by Caryn Lix
He crouched and caught the zipper of my hoodie, then tugged me toward him. The knuckles of his hand brushed my neck as he unzipped my sweater. He slid it down my shoulder, his touch leaving tiny sparks in its wake. I shivered visibly, but if Cage noticed, he didn’t say anything. Instead, with infinite care, he turned over my arm to reveal the bandage where he’d extracted my chip. “They will be once they see that.”
I hesitated. Cage was asking me to throw off the last vestiges of my old identity, to completely and irrevocably shift from Kenzie the guard to Kenzie the anomaly, the freak—the prisoner.
Was that a step I wanted to take? After reading my file, I’d realized that Omnistellar wasn’t the beacon of civilization it claimed to be. I knew I’d already sacrificed my citizenship with them, and probably in any corporation. But if I threw in with the prisoners, who did that make me? I would have committed the ultimate treason, and there would be nothing left of the person I knew.
Of course, in the eyes of the law, I’d pretty much done that already. And I didn’t have time to waste with Kristin and her pals tripping me whenever I walked by. Besides, Omnistellar had threatened me with imprisonment when I was a mere child. They’d drilled my mother until she was willing to kill me rather than betray them. I grabbed Cage’s hand, and he caught my elbow, then lifted me onto the table without jostling my injuries.
The murmur from the crowd became a growl.
He raised his hand, positioning me in front of him so they couldn’t miss the bandage on my arm. “Enough,” he said. “She’s one of us.”
That stopped them, all right. I didn’t exactly sense a wave of warmth and acceptance, though—more like tentative confusion. I took advantage of the lull to chime in. “It’s true. I didn’t know it myself until an hour ago, but I had a chip in my arm, just like you. And now . . . well, now I don’t.”
“More importantly,” Cage called, stalking up beside me, “we aren’t alone on this station. I know rumor has it other prison sectors are empty, the prisoners are missing. Well, that rumor’s true. Some of you have talked to Anya there.” He nodded to where she sat huddled against the wall, one of the older girls beside her. “And you may have dismissed her story as hallucinations, the result of trauma. I know I did.”
He faltered, and I covered. “But it isn’t. It’s true. There’s something on this station—more than one, actually. And if there’s a better word to describe it than ‘monster,’ I haven’t found it.”
Stunned silence met that announcement. Kristin recovered her voice first. “Right. There’s a scary monster running around the station, so we all have to stay here. What’d you do? Drug Cage so he’d hallucinate? Use a VR sim? Because I’m not buying this monster for a minute.”
“You think we all hallucinated?” Matt called from the background. Rune caught his arm and tried to tug him back, but he gently pushed her aside and jumped onto the table beside Cage. The two boys bumped fists without even looking, and Matt continued: “Because I saw it too, and let me tell you, it was a pretty damn vivid ‘hallucination.’ ”
Kristin snorted. “So if these things are so vicious, how come you’re all still standing?”
“Are we?”
I spun. Mia was back, leaning against the wall, Alexei behind her. He met Cage’s gaze and shrugged helplessly.
Mia pulled her shirt over her head, leaving her in a plain white bra and catching the interest of most of the room. Their attention shifted quickly, though, when she unwound her bandages to reveal the gaping claw marks scoring her abdomen. Cage’s hasty and messy stitches had done nothing to make the wound less horrifying.
A collective gasp went up, and Mia hopped onto a chair, wincing at the movement. “Take a long look,” she invited. “That creature did this in about three seconds. Cage and Kenzie scared it off, or it would have gored me.” She reached into a pocket and produced the claw. She must have grabbed it off the medical tray when I wasn’t looking. “Does that look like a bloody hallucination to you?”
A murmur went up at the sight. Mia swayed but caught herself. Alexei leaped forward and steadied her from behind, and she swatted his hand away. “If you really think this is some elaborate scam, all I have to say is, don’t expect me to save you from your own stupidity.” She stared straight at Kristin when she said it, holding her head high until the other girl backed down.
