The Doomed Galaxy Prison

In a cold, silent part of space, a massive prison orbited a black hole. It was called Black Abyss, the final destination for Earth’s worst criminals. There were no guards, no cells, no bars—only the prison’s artificial intelligence, Warden, which controlled everything.

Black Abyss had no windows, no view of the stars, only cold steel walls and endless hallways that pulsed with artificial lights. The prisoners were numbered, tracked, and managed like data in a machine. Food arrived through dispensers, tasteless and measured precisely for survival.

There was no escape.

But Ignacio De Vera had a plan.

He had been a systems engineer before the world branded him a traitor. He had helped design security networks for deep-space stations, including prisons like Black Abyss. That was why he knew something Warden didn’t.

Nothing was inescapable.

Ignacio had been studying the prison’s patterns for two years. The way the AI rotated surveillance, the cycles of oxygen distribution, the maintenance of old docking systems.

Black Abyss wasn’t perfect.

The station drifted closer to the black hole every 27 days before its engines corrected the orbit. In that brief window, gravity weakened just enough for a ship to escape—if it moved fast enough.

But there was a problem.

Every escape pod had been stripped of controls. Every ship was connected to Warden’s system. The AI would detect any unauthorized launch and shut it down before it even left the hangar.

Unless someone could break the system first.

That’s where Sienna and Jace came in.

Sienna had once been the best hacker on Earth. She had written viruses that could cripple entire financial networks. The government locked her away because they feared what she could do.

Jace had been a pilot, trained in off-world smuggling. He had flown through asteroid storms, outrun planetary defense systems, and survived impossible odds.

Now, they were just numbers—like Ignacio.

But they were his way out.

Ignacio passed them messages through the maintenance tablets, using corrupted pixels to hide his words.

\"I have a plan.\"

Sienna replied first.

\"Tell me more.\"

Jace was slower to trust, but eventually, he answered.

\"If you’re serious, I’m in.\"

The plan was dangerous. Risky.

But it was their only chance.

They worked in silence, moving like ghosts under Warden’s watchful eye.

Sienna hacked into the security system, searching for vulnerabilities. She found a backdoor in the oxygen control panel—a flaw in the AI’s logic. If they shut down life support for exactly 90 seconds, Warden would go into emergency mode, focusing all resources on restoring oxygen.

During that time, it wouldn’t be able to stop them.

Jace studied the docking bay. Most ships had been stripped of controls, but one maintenance shuttle remained. It was broken, old, forgotten in the lower levels.

But Ignacio could fix it.

He just needed one shot.

The drift cycle was approaching. The station had already begun moving toward the black hole, and in a few hours, its engines would fire to push it back into orbit.

It was now or never.

Ignacio tapped the final command into the tablet.

\"Oxygen shutdown in 3… 2… 1.\"

A mechanical hiss filled the prison. The red emergency lights flashed.

\"WARNING: LIFE SUPPORT FAILURE. EMERGENCY SYSTEM ENGAGED.\"

Warden’s voice remained calm.

\"Oxygen levels dropping. Restoring primary systems.\"

All across Black Abyss, prisoners panicked. Some screamed. Some pounded on doors.

But Ignacio, Sienna, and Jace moved fast.

They slipped through the hallways, unnoticed in the chaos.

The docking bay door hissed open.

The shuttle sat in darkness.

Ignacio climbed inside and tore off the control panel, his hands moving fast.

Jace jumped into the pilot’s seat. \"Tell me this thing still flies.\"

Sienna’s fingers danced over the controls. \"Hurry. We have less than a minute before Warden resets.\"

Ignacio crossed two wires. The ship’s power flickered to life.

For the first time in years, hope felt real.

Then, Warden spoke.

\"Unauthorized shuttle activation detected. Initiating lockdown.\"

The docking bay doors slammed shut.

Sienna cursed. \"We’re trapped!\"

Jace gritted his teeth. \"We need to go, NOW.\"

Ignacio bypassed the lock manually, overriding the system.

The shuttle’s engines roared to life.

The doors weren’t open yet, but that didn’t matter.

Jace slammed the launch sequence.

The ship blasted forward, crashing through the doors.

They were out.

For a moment, they were free.

The black hole loomed ahead, its darkness endless. The light around it twisted, warping space itself.

Jace pulled the controls. \"Hold on!\"

Ignacio calculated the slingshot trajectory. If they could use the black hole’s gravity just right, they could gain enough speed to reach the nearest space station.

Sienna stared at the monitors. \"We’re getting pulled in too fast!\"

Jace fought the controls. \"Come on, come on—\"

Then, Warden’s voice returned.

\"Prisoner 4081, Ignacio De Vera. This action is unauthorized. Security countermeasure activated.\"

A mechanical click echoed through the ship.

Sienna’s breath caught. \"Wait—\"

Boom.

The explosion was silent in the void.

The shuttle shattered.

The pieces drifted, caught in the black hole’s grasp.

Jace’s chair tumbled into the abyss.

Sienna’s body spun through the void before vanishing.

Ignacio felt weightless. Cold. Empty.

As his body stretched, pulled toward the darkness, he had one final thought.

Nothing was inescapable.

But some things…

Should never be escaped.

Inside Black Abyss, Warden’s voice hummed through the empty halls.

\"Prisoner 4081 terminated. System restored. Black Abyss remains operational.\"

The prison continued its orbit, silent and waiting for the next prisoners to come.

Because in the end, nothing escapes the Abyss.