Mel inched closer to me. I felt her gently place something in my hand behind my back. The object felt hard, solid, and round.
Something from the outer cell room?
Ve’nua, currently distracted by Te’rnu, did not seem to notice Mel handing me the object.
Smarter than you look, Mel, I’ll give you that.
Ve’nua approached Te’rnu, and stood uncomfortably close to him. They stared into the mechsuit’s eyes.
‘Is it really you in there?’ they asked.
Te’rnu paused for a moment - just very briefly, almost imperceptible to anyone that didn’t know him. ‘Of course it is.’
Another small silence as the Iyr tried to size Te’rnu up. ‘I would like you to prove it.’
‘How?’ Te’rnu asked.
‘Can you two hurry it up?’ I interjected, hoping to dissolve the tension. I tapped at my wrist, at an imaginary watch. ‘I have a prison to get to.’
Ve’nua turned to me, snarled viciously, and then whipped their head back around to Te’rnu.
‘Prove you are who you say you are. Remove your helmet.’
‘Ooh, yes please!’ I interrupted again. ‘I would just love to see what kind of body you’ve got hidden under there.’
Ve’nua turned to me once again and spat their response, ‘If you do not keep quiet, I have a function in this suit which will make it impossible for you to be anything but.’
This tactic isn’t working. Why do these Iyr have to have absolutely no sense of humour?
I gripped the object in my hand tightly and prepared myself to use it.
‘I- I cannot remove my helmet in front of the prisoners,’ Te’rnu responded, voice beginning to crack. ‘You know this.’
‘It is simple: you lock them back up, then you remove your helmet. If you are who you say you are, you then put the helmet back on, and continue on your way. If you are not who you say you are, then I kill the three of you where you stand.’
‘I- I-,’ Te’rnu began, turning to face me, clearing struggling. ‘I-’
I pulled the heavy object around in a flash, and rammed it towards the back of the Iyr’s helmet - just as Te’rnu had done to the real Head of Guard earlier. It careered into the small metal box at the bottom of the suit’s skull, but - whereas earlier it had caused electricity to envelop the user - nothing happened.
Oh. Not good.
The Iyr froze for a moment, and then, slowly, turned their head to look at me. I didn’t need to see a face to know that they were thinking: “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
‘Syl…,’ Mel started, slowly pulling me backwards away from the presumably enraged Iyr.
Te’rnu, in response to my failed attempt to resolve the situation, shot his hand to his helmet, pressing one of those handy function buttons.
An arc of electricity came forth from his suit, and encompassed our troublesome foe. As always, they froze for a moment, their muscles contracting with the voltage shooting through them, and then fell, with a thud to the floor.
‘You’re getting good at that,’ I told Te’rnu.
He didn’t reply, merely stood and stared at the body on the ground in front of him.
‘You OK, bud?’ I followed up.
‘Are they dead?’ Mel asked. ‘’Cos I would be totally cool with that if he was. I won’t tell anyone.’
‘No. Just unconscious. Right, Te’rnu?’
There was no immediate answer from him.
‘They’re just unconscious,’ I assured Mel.
I grabbed Ve’nua by the arms, and Te’rnu, without needing instruction, grabbed the legs. We heaved them towards the open cell door.
‘Do you always go around knocking people out?’ Mel asked.
‘Honestly?’ I replied. ‘More than we should.’
‘Cool! Cool energy. Like it! Really like it.’
I raised an eyebrow. Was this woman OK?
‘Thanks.’
I slammed the ‘close door’ button on the console and sealed the unconscious Iyr inside.
‘OK,’ I announced. ‘This time, for real: let’s get out of here.’
We wasted no more time. I, for one, had no idea how long these Iyr would remain unconscious. Glancing at the time on my console, I could see it had been a good few hours since Te’rnu had defused the situation in the barracks. For all I knew, the real Head of Guard was waking up at this very moment, rushing to the barracks terminal, letting the whole stronghold know what we had done.
We strode with purpose towards the shuttle bay; Mel and I leading the way, Te’rnu at our rear - still acting as though he was transporting us. We walked down countless long corridors, bare in decoration but for the screens every few metres and the small crevices that marked the doorways. As we marched, I noticed more and more Iyr glancing our way - but without being able to see their faces, it was impossible to know for sure what they were thinking.
‘Am I being paranoid, or are we getting more looks?’ I whispered over my shoulder to Te’rnu, while there was no hostile company in our immediate vicinity.
‘I have noticed this too,’ he replied, his voice strained, as though speaking through a clenched jaw. ‘Do they know?’
I shook my head; the smallest of movements, so nobody else would see that we were communicating. ‘If they knew, they would stop us; that suit wouldn’t mean shit.’
Mel, in spite of the situation, smiled a little at my response.
‘Still laughing at the Terran who swears?’ I asked, allowing myself to grin too. If we were about to get caught, there was no point Mel dying miserable.
‘A little,’ she replied.
As we approached the bay, the screens buzzed into life. I allowed myself a quick glance at them as we strode, and when I saw what they were displaying, I halted instantly. Te’rnu crashed into me from behind, and Mel stopped too, to see what all the commotion was about.
‘Oh, my…,’ Te’rnu mumbled.
‘Understatement of the cycle,’ I replied, equally hushed in volume.
On the screen, the Head of Guard - now risen from his enforced power-nap - shouted angrily and impassionately.
We didn’t waste any time listening to what he had to say. The
