Escape

Jenny finally gave a more in-depth look at the map. "Uhh... John. It's not in English… We can't read this... What are we going to do?"

John replied, "It's time for drastic measures." This wasn't a surprise for John, he had already made sufficient preparations.

John pulled out a knife that he had confiscated from the guard. "Jenny help me stand him up" John requested. Jenny had a confused expression while she helped John stand the guard up then John spoke again.

"Jenny, slap him with your shoe or something, just wake him up." Jenny once again complied but she was even more confused this time.

As soon as the guard woke up, John pulled out his knife and held it to the guard's throat. "You understand me, right? You have one of those little translators in your ear, right?"

The guard spoke very softly as to not press his throat against the knife any further. "Yes, I understand, what do you want with me?"

John ignored the question, "Jenny pull out the map and put it in front of his face. This is the part about plan two that I didn't tell you about." Jenny grew impatient as nothing was explained to her, she felt just as confused as the guards.

"Guard, first tell me, what's your name?" John asked pressing his knife further against the guard's rough skin. Slight blood trickled down the blade.

"My name is Alkhayin Almaqtul, please what do you want from me." The guard asked but only felt the blade get closer to the inside of his throat.

"What I want is for you to answer my questions. Here's the second, and don't lie to me, do you have a family and would you like to see them again?" John only wanted to intimidate the man, not kill his family.

The man looked down at the blade and instinctively gulped, this only caused his throat to bleed slightly more from expanding towards the blade. "Yes, I do, and I would like to see them, please just let me go."

"Okay, heres the last question can you read this map? It's been in front of you for the past 2 minutes…" John had this guard, Alkhayin, exactly where he wanted him, mentally and physically.

"Yes, I can read it what do you want to know? I also know how to get everywhere by using this." The guard might've oversold himself a little bit, but these crazy Terans didn't have to know.

"Is there any sort of escape pods or smaller spacecraft in this place?" John couldn't even think of a word for a spacecraft this large, it must've been at least two football fields in length.

"Yeah the spacecraft bay, it's uh, wait can I point to it– You– You won't stab me right?" Alkhayin's voice quivered with every word, he was more scared than most people could even imagine.

"Just take us to the bay. If you want to live to see your family you will not ask any further questions… Understood?" John threatened him but he still had no intentions to harm the guard, if he complied.

John cleared his throat, "Now do you have any sort of restraining device that you use when you are transporting prisoners?" This was the last step before they could make their way to the bay.

"Yes, I do… I'm guessing you want me to put them on?" Alkhayin started to have a bad feeling.

"Yes, of course, did you think I wanted to wear them?" The guard complied and put on the advanced handcuffs, if he were to struggle with them at all, Alkhayin knew it would instantly incapacitate himself.

"Memorize the route and take us to the bay, Alkahyin." The guard complied and they began on their way towards the spacecraft's bay.

They had walked by several aliens without causing any suspicion, but John noticed that they were heading towards the colosseum, so he decided to make a short detour. "Jenny, you go inside and check for Wesley I'll stand guard, with the guard."

Jenny respected the former chief astronaut so she did as he said, like normal. Within a few minutes, she was back with John. "I didn't find him, but can we really even leave him… He's one of us." Jenny sounded sad as she asked.

"Yeah, I don't want to leave him either Jenny, at least not until we find out what happened." John frowned but it was not as if he didn't believe in Wesley, 'Something must've gone wrong… They had no other choice' These are the only thoughts that consoled John.

They finally arrived at the spacecraft bay after sneaking past many guards and civilians. There were around 20 different ships the size of a small house. John asked, "Alkhayin, can you fly any of these ships? If you can't we might have an issue." Alkahyin gulped again, this time the knife cut further into his throat almost cutting through the last few layers of skin.

"Yeah, I should be able to fly that one over there… I was a Pilot Talib, I've flown one before." Alkahyin pointed to a ship, so the three of them walked over to it.

John sighed "Sh*t how do we open it? I didn't think of this…" Alkahyin didn't want John to potentially kill him so he revealed what he knew.

"Uh, John I can open it with voice recognition… I was a Talib before, so they let me fly it in case of emergency." John grinned, but Jenny was extremely uncomfortable with how they were coercing this man, no matter the circumstances.

Alkahyin touched a panel on the ship and spoke "Ship 2047, reply, dash 725." A large door folded down slowly but it was extremely heavy, so it made a loud sound when it touched the ground.

A group of guards started running towards the spacecraft that John, Jenny, and Alkahyin were boarding. A guard shouted "Hey! What are you doing!? You can't leave without authorization from the boss!"

The group quickly shut the door, "Alkahyin! Get us out of here! Or I'll kill you."

John removed the knife from Alkahyin's throat.