Three sharp-looking metal tractor claws clamped down on the Don't Tempt Me as soon as it was drawn into the Old One docking bay and pulled it into position. As with the rest of the station the bay was entirely underwater.

A dozen Old One soldiers, wearing hovering battlesuits resembling person-sized starships, forced open the entry ramp and spilled into the Don't Tempt Me. A mixture of water and Old One communication chemicals rushed in after them.

The soldiers surrounded the three rangers, who immediately put their hands up in surrender as the water level continued to rise. Fighting back at this point would have been suicide. They had already destroyed their deathwards as soon as their ship was tractored so death at this point would be quite permanent.

Three of the soldiers approached the rangers and jabbed them in the back with a device of some kind, causing a painful electric shock. They quickly became aware of an absence in their minds as their Suit's footholds in the lower dimensions were severed. Now they were truly on their own.

Only once the prisoners were disarmed in this way did the Old Ones place small emitters on the neck of each ranger. The emitters produced bubble fields filled which filled themselves with self-replenishing atmosphere. By this point the water had risen nearly to chest level. Additional force restraints were quickly added which held the rangers arms at their sides and limited the movement of their legs to short steps.

Elsewhere on the ship Bob was no doubt being subjected to similarly unfriendly treatment. Decker hoped the Old Ones understood dolphin physiology enough to realize he still needed to breathe air as well.

The soldiers were not able to communicate with the rangers in any language, but they made themselves understood by motioning with their weapons and shoving with their manipulation fields. The three prisoners were led off their ship and deeper into the underwater station.

The group was rudely marched through the station, across tube-like halls leading into open-concept, transparent, semi-circular rooms filled with Old One activity, until they finally arrived at the detention center. Each was pushed into an individual cell. Decker was first, followed by Ophelia, then Gagnon.

As soon as the door sealed shut the remaining water was near-instantly pumped from the cell and it was flooded with atmosphere. The bubble field popped and the emitter on Decker's neck dissolved into vapor with a quiet sizzling noise. The air inside the cell was stale and foul smelling but at least it was breathable. Decker quickly turned off his sense of smell. After a few more lungfuls of air he also turned off his sense of taste as well.

There was nowhere to sit, indeed there was no furniture or amenities of any kind, so Decker squatted down in a resting position.

Then, to his surprise, Ophelia successfully pinged his implant.

<Sam?> she asked.

<I'm here,> replied Decker. <So our implants aren't being jammed. That's something.>

<I find that highly suspicious,> signaled Gagnon. Ophelia and Decker had intentionally included him in their conversation.

<It could be a hyperjamming field powerful enough to block our implants might interfere with the station's other systems. Who knows what kind of 5th dimensional protrusions this place has,> signaled Decker.

<Either that or the Old Ones have figured out a way to break Cooperative adaptive encryption and they're listening in,> speculated Ophelia.

Decker didn't even want to think about that.

<Either way, we should assume we're being eavesdropped on,> signaled Gagnon. <Nobody say anything that could be potentially compromising.>

<We have a term for this kind of situation on Centauri,> signaled Decker. <'All sprelled up'.>

<We're alive, at least,> signaled Gagnon. <That's something.>

<Pretty small something,> signaled Decker.

<It's enough to work with,> replied Ophelia. <They didn't shoot us as soon as they brought us aboard. There has to be a reason.>

<I think it's safe to assume at this point that they intend to do to us whatever they did to the people who attacked Wengehua.>

<Brainwashing?> asked Decker.

<It explains all the evidence,> replied Gagnon. <It never made sense to me that the Long Shadow would be able to recruit so many Mandanadian agents so quickly. Especially ones willing to destroy the colony and everyone on it.>

<If the Old Ones have developed the technology to manipulate human minds...> signaled Ophelia.

<...then the attack on Wengehua was just the tip of the iceberg.> Gagnon finished for her. <It might just have been a field test.>

<All sprelled up,> Decker repeated.

<No reason to get defeatist. This is all just speculation at this point,> signaled Gagnon.

<I'm not being defeatist I'm being realistic. We're going to need to come up with an unbelievable plan to get out of this,> signaled Decker.

<Keep your unbelievable plans to yourself,> signaled Ophelia. <The last thing we need is the Old Ones overhearing.>

<Good point,> signaled Gagnon. <We should probably keep communication going forward to an absolute minimum.>

And with that Decker was alone with his thoughts.

They had been stripped of their Suits and were locked inside prison cells built by an equivtech civilization. Outside of their cells the entire station was flooded with water, which meant even if they did manage to escape they would drown almost immediately after. It wouldn't be long before the Old Ones came for them and, if he and his friends were right, they would brainwash them to be used as weapons against their own people. After what happened to Ranger Aranarth back on Home... Decker couldn't afford to think about that right now.

Decker could hardly believe they got caught with their pants down like that. By all conventional standards they should have been able to flee into hyperspace long before anything got into position to threaten them. Who knew that Old One tractor beams had that kind of reach? Decker would have been impressed with that probe trick if it wasn't directly responsible for his current situation. Between that and the possibility of their having developed human-compatible mind control technology who knew what the Old Ones were capable of now.

Decker really didn't like his thoughts. Lucky for him he wasn't left alone with them for long.

<They're here,> signaled Gagnon, followed by silence.

This was it.

Decker decided he was going to fight. He had no meaningful prospect of actually winning but in order to succeed all he had to do was make himself dangerous enough that the Old One soldiers killed him. It was far better to go down fighting than to let the enemy transform him into a weapon.

Just because his death was assured didn't mean Decker planned to make it easy on the Old Ones. He figured if he played his cards right, and with the element of surprise on his side, he would be able to take two Old One soldiers with him. Two for one. That's still a trade in humanity's favor.

Two for one.

* * *

The door to Gagnon's cell opened and it flooded with water. He was roughly yanked out by a manipulation field of an Old One soldier and restrained once more with force fields. Only then was an emitter affixed to his neck and his bubble of air restored.

The soldiers pulled him a short way through the hall and into what was obviously a laboratory. Several Old One eruditists were waiting inside, buzzing with enthusiasm.

The walls of the lab were crowded with advanced Old One tech, although Gagnon didn't recognize most of it. One thing he did recognize, however, were the three wicked looking thought projectors hanging down from the ceiling in the center of the room.

Gagnon's restraints were released for just long enough for him to be forced down on a table by two of the soldiers. New force restraints were projected across his entire body, utterly immobilizing him. Gagnon instinctively struggled against them but he wasn't capable of even the slightest movements.

The soldiers backed away to give the eruditists space to work. They immediately began to position the thought projectors so that they pointed directly at Gagnon's head. The most senior eruditist worked the controls.

If the Old One eruditists had been more educated in subtleties of human body language they might have noticed the beginnings of a smile on Gagnon's lips.

So you've learned how to interface your tech with the human mind eh? Gagnon thought to himself. Welcome to the jungle you torrieu bottom feeders.

Then he embraced oblivion.