Charyd’s sloppy salute was an insult that reminded Ilise she could and would write him up. But she had a job to do now. Ilise gently closed the door, remembering she was playing the good cop in this situation. Alice had grabbed onto the lifeline Posey threw, at a very steep cost. One Posey could get granted if she captured the pirate captain Charyd. If she could nab both the Exec pirates and captain Charyd, she could land another promotion. Her precious source was sitting placidly at the interrogation table while Sisyphus was glaring at her from the corner of the room.

“I’m certain you understand, being a co-captain, how idiotic some people can be,” Ilise said, trying to make a more personal connection with the prisoner.

Alice’s skin was no longer translucent. She had sat up straight and was trying to flick the docupad away. “I can assure you. They can.” Something about the prisoner’s voice was different. Her eyes were dry and her back was straight.

“So,” Ilise prompted. When she received no reply, she continued, “Two of your crew, maybe, and then yourself. As long as I get information on the Exec’s base and how to capture your Captain Charyd.” Finding a morphing alien was not going to be an easy task.

Alice was playing with the chain of the cuffs which kept her hands bound to the table.

“Charyd, eh? Wasn’t that him?” she asked offhandedly and pointed at the door. She looked distracted though, hands returning to play with the chain and counting the links. Her wide, dark eyes were opened fully and every vertical blink was slow as if she was falling asleep.

Ilise could barely keep herself from rolling her eyes. Officer Charyd would definitely get cleaning duty. Latrine cleaning. Hopefully, whatever incident Saar had in that tiny cubicle was still a mess.

“Do we have a deal?” Ilise asked, getting back on topic. Maybe it was because she was interviewing a pirate, the naturally greedy and corrupt people of society, and was interrupted during it, she was getting short-tempered. There was no way one more thing was going to go wrong. She worked too hard to get to this point, she was top of her class and the salutatorian of her class had already passed her in rank years ago. Alice would give up this information if she had to force it out of her.

The prisoner did not move or reply. Her following blink was so slow that the thin membrane of light blue skin covering her eyes remained closed for half a minute before it parted.

“I… I get to decide who,” Alice finally said.

Ilise raised an eyebrow at her. “You have to give me something.”

“I will. But I decide who goes.”

“That’s not up to you.”

“Then how do I know you even have the clearance to make this deal?”

Ilise felt her fangs poking at her lips, trying to emerge and tempt her into snapping at the Nereus. A snarl rumbled in her throat. This was unprofessional of her. She held back. Barely.

“Listen here,” Sisyphus finally joined the conversation with a gruff tone. “You are not–”

“I have the authority,” Ilise interrupted him before he could take charge of everything and blunder through it like a beached whale. “I decide who gets out. And only if the information you have for me is useful.”

Alice continued her slow blinks without looking up. She reached the end of the chain and started counting again in the other direction. It was methodical. Almost–

Ilise realized what Alice was doing too late. She looked at the tag clipped to one of Alice’s ears. Its bright color was distracting enough to make it hard to see if it was active. It was the device that kept her from using her race’s natural telepathy to communicate with others.

Barely a moment later, Ilise’s suspicions were proven true when the interrogation room went dark and then bright red. The alarm that started blaring out in the hall made its way into the room a moment after that. The loud sound made Ilise wince. The decibel setting was meant for human and Minotaur ears. To her, the siren felt like needles stabbing her brain through her ears. She stood to block the door path, but her adrenaline and the lower gravitation of the planet made her jump too high and she almost hit her head on the ceiling. She caught herself and slowly slid down the door frame.

In that single moment of darkness, Alice kicked her chair back. The sound of its metal legs scratching the floor was like nails on a chalkboard, only adding to Ilise’s pain, and then came the assault the Nereus were known for.

Fireworks went off behind her eyes, a great cacophony of voices and emotions and thoughts as if Ilise herself was a telepath. There was a snap, something breaking, and it felt too much like someone’s mental walls broke. Either that, or there was someone here who should be in an asylum instead. A gurgling choke sounded and Ilise tried to focus on it. It was not in her head. It was Sisyphus. Ilise opened her eyes just in time to see Alice kick Sisyphus in the gut. He gasped for air, but raised his hands to smash at her, she rolled off the table, twisting the chain which kept her hands bound. Sisyphus did not stop and bent down to pick up Ilise’s chair. He smashed it hard on the table and something broke.

