Chapter 21

With no time to waste, they gathered at their corner table in the back of the Last Call pub. They fell into their habit of sitting in the same positions with a stool borrowed from another table for Trisha at the end. Discussing things in the open with prying eyes and ears wasn’t ideal, but the lack of time required more desperate actions. They all agreed to talk in generalities to avoid the network from picking up on potential keywords that would implicate them or their plan.

Lee filled them in on what he and Trisha had found in the shipment logs. “It’ll be here tomorrow afternoon, so we’d better get it all together soon. Zee, how are you doing with the life support?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. There’s no way to access the…” she made a gesture like putting on a RemLok mask, “…without alarms. We’d have to trigger a colony alert or something for emergency access.”

“Maybe the kitchen staff are a little careless with some outta control cooking?” Dex half-grinned through his beard.

There were some mild chuckles around the table.

“No, alerting whole colony risks lockdown,” Tarrek said, his face serious, killing the mood.

“What then?” Jackson asked. “We’re literally going nowhere without the… things.”

The conversation was quiet as they sat and thought about the situation. The ambient noise of the pub took over in their silence. A mild level of conversation murmured in the background, and some random glass clinked around the pub.

Lee knew how he’d do it himself, but he couldn’t see any way to bust out six people at once. A shipment container seemed the best way to hold everyone, but the time in zero atmosphere would kill them all. They might survive if there were no delays, but they’d need provisions for recovery once they got to the ship. That would leave it to Jackson to help them all recover. It was a step of trust too far for Lee.

There had to be another way.

The logs he and Trisha dug up said the ship typically departed in the evening. Maybe there was enough time for Zee to make it to the civilian residential domes to collect the RemLok units. He was still dubious about it.

Trisha was resourceful, and her position as an administrative aide meant extra access. There had to be a way to use that. The way she thought on her feet with her boss was a pleasant surprise. Her boss! An idea popped into his head.

“Wait a second,” Lee started. “Trisha, you work for the Search and Rescue manager.”

“Right. So?”

“What are you thinking, Lee?” Zee asked.

“There isn’t much traffic here, but over the years, I’m sure there’s been some turn-in of… single occupant, uh… safety vehicles.” He tried to find a safe, obscure term that was easy for them to pick up on.

Trisha understood immediately, her eyes lit up, “Of course, why didn’t I think of it before?”

“Wait, I don’t get it…” Jackson said.

Tarrek explained, “Search and Rescue office collects many recovery items like black boxes and…”

The lights turned on, and Jackson began to finish his sentence, “Ohhh… right, and esca…” Lee coughed extra loud to cover what Jackson was about to say.

Zee shot Jackson a kind of evil eye, and he sunk back into his stool.

“Ok, so I’ll dig up what I can on what’s available and where,” Trisha said.

“Then Jackson,” Lee pointed down the table at him. “You’ll need to go on a treasure hunt. You have to collect and bring them to this loading area…” He looked around, pulled his hands close to his chest, and signed the numbers 4-3. ”I have a tool installed to help adjust the eyes and ears. We’ll need to meet there right after the end of the shift. That means you have to time it just right, Jackson.”

He nodded.

“One other thing,” Tarrek added with a sound of concern. “What about drones outside? There are maybe two crossing our path to the pad.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Zee said. “I’m already on the schedule for the maintenance hangar. They’ve been having some problems here and there. It won’t be out of the ordinary for a couple of them to need more maintenance after I’m done with them,” she said with a wink and a grin.

“Perfect,” Lee smiled at her. He enjoyed the flash of rebelliousness on her face. It was the spark of life and spiritedness he admired in her.

Dex jumped into the conversation, “Since my shift ends early, I can be there ta scare people off.”

“Nice, Dex,” Lee nodded. “Alright, folks, this is it. Tomorrow, we have to have our ‘get together.’ Check in at lunch to make sure everything is set.”

“Leave it to a smuggler ta’ find a way,” Dex grinned.

“Impro, ada, over,” Tarrek said.

Lee smiled, “Impro, ada, over.”

