Sherri’s eyes snapped open, only to squint from the visual onslaught of a harsh overhead light.
Okay. Mind blank, don’t know where I am. Guess I must have leaped.
She was lying on a hard surface, a wall to her right. Around her was a series of cramped, uncomfortable cell bunks. Twelve total, by her count.
I’m in a prison?
Occupying each bed were people of varying ages and genders. Most were sleeping, while others just seemed to be staring into space. Sherri sat up, and had to lean forward to stop her head from hitting a bunk above her. She silently gave another scan of this apparent cell.
No bars?
The cell opened up into a corridor at one end, but there appeared to be some kind of energy field over the exit. She stood, and started moving towards it slowly, hoping not to disturb anyone around her.
She felt eyes on her as she lifted a hand to the blue glow. As she made contact with it, a diffuse pattern passed over the field, and she received a sharp electric shock.
“Not time yet,” came a voice. “Ain’t had the signal.”
Sherri turned toward the voice, coming from a top bunk just beside her. It was a man who looked about thirty, with tired grey eyes that looked quite a bit older.
“Uh, yeah,” she said, cautious. “I was just… checking to see if it was still… uh, working. You know, in case there was a chance of getting out of here.”
The man chuckled. “And here I was thinkin’ your will was already broken like the rest of these wretches. Colour me impressed.”
“Oh, I’m pretty wilful,” Sherri said, smirking.
“Janet, right?” said the man, sitting up, and taking a hold of her hand.
Janet.
“I guess…” she said as he gave it a shake.
“I’m Tim. Nice to finally have a conversation in here. It’s been a lonely week.”
“A week, huh?” Sherri wondered how long the rest of the people had been here. Including whoever it was she had leaped into.
He leaned in, his voice lowering to a whisper. “Yeah, finally got shipped here when I started playing along with the brainwashing. But it never did take for real.”
Sherri nodded slowly.
Brainwashing…?
What had she got herself into this time?
“You must’ve resisted a little longer than me, by the looks of you,” he said, studying her face.
What does that mean?
The sound of footsteps began to echo down the corridor, and Tim’s eyes moved to the door.
“You’d better get back in your bunk,” he whispered, giving her a nudge. She nodded and quietly returned to the place where she’d awoken, as two figures appeared at the doorway.
Sherri studied them carefully: Bald, prominent brow, jagged teeth. Mean-looking.
Are they…?
The energy field dissipated as one of them passed some kind of card through it.
“Slave Unit 47-G, you are required on level 78 for cleaning duties,” announced one of the creatures.
All at once, the people around her sprang to life, climbing off their beds to stand at attention. Sherri followed suit.
As all of the prisoners – or, she supposed, enslaved people – assembled, they spoke in unison: “We are honoured to serve the Dynasty.”
‘Dynasty.’ Yeah, that confirms it. Those things are Kromaggs alright. Crap.
Sherri hoped they hadn’t seen her unmoving lips.
As the group moved together, she felt someone grasp her hand. She looked beside her to see an older woman, who was staring straight ahead. Nobody else was holding hands, and Sherri wondered why this woman had done this. Did they know each other? Were they friends? She certainly wasn’t betraying any emotion at present. Nobody was.
As they entered some kind of industrial sized elevator with large reflective metal panels, Sherri was finally able to glimpse her reflection.
Oh.
The person in the reflection was an elderly woman, with near white hair. She was thin, gaunt, and hunched over. But, the most obvious feature was that she had empty, sewn-up eye sockets.
As her own, entirely existent, eyes scanned the crowded elevator, she realised that this gave her a certain advantage. Nobody would catch her staring at them, and who’d suspect someone with no eyes of snooping around?
But, at the same time, her lack of eyes meant she may incur more supervision. And how exactly was she meant to get any alone time?
“Boy… now I really feel overdressed,” came John’s voice, as he emerged from the wall of the elevator, dressed in his colourful suit, which contrasted wildly to the grey jumpsuits of the slaves, and military fatigues of the Kromagg soldiers. His head swivelled as he took in his surroundings, eyes squinting. Sherri gave him a silent pleading look, then turned an eye to her reflection.
He looked into the metal pane, and shot her a grimace.
“Yeah. I have a feeling I know where those eyeballs went.”
He pointed a thumb at the Kromaggs.
“So this is a Kromagg, huh?” he said, turning to study the ugly faces of the two soldiers. He reached over to his invisible shelf, and produced Quinn’s notebook, flipping through the pages.
“Quinn drew one of these guys in here,” he said, before identifying the page, and turning it to show Sherri. “Think it matches?”
The drawing looked like it had been made by a child. A circular face with a big line over the beady eyes, and a frowning, gaping mouth with spiked teeth. It wasn’t an inaccurate depiction, but it was certainly… rudimentary. Sherri gave John a split-second smile, before forcing her face to go blank again.
“So, you remember what you’ve got to do? We’re here for Nexus Quinn. We just have to locate him.”
Sherri responded with a barely perceptible nod in his direction.
Jeez it’s tough communicating like this.
“You play along here while I see if I can trace his signature,” he said, staring down at his handlink. “I sure hope he’s nearby. If he’s not, we might just be spinning our wheels.”
He moved close to her, phasing through a number of people in the process. “Keep your eyes peeled,” he said, before wincing. “Okay, poor choice of words.”
Sherri was finding it harder to conceal a smile, despite the dire situation. John had a way of keeping her from being immersed in the horrors of what could sometimes be happening around her.
She recalled one time, on a world full of cavernous tunnels below the Earth’s scorched surface, she had spent eighteen days alone in a cramped cave that had been cut off from the rest by a cave-in. Her only task at that point was to survive, and wait for an eventual rescue. The isolation would have caused severe trauma to the leapee. But Sherri wasn’t alone; John had kept her company for fifteen hours a day, every day. Each day he’d brought in something different to occupy her mind. Some days he’d bring in an instrument and sing songs with her, some days he’d read her books. While the experience was harrowing, he’d made sure it was bearable, even when she was forced to start eating bugs in the last few days.
“Back soon, Sherri. Sit tight, don’t draw attention. Good luck.”
As he disappeared, the elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened. Before them was a sprawling room, well-furnished. It looked like some kind of grand marketplace. Sherri was surprised to see a place like this in the same building as the prison she’d come from. But, then, slave quarters generally were in close vicinity to the rich, she thought bitterly.
She caught a glimpse of a large window to her left, and her breath caught as she saw a vast forest of thick, enormous trees, through which flying ships were weaving.
Those must be the Manta ships.
The trees had windows built into them – it was as if, instead of building a city of skyscrapers, they had simply used the trees as their buildings. Sherri figured it was entirely possible that she was inside one of the trees. This room did seem to have a rounded quality to it that would be consistent with a hollow tree trunk.
No wonder Nexus Quinn was excited about this place. I choose to believe he was unaware of the slavery.
She felt a tug on her hand from the woman whose duty it seemed to be to act as her eyes, and realised the group was on the move.
As the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Kromaggs around them went about their business, all Sherri could think about was how she could possibly find Quinn when she was one of the most subjugated, tightly scrutinised beings on this whole Earth.