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The alien had been working on the panel for twenty minutes now. He'd been mostly silent, even when something inside sparked and he winced in pain. He'd only spoken once, when Marty had gotten close to the old man lying unconscious on the ground. The alien had casually mentioned that if Marty touched him, he would die.

Marty hadn't planned on touching him, well, he didn't think he'd have to. He'd wanted to see if he could tell why anyone would want to break this man out. Maybe he had something on him of value? Maybe he knew something? Marty had spent a lot of time talking with him and he knew he'd pried secrets out, but of course, they wouldn't come to him at this moment. If he could remember them he could take the old man's place and safely get out of here.

Lights came on inside the panel, and the alien took a step back, smiling. Marty stared at it. He'd lost count of the number of people who had tried to get the lift working over the years. They'd all taken a look inside the panel, and given up. It was too old, they'd said, they'd need specialized tools.

"How?" Marty hadn't meant to speak. The alien didn't respond. He looked at his singed fingers then turned.

Multiple feet shuffled back and Marty looked over his shoulder. The other prisoners had moved close while he'd been distracted trying to solve the mystery that was the old man's rescue. Far too close. One of them could have put a knife in his back.

Marty backed against the door to the lift. He should have known better than lose track of them. The door vibrated. Not only had he turned it on, he'd managed to call it down.

The alien growled and Marty realized he was looking at him. He hurried to get out of the way. A moment later the doors opened. The crowd gasped and moved forward.

The alien placed a hand at the opening and the forcefield lit up as it kept him from pushing past.

"It can only be turned off from the top," Marty said.

Disappointment came from the crowd. He understood them, for a moment he'd thought he was actually getting out of here.

The alien didn't say anything. He looked inside the lit interior as if he could simply will the field to shut down.

The forcefield turned off.

The alien bent down to pick up the old man, and the interior lights went out. Marty noticed that the panel was also dark.

The alien went to the panel and poked in it with some of the tools he'd left on the floor. Nothing he did produce results. Marty thought he heard noises coming from inside the lift, but they were too faint to make out.

The alien was still working in the panel when the voice came, distant, from inside the lift.

"Tristan?"

The alien stepped in and looked up. He grabbed onto the ceiling, pulling and ripping it down.

"Tristan?" the voice called again, clearer this time.

"Alex, what happened?"

"The shield I'd put in front of the control panel fell and a stray bolt hit it, killing the entire system."

"Can you bypass it?"

"This thing's ancient, it's all mechanical, no computers. It's more your area than mine."

The alien looked through the opening. "How about the guards?"

"Dead, all seven of them. Unless our information was wrong, that's all of them."

"The ship?"

"No one made it out of the control room. So it's fine, as are the other two."

Marty smiled. There were other ships. He didn't have to depend on Tristan to get off his place.

The murmurs of the crowd made him realized they'd moved closer again, and that enough of them had heard. Knowledge of the ships traveled among the prisoners. Their eyes glimmered with their desire for freedom.

Marty pressed himself against the wall, but didn't get close to the opening. He didn't want to risk the alien's anger. There was no telling what he'd--

One of the prisoners ran for the lift. "Fuck this, I'm getting out now." He was only a little shorter than the alien, and muscular. He'd tried to take over once, and he'd almost beaten Brawn down, It was only because Brain had jumped in that they'd beaten him. They'd broken his arms and legs as punishment.

He tried to push the alien aside and jump for the opening in the ceiling, but the furred hand grabbed him by the neck, slammed him against one wall and then threw him out of the lift. He landed on his back, clutching his throat.

"I'm going to be up," Tristan said, "start cleaning everything."

The alien stepped out of the lift and everyone except Marty backed away. When the alien's gaze fell on him, Marty wished he'd ran off too.

"Your shirt."

"What?"

As a response, the alien grabbed the collar of his shirt with both hands and pulled until it ripped open, then off Marty's back. He then ripped it again until he had a band of fabric, which he used to tie the old man's hand together.

He slipped the arms around his neck and stood, pulling the old man up. He adjusted him on his back and stepped in the lift. He ripped down more of the ceiling, then pulled himself up. A moment later he was pulling himself hand over hand along the central cable.

Marty peered in and could see the open door higher up; the way out. He reached for a handhold, but was pulled out of the lift by another prisoner. He landed on his back and barely rolled out of the way in time to avoid being trampled.

They pushed and shoved each other. There was a scream of pain and someone fell, a knife in her throat.

Marty looked at the mass and felt his chances dropped. There was no way he could fight his way through that, and by the time he could make it up, they would have filled the ships, Whoever didn't fit would end up dead as they fought for space.

He stepped closer, to the side, not to push his way through, but to try to get a sense of what was happening inside the lift. He couldn't see anything past the cage until the mass was all in the shaft, climbing the cable and sometime--someone fell down screaming--shoving each other out of the way.

He thought about climbing too, but hesitated as he saw the light in the other opening be blocked as the alien got out of the shaft. The light came back. The prisoners were about halfway to it, focusing only on climbing now, their grunts the only sounds.

Marty jumped and grabbed on to the edge of the ceiling. A form appeared in the light and Marty strained to tell what it was doing.

"You know you've got followers?" it asked. It was the other one, Alex.

Whatever Tristan said as a reply, Marty couldn't hear.

The form left, and came back a moment later. "Are you sure?" Alex again. Then he was gone.

Marty started pulling himself up, but heard something ping against a metal wall, and again. He tried to make it out, but he couldn't, it was too small, bouncing from one wall to another as it came down the shaft.

"Oh Shit."

Marty let go of the ceiling and ran out of the lift. He had to get as far from it as possible.

The explosion sounded before he reached the entrance to the tunnel. He saw his shadow appear ahead of him as light flared in the room, then the blast propelled him forward and he hit a rocky wall.

He heard stone rain to the ground as he lost consciousness. He'd been so close to getting out of here.