[The monster under the bed]

Ray's face went white, then she said "Shit" in every language she knew, and
made a guess at a couple other ways to say it. She yanked the storage fob
with the satellite access codes out of the access panel unceremoniously,
then realizing that the communication cube had a security feed, turned her
back to where the camera was and made a show of stowing it on the shelves
behind the desk, when in fact what she was doing was stuffing the tiny fob
into the front of her jumpsuit.

She looked at Ashanta, but as usual, there was no way to read her
expression, the same mysterious, dark calm. There might have been a flash of
urgency in her eyes, but if so, it was fleeting and now gone.

She turned back to the terminal, which was utterly unresponsive. No sequence
of keys would clear the message from the screen, and the red type displaying
the words "Unlawful use prohibited" glared ominously until she powered down
the display in frustration.

"What's happened?" Ashanta asked.

"ESA command has taken control of the communication system. The entire thing
is wired for central control. When someone with the right authority says so,
the whole things shuts down and they can take over."

"Idiots. They didn't learn from what happened in Rome. And Washington. And
Sacramento." Ashanta's speech was uninflected, as if it were just a
statement of fact, not an indictment.

Two men in black military uniforms appeared in the doorway to the
cube. Their faces were obscured by helmets and a communication screen, but
Ray could tell it was nobody from the colony. They didn't move right,
bouncing a little too much when they walked.

"Ms. Jackson. Come with us." There was no hint that it was a mere request.

Ashanta stood, unfurling like some sort of plant from where she'd been
curled sitting on the floor, her earthen colored clothing a sharp contrast
to the precise and ominous black uniforms.

She raised her eyebrows once toward Ray and nodded slightly, then the men
grabbed her roughly and, though she didn't resist, made a show of dragging
her out the door, moving like macabre black clowns, every horrible movement
exaggerated.

Ray followed them out. 

There were a hundred of them. Two stood near each cube in the dome. She
thought they looked like pictures she'd seen of gargoyles on old earth
churches, a little inhuman. 

They dragged Ashanta toward central supply, and Ray could see that Ashanta
was using the gravity against them, every time one would bounce a little too
hard, she'd twist a little, subtly, and throw them off balance. They were
struggling too hard to keep a steady gait to notice, by the looks of it.