The Alien’s Stowaway Read online

  Glancing around, I made sure everyone's attention was on the fight brewing in the corner before letting the bite fall out of my mouth. Oh, gross. No wonder. Whatever the meat was, they hadn't skinned it properly. I'd been so focused on keeping the guard from getting angrier I’d taken a bite of meat still covered in fur.

  My stomach churned, but if I returned a tray full of food, it would be noticed. I moved on to the mashed vegetable. Or, what had once been a vegetable. Probably dehydrated, freeze-dried, then rehydrated. It was cold and thin, but it would fill my stomach.

  Holding the spoon was difficult with the gloves. I cursed them silently. If I got them off, everything would change, I knew. I chewed on my pitiful meal while I observed the room. There was only one guard in the common area with us, but that didn't matter. He had weapons programmed to his biometrics. They wouldn't work for anyone but him. Overpowering him was impossible as long as the technology held. If I ever got the gloves off I could've changed it, but I hadn't worked on my key for several weeks. What was the point? If I got them off, something would happen to foil my plan. I was better off keeping my head down, staying in my cell as much as possible, and trying not to be beaten to death by the guards.

  When I had taken the small amount of money—the big crime that landed me on this prison ship—I hadn't imagined the punishment would be this severe. I also hadn’t planned on getting caught. It was just a little money. I had assumed the people I’d taken it from wouldn’t even notice.

  Of course, they had noticed. After just enough time for me to get comfortable and think I'd gotten away with it, they noticed. It had all been for nothing. She'd died anyway. The money hadn't helped, and now I was here. Drifting through space, serving out my sentence in solitude and shitty food.

  The fight pulled me out of my memories. They were working their way closer to me. I didn't want to be caught at the table if they slammed on top of it. The rest of my food looked fairly palatable, and I didn't like the idea of spending the next several hours hungry while I waited for our next meal.

  Damn it. They were still coming. I grabbed my tray and moved to the next table over, quickly, and with my head down. If I moved quickly and in short bursts, the guard wouldn't notice. I hoped to get close enough to the trash can to throw away the piece of furry meat. I'd come from a much more civilized place than this. Before coming to this prison ship, I never imagined a place this bad could even exist, much less be legal.

  The fight escalated, and a sharp crack filled the air. Even I looked up at the unmistakable sound of a spine being broken. The rest of the prisoners cheered. I used it as an opportunity to toss my meat. After drinking the last of my piss-colored nutrient drink, I gave my empty tray to the prisoner on kitchen duty.

  They had the best job on the ship. Access to all the water they wanted. All the food. The best cuts of meat. Plus they brought the shipments in. If we got contraband—none of which ever made it to me—they got to it first.

  The ship’s crew had labeled me a troublemaker on my first day. I'd managed to get one of the gloves off, immediately making them look like fools. I smiled at the memory of the guard I’d punched on my way toward the loading dock. I had acted quickly—impulsively—and didn’t have a plan or even a direction. The guards had stopped just shy of killing me. It'd taken me weeks to fully heal, and ever since then, none of the other prisoners would have anything to do with me.

  At first it hadn't bothered me at all, but over time it got lonely. It didn't matter, in the end. I was sure to die on this ship. I wasn't sure why I was putting off the inevitable.

  Two guards came in and yelled for everyone to calm down and eat. As they carted the body off, my gaze followed. The first guard, the one that had been itching to get a rise out of me, noticed me watching. Fuck. I hadn't meant to look up long enough to be noticed. Turning toward my cell, I hurried into it as if I hadn't noticed him coming toward me. By the time I got to my bed and stretched out, he'd moved on. Thank fuck. I'd received too many beatings for tossing quips and insults at the guards. I may have given up on ever getting off this ship, but my tongue got away from me at times.

  Movement out my port window made me do a double take. I'd been unlucky and gotten one of the few cells with a window. They weren't a good thing. The ship stayed almost exclusively out of sight of any planets. That meant the view was always one thing—endless space. Never-ending nothingness. At first it had been cool, looking at the stars. Now it was just a reminder of how pointless it’d be to try to escape.

