I groaned and raised a hand to my forehead. I had a splitting headache. Whatever I was lying on was far too hard, and my mind was much too clear for having just woken up.

"Jennisa! Are you okay?" Toby's voice was very faint, but it was still too loud for the way my head pounded. His voice was even quieter as he asked, "Sorry, is this better?"

"Not really," I grumbled, wincing at the pain in my head.

Had this been a movie, my kidnappers would have barged in and started demanding answers, but they were clearly realists who must have known they wouldn't get anywhere when even trying to form coherent thoughts was painful.

Keeping my eyes closed against the lights, I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to find the impacted nerves and massage away what was pretty much the king of tension headaches. The nerve blaster was bad enough, but I was lucky the earlier stun blast had only caught the edge of my leg. A full blast to the chest was something I probably wouldn't wake up from.

I winced as my fingers found the sore nerves. After a lot of painful massaging, my headache dulled to something tolerable. I didn't bother sitting up or opening my eyes just yet.

"What's around me?"

"No cameras, or at least no remote ones I can access. You're somewhere in Bay D. The camera on your bracelet just shows a wall. A rather dirty wall. I'm not sure when the last time they cleaned it was."

The wall was the least of my concerns. Carefully prying an eye open—the aged lights weren't as bright as I'd feared—I let my head roll to the side to check my surroundings. I was lying on a rumpled painting cloth on the floor, and the dull grey walls were liberally dotted with grime and oil spots. Several clean rectangles on the floor marked where stands of shelving had likely once stood. No visible cameras, which I found interesting. Other than myself and the cloth, there was nothing in this room.

"This was probably a small storage room. Did my attackers leave the area?"

"Nope. At least four are in there somewhere."

"That explains the lack of a lock. Have you put in a call for help? Enforcement might not care about men standing outside an apartment in a slum, but a kidnapping near the space port should get a pretty quick response."

"Yep! They have a special forces unit on the way!"

I must not have been out for long. I sat up for a better look around. Other than the painting sheet, there was definitely nothing else in the room—and more importantly, nothing to block the door or keep people out until help arrived.

I heard muffled footsteps running closer before someone shout-whispered, "We have black coats surrounding the building! Grab the girl and get her out of here."

"Uh, the spaceweb just went out. I think there's some sort of blocker in the area."

That was not what I wanted to hear. I clambered to my feet as the door was yanked open. I came face-to-face with not just one, but three rather illegal stun guns. Two hands roughly grabbed my arms and dragged me out of the small room.

My eyes remained fixed on the guns as I was pulled across a room. If I screamed for help, would anyone hear me? Anyone who'd actually try to intervene, that is? Or would my captors stun me, which would prevent any later escape attempts? With my medical condition, a stun blast would almost certainly be lethal.

Were they possibly motivated by money? "Are you looking for a ransom? I can pay."

"Shut up." The command was echoed by a hard shove between my shoulders.

Okay, they definitely weren't in a good mood and would be far too likely to use the stun guns. I stumbled as they hauled me across a shop bay littered with tools, over to a forklift. They opened the cover on the back—but where the counterweights should have been, was a large, empty compartment.

I threw out my arms to try and stop them from shoving in the opening, only to be picked up and unceremoniously upended inside as the cover slammed down. Squirming painfully in the limited space, I managed to right myself and pushed up on the cover, which didn't budge.

"Let me out of here!" I hollered as my voice echoed around me, stabbing into the lingering headache plaguing me. "This is kidnapping! I can pay a ransom!"

A chugging turned into a dull roar, then subsided to the grating and whining of a poorly maintained engine. A chill ran down my spine. There was no way anyone would hear my muffled cries from in here with that kind of racket. There was a lurch and grinding of worn gears as the forklift began moving.

"Any ideas?" I desperately asked Toby as I started a countdown, trying to guess how long it would take for them to enter the main corridors or possibly pass by other people.

"This probably isn't helpful, but escaping would be a good idea."

"You don't say," I muttered internally as I shifted onto my back and lightly rested my shoes against the cover.

Thirty seconds later, I kicked it with both feet, using as much force as I could manage in the cramped quarters. I kicked it again while hollering. I didn't have any other ideas, so I kept it up, hoping someone would hear something.

As time crept by, my head throbbed from the loud echoes and my back ached from how I was curled up. The engine cut out, and I redoubled my efforts, just in case they'd been stopped by Enforcement teams.

The cover clicked right as I went to kick it again, and it rocketed up, almost clipping the guy under the chin. Two stun guns were pointed at me, and I held up my hands in front of me, my legs still hanging out the hatch. 

Two other men grabbed my legs and hauled me out, standing me on my feet and keeping a tight hold on each shoulder.

"I'm not sure what kind of ransom you're after, but I have some money," I quickly said as my eyes flashed around, wincing at their strong grip.

