The Price of Freedom (10 page)

"Try again," Jess said, his tone harsh. "Louder this time."

She did as she was told, calling out the same message. This time one of the men replied.

"What do you need?"

It was her moment, and at that second she knew what she had to do.

“Get help! The-" She was abruptly cut off by Jess’ hand coming down across her mouth so hard she bit her lips. Instantly she could taste salty fluid that had to be her own blood. Logan looked at her with hatred in his eyes.

“Bitch,” he hissed.

“What was that?” the guard called. “I couldn’t hear you. Just a minute.”

There was some muttering, and then they could hear the bolt sliding through on the other side. Logan poised to move while Jess pushed her roughly behind his body. She drew breath to scream, but it was too late.

The door swung inward. In a flash, Jess slammed it back, hitting the guard in the head. The man dropped like a stone. Logan jumped through the doorway looking for his companion. There was no one there. Jess followed him quickly, ready to move.

"Where the hell is the other guy?" Jess whispered harshly. Bethany stepped through the door hesitantly, following Jess. He and Logan were looking up and down the corridor, but neither of them seemed to notice the small alcove that held the table where the guards usually sat. There was a bottle of
bakrah
, and some kind of board game set up. And a blaster.

Moving quickly and silently, she crept toward the table, hoping desperately she could stop this revolt here and now. Someone tackled her from behind; she went down, hard. A man's heavy body hit her, and suddenly she couldn't breathe.

"Stop pulling crap like this or I won’t be able to guarantee your safety," Jess whispered in her ear. "I don’t want you to get hurt, but I’m the only one who feels that way right now. Shut up and do as I say if you want to live."

She gasped, trying to catch her breath. He couldn't guarantee her safety no matter what, she though darkly. He couldn't guarantee
anyone's
safety.

"I've got the blaster," Logan said quietly. "We need to get her out of the way, and get rid of that guard, too. His friend could come back at any minute."

"You get the guard," Jess said grimly, his voice a rumble against her back. She had to get away from him, she thought desperately. She forced herself to go limp, not fighting as he pulled her to her feet. She raised one hand to her head, wobbling. He'd fooled her about his physical condition for ten cycles. Time for him to learn what it felt like to be the fool.

Watching out of the corner of her eye, she waited until Logan was dragging the guard's body through the door to strike. She raised her knee with all the force in her body, slamming it into Jess'

crotch. He dropped to the floor and she was off. She was around the corner before either man realized what happened. They'd come after her, of course, but they had a serious disadvantage. She knew her way around the station, had played in these corridors as a child. There were a thousand hiding places.

No way they'd be able to catch her now.

Behind her she heard a startled cry; the other guard must have returned. There was the sound of blaster fire and the smell of burning plastic. Everything was suddenly far more real than it had been just seconds earlier. If she didn't warn them, every woman on the station could end up raped, even dead. She didn't even like thinking what might happen to the children.

Then she heard footsteps behind her. Someone was following her, running hard. It had to be Jess.

She ducked around another corner, desperately pushing into a small store room. If she remembered correctly, there was an air vent at the back. As a child, she and her friends had crawled through it.

Would she be too big to fit through now? If he found her, he'd probably kill her.

She scrabbled frantically through piles of debris. Old blast casings, torn pressure suits, parts for mining tools. There it was, the grating that covered the vent. She felt the corners for the fasteners and found them gone.

The children must still play here
, she thought with satisfaction.

Pulling off the grate, she started crawling into it, feet first. It seemed like she would fit, although her skirts would make it tight. Why hadn't she thought of that? She started to pull her legs back out to take off the bulky clothing, but then she heard someone out in the corridor. He could find her any minute. She slithered into the vent as quickly as she could; when she was all the way in, she reached out and pulled one of the pressure suits across the open space she'd cleared. She pulled the vent casing into place behind her and started scooting backwards. There should be a wider vent about ten meters back. Once she was there, she would be able to turn around and crawl more easily.

Time to go and warn her people.

* * * * *

Jess cursed, opening door after door along the corridor trying to find her. She'd simply disappeared, and now he was wasting valuable time looking for her. They had hoped to take on the Pilgrims slowly and steadily as they slept.

That wasn't going to be an option now. More people would have to die. It was only a matter of time before she brought help, and all they had to show for their efforts so far were two blasters.

Disgusted, he jogged back to the main entrance of the mining complex. Two slaves stood over the dead guard's body. When the second Pilgrim had come wandering back up to the corridor, he’d seen Logan, and raised his blaster to fire. Logan had reacted instantly, shooting the blaster like a seasoned soldier. In those seconds, Jess had realized how little he really knew about the man. They had never discussed their backgrounds or their families. He didn't even know what Logan had done before he'd become a slave. After seeing him attack the guard, Jess had a few suspicions.

He jogged past the men guarding the door, moving quickly down the corridor to the main room outside the barracks. Logan and the others already had one of the lockers open. He was handing out small cubes of explosives, while another man—Kresn—was showing them how to use the detonators.

"Remember," Kresn said. "You blow this in the wrong place and the dome looses pressure. We don't want that to happen, but keep your helmets ready. If something goes wrong you’ll only have a few seconds to pull them on."

"Why don't we just blow the dome and kill 'em all?" another man muttered, his voice harsh.

"Because we're better than them," Logan said, staring at him with cold eyes. "We don't want to kill the women and children if we don't have to. Those children are completely innocent."

"Not only that," Kresn added, his voice filled with dark humor. "I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to getting my hands on some of those women. It's been a long time since I've had myself a piece of tail."

"No rapes," Jess said. The men all turned to look at him. "If I catch any man raping a woman, I'll kill him. Do you understand?"

