Chapter Seven:
The Plan

	Rocket groaned and rolled over onto his back. It felt like his head was pounding, and his nose was stuffed up from the poor air quality in the small solitary cell. He arched his back and stretched his whole body. Besides the pounding of his heart in his ears, he could hear the sounds of joints popping. His ears perked up at the sound of someone grunting in a beat pattern. When he opened his eyes, he could see the gray painted ceiling. There were chipping and spidering in the paint. No wonder no one wants to go to solitary, this place is terrible. Rocket rolled himself over onto his side and looked over at Silas doing push ups on the floor. She'd once again adopted the form of a male, no doubt for fear of the guards discovering her true self.
	The lights were still dimmed. It must have still been night time, or maybe early morning. Either way Silas decided that he'd slept enough and wanted to work out. Rocket sat up and shifted his legs out of the bed and put his feet on the floor. The floor was cold and grimy, no telling when the last time someone had hosed this part of the prison down. He got up and paced around the hulking reptile. Up and down each sound a little different then the last.
	:Sounds to me like you got some funky beats going on in here.” Rocket joked as he propped himself up at the toilet and started to urinate.
	“Good morning Rocket, a little forewarning would have been nice.” Silas grunted as he pushed up.
	“My apologize, but I really had to go. You said morning, what time is it?” Rocket asked rubbing one of his eyes with his free hand.
	“If my internal clock is correct...” Silas lowered himself to the floor. “Then it's about six or seven.”
	“How did you sleep last night?” Rocket shook it off, and flushed the toilet.
	Silas continued to do his push ups. “I slept alright I guess.” Rocket rinced his hands in the sink.
	“Alright you guess?” Rocket pulled his shirt off and tossed it on the bed, he got down on all fours and joined Silas in some push ups. “Is something...the matter?”
	Silas shifted counted “100.” Aloud before shifting around to sit on his butt next to Rocket. “No, it's nothing really.”
	Rocket did a few more push ups. It wasn't usually part of his daily routine to work out, but he sure as hell wasn't going let Silas think otherwise. He lost track of his counting while trying to remember what he' dreamed about last night. Maybe he'd been talking in his sleep and that kept her up. If that were the case, what had he said and how much damage control was he going to have to do. At best it was thoughts of his friends, at worse it was thoughts about terrible things he'd done in his life. He did spend a lot of the day yesterday talking about his past. The slat at the bottom of the door opened and two metal trays slid in before it was quickly closed again. 
	“Oh my gods, finally. I'm so hungry.” Silas said shifting into a crawl, grabbing both the trays.
	Rocket got up dusting his hands off. He moved to sit on the bed, Silas was already moving to sit next to him. He took his tray from Silas and started to eat. Silas followed suit and started eating. The food was just terrible. It may have been fecal matter from one of the alien inmates and it wouldn't have surprised Rocket in the least. But he was way too hungry to argue about it. They ate in quiet for most of the meal. Rocket was starting to feel like something was up between he and Silas. It was starting to unnerve him. Rocket looked at Silas and he'd look away.
	He opened his mouth to speak, but Silas beat him to the punch. “Alicia! Is she someone you care about?”
	Rocket froze for a moment and swallowed a piece of dry biscuit hard, he could feel it scratch his throat. “Yeah? I talked about her last night in my sleep didn't I?”
	Silas chuckled softly and nodded. “Talking about it is putting it lightly. I don't know if anyone ever told you this before, but you have roaming hands syndrome in your sleep.”
	Rocket slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand, his cheeks flushing read under his dark fur. “I'm so...sorry about that!”
	Silas touched his shoulder with one strong hand. “Don't worry about it. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it just a little bit. I just wish it had been me you were thinking about when it happened.”
	“First of all, I have to point out how creepy it is, to have this conversation with a dude.” Rocket smirked at Silas, who cracked up laughing.
	“Second, I do apologize for touching you.” Rocket swallowed hard and cleared his throat. “Third, I really hope you stayed in that form all night and didn't turn into male Silas” Rocket did a mock shiver. “Anyway, I'll just sleep on the floor tonight.” Rocket went back to eating his food.
	“No I said in my female form. Which is fortunate for me because of the things you did.” This time Silas blushed and giggled, but never lost her smile.
	“Oh...” Rocket coughed out and winced.
	“But really, I'm fine with it. You can't be held responsible for what happens when you're asleep. Maybe sometime you can tell me about this Alicia person that has your heart...and you other things.” Silas smiled at him before returning to his food.
	“Sounds like a deal.” Rocket went back to eating, he couldn't remember the last time he'd been so embarrassed.
	The silence didn't last long, before Rocket said. “After we get done eating, we need to start talking about the plan. I don't think they have any plan to come and get you, and Du'Vok will be here in two weeks to retrieve me. I want to get out of here with enough time to get far away from here.” 
