Escape
“Hold On, Jem, we’re going to get you out of here, I promise you.”Skye was laying on her side, messing with the wires in a small panel that even her wrists could barely fit in. She was on the uncomfortable cot that looked like rock and pretending to be asleep while she worked.
Trip was next to her, sitting on the floor attempting to look bored when in reality he was watching everything extremly close. Waiting for guards to come by and look in and also waiting for Mack to give him the kill signal.
Mack, who was even able to impress Skye with his abilities, had created a portable connection using only what Skye and Trip had smuggled in and anything they were able to pick up from the guards during their random searches. He was using his crude device to mess with the video systems but it would only work for a little while before he would have to give the kill signal to Trip who would then tap Skye and she would stop her work on the paneling.
This was the closest simblance to a plan that they had at the moment. If they could get the door open then they were relying on their abilities to incapacitate the guards and get out of there alive.
They had been doing this plan for about three days and all of their patiences were wearing thin.
Ku’ut tapped the floor two times with her long nails, Skye still had trouble understanding the complexities of her language but she knew that definitely meant “Hurry up.”. Skye glared back at her and then immedietly went back to work on the wires in the panel. She had only been back at it for about a minute when she felt the pending tap on her lower back. She closed her eyes and rolled her head back, hearing the guard’s heavy boots strolling by slowly.
The boots paused in front of their cell and Skye’s heart dropped, she tried her best to look relaxed and asleep but she couldn’t stop the tension in her shoulders. She jumped when Trip tapped her side again, this time slightly harder.
“Hey, you’ve been on there long enough. It’s my turn.” He explained in a fake annoyed voice, just loud enough for the guard to hear.
Skye rolled over and pretended to yawn, putting on her best offended face, she slid down to the floor as Trip moved to take her place on the bed. The guard, apparently satisfied by this exchange , moved on down the hallway.
When they were alone again, Ku’ut clicked loudly a few times, kicking the side of the wall. She had taken to pacing back and forth in their small cell.
Skye glanced at Mack, it annoyed her that she couldn’t communicate with someone that she was potentially trusting with her life, “What did she say?”
“She said, ‘This is taking forever’” He explained.
Skye looked directly at the I'Nek, “I know, but this is the only chance we’ve got.”
The I'Nek made several more tapping, and clicking noises. Skye didn’t even have to ask before Mack translated, “She said, ‘Human’s always make things so complicated. It annoys her.”
“Does she have a better idea?” Skye asked, tilting her head directly at Ku’ut.
The tiny woman’s face broke out into a grin, showing off her sharp insizors and the short third row of teeth. She screetched on the floor and Mack’s head rolled back, he looked at Skye, “You just had to challenge her, didn’t you?”
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Nueh’nah slipped into Jemma’s dark room, despite the librarian’s complaining, no one had given her the authorization code to turn the lights on, apparently they were afraid she’d try to use the lights to escape.
But they were wrong, Jemma was perfectly capable of planning and executing her S.O.S and escape with only the lights that she created for herself. With the help of the Naht'Wuna, of course.
Jemma glanced up from where she was standing on a table at the edge of the door as the girl walked in. She offered the woman a small metal wire that she had smuggled away.
“Thank you so much.” Jemma took the wire and used it to recalibrate the door’s sensors. Nueh’Nah stayed and watched her, unsure of what she was doing but very insistant on helping.
Jemma handed her things and the girl kept them until she needed them again, they had been working for a while when Jemma finally stopped and looked down at the girl. She looked so small and her hands always seemed to be shaking, Jemma sighed.
“Let’s take a break, shall we? Get something to eat?”
Nueh’nah backed away to give her room to step down and followed her to the bed, Jemma sat down and began to half her food , putting some of it on one side and keeping some for herself.
This had become their routine for the few days Jemma had been stuck in this room. Nueh’nah had been risking her own skin to bring Jemma the supplies that she needed and then they would sit on the bed and talk. Nueh’nah had finally begun to come out of her shell and Jemma had become rather fond of the child.
