Supper was well over by the time TO and DH got to the common room. Of course, their work at the ship consumed most of their day, and they spent a good part of the evening escaping surveillance so it was well after dark by the time they were ready to see the others. Many of their new allies were actually asleep. By the time they got to the common room it was mostly empty save for Vik at his computer, GiDi, Pearla, Tham, Flit and Snout.
“We couldn’t have slept until you guys were back, anyway.” GiDi explained as they pushed containers of food towards TO and DH.
“Well, I just wanted information.” Tham muttered. Though he sounded better than he had earlier that day, there were still deep blue bags under his eyes, contrasting vividly from the red of his skin. Somehow, even the scales on his tail seemed duller than normal; as thought they were missing something. When they glanced at Pearla, they say that her scales had a slight iridescence to them. It was something they hadn’t noticed before its absence in Tham.
“He says that, but he was legitimately worried.” Pearla said as she passed a smaller container of food to Vik. “He was worried about you after yesterday-“
“Hey now, I just worried that they’d faint or something and fuck everything up. And Vik was with ‘em!”
“He was worried about the three of you.” Pearla. Said as she sat back down at the table. “Very worried.”
Tham only huffed in response.
“The good news is that we seem to have remote access to the synth ship.” Vik said as he flicked open the container and pulled out a shell. TO looked away as he cracked it hard against the table to break the shell, focusing instead on their own meal. They were happy enough to see a small container of some kind of soup with a crumbly kind of bread. They hadn’t eaten since that morning, so they weren't surprised that they had an appetite at least.
“Now, I’m told that there’s some maintenance that still needs to be done before we’re really safe to fly.” Vik looked at TO, “How long will that take?”
“Half a day, so long as there’s nothing major that needs to be done.” TO said, “And we’ll have the ship refueled by tomorrow. Also, what’s left to do we can, technically, do it in flight. I’d just rather have it done before we leave if possible.”
“And the problem with that is that they tracked us on the way back.” Vik said. “I got us off the radar, but I don’t think we can use the same trick again; at least not with those two. We went into a tube and disappeared; they’re going to search that and I can only hope they don’t find my secret passageway. Still, the more often we go in there, the more likely they will find it.”
“And then there’s the issue of getting everyone to the ship, I suppose…” Pearla said. “I don’t know how we’ll do that secretly….”
The plan coalesced in TO’s mind instantly, their ears perking up. “Well… we can.” They said, They turned to Vik. “Can’t we use that warehouse?”
“What?”
“You said that the warehouse is used to move people all the time!” TO said, “I could place an order to go to the ship, receive it, and settle people in there!”
“Won't that be suspicious?” Pearla asked.
“Maybe.” TO said, “But we’ll hopefully be off the planet before it causes a problem.”
Vik’s ears twitched thoughtfully before they started typing again. “That might work.” They said. “if you placed an order for something…” He paused, “I don’t know. Food supplies for your trip back, perhaps. Or equipment for repairs. We can choose something, I’ll set up a site we can order from.” They suddenly beamed, “Oh, and you could actually pay for the stuff from your galactic accounts, Not only will we get people to the ship. But we’ll also get some funds for us!”
“That’s useful.” Pearla said, “No matter where you are in the galaxy, money can buy a lot of compassion.”
“You’re not wrong.” Tham said.
“Only one more problem.” Vik said, “If you’re here, how do we get people inside the ship? Normal delivery drones don’t have access…”
That would be a problem. “The only way it would work is if we go back.” TO said, “And just act as normal synths-”
“I don’t like that plan.” Tham said quickly. “Let them just go back to being synths?” he shook his head, “No. no, not a good idea-”
“Oh, I’m sure they’ll be fine.” Vik said, “Everything’s under control-”
“I don’t want to leave Avery here alone.” DH said, “Especially not with Kei still recovering. I know I can’t do much, but I can do a little. “
TO’s ears flicked back as they considered, casting a wide net over their mind for a new plan. That had only been their first idea; a reasonable, easy one to implement, but if it didn’t work for anyone, at the very least they could come up with other ideas.
If only they had a tunnel to their ship.
Suddenly, they recalled the signal from DH’s communicator. Back when the insurgency had just taken DH, and TO tried to track their mate, the signal was coming from their ship. DH of course was not on their ship… but there had been tunnels underground!
“Vik!” TO said as they activated their chip, “Before I was down here, how did you make it seem like DH’s was in the ship?”
