Escape (27 page)

There came a soft, metallic groan that his ears somehow picked out of the surrounding cacophony. Kieran stopped, and his face grew slack with astonishment. His heart was pounding
—
not from the exertion, but from the giddying shock of what he'd just been able to do. It shouldn't have been possible. And yet
 
.
 
.
 
.

He tried again, setting his feet apart and putting his back into it. The bars groaned again, and this time he didn't stop to gawk at his efforts.

“What are you doing now? Oh, I see. You're just going to pry the bars apart with your bare hands, then? You really must be desperate. What do you think you are, a gorylia? Cut that out before you shoot an aneurysm or something.

“Are you even listening to me? Hey, captain shakra face, calling captain shakrraa
 
.
 
.
 
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what in the Infernal?”

Ferrel stopped talking and stared at the impossibly widening gap that was appearing between the bars. Disbelieving, his eyes flicked to Kieran's arms, which were shaking from the effort. His arms looked incredibly strong, as thick as Ferrel's thighs, but somehow that wasn't enough to account for what he was doing.

Quietly, he walked up to Kieran and watched. Kieran's eyes were squinted shut and his mouth was drawn into a grimace from the exertion, but he went on bending the bars until they touched the ones beside them.

Kieran opened his eyes and let out a sudden breath.“See if you can slip between them.”

“How did you do that?”

“I don't know.” Kieran wiped a sheen of trickling sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “See if you can get out.”

Stunned into silence, Ferrel tried to slip his skinny frame between the bars. He managed to get half way out before getting stuck. Kieran gave him a helpful shove in the rear, and he went sprawling to the deck on the other side of the bars.

“Check the guard's desk for decoder keys.”

Ferrel was still so shocked that he walked there in a daze, forgetting for a moment that they had to hurry.

“Hey, kid. This station is still being blasted to pieces you know!”

* * *

“What do you mean bail hasn't been posted?” Jilly asked.

The warden folded his hands on his desk. “His crimes aren't against Da Shon; they're against the Union. Mister Hawker is awaiting transshipment to the nearest Union base. A bounty hunter should be here in a matter of hours to collect him and his partner, Mister Catrel.”

The deck shuddered beneath them, and the warden frowned. The comm panel on his desk issued a beep and a red light began blinking. His attention wandered to it.

“Partner? What did they do?” Jilly asked.

“He appears to have stolen a Union vessel
.
 
.
 
.
 
.
” the warden said, still staring at the comm panel.

From beside her, Jilly heard Reddick let out an irritated sigh. “What did I tell you?”

Jilly ignored him. “Appears to have?”

The warden shrugged. “His innocence or guilt is not for us to establish.”

“May I see him at least?”

“Certainly. I'll accompany you to the cellblock.” The warden began rising from his desk
—
and froze halfway out of his chair as Klaxons began screaming. The lighting in the room dimmed and took on a bloody red glow.

“What's that?” Reddick asked, looking around.

“I believe it's
—
”

“Attention travelers: please follow the emergency lighting to the nearest evacuation route or hangar. We are under attack. This is not a drill.”

“
—
some form of emergency,” the warden finished. He opened a drawer in his desk and withdrew a decoder key. “You're welcome to join me aboard my yacht if you haven't a ship of your own to evacuate to.”

Jilly was on her feet and scowling before Reddick had even stopped blinking stupidly at the warden. “What about Kieran?”

“I'm certain the prisoners in the cellblock will be evacuated along with the rest of the station.”

“Sure they will, right after the vermin in the food stores.”

“Right now you need to worry about yourself. Will you be accompanying me, or not?”

“Not. I'm going to make sure my friend gets off safely.”

“Are you crazy?” Reddick said, now on his feet beside her. “Forget Kieran! We need to get out of here!” Reddick took hold of her by the arms and began dragging her toward the doors of the warden's office.

“Listen to your friend, miss.”

Jilly was struggling in Reddick's grasp, but he didn't appear to notice. “Let me go!” she yelled.

His grip only tightened. “You'll thank me for this later
—
when you're not being so keficking vacuous.”

She elbowed him in the gut. He doubled over in pain, and she spun on her heel to add a knee to his groin. He collapsed to the deck. “Are you on glit, Jilly?!” His voice was an octave higher than usual. “We need to get out of here!”

She ran from the room without a backward glance.

* * *

“Kefick!” Dimmi slammed her fist onto the dash and glared at the pilot station's console. Remnants of Ferrel's biometric security protocols were still lingering in the corvette's systems. Apparently Da Shon Orbital had only succeeded in unlocking the auxiliary flight controls. Everything else, including shields, weapons, and the cloaking system were still locked to Kieran's biometrics, and with the battle raging outside, that was as bad as having the engines off-line.

“You appear to be having difficulties,” a familiar voice said, coming from behind her.

Dimmi's head spun toward the sound. “Brathus?”

He grinned crookedly from the open door to the cockpit. “Did ya miss me?”

She bolted up from the pilot's station and covered the space between them in a few quick strides. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she hugged him and kissed him on his grizzly cheek. Then she kissed him on the mouth.

He began laughing, shattering the moment. “I'll take that as a yes.”

“How did you get here?”

“Long story.”

Dimmi smiled. “We need to get out of here. Where’s your ship?”

