\u201cACCESS GRANTED.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The door slid soundlessly aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChrist, man,\u201d Jessie whispered, awestruck. \u201cHow\u2019d you manage to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I smiled in what I hoped was an enigmatic way. \u201cEasy, I hacked the list.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut what? It\u2019s uncrackable? Nothing is if you try hard enough. Now get your arse in there before a security patrol notices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
We hustled into the antechamber and waited for the door to close behind us. The SecForce glyphs glowed a gentle burnt amber against the brushed metal walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne door down,\u201d Jesse said, \u201cone to go. Then, bingo<\/em>. Shambhala 752B, here we come!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019d been talking about this for a few months; that we\u2019d break into one of the ship\u2019s armouries, grab a couple of energy weapons, then steal a shuttle to get down to the surface. This was the most dangerous part of the plan, the first piece. If we were caught in here, we\u2019d certainly be leaving the ship, but via an airlock to the void. Suffice to say, that wasn\u2019t quite <\/em>the escape we had planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we\u2019d made it past the first obstacle. The second door slid aside leaving us wide-eyed at the amount, and variety, of guns. Quickly, we grabbed two pistols \u2013 easy to hide in our backpacks\u2013 and some additional powercells, then made our way back out to the corridor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nobody gave us more than a passing glance as we strolled toward the docking bay, even though both of us were convinced we were visibly oozing guilt. The cleaners\u2019 uniforms we\u2019d lifted from the stores got us onboard a small craft, and from there it was simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAren\u2019t the bridge going to wonder why we\u2019re leaving?\u201d Jesse asked, wiping his forehead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNah, man,\u201d I grinned. \u201cSorted that too. We\u2019ll be on the surface boozing it up within an hour. Then, well, then we\u2019ll go find some entertainment<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He grinned back at me. We weren\u2019t sure why no-one was allowed to the surface anymore, but everyone had a suspicion that it was because those high up in command wanted to keep the pleasures of The City exclusive to themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShip, initiate launch and head for the surface,\u201d Jesse said, and the airlock slid closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFUEL LEVEL TEN PERCENT, INADEQUATE FUEL FOR RETURN TRIP,\u201d said the shuttle\u2019s computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cProceed,\u201d I said. \u201cWe\u2019ll refuel at The City when we land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thirty seconds later we were out of the launch bay and headed planetside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStrange they ain\u2019t trying to bring us back,\u201d Jesse said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNah, I blasted them with override codes. They think we\u2019re part of the Elite caste. Rumour has it they go on little jaunts like this all the time. We\u2019re fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We travelled the rest of the way in anticipatory silence until the ship\u2019s onboard computer spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLANDING SEQUENCE COMMENCING. ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS NO LONGER SUPPORT LIFE. FUEL AT ONE PERCENT. SHUTDOWN COMMENCING. LIFE SUPPORT POWER REMAINING: TWO HOURS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhere\u2019s The City?\u201d asked Jesse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNO LIFE IS SUPPORTED ON THIS PLANET. THE CITY IS A MYTH. SHUTDOWN COMPLETE.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The screens darkened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cACCESS GRANTED.\u201d The door slid soundlessly aside. \u201cChrist, man,\u201d Jessie whispered, awestruck. \u201cHow\u2019d you manage to do that?\u201d I smiled in what I hoped was an enigmatic way. \u201cEasy, I hacked the list.\u201d \u201cBut \u2014\u201d \u201cBut what? It\u2019s uncrackable? Nothing is if you try hard enough. Now get your arse in there before a security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1490,1572],"tags":[1608,1606,114,236,1604,31,128,1605,1607,1603,672,11,301,591,159],"class_list":["post-2375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1490","category-the-list","tag-aside","tag-b","tag-but","tag-door","tag-leaving","tag-man","tag-out","tag-shambhala","tag-slid","tag-surface","tag-us","tag-was","tag-way","tag-were","tag-what"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-Cj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2376,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375\/revisions\/2376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}