The day ground on. Lee was nervous but excited. His work shift was mind-numbing, except for the buzz of anticipation for ‘the plan.’ The lunch check-in at the Mess Hall was full of status updates. Trisha made some inquiries while she was in the office and found unoccupied escape pods scattered around the facilities. Zee rigged the sentries to experience strategic technical difficulties. Lee’s command sequence was set to automatically force the sensors to feedback a prior recording at 1800. Dex planned to arrive after that to keep the coast clear from others in the area.

It was all up to Jackson now. Trisha had gone over the locations of the pods with him multiple times to make sure he could collect at least four of them. Once he had them all, he’d swing by the isolated factory building to pick up Tarrek on the way back to loading bay forty-three.

The sensors in the section were set to be unavailable for about sixty minutes. Plenty of time for them to gather, hop in their pods, and make it to the large pads where their ride would be waiting for them.

Before he realized the time, he received a tap on his shoulder from his replacement. It was everything he could do to keep from running. Instead of heading to his quarters, he did a quick clean-up of the day’s sweat and grime in the locker room. Throwing on a spare resident’s uniform, he noted with some surprise at how much tighter it fit, especially in the sleeves. The manual labor in a gravity environment had done his body some good. He felt bigger—stronger than he’d ever felt, and energized by what he was about to do.

He left the locker room and headed for the loading bay through the main foyer. Walking caused him to feel a little bump in the left leg-pocket where he’d stowed the cam-bot that old Billy Sweeteyes left for him in his quarters. It was the one and only memento of this place he wanted to keep if this ridiculous plan worked.

He avoided eye contact with the guards to keep a casual nonchalant look as he passed by. Loading bay forty-three was a strategic pick. It was past the scrapyard all the way at the end of the facility, closest to pads seven and eight. It was nothing but a warehouse and a line of loading bays. Bay forty-three was the last in a series of three bays, making it as isolated as it could get.

People were milling about the warehouse during the shift change and were unperturbed by Lee walking through. He arrived at the short passageway to the bays and walked through. He found Dex sitting on a crate past a set of extra-wide double-doors. The bays were separated by walls stacked with crates and a walkway space near the doors. Dex’s crate was on the end of a wall separating bay forty-two and forty-three. It gave him a perfect position to watch people coming down the passage and any movement in the bay beside them.

He stood up and greeted Lee. “Sollinger,” he grinned. “You ready for this?”

“More than ready,” he smiled back. Lee looked around the bay. The walkways along the walls had loading palettes and crates stacked up toward the ceiling. A large, lower area of open floor space between the walkways could accommodate container trailers. At the end of the bay was a large bay door, the size of a cargo container with two people-sized doors at the walkways on either side of it. “Where are the others?” He asked Dex.

“You’re the first, err… second after me.”

Lee walked over to the wall panel by the doors to check the time. “It’s already 14 after. The girls should be…”

Zee walked in.

“…here. Right on time,” he turned toward her.

She flashed a soft smile and gave him a quick hug. “We’re actually doing this, I almost can’t believe it!” Her excitement was contagious.

“Yes, we are,” Lee smirked. “Gotta love the irony that we’re using escape pods to escape a prison,” he quipped trying to lighten the mood.

Dex half chuckled. He manged to get a delightful little giggle out of Zee though. He did enjoy getting her to laugh.

“I can’t believe we’re going to smuggle the six of us out of this screb-hole,” she said, her smile still beaming at him.

“We’re not out yet. Where’s Trisha? She should be here by now,” Lee couldn’t help but pace a bit.

Zee shrugged, standing beside him.

The lights in the bay shifted to a pulsating amber. Lee walked back toward the bay door. “That’s Jackson and Tarrek with our ride,” he said.

Lights lining around the large bay door flashed. A blue field of light snapped on to cover the entire bay door as it opened and disappeared into the ceiling. A green, worn-looking container slid back into the loading area. It came to a stop with a stuttering shake. Lee motioned to Dex. Together they walked over to the back of the container to swing open the doors. A few small overhead lights in the compartment automatically came on when the doors opened. Near the doors sat four escape pods carelessly shoved in.

