by R. M. Olson
“Anyways, it’s not like I haven’t broken out of prison before,” said Jez.
“And?” asked Lev, looking up. “I know the basics, but not the details. Anything could help.”
Jez leaned back, appearing to think for a moment. “Well,” she said at last, “I don’t know anything about the systems. Or the guard schedules. Or weapons or whatever crap Ysbel can do. But,” she grinned, “you can make the guards really mad if you make up a song about them and their dog alone in a room with—”
“Thank you, Jez, that’s enough detail.”
“Or, you can say something about their partner going up to a government building with an official and—”
“Thank you, Jez.”
“And sometimes, I’d—”
“Jez! Shut up.”
She smirked. Ysbel glanced at Tae’s horrified face and bit back a small grin.
“I can’t imagine how you got on the guards’ nerves,” Tae muttered, and this time Ysbel had to bite back a snort of laughter.
“Do you have anything that doesn’t involve crude stories about guards?” asked Lev in a resigned tone. Jez thought for a moment, then shook her head, leaning forward.
“I have one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“If you’re kicking someone in the crotch on the way out, you have to make sure it’s the right kind of crotch. If you know what I mean. Because I made that mistake once, and honestly—”
“Jez.” Lev was speaking through his teeth. “You can shut up now.”
Jez shrugged and leaned back again.
Ysbel shook her head in faint amusement.
Poor boy was in way over his head.
“What’s our timeline?” asked Masha.
“The supplies ship comes in at 1500 standard time the day after tomorrow, which is early morning on the prison planet. It docks just outside the prison, and the prison guards come out and inspect it for contraband and for any sort of possible deep-space contamination. That’s when we’ll have to get in.”
Masha glanced around the room. “Then I suggest we finish our uniforms, and pack whatever it is we need to smuggle in.”
Ysbel watched the others as they worked, clutching her own smock in her hand so tightly the rough texture of the fabric cut into her palm. Her chest felt as if someone was squeezing it, her muscles tense.
Somehow, this had to work.
It would work. Because to fail—to loose Tanya and Olya and Misko a second time—was unthinkable.
CHAPTER SIX
RELUCTANTLY, JEZ PULLED back on the ship’s stick, and once again time seemed to stretch and warp around them as the ship came out of hyperdrive, the strange patterns and glowing colours surrounding them giving way to the black of shallow space.
She sighed, the same aching feeling of loss that always came when she pulled out of hyperspace pulling at her stomach.
Still … She glanced at the com.
Perfect. She’d dropped them on the exact coordinates Tae had asked for.
“Not bad,” said Lev from the copilot’s seat, raising an eyebrow. She gave him a smug smile. He smiled back, then reached down to flip on the cloaking device.
She glanced at the bright glow of the planet in the near distance. She’d brought them in close.
An hour, max.
It would be fine. She’d be fine. Just a week. No sweat.
A week grounded. A week locked up.
Her stomach was tight, her palms sweating on the controls.
“Jez? Are you alright?”
She turned and tried to grin. “I’m fine. We’ll get Tanya and the kids and get out, right? Easy peasy.”
He was still watching her, his face concerned.
She turned away quickly. He didn’t need to see her panic.
She’d been locked up before, on that prison ship, for three weeks. She’d survived.
Barely.
She tried to slow down her breathing and stared out the window, running her fingers up and down the control stick absently.
It would be fine. She’d be fine.
Ysbel’s family had been locked up for five years.
“Jez?”
“Be there soon,” she said, trying to grin. “Better get ready.”
He nodded and stood, but he watched her for a moment before he turned away, and there was concern on his face, and for some reason she had to swallow a lump in her throat.
Which was ridiculous.
She wasn’t used to this. She still couldn’t believe that, when they could have left her behind back in Vitali’s compound, they hadn’t. They’d tried to break her out, instead.
And now she couldn’t leave them to do this alone either, even though she really, really wanted to.