“Oh, that’s easy.” Vik said, “there’s a tunnel under your ship a good ways down-”
TO brought up the map of the tunnels under the city, the ones that snaked their way all over, forgotten and unused.
“This one?” They asked as they pointed to the one right under their ship.
“If we’re careful, and if the ground cooperates with us, we could probably tunnel to the ship.” Flit said, eying the map, “That’s such a stupid simple idea.”
“Won’t work,” Vik said. “I mean, it will work, sure, but the second we break ground we’ll end up targeted by security drones and ground troops. We’d have seconds before we had to get under cover again, and we’d never get a bunch of civilians on the ship from there.” He turned to Tham, “Remember how hard it is to get there in the first place? Half of them wouldn’t make it. Decon’s balls, Tham, you hardly made it.”
Decon’s balls. That was a new one.
“You still have the warehouse.” TO said, “We could send people who couldn’t make it through the tunnel to our ship through the original plan, and anyone else who can get through the tunnels can go to our ship from underground-”
“And get spotted as soon as they break ground.”
TO glanced at Flit, and noted the light smirk on their face, the amused way their ears twitched. A foolish sense of pride deep inside them bloomed as they leaned forward, reading their hand on their chin. “They don’t need to break ground.” TO said. “The ship has emergency entrances on the bottom. We just need to get to that and then we can let people in. We can start bringing people and supplies over right away. Anyone who can’t use the tunnels can go in shipping crates-”
“Have any deliveries rushed!” Pearla said, “Express delivery.” Her smile suddenly had an odd, sinister look to it, “Same day delivery.”
“I can arrange it so that our packages get shipped right away, anyway.” Vik said, “We won’t need-”
“It’ll cost more, and that money’s going to go to us anyway from King Decon’s own pocket!” she frowned as she watched Vik, “You literally just said to charge Decon.”
“Oh… right.” Vik said, frowning. They paused, then took a drink from a tiny bottle filled with a glowing purple fluid. “You’re right; I did. It was a good idea. It’s all basically a good plan!”
“Sounds good to me.” Tham said, “And those two can stay here then.” He jerked his head at TO and DH.
“... Or better still!” Vik said, their dark eyes growing big, “They can still come and go, showing that they’re in fact on the ship! Gyrini would have no reason to search the tunnels then and won’t find us! They’d have open access to the city, and the underground without worry about surveillance!” Their eyes brightened, “They could run errands for us above ground and get supplies down here right away!”
GiDi gave a relieved sigh, slumping in their chair, “Alright.” They said, “We’ll arrange for some tunneling tomorrow morning, and then once that’s under way, we’ll complete our plan to get more people out of the indebted system.”
“We’re doing that tomorrow?” Pearla asked, her brows furrowing in the center of her violet forehead, “Is that safe-”
“We’re only planning things tomorrow.” GiDi said as they rubbed their eyes, “I can’t think straight right now, but I’m sure a rest will help.”
Had GiDi been sleeping properly? Their skin seemed a little dull, their eyes a little less alert than they might have been, and their ears a little slower in their more subtle movements.
TO picked up their soup, flicked off the lid, sniffed it, and then drank half of it. It was good; savory and flavourful. So long as they didn’t think too much about what it was, they’d be fine.
“Food, then bed then.” TO said, “I suppose we’ll have a busy day tomorrow too.”
======
“Hey Dee?” Vik said, “I’m working on this bit of coding to your ship - just trying to navigate your network here. Now, I could do it on my own, sure, but if I had a bit of help…”
“You go on…” TO said. While they wanted to have DH to themself longer, this gave them a chance to get something done before they went to sleep. “I’ll meet you at our room.”
Before they could take so much as a step away, DH took TO by the arm and turned them around. “You sure?” They said, keeping their voice low enough that the words stayed between the two of them. “I can go with you. Vik can figure this out on their own-”
“It’s fine.” TO said. It wasn’t a lie; they didn’t mind necessarily as they had other plans.
DH smiled, nodded, and then leaned in to press a soft kiss on their lower lip. “Alright.” They said, “I’ll see you there soon. Love you.”
TO kissed them back, enjoying the way their mate’s hand lingered on their arm for just a second longer than was really necessary before they parted. As DH went over to help Kei work with their files, TO hurried out the door and down the hall. Flit and Snout weren’t too far gone yet; they were sure they could catch up.