The walls here were far too new and clean to be in the section nine buildings. The men didn't reply, alternating between glaring at me and watching the bay door.

"Still no spaceweb," Toby reported.

Which meant he couldn't call for help, sneak into the security system, or do anything else to assist. Light spilled between the bay doors as they parted to let a space skipper in. The pilot's eyes widened when he saw me, then returned to the old man's usual gruff expression. My captors hauled me over to the side door, which slid open.

The pilot, Fred, glanced over his shoulder and shortly said, "If she's not here willingly, lift up the back seat and stick her inside. It's on hinges. I don't need no Flags pulling me over because they see something through a window."

I was forced into the skipper, and I struggled as they flipped the bottom of the bench seat up. My resistance melted when a stun gun was pointed at my face. I didn't doubt their willingness to use it. Meekly, I stepped over the seat and laid down in the coffin-like box as the seat was lowered over me, encasing me in darkness. The seat groaned faintly as people sat on it.

Soon, the skipper's engine hummed as it backed out of the bay. As it paused to start moving forward, the floor under me gave way. I squeaked as my arms flailed, not able to catch myself before I hit the pavement. I blinked up at the hidden cargo hold a mere arm's length above me, and the flap closed as smoothly as if it had just dumped illegal goods to avoid getting caught. Fred had repaid his favor. I'd have to thank him later.

I rolled to my knees even as the skipper began pulling ahead. The bay door was closing—if anyone was inside, I couldn't see them from this angle. I clambered to my feet and began running.

"Any idea where I am?"

"Somewhere in the maintenance complex. The blocker is still preventing anyone from using the spaceweb, so I can't confirm your exact location."

A shadow darkened the ground ahead of me before a passenger shuttle landed to the side with the door opening. A phaser was pointed at me, and my jaw dropped as I recognized the man as none other than Alavaster.

"Looks like our prudence paid off," he commented, the weapon still trained on me and just as capable of knocking me out cold as a stun gun. "Get in. I hadn't wanted a stowaway on the same skipper as me, but you are a slippery little thing." When I just stared at him, trying to figure out how he'd just appeared out of nowhere, he frowned and flicked the safety off. "Now. I don't have all day."

My feet felt like I was wearing maglock boots as I walked the ten steps and climbed inside. Mr. Black Hair—Pete—sat next to him, along with the same two guards from his last hideout.

He gestured to an empty seat across from him, which I sat in, automatically putting the safety harness on. Would it be too much to ask if history could repeat itself and this shuttle would crash with me being the only survivor to walk away? Probably not a wise wish. My body wasn't as flexible and durable as it had been when I was eight. Could I pretend to be innocent?

"You were the one behind all these people chasing me?" I asked, inflecting my tone as if I was in disbelief. "If you wanted to hire me to find more parts, you could have just mailed me another letter."

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as both hands cradled the phaser pointed in my direction. "What did you do to the spaceship's AI?"

I blinked at him. "Nothing. You watched me hook it up and start the transfer. I left before it was completed."

"The AI is gone," he gritted out the last word. "We found some digital traces of it in the camera systems near the exchange point. You let him out, so you are going to put him back."

"Uh, dude. Ask any software tech. If an AI bot gets loose on the spaceweb, trying to wrangle it would be like trying to catch the wind."

"There was no spaceweb access, dammit!" He slammed a fist down on the armrest beside him. "There were industrial blockers present—" He broke off as his eyes locked onto my bracelet—a device he knew I was wearing that day.

Oh no.

Alavaster pointed the phaser at me while telling the guards, "Take her tech bracelet."

My heart started racing. "No—leave it alone! It has my medical software on it!"

The two guards were already out of their seats, hunching over slightly to keep from hitting their heads on the low ceiling.

"Then you shouldn't have meddled with the AI," Alavaster bluntly declared.

One pinned my hands while the other undid the clasp, taking the device that was my key to life and also housed Toby. My eyes remained locked on the bracelet as the guard handed it to Alavaster, who casually tucked it into his shirt pocket.

"I need that," I told him between gritted teeth.

"That is a you problem," he replied coolly, unconcerned about the magnitude of problems his theft was going to cause me, presuming he left me alive after this, which wasn't likely.

"I'm still here Jennisa," Toby quietly said, fear underlying his voice.

"I'll come back for you," I promised him. "If they transfer you, hide some sort of script on that bracelet that can survive a formatting and will send an alert to the Starships whenever it encounters the spaceweb."

This group wouldn't know they had to melt down an old clunker of a device like that to destroy it, and anyone sifting through garbage would attempt to turn on any electronics they found. If I didn't make it, at least the Starships would come to his rescue.

I grit my teeth, but there wasn't anything I could do right now besides bide my time.