Mia’s dramatic display accomplished what Cage and I hadn’t, and a frightened hush fell over the crowd. A scowling Alexei helped Mia off the chair and back into her shirt.
One of the other kids piped up. “You knew these . . . these things were on the station and you just left us here?”
“We didn’t know before,” Cage replied. “Besides, you were as safe here as anywhere—safer, frankly. My guess is that they came in through sector four and worked their way up, not realizing we were right beneath their feet. But they will. I guarantee it. They’re smarter than they look, and they’re not here to make friends. But I can give you one bit of good news: we have a way off this station.”
This time, a thrill of excitement laced the crowd’s nervous fear. I couldn’t blame them—after years in prison, some of them probably for no crime other than existing, the possibility of escape overshadowed the threat of aliens.
“Look, you have to be quiet!” I shouted. It was kind of contradictory, but it worked. Their voices dropped. “So far, we’ve been lucky. But we don’t think those things can see, which means they hunt by sound. You get what I’m saying? The quieter we stay, the less likely they are to notice us. And trust me, you don’t want them to notice us.”
Silence fell, and Cage seized the opportunity. “There’s a shuttle. It won’t carry us all in one go, and Kenzie’s the only one who knows how to operate it.” I blinked—I hadn’t told him I could pilot. But of course, he read it in my file. I wondered how many of my skills factored into their original plan. If Mom had backed down, would I have become their pilot?
“What do you need from us, Cage?” called a boy at the back of the room.
Cage cast him a grateful look. “Quiet,” he said. “Quiet and patience. We need to leave you here one more time while we check on the shuttle. Then we’ll transport as many of you as we can to . . .” His face blanked, but he barely missed a beat, finishing smoothly, “To safety before we return for the rest.”
Cage glanced at me, then at the crowd. He pulled me more tightly against him, his grip burning my goose-bumped flesh, giving me his warmth, his security—and making his allegiance clear to the prisoners. “Thank you,” he said to them, his voice softer. They leaned in to listen. “I know this hasn’t gone according to plan, and I know I’ve asked a lot from all of you. I’m asking for just a bit more. I swear to you: I’ll get you to safety or die trying.”
He got an appreciative murmur as he turned back toward the server room, jumped from the table, and held out his hand. I understood he was offering a show of solidarity more than physical assistance, and I slid my fingers through his, stepping down to join him. With a grin, he extended his other hand to Matt, who chuckled and accepted the offer. His laugh seemed to lighten the mood in the room, and it was like a physical veil of tension lifted from the crowd at our backs.
Cage nodded at Rune, and they set off for the server room. He still had my hand, so apparently I was going with them. I noticed he wasn’t squeezing Matt’s fingers any longer.
We entered the cramped space, which didn’t get any bigger when Tyler, Matt, Mia, and Alexei shoved in behind us.
Cage kicked the door closed. He ran his fingers through his hair, leaving it standing on end. “Thanks, Mia,” he said. “If you hadn’t stepped in . . .”
“They’re all fired up,” she said, slumping against a console and closing her eyes. A second later she shook her head and fixed everyone with a furious glare, like we’d somehow been spying on her moment of weakness.
“You can’t blame them,” Rune said. She glanced at Matt and frowned. “Everyone’s scared. Cage, Kenzie . . . do
you really have a way off this station?”
Cage smiled at her affectionately. “Would I lie about that, meimei?”
“Probably. Yes.”
“We have a way, but it’s not going to be easy,” I interjected. “It’ll take at least two trips.” And I don’t know where we’re going. Back to Earth, I supposed. It wasn’t a great option, but as Cage said, it was better than being eaten by space monsters. “I need to reach the shuttle and see if it’s fueled and intact—Rita didn’t exactly have time to tell me before . . .” My voice caught in my throat, and Cage steadied me with a hand on my elbow. The others exchanged mystified glances, but I didn’t feel like going over the details at the moment, so I said, “Anyway, we should get going. The sooner, the better.” And once I get you to safety, I’m going to find Mom, I added silently. But I wasn’t sure how Mia would respond to that, so I kept it to myself.
