At a computer, Solrio opened a video record of the incident. After watching it, she went off to find Toya, Meera, and Lonc. The three conferred for a long time. Instead of informing each person individually of her verdict on the situation, she gathered them in the hall and led them down toward the security area where Haerm was being held. At the door of the transporter room, she paused. “Dr. Bonnema and Bahansir, you may go home.”
“They shouldn’t get to leave! They were fighting too!” Thys’s face turned red. “That’s not fair!”
“Video records of the entire incident are on file. Your father and the three of you are responsible for this incident. Eiske and Bahansir the Younger were defending themselves. This is an area with holding cells that are used for disciplinary purposes,” she told them as the door slid open. Haerm sat in an alcove with his head in his hands.
“Dad!” the three boys exclaimed. “Let' s go home!”
"No one is going anywhere," Solrio responded. "Haerm Bron, the charges have been entered into your record for assault and battery of a Protectorate representative, and failure to stop your children from assaulting a private citizen. As a result, you will be detained for twenty-four hours. Your three sons are being held for assault of a Zuphreon citizen. We have two options as to how the boys will be punished. The first option is detainment for the next twenty-four hours here in the Protectorate Enclave. If detained, they be given the same treatment that incarcerated Protectorate juveniles receive. They will be placed in individual alcoves in the juvenile area. They will experience the alarms, interrupted sleep, the one-hour physical training sessions, counselling, the assistance that is provided for the inability to control their emotions, and any necessary discipline should they be physically and emotionally resistant to participating in the activities. The second option is that they are released into your custody for your personal discipline at home. If you choose this second option, you will be provided with suggestions as to how to teach them that assault is unacceptable. To accomplish this, you will be held here twenty-four hours for each child that is sent home.”
Haerm interrupted her. “Let me out of here! I need to prepare the sheds for the spring delivery of chicks!"
“Dad, send me home. I only gave Syp what she deserved!” Kryn announced.
“No, Dad, send me! This was all Kryn’s idea.” Thys and Teed began to grumble and push one another.
“Will this detainment be on the boys’ records?” Haerm asked.
“I haven’t decided yet.”
Solrio asked Haerm what his decision was. “Boys, I need all of you to stay here tonight. That way we can get home and get those buildings built.” The fear the juveniles felt was evidenced in their loud, whiny voices. “Shut up! STOP YOUR BITCHING!” The room was silent. “Mediator, they’re all staying,” Haerm said angrily.
“Come with me,” Solrio said and went into the hallway. No one moved. “I said come with me!” The boys shuffled their feet and looked at one another. “Guards!” Two guards entered the room. “Take them away,” she said angrily.
“Where are you taking them?” Haerm yelled.
“To the juvenile block.”
“You said they would be with me.”
“I said they would be put in cells in the juvenile wing.” Solrio returned to face him. “I suppose I could put them in here. That way they can see what sort of people come through here.”
“No.”
She followed the boys from the room into a similar one. “Thys, please step forward.” He stamped across the floor and stood in a two-meter square area. A padded ledge stretched along one wall and a tiny sink protruded over a toilet. He turned around anxiously and tried to walk out. An invisible energy field stopped him.
“This isn’t fair!” He tried to pound on it.
“Kryn, you’re here.” He sauntered into the small area, pretending that he didn’t care. “Here you go, Teed.”
Teed became very anxious. “I don’t do well in small spaces. You can’t keep me here. I’ll go crazy!”
“If you are unable to control your emotions, you will be given assistance,” Solrio said.
“Can you guys hear me?”
“Yes. You’ll be fine, Teed. It’s only for a night.”
“I wish I had my electronic pad.”
“Me, too.”
“I’m bored.”
“Hey! What about our homework?”
“Yeah! Let us out! We have to do our homework! We’ll get in trouble at school if we don’t have our homework done!”
Each of them tried to walk out the alcove openings. The individual force fields lit up and prevented them from leaving. They heard the door close as Solrio left the room.
“Maybe the openings will open if we try enough times,” Kryn called to Thys and Teed. There was no escape. “Maybe there’s something electronic we can manipulate. The first person out has to help the others.”
“There’s nothing in mine.”
“There’s a control panel right to the right of you, Teed.” He tried to put his hand through the field.
The three talked back and forth, trying to get out of the alcoves. Solrio returned to the room. “It’s time to be quiet. You need to spend your time thinking about why you felt the need to hurt Bahansir.”
"He deserves it!”
“It’s all Syp's fault that we’re here.”
“If he wouldn’t have been at the information center, this never would have happened.”
“Bahansir the Younger, what a stupid name.”
“Bahansir is the name of a judge in Kop,” Kryn said with a sneer. “Syp probably got herself thrown in jail there.”
“What are you talking about, Kryn. You said that was Syp!"
"I might be wrong. That guy's hair was blue."
"It was not! It was brown, like Syp's."
"Yeah, probably this Bahansir guy bailed her out, ‘cause she’s a girl. No one would do that for any of us.”
A guard entered the room. “It’s time for you to be quiet. If you cannot control your emotional outbursts, I will help you.”
“What does that mean?”
