Chapter 5: Escape

For the first time in a long while, Xadrin woke up to the sound of alarms blaring. She sat up – remembering just in time to do it slowly – and asked VIKI what was going on.

"Aly is missing."

"What?" she quickly got up and changed. As she did, her mood turned increasingly grim as VIKI updated her about Aly's little message last night, and the fact that VIKI could no longer reach her morpher.

When she arrived at the bridge, Cody and Shawn were already there, grim with worry.

"VIKI told you?" Cody asked.

She nodded, settling down on the nearest seat and resting her crutch next to it.

"And she was the one going on and on about communicating-"

Cody cut Shawn off sternly, "Now is not the time for this."

"He's right." Xadrin said, and Cody turned to her in mild surprise. "She should have told us about this. We would have provided backup."

"Aly was of the opinion that it was too premature to notify you." VIKI chimed in. For a moment, Xadrin wondered if VIKI could experience guilt. But it did not matter. If that was a direct instruction from Aly, and VIKI would not be able to override it.

So she asked instead, "Was there any teleportation signal detected?"

"Negative."

Shawn sat up straight. "Does that mean that she is still on Earth?"

"Not necessarily." VIKI replied before she could explain, "It is possible to cloak teleportation signals. However, it is not a common technology."

"Metigor is likely to have it though. Now he knows he needs to use it." Xadrin muttered, wondering what they should do now. So much for the so-called plan. She turned to glare at the crutch next to her seat. Two more days. They did not have two more days.

"Look, let's try to figure out what could have happened and where Aly would be." Cody started, looking at both of them. "Aly said she heard a few homeless people disappeared over the last two days and she wanted to investigate. What was she thinking of?"

"Metigor." Both Xadrin and Shawn said in unison.

"Metigor could be kidnapping homeless people to start building his army." Shawn said, eyes wide.

"And now that he knows there are four Rangers around, he doesn't want to be confrontational before he is ready. The homeless are people that nobody will miss soon, and they are the perfect people to start with." Xadrin continued, realizing why it made a compelling reason for further investigation.

Cody nodded. "That's what I'm thinking too. So maybe Aly figured she could just try to monitor the situation for a night to see if there is anything more to it. The question is – what happened after that?"

Nobody spoke for a moment. It was too obvious.

"She found Metigor." Xadrin finally said. The implications were terrible, but they had to face it somehow.

"Or Metigor found her." Shawn muttered darkly.

"But she never morphed." Cody pointed out, "Or else VIKI would have noticed and alerted us."

"Let's say she fought Metigor without morphing," Shawn said slowly, as if trying not to believe it, "then it means…" he trailed off, not willing to go down that direction further. It did not matter. The rest could guess what he meant anyway.

Cody shook his head, "That's just one possibility. Maybe she's just captured."

"Maybe Metigor never recognized her." Xadrin pointed her, feeling a ray of hope. "And he brought her back along with whoever he had been trying to kidnap."

"Then we have to get her back." Cody said.

They set to work.

Aly woke up to a nasty smell. As she opened her eyes, she saw the backs of several people, sitting too close to where she was lying. She scrambled up – and bit back a cry as the wound on her left side stung sharply. She touched the wound with her hand, and was surprised to find that someone has bandaged it for her, albeit with cloth of dubious origins.

"You need to take it slowly." A female voice said somewhere behind her, too close for comfort. "That will take some time to heal, even for a Ranger."

Aly spun around, ignoring the pain from the sudden movement. Sitting right behind her was a girl who looked slightly younger than her, with cropped brown hair. She was thin, and wearing ragged clothes that looked like they had not been washed in a while.

Still gaping slightly, Aly surveyed the room she was in. She recognized the smell now – it was the smell of too many humans cramped together, of old sweat and dirt and perhaps something even nastier. It was medium sized room that could perhaps comfortably house around fifty people, standing up. But now it looked like there was more than that. From the looks of some random belongings on the floor, the way some people were lying on each other or just sitting and staring into space, it looked like all these people had been living here.

She was torn between so many questions. But there was one urgent thing, "How did you know who I am?" she whispered, noting that not many people were actually talking to each other.

The girl smiled sadly, "My brother knows some Rangers. He's probably a Ranger himself now. I know how a morpher looks like."

Aly had assumed that these were all the people Metigor had kidnapped from Earth, astounding as the number would be. But now it seemed like she was very wrong.

"You are… you're not from Earth?"

The girl cocked her head to one side. "Is that where we are now? Earth is a planet, is it not?"

