Survival

Thats right ladies and gentlemen I have returned! Sorry about the wait but things have been pretty hectic around here. I'll try not to make you wait so long again.

Enjoy

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The second Steven opened his eyes he was forced to slam them shut. The ungodly light glaring off the white ceiling hurt almost as much as the rest of his body. He covered his eyes with the metal blocks on his hands and slowly opened them. After waiting a bit for them to adjust to the light he slowly opened them again. Giving a quck glance around the medical wing, ignoring the smell that what could only be described as sterile, Steven caught sight of the hulking form of Richard. Well, he assumed it was Richard due to the size but the full body wrappings made it kind of hard to tell.

Steven slowly sat up in his bed and his plan of stretching his legs went out the window at the sight of the casts on both his legs. Flopping back onto the bed with a groan, which turned into a wince of pain at the pain in his back, he almost missed the sound of doors opening.

"I don't suppose you feel up for a jog?" Elizabeths voice rang painfully in his head but Steven did his best not to show it. "Ya know most doctors would be to afraid to say something like that to a guy in Hell's Kitchen" Elizabeth snorted at Stevens response and walked towards him. Steven sat up in his bed and watched her pull out medical pad from her coat.

"I've met worse men then you Steven and I wasn't scared a bit. I'm a big girl you know, tied my own shoelaces and everything." Watching her tap away at her medical pad for a while Steven got bored and looked around the room. The beds were full of men in bandages, all of them asleep, all of them Human. Ignoring the guards at the door who were fingering their guns Steven turned to Elizabeth and asked "Where are all the Flist?"

She didn't look up from her pad but she did answer him "We keep the Flist and Humans seperated to prevent fights, although we have to seperate the Flist men and women as well. All in all this facility has three medical wings" Steven laid back down onto the bed and sighed "Flist men and women don't get along here?"

Elizabeth snorted "Flist men and women don't get along anywhere, why should Hell's Kitchen be different? One Flist guy will call a Flist woman a filthy Human loving cumslut, the woman calls him a limp dick bitch boy and before you know it they're trying to kill eachother. It's very tiring" Steven coughed and couldn't help but add "Those are some... inventive insults I'll give ya that" Elizabeth smiled and walked around Stevens bed towards Richards bed.

"I didn't make that up, thats just a sample of the anger between Flist men and women" Elizabeth started tapping away on her medical pad but stopped when Steven asked "Is he gonna be alright?"

Elizabeth couldn't help but smile at the obvious concern on Stevens face, friendship was rare in Hells Kitchen."Don't worry, he'll be fine. The casts really make it look alot worse then it is, he's got a fair amount of broken bones but nothing life threatening. Why did you start that fight anyway?"

Steven turned towards the wall and glared, he gritted his teeth and said "That bastard Dmitrys was talking about me joining Primus and turning my mate and daughter into slaves. No one fucks with my family and lives to tell about it!" Elizabeths eyes widened at the pure hatred in Steven voice. His kind green eyes had turned hard as steel with a fire in them that scared her. She didn't think a sweet guy like Steven was capable of such raw power. He really was a solider.

"Well" Elizabeth began cautiously "You won't have to worry about him again. He's dead Steven, by your hands"

"Good" was his only response. Steven took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them the fire was gone and his old kind green eyes were back. Shaking her head a little Elizabeth couldn't help but wonder if she had imagined it.

She went back to her medical pad and for a few minutes there was silence. Finally, bored out of his mind Steven asked "So why aren't you taking care of the Flist patients? I'd imagine you'd know alot more about your own species physiology then a Humans" Elizabeth put away her pad and walked over to the desk in the corner with a tower of paperwork and sat down. "I majored in Human physiology back in medical school. Besides, I wanted to leave everything about the homeworld behind, including my own people." Elizabeth waited for the question people always asked, she wasn't disappointed. "Why?"

