HAWK

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: BIRDCAGE (1/6)

Kas wasn't sure how long she'd been shut away for, but she guessed it was somewhere in the region of three hours.

Immediately after making contact with Astell, Swanne had ordered the two WASP soldiers to escort Kas to a 'secure holding room'. That sounded fine to Kas who was keen to get well away from Swanne and her bio-mech panther, but her relief was short lived.

The holding room made Captain Mack's interrogation bunker look positively luxurious - at least that had had a chair. Her new pad was as good an example of an isolation cell as Kas could have conceived. It was best described as a box, measuring fifteen-feet every which way with the only notable feature being a ten-inch thick security door. The two soldiers had barely bundled her inside before pulling it closed and leaving her quite literally in the dark. The lambentile panelling that covered the walls and ceiling had been deactivated, leaving the room blacker than deep space and just as quiet.

After walking the perimeter of the room several times and mapping out the small dimensions of the cell in her mind, Kas lay flat in the centre of the room to conserve what little was left of her energy and try and put recent events in order.

She'd travelled over two hundred million miles across the solar system and learned en route that the rogue X1 she'd been travelling with had most likely been stolen from Sae-quin Lor, the recently deceased inventor. It also made good sense that the Black Chains had something to do with his death, but without more information, she could only speculate on that.

Shortly after that, she had been forced into a deadly battle with a mothership full of alien X1's and miraculously survived, only to find herself being held prisoner in a top-secret federal space lab disguised as an asteroid. Although she hadn't known what to expect once she reached the belt, the discovery of Eidol went far and above her wildest imaginings. There was no doubt in her mind that it was the source of the databeam; the chances of it being a coincidence were almost impossible to calculate.

Eidol's proud governor was another mystery. Swanne was clearly highly intelligent and very powerful, and Kas was convinced she was in some way implicated in Selva's destruction, but she couldn't yet say how or why. She worked for the Federation - had spent most of her life doing so - so what possible cause could she have for blowing up an entire space station beyond mindless terrorism? But again, without more details, Kas could only wonder.

And then there was Astell. Foolish, glory seeking Astell. How had he even found her? He should still have been looking for her back in the streets of Yun-Ko, not chasing her across the solar system and into an asteroid belt. On the few occasions Kas had encountered him, Astell had merely been a slight nuisance, but now he was a dangerous liability. He would no doubt tell Swanne everything he knew about her and their limited encounters with one another. Kas was cursing herself for ever having mentioned the databeam to him, though she wasn't sure she'd actually used that particular word.

If he has any brains at all, he'll keep his mouth shut about that...

She wasn't very optimistic, though.

Another sleepless hour passed, during which Kas retreated to a corner of the room where she sat with her knees tucked in close to her chest in an effort to stay warm. The cell had become uncomfortably cold. Kas imagined she would be able to see her breath if there was light enough to see anything at all. She pulled her arms in through the sleeves of her jumpsuit and stretched its neck up over her mouth and nose so that her trapped breath would provide her body with a little heat.

After being deprived of her senses for several hours, her brain started trying to create its own stimulus. Occasionally, a spark of light would appear in her peripherals only to disappear again when she tried to look at it. Her mind had a funny way of trying to keep her entertained.

From time to time she would stand up and walk around to stretch out her limbs before returning to her corner to get warm again. She had almost made herself comfortable when every lambentile panel in the room suddenly turned bright white. Her left hand whipped up to cover her eyes as a muted beep heralded the unlocking of the cell door. She heard it swing open and felt a timid breeze die against her body.