After shedding our suits in the cargo hold, the group of us made our way onto the unknown ship. Evident hesitation was behind all of our moves, we had no idea what we were walking into.
As I followed Bellamy into the airlock, the sound of a distant alarm could be heard. Our docking had clearly set off some alert system.
"Come on, we've got to move fast!" Bellamy called, tentatively out toward the ship.
Echo stopped beside him, pulling her sword from the sheath to which Bellamy shot her a disapproving look.
"We don't know what we're walking into." She maintained, and honestly I couldn't argue with her.
Bellamy let out a sigh before hitting the button that sent the airlock doors sliding open. Here we go.
The minute the doors were opened, the sound of the blaring alarm got louder, causing me to wince.
"Well, that's just annoying." Murphy muttered, arriving at my side.
Harper looked out into the corridors. "If someone was here, they'd shut it off, right?"
"One can hope." I muttered, switching on my flashlight and stepping out of the airlock.
My eyes scanned the hallways, looking for any sign of danger as Raven instructed Emori to stay back in the ship and check for any damage.
I heard Murphy offer to stay back and help, to which Bellamy decided that Harper could be the one to remain. I think we all suspected that Emori and Murphy might kill each other if we left them alone.
"I can stay back." I offered, knowing that I could be of more help to Emori.
Bellamy glanced over at me. "No. We need you."
I let out a frustrated sigh as I rolled my eyes. "Sure, you do."
"Come on." Murphy muttered, grabbing my arm and pulling me along with him. "We don't need any domestic fights today."
I snorted. "You're one to talk."
He sent me a quick glare as we joined up with the rest of the group who were slowly making their way through the hallways.
"This place is like a maze." Bellamy whispered, his flashlight scanning the corridors.
As he shone it upward, it illuminated a large sign, words spelled out in huge yellow letters.
'NO INMATES PAST THIS POINT'
"Inmates?" Echo wondered.
Monty stopped next to Bellamy. "Prison labour." he explained. "The mining missions were dangerous. They sent people they thought were disposable."
"Sounds familiar." Murphy muttered.
"Great." I mocked. "So we're on a prison ship."
"Relax." Raven ordered. "Their ancestors were prisoners a hundred years ago. Their descendants on that transport ship are survivors, just like us."
I bit down on my lip, still feeling uneasy about this whole situation. Nonetheless, I followed as we approached the next set of doors.
"The bridge is this way." Raven declared. '"Come on."
Murphy and I shared a nervous look as we continued on. Not moments after our revelation that this ship once carried prisoners, we came across a large hole that seems to have been blown into the wall.
"Looks like someone forgot their key." Raven joked, not hesitating before stepping through.
"Jackpot!" she beamed as we finally located the bridge.
All of us followed after her, nervously glancing around at the eeriness of it all.
"Something bad happened here." Bellamy commented, his flashlight doing another sweep.
"Monty! Avery!" Raven called, already making her way toward the control centre.
"Help you access the ship's manifest and schematics so we can find out where they keep their hydrazine?" Monty assumed.
"Yes," Raven confirmed. "But first, let's kill this alarm. Aves, you got that?"
"Yeah." I nodded, sliding into the co-captain's chair. "On it."
It didn't take me long. A few typed codes and the noise finally ceased, causing me to relax ever so slightly.
"Thank you." Bellamy announced, causing me to send him a quick look.
In the time that it took me to turn off the alarm, Monty had already found their fuel systems.
"Their ship doesn't run on hydrazine." Raven declared, her eyes squinting at the monitor. They could never store enough for a long-duration mission."
Bellamy looked over at her with slight concern. "What, then?"
"It looks like...hythylodium."
"Must be what they were mining for." Monty explained. "Incredibly efficient energy--"
"--Spare me the science lesson." Murphy drawled from where he sat in the captain's chair. "Can we use it to land the pod or not?"
Raven didn't look at him as she spoke. "Sure, if you want to explode every cell in your body."
Bellamy looked extremely worried, I could tell by the way he pulled at his fingers. "Raven."
"Don't worry." She assured. "Just because this ship doesn't run on hyrdazine, doesn't mean they don't have any on board."
The gears slowly began turning in my head. "The dropship." I muttered.
Raven nodded as she glanced over at me. "Short-range transport. They'd have to have a supply for refuelling." A few seconds passed as she logged through their systems. Finally- "Boom." she announced, a sly grin coming to her face. "And the crowd goes wild."
"So we have a way down?" Echo wondered, not entirely sure.
Raven looked out toward the Earth. "We have a way down."
"That's not all we have." Monty said, leaning forward and flipping a switch. "Lasercom."
All of our excitement was short lived as a voice came through the radio.
"I mean it McCreary, I'm not losing anymore men today."
"Our radios were blocked by residual radiation on the Earth, but lasercom was designed to cut through worse atmospheric conditions than that."
"Well can we talk to them?" Murphy demanded, pushing himself out of the chair and joining the rest of us by the radio.
"Wait." Bellamy ordered. "We don't know who we're dealing with."
The voices continued over the radio, and what they were saying made my blood run cold.
"They're hunting our people." I whispered, my wide eyes looking toward the group.
Murphy shot me a quick look. "We don't know that."
"We know there was no one else left on the ground." Bellamy argued.
"Whatever this is, Octavia can handle it." Echo asserted.
