Nate struck with a grunt, his gloved fist flying at Rachel's face with incredible speed. But she knew him too well, knew the twitching of the corner of his mouth that always showed which side he was actually aiming for. When his arm snapped back at her right, she stepped left, sliding a foot behind his ankle and pulling. He fell, body hitting the mat with a loud slap.
"Are we done now?" Rachel asked the sergeant, who stood just off the mat, frowning slightly at his son. She tossed her long brown braid over her shoulder, leaning down to help Nate back up.
Sergeant Miller stepped forward, flicking a hand to either side of the mat to indicate that he wanted them back in their starting position. "You two can be done when my son can get at least one win in."
Nate sneered back at his father's smug grin, "At least we've been fighting about evenly today."
"I wouldn't call six to nothing even Na-," Rachel's playful taunt was cut off by her friend leaping forward and tackling her. The two wrestled on the ground, laughing hysterically, not noticing the door of the sparring room open and the line of cadets shuffling in.
Until the sergeant clapped his hands, signaling them to separate as he stepped onto the mat and came up to them, motioning to the cadets lined up against the wall. "Sorry guys, I lost track of time, and they need their training too." The two teenagers muttered their understanding and removed their gloves. "Rachel, your father's still in the council meeting, so you're welcome to stay at our quarters while you wait for him to get back."
Rachel and Nate nodded, walked out of the training room, brushing past a few of the cadets on their way. The walk back to his quarters, and the first few hours they spent there were filled with playful joking, excited gossiping about the recent events on the Ark, and the discussion of each of their lives. That is, until the two teens ran out of things to talk about.
"So Bryan's gonna join us in the Guard, huh?" Rachel asked, draped over one of the armchair's in the main room.
Nate nodded, "We already covered that, Rach." When she raised her eyebrows, he dropped his head back on the arm on the couch he was laying on, "Two hours ago, babe."
"Well what haven't we talked about," Rachel twisted in the chair, pulling herself up to sit cross-legged and facing her friend, "cause I'm drawing a blank." Nate just shrugged in response. "There must be something we can do for fun before we die of boredom."
Nate blinked, his eyes opening wider than before, and a mischievous smirk he had worn since childhood spreading across his face. Rachel leaned closer to him, "what are you thinking?"
"I can't make the Ark more fun," he said, crossing his arms over his chest as he smiled at his friend, "but I do know a way we can make it seem more fun." He waggled his eyebrows twice, sat up, and began pulling his boots back on. "It's nine-thirty, the mess hall is closed, and I bet all of the workers have gone home by now. Why not go grab ourselves a drink?"
"Moonshine?"
Nate shook his head, "No, I'm talking about the good stuff. I know where they keep it, and I bet you could figure out how to crack the lock."
Rachel smiled, "That's stealing, you know. We could get caught, arrested."
"With our skills? No way!" Nate got off the couch and onto his knees in front of her, hands pressed together as he begged, "Come on! You know almost everyone on the Ark has done at least something, and we only have a few months left before we aren't minors anymore" Rachel pressed her lips together, thinking, "Please? I promise you we won't get caught!"
Rachel smiled, and nodded.
They checked to make sure that their fathers' meeting- some business about a crime ring aboard the Ark -was still going on before they quickly and quietly made their way to the mess hall. It was empty, like Nate said it was going to be. Metal chairs all stacked upside down on the tables, the only light the small sun lamp on the Eden Tree.
Rachel said a silent prayer, apologizing for what they were about to do, and asking to help them not get caught.
Nate removed a small flashlight from his pocket and led Rachel across the dining hall, through the kitchen, and into the large freezer. After carefully shutting the door until it almost latched, but still remained open, he led her over to a small safe in the corner. She got down on her knees, and motioned for him to shine the light on the lock.
Several tense minutes went by until they both heard a click, and the door opened.
"Damn! Look at that!" Nate was smiling broader than Rachel had ever seen him, other than when he was with Bryan. They both looked on in awe at the shelves of bottles, colors ranging from a deep brown, to a clear as water. Nate reached for one on the top shelf, a rectangular bottle with a brown liquid inside. He tore off the black lid and took a swig, his eyes clenching as he swallowed.
Rachel laughed, "That good, huh?" Miller grunted in response, handing her the bottle so she could try. She did. It was the worst thing she'd ever tasted, but she still took another gulp and passed the bottle back. They continued like this for a while, passing the bottle back and forth, until it was almost empty and everything that was boring an hour ago was the funniest thing they'd ever heard.
