Free Embarkment 2577 by Maria Hammarblad

nothing.
Being caught when at least trying to act would be better. Worst-case
scenario, I’d be shipped off with everyone else, or killed with everyone else.
    A couple of minutes later, I was dressed
in a newly replicated Logg suit. I, of course, had only two arms and no tail,
so I pulled a bandage around one of the arms, pretending it was hurt from a
fight with someone in the crew.
    I put a bandage on the tail too. It
wasn’t a good disguise, and it wouldn’t explain why my limbs flopped around,
but it was the best I could think of. “I look like a stuffed toy.”
    “Sorry. It’s the best I can do. Act with
confidence and they might not look too closely.”
    Good advice.
    Anya admonished, “Don’t talk to anyone.
The chip will help you understand them, but your voice will give you away.”
    “What chip?”
    I could visualize her rolling her eyes
when she answered. “The language chip you got implanted in your brain when you
first came here. How do you think you can communicate with everyone on the
ship?”
    “Oh…” I just assumed everyone spoke
English. I attempted to cover my stupidity with muttering, “My voice is wrong.
Can I alter my voice? No. I’ll have to find a reason not to talk to people.”
    A new object appeared in the replicator.
It was a small skin-coloured patch. “Take that, Alex. Put it on your throat.”
    The next few words came out slower and slower,
and I panicked when I realized the computer lost power. “I’m being… shut…
down…”
    With those last words, the room fell
silent and all lights went off. I stood in complete darkness for a long moment
before the emergency lighting came on. I could see enough not to walk into
anything, but the world was much too dusky for my taste. “Anya!”
    She didn’t answer, of course. I was on
my own.
    With no more reasons to linger, I
grabbed the little patch and applied it to my throat. “What does this thing do?”
    My own voice made me jump. I sounded
like me in my head, but the voice my ears heard had an eerie insectoid quality.
“Anya, you’re the best.”
    She couldn’t hear me. She might be gone
forever, and that thought brought tears to my eyes. “If you’ve destroyed her
program I’ll kill each and every one of you.”
    I had no idea how to accomplish such a
feat, but I sure intended to try. My ideas of how people should behave to be
“good” came from countless books, movies, and TV-shows where everyone either
managed or died trying. I pulled the headpiece of my new costume into place,
picked the rifle up and headed into the unknown.
    My heart beat like a sledgehammer, my
stomach churned, and I could barely refrain from shaking. I still muttered,
“Alex, you’re doing fine.”
    During these first shaky steps, the tail
was the worst thing. I almost got it stuck in the door and had to take a few
running steps to clear it. “Bloody thing. I wonder how many minutes I can last
before being caught?”
    Probably zero if I didn’t stop talking
to myself. Time to shut up.

Chapter Nine
    There was a guard outside the lift. The
guest quarters were far up in the ship, just a deck below the high officers,
and it was a reasonable place to post someone. I still didn’t expect it.
    The guard greeted me with a nod. “Troublesome
humanoids, but they’ll make good slaves in the mines.”
    Slaves, huh? Free labour and a grand
starship, these guys were having a good day. “Troublesome indeed. Feisty. One
tried to chop my tail off.”
    He made a sympathetic clicking noise. “I
bet that hurt. I can make it feel better though. Come up here when your shift
is over, if you want to.”
    Seriously? I was dressed in a stupid
Logg costume and this creature didn’t just buy it; he was hitting on me? Poor
eyesight, indeed. Good thing the mask hid my facial expression. “I’ll think
about it.”
    Luckily, the lift came and I hurried
inside, making sure to go far enough to bring the entire tail with me. I turned
my back to a corner so newcomers