The Steel Rose

Chapter Eight:
“I’m Gonna Soak Up the Sun”

--January 18th, 4:03 AM--

The cell was dark, the only source of light being a small glow-panel fixed into the wall just outside her cell. The dim light did little more than lengthen her shadow and put every nerve on edge. Every time a guard’s boots clicked on the hard cement ground one of her muscle’s twitched. Even now, having not eaten a good meal in more years than she cared to remember, with her once robust arms now atrophied and weak, her muscles still found a way to tense and twitch.

But it was still the most hospitable prison in the galaxy.

Kiyone sighed for possibly the millionth time since her arrival in the prison. “Goddamn...” she muttered, her voice little more than a hoarse whisper.

“Hey, quiet in there,” one of the guards barked, waving his gun at her. “Not a peep until sunrise,” he ordered.

Kiyone shook her head. She was going to be in this very cell for the rest of her life, and at the current rate it didn’t look like her life was gonna last much longer. What the Hell... she thought. I’m gonna die down here anyway... May as well go out fighting.

The ex-GP officer rose silently to her feet, the action reminding her that she hadn’t moved from that spot all day. She limped over to her cell door, feet padding noiselessly on the cement. “Hey,” she whispered, motioning for the guard to come closer. Cautiously, he walked up to the bars. “I think the guy next to me died,” she told him.

A shocked look passed over the man’s face. “I didn’t hear anything.”

“He’s not breathing anymore,” Kiyone murmured. The soldier nodded, then turned to go over to the next cell. It was the moment Kiyone was waiting for, when he let his guard down just enough for her to reach through the bars, clamp one hand firmly over his mouth, and use the other to hit a pressure point at the base of his skull. The guard hit the ground with a dull thump, which was Kiyone’s cue to kneel down and search for his key card. She swiped the small card through the lock beside her cell door, then punched in the number she had seen him type in several times that day. The lock required a retina scan, so she pulled him up by the collar of his shirt and positioned him before the scanner. That done, it released its catch and she carefully slid the cell door open. She took the opportunity to go through his stuff one more time, commandeering his gun and his uniform, then throwing him onto the cot in her cell, careful to toss the cover over his body.

With a sort of morbid glee, she positioned the blaster at the back of his neck. “Good night,” she murmured, then pulled the trigger. The blast was silent, muffled by his skin. “Sounds like freedom to me,” she said, smiling for the first time in many long, hard years. “Now to go find Mihoshi.”

--January 18th, 5:36 AM--

“Um, excuse me, sir.” The group had finally arrived at the prison via Ryoko’s space ship. Now they had the difficult task of infiltrating the building, a task that Ryoko seemed to be handling quite well. “Could you be so kind as to direct me and my friends here to the entrance?” the space pirate asked, batting her eyelashes. The rest of the entourage did their best to look as innocent as possible, which was an especially great feat for Hitasa.

“It’s just over that way,” he told her, “but I’m afraid it’s an employees only sort of thing.”

Ryoko sighed, shaking her head. “Really?” she asked, her voice a little lower than usual. The man nodded, then turned to continue his rounds, but Ryoko wasn’t about to let him go. In one swift motion she punched him square in the side of the head, knocking him out immediately. “Sucks to be you,” she told him, sticking her tongue out at the prone guard.

Hitasa shook her head from behind her mother. “I thought we decided not to just waltz in and demand Kiyone’s release?” Narika and Ayeka shared a look in response to Hitasa’s question, knowing what was coming next.

“Do I look like I’m waltzing?” the space pirate asked cynically. “I couldn’t waltz to save my life.”

Hitasa was about to argue against Ryoko’s current plan of action when she noticed a pair of guards walking towards them. She held up a hand for silence, which descended upon the group with a vengeance. As one, they all dove into the shadows, where they hid--with the unconscious guard--as the oblivious guards walked right on by.

Ryoko blinked a few times. “What the Hell are we doing?” she asked no one in particular. “I could blast those guys to oblivion before they’d have a chance to blink.”

Ayeka brought her hand to Ryoko’s arm as if to restrain the space pirate. “We do have a plan, if you remember,” she said.

“You take the fun out of everything,” Ryoko whined, to which Ayeka just raised an eyebrow. It took the space pirate a moment to catch on to what the princess was thinking, but when she did a wicked grin painted her face. “Ah, you know what I mean,” she amended.

“Oh, whatever, don’t we have a cop to save or something?” asked a slightly flustered Hitasa.

“Ex-Galaxy Police officer,” Narika corrected, “otherwise known as my illegitimate mother.”

Hitasa grunted a little at her lover’s correction. “Yeah, her.”

Ryoko turned pleading eyes on her violet-haired companion. “Please?” she begged, her eyes large and watery.

Ayeka grimaced a little, trying not to look at the space pirate’s impossibly cute face lest her will power begin to waver. “Ryoko, we can’t do that...”

The space pirate scowled. “Oh, all right. I’ll just go knock them out and steal their uniforms. You all stay right here.” That said, she allowed her body to fade into invisibility.

Hitasa just stared blankly at the place her mother had been only moments before. “I wanna do that...” Narika patted her consolingly on the arm.

Before anyone could start up a conversation, Ryoko reappeared with two unconscious security guards. “C’mon, we gotta hurry. They’re supposed to check in in a couple of minutes.”

In about half of a minute, which many men will say women can’t get dressed in, both Ryoko and Hitasa stripped the guards and changed into their uniforms. Then they gagged the two men, tied their hands and feet, and hid them behind a few bushes.