  Except this time when I gazed into the void of space, my heart soared. We were near a planet! I had no idea why or how we'd gotten this close, but my indifference fled in an instant. If I could get my gloves off, I could escape this prison. I knew it.

  I whirled in my tiny room, immediately running through the possibilities in my head. If I can get to one of the transport ships, I could escape to that planet. Hell, if I could get to one of the transport ships I could do a lot of things, but I’d settle for landing on this planet. I just prayed it was well-inhabited so I could more easily hide. I sat down on the bed, squeezing my eyes shut as I thought through my tentative plan. I couldn’t act now, not when I was being watched so closely. I’d have to settle for planning.

  After a while, I noticed the prisoners were returning to their cells. We'd be locked in and the lights turned off soon. My skin crawled with anticipation as I waited, my foot tapping impatiently. As soon as the lights went off, I jumped up, ready for action. Dropping to the ground, I quietly loosened the bolt on the cold metal wall under the window. It held the outer part of the wall to the window. I had used it to hide my key all these months. Reaching behind the metal plate in the wall, I wiggled my fingers in deep until I felt the hilt of the knife. I pulled it out, setting it on the bed. Kneeling there, I examined my gloves.

  They were made of a light, flexible metal, but the way they fit made it impossible to take them off without the key. I'd come close to completing it but had gotten discouraged. Seeing the planet so close had lit a fire under me. I moved to sit on the bed, heart thumping. I’m really going to do this. I had to, and I knew I could do it. I settled in, getting as comfortable as possible on the small cot. I was going to be here for a while.

  Using the knife to carve, then test, then carve, then test, I worked diligently all night. Near dawn, when this solar system’s star crested the curve of the nearby planet, I gasped. The gloves clicked and loosened.

  I'd done it. Holy shit, I’d done it! Carefully, terrified it was all a dream or some cruel trick, I slid the first one off of my hand. The skin beneath was pale and soft. Like a baby. I could barely see it in the emergency lighting, so I pulled it closer to my face. I recoiled. It stunk! I moved my hand away from my face, heart soaring for the first time since I’d boarded this space-cage. But I'd finally done it. I'd gotten the gloves off at the most opportune time. Now I just needed to keep going.

  Time to have some fun.

  I yanked the other glove off, then slipped out of bed, waving my hands around and relishing in the feel of the air rushing by them. Wrapping my fingers around the lock on the door, I used the ability granted to me by my race and focused on the technology within.

  It was sort of a ninth sense, my gift. There were precious few of us left on my planet who possessed the ability, and I was one of the lucky ones. As such, I was a great help to the people of my planet, but had fallen on hard times anyway. I grunted and refocused on what I was doing. Numbers and letters that made no sense to my conscious mind flashed behind my eyes, and I whispered through the code what I wanted. The door opened with a small hiss.

  Cautiously, afraid I’d be caught, I leaned out the doorway. There were no guards in this direct area, so I stepped into the hall. Based on the nearby time device, I guessed the guards would be on the third floor, which was one below me. I tiptoed farther down the hall, heading to where I knew the communication and security panel would be.

  When I reached the panel, all I had to do was lay
my hand over the holo-screen and close my eyes. Easy. It was so easy. I could see the entire ship’s security system, their plans, their communications, and I could do whatever I wanted with it. Remembering my failed attempt to escape last time, I thought through my next choice.

  After a moment, I smiled broadly. I lowered my voice as deep as I could and bellowed into the open space of the common area. "Freedom!" And opened all the doors. It took a moment, many of the prisoners here likely still asleep. Then, a few came out, disbelief in their faces. When they beheld the empty common area, and my insane smile as I welcomed them out, they finally understood. A few grinned, beckoning to their cell-mates and other prisoners. Then, the rest of the prisoners streamed out of their cells, screaming and instantly ready for a riot. As I'd hoped. Now was my time.