"The same goes for me," Logan added. "We are
better
than them—remember that. It’s the only thing keeping us human. Their women are hardly more than slaves as it is. They're victims, too, and I want them to be treated well, or you'll answer to me and Jess."

"Oh, I understand,” Kresn said, his voice light. "But I have a feeling some of those Pilgrim women might enjoy the chance to take up with a new kind of man. This could be as much of an escape for them as it is for us."

"We can talk about that later," Jess said. "We need to get moving now. Bethany got away, and Goddess knows how long we've got before she finds help. Remember the plan. Now let's move."

The men stowed the small blocks of explosive in their pockets and clipped their helmets to the backs of their suits. Then the group started jogging out the tunnel into the main station. Logan and Jess took the point positions, covering each other with the blasters as they made their way into unfamiliar territory. Fortunately, the corridors were clearly marked with color-coded strips.

The Pilgrims were even stupider than they’d thought.

* * * * *

Bethany crawled along the ventilation shaft as quickly as she could. She must be almost out of the mining complex by now. It was just one of four domes making up the settlement. They were connected by four intersecting tunnels, with ventilation shafts running above each. It seemed like every movement she made was noisy; how could they not hear her in the tunnel below? She could hear them; they'd run beneath her just seconds earlier.

After what seemed like an eternity of crawling through the darkness, she felt a change in the vent's surface. Where it had been smooth plast-crete before, there appeared to be a slot. She had reached one of the recessed shields that would snap closed if a dome lost pressure. That meant she was almost to the junction where her vent would meet up with vents from the other domes.

She slowed, feeling her way carefully. The vents got confusing at this point. She had to find just the right one. If she remembered correctly, it was the one on the right, and she would have to boost herself up several feet to climb into it. There it was. She climbed up into the new tunnel, moving quickly over another of the blast shields. They always frightened her; as a child she'd been warned that if a human was standing in the way when a dome lost pressure, the powerful shields could cut them in half. She'd had nightmares about it for years.

She moved safely past the shield and then came to another junction. She tried to remember the fastest way out to the kitchen. It was the closest place she could think of that would have communication equipment. Everyone would be asleep and she had no idea how to trigger a general alarm. But she knew if she called one of the elders, he would know what to do.

Unfortunately, making her way to the kitchen wasn't as easy as she remembered. The shaft narrowed as she crawled, and finally she could go no further. All but crying in frustration, she realized that while she had been able to pass this way easily as a child, she was simply too large now. She would have to go back. She backed up carefully, trying to remember what her other options might be. An instant later she felt her skirt catch on something, and her leg was pinned. She couldn't see anything, and the shaft was far too tight for her to reach down and free it.

Shit.

She closed her eyes, forcing herself to calm down and think for a minute. She had to get free and she had to get out of there quickly. She moved one leg experimentally, and felt the fabric pulling against whatever had it hooked. If it was rough, she might be able to saw through the fabric and free herself.

Bethany moved her leg slowly back and forth, rubbing the fabric against whatever had caught it.

Then she pulled, testing to see if anything would happen. She felt a small piece of it tear. She twisted her leg a bit and managed to hook one foot in the hem of her dress. She pulled down, slowly and steadily, and was rewarded with a ripping sound. She was free.

She started scooting backward again, taking care to avoid the rough spot that had caught her in the first place. Then she was past it. She had no idea how long it had been since she'd made her escape.

They could already be in the main station, and she had no idea where to go next.

She'd have to risk coming out in the first room she could find that had a vent large enough for an adult to crawl through, and take things from there.

It took her several tries to find a way out; she was hopelessly confused by now. As a child she had never gone through these shafts alone, and certainly never without a light. Finally she found what looked like it might be a way out. She could see a faint light at the end of one of the shafts. It looked large enough for her to pass through, so she went for it.

She moved as quickly as she could, but it still took several minutes to reach the vent. By the end, she was scooting along on her belly, moving mere inches at a time. When she reached the vent, she peered out of the grill to find that she'd stumbled across someone's fresher. The light was a small one to help the occupants find their way in the dark.

Some family was going to get a big surprise
, she thought grimly.

She had pushed open the vent and was halfway through before she realized she had another problem, a big one. This vent was nearly six feet from the floor, and all she had to break her fall were her own hands.

"Hello?" she called, trying to maintain her balance as she hung halfway out the opening. "Is anyone here? I need help."

She called several times, but there was no response. Suddenly an explosion rocked through the dome, knocking her out of the vent. Instantly the air was filled with sirens and she heard someone in the apartment scream. Even with the noise around her, the crash she made as she landed was loud enough to catch the attention of the apartment's occupants. The door swung open, and a man dressed only in his drawers brandished a blaster at her.

"Don't move," he said, his voice harsh. A woman peeked around behind him, one hand held to her mouth.

"The slaves," Bethany gasped out. "The slaves are escaping. I got away from them. You have to do something."

Another blast rocked the building and the lights flickered out. Then they came back on as the emergency power supply kicked in.

"It's Bethany, Dom," the woman said, plucking at the man's arm. He slowly lowered the blaster, giving her a suspicious glare. Then he turned to his wife, running his fingers through his hair nervously.

"I need to join the men," he said. "If the slaves are escaping they'll need me. Marta, you get dressed and get ready to defend the children. And you," he said, turning to Bethany. "You get to you father's apartment. Once we get this taken care of, the elders will want to talk to you."

Bethany nodded, and stood up rather shakily. Marta led her quickly through their rooms to the door, her daughter clinging to her mother's side.

"Be careful," she whispered. "I don't know what's going on out there, but the men will be quick to shoot."

"I will," Bethany said, trying to smile at her. Another blast rocked the station; both women winced.