Free Escape 1: Escape From Aliens by T. Jackson King Page B

galaxy? How many Market worlds are there? And how many Collector ships exist like the one we are now in?”
    “Multiple questions again,” the AI said calmly as Jane used the red cube she’d taken from the vulture Alien to open the airlock room door. In seconds they moved across it and to the far side. Behind them the door ground shut. She pointed the red cube at the door in front of them. It slid to the right slowly, as if the door metal was heavy. Or the motor weak. Their former imprisonment chamber loomed before them, dimly red lit but empty. Bill followed her out onto the elevated walkway and used his own red cube to access the white globe that lay between his cell and the nearby wall. Jane was doing the same at the other module between her cell and the wall. Behind them the airlock door ground shut. “The interstellar society you ask about does not occupy the galaxy. According to my own star travel experience and the Library datafiles of this ship, the Buyer society only exists within the spiral star group which you Humans call the Orion Arm. That star arm is 10,000 light years long and 3,510 light years wide.” The ship mind paused briefly. “Records indicate there are 61 Market worlds, including the one we now travel to.  The number of Buyers is numerous, amounting to at least 840,231 sapients from 411 different star systems, according to my records. The number of Collector ships like this one is 97. However, these numbers may change after we arrive at HD 128311 and obtain a records update from its Market world.”
    “Thank you,” Jane said as she stepped into the white globe on her side of the walkway.
    Bill finished stuffing the six-legged sausage Alien inside the empty cell globe, while keeping his feet on the door sill. Seeing the Alien’s body was clear of the door, he stepped back. The white metal door whooshed down. He turned and walked back to the central walkway. Jane had deposited the vulture Alien in the empty cell near hers and was now dragging the praying mantis Alien into her former cell. Like him she stood on the entry sill and pushed the Alien’s green body inside. He noticed she had unloosed his belt from the critter’s upper griparms and was frowning at the critter’s lower pair of feet. The feet showed thorn-like protrusions on the bottom of each foot. Clearly she was worried about them penetrating her suit fabric.
    “Not to worry,” he said aloud. “When I cinched its griparms those thorny feet hit my tube suit leg several times. No penetration.”
    “Thanks.” Jane finished pushing the praying mantis into her old cell, then stepped off the door sill. The white metal door slid down faster than he could blink. She turned and tossed him the leather belt. “Nice belt. Uh, how did you manage to escape from your cell? Been wondering that ever since we began this Hunt Down The Aliens gig.”
    Bill caught the belt, then joined her on the central walkway. He pulled off his backpack. “Let’s inventory our supplies, our tools and our new weapons before we head out to visit the good ship captain.”
    Jane already had her white tube weapon out and pointed toward the distant metal door that led to another airlock and a hallway leading to the Transport Chamber. She laid her backpack at his feet. Then she leaned against the gray metal rail that kept them and anyone else from falling off the walkway. Such a fall would land them in the mess of tubes, pipes and gray metal machines that handled food, water, air and whatever for the cells in the chamber. “Go ahead, check mine. I’ll stand guard for any intruder.”
    Bill blinked. He was not used to relying on anyone else for his personal security. Unless it was a fellow retired SEAL from Jack’s Deep Six saloon. But Jane Yamaguchi had shown herself to be smart, quick-thinking, aware of space stuff he had no clue to, and her warning about the AI and their questions had been spot on, judging by its comments on self-defense programming and the