Everything that night was rushed. There was an atmosphere of subdued panic. We had a plan. We knew what was happening. We’d placed an order with Captain Sammer’s noodle bar, Chal’s cover and he’d get back to us before the morning. He always did. I checked that message about a thousand times over the course of the evening.

“Peg, once you're done with checking flight records I need you to reach out to some of the Irisians and warn them that something might be happening tonight. Do you think they’ll still be up? It’s not quite midnight yet.”

Peggy looked up from the screen in her hands, blinking rapidly to try and adjust her eyes.

“Yeah, they should be and they’ll be able to get the message out. I’ll send some messages on the back channels too, try and get their attention. What should I tell them?”

“Just let them know something’s happening. Let them know that we don’t know what the countdown means but to be ready, just in case.”

She nodded and grabbed another screen.

I suppressed a yawn and looked around at the rest of my crew.

“Any joy with the trace?” I asked Cas.

“No, nothing yet. Whoever this is, they have much better security than I’m used to. I don’t think it’s the Council. I don’t know. It doesn’t have any of their usual trademarks.” He rubbed his face furiously, trying to wake himself up.

“What about you? Any idea what’s going to happen?” I asked Cory and Gem.

“No. The web is quiet tonight. I can’t work it out.”

I sighed and pushed my hair back off my face roughly.

“Okay, just keep working.”

“What about you, how’s writing our story going?” Gem asked, her voice perking up a bit.

“It’s going okay. Just writing about our wonderful experience in the Council jail.”

“Do you want me to spell check it or anything?” Peggy offered.

“Maybe once I’ve finished this bit. I’m nearly done, just writing about staying in that storeroom under the Council chambers.”

“Oh yeah! That was kind of fun, right? Like even though we were on trial and everything, I liked being back together.” Peggy smiled self consciously.

“It was! I miss having our meals brought to us in our room sometimes. Like some of that food down there was surprisingly good! Like that Phrai? So buttery…” Gem trailed off wistfully.

“Oh, that was good.”

“Do you need help with any of it?”

I scanned the page in front of me, reading back over what I’d written.

“Umm… I think I’m good. I don’t need to go too in-depth, do I?”

“Nah,” Gem said at the exact time as Peggy said:

“Yes!”

I laughed.

“I’ll explain it a little bit more, I guess?”

I started typing again, trying to remember all of the details and getting swept up in it.

“Okay, so should I go to the medBay and restock my kit?” Cory asked, having finally given up on his search.

“Yeah, take Gem. Make sure you both stay safe and come straight back here. If anything looks suspicious, run and message us. Keep your eyes open and use your mods.”

“No problem, Captain. I’ll keep our doctor safe.” Gem winked at Cory and dragged him out into the hall.

“What should we do?” Peggy asked.

I bit my lip, looking around at the mess. My room was still pretty empty. The bookcases had a couple of nicknacks on now but nothing that worthwhile. The bed was extended with bedsquares, as always, and strewn with empty food packets and screens. One still lay in the middle of the bed displaying the tutor list. Most of the names were crossed out or underlined. Most of them were gone.

I forced my eyes away from the list and blinked hard.

“We need to pack. Get only the essentials, flight suits, money chips and anything else you think we’ll need. Leave everything else. We can’t make it look like we’re leaving, just in case someone checks.”

Peggy nodded and rushed out of the room, muttering her packing list under her breath. She seemed to be doing better now. I’d caught her staring at the list with watering eyes a few times but having a plan was helping.

Cas hadn’t moved. He was sitting on my bed still, staring blankly at the screen in front of him.

“You okay?” I asked but he didn’t respond in any way.

I took the screen out of his hands and he blinked up at me.

“Hey,” I said softly.

“Hey.”

“You okay?”

He sighed and leant back against the bed.

“I honestly don’t know.”

“What’s going on?”

Cas clenched his hands gently, clicking his knuckles.

“I’m just worried… What if this is my dad?”

I realised I was frowning and tried to stop myself.

“It might be,” I admitted.

“But then, what do we do? He’ll follow us wherever we go.”

I reached out and took his hand.

“I know but we’ll find Captain Aquila or Chal will help us find somewhere. Or we can live in Frida and outrun the Council forever. We’ll be fine Cas, as long as we’re together.”

I smiled softly and he returned it, raising my hand to kiss it gently.

“I should go pack my stuff.” He muttered, his eyes still somewhat troubled.

“Okay. I should pack too. Gem and Cory will be back soon and we need to start working out a flight plan or something.”

He nodded, standing and stretching.

“I’ll be back soon.”

I smiled as he left before standing as well and surveying my room. Panic began to build in me again. I was fine when my crew was here and I was in charge but when they were gone, the world felt overwhelming. There was too much to do. We were leaving and probably never coming back. I needed to pack everything. Not everything but everything we’d need. I didn’t know what we would need though. I had to bring anything that might be of use. I couldn’t leave anything but I couldn’t bring too much. I grabbed at clothes almost randomly, shoving them into my flight bag before pulling them out again and throwing them down on my bed.

“Urgh!” Slipped out of my mouth and I sat down heavily on my bed.

I needed to calm down. I was never going to get everything done in this state. I needed to be calm for my crew. Rational.

I could do this.

I forced myself to take a deep breath and looked around, trying to be methodical about it. I needed clothes, underwear mostly. Impact boots, maybe a couple screens. My eyes fell on my wrist monitor. I’d need to lose that too. No one on Captain Aquila’s ship had one. It was very possible that the Council could somehow track us using them.