	Rocket drank the last of his bottle of water before discarding his tray on the floor next to the door. He paced around the room thinking, it started quietly and then became more vocal. Silas watched as he was making nonsensical shapes with his hand. He was putting together the pieces that he'd already worked out. He would have discussed them aloud, but he was waiting for Silas to finish eating so he could have her attention. When Silas finally finished eating, he put his tray on the floor next to Rocket's. Rocket had already paced a warm spot on the floor from all his walking.
	“Alright Rocket, so how are we going to approach this?” Silas asked sitting down on the bunk.
	“Later today or maybe just before lights out I'm going to make some alterations to this listening device that I have on me. If I do it right, I can cause the holographic lens to catch light at it's brightest point that when it pops, it'll work just like a flash grenade. Tomorrow you and I will get into a loud fake fight that will bring the guards running in here...” Rocket smiled making grand gestures with his hand.
	“And then you blind them, and we take them out right?” Silas smiled and nodded, getting a little too excited for his own good.
	“That's right. Once they're taken care of, you will shape shift into one of them, take their uniform, their rifle, and whatever else of use they have on them. Then you'll put cuffs on me, and lead me out of solitary. It'll  look just like you're escorting me somewhere.” Rocket bit his bottom lip.
	“But once we're out, where do we go from there?” Silas asked leaning closer.
	“We'll move to the mess hall double quick. If we do it early enough we shouldn't encounter any resistance.” Rocket moved through the pieces in his mind, like a computer working out a problem.
	“Why the mess hall?” Silas asked his face was straining.
	“Because as we were being escorted out of the mess hall yesterday, I saw a map on the wall. It was big and screwed to the wall, but we could take sixty seconds to work out an escape route.” Rocket thought for a long moment rubbing his chin. “If I hadn't been knocked out when I was brought in, I'd be of more help on the escape front.”
	“Well there isn't much you can do about it right this moment. I figure we can either work our way to the visitor center or through the garage.” Silas said crossing his legs so he could lean on them.
	“The visitor center would be really hard to escape from. Prisoners can't go past that point. If I could find something to cover up with, then maybe. The garage would be an easier place to escape from, but we would need to get the right keys to access that area. Both are good suggestions though, thanks.” Rocket smiled kneeling down on the floor in front of Silas.
	“Oh thanks you flatterer.” Rocket looked at him and cocked his head.
	“Still sounds very weird coming from a dude.” Rocket chuckled.
	“Sorry about that, if it makes you feel better, I'll say them too you again in my other form when the lights go down.” Silas offered with a smile.
	“I'll definitely take you up on that.” Rocket smiled and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling sheepish about talking to Silas as a dude.
	“I'm sorry, I'll stop teasing you.” Silas said, it wasn't the voice, but the way he'd said it that reminded him of Alicia.
	“No no, it's fine. But I have something to tell you about our escape. Before we can leave we're going to have to break into the evidence locker, there is really where map will come in handy. There's something in there very precious to me and I can't leave it behind.” Rocket said, his demeanor more serious than Silas had ever seen him be before.
	“What could be so important?” Silas was a little unnerved by the sudden seriousness.
	“It's nothing worth talking about right now, all I can tell you is that it's one of a kind.” Rocket sounded stressed. “I don't want to talk about it now cause it sounds silly, and sentimental.”
	“Oh just tell me, you goof. We're friends. We shouldn't be holding back anything.” Silas prodded.
	Rocket swallowed hard. “It's a pipe, not just any pipe. But it's a special pipe that was made for me by Alicia. It was the last thing she ever gave me.”
	“Made from a Kali tree right? That's some good pipe wood. I would have bought me one of those, but they're so expensive.” Silas smiled sympathetically. “Even if it hadn't been made by your lady fair, it's a priceless piece to have.”
	“Wow, I'm glad you understand.” Rocket felt better about discussing it with him.
	“Not a problem, once we know where it's at, we'll go there.” Silas nodded and shuffled his feet against the grimy floor.
	“There is one more thing we should discuss. Something that's very unpleasant.” Rocket moved to sit next to her on the cot.
	“What is it?” Silas asked folding his hands around his knees.
	“If we're spotted, we have to work as hard as we can to take out whoever saw us. If they trip the alarm we will have to take their weapon and fight our way out.” Rocket rested his hand on Silas's broad shoulders.
	“No killing, please!” Silas started, but Rocket interjected.
	“It's alright, they don't carry deadly weapons. All of the rifles here are stun models, most prisons use them. It prevents an inmate from getting their hands on them and wreaking havoc. So if we get some and we're careful maybe we can carve our way out. No killing.” Rocket said quietly.
