Lost Planet 01 - The Lost Planet (24 page)

But first he had to get through that cell door.

Mina was in one of the two cells to his left. He'd seen them bring her in not long after Captain Lennard had left him. Parker wasn't with her, so Chase guessed he was back in the medical bay, wherever that was. He hadn't heard anything about Maurus and wondered with a sick feeling in his gut if he'd already been tried and executed. He knew if he was able to break Mina out, they wouldn't have time to look for Maurus. He hoped they'd be able to find Parker. His plan didn't extend much further than that.

He pressed his hands flat against the door. It certainly felt solid. Impulsively, he knocked his head against the metal surface. It bounced off with a dull thud. “Ow,” he muttered, rubbing the tender spot.

He was crazy for thinking he could escape. He had no idea how to control his phasing, if that was what he could do. Nibbling doubts crept up, questioning his memories. Maybe there had been a weak spot on that container door. Maybe the hand shackles had been left open. Maybe the blade the girl had plunged into his neck was a fake, a gag knife that retracted into the handle. He closed his eyes and thought of the horrible coldness he'd felt when she stabbed him, and remembered her pale, furious face. No wonder she'd been so shocked, seeing her own brother strolling around on Qesaris after she'd witnessed his death. She had to be terrified.

She couldn't be more than ten years old. He imagined her, crouched alone in some dark corner, scavenging for food.

He couldn't let Lennard get her.

Chase opened his eyes and positioned himself so he could just barely see out of the cell door's window to where the guard sat behind a console, looking bored.

It was time.

“Hey!” he shouted. The guard didn't react—the cells were nearly soundproof. Chase tried again, yelling and pounding on the window.

The guard looked up from his desk and frowned. As soon as Chase caught the guard's eye, he staggered away from the door, groaning. He dropped onto the bench, clutching his stomach with one hand and his head with the other.

The soldier's face appeared in the window. Chase shook his head frantically and wailed. The guard began to step away from the door, back toward his console, probably to call for help. Not good.

Chase screamed at the top of his lungs, slid from the bench, and flailed on the floor.

It worked. The guard waved his badge at the door and rushed to Chase's side. The door slid shut behind him.

“What's the matter?”

Still thrashing, Chase eyed the soldier's badge hanging on a cord around his neck. Could he snap it? Probably not. He wiggled and contorted himself into position, knees drawn to his chest, and launched his feet into the soldier's stomach.

With a surprised
oof!
the soldier doubled over and fell back against the wall, stunned. Chase sprang to his feet, yanked the badge up from around the soldier's neck, and waved it against the door's sensor.

Nothing happened.

“Nice try,” wheezed the soldier. “Drop it and put your hands out where I can see them.”

Chase glanced back at the door, clenching the badge in his hand. It was now or never. He would have to try jumping through the door. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to take the badge with him, but his clothes seemed to make the journey every time, so it was worth a try.

Pressing the badge tight against his chest, Chase closed his eyes and ran at the door.

A wave of stinging numbness washed through him, and Chase tumbled to the floor outside his cell. Nausea curdled his stomach, and he curled up in a ball, waiting for the horrible tingling on his skin to go away. When he opened his eyes, he saw the soldier staring, dumbfounded, through the cell-door window. Feeling the hard edges of the badge in his hand, he pounded his fist on the floor in victory.

He'd done it. He could run through doors. He could phase.

Chase staggered to his feet and looked in the window of the next cell. The lights inside had been turned off, but he could see a shape of about Mina's size sitting in the corner of the room. He waved the badge at it, hoping it might work from the outside, but the soldier was right—in his hands it was useless.

He gritted his teeth and leaped at the door, grimacing as the same awful sensation passed through him. He fell to his hands and knees and coughed to stop gagging as his numbness began to subside.

“What on Hesta's seven suns?” asked a hoarse voice.

With a gasp, Chase looked up. It was Maurus, not Mina, who slouched on the floor, one leg extended out, both hands pressed to his side. His face looked scruffy and bruised, but his gleaming eyes were wide-open.

Had he been in the next cell all along? “I thought they killed you!” Chase blurted out.