Cory, can you bring that screwdriver to remove our wrist monitors? I thought as steadily as I could.

Oh, good idea. We’ll grab it. We’re almost done.

Great. Once you're done go to your rooms and pack a bag. Only the essentials, don’t make it look like we’re actually leaving.

On it! Gem replied.

How is everyone doing?

Doing alright. We should file a flight plan for a couple of days time so it looks like we’re just prepping for that. Peggy thought back.

That’s a really good idea. I’ll do that now. I’ll say we’re going to Rhoms, that’s far enough away that we’ll be gone overnight. I sent back, pulling a screen towards me and typing out the most basic flight plan.

I intentionally left it very bare so that if we were questioned, we’d have more leeway to lie.

I dropped the screen onto the bed again and stared down at the bag. It was barely half full. I could fit more in but I didn’t know what. I didn’t know what lay ahead or what we’d need.

We need food. I thought suddenly. Cas, can you hack a servBot to bring us some food? We need things that we can bring with us.

Yeah, I’m just about to come back into yours, I’ll do it then.

I looked around the room again. It felt strange. I’d lived there for only like three weeks but it was more than that. We would be leaving the base. This was our home and the Council had infiltrated and destroyed it. Anger shot through me. How dare they do this? They have no right. They are corrupt and ruinous. They deserve to be destroyed.

The door opened and Cas entered with his flight bag. It, too, was barely full.

“I didn’t know what to pack.” He said, noticing my gaze.

“Me either, I settled on spare clothes. I don’t know when we’ll be able to wash them so…” I trailed off shrugging.

“I did the same. I’ll get a servBot to bring some dehydrated food, spare water and basically anything with a long life. Any requests?”

He dropped onto the bed, already typing on his screen.

“Nah, you know what we like.”

Peggy entered then, lugging her obviously stuffed bag.

“Sorry, I wasn’t sure which books to bring.”

She placed it carefully on the floor.

“Which did you decide on?” I asked, eyeing the bag.

“Star crossed pilots, of course. Then some textbooks from Planet Politics, the history of the Council, some engineering manuals… Oh and one that Andy gave me… From Earth.” She stared down at the bag sadly.

“Which one?”

“The Subtle Knife. It felt fitting seeing as we’re leaving everything we know behind too…”

I lifted my mouth into a smile.

“We got everything!” Gem burst into the room, hauling Cory’s replenished and full medkit.

“This should be enough to keep us going for a little while.” Cory nodded as he sat down on the bed.

“Great. Cas’ got a servBot bringing long-life food and water. Can anyone think of anything else we might need?”

I looked around as my crew shook their heads at me. Gem yawned widely, her eyes fluttering shut.

“Okay, we’ve done all we can for now. You can get some sleep. We’ll have to get up in a few hours to leave.”

Gem pulled the duvet up over her and lay back, Cory moving to join her, but Peggy picked up another screen.

“You not tired?” I asked.

“No… I need to speak to a few more Irisians. I feel like there is more I can be doing… and I want to be awake when the countdown goes off. Just in case…”

I nodded, I felt the same. I felt exhausted yet wired. I couldn’t rest yet. The anticipation was making me agitated.

“You’re staying awake too?” I asked Cas who had also grabbed a screen.

“Yeah… Same reason really. And the servBot will be here soon anyway.”

“Okay. How long have we got left on the countdown?”

He checked his wrist.

“Just under an hour and a half.”

I sucked in a breath.

“Okay. We can do this.”

I looked at the screen on the bed where I had been writing this story. I needed to get it finished. I knew I could bring it with me when we escaped but I still wanted to get as much written as possible before then just in case. I think my reasoning was that we’d be on the move so much once we left that I wouldn’t be able to write as much as I wanted to. We needed to get it out to everyone before… Before the manhunt started. I knew they’d come after us if we had to run.

I was hopeful then. I thought we could get out.

The servBot beeped softly as it entered the room, barely disturbing Gem and Cory, and I climbed off the bed to help Cas pack the food it had brought.

“You can fit some in my bag,” Gem muttered sleepily.

“Thanks,” I said quietly, lifting her bag onto the bed near us and unzipped it.

I finished packing and collapsed back on the bed, suddenly exhausted. Yawning so widely my jaw cracked, I looked around. Peggy was lying down now, still staring at her screen but fighting to keep her eyes open. Cas lay back on the bed next to me, the screen dropping from his hands, as a yawn escaped his mouth.

“‘m tired.” He murmured.

I lay down next to him, my head on his shoulder as my eyes got increasingly heavier.

“How long left?” I managed to get out.

He lifted his arm but it looked like it was hard to do. My eyes swam and wouldn’t focus on the red numbers in front of me. I stared as hard as I could to try and read them.

“Under an hour. Forty minutes…”

“‘kay.”

Gem’s soft snoring drifted through the room and I felt it start to pull me under too. I breathed in deeply, the sweet air filling my nose. My brain struggled to process things for a second but I realised that something wasn't right.

Why would the air smell sweet? It hadn’t before.

I wrenched my eyes open with difficulty and scanned the room. The servBot was still there. It should have left by now. A gentle hissing noise was coming from the vent above us.

Did it always make that noise?

“Cas.” I tried to shout but it came out more like a whisper.

His eyes fought to open, barely focusing.

“Wha’?”

“Something’s not right. Is… Something smells wrong…”

His eyes finally focused on my face and I saw panic fill them. We struggled to sit up, fighting against sleep and heavy limbs as the hissing noise intensified. It wasn’t enough. I was dragged downwards into a claustrophobic, smothering sleep.