That's when the light came on.
Their judgement too fuzzy to tell them to run or hide, Rachel and Nate just sat there, eyes wide as they stared at the open door, and the woman who now faced them. "Well," Nygel drawled, a sickening smile forming, "Looks like there's two little thieves in my kitchen."
They both made to move. She was short and heavy; they could make it past her. But standing up made their heads spin, and they fell back down. Nygel laughed, "Don't bother, little ones, your daddies are already on their way."
Rachel stayed on her knees, focusing on trying not to vomit. Nate fell back against the safe door and sighed, "Shit."
"'I promise you we won't get caught,' you said," Rachel sighed, her head pressed up against the cold metal of the holding cell wall. A small vent on the floor connecting her to Nate's cell, where he had been muttering various apologies all night, both before and after their heads had cleared. Rachel hadn't accepted any of them.
Groaning, Nate yelled back through the vent, "You agreed to do it with me!"
She didn't have a response, she just hung her head between her legs. "They're gonna float us, Nate. We're gonna get sent the prison and then floated."
No response.
"All because I was bored." Rachel moaned, slamming her head back against the wall. Tomorrow she would have to face her father for her sentencing.
He hadn't said anything when he'd gotten to the freezer, just watched as the guards hauled her and Nate off the floor and handcuffed them. He hadn't said anything when they'd been marched down the hall and shoved into holding cells. He hadn't said anything, even when Nate's dad had. Teary eyed and shaking, Sergeant Miller had hugged his son before leaving his cell, whispering things to him that Rachel couldn't hear.
No, he'd just stood there and watched her. Watched as all of her jewelry, even the hand-me-downs from her real mother, given to her by Vera, had been taken off and taken away. Watched as she cried, begging him to just say something, let her know it was going to be okay, that he'd make sure she was okay. But he just watched, deep disappointment filling his eyes.
And he'd walked away. Leaving her alone in that too cold cell.
It was worse now that her head was clear, now that all she had to do was think about what had happened. How stupid they'd been.
She couldn't sleep.
The lights came on, to wake her from a sleep she never fell into. A buzzing sounded before the door opened, and another before she heard the cell door next to her open. A young guard stepped in, and older one positioned at the door. She faced the guard who stepped towards her, a cadet, Rachel had seen him when she went with her father to inspect the last class of cadets.
"First prisoner escort, Walker?" she asked, standing from her place on the ground as gracefully as she could with her hands still cuffed together. He grimaced, and stood aside, motioning for her to walk out.
She and Nate were escorted to the review room side-by-side, the guards walking behind them. They knew the way; they had been to these meetings before. But never on this side. Never had they stood where they now did, in front of three metal tables, lights shining intimidatingly down on them. They had stood behind the tables, behind where their fathers now sat.
Kane sat at the middle table, focusing on a tablet in front of him, where details of their case were listed. The lines on his face were tighter than Rachel had seen them. The Sergeant sat to his right, ready to give testimony of the arrest, even though Kane himself had been there. It was procedure.
Smiling at the third table sat Nygel, arms crossed over her chest, her eagerness to testify against the children of the people who had been on her back clearly written on her face.
Kane banged his gavel to call the meeting to order. "We are here for the sentencing of the minors Nathan Miller," he swallowed, "and Rachel Newell-Kane." He finally looked at her, his dark eyes met hers, and seemed to contain an apology. He continued, "They are charged with theft of restricted materials, and unlawful intoxication."
Nygel smiled, bracing her hands on the table as she started to stand up. But she was interrupted by Kane.
"As the accused are minors, they are to be sent to prison until they are 18, at which time their case is to be reviewed." he looked to Nygel, whose eyes were wide with shock, then at Sergeant Miller, who was looking at his son with sadness and, Rachel noticed, hope.
They weren't going to be floated.
Her father looked back at her, seeing the realization in her eyes, and nodded slightly. Yes, they would go to prison, they'd be there the rest of the year, a little under six months, but they'd be pardoned when they were released. Kane had negotiated for it, and won. Miller laughed, and his father smiled at him. Kane looked at Rachel and nodded. She smiled, they were going to be okay.
