[Zach]

Lifting my hands, I took a tentative step to the side, placing myself between them and Avia — I didn't know what the stun bolts would do to her cybernetics. And if they took us and discovered her identity — well, not a good outcome for her. Avia was a pain in the arse, but she was my pain in the arse.

"What is the meaning of this?" Arthur growled, jumping up from his seat.

"Sit down, old man," said another voice from the hatch threshold, Derek's voice.

Arthur seethed, shooting fire from his eyes as Derek stepped into the room. "You..." Arthur hisses. "After all I've done for you, now you betray me?"

"Oh, please," Derek scoffed. "Did you really think I would stay with you? I have higher aspirations than living in this hellhole." He pursed lips and blew a kiss. "Although some parts were fun."

"How long have...?"

"Since before we met," Derek replied with a mocking grin. "Did you think Omni-Corp would just let you go without keeping watch? And now you've violated the agreement. Tsk, tsk — you've been a bad boy."

"And these two," Derek continued, motioning toward me while shaking his head. "Zachary, and... Avia is it? Well, the corporation has them on the naughty list. And here you are associating with them, Arthur."

"The Cartel will not stand for this, Derek," Arthur spat.

"Oh, they already have. Omni-Corp can be very convincing." Derek sighed. "You should be happy for me, Arthur. I will get a promotion for this."

Derek snatched the memory crystal from Arthur's desk, then dropped it on the floor and smashed it under the heel of a shiny shoe. "You won't be needing this."

I glanced back at Avia as the guards advanced. "These are dark times, like on the Meridian Space Station."

A single eyebrow lifted as her eyes met mine. She understood. "Yes, very dark."

By Avia's doing, the lights went out, immersing us in complete darkness. In the seconds until the emergency lights responded, I pushed Avia to the side and drew the palm stunner from my boot. Crouching as the emergency light provided dim illumination, I squeezed the trigger twice on the rod-shaped weapon. The silvery electrical stun bolts hit the guards square in their chests, and they shuddered before slumping to the floor.

During the commotion, Arthur grabbed a silver revolver from a desk drawer and pointed it at Derek — he always had a thing for antique weapons.

Derek's face paled as he raised his hands. "Now, Arthur... It was nothing personal, just business--"

I flinched as an echoing gunshot stole away any further words. With widened eyes and gaping mouth, Derek collapsed facedown to the floor, and a crimson pool formed around his chest.

Arthur pulled a deep breath while glaring down at his former partner. "It was personal to me."

It initially confused me that Avia showed no reaction to the killing, other than a tightening of lips. But then I realized she had witnessed much more death as a young girl than most did in a lifetime.

"A bit brutal, don't you think, Arthur?" I remarked.

"Karma," he replied with a grumble. Arthur turned moistened eyes up to me. "You and Barbee, or Avia, whatever, you need to get gone."

"What about you?" I asked.

Arthur answered with a dismissive wave. "Don't worry about me. I always have contingencies. Just go!"

After gathering up a guard's dropped stunner gun, I grasped Avia's hand and paced out of the office into the passageway, looking both ways. So far, the way was clear, but soon this area would swarm with security guards. "This way," I said, pointing back the way we came.

But as I took a step, Avia yanked me back, shaking her head. "We can't go that way."

"But my ship is that way," I said, teetering on my feet because of the abrupt stop.

"The docking port hall is full of Federation troops — we would never get through."

"Well, shit," I huffed. "Then how do we get to the Freebird?"

A sly smile rose on Avia's face. 'If the mountain won't come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain."

I wrinkled my forehead. "Umm, what?"

"It's an old saying."

"Not one I've heard."

"In this case, it means if we can't go to the Freebird, we must bring the Freebird to us." As my confusion continued, Avia rolled her eyes. "I can pilot the ship remotely, and I've already separated it from the dock."

"Oh, yeah. Cool." I said, finally understanding. "You're turning out to be useful. Which way do we go?"

Avia put a finger against her forehead and closed her eyes. Then she turned around and pointed at a grimy, rounded hatch. "This way. We can use the maintenance passages to avoid detection."

It took all my strength to swing the lever and pull the hatch open, and even so, it protested with a grinding squeal. Don't think it had been opened for years. As I ducked to enter, foul musty odors assaulted my nose. Conduit and pipes, some dripping murky liquids, lined a narrow and dimly lit passageway. Avia wrinkled her nose as she entered. Then I closed the protesting hatch behind us.

"Let's avoid touching anything," I remarked.

I led the way, with Avia close behind, since the passage was too narrow to walk side-by-side. Periodically, I had to duck under support beams or crossing pipes. And despite my warning, we sometimes brushed up against grungy surfaces or had foul drips land on us. Definitely gonna need a shower later.

"How far do we go?" I asked, turning my head. But Avia didn't look so good. Shallow breaths came quick as she walked stiffly along while continually clasping and unclasping shaky hands. Wide, fearful eyes caught mine. "You okay?" I said in a gentle voice.

"I don't like tight, dark places," she replied weakly.

