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lighted space. A gray metal walkway led to the open cell door. He wondered why the door had not closed automatically. Then he noticed the Alien bear’s feet and ankles lay across the door sill. Which the door opening mechanism must have sensed. Whatever .
    Letting go the belt he ran forward, grabbed his backpack and flashlight, then looked up at the X-cross patch of tape that was holding his turd inside the air inlet. He reached up and grabbed the end of the tape. Pulling, he ripped it off the wall. Pulling loose a plastic rod he poked it through the turd to create an air inflow opening. Turning, he headed for the entry door. Reaching up he did the same for the air exhaust hole. Then, seeing that there was no one out on the metal walkway, he turned back to the unmoving Alien bear, bent down, undid his belt loop and pulled it off the Alien’s neck. The Alien did not move. Or breath.
    “Shit!”
    A killer he could be. When necessary. But killing the crewman sent to repair his cell so Bill would be able to breathe had not been part of his plan.
    “Hope you got lungs somewhere in that massive chest of yours!” he grunted as he jumped up onto the Alien’s back and landed on it with his full two hundred pounds of muscle, bones and attitude. He heard the sound of air gasping out. Then a weak wheeze as the bear automatically breathed in.
    Turning away he headed for the open door. On the way he grabbed the white tube weapon that had shot the taser beam, and then grabbed the small red cube the Alien had held in its other hand. His training at Coronado had beaten into him the value of scavenging any and every device an enemy might have on them. Which made him also grab the face mask oxy breather on his way out. Bill stuffed the red cube inside his pants, held the white tube weapon in his right hand and hung the oxy breather from the front of his shirt. Its broken strap prevented him from wearing it like the Alien had done, but he figured a supply of oxygen would be handy. Especially since he had no clue to the layout of the Alien starship. Or the room which lay beyond the cell door. Lastly, he took the pencil flashlight from his teeth and aimed its yellow beam forward.
    He stepped over the feet of the bear and walked out of his cell. Immediately he felt lighter, as if the gravity outside the cell was less than inside it. He felt bouncy, which made him wonder at what was normal on an Alien starship.
    A glance to the right and left told him his containment module lay near the end of a line of such modules, which were arranged in two lines that faced each other, with a wide metal walkway running down the middle between the two lines of modules. Side walkways led from each white module out to the central walkway. Waist-high railings ran along each walkway so Alien critters did not fall off. Below the walkways ran a jumble of tubes and cables. Above was a curving metal ceiling with glowing red spots. No one else was present on the center walkway that ran down a cavernous room illuminated by the red light patches. Looking around he counted ten cell modules on one side and ten on his side. At either end of the walkway were oval metal doors bigger than the door that gave entry to his module. Which reminded him he needed to finish the first part of his escape plan. Turning around he bent down, grabbed the bear’s feet and pushed them inside the cell.
    “Wham!”
    His fingers barely cleared the floor sill before the cell door slammed down.
    Bill turned around, walked forward and aimed the white tube taser to the right and the flashlight beam to the left. Now what?
    The woman! He had to free her next, before Diligent Taskmaster sent another crewman to recapture him. But where was she? In what module?
    He now stood on the center walkway. To the left side was his module. Which resembled a flattened globe. Between it and the nearby metal door was another containment module. The exterior of each cell was an off-white. Which maybe made it easier