Then she heard footsteps behind her. Someone was following her, running hard. It had to be Jess. She ducked around another corner, desperately pushing into a small store room. If she remembered correctly, there was an air vent at the back. As a child, she and her friends had crawled through it.
Would she be too big to fit through now? If he found her, he'd probably kill her.
She scrabbled frantically through piles of debris. Old blast casings, torn pressure suits, parts for mining tools. There it was, the grating that covered the vent. She felt the corners for the fasteners and found them gone.
The children must still play here, she thought with satisfaction.
Pulling off the grate, she started crawling into it, feet first. It seemed like she would fit, although her skirts would make it tight. Why hadn't she thought of that? She started to pull her legs back out to take off the bulky clothing, but then she heard someone out in the corridor. He could find her any minute. She slithered into the vent as quickly as she could; when she was all the way in, she reached out and pulled one of the pressure suits across the open space she'd cleared. She pulled the vent casing into place behind her and started scooting backwards. There should be a wider vent about ten meters back. Once she was there, she would be able to turn around and crawl more easily.
Time to go and warn her people.
* * * * *
Jess cursed, opening door after door along the corridor trying to find her. She'd simply disappeared, and now he was wasting valuable time looking for her. They had hoped to take on the Pilgrims slowly and steadily as they slept.
That wasn't going to be an option now. More people would have to die. It was only a matter of time before she brought help, and all they had to show for their efforts so far were two blasters.
Disgusted, he jogged back to the main entrance of the mining complex. Two slaves stood over the dead guard's body. When the second Pilgrim had come wandering back up to the corridor, he’d seen Logan, and raised his blaster to fire. Logan had reacted instantly, shooting the blaster like a seasoned soldier. In those seconds, Jess had realized how little he really knew about the man. They had never discussed their backgrounds or their families. He didn't even know what Logan had done before he'd become a slave.
After seeing him attack the guard, Jess had a few suspicions.
He jogged past the men guarding the door, moving quickly down the corridor to the main room outside the barracks. Logan and the others already had one of the lockers open. He was handing out small cubes of explosives, while another man—Kresn—was showing them how to use the detonators.
"Remember," Kresn said. "You blow this in the wrong place and the dome looses pressure. We don't want that to happen, but keep your helmets ready. If something goes wrong you’ll only have a few seconds to pull them on."
"Why don't we just blow the dome and kill 'em all?" another man muttered, his voice harsh.
"Because we're better than them," Logan said, staring at him with cold eyes. "We don't want to kill the women and children if we don't have to. Those children are completely innocent."
"Not only that," Kresn added, his voice filled with dark humor. "I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to getting my hands on some of those women. It's been a long time since I've had myself a piece of tail."
"No rapes," Jess said. The men all turned to look at him. "If I catch any man raping a woman, I'll kill him.
Do you understand?"
"The same goes for me," Logan added. "We are better than them—remember that. It’s the only thing keeping us human. Their women are hardly more than slaves as it is. They're victims, too, and I want them to be treated well, or you'll answer to me and Jess."
"Oh, I understand,” Kresn said, his voice light. "But I have a feeling some of those Pilgrim women might enjoy the chance to take up with a new kind of man. This could be as much of an escape for them as it is for us."
"We can talk about that later," Jess said. "We need to get moving now. Bethany got away, and Goddess knows how long we've got before she finds help. Remember the plan. Now let's move."
The men stowed the small blocks of explosive in their pockets and clipped their helmets to the backs of their suits. Then the group started jogging out the tunnel into the main station. Logan and Jess took the point positions, covering each other with the blasters as they made their way into unfamiliar territory.
Fortunately, the corridors were clearly marked with color-coded strips.
The Pilgrims were even stupider than they’d thought.
* * * * *
Bethany crawled along the ventilation shaft as quickly as she could. She must be almost out of the mining complex by now. It was just one of four domes making up the settlement. They were connected by four intersecting tunnels, with ventilation shafts running above each. It seemed like every movement she made was noisy; how could they not hear her in the tunnel below? She could hear them; they'd run beneath her just seconds earlier.
After what seemed like an eternity of crawling through the darkness, she felt a change in the vent's surface. Where it had been smooth plast-crete before, there appeared to be a slot. She had reached one of the recessed shields that would snap closed if a dome lost pressure. That meant she was almost to the junction where her vent would meet up with vents from the other domes.
She slowed, feeling her way carefully. The vents got confusing at this point. She had to find just the right one. If she remembered correctly, it was the one on the right, and she would have to boost herself up several feet to climb into it. There it was. She climbed up into the new tunnel, moving quickly over another of the blast shields. They always frightened her; as a child she'd been warned that if a human was standing in the way when a dome lost pressure, the powerful shields could cut them in half. She'd had nightmares about it for years.
She moved safely past the shield and then came to another junction. She tried to remember the fastest way out to the kitchen. It was the closest place she could think of that would have communication equipment. Everyone would be asleep and she had no idea how to trigger a general alarm. But she knew if she called one of the elders, he would know what to do.
Unfortunately, making her way to the kitchen wasn't as easy as she remembered. The shaft narrowed as she crawled, and finally she could go no further. All but crying in frustration, she realized that while she had been able to pass this way easily as a child, she was simply too large now. She would have to go back. She backed up carefully, trying to remember what her other options might be. An instant later she felt her skirt catch on something, and her leg was pinned. She couldn't see anything, and the shaft was far too tight for her to reach down and free it.