Not knowing what else to say, Aly nodded.

"No," she sighed, "I am not. I am from… I am from Eltare, that's right. It's been so long since someone asked me that."

Aly gaped. Eltare was where Xadrin was from. And how could someone almost forget which planet they came from?

"How long have you – have you been here?" Aly asked tentatively, afraid to know the answer.

The girl raised her hands and stared at them, and touched her own face softly. "I don't know. I was eleven years old when they caught me."

Aly covered her mouth to hide her gasp. The girl looked at least sixteen. She had been here, living here for at least five years. What kind of life was that?

Aly scrambled closer to her – feeling a few other bruises on her back as she did. It didn't matter. These were nothing compared to what this girl must have been through.

"My name is Aly. What is yours?"

"Jen." She said, her green eyes curious. "Are you a Ranger from Earth?"

Aly thought about it. "In a way, yes. Listen, I can help you get out of here. But I need you to tell me how things work around here – how many guards, when do they come, things like that. Then, if everyone just work together-"

Jen was shaking her head. "They won't. I won't."

"But why not?" Aly whispered urgently. She was starting to hate this cramped place, and this smell.

Jen stared at her in a weird way. "You haven't heard it yet, have you?"

"Heard what?"

"The call from the Master." She said, pointing to her skull. "In here. Once the Master calls, nobody can resist. You won't even know what he called you to do. When he releases you, you can only try to guess from your aches."

Mind control. Aly remembered with a chill. She looked around at the number of people in the room with dawning dread. All of them are under Metigor's control. Was she? She looked down quickly at the bandaged wound on her side, touching the spots of blood that soaked through the cloth. Had she been poisoned? Would she hear the call any time now, and lose herself?

"But when he doesn't call you, you know what you are doing?" Aly asked, "You could do what you want to?"

Jen smiled bitterly. "In a way." She gestured around the room. "But we are all stuck here. We know this is a spacecraft and it is somewhere far from Eltare. What could we do? Even back when we were on the farm –"

"The farm?"

"We were not always here." Jen said.

And then she told Aly their story. None of them could remember much about when and how they were captured, but when they woke up on that first evening they could remember, they were on a planet with no off-world communication systems. Batch by batch, they were ordered to build a town from scratch, and farm for supplies. None of them had ever seen any guards. The orders always came from the Master. And their real day – the ones they could really remember and had control over – would start after a day of hard labor, when they woke up to exhaustion. It was only a few days ago that they woke up suddenly in this room.

As Jen spoke, Aly realized with horror what a mental torture it must be. She looked around at the room, and could suddenly understand why most people were just staring into space, and why no one seemed to care enough to do anything anymore.

Well, not everyone. Aly turned back to Jen, studying her. The younger girl looked thin and worn, but unlike most other people, she was more animated. And she had taken the initiative to talk to her.

"Thank you for telling me this," Aly said sincerely, trying to smile, "You seem to be the only who cares."

Jen surveyed the room as well. "I do care. My brother always said that good things will only come from people who care. I want to do good things."

Aly was touched. Five years – she could not begin to imagine what it must be like to live five years in a life like this, fully conscious that your life was no longer yours. She herself would probably go crazy. But here was Jen, still caring, still trying.

Without warning, tears started falling down Jen's face. "I don't always get it right though. I once asked a friend to run away with me, when we were on the farm. The Master found out." Jen reached down to lift up her dirty shirt, revealing an ugly burn scar in a jagged star shape at the side of her belly. "He made sure I was awake when he ordered my friend to do this."

Aly curled her fists tight in growing fury, hastily wiping away the wetness building in her eyes. "I'll stop him." She said, "My team will stop him. I just need you to-"

There was a rustle of movements. A group of about ten people had stood up at the other side of the room, their eyes unseeing. The door at the end of the room slid open, and they left in a line. The door slid shut.

"The Master called them." Jen said softly, "It will be my turn soon. It must be morning. Our work will be starting."

Aly's mind was racing. "You said there are no guards at all. Are you sure?"

"None of us have ever seen one. And why would the Master need them?" Jen said, gesturing to the room, "When he calls, all of us would be his guards. But when we are working on one order, we won't pay attention to other things." She turned back to Aly, her eyes sharp, "Is that what you are planning?"

Aly took a nervous glance around, and leaned in to whisper in Jen's ear, "If I follow the next group out the door, will they know that I am not – that I am still 'awake'?"

Jen shook her head. "That was how I broke away the last time. No one cared that I was there."

"Good."

