Sarel awakened to a cold metal room lit only by a small emergency-light that created more shadows than light. Sarel rubbed her forehead to clear away the sleep and tried to peer through the darkness.

            It looked like a cargo room of a ship. On the side of the wall was a special gravity meter that would affect the pull in just this room, and the air vents had airlocks on either side so they could be closed to help preserve the cargo. But it was empty except for her. She stared at it blankly, trying to remember what she was doing here.

            Suddenly her memory came back. The tavern. The fight, and her anger. She winced – she was most certainly being searched for all over Tion by now. But she also remembered sneaking aboard a ship and stowing herself away in the cargo room.

Sarel walked over to one of the air vents and placed her hand over it. A slight breeze caressed over her hand. Good – that meant that the pilot had not cut off the airflow to the cargo room, which could be disastrous for her if she was to hide here until the ship docked. But she could not eat or drink air. She was going to have to siphon some rations, and maybe try to discover what this ship was and where it was going.

Sarel walked across the empty cargo room to the door, and gingerly placed her hand on the opening pad next to the doorframe. She nearly had heart attack when the door opened with a whoosh, but the corridor beyond it appeared to be silent. She perched there for several seconds, but her own heartbeat was the loudest noise. No one had heard.

Sarel dropped onto all fours almost instinctively, crawling along the pitch-dark floor of the hallway. The floor and walls were all made out of a solid sheet of metal, interrupted only by the occasional luminescent door. Every so often she would pause and listen with her enhanced hearing – she knew she would feel tufts if she reached to touch her ears – but the only sound was the soft humming of the ship. Everyone was obviously asleep.

Suddenly a door behind Sarel opened with a whoosh, and a young woman dressed only in a white nightgown stepped out. Light brown hair spilled over her shoulders, and honey eyes blearily blinked away sleep. The woman glanced up the hallway, spotted two glowing eyes – and screamed.

Sarel was not sure whether to lunge at the woman with her tenra or start running, and as it turned out, she did not have time for either. The door that she had been crouched in front of flew open, and a young man with raven hair dressed in white nightwear ran out.

“What in the world- Gahh!” The young man took one step out his door and tripped over the crouched Dernian, falling straight onto his face. For such an undignified entrance, he recovered quickly by rolling and coming up on his feet, a laser gun appearing in his hand. “Who are you?” he demanded, his blue eyes icy and cool.

The woman had stopped screaming, and Sarel managed to swallow the ball of anger and panic that had been building and hide her tail by standing up. The hallway suddenly seemed strangely quiet. “My name is Sarel Aneri, and I apologize for any disturbance I may have caused on your ship,” she said as politely and calmly as she could. There was no going back now. “I would greatly appreciate it if you could just leave me on the nearest planet-”

The young man groaned and straightened. “Not another one.”

The woman glared at him, her soft brown eyes turning from afraid to frosty. “Hey, at least I asked your permission first!”

Sarel blinked and glanced at them, not comprehending what was going on. The young man sighed and gestured with his free hand. “Let’s go to the bridge,” he said. “I want to check out your record first.”

Sarel’s stomach dropped. If the Tion police found out who she was – which, considering the number of redheaded Dernians on the planet, would not take long – they would update her file immediately, and this pilot would definitely turn her in, especially if there was a bounty on her head. But it was too late to fight; the lintheil would not save her from a headshot, and that was exactly where he had his laser pointed. Her heart fell, and she prayed they had not discovered her identity yet.

Unlike the rest of the ship, the bridge was brightly lit, and covered with controls and switches. There were seats for all the different positions – Pilot, Copilot, Navigator, Database – and the raven-haired man sat down at the Database computer, but only after he told Sarel to sit next to the console, where he could see her clearly.

Sarel watched him typing his way into the computer. If he discovers who I am, I’ll attack, she thought bravely. It’s worth the risk.

Suddenly the young woman, who had followed them in, glanced up at the window behind Sarel and gave a cry. “Ayos, look!”

Sarel turned around. For a second all she saw was the endless reaches of space, broken only by – a star? She blinked and stared. It was too long, too oval-like to be a star.

“It’s a ship!” Ayos breathed in surprise. “But it’s not showing up on radar.”

The light-brown haired woman glanced up at him. “Is it ashnah? A pirate ship?” she asked.

He arched a skeptical eyebrow. “It’s awfully cocky if it’s a pirate ship. Ashnah is not allowed except in military ships. This one wouldn’t be able to dock without getting arrested.”

The brown-haired woman’s eyes widened. “You’re saying this is a military ship? Ayos, we can’t be detected by it – we’ll be caught for sure!”

Ayos grimaced and began to type new coordinates into the computer.

Sarel glanced at the brown-haired girl. “What do you mean, you’ll be caught?” she asked carefully, a cloud of suspicion beginning to grow.

Ayos never looked up from the computer. “I’m a pirate, and I had a look at your record – you’re wanted on Tion for assault.” He glanced up at the brown-haired woman. “But why Entyina is worried about getting caught is beyond me.”

Entyina froze, then looked down at her hands. “Let’s just say I didn’t leave the Razza on the best of terms.”

Sarel didn’t know whether she was more relieved or surprised, when suddenly the entire ship lurched. Sarel was plastered against the glass behind her, Entyina’s hand hitting her in the face as she too was thrown forward. Ayos, the only one seated and buckled in, glanced up not at them, but out the window.

“It’s too late,” he said. “We’re already being drawn in.”