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Vane’s ship rocked back and forth as it settled onto the surface of the new planet. When it finally came to a complete stop, I breathed a sigh of relief.
“All hands on deck. Engage cargo locks and man the perimeter. Possible hostiles within range. Encounter on ground likely,” a feminine robotic voice ordered overhead.
“Finally. I thought we’d have to stand here forever,” one of Vane’s crew muttered. His crew mate agreed, nodding his head rather enthusiastically.
After several more minutes, the cargo hold had emptied, leaving us Aberrants alone and entirely unsupervised. Vane might be captain of this ship, but he’d made a mistake. He’d underestimated me and I wasn’t about to stand for that. I would teach him that I wasn’t a woman he should ever misjudge.
“Move,” I said quietly, using my hands to direct the others toward the exit route. All the women in my section of the cage gathered about the grate and knelt down, gripping the heavy steel with our fingers.
It took all of our combined strength to move the metal lattice. I grunted as I used everything in me to lift the heavy thing and when it finally came free, we shifted it to the side so that it didn’t fall back in its place. With a deep breath, we pushed it across the floor, again and again until we had opened it enough for us to slip down below.
Mari led the way and I insisted on the others slipping below before I followed. The Aberrant women entered one by one and I watched. The others still imprisoned in the three other cells watched and I looked back at them.
“I’ll come back for you. I won’t leave you behind,” I said firmly, ensuring that I had spoken loudly enough for them all to hear my words. A woman with blue hair in the connecting cage met my eyes and nodded curtly. With a nervous breath, I jumped down below into the tunnel and followed the others. It was dark, with only small windows of light from grates above us that broke through the shadows. It wasn’t large enough for us to walk through, so we had to crawl through the path on our hands and knees. We wandered some way up and down several floors before we found another grate that was pushed open just enough for us all to slip out of the ventilation system.
The women looked to me to guide them through the ship. I took a moment to assess my surroundings, quickly realizing that we weren’t far from Dr. Rackamar’s office. The time I had spent with Vane had made me familiar with much of the layout, so I quickly directed Mari on how to reach the exit hatch. She listened closely and when I was finished, she lifted an eyebrow.
“You’re not coming with us,” she whispered.
“I have to free the others,” I answered softly, and she nodded.
“I would have done the same,” she replied before turning away. The rest of my cage mates followed her in silence, their expressions revealing their fear. I watched them turn the corner before I climbed up the stairs and followed the path back to the cargo hold. I didn’t meet a single person along the way, which surprised me. The main floors seemed to be abandoned and I absently wondered where everyone was. By the time I made it back to the doors to the hold, I wasn’t even checking around corners or making an effort to conceal my steps.
The heavy steel door was locked tight, but I’d seen the code that Javier had typed into the keypad. Amateur. I grinned as I quickly entered the six-digit numeric password, before I heard the locks disengage. The door slowly slid open and I made my way inside.
My next obstacle would be figuring out how to get the cages open.
“She’s back,” a male voice said.
“I didn’t think she would return for us,” another female said, her voice disbelieving.
“I said I would, so here I am,” I answered.
I strode purposely over to the two cages of Aberrant males and stared at the lock. I knew there wasn’t any sort of traditional key and there wasn’t a numeric keypad like I had used to get into the cargo hold. I’d watched Javier open the cage using his finger on a small scanner and I mimicked his motions, swiping my own just like he had. A buzzer sounded and I quickly pulled my hand away.
“It won’t work with human DNA. It’s programmed to recognize the members of the crew and no one else,” one of the men in the cage said. “You won’t be able to get us out that way.”
I looked around and bit my lip, coming up blank. I didn’t know how else I’d open the cages.
“This place is heavily reinforced, almost like a mini fortress within the ship. It’s running on its own power grid, likely as an added safety measure to protect whatever cargo Vane and his men take. You find that power source and kill it, then the cage doors should open on their own,” he continued.
“Where do you think that source is?” I questioned, turning to look at the boy who was speaking. His skin was a dark caramel color, his eyes a brilliant light green.
“Likely at the back of the room far away from the door. There should be some sort of kill switch, I would think. There’s also probably another escape hatch somewhere around here, in case they lost whatever battle they had engaged in and needed to abandon ship right away,” he responded.
“How do you know these things?” I asked.
“I grew up in sector five. My father was an engineer for the Intergalactic Trading Fleet. He taught me much of what he knew, especially in the design of battleships. They weren’t exactly like this one because it’s been heavily modified to Vane’s preferences, but they’re similar enough,” he replied.
“What’s your name?”
“Dex,” he said.
“Nina,” I said, then added, “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” he grinned. I nodded and turned away, focusing on my mission of breaking the other Aberrants free just like I had done with Mari and the others.
I quickly made my way back to where Dex had thought the power source would be located. I looked along the wall and saw nothing though. Crossing my arms over my chest, I studied the wall more closely. It was made of several panels of sheet metal that appeared to be quite thick. With a furrowed brow, I ran my fingers along a number of them, but nothing happened. I chewed my lip and took a step back, looking back and forth along the entire wall. It all looked the same. There was no panel that I could see anywhere.