  I refocused my attention on the holoscreen beneath my hand, blocking out the shouts of joy and excitement of the men and women behind me. I combed through the smart technology, until I found what I wanted. I first released all the prisoners on all levels, hoping that would prevent most of the guards from running up here to apprehend me. Then I turned all the lights off on every level. The cacophony of prisoners on every level fighting each other and the guards brought a wide smile to my face. I hoped they would understand my actions to be a big ‘fuck you’ to their whole system. I hoped a few of them would get fired for this.

  Leaving the holoscreen, I strode through the fighting prisoners, my grin still stretching my cheeks. It felt so good to do something again. So good to be fighting. And fight I did, when needed. As I worked my way through hallways and common areas to where I now knew the transport ships to be, I occasionally had to swing a fist or leg to free up my path. It also felt good to finally be hitting things again.

  Then the guards arrived.

  Just as I was turning onto the level where they kept the hangar, I met a wall of guards. Their weapons were on a closed circuit—meaning they hadn’t been affected by my earlier hacking—and they were all pointed straight at my chest. I knew I could win in a fist fight against this many men, but that meant I had to turn off their guns first. Only, I had to touch them to disable them. I gritted my teeth, flying through options on how to escape this situation.

  Before I could decide, one guard fired his weapon. I ducked automatically; my old instincts still intact. Reacting, I surged forward, slamming my fist into the nearest guard’s chest. He went down with a grunt. The hall immediately erupted in noise as the other guards flung themselves at me. I allowed it, wanting them to get their weapons within the reach of my waiting fingers. As one guard tackled me, I reached around him to place one finger on his armor. I closed my eyes as we fell, getting lost in the code.

  Within milliseconds, his weapons powered off. That was all it took. Though, getting the rest of them would take a little longer. Deciding against that plan, I punched my attacker square in the jaw, knocking him out with one swing. I rolled out of my fall, landing in a crouch. Another guard was on me in an instant, and I surged to my feet, sending him flying as I yanked him from my back.

  As he flew past me, I reached up, yanking the weapon from his hands. I whirled immediately, letting my hands on the weapon rewrite the code. A few quick commands and I could use the weapon. I fired into the three remaining guards, shooting without aiming. The hall filled with smoke and debris as the walls exploded around us, the Pryori blasts wreaking havoc on the thin material. The remaining guards fell limply to the ground, and I dropped the gun, breathing hard.

  I listened for just long enough to make sure no one else was coming, then turned on my heel and sprinted toward the hangar. A few short turns later I flung open the doors into the hangar, searching for the transport ships. They were in the back, of course, closest to the door because they were the most often used vehicles. I gritted my teeth at the three or so pairs of eyes that turned at my entrance. None of them held guns, so I figured they were probably staff, not guards.

  Wasting no time, I dashed for the back of the hangar, flying by the surprised eyes of the flight staff. “Hey!” One shouted as I went by. I said nothing, not even bothering to turn. The sound of a Pryori blast near the transport ships made me fling my body to the floor. I landed with a thud, then rolled under the nearest ship.

  I scrambled backward on my hands, whipping my head around for possible escape routes. I reached the other side of the ship, then pulled myself to standing. There! About three ships to my left I saw a row of escape pods. Why didn’t I think of that?

  Cursing my own stupidity, I made a quick run toward the escape pods. This was obviously the better choice, since I wouldn’t have needed to hack into the ship’s system to open the airlock. An escape pod had one command: escape. This was going to be easy as hell.

  If I could just get there first.

  More shots rang out behind me as I ducked and dodged behind the ships. I used their hulking masses to protect me, but I knew my luck couldn’t hold for long. As I rushed up to the nearest escape pod, I slammed a hand on the door, yanking it open. As I tossed my body inside, I felt a searing pain through my abdomen. I crashed to the floor of the pod, grunting around the wave of pain.

