“Climate shafts must be down, too. It’s getting hotter." Cole motioned toward the fallen pipes strewn on the floor.
“I don’t think it’s the environment system, Captain." Rhonda joined him in the corridor and applied her hand to the yellow surface of the plain durancrete wall. “Feel that?”
The wall felt smooth and warm to Cole’s touch. “Fire on the other side? The reactor couldn’t have gotten that hot that fast.”
Rhonda checked her compad. “We are on the periphery. This is an outside wall. Behind it should be rock and ice. The heat can only come from the planet itself.”
“If you are right, we better get moving." Cole wiped his forehead. “Which way?”
Rhonda pointed down the corridor.
Melting ice, lava flows... Cole remembered Rhonda’s previous warning. “By the way, you were right about the domino effect. I apologize for treating you like a doomsday freak earlier.”
“But, you still don’t trust me to do the job with you, so you asked for two more sacrificial lambs to join us in this infernal place." Rhonda gave him a hard look. “If they received the code, they’ll come for us and be just as doomed as we are." She hesitated. “This is a suicide mission and you know it.”
Cole resented the accusation. “If I didn’t believe it could work, I wouldn’t insist upon doing this. But if you really want to know, I expect to get out of this hole and off this planet alive with my crew. And you better stick to me and follow orders if you want to get out alive, too.”
They took the last working elevator from Level Sixteen and went down.
*****
Level Seventeen - Orange Zone
When they exited on Level Seventeen, Orange Zone, Cole disabled that elevator as well. As they set out toward the next door, Level Seventeen confirmed Cole’s worst fears. All the security shields had failed, and all the cell doors gaped open. They found the same scenery as on the previous level, with broken conduits fallen from the ceiling, and the disturbing stench of carnage. Why did the systems have to fail in the worst section of the facility?
The sound of conversations and arguments somewhere on the floor mixed with the many mechanical noises of the facility itself. Through the broken conduits the water sounds, the thumping of the cooling pumps, the ventilation fans through the shafts created a constant humming.
Cole realized with apprehension that if the prisoners on all the floors below were loose as well, their small chance of success had just shrunk considerably. “Great!" He sighed. “Any convict in sight?”
Consulting her compad, Rhonda started jogging. “Better hurry, they are close." She had stamina and guts for a civilian. She pointed at fallen pipes, orange, like the stripping on the durancrete walls and the floor. “Looks like some segments are missing.”
“I suspect the small ones would make handy clubs and even blades." Cole tried to think of other weapons the prisoners could have found or manufactured from the various pieces of orange metal strewn on the floor. Desperate people did desperate things, as he often said.
Eyes riveted on their compads to avoid meeting any prisoners, Cole and Rhonda hurried from elevators to staircase doors and locked them all down. But the last elevator down didn’t respond to their DNA or to the security codes.
Cole sighed, wondering how many more setbacks they could stand without compromising their entire mission. He didn’t even think in terms of survival anymore. He only wanted to prevent a premature meltdown. “The quakes must have fried the circuits. This elevator won’t work no matter what. We better double back toward the stairs.”
As they set out at a run, an aftershock rumbled. Leaning on the walls, holding on to bars, staggering as they walked, they kept going, sometimes on all fours, all the time dodging falling pipes.
“Captain, do you see that?" Rhonda stopped against a wall, indicating her compad.
Glancing at her device, Cole saw two red dots traveling between them and the stairs in the next intersecting corridor. “I got it. Don’t slow down, Rhonda. I’ll take care of it.”
Cole took the lead. As he turned into the corridor, he aimed and fired twice, the zing of his phaser barely noticeable over the overwhelming background noise. Both convicts crumpled to the floor.
“They were unarmed." Rhonda’s tone held reproach despite her calculated breaths. “Did you have to kill them?”
“They could have been shape-shifters, or one could have told the others. As long as the other inmates don’t know we are here, they are not hunting us." Cole flinched. He shouldn’t have said that. He and Rhonda would make a target of choice, and he didn’t want to fuel her fears.
