Chapter 8
Gaitha crawled as silently and as quickly as she could. Now that she was in the shaft she felt surprisingly more vulnerable, not less. She arrived at the 4-D schematic of the inside of her jumper and would have been thrilled to have been able to slowly go through the schematic, envisioning each of the rooms and time to discover the extras her aunt would have put in this marvel of a birthday present. She didn't have that luxury, and so she scanned the schematic to find the atrium and how to get to it from her current location.
Gaitha made her way to the atrium with swiftness and silence she hadn't known she possessed. Her mind rolled over the fact that she had her father's genes as well as her mother's. Even now at eighteen, she found these instincts by accident and incident. She could recall a few from her interactions with peers both on Earth and then in this world of space, which bore no resemblance with the "Space Mountain" ride in Disney World she remembered from her younger years. Real space was way cooler. The ghost of a smile flitted across her lips as she remembered that theme park being her Dad's very first experience of one too.
She dropped all thought and instinctively slowed down after taking several junctions, praying she had visualized everything right and she would now be above the atrium. She had to find the vent and enter the atrium so she could find the bench with the catch for the opening to the panic room. She knew it would be cleverly concealed, likely under a beautiful square area of her aunt's most beautiful and colorful foliage.
She stopped in front of the vent; her chest feeling hard thud of her heartbeat in her chest. Her panic rose and claustrophobia set but she fought the feelings down and centered, pulling in deep breaths and slowly exhaling them, feeling her muscles loosen. She knew tight muscles could become a disadvantage raising her risk of injury when she most needed an advantage.
Gaitha slowly peeled the backing of the vent out just enough to view the room from her current position and was gratified to see that the vent was in the back wall and she could see the bench just below and slightly to the front of her, as well as three quarters of the way around the room. The fourth quarter of the room had a little heavier foliage that wasn't as easy to see through. However, she didn't see any movement or telltale quivering of the vegetation to suggest someone might be hiding there. Straight ahead was the entrance and while there was no sign of anyone yet they could come into view any second. Her upper teeth were sinking into her bottom lip just short of drawing blood. Gaitha re-centered herself and opened the vent itself, scrambling down the short ladder that slid out and back perfectly from the perpendicular slot from which it slid.
As soon as her feet hit the floor, she began to move but was stopped short by the voice of the rat coming from that one quarter of the room which had not afforded her any advantage but had worked out to be an advantage to her captors. Alongside the rat came the lizard that she knew he could have easily stood over the rat-man and both would be camouflaged in that part of the room. She steeled herself as the Sargorn grabbed her arm so hard that she knew it was definitely going to leave a colorful mark on her skin which instead of making her more scared, actually made her angry. So angry she struggled for control.
Gaitha felt a peculiar calm and sense of total focus fall over her. She needed her wits about her or she was as good as dead. She knew the rat-man and the lizard didn't care if she was dead but she remembered their conversation about having to show "proof of life" so she might be safe for the moment. She didn't know how much time she had but she knew she had to stay vigilant for a chance to escape, even if she had to kill one of them. She was smart enough to know that when the time came she couldn't hesitate because it was literally them or her, and she needed to bet on her.