"But if he calls, he will know that you tried to run." Jen warned her. "He will punish you."

Aly looked at Jen, at her small and undernourished frame, at her eagerness to do good things, at the now hidden scar on her belly. She tried to smile at her. "But I still care. I still want to do good things, like you. I'm a Ranger, maybe he won't have complete control. And I have my teammates looking for me. I'll be fine."

Another rustle, to their right. Aly scrambled up, gritting her teeth at the various aches and pains.

"Be careful!" Jen whispered, her eyes scared but hopeful.

Aly nodded, and followed the group out the door.

Cody turned into the alley, and stopped. To his left was a pile of old cardboards and newspapers. He squatted down, and studied the marks on them. He could just make out a few messy sets of footprints, as if there were a few people walking in different directions. And right at the edge of one of the cardboard was a few spots of what looked like blood stains.

He turned around, and looked out into a street for good vantage point. The 24-hour convenience store would be a good place to monitor this spot late at night. He went into the store, and introduced himself as a student working on a social project about homeless people.

"I thought there was a guy who hangs out at the alley opposite," he said to the cashier, "Have you seen him?"

The middle-aged cashier fingered his beard, "Not since this morning. Strange, now that you mentioned it. He's usually there every morning, trying to catch the morning crowd for some tips."

He thanked the cashier, and got out, feeling confident that this was where Aly was captured.

After the news earlier this morning, the team had initially wanted to infiltrate Metigor's ship straight away. But with Xadrin still not completely ready for combat and their lack of confidence in confronting Metigor, they thought it would be better to wait until near midnight, when Metigor should be on Earth to kidnap more people. That would buy them time on his ship.

But in the mean time, they needed to be sure that their guess about the incident was correct. Using VIKI's data on Aly's last known location, he and Shawn had split up in different directions, trying to find signs of what might have happened. With the missing homeless man and some signs of fighting, this alley seemed to be the likeliest spot. The small bloodstains were not good signs, but they may not be Aly's blood.

He signaled Shawn, and they both went back to the ship, preparing for the long day ahead.

Aly tried to keep up with the line of prisoners moving ahead. She was holding her injured side and limping slightly, and wondered what she could do. She could not confront Metigor, and neither could she just call the Ace for help. That would alert Metigor straight away of her presence, and she might not have enough time.

Just then, a thought made her look around the corners of the walls and corridors. Grimly, she noted the presence of cameras. Would there be anyone monitoring the cameras? Could Metigor order a few people to monitor and report any suspicious activity?

She had to blend in while she tried to come up with a plan. She would just follow this group of people, and perhaps she could –

She froze. The line had turned around the corner into a big room, and she was the last to enter. Now she saw the room – it was a large room with three large tanks of neon-green fluid bubbling in them. The tanks were as tall as the room was, and perhaps three meters in diameter each.

The line of prisoners had separated, each with their own orders. Aly quickly followed the last one, a man who looked about as old as Jen was, and pretended to mirror his movements. She almost sighed in relief when he took what seemed like mops to clean the floor. Aly grabbed the extra mop, and followed him to the room.

As she did, she surveyed the room – the three large tanks had gotten her initial attention, but they only took up a quarter of the room. At both ends of the line of tanks were large consoles and monitors that hummed quietly away. Two chairs stood empty at both sides of the room. There was another side of the room behind them, where this man was heading to.

Aly's hands tightened around the mop as she saw the other half of the room. There were six chairs attached to the tanks, two chairs to each. Sitting on each chair, with their heads in some sort of helmet that connected directly to the tanks, were humans.

The man Aly followed calmly walked to the other end, and started mopping the floor around the seats. Slowly, Aly walked closer to watch the prisoners bound to the chairs. The nearest one was a woman, perhaps slightly older than her. Her eyes stared straight ahead, unfocused. She sat straight and still, but every now and then her body would twitch, or she would drool. A closer look revealed dried sweat on her skin, and –

Aly stepped back in horror. On the ground under and near all the chairs were mildly colored stains. Some were still a little wet, and dripping from the chairs where the prisoners sweated or urinated without knowing. They were bound here.

She covered her mouth, feeling the sudden urge to throw up. She quickly turned away, and pretended to mop the floor at the other side of the room as she calmed herself down.

She needed to do something, anything. She couldn't just leave all these people here. Was her team on the way? And even so, they would be planning to free her alone. None of them had known that Metigor had prisoners from Eltare.