As soon as Lev was gone, she jumped to her feet and took two quick steps across the floor.
The cockpit had never felt cramped before. Now it was closing in on her like atmosphere, heavy and clinging and poisonous.
She swore loudly, and kicked the pilot’s seat.
It didn’t help.
Less than an hour.
She wished she’d thought to bring some sump along.
The planet, when they broke through the atmosphere, was nothing much to look at. The side with the settlement for the prison worker’s families, Lev had said, was beside a small ocean, but on this side, by the prison complex, it was more of a desert, with jutting rock cliffs and the hint of brownish-green brush on the sandy flats.
They didn’t know the scope of the cloaking tech yet, so she brought them in at an angle from the prison complex coordinates, then flew them in low over the mountainous cliffs. Lev clutched the arms of his seat with white-knuckled hands as she shot through the narrow canyons, and Tae muttered strained curses under his breath, but they’d told her they didn’t want anyone to see them, hadn’t they? So they couldn’t very well complain.
She kept them in low behind the cliffs as they approached the prison coordinates. Tae had marked on the holoscreen the landing pad for the supplies ship, and she brought the Ungovernable down maybe a fifteen minute walk away. Desert like this, wasn’t like someone would be wandering around looking.
Still, touching down in a sandy valley in the shelter of an outcropping of red-grey rock felt far too much like saying goodbye. She lingered in the cockpit for a few moments.
She’d hardly left it since that day in Vitali’s compound.
She would have been happy to never leave it again.
She took a deep breath. “I’ll miss you, sweetheart,” she whispered, kneeling and pulling the lower panel off reverently. She glanced quickly at the wiring underneath. If she tweaked this one right … here … Yes.
There was a slight change in the air pressure as the newly-modded forcefield ramped up.
That should do it.
Slowly, reluctantly, she got to her feet.
Just a few days. A few days, that was all. Then she’d be back.
She swallowed hard at the lump in her throat, running her fingers gently across the controls one last time.
“Hey, Jez. You coming?”
She jerked around to see Tae at the cockpit door. She blinked hard to hide the tears that were welling up in the corners of her eyes.
He didn’t need to see that.
But he didn’t say anything, just gave her a sympathetic look. “Come on. Transport will be here in a few minutes, and we have to be ready.”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
He paused. “Listen, Jez. It’ll be OK. I’ll get us out, I promise.”
“I’ve broken out of prison once before anyways,” she said. “Not a big deal.”
He nodded, and didn’t say anything about the fact that she’d probably told the biggest lie of her entire life, and he probably knew it as well as she did.
She grabbed a handful of loose bolts and wiring and shoved them into the pocket of her prison uniform. Nothing she really needed, honestly, but it was always nice to have something to fiddle wit
h in your cell, and anyways, she’d feel better if she had something to remind her of the Ungovernable.
When they got out, the others were already waiting. Jez stepped through the modded force-field, and the ship seemed to shimmer and disappear.
Despite herself, she was impressed. She stepped in and out a couple times, until Lev snapped at her to cut it out. Then she stuck her finger out of the force-field in a universally-recognized communication, and was rewarded with a snort from Ysbel and a sigh from Lev.
Above them, a prick of light glowed like an expanding star.
The supplies ship coming in through the atmosphere.
Time to go.
They walked across the desert without speaking. The pink glow of the far-off sun rising over the stark horizon was surprisingly beautiful, and the air was cool, but with the dusty scent of a hot day ahead. She glanced around the sandy desert floor uneasily as they walked, trying to slow her racing brain. Probably poisonous snakes or something in a place like this.
At least it wasn’t carnivorous vines and centipede snake-monsters like last time. That was something, she supposed.
They stuck to the edges of the cliffs, even after the supplies ship had landed. Lev had calculated it would take about half a standard hour to go through the supplies, and another to scan the ship body. Plenty of time for them to do what they needed to do.
When they came around the corner of one of the rock outcroppings, the prison guards were still inspecting the supplies, figures in masks and hazmat suits scanning the ship’s cargo hold with long wands.
