Van Terra III: Blackout [PREVIEW]

Chapter One ~ Steering The Course

Three days, five hours, twenty-eight minutes.

That was how long Jasper had until she'd be escorted to her execution.

It'd been two months since her sentencing—the Earth date was November 25th, and she couldn't care less what the Kronos date was. All she cared about was the narrow window of time today that she had to speak to Dr. Charon Steer.

Dr. Steer was kept near the far north edge of the prison, a considerable distance from the center where Jasper's cell was. But they weren't always so far apart. Jasper glimpsed him occasionally leaving the dining hall while she was being escorted in for her work shift. After all, why hire employees to come work in a prison full of dangerous criminals when you could make all the prisoners do the work instead?

Jasper spent her first few weeks hoping to be put on a shift with the scientist, but of course her luck wasn't that good. She did finally manage to get her hands on a copy of the schedule and realized the next few weeks didn't look so good either. Time to come up with a Plan B.

Today, he'd be in the infirmary while she was in the kitchen.

Before the guards came to fetch her for her shift, Jasper practiced her breathing. A mental timer clicked on as she finished sucking in a deep breath.

Five minutes, thirty-two seconds. New record, and technically longer than she needed. But she was still afraid it wouldn't quite be enough. Especially once her plan was actually in action, and she wasn't simply sitting cross-legged in a quiet cell...

The door at the end of the hall clanged, and footsteps followed. No matter how quickly Jasper jumped to her feet, waited patiently by the door, perfectly still, hands in the air to show she was unarmed, the guards were always a little rougher than she thought necessary as they yanked her out of the cell. Today was no different.

"Hey guys," Jasper said as they began the journey down the hall. "How's the family?"

"The closer we get to your execution date, the more annoying you get," the guard at her right grumbled.

"Thanks."

While they walked, Jasper scanned the neighboring halls with her x-ray vision. Just like she did every day, everywhere she walked, reminding herself of the layout.

An electrical block over the prison prevented any communications that weren't sent through the prison's specially-coded channel from going in or out. Even with her cybernetic components, Jasper had no way of sending messages or accessing the net. Same for anyone who might manage to be able to sneak in a smartsphere or similar device.

On top of that, any files stored in Jasper's memory card had been wiped with a magnetic device on her way in, similar to what Starr had done when she'd tried to take video evidence of his involvement with bounty hunters and child abductions across the galaxy.

At the kitchen, Jasper was left in front of a pile of vegetables and instructed to chop them up and toss them in boiling water. Perfect, plenty of opportunities for an unfortunate accident that would send her to the infirmary.

She certainly wasn't looking forward to more pain, but it was time to get this nightmare over with.

She lifted her left arm—not wanting to damage any of the cybernetic components in her right, though they'd probably be fine—and plunged it into the boiling water.

Oh, fu—

Jasper yelped in pain and yanked her hand back out, drawing attention from other prisoners and the closest guards.

"I splashed boiling water on my hand," Jasper informed them plainly.

"How the hell did you do that, dumbass?" one of the guards demanded as he approached. He grabbed her arm and examined the nasty burn overtaking her skin. With a sigh, he said, "I'll take her to the infirmary. But she's a level five. I'll need seven to come with me."