YOUNG VOLCANOES

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At the ripe young age of twenty-seven, Kura Zalri had been in more prisons than she had planets throughout the known systems. She knew what planets had humane prisons and which ones to avoid at all costs. At that moment, she found herself in a cell on Ak'el, a small planet in Chaem'ol. She had never been in prison on Ak'el before, but she had heard of their methods.

Like all Ak'elian cells, hers was in a manual orbit around the planet, an airlock chamber outside the exit hatch. Twice a day, each cell was pulled into the main body of the prison station, where food and water were sent through the airlock before ejecting them back into orbit. Mines orbited closely alongside the cell pods, efficiently preventing any escape attempts, only temporarily deactivating to allow the pods to reconnect with the station.

Early one morning after the first feeding, Kura heard the familiar automated voice.

"Warning. The mines will reset in fifteen seconds. Please do not make any sudden movements in your pod. Ten sec—"

BOOM.

Something rocketed into the side of her pod, sending it careening far out of Ak'el's orbit. With a grunt, Kura felt her head hit the metal floor with a loud and heavy thunk. The mechanical voice fizzled out before speaking again:

"Warning. The cell pod of prisoner TR-149 has been disconnected from the manual orbit. Warning."

The voice cut off again, and Kura felt a thud as her pod landed on something distinctly solid. And metal.

A ship? But where? Whose?

Standing in a defensive position (though without her weapons, she knew she was useless against any sort of blaster), Kura realized she wouldn't have to wonder for long. Sparks flew as something began carving into the side of the pod until a large, person-sized hole fell through. Kura steadied herself on the balls of her feet, ready to lunge. Making eye contact with her new captor, she—stopped.

"Six?"

"Zalri." Taizo Hashioto gave a solitary nod, xyr dark eyes sharp as ever. The standard-issue prison guard energy baton hummed in xyr hand.

Kura snorted, crossing her arms. "Stars and ashes, man. When you said you'd get me when you needed t' cash in on a favor, I didn't think you'd bust me out of prison."

Taizo shrugged, extinguishing the energy baton and letting it clatter to the floor. "I've got a new job. Do you want in or not?"

Stepping out of the pod, careful to avoid the still red-hot metal, Kura ignored xem. "How the hell did you get my ship? It was surrounded by dampeners." As she spoke, she inspected the ship, checking for any sign of mistreatment.

Dampeners were invented shortly after E-N's were outlawed; they were usually used in broad areas, sending electromagnetic waves that disrupted E-N's functions. Still, Kura had heard of some less humane prisons that directly injected dampeners into their Enhanced prisoners. Someone with minor enhancements could survive with only increasing discomfort, but someone with significant or life-saving enhancements would die a slow, painful death.

Nodding, the taller of the two fell in stride with her as she made her way to the main deck. "I used that to my advantage, actually. I can last a month within close range to dampeners, so I enlisted to the prison guard as a new recruit. Got 'lost,' found your ship in the impoundment hangar, stole it, here we are."

"Oh-kay..." She reached the control panel, placing her palms into the center, allowing her cerebral nanites to reconnect with the Wanderer. Almost immediately, she could feel it humming to life, whispering nothing and everything at once in her mind. Kura stroked the console lovingly. "Did you miss me, baby?"