I was in a better state of mind the next morning. Temos and I were bonding over our growling stomachs, trying to make the time pass by telling each other funny stories that happened on missions in our past. Or well, my missions and his… less than honorable activities. It seemed to be an interesting world, that of a pirate. I was listening intrigued, legs crossed with my elbows on my knees and face in my palms, while Temos animatedly recalled the story of how once he and his crew planned to raid a trading ship that was supposedly transferring diamond rings from their manufacturer to a renowned jeweler over in the next orbit. They had planned their heist for weeks and every possible outcome had been accounted for, but when they breached the hull, all that was on the ship was an older lady and loads of Grimberries, which were not worth anything and were commonly used as a laxative. After they left the ship disappointed they saw the actual Loader, that the heist was planned for, pass them by. 

I was actually chuckling, watching as Temos‘ hands were actively flying all over the place as he told me his story, and it felt good to let the tense atmosphere relax a little.

Sadly, our little bubble got burst rather quickly.

Some crew member that I haven’t seen before stopped in front of our cell, a tray with two plates in her hands and thick wool blankets draped over her shoulders. She had pink, thick box braids spilling out from under a white beanie, contrasting against her dark, purple skin. Her stature was rather fragile but her arms were unproportionally bulky, spikey growths making them look like organic rock formations.

The smell coming off the tray was amazing and I started salivating almost instantly.

I was so, so hungry.

„Alright gentlemen, Captain‘s orders. For each question you answer we make your lives in here just a little bit more bearable. The comfort you’ll get is decided by the weight of the question. Understood?“

Both of us looked at each other, then reluctantly nodded our heads.

„Good shit. First question goes to the fellow pirate. How did you know who our targets were and when we planned to attack them?“

Temos sneaked a glance at me, unsure if it was okay to give our leverage over them away, but his attention got snapped back as the lady started rapidly clapping her hands together, making both of us jump.

„Attention stays on me, prisoners,“ she growled, thick and sharp lower teeth grinding.

„I hacked into your board controls and downloaded your protocols,“ Temos mumbled.

„Atta boy!“, she exclaimed, throwing one small bottle of water at his feet, „Next one goes to the blue lad. We want the details of your little mission. What does the big man know about us?“

My heart dropped. I knew I couldn’t answer this question or I‘d never be able to finish what I’ve been tasked to do, or get the money. So I kept silent. A minute passed and she huffed, “Pity. Seems like someone isn’t going to eat today,” I lowered my head.

There was another minute of silence in which she was giving me time to reconsider before she turned back to Temos, “What orders does your crew have? Will they try for a rescue?”

Temos answered immediately , “No. Their orders are to stay away and in case I do not return, hijack a shuttle and create distance.”

She looked at me after she threw a piece of bread towards Temos.

“You’d make your life a lot easier by cooperating. Now let’s maybe try something easier. Why do you keep up your mission even after betraying the Space Force?”

I looked up sharply, “I didn’t betray them. I wanted more than they would give so I turned it into my own mission.” 

After hearing my answer she hesitated, considering me for a short while before she threw a Payafruit into the cell.

It kept on like this, one question more important, one less. We were interrogated about our legal names, if we still had a way to contact people outside the ship, how we entered without anyone noticing, and even though some of the questions we refused to answer, we managed to get a small dinner, one blanket and two small bottles of water. 

The woman left after she was satisfied with her progress and I grabbed my blanket and scooted closer to Temos, so he could also slip underneath to get some warmth.

We split Temos’ bread and halved the fruit. I immediately dug into it, wolfing down the bread to help calm my hurting stomach, so I could enjoy the juicy, sweet fruit after.

I was still nibbling on it when Temos got up, making me lift my head to look at him questioningly. He took off one of his boots, making me raise my eyebrow in question, then he turned it upside down and shook it. A metal clunk rang through our cell as something dropped out of it.

„Their arrogance, my dear Jace, is our blessing,“ he smirked as he went to pick up the device that fell to the floor.

I grabbed my blanket, stood up and peaked over Temos‘ shoulder, watching him pull out some sort of antennas on both sides before he pressed a button on the side to turn it on.

My confusion was probably visible on my face as he started tapping keys on the number pad with his left hand and then turned a little wheel one way, then the other with his right hand. After, he stopped and looked around, checking for any guards or crew members that could have entered the cell block, before he held the weird device out to me.

