I keep crawling. H
e has to be lying.
“You fool. We won’t be able to leave,” I say.
And then the truth hits me. This was his plan all along. The games he played with the crew led me to follow Naomi. Once I had her, it was game over. He had me cornered.
He knew her pussy would lock me in, and he used it against me.
He never wanted to leave planet Avalon.
“You bastard,” I mutter. “You got rid of the fuel because you want to keep us here.”
“You weren’t playing by the rules,” Zakar says.
I’m close to the escape hatch. Reaching out, I can almost touch the metal bar to the outside. I’m so fucking close.
Nearby, a red emergency lever catches my eyes.
Zakar continues. “You were doing everything she told you to do because you couldn’t get enough of that addictive sweetness.”
“You’re a monster,” I grunt.
I throw my weight toward the escape hatch. I grab the metal and start to twist, but it’s so rusted that it feels locked in place.
“And you’re too stupid for your own good,” he says, voice coming from the platform below me.
He knows this ship like the back of his hand. He’s coming to get me.
Using all my strength, I turn the bar. It moves an inch but seizes up again. “Come on,” I growl.
“Earth Federation will not let themselves lose this fight so easily. There will be a third starship. And if that mission yields no endowment to our cause, then we will wait for the fourth,” he says.
He’s coming closer. I can hear every footstep grow louder.
I bare my teeth and twist another inch. It loosens, and the rust chips away.
I push harder, throwing all of my weight into it. It turns a full one hundred and eighty degrees.
“Come on,” I scream.
Finally, it turns the entire way.
I unlock the hatch door, and the morning light pours in.
He’s right behind me now. I can feel his hands hit against the corridor as he ducks inside.
Zakar leans forward, teeth glistening against the light. He says, “Eventually, we will make it off this planet, and when we do, we will be unstoppable.”
The fuel we had been storing for years was so important. I never thought he’d be so stupid as to toss that into the ocean. I should have known he’d sabotage everything.
It will take ages before Naomi and I can escape and build a life on Earth.
Earth might never send another convoy again. This could have been the only way out.
“Let me leave,” I say.
“And go where? Back to her? Back to Discovery Base, the place where you were violated and tortured?” he asks. “I told you, the fuel is gone. She can’t save you.”