Elara stood still in the damp cell, her blue inner lights glowing softly as her mind raced. The cell was supposed to block Arc energy, but she was going to use her math skills to bypass it.
Her cell was next to Veridian's. Thick metal, pipes, and wires isolated both from the rest of the Cinder. A normal prisoner would be totally alone, but Elara felt like she was right in the middle of the ship's system.
She started her Geometric Eavesdropping trick.
First, she sent a super-low sound wave through the floor, tuned to the metal of the ship. People and sensors couldn't pick it up, but the metal echoed back what was happening on the ship.
The ship sang data to her.
I. Hull Sounds and the Engineer's Heartbeat
Elara's system created a real-time map of the Cinder. She could 'see' electricity flowing through the wires, pressure in the pipes, and tiny cracks in the metal.
She focused on two things:
* Veridian's Cell (right next to hers): Veridian was hard to read – too emotional and way too busy with her schemes. Her mind was too chaotic to work with from far away.
* The Medbay (60 feet back, downstairs): That's where Garth was. The engine noise there was constant, a steady drone. Even hurt, Garth was reliable because of his engineering mind. He was a solid point of data in chaos.
Elara needed to talk to Garth. He was the only who could reach the ship's tech and knew how to undo his sabotage.
But how to talk through walls and energy-blocking stuff, with no signals?
Geometric Cipher.
Elara put everything towards reading the tiny bit of energy leaking from the medbay's surgical light. It was a weak but steady drain that she spotted through the ship's power cable layout. She had to control that leak.
She zapped the cell walls with little bursts of Arc energy, just enough to vibrate the ship a little. These vibrations were timed to flicker the light .
The flickering was a language:
* One long flicker: Hey, Garth!
* Two quick flickers: Got it!
* Three fast pulses: Get ready for the next part.
She sent the first signal: One long flicker.
II. Engineer's Signal
Garth was strapped to a bed in the medbay. His right arm was bandaged up; the medic, Jia, was out, and two guards were watching him.
Garth was a bit numb from pain drugs and the loud engine. He was counting the ship's vibrations – the usual ones, and a new, tiny jolt from his sabotage on the steering.
He was waiting.
Then, he noticed the surgical light flicker. It was a powerful light, made to stay on. But it briefly went dim once..
Garth's mind cleared a little. A power dip. He was on a special circuit, not the main lights. A dip here meant something sucked up a lot of power locally.
He stared at the light. Was that real, or am I just high?
Then, the light flickered again: Two quick ones.
Garth froze, but his mind went into overdrive. That was Elara. The Geometric Cipher.
He couldn't move or talk. He had to send a yes signal using something machines would read: his body's data.
The easiest thing to use was the Medical Sensor Suite stuck to his chest.
Garth focused, ignoring the pain, and made his breathing fast and shallow. He forced his heart rate up to 110 – like he was panicking or in bad pain.
The sensors saw it right away. The screen started beeping faster.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep...
One guard looked at the monitor. Hey, medic! His stats are going crazy!
Garth held his breath, dropping his pulse low, then gasped for air and went back to the fast rhythm.
He was sending: Garth is ready.
Elara saw the data – the heart rate and breathing spike. It wasn't a perfect code, but it showed she had contact.
The light flickered: Three fast pulses. Time for part two.
III. Part Two: Inject the Data
Now Elara had contact. She couldn't send plans with heartbeats, so she had to take a risk: Inject Data.
Garth was the spot to target. He was hooked up to Jia's simple scanner, which she used to read his vitals. It wasn't linked to the ship's network; it just printed out reports.
Elara would turn that into a temp hard drive.
She gave her Arc energy a jolt, sending a vibration through the ship under the medbay. It was tuned to the scanner's power cable.
The goal was to cause a tiny overload in the cable – a quick surge to make a weak magnetic field around it.
Garth felt a hot tingle where the sensor was on his chest. The machine was sending data.
He had to let it in.
He moved his left hand under the blanket and clenched his fist. He tensed his chest, pulling the sensor out a little – not enough to disconnect it, but enough to leave a tiny gap.
For a split second, Elara sent in the data. Not through the network, but through the air: a burst of info through the power cable and into the wires of the scanner.
The scanner got data disguised as sensor noise and stored it in its memory.
The transfer happened quickly. The only sign was a tiny spark from the power cable hidden by the engine.
Elara stopped. Data Injection Complete.
IV. Reading the Plan
Garth's heart rate went back to normal. He now had the escape plan in the scanner next to him.
The Geometric Blueprint.
He couldn't read it yet. He needed a way to pull the data without setting off alarms.
His eyes scanned the room. He saw the pump giving him his medicine. It had a screen and a port to plug into.
Jia came back, checked Garth, and tweaked the pump. You're spiking, engineer. Calm down, she said, not even noticing she was touching the target.
Garth used the chance to touch the scanner with his left hand, hiding a needle he got earlier.
He had to get the data from the scanner and put it on the pump's screen.
He waited until Jia and the guards were busy talking.
Quickly, he:
* Used the needle to open the plug on the pump.
* Turned the needle, freezing the pump with an ERROR: EXTERNAL COMMAND.
* Pressed the needle against the scanner, making a connection.
The scanner dumped the plan through the needle. The pump, now frozen, showed diagrams disguised as PATIENT VITALS.
Garth was reading:
* PHASE I: The Bypass: The location of a hidden vent under his bed.
* PHASE II: The Disruption: The sound needed to shut off the cell force fields during Lyra's maintenance.
* PHASE III: The Weapon: A crack in the ship's core that could be used to destroy it.
The display lasted 5 seconds. Garth pulled back, and the pump went back to normal.
Jia! The pump! a guard yelled.
Jia ran over. Not again. The circuit is resetting. She fixed it and said it's fine. Just a glitch.
Garth groaned and closed his eyes.
The plan was his.
He knew the escape was not just leaving his cell but using the ship's hidden systems at the exact moment of Lyra's maintenance.
He also knew Elara had given him a way to destroy the ship if things went sideways.
V. Preparing the Way In
Garth had hours until the maintenance stop. He had to get ready to remove the vent without tools.
The vent was under his cot, locked by four bolts. He couldn't reach them but would use the bed.
He started a slow, painful process. Over the next hour, he used his back and legs to push the cot. He put force on his shoulder, trying to scrape the cot against the bolts.
He wasn't loosening the bolts; he was shaping them.
By the time Jia checked, he had been sleeping for hours. He had only scraped off a little metal.
He was hurt but locked in. He was also the key to their freedom.
The Cinder continued toward the Dead Zone, slowed by Garth's sabotage. Captain Lyra was waiting for trouble, but it would come from two genius' minds.