Elizabeth gave Steven a sad gaze, no doubt remebering something she'd rather forget "Growing up on the homeworld was... painful. Whenever I did something wrong or over stepped my place my father would beat the hell out of me. But then again that was pretty common on the homeworld. I used to idolize Strider, the female Flist who became the greatest warrior anyone ever saw! But whenever I tried to copy my idol the men made sure I was reminded of my place"

Elizabeth stood up, walked over to Steven and sat down on the side of the bed "I can still remember the day I found out about Humanity. I was with my tribe in our cave when a Flist woman wearing clothes walked in. She waited until the men were gone hunting and started telling us all about your people. I had heard of your kind of course but I honestly thought they were just rumors. When she finished talking I felt so... so... angry!" Steven raised an eyebrow and asked "Angry? Why angry?"

A sad smile spread across her face and she said "because you did nothing" When she saw Stevens confused expression Elizabeth began to explain "Whenever the men put me down, hit me, taught me my place the other women, my mother included would just watch. I didn't hate them though because they were just as powerless as me. But then I heard about the SkyGods, well Humanity but that was what we used to call Humans. Your people travel the stars, live in massive cities and are capable of things I could only dream of. But most of all you believe that men and women are equal and that doing the things that the men did to us was against your laws, your morals. All I could think at the time was that you had the power to stop the Flist men but you didn't, not until you needed us"

Steven opened his mouth to explain but Elizabeth held up her hand for silence. "I followed the Flist woman in clothes to her science team, marched up to the first Human I saw and I smacked him across the face. I screamed at him, told him everything I've told you and demanded to know why Humanity didn't stop the Flist men. He held his sore cheek, looked me straight in the eyes and said he was sorry. Thats was the first time a man apologized to me. He sat me down and explained everything to me, about the war with the Locust, how Humanity didn't even know about the Flist a week before and how if I wanted him to he would follow me back to my tribe and beat the crap out of anyone who every hurt me"

Steven smiled and said "Sounds like a hell of a guy" Elizabeth returned the smile and looked fondly off into the distance "He is. When I first went aboard a Human ship he took me under his wing and taught me alot about how things worked in the galactic community. He's a 110 years old and the mans like the father I always wanted mine to be. I left behind the Flist homeworld, name and everything that goes along with it, just too many bad memories"

Steven tried to hold back a yawn due to the drugs in his body but it managed to get out anyway "I'm surprised you were ok with telling me something so personal" Elizabeth stood up and stretched her body "Its probably because you remind of my Human father so much. Anyway, you better get some sleep but Steven, try not to start any more fights ok?"

Steven layed back onto the bed, closed his eyes and muttered "No promises"

Aboard the Daedalus Alias lay in her bed, her mind a million miles away. She'd never noticed how big her bed was but with Steven gone it felt cold and empty. Turning over onto her side she stared at empty side of the bed and just tried to forget who was missing, but it wasn't easy.

Her mate had been sent to the worst prison in the galaxy, her children were lashing out at anyone who said even a bad word about Steven but the crew were the worst. Hatic wanted to storm Hells Kitchen and Alias was honestly tempted to do it. But she has two children to take care of and with Steven gone she was the only one left to take care of them. Staring at the ceiling the only thing going through Alias's mind was "Why didn't I open the door"

Burying her head into her pillow Alias allowed herself to cry for the first time since Steven was taken away.

In his own quarters Mouse slept on his desk with paper stuck to his face. The walls around him were covered with papers and you couldn't even see the wall behind them. Hollister had managed to get some guard schedules and info on which guards could be bribed from his Primus contact. Alias had threatend her own Mother, an Admiral on the U.P. council, to give her files on the layout, supply schedules and personnel profiles. They both gave the info to Mouse who had turned his own quarters into a sort of mission center.

But it wasn't easy. Lt. Commander Rodriguez had lost to much blood and had suffered a low yield sonic blast on the way back to the transport point, he's currently in a coma and Hatic refused to let anyone but Mouse treat him. Between planning an escape from the most secure prison in the galaxy and trying to find a way to wake up Carlos, Mouse was being run ragged.

