No real choice, I gained my feet and followed Fosord. Ponife stayed behind me as we navigated the brig on level five. The closed doors with the red light glowing near the lock meant the cell was occupied. I stopped counting after ten—too depressing.
At one door, Fosord stopped and slid back the metal panel.
“Look,” he said.
Dread rose like bile in my throat. I swallowed it down. Peering into the cell, I saw Jacy. Bruises covered his face, and he tugged at something invisible around his neck—probably a collar. Fosord shut the panel before I could say anything.
He did the same thing at the next cell. I refused to move, but his gaze slid behind me.
“Trella,” Ponife warned.
Bracing for another shock, I glanced inside. Logan sat on the mat with his head buried in his hands. We moved to the next cell. Riley lay on a mat as if asleep, but he could have been unconscious. Blood dripped from a large gash across his forehead and temple. My legs refused to hold me up and I sank to the ground. Fosord closed the panel.
Ponife crouched next to me. “See? We have all your friends. You will cooperate now.”
“You don’t need me,” I said. “Unless you have injured?”
“No. Come.”
Once again wedged between the Outsiders, we left the brig and walked through level five toward Quad A5. The hallways were filled with Outsiders. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Many of them still wore their white suits and helmets.
“They’re getting use to the air,” Ponife said.
We climbed up to the top of the half-completed level ten. I stopped in amazement. Bright daylights filled the Expanse, reflecting off the ceiling. And the Outsiders had attached a lift to the west Wall, explaining the smooth groove and tracks I had noticed on one of my early explorations.
An odd thought occurred to me. It seemed we’d been stumbling around in the dark for thousands of weeks, while these Outsiders had no trouble making everything work for them. Maybe our ancestors had stolen this ship from them.
I turned to Ponife. “Why didn’t you try to talk to us? We probably could have worked out an agreement between us.”
“We do not want to be…a part of your world. We want our ship back.”
His answer confused me. “You want to be in charge, right? And make the rules?”
Ponife attempted to smile. I shuddered at the creepy effort and hoped he wouldn’t do it again. “No. We want our ship back and you…gone.”
Oh. No. “As in gone gone?”
“Like your ancestors had done to us.” He gestured to the ceiling. “Put you in transports with little food and supplies and send you all out to die in space.”
My emotions flipped from horrified to terrified and back. “Why did they?—”
“It does not matter why!” Fosord shouted, grabbing my shirt and slamming me into the Wall. “No crime deserves such punishment. Your people are…savages. You kill your own and crush them into…pulp.”
I thought it best not to argue with him.
He released me. “Tell her,” he said to Ponife.
“You will help us find everyone,” he said. “Hank says you know all the hiding places. We want everyone gone.”
Even overwhelmed with the information, I still couldn’t help asking, “Even Hank?”
“Yes.Everyone,” Fosord snapped.
Ponife glared at him. Fosord wasn’t supposed to tell me that. Good to know they can make mistakes.
“Does Hank know?” I asked.
“No. And you will not tell him,” Ponife said. He held up the X. “Understand?”
