CH2

“Small problem? Small problem?! Your father’s dick may have been a small problem, but this… This is a complete catastrophe!” I nearly shouted; my earlier sluggishness only a distant memory now. Thank you adrenaline.

“Don’t dramatize.” Draco flashed his stupid grin “Why do you think they’ve been trying to send us to the Colony? If even that’s true… For sightseeing? We’d been sentenced to death, little bro, that’s why. It can’t be much worse here.”

I sighed. That is another thing. Draco was probably right. There is no way our beloved United Government could pull this off on Earth. We had, after all, the status of prisoners of war. Open execution was out of question and if the Brotherhood ever found out, well, there would be hell to pay.

And Mars… Mars Colony was perfect. They started it like five or six years ago, right? And the best thing about it is that it has so many private investors, shareholders and corporations involved that there is no actual law enforcement there, or even law, so to speak. So if, hypothetically, some of the most inconvenient prisoners the UG has ever had were transported there and then went missing… Even the Brotherhood would not be able to save us without wrecking the whole place. And that could mean another war, but this time against the whole world not only the UG. Shrewd motherfuckers.

“So if we are to die we’ll die fighting. I only hope we will have occasion to do this. What do we now about our situation?” I asked. We had to focus. We were trapped, maybe dying – we would need to get out of this mess as fast as possible. “Besides the fact that it’s shitty.”

“I know as much as you do. This room has, apparently, its own power source. The hatch is sealed. We are completely cut off from the rest of the ship, so whatever went wrong did not affect us, at least not that I can tell. But that also means that we can do a whole lot of nothing, besides sitting here and waiting… You think that may be their plan to remove us?”

Draco’s thoughts were apparently following the same path.

“Ha, doubt it. Such boat would probably be worth more money than we’ve seen through our entire lives. If what we think about this place is true, of course. Nobody would risk damaging it just to kill us, not when they could do it with easy on Mars. And to stage something like that? Why? This has no fucking sense. We’re only a burden for them. And that corpse? Why would they put it here? To scare us? That’s a good one. Nah, you know that’s not how the UG works.”

“A lot of questions and I can think only about one answer. So, you think what I’m thinking?” Draco grimaced. “A leak?”

“That would be the most probable cause of our warden’s premature demise. Of course, if it is really just an accident.”

“ Just? JUST?” My brother sneered “Earth is seriously exploring space for more than half a century now; the last large-scale “accident” involving a spacecraft happened more than thirty years ago! And even that was most likely a sabotage. Someone fucked us up, without as much as a kiss, I’m telling you.”

“Ok, that’s nothing new. And certainly nothing helpful.”

“Ares, something’s wrong here.” My brother sounded as if he was losing his patience.

What a genius.

“Specify.”

“We are in space? On a damaged vessel?”

“God knows where we are. But so it would seems.”

“So why is that guy over there lying so peacefully?”

What? Then it hit me. A leak. Void. The corpse should not even be here. And gravitation. How could it be working, if there was not enough power to light up the hall? The deadman was not flying, that is for sure. Why had I not thought of this before? Because of the drugs? Goddammit, I could use some more sleep after all.

“Maybe there is an emergency battery, not connected with the main reactor, like the one in our cell. Or whatever caused this mess may have also cut off the power to only some of the systems, leaving the rest intact. Or not. I’m not an engineer. ” Who knows what had happened here?

There was a long silence as we both sat at one of the corners of our cell. Not that there was much more we could do. Maybe Draco was right and someone had used our relocation as a convenient way to get rid of us or to send a message to the Brotherhood. After all, we do not lack enemies; it does not have to be the United Government. But why us? We were lost cause…

Exactly in this moment, somewhere down on Earth, a lot of people are probably very interested in what had happened here. For various reasons. Whoever may be coming to the rescue, it won’t be much of a difference for us. There must be some kind of a security system inside these walls. A sleeping gas, if I were to guess, that will knock us out before we would be even able to realize what is happening. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

“You think we are the only passengers on this trip?” My question sounded oddly quiet.

“No idea” Draco said after a while, in the same voice. “But if they wanted to smuggle more of us to Mars it wouldn’t be reasonable. Not much sense in making multiple courses back and forth. Inexcusable waste of taxpayers' money.”

Who else could be there? The last time I saw all of them - a year ago? Two month after our glorious surrender, in a courtroom. Nun, Blaze, Ev, Chingis, Draco. My brothers and sisters. Well, that could not end up well.

I shook my head. This is not the best moment for that.

“Hey, is it only me or is there something wrong with the lights?” Draco asked in tensed voice.

I looked up at the celling. He was right. There was something wro-

Wiiu-chk

All the lights went off. I tried to look around. I could not distinguish any shapes around me. Left in complete darkness. Getting better and better.

“Hahaha….Power source… We just somehow lost the power supply….Hahahaha…”

Ok, that was unexpected. What is more… I turned my head to where the laughter was coming from. What one needs to know about Draco is that he is in some way, hmm, mentally unbalanced? Well, it’s not only about Draco. Almost everyone in the Brotherhood has some, let’s call it, personality quirks.

Unfortunately, it means that sometimes one of my brothers or sisters comes dangerously close to the line dividing fairly safe “let’s take their scalps as souvenirs” from “let’s disguise their corpses so they would look like giant squirrels”. Not that I have something against squirrels, mind you, but still. It can be troublesome. The line itself may be thin but, nevertheless, it exists. I have always hoped that Draco is not yet near that line. On the other hand, half a year of imprisonment could throw him off balance.

“Move your ass, Ares. We just regained our freedom.” My brother stood up.

Say, what? But then it occurred to me. No power. So, if everything on this ship is as advanced as you could expect… I also got up.

It was a pain to locate the hatch in this darkness, but we managed.

“Do you think it’s a good idea?” I hesitated ”If this works and there is no oxygen on the other side we may not be able to pull it back. It will be a short walk.”

“In the worst case scenario, we won’t die immediately. I should be able close the hatch from the other side. You will stay inside. At least one of us should survive. For a while.” I could imagine Draco shrugging his bare shoulders. “Life support here must also be dead by now, so with every breath we lose oxygen. One person will last longer than two.”

I did not argue. There was no point.