They reached the condemned stairwell, but re-opening the door took more time than anticipated. Cole had to rewrite the security codes again.
“Hurry,” Rhonda whispered, focused on her compad. “Prisoners coming this way.”
Shit! “I still need a few seconds. Cover me.”
A motley group of escapees in orange overalls, mostly humans but comprising a few bigger alien specimens as well, came around a corner, less than a hundred meters away. When they spotted Cole and Rhonda, they yelled and charged toward them, brandishing pipes and metal bars, as well as mean looking orange shards. Cole forced himself to ignore them and punched in the complicated sequence, aware of Rhonda firing several rounds.
Finally the heavy door gave in. Cole braced himself against it to push it ajar. He grabbed Rhonda who stopped firing and shoved her through the gap as he pulled out his phaser, fired a few rounds, then squeezed out after her. Together they pushed and wheeled the door shut to the muffled clang of pipes banging on the other side of the titanium casing. Cole holstered his phaser to punch in his secret code and disable the door.
Relieved, he allowed his body to relax a little as he started down the long metallic staircase, where the steps echoed in the narrow cage. “Thanks, kiddo. You looked pretty fierce back there for your first baptism by fire.”
“How many times do I have to ask you not to call me kiddo." Rhonda’s proud smile, however, denied the harshness of her comment. “You think I did okay?”
“Couldn’t have done better myself." Did he see her blush? Suddenly Cole remembered the last time he saw her flushed like that, just this morning, when she realized he stood naked in his bathroom. He’d never suspected Rhonda had a shy bone in her, especially being a medic. He realized he found that trait endearing in a woman.
Even as they descended the many flights of stairs, the wall color changed gradually from orange to bright vermillion, announcing Level Eighteen. Water seeped from vertical cracks in the wall of the tall staircase.
“Broken water pipes?" Cole knew better but he couldn’t help testing Rhonda.
Glancing at the cracks, Rhonda shook her head. “There are no pipes in this wall. Most likely melting ice from the outside. If this gets worse, the deepest level could be flooded.”
They reached the door at the bottom of the stairs. “Are the prisoners loose on this level, too?" By now, Cole trusted Rhonda with her pad.
Rhonda checked and nodded. “They’re loose all right, but none are in view of the door. The way to the next stair door looks clear.”
*****
Level Eighteen - Vermillion Zone
As they exited the stairway on Level Eighteen, Vermillion Zone, Cole glanced right and left. While Rhonda checked the compad, it didn’t hurt to use direct visual as well. Some obstacles might not register on the pad. “Let’s get going."
They went faster on that Level as they found the elevators already out of order and sealed shut. The quakes had damaged the hydraulics. So they only had to disable the doors to the stairs. While descending the last set of stairs to the deepest level, the wall stripes changed from vermillion to crimson.
Hearing faint noises coming from the other side of the titanium door, Cole stopped at the bottom of the stairs to listen, sticking his hear to the metal. He’d better not barge out into a melee. Someone on the other side was trying to force open the
door. He stepped back when loud banging from the other side shocked his ear. Someone was trying to turn the manual wheel but it didn’t budge.
Cole brought a finger to his mouth to signal Rhonda to remain silent. He used sign language to direct her to help him disable the door from inside the stairwell. He entered the new code, then he and Rhonda had to climb back up to Level Eighteen and find another set of stairs to get down to the lowest level.
*****
Level Eighteen - Vermillion Zone
On the way to the closest stairwell, with the Captain close behind, Rhonda wondered whether this mad race through dangerous territory would ever end. How much more could her frazzled nerves take of this spooky excitement? The recruiting ads promised an easy job with many perks and rewards for fit adventurers, but this wasn’t worth all the wealth in the Andromeda Galaxy.
