“They’ve reached the hanger bay! I repeat, they’ve reached the hanger bay! Over,” Shouted one of them over the coms.

  “You fool! They’re wearing a set of the com armor!”

  “We are going radio silent. Repeat. We are going radio silent!”

  Dustin looked over at her and chuckled.

  “It seems like they’re not too happy that we made it this far,” she said, grinning at him.

  “Let’s get out of here, before they try blowing the place up, or sending more damn monsters after us.”

  They jogged over to the first shuttle, but the door was locked. Looking at each other, they split up to check each of the other shuttles, but their doors were locked too.

  “Can you hack the system to get one open?” asked Olivia, glancing at the door they had come through.

  “Maybe, but it’s going to take time.” He pulled out his multi-tool and glanced over the shuttles. Maybe the farthest from the door would be best. It would give him the most cover if anyone came calling.

  “I’ll cover the door so if anyone tries to interrupt, I can blow ‘em away.” She pulled out the grenade launcher with a wide grin.

  “Why do I get the feeling you’re enjoying this?” He paused to watch her hips sway as she walked towards the door.

  “I had to suffer at the hands of these assholes for six fucking years. I think they liked it, too. It’s time I get a little payback.” She stroked the gun, looking at him suggestively, before turning back to what she was doing.

  Dustin was sure, with all of the guns that were in that bag, she should be able to hole them off long enough for him to get the shuttle open. After checking over the door carefully, for anything he may have missed, he found an access panel for maintenance repairs, and got to work.

  Using the PED as the access control device, he started to explore what all it could do.

  (SENSING NEW HARDWARE. ATTEMPT SYNC?)

  “I just want the damn door to open. Once I’m inside, we’ll see what needs done to get this thing into the air.”

  (SYNC IS REQUIRED TO ACCESS THE SYSTEM OF THIS NEW DEVICE.)

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  “Then sync already, but no contacting the aliens!”

  (PROTOCOL STATES THAT IF ACCESS TO COMMUNICATION WITH HOME BASE IS AVAILABLE, AN ATTEMPT MUST ALWAYS BE MADE TO MAKE CONTACT.)

  Pulling the wires and breaking contact, he cursed at the damn Josagn that programed it for that. He would have to try and figure out how to reprogram it. He wanted access to all of his genetic material before he got far away from them and their damn games.

  (LINK WITH NEW HARDWARE HAS BEEN SEVERED.)

  “Yeah, well, suck it up, buttercup. I don’t feel like taking a nap anytime soon.” He took his multi-tool and started poking and prodding at the electronics inside the door.

  Dustin didn’t have a clue what he was doing, but every time he did something, it seemed right, so he kept on. Every once in a while, he would hear Olivia firing on something behind him, but he ignored it. This damn door had to open if they were going to get out of here alive.

  “Dustin! We have a problem!” Olivia shouted, just as he figured out how to get the door opened.

  “Get your ass over here, and tell me about it!” he shouted back, jumping through the door and looking around. It wasn’t very large, with a bench seat along the back, and one seat for a pilot. There was a lot of open floor between the two, and he really didn’t want to think about why.

  She came running, carrying her bag of guns and the grenade launcher. Behind her, he could see the crystal prince running, rather quickly.

  “Shit!” he cursed, grabbing her arm and jerking her inside, then slamming the button to shut the door.

  As he got closer, the crystal prince waved his hand, and it became a blade, sharp and pointed.

  As the door closed, he jumped over to the seat, and started the ignition sequence. Outside, he could hear, the crystal prince scraping the side of the shuttle with his blade. Slamming the button that would open the overhead hanger doors, he jerked the ship high into the air, causing the engine to whine, as it wasn’t really ready to lift off.

  Clearing the doors by inches, he shot forward, instead of up, choosing to stay as close to the trees as he could. Occasionally, there was the sound of scraping, as he got too close to their reaching branches.

  “We have incoming!” said Olivia, from his left side, where she was watching some of the monitors, he hadn’t paid attention to.

  Glancing at them, he saw that there were half a dozen ships, entering the atmosphere, and heading his way. He only had a few moments before they would be close enough to do something. Watching the screen in front of him, he pushed the ship to go even faster, knowing that it wasn’t meant for that. A high-pitched whine started to emit from the engine, and several lights on his board lit up.

  Up ahead, what he was looking for, appeared, and he aimed for it. Just before the ships got within range, he slammed the thrusters into reverse and they almost came to a sudden stop. Olivia went flying, and thudded heavily against the console. The ships that had been chasing after them, overshot by a long way, and would take a few minutes to turn around and come back.

  Dustin angled the ship down, and entered the crevasse that they had lost the Josagn in the last time, with all of the caves. Olivia managed to climb over and was clutching his seat with a death grip, trying not to get thrown all over the place again.

  Just as he remembered, the bottom of the crevasse was filled with water, from the numerous waterfalls that flowed down into it. Hoping it wasn’t too deep, he steered the ship into it, and they became submerged.