“You’re heading to the Exchange?”
“Yea.” Lauren smiled. “I mean…we’ve been thinking about it. We need some supplies for the baby.” She rubbed her stomach.
“Oh, well, I’m in!” Nia hopped off the mound of hay and headed toward the house.
Lauren’s concerned gaze held hers as she approached.
“Are you sure? It’s kinda dangerous and…”
And she was an illegal alien.
Yea, she knew.
“I know, but I’ll have you and Riv there with me.” Nia smiled. “Plus, you’ll need help carrying the bags.”
Lauren paused, studying her for a few moments before she smiled.
“Okay. If you’re sure…”
“I’m sure.”
As sure as she was ever going to be. If not for opportunities like this, she’d be stuck on the Sanctuary forever.
They’d just have to be careful while at the Exchange. It wasn’t the first time they’d be making a trip out there, and it wouldn’t be their last.
And like the last time, everything would go smoothly.
Right?
Nia pushed back the little thread of doubt weaving in her mind.
Everything would be fine.
3
As the hover car sped across the plain, the tall yellow-orange grass swayed in the wind.
Off in the distance, she could see wild grazing oogas, their large bodies standing out against the grass.
Nia adjusted the hood of the huge brown cloak over her head.
It was big enough that it hid her face almost completely.
She was even wearing one of Riv’s face coverings over her nose and mouth.
The cloak closed in front and hung all the way down to her toes. It also covered her hands, reaching the tips of her fingers.
She was pretty sure she wouldn’t draw attention with this get up. No one would know she was human underneath this thing.
But that wasn’t the whole reason she was covered.
Her gaze fell on Lauren, who was sitting in the front of the vehicle beside Riv.
Lauren didn’t have to wear a cloak.
She had a hand resting on Riv’s thigh and her identification bracelet was clearly visible.
It had arrived just a few days after Nia had turned up at the Sanctuary and they’d taken a trip back to the Exchange so she could get her official registration mark—a tattoo in the center of her wrist.
Nia looked at her own wrist.
Her bracelet and tattoo were fake.
Somehow, Riv had acquired them for her just for trips like this.
Unlike Lauren, hers didn’t grant her any special rights or any liberties.
She wasn’t in the system—she was an illegal alien—and it was going to stay that way for a while or, at least, until she could find a way to register herself.
As the hover car continued speeding along, Nia sighed and unfocused her gaze.
She didn’t know how she was going to do it, but eventually, she’d have to find a way.
Refugees needed a sponsor before they were granted residency on Hudo III and said sponsor had to give up half of all they owned to do so.
Riv had sponsored Lauren, and Sohut had sponsored Cleo.
They were safe. It was only she alone who wasn’t registered, and for that reason, Riv had acquired the fake IDs.
If anyone asked, she could quickly flash them and get on her way, but she was hoping that the cloak would keep her hidden.
She didn’t know for how long she’d zoned out, but the plain soon turned into bits of civilization.
Little bottle-shaped dwellings popped up now and then before they were zooming through what could be a small town.
The buildings gradually got bigger, the roads as well, till they were in the city. Traffic moved in a way she would never understand.
There weren’t any stop signs, yet each driver seemed to know exactly what it was doing. It didn’t take long after that before they were suddenly pulling into a huge parking area filled with other hover vehicles.
She could already hear the hum of the Exchange beyond the huge gates.
It was the sort of hum that came about when many people were in the same location, a million conversations happening at once.
Riv pulled into a bay, hopped out, and headed around to the other side to allow Lauren to alight.
He moved to help her too, but she’d already launched herself over the side of the vehicle and was waiting on them.
“Ready?” Lauren asked.
Nia nodded.
As they headed inside, Lauren and Riv in front and Nia at the back, Nia kept her head bowed.
The cloak covered her fully, but that didn’t mean she was going to go staring aliens in their faces.
Though most of the aliens around them looked like regular shoppers, she couldn’t be too cautious.
It was not until they were on one of the streets that she looked up. She almost gasped in awe.
There were floating holographic creatures in the air and she quickly realized they were like balloon animals that children could buy. A few alien children were hopping beside their parents at the stall where the balloon animals floated from, and if she had the money and wasn’t with Riv and Lauren, she’d have probably snuck off to go get one for herself.
Around them, the crowd was thick and it moved like a wave.
Now and then, she was bumped by the aliens passing by her, and if she’d never been to the Exchange before, she’d have stopped in awe to stare at them.
There were red aliens and white aliens, black aliens and green ones. There were tall aliens with antennae and short squat ones. Some had smooth skin, some had skin that was coarse or hairy. Some were bald, some had hair that moved on its own.
It was a unique melting pot of cultures and it was…awesome.
Each time they visited the Exchange, she felt a sort of sadness when she thought about where she’d come from: Earth.
To think most humans thought they were alone in the universe… If they saw what she was seeing…lived what she’d lived…
As they continued on, her gaze switched to something else.
There were so many things to see, countless species of aliens, and so many types of wares, she wasn’t sure
