"Sending in the inmate."
'Finally,' Derrick thought, sighing with relief. He sat up from his slouched posture, pausing his bored tapping of his finger on the table when he heard the announcement delivered to him by the intercom speaker installed on the ceiling of the prison's visitation room.
He was currently sitting in front of the glass partition in the visitation room and had been waiting for several minutes to see the inmate he had come for. Derrick stared at the locked door on the other side of the glass partition with anticipation. He was soon going to meet with the key person who would help him begin the first phase of his plan to achieve an important objective of his.
The door unlocked with a buzzing sound, and the prison guard, who was standing guard and waiting inside the room with Derrick, opened the door for his colleague waiting on the other side. The guard exchanged greetings and a quick word with his colleague on the other side of the door before the other corrections officer handed off the inmate to him, and then he escorted the handcuffed prisoner his colleague had brought with him into the room.
Derrick was watching and assessing the inmate as the guard brought the chained and handcuffed prisoner into the visitation room. The inmate looked to be anywhere between his late thirties and early forties, as his present poor state of grooming and personal hygiene and the slight greying that had begun to appear in his hair made it hard for someone to be able to accurately judge his actual age.
The lower part of the inmate's face was covered by his large, scruffy, unkempt beard. The man's sickly pale complexion and his sunken eyes completed the image that his past few months he had stayed in prison had not been very good to him, whether physically or mentally.
Several emotions—the chief ones being surprise and shock … and maybe a little bit of glee and schadenfreude—were playing in Derrick's mind as soon as he saw the inmate's present appearance and state. No one would have ever expected that Parker Selfridge—the proud, powerful, and exuberant former Head Administrator of the Resources Development Administration (RDA) on Pandora—would ever be reduced to such his present pathetic state.
'Good,' Derrick thought, 'this will make him more amenable to a deal and make it much easier for him to agree to my proposal.'
Immediately Parker Selfridge walked into the visitation room; he glanced around the room anxiously, looking like he was very impatient to find out who it was that had come to visit him this time. He was most likely hoping to hear some good news that would give him new hope about his current situation.
The now-former head administrator and present inmate currently awaiting final trial was taking sweeping, searching glances around the room, but he soon stopped when he saw Derrick was the one sitting behind the dividing glass. With his mouth gaped wide open and eyes widened in surprise, he walked to the glass partition. He then sat down directly across from Derrick before picking up the antique-designed telephone installed on his side of the dividing glass, with Derrick also picking up his own telephone at the same time.
"Derrick? Is that you?" Parker asked, looking more than a little surprised and confused to see him here.
"Hello, cousin." Derrick Selfridge said with a smile. "You must be very surprised to see me here, huh?"
"Yes, very much so. We have never been that close in the past." Parker replied. He seemed to have regained a bit of his composure as he was talking to a familiar face. "Unless you have come here to gloat to my face over my present circumstances."
"Ah, no, no, no." Derrick was wagging his finger and shaking his head. He maintained his innocent smile as he spoke on. "Cousin, you wound me by even thinking that about me. Even though our family relationship has always been distant and a bit strained, we also don't have any bad blood between us, do we? At least I don't think so. It is only the minor issue that I was gunning for your position in the company back then. You know, just simple corporate and company politics. Even with that past between us, you are still my dear older cousin, and we are still family."
Parker held Derrick's gaze for a brief while, searching for something in his eyes. Derrick returned the man's gaze with full certainty that Derrick would see only complete sincerity in his eyes.
Parker then nodded to himself, seeming satisfied with the sincerity he was showing, so he began to vent some of his emotions with a long rant. "Alright, alright. I'm glad to have another visitor for a change. Most of my friends and my other connections in the business have been distancing themselves from me in public and cutting off all connection with me. On the other hand, my defense attorney only brings bad news whenever he comes to visit me—the useless prick!"
Derrick waited for his cousin to finish his loud, angry, emotional ranting before saying, "Ha, lawyers, eh? I know what you mean, cousin. They only want to bill you as much as they can get away with while also doing the bare minimum. Anyway, that is actually why I have come here today. I have good news for you, cousin!"