	“Good, no killing.” Silas said in return.
	Then he looked into Silas's eyes once again, the look as serious as it had been before. “If things go from bad to worse, you can leave me behind. Pretend to be one of the guards and just get out.”
	“I can't do that, I need you.” Silas said there was a frantic look growing in his eyes.
	“You have to go, if you don't they'll kill you. They can't kill me, I am worth too much for that. I'll have more time to work on an escape plan. I promised you I'll help you escape, don't make me a liar.” Rocket did his best to help calm his large friend down.
	“Alright Rocket, I'll hold you to that.” Silas sighed deeply and leaned back on his elbows.
	“If things go south and we get separated. Promise me, you'll stop by the evidence locker and get my things. Keep them safe until I can find you again.” The look in his eyes were of a pleading nature.
	Silas nodded slowly and smiled. “I will do that for you.”
	“Thank you so much.” Rocket nodded gently and sat down.
	The pair sat in quiet for a good long while. In that time the guards had finally brought up the lights and came to pick up the empty breakfast trays. Neither of them exchanged looks. It was easy to see that they were in deep contemplation. Rocket was contemplating how to convert the listening device into a flash grenade. Silas was lost in contemplation of what he was going to do if anything happened to Rocket and he had to leave on his own.
	Rocket crouched down on the floor and pulled the listening device out of his pocket. It was sleek and new. He had no idea why Arty had given it to him. The one thing he did know is that it wouldn't take much to transform the device into a flash grenade. The holographic lens was fairly powerful for such a small model. A soft hand caressed the back of Rocket's head, he whipped around and saw that Silas was in her lithe form once again. She knelt down next to him looking at the device.
	“What is it?” She asked, her voice was soft in his ear.
	“It's some kind of holographic recorder. I'm guessing it's a newer model. Pretty powerful to be honest. I have no idea what's on it. An old “friend” gave it to me before he turned me over to the bounty hunter.” Rocket turned it over and could see some smooth silver buttons along the side. 
	“You should probably listen to it before you take it apart. What if it's something important?” Silas reached up and caressed the back of his much smaller hand.
	Their thumbs both pressing one of the buttons on the side of the device. It flickered to life and a very familiar person appeared in the holographic image. Rocket lost his balance and fell back on his butt his shoulders resting against Silas chest. It was Alicia, but where had the hologram been taken from. She was dressed in her military fatigues and they looked dirty and rugged. Rocket felt around on the side and pressed another button. The hologram started moving and once again he'd heard her voice.
	“This is Second Lieutenant Alicia Dagon of the U.S.F. Tesla. We were on route to intercept a Skrull Warbird. We've taken heavy damage, the core of our vessel is over heating and on the verge of rupturing. I don't have long for this life. I just want to say, I love you father, Arty, and my family. Please don't grieve for me. Father if you get this, promise me that you'll find Rocket...” There was a sharp skip in the hologram and a whirring sound from the audio, before it started playing again. “...you'll find Rocket and tell him I hate him and I will never forgive him for what he's done to me and my family.”
	There was a heavy rumbling on the hologram and a panic look in her face. Then everything went white and there was no more of the recording. Rocket panted heavily and lean forward, his shoulders slumped. The sleek looking device slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor with a clack. Rocket was hugging his body firmly and he was shaking.
	“Easy Rocket, just breath. I'm here for you.” Silas whispered and wrapped her arms across his back holding him closely.
	Rocket just leaned into her, letting himself be held. Alicia had hated him. Hated him right up to the bitter end. Hearing her say it cut deeper than any wound he'd ever had. He wished now, that he'd never seen this hologram. More over he wished that he'd handled things differently back then. That must have been Arty's plan all along. Arty's idea of closure was to destroy him with the truth.
	“You take as long as you need with this Rocket.” Silas whispered into his ear.
	Rocket sighed softly and shook his head. There was no way Arty was going to get away with this. A wicked smile started crawling over his face. He dried his watering eyes. He was going to deal with all of this later, only after he'd mad sure Silas was safe. Then he was going to go to Arty's home and kill him where he stood. Kill him not only for what he'd done to Artemis, but for thinking he had the right to mess with Rocket's head, and heart. That was the promise he made, anything that happened after that didn't matter.
	“I'm alright, I just need a little time to process this. I'm going to lay down for a bit.” Rocket slowly stood up, his knees feeling weak and shaky. “Thank you for everything.” He whispered as he ran his fingers softly along her cheek when he walked passed.
	Rocket slouched down on the bed, before falling backwards. All he needed was time to work through this, he thought to himself. It was so hard to have a clear mind to deal with this, or to deal with anything. All he wanted to do was sleep, but all he managed to do, was think of Alicia.