“If you really want to know, I’ll show you. Who wants to be first?” They were quiet.
The three boys eventually lay down on the bunks in their compartments. They’d been asleep less than two hours when a loud alarm sounded. Guards shouted at them to get up and threw clothing at them. “Put these on!” Frightened, they complained loudly. Teed and Thys did as they were told. Kryn sat on his bunk and told the guards that he wasn’t going anywhere. He watched as Thys and Teed were pushed out the door. After an hour of running on a trail on the inside edge of the enclave, the two boys were roughly pushed back into the juvenile area. Kryn stood in his alcove unmoving.
“Kryn! Are you okay?”
“I can’t move! Make them take me out of here!”
The two brothers ran into his alcove to see what was wrong. “You look fine to me.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“I can’t move!”
When they reached out to touch him, Teed and Thys found that Kryn was surrounded by a force field. It was only centimeters from his body. He couldn’t lift his arms or move his feet, but he could turn his head back and forth. He watched as the guards pushed his brothers back into their alcoves. They lay down and went to sleep while Kryn stood immobilized. Two hours later, the alarm sounded again. Kryn discovered that he could now move. He lay down on his bunk and refused to get up. The other two followed the guards out the door and again ran the track for an hour.
When they returned, they found Kryn standing. “Get me out of here!” he hollered.
Again, they approached him and found they couldn’t change the situation. The third time the alarm sounded, Kryn was again released. This time he followed his brothers, and they ran the circles around the inside of the enclave. They were sent back to bed.
Early the next morning, they were awakened and led down the hall to the dining area. They were seated in separate areas and given trays of food. It looked like eggs and bacon, but it tasted like paper.
Each boy was offered a shower and a change of clothes. Teed and Thys cleaned up and dressed. They were eating breakfast when they saw Kryn come into the room. Teed was talking with Solrio when the guard accompanying Kryn led him in. Kryn ate breakfast in silence. When he refused to go with the guard to talk with Dr. Inotay, the guard forced him to his feet. The guard pushed Kryn into a corner. He stood immobilized at the far end of the room while Solrio met with Thys and Teed talked with Lonc Vallino.
Teed and Thys acknowledged separately that they had made some choices that weren’t very well thought out and readily accepted the consequences of being held at the facility. They were apologetic and told Solrio that it was easy to blame Syp for the things that didn’t go right, even though she wasn’t around. Each of them agreed to stop bullying other people and to attend the classes on self-awareness and conflict that were held after school.
“I like my choices of how I’ve acted!” Kryn insisted during his conference with Solrio.
She didn’t respond at first. “You like having your movements restricted and standing around? Wouldn’t you prefer to be outside? Or be with your brothers?”
“No.”
“I suggest that you consider what might happen if you continue to provoke other people into fights. Perhaps you should ask your dad what it's like being here more than one day.”
“He said you gave him three square meals and a bed for a good night's sleep. Sounds like a good life to me.”
“Your father slept in two-hour increments, just as you did last night. As for three square meals a day, all the meals will taste like the one you just ate. I should think you'd want to go to school, learn a trade, and live on your own."
“Nope. I want to lie around and not do anything. I’ll be out of here in no time.”
“I see. You like being by yourself, and not doing anything. What happens if you don’t get your way?”
“I’ll just beat someone up.”
“So, you’ll have a temper tantrum like a one-year-old.”
“You’ve got it right.”
“Children who are incarcerated have supervised activities every moment of the day. You have a choice. You can participate in the activities, or you can continue to resist.”
“You can’t make me participate!” he challenged her.
“Despite the fact that you are incarcerated, you get to make choices. You made choices all last night. You received the consequences each time. Kryn, I’d like you to meet Dem. She’ll be in charge of you for the rest of the day.” Dem came to the table and said hello.
“Am I supposed to feel threatened?” he said as she stood next to him.
“I don’t know. You must be, since you brought it up. Come on, it’s time for physical training.”
“No. You can’t make me.”
“You’re right. You have a choice. He came in at 21:12 last night, and refused to participate in two physical trainings, Solrio.” Solrio nodded. “You are on the clock for sixteen hours and fifty-one minutes of activities. If you are not participating, the time is not credited toward your release.”
“What are you trying to say? Spit it out!”
“I’m telling you that you will not leave this facility until you have put in sixteen hours and fifty-one minutes of activities. You can do it consecutively and be released from here at about 21:12 tonight, or you can spread it out over the next one thousand one hundred and eleven days, one minute of activity each day, if that’s what you choose.”
“I’m scheduled to be released tonight.”
“You will be released when you have participated in sixteen hours and fifty-one minutes of activity.”
“You can’t do this!”
“We can. These are the guidelines that all the children in the youth facility follow. The group you’ve been assigned to is presently at physical training.” Kryn glared at Dem and refused to get up.
“I’ll see you later, Kryn.” Solrio walked away.
Dem forced Kryn to his feet. Once again, he was immobilized. After standing with him for an hour, Dem spoke. “Perhaps you’d like to join your brothers now,” Dem suggested. “They are with a counselor. If you start now, you can be released at 00:09. If you continue to refuse to participate, you won’t be able to accumulate all your time until tomorrow morning.”
