by E. A. James
Her words were instantly turned into text.
“Alaria, this is Kira. We’re here. All of us are here. We’re safe.”
A long pause followed. Dario grabbed onto her other shoulder, and both he and Thor squeezed her tightly. If it hadn’t been for the tension running through her, she would have noticed the extremely nervous pressure they were both applying.
“Kira?” a reply came. “Kira. We’re here. All of us.”
“You have the plans?”
“We do. Did you find Aldo or Kardo?”
“Kardok!” Kardok said, clapping his hands together happily.
“Yes,” Kira replied. “We found them both. Can you get us out?”
“We’re working on it.”
“How long?”
“Not sure. We’re considering working with the underground criminal assault.”
Kira looked at Thor and then at Dario.
“It’s dangerous,” she said to Dario, whose eyes were fixed on the screen.
“It’s going to happen either way, isn’t it?” he replied absently. “It would be better if they did. The true intentions of the raid will be covered up, they won’t be alone out there, facing off against the entire security crew of Jaantu 7.”
Kira nodded. “Alaria, do it.”
“Copy. We will radio who we can and try to figure out what’s happening. Then, we’ll send a message back to you, telling you what we figured out from the plans and how the break out will go down.”
“Good.”
“Alaria?” Dario said, pushing himself forward quickly. “Alaria, it’s Dario.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“I miss you.”
“I miss you, too.”
A long pause.
“Dario. There’s something you should know.”
“What?”
Another long silence.
“Thane sent a message.”
Dario's posture went stiff. His hand clenched down on Kira's shoulder again as he waited for her to continue.
“He’s okay, for now. He says that an attack is imminent. He has his weapon; he’s chosen a star system. Grimm wants to act as soon as possible. He knows Kira’s locked up.”
Dario sucked in a long, shaky breath. His eyes filled with tears and his hands began to shake.
“Thank you. Tell him I say thank you, and I miss him. Please.”
“I will,” Alaria replied. “I love you, Dario.”
“I love you, too, Alaria.”
“Goodbye for now.”
That was the end of the messages. An eerie silence filled the small space as Aldo switched the screens back to the group text feed. The last words Alaria sent—‘attack’, ‘imminent’, ‘he knows’—seemed to hang in the air, their unspoken sound bouncing off the walls around them.
Before anyone spoke, Aldo’s fingers began to dance across the keyboard again.
“What are you doing?” Kira asked.
“I’m organizing a damn revolution,” he said, his eyes fixed on the screen. “I’m getting us the hell out of here, so you can get to doing what you need to be—stopping that ego-inflated maniac before he destroys the whole blasted Galaxy.”
“I thought you didn’t care about stopping Grimm,” Dario replied.
Aldo’s fingers didn’t stop moving as he looked back at them over his shoulder. “I never said I didn’t care; I just didn’t understand the immediacy of the situation. You three need to work on your delivery, you know.”
“Well, you understand now, right?” Dario asked. “You understand what we’re dealing with.”
“I understand that we need to get the hell out of here,” Aldo said, turning back to the screens. “What’s your ship’s call sign?”
“The Curio,” Thor answered. “Why?”
“Because they are now officially leading the revolt,” Aldo said, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied smile spread across his face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“I sent the message to Thane,” Alaria said, walking into the Curio’s common area.
Bron and Vinnie sat in the plush chairs in the corner of the room. They were both leaning in, scrutinizing the plans for Jaantu 7 beaming out of Vinnie’s repair bot, searching for anything about the structure of the giant prison that they could use to their advantage.
“The entire thing is surrounded by electrical circuits,” Bron said, leaning back, not responding to her initial comment. “Anything that gets close to it will be fried instantly.”
“There has to be a weak spot,” Vinnie said, still leaning in and squinting at the plans. “There is always a weak spot.”
Alaria moved across the room and took a seat across from them. Glancing down at the plans, she reached out and set her finger down with authority.
“Here,” she said.
“Here? Here what?” Bron asked.
“Here is where we hit, after we overload the system, of course.”
Bron leaned back and stared at her, waiting for her to continue with her explanation. Her eyes, wide and filled with a glimmer of hope and excitement that he hadn’t seen in them for far too long.
"And why there?" he asked when he realized she wasn't going to finish explaining.
“Because that’s where we’ll be able to find not only a chamber of air-locked rooms—built that way as a fail-safe, obviously…”
“Obviously,” Bron said with a chuckle.
Alaria smiled at him and continued, “…but we’ll also be able to throw a few circuits as we move into the prison, as well.”
