1.19.1

Inelegant Exit

Metal remnants of a broken lock skittered over the floor and into a room stuffed with computer towers, consoles, and controls. A single window showed the brightness of day, and a sun fully risen.

And at the center, Warden Graves tucked his hands behind is back. His two remaining guards stood poised on each side, their guns still raised.

But they didn’t fire. Even as their master sighed in annoyance.

“Now, was that really necessary?” he bemoaned as the group flooded in to fill the space. “You cannot imagine how exhaustingly dramatic you’re being.”

“Holden Graves.” Karth lowered his weapon, though the others persisted, set on those that still threatened them. “We hereby take control of this facility. Step down.”

“I do not answer to you!” the man scoffed. He waved his hand as if the commander were a bothersome insect. “You have stopped nothing here. Or out there. You cannot be so impossibly deluded!”

Karth stepped forward. Those at Graves’s side adjusted their aim, as did the Aldebaran’s crew to defend their commander.

“I will not ask again,” Karth warned.

Beside Astrid, Anders subtly bumped her elbow. She met his eyes to see them dart to the console in the corner of the room. Clearly labeled, Astrid could see a list of commands.

Controls for the cells. Power for the refinery, the drills for the mine, the gates outside… she could shut it all down.

“You!”

Graved noted her attention as she found herself inexplicably drawn to the display.

“You, you’re the Channeler!”

She froze at proclamation.

“It’s true, then!” Graves spat. “London has kept himself a pet abomination!”

“That’s enough! Stand down!” Karth commanded, louder.

Incensed, Graves glared directly at Astrid. “I will do no such thing.”

In a whip of motion, the hands behind his back threw a device to the center of the room. Fearing an explosive, the team scattered.

After a flash, smoke and fumes plumed into the air.

Knocked to the ground, Astrid groaned.

She attempted to right herself, but billows of smoke made visibility impossible. Through the white-grey fog, a tall body charged into her, and long fingers grasped at her throat and one of her shoulders.

She screamed when she felt herself dragged over the floor. She kicked, and though she heard someone yell her name, the call was roughly cut by a hacking cough.

The sound of breaking glass crashed over her head. Astrid found herself heaved bodily through the opening of a demolished window, and out onto a rusted fire escape.

Smoke gushed into the fresh air outside, but Graves cared little. With one hand on a cloth over his face, the “warden” used the other to haul the Channeler with him down the forged-iron staircase to a vehicle port at ground level.

Already, a small ship hummed, ready to whisk him, and presumably, his hostage, away.

Behind them, weaponsfire resounded in the room abandoned.

“No!”

Astrid kicked and fought, but the man only clawed at her tighter. At her neck, her hair, anywhere he could hurt her, until she cried out.

“Come on, bitch. I’ll put you out of your misery soon enough.”

Her throat scratched from the burn of smoke. She flailed, but it only served to frustrate Graves, until finally, he threw her down the rest of the fire escape to the ground below.

Astrid’s armor scraped when she hurtled down the metal steps, only to bounce off the bottom ledge and crash onto her stomach and cheek.

Blood dotted the concrete when she lifted her head, disoriented.

Then Graves set upon her again.

“I’m not… going anywhere… with you!”

Her words came slurred from the beating. But at her pronouncement, she was hauled into position for a descending fist. Gauntleted knuckles collided with her cheek.

Warmth filled her mouth, and she turned away into time to see blood and saliva plop to the ground.

“I need you to ensure dear old Captain doesn’t shoot me out of the sky…” Graves snarled. He threw away his improvised mask to instead use both hands to tow the young woman against her will.

Her world spun. The foreign ship grew closer, cast in black and bronze.

“Astrid!”

She faintly heard her name in the distance, behind the ringing in her ears.

“They’re… going to kill you…” Wet red sputtered from her lips. She knew she only had to last long enough for the others to reach her. Then all would be okay…

She tried to summon the power to fight, for the energy to send him away from her, but the strikes she endured left her brain rattled.

Too soon, the man’s boots thumped upon the gangplank to his own vessel, and he lugged her with him.

“No…” she tried again. “No!”

“Come quietly, and we might even yet find a purpose for you!” Graves spat.

He barked to someone to get the ship moving, and with dread, Astrid felt the engine growl in preparation for lift.

