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In several places were piles of crates. Some of them were covered in dust and looked like they hadn’t moved for months. Interestingly though, there was a box that looked like it had been pushed aside at a haphazard angle. When I looked more closely at the floor, I could see a line in the dirt that suggested it had once been pushed against the wall. I walked over to that spot and traced my fingers along the metal.
I pressed firmly against the panel once and I heard something hum behind it. The metal slipped open and I took a step back, watching as it revealed an electrical panel complete with blinking blue lights and several multicolored wires connecting various ports together. There weren’t any labels that indicated what any of them were for.
“Can you see this, Dex?” I called out, turning back toward him and moving aside slightly as to not block his view.
He leaned against the bars, narrowing his eyes as he tried to see what I was looking at.
“I recognize the panel. It’s been modified slightly from what I’ve seen before, but the main power switch is on the upper left. Disconnect the wires to that one, and it should power down the systems keeping us locked in here,” he answered.
His knowledge was extraordinarily useful, I thought to myself.
Quickly, I turned back and followed his instructions. There were three wires ported into the cartridge on the upper left, so I disconnected them one by one. Once I had finished, the port blinked bright red several times before going out completely. The lights overhead went out and I hear
d the telltale sound of the locks disengaging on the cages. The doors to each one popped open. Dex pushed open the door and the rest of his cell mates followed.
The second cage of men poured out, along with the remaining women. I grinned with victory as they joined me.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Dex exclaimed and I nodded.
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” I answered, opening the door to the cage I had broken us out of not long ago. I suggested that they continue down the tunnel, as some time had passed, and I didn’t know if Vane’s men had returned to the ship quite yet.
Dex was the first one to go down into the tunnel. The others followed as quickly as they could, but it took some time for all of them to funnel beneath. I waited and adjusted the blanket around my torso, ensuring it was tight and still sufficiently covered my nakedness beneath it.
“It looks like we’re almost too late, but there’s one piece of the precious cargo still left behind,” a deep gravelly voice sneered. I stilled, not recognizing it. I leaned back on my heels and turned my head toward the cargo hold entrance, not knowing what to expect.
It was most certainly not one of Vane’s men.
It was an alien species I didn’t recognize, not that it mattered. He was huge, probably about seven feet tall and even though the door to the cargo hold was very large, he filled it. He was wearing a gray velvet coat with cream-colored lace at the edges, black pants, and dirty leather boots. To top it off, he was wearing a black leather hat with a rather obnoxious plume of feathers on the right side. His skin was a scorched orange, marred with jagged scars across every square inch. His face was hard. His eyes black. He looked dangerous.
And he wasn’t alone. There was a number of men behind him that I didn’t recognize either.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked, gritting my teeth with nervous tension. I stood there in the cage alone. The other Aberrants were below. I could see Dex’s green eyes peering up from below. He’d waited behind in order to ensure that I’d follow.
“Name’s Greyburne. Maybe you’ve heard of me,” he answered with a smirk. “Where’s the rest of you? My intel told me there where fifty of you and here I find only one, which seriously cuts into my expected profits.”
He hadn’t seen the others yet. I moved away from the vent and exited the cage, doing everything in my power that would take the attention away from where they were and shift it to me instead.
“I woke up and everyone was gone,” I replied.
“One measly, lazy little human,” Greyburne sneered.
“How’d you get on the ship?” I pressed, trying to think of ways to distract him in case one of the Aberrants lost their footing or made even a single sound from the vents below. Their escape was most important now. They were more important than me.
“Distraction. Most of my men met Vane’s crew outside the ship, while I and a small group of my most trusted men snuck in another way. Brute force is an adequate measure to take what you want sometimes, but more often than not, sneaking and stealing what you want is a far more successful venture,” he answered.
My stomach rolled nervously.
“Vane isn’t going to like this,” I continued. I needed to figure out how to get Greyburne off the ship so the Aberrants could escape in safety. Greyburne sauntered closer toward me and I had to keep myself from backing away. His gaze dragged up and down my body and I was keenly aware of the fact that I wore nothing under the blanket covering my flesh.
“What Vane likes doesn’t matter to me,” he answered. He swayed from one foot to the other before he cocked his head and spoke again.
“At least you’re a pretty one. You’d probably fetch top dollar at auction, if I didn’t decide to keep you for myself,” he muttered suggestively, and a cold shiver raced down my spine. He reached for me and I had to stop myself from recoiling. I found myself suddenly wishing that Vane had never left my side. Greyburne felt dangerous, unhinged even, and I wasn’t looking forward to learning what he had in mind for me.
“Vane would never let you sell me,” I retorted, pulling my shoulders back and glaring at Greyburne. His black eyes narrowed as he studied me, trying to figure me out.
“Why? What would he care about some human cargo he stole that his sole intention is to sell? Why would you be special to him?” he questioned, the black of his eyes darkening dangerously. I didn’t want to answer, but I did it anyway.
I was about to sign my very own death warrant, one that would ensure that the Aberrants below us would never be found.