Lee turned back toward the bay, “Zee, you wanna take a look and make sure these things will actually keep us alive?”

“Sure,” she said, walking past him to inspect one of the pods.

“I’ll get back ta watchin’ the entrance,” Dex said as he pulled the door all the way back around the side of the container. Lee pushed open the other side and saw Tarrek walk in through the side door.

“Lee!” He half-shouted as he jogged up to him. “We have problem.”

“Oh?”

“There’s no T9 on the pad.”

“What?”

“Da! We went back and forth to other landing pads to pick up pods, and as we passed pads 7 and 8, there’s no T9 like you said there would be.”

Lee shook his head. “It should have been here around lunch.”

“Right. But, there is ship out there.”

“And?”

“Anaconda,” Tarrek said, even his good side frowning.

Lee felt like there was more he wasn’t telling him. “And?”

“Jackson recognized it. Ship is called Decimator, he said.”

Lee’s head dropped. “Wonderful. And it’s the only large ship out there right now?”

He nodded.

“Anything else?”

“Da, and you won’t like it either.”

Lee gave him a wry look, “Go ahead, spill it.”

“All those units we built at factory?”

“Yeah?”

“They’re Xohn’s prototype.”

“The ThermARC?”

“Da.”

“They’re mass-producing ThermARC units?”

“Da. That’s what I’m saying.”

“Well, vack!” He stood there for a moment, processing the new information, then pointed his thumb back at the others. Tarrek walked with him to the back of the container. “So what do we do?”

“Your plan, your op,” Tarrek shrugged as they passed by Dex who stayed at his post keeping watch over the entrance.

Lee walked up to the panel at the door. 1832. They were running out of time, fast. “The screb is taking Trisha so long?” He said to no one in particular.

Jackson jogged up beside him, “What, no Trisha?”

“That’s what I just said,” he turned back to the pods. “Zee? How we looking?”

“Uhh, 3 of the 4 look good. This last pod has power in its cells but doesn’t seem to want to hold life support. There’s O2, but it’s not holding pressure.”

“Well, that seems like it’ll be a problem,” Jackson stated the obvious.

“Is there anything you can do?” Lee asked.

“Working on it!” She disappeared behind the pod.

“So, what happens if Trisha doesn’t show up in time?” Jackson asked Lee.

“We leave without her. She’s got 26 minutes before we need to be in our pods and out of here.”

Jackson scowled at him, “We can’t just leave her, Lee. She made it possible for this to even happen.”

“Hey, I don’t like it either, but if push comes to shove, we go without her. She knew when she was supposed to be here.”

“No!”

“What?”

“I won’t leave her behind.”

Tarrek joined in, “Lee, we need her to expose Duryss. It’s whole reason we came up with plans to get off this rock.”

“I know. I know! But we can’t miss this. If we have to, we’ll have to come back and bust her out.”

Tarrek put a hand on his shoulder, “Lee, you realize they’re going to raise security protocols once they know we escaped.”

Lee gave him a hard stare, then brushed off his hand and said, “She’s got 24 minutes.”

“Same old Lee then, huh?” Jackson snapped back at him.

Lee didn’t listen. He knew he was being pragmatic. It was simply taking the rest of them awhile to arrive at the same conclusion. “This isn’t about me. I’m not going to let down the Resistance. Not again. I’m not going to let Duryss or Draden or whoever he is get away with it.” He looked over at Tarrek, “No matter what it takes.”

Tarrek looked back at him and gave him a nod of support. “No matter what it takes.”

Lee walked in to find Zee, “So? Where are we?”

She leaned up from underneath the pod. Her face had smudge marks on it from whatever grime and build-up was on the old casing. “I don’t know that there’s anything we can do about it. It’s not the electronics. It’s just not sealing. Maybe if I had some duranyx or the right tools for reseating the clamps…” her voice trailed off.

“So, we’re down to three?”

