Page 15 of Across The Stars
I shook my head with a mild hiss. It was impossible.
7: Innifer
There was no gate or door in the docking bay. The shuttle passed through an energy barrier, which I had heard of, but I’d never imagined the way the transparent wall rippled as we sunk through it. When the ripples stilled and we were docked on the other side, it was like nothing was there dividing us from the endless black at all. It was a little jarring but exciting at the same time. I was eager to get out of the shuttle and look at it.Reallylook at it. Maybe then I’d believe it was all real and not a dream.
I stumbled off the shuttle with my one bag, the whole while thinking about how unreal everything was. There were staff members in gray uniforms standing ready at the base of the exit ramp with their digital clipboards and fake smiles, but I was completely unfocused on them.
“New recruits,” a woman announced as we stepped out. “Please report to your stations.”
When my feet touched the platform, I turned around to look at the invisible barrier. Well… I couldn’tlookat it per say. Unable to see around the rows of ships parked at the nearby stations, I backstepped, lifting on my toes to peer through the gaps. My eyes wandered down the row and I was distracted when I spotted the valerian vessel. Or the nose of it. I stepped out further, not caring that people had to swerve to avoid me, and was knocked to the side by a large, solid body. I gasped, expecting to feel the cold metal of the floor on my ass when a large hand coiled around my arm and righted me.
Looking up, I saw my own face staring back at me through the tinted visor of a sleek helmet. My eyes shot wide when I realized what I’d done. I had just bumped into a fucking alien. Areal,nonhuman alien. His alien buddy was standing behind him. They were completely dressed in form-fitting, black suits with a few veins of color that glowed down their arms and legs from a central point on their chests. They were bigger than everyone else and easy to pick out of the crowd.
My heart did little backflips in my chest, making me gulp uncontrollably as I balanced myself. The alien straightened and though I couldn’t see his eyes, I suspected he was frowning disapprovingly at me. I pulled my jacket straight and watched as the valerians and their human escorts made their way from the platform to a few elevators near the back of the docking bay.
“Holy shit,” Sam muttered behind me.
I swung my gaze around to see her with her jaw dropped, staring after the aliens.
“You bumped into a fucking alien,” she continued. “You touched one. You touched an alien.”
“I didn’t,” I argued, shaking my head with embarrassment.
It was my first day and I’d managed to bump into a valerian like an idiot. I looked around for an indication of where to go when the staff with their digital clipboards started calling out names.
“Innifer Harmon,” someone said.
I glanced over to see a tall woman in a gray jumpsuit looking around the crowd of recruits. I raised my hand and made my way toward her.
“I’m Innifer,” I said.
“Perfect.” She barely even looked at me. “Omar Paks?”
“Here,” a man said, taking a place beside me.
“Great. You two are with me.”
She cleared some brown strands of hair from her face, smoothing them back along her scalp, but they just fell back down. The rest of her hair was pulled into a tight bun and though the glower on her face made her look older, getting closer, I noticed she was barely older than I was. Perhaps her mid to late thirties, but she was all business.
I walked with Omar, a dark-skinned young man in military fatigues, and glanced once over my shoulder at Sam and Locket, who were being herded in opposite directions.
This is it,I thought to myself, tossing Sam a nervous smile.This is our new life. At least, until we get caught…
The other recruit and I were escorted to a row of elevators. There were many, some of them small and others the size of my Earth apartment and probably meant for large loads of cargo. That was confirmed when I spotted the covered crates from the shuttle being loaded into one of the lifts with magnetic carts that hovered about six inches off the ground.
Stepping into the elevator, I took a deep breath of the oddly fresh-smelling air. There were filters on the ceiling of the lift and I could smell a slightly minty aroma coming through that definitely outdid the sickening smell of pollution I was used to.
“I’m going to ask the two of you a series of questions while we make our way to your living quarters,” the woman in the jumpsuit said. “First off, I’m Penny Cain and I’m your supervisor for the time being. Alright, question one. What’s four plus three?”
“Seven,” I answered, my voice overlapping with the other recruit. We glanced at each other and traded smiles.
“Good,” Penny said. “What color is a red rose?”
“Red,” we answered.
“How many legs does a horse have?”
“Four.”
