Nebula's Music by Aubrie Dionne

towering above thousands of slaves. The workers mined with rusty picks, carrying the minerals barehanded to the conveyor belts. Blue stained their hands, arms and feet, and most of them stared ahead, looking into a vast nothingness with no purpose but to do their job.
    Nebula forced her voice to remain calm. “Where is she?”
    Kale surveyed the workers with a small pair of binoculars he dug out of his breeches. “Give me a sec… Wait. There!” He handed her the binoculars and she passed them to Radian. Her telescopic vision enhancers were much clearer and more accurate. “Two o’clock. Just beyond the tractor, pushing the wheelbarrow.”
    The one woman who had come to mean everything to Nebula stood meters from where she perched, surrounded by Gryphonites on every side. Her curls still shone radiant in the dim light, but underneath her eyes were dark circles and her arms bled blue up to her shoulders like a plague. She was way too thin, her frayed clothes hanging off her.
    “Yes, that’s her.” Radian’s voice was full of awe and pain. “I’ve waited five years to see her again.”
    Kale stuck to business. “I estimate thirty or so Gryphonites.”
    “Thirty-two.” Nebula had already counted and logged their movements with her tracking device log.
    Radian searched the scene. “What’s the plan?”
    Kale’s brows furrowed. “I’ve never done this extensive of a rescue mission before. No one has. Usually we take stragglers or people in the far reaches.” He waited, thinking hard. “One of us should sneak below while the other two act as snipers from above. I bet we could take most of them out before they even reach the one who goes below. But there will be hand fighting, no doubt.”
    “I will go.” Nebula unlatched the safety lock on the trigger of her laser. “You two stay here and cover me.”
    Kale balked, eyeing her slender frame. “Are you sure?”
    “She’s stronger than both of us put together.” Radian nodded. “I believe in you, Neb.”
    “All right.” Kale placed the binoculars beside him. “I’m good with that. I wasn’t looking forward to sneaking down there myself.”
    “Just kill as many as you can.” Nebula scanned for the quickest and quietest way to the slaves.
    Kale’s voice became serious. “Remember, you need to free as many as possible to make enough of a scene. We’re too far in the inner workings to run about undetected. Those birdmen are crawling all over the place.”
    “Understood.” Nebula turned her head back toward them. She’d chosen her path and was about to swing over the rim when Radian caught her hand in his.
    “Good luck.” He squeezed her hand and lingered in the grasp before letting go.
    Kale nodded. “May the gods be with you.”
    “You should pray for the Gryphonites.” Nebula spoke in a tone as hard as her synthetic bones. Her lips curved in a devious grin. “They do not know what is coming.” And with one swift motion, she threw herself over the rim and dropped like liquid silver to the dirt floor.
    A few of the slaves who could still think for themselves looked up with a questioning glance. Nebula put one finger over her lips, silently warning one outburst would ruin it for them all. Fortunately, they kept at their tasks, but they did look over their shoulders every chance they got.
    She undid the clasps of the nearest slave, the metal breaking like straw in her delicate-looking hands. “Pretend to work until the diversion,” she whispered in the old man’s ears. He nodded, eyes wild and luminous, sticking out from his head.
    The next was a young girl, her hair matted to her head. Her eyes lay somewhere underneath the ragged dreadlocks. “Are you going to save us?”
    “Yes, I am,” Nebula replied. “When the time comes, you follow the group out to the ships and run as fast as you can.”
    She freed three more before the lasers erupted over her head like fireworks. A Gryphonite had spotted her and was coming near. Thanks to Radian