I set the last of the charges a few metres away from an oblivious enforcer and smile. No more prep work. I just press one button and all external access to the escape routes is blocked off. Yana would’ve sealed the doors or something subtle like that. But getting passed some lock is a lot easier than digging through layers of rubble. Plus, this will finally give whoever owns this floating trash pile a chance to renovate. I’m sure insurance covers mass slave liberation.

I’ve got contacts on the inside of every slave sleeping quarters waiting for my signal. The slavers haven’t noticed me yet, but they’ve been on high alert ever since the bounty hunters that were trailing me went dark. I don’t think they know I’m here though. If they do, they haven’t reacted yet. In any case, I’d be an idiot to do this during the night cycle. That’s exactly what they’d expect from me. Instead, I’m setting off that signal right in the middle of morning cycle peak hour.

Not exactly subtle, I know, but that’s the point. Nobody will even realise that something is up straight away and even when they do, they’ll be hard pressed distinguishing the slaves from everyone else. Plus, people will start screaming and causing chaos when the explosions start. Crowds and crowds of people tend to be pretty good at blocking slavers and enforcers from getting through.

Among all the chaos, my inside people will be guiding the slaves to their designated extraction points. Not that anyone will realise. I hacked into the ankle bracelets the slaves wear here and prepared the trackers to look just like they did yesterday. And if someone does notice something’s up, they won’t be able to electrocute the wearers. I even set up a protocol so that if they try changing my modifications artificial gravity outside the escape routes will inexplicably turn off. By the time they get everything under control, we’ll all be long gone.

There’s a good reason it’s taken me over a week to prep for this. All I have to do now is set off that signal. This is why I’m on the other side of Vimos Station from all the slaves, right in the communications hub. It’s sad to see that this is the most high-tech place in the station and even it is more rust than metal. I smile at the two unconscious guards and flop into the chair, microphone in hand.

“TESTING. TESTING. THIS IS TINA MAYES. IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT SOME OF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR ME. WELL YOUR CHANCE HAS FINALLY COME. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.”

I let loose a laugh as slavers, station staff and enforcers alike scramble to their own comms, every single grumble, shout and curse echoing through this room. From the sounds of it, most of them are abandoning their posts to hunt me down. How predictable. I’ve just got to wait for them to get far enough away and... I set off the charges. Vimos Station shakes as the explosions rip apart corridors and seal everyone coming after me away from the slaves.

Now the fun really begins.

Three enforcers walk into the comms room. They look around, but I’m hidden in the corridor. I set off the remaining charges and the comms room explodes, tearing away the external walls and blasting the enforcers into space. The vacuum flings me off my feet. I lurch forward and activate my gravity boots. Debris flies past me and I dart out of the way. The emergency shielding kicks in and everything drops to floor.

A flashing white light goes off on my wristband. The alert I set for the ankle bracelets. I guess the slavers aren’t entirely stupid if they’ve already checked on their ‘goods’. But the five pointing their plasma rifles at me look like it. I draw my handgun and smile at them. Three. Two. One. Goodbye gravity. The slavers fire at me in their shock as they start floating about like balloons. I easily dodge their shots. I’m a lot more accurate as I stroll through the corridor and right past them.

Any other resistance I might have met is instead so busy trying not to turn upside down that they barely notice me. And when they do, I offer them a shot to the head and an amused smile. My wristband flashes green and emits a copper holo-projection of one of my contacts. She isn’t half as entertained by me, but at least it looks like she’s in one of the escape shuttles I set up.

“All slaves are accounted for. We’re a minute away from jumping to lightspeed.”

“Have fun on Calitrexia. And remind their government to send through my credits.”

She scoffs. “You really are just in it for the money.”

“Afraid so.”

She rolls her eyes and ends the transmission.

It doesn’t really matter why I did all this to those slaves anyway, so long as they don’t think I’m some hero. At least now I’ve crippled everyone who worked with Xalon and might have been involved in both Yana’s death and Torline trying to sell her off. I’m hardly done though. Once I leave this station for good, I’m going to make sure that every single gear in this galaxy-wide operation is dismantled. After today, the Calitrexians are bound to fund anything I do against slavery. And there’s no way I can pass up that opportunity.