But what could she do by herself? She still had her morpher with her, but using it would likely trigger all sorts of alarms that would leave her barely a minute to do what was next. Other than that, she had nothing, nothing except –

She closed her eyes, and recalled the layout plan and their rehearsals for yesterday. Yes, she could figure out where she was if she made a few more checks. And then she could locate and sabotage the communication and navigation systems. And once she did, she could contact VIKI directly without much fear.

She shivered as she took one last look at the row of prisoners on the chair. She would be back for them. Her team would be back for them.

For now, she had other work to do.

Finally, it was time. Shawn almost ran to the hanger bay in his impatience, and the only reason he did not was because Xadrin still had a small limp before she morphs. He took a quick look at Xadrin and Cody beside him. They were grim, but in their steps there was a similar impatience.

It had been a very long day. After deciding on a plan to infiltrate Metigor's ship, Xadrin had been forced by the two of them to get more rest, since she would be forced into action before the five-day timeline VIKI estimated. The two of them lingered at the bridge, memorizing Metigor's ship layout and running through the plan over and over. Eventually, they went off to the guest rooms to get a nap at VIKI's suggestion. Shawn had just stared at the room ceiling. He wondered if any of them really got a chance to sleep.

And now, it was half past ten at night.

They hopped onto their gliders – surfboard-like transport that could make short-distance space travel and carry a maximum of two people – and took off. VIKI had activated the Ace's stealth shield, and it had been maneuvered to a position that minimized the distance they had to cover without being too close to Metigor's ship.

In around ten minutes, they slowed down and checked the exterior of Metigor's ship. From where Shawn was, it looked huge, much longer than commercial airplanes, and about three stories high. It gave him some twisted comfort to know that the Ace was much bigger.

At Xadrin's signal, they charged into the open loading bay.

Aly rounded the corner, found her earlier hiding point in an inset part of the wall, and went in to take a breather. She was cold, hungry and exhausted. And she had been very wrong about what she could do.

The layout plan VIKI pulled up was very wrong. Or at least, this ship was never the model it appeared to be. Instead of neatly planned cargo holds, the ship seemed to be customized for Metigor's own use. It had the room with the three tanks and the chair-bound prisoners, and at least five other rooms full of prisoners like the one she woke up with. And then there were rooms full of weapons and other supplies.

She shivered, and squeezed her side, trying to numb the throbbing pain. The wound felt damp and warm, in stark contrast to the bone-deep chill she had been feeling. It made sense, in a way – Metigor would not waste energy to warm up this sparsely populated part of the ship.

She forced herself to refocus. She needed to get off the ship and warn the others before they rush in thinking that they knew their way around. She needed to find out how Metigor had been sending the prisoners to Earth to conduct the kidnappings – and indeed, without seeing any guards, the masked figures she fought yesterday had to be other prisoners.

Footsteps.

She retreated further into the dark corner, and watched as two prisoners carried a bunch of silver armor disappeared down the corridor. With a burst of relief, she recognized those armors as the ones worn by her foes yesterday. These two prisoners could be assigned to conduct tonight's kidnappings!

She quickly followed them to a room down the corridor. And sure enough, a line of ten prisoners stood and received the silver armors without emotion. There were a few extras, to her luck. Silently, she snuck into the room as the prisoners put on their armors and masks, and quickly stole one extra set and put it on.

The mask smelled horrible, and she had to force down another urge to throw up.

As she watched, the prisoners went, four at a time, to a platform at the corner of the room. Each time, a ray of green light would engulf them, and then they were gone. As the last four prisoners stepped onto the teleportation platform, she ran to join them. She sighed in relief when none of the prisoners so much as blink at her.

Then her world dissolved in green.

Shawn checked that the corridor was clear, and quickly ran over to the other side. He had split up with Xadrin and Cody, and their destinations had been the places on the ship most likely to hold prisoners, given their size and access. So far his journey had been smooth, perhaps a little too smooth. It was eerie not to see anything or anyone.

When he found the rooms that he was looking for, he quickly ran to the door. There was a keypad by the side. Shawn pulled out the device VIKI prepared for all of them, and pointed it at the keypad. Just as VIKI said it would, the door unlocked and slid open.

Shawn stood there in shock. Instead of Aly, there was a sea of prisoners cramped into a small room. There was perhaps thirty, or even forty of them.

Even more eerily, none of them seemed to notice that he had opened the door. They were just staring into space.

One girl stood up, and scrambled over. "Are you Aly's teammate?"

The girl was thin, and too young – perhaps only fifteen or sixteen. Her green eyes were eager and hopeful.

"You met Aly?" He asked, gesturing for her to come out.

