Stocky sat in silence with his fellow captives. Being tied up while Pazuzu freely roamed the ship was troubling. But at least Patterson was with him. He looked around at the various tools on the shelves. Somewhere on those was his way to quietly break out.

Patterson looked at him. “Can you break your binds?”

He was shocked by her directness.

“They can’t hear us,” she said. “They disabled the microphones all around. I tried to warn you when they got me.”

“As did I,” Chandna said.

Now that he thought about it, it made sense to do that. “I can break loose.” He strained his muscles, ignoring the friction of the binds against his skin and forcing himself to stand. The metal chair slowly began to bend, and then welds and fasteners failed. It broke off in pieces and Stocky slipped out of his binds. He then untied them.

Patterson immediately fumbled through the shelves and grabbed a container of isopropyl alcohol cleaning wipes. She took a sheet, set the container on a chair for the others and began cleaning her hands. “Clean up where they touched your hands and wrists. Pazuzu doesn’t get through the skin easily because the outer layer is dead tissue. But your skin also has pores leading down to live tissue. I say don’t take the chance.”

Stocky and Chandna each began to clean themselves from where they were touched.

Meanwhile Patterson inspected the shelves of tools further. She must have had the same thoughts. “How can we get out unnoticed?” she asked.

“I’ll handle it.” He grabbed a tube of silicone gel and he extruded it little at a time into his hand and then he coated the room’s fire detector. “This will keep it from detecting smoke. Hold a shop rag against it to keep it from detecting the infrared emissions from a flame.”

“Are we going to cut the door?” Patterson asked. She grabbed a large shop towel and thoroughly covered the detector.

He shook his head while wiping his hands clean. “The wall. They might have a camera on that door.”

He assembled a plasma cutting torch and knelt at the wall separating them from the auxiliary server room. It was a thin barrier, but he still had to be careful for any electrical conduit routed behind it. Because there possibly was some. He couldn’t access schematics to see and had to just rely on his skill to not damage components behind the metal.

“Don’t look at the light,” he said as he put on a welding helmet, and then he cut a large metal section out. There was fibrous material beneath the metal sheet, and he began to cut sections of it out with a utility knife.

“What is that?” Chandna asked.

“Fireproofing.” He looked over at Patterson and saw her still holding the towel up. “You can stop doing that. I can’t use the torch again or the detector on the other side may alarm.”

“How do we escape then?” she asked.

He winked at her. “We’re going to have to drill through the metal and then I’ll pop the plate out. It’s going to be noisy when I do that. If we’re lucky, they’re all far enough away so that it won’t matter. The air blowers in the server room on the other side are also loud and so our noise won’t carry far.”

“They’re very tired too,” Patterson said. “Did you see those bags under their eyes?”

We’ll see. He kept cutting out chunks of fireproofing, being careful not to cut any possible electrical cables within the wall. But it was soon apparent that there weren’t any. He set his tools aside after removing all the fiber and went back to the shelves. He picked up two power drills, placed in suitable bits for metalwork, and adjusted their speeds for a slow setting.

He looked at Patterson. “I know you can learn how to do this easy enough. But it takes a certain feel and we’re pressed for time. So, Chandna will help me.” An android could consistently replicate a concept even faster than she could.

Patterson nodded in understanding and Chandna asked, “What do you need?”

“I’ll show you.” He handed Chandna a drill of his own, a push punch, and a tube of oil. “You take the push punch and you make an indentation in the wall.” He quickly used his own and showed that it made a very small dent in the metal sheet. “That positions the drill bit so it won’t slip. Then you drill through it, paying attention to the speed and the shavings.”

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He positioned his drill on the mark and drilled a hole clean through the metal. “You don’t want the drill to be turning any faster than what I just did, and you need to be gentle with the trigger to keep it slow. And the shavings should be long and curly. Slow it down if they start getting short.” He put a spiral shaving on the tip of his finger and showed him.

Chandna nodded.

“Now you take the push punch and make an indentation near mine. I want to make a ring of holes large enough for us and with each no more than half a centimeter apart.”

Chandna quickly made an indentation in the metal. Stocky then had him operate the drill while he himself pressed the drill into the metal.”

“Use this amount of force each time.”

“I will,” Chandna said. “What’s the oil for?”

“It keeps the drill bit cool. Heat softens the bit and leads to deformation and damage. Apply some every three or four holes. Try to keep up with me.”

“I’m much faster than you, actually,” Chandna said.