She took quick inventory. The corner of the outcropping they were concealed behind was only a few steps from the port side of the ship, and most of the activity was happening on the other side, closest to the prison. The ship itself was a short-haul, with a long, wide body and a deep hold. The hold door, from the looks of it, was built more for ease of use than security. Ship like this wouldn’t hold much attraction to a pirate—probably had plenty of external locks and defences. No need to have a hatch that was impossible to open too.
“Ysbel,” she whispered. “It’s your lucky day. Go blow something up.”
Ysbel glanced at her, then reached into her shirt and pulled a diminutive smoke bomb from the padded bag she kept round her neck. She gave it a quick twist, then crouched at the edge of the outcropping. She bounced the sphere experimentally in her hand, then gave it a low underhand toss. It hit the bottom of the ship’s hull, in the centre towards the front, with a ting, and stuck fast. Ysbel turned and gave her a smirk.
“You’re up now, pilot-woman.”
Jez grinned and turned to the others. “OK, so here’s the plan,” she whispered. “I’ll go in and get the hatch open, and I’ll call you on my com when we’re ready. Then you get your lazy butts into the ship. Got it?”
“Thank you, Jez, I think we can handle that level of complexity,” Lev whispered back.
She shot him a grin and turned back to the ship.
The guards in hazmat suits were packing up their wands and ducking out of the ship’s stern hold. As they stepped outside, stretching and talking in low voices, Ysbel tightened her fingers over the tiny controller.
There was a loud pop, and a black gush of smoke poured out of the front of the ship. The guards looked up, startled, and rushed around the side of the ship to see what had happened.
Jez crouched, then sprinted for the ship, bent low to avoid being seen.
She reached the back corner closest to the cliff, then dropped to the ground, cursing.
A lone guard stood at the back, heat gun at the ready, posture bored.
Damn.
She glanced around quickly, then grabbed a pebble and skimmed it across the sand to clatter off a rock to his right.
He glanced over, in a lazy sort of way, and didn’t move.
She gritted her teeth and felt around on the ground for something bigger. Her fingers closed around a larger rock. For half a moment she was tempted to fling it into the back of the idiot’s head and see if that would get his attention, but, as satisfying as it would be, it would get them all killed. So she skimmed it past his feet again.
This time he didn’t even glance up.
She gave a creative commentary on his birth and parentage under her breath as she groped around again. She bit back a yelp and snatched her hand away as something smooth and dry moved sinuously under her fingertips, and glanced down in time to see a reptilian tail disappear into the scrub beside the ship.
“Jez,” came Lev’s voice in her earpiece. “What are you doing? They’re almost finished inspecting the front of the ship. We don’t have much time.”
She cut her eyes around quickly. Maybe a rock in the back of the head was the best option after all—
Then she smiled slowly.
“There’s a guard back here,” she whispered into the com, “but I think he’s about to leave. Get ready.”
She dropped to her stomach, after quickly checking for anything else moving, and wriggled forward under the ship’s hull until the bottom half of the guard’s legs were in front of her. She reached into her pocket and sorted through the handful of crap she’d grabbed from the Ungovernable.
There. A staple. She fished it out, studying her target. He was wearing tough ankle-high boots, but his legs were unprotected, except for thin trousers. She grinned to herself, and with a quick jerk of her hand, jabbed the two sharp ends into the back of his right leg.
He cursed and jerked his leg up, hopping on one foot and twisting backwards to see what had happened. Then he noticed the two thin trickles of blood running down the back of his leg, and his face went bloodless with sudden panic.
“I’ve been bitten!” he screamed, limping towards the front of the ship. “Quick! A sand-snake got me!”
“Now!” she hissed into the com, then she rolled out from under the ship, jumped into the back, and yanked up on the cargo hold door.
