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.He kept trying to take deep calming breaths, but it wasn’t helping.He had a very bad feeling about how this was all going to end.He couldn’t help it; horrible images kept popping into his mind.A brilliant flicker of light from beyond the shuttle’s stern caught his attention and his eyes widened in alarm at the sight of the prison ship beginning its meltdown.The shuttle fired four of its thrusters at once and stood up vertically.It’s nose was straight down, or at least what Russell perceived as down.The belly of the shuttle was facing the exploding prison ship, shielding Russell from the explosion.He had just a moment to be extremely relieved when the force of the reactor meltdown slammed into the bottom of the shuttle and propelled it hard into Russell.The shuttle slammed into him with excruciating force and he nearly blacked out from the pain.He reacted by instinct and tried to wrap his arms around a small nozzle on the shuttle’s hull.He screamed at the pain in his left arm and immediately clutched it to his chest.He managed to get hold of the nozzle with his one good arm—he just wasn’t sure if he keep a grip on it or not.Inside the shuttle, Adam was frantically trying to hold it together.The shuttle was being bounced around by the force of the prison ship’s explosion.Despite his best efforts, the explosion propelled them forward and, for a brief horrifying moment, he just knew he had killed Russell.Susan quickly put a hand on his arm and said, “He’s alive and holding on to the shuttle’s hull.Just bring it in carefully.”Adam exhaled slowly and then quickly righted the ship and turned it towards the freighter.He landed the shuttle with exaggerated caution; the last thing he wanted was for the shuttle to stop suddenly and Russell to go flying into a bulkhead.In addition to needing to be careful for Russell’s sake, there was another more urgent problem.The shockwave had damaged the shuttle.The damages were minimal, but they did affect the handling of the small craft and were another reason that Adam was sweating as he brought the craft in slowly to the freighter’s open hangar bay.The freighter’s hangar bay was small, but it easily accommodated the shuttle.Adam barely breathed the last few moments, but with a jerk and a horrible scraping sound, the shuttle came to a halt on the hangar deck.“Jessica,” Adam called, “I’m opening up.”Jessica had been left near the shuttle’s main door for a reason.As the shuttle door swung up and the stepped ramp swung down to the deck, she led the exodus from the shuttle.She quickly reached the deck and moved over next to the single entrance to the rest of the ship.She turned and waited, both her hands inside her jacket pockets.Inside her pockets, both her hands were sweating as she held onto the two plasmic pistols.She swallowed hard and hoped that she wouldn’t have to fire them.Chapter 28The prisoners slowly filed out of the ship.Some of them limped as they walked and others cradled hurt arms to their chests.A few even collapsed to the deck and just lay there.Jessica craned her head, looking for Susan or Aaron, but they had been far forward in the shuttle—it would take them a while to reach the ramp.She was still nervously waiting when the first prisoner tried to go around her into the main part of the ship.She didn’t recognize the prisoner.He was maybe forty-five years old and his graying hair was cut short.He looked fit and also sort of mean.He had a nasty scar down the left side of his face and he was striding purposefully towards the hatch.Jessica stepped to the side, blocking him from going any farther.The prisoner turned his gaze on her and she nearly shivered.It would be easy enough to imagine this man as a psychotic killer, and after all they had just broken him out of a prison ship.He tilted his head to one side.“You don’t want to mess with me, little lady.” Even the man’s voice was a bit scary—it was deep and threatening.He took another step forward and stopped as Jessica pulled the two plasmics from her pockets.She didn’t point them at anyone, but just held them ready.“No one goes in,” she said simply.The prisoner didn’t back away or even swallow hard, instead he smiled.It wasn’t a friendly smile, more like a scary smile.He took another step forward and stopped again when Jessica pointed one of the plasmics right at his face.The man didn’t blink or back away, instead he studied Jessica.She got the feeling this wasn’t the first time someone had shoved a gun in this man’s face.“No one goes in,” she repeated.The prisoner watched her for another moment, like he was judging her, and then he nodded.“I believe that you wouldn’t hesitate in pulling that trigger, but the problem is that there are a lot more of us than there are of you.”“True enough,” Aaron called as he walked through the main throng of prisoners.Susan was following him, but Adam had remained atop the shuttle ramp.All three of them had exchanged their plasmic pistols for shorter, automatic fire plasma carbines.Aaron lifted the carbine slightly higher as he walked.“These would probably even the odds.Don’t you think?”The prisoner in front of Jessica turned his back to her so that he could face Aaron.“So what? You broke us out of that ship—just to kill us?”“Not at all,” Aaron said, coming to a stop in front of the man.“I meant what I said earlier.All you have to do is behave for a short while and we’ll turn you loose with a new identity and maybe even a little pocket money.” Aaron motioned with his gun towards the prisoner.“What’s your name?”The prisoner looked around the hangar, most of the prisoners were tensed up—they knew that things could go bad real quick.“My name is Eric,” he said slowly, giving himself some more time to judge the situation.Adam was still standing atop the stairs to the shuttle, he had his carbine pulled into his shoulder and he was pointing it in the general direction of the mass of prisoners.Susan had stepped around Aaron and was standing beside Jessica; she had her carbine pointed right at Eric’s back; she wasn’t even being coy about it.If things went bad, she meant to blow a huge hole in the man’s back.Jessica’s eyes widened at a rather unexpected sight.Russell was on top of the shuttle.He had removed his helmet and sat along the periphery of the roof with his feet and legs dangling over the edge.He looked half-dead and he held his left arm cradled to his chest.Nevertheless, he held a small plasmic pistol in his right hand and looked in good enough shape to back Aaron’s play, if necessary.Eric sighed deeply.“You want us to stay in the hangar bay?”“Sort of,” Aaron replied.He turned and motioned on beyond the nose of the shuttle.Against the far wall was a collection of small cubes, sixty of them to be exact.Eric’s forehead furrowed in confusion as he studied the cubes and then his eyes widened in recognition.“Oh no,” he said and his face took on a slightly frantic look.“I’m not going back into any cell—you might as well shoot me now.”Aaron smiled and spoke quietly, “Relax, it’s not what you think.”“Listen,” Eric said, and his voice still held that note or urgency.“I will not go back into a cell.”“That’s right!” one of the other prisoners called out from behind Aaron.He turned and lowered his carbine; the nearest prisoners began hastily backing away.He didn’t mind turning his back to Eric as he knew that Susan and Jessica had his flank.“You gonna kill us now?” the black prisoner with dreadlocks asked.Aaron swiveled his gun to point at the man.He raised his voice and said, “Anyone who won’t go in the holding rooms will go out the airlock.”“Holding rooms?” the black man sneered [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]