"Really?!" Parker widened with surprise, and he leaned forward towards his younger cousin as a hopeful glow briefly appeared in his eyes, but his eyes dimmed immediately after as he sighed. "Ha … ha, not funny, cousin. You shouldn't joke with me in this way, Derrick. My attorney already visited me just yesterday, and he told me that my trial will most likely result in the worst verdict."
'Oh, so he has already heard the news from his lawyer. No wonder he's already wallowing in such despair. Good!' Derrick thought to himself while smiling on the inside. Outwardly, he was wringing his hand in commensuration.
"No, I'm not joking," he said. "Right, let me start from the beginning and fully explain it so that you can understand what I mean."
Derrick then cleared his throat and began to explain, "Although I'm not entirely clear about what happened, RDA on Pandora, under your administration, fought a very costly, bloody, and brutal war against the natives of Pandora and lost. As a result, the natives expelled you and the entire company from Pandora. Because of this failure, as the head of the Pandora Branch, I'm sure you already expected to face some consequences and be punished to some extent upon your return to Earth—like maybe being forced to resign or retire early, am I right?"
Just as Derrick expected, Parker nodded in agreement. It was a very obvious possible outcome that anybody who had an inkling of understanding of company politics would see coming.
"But unfortunately for you, that's not what happened, was it?" Derrick continued. "You immediately got arrested when you returned to Earth and had to face criminal charges. You were charged with having committed war crimes on Pandora, among other things, soon after you returned to Earth. Even still, with all your connections both within and outside the company, you could still have gotten away with only having to pay a large fine and a pat on the wrist, or at worst, with the addition of a couple of years of prison time in a cushy minimum-security prison."
"Exactly!" Parker slapped the table in front of the divider glass, looking angry and agitated. He was gritting and gnashing his teeth, most likely remembering how nothing had gone according to expectation since his return to Earth.
Derrick let out a sigh as if he was commiserating with Parker's plight.
"Unfortunately, somehow news about the war on Pandora and the company's actions during the war had been leaked and had spread to the citizens even before your return, and they have all been whipped up into a frenzy by the bleeding hearts, and so now, they are all gunning for your head and calling for the courts to make an example out of you. So, you will most likely be given the maximum sentence of life imprisonment with hard labor with no chance of parole to serve out your time in the Luna Prison Colony on the moon."
"I already know all about that." Parker sighed as he slumped back into his chair. "I still haven't heard any good news from what you have been telling me."
"I was just getting to the good news," Derrick said with a shrug. "Although there is no way to get you out of a conviction and prison time, I was able to work out a very good deal for you at great personal cost to myself. I can use my personal connections in the justice system to reduce your prison sentence from life imprisonment to only twenty years—five years of conscious and awake prison time and the remaining fifteen years spent in cryo-sleep hibernation. Isn't that great! You will only have to actually experience a few five years of true prison time. By the time you come out of prison, all this war crime nonsense will be old and forgotten news, so you can have a fresh start with a somewhat clean slate."
"Mm, I can see the merit in this plan," Parker mused, nodding to himself. But soon after, he looked at Derrick with suspicion and asked, "So, what's your angle in all this? Don't tell me you are helping me simply out of the goodness of your heart. I definitely won't believe that. I know how our family works."
"Haha, of course I want something. There is something I would like you to help me obtain."
Parker nodded to himself, seeming not surprised by this. "So, what is it you want me to help you with?"
"I want you to use your remaining influence and connections in the RDA company to clear the path and pave the way for me to inherit your former position and become the new Head Administrator of the RDA on Pandora. I'm sure you still have the power and ability to do this because even though your connections may be distancing themselves from you in public, they are definitely still willing to do favors for you in private."
"I can't help you with that, cousin." Parker shook his head.
Derrick frowned. This was not the answer he expected from Parker at this time and in his current situation.
Showing his cousin a clear look of disappointment at his words, he queried, "Why not? Come on, cousin. I know you have the power and influence to help me. Besides, are you aware that the Board's top choice for the next Head Administrator is Frank Manfred?"