Watching her compad as she speed-walked, Rhonda noticed two groups of convicts quickly converging toward an intersection ahead, just beyond the next turn. About twenty inmates total. She turned out of sight of the main corridor into an open cell then stopped and faced the Captain. “See them?”
Consulting his own pad, the Captain nodded. “There is no way around them. To avoid that intersection, we would have to double back, pick another set of stairs, a detour of almost a kilometer.”
“What do we do?”
The Captain sighed. “Wait a few seconds. See which direction they take at the intersection.”
On Rhonda’s compad, the red dots congregated at the crossway and remained there. “They don’t seem to want to go anywhere." But now the dots darted around like bees from a disturbed hive, chasing each other. Faint sounds of strife reached Rhonda’s ears over the surrounding humming sounds of the heavy equipment cooling and maintaining the facility. “What are they doing?”
“Probably fighting,” the Captain whispered. “Some sound like women.”
“Women?" Rhonda had not thought of it, but with male and female wards on the same level it would happen. The recollection that her sister did not survive prison treatment intruded on her mind. She’d said she’d been tortured despite the Treaty of Vestusta that guaranteed the humane treatment of prisoners. Rhonda wondered what kind of other abuse her sister had suffered before dying of the drug. The thought still stung. Rhonda shook away the hurt. “Most women prisoners can defend themselves as well as men."
The Captain chuckled. “I know women that can be far more aggressive than men.”
The thought of wild amazons attacking a group of men distracted Rhonda from her bitter thoughts. The sounds of violence mounted. She focused on the compad. “Seems rather intense.”
“If they are busy arguing and fighting, maybe we can sneak past them. They may not notice us. There are not that many, and we are armed.”
“Are you sure?" Rhonda shuddered. “With the Styx withdrawal they become more dangerous as time passes. They have nothing to lose and no sense of fear or danger.”
“But we’ve got to keep moving." Cole Riggeur seemed impatient, peeking outside the cell, listening. “Each time we stop we increase our chances of getting discovered and attacked, or worse... trapped in a dead end corridor.”
Rhonda realized the truth in the Captain’s words too late. “Someone is coming behind us." She watched the red dots moving fast on the compad. “A larger group, about thirty or so.”
“Shit!" The Captain rarely used that kind of language but seemed to favor it today. “If we can’t go back, then we have to go forward.”
“Maybe we could hide until they all leave." As she said it, Rhonda realized there weren’t any objects in the cells to hide behind.
“No." Cole had seen that, too. “Besides, any hiding place could become a death trap if they find us. And some species have a sharp sense of smell.”
Rhonda knew he referred to the Monack shape-shifters and the reptilian Karatzin. “You are the Captain. You decide.”
“I say we make a run for it." He pointed at the path highlighted on his compad. “Memorize the path. We go this way, and if we get separated, we wait for each other at that stairwell door." He tapped the pad with one finger. “Got it?”
“Got it.”
The Captain switched off the pad and drew his phaser.
Heart in her stomach, Rhonda pulled out her weapon and set it on kill.
“Follow me close." The Captain took off at a run.
Rhonda followed in the shadow of his athletic body, easily keeping up with his quick pace. She felt thankful for the quiet soles of their boots. At least, the rioters would not hear them coming. She liked the advantage of surprise. It minimized the risks somewhat.
As they rounded the corner, Rhonda could clearly see the intersection twenty meters away, approaching fast, but the scene she beheld did not quite register at first.
In the middle of the floor, on a pile of foam mats ripped from bunk beds, male convicts held two naked females and one young male. Other inmates, trousers down, mounted them crudely in full view.
Appalled, Rhonda felt pity for the victims and wanted to help, but she couldn’t possibly stop. One of the women seemed unconscious. The other two victims struggled and received blows for their lack of submission. Impatient males waiting their turn pulled the lucky ones off their prize and quarreled about who would get to mount next.
Rhonda averted her gaze. Disgust threatened to make her heave, but she had to keep running toward the gruesome scene. Stay on course, focus on the path, and try to pass them by without getting caught. Cole had seen them, too, and like her kept his eyes on the narrow path at the edge of the mob.