It was not the prisoner.

The Nereus fell to the ground in a crouch, her hands-free, then charged Sisyphus. There was the first fuck up Ilise would have to write Sisyphus up on.

Alice dodged the swinging chair by kicking off the wall and landed behind him. With a jump, the prisoner snapped her chains around Sisyphus’s neck and clung to the large man’s back.

Clearly, Alice did not consider Sisyphus dangerous enough to focus her psychic attack on him. Unfortunately for the prisoner, Ilise may not be trained to deflect a Nereus attack but she was trained for something even more draining.

With a focus that few possessed, she shut down all the voices in her head and forced the nausea back. Her head cleared and she reached for her gun.

Sisyphus flipped Alice over, slamming her boldly on the interrogation table. She wanted to take the shot at Sisyphus to keep him out of the way.

Alice groaned but flipped out of the way of the incoming punch from the man. She was agile like a cobra darting. His normal muscle movements launched him into Illise smashing them into the door behind her. He forgot to compensate for the gravity of PT-0237. His knuckles cracked against the metal.

“Move Sisyphus!” She shoved him off.

Ilise aimed her gun at Alice and fired. It was set to stun mode. Sisyphus did not listen and was in the way.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Alice slipped on the ground as if she was some sort of wet eel, avoiding Sisyphus and the shots. One was enough to make the large man fall to his knees.

Ilise fired two more shots, both of which Alice avoided. Then Alice grabbed the chair and swung. Ilise ducked under it but it connected hard with Sisyphus. It knocked him right into the wall and then to the ground. Trouble hit him in three between the stun shot, the chair, and his head hitting the metal wall hard, ensuring that he would not move again any time soon.

Ilise fired off again but Alice slipped under the table and then flipped it up. The large metal slab that acted as a shield also acted as a good offensive, shoving Ilise out of the interrogation room and against the wall of the hall.

Alice, however, did not finish her off. Instead, she turned around and ran.

Sisyphus would be fine. Hopefully.

Ilise fired off two more shots after the prisoner, both of which she avoided with flexible flips as she ran off. Alice turned a corner further into the prison and disappeared out of sight. Ilise followed her under the blaring alarm and red lights.

“Lockdown! Lockdown! This is a complete lockdown. All prisoners, return to your cells!” The call echoed down the hall from multiple speakers in between the blaring alarm.

Ilise turned a corner just in time to see Alice slide under a door right before it closed. When she reached the door, Alice was standing on the other side of the small window. The prisoner had a huge grin on her lips and she mockingly waved at Ilise before turning around to run off again.

“Tony! Tony, can you hear me?” Ilise called in her communicator, trying to reach the ship.

“I’m here, Captain. What’s up?”

“Lockdown. Can you get into the prison schematics and–”

“Already in it. Hold on. Oh, I see you. Give me one second and…”

The door in front of Ilise slid back upwards and Ilise ran off.

“I take it you’re going after Alice? Turn leeeeffttt now!”

Ilise took the turn only to come face to face with one of the largest men she had ever seen in her life. Sisyphus had nothing on this guy. The Eusphyra was standing a full meter above Ilise in height and his shoulders were so wide that he filled almost the entire hall. Ilise couldn’t even peek past him to see if Alice was still there.

“Oops. Sorry. You got this, boss!” Tony said in her ear, not sounding sorry at all.

Ilise switched her gun from stun to incapacitate and fired. The bullets bounced off the prisoner’s thick skin. Oh well. It was worth a try. When he punched out, she ducked under his large arm and grabbed the heavy blade arm fin there. It was dulled, as was prison protocol. She dropped all of her weight into a crouch as she holstered her gun. Her fingers dug deep into the man’s arm fin. He screamed in pain and dropped to his knees. Ilise kicked out from her crouched position, buckling his hip as well.

The man put his other hand out to stop himself from collapsing face-first on the ground. It put his head at the perfect height for her. She stood up and twisted, the fin still held between her fingers, and wrapped a leg around his neck. Using it as leverage, she jumped behind him, grabbed the fin with both hands, and snapped the man’s arm behind his flat head. Another twist and a tightening of her leg and then the men fell unconscious. Eusphyras were as useless as they were big.

