“Hey SIx, come in! Six. Do you hear me?” Six heard a voice over the coms while six was still running the thermal scan again.

“Yeah, I hear you. What do you want now seven?” Six asked.

“Are you done? You have been there for two hours. How long does it take to scan one building?” Seven said.

“Don’t tell me how to do my job and I won’t tell you to shut up and let me work.” Six said.

“I'm not telling you how to do your job, I’m telling you to hurry.” Seven said.

“Well, that’s going to be a problem then. I can’t scan the building under the surface. I don’t know if it’s the surface itself or the plating that’s blocking my scans.” Six said.

“But we need the scans of the whole building. You know that this is a black site and that there are no plans for the building. If you return with just a partial scan Three will kick our butts.” Seven said.

“Then she can come here and do the scans.” Six said.

“I heard that. Do your jobs and stop whining.” Three said.

“Why don’t you do a deep pulse scan?” Seven asked.

“Are you mad? This is a black site prison with only one prisoner and five hundred guards above ground. Who knows how many are underground. I do have a cloak but if I start a deep pulse, I’ll reveal my position and they’ll start shooting at me. You do know that a deep pulse takes about three to four minutes to complete?” Six said not believing that Seven even mentioned the deep pulse. “Are you trying to kill me? They would tear through my Loki raider like paper.”

“Why don’t you start the pulse, circle around the moon, while they shoot at the place the pulse started, pick it up when it’s done and come to the Vulture? The deep pulse is the only thing that will give us the whole plan of the building.” Seven said.

“That’s a suicide mission. But, it could work because I’m piloting this thing. If you were down here you’d be dead in a second.” Six said and chuckled.

“Ha ha ha… The * I’m the best pilot in the world * routine is getting old.” Seven said.

Six, down on the moon, prepared the engines of the Loki raider and the deep pulse scanner. The engines had to start moving the raider immediately after the pulse starts. After everything was ready, he started the deep pulse and the Loki raider moved. As he predicted, a few hundred guards and sentinel robot cannons started firing at the spot where he started the pulse. Six was watching the countdowns of the engines and the pulse. By the engine countdown, if the raider continued orbiting at this speed, he will be at the pickup spot too soon. He slowed down the engines countdown to two seconds before the pulse countdown. When the pulse countdown reached zero he hit the button to collect the pulse and the button to jump out of orbit.

Still orbiting the moon, he couldn’t believe he was alive. He checked if he collected the deep pulse and it was there, he did it. “Seven, I’m coming back. I did it.” Six said.

“You did it? I really thought that would kick the bucket this time.” Seven said.

“Thanks for your kind words you bastard.” Six said, headed towards the Vulture and docked in the hangar.

Seven transferred the data from the deep pulse from the radar to the Vultures computer and when the transfer was complete, he displayed the 3D image of the black site prison on the bridge. 

“Three, the transfer is complete and the image is displayed on the bridge. I really think you should see this.” Seven said.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming.” Three said.

After a few moments, Three came to the bridge. “What’s all the fuss about?” She said.

“This. Look.” Six said.

The 3D image displayed a building with two floors above ground with around two hundred guards and around fifty sentinel robot canons. However, there were ten floors underground with hundreds of guards, some human, others androids, and a prison cell on the sixth floor underground, with one prisoner, on one side of the building.

“All of this for one prisoner. What do you have to do to end up in this kind of a prison? Shish.” Seven said.

“How are we supposed to get to Nexeer and ask him about the Astrum?” Six said.

“Can you turn the image upside down and lower it a bit?” Three asked.

“Yeah, why?” Seven asked.

“Just do it.” Three said, seven turned the image and lowered it.

“There is a small space on the bottom of the cell that is exposed to the ground. Can we dig a hole with the laser and plant a bug there so we can talk to Nexeer?” Three asked.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“We could but they will probably move him after the stunt we pulled today.” Seven said.

“Yeah, with the deep pulse we now know his location so they will probably move him somewhere else.” Six said.

“Then let’s plant the bug now and hear what they are saying.” Three said.

Six moved the Vulture underneath the moon and into position, Seven fired the laser and the bug. When the bug attached itself to the bottom of the cell, they listened. At first, there was nothing, but after a while, they heard the cell doors opening.

“What now? I didn’t do anything.” That was probably Nexeer talking.

“Get up and walk into the glass box.” Typical guard arrogance.

“Why? Are you gonna experiment on me again?” Nexeer asked.

“No, we are moving you to the other cell on the other side. Walk into the glass container we will use the acid.” The guard said.

“Fine.” Nexeer said and they could hear the sound of wheels and the door closing.

“Ok, the guard said the cell on the other side. What room on the other side looks like this one?” Three asked.

“Let me check.” Seven singled out the cell where they held Nexeer earlier. He made the computer find a matching room on the other side of the building.

“Alright, we have two rooms matching the prison cell where they held Nexeer. One on the fourth floor and one on the ninth floor underground. The one on the fourth floor is deeper inside the building and it’s not exposed to the ground, but the one on the ninth floor has half of the floor exposed.” Seven said.