Ward let this happen since Jemma made an absolute fuss when he sent in a guard to give her food and she threw it back in his face and screamed at him. After that, they just let Nueh’nah give her food and come and go.
“Will it be ready soon?” The girl asked, taking a bite of her bread.
“It should be soon, I just have a few more tweeks to do and then it should be ready for when Skye and Trip get out.”
“You seem so sure that they will escape, what if they don’t?”
Jemma chuckled, “Oh they’ll be trying to escape, trust me. There is absolutely no way Skye is just sitting in there biding her time. And when they get out we need to make sure that we have a way out.”
“Oh.” Nueh’nah nibbled on the rice.
Jemma looked up, “I want you to know that I couldn’t have done this without you. I know you’ve literally been risking your life for a stranger and I truly appreciate the risk you’re taking.” The librarian was staring at her seriously but the girl was still looking down.
She nodded in response but didn’t say anything unti, she asked, “Where will you go when you escape?”
Jemma thought about it for a moment, “I don’t know, perhaps back to Tah’woh.”
Nueh’nah made a scruntched up face of disgust and Jemma laughed, “What is it?”
“Tah’woh is terrible! It’s dirty and the sky is always covered, you don’t want to go there.” She explained.
“Really now?” Jemma pulled her legs underneath her and stared at the girl curiously, “I’ve never been there.”
Nueh’nah nodded, “Yes, it’s not very beautiful and the water is black, You should go to Bellamane.”
“Bellamane?” Jemma genuinely didn’t know the place.
“I’ve heard it’s the most beautiful planet in the universe that the sky is pink and the water looks like glass and the people sleep all day and dance all night.”
Jemma didn’t know if this place was real or if it was someplace that this young girl had made up, perhaps to counter the reality of her situation.
“That sounds wonderful!”
Nueh’nah nodded, “If you—When you escape, could you go there for me? Maybe you could tell me about it someday?”
The child’s eyes were glossy and wide, making her look much younger than she actually was, Jemma stared at the girl curiously, “Well, you can see it for yourself. I’m not leaving you here after all you’ve done for me, silly!”
Nueh’nah’s face lit up and she lunged at Jemma, enveloping her in a hug, the librarian laughed and clung on to her.
“Really!?”
“Yes, of course! If you’re brave enough to go.”
“I am! I promise!” Nueh’nah didn’t let go of the older woman for a long while.”
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“Whoops, my bad.” Bobbie apologized to the dead body of the head of security as she accidentally stepped on her fingers. She hopped over the other two bodies, one had been shot in the struggle, one Morse had suffocated, and the other she had electrocuted. It wasn’t her cleanest job but it definitely got the job done.
She stretched and yawned, her body was still stiff from being in the prisoners pod as she had to wait days for the perfect moment to take them out. Which had finally come and she had that distince rush of adrenaline that she missed a lot more than she thought she had when she had gone straight.
She moved through the security vessel and sat down at the controls, looking over the data displayed. They were almost to O’nah when she had escaped and killed them and they were still on a bee line course for the planet’s capitol city.
She tutted the computer and punched in new coordinates, “Not going anywhere near there, let’s get the hell out of here.” She mumbled to herself.
It was going to take them at least another 2 to 3 days before the captitol sent reinforcements to help their people. Bobbie planned to be way out of the O’Nahn galaxy by the time that happened.
She didn’t know where the hell she was going from here but for the first time in nearly three years, she took a breath and felt free.
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“AND WHOSE FAULT IS IT THAT WE’RE IN HERE!?” Mack screamed loudly at his partner, she screetched back and him, making the two in the cell next to them cover their ears.
“Oh no you did not just say that!?” A moment later Ku’ut and Mack were exchanging blows. And between his size and her speed, the fight caused the whole floor to shake.
