a way in (or out)

You woke up by being kicked by one of your lizard-like wardens.

No food or water was offered and you despaired at the idea of working all morning (or all day) with only half a bowl of gruel from last night on your stomach.

You were not a person to work out. You did just enough to keep within the fleet physical standard requirements but for non-fighting personnel they were rather light and you always slacked off at your mandatory training sessions, either advancing some work or watching porn (sometimes both as you were good at multitasking) on your neural implant than to focus on the mind numbing laps or push ups.

Shoveling the rock and dirt made your arms and back hurt yesterday but today was worse as the night didn't help it at all.

Diana hit something and a panel of rock crumbled down to reveal metal. You recognized what it was just in time and as she was about to scream in surprise you put you hand on her mouth.

She looked mad at you for grabbing her until you explained.

"It's an entry hatch, help me cover it with rubble and dig elsewhere." you said as you emptied a basket of gravel on it to hide it.

"What about it?" She mumbled under your hand before pushing it aside.

"They are designed to be operated manually even without power! We could use it to escape through the ship if we can break the chain or remove the collars." You explained.

"They are watching us, they'll catch us." She replied.

" We'll wait until the night, you have to do as if you didn't find anything." You told her.

With never having been an officer before and so little time as her captain she had a hard time listening to you and obeying your command but she seemed willing to at least try.

The prospect of not having to dig tomorrow (either free, dead, or too badly beaten up to do any work) was incentive enough.

"We'll need a distraction to touch our collars unnoticed." Smith murmured quietly as she pulled on the pick-axe pretending to pry loose a section of rock.

"It's a good idea!" You agreed, a little surprised she was thinking on her own about how to make this plan of yours work. Maybe you will be able to work as a team after all.

"I saw a pair of the xenos mating yesterday and the guards turned around, either disgusted or embarrassed." She told you.