Lessons in the Stars

Chapter 7 - Escape Act

Rogue groaned softly as a constant not-so-gentle tapping on her cheek brought her back to consciousness. Her eyes opened to see Jon and Sam leaning over her.

"Where are we..." She began but Jon put a finger to her lips. He gestured towards the bars of the cell where the Daemonium leader was waiting.

"Ah, excellent. I was beginning to worry that you would not awaken." He smirked. "My name is Daemonium Commander Belial. You three have impressed me. Not many people could have made it so far into our defences. Though you didn't notice that you triggered the security in the cabin. I would have thought it safer to try to free your fellow humans directly?"

"Well," Rogue hauled herself up, wincing at the throbbing pain in her head, "Belial, we needed the release codes. Which I got. You need some better security."

He held up the paper, "These release codes you speak of. I do not think that your plan went all too well in the end." He stood up, "I must depart, I do have important things to do, but you three have impressed me. It is more than that. You have accomplished one of the hardest tasks in the universe. You have challenged the Daemoniums. You have gained my respect."

"Oh, yay." Rogue said sarcastically, "We gained the respect of a monster." He laughed softly and walked out, shutting the door and they heard the electronic lock engage. They waited until the footsteps had faded. Rogue counted to two hundred in her head, shushing Sam when he tried to speak. After Rogue was sure that no one was coming back she smashed the metal spoon from the food tray that had been left in the holding cell against the bars. It made a very loud bang. She listened intently.

When no guard came running or even murmured outside, Rogue spoke, "No guards and just a holding cell used for overnight infractions. Doesn't seem too bad. We can get out of this."

When Sam recognised Rogue's pause as permission to speak he did. "What do we do now?" he asked, cracking his knuckles.

"Now we get out, conduct a tactical retreat and come up with plan B." Jon leant against the wall. "I have no idea how we're going to do that. We don't have anything. Rogue, any chance you found anything?"

"They took the plans I had. The printed plans had all the important stuff on them, and not just the access codes." Rogue muttered with a brief glance at the security cameras. They didn't look activated but she didn't want to risk anything by saying more.

Rogue moved over to the door and reached around to the keypad, "I'll try and unlock the door, you guys should try and contact the Eridanus."

"How?" Sam snapped.

Jon was also questioning the answer Rogue had. He was brought out of his own musings by Rogue's sarcastic response.

Rogue gave Sam a condescending glance. "Smoke signals."

Confusion crossed Jon's face until he realised that she wasn't serious. Rogue shook her head, "The comms unit in your ear." She replied with a shake of her head at his idiocy. Sam grimaced and muttered his understanding. Rogue moved up to the gate and used a vibra-driver she had hidden in her sock to pry the control pad open. The angle was strange so Rogue took almost two minutes to re-align the wires so that the door opened.

"They're on their way to pick us up. But we need to find our own way to the ship, they can't land," Jon informed the others. "We need our spacesuits," he realised.

"So, we go back to the hangar and grab them. Maybe we can find a ship to ride out or something." Rogue gave her suggestion. The others agreed and they slipped out the door

They snuck out but couldn't find their weapons, they gave up after a minute. They didn't know how much time they had left and couldn't risk it. The run back to where they had entered took just under thirty minutes. Jon had forgotten how large Base was. Reaching one side of Base to the other could take nearly twenty minutes on foot and that didn't include the outer wings of the Base. At least everything they needed was in the North section.

They found their suits and pulled them on, rushing. Jon spoke into his comms link and told the other crew members the news. Scarlett and Benny were ready for them to return. They just needed to get out there.

"How are we getting to the ship?" Jon asked, "We can only handle a few minutes out in space, even in these suits." Rogue bit her lip, she noted that it was a habit that needed to stop, her lip was starting to bleed from all the attention. She looked around the room and grinned when her gaze fell on an experimental fighter plane.

"You guys will hang on to that, and I'll fly it." Rogue pointed to the Starfighter.

The others saw what she was talking about and the blood drained from their faces, "Why are all your plans completely suicidal?" Jon complained. But he quickly agreed as he realised it was the only option.

Rogue climbed in and shut the top, surveying the buttons and turning the ship on, "Let's hope you fly." Rogue muttered. She gave a signal to the boys.

Jon opened the doors and the boys held on to the railing as the suction began. Rogue kicked the ship into gear and exited, doing a flip to allow the boys to grab onto the Starfighter. Rogue decided that she loved this ship. It moved beautifully and was very powerful.

The doors were shut behind them and Rogue gunned it, going as fast as she could towards the Eridanus, which was in orbit around the Earth-base. Jon or Sam must have told Scarlett or Benny to open the landing bay because Rogue flew straight in. The doors were shut behind them as they landed and the boys collapsed onto the bunker floor. Benny rushed in and helped the boys up and out of their suits. Jon and Sam were groaning. Jon decided that that was never happening again. It had been one of the worst experiences he had ever had.

"You stole an experimental fighter plane," Benny stated as Rogue climbed out, "Oh. You're Rogue. Of course you did." Rogue just grinned and ran her fingers over its hull.

They headed up to the Bridge, Scarlett was manoeuvring them away from Base. Rogue walked over and took over piloting the ship, which Scarlett was grateful for. Flying wasn't her favourite activity.

"Well, that mission failed, and we got nothing out of it, not even the release codes," Benny sighed.

Jon and Sam nodded, Jon nursing a sore shoulder.

"Far from it, actually." Rogue smiled, holding up the stolen data pad.