Parker sniffed with derision. "That pompous and blustering fool. That kiss-ass sycophant. I'm sure he must be so thrilled to finally have his shot at becoming Head Administrator. Hmph, I'm sure he has been slandering me and dragging my name through the company mud in order to make sure he gets my Head Administrator position."
A slightly amused smile played on Derrick's lips as he was looking at his older cousin, "I have heard rumors about the bad blood between you two. I don't much like him either. See, I think you would prefer I inherit your old position instead of him."
Parker sighed. "I can see what you are trying to do, Derrick, but I can't really blame you for it. I would be doing the exact same thing if I were in his shoes. Still, I won't be able to get you the Head Administrator position you want. It's not that I don't want to help you. I just won't be able to do it. And I'm sure you know why."
Derrick snorted in annoyance, and then he complained, "Yeah, yeah, I know their so-called reasons—'You are too young for the Head Administrator position, Derrick,' 'You are too inexperienced for the job,' blah blah blah and so on—even though I have already made a lot of profits and many other meritorious achievements for the company in order to prove my ability to them."
Parker mulled on the proposal and said, "Alright, I agree; I will help you, seeing that I obviously have no way of keeping my former position. The way I see it, you are better than any of the other alternatives. At least you are the only one here actually trying to help me. But, unfortunately, the Head Administrator position is still impossible. The most I can help get you is the deputy head administrator position. I'm sure you must have already tried to get the Head Administrator position and were rejected. You have really not spent enough time in the company to be allowed to have that position."
Derrick said, "Okay, I will take care of everything on your court trial side. It will be a private court trial. It will all be a quick and done trial. Yes … you will have to plead guilty to the charges so that you will receive a much-reduced sentence. This way it will be much easier for my people to be able to also ensure that most of your prison serving time in the Luna Prison Colony will be spent with you in cryo-sleep. In the end, it will only feel like you stayed in prison for a meager five years."
Parker nodded, looking at him in gratitude as he said, "Thank you for everything, cousin."
"No problem. I will inform the family after your sentencing."
Parker snorted with derision. "Ha, as if any of them would come to the trial. They wouldn't want their perfect and pristine reputation to be sullied by being closely associated with me and the trial."
Derrick smiled wryly at Parker's complaint, but in his mind, he thought with a mocking sneer, 'Like you wouldn't have done the same to them.'
***
After leaving the visitation room, Derrick met up with Carrie Roberts, a tall, slim, plain-faced brunette, and his secretary and personal assistant, who was waiting for him outside while he was meeting with his cousin.
"How did it go, sir? Are you going to get the Head Administrator position?" Carrie asked.
Derrick shook his head. "As expected, I could only get him to promise me the Deputy-Head Administrator position. But that's actually not too bad. Parker's endorsement of me will eliminate any obstacle and stumbling block that his remaining supporter base in the company may have originally been inclined to place in my path in the future. Besides, the Board of Directors will most likely allow me to be in charge of most of the actual business operations on Pandora as compensation for my success in changing Parker's trial from a public one to a more discreet and palatable private court trial and because of my stellar achievements in managing my own department in the past.
The secretary asked, "So, will you still help him reduce his sentencing? You know, it will cost you a lot and will use up most of the favors owed to you and a lot of your influence in the company if you do this."
Derrick laughed. "Haha, don't worry. I won't be needing those favors on Pandora. Still, I can't make such a great personal sacrifice for just a Deputy-Head Administrator position. So, I will only ask for some amount of reduced sentence down to maybe between thirty and forty years, and … oh, I think I may also forget to use my influence to allow him the option to serve most of his prison sentence time in cryosleep. So, even if Parker manages to live long enough to finish serving his time in prison, he would be too old and sickly and so forgotten and bereft of any of his past influence and connections in the company and in the family that he won't be able to cause any problem for me or threaten my position in any way."
Derrick added, "Oh, by the way, you did a very good job following my order to spread the information and rumors about my cousin's war crimes against the natives of Pandora to the press and the public. Ha, the public outrage and outcry that the press was able to whip up exceeded my greatest expectations and hope, and it sure made my plans go very smoothly."
Derrick finally concluded by saying to his secretary, "Alright, moving on to matters of more importance. Send out the message. Inform them that it's time for Phase One to begin."
******
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