Kira glanced to see if everyone had made it into the ceiling tunnel, but couldn't see past Finn's bulk.
Kira faced ahead again and wiggled forward. They wouldn't be able to stay in these long. Crawling this way took effort and stamina. She made it less than the length of one hallway before she had to rest again.
She reached behind her and wrestled with her dress, pulling its length out of the way. Again.
She’d loved the way it had looked when she’d been going to a party. Now, while crawling through a small tunnel, tripping on it every other second, not so much.
There was a loud rip as she tore the bottom off near her knees. That should make moving a little easier.
“Phoenix is getting naked,” Raider taunted from up ahead.
“You try crawling around this place lugging a bunch of extra fabric,” Kira whisper-hissed back.
There were a couple of chuckles as they all rested. Soft panting filled the air.
"You can see why these fell into disuse," Finn said in a strained voice.
Kira nodded, trying not to feel like the walls were caving in around her. She hated tight spaces. She'd deal, but her stomach would be a tight mass of nerves until she was out.
"We need to get out of these tunnels," Kira said. "They're going to know we're using them. It won't be long before they send people up here to search us out."
They’d traveled several branches already in the short period they'd been up here so it might take a while for Roderick's people to find them. Still, Roderick might get lucky.
"Find us an exit point, Tank," Jace said in a low voice.
There was a low grunt from ahead.
After a few more minutes of crawling, Tank signaled he'd found something. With Finn calling out instructions on how to find the access panel, they didn't have to resort to burning their way out.
Kira lowered herself into a deserted room, the Curs having already secured it. She dropped to the floor and straightened, looking around in curiosity. Beakers and oddly shaped items were strewn throughout.
Raider folded his arms and leaned against a table, crossing his ankles. "What's the game plan? Do you have one?"
All eyes turned toward Kira, identical questions in their expressions.
She rubbed her hands on the remnants of her dress, thinking.
"Step one was making sure you weren't a stationary target," she said. "I'm working on step two."
"We could steal a ship. Fly it out of here," Raider suggested.
Noor snorted. "This isn't one of those human holovids. Stealing a Tuann ship isn't that easy or else your kind would have dozens of them by now."
"The ships are coded to us," Finn said quietly. "You won't be able to even open the doors let alone get one off the ground.
"Not to mention the defense grid would shoot any unauthorized ship that took off from the planet," Noor said.
"What about this defense grid you say these people plan to bring down?" Blue said, tilting her head.
"There's an idea," Jace said.
The Tuann frowned in confusion.
"What is?" Isla asked.
"We wait until it falls and then we fly ourselves out of here," he said, folding his arms over his chest.
"You lack a ship," Finn reminded him.