“What's wrong with this one?”

“I can't get past the keficking security.”

“Let Kieran and Ferrel do it for us.”

“They're locked up
 
.
 
.
 
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aren't they?”

Brathus was shaking his head. “Not anymore. They broke out. They are on their way here.”

“How do you know?”

Brathus grinned broadly. “I saw them.”

Dimmi frowned and withdrew her arms from around Brathus's neck. “What's with all the short answers? You saw them where? What were they doing, and how did you beat them here?”

Brathus cocked his head to one side, still grinning. “What's with all the questions? We don't have time for long answers. We need to hide now. Perhaps you could help us get some weapons. We'll need them when they arrive.”

Dimmi shook her head and brushed by Brathus. “Follow me. And wipe that stupid grin off of your face. It's creeping me out.”

“As you wish,” Brathus replied, still grinning as he followed Dimmi from the cockpit.

* * *

Kieran and Ferrel were running down the corridor from the cellblock, shoving through the crowds of patrollers. In the dim, flashing red emergency lighting no one recognized them, nor noticed that they were dressed in plain clothes rather than patroller uniforms.

They came to a junction where the corridor crossed another one, and Kieran skidded to a stop.

“Which way?” Ferrel asked.

Looking down first one side and then the other of the corridor which ran perpendicular to theirs, Kieran shook his head. “I don't know.”

Ferrel turned to an officer who was rushing past them and grabbed his arm. The officer whirled to see who dared to delay his escape.

“Which way to the impound hangar?” Ferrel asked.

The officer pointed left, jerked his arm free, and hurried straight.

“Come on,” Kieran said, already running down the left side of the intersecting corridor.

“Kieran?”

The familiar voice brought him to another skidding stop. He turned and saw an equally familiar head of blond hair weaving through the crowd of helmeted patrollers.

“Jilly?”

“Who?” Ferrel asked, trying to see whom Kieran was looking at.

Over the noise of dozens of patrollers pushing and shoving each other for the nearest exit, not to mention the wailing alarms, Kieran never should have been able to hear her. Yet somehow he had.

The crowd momentarily cleared, and he caught a glimpse of her face. He began running toward her. They met in the junction between corridors.

“What are you doing here?” Kieran asked.

She slapped him. “That's for getting arrested!”

Kieran rubbed his stinging cheek. “It's good to see you too.”

“What were you thinking? Stealing a Union ship? Tell me you didn't do it.”

“I didn't do it. Happy now?”

“No. How did you get out of the cellblock?”

The deck shuddered ominously underfoot, and Ferrel appeared beside them. “Under any other circumstances I might ask for an introduction to the beautiful blond who just slapped you, but could you two beat each other up on the way to our ship?”

“Right.” Kieran turned and began jogging down the corridor. “Follow me!”

“Kieran Hawker! We are not done talking!” Jilly jogged up beside him, and Ferrel kept a discreet distance to the rear.

“We're not not done talking, either.”

“What?” Jilly blinked at him, and cracked shoulders with a patroller who was hurrying the other way. “That
 
.
 
.
 
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doesn't make any sense!” she said between gasps for air.

“Makes sense to me!”

“Would you slow down!”

“No. We're kind of in a hurry.”

They came to a T-junction, and Kieran hesitated briefly before running right. The corridor curved away to the left. Once they rounded the corner, they could see that the corridor ended in a door with the word “Impound” stenciled onto it. It opened automatically for them.

“How did you
 
.
 
.
 
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know which way to turn?” Ferrel asked as they piled through the doorway.

“Lucky guess,” Kieran replied.

There was a broad, rounded rectangular viewport along the far wall which looked out into the impound hangar beyond. To the left, a shiny black corner of their ship was just barely visible. There didn't appear to be anyone behind the bars of the impound hangar's office, so Kieran ran straight past it and up to the viewport. He spent a moment gazing into the hangar and following the smooth lines of his shadow-class corvette to the impound hangar's docking tube. Between him and his ship was one other docking tube, with no ship attached.

Kieran ran left of the viewport. He stopped at the second docking tube and turned to Ferrel, who was gasping for air, his hands on his knees to keep blood flow to his oversized brain.

“Think you can slice it?” Kieran said, gesturing to the door controls
—
a keypad.

“What? With my bare hands? Try the door release. Maybe they left it unlocked.”

“This was your brilliant escape plan?” Jilly demanded. “Steal your stolen ship out of the impound hangar?” She crossed her arms over her chest, while Kieran tried the door release.

The door slid abruptly open, and Kieran turned to Ferrel with a grin. “Nice call, kid.”

“I'm not going!” Jilly said. Kieran and Ferrel ran into the docking tube.

“Don't be stupid, Jilly!” Kieran called in a receding voice that echoed out of the docking tube.

She bit her lip and hesitated. If she went with them, she risked becoming an accessory to their theft, but if she stayed, she might not make it to one of the evac shuttles in time.

She shook her head and hurried into the docking tube. “If we get out of this alive, I'm going to kill you, Kieran!”

* * *

The rainbow-colored swirl of trilinear space disappeared, in a bright transitional flash, and was replaced by a misty indigo haze, which continued infinitely in all directions. In the distance, thousands of bright flashes were crisscrossing through the haze in a spider web of light.