Yes, I know I suck. Hopefully this is good enough to put me back on your good graces. Or maybe not. We'll see.

Recap: Micah receives a weird note from Takada with four names on it. Two people from the list come for her in the middle of the night and break her out hours before her 'trial'. Now they are running.

Warning: strong and adult themes language ahead.

Faya Gada | 11

Beating. And pulsing. That's all Micah could hear and feel at the moment. That and the loud pounding of boots on metallic floors as they made their way down the corridor. As she paced behind Morales [1], the dingy shirt she had thrown on just minutes before billowed behind her. And her feet were smacking on the ground too loudly for her liking. She wanted to tell them to slow down but feared being caught in the first place.

"Where are we going?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," was Morales' reply. And he left it at that. There was a cackle as someone's radio came to life. The static soon cleared and a voice could be heard.

"-static- Harold to Morales. Where is your location? Over -static-"

"-static- Morales to Harold. We're on the east corridor in Sector 12 -static-"

"What the hell, Morales," she whispered, eyes wide in surprise.

A different voice came through this time. "-static- Command to Morales. Do you have eyes on the suspect? -static-"

She should've known this was a setup. Micah's breathing got heavy as she looked around to see if they were in sight. She knew this was a setup. Morales stopped, holding up his hand to stop Micah from continuing and signaled for Martin to move on. She tried to ask them what was happening with her eyes, but it was almost like she was an object in that moment, and not a person.

"-static- " He was smacked on his head before the transmission could go out.

And she was running. Or at least, trying to. The cold floor was a distraction against her bare feet, but she had no time. Should try to sneak back into the apartment and pretend she never left? No, they would have men posted there already. But where could she hide?

Before she could turn the corner, she heard a gun cock from another corridor. She turned and immediately threw her hands up. There was a dark-skinned guard walking toward her with his gun pointed at her. And didn't look like he was going to put it down.

"Shit!"

"Pike, stand down!"

"I haven't done anything!"

He laughed like she just told a joke. "I may know that, but he doesn't."

All she could do was cock a brow at the comment before shielding her head when he went to pull his trigger. It certainly sounded like a gun had gone off, but she never felt the bullet. Slowly pulling her peeking behind her arms, she saw that the guard still had his gone at the ready. But he began to holster it around the time that she heard something drop to the ground behind her. This made her flinch and step away from the paralyzed man on the ground.

The guard radioed in. Micah was still too shocked to react or care. "-static- Bhatt [2] to Command. She's been spotted in Sector 3. -static-"

Lie.

"-static- Understood. Squad 7 [3], 8, and 2: Converge on Sector 3. Everyone else hold your positions―"

"Hey, there's little time and we're behind schedule…"

Micah looked up from the body on the ground to find the guard holding his hand out to her. Reluctantly―and understandably confused, she placed her hand in his, which he quickly grasped whilst pulling her down the hallway. And they were running again.

Veronica Pike sat up in the bed, tears burning and preventing her eyes from resting. Kane had come to warn them of the trial and the likelihood of Micah being acquitted. It was not possible. As a mother, she didn't know what to think. While she tried to believe in the legal system of their world, she couldn't see how the death penalty ever helped her people. Sure, there was one less person to worry about supporting, but the population of the Ark was dwindling every day and they needed every resource they could get.

The Ark had taken away so many. And now it was taking away her baby.

Her husband emerged from the bathroom, face sullen and defeated. He just spent the last hour crying alone in the shower, instead of upsetting his wife. The act of crying in front of her made him feel weak in this instance. He had tried to get Mike out of this mess, pled with Kane to help his girl. But it seemed to fall on false ears. Kane was a bureaucrat. If it wasn't in the book, he wouldn't do it. Not even for someone he might even call his daughter. And all Pike wanted to do was, at least, say goodbye.

As he settled into bed beside his wife, he rubbed his knuckles. Punching that lazy bastard felt too good.

After joining Morales, whom she tried to apologize to, the three made their way into what looked to be an unsanctioned sector. There were hardly any lights and the dark seemed to touch everything. But they came upon a dingy and rusted door at the end of a passage. The whole thing was a bit too sketchy for her, but before she could open her mouth the door was thrust open by someone behind it and Micah was being ushered into a strange room.

There were monitors on nearly every wall and personnel rushing about. Many of them carrying crates of supplies into a medium-sized pod attached to one of the walls.

"What the hell is this? Hey," she tried to get the guys' attention but they were talking to someone else. "Hey, will anyone tell me what's going on?"

"Micah, you made it!"

Elliott Takada paced over, throwing his arms around the girl. Micah pulled away from the hug to examine him. He was no longer in his guard uniform. He was wearing a bulky, blue spacesuit and boots.

"Takada, you have to tell me what's going on? Why am I here?"

"It's simple. You're going to Earth."

"What?!"

Tevin ran into the public restroom as swiftly as he could, slamming the door behind himself and locking it. He threw off his radio and doused it in sink water before throwing off his vest and gun.