Cage nodded. “The creatures don’t seem to like electricity. I think we should leave one of the stun guns, and you and I can take the other.”
I didn’t love the idea of us only having one gun, but I got it—otherwise, we left everyone unprotected. “Great. You can leave yours,” I said.
Cage grinned, checked the safety, and passed it to Alexei. “You know how to use it?”
“I do,” Mia snapped.
“Yeah, but I’d rather give it to someone not in danger of passing out at any second. No offense.”
Alexei nodded. “Mia’s the crack shot, but I’ll handle it.”
“Oh, will you?” Mia twisted to glare at him, and froze with a grimace of pain. Instantly, Alexei was at her side, supporting her. She folded into his arms and rested against his shoulder, her eyes closed and her teeth sunk into her bottom lip so far I was surprised she didn’t draw blood. “Okay,” she ground out at last. “I get your point.”
“Good,” said Cage dryly. “Maybe now you’ll sit the hell down before you tear your stitches. Rune, I’ll need you on the computer. Have you had any luck scanning for those things?”
She shook her head. “They don’t register as alive. The bioscanner is useless.”
“What about the station’s defenses? The turrets?” I asked.
“I can activate them, but without the chips to target, they’re . . . imprecise. They spray bullets everywhere. The way those things move, I’d probably hit one of you before a creature.”
I racked my brain for anything to make this job a little less . . . what was the word?
Oh yeah. Impossible.
Then I remembered. “Where’s my comm unit?”
Cage blinked. “Your what?”
“My comm unit. You popped it out of my wrist when we first met.” I indicated the empty slot where it should rest. “Give me that, and we can talk to Rune from anywhere on Sanctuary.”
“Good thinking,” he said, then reached into his pocket and produced the slim metal circle. He tossed it to me, and I slid it into place. The familiar click sent a rush of peace through me—I’d worn the comm so long I felt empty without it. A quick check of my battery revealed a half charge remaining, more than enough to finish the job. Unread messages scrolled past my eyes: three from Dad, one from Noah . . . and twelve from Mom. A quick glance at the time told me they’d all been sent in the hour after I went missing. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I set them aside.
“One more thing,” I said. “Matt . . . would you come with us? You at least got a sense of where they were and when they were nearby.”
Rune reached for him, then checked herself. “Yes,” she said, although she didn’t sound convinced. “That’s a good idea. You can keep them safe.”
Matt shook his head dubiously. “I can try,” he said. “I didn’t sense much of anything before, though, so I don’t know how much use I’ll be.”
“Even if you can’t find the creatures, maybe you can help us locate the rest of the prisoners.” Or my mother.
Cage caught my eye and nodded, following my train of thought. “I’d appreciate having you nearby,” he said to Matt, meeting the other boy’s eyes.
Matt smiled, the lines on his forehead softening, and the tension that had appeared between them back in the med facility faded away. “Whatever I can do to help,” he agreed.
“Just like always,” Cage chuckled.
“Sounds like a plan.” Mia rubbed her hand across the back of her neck. “And if you lot get yourselves killed? What then?”
“I can pilot the shuttle,” Rune volunteered timidly. “At least, I can access the operator’s manual. I might even be able to interact with the controls directly.”
Cage nodded. “Good. We’ll—”
Rune’s voice sharpened. “I wasn’t finished. I was going to say that I could probably figure it out, but I won’t have to, because you are coming back, gege. And Matt with you.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly.
Rune punched me in the shoulder with surprising strength. My eyes widened, my fists clenching instinctively, but before I could react, she threw an arm around me in half a hug. “You’re all coming back. That’s an order. You hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Cage pulled her out of my arms and into his own for long enough to drop a kiss on top of her head. “Stay with Mia and Alexei. Tyler, you too. We’ll be back soon.” He glanced at me. “No point putting it off. You ready?”
I nodded. “Let’s go. We’ll—”
“Wait,” said Matt, his face screwed up in concentration.
Something thudded overhead.
The entire group froze, staring at the ceiling panels. “Matt?” whispered Cage, barely audible.