They quickly drilled a large ring of holes in the metal wall. And Chandna was indeed faster. Stocky pushed the weakened plate outward and carefully looked through the racks of servers. He couldn’t see any movement and so they crawled into the server room and searched more carefully. The room was empty and they were sure nobody had heard them because of the noise of the air conditioning unit.

He beckoned them to come in for a close huddle. “This worked out as well as I could have hoped. What do you want to do?”

“Is there any lingering distrust between us?” Chandna asked.

“A little,” Patterson said. “But I understand their reasons for sending you. And it’s fortuitous, because I have plans for you.”

“Okay, lead on,” Chandna said.

“Will we be able to escape any lockdown they might have imposed on Command?”

“Yes,” Patterson said. “TURING must give us full permissions in Pinnacle. You go in front and let’s run for Farm. We’ll gather food and then prepare for entering Aux Two.”

Stocky was at first shocked she suggested that since she was so against it earlier. But he saw her determination and Chandna nodding, and so he grinned. “To fight?”

“If we have to,” she said. “But I want to try something first.”

He was weary of trying new things. Pazuzu wanted to fight. They should accept that. But maybe she had an idea to shift the odds more in their favor.

They left the server room and heard the lift open around the corner. The door to the server room shut just in time to kill the noise from its many blowers. They quietly braced themselves against the bulkhead. Samoylova and Nieves could be heard walking away, talking.

Patterson quietly moved past him, beckoning. “Quietly.”

Stocky went with her and put Nieves in a hold, because she was larger. Patterson did the same to Samoylova. The two women tried to struggle and call for help, but they could only make a token struggle. Stocky put his hand over Nieves’ mouth and completely silenced her. Samoylova was able to get a little bit of murmuring out.

“Comms are disabled,” Chandna reminded.

“And even if it weren’t,” Patterson whispered in Samoylova’s ear, “I know where to get a gag.”

Stocky looked at Chandna. “Search them for weapons.”

“Don’t worry,” Patterson whispered in Samoylova’s ear. “We won’t steal your .44.”

Chandna emptied their pockets and removed Samoylova’s pistol belt. Then Stocky and Patterson let them go.

“We don’t want to hurt you,” Patterson said. “Tell us where you took our equipment.”

“Please don’t hurt us,” Nieves said. “I didn’t want to go along with it. None of us did.”

“Shut up,” Samoylova said.

Stocky watched the two of them breaking down and on the verge of crying. Their voices trembled with fear. It was a sad sight. He was used to human incompetence but not seeing them terrified. And certainly not being terrified of him! He felt a creeping guilt. This was wrong – and he again pictured Patterson crying in Berthing. He hadn’t been a good replicant.

“Just go,” Samoylova said. She visibly shook. “We won’t go after you, just go.” Nieves sat down against the wall and curled up in the fetal position while sobbing.

Stocky looked back at the lift. Nobody was calling it yet, but there wasn’t time to waste. He turned to the captives. “Where is the equipment we brought?”

Nieves began to stutter something but Samoylova cut her off. “Don’t tell them,” she said.

Samoylova began to explain herself. “Look, you have mo…”

Patterson struck Samoylova in the jaw with lighting speed, not leaving her even enough time to flinch. Samoylova’s head violently twisted and then she collapsed on the deck like a lifeless doll.

Stocky couldn't help to watch Patterson’s breasts dance on her chest. That’s nice. He then looked down at Samoylova laying face down and unconscious. That’s nice too. Even he was surprised that she had taken her out that fast.

Patterson lifted Nieves to her feet. “Where is our equipment?”

“Sam,” Nieves mumbled. She trembled in fright.

“I promise she’s alright,” Patterson said. “For now.”

Chandna nodded affirmatively while he checked her pulse and looked in her eye. “She may have some dizziness and nausea after waking, but she’ll be okay. She just needs to rest it off.” He stretched her out on the deck.

Patterson forced Nieves to look at her. “Listen to me. I’ll knock you out and then search this whole place if I must. And I’ll do the same to the others.”

“It’s just medical equipment!” she cried.

“Calm yourself,” Chandna said. “Everything is going to be fine. We don’t want to hurt anybody.”

Nieves nodded. “Middle deck.” She sniffled some and then finished. “Conference room.”

Chandna walked beside Nieves and looked at Stocky and Patterson. “Do we really want to take this risk?”

Patterson sighed. “We need the equipment. And we have a human shield. Let’s be quick.”

Stocky grabbed Nieves and pulled her into the lift with them. They quickly retrieved their main bags – leaving the items which had already been unpacked and scattered – and then they hurriedly left the Gate. They released Nieves after reaching Propulsion One. She shouted after them until they had passed through the Gate, saying they would be safer together.

None of them listened or looked back.