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Tantiss is cold. Omega isn’t sure if that is simply the climate of the entire planet, or the whole compound or maybe just the cells that they are confined to. The thin blanket they leave her every night on her bed does little to stave off the frigid temperatures and curls around herself even further. She can hear the baby Tarlafar crying in his crib in the cell next door. Nobody goes to help him, nor to console him.
Omega wants to feel bad for him, but a bitter part of herself remembers cold nights on Kamino, lying on her cot and crying for somebody to come help. Nobody ever did. The quarters they assigned to her were uncannily similar to the cell in which she is imprisoned now and Omega hopes that the baby gets used to this new life soon enough. Nobody is coming to save him. Not tonight, at least.
Two days ago, Omega had promised her fellow captives that she would break them all out of here. It was a bold promise and she has no doubts that she’ll deliver on it. She just has to figure out how first.
She can’t rely on her brothers to come and find her. That was the mistake she made the last time; too much time was wasted staring out of her window at the moon, believing that they would find her. They never did, and Omega won’t be hanging around to see if they can find her this time.
Tantiss is untraceable, it would be childish of her to believe that her brothers can find her. They are capable of many things, but nobody is capable of the impossible.
The routine here seems pretty simple. The doctors watch them through the day, with troopers and droids stationed at the doorway and bringing them food in the morning and evening. It goes quiet at night and Omega assumes that the night watch is taken solely by droids whilst the sentient beings get some rest. In theory, that makes escaping in the night easier, but Omega is more inclined to get out during the day whilst she knows where everybody in this wing is.
She’ll have to plan things carefully to get everyone out safely. Out of the four of them, Omega is the only one with any form of training and, therefore, the only one able to hold her own.
Tomorrow, she’ll try and get into the shafts in the walls and hopefully the others will be able to cover for her whilst she explores. If she can find a valid escape route, they might just be out of here in the next few days. Of course, they’ll still have to find a way off of the planet but that isn’t something Omega can really plan for until they get out of the Vault.
What she really needs is a distraction big enough to keep everybody distracted for a good half an hour whilst she gets the other children out of the way. Of course too big of a distraction, or the wrong kind of distraction will put the place on lockdown and make her job ten times harder.
She’s already prepared some simple parts of the plan, such as obtaining a metal pick that will jimmy open the wall panels, and tying a spare jumpsuit into a sling for Jax to carry Baryn in when the time comes.
Tomorrow, she’ll come up with a proper plan. She’ll find a way to get out of this hell-hole and bring all of these children back to their parents where they belong. And she’ll finally be back home with her brothers.
Sleep doesn’t come easily to Omega on Tantiss. She’s never been one to sleep easy whilst pinned down by her enemies. It comes eventually, deep into the early hours of the morning, and Omega dreams of her brothers as she always does. But it’s not the same dreams she had last time she was on Tantiss. Before, she would dream about them coming to save her, they’d kick down the door and march in to her rescue or rappel down from the roof and whisk her away.
That doesn’t happen anymore. Now her dreams are more simple. It’s a day at the beach, or making dinner together, or just sitting around the table and enjoying a meal with one another. There’s no need for a big flashy rescue, Omega is too old now to believe in those, but she’d be happy to make just one more happy memory with them. That’s all she needs.
It’s sooner than Omega would like when the door to her alcove opens and the same droid as always is there, waiting to take a sample from her.
‘Good morning, Omega,’ Dr Scalder says as she enters behind the droid. ‘Did you sleep well?’
‘Like a baby,’ Omega responds smoothly. ‘Did you get enough sleep?’
Dr Scalder frowns down at her. ‘That is none of your concern,’
Omega hums lightly. ‘Well, I hope you did get enough sleep. You’ll be needing it,’
Scalder clearly doesn’t have anything to say to that, for she merely narrows her eyes at Omega as the droid takes the sample from the back of her hand, and then turns on her heel and leaves. Omega rolls her eyes at the woman and steps out into the main room, heading over to her usual seat.
Jax joins her next, followed by Eva and finally Sami carries Baryn over. They continue on as usual, partaking in the Empire’s little experiments, stimulating their brains as ordered to with these pointless games. But something breaks the routine today.
A loud rumble shakes the walls of the Vault and Omega looks up to see all of the scientists on the observation deck turning to each other in concern. They don’t know what’s happening. She waits a moment longer while they all check their holo-pads for information, but nobody seems to find an answer. Which means that if they don’t know what’s going on… somebody has attacked Tantiss.
Omega doesn’t want to get her hopes up. It would be stupid to assume it’s them, especially considering how impossible it is to find Tantiss. But it’s the only explanation. Who else would hunt down this lab? Only somebody who cares about the people trapped in it.
‘What’s going on?’ Sami whispers as the doctors above begin shuffling around, no doubt preparing to lock the labs down.