He shook his head, backing Rune toward the console. At the same moment, the panel shattered on the ground, and one of the creatures dropped into the room.
TWENTY-THREE
THE ALIEN SNIFFED THE AIR, its jaw working furiously. There was no way to avoid it in this tiny, cramped space, no matter how still and quiet we stayed. If it reached out, its claws would graze Rune’s shoulder.
Cage could escape and take one of us with him. But the rest . . . What good was invisibility or the ability to understand freaking Mandarin against a space monster?
So far the creature wasn’t moving—because it was listening. Waiting for us to make the first move?
I slid my hand to my waistband and nudged the holster of my stun gun aside with agonizing slowness, sliding my fingers around the trigger and easing it into my hand. Alexei caught my eye and shook his head.
Alexei. Of course. His power.
Fire.
If electricity bothered them, fire might too. The only problem was that Rune, Cage, Matt, and I stood directly in his path.
Rune had caught the glance too. She gestured at the consoles, her meaning clear: Fry the electronics, and who knows what kind of damage you’ll do? It was a valid concern. If we damaged Sanctuary badly enough, it might block me from launching the shuttle.
There was some kind of frantic unspoken conversation going on in the room, the tension palpable, and still the creature hadn’t moved. The next thing we knew, its neck craned upward. It bent its powerful hind legs and launched itself into the ceiling.
I was the first to recover my composure. My eyes glued to the hole where the ceiling panel had been, I backed toward the door but bumped into Alexei, who automatically steadied me, then tucked me behind him and gestured the others forward. No one argued, not even Mia—if that thing burst through the ceiling, we needed Alexei front and center. If it came to a choice between saving the electronics and saving myself, I knew which way I leaned.
We reached the main area without incident, and Alexei slid the door shut behind us. “Well,” said Cage dryly, “I think our respite is over.”
“But it left,” Rune pointed out. “Why would it leave if it knew we were here? We were quiet. Maybe it didn’t hear us. Maybe it was just checking the room and—”
“They don’t just check things,” I said. “Trust me.” I couldn’t explain why the creature hadn’t attacked. Maybe
it went for reinforcements. But whatever the reason, it spelled trouble. “Cage, we need to move everyone out of sector five. I don’t know what that was, but I don’t like it.”
He nodded in agreement. “But move where?”
“Sector four,” said Mia, her arms folded over her chest.
“Four? You mean where all of this started?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. If they came in through four—breached the hull and did whatever they did to the prisoners—they’re less likely to check it a second time. We move everyone up there and keep them quiet. That’ll be the hard part.” She shook her head, then brightened. “Unless we leave Kristin behind.”
“Mia,” Rune reproached softly.
She shrugged. “Fine. If she gets too loud, I’ll knock her out.”
“I have another idea,” said Rune hesitantly. “But you’re not going to like it.”
“Well, that’s a ringing endorsement.” Cage sagged against the wall, running his hands through his hair again. “I haven’t liked much of anything that’s happened today, meimei, so let’s hear it.”
Rune shrugged. “I can activate emergency lockdown.”
“No.” Mia leveled an accusing finger in her direction. “Not a chance in hell.”
“What’s emergency lockdown?” I demanded. I’d thought I knew everything about Sanctuary. Apparently not.
“Emergency lockdown,” Matt replied grimly, “is when the prison electrifies the floors. Anyone seated on their cot is safe. The rest of the prison becomes one huge electrical conduit. It’s not a strong enough jolt to kill you, but if you get stuck there, with electricity coursing through you, well . . .”
“So the floors are completely electrified,” I said. “And that means if the creatures burst through the ceiling . . .”
“They get zapped,” finished Rune. “Yes. The only catch is that none of us can leave our cots.”
“What about you?”
Another shrug. “I’ll be okay if I bond deeply enough with the system.” She caught my look of confusion and elaborated. “I can skim the surface, or I can go deep. You’ve seen me do both. If I totally immerse myself in Sanctuary’s AI, I can control almost anything—including which rooms the lockdown affects. I’ll just leave the server room out of it.”
