Page 35 of Relyn (Warriors of Etlon #6)

Nora

A s an English teacher, Nora had read a lot of books in her time, but none of them had featured a harem of women trying to overthrow their alien captors to escape a compound on an uninhabitable planetoid.

She knew Relyn was coming for her. That’s what the Mahdfel did, after all.

But no Mahdfel had come for the rest of these women.

Alana had picked her targets well. Widows, tourists, visitors- none of them seemed to have a connection to anyone capable of mounting a search and rescue.

Kidnapping Nora had been her mistake. Nora wasn’t just going to sit around.

She’d read too many stories about human traffickers close to getting caught that just burned the evidence and started up somewhere else.

With Pila, once they commandeered a ship, they could get off this planet, so that just left how to overpower the guards quietly enough so someone didn’t lower the atmosphere shield, forcing them all back into the buildings in order to breathe.

The whole operation called for stealth and reconnaissance, and a window of opportunity. After a few days the moment came.

“Alana just left with everyone except two guards and The Bitch,” Angeline said after she slipped back into the compound. They had agreed to alternate who did the recon, sharing the risk among all of them, while giving each woman a chance to get familiar with the outer ring of the bubble.

“Okay,” Nora said, swiping the tablet to the diagram of the compound they had made. “Do you know which two guards?” The girls had given the squat guards nicknames to be able to tell them apart.

“Dirty Boot and Patches.”

“Right. So Dirty Boot sleeps here,” Nora said, pointing to the back end of the circle.

Dirty Boot’s boots weren’t actually dirty.

They were just mismatched. One of his soles was black while the other was brown, making it look permanently covered in mud.

“And Patches,” (named for his well worn and repaired pants) “is over here. They are far enough apart that if we hit them separately, they won’t be alerted. ”

Denise had come up with a plan that was rather ingenious.

Once the guard had gone to sleep, she’d jerryrig the door panel from the hall, lock them in and then slowly reduce the oxygen level until they passed out.

Then they could safely detain them while they sorted out the others.

Some of the more, well, angry women wanted to do more than detain their hosts.

For Nora, killing was for a last resort.

She was not naive enough to think that this escape would be entirely without bloodshed.

The plan was to lure as many guards as possible into booby trapped rooms, but unless they were totally stupid, there would still be some guards left to mop up.

But a bunch of fairly inexperienced women shooting off weapons was bound to result in casualties on both sides.

They’d reviewed all of this, and it had been a unanimous decision.

“We might only get one shot at this. Once they realize that we can get out of our cage, they’re gonna change things up,” Nora warned.

Everyone nodded. Nora turned to Marly, the smallest and fastest of the women.

Her job was to circle around and spy on the occupants of the outer ring and then come back when they were in position.

“Marly? You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Nora tripped the door wire, and Marly slid out. The door closed and Nora put the plate back to hide her tampering in case Marly got caught. It was a long wait, over an hour before they heard the tap on the wall. It was the all clear signal. Nora opened the door.

“Dirty Boot is in his quarters, and Patches is in here,” Marly pointed to map. “The Bitch is over here.”

Their positions meant there was a clear path back and forth to Boot.

“It’s go time!”

Nora and Denise slunk down the hall while Marly and Theresa circled around the other way.

It wasn’t hard to figure out which room Boot was in.

The pair could hear his flabby snoring through the door and down the hallway.

As quickly and silently as possible, they removed the panel cover and Nora got to work.

They’d practiced early on a panel near their door, so it was smooth work to connect the tablet, cross the wires, deaden the alarm and slowly reduce the oxygen levels in the room.

“How do we know when he’s out?” Denise asked.

Nora listened for a change in the sound of the snoring, but he continued to saw logs as loudly as before.

“I say we just lock him and don’t take any chances,” Nora said.

Denise shrugged and they locked him in. Hopefully these aliens were as sturdy as they looked. They continued down the hallway to their next target.

Unfortunately due to the shrieking, it appeared that the Bitch had moved and was currently yelling at Patches.

Nora and Denise ducked out of sight just outside the door.

It was one of the cafeteria rooms, which was unfortunate because it was larger and had two doors.

