It was so quiet without Agatha by my side.
I peered over at the co-pilot seat.
Where she should have been sitting.
My hair floated up and my body pressed against the restraints holding me down.
I couldn’t help but imagine how Agatha would have reacted to being out here.
She would have squealed, excited, and fearful all at the same time.
And she would have peered over at me with her beautiful eyes and beaming grin.
I tore my eyes from the apparition and turned the shuttlecraft toward the heavens that even God had never dreamed could be so majestic.
I hit the controls and brought up the holographic map of the cosmos.
“Computer,” I said, “locate the Wanderer.”
The map blinked, swirled, and pushed in on a cloud of stars known as the Warp Cluster.
I smiled.
My crew was busy dropping off a shipment to our secret booty location.
Already, they zipped through space, heading directly for me.
They would be here before long.
And the silence encroached once more.
Deafening.
Painful.
I peered once more at the empty chair.
I reached out a hand to run my fingers through invisible hair, to run a finger down her cheek, and peer into gorgeous eyes deeper even than the azure oceans on Octus Delta.
By the Creator, I miss her.
I regretted not turning back one of those six times I thought to head back and rescue her.
Even if it would have ended in disaster, at least I would have tried.
Wasn’t there still time? I thought. Couldn’t I reach her if I hurried?
The Wanderer was coming as fast as she could, tearing through space at an unbelievable speed, and yet, it was not fast enough.
By the time they arrived, the prison guards would have returned to Ikmal and Agatha would meet whatever fate they deemed necessary.
Breaking into a prison was much easier than breaking out of one, I told myself.
I could already hear the arguments of disapproval from my crew.
“It’s too dangerous!” they would say. “We’ll all end up inside if you force us to do this!”
But there was no need to force them.
They were a good crew and would do it for the love they had for me.
No sooner had I escaped from Ikmal than I wanted to turn around and break back into it!
It was madness.
I peered at the vastness of space and contemplated my future in it.
Would it be with Agatha?
Or without her?
Agatha
I lay on the floor of my room peering up at the ceiling.
When the wind blew and ran its fingers across the material it produced beautiful waves like the seashore near my home back on Earth.
A seashore I was sure I would never see again.
I’d been given my own tent, perched between two others with a guard outside, his back to the roaring fire.
I peered out twice through the slit in the front, and both times, found him staring at me.
At least, his visor was peering directly at me.
Was he really staring at me or was he fast asleep?
With no way to know, I would take the threat seriously.
These were prison guards and they knew something about guarding prisoners.
And so here I lay, in a room in the middle of the desert beneath the stars.
I might as well be in a prison cell.
I dropped to my knees and felt at the room’s floor, searching for a gap to squeeze through.
There were no corners, no edges I could pry up.
I had to stop thinking of this room as a tent.
I was so close to escape, but yet again, had been thwarted.
But what did I think I would do even if I managed to escape?
I only survived as long as I did before thanks to Egara.
Without him, I would have been consumed long ago.
I laid back and tried not to get too comfortable.
If I stayed alert, maybe there would be an opening I could take advantage of.
The deadline would be the moment the sun rose.
Then, I would be trapped with no chance of escape.
A shout issued from one of the other rooms.
Maybe it was one of the guards on duty, I thought. I lowered my head and returned to considering my situation.
Another voice shouted in the dark.
It was loud, frantic.
The translator chip in my arm couldn’t understand it.
For once, I understood the sound from the alien’s throat better than the device did.
It sent a shiver up my spine and chilled me to the bone.
The scream was one of fear and pain.
I didn’t need to know what the word was.
I didn’t want to know what it was.
It couldn’t be anything good.
Then another shout rang out, louder this time, closer, from a different throat.
Men burst from the neighboring rooms, boots scuffing the soft sand outside.
Should I go out there?
Did I even want to see what was causing the commotion?
I moved to the front to peer through the slit when a helmet slipped inside.
“Ah!” I said, starting back.
“You must leave now,” the guard said, voice hissing via his communicator. “You must leave now.”
He reached for me and I pulled back.
The guard stretched inside further, and then stopped, unable to come any closer.
He shuddered and paused for a moment.
He glanced over his shoulder and then turned back to look at me.
Although I couldn’t see his expression, I knew terror when I saw it.
He shot back, quick as a flash, into the darkness beyond.
The flap waved gently, disturbed by his rapid departure.
He hadn’t chosen to leave.
Something had forced him to leave.
I swallowed and gingerly pressed the fabric aside.
My breath rasped loudly in my ears.
I peered around it, at the campsite beyond.
The fire was still lit but it’d been disturbed, knocked aside, forming a speckled line of flickering flames that dwindled as they reached for the darkness.
Another scream.
Lumbering armored prison guards bolted to their feet and peered at their surroundings, shock rifles raised and aimed.
Something seized one of the guards.
He fell, sprawling to the sand.
He spun around and clawed at the ground as the thing pulled him into the black.
Another guard chased after his comrade, peering into the shadows, but unable to make anything out.
He fired a single shot, not for