Slowly opening his tired eyes Mouse yawned and leaned back in his chair. The guilt over leaving Steven behind had lessened but it wasn't gone. Blinking his blurry eyes Mouse gave the paper covered walls around him a blank stare. Sluggishly getting to his feet, Mouse dragged himself to the door to head down to the mess and get some coffee. The people around him on the night shifts gave him some sympathetic looks but kept their distance. They knew why he was tired.

Mouse stepped into the elevator, hit the button for the mess and leaned against the wall behind him. He was a doctor, he'd lost patients before and even made mistakes that ended peoples lives prematurely but this... this was different. Mouse didn't realise that the elevator had stopped until a robotic voice echoed out "Doctor, this is your floor" Mouse just nodded and headed for the cafeteria. He walked in, collapsed onto a seat and slowly fell asleep with his head against the table.

His dreams, or rather his nightmares were filled with dead faces and guilty accusations. Flashes of mistakes and horrible what ifs filtered through his nightmares until they finally rested upon his recent betrayal. He saw Steven begging him to run, the angry glare of that bitch Luna, Steven hacking and slashing at her but never landing a single blow, Stevens claws burying into the control console.

Mouse's head shot up from the table, his eyes wide and mouths muttering the word "console". Leaping from his chair Mouse sprinted towards to the exit like a bat out of hell towards the elevator. When the doors opened he threw himself inside and slammed his hand against the bridge button. Bouncing on his feet impatiently, with a grin on his face Mouse waited until the doors opened onto the bridge. When they did he ran full sprint towards the Ops. Room where Hollister was bound to be at this hour and charged into the room.

Hollister stared at Mouse in surprise and worry. Mouse was panting, wearing ragged ink stained clothes, wide eyed and had a grin on his face any mad man would be jealous of. His worries vanished when Mouse shouted "I know how to free Steven!"

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Steven was honestly getting used to waking up on the floor of his cell and that worried him. Getting to his feet with a wince Steven walked towards the glowing blue barrier and considered hitting it but stopped himself, he was sore enough.

Hours passed like days until finally the barrier went down. Walking out Steven waited until the transporter hit him. When the light faded the first thing he noticed was that at least half of the people usually in the mess by now were missing. He went through the same acrobatics needed to get food, although he was getting the hang of it. Plopping onto his chair Steven took a quick glance around before he ate and took a bite out of his food.

All around him people were wearing casts and generally looked miserable, well more so then usual.

A groaning sound from beside caused him to turn his head and get a look at Richard. Although there wasn't as many casts on him since yesterday there was enough to make sitting difficult. "Remind me again WHY I decided to get involved in that fight"

"Because you felt guilty for leaving me to the wolves, so to speak" Richard sighed and finally managed to sit down. He put his food on the table and told Steven "Next time we see Dmitry and his gang I suggest we don't start a riot. Hell the only reason we're not in the Pit is because there were no guards around to prove we did it!"

Steven paused in his eating and asked "The Pit?"

"Oh right" Richard began with a look of realisation "I forgot you've only been here like what, two or three days. You've heard about the Fleshrippers right?"

Steven nodded and said "Those tyrannosaurus rex things with the long arms from the Flist homeworld" Richard took a bite out of his food and started explaining again "Well, in Hells Kitchen they have a MASSIVE network of caves called the Pit where they keep them. From what I understand the U.P. wanted to find a way to tame the things but things got fucked up pretty fast. Now they live in the Pit and if you do something seriously bad they transport you down there for about a week. If you live they transport you out, so far only about three people have got out alive in the history of Hells Kitchen. The guards even bet on it!"

The old horror stories about Hells Kitchen and the monsters within came to mind but Steven never thought that it was true. Fleshrippers made a T-rex look like a house cat. It was believed that the reason the Flist never advanced past the Tribal stage was because building a town just made you an easier target for the Fleshrippers. Since the Flist believed that metal was sacred they never created tools and weapons advanced enough to combat the Fleshrippers.