Tae got there first, and she shoved him in. “Get under some of the supplies, but not too far. We’ll have to get out quick,” she whispered. Ysbel came next, then Masha, then Lev. She was just in time to roll into the cargo hold herself before the heavy tread of boots signified guards returning.
“I know we have some antivenin,” a woman said. “Grab me the first-aid kit.”
Someone stepped into the hold above them, and there was the sound of someone rummaging through cupboards.
“No, not that one,” came the woman’s impatient voice. “The antivenin’s in the kit in the cargo hold.”
Jez froze as the cargo hold door opened slowly. From behind her came the sounds of four people trying very hard not to breathe.
“Where is it?” came a man’s voice from above them.
“Just at the front there. You don’t have to go down, it’s right there.”
A man’s hand reached in to the darkness, almost brushing the front of Jez’s shirt. She cut her eyes carefully to the side and caught Lev’s gaze. He jerked his chin upward.
The first aid kit was wedged in between the two of them.
Carefully, he reached out and pulled it free.
“I can’t find it,” said the man.
“It should be right there.”
Slowly, Lev handed the kit to Jez, and just as carefully, she pushed it towards the man’s reaching fingers.
“It’s not where it’s supposed to be,” he said in disgust. “I’m going down.”
She held her breath and pushed it the last few centimetres. It touched his retreating fingers, and he paused. “Wait.” He felt around the edges of the kit. “Never mind. It’s right here.” He grabbed it, and the hatch slammed shut, dropping them back into darkness.
She let out a breath of relief.
Now it was only a matter of waiting.
It was probably only a few minutes before the ship started to move again, but in the dark, cramped hold, it could have been hours. She jiggled her foot impatiently, until someone gave her a sharp kick. At last the ship jerked, sh
uddered, and moved slowly forwards.
Crap ship. Or maybe just a crap pilot.
It came to a stuttering halt a few moments later. She rolled over and shoved the hatch open a crack.
The hold was closed. She pushed the hatch all the way open and beckoned the others up. They crawled stiffly out of the cramped cargo hold, and she gestured them in behind a pile of supplies.
“When they open the hatch, get out,” she whispered. Tae glared at her.
“That’s your plan?”
She shrugged. “You’re smart, right? Just don’t get caught.”
Before he could respond, the ship’s hold lifted, sunlight and hot desert air flooding in. She ducked behind the pile of supplies, and Tae did the same.
Two guards ducked inside and grabbed an armload of supply packages, then ducked back out. She counted the seconds until they came back for a second load.
Thirty seconds. Plenty of time.
She tapped Tae as they stepped out a second time, and jerked her head in the direction of the door. He swallowed, nodded, and slipped out from behind the supplies. He disappeared out the door, and she listened closely.
No shouting. Good. He’d made it. She tapped her com.
“Ysbel. You’re next.”
When the guards left a third time, Ysbel rose from where she’d been hiding and slipped out after Tae.
Masha went next, then Lev.
Finally, it was her turn. The two guards stepped outside again, their arms full of supply packages, and she stood, straightened her prisoners uniform, and sauntered out after them.
She blinked at the bright sunlight as she stepped outside, the brilliance bringing tears to her eyes.
“Prisoner! What are you doing out here? Step away from the supply ship!” came an angry voice from one side. She squinted in its general direction.
“Now, prisoner! I’ll shoot.”
“On my way,” she called, and took a couple steps to one side.
Now that her eyes had had a few moments to adjust, she could finally see her surroundings.
She was in a dry, barren-looking courtyard, and the bleak walls of the prison rose above her and around her, huge wall cannons mounted every few meters into squat towers. Behind a line of guards to one side, a mass of people in outfits identical to her own were gathered into loose groups or wandering around the open space. Ysbel and the others had slipped in among them. The ground under her feet was a solid concrete, and thick, heavy blocks of prefab made up the wall. They’d probably once been a sterile white, but were now stained a dirty reddish-brown with grime and sand. Even the sight of the blue sky overhead was filtered through the thick prison forcefield.
