Although I was pretty happy about the timely nature of Allison’s arrival, I did lament one small point.

We were still trapped behind the lock- that had been ‘rewired’ thanks to Saskia.

“I’m pressing it, and nothing’s happening!” came the frantic whispers from the other side of the lock, only confirming my suspicions.

“Dan?” I looked over to him- this was his domain now.

He opened his mouth but paused, apparently having thought of something.

“I taught her one method to modify the ‘code’ of the lock, the only one I knew how to do. But seeing as how she seems to have planned everything days in advance…”

“It’s possible that she had her own method of doing it.” I finished off for him.

“Exactly. And I can’t exactly troubleshoot the problem without looking at the laptop- It’s going to be hard enough directing you to undo my method as it is.”

Crap. More problems just kept arising. This wasn’t going as it did in the movies, with the flashy and daring escape all being captured by a montage in less than a minute.

“You’re going to need to find my laptop- it’s the only functioning one on board now that the monitor room is out of commission. Our only chance is that she hasn’t destroyed it after using it- which I suspect she won’t have, to keep her options open as to how she deals with us.” he continued.

“So, you need to try and find it without being caught- and then bring it back here. No pressure.” I surmised.

“Shit” She sighed.

“Actually no- as soon as you get that laptop, get back here as fast as possible with minimal care to your subtlety.” I corrected myself.

“What? Why would she do that? Won’t she get caught?” Dan asked, puzzled.

“Saskia isn’t a movie villain. We aren’t going to be able to steal things from right under her noses and have her not even notice that they are gone. So even if you manage to grab the computer without her noticing, she’s going to notice as soon as she sees that the place where she put it is empty. We’re likely dealing with a professional here- so, don’t think of her as ‘Saskia’ anymore. Think of her as a meticulous mercenary with the intelligence and skills to back her up. And most importantly- don’t try and fight her! Regardless of her martial skills, which she was likely hiding from us, she’ll have multitudes of ways to win in an all-out fight- she’ll employ whatever dirty or underhanded means that she has to take you out.”

“This gets better by the minute. Wish me luck; I’m gonna need all that I can get,” she grumbled.

And then we were left alone. I didn’t want to discuss if the plan would fail or not, and it didn’t look like Dan wanted to either. Our lives were on the line here.e

All we could do now was wait.

* * *

30 agonisingly long minutes dragged on by with not a single sound outside the lock.

I hadn’t given up hope yet, because if Allison did get captured by Saskia, then I was sure that Saskia would come back and gloat to us about it.

But there was a time limit. Saskia was going to dispose of us at some point before the ship made it back close to Earth. We had to get out of here before then.

* * *

Another 15 minutes had passed. Still no noise outside the door.

Things were beginning to look bad, and if Allison didn’t come soon, then we might not even be alive to hear her come back with the laptop.

But then footsteps sounded out in the corridor. Both Dan and I perked up, but I hesitated. There was something off.

Dan started to speak, but quickly I clamped a hand over his mouth.

With wide eyes full of indignation, he angrily glared at me. I put a finger to my lips to signal silence and released my grip on his mouth. Confused, he mouthed the word ‘what?’ at me.

‘That’s not Allison’ I mouthed back. The footsteps were too measured, too casual, for it to be someone running back to save us. And if she was purposefully going slow to try and be subtle? The loud footsteps would give her away.

No, I was confident it was Saskia. Did this mean that it was over for us? Was Allison captured or worse?

‘Don’t say a word!’ I mouthed to Dan, who nodded furiously in response.

“Well, well, well. No exclamations of happiness? What’s gotten you so quiet?” came Saskia’s chippy voice.

My heart sank low in my chest.

“A kind friend has taken it upon herself to visit you twice in the same morning! And this all the thanks that I receive? I even come bearing gifts this time!”

Holy crap. She wasn’t referring to Allison. My shoulders sagged with relief. But once I focused on what she had said, I immediately went tense again. Were these ‘gifts’ going to be the last gifts we ever received?

“Just messing with you- ‘tis just some breakfast for the both of you. Having you starve to death you die your untimely death would just make it a little more bothersome to explain. But don’t mistake ‘bothersome’ for a significant hinderance- it makes little difference to me and will probably make your death a whole lot less painful. So, enjoy your last meal and eat up!”

Whether from her unnational or purposeful reveal, we now knew that she planned to take us out before lunchtime- from her ‘last meal’ comment. That didn’t leave us with a whole lot of time to break out of here.

But, more importantly, how was she going to give us the food through the closed lock?

As if in answer to my thoughts, Saskia spoke up again.

