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“You won’t get away with this. You don’t know my triad,” I gasp out, pleading. I can feel the gun trained on my back.

“Seventy seconds.” Patrick states the count, pulling me through the door and into a grimy back workshop. He lets go of me, pushes a table with a creak, and kneels down to open a trapdoor.

I tense. I can kick him the back of his skull…

Nate makes a clicking noise from behind me. “Don’t try it.”

He’s dispassionate, and that’s what scares me. I’ve known these men for nearly a year. They never once broke character. They’ve been waiting and preparing for their opportunity, but it doesn’t make sense. My triad will search every inch of this station to find me. They must be close.

“Down,” he barks, his voice taking on a commanding edge, and I take the ladder down, my huge, pregnant belly pressing against the rungs. There’s a strange glow from below that I don’t want to look at. My hands are shaking, and I glance down at a ten-foot drop. The ring is freezing against my finger. This one isn’t dull like the one locked up. It’s malicious, an endless darkness designed to sever me from the three men who can save me.

My feet hit the ground. I look to the left and right, getting my bearings.

It’s cold down here, and the glow is coming from an Orb the size of a bowling ball. It glimmers, sucking me in, and as I look at it, time slows. I stare into the endlessness of space before I pull my eyes away. The Orb stands in a staff set in the ground.

Theme’s scanners weren’t aimed at our own station. It took the twins months, but they smuggled in the pieces to make…whatever this is.

I look at the ground, illuminated from the Orb-Light, and see that there’s a perfect circle drawn on the ground.

I’m standing in it. I get an awful feeling.

Nate and Patrick land, dust settling from their boots.

“Forty seconds.” Patrick keeps the count, and I see the first hint of nervousness in him. They’re cold operators, but they’re at the limit.

“You’re trapped. There’s no way out. Please, I won’t let them hurt you. You guys can leave like nothing ever happened.”

Patrick steps towards the Orb, pressing a button on the right of the staff. The Orbhums,the blue-black light bathing me as the circle activates. The floor melts, spongy, and I try to keep my footing, but it changes colors to the same endless darkness of the Orb itself. Horror strikes me.

They managed to smuggle an Orb-Shifting device into our station.

I’m hit with an image of the Separatists fleeing Colossus. The huge battleship ripped in half when it failed to Orb-Shift. The Aurelians falling in space, unable to breathe in the vacuum before extinguishing like sparks against the atmosphere.

“Please, please no. Orb-Shifting doesn’t work. I don’t know who is paying you, but it’s not worth it. You’re going to be ripped in half. You can’t do this. You can’t do this. Please, please, please,” I beg, tears coming to my eyes.

Patrick and Nate look at each other, and I see the fear in their eyes. Nate takes his eyes off me, but his pistol still aims at my stomach.

“Ten. Either we’re rich or we’re dead. Fuck it. Let’s do it.” Patrick presses a button on the left of the staff, and I scream.

Heavy boots clunk from above, and the trapdoor opens, bathing me in light as I look up and see the golden eyes of Garrick staring down.

Then I see nothing at all.