Nova strained her ears.
Somewhere nearby water trickled against rocks and above them the sounds of voices and laughter drifted through the trap door, but mostly the ragged breaths of the Hunters filled the stuffy silence.
"What's that saying?" Orion said. "Out of the supernova, into the black-hole?"
"Something like that," Gus said. "Hey, Aart, how's your nose? He got you good."
Nova opened her eyes and glanced at the guard. He hadn't moved an inch; apparently it was okay for them to talk in here.
"Yeah well, if I'd had my hands I would have got him twice as good," Aart said, voice muffled by his hands clutched over his nose. "I think the bastard broke it."
"Not the first time," Orion said.
"No, but it still hurts like a bitch," Aart said.
"You should reset that thing before it heals wrong," Gus said.
"I know." Aart took a deep breath and a yelp echoed through the cells.
The guard's eyes didn't even flicker.
"Better?" Orion said.
"Barely," Aart replied, his voice high.
"Now that Aart's nose is sorted," Tanguin said. "What's our plan?"
"Live long enough to get out of this dump," Gus said.
"What kind of place is this anyway?" said Tyra. "It's outside the Confederacy border and yet it's a class five at least."
"Maybe people came out here and lost their technology?" Aart said.
"Did you see the looks on those villagers' faces when they saw us?" said Tanguin. "They were really scared, like we shouldn't even exist."
Tyra nodded. "They've been here a long time. Look how primitive they are; that doesn't happen over one generation."
"What do you think, Nova?" said Aart.
Nova sat up straighter against her wall and laid her hands in her lap. "Lost colonisation ship."
"You think that actually happened?" Tanguin said.
"Why not? It wouldn't be the first planet I'd been to that had gone native. Earth sent off colonisation ships with no way of getting back, one-way tickets. Maybe one of them ended up here."
"What a ride," Aart said.
"That doesn't help us get out of here," Orion said.
"Are any of the bars on your cells breakable?" Nova asked.
"Nah, first thing I checked," Aart said. The rest of the Hunters echoed his reply.
Nova rested her head back against the wall. If they couldn't break through the bars they'd have to come up with another way of getting free.
Gus rolled his shoulders. "I am not going to waste away in a prison on some class five planet."
"None of us will," Orion said. "We didn't put all that effort into breaking free from the Confederacy only to end up here."
Aart chuckled. "Maybe Nova planned it. Did you come to like prison life during your time on Ankar?"
Nova snorted. "I had actually hoped never to see another prison cell ever again. Now here I am after what, two days of freedom?"
Tanguin frowned and shuffled closer to the front of the cell, her cybernetic eye whirring. "We're not alone."
"That guard hasn't moved an inch since we got here," said Gus.
"I don't mean him."
She slid her eyes back to the motionless guard. Past him, behind the metal ladder, another cell lay shrouded in gloom. Nova squinted and leaned forward as a deeper shadow shuffled in the darkness. The strange man sat in the exact centre of his cell with his legs crossed. His open eyes gazed past Nova's cell, unseeing, as if lost. Bruises and dirt covered his skin where it poked out from his torn brown cloak.
"What a sneaky bastard!" said Aart, crawling to the side of his cell and pressing his face between the bars, only an arm's distance from the stranger.
"He's so quiet I don't think I would ever have noticed him," said Gus. "Bloody dark place."
"Maybe he's spying on us?" said Tanguin. "That's what I'd do."
"Maybe," said Nova. "Keep an eye on him."
"Both of them," said Aart.
Gus leaned back and closed his eyes. "We'll take it in turns to keep watch. We don't want these bastards sneaking up on us while we're asleep."
Tyra nodded. "I'll take first watch. I'm not even tired."
"Good, because I'm exhausted," said Orion.
Nova had to agree. She'd barely stopped since her mad dash out of prison and every muscle ached. Her eyelids drooped and blurred her vision, scratching her eyes like they'd be covered in sandpaper. She nestled into the corner of her cell and let her head rest against the wall. Her eyes closed and she dropped asleep.