“Not yet,” Maurus said, sitting up and wincing. “Though not for lack of trying. Lennard's been, ah, encouraging me to record a confession. How did you get through that door?”

“This doesn't work,” said Chase, holding up the badge.

Maurus shook his head. “Of course not. All Fleet badges are DNA-coded. How did you get it?”

Chase stood up, ignoring the question. “Tell me how to open the cell doors.”

Maurus stared at him for a moment, and then got to his feet, hands still pressing tightly against his side. “Use the console at the desk. Access code 0990 should open the screen—it should be easy to figure out from there. What are you doing?”

Chase faced the door, taking a few quick breaths to prepare himself. This was getting easier. “Getting us out of here.”

He ran at the door and jumped. This time, knowing what to expect, he landed on his feet. He leaned over for a second and gave his head a shake. Maurus stared out the window in shock. In the other cell, the soldier he had trapped was shouting and pounding on the door. If he had a communicator, he might have already called for help. Someone could walk in at any second and stop them.

Chase ran to the console and touched the screen, where a number pad blinked into view. Carefully, he touched the digits, 0-9-9-0, and the screen changed, filling up with a jumble of buttons and commands.

Chase looked at Maurus's cell window, panicking. “Which do I press?” he shouted. For once, he wished Parker were there. Chase forced himself to calm down and analyze the entire screen. Finally, on the right side he spotted a section marked Units, with buttons marked 1 through 4 underneath. Maurus and the guard were in the middle two cells, but which of those was 2 and which was 3? He couldn't risk opening the wrong door.

After a moment's contemplation, Chase pushed the button marked 1. Mina had to be in either 1 or 4, and once he knew which was which, he'd know the number to Maurus's cell. Another screen popped up with a list of commands, and Chase pressed Open Door.

The cell closest to him opened up. So that was cell number 1.

“Mina?” Chase called. Nothing. Quickly he opened cells 3 and 4, and Maurus rushed to the console. A moment later, Mina walked out of cell 4, calm and collected as ever.

“Good job, Chase,” she said.

He stepped out from behind the desk. “How do we get off this ship?”

Maurus checked the console. “If we can make it to the lower flight deck, I'll get us out of here. We have to move fast—as soon as anyone realizes we've escaped, they'll lock everything down.”

Chase turned to Mina. “Do you know where to find Parker?”

Before she could answer, a low groan came from cell number 1. Everyone turned and looked at the open door.

“Parker?” Chase dashed for the cell door, his pulse spiking. If that was Parker, he didn't sound good. What he saw inside the cell stopped him in his tracks.

Vo sat slumped on the bench. There were several crusted gashes in his face, which was mottled with green and yellow bruises, and one of his eyes was swollen shut. He bared his teeth and made an ominous rattling sound in the back of his throat.

Behind him, Maurus cursed loudly and pushed past Chase. “What happened? How did you get here?”

Vo glared at Maurus. “After you leave, another attack,” he croaked. “No escape shuttle. Namatan shipper rescue me, call Fleet for help. And I tell them where to find you.”

“Where is the silver case?” asked Maurus. “The one you took from me?”

“Gone. He took it.”

“Who? Was it Captain Lennard? Tell me!” Maurus grabbed Vo's shoulders and pressed him against the wall.

Vo gave a hideous scream that cut off in a wet coughing fit, and Maurus backed off. When he recovered, Vo eased himself off the bench and onto his feet. “You wanna know who took case? Same person that took these,” he hissed.

Shuffling on his long haunches, Vo turned around. To Chase's horror, on Vo's back, instead of his four long golden limbs, there were now four bandaged stumps. Vo looked over his shoulder, glaring at Maurus. “He came for
you
, make
me
suffer.”

“Who?” Maurus shook his head, his mouth agape.

Vo glowered as he shuffled back around to face them, and then the folds of his face curled up in a malicious smile. “Rezer Bennin.” He spoke the name slowly, enunciating every syllable, while giving a pointed look at Maurus. “Come to take his revenge for you stealing his money and android.
He
took case.”