“Oh yeah, I forgot. If either of you is dumb enough to try and ‘ambush’ me as I come through this door, then you’re going to receive a nasty surprise from my stun baton. Or should I say ‘shock’ instead of surprise?”

A stun baton? I shared a worried look with Dan. I knew she wasn’t going to be unarmed, but I wasn’t expecting anything more than a blunt weapon, as Spacca was pretty strict with their weapon screening procedures.

Neither Dan nor I were foolish enough to test her weapon as the lock opened, so we stayed well back.

The doors slid open to reveal Saskia’s smirking face, a baton in her right hand, and two containers, one balanced on top of the other, in her left. Casually throwing the containers onto the floor between us, she gave us a wink before closing the lock again. Her footsteps, casual but distinct, echoes back down the corridor.

Now that food was in front of me; I was reminded of exactly how hungry I was. Dan was obviously hungry as well, matching my ferocity as we both started to attack our meals.

Between bites, Dan started to say something.

“I don’t think she’s lying about the stun baton. She couldn’t have brought an obvious weapon on board, nothing conventional like a gun or a knife. But it’s plausible that she brought the dismantled pieces of that weapon, putting it together only now. It would have been trivial to disguise the parts in boxes of specialised tools.” he surmised.

I nodded.

“And I don’t think we have the leisure to call her bluff anyway, because I’m sure she could use that to take us out regardless of whether it was electrified or not” I agreed.

Like it wasn’t going to be hard enough as it was to overpower her without any weapons.

Just as we were finishing up our meals, there came another knock on the lock.

Again, I turned to Dan and put my finger to my lips. But this time, we were in luck.

“Dan! Ollie! You guys better be in there!” came Allison's whispered shout from the other side of the door.

“Yep, we’re still alive!” I whispered back similarly.

“I swear… that bitch is a machine. Didn’t take a break at all, just continuously building some sort of device. The only time that she stopped paying attention to everything in the room was when she left it to get food for you guys!”

She far diverged from the comic book villains who constantly let their guards down, allowing the daring villains to make some sort of fantastic infiltration into their evil lair.

“She’s a professional through and through then, as we suspected. And speaking of suspicions, we should probably hurry up and break out- I have no doubt that she’s going to notice the laptop missing soon enough and put 1 and 1 together.” I reminded Allison.

“Ok, my turn,” said Dan

It was all down to his ability to coach and instruct without looking at the computer itself.

I frowned when I realised that my life depended upon my crewmate’s ability to handle an IT call.

Dan closed his eyes and cracked his fingers.

“Ok Allison, turn on the laptop and tell me everything you see…”

* * *

15 minutes of what seemed like inane technical jargon to me later, Dan held his breath.

“So, I just enter this code? And it works?” queried Allison, seeming sceptical.

“It should. I really hope it does, because otherwise, we have to go back through. Line by line, as well as all the processes that we had to go through to get to this step.”

I could see why Dan was holding his breath.

“And I don’t think we have that time” I interjected.

“No pressure Allison, just-” Dan started to say, but was interrupted as the doors began to slide open.

“…yeah, that.” He finished lamely.

“I’ve never been one for dramatic tension, sorry” shrugged Allison.

“No that’s alright- but we’ve got to get out of here right now! Allison, where is Saskia based?” I reiterated.

“She’s taken over your sector, Dan- So let’s get as far away from that as possible. Whose sector is the furthest away?”

“That’s mine- so quick, let’s go!” I hurried them along.

* * *

We reached my sector, panting from the sprint that we had just done. Every second counted as planning time now, which we desperately needed. Putting my thumb to the fingerprint reader, I unlocked the door, and we headed for my private quarters.

“She was working in your sector, Dan. So, it’s obvious that she has some means of bypassing all of our security- ruling out just holing up here. And she’s got a weapon- probably more than one, actually. I don’t think we will come out on top if we were to just work together and fight her.”

“Wait she’s got a weapon? What kind?” panicked Allison.

“From what we could see, an electrified baton,” answered Dan.

“Our only chance is to surprise her with something that she hasn’t foreseen. And I think that I have an idea.”

Something had popped into my mind when I thought about things that she hadn’t foreseen. Something that we could be reasonably sure that she would never suspect.

“Listen close, here’s what I think might work…”

* * *

The laptop was missing. She had put it in the middle of the workbench, in case she had needed it for some other reason. And there was only one explanation as to where that had gone- although as to exactly how they did it, she was unsure.

She grinned. Perhaps it wasn’t going to be so easy, after all. It was so much more fun when they struggled.

“Touché, Ollie. But, it’s far from over.”

She looked at her watch.

12h 35m Until Re-entry