Her eyes sparkled as they ran across the plans. Bron leaned back and watched her. He had never seen her like that before—in her element. Often times he forgot that under that layer of giggles wrapped in platinum blond, was an engineer—a very intelligent, very successful engineer.
The thought only made him care for her more, admire her more.
“Can you zoom in here?” Alaria asked the repair bot, her fingers resting on a small section of the plans, the section they hoped to bust into.
The repair bot did as it was asked, and everyone leaned in. Alaria squinted for a second, and then quickly leaned back and clapped her hands together, letting out an excited giggle.
“It’s perfect!” she said. “Honestly, it’s absolutely perfect!”
Bron leaned in, still trying to figure out what she was referring to. Vinnie, too, sat kneeling over the images with a look of confusion on his face.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Vinnie asked finally.
Alaria giggled and pushed herself up to her feet. "The place I've chosen for us to bust in is an air locked room that controls the security systems," she explained. "It's air-locked and it's also only accessible with some kind of key-card or identification device. There's a whole slew of high-tech wiring around it linked to ID readers."
“Then, that’s not good,” Bron said.
“I said it’s only accessible with an ID badge, meaning you need an ID to get in,” Alaria replied matter-of-factly. “Not to get out.”
"So, we can still bust in," Vinnie said, piecing together her thought. "Or, out, really. We can get into the air-locked rooms via collision, work our way through the airlocks, since they only lock from the outside, and eventually get into the prison itself."
Alaria nodded.
"We can have Kira, Thor, and Dario meet us here, then," Bron said, pointing to the last of the air-locked rooms, "and from there we can guide them back out to the ship."
Alaria nodded again.
"But, how will we get back through the air-locks without…?" Vinnie started.
“That’s why we’re starting in the control room linked to the security systems,” Alaria said with a giggle. “We’re going to shut all that down.”
Bron and Vinnie’s eyes lit up with complete understanding and they both nodded as they leaned back in their seats.
“Now, all we have to do is figure out how to put this plan into action,” Alaria said, slum
ping down next to Bron.
She rested her hand on his knee. Swallowing back the nervous blush he felt rising to his cheeks, he moved his hand and rested it on top of hers. His stomach flopped as he waited to see what she would do.
“We have to figure out some way to get enough projectiles thrown at the exterior to throw the circuit,” she said, leaning back.
As she leaned back, she turned her hand, pressing her palm into his and letting their fingers lace together. His heart began to race, but the smirk on Vinnie’s face as he eyed the subtle gestures passing between him and Alaria threatened to dull the moment.
“Well, Kira and the others are apparently organizing a mass criminal assault on the prison. I’m sure we could get them to work with us,” Bron offered.
“The criminals!” Vinnie’s repair bot exclaimed. “You’ve gotten messages regarding the assault.”
“When?” Alaria asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not your personal secretary,” the bot replied angrily.
“You sort of are,” Vinnie snapped back at his rolling metal sidekick. “That’s why I connected your systems to the comm systems on the ship, so you could tell us if anything comes in that we need to know about.”
“I’m telling you now, aren’t I?” the bot shot back.
“What are the messages?” Bron asked, his patience growing slim.
Alaria gave his hand a slight squeeze and his heart fluttered.
“First, I’m a projector, now I’m damned answering machine,” the repair bot muttered, pulling up the string of messages Aldo had initiated with his call to action. “This is the first stream that you have new messages from,” the bot explained. “There are others.”
The messages flew by as the bot searched for the newest. When he did, and the rolling text stopped, Alaria, Bron, and Vinnie all sat up straight and rigid as their eyes flitted over the words.
“Us?” Vinnie asked.
Moving his weight to the balls of his feet, he bounced excitedly a few times, still kneeling down in front of the text that was proclaiming them the leaders of the revolution.
“We’re in charge of this? Hell yes!” Vinnie continued.
Bron and Alaria remained silent for a moment. Alaria read the text once, twice, three times, leaning in to get a better view of it each time. When she slipped her hand from Bron’s in an effort to get closer to the projection, his heart fell slightly.
“We’re going to be in charge of a revolution?” Alaria asked, turning to look back at Bron.
“Looks like we already are,” Bron said.
“Should I pull up the other messages?” the repair bot asked.
“Sure,” Alaria said, letting out a soft sigh as she leaned back again.
This time, she nestled herself in close to him. His arm found its way around her, and before he knew it, her head was resting on his shoulder. They sat like that, the feeling of being so close slowly becoming more familiar and more natural with each passing second, and read through the text in silence.
Vinnie, as he read, continued to bounce up and down excitedly. Bron even felt a slight hint of excitement at reading the influx of messages, coming from all over the Galactic Bazaar. They originated from individuals, groups, organizations, all showing their interest in their cause and their willingness to participate in it.