Reaching back with my hand, Avia stepped closer and clutched it with her clammy hand. "Stay with me," I counseled. "You've got this. How much further?"

"A ways..."

"There's another hatch up ahead. Do you want to take it?"

Avia shook her head, stammering, "No. Keep going. I'll be okay."

She didn't seem okay. Maybe focusing on something else would help. "You mentioned some friends that we would help later. Tell me about them."

"Damon and Lael," Avia replied after a breath. "We were best friends, and outside of missions, we did everything together." A smile born of pleasant memories brightened her face. "We pulled some epic pranks."

Dropping my jaw in faux surprise, I said, "You, my sweet, innocent Avia? You pulled pranks? I would never have thought that possible."

A chuckle escaped Avia's lips as she squeezed my hand, which was far better than the claustrophobic panic she shared earlier. "Well, yeah. We got into so much trouble at first. But those in charge didn't want to take us out of the Cyber Assault program. We were too important to the war effort, so they allowed us to continue as long as the pranks didn't jeopardize combat readiness."

"So, where are Damon and Lael now?"

"Don't know," Avia replied, shaking her head. "Haven't heard from them in over a year. We ran away from the Force together, but then split up. I hope they are okay." She turned her deep hazel eyes up to mine and asked, "What about you, Zach? How did an Elite like you become such a bad boy?"

"You already know everything about me," I said, shrugging.

"Only what is available on the info-web, but I want your version."

"Hmm, well..." I stammered, searching for the right words. "Let's just say I was a difficult child growing up." Avia's stifled snort cut into my ego, but I deserved that. "My father was too busy with corporate life and my mother too caught up in high society that they ignored me, so I rebelled. I got in a lot of trouble, too, but like you, it was tolerated as long as I didn't go too far."

"How did you get involved with the Red Caste?"

"My uncle Darius got me a cush Omni-Corp job, hoping that would straighten me out, but all it did was show me the dirty underside of corporate life. That's when I met Arthur. I was a rebel without a cause until I fell in with Red Caste, who became the cause. Turned out they were almost as corrupt as Omni-Corp — more like Elite wannabes." Blowing out a breath, I continued. "Long story short, the Federation convicted me of sedition, and took a Hunter gig to avoid jail time. Then I caught you." I stopped, turning around to face Avia. "So, here I am, wandering down a dirty tunnel with my fake pink girlfriend."

Avia smirked. "Lucky you."

Sighing, I said, "Too bad we didn't get the Project Asclepius info from Arthur."

"Oh, Zachy-poo," Avia purred with a sly smile. "I had the info before he finished downloading it to the memory crystal."

My eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Never underestimate the Cyber Witch," Avia replied, tapping her head.

"Lucky me." My eyes scanned Avia's lithe figure, well presented in her tight pink ensemble. "Seriously, you should wear this outfit more often. It could be your super-villain costume."

"Don't push your luck, Zach."

Avia never let go of my hand until we reached a junction between several maintenance tunnels. While every bit as grimy, it was better lit and more spacious, resembling an open cavern. Piping and conduit branched out in complicated patterns. Once out of the narrow passage, Avia's face visibly relaxed. Sliding two fingers inside a pink boot, she extracted a Goober Gummies package and popped a red sun-shaped candy into her mouth.

She located a small blank view-screen off to one side, mounted low on the wall. Bending down, Avia touched a green button to activate it, and the words 'Alpha Station Maintenance' appeared. I tilted my head, unable to resist watching how Avia's short skirt showed shapely thighs as she bent, tantalizingly close to revealing more. Perhaps wisely, I decided not to offer any verbal commentary.

As Avia closed her eyes, white code flashed across the view-screen too fast to make out. "We're popular. There's a full security alert for us across the entire station," she said. "I'm going to give them some false leads to chase."

"What about Arthur?" I asked.

"They're still looking for him, too."

"Good. You have a plan to get us out of here, don't you?"

She grinned. "Super-villains don't plan, they scheme."

"So?"

"We go outside and the Freebird picks us up."

"Seems like you're leaving out a few details."

Avia shrugged. "What could possibly go wrong?"

I cringed — one should never ask that question. "What now?"

Avia pointed at a hatch. "We go to the external maintenance dock and catch a ride."

As I grabbed the hatch lever, Avia tapped me on the shoulder. "Oh, Zach... Thank you."

"Hmm? For what?"

Avia turned her eyes up to mine. "Back there in the tunnel when I started to freak out... Thanks for helping me cope."

"Like I told you before, you are my favorite, umm, cyber enhanced person."

I moved the latch, then, with one hand holding the stun gun, pulled open the hatch. Fortunately, no one was within sight. "Which way do we go?"

"Left, about two-hundred meters."

We walked as fast as we could without appearing to be fleeing criminals. The few people we passed, most wearing work overalls, traced us with their eyes, but mostly ogled Avia's skimpy pink outfit. I avoided eye contact.

I pointed to a small monitoring camera at the curved ceiling apex. "Have you disabled the security monitors?"

"Not my first rodeo, Zach," Avia huffed in reply.

"Rodeo?"

