[ WP ] Instead of prison time , punishment for crimes is a sentence of living in another time period in the past .

`` Of all the places and times they could place us... why here?'' 
 
 Gerald turned to me. `` Do n't be foolish Ian. Why would they send us anywhere else. Look at this place!'' He gestured out to the empty and barren field. `` What possible damage could we do to anyone but ourselves?'' 
 
 In the distance, we could see the battered sky scrapers and the blackened ground that lead to the city where they rusted. We'd gone there once, using the heavier grade suits provided the lab techs. Even through the suit, I could feel the warmth of the radiation. There'd been nothing of worth to see there, just a charred ruin that had once been Los Angeles. 
 
 There was nothing worth seeing anywhere, at all. Nothing grew out of the ground, or walked on it. Nothing flew in the air above us, or swam in the sea miles to the south of us. The water there was too dead to support even microbes. 
 
 `` Besides,'' Gerald went on. `` This time and place serve as an object lesson. To show us what our wayward behavior will one day do to the world, should men like us fail to change our hearts.'' 
 
 I scoffed. `` That is *suuuch* a crock of shit!'' He looked at me quizzically. `` Oh come on Gerald! Do you really think it was'Men Like Us' who did this to the world? Poor men struggling to make ends meet? Men who can barely feed their families, and only because we go outside the precious law supplement the meager incomes we can eek out working in factories that build service robots, or the repair shops that keep them working?'' I kicked a rock across the barren landscape. `` No. The scars on this damaged world are not the making of hands like ours. This world was destroyed by wealthy men with power. The kind of men like those who made the laws that acted against, and own the courts that sentenced us.'' 
 
 I cast my arm back toward the time-gate through which our monthly provisions were dropped, and through which we'd be pulled up into in another few years when our time was up. `` We were sent here in the hopes that it would prevent this awful from from coming to pass. We were sent here to witness what our masters can and will do if ever there comes a day when too many people stop obeying them.'' Gesturing toward the ruins of LA I said `` That's not a cautionary warning... it's a braggadocious threat.'' 
 
 Gerald nodded grimly. `` Aye, that may be true. If it is, then I guess you've got your answer on why we were sent here then.'' 
 
 Nodding back I sighed. `` I suppose I do.'' 
 
 `` So, now that you've got that out of your system, whatta ya wan na do for today?'' 
 
 I shrugged. `` Another round of cards?'' 
 
 `` Sure, we're up to 800,000 or so apiece in that rummy game. Let's see how much longer it takes for one of us to hit a million.'' 
 
 Gerald headed back into the hut to set up the table and shuffle the cards. I lingered a while longer to look out at the bleached landscape, wondering if humanity still lived on in this age. Not the transplants from days past like me, but our descendants. There were n't any to be found on this ball of sun baked rock and sterile water... but what about out there? Where there any humans living on Martian colonies, or exploring the rest of the solar system? Had we made it out to other stars yet? 
 
 I hoped not. Because if there were humans out in the cosmos, they were n't any descendants of mine, or of folk like me. No, peasants like me would have been left to rot on this dying planet, or burned away when all the bombs fell. The ones who left would have been the wealthy bastards who destroyed this world. Those bastards would be the ones to get away from the mess and leave others to pay the price. 
 
 That's why I dearly hoped that our savage stupidity had gotten the better of mankind before our cunning and amoral intellect had figured out all the big problems of space travel. Bad enough we should ruin world. God forbid any of us should spread to another.
