, we are covering breaking news from Lunar Lakes news channel M-O-O-N…”
Now that I knew that this news coverage was indeed local, I was all ears…
The reporter continued, “We are on the scene where three human prisoners died in a one car collision today while being transported from the Lunar Lakes jail…”
Shock responses ran through my system.
Who authorized the prisoners to be moved? I asked myself.
Once again, I tuned into what the reporter was saying, “Among the dead was human prisoner Frida Tamarind, well known for her attempt to steal from our very own President Ardis, who was VP at the time.”
“Oh no! Frida is dead? But how?” I said out loud.
So many things ran through my processing system. I could clearly see Frida’s face, filled with hopelessness when I visited her at the jail. Now she was dead.
I jumped up from the couch as my sorrow quickly turned to anger, because I was the only person authorized to request that the prisoners be moved. I had not done that, so someone had to have acted on my behalf. But who? And where were the prisoners being moved.
Finally I recalled my visit with Frida’s mother Elise and her daughter Leah. What would happen to them now that there was absolutely no hope of Frida ever coming back? I was sure that with her health issues, Elise would not last much longer.
All of those thoughts were pushed aside by my final thought…maybe there was still something that I could do.
I hurried out the door to check out the scene of the accident for myself.
Although I had seen the crash on the TV, nothing prepared me for the actual scene. It appears that the police transport van had slid, flipped over and crashed into a fire hydrant. Water was shooting up in the air and smoke filled the vehicle.
As I stood there, flames rose into the air from the engine. I could not see whether Frida and the other prisoners were inside or not. However, there was no movement coming from inside of the car.
Two bot officers, who I guessed must have been the ones escorting the prisoners, were standing near the car attempting to extinguish the flames and there was a small crowd of humans running around the car attempting to rescue anyone who may have been inside.
As the flame grew bigger and engulfed the inside of the car, I knew that any attempt to save anyone inside would be in vain.
If Frida was indeed in the car, she was now gone…forever.
And there was nothing that me or anyone else standing there could do.
Still…I stood there at the scene long after the fire was put out and the bodies were removed. Someone had intentionally requested that the prisoners be moved, and probably staged this accident. In my eyes, Frida and the three human prisoners, just like President Aron…had been murdered.
