Violet did her best to avoid struggling against the armed guards as they escorted her down to the detention center, but they kept poking, prodding, and shoving her for no apparent reason other than the fact that they were dick bags who had little other entertainment on board.
The brig was small, consisting of a lone hallway with three cells on either side. One of the guards placed his hand on her back and pushed her out of the lift.
She looked back over her shoulder and glared at him, etching his face into memory. “Your mom must be real proud…” she quipped.
“Shut up and keep moving,” another guard replied.
Violet tried to guess where on the ship they were presently located. Aft? Forward? Somewhere in between? The brig had been left off her little welcome tour of the ship, but her best guess was that it was located in the belly of the ship, directly below the cargo bay.
There was no other way in or out except for the lift, she could tell that much, and the lift had required an authorization code from one of the guards before it descended. Ascension probably required the same.
As she walked down the hall toward the cells, the ship rocked violently beneath her feet, sending her staggering into the wall. Behind her, the guards hadn’t been quite so agile, or perhaps her heightened physicality had given her an advantage. Both guards hit the ground, taken by surprise. One of the guards’ weapons went tumbling down the hall past Violet.
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She eyed it carefully as the guards scrambled back to their feet, trying to regain control over their limbs and the situation. The second guard, who had managed to maintain control of his weapon, pointed it at Violet. “Don’t even think about it!” he snapped.
Violet had no intention of getting shot by some bored, upstart MP. She raised her hands slowly. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Just tell me which one’s mine.” She tilted her head toward the cells.
The guard motioned with his blaster to the cell directly across from her, and Violet turned, her hands still raised, and walked inside, receiving a kick on her backside that was more push than kick.
“Bastard,” she muttered.
“What was that?” The guard raised the blaster rifle at her face. “Got something to say?”
Violet ignored him as the cell door force field activated. The blaster was most likely on a strong stun setting, but Violet had no urge to find out.
Instead, she examined the cell—bare walls, made of durasteel or something similar. It was completely empty except for a hard-surfaced slab that extended from the wall, barely big enough to lie down on, and a small sanitary unit in the corner. “Guess you guys aren’t too keen on hand washing down here, huh?”
She turned to see the second guard reclaiming his weapon off the ground. The ship rocked with another shudder. “So, are you guys going to babysit me, or is there something better for you to be doing…? Like, I don’t know, maybe protecting the ship from whatever is trying to kill us all out there?”
The guard looked like he was about to respond but then thought better of it. The two MPs shared a look and then nodded, marching off in a hurry, presumably to do what Violet had suggested.
With nothing better to do, Violet lay on the cold hard slab and waited for the ship to rip apart around her.