MIRIYA AND KOIBAN MANAGED TO AVOID THE GUNS.

Fortunately for them, the power generation to the prison was not actually on the prison grounds and when everything went farhbot and the doors all opened, it was easy enough for them to slip out and make their way to the main relays.

Koiban huffed at the array before him. The entire thing looked unnecessarily complicated. Miriya was just glad the place was empty, all the personnel having fled the riot. She dropped into a control seat and began trying to suss out the panel.

"Dren - I can't make heads or tails of this fralking thing! There's overlapping redundancies, flux controllers on response controllers on variance guides…!" she flipped a few switches and received only a brief klaxon as reward.

"Perhaps a more direct approach is called for," Koiban said, and she turned to see him stride to a large ring capacitor, two stories high, crackling with energy behind its plasteel sheathing. He levelled his rifle at it and fired several shots.

The plasteel cracked and Koiban was already past her as Miriya jumped up and bolted to the door. A growling snapping noise cracked across the room. They made it to either side of the heavy door just as a snarling snake of lethal energy licked through the door before pulling back. A muffled crunch followed and the room suddenly glowed with a sickening blue light.

"Right. We run again," Miriya didn't wait.

They were reasonably far away when the entire relay blew sky high. The prison went dark.

"Let's go find the bastard," Miriya told the Interion, pulling her goggles down, "save him and then slap the dren outta him."

Again she stalked off without waiting and Koiban pulled his goggles down and silently followed her.

CRICHTON SAW THE POWER GO OUT OUTSIDE and cursed at the timing.

Fortunately, the place they were in was independently powered and he had yet cameras and sensor nets to show him his immediate surroundings. As of yet, nothing moved and the Se'em'aari had yet to return. He rubbed a hand through his hair and down the back of his neck.

He heard a foot scuff and turned…

… to stare up the barrel of his own rifle, held steadily in Rial's hands.

"I am grateful," she began, "that you came for us. I wish to make that clear."

"If you're gonna shoot," he told her tiredly, "aim for my left cheek, just here. He tapped it for emphasis. You'll punch it straight through my nose that way." A sigh. "That rifle's off by a half-degree."

Rial blinked.

"I am grateful," she reiterated, "now, who are you and why are Se'em'aari hunting you?"

"You recognize them?" She nodded. "They followed me to a prison. How smart is that?" He grumbled. "Look, I'm the guy your husband hired to rescue you. Them? They got their own problems."

Rial shook her head.

"Your name."

Crichton sighed tiredly. He needed a name for her, so he picked the only one he had at the moment.

"I'm John Crichton," he said. She seemed startled by the admission. "So, what have you learned?"

"Why you?"

"No idea." They had more immediate concerns. "We need another way out of here. A maintenance hatch, waste disposal, anything. Those Se'em'aari are lookin' for a way in."

Rial lowered the rifle.

"They say you are a legend."

"They're wrong."

She pointed to a panel with a large red sign on it that he couldn't decipher.

"There is an emergency lift over there, though it only leads to a bunker below this facility."

"Figures."

He got up, stared out the big window for several long moments. She saw a look cross his face she couldn't identify and he make a sound that could have been a resigned sigh.

"Right. Lock this place down when I leave. Hide if you can. Stay quiet until if and when I come back."

"If you come back?"

He was checking his pistols' charges. The rifle he would leave here. His checked the armor seals and found them adequate. It'd have to do.

"There are others out there - I hope. They'll come for you." He indicated the monitors and control boards. "They know what to do."

He hesitated in the door but did not look back.

Crichton stepped into the gloomy hallway beyond.