“I’m sorry, Lee, but yeah.” She got up from the floor to stand with a hand on her hip. “We’re down to three. There’s nothing else I can do. There’s air, but it won’t hold pressure. Anyone in there would pop, and what’s left would freeze. Not a pretty picture.” She had a sincere, apologetic look on her face.

“No. It’s not your fault. That’s that.” He didn’t want her feeling bad about something out of her control. “Alright, well, maybe Trisha doesn’t show and solves that problem.”

Zee half shrugged and followed him out of the container.

“Shhh!” Dex blew loudly, then whispered with a kind of yell, “Hide. Get back! Someone’s coming!”

Lee ducked back behind a pod pulling Zee down with him inside the container. There was a creaking sound of one of the container doors being moved. They had no idea where the others were. It was silent for longer than Lee thought it should have been. He strained to listen, but all he could hear was the quick breaths of Zee beside him. He could feel how tense she was. He put an arm around her and gave her a nod of reassurance.

Then there was a sound of footsteps; more footsteps than that of a diminutive reporter. It was a group, maybe 5 or 6 at least. The steps got closer and closer, ending with some rustled settling and the tell-tale soft beeps of gun safeties being unlocked.

“Alright.” He heard the contrite woman’s familiar voice. ”Come forward, Mr. Sollinger.”

Zee looked over at him. He shrugged and started to get up. Zee yanked him back down and slowly shook her head, mouthing the word “no” with a pleading look on her face. He put his arm on her shoulder, and she let him go.

He came out of the container to confront a group of three guards flanking Trisha and her boss. The guards raised their rifles at him. They had body armor, but no protective headgear. It was another indication of the lax caution they had in the safety of the penal colony. He slowly moved his hands out away from his body, holding them out as he made deliberate movements forward.

“There we are,” the short-haired woman in her grey and purple pantsuit said, walking around him. She looked him up and down with satisfaction that lingered in her voice. “Not Mr. Graves, after all. I admit it was a decent performance. I’ve worked closely with Ms. Hensley for long enough to know when she’s nervous. You, however, I entirely bought. Hook, line, and sinker. Well done.” She mock-clapped slowly.

“He was protecting me!” Trisha said with a desperation in her posture.

She looked back at Trisha, considering her statement for a moment, “So you two planned to take a loader out for a spin? To what? To escape?” She almost laughed.

Lee was close enough to catch the time on the wall: 1851. If they were going to do something, it would have to be now. “Look, I give up. Take me and let her go. I’m the one who forced her to give me access to that office. It was me. It was all me, not her.”

“Another stirring performance?”

“No, it’s the truth.”

She scrutinized him looking for any tell, any indication he was misleading her. “So tell me, Mr. Sollinger, what’s the play here? You thought you were just going to drive off into the sunset? Steal a ship, perhaps?”

It always amazed him how the truth was sometimes harder to swallow than a lie. “It was my plan. It’s still my plan. I’m just hoping a few of my Resistance friends will show up at the right time.” He emphasized his words loud enough for the others in the bay to hear.

1855.

It appeared Herman was keeping it a low-key affair for the time being. Lee presumed she was fishing for promotion or a story for her social circle. Regardless, when the sensors kicked on in a few more minutes, it was going to get real serious.

“The right time? What do you mean by that?” Herman looked around. She walked over to the wall panels, then turned back to him. “Is something supposed to happen at 1900 hours?”

He stayed silent, letting her fill in her own blanks about the situation. He just needed her to feel pressured enough to act.

“Fine.” She swung her arm to gesture from the guards to where Lee was standing near the container entrance. “Take him into custody.”

“No!” Trisha pleaded.

The three guards moved toward him. It was time to make his move. They had the advantage. He had no hand-to-hand combat experience except some street brawls growing up. He hoped that wouldn’t matter. Unlike his childhood, fighting off Syndicate or Hood members on his own, today, he stood with friends nearby. He had to take action on faith that they would rally when he called for them. This was it. He glanced at the wall.