He need to set this up just right.

With the gun, he carefully aimed at a vent above one of the stalls and the metal door came crashing down.

"I'm sorry, earth. What earth?"

"You know," Takada started, walking to a heavy pack sat on a chair. "That land mass that we're floating above right now." He began stuffing bandages and a tool kit inside.

Micah couldn't believe this. She was stolen away from her death sentence, taken to some chamber of secrets where apparently people take little space trips to the Earth. She was just freaking out about dying. Now she was in some crazy conspiracy.

Takada paused in his packing when he noticed the dissociated look on Micah's face, just now realizing nothing has been explained to her.

"Mike, you do know about the Exodus trial, don't you?"

The blank look he got in return was almost comical until a woman gripped Micah's shoulders and began to lead her away to an enclosed area. "Miss Pike, we're behind schedule."

Micah could be heard complaining from across the room.

"What is this damn schedule everyone's on about?"

"Graham, they think she's armed," a voice conveyed through Tevin's earpiece. "Some assistance please."

Tevin paused his setup of the device he was constructing. If he was reaching out to him, they must be desperate for time.

"I'm a little busy."

"Graham―"

"Alright, Kane! Just being sassy…One distraction coming right up."

Tevin finished up the device and placed it on a relay in the vent before taking hold of his gun.

"Damn, is this going to hurt," he muttered before whipping himself with the butt of the gun as best as he could.

"Good, the duchess is ready," Morales commented.

Micah rolled her eyes. "Huge overstatement. Still clueless here. I need you to answer my questions."

Her hair was French-braided back into two braids, a welcome sight from the knotted, unkempt mess she enabled. The woman had forced her into a sweatshirt and cargo pants. And by force, Micah meant the woman threatened to cut her in Spanish, as well as a few other things. Over the simple ensemble was a spacesuit identical to Takada's. Morales wore one as well.

"Back up, girly. You ain't the boss of me. I'm not Violent Crimes nor one of your little boy scouts." Micah couldn't resist rolling her eyes at this misplaced sass. "I have orders to bring you to the boss when you're dressed. We're moving out soon."

Annoyed at all the secrecy, Micah pushed past him and stalked back to the common area, where someone was debriefing everyone. "Brat," Morales muttered after her.

"Exodus One is about to commence. Now that we've tied up one of our loose ends, we can proceed with the plan. All that's left is Alpha team taking the shuttle down to the planet―"

"Wait a minute. Marcus?! What the hell?"

"Micah," he warned, "just a moment. You all know your jobs. We've got one chance. Don't blow it."

The small crowd dispersed as final pieces of the plan began to materialize.

"Micah," Kane stepped over to her, inviting her to sit. He gestured to bottle of water. "Water?"

Pike huffed at the innocent question, fixing her eyes on the man she had come to trust. He was obviously hiding something big from her. And now was the time to fess up.

"Alright. You want to know what's going on?" Micah crossed her arms and got comfortable. "The Ark is dying."

What?

"The Ark is dying and we won't make it another year or two unless something is done."

"I―I don't understand."

"It's the life-support. There's limited oxygen left. One of our engineers, Jake Griffin, found the error in the system but was going to warn the whole Republic. The Council shut him down and he faces execution. We have a very small window here. And with you dying in the morning, now is the time."

"Wait. Me dying in the morning? How would you know that if I haven't had the trial yet?"

"Evidence speaks. No one was going to let you walk," he says in a mater-of-fact tone.

Thought she knew this already, it still hurt to hear from someone else―someone on the Council―what she knew. She was certainly going to be dead by the morning.

"Now we've been working on this mission for a while: Exodus One. With the air running out and no other solutions, we're a little desperate for an alternative. Our science division has been watching the Earth's systems and believe, theoretically, that one could survive on that planet now. Problem is we don't know this for sure."

Now things were clicking. Micah swallowed the saliva that had collected at the base of her esophagus and sighed. "I'm a guinea pig―"

"Micah, that's not quite―"

"I'm a guinea pig."

Kane rolled his eyes at her selfishness. It's like she didn't hear him just say that everyone on the Ark was walking on death row.

"Yes. Along with your team, Alpha One. I was very selective in choosing you five to lead this mission. Micah, this is humanities last hope."

And that's when she started to hyperventilate.

Footnotes:

1 – I've cast Josh Hartnett and all his facial hair glory as Peter Morales. Morales is a bit older than everyone else. I envision somewhere between 30-35 years old.

2 - I made a mistake last chapter. On the note was Peter Morales, Elliott Takada, Cliff Martin, and Shamil Camel. For some reason, I wrote Camel. I think it was a stand-in name I was using until I finalized this name. But the character's name is actually Shamil Bhatt, NOT Shamil Camel. Sorry.

Also, I cast Ranbir Kapoor for him.

3 - Couldn't write 'Squad 7' without smiling like a dork .