Maurus brought his hands to the sides of his face and groaned. “Cursed suns of Hesta, I can't go back and face that man. He'll kill me on sight.”

“Cut off
your
arms.” Vo's voice grew vicious. “I hope he cut off every one of your limbs, worthless Karsha swill!”

Maurus spat a few incomprehensible words at Vo and turned away. “Let's go, Chase.”

“What about him?” Chase gestured at Vo, who, although obviously in a great deal of pain, leaned against the wall with a strangely contented smile on his face.

“Don't feel too bad for him,” Maurus said coldly as he turned to leave. “He's Shartese. Those limbs will grow back.” Taking one last look at the smuggler, Chase followed him out of the cell.

Maurus slipped behind the desk and typed something on the console, and Vo's cell door slid shut. Mina stood by the door. “Do you know where to find Parker?” he asked. She nodded, reaching for the handle.

“Try not to attract any attention,” said Maurus. “The standby fighters are staged in the reserve hangar on level J. You've got five minutes, or we're leaving without you.”

Mina walked out the door.

“Alright, let's move fast,” Maurus said to Chase. He rifled through the guard's desk and withdrew a slender black baton. “Just stick close to me.”

“But I'm not a soldier,” said Chase. “They'll spot me in a second.”

“This ship has a small civilian population—you'll be fine. I know a back hall where we probably won't run into anyone. Keep your head down and walk fast.” He opened the door, sticking his head into the hallway before exiting the room.

The hall outside the brig was empty, and Maurus quickly cut across and into another quiet corridor. They walked swiftly for a minute, heading toward a recessed doorway. Maurus reached out for the handle, but the door opened before he could touch it. He jumped back with a salute, dropping his face toward the floor.

The young soldier who came through the door began raise his arm in return, but then he gasped, “You!”

“I'm sorry.” Maurus whipped out the black baton and pressed it against the soldier's neck. It made a sizzling sound, and he tumbled to the floor.

Chase stared at the fallen soldier. “What did you—?”

“Stunned him. He'll be fine.” Maurus led Chase down several flights of steep metal stairs and into a narrower, curved hall where the right-hand wall was lined with doors. He stopped at the first one and entered a numbered code to open it. As they stepped into a dark hangar, Chase could see the sleek lines of the fighter parked inside.

Maurus approached the Khatra quickly and opened the side door. “Get in.”

“We have to wait for Mina and Parker.”

“We can't,” said Maurus. “There's no time to wait.”

“But—”

“They'll be fine. The Fleet isn't after them, they're after you and me. We need to get out of here right now.” He grabbed Chase by the upper arm and began to pull him toward the craft.

“We can't leave them!” Chase yanked his arm, wincing at the sharp tingling as he phased through Maurus's grip.

Maurus looked at his hand, then at Chase. “How did you do that? What on Taras are you?”

“I'm not leaving Parker behind!” Chase repeated.

“No worries, you won't have to,” said a voice behind him. With a wry smile on his face, Parker stepped into the docking chamber with Mina, his eyes already on the vehicle. “We're stealing a Khatra?” he breathed, reaching out reverently to touch it.

Chase exhaled with relief and stepped aside to usher Parker toward the Khatra.

“Everyone in,
now
,” barked Maurus.

With a boost from Mina, Parker climbed up into the fighter, peering over the vehicle's one seat. “Are you joking? We'll never all fit in here.”

“You don't have a choice,” Maurus said. “Hurry up!”

The crawl space behind the Khatra's seat was barely big enough for one person. They wedged themselves in shoulder to shoulder with their knees drawn up to their chins. Chase had to incline his head at a sharp angle to avoid hitting the metal hull. Maurus jumped into the seat and closed the hatch. He drummed his hands against the manual controls as the vehicle powered up.

“Come on, come on, come on,” he muttered. The seconds stretched on, and finally Maurus hissed, “Yessss.” They lifted off the deck.

“It worked?” Chase asked. He strained to look over the back of the seat and caught a glimpse of star-spattered space through the front window.

“We're out!” said Maurus. “We're as good as—”