‘They found me,’ Omega answers, fighting a grin as she keeps one eye on Scalder who is watching them closely. She doesn’t let her shock that her brothers have managed to locate Tantiss. Nor does she allow the others to see the relief that floods through her, or the sting in her eyes at the thought that she might get to see them again very soon. She steels herself, takes a deep breath, and comes up with a plan.
For some reason, Omega had always thought, both before on Tantiss and in these last few days, that if her brothers ever found her it would be fast. They would come barrelling in in a haze of smoke and blaster fire and swoop her up in seconds.
But hours pass and nothing happens. Omega tries not to let it both her and clutches on to the hope that they will yet be saved. The odd rumble of laser cannons shake the walls and even through the tinted glass, Omega can tell there is a lot of hustle and bustle on the observation deck. Nobody comes to take their vitals that day, nobody really looks at them more than enough to check they are all still in the Vault. It’s an eerie feeling when Omega had almost grown used to the feeling of eyes being glued to her at all times.
This will be the best opportunity she gets to have a look through those shafts. Maybe her brothers got held up somewhere, or maybe they failed and have been hunted down or taken captive by Hemlock. Either way, Omega can’t just sit around here and wait to be rescued like some invalid.
So she tells the other children to cover for her if she isn’t back in time and she takes off. She’s not sure what will happen if she’s not back before Scalder remembers to come down again. Sure, they would tear the place apart looking for her, but would this be the last straw? Would they set their weapons to stun, or would they shoot to kill?
Omega doesn’t have time to think like that, though, so she refocuses her mind and heads back to her alcove, pulling out her metal pin as she goes.
Getting the panels off is easy and she makes sure to stack them out of the way so nobody can see what she has removed from the wall. Climbing through the shafts is harder. She has to time it right to not get caught on a passing cart and every few steps she has to squeeze under or over metal bars and press herself against the wall to scooch past. But she makes it.
Recon is easy when the place is like this. Everybody is too wrapped up in protocols and what they’re meant to be doing that nobody notices the little girl wandering around in the rafters, discovering a secret that Hemlock certainly won’t want her to know. But it’s too late, and she knows exactly how to get everyone out of here. She’s found the perfect distraction.
Getting back isn’t too bad now that she knows the ways through the shafts and exactly how long of a gap is left between passing carts. She makes it back in half the time it took her to get out and by the time Dr Scalder comes around the corner to take her vitals, it’s as if nothing ever happened.
Scalder leaves soon enough, and they all head back out to the main area, pretending to engage in the games left out for them when really, Omega spends the next few minutes explaining her plan. When she’s finished, she looks around expecting to see everyone in agreement and just as determined to get out as she is. All she sees are worried faces.
‘That sounds dangerous,’ Sami whispers nervously, clutching Baryn close to her chest.
Omega wants to tell her to grow up and realise that every moment they spend in this place is dangerous and they aren’t exactly sitting around making daisy chains. But that won’t help, so she takes a deep breath and gives Sami a reassuring smile.
‘My squad I told you about? They’re here,’ she tells Sami firmly. ‘If we can get out of this room and find them, we can all go home,’
‘You really think this can work?’ Eva asks, her eyes lighting up with hope. That’s what Omega needs right now: hope.
‘I’ll make sure of it,’ Omega says, trying to instill some of the confidence in her fellow captives that Hunter always manages to instill in her. I’ve been trained for this,’
Jax and Eva seem convinced by Omega’s certainty, but Sami still looks nervous.
‘But what happens if we get caught? They’ll hurt us! Or what if we can’t find a way out and we’re just stuck on this random planet forever? Maybe I should stay behind in case they come looking for us,’ she protests.
Omega levels her with a stern look. ‘And what if we never try to leave and we stay here forever? What will they do to know if they come back to find just you and the rest of us gone. They’ll want to know where we went. What are they going to do to us in the end? Because they sure as shit didn’t kidnap us just to watch us place holo-games all day long, did they?’
‘Well, no, but—’
‘No but’s, Sami. Would you rather stay here and die, or go out there, fight and maybe you get to live a long and happy life back with your family. Because we can leave you here if you want; it’s up to you.’
Sami looks like she’s about to cry and Jax is looking at Omega like she’s just said something truly evil. But Omega only continues to stare Sami down, waiting on the girl to answer.
‘Okay… Okay, I’ll go with you,’
People often say that being held captive is the scary part, but Omega disagrees. No matter how confident she forces herself to be in her assurances to the other children, she knows that this is the most terrifying part.
Because Sami’s right. What if they can’t find the way out? What if Omega can’t find her brothers? What if she finds them and she’s already too late? But the question she asked Sami is the only one that matters.
Omega would rather die fighting for her life, fighting to get out and live with her family, than to rot in here for another day. There is no staying behind anymore, they either move forward or get stuck here because if the tense atmosphere emanating from the observation deck is anything to go by, today is going to change everything one way or another.
There is no way that Omega is going to hang around and find out.