“Good job, boss! I knew you could do it,” Tony cheered in her ear.

“Shut up. Where is Alice?” Ilise drew her gun and started running again.

“She just made it to the… well, impromptu entrance of one of the prison courtyards and… oh no. Not good.”

Ilise hissed out through her fangs at one of the prisoners that stood in her way. The orange-clad alien raised her hands in defense and backed up against the wall. Smart woman. Ilise continued. “What is it, Tony?”

“Looks like the entire crew is there.”

“Is where?”

“The courtyard.”

“What are they–never mind. Can you clear a path for me, call my team to join me, and connect me to the person in charge of this facility?” Alice must have telepathically hooked up her crew again to get them all together. But why the courtyard where the high ground was the prison guard towers? There was no way out from there. Was there?

“Can and done!” Tony chimed in, followed by a beep that sounded much too happy.

Ilise came to a four-way fork in the halls and slid to a stop. She had no idea which way to go, even with the colored tapes on the ground.

A door down one of the hallways slid open and the red alarm lights in that direction turned green. Tony deserved a reward after this. A thorough cleaning. Top to bottom. Inside and out. By Officer Charyd, preferably.

Ilise stuttered to a stop at that thought. Why did Alice act now? Was Officer Charyd’s interruption involved?

The hall’s green light started flashing and Ilise decided to look closer into the security feed once they caught Alice and her crew again.

The cell doors on either side of her were closed and though she saw prisoners’ faces as she ran, she ignored them. Tony guided her through one more hall before Ilise found herself in front of a closed door.

“Tony!”

“You’re there.”

“I’m where? I’m in the hall and–”

“On your left.”

Ilise looked left and all she saw was a large window. Or, more likely, where a window should have been and was instead a large opening with no glass. It looked out into an open courtyard where guards and prisoners both were fighting. Alice’s glowing white skeleton stood out among the sea of orange and black.

“How did she–”

“Fire regulations require for all–”

“Got it, got it,” Ilise interrupted Tony right back. The moment she poked her head out the window, she heard the fighting. There must have been some sort of forcefield keeping the courtyard separate from the halls of the prison. Her hair got wet again.

“Captain Posey.” Her comm popped with a new connection added. “This is Chief Brightwood. Prison Warden. I was told–”

“Where are you?” Ilise interrupted the communication. “Nevermind. Send all of your guards to the–Tony?”

“Courtyard B, west wing.”

“Send all guards to Courtyard B, west wing. You have a riot on your hands.”

“I’m already here, Captain. As is half your crew.”

Ilise straddled the window still and finally saw the fire regulation pole on the outside.

“Keep a special eye out on prisoner Alice and the rest of her crew,” she ordered. Alice admitted to having the information and had two weak points. Ilise would capture her again and succeed in her mission. She needed to catch those Exec pirates.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

The confirmation faded away as she used the pole to slide down a single story to ground level and into the courtyard. Almost immediately, two prisoners were on her. She remembered to switch her gun back to stun mode and fired. Luckily, this time it worked.

The glow coming from Alice was indistinguishable at this level so she let Tony direct her deeper into the fighting crowd of the courtyard. Another prisoner did not fall under her stun gun but she was able to render the man unconscious easily enough.

There was a shot above, the sound of fighting, but Ilise had to ignore it. That is until she heard multiple voices from in front of her shouting “Captain!” in alarm. She looked up just in time to see Officer Charyd land from a jump and then morph.

The little fucker.

Ilise bared her fangs at him even though he couldn’t see her.

Wherever Officer Charyd was, he deserved latrine duty. And whoever that motherfucker up in the guard towers was, he deserved a bullet. Ilise had a pretty good idea of who it was. She switched her gun back to incapacitate and aimed at one of the towers but Charyd was already out of view.

“Tony, where is he?” she growled out into her communicator.

Captain Charyd was a much better prize than Alice.

Tony did not respond.

“Tony?”

Not even a beep.

The alarm within the prison took on a different pitch and then an automated voice echoed around the courtyard, causing almost everyone to freeze with its words.

“Warning. Explosive device detected. Warning. Explosive device detected. Everyone, clear the area. Lifeboats available at ports…”