Free Silver's Captive by Lee-Ann Wallace

to make credits.
    If she refused to go with him, well, he’d just have to kidnap her again. Decisions made, Tor’Arr climbed to his feet.
    “Are you ready?” he asked Kesh.
    “I’ve been ready since they put us in these wretched boxes. I’ve been waiting for you.”
    “Then let’s go.” Tor’Arr started to shift. His form turned into liquid silver that would allow him to slip through the vent and out to freedom.
     
    * * * *
     
    “Tarnee would you come down to the security offices, please?” The head of security’s face loomed large in the view screen.
    “Sure, I’ll come straight down,” I replied.
    Three months had passed since the Delarians had returned me to the station. Three long months. Not one day passed that I didn’t think of Tor’Arr. Every day that passed, I wondered if he’d managed to escape. I wondered if he thought of me, if he was coming back for me, hoped he was coming back for me. But he didn’t come, and time dragged on.
    I immersed myself in my studies, which were almost complete. I had a job lined up with the station’s exploration crew. I’d even received a hesitant maybe towards my request to return to the planet my parents had been headed for, to take up my father’s research on the energy source he’d found. It hadn’t been an outright no, but it also wasn’t a yes. I wasn’t giving up hope that I could sway the head of exploration.
    Slipping my shoes on, I grabbed my cardigan off the back of my chair and headed out. It was quite a way to the security offices, since they were on the other side of the station. It took me twenty minutes of winding my way through the wide corridors of the station before I reached them.
    The doors slid open and I walked into mayhem. Children filled the room—six of them. One, an older boy was sitting looking sullen in the corner. Two little girls were sitting in the middle of the floor, their long dark hair hanging down their backs in waves. A toddler was bouncing on the sofa, and a pre-schooler and a slightly older boy ran circles around the two little girls yelling at the top of their lungs.
    I hung back against the door, unsure what to do. I didn’t know why Peter had asked me to come down. He had plenty of people on the station who were better qualified to deal with children than I was. Sure, I had experience dealing with my little cousin, but he was one kid, not six.
    The harried receptionist of the security offices spied me over the two children running and said, “I’ll let Peter know you’re here.”
    I nodded at her and waited.
    The door to Peter’s office slid open a moment later, and a woman and a man walked out.
    I stared. I couldn’t help it.
    Ten years I’d waited to see those faces again. Ten years I’d looked at the image on my bedside table hoping that one day I’d see them again.
    “Mum?”
    “Tarnee.”
    Tears stung my eyes as I raced across the room dodging little bodies and flew into my mother’s arms. They were here. I couldn’t believe that they were actually here.
    Strong arms wrapped around us and I breathed in my father’s familiar scent. He smelled like home. He smelled of safety and security. He smelled of long afternoons sitting together watching holo movies, he smelled of my father. And my mother’s arms felt the same as they had ten years ago.
    “How? When did you—How did you—” I couldn’t finish my thoughts, let alone finish my sentences.
    “We’ve only just got back. Peter contacted you as soon as he realised it was us and not a bunch of savages,” my father replied to at least one of my questions.
    At that moment, my aunt burst in through the door and stopped dead. Just like me, tears filled her eyes before she rushed forward. I stepped aside so she could hug my mother.
    A suspicion started to form and I looked at the children closer. A distinct family resemblance started to become obvious. One of the little girls held a startling resemblance to what I’d looked like as a child. We