Chapter Twenty-Eight: Escape

James sat on the bench in his cell waiting for the guards to take him away. An execution sentence meant he was allowed to prepare a last will and testament, choose his final meal, meet with a spiritual advisor, and select his form of death. This always happened the day before the sentence was carried out. That day was today, so he knew they were coming for him.

When the guards arrived, James watched the wall clear and the doorway appear. He gripped the medallion tightly, stood up and headed out of the cell. Four guards escorted him through the corridors in standard formation.

As the group turned a corner, James jabbed his left elbow at the guard behind him. He swept his right leg back and toppled another. It only took seconds for him to render all four guards unconscious. He slowly stood up, looked around and listened. No sirens or footsteps filled the corridors.

James continued to the next doorway. He opened the medallion, took out the keycard, and swiped it in front of the small glass panel on the wall. The door opened, and he took one last glance before stepping inside.

At the same time, Kate was moving quickly and smoothly through the ventilation shafts on Shackleton Base. She spent so much time looking over the plans, she had the system memorized and never once pulled out the blueprints.

She got to the service area docking bay and stopped to look around. Workers, travelers, lifters, and crates moved in ordered chaos. She lay in front of the grate, watching and waiting for the right moment to slip in and join the dance.

She swiped her keycard in front of the docking bay vent. It opened and she softly slipped into the bay. The door closed behind her and she started to make her way around the perimeter of the room.

A portion of the bay in the far corner was sectioned off with a blue band, signifying refuse transport. Each crate in the area was marked with the same blue banding. The shuttles within it had blue identification markers at the wingtips. Lab Reclamations was the primary refuse company used on the moon, and all their docking bay sections were marked with the same blue insignias.

Kate stayed low and quickly moved across to the shuttle. She bolted up the ramp and disappeared inside.

James was still sneaking around the bowls of the Alexander compound until he reached one of the maintenance portals. Control panels lined one wall, and access hatches the other.

He opened one of the hatches, crawled inside, and started shuffling through the tight space. He took several turns without hesitating until he came to the end of the passageway. He stopped before the doorway, pulled out his keycard and swiped it.

The hatch opened to reveal a small storage room. Crates of all different sizes were stacked in separate groups with colored bands encircling each. James looked around for ones surrounded by a red circle, which meant the equipment was headed for one of the labs on the moon. He examined the tags on the crates until he saw one that read, “Core replacement drill tips.” Then he slipped into the corner of the room, knelt down, and waited.

After a few minutes, the large doors to the storage area opened and James ducked behind some of the pipes. A lifter drove into the area, loaded up with crates, and carried them outside the doors. James moved along the edge of the room until he could peek out and see the shuttle outside.

He waited for the workers to exit and the lifters to move away. Then just as the shuttle bay doors began to sound, he slipped inside and knelt down between two groupings of crates.

Lucky for him, no one was traveling in the shuttle bay. The trip to the moon would take a few hours, and he would be able to rest. Kate’s trip to the Beta Lab was much shorter. She had to move fast.

Refuse collection was mostly automated, like many services at the moon bases, but Lab Reclamations still required one worker to travel in the cargo bay with the crates. The bay was small and had few hiding spots. Kate hoped she would be able to simply hide from the reclamations worker, but she was prepared if she got caught, which didn’t take long. Shortly after take off, the worker noticed her breathing and investigated.

Kate had already pulled out her sonic sleeper, just in case. It only took one short blast in his direction and he was out. Kate took out the holographic concealer and scanned his face. She slid his body behind the console in the back of the bay and took his position for the duration of the trip.

As the shuttle landed she put the cap on and activated the concealer. Like a veil, a thin holographic film fell over her face and gave her a completely different appearance. If anyone touched her, their hands would slip right through the image. But this device was perfect for fooling the people working at Station Beta. 

After landing, Kate performed her duties as an employee of Lab Reclamations. She supervised the lifters replacing the empty crates with full ones, and signed off on the transfer. Then she got back on the shuttle.

But just before the doors closed, she slipped outside and into the lab’s arrival area. She hid behind a stack of crates.

The arrival area had four large bay doors squaring off the room. Three were docking bays for shuttles, and the fourth was the outer bay leading to the lab.

Kate knew the three shuttles that would be arriving today. One would be dropping off supplies and heading out for the Mars colonies. Another was a transport for workers that regularly flew between the five main moon colonies and the lab. The third was the one she was waiting for. It would be picking up core samples and heading back to Earth. But it wouldn’t arrive for hours, so she removed the holographic concealer, pulled out some of her rations and slowly recharged.

Eventually the shuttle James traveled in landed, and he could already feel the effects of low gravity. He was tired, hungry and nauseated. He slowly slipped back into the far end of the shuttle bay. The doors opened, and he watched the lifters move in.

James kept still and quiet, waiting for his chance to move.

Kate was also waiting. She watched the shuttle land and the lifters move in. She stayed in the corner until the room was clear, and then made her move.

But halfway across the arrival area she stopped. Kate stood motionless as James walked out of the shuttle and stood opposite her. The two were silent.

Finally, the shock gave way to anger and Kate was able to accept that this was her opportunity at revenge. James thought perhaps this was the plan all along. His father had set him up.

It didn’t matter though. He wasn’t about the run away, and neither was Kate.

She looked James over and noticed he did not carry a weapon. So she pulled both her short staffs from the sheaths on her back, and tossed one over to him.

“Pick it up,” she demanded.