She didn’t want to think about what these men would do to a female guard. She now regretted her long curly mane and the red scarf of the ponytail that marked her as female. As much as she hated to admit it, the Captain had been right to enforce that rule. Using him as a shield, she ran close behind him as fast as she could.
Not fast enough.
One of the convicts caught sight of the two guards as they whisked by. “Stop them!” he yelled.
A burly man grabbed Rhonda by the arm as she ran past the raping mob. She struggled to keep running but he dragged beside her like dead weight. She couldn’t shoot as he held her phaser arm. Besides, shooting someone who held you would be like shooting yourself. In a desperate attempt to shake off her attacker, she kicked him, but he held fast.
Suddenly the Captain was there, beside her, punching the convict’s face. He didn’t use his phaser since Rhonda was in direct contact with the target. On the second punch, the convict lost his grip and slid to the floor.
The Captain grabbed Rhonda’s hand and they ran together. Behind them, the inmates started in pursuit, yelling obscenities drowned by the surrounding purr of the environmental equipment. Glad for the timely rescue, confident in her good physical condition, Rhonda kept moving her legs like a sprinter, looking straight ahead, vaguely aware of the few pursuers who still tailed them.
The Captain led her into an adjoining corridor then veered into another row of cells. After a few more turns, the sounds of pursuit faded, and Rhonda could only hear the drumming of her heart in her chest and the bellow of her breath.
Once at a safe distance from any pursuer, the Captain slowed down and let go of her hand. He holstered his phaser and checked his compad. “We lost them.”
Happy to slow down, Rhonda stashed away her weapon. “I’m grateful for your help back there,” she managed to utter between ragged gasps. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
The Captain seemed embarrassed by her gratitude, looking straight ahead as he walked. “It was my decision to take a calculated risk when we charged the mob." He shrugged. “I felt responsible.”
“Your idea worked out in the end. That’s what counts." Rhonda’s smile came out strained. “It was scary but we made it didn’t we?”
“Yes, we did." When they approached the stairwell door, the Captain clipped his compad back on his belt. “But it was a close call. We were luck
y this time.”
As she applied her hand to the scanner to open the door, Rhonda wondered how long their luck would hold.
******
Level Nineteen - Crimson Zone
Still shaken at the idea of what could have happened to Rhonda, Cole took the lead after they emerged on Level Nineteen, Crimson Zone, into an empty corridor. The devastation at that level seemed worse than whatever they had seen so far. As he feared, the prisoners ran loose on that level, too, and they were the worst convicts of all.
Water dripped from the walls and ceiling and puddled across the floor. Human sounds seemed eerily absent. Cole knew his way around Level Nineteen and only watched for loose prisoners on his compad as he led Rhonda toward the control panel regulating the nuclear reactor.
As they reached a long corridor, debris had blocked that passage and they had to find their way around the blockage. Soon, Cole realized that debris blocked several hallways, and fallen walls opened new communicating paths between previously sealed corridors. He couldn’t trust the floor plans of his compad anymore. They’d lost part of their advantage in navigating the labyrinth.
Cole spotted the command panel. “Here it is." He hurried, hoping the panel would still function properly. As he touched the electronic plate, it chimed and lit up in recognition of his DNA. A wave of gratitude washed over him. “This is good. Rhonda, watch out for unwanted company. I need to concentrate on the repairs.”
Rhonda nodded and watched both her compad and the empty corridor. “Hurry up. They are not very far, but I got your back.”
Although Cole felt vulnerable, his back to the open corridor, he tried to forget about their scabrous, even perilous, situation. He had to trust Rhonda sometime. After punching his personal code sequence he touched the radioactive symbol. A color graphic of the nuclear reactor appeared on the screen, outlining in red pulsing dots the leak in the cooling system.
Alien Lockdown Page 5