I bit my tongue, forcing myself not to say anything snippy. "We don't know how many of them are down there, though." I pointed out. "They could have a whole army."
"Move over." Raven snapped at Monty.
"What are you doing?"
"Finding out who we're dealing with."
Whoever was down there continued to give a play by play of whoever they were fighting. Gun fire filled the radio, and soon enough they claimed they had caught whoever it was they were after.
I felt my stomach churn at the prospect of whoever these people were hunting my people.
"We need to get down there." Bellamy declared. "Now."
---
Five minutes later and only three of us were left on the bridge, the rest having gone to retrieve the hydrazine.
Of course, two of the tree people left behind were Bellamy and I...great.
We hadn't said a single thing to one another, all of us doing our best to root through the files and find out more about whoever these people were.
Well, that was until Bellamy finally spoke up. "We should talk about it." he announced, causing me to pause.
I didn't look up at him, instead I pretended that it wasn't I who he was speaking to.
That planned failed.
"Avery."
I finally looked up at him, meeting his pleading eyes. "Can we please talk about it?" he begged.
I pursed my lips. "I don't want to talk about it right now." I muttered, "Raven," I called. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Raven gave me a warning look as Bellamy rolled his eyes and looked back to the computer in front of him. "Fine." he grumbled, knowing it was better not to put up a fight at this point.
He quickly changed the subject, looking through the passenger manifest. "Murder, murder, murder. Arson resulting in murder, armed robbery resulting in murder."
I rose my brows as I looked over at him. "Wow, Bellamy. You really know how to make a girl feel safe."
He ignored me, eyes still focused on the screen. "300 inmates, 25 guards and 12 crew." he informed us.
"Relax." Raven ordered, "Great-great-grandpappy Blake was an astronaut with how many PhDs?"
"Four?" Bellamy answered, although it sounded like more of a question. Clearly he was unsure of where Raven was going with this.
"And how many do you have?"
I snorted. "Absolutely zero."
Bellamy shot me a look. "I have just as many as you do...would you look at that?"
"Oh, wait. Shut up." Raven ordered. "I've got it. The captain's log."
I glared at Bellamy as I stood up, making my way toward where Raven was.
Furrowing my brow, I look at the screen. "The last entry was over a hundred years ago."
"Play that one." Bellamy ordered.
"Aye, aye captain." Raven grinned, clicking on the most recent entry.
The minute the entry popped up on the screen, it was evident that something bad had gone on.
A man stood in front of the camera, his eyes panicked as he claimed that he needed to make the entry fast. He spoke fast, very fast, as he explained that the prisoners had found out about some order and had broken free. Behind him, and explosion lit up the screen.
Both Bellamy and I turned slightly, looking at the explosion hole that we had walked through to get in here.
As I looked back to the screen, the captain was explaining that most of the crew was already dead. He then said something about trying to disable cryo, and that if Eligius ever made it back to Earth that they needed to be blown out of the sky.
He mentioned a name-Diyoza-stating that whoever this was should not be allowed to weaponize the cargo...he had his throat slit seconds later.
I felt myself shudder as everyone else in the room was murdered, with the exception of a lieutenant who they had kept alive...likely to fly the ship.
Right before the entry cut, a woman came into view, her eyes angry as she turned off the camera.
Bellamy, Raven and I sat in silence for a moment as we registered what we had just witnessed.
"Cryo. He said he was trying to deactivate the cryo." Raven finally muttered as she stood up, looking toward Bellamy and I. When she did, her eyes widened. "--Bellamy look out!"
I spun around, just in time to see a large and very angry looking many rushing at Bellamy.
Bellamy dodged his first hit, but the second one sent him flying toward the floor.
Raven rushed on the man next, but she too was easily thrown aside. I didn't even think twice...time to put my training to use.
I kicked out at him, landing a hard hit to his stomach. He stumbled for a moment, then charging at me.
I dodged him at first, but he was too big for me. He managed to block my next hit, throwing me into the nearby wall.
A pained cough fell from my lips as I watched Bellamy charge at him once again. Trying to ignore my pain, I pushed myself to my feet and rushed back toward the scene.
He had Bellamy pushed up against the control panel, so I took this as my chance to jump onto the attacker's back.
An angry yell fell from his lips as I wrapped my arm around his neck, squeezing as tightly as I could.
He let Bellamy go, clawing at me and trying to shake himself free of my hold.
"Avery, hold on!" Bellamy yelled, looking for something to disable the man with.
"What does it look like I'm doing!" I screamed, starting to become panicked over the fact that the attacker was not passing out no matter how hard I squeezed his airway.
Another ferocious yell came from his lips as he backed up, ramming me into a nearby column. Pain shot through my head as I fell off of him tumbling to the ground.
He picked me up by the throat, his eyes animalistic as he pinned me up against the wall.
"Hey! Let go of her!" Echo screamed as she came rushing into the room, sword in hand.
She ran at the man, slicing him across the back with her blade. He finally released me, and I slumped to the ground gasping for air.
I watched through pained gasps as the man managed to take a blade to the stomach and keep going.
It took Bellamy tying a wire around the attacker's throat and strangling him for far longer than it would a normal person, for the man to finally fall.
All four of us looked at each other in shock. "Everyone okay?" Bellamy wondered.
I winced as I pushed myself up slightly. "Just peachy." I muttered.
"1 down." Raven announced through a slight grimace. "299 to go."