"Well I guess this isn't too bad," Rachel mused as she sat with Nate at one of the metal tables on the bottom floor of the Skybox. The main floor of the prison had no cells, only a promenade with tables and benches scattered throughout. One wall was covered entirely by a food line where workers from the mess hall would deliver food three times a day. The other three had various rooms, some were for visitation, one was a small makeshift library, one was the office of the warden, and several were break rooms for the guards.
Nate smiled, nodding and taking a brief look up at the four floors above them. Each floor had a narrow walkway around the whole wall, with heavy metal doors leading to each cell. Rachel's new room was only one floor up; Nate's was on the second from the top floor. When he had found out that there were no lifts, only stairs, he muttered a curse at Rachel.
"It is a little cold though," he said, as he watched a small group of prisoners make their way towards their table.
Rachel snorted, "Space is cold, Nate, and there's only so much they're gonna offer prisoners." She smiled as the group got to table. Their new friends. Two of them, Monty and Harper, were Nate and Rachel's roommates. Both pairs had hit it off right away, Nate, who had introduced himself as "Miller" to the new group ("It's a better prison name," he had said), even went so far as to say that he might have developed a crush on his roommate, if not for Bryan, who had been his first visitor.
The third member of the new group, a tall, gangly boy named Jasper, smiled broadly as he sat down, digging into his food before he even set his tray down. He wore a pair of goggles he had somehow snuck into the prison on his head, above a mess of unkempt black hair. In between mouthfuls of spaghetti, he asked, "So, what's your story? What got you locked up?"
"Yeah," Harper giggled, flipping a dusty blonde pigtail over her shoulder, "How did the daughter of a Councilman and the son of the Chief Guard get put in here?"
Rachel ripped off a piece of bread, motioning for Nate to tell the story as she popped it into her mouth. He sighed, and pulled his cap of his head before leaning back in his seat to tell the story.
"We got bored, decided to steal some of the vintage booze from the ground," he was interrupted by a chorus of impressed noises from the group at the table, including the two new arrivals, the inseparable Sterling and Monroe. Miller continued, "We got it, but we got caught. Theft of something like that gets you locked up."
Monty, Miller's handsome roommate, looked up from where he twirled his noodles on his fork, "But how did you guys get put in here? I mean, couldn't your dads get you out of it?"
Miller frowned, so Rachel took the lead, "My dad's a definite rule follower," everyone at the table made some face of resentful agreement, "So he's not letting us get out of it just because of who we are."
Fortunately, the group left it at that and moved on without either of them having to explain what happened after their sentencing. Kane had come up to them before they were locked up, and confirmed what Rachel had guessed from the look he gave her: they would be pardoned when they were reviewed upon release. He had also warned them not to tell any of the other prisoners this, to avoid any unnecessary trouble from the more dangerous criminals.
So the group kept talking pleasantly, never running out of topics like Rachel and Miller used to. They were all from various different stations, had very different experiences throughout their life, and apparently there was never any lack of gossip in lockup. They chatted until lights out, when a guard came to break the group up, and they all went back to their cells.
The friends fell into a routine: wake up, eat breakfast and chat, attempt to pull off whatever crazy scheme to have fun that Monty, Jasper, and Miller came up with, laugh about it when they inevitably failed, or got in trouble, then just relax and chat for the rest of the day.
One day, about two months into Rachel and Miller's sentence, the group was approached at their usual table at lunchtime- after Jasper's ill-fated attempt to create a zipline from the second floor to the promenade was thwarted by some guards- by a group of the more dangerous criminals in the prison. The "gang" was led by two boys, John Murphy and John Mbege. It was Murphy that broke away from the group to walk up to the table.
Murphy was the textbook definition of a bad guy. He had greasy hair, beady, leering eyes, and a crooked smile that gave away his smarmy overconfidence. There was definitely a reason that Rachel had avoided him and his group for so long.
But now he stood in front of her, his posture slouched in a way that he probably thought made him look cool and threatening. Rachel thought he looked like an ass. He grinned at her, and she cringed.
"Hey, Kane," Murphy slid his hands into his pockets as he spoke, "You settled in nicely to our little life here."
Rachel didn't have time think of an answer that both conveyed her disinterest and successfully damaged his ego before he spoke again.
"Cause if this little group isn't doing it for you," he flicked his eyes towards her friends at the table behind her as she fought the urge to roll her own, "You're more than welcome to come over to my cell, I can show you a good time."
She fought the overwhelming urge to gag. John Mbege and a girl named Roma grinned behind their friend, while Rachel's own friends' faces went red as they tried their best to contain both their horror and their laughter.