"Another old expression. It means I've done this before and know what I'm doing."

"Oh, yeah." When I hunted Avia, she was nearly impossible to track. That skill helped us now.

Passing a few niches containing shops, small taverns, and eating establishments, we came to a four-way passage junction. A sign labeled 'Alpha Maintenance Port' pointed to the right. But when we rounded the corner, I came face-to-face with a startled uniformed security guard. For an anxious, frozen moment, we gazed at each other with widened eyes. I drew first, pulling a stunner from my waistband and shooting. The sharp twang echoed through the corridor as the silvery stun bolt struck the young guard's gut. Eyes rolled up as he slumped to the floor.

"Time to run," I said. And we did, racing past several startled workers. Coming to the wide maintenance port hatch, we stopped upon seeing the hectic activity within. Workers scurried about among orderly rows of crates and equipment. Further behind stood a row of circular hatches, prominently numbered one through eight.

"There's too many people around here," I said in a breathy voice. "How do we get them to leave?"

Avia grinned. "Nobody likes to breathe vacuum."

Before I could question her response, the depressurization alarms sounded with blaring klaxon horns and flashing red lights. No doubt Avia's doing.

Sure enough, a dozen or so panicked workers streamed out the main port hatch, some in full sprint. We stood to the side, and when the servo motors whirred to life, swinging closed the pressure sealing hatch, we dashed inside. When the hatch sealed with a clunk, we found ourselves alone.

"Now all we need to do," Avia said, tilting her head to the numbered docking tunnels, "is find a maintenance shuttle and meet up with the Freebird."

With a nod and a grin, I dashed ahead to the tunnels, each a round metal hatch recessed into the rocky wall. A long tunnel with an additional hatch, forming an airlock, reached out into space where a maintenance shuttle would dock.

Moving sequentially down the row of docking ports, I peeked outside through small, round windows.

"Umm, Avia," I said, coming to the last port, "there's a glitch in your plan."

"What?" she replied, coming to my side and lifting an eyebrow.

"There are no shuttles. Please tell me you have a Plan B."

"Ohhhh..." Avia spun around, putting fingers to her temple, then stopped to stare at an open tall cabinet. "We'll have to walk. Spacesuits."

I really, really, did not like spacewalking, but lacking any other options, I followed her to the cabinet. The cabinet door squeaked as Avia flung it full open to reveal a two standard external-maintenance spacesuits with rounded helmets, all bright orange. Squarish thruster packs were integrated on the suit back, and hopefully, would be enough to get us away.

"Hurry," Avia said, grunted as she handed me a suit. "It won't take them long to figure out my ruse and manually open the main hatch."

No one ever looks graceful putting on a spacesuit — I hopped, then fell backwards while stepping into the lower half — but Avia came close, slinking into the suit barefoot after removing the pink boots. Once she fixed her helmet, she helped me. Upon activation, colorful symbols projected on the helmet face screen confirmed suit function.

"Com check," Avia said, turning toward me.

"Com confirmed," I replied. "Let's go."

A grinding noise behind caught our attention — the main hatch cracked open, slowly swinging wider. Without a word, we sprinted toward the port tunnels, although in spacesuits, it was more like an awkward shuffle. When we reached port number eight, armed troops in blue uniforms poured one-by-one through the opening hatch — not the local guards, but Sol Federation soldiers. The first dropped to a knee and fired a plasma rifle, blasting a divot out of the rock wall just above my head.

"Hold on to something!" Avia ordered.

As I grabbed the port hatch handle, a sickening weightless sensation came over me while my feet lifted from the floor. And it wasn't just me — the soldiers drifted upward, twirling and tumbling in panicked pantomime. Apparently, Avia shut off the local artificial gravity.

"The Cyber Witch strikes again! Will her reign of terror ever end?" I exclaimed in melodramatic voice while swinging the lever and opening the hatch.

Once inside the airlock, I closed the hatch and Avia pushed a green button, beginning the air evacuation process. But she didn't wait for the compressors to finish, instead overriding the inner hatch servo-motors while the airlock remained pressurized. The tunnel shot us out into the abyss like an air cannon.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I yelled as I flung my arms out while tumbling through the abyss. Foul bile rose in my throat.

Avia floated beside me, puffing her thrusters, and grabbed my arm to stop the tumble. Then she clipped a flat tether to a ring on my chest. Grasping my hands, she puffed the thrusters again to spin us around. "Want to dance?" she said with glee.

"No, please no!" I answered. Nausea churned in my gut while my mind dizzied.

"You okay?"

"No. I hate spacewalking," I replied, gasped. "Might... Throwup..."

"Sorry, Zack. Stay with me," Avia said in a gentle voice while wrapping an arm partially around my waist. "I'll guide you. Try to focus far away."

As I did, the Freebird appeared in the distance, barely visible against the space blackness. Oh, what a welcomed sight.

Once safely inside my ship, I tossed my helmet off and dropped to the deck on my hands and knees, coughing and spurting. Stomach contents burbled up, but somehow, I kept them inside. "Well, that was fun," I said between hacks. "Let's not do that again."