Trip and Skye eyes widened and they backed away from the brawl. A second later about five guards were running to the cell, sporting stun batons and yelling incoherently at the two fighting.
They opened the cage door and began pulling them apart, Mack and Ku’ut continued to reach and grab for each other’s throats. It took the guards nearly five minutes to pull them apart, they pushed them back into separate corners and yelled at them until they put their hands on the tops of their heads.
The guards continued to yell at them as they seemed to calm down, standing nearly at attention. Skye and Trip were confused, but then Mack and Ku’ut exchanged a quick glance.
A moment later Mack had pulled the stun baton out of two of the guard’s hands and Ku’ut had jumped nearly five feet straight into the air landing on top of one of the faceless guard’s heads. Before any of them could react, she had stabbed her long nails into their heads.
Her feet clung on to their necks and she jumped from man to man until all five had dropped to the floor dead, blood pooling around their bodies.
Skye and Trip had given each other a nervous glance. Mack handed one of the stun baton’s to Ku’ut, he was rubbing his jaw, “I told you not to hit for real.” The small alien shrugged innocently and began to strip the guards.
They put the uniforms on, including the masks which covered their faces, a second later they were outside of Skye and Trip’s cell, opening the door and handing them two more slightly bloodied uniforms.
Skye took it with a grin, “I stand corrected.” She said, looking at Ku’ut.
“This should help us get away, at least for a little while, we need to get some better weapons and we need to get to the Nenuphar.” Mack explained, already accessing the ship’s blueprints.
“Wait, we need to get Jemma first.” Skye interrupted and Mack looked at her strangely,
“Why? He’s not going to hurt her,”
“He might if we get away, he’s going to need someone to pin this on, and I’m not leaving her here with him.” Skye stated, in a final descision voice.
The others sighed, “How are we even going to find her?”
Skye looked around Mack’s shoulder at the blue prints, she hit a few buttons and then suddenly her eyes lit up, “That’s my girl.” She said, pointing to the lit up corridors in the maintenance sections behind the walls, they lead a perfect map through the ship to one specific room, they also showed the way out.
Skye patted Trip on the shoulder, “Lets go! We don’t have much time.”
They moved through the ship as a unit, trying as hard as possible not to look suspicious which wasn’t very easy given how much of a hurry they were in. Skye followed the lights from the blueprints, the other three following her, soldier like and stoic.
The lift had just stopped on the floor that Jemma was on when alarms began going off all around the ship, someone had found the bodies and the empty cells. Now they really didn’t have any time.
Skye ditched trying to look calm and sprinted down the hallway, before she could get to the room, Jemma had exited her quarters, alerted because of the alarms and knowing that it was time to get out.
She looked both ways, she found Skye running towards her from the right, her face broke into a smile and she ran toward her, Nueh’nah was close on her heels. They met in the middle, Skye swung her around and knowing that they didn’t have the time to catch up, grabbed her hand and ran down the corridor, following the route that Jemma had planned out.
Skye glanced back at the girl as they ran and looked at Jemma.
“This is Nueh’nah, she’s coming with us.” Jemma said as she ran, talking through heavy breaths.
“Yeah I picked up a couple new people too.” Skye explained, holding on to Jemma’s hand tightly. Jemma looked behind them to where Mack and Ku’ut were running next to Trip.
They made their way through the ship, Jemma had mapped out the least used routes through the ship but the guards were still hot on their tails. Finally they made it to the transporter room, they were going to have to hack both the Sliver tongue’s systems and the nenuphar’s systems in order to transport themselves out. It was risky to transport while the ships were moving but it was a risk that they were willing to take.
They had been able to confuse the sensors and now the army of men were pillaging about somewhere else on the ship. Skye and Mack both ran to the console of the transporter and began pushing their way into the system. Nueh’nah was holding on to Jemma for dear life.
