Chapter 18

It was two-thirty and Aaron was still standing watch. Luce was now up and sitting across from her.

"Will you teach me how to stand watch?"

"Sure, I will."

Luce stared into the fire for a time before speaking. "Life here in the mines is not that bad. Why is it so important for you and your friends to escape?"

Aaron looked at the innocent young man and stated "I know, but where we are from we are free. We do not serve false gods and our people do not enslave us."

Luce nodded slowly. "I have never known what it is like to be free." He said softly.

"Neither did I, until I met Paolo."

"Paolo freed you?" Luce asked, surprise evident in his voice.

"I freed myself, with his help. It is not easy, but you can do it as well."

"Will you take me with you when you escape this place?" Luce pleaded.

Aaron smiled, "Yea."

The two sat in silence for a time. "Why does Rose call Theta 'Doctor'?"

"I don't know. I think it is because she is afraid to call him that."

"Why?"

"Because she loves him, and he loves her, but it is difficult because they are not from the same race."

Luce sat in silence trying to understand all that Aaron had told him.

Finally she spoke again "It is time to awaken the others so that we may begin our search for a way to escape."

Aaron walked over to the sleeping forms of Theta and Rose. "Theta." He whispered. "Theta wake up."

"Aaron? What is it?" Theta rolled over and tried to get his eyes to focus on the teen standing over him.

"It is time to begin our search for an escape route"

"Oh, yeah, ok. Rose!" He touched her shoulder "Rose, wake up"

"Uh,...Doctor?"

"Time to get up." Theta rolled out of the bed and put on his shoes.

Jack was standing near the fire rubbing his eyes.

"What I wouldn't give for a hyper vodka right now!" he groused.

"Shut up."

"Considering what we have seen of the geography of the caves, I think we should begin our search near the underground springs where we get our drinking water." Aaron said as she picked up two torches. She also instructed for Luce to bring their water bucket just in case.

"Alright, lets head out then." Theta moved to the doorway and looked out from behind the curtain to see if anyone was in the passageway. He gave hand signals to indicate the passage was clear and they slipped out from behind the curtains. Luce grabbed the water bucket and followed the group.

When they reached the spring, the group fanned out exploring all the rocky out-cropping and low lying areas. They looked over head, and followed every ridge and valley they could find in the area.

The spring bubbled up into a large, natural pool with what appeared to be a solid rock wall behind it. As Aaron was examining the rock wall that was about 10 yards behind the pool, she found a narrow, natural passageway that ascended at a steep angle. She held her torch up for more visibility and carefully began to climb up the dark, narrow space. About 20 yards up the passage, the rock seemed to split and the passage grew narrower and continued at sharp angle to the left. The overhead was now just a few feet high and she had to bend over to continue climbing up the passageway. Suddenly she saw a faint sliver of grey light shining through the end of the passage.

She put her torch down and crawled on all fours to examine where the light was coming from. There was a small crack in the rock about two inches wide and 18 inches high. She put her eye up to the crack and peered out. Trees! Lush green foliage and trees! This had to be the back side of the rock formation they saw as they entered the cave. The village and Scorpions were on the other side of the cave. They could hide out in the woods, if they could tunnel out of there.

Excitedly, she grabbed her torch and worked her way down out of the tight cavern. "Bro!" She said in an urgent whisper "I found it! Only problem is, we are going to have to dig our way out."

"Show me." Theta said and she led him back up the narrow, sloping rock channel. After he examined the crack in the rock wall they returned to where their friends waited by the spring.

"Ok, let's get back to our compartment. We'll figure it out there." Jack said.

Luce filled the bucket with fresh water and the group quietly eased their way back to their compartment.

"Alright, we will need some sort of chisel to get out." Theta said when they were back safely in their cell.

"Helloooo! Did I risk my life for nothing?" Aaron exclaimed and everyone stared at her. She rolled her eyes. "The sonic screwdriver, remember?"

"Oh yea. Sorry." Theta said and she grunted. 'Sorry my butt.'

"Alright, but we are going to need more tools then that. Aaron, can you pull this off some how?" Jack asked.

"Yes sir!" She said and gave him a mock salute.

"Er, but Jack, we can't take tools out of the mine and I suspect the punishment is severe for just having tools." Rose stated.

"I know! I know!" He said in frustration. "What I wouldn't give for some explosives!"

"Wait, perhaps there is something we could get from the cutlery vendor that we could modify for our use. Also, in the laundry we use very heavy wooden oars which could be used as handles for the tools. I'm sure I would have no problem stealing an oar."

"Uh, Rose, did you forget what happened to that guy who got caught stealing when we first arrived here?" Theta asked.

"Oh, yeah." She replied dejectedly.

"Ok, ok, lets not give up so easily. We have found the way out, now we just have to build the tools to get us out of here." Jack began.

"Aaron, they seem to sell all kinds of stuff in the concession area so you will just have to buy whatever you can that we can modify for our use." Theta said.

"Ah, first she needs to buy us all some new socks and underwear!" Jack grimaced. "We've been wearing this stuff for 5 days now and I want some clean underwear!"

The conversation was interrupted by the rapid ringing of the bell that indicated it was time for everyone to arise.

Luce rolled up the privacy curtain, they all ate some bread and then headed off to work.

At the end of the day Jack and Luce had each earned eight tokens, and Theta earned ten. There was no quota for the laundry, Aaron's and Rose's salary was always just three tokens.

As the men headed off for the public baths, Aaron took their 32 tokens and went across the hall to see if Rican wanted to go shopping with her, since Rose did not want to go.

When Aaron called into her neighbor's compartment Kareen came forward. "It is my mother's turn to work in the concession area tonight, however, I will be glad to accompany you there."

Kareen grabbed the wicker basket and the two women started out toward the concession area.

When they arrived, it was a little more busy then usual.

"Do you have coffee?" Aaron asked the food vendor.

He looked confused. "What is coffee?"

"Well, it is a hard bean that we grind up and use to make a hot beverage." 'God, I sound just like a teacher!' she thought.

"No, we do not have ground up beans, but we have leaves that we use to make hot drinks."

"Fine. I'll take some of those."

Again she purchased 1 pound of cubed meat, 5 potatoes, 1 onion and 5 apples instead of carrots. She thought they could have them for dessert. She got 2 loaves of a hearty multi-grain bread this time and paid eight tokens for her purchases.

Roseturned to Kareen. "Take me to your mother's booth." she said.

When they arrived at Rican's booth, she told her that she needed to purchase socks and underwear for the group. The boxer type shorts Rican showed her did not have elastic, but were held up by a drawstring. Rican chose the sizes for all three men and picked out some women's undergarments for Aaron and Rose. The socks also did not have elastic, as it was technology that these people did not possess. At this point she didn't care and told

Rican she needed five pairs. She paid 15 tokens for the items and then went to the soap seller.

The woman selling soap had various soaps, oils, candles and fragrances. Most of the soap was simple lye soap, but the woman's expensive line included a glycerin based soap that she thought smelled like lemons. It was 3 tokens for a small bar, but Aaron bought two anyway.

Again, her tokens spent, she and Kareen returned to their respective compartments.

After the evening meal, Aaron gave everyone their new underwear and informed them that in the morning she would need their t-shirts, old socks and underwear and their one towel so that she could wash them.