Dru slammed into the wall.

The collision drove the breath from his lungs, and he almost rebounded away. He desperately scrabbled at the rungs next to the door. With his fingertips he grabbed hold, pulled and slapped the door access panel with his left hand. A spasm of pain shot up his arm.

There was a loud CHUNK, and the door slid open. Dru swung himself around and boosted feet-first through the open doorway.

Dru found himself in a small airlock. There was another door on the far side of the room.

He grabbed the rung next to the door, and triggered the door panel. The door shut, with another loud CLUNK.

Quickly, Dru keyed in a lock code. He heard a satisfying crunch as the rods slid home securing the door.

Only just in time too. Galan's sweaty face appeared at the door's tiny window. He screamed obscenities at Dru while his hand jabbed at the control panel.

Dru turned away. He needed to escape. The lock code wouldn't hold Galan for long. He boosted over to the second door. Through its tiny window, he saw movement. He punched in a lock code on that door's panel as well, finishing just as Gin's face appeared at the window.

"Now we've got you!" Gin said, then he laughed, like the dogs he had seen in vids. Hyenas, he remembered they were called.

[https://i.ibb.co/mDQY87t/seven-pointed-star-small.png]

Initially Dru wasn't concerned about Gar's disappearance. Gar had a tendency to slip away unnoticed. Although all the exits from the Assembly Room were heavily monitored, Gar had an almost supernatural ability to avoid the Observers and traps.

He'd collected Dru's pocketknife from the storeroom, where it had been confiscated upon entering the Internment. He'd also stolen extra rations for Dru's Sanctionday. Gar, Gren, Meri and Dru had a quiet party that night after lights out.

However, Gar always returned in time for food.

"Can't get far on an empty tum," he'd say to Dru.

So, when Dru didn't see him in the food line that evening he became worried.

Why hadn't he taken Dru with him? Gar had always been an independent spirit, but they were friends – Dru liked to think best friends.

Or had Galan arrived in the middle of the night to spirit him away? Why hadn't Gar woken him to say goodbye? Had Galan forbade him? Dru couldn't imagine that stopping Gar.

Has he found the facility and decided to stay there? Dru wondered.

After Gar had been missing for two days, Dru began planning his own escape. He needed to find Gar.

[https://i.ibb.co/mDQY87t/seven-pointed-star-small.png]

"Where's Gar?" Dru screamed at Galan.

"You'll find out." Galan grinned, and patted his belly.

That terrified Dru. He tried not to think about what it meant. Then he realised Galan was probably just trying to scare him into making a mistake.

He searched desperately for an escape.

While the airlock had no vents (certainly nothing large enough for Dru to escape through), the doors were several metres tall. There was no way either Galan or Gin could cover the entire area. If Dru timed it just right, just as the door was opening, he could kick off and win past them before they could react.

He could hear them trying to override his code.

He scrunched low on the floor, out of the view of the windows, and prepared to kick off. He was constrained because he didn't know which door would open first. He guessed Galan, but it didn't really matter. Dru had good reactions.

Abruptly, a loud rumble and a shudder passed through the hull.

"What's that?" Dru heard Gin ask, his voice amplified by the HUD.

"Defence grid." Galan answered calmly.

"What? Why?"

Galan didn't respond.

Dru allowed himself to float upwards so he could see through the windows. Both Galan and Gin were hovering, listening. They'd given up on breaking his lock code.

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As he considered using the distraction to make his escape. The defence grid fired again. Then something must have fired back because there was the sound of an explosion, which caused the station to convulse.

Behind Gin, Dru saw a wave of pressure approaching, the air condenscing into a rolling cloud. Dru didn't even have time to warn him. It caught Gin unawares, the torrent lifting him up and slamming him into the wall.

"Go!" Galan screamed, unaware of what had happened. "Get to The Vats!"

Dru saw Galan boost away, pulling himself along the inner wall.

Through the other window, Gin floated away from the door. Globules of blood trickled from the cut in his forehead. They floated up and outward, looking like tiny red stars within the arms of a spiral galaxy.

For a long moment Gin didn't move, a dazed expression on his face.

"F-!" Gin exclaimed. He wiped his forehead, transforming the bloody spiral arm into a cloudy nebula.

He glared at Dru.

"You're lucky, kid." He said, pulling himself right up to the window. He snarled at Dru. "Very, very lucky."

Then he turned and boosted away.

Dru watched him depart, all the way until he lost sight of him around the curve. Galan too had disappeared.

Even then Dru refused to leave the safety of the airlock. He wasn't entirely certain this wasn't some trick to lure him out.

Several more explosions rocked the Habitat, the hull reverberating with each detonation. Yet none of them were anything like the one that had caused the pressure wave.

Meanwhile, the defence grid remained copiously silent.

