The Pen
The protomolecule prison also serves as Laconia's ultimate disciplinary threat, binding mundane military lapses to irreversible bodily punishment.
Story so far
The Pen is Laconia's armored infection laboratory, where Paolo Cortazár keeps condemned people and animals as a renewable source of active Protomolecule. Prisoners pass through a hemorrhagic, vomiting stage and develop alien growths while staff drain useful material from their bodies.
A revised Laconian military code now makes dereliction of duty punishable by being sent there. Captain Iwasa considers that fate excessive for two Marines caught sleeping on watch and substitutes administrative penalties. His refusal to enforce the sentence, followed by a lie to his superior, destroys his career and becomes the test through which Winston Duarte identifies Santiago Singh as an officer who will place institutional duty above love.
Appearance
A sealed dark-metal cube of guarded airlocks, catwalks, and torch-cleaned holding bays, its moaning infected prisoners making an otherwise abstract military punishment bodily and immediate.
Role
The Pen supplies protomolecule material and gives Laconia's code a punishment severe enough to expose whether commanders will obey without reservation.
Relationships
Sources — 2 recorded facts, by chapter
- Laconia's armored biosecurity prison turns infected people and animals into a renewable supply of active protomolecule.
- The protomolecule prison also serves as Laconia's ultimate disciplinary threat, binding mundane military lapses to irreversible bodily punishment.