by E. A. James
The moment they shared was cut short when the bars supporting her weight behind her, suddenly disappeared, being sucked down into the ground beneath their feet. She nearly stumbled backward, but Thor's hold on her prevented her from doing so.
“That’s our cue,” she said, spinning around to look down at The Pits one last time.
Thor moved back to their bunk, digging around for a second before pulling out the pilfered weapons they had won during the melee. Walking up behind her, he placed his hand on her hip. She spun around, her hand finding her weapons quickly. Unzipping her blue jumpsuit just a little, she slid the weapon down into the hidden inside pocket she had sewn in there.
“Wait,” Thor said playfully as he stopped her hand before she could tug her zipper all the way up again.
“Wish I could, but we don’t really have time for that right now,” she said, brushing his hand to the side.
He glared at her as he shrugged his jumpsuit up over his shoulders, placing his own weapon in the inside pocket he had sewn into his, and zipping it shut.
Taking Thor’s hand in hers, Kira lead him out onto the landing, where they waited for Dario to emerge from his cell. He did so with zeal and force, nearly tripping over his own feet as he scurried out into the open excitedly.
“I know I should be excited about saving the Galaxy and all that,” he said, straightening himself out, “but I genuinely think the thing I’m most looking forward to about getting out of here is having my own room again.”
Kira and Thor laughed as the three of them made their way toward the prison’s common area. The Pits filled up fast every morning, and today was no exception. The crowded conditions didn’t disturb Kira at all that morning, not just because she had gotten used to them, but mainly because she didn’t even notice. Her mind was far away, focused on the future, not the present. Her eyes were scanning the upper levels of the prison, where the guards were beginning their morning shifts. She watched them move, timed their passes, and looked for the weakest among them.
“Are you ready for this?” Aldo asked, walking up behind them, a grin on his face. “I sure as hell know I am.”
“Ready!” Kardok exclaimed.
“I think we’re as ready as we’re going to get,” Thor replied.
“We’re all clear on the plan?” Kira asked, not paying attention to their conversation, her mind still focusing on other things.
Everyone nodded.
“Aldo, are you sure we can access the upper levels through the old boiler room?” she asked for the tenth time since they laid out their escape route.
Aldo’s nose twitched. “I’m positive,” he replied. “The doors in there are locked, but not manned. As long as your people on the outside can disarm the security system we’ll be able to get into the crew’s section of the prison without any problem.”
“They’ll do it,” Dario said firmly.
“And how will we know when they do?” Aldo asked.
Kira leaned back and thought. “I guess we’re just going to have to wait and see. Knowing Alaria, Bron, and Vinnie, they’ll make it pretty obvious for us.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The number of ships that had gathered to stage the assault on Jaantu 7 amazed them. When they started planning, they were hoping for at least a dozen. They never expected that the number that actually showed up would make their hoped-for dozen seem like a drop in the bucket.
“Seventy-eight!” Vinnie exclaimed, running into the flight deck. “There are 78 ships linked into the intercom system waiting for your orders.”
The Curio drifted weightlessly, tucked behind a small asteroid belt and safely out of view of any of the security cameras that were constantly scanning Jaantu 7’s surroundings. It was from that location that they would start the assault. They would be the first to move, and the other ships—the other 78 ships—would swarm in from their chosen hiding spots. They were all under strict orders not to move until the order was given.
“Good,” Alaria said, “and they’re all clear on the instructions.”
“Let’s hope,” Bron replied. “Because 78 ships acting on their own free-will could mean a whole lot of chaos.”
“Chaos is what we want, right?” Vinnie asked.
“After we gain access,” Alaria explained. “Once we get into the prison and get the security systems turned off, they can do whatever they want.”
“That’s a scary thing to think about—hundreds of criminals doing whatever they want,” Bron said. “Not to mention the thousands locked up inside Jaantu 7.”
“If everything goes as planned, we won’t be around to have to worry about it,” Alaria replied. “We’ll be in and out and on our way back to Artanis.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Vinnie asked, jumping up and down. “Let’s do this!”
Alaria nodded. “Okay,” she said, her voice suddenly shaky. “Get to the engine room. Be sure everything is online. We’ll move in five.”
“Hell yes!” Vinnie exclaimed, spinning around and running out of the flight deck.
As soon as the door slid shut behind him, Alaria pushed herself up out of the co-pilot’s seat and began pacing around the flight deck nervously. Her mind was racing with thoughts, fears, concerns, doubts.
“What’s wrong?” Bron asked, getting to his feet and walking over to her.