The guards approached him at both sides, the last one stepped in front of him, gun raised. “Hands behind you,” he ordered.

Lee put his hands to his back. The guard at his left went behind him and began fixing maglock binders to his wrists. The guard behind him backed off to his side, aiming his weapon.

“There we are. Any parting words, Mr. Sollinger?”

“Actually, yes.” He looked at the guard in front of him, steeled his guts for what he was about to do, and with a sharp stare down at the contemptuous woman, he yelled: “Impro, ada, over!”

Lee reared his head back and slammed into the head of the guard in front of him. Then a deafening metal screech from the hinges of the container door startled the guard to his right. The guard turned around in time for the heavy door to send him flying in low-gravity across the room, slamming him against the wall.

From the shadows behind stacked containers at the wall, Tarrek took the guard on his left by surprise, and in a singularly swift motion, disarmed him. Jackson ran out from the same containers with Tarrek and jumped at the guard, still reeling from Lee’s headbutt. Tarrek finished the guard, disabling him with a concussive hook to the man’s temple.

Jackson continued to struggle with the guard until a cybernetic arm flew out from behind the container door. Dex grabbed the man by the head and tossed him like he was a toy. The man flew across the room into a far wall, slid down it, and didn’t get back up.

By the time Herman screamed, it was all over.

Lee breathed hard. His pulse still raced, and his head throbbed. “I wasn’t really sure you guys would get my message.”

Dex smiled, “O‘ course you wouldn’t. It’s called working together, Sollinger. Not something you’re famous for.”

Lee opened his mouth to say something, but finding no words, shut it.

Dex picked up a keycard from the guard unconscious on the floor and removed Lee’s bindings. He rubbed at his wrists, then at the spot of his head where he hit the guard.

Tarrek eyed the short-haired woman, “What about her?”

Zee emerged from the container, “I know what to do with her.”

“Please, no, I…Don’t hurt me!” Herman said, her pretentious attitude replaced with terror.

“Whatever it is, we’ve got to go now,” Lee urged. “Right now.”

Zee looked over to Dex, “Can you help me, big guy?”

“O’course darlin’,” he said, making his way over to her.

She pointed into the container, “Can you put that pod up against that wall?”

“Ahhh,” Dex had the biggest grin. “I get whatchure thinkin’.” He used his arm to haul the broken pod off the container and leaned it against the wall.

Zee walked over and opened it, motioning Tarrek.

Tarrek motioned the barrel of the rifle from Herman to the pod to indicate where she needed to go, “Quickly. Move!” He shouted at her.

She stumbled over to the pod and clumsily stood inside it.

Zee worked the panel on the lid of the pod and reassured her, “Don’t worry, lady, you’ll be fine here. Someone will be along soon. We just need to keep you… occupied.”

“No, please! I… I can’t handle enclosed spaces! I won’t be able to…”

“You can breathe… Just breathe. It’ll be ok.” Zee continued to assure her while she closed the lid. It latched closed with the hissing sound of air escaping. “Dex, push something in front of it so she can’t open it from the inside.”

He gave her a quick nod and shoved some large crates nearby to barricade the pod door shut.

Lee saw Jackson consoling Trisha and getting her settled in a pod while the rest joined them in the container. Dex swung the container door shut as he walked inside. Jackson said something to Trisha that Lee couldn’t hear before sealing her in. Then he moved to help Dex.

“Nice work Zee. I trust you have a plan for us being down a pod?” He walked beside her as they approached a pod.

“Only one I got… You and I are going to get very close. No time to argue. Hop in.”

They awkwardly positioned themselves face-to-face in the pod while Tarrek worked the controls to turn it on. “See you two in a few minutes.”

“Don’t leave us in here,” Lee said, an edge of worry in his voice.

“What? Afraid you’ll be stuck in here with me forever?” She winked at him just inches from his face.

“On second thought,” Lee said, “knock before you open it up, alright?”

Tarrek shook his head and closed the pod door. A rush of air hit Lee from all around, and soft light inside the pod faded on.

Zee gave him a devilish smile. He smiled back.