Tram

<snip>
Artemis snuck down to the corridor where Cass had Lindstrom and the two coerced Lindstrom to cooperate by threatening to blow up the cloning lab (which Artemis intended to do regardless).
</snip>

“There!” a shout from behind them prompted Cass to wheel in panic and reactivate her improvised hard-light shield, the air in the gloomy corridor crackling with a dark blue haze as it blistered to life
The troopers opened fire more or less simultaneously, but thankfully only a couple of badly aimed stray shots made it through, ricocheting harmlessly away down the corridor before the shield established itself
“Oh my science!” Artemis gasped in surprise “How did...!?”
“Release the Head Warden!” one of the troopers boomed as Lindstrom favoured Artemis with a thin smile.
Cass was on him in seconds and slammed him hard up against the wall
“Call them off” she snarled, jamming the tip of the steak knife she still carried, up under his chin “Call them off or you die”
Wincing from the feedback from his idiot collar, Lindstrom took a ragged breath and nervously licked his lips
“If you kill me,” he began, shying away from the blade as much as he was able “If you kill me, there’ll be nothing stopping my guards from killing you. Even with that shield of yours, they’ll get you in the end”
“Is that the best you can do!?” Cass gave him one of Brittany’s icy cold smiles
She leaned in close to jerk the knife up under his chin, forcing him up onto his tiptoes as she twisted it, drawing blood and eliciting a gasp of pain
“I’m one of the STCP’s board of directors” she whispered in his ear “I bet your primitive little Trawl didn’t pick that up, did it?”
“Y... You’re lying”
“Believe what you want,” Cass retreated a little and continued in a more normal tone “but if you don’t tell your guards to lay down their weapons and fuck off right now, I will eradicate your gene line from history
“Just think about that for a moment: All your great scientific achievements will by necessity be credited to someone else” Cass paused to glance slyly towards Artemis, who was keeping a close eye on the troopers, and quirked her eyebrows “Maybe even him...”
“I... What!?” Lindstrom spluttered, his vanity apparently one of his weaknesses “No!”
“Then you know what to do”
“Lay... Lay down your weapons” Lindstrom yelled shrilly at the troopers “Lay them all down and back away, right now!”
“Good boy” Cass smirked
“But sir,” the squad Sergeant called back “we’ll effectively be arming these escapees - Are you sure about that?”
Cass jerked the knife up against Lindstrom’s throat
“A-Absolutely positive! There’s a time and a place for everything Sergeant – Do as I say!”
The troopers reluctantly complied with this, each setting their assault rifles down on the floor and backing slowly away
“Keep moving!” Artemis yelled at them as they retreated around a corner while he, Cass and Lindstrom gingerly advanced behind the shield towards where the weapons lay on the rusting deck plates “Keep moving!”
After what seemed like an age the Dwarfer’s eventually reached the rifles, which Artemis gleefully fell upon, snatching one up from the floor and brandishing it triumphantly
“I can’t even use these damn things!” he grinned as he fumbled with the weapon “But this will do very nicely in a pinch; an inspired idea Ms. Jones!”
“Just point the end with the hole in it at something you want to kill and pull the trigger” Cass muttered as she snatched a rifle of her own up from the floor and emptied the others of their power cells, several of which she passed up to Artemis “Not difficult”
“Have you two quite finished?” Lindstrom sneered
“Oh yes” Artemis gave him a supercilious smirk as he sighted him down the barrel of the weapon “Quite”
“Let’s move” Cass nudged Lindstrom with the butt of her rifle


It didn’t take long for the three to make it, unimpeded, to one of the elevator clusters, where they caught an express lift up to the command saucer from one of the litter strewn, but eerily deserted platforms
Sat in silence in the gloomily lit, empty tram as it tracked its way slowly up through the levels, Cass fidgeted with her weapon, checking and nervously rechecking the power levels and calibration settings before flopping listlessly back in her seat to gaze around her, her eyes constantly in motion.
The usually loquacious Artemis was quiet, seemingly lost in his own worries and thoughts, whereas Lindstrom seemed to have fallen asleep, his eyes closed, giving him a countenance of extreme serenity, which for some reason niggled Cass, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on why
She was just about to climb out of her seat and poke him with the barrel of her weapon, but the tram suddenly emerged from the main body of the prison fortress, out into space as it slowly climbed up the central spindle towards the main command saucer, some thirty minutes or more distant
Her eyes widening with surprise, Cass shuffled across her seat to gaze out of the five centimetre thick plexiglass window. It was the first time she had seen the prison from space, and the sheer vastness of its scale was humbling.
Continuing its ascent for another five minutes, the tram suddenly jolted to a halt
“What’s this?” Cass demanded, on her feet and over towards Lindstrom in an instant
“Yeah!” Artemis said bullishly “What she said!”
Lindstrom’s eyes flickered open to regard the two Dwarfer’s as a thin smile stole across his lips
“I may be of merely average intellect with this collar,” he began “but I still have some very clever people working for me, who...” he tapped the side of his head with a forefinger “I have been in constant communication with, with my many implants”
“You little shit” Cass snarled, raising her rifle and aiming it at him
“Wait” Artemis held up a hand, a quizzical expression on his face “What’s that hissing noise?”
“What...?” Cass mouthed, cocking her head to listen intently
“That hissing noise...”
“That would be the air being slowly vented from this tram” Lindstrom nodded sagely “I suppose I forgot to mention that I have other implants which mean that I don’t have to breathe?” he settled back in his seat, a broad grin widening on his face “Screw having children” he murmured with an air of satisfaction “You’ll both be dead in six minutes”
“Give me one good reason not to kill you right now” Cass raised her rifle once again

<tag>
Over to you Mike – How do we get out of this?
</tag>