“I’m just really nervous, you know. This is a big deal—a lot of responsibility. It’s them; it’s Dario and Kira and Thor. And, it’s not just them, it’s the entire Galaxy.”
As she spoke, she continued to pace back and forth in front of him.
“I’ve never really been in charge of anything before, you know,” she continued. “I’m an engineer. I like machines and structure and working alone in engine rooms…”
Bron reached out and rested his hands on her shoulders, stopping her in her tracks.
“Feel better?” he asked, looking down at her.
Her eyes flitted up to his. They continued to dance with nervous tension as she took a deep breath and attempted to calm herself. Looking at him helped to calm her, somewhat. It also made her more nervous in a way.
“It’s normal to feel like this, you know,” he said. “It’s good, even. You take it seriously. Which you should. It’s important.”
Now he was rambling. But, the way her eyes were fixed on his made his heart begin to race. He felt himself leaning in. She was leaning in, too.
Pinching his eyes shut and pushing through the ball of nerves forming in his stomach, he pressed his lips to hers. It was messy and sloppy and embarrassing.
She didn’t care.
She kissed him back.
It was quick and over all too fast. It was nothing like he had planned it, or hoped it would be. His cheeks flushed and a weight formed on his chest.
“I’m sorry,” he said, pulling back and shrugging. “It’s just with everything going on, and everything we’re about to do… I was just… I mean, I wanted to…”
She smiled up at him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him down to her again. This time when their lips met, it was perfect—soft and tender, but laced with excitement and passion.
“I’ve wanted to do that for a long time, too,” she said, pulling back.
“We’re ready to go!” Vinnie called up through the intercom.
Alaria jumped, and Bron took three quick, shaky steps back, his heart still pounding wildly in his chest.
“You ready for this?” she asked.
He nodded, working on bringing his thoughts back to the matter at hand.
“Good,” she said.
She hurried back to her seat, her hands shaking slightly as she reached for the intercom. Bron sunk down in the captain’s chair and looked over at her. With one quick nod, he brought the engines back online.
“We’re moving out,” Alaria announced to the other 78 ships hiding out around them. “Be prepared to move. I repeat; be prepared to move.”
Bron led the Curio out from
behind the asteroid belt and set their sights directly on the hovering mass of Jaantu 7. The closer they got, the more Alaria's stomach filled with nervous knots. Her hands fumbled to engage the cannons, her sweaty palms refusing to grip at the controls in front of her.
In the viewscreen in front of them, the ominous view of the prison, shrouded in darkness, grew larger. The sound of the intercom crackling to life caused Alaria to jump slightly.
“You are entering private space,” a voice warned. “Turn back now, or we will be forced to take action.”
Bron’s jaw tightened as he shifted his weight in his chair. He kept the Curio on course.
“This is your last warning,” the voice said again. “You will be fired on in five… four…”
“Now!” Alaria yelled, sending her cry through the shared intercom.
With that, the sky in front of them filled with missiles, all hitting the advanced shield system with force. Explosions filled the dark expanse, filling the black backdrop with bursts of orange, yellow, and red.
Alaria let her own missiles fly, aiming at nothing but the prison in front of them.
When the sound of the alarm began to ring out, her eyes darted across the viewscreen. She didn’t see the missile until it was on them. Bron, though, did. He quickly took the ship down, just out of the line of fire of the projectile that seemed to materialize out of nowhere.
“Keep going!” Alaria ordered, turning her attention back to the screen in front of her.
Firing cannon after cannon, she continued to scan the sky. The other ships were visible now. They made an impressive sight, their mismatched fleet working in almost perfectly timed unison. The blasts they were throwing crashed into the invisible shield, sending a rain of sparks flying back into space. There was a myriad of missiles flying back at them, lost in the multi-colored assault they were instilling on the prison. Still, they persisted.
Her plan was working. The prison was already overwhelmed. They didn’t have enough missiles, enough man power, even, to constantly take shots at the 78 ships that were swarming in on them from all direction. Their shots were sporadic and poorly placed. They were completely rattled by the attack.
Another siren began to ring.
“Go up this time,” Alaria said, not taking her eyes from her own screen. “The shields will be down soon.”
Bron did as she said, lifting the ship out of the line of fire with ease. Alaria fired another volley from the cannon, then another.
Suddenly, the viewscreen in front of them surged with light, a bright, white light that seemed to consume it completely. And then, dark—complete, pitch-black darkness.
“Now!” Alaria yelled. “The system is down. Move now!”