They’d practiced for this eventuality as well, knowing that if one guard was sleeping, the others could be on duty in one of the bigger rooms. Nora had taught the other team how to trip the doors as well, so they could still trap Patches, but as one of the women had pointed out earlier, the safe amount to knock out an alien could possibly kill the Bitch, a human.

Nora wanted her to rot away in a prison somewhere, not suffocate to death.

“It’s Char-lette! It’s not that difficult to pronounce!” they heard her yell.

“I don’t fuckin’ care what your name is. You’re just breeder number fifteen as far as I know,” Patches replied.

“I am not! The thought of having one of those disgusting things inside me! I’m special. Alana told me so.”

“Sorry to burst your bubble Princess, but as soon as Alana’s happy with the numbers, you’re expected to pop out a baby too. I feel sorry, though, for anyone who has to call you mother.”

“You are a fuckin’ liar!” Charlette shouted. She picked up a glass off the table and threw it at him.

“You throw one more thing at me, and so help me, Alana’s gonna have to find another breeder,” Patches said. “You’re more trouble than you’re worth.”

Charlette picked up a plate and another object on the table. She began hurling objects at Patches one after the other. Patches apparently was not one to bluff. He unholstered his blaster and shot her, point blank in the stomach. She fell over, a startled look on her face.

“Who the fuck let you out?” Patches said, not even pausing to see if Charlette was dead or not. He was staring at Marly’s face in the window of the door opposite.

“Shit,” Nora said, scrambling with the panel. Marly and Theresa had apparently already sealed their side of the room. Patches banged on the window and pointed his blaster at it.

“Open this damn door right now. I’ll kill the lot of you, just like I did her,” Patches said.

Marly’s face disappeared from the window and Nora crossed the last wire. Patches must have heard the whir of the fans switching directions because he crossed over to their door. When he realized it was also locked, he tapped on it with his blaster.

“Oh come on now. She’s not really dead. She needs medical attention. Open the door and we’ll take her to the med bay,” he said, his voice suddenly becoming sweet as molasses.

Nora exchanged looks with Denise. Neither one was tempted to open the door.

“Open the,” he paused to take a long breath. “I will kill you all. I swear.”

They heard him hit the ground. The original plan was to go in and tie him up after he was unconscious. Nora was beginning to have second thoughts.

“Leave him,” Denise said. “That’s fucking justice for you.”

The two circled back around, past Boot’s room where they could still hear him steadily snoring.

“Ten to one Patches is faking it to get us to open the door,” Denise said. There was excitement in her voice as if she finally believed that their plan was going to work.

“My years as a high school teacher tell me that you are right,” Nora said.

They rounded the corner to find the women pouring out of the center courtyard. “The compound is ours!” Theresa shouted. “But Alana and the rest of the guards will be returning. Go find whatever weapons and tools you can and when you hear the ship, go to your appointed places.”

“And don’t open the door for Patches,” Nora said. “He killed Charlette.”

“Who?” Pila asked.

“The Bitch. Apparently, she had a name,” Denise said.

“Ding dong the Bitch is dead!” a woman shouted from the back.

A nervous laughter spread, but it was tense.

No one wanted to be the one to jinx them by celebrating too soon.

They still had to get control of the ship and the other guards.

Hopefully, with the power of surprise on their side, it would be bloodless.

It was another simple plan… wait for Alana and the guards to head into the courtyard as they always did after a visit, and surprise them from behind. The women with the weapons would tackle anyone left on the ship.

But just in case things went pear shaped, Nora was now working on the back up plan. She and Denise headed to the coms center. Now that they were free to set off any accidental alarms, Denise could fumble her way through the system and contact any Mahdfel in the area.

A few minutes later and Denise nodded, ready for a transmission.

“Hello? Anyone out there? Can anyone hear me? I need help.”

A smooth woman’s voice came on the line. “I can hear you. What do you need help with?”

Denise mouthed a name but she didn’t need to. Nora already recognized the voice. It was Alana.

“I’ve been kidnapped!” Nora exclaimed. “I got out, but they’re going to find me again. You’ve got to come get me, quick.”

“Where are you?”

“I don’t know, someone on a planet that doesn’t have much of an atmosphere.”

“Are you alone?” Alana asked calmly.