  “Fuck. You!” I shouted, right before I kicked the door shut. With a huge heave, I lifted myself off the floor just enough to slap my palm on the ‘eject’ button. The force of the launching pod slid my body to the back of the little craft, pulling another pained grunt from my throat. For a few seconds, all I did was breathe hard from my spot on the floor, mentally assessing my wound. I careened through space, unsure of my flight path. I needed to get up. I needed to tell the ship where to go. Or, did the ship know to take me to the nearest planet?

  The pain was making me feel lightheaded, but I managed to focus enough to rise and plop into the one chair. Panting, I lowered a hand to the wound, quickly yanking it back with a hiss as my skin met exposed muscle. Shit. I looked around the ship, hoping beyond hope that this machine was smart enough to pack a med kit.

  Spying one, I weakly reached forward until I could yank it from its little slot. I dropped it on my lap, choosing to focus on the larger task at hand. Placing my palm on the holoscreen in front of me, I quickly searched until I saw that we were indeed headed right toward the blue and brown hunk of rock I’d spotted out my window. I closed my eyes, feeling safe for the moment.

  I had done it! I had escaped the prison ship that would’ve been my tomb, and now this machine would do the rest. It would take me to whatever planet this was, and then I could find a place to heal and recover. I could do it. I could live.

  As I sat in the chair, whirling through my pain and excitement, the pod vibrated. I looked out the window to see the fucking prison ship trying to fire on me. Sitting up, despite the demanding pain of my gut, I surged forward to search the ship’s code. Did it have any weapons? Could I even hope to do damage to a ship like that? Better yet, could I steer the ship to avoid their blasts? As my mind darted through the ship’s code, desperate for a solution, I heard the firing stop. One moment I was about to die, the next it was complete silence. Then I realized. The pods were notoriously hard to hit, and I wasn’t worth wasting that much ammo on.

  I choked on a laugh, sounding almost like a Burbur on gresting night. I shook my head in disbelief. I’d escaped. Again. With a sigh, I relaxed on the chair and pulled up my shirt to assess the damage. I winced. They'd gotten me good. I needed to get to work on this.

  But as soon as I reached for the first aid kit still askew in my lap, the ship entered the planet's atmosphere. Turbulence knocked me across the small space, somehow managing to bang my injured body on every surface. I cried out and held my wound with one hand, gripping the chair with white knuckles. Releasing my wound with gritted teeth, I slowly buckled the belt across my chest and waist, and held on.

  I'd made it to the brown and blue planet. There was nothing to do now but hope for the smoothest landing possible.

  3

  Evvie

  If I didn't make it to the barracks today,
they'd send me to the death pits.

  To everyone's surprise, a few days after Clarissa nearly knocked my and Alice's food from my hand, the TerraLink Program had begun a day shift for the salt mines. A new barrack had been built, and those prisoners knew why they were here. To die. Nobody could work in the heat of the day down in the mines. Not for long. Rumor said they got the same amount of water we did, even though we all knew it wouldn’t be enough for the heat of the day.

  The moment they'd begun building the new barracks, I had started planning again. Every breakfast, I put my rationed sausage into a small bag Alice had squirreled away. She did the same. We had to get out of here. It would be better to die in the desert as we made a last, desperate attempt at freedom, than to let them kill us by working us to death.

  It wasn't easy to save water, but I'd managed to get a cupful saved since I had started. I couldn't save anything given to me while in the mines, so I could only take from the water we received to drink at the barracks.

  Not much.

  It would take time to store enough to get me and Alice out of there, but what other option did we have? Today I'd nearly ruined it all. One of the newer workers had collapsed beside me. When I dropped my ax to put my arm under hers and lift her up, I'd been struck. The short clubs the guards used required little effort on their part, but provided maximum results.

  They claimed they hit me because I wasn’t working, because I’d let myself become distracted. I knew it was because they just like to see us beaten, figuratively and literally. They couldn’t have us building relationships and actually helping each other, that’d be almost like a real life. The guards took pleasure in our suffering, and they were pros at walking the fine line between punishment and debilitating injury.