Hitasa brushed off her new uniform, smoothing out the ruffles. Then she locked eyes with her mother and very seriously said, “Let’s go.” The two women made a show of stepping inconspicuously out of the bushes and running up to the checkpoint.

“HEY!!” Ryoko yelled at the other two guards posted at the entranceway. They looked over at her with equally confused and concerned faces. “There’s an escaped prisoner over here!!” The two guards’ expressions quickly shifted to alarm and they dashed off to follow Ryoko and Hitasa, who had started running back around the prison.

Once they were out of view of the security cameras, Ryoko slowed down. Hitasa stopped with her, and they waited for the guards to catch up.

“Where did they go?” one of the guards asked. Ryoko answered by violently knocking him senseless, as Hitasa dealt the same treatment to the other guard. Quickly and quietly, they dragged the next two guards away and hid them in the bushes.

“Alright, now here’s the fun part,” Ryoko said, and a diabolical sort of gleam entered her eyes as she held up two sets of handcuffs.

“Well, it’s been a while since we used those, love,” Ayeka commented. Ryoko just kind of laughed as she gently brought the former-princess’ arms around behind her back and handcuffed her.

Hitasa did the same to Narika, all the while having to block out her blonde girlfriend’s many suggestive comments for fear of losing control. “Later,” she whispered into Narika’s ear.

“Okay, so yeah, now you guys have to do everything we say,” Ryoko announced, and the entire group started laughing.

“You know,” Hitasa began, “considering you’re my mother and all, this is really disturbing.” Her comment was met with a comforting kiss on the cheek from her hand-cuffed lover.

--January 18th, 6:42 AM--

“Who’re you?” a guard asked gruffly, noticing the unfamiliar woman on duty.

The woman pulled out her ID badge, showing it to the guard. “I’m new, sir. Just got transferred here.” She pocketed the badge. “I was sent up to check up on prisoner 50724.”

The guard tsked and shook his head, but let the woman pass nonetheless. “Good luck,” he muttered.

The heavy cell door that the guard had been kind enough to open for her slammed shut behind Kiyone as she stepped into her old partner’s cell. The blonde that she had worked with for so long sat huddled in a corner, silent and miserable.

“Hey,” Kiyone called, her voice rough and low. Mihoshi twitched a little, and the other woman knew that she was awake and aware. “Get up,” she ordered.

Slowly, resignedly, Mihoshi stood up, her eyes locked on the ground and her shadowed, pale face the picture of defeat.

“Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” Kiyone continued. The blonde did as she said, and Kiyone stepped up and handcuffed her wrists together. “Mihoshi, it’s me, Kiyone,” she whispered. Before the blonde could respond, Kiyone clamped one hand over her mouth. “I’m here to rescue you, but you have to be quiet and do as I say,” Kiyone instructed.

With her ex-partner’s hand still clamped over her mouth, Mihoshi nodded enthusiastically.

Slowly, Kiyone removed her hand. “Don’t say anything,” she hissed. Mihoshi nodded. “Now, come on.” The green-haired woman walked her friend over to the door, then knocked on it. On the other side, the guard unlocked the door and it opened with a click.

“I’m taking the prisoner off-planet, to Jurai,” Kiyone informed the guard. She showed him her papers, which she had stolen from another guard and altered slightly on her way to the cell.

“Well, everything looks okay. Clear it at the front desk,” the guard told her.

Kiyone nodded, folding up her papers. Then she took hold of Mihoshi and headed for the exit.

--January 18th, 7:35 AM--

They had just made it to the docking bay and were about to make their getaway in a stolen ship when a sizable explosion shook the prison.

“It couldn’t be,” Kiyone murmured, then shook her head and went back to powering up her ship.

Suddenly, the viewscreen in front of her flicked on and one of the commanding officers of the prison instructed her to take her ship to a set of coordinates just outside the prison and fire on some unidentified assailants. Kiyone saluted the commander, and the viewscreen flicked off.

“Buckle up, Mihoshi. This could get interesting,” the green-haired woman said.

“Do you think it could be Ryoko?” the blonde asked as she clipped the harness around her body.

Kiyone laughed a little at the irony. “I wouldn’t be surprised.” With that, her little ship took off from the launch pad and headed for the coordinates the commander had provided her with.

--January 18th, 7:40 AM--

“So much for sticking to the plan!” Hitasa yelled over the multiple warning claxons Ryoko had managed to set off.

The pirate in question just growled and replied, “He looked at me funny,” as behind her a chain of explosions went off, taking out half of the prison’s outer wall.

“We didn’t even get inside the prison!” Narika exclaimed, running to catch up with the other two. They were attempting to retreat to the forest that surrounded the prison complex. It would be a much more defendable position than out in the open.

Ayeka looked back from where they came, at the flaming, wrecked prison. Several small ships floated up from the docking bay, looking uncannily like very angry bees. “I believe we have company!” she shouted to her companions, who stopped for a moment to look back.

“Well, I guess this works for a last stand,” Ryoko muttered, her enery sword materializing in her hand. Just as she was about to leap up and destroy the first ship, a voice spoke from its loudspeaker.

“Ryoko this is Kiyone. I’m going to land the ship. Get on as fast as you can.” With that said, the small ship made its quick descent, lowering its loading ramp on the way down. The small group ran up the ramp and strapped themselves into the seats that lined the walls. The ship’s weak shields absorbed the blasts from the other ships as Kiyone piloted their transport off into outer space, and away from the God-forsaken prison.

To be continued...

Post Author’s Note: Okay, now that I’m all caught up on posting this thing, which I’ve been working on for about a year or two, it’ll probably be a while before I’m able to post another chapter. I’ll try real hard, though, if that counts for anything. See y’all.