"Sounds like something from a horror story" Richard nodded at Stevens remark but never stopped eating. There was silence for a few moments before Steven realised that Richard didn't know Dmitry was dead. Opening his mouth to tell him, he was cut off when Richard asked "Speaking of animals, I never understood why the Locust made that virus thing deadlier to the animals on Earth then to Human women. I mean, what was the point of wiping out every animal on Earth? They afraid of rabbits or something?"

Steven laughed at the mental image of a fearsome Locust running away screaming from a little bunny. When he calmed down he answered Richard "We can reproduce with the Flist bacause they're so gentically similar to us. Any gap was fixed with genetic manipulation, nanite interference and Human adaptation. But orignally the Flist women only shared a 39 percent genetic similarity with us, something that should be impossible in an alien species, ya with me so far?"

Richard nodded and took another bit out of his food. Hearing no questions Steven continued "But on Earth Apes share a 98 percent genetic similarity with Humans. Other animals share a large similarity as well, a lot more then the Flist anyway. I think the Locust figured out that we could use Earths animals to reproduce so they wiped them out as a precaution, although due to the viruses unique nature the female animals would give birth to Human boys and animal girls"

Richard froze with his fork in the air, the food dangling off it. His face went a little green and he quickly dropped his fork and pushed his tray away. "You mean to tell me that if the Locust didn't wipe out the animals we'd have to fuck... we'd have to fuck..." Steven nodded at Richards unfinished sentence causing him to go even greener "Oh god! My family used to breed horses! I would have had to... OH GOD!"

Richard ran to one of the toilets in a corner and started to throw up. The people in the next table over who were eavesdropping looked a little green as well, Steven calmly went back to his meal. Richard eventually finished throwing up and managed to make his way back to the table.

"That image will haunt me for the rest of my life." Steven laughed and said "You think you've got it bad! My dad was a vet and taught me a lot about animals. Imagine the images I had when he explained to me what I just told you. I couldn't leave the bathroom for an hour."

A loud siren echoed through out the mess and everyone stood up and walked two paces away from the tables. Steven followed and realised that this was first time he actually went back to his cell the usual way, not the thrown in by the guards while resting in the Medical wing way. A flash of light slammed into Steven and when he opened his eyes he was in his cell. The barrier went up and Steven collapsed onto the ground. It was dangerous, practically suicide but Steven thought he might have found a way out of here.


"So let me get this straight" Hollister began with a tired tone of voice "You want to go BACK to the Valkyrie ship?"

Mouse eagerly nodded and cut in "Exactly"

Hollister took a deep breath and faced the holographic image of the Nautilus behind him "And how the fuck will sending you back into a ship of fanatic, highly trained Flist women with a love of warfare get Steven out of Hells Kitchen? You're basically asking me to send a mouse into a den of lionesses!"

Mouse walked up to Hollister and started to explain "When Steven was fighting Luna he damaged the main control console for the Eclipse bomb. That console is linked with every other console on the ship constantly recording and taking data"

"But" Hollister interrupted "The U.P. already checked the consoles and found nothing that could prove the Valkyries were disobeying orders"

"Right because the Valkyries would have wiped them clean of anything incriminating but that console was broken! They couldn't wipe it clean bacause they couldn't use it! And they wouldn't have fixed it since there's no Eclipse bomb, no bomb no need to control panel. Captain, that console could still have the original incriminating data needed to prove that Steven was doing the right thing and that Luna should be in Hells Kitchen! If I can get on board, I can replace the broken parts, boot up the back up core memory and download the original data"

Hollister stared at the hologram, his mind racing a mile a minute "They won't fall for the same trick twice Mouse"

Mouse nodded sadly and his eyes lost some of their excitement "I know but I don't know what to do. The Daedalus can't take on the Nautilus and we've got kids on board, Stevens kids" Hollister turned to MOuse and asked in a serious tone "Are you willing to do ANYTHING to get Steven out of that jail? Even if it means selling your soul?"