She took his offered hand. "Yes, she was here this morning. She went out with one of the groups to try to escape. Is she okay now?"

Shawn felt his heart sank. "This morning? She went out with who?"

The girl nodded slowly, as if realizing what he must have meant. "Yes. It had been hours. She went out with one the first groups – all of us here have to work, and we are sent out in groups each day. You… haven't you heard from her?"

He shook his head, his mind racing. Aly had left the cell hours ago, but have yet to contact them. There were a lot more prisoners that they expected; they couldn't get all of them out tonight. He needed to regroup with Xadrin and Cody.

He took one more look at the girl. Aly knew her now. "Come with me. My team cannot get everyone out tonight. But I can get you out first."

She broke into a smile, and nodded eagerly. He took her hand, and they ran back to the loading bay.

Xadrin slammed her fists on the wall in front of her, only to be pulled aside by Cody. He pulled her into a dark and inconspicuous corner.

"Blasted," She cursed quietly, "We were wrong about everything!"

The layout plan they had, the one that they memorized and based their whole plan around, was very wrong. That had become apparent when they met their second dead-end. Shawn could be charging into trouble by himself because of her mistake.

"We need to regroup." Cody said urgently, pulling her towards the direction that they came from.

Xadrin ran with him, ignoring the dull throb on her injured leg. She realized grimly that she had been wrong from the beginning. This was never just a cargo ship to begin with. She had been wrong since her last day on Eltare. How could she be so stupid?

As they came to a fork, Shawn appeared from one of the corridors, dragging a human girl with him. It wasn't Aly.

"Shawn!" Cody said in relief. "We were looking for you – who is she?"

"She's one of the prisoners, she met Aly-"

"I'm Jen." The girl said, and Xadrin snapped to her in shock. The girl was thin and wearing ragged clothes, looking much older than what Xadrin remembered. Her dark brown hair was cropped messily, but the straight nose, and those unmistakable green eyes –

Xadrin grabbed her by the shoulders. "Jen? Is that you? I'm Xaddie!"

Her cousin gaped at her in disbelief. Xadrin lowered her visor so that they could see each other. Both their eyes were wet now.

"How…"

They embraced tightly. Xadrin had never, ever thought that she would see her again. Xander's team and the alliance and looked for them all over, and thought that all of them must have perished in the blaze. And yet here she was.

"Xadrin, I hate to break this up, but this is not the place-" Cody's warning was cut off by the sound of a blaster firing.

A second later, Xadrin pushed herself off the floor, turning to see who had pushed her aside.

Cody was struggling to get up, his right shoulder bearing the marks of Metigor's grade nine weapon. He had saved her.

Shawn was already returning fire. Gritting her teeth, Xadrin joined him, firing her own blaster rapidly. Metigor deflected those shots easily. Better prepared this time, Xadrin summoned her sword and charged ahead, furious.

Metigor seemed to be waiting for her. "Did you find my ship to your liking?"

Shawn attacked from her other side, and they tried to find an opening even as Metigor blocked off their blows almost casually.

"How about a little welcome gift?" Metigor said, and gestured at the other end of the corridor.

Jen! Xadrin remembered with alarm and turned back, only to see Jen ram Cody into the wall, pressing him on his injured shoulder. She ran to them, pulling Jen aside.

Jen's unseeing eyes stared back at her. Xadrin's heart sank when she realized what was happening. Before she could react, Jen lowered into a crouch, and kicked Xadrin's injured leg.

Xadrin fell on all fours, shutting her eyes in pain. It was not possible. Jen was too thin to be this strong. She heard another cry, and turned to see that Shawn had been thrown backwards, and he was holding his forearm in pain.

"So this is where it ends." Metigor's voice taunted behind them. "Did you think you could stop me with –"

The ship shook violently, and the lights flashed. It was under attack.

Metigor growled. "I will be back for you!"

Xadrin scrambled up as Metigor left, only to see Jen pressing Shawn back down. She felt her heart break as she knocked Jen from behind, rendering her unconscious. "I'm so sorry," she whispered as she pushed her aside and helped Shawn up.

"Are you leaving her here?" Cody croaked as the three of them regrouped. The ship continued to rock, and they could hear footsteps from the other end approaching. Many, many pairs of footsteps.

"She would still be under his control even if we bring her back." She said, "There is no cure for the venom."

"There are a whole lot of them," Shawn was saying, "We gotta go now!"

"But Aly-"

"Jen said she wasn't there."

Cody nodded, and they ran as fast as they could.