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I peered at my surroundings and looked for what might have caused it. Maybe a box had toppled from its stack? Or another cube had made contact with mine?
Or maybe it was just a part of my dream. I lay back and got comfortable once again to sleep some more…. When I heard another solid thud.
This time, I wasn’t left wondering where it came from.
The door at the back of the cube stood open.
Light spilled through it and formed a shaft that illuminated the space. I squinted and shied away from it. It wasn’t particularly bright and I was certain it wasn’t natural in origin but from artificial lamps. Still, compared to the total darkness I had gotten used to, I might have been staring directly into the sun.
Had we come to the end of the journey already? I wondered. Had I slept a full twenty-four hours?
I had awoken several times in fits and starts, before finding sleep once more. The cube gave zero indication of the time, so anything was possible.
No one came through the hidden doorway, which struck me as odd. If Ohara was out there, he would have put his head inside and waved me over. But maybe he couldn’t for some reason.
I crept over and peered out through the hole, squinting even harder against the light. No sooner was my head through the hole than hands grabbed me and pulled me from the container.
I still couldn’t see properly. My vision was blurry and obscured by the brightness.
I was placed on my feet and, as I blinked, the light began to fade. I peered around, trying to make out what was around me.
Then my hands were brought behind my back and metal bracelets were attached to my wrists.
Huh?
As the light faded and the scene came into view, my stomach took a one-way trip to the center of the planet.
Ohara wore handcuffs much like my own — futuristic in design with some kind of magnet tech to clasp them together. Half a dozen armed prison guards stood with their rifles pointed at him.
“Ohara?” I screamed. “What’s going on?”
He could barely bring himself to look at me, and when he did, I saw the expression of someone who had just found themselves in hell.
My container cube sat by itself with no others in sight.
And the ship I had been on? There was no sign of it.
And the room we were in?
There was no question in my mind about our location.
We were at Ikmal.
Back on the prison moon.
Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.
PART V
36
OHARA
I was exactly where I didn’t want to be.
Down in the bowels of Ikmal prison. In the cells on either side of me was a psycho and a crazy. One liked to scream at the top of his voice in pathetic, desperate pleading tones, and when his voice finally gave out, his buddy in the cell on my other side did likewise, forming a duet that drilled into my head and threatened to overtake my own sanity.
Who knows, maybe this was how they ended up that way. Surrounded by loons.
