Free Space Rocks! by Tom O'Donnell

in slippery caves.
    Slowly I crept across the ceiling toward Little Gus’s seat. He leaned as far away from me as possible.
    â€œYou know what, I think I’m fine here, actually,” he said. “Maybe just toss me up a magazine to pass the time or something.”
    Gingerly, I put my thol’graz on his arm. He flinched.
    â€œPlease don’t eat my face,” he whimpered quietly. Still clinging to the ceiling with my fel’grazes, I began to fiddle with the snap. Little Gus was right. It was stuck tight.
    â€œNeed cut,” I said.
    Hollins sighed, then pulled a metal object from his pocket. He unfolded it to show me what it was: a small knife.
    â€œSeriously? Now you’re giving the alien a stabbing weapon?” cried Becky. “Hey, maybe it needs a machete and a couple of grenades too.”
    â€œOdds are that its species already has way more advanced weapons than us anyway,” said Nicki. “A knife isn’t going to matter.”
    â€œYou really know how to set my mind at ease, sis,” said Becky. “I think it’s that special bond that only twins share.”
    Nicki shrugged, “Thinking out loud.”
    Hollins refolded the knife and tossed it up to me. I caught it and went to work sawing through Little Gus’s strap.
    It was slow going, but at last I heard a pop. Little Gus swung free from the seat and dangled from my thol’graz. Becky and Hollins strained to reach his feet and lower him safely to the floor.
    â€œI’ll be back in a second!” said Little Gus and he scrambled through the chamber’s sideways door into the sideways hallway beyond.
    Hollins, Becky, and Nicki looked up at me. I was on the ceiling, out of their reach. And now I had a weapon. I turned the blade over in my thol’graz. It would keep them back. Maybe just long enough for me to escape?
    I dropped to the ground and handed back the knife.
    â€œThank you,” said Nicki.
    â€œThanks,” mumbled Hollins.
    â€œYou’re still our prisoner,” said Becky. “And you’re not luring me into a false sense of security.”
    â€œWhew. That’s much better,” said Little Gus as he returned through the sideways door. “Bathroom’s crazy though. Everything’s sideways. I, er, wouldn’t go in there—”
    Just then the tele-visual screen flicked on. It was the male and female adult humans from before. The video was staticky, often freezing for moments at a time.
    â€œDanny? Kids?” said the female adult. Both of the adults were crying.
    â€œMom! Dad!” cried Hollins, leaping over debris to get closer to the now sideways screen. “Can you hear me, Mom?”
    â€œCommander Hollins! Mr. Hollins!” said Becky to the screen. Apparently both of these adults were called Hollins too. Perhaps most humans were named Hollins?
    Becky continued, “Commander, do you know if our parents—”
    â€œKids, if you can hear us,” said Commander Hollins, “please don’t panic. We’re fine here. If there really is an—an alien life form there with you, do not approach it. Leave it alone. If you can, lock yourselves in a different room within the pod.” She was trembling. The pain and fear in her voice were obvious, even to a member of another species.
    â€œMom!” cried Danny Hollins. But the woman on the screen couldn’t hear him. The transmission was one-way.
    â€œNicole, Rebecca, your mom and dad are fine. Augustus, your father is fine too,” said the adult male Hollins. “We’ve already been in contact with—with some military people, scientists. They’re analyzing the footage from your transmission. They’re trying to figure out what that creature—what it is we’re up against.”
    â€œSee,” said Becky, “it’s a war.”
    â€œOur ship was seriously damaged during that quake,” said the female Hollins, apparently