Leaving to go talk to Vulcan is going to be harder than we thought.

Having no idea where we were going or how long it would take, I went and refilled my blood packet stores. There were plenty of discarded pressurized cargo containers available from moving materials into the trench. I filled a backpack sized one with blood packets, some rope and climbing gear, and a change of clothes. I may not sweat anymore, but my clothes still get dirty, and it becomes annoying wearing the same thing all the time. I debate bringing a tent, but as a vampire, I'm not really bothered by the elements.

As a precaution, I upload our most up to date ocean maps into my dive suit's GPS. As I move to throw my old cell phone in my pack for good measure, it lights up with an encrypted message.

"Put your stuff in a reclamation bag head to the mess & play along"

Okay… a reclamation bag.

When I have everything ready, I head out to the mess hall. Just outside the mess is the reclaimer. I assume that's where I'm heading. As an archeologist, I'm used to walking with purpose and pretending I'm up to nothing while carrying priceless artifacts. It feels strange putting up this front when I'm essentially at home, but I trust Damian, even when he is a little weird.

Just as I reach the reclaimer and move to put my bag in, Damian comes out of the mess. "Hey Alyssa! Long time no see! Come to my place, let's catch up." He grabs my upper arm and starts steering me towards the other side of New Eden where he lives before I can finish dropping my bag in the reclaimer. We talk about nothing of importance on our way there. Every airlock we pass is sealed, and there are far more security personnel walking around than normal. Every one of them turns to look at us as we pass, and then change direction as if to meet up with someone else.

They are watching us.

Once the door to his quarters is closed, he spins the lock to fully seal it, and then he turns towards me. "All the airlocks are locked down."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Isis must think I'm gonna try to contact the extraterrestrial vampires."

"That is my conclusion as well."

"How are we going to get out?"

"You remember I designed and built the exoskeleton for New Eden, right?"

"Uh… so…?"

"Remus always taught me to have an escape plan."

"Pretty sure he didn't mean from him."

"Yes, but the lesson always stuck. I designed my rooms to have an emergency escape hatch. Once we open the escape hatch, the program I wrote will lock everyone in New Eden until someone can break through the firewalls and passwords I set as protection. It should take Hesta at least a week to crack."

"Wait! You wrote a program that Hesta won't be able to crack? She's the best there is!"

"There is no one better at computers and coding than Hesta. I aspire to her technical genius. Alas, I am a jack of all trades—"

"—Master of none. Yeah, yeah, I get it."

"Go get changed in the bedroom. I'll change in here. When we are ready, we can go."

I head into his room, pull my suit out of the reclamation bag, and put it on. Then I check to make sure our provisions are properly sealed in the pack, before rejoining Damian in the living room.

"Ready?" Damian asks while shouldering a pressure pack that looks just like mine. He walks over to check that my suit is on properly and fully sealed. I run the same checks on his suit and verify that his pack is fully clipped on.

"Where's the airlock?"

"My bedroom."

"I didn't see an airlock in your room. Seems too small to house one." I look at him in confusion.

"No," he turns toward the room, "the bedroom is the airlock. The window pops out."

"Won't that crush the room like an empty can?"

"I designed it to take the pressure." He closes the door and fully seals it. The door is thicker than I expected—thicker even than a standard airlock cover. The walls are thicker too.

He takes out two short lines with clips on each end. He fixes one end to the harness on my suit, and the other to a hard point on the wall that was behind the door, then does the same for himself before double checking both our helmet seals. Twice.

He always checks everything three times. Not quite OCD, but OCD adjacent.

"Press flat against the wall and brace for impact. This is going to be a little explosive." Then he hits a button, and the window explodes.