“I’ll lift you up so you can reach the top, you stick this on the ceiling, so that one of these-,” he tapped an antenna, “is in contact with the bars, and the other one I need you to bend so it touches the coverage of the door mechanism. You need to try to get it as close as possible to where you think the programming chip would be located.”

“Why can’t I lift you up and you do it?” I asked. His answer to me consisted of an unimpressed stare.

“‘Cause I got about 100 pounds on you and I’m taller. Now hurry up,” he got into position, leaning his weight against the wall and folding his fingers together so I could step into them.

He lifted me up, I tumbled a little before I found my balance and did as told.

I let my fingers ghost a little over the metal, trying to figure out where the mechanism could be located. My nails caught on something. There seemed to be a small, screwed tight hatch, well camouflaged with the rest of the metallic plates. I assumed this was our best bet and started bending out the antennas the way Temos wanted me to but they were rigid and I had a hard time getting them in place.

“We don’t have all day man, quicker! It’s not that hard.” 

I growled, the antenna slipped out of my fingers again before I turned my head down and spit on his face and threw a fist against the metal rod, finally making it bend the way I wanted to. Temos shouted out in disgust and flinched to the side, making me wobble and our little cheerleading act collapsed.

“You little shit!” he shouted, wiping the spit from his face as he smacked my already hurting head, that banged against the wall right before I fell to the floor. I rubbed the sore spot, grumbling up at him. My eyes followed as he stepped right underneath his weird construction, reading the odd symbols off of the screen pointing down at us.

“Well, at least you finally managed to set it up correctly,” his focus never straying from the screen and as he finished reading whatever he needed, he turned back to me with a smirk.

“I think we got our ticket out. Wrap your electric whip against the bar that the conductor is attached to, please.”

Conductor, Antenna…same thing.

As soon as I had my whip tightly secured where he wanted it, Temos pulled up his sleeves and started typing on the communicator chip on his wrist. After only a couple seconds, a little beep sounded from the attached device and the bars slid open, making me jump and quickly detach my whip before I got pulled up alongside it as well.

Then, I checked if my gun was loaded. I still didn’t understand why Wisp let me keep it, but regarding the fact that he wasn’t to be underestimated and also not at all stupid, I had the feeling that to him, this was like a deranged game of cat and mouse I was not the cat.

We stepped into the still dark hallways, hoping the exit door's hand scanner on our side of it was activated. Since Temos left his funny little technology stuck inside the cell, I assumed it was a one time use sort of thing. I guess what happened was that it read out the programming of whatever mechanism it was close to, which then allowed Temos to understand its workings and then hack into the console via his communicator to rewrite the settings. As the complex had been deactivated, I was the one manually powering the process with the help of the electricity from my whip. Very similar to the idea I had before, except his machine made the process a lot easier.

I took a glance into every cell we came across. It was odd to me that there was no one here besides us. One would think with a crew this well known and a bounty that high, there would be loads of bounty hunters out for them, and regarding the fact the crew was still happily out and about they all had failed. Up to this point. 

Because I wasn’t down for the count yet. 

The fact that they didn’t seem to hold onto prisoners was worrisome but made sense at the same time. Why waste rations on someone you have no use for? It was no concern of mine, as long as we wouldn’t be caught again.

A loud blast sounded through the ship, effectively ripping me out of my thoughts, the tremor following had both of us stumbling before it went quiet again.

Temos and I looked at each other questioningly. 

Was the ship under attack?

Our question got answered by the door suddenly bursting inwards, a violent wave sent my body flying, alongside various sized chunks of metal. There was a ringing noise in my ear. Slowly, the muffled sounds started returning back to normal as the ringing subsided, and I took a second to check my body for injuries. I was dizzy and my hip hurt from, hopefully, the impact when I got thrown by the explosion.

I seemed to be mostly fine. There were scratches all over my arm and a nasty one that went from my cheek to my jawbone but otherwise I didn’t think I got hurt bad.

Then, my heart dropped, as my sluggish brain caught up to the fact that I hadn’t been the only one close to the explosion.

Where was Temos?

I pulled my body up off the floor and tried to squint past my headache, checking my surroundings for my friend, who I found shortly after. I sighed in relief after I spotted him. He was already sitting up against the wall, clutching his side, his leg was bloody but it didn’t seem too bad. As his pants didn’t have any tears in them, I assumed it was just the stitches that had reopened where he was shot the day before.

Slowly, I dragged myself back on my feet and went over to lend Temos a hand in getting up.

At least our door problem was solved now, I thought as I glanced past the licking flames through the shattered door frame.