Of the 78 ships, she had selected ten with the highest quality torpedoes. Together with the Curio, those ten ships zipped forward as quickly as they could and all honed their attention in on one spot. The others continued their assault from outside the electrified shield’s force field, ready to overload it again if need be.
The second they arrived, they began to fire. They had to act fast, before the prison workers were able to override the blown circuit. One by one and all at once, they let their weapons fly. Jaantu 7’s hull was thick and would require their combined efforts to weaken.
“They will be back online soon,” Alaria said, letting another cannon fly.
She watched it explode off the side of the massive prison’s hull, followed quickly by a pair of torpedoes that left behind a much bigger dent.
“We should go now,” she said.
Bron looked over at her a nodded. Reaching into the pocket of his pants, he pulled out the small cube he had been carrying there since they left the Arbiter. Compressing the button, he smiled to himself as the battering ram he installed shuddered to life.
“I knew this thing would come in handy,” he said.
“I never doubted you,” she replied.
He looked over at her quickly.
“Okay, maybe I did a little. But, there’s no time for revisiting the past right now.”
He nodded and turned his attention back to the screen. “Call them off.”
“Pull back,” Alaria said, sending her message to the ten selected ships around them.
Before she received any sort of confirmation from their fellow ambushers, a warning siren began to whine.
“Their shields are powering up,” Alaria said.
Bron didn't answer. His eyes were glued to the screen in front of him. Inhaling sharply, he threw his set of controls forward, propelling the Curio directly into the side of the presumably impenetrable prison.
A crash; a whine; a crack.
“Again!” Alaria urged.
Pulling back on the controls, Bron didn’t wait for the ship to adjust to the sudden movements. He threw them forward again, this time, the contact that was made between the battering ram and the prison’s hull gave more results. The crack in the side grew.
Still, the sirens blared around them.
Alaria bit down on her lip, wanting to scream for him to move faster, to strike again, but her words catching nervously in her throat.
He did, though. He pulled the ship back and pushed it forward. Alaria leaned back in her chair and pinched her eyes shut. The sirens continued to cry out, and her chest was tight with nerves.
“Let’s go!” Bron exclaimed all of the sudden.
When she opened her eyes, she saw that they were not surrounded by wide open space anymore. They were surrounded by white, industrial steel walls.
“We’re in?” Alaria asked, sitting up quickly.
“We’re in,” Bron said, jumping to his feet and grabbing onto her hand.
He pulled her up out of her seat and together they raced toward the door. Vinnie was already waiting for them by the airlock, spacesuits already in hand.
“You guys ready to bust the others out of prison?” he exclaimed. “Because I sure as hell am!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The sound of distant explosions pinging off the prison’s hull was their first clue. The zip of the electric shields could be heard even from deep inside The Pits. Kira, Thor, Dario, Aldo, and Kardok moved quickly to the long-abandoned boiler room the second they heard the far-off sounds of combat. The inmates they raced past looked around, confused and hyper-aware. Everyone was waiting to see what was happening.
As they exited The Pits and ran down the hallway leading toward the musty, less-frequented section of the prison, Kira craned her head around to look at the guards stationed overhead. They were still there, but their pacing seemed more sporadic, quicker. Their faces were no longer set with disinterest and boredom. Their foreheads were creased with concern and their hands gripped at their weapons as if they were their most valuable possessions.
“Something is definitely happening,” she yelled to the group.
“Is she always this observant?” Aldo quipped. “It’s almost like she knew it was planned all along or something.”
Kira resisted the urge to stretch her leg out and trip him.
Thor chuckled as he ran alongside her. “Bet you regret holding me back from decking him all those times now, don’t you?” he said.
“To be fair, I was all for it when we first met him,” Kira reminded him.
“Are you forgetting how integral of a part I’ve played in this whole thing?” Aldo said.
“It’s hard to remember when you’re always so damn annoying,” Thor replied.
“Less talking, more running,” Dario said over his shoulder. “You can talk when we’re on the ship.”
“And you can thank me when we’re on the ship,” Aldo shouted back at them. “And then maybe I’ll accept your apologies for calling me annoying.”
“Do you think he didn’t know he was annoying before now?” Kira asked, looking up at Thor.
They exchanged a quick smile and laugh, which was cut short the instant they burst into the boiler room. As usual, there were only a handful of other inmates in ther
e. They were all as curious about what was going on as the others back in The Pits.
“Which way?” Kira asked, ignoring the curious glances being shot in their direction.
“Over here,” Aldo replied, leading them toward a corner of the room that was almost completely hidden in shadows.