Nyha stood, stretching out after being hunched over for too long waiting for Mak to talk to her again.

Fear and worry twined together in her chest, because she was sure he would contact her if he could. He was in danger out there, and she didn't want to consider what would happen if he was caught or killed.

When he'd gone silent, she'd felt the loss of his deep, rumbling voice keenly.

Probably too keenly.

He was a lifeline, the only one she had, but she needed to work on a way out of this without him, too. She couldn't depend on being saved.

She'd thought the same fifteen years ago, onboard the Dru, the long, rusted smuggler ship that had scooped Nyha and her family up as they were fleeing the wreckage of Halatia, and then tried to blackmail the planets of the Verdant String for their safe delivery.

When the weeks had turned to months, when the food had run out and first her father and then her mother had been murdered because the smugglers couldn't feed them all--the smugglers knew the children would be a better bargaining chip than the adults--she'd sat with the other children and plotted an escape.

They hadn't needed it in the end, and she knew now, looking back with the benefit of age and hindsight, they would not have succeeded if they'd tried.

It had taken the actions of Captain Drake on the Verdant String planet of Parn to break the deadlock.

The smugglers had not been a cohesive group, and they'd taken their human cargo to every planet of the Verdant String.

The suddenness of the catastrophic tectonic plate movements on Halatia--and there were plenty of conspiracy theories about that--meant there hadn't been any Verdant String help available.

The smugglers had reacted quickly, though, scooping up the small Halatian vessels as they escaped the volcanic activity, the earthquakes, and the mayhem.

And then the world had ground to a standstill as Verdant String politicians and leaders argued about whether to give in to blackmail, and whether they had room for those Halatians who'd made it out.

All the while, people died; either murdered, or starved, or from the deadly Fain virus that swept through the ships.

Captain Drake of Parn had defied orders after a journalist had snuck onboard a smuggler ship and transmitted the true horror of the situation. He'd put together an elite team of soldiers and taken the largest ship that circled Parn, freeing the Halatians, killing or arresting all the smugglers.

His actions had a ripple effect, spurring the other Verdant String planets to do the same.

And when it was over, when they saw how few Halatians were left, the finger pointing began.

That was then, though. This was now.

Now Veld and his crew were using that guilt, that deep-seated sense of shame at taking too long to act, to manipulate the Verdant String.

And she wasn't twelve years old anymore.

She was a respected scientist, and the custodian of four girls who had been born in pain and fear on the Dru, and whose lives she had been part of ever since.

There would be no bargaining for the lives of her girls, no matter what she'd said to Vice-admiral Sinjin half an hour ago.

She'd stuck to the script Veld had given her in the canteen, reading it woodenly and without any inflection. She refused to be emotive, to beg for help, to do anything but follow the instructions she'd been given.

She turned to look at the guards at the door, but they were facing away, talking quietly to each other. The girls were still talking, too, their chatter, their innocence, giving her more resolve than ever.

“Mak, I hope you're all right,” she said quietly.

“Well, this is a surprise.”

The sound of his voice made her freeze, made something very close to relief leap in her throat.

“Why is it a surprise?” She lowered herself back in her chair.

“I'm . . . somewhere I thought comms would have difficulty reaching.”

“Are you safe?” She wondered where he could be on this tiny rock that he thought comms wouldn't be able to reach, and couldn't think of anywhere.

“I'm safe enough, just worried about how I'll get back. How are things up there?”

Up there? Was he underground?

“Fine. They're leaving us alone.” She leaned forward, and surreptitiously looked under her arm at the doorway.

Hamand and Baint were exactly as they'd been before, talking to each other, their backs to the room.

“Did that one called Hamand hit you?”

She hesitated. There was nothing in his voice to suggest he was affected by that, but somehow she thought he was. “Yes. He's the one who's a Calling believer. Veld was furious when he hit me, and Cors took him off to discipline him, although he seems fine, so I'm not sure what was done to him.”

“The Calling believes in striking people?”

“Apparently The Calling believes when they're on Cepi, no one can disobey them. Instead of immediately complying with what he told me to do, I turned to reassure the girls.”

“And you say Veld was angry that he had managed to get a place on the team?” Mak asked. “As if there was a distinction within the ranks between those who had bought into the beliefs of the cult, and those who were using it?”

