The purulent pureed potatoes plopped into a hollow of an indented plastic tray called a Pig Pan. A thin film of burnt gravy with bits of food of an indeterminate nature was then splashed on top. A yellow squadge of congealed rice pudding completed the complement. No one complained. No one ever complained about the food because you never knew what they would put in it if you did. The smell of rancid fat, old dishwater and sweat hung like a film of grease in the air. All feeding halls had the same smell.

Holding their trays firmly, Dutch and Sweet Mary walked down the row of tables bolted to the floor and chose one away from all the others. Dutch picked up her plastic spork (a combination spoon and fork) and listlessly pushed the mush around in circles.

“What’s the matter?” asked Sweet Mary.

Dutch shrugged. Not really worth trying to talk in all this noise. Nearly two hundred inmates all laughing and shouting as people do when you’ve been in solitary for a while. Plus the telescreens blasting out a car chase with sirens and machine-gun fire…killing and rape and murder, just the right type of film to play to a bunch of hardened criminals ready to bust. She looked over towards the wall of metal mesh dividing the women and the men’s section. To help pass the time, she and most of the other women would scour the talent on the other side to see if there was anyone they fancied.

Men and women lived and ate separately, and the guards made small fortunes out of smuggling them in and out of each others cells. But Dutch found that men were not worth the trouble – sex was generally a disappointing business with them. She could do better by herself, but she still looked anyway. Sweet Mary had no such interests and hardly even glanced at the men. She was just too glad to be away from them.

Dutch’s attention was suddenly drawn to a few guys roughhousing round the food counter. Several guards were already on the move to break it up. Dutch didn’t like the look of this. She glanced back and saw another group of men stealthily sidling towards the engineering-room door under cover of the distraction. There was only one guard there and even his attention was on the fight.

Dutch’s guts gave a lurch as she saw him go down with a blow to the back of the head. She could sense things were about to get out of hand.

“Come on.” She grabbed Sweet Mary’s arm and swept her towards the exit door, sending her plate of food clattering to the floor. The noise and chaos was ramping up on the other side as the roughhousing turned into a fully fledged fistfight and even the women were now crowding up against the mesh and urging them on. The tannoys crackled and hissed and a mechanical voice intoned for ‘all prisoners to immediately return to their cells’.

The next thing there was the sound of a huge explosion and everyone was free floating in the air, bodies cart-wheeling every-which-way in the zero gravity. A food tray floated past Dutch’s face and she just hoped that the explosion, whatever it was, had not breached the hull. She desperately looked round for Sweet Mary and noticed a familiar blonde bob of hair in the distance. This was her element. Zero gravity to her was like water to a fish. She was so practiced in getting around, it was almost second nature to her. She kicked herself off from the wall and sailed across the room. Halfway across someone ricocheted into her and everything turned into a crazy game of billiards. Some people, unable to get to a surface whereby to propel themselves were hopelessly trying to swim through the air with flailing arms. Dutch took hold of one of these bodies and used it to launch herself forward. On this attempt she managed to grab Sweet Mary by the scruff of her neck.

“Hold onto me and keep still.” Dutch quickly tied their prison belts firmly together then used a nearby body to launch them towards the door. They were careening through bits of food and undulating globs of orange juice when the second explosion came. This one was bigger. She reckoned the men had blown their way through the primary door that led to the main Ops centre. From long years of experience Dutch knew what was coming and instinctively hugged Sweet Mary to her chest. She was fleetingly surprised at how small and softly plump she was, and the intoxicating smell of her perfume nearly made her lose track of the situation. A split second later the concussion ripped through the hall like a tidal wave and they were plucked out of the air as if by a giant hand and hurled towards the wall. Dutch managed somehow to twist them around and put herself between Sweet Mary and the fast approaching wall.

Then the lights went out and the chaos was complete.

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