Draco awoke from his nap feeling groggy. He was awoken by the loud noise of everyone getting up from their beds and leaving.
"LUNCH TIME!" he heard someone shout out excitedly, running out of the room behind the rest of the group.
Draco opened his eyes to see black figures flooding out of the room, and he almost rolled out of his bed before remembering that his bed didn't have guard rails.
Demetri was already leaving the room, and he caught Draco's eye and motioned for him to follow.
He slid off of the top bunk, ready to see what was being served for lunch in a military-grade aircraft.
Except, when he was walking out he noticed that the white-haired Snow was still sleeping in her bed.
She was evidently having a rough sleep, and she was tossing and turning atop her mattress.
Interestingly, Draco noticed that her black clothes were soaked in sweat, and her sweat sizzled as it seemingly evaporated off of her.
'Jesus! How hot does this lady sleep?' Draco wondered, walking over to try to wake her up.
"Hey, Snow! Rise and shine, it's time to eat." Draco called out to her, but received no response.
However, when he tried to shake her awake something unexpected happened. Draco was forced to pull his hand back, for the sheer heat of Snow's skin burned him!
Draco thought it was ironic, 'Her name is Snow, but her skin is as hot as a fire.' he thought with a smirk.
Draco shook his head and wrapped the mattress' sheet around his hands, then proceeded to roughly push Snow off of the top bunk.
Snow fell to the ground with a loud thump, and she jumped up in alarm.
"Wa-Where am I?!" she shouted out, looking around frantically before calming down.
"Relax, snow. It's just me." Draco said while moving his hands in a placating manner.
Seeing Draco standing above her she calmed down, grabbing Draco's hand as he helped her up.
"Sorry for the way I woke you up, but you were burning hot and I couldn't touch you." Draco explained.
Snow seemed to think of something and looked down at her clothes, but heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that they were still intact.
She gave Draco a sheepish smile and said, "Don't worry about it, thanks for waking me up Draco."
"Anytime, come on let's get something to eat." Draco said, turning to leave the barracks.
Snow followed Draco out, and they went downstairs until they found an open door. Peering inside, they could see that everyone was inside of a long room with many cafeteria style tables.
Draco noticed everyone was lined up at a food counter, and he and Snow grabbed a tray and got in the back of the line.
The food being served was nothing to brag about, but it looked appetizing enough.
Today it looked like some type of meat and mashed potatoes were being served, and Draco accepted his serving with a smile on his face.
After being served Draco spotted Demetri sitting alone at one of the cafeteria tables.
Draco approached the table and sat down next to Demetri, with Snow sitting opposite of the table facing him.
"Time to dig in." Draco said, immediately tearing into his meal.
"At least it's better than the sh*t they serve in prison." Demetri said, digging into his mashed potatoes.
Snow didn't seem to have an appetite though, for she was merely picking through her food with a strange expression on her face.
"I wonder where they're going to send us to." Snow asked, probably stressing about the trials ahead of them.
Demetri laughed, "I'm not sure it matters to be honest. You heard what Ron said, we're probably not going to make it out of here anyways."
Draco shook his head, putting it out of his mind as he continued to eat his meal.
Demtri's words did little to placate Snow's stress, but she said nothing else as she watched Draco and Demetri finish their food.
A short while after the two finished eating, Ron grabbed the attention of everyone in the room.
"Alright, everyone! Lunch is over, hope you were able to fill up. We're on a tight schedule and you need to get your equipment before we receive our assignment." he said.
Everyone then stood up from their tables and followed Ron out of the cafeteria.
The group traveled down a few floors until they were on the second floor of the ship. Once they were there a Ḥāmin soldier inputted a code into a control panel next to the door, causing the door to loudly scrape open.
Ron promptly entered the room, followed by the rest of the group.
Draco had to wait for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. After they adjusted he was able to see that they were in an armory of sorts.
There were two Ḥāmin stationed within the room, and they stood unmoving in either corner of the armory.
One wall of the room held rows of an assortment of weapons. These weapons ranged from swords and firearms, but they were all kept safe behind a metal cage.
On the other wall there was a row of black clothing on hangers, presumably the uniforms that Draco and the other prisoners were given.
Ron stopped in the center of the room and explained, "This is our armory on the Death Barge. There's nothing special here, it's simply the weapons they give us expendables."
He motioned towards the weapons on one of the walls.
"These weapons are all going to be your lifeline. They are standard-grade artifacts that are installed with safeguards to ensure our compliance." he motioned to the Ḥāmin standing next to the weapons.
The Ḥāmin walked over and entered a code on the cage's keypad, unlocking it with a click.
Ron opened the cage with a swinging door, and stepped inside to grab a gun and a sword. The gun was a black pistol of some sort, and it had an interesting device attached to the side of it.
The device looked like a screen, and it made beeping noises as soon as Ron held it.
The sword however seemed ordinary, and had a simple short blade and a black handle.
Once he was holding the weapons Ron continued, "This gun here is now registered to my bio-signature. As long as I am holding it, it will not allow me to use it against any authorized personnel."
He pointed the gun towards one of the Ḥāmin to demonstrate. Seeing a pistol pointed directly at his face the Ḥāmin showed no reaction.
In a moment the Ḥāmin lack of fear was explained, for when Ron went to pull the trigger the pistol's screen began to flash a bright red.
"See? No bueno." he said, holstering the pistol in a built-in pocket at his waist.
Ron then held up the sword in front of them.
"This sword has a similar safeguard. If you try to cut someone you're not supposed to, the sword will shock you. I'm not going to demonstrate, for I've heard that it's quite painful." he laughed.
There was a loop on the back of his uniform that he promptly sheathed the sword in.
Seeing these convenient spots in the black clothes they were given, Draco finally understood what those strange holes were for.
"Alright, everyone line up single file to receive your gear." Ron said.
It didn't take long for everyone to get their gear, and once Draco had received his sword and pistol he looked over his new weapons with interest.
The pistol couldn't compare to the MP7 he was given with Draco, and the sword seemed ordinary compared to the silver blade he had stolen from the Young Master in London.
However, it just felt good to hold a weapon again.
After everyone had received their weapons, Ron gave them a final warning.
"Although these weapons can not harm someone you're not supposed to, if you attempt to harm any Ḥāmin you will be recycled into progenitor serum.
Draco gulped when he heard that, not eager to end up with such a grim fate.
After Ron said this he left the armory and the group followed him up the ship's staircase.
They traveled several floors until they reached the end of the staircase, stopping before a door at the top of the stairs.
Another Ḥāmin opened this door, letting them into the room that Draco presumed was their last stop.
The room was rather spacious, and it was evident that it was some kind of mission control center.
Draco estimated that the room was probably 200 feet (60 meters) in width and length.
The middle of the room held a large table that displayed a projection of an unknown landscape, and numerous screens and displays floated around the room.
There were at least a dozen Ḥāmin situated around the room at these screens. The screens seem to all display various information about the condition of their ship and other unknown graphs and tables.
At the edge of the room were several strange looking tubes with doors placed on them. These doors all had a small circular window on them, and Draco couldn't help but wonder what they were for.
Once the group had filed into the room they stood behind Ron, he was facing the projection of the landscape and standing at attention.
A few moments later a figure phased into existence above the projection.
Draco was surprised to see the person standing before them.
That was because it was none other than the fourth prince, Saan Khalid, the man who had sent them there in the first place!