“My brothers are being released at 21:12?”
“I would presume so.”
“Can we find out their release times?”
“Why?”
“I want to be released when they are.”
“That’s not possible. By making the choice to not participate, you chose to not be released when they will be.”
“They’re going to want to know why I wasn’t released when they were!”
“You can explain when you get home.”
“This isn’t fair!” he yelled, but he followed Dem down a hall. “I hope the other meals taste better than breakfast.”
“All of our meals are made from nutritional material, formed to approximate the look of food. This is the same food that people in long-term lock-up get.”
“Long-term lock-up?” Kryn said in disbelief. “I just won’t eat. You’ll send me home so that I don’t starve to death.”
“No. I won’t. Children who choose not to eat the food rations will either choose to take their nutrition in a pill or injection. If a child cannot make the choice for himself, his assigned counselor will make it for him. That way children receive the appropriate nutrition. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. Most children complain of hunger between meals when they choose the pills or injections. I suggest that you consider each choice that you make carefully. There are several acceptable ways to deal with the various types of conflict you experience.” Dem and Kryn entered a room where Teed and Thys sat with Lonc Vallino, discussing how to handle conflict with their teachers.
***
Solrio brought a chair from across the security room and sat in front of Haerm’s alcove. “I’d like to inform you that two of your sons are apologetic for what happened last night. They have agreed they won’t do it again. Two of them will be released on time tonight, if they continue to cooperate and participate in the activities and discussions. The third one is presently scheduled to be released at 00:09. He is resistant and argumentative. He claims that his goal in life is to lie around, not do anything, and beat people up if they don’t cater to his wishes.”
“That would be Kryn.”
“Please share with me what you hope your sons are learning while they’re here.”
“That you are watching every move Eiske and Syp make and will make excuses for their behavior. Eiske wasn’t punished last time either.”
“Generally speaking, the aggressor is the one disciplined.”
“Eiske shouldn’t be helping Syp.”
“This adult that your boys tried to hurt is named Bahansir the Younger. It has the right to live wherever it wants, just like the other adults in this area.”
“I want it off this peninsula.”
“What you want is irrelevant. As a citizen of Zuphreon, Bahansir the Younger has the same rights, responsibilities, and privileges as any other adult. I’d like to know which of your family members made the initial threat against the doctor in the community center?”
“None of them did.”
"Who threw the first punch?”
“None of them did.”
“Haerm, this is a very strange way of responding. You don’t want them to be blamed for what happened. You refuse to claim responsibility for your actions, just as you did the last time you were here. How do I know that you aren’t going to pick another fight with the doctor?”
“He needs to stay away from me.”
“You need to stay away from him. Your choice. Your responsibility. This is the second incident that is on your record. If you come here again, Haerm, you won’t be given a mediator or another chance. You will be detained and appear before a judge, then serve time in one of the Protectorate prisons. Sentences handed down cannot be appealed or changed. You will not be allowed contact with anyone outside of the facility for the term of your sentence. Your family will not informed of your whereabouts or provided an explanation of where you are. You disappear from society into custody and are released to the exact location where you were detained when your term is up. Your choice to not participate in anger management classes will impact the decision the judge makes. These classes are also available in your local area. I suggest that you attend them. Information where classes are held will be provided to you this evening when you are released.”
“This evening?”
“Your twenty-four hours began at 21:12.”
“I need to prepare my buildings!”
“You might want to consider the implications of not being available to care for your farm the next time you want to hurt someone.”
“You need to release me!”
“You have about eight more hours of detainment, unless you'd like to stay until Kryn is released? Here is some reading material. There might be someone available to work through part of the anger management training, if you request it. We can contact a psychologist to discuss with you why you are so angry.” She released the containment field, tossed an electronic pad onto the bed beside him, and turned the containment field back on.
“I can’t believe you are doing this to us,” Haerm muttered. “It’s ridiculous.”
“Young boys and sometimes youth have fights instead of working things out verbally. They are immature and unable to consistently make good choices. They need direction and a firm hand. You’re an adult. You make choices every day. You know that some choices affect other people in an immediate way, and others are long term. You made a choice last night when you threw the first punch. I’ll see you tonight. If you decide you’d like assistance in working through your problem, there is a communicator right there.” She pointed to the wall.
After she was gone, Haerm picked up the pad. He pressed the button indicating his age. A list popped up of articles that were available, and he began to scroll through it. Strategies to deal with conflict at work. How to handle employee Conflict. Causes for conflict in marriage and how to resolve them. 10 De-Escalation Tips. Inability to handle marriage finances. How to handle conflict with your parents. The cycle of anger. The passive-aggressive conflict cycle. Breaking the cycle of anger and conflict. The longer he looked at the titles, the more enraged he became. He was ready to throw the pad at the wall.
Is there a link between anxiety and anger? He clicked on the article and began to read. A few hours later, Solrio walked into the observation room connected to the adult security block. Haerm sat reading the pad. She flipped a button and the content he was viewing was displayed on the screen at her side. “Thirty powerful ways to deal with fear,” she said aloud. “Maybe he’s coming around.”