3. CHAPTER 3

Acar almost knocked me back, but I reached the other side of the large street and nearly slammed my body against the large glass doors leading into the Outer Worlds terminal.

Thank goodness Derek was not far into the building, and I wondered if he was waiting for me. I knocked on the glass to get his attention, then motioned for him to meet me outside.

"I was wondering if you had gotten lost or something." He laughed. "I know no one but you so…"

"Derek, I need help."

His cheerful expression grew serious with my tone. "Uh… yeah, what's going on?"

Time to spin lies. "Some asshole stole my wallet with my ID card inside, and now I can't get inside."

"Whoa." He reeled. "What are you gonna do?"

"There's this guy across the street. He says he can make me a new one for two hundred bucks."

Derek laughed nervously; you know the laugh a person would make when they know you're about to ask them for money or ask them to do something shady. "Wow… uh…"

"I have a card with one hundred and twenty-five credits. I'm just short seventy-five. I swear I will pay you back—"

"How can you do that on a colony?" He questioned. "We're not going there to get paid."

"I'll find another way." Oh God, I was about to open the gauntlet. "I'll do anything you want." I cringed. Was he even gay?

He was silent and seemed to think about his words. "Anything?"

I hung my head low. "Yeah."

"Isn't this illegal as fuck?"

"Yeah, but it's my only chance."

"Maybe you can go see someone. There has to be a list."

"Please," I begged, oh yeah, I'm getting on that damn ship now.

"Okay." He sighed, and I wanted to jump for joy over how easy this was, but a part of me knew nothing was ever this easy. I opened a doorway and had no one else to blame but myself for doing it. But it was still better than some random guy I'd never spoken to before, and Derek wasn't bad in the eyes at all. Now that I saw him standing up, he was impressive in height and muscle tone, and his eyes glistened.

"I'll pay the guy directly," he said, and I wondered if he trusted everything I said. I doubted it. We were still strangers overall.

I entered the diner like my life depended on it. Mr. Shady came out of the bathroom with a smile plastered on his face, as if he could read my mind. He opened the door, and I hesitated before entering.

The place didn't smell as bad as I thought.

"Before we give you anything," Derek spoke up. "What will you do exactly, and how will this help him?"

"Fair question." He pressed his back against the wall but thought better of it. "It's the ID card. It'll get him inside the port and access the required facilities. It'll get him into the hotel and onboard the colony ship. I promise nothing else."

"How will this get him on the ship?" Derek asked. "Surely there's a roster, and they'll see his name isn't on it."

"That's not a problem. First of all, not everyone is gonna show up. So, not every space is gonna be filled. And number two, these rich tech gurus are lazy as hell. Just creating the ID is enough to enter him into the systems, and number three, they need as many bodies as possible filling the seats to say this whole thing was a success. They won't turn him away."

Shooting Derek a puppy dog look I used on my dad in the past. I was gonna hate looking at myself in the mirror in the morning.

"Fine." He passed his credit chit.

"Only take seventy-five. I have the rest." I said, but it did nothing to alleviate my guilt at lying to Derek.

"You made a wise purchase. Now stand against the wall," he instructed, stuffing his credit chip reader in his long black coat pocket.

He took some pics of me and then went to work on his laptop. It took almost an hour to plop that plastic ID card into my hand. My picture was in the corner, with a reader chip, like a credit chip with my name. I showed it to Derek, who seemed to approve of the work and compared it to the real thing.

"The name is Cormac." Mr. Shady blew out a thick cloud of smoke. "You can find me onboard if you need anything else," he said, heading out.

"Come on, we better hurry before all this will be for nothing." Derek headed back across the street, seeming disappointed in himself.

Yeah, he knew I was lying.

The moment I stepped inside the megastructure, I was struck by its breathtaking interior. The space was designed to resemble a small cyberpunk city, with towering buildings and a maze of interconnected walkways.

I saw shimmering silver industrial architecture everywhere I looked, which contrasted beautifully with the vivid neon lights that illuminated the space. The walls were adorned with intricate murals and digital art, which gave the space a