“Maybe it's been a hoax from the beginning.” Nyha said. “Maybe they were hoping to use the religious undertones to get access to Cepi, and when that didn't work, they delayed the destruction in the courts so they could do exactly what they're doing now, only with the real members of the group, not the cult members they attracted to make themselves look like a believable quasi-religion.”

“Hmm.” His hum vibrated through her comm. “Maybe.”

“One thing doesn't make sense, though.” She realized she was the only one in the room talking, and made a gesture with her hands for the girls to start chatting again. “How could they have arranged for us to be here?”

“That's something I'd like to know, too.” She heard a rustle, as if Mak was moving. “Is there someone amongst the staff who was involved in inviting you?”

“I was told today that it was Dr. Garett who suggested it. Professor Faro was angry because he didn't want any distractions in the last weeks of clearing the site, but Garett had already sent his idea to the administrative council, and the councillors had agreed to go ahead.”

“Dr. Garett.” Mak sounded like he was committing the name to memory.

The girls had gone quiet again, and Nyha frowned at them. “Talk,” she mouthed.

Vik subtly pointed a finger to her left, and an icy sensation grabbed Nyha by the back of the neck, and trickled down her spine.

“Behind me?” she mouthed.

Vik gave the most infinitesimal nod.

“Nyha? What's going on?” Mak asked. She forced herself to ignore him, lifting finger to set her comm to silent.

She drew in a deep, centering breath. She had to assume it was both guards, and now she was concentrating on the sounds behind her, she sensed they stood on either side of her.

She stood suddenly, shoving her chair back so that it tipped over to the right.

Then she spun, using her elbow to hit the guard to her left--Baint--on the jaw.

As he staggered back, she swept her foot behind his leg and he went down.

She was already moving as he fell, punching him in the groin as he hit the floor and then flipping him on his stomach when he tried to curl in on himself.

She unsnapped the restraints on his belt, and slapped them on him, using the other pair on his ankles.

Behind her, as she'd attacked, she'd heard the girls leap into action on Hamand.

He'd moved backward as the chair fell toward him, that was her last impression of him, but now she looked up, and saw the girls had him down and restrained as well.

Tilla was calmly moving around the room, picking up the two laz guns that had flown from the guards' hands as they'd gone down and putting them in her satchel.

“We need gags,” Ju said, and Fran pulled off the headband she wore to keep her springy curls off her face, and handed it over.

Vik bent her arms back under her shirt, fiddled, and then pulled out the strapless bandeau she was wearing, dangling it from two fingers.

Ju grinned and they both went to work, tying the gags. Hamand tried to shout, but Ju smacked the back of his head, bouncing his forehead on the floor, and tied Fran's headband as tight as she could. Baint was still moaning quietly, and didn't put up any resistance.

Then they all stood back and looked at their handiwork.

“I knew, theoretically, we could overpower them, but they had the laz guns.” Fran sat down suddenly on a chair.

“They couldn't kill us with the laz guns, because that would mean they couldn't use us.” Vik shrugged.

“Yes, but especially this one,” Tilla toed Hamand, “didn't care that much about that plan. When he realized you were talking to someone on your comm set, he looked like he wanted to hurt you. So it was a big risk.”

Hamand made a sound and Tilla toed him again, a little harder.

“We managed it because they underestimated us, got too close, and thought they had us scared and in their power.” Nyha looked down at the two guards with satisfaction. “We used the advantages we were given, and we did an awesome job.”

The girls grinned back at her.

“I thought . . .” Fran slowly stood. “I thought all those fighting classes you made us go to were your way of working through what happened to you. I always resented them.”

“You're right, they were my way of trying to control what happened to me. But they were also there to make sure, as much as possible, you would never be as helpless as I was.” Nyha smiled. “And they worked.”

“I'd say.” Vik grinned. “So what do we do now?”

Nyha lifted her shoulders to loosen them. Switched her comm set back to talk mode. “Mak, are you there?”

“Nyha, what the hell?”

“We've tied up the guards. Is there somewhere we should go that you can suggest?”

“You've overpowered your guards?” Mak sounded strained.

“Yes.”

“Then go back the way you came until the first exit to your left, head out of the building, and I'll get someone on my team to meet you.”

“You have a team?” She frowned. All this time, she'd thought he was on his own.

“Do it, Nyha. Now, before anyone comes to check on you.”

“All right.” His tone put her back up. She knew she sounded snippy, but she felt snippy.

She moved to the door, looked both ways, and then led the girls to their second escape attempt of the day.