“Here put these tags on.” Makc threw two tags to Ku’ut and Trip, they oblidged and a second later they were gone, moved to the bridge of the Nenuphar.
“Alright—“ Skye hit a few more buttons and then moved away from the console, going to where the other two woman were standing, Mack moved past her and put a tag on himself.
Skye handed Nueh’nah and Jemma the tags, “Okay, lets get out of here.” She said calmly, “I don’t know about you but I’m getting—“
She stopped, her eyes went wid as a blast from a laser hit her side with enough force to knock her off to the side. Jemma screamed, and Mack moved to help Skye.
“Don’t even think about it.” Ward was standing in the doorway; gun in hand with a satisfied smile on his face. “Move to the side or I’ll shoot you too.”
Mack put his hands up and back away, Skye was struggling on the ground, blood was pouring from her wound and her body was shaking but she was still attempting to stand up.
A massive group of guards pushed their way in behind Ward and detained Mack. Jemma moved to Skye, the captain reached out a hand for the other woman. Jemma grabbed her fingers, tears running down her face and she moved to help her before Ward’s hand pushed her away.
He tutted at the librarian, a guard grabbed Jemma’s arms and pulled them behind her back, she struggled against them.
Ward looked down at Skye and shook his head, “Next time don’t be so stupid, kid.”
Skye used the last of her strength to flip him off before her pushed her to the ground and ordered his men to take her away. Jemma couldn’t do anything as they took Skye’s limp body away, she had her hand over her mouth and her eyes were wide and red.
Skye forced out a strangled, "Jemma..." as they took her away.
Ward motioned for the girl, “Take the traitor.” Nueh’nah whimpered as five more men walked toward her, but they never got close as the older woman pushed her back and stood between them.
“Don’t you dare.” She snarled, the men didn’t seem to care and she had to hold her ground as they tried to psuh past her, she kicked one in the crotch and pushed another into a wall. She was so short compared to all of them and they all looked like they could snap her in half without much effort. That didn’t stop her from puting up a fight.
“They’re getting her over my dead body, Ward.” She called over to the captain of the Silver tongue.
He sighed and put a hand over his face in irritation, “Let her be.” He practically groaned out, “God, you’re such a pain in the ass. keep her for all I care.”
The men backed off but Jemma stayed in her fighting position, keeping a hand on the girl behind her. Ward looked away as the transporter was activated and a moment later, Trip and Ku’ut appeared, struggling against their captors. The small woman was screeching and kicking against what looked like at least five steel enforced nets that wrapped her body up tight.
“Trip, he shot her!” Jemma cried out, pointing down the hallway that they had taken Skye, “Ward shot her, Trip, help her!” The libraian had begun crying again despite her efforts to hold it back.
Trip’s eyes widened and he mumbled something underneath the hand that was holding his mouth, he began thrashing his head until the hand let him go, “Let me see her!” He cried at Ward, the bounty hunter didn’t answer, “I’m a doctor, let me see her! Goddammit, Grant you don’t want her dying on your ship.”
Ward looked up at his struggling form finally, “What do I care?”
Trip’s face fell and he was pushed away and out of sight.
Ward sighed and looked to Jemma who was grasping the girl’s hand tightly, “We’re here, you’re going home whether you want to or not. Move her to transport, he pointed to his men and they pushed both Jemma and Nueh’nah forward.
From there they were moved from one ship to another, “The Mockingbird” She was shuffled through security and through the crew that had met her before this whole thing had started. She stood behind Ward as he talked with the new captain, a young woman named rose, the officer thanked him for his services and gave him his ridiculously large amount of money, before he finished talking with the captain, he told her that Nueh’nah was a gift for Jemma.
Jemma’s face was blank while they exchanged good byes and Ward moved in front of her looking down at her with a satisfied look on his face.
“Don’t look so glum, sweet heart, this is the best thing for you, I promise.” And he made to walk away.
Jemma stopped him and said in a low, dangerous voice, “If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you.”