The door slid shut behind Barnaby, and its hiss faded into the low hum of the medical wing. All at once the room seemed smaller. Youri stayed on the floor for a long time with his hands pressed against the cold surface and his breathing uneven, while his body slowly caught up to the weight of what had just happened.
Free. The word echoed in his head, hollow and unfamiliar.
He pushed himself up at last, every muscle protesting, and sank back down onto the edge of the bed. His eyes stayed on the door, half expecting it to open again, half hoping it wouldn't. Barnaby's words kept replaying themselves over and over, each one digging deeper than the last. Eight hours. He clenched his hands. He had been given a choice — something he had not been given in years — and yet the idea of freedom felt heavier than captivity ever had.
The door hissed open again. Zayn stepped in with Jean close behind him, and both of them paused when they saw Youri sitting up.
"You're awake," Zayn said quietly.
Youri didn't answer at first. He raised his eyes to theirs, searching them for something — recognition, or hostility, or pity — but he found none of those. Only caution.
"Barnaby was here," Jean said, stating the obvious.
Youri nodded once.
Zayn let out a breath through his nose. "Then things are moving faster than expected."
Jean crossed his arms. "Malden won't be happy if you leave the medical wing without clearance."
Youri gave a weak, humorless breath. "He won't stop me."
The twins exchanged a glance. Then Zayn reached into his coat and set something on the bed beside Youri: a data band, old, worn and unmarked. "Access clearance," he said. "Limited. Enough to get you through the lower corridors and the service lifts."
Jean looked away. "After that, you're on your own."
Youri stared at the band. "Why?"
Zayn gave a slight shrug. "Because we've seen what they did to you. And because if anyone deserves to walk out of this place, it's you."
Silence settled between them. Finally Youri reached out and took the band and fastened it around his wrist. The soft click sounded louder than it should have. "Thank you," he said, his voice rough but sincere.
Jean nodded once. "Eight hours," he reminded him. "Don't waste them." And they left without another word.
Youri stood alone again, looking around at the sterile walls and the humming machines, breathing in the faint smell of antiseptic. For years, this had been his entire world. Now it felt like a skin he had already shed.
He moved slowly through the corridors, keeping to the service paths he had memorized long ago from the vents, and every turn brought back fragments of memory — operating rooms, holding cells, the quiet echo of footsteps in the night. When he passed Leonora's old room, he stopped. The door was sealed, and the room behind it was dark. He rested his forehead against it for a moment.
"You made it," he whispered. "That's enough."
He didn't linger.
The hangar was alive with activity when he got there. Cargo drones hovered overhead, technicians shouted orders at one another, and the distant roar of engines shook up through the floor. At the far end of it all a ship sat ready, sleek, scarred and unmistakably Barnaby's. Youri hesitated at the threshold. Behind him lay Altex, the place that had taken everything from him. Ahead of him lay uncertainty and danger, and a man who had once sold him into hell.
He stepped forward.
The ramp came down with a mechanical whine, and Barnaby was standing inside with his arms crossed, watching him come, a crooked smile tugging at his lips. "You're cutting it close."
Youri met his eyes, and his own were no longer empty or hollow. "I needed to be sure."
Barnaby raised an eyebrow. "About what?"
"That I wasn't leaving anything behind."
For a moment Barnaby said nothing. Then he turned and walked deeper into the ship. "Strap in," he muttered. "We've got work to do."
The ramp sealed shut and the engines roared to life. Youri took a seat by the viewport and watched Altex drift into view, cold, distant, shrinking with every passing second. And for the first time in years, he felt something stir beneath the silence inside him. Not pain. Not fear. Possibility.
Back in Altex, Malden was standing alone in his office, studying his tablet with its glow reflected faintly in his glasses, when the doors slid open and Zayn and Jean came in. After a moment he set the tablet down on his desk and turned to face them.
"So," he said calmly. "He's gone?"
"Yes, sir," Zayn said. "We gave him the clearance band, just as you asked."
A faint, conflicted smirk crossed Malden's face. "May that be enough to save us from what we did to him."
He turned to the wide glass panel overlooking space, where Youri's ship was drifting further and further away, its engines burning like a fading star. He watched it in silence until it was gone.
Aboard the ship, Youri sat across from Barnaby while the low hum of the engines filled the cabin, and after a long pause he asked, "So where are we going now?"
Barnaby took a slow drag on his cigarette. "Laspeas. They call it the planet of sin."
Youri frowned. "So you're selling me off again?"
Barnaby scoffed and flicked the cigarette away. "I told you already — you're a free man. I'm going to Laspeas because that's where my business is. What you do once you step off this ship is entirely up to you." He glanced at Youri. "And I wasn't lying when I said I found you a job. If you decide to stay, look for a place called Lux. Ask for a man named Malkom, and tell him I sent you. He's looking for someone like you."
"Doing dirty work," Youri said flatly.
Barnaby smirked. "It isn't called the planet of sin for nothing."
Youri let out a slow breath. "I'm done with that kind of life."
Barnaby shrugged. "Your choice, kid. But understand this — there's no right or wrong in this world. Only interests. The people with interests are the ones who survive. Like it or not, want it or not, that's how this life works."
With that he stood and went off toward the control room, leaving Youri alone with his thoughts. Youri stared out at the dark stretch of space beyond the viewport with Barnaby's words echoing in his head, and he clenched his fists as a quiet bitterness settled into his chest. How far this world has fallen, he thought. So far that it has started to consume itself from the inside out.