Mouses only response was "Tell me where to sign"

Hollister slowly nodded and grim determination fell across his face. Pressing onto his earlobe the Captain activated his comm nanites "Nav. Officer set a course for Terra Nova, FTL speed" Mouse thought why they'd be going AWAY from the Nautilus but couldn't figure it out. "Why are we going to Terra Nova sir?"

Hollisters only response was "To make a deal with the devil"

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Back on Hells Kitchen Steven sat next to Richard quitely eating his food, waiting for the right moment. Finally one of the guards walked past their table and Steven stuck his foot out, tripping the guard. The inmates laughed while Richard was looking at Steven like he was crazy. The guard stood up, anger clear in his shaking form, and slammed the end of his rifle into Stevens chin sending him to the floor. The guard spat on Steven and walked away.

Steven shrugged off Richards attempt to help him up and stood up. "Hey dipshit! Do you kiss your wife with that mouth or is she too busy laughing at your limp dick ya pussy!"

The inmates were roaring laughing and guard looked ready to kill Steven. He marched straight up to Steven and pointed his rifle at him "Got anything else to say, you piece of shit" Steven calmly placed his finger in the barrel of the gun and said "Yeah. your fly's down." Steven was whacked from behind and went down. The new guard kicked him in the ribs and they both walked off. Getting up with a wince Steven muttered "Shit, not enough"

Richard grabbed Stevens shoulders and helped him sit down "Are you fucking insane!? They could have killed you!" Steven smirked and answered "Or thrown me into the Pit"

Richard paushed and thought things through. Finally a look of realisation filled his face and he furiously whispered "You WANT to go to the Pit! Why!" Taking a bite of his food Steven waited for his headache to die down a bit before saying "Because its my way out of here! Richard these caves aren't natural for a planet with no water or atmosphere. They were made Richard, by the Locust! The Locust had to transport people to and from here to Harvest them but one transporter wouldn't be able to handle that. The Locust always had an underground port for ships at every Harvesting facility, why should this one be any different? Somewhere in that Pit is a Locust ship and I'm gonna use it to get out of here!"

"Steven did you hear yourself! What if your wrong? What if theres nothing but Fleshrippers down there! You could be killed!"

Steven glared at Richard and yelled "Well then at least I won't have to deal with the fact that my children and my unborn child are gonna grow up and I won't be there!" Steven paused and looked down at his food. After a few seconds he said in a small voice "They're my family Richard. If theres a chance, even a small one that I can see them then I have to take it"

Richard stared at Steven for a minute. He couldn't help but wonder if his own mate Amity was still alive and they had kids, would he go through the Pit just for the chance to see them again like Steven.

Steven heard Richard stand up and felt his hand on his shoulder. Standing up Steven followed Richard over to the two guards and asked "What are you doing?" Richard didn't stop walking, didn't even look at Steven but he did answer him "I was scum, a criminal. I've even killed people over pocket change but when I met Amity I changed, she changed me. She made me realise that what I was doing was wrong, made me believe that life, all life is precious and not something for men like me to take away. I became a miner, cleaned up my act and even bought a nice house on a colony world. When she was dying, because of those bastards in the Primus, she made me swear that I would help people, that I wouldn't go back to my old ways. But I did go back and I ended up here."

Richard paused and faced Steven "I'm tired of going to sleep afraid that I've betrayed Amity. It's time for me to again become the man SHE made me into, a good, honorable man. Steven, I've got nothing left to live for but if I can help you get back to your family then maybe, just maybe when I die and head on into the after life Amity will forgive an old dog stuck in his ways"

Marching up to one of the guards Richard decked him across the face and shouted "Any other of you shitheads want to take on me and Steven!"

They grinned at eachother and Steven shouted "Then bring it ya dipshits!"

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Making a deal with the Devil. What could possibly go wrong? Will Steven and Richard survive in the Pits or will Mouses plan get them out before they're killed. You'll just have to come back and read the next chapter won't ya?

Oh and I apologize to anyone that whole animal bit weirded out but it was necessary to the plot. Still, sorry for the mental images.