“Our cause,” Bron said with a chuckle. “Do they really think there’s a cause behind all of this?”
Alaria shifted slightly and looked up at him.
“Perhaps,” she said softly. “You know, a lot of the people in there are in there unjustly. Thor was heading there when he met Kira. I’m sure there are just as many people who don’t belong in there as there are that do. And there are probably just as many people still here on the outside with bounties on their heads placed there by Grimm trying to clean up his own mess.”
Their faces were close, and Bron couldn’t pull his eyes away from hers—her bright blue eyes that had the power to burn into his.
“You…” he started his voice cracking nervously. “You have a point.”
“Ugh,” Vinnie grumbled, drawing their attention toward him. “Can we get back to planning a revolution here?”
"Right," Alaria said, pushing herself up. "We need to send a message back, letting everyone know of our plan. We need to make sure they're outfitted and equipped for something like this. If not, they're going to need to act fast, because I say we move in twenty-four hours."
“That soon?” Bron asked.
“We have to get them out of there,” Kira insisted. “Grimm is going to act soon, and we don’t have any time to lose. Rob, get ready to send a message.”
“Ready,” the repair bot replied.
“This is Alaria Starfire, and I am honored to be your leader in this crusade. This is an official call to action. We strike tomorrow; I repeat, we strike tomorrow.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Waking up on the morning of the planned break-out, Kira felt as if she were buzzing with excitement and adrenaline. She had barely slept at all the night before, her mind bouncing wildly with scenarios, preparing for everything and anything that could go wrong.
The only time she was able to sleep was when Thor woke up to find her eyes wide open and her pulse racing with anticipation and pulled her back down next to him, holding her tight.
“You need to rest. You have to be prepared for tomorrow,” he said, kissing the top of her head softly.
She knew he was right. She rested her head on his chest, she listened to his breathing, the sound of his heartbeat—slow, steady, and calm. She focused on the feeling of his arms wrapped around her, the way their bodies seemed to fit perfectly together, the way that being near him made her feel relaxed, safe, and sure. And eventually, she drifted off to sleep.
The second her eyes opened the next morning, though, she was completely awake. Thor still lay next to her, his chest rising and falling slowly. She slid out of the bunk carefully, holding her breath as she hoped she didn’t wake him up.
But, the second her foot touched the ground, he rolled onto his side. Looking back at him, she saw him staring at her, his hair a mess and his eyes heavy with sleep. The fine amount of scruff he always wore around his jaw had grown during their time in Jaantu 7. At first, she wasn’t fond of the new, even-more-unkempt look on him. But now, as she stared at him in the low, early morning prison light, she found herself more attracted to him than she had been before.
“Happy Break-Out Day,” he said to her, his words low.
“We’re not celebrating just yet,” she said, leaning in and pressing her lips to his. “We have to actually break out first.”
Pulling back she pushed herself up to her feet and padded her way across the small, cramped space. The cell doors hadn’t been opened yet. It was still too early. She leaned against the bars and looked out. From there, she could see most of The Pits. It was strange to think that she would finally be free of that place, of that view.
One week had come to feel like an eternity.
“There’s still a lot that can go wrong,” she continued, thinking out loud. “We still have to make it all the way to…”
Her words were cut short when she felt his hands wrap around her waist. Quickly, he spun her around and leaned into her. His jumpsuit was half unzipped, and hung down around his waist, exposing his bare chest. Her hands found his shoulders and pulled him down to her even more.
Resting his forehead on hers, he said, “You’ll have my back, right?”
She nodded and smiled.
“And I’ll have yours. And together, I’m sure we can keep Dario out of trouble. We’ll be fine, Kira. We didn’t come this far to get stopped now.”
“I wish I had some of your optimism,” she replied.
“Captain Winter, the optimist,” he said leaning in and pressing his lips to her cheek. “If that ever happened, though, who would be our team’s pessimist?”
“I’m not a complete pessimist,” she tried to objec
t.
“I couldn’t imagine Alaria taking on that role,” he continued playfully. “And we all know there’s no way in hell Vinnie could fill your worry-filled shoes.”
"I'm not that bad," she tried to object again, but now his lips were drifting down to her neck and a rush of goosebumps was slithering up her arms.
Reaching up and running her fingers through his hair, she lifted his face to hers and let her lips find his. There was a passion that spread between them, a mutual zeal. She knew that beneath his cool, confident exterior, he did worry about the events that would be unfolding soon. He worried for her safety; he worried for the mission. He worried about everything other than himself.