Light and air still brushed her face. She told herself she could still get away.

“You’re a frightened man…That's why you're doing this. You're scared of me.”

After a visceral roar, Astrid found herself lifted off her feet by the collar of her armor. She choked out a strangled groan. Her toes dangled in the air.

“You are nothing but a wild animal, Deathborn! An abomination! And I do us all a service in putting you down!”

Desperate, Astrid mustered everything, all she had left, to make sure that didn’t happen.

“Go to hell.”

She shoved her palm against his chest and pushed all the energy left within her packs, and all his rampant fury, right back at him.

Graves wailed and dropped her as his body sailed back at the jolt. He crashed into the dark of the hold, and without a wasted moment to see if she’d hurt him, Astrid threw herself past the lip of the cargo ramp just before it closed her inside.

The vessel lifted, and she rolled out only to fall back to the ground. She landed in a heap on the harsh cement just as the ship sealed shut overhead and soared upward to escape.

Astrid crawled to her hands and knees. Her armor prevented limb breakage, but her body felt jarred and abused. Her head swam, and not even the stampede of a dozen feet sprinting for her could pierce the shroud of pain that settled over her senses.

~~~

Officially, Karth claimed the assignment a success. The captain called in forces to take over the prison. Though, the Aldebaran remained for a time, to keep order until then.

Doctor Ishioka confirmed the specialist to be in one piece. But Astrid’s cheek resembled sandpaper from her tussle down the stairs and swelling bloomed over where Graves struck her.

Ishioka spoke no judgements, or caveats, about Astrid’s return to the infirmary after yet another over-extension. Any assurances that Astrid might be more careful in the future rang empty to them both.

After all, Astrid determined, to avoid pushing herself stood in direct violation to her purpose.

She refused to conclude another mission from the Med Lab, however, and though sore and swollen, Astrid determinedly presented herself for the team’s debriefing in the War Room.

“There’s a Channeler in there, we have to get him out!” She demanded of the captain immediately.

“I know,” London informed her. “I’ve been notified. I’ll have the responding sergeant deliver him to Endra when possible. But we must know if he’s overheard anything useful in his captivity.”

“And you can guarantee his safety with the Fleet?!” Astrid’s voice raised on its own volition.

“Calm yourself, Specialist. This is still a military operation, and you are still my subordinate. I hear your concerns, but I must insist you follow the same protocols as the rest of my team.”

Astrid bristled at the reminder. But she could not bring herself to look into his eyes and see disapproval while she still seethed with discourse of her own.

“Believe it or not, I understand the repercussions of what you discovered there,” the captain continued. “Your people left to die in imprisonment. Let alone the overall toll inflicted on the prisoners, and you. This is not supposed to be easy.

“What’s supposed to ease the distress is our victory. We’ve taken this resource out from underneath the S.O. We’ve named one of their leaders, and with luck, we will discover more about Sanctuary Argos, the events that led up to it, and what unfolded immediately after. Somewhere in that facility we may even find where they planned to send their materials for assembly.”

“That doesn’t give us where the Static Opposition is gathering, Captain.” Karth expressed when London finished.

“You’re right. It doesn’t. Maybe we’ll find that information, too, but I doubt it. Or else, why would they need Benson? We have to chase the shipments, I’m afraid. Until we discover something more substantial.”

“What about the others still in the facility, sir?” Tenya pried. “The miners, and the guards we never crossed paths with? They were out of the line of fire, but their allegiances are unclear.”

“You are right. They cannot be permitted to leave. The prison will once again return to its original purpose, and with time, and the proper professionals, we’ll get it sorted. Only after everyone is thoroughly catalogued will the Third Fleet officials pull out.”

Astrid struggled to feel like anything achieved resolution. Acid churned in her stomach, and she felt a bitterness in her heart that she’d only ever experienced in Rue. That only made her resent it more.

“For now, I need the reports of the officers filed,” Captain London indicated Anders and Karth. “The rest of you need to see to your gear. See to yourselves. Get some food and rack time. We’ll revisit this when everyone has had a chance to settle down.”

He didn’t speak any names, but as the group dispersed, Astrid couldn’t help but notice the captain passed an informal order to the chief before they departed.

“Keep her close.”