"Come on, a nice girl likes you should be hanging out with a much better crowd."
Jasper nearly fell off the table as he coughed, still fighting to keep quiet, careful to not anger the dangerous criminals standing in front of them. Monty, Harper, Monroe and Sterling clung to each other as they too, were hushing each other so they didn't giggle. It was hard for Rachel not to join them.
She swallowed her own chuckle, "I'm sorry, I think, but I'm good where I am, with who I'm with."
Miller smiled, and clapped her on the shoulder, "My girl knows what's good for her Murphy," he stood, showcasing his size and height, ever the protective best friend, "and it's not you."
Murphy opened his mouth to spit back a retort, but Roma stepped forward. She murmured his name, and jerked her head towards a group of guards against the wall, watching what was happening. Deciding it wasn't worth the trouble to start something with the son of the guards' boss, he tipped his head at Rachel with a sneer, and walked away.
When he and his gang had retreated into one of the side rooms on the promenade, the group and the table fell into uproarious laughter. Jasper actually fell off the table, and stayed on the floor as he howled. The rest of them grabbed at each other while they giggled, gasping for breath in between bouts of laughter.
By the wall, the guards smiled too.
The gossip about Murphy's failed proposition faded quickly when, a few days later, Octavia Blake was released from solitary. She'd been in there for months, while the council debated what to do with her, and investigated how she -the only second child on the Ark- had been kept hidden for nearly sixteen years.
None of the other prisoners talked to her. And she seemed to like it that way. She kept to herself, sat in a corner of the promenade during the day, either reading or simply watching the others in the prison. She was an anomaly, something that shouldn't exist, that no one on the Ark had any clue how to deal with. Harper had tried to talk to her once, but only got one or two word answers, and eventually gave up.
Octavia Blake, even when surrounded by people her own age, people with similar stories, remained alone.
After these two interruptions, Miller and Rachel's life in prison fell back into a pleasant rhythm, and they were glad for it. They now had only two months to go until they would be reviewed, released, and could continue on with their lives. Although they felt guilty knowing that they'd be released when their new friends' fates were uncertain, they were relieved that they could soon move on from their mistake.
But the day that the group had planned to celebrate the six-week mark until Miller's review, the group was approached at their table by several guards. Guards that, Rachel had noticed, seemed to be taking extra shifts in the Skybox.
"Jordan, Kane, McIntyre, Miller, and Monroe. Come with me." He walked away, towards one of the doors off of the promenade that none of them had ever seen opened, a line of about twenty prisoners was waiting outside it, and more were being led there by guards. The other guards stepped behind the group, separating the five that were called from the others.
Warily, they followed, and were lined up with the others at the door. They waited, chatter among those in line growing every second. After several moments of suspense, the door opened.
They were led down a hallway, one by one. The passage was narrow, the lights dim, everyone had gone silent. Everything about the situation unsettled Rachel. That is, until the prisoner at the front of the line reached a door, it opened, and she saw her dad.
He stepped out of the way of the boy, and the line filed past him into whatever room they were being led to. But Rachel wasn't afraid anymore, nothing truly bad could happen to her as long as her father was there. She prepared herself to ask him what was happening as she walked by him, but when she opened her mouth, he shook his head, something like pity in his eyes.
"Sit," was all he whispered, but he gave her shoulder a slight squeeze as she walked past him.
The room looked like a converted storage room, and had about thirty chairs all pointed at the front of the room, where Rachel's former teacher, Charles Pike stood, leaning against a table. Rachel sat in the second to the front row, in front of Miller, who leaned forward, "Did your dad say anything?" he whispered.
"No, but something's up, he doesn't look right," she said back, eyes scanning the room, and the people in it. Murphy was there, sitting by Roma and Mbege. Jasper was sitting in the back of the room, Harper had claimed the seat next to Rachel, and Monroe sat next to Jasper. There were criminals from petty thieves to attempted murderers, Rachel couldn't find a commonality with any of them, nor could she find any clues as to why they were here.
Octavia Blake was the last to enter, avoiding eye contact with any of her fellow prisoners, and taking a seat at the very front. Then there was silence. The prisoners looked around, each of them as confused as Rachel. She looked back at her father, only to find him, along with the Chancellor and Abby Griffin, leaving the room.
Pike looked over the room, the same pity in his eyes that Kane had, and spoke with a slightly choked voice, "Welcome to Earth Skills."