Dru remained safely ensconced within the airlock as he contemplated. The Station was clearly under attack, but by whom? The Di Ren? He didn't know much about The Enemy, but his father had reassured him that they would never attack the Colonies. Something about being too close to the Sun.

He knew the Di Ren mostly lived at the edge of the system, in The Cloud. He also knew they never took prisoners. Maybe they just never took Grownup prisoners, but what about kids? Could they be coming aboard to steal all the children?

Either way he and the other kids were doomed. The image of Galan patting his belly kept playing over in his mind.

He needed to find a better hiding place. While the airlock was probably the safest place to be in case of decom, if they were overrun by invaders the locks wouldn't hold them much longer than they would hold Galan or Gin. Moreover, the Di Ren could just as easily choose to cut their way through.

Dru peeked through Gin's window. The chamber beyond appeared to be a continuation of the cargo bay. However, he could see an indentation in the floor. He guessed it was some sort of door.

[https://i.ibb.co/mDQY87t/seven-pointed-star-small.png]

His guess proved to be correct.

There were two large doors in the floor, but there was also another door further up. This one was smaller.

Dru boosted over and triggered the panel beside it.

Dru hadn't heard any further explosions since he'd left the lock. Was the attack finished? Had the Navy finally arrived and driven the attackers off? Or were the attackers already aboard?

He waited anxiously as the door slowly unlocked. He half-expected to see the elongated bodies of the Di Ren appearing at any moment.

Instead, a rush of warm air greeted him. It was stale and stank of dust.

The room beyond was heated, cooler than The Rim but still much better than the freezing auxillary storage bay. it also had emergency lighting.

Opposite the door Dru saw, a long window, providing an elevated view of the rear hangar.

The hangar was gigantic. It was easily the largest room he had ever seen. It was double the size of the forward hangar, which he'd had the misfortune of glimpsing a few times before.

Dru reached out to the wall to steady himself. Just like with the forward bay, the view gave him vertigo. It felt like the sim he'd used in school showing him what planet life was like, the blue sky stretching up forever. It had caused him to vomit. After that, he'd been excused from further planetary studies.

Dru averted his gaze. Instead he looked toward the elaborate console that lay before the window. The space must be a control room. Dust had settled across them in a thick grey layer of grime. There was at least several years' worth. Yet, Dru could see that some of the indicators were still powered.

Dru left the door open and boosted closer to examine the controls. Maybe if he could work out how to operate them he could... what? Escape?

The hangar was empty. There was no shuttle to sneak aboard and even if there was, he didn't know how to fly one. In addition, it's a bit hard to be a pilot if you can't look out the forward viewer without heaving.

There was also the little matter of the attackers as well.

His insides squirmed. His parents thought of space travel as romantic. He'd overheard them talking about it. His father might have even been in the Navy once. He wasn't sure. His parents didn't like to talk about what happened before they arrived on The Star.

He scratched at his stomach to calm it. His stomach moved. The rat! he remembered.

The pursuit had made him forget about the passenger in his pocket. Dru opened the enclosure to discover the rat curled up asleep. It was dreaming, its little leg kicking out to ward off some imagined foe.

It stirred at the sudden change in temperature stretching languidly and looking up at Dru. Its tiny mouth opened as if to say something but no sound came out. Dru's HUD, however, registered the high pitch chirp.

What am I going to do with you? he thought. He doubted he could kill it now.

As he was pondering the rat's future, several of the lights on the control panel blazed to life. Dru looked around for the cause. Had he touched something without realising it?

He glanced out the window to see the yellow strobes in the hangar flashing. A muted alarm sounded.

What had he done?

His vertigo suppressed by the sudden fear, he watched as the external hangar doors began to slowly grind open. Valuable air resources blew out the breach, venting into space. He used several of the choicer swear words Gar had taught him, as he sought for a way to stop vent.

He brought up the help menu and then chose the most obvious option: CLOSE MAIN DOORS.

Dru glanced through the windows hoping to see the doors closing. Yet the gap kept widening.

The water in the escaping air condensed into a thick cloud at the opening. It looked like the pressure wave, but much bigger and far more violent. It was turbulent maelstrom, like a swirling mass of cotton.

Something dark and arrow-like burst through the cloud, vortexes trailing behind it wings. The turbulence unsettling it, causing it to bank to one side. It was some sort of shuttle. Dru saw the forward thrusters ignite, slowing the craft faster than Dru thought possible.

As it touched down on one of the pads, six fully armoured soldiers burst from its side. Their manoeuvring packs vented fiery, blue gas. They formed a wedge and jetted towards Dru's position at the end of the hangar.

Who were they?

They didn't look like Di Ren. They looked like Marines.

But why would the Navy be attacking The Star?