“If I thought that someone would come to extract a prisoner I would definitely bury him deeper so that it’s harder to get to him.” Three said.

“That makes sense. It would be harder to go through more floors to get to him.” Six said.

“Six, Seven, let’s plant another bug on the ninth floor cell.” Three said.

Six positioned the Vulture underneath the cell on the ninth floor and Seven planted the bug. They waited for the sound of guards bringing Nexeer into the cell, hoping they were right. After fifteen minutes, there was still nothing. 

“They should have been here by now.” Seven said.

“Shut up.” Three said.

After another five minutes, they heard the cell door open and the sound of wheels. They all sighed in relief. They heard the guards order Nexeer to get out of the glass box and leave closing the door behind them. They waited a few more minutes just in case the guards come back and then Three said. “Nexeer can you hear me?”

“What? Who’s talking? Where are you?” Nexeer asked.

“Keep your voice down and act natural.” Three said.

“How come I can hear you?” Nexeer asked.

“There is a bug planted at the bottom of the cell, but that’s not important now. I need to ask you something.” Three said.

“Ask away.” Nexeer said.

“Are you Nexeer? The one that stole the Astrum?” Three asked.

“Of course I am. Why do you think I’m here in this shit hole?” Nexeer said.

“Can you tell me where you hid it?” Three asked.

“No chance.” Nexeer said.

“Why?” Three asked.

“First of all lady, I don’t know your name, I don’t know who you are and what are your plans with it. I stole it for a reason.” Nexeer said.

“I can assure you that we have good intentions.” Three said.

“I heard that a thousand times. The Astrum is too powerful. That’s why I stole it and hid it. No one should have such power because power corrupts people.” Nexeer said.

“How can I get you to trust us?” Three said.

“You would have to get me out of here for that and that is impossible.” Nexeer said.

“Give me a few minutes to talk it over with my colleagues.” Three said.

“What are you thinking Three?” Seven asked.

“There is a way we can get him out. Pull up the deep scan image again. You see the cell they are holding him in. The left corner is the closest one to the moon surface.” Three said and pointed at the place she was talking about, “We can use Vulture to make a hole through the moon and the floor of the cell big enough for Nexeer to go through and pull it out with the harpoons. The pressure would catapult Nexeer out into space, where Six would be waiting for him in Loki. And as soon as he catches Nexeer he flies back to Vulture and we hyperjump.”

“That’s a suicide mission. The guards would notice us in a second.” Six said.

“To the guards, it would look like Nexeer was in his cell and then a second after that he wasn’t if we play it right.” Three said. “We are doing this. “Make the calculations Seven.” 

”All right. Vulture has to be outside the range of the cannons… Then the harpoons… The lasers… The pulling the part of the moon…” Seven was murmuring while doing the calculations and Six hated that.

“Just hurry up.” Six said. 

“If you want, you can come here and do this by yourself. It’s not easy to calculate every factor that could go wrong, especially not you.” Seven replied and continued.

“So half a minute to Loki… Then to the Vulture and hyperjump. Hmmm… We have a problem.” Seven said.

“What problem?” Three asked.

“The extraction of the part of the moon and the cell is going to last seven seconds. The extraction will cause tremors and give the guards enough time to enter the cell and grab Nexeer.” Seven said.

“Hmmm… wait a sec.” Three said.

“Nexeer, is there any space in the cell where you can hide for seven seconds?” Three asked.

“Yeah, I can hide for seven seconds.” Nexeer said.

“Ok. Give me a sec.” Three said.

“Can we do it if he can hide? And if he can, in how much time from the start to the jump? Three asked.

“We can do it in under five minutes if he can hide.”

Good. And how long can you hold your breath?” Three asked.

“About ten minutes. Why?” Nexeer asked.

“That’s more than enough.” Three said

“We have a plan to get you out.” Three said.

“Ha! There’s no chance there are too many guards here. You would be dead in seconds.” Nexeer said.

Just listen to my plan.” Three said and explained their plan to Nexeer.

“You are all mad.” Nexeer said.

“It’s that or the prison for the rest of your life. Choose?” Three said.

“All right. What do I have to do?” Nexeer said.

“Hide from the guards and when you see a hole, hold your breath and let the hole suck you into space. Six will be waiting for you in the raider there and bring you here to the Vullture.” Three said.

They made all the preparations. Six took Loki and went to the moon right above the place where the hole will be. He depressurized the raider, opened the back door, sat in his spacesuit and waited for the Vulture to make the hole. Seven launched the harpoons and attached them to the surface of the moon inside the area that they will cut out with the lasers. He activated the lasers and in two seconds, they cut out the part of the moon and the harpoons started to pull it at full speed.

The harpoons pulled out the part of the moon as if they were opening a bottle of wine. Six lowered Loki to the opening and as soon as he felt a bump and heard “Ouch!” started to fly towards the Vulture closing the door and pressurizing the raider so Nexeer can breathe. It took him a while to reach the Vulture, but as he entered the hangar, he said. “Punch it Three.” and they hyperjumped.