Free Escape by Jasper Scott Page A

coincidence for both of them to have gone jetting down the tunnel. Maybe the first one was malfunctioning.
    After 10 minutes of flying down the tunnel, Kieran sighed. For every milé-astrom he went, his sensors added another to the end of the tunnel. There was still no detectable end to it. Kieran was starting to get a really bad feeling. The list of possible groups who might have had the resources to put a station that far beneath the surface of asteroid was growing shorter. Someone who would spend that much money to keep this place a secret wouldn't have any qualms about burying him along with it.
    Another 10 minutes passed. And another. Kieran was just about to configure his autopilot so he could give his cramping hands a break when the sensor display showed something new. Radiation levels were spiking. He was detecting an energy signature at about 150 milé-astroms that was consistent with a massive starship. After a few more minutes of flying, a bright haze began illuminating the rocky, gray-brown walls of the tunnel. Kieran frowned, unable to decide what he was seeing.
    Then he caught his first glimpse of it. Peeking around the distant corner of the tunnel was a swirling, multi-colored vortex — a wormhole, surrounded by a smaller ring than what was standard for a TLS gate. So that explains the energy signature.
    As rest of the ring came into view, Kieran shut off his external lights. The illumination inside the tunnel was dazzling. He found himself gaping at the wormhole.
    It's a gate! Why would anyone bury a gate — Kieran checked his navcomp to see how far he'd traveled — over 300 milé-astroms beneath the surface of an asteroid?! Technically, it was less than that to the surface, because the tunnel whorled it’s way through the asteroid in a slow corkscrew, but still!
    Then Kieran remembered that he hadn't been able to detect the gate from the surface. The energy signature hadn't been able to bleed through all that solid rock. It was naturally shielded from both passive and active scans.
    But that still left the question of why the gate was hidden in the first place. Something definitely wasn't adding up.
    As he drew closer, Kieran noticed that the ring around the wormhole wasn't strictly circular. There was a boxy protrusion on the upper right side with a control tower rising out of it. At the top of the tower was the usual bubble of blue-tinted transpiranium which contained the gate control center.
    In front of the boxy protrusion a handful of ships were docked to long, spindly airlocks. A few of the airlocks appeared to be free for docking, so Kieran aimed for them. At 20 milé-astroms from the station, he lost control of his flitter and his ship reversed thrust. Kieran frowned: how did they do that?
    Obviously he had reached the station's drone zone, but he'd never heard of someone being able to take control of a ship without first receiving the access codes.
    An automated query appeared on his comm, asking him for his UBER Access Code.
    UBER? What would they be doing with a hidden TLS gate? No one cares if they are exploring the galaxy. That's what they're meant to be doing.
    Kieran stubbornly tried to override the autopilot which had summarily taken control of his flitter. His efforts were met by a repeat of the earlier comm query, asking for his UBER Access Code.
    Well, I don't have one you stupid docking computer. Kieran typed a random code into the comm.
    Access denied (2 tries remaining).
    Surprise surprise. Looks like I came all this way for nothing.
    Kieran tried turning his ship around, but even basic controls were locked. He was effectively dead in space.
    A cold tendril of fear wormed into his gut. He was stuck at a top-secret UBER facility, far beneath the surface of an asteroid, impossibly shielded from the sensors of any passing ships. He couldn't go back, and he couldn't go forward. Well, they're just going to have to let me go.
    Switching to an open comm band, Kieran spoke aloud: “This is