Beside me, Imani murmured a prayer and drew herself to her feet, her eyes flashing as she scanned the room. “They said it’d be a rough takeoff, but the ship hasn’t moved. Has it?”

We all glanced at Reed, who shook his head. “No,” he said. “I know ships. This one is still docked. There wasn’t any of the drift that comes with takeoff on a model like this.”

A long silence lingered, and then Mia cursed loudly. “All right,” she said. “Imani. You got a safety pin in that hijab of yours?”

“What? Yes, I—”

“I need it.”

Imani’s eyes narrowed. “For what?”

“To pick the lock on these cuffs.” She rattled her hands. “They’re an older model. Actual locks. With my hands in front of me, I could do it no problem. With my hands behind my back, it might be more of a challenge. Just be glad they’re not the mitten models they used on Mars.”

“And then what?” Imani demanded. “You’ll still be trapped in these cells.”

“Yes, but they didn’t turn on the power dampeners when they brought us in. Don’t want to affect their own abilities, I’m guessing. That means the only thing inhibiting our powers is these cuffs, and I’m not going to pick my own,” Mia explained patiently. “I’m going to free Jasper.”

It took a second for us to catch her meaning, but when we did, a collective gasp went around the room. Without another word, Imani dropped to her knees. “See if you can get the pin free,” she instructed.

“I’ll do my best.” I turned my back to her and stretched out my fingers. Imani wiggled into place, settling her chin in my hands. I winced, groping for the pin, terrified I was going to jab her in the eye or something. But it went smoothly, the pin popping open in my hands. I even managed to leave her hijab relatively undisturbed.

We passed the pin through the bars, and Mia and Jasper knelt back to back. Her face screwed up in concentration, she set to work. She faced me, sweat beading on her forehead, her eyes squeezed into creases. None of us spoke. I don’t think anyone even exhaled. I certainly didn’t. One wrong move and Mia might not only blow our only chance of escape but electrocute Jasper in the process. These cuffs might have actual locks, but they also contained electronic components to power the inhibitors.

After what felt like an hour but was probably only a few minutes, Mia gave a gasp of relief and Jasper’s cuffs clattered to the floor. She drooped against the wall as Jasper flexed his arms and rose smoothly to his feet. Two seconds later, the molecules of his cell door rearranged themselves, leaving a hole large enough to walk through as alarms once more shot through the ship. A heartbeat later, we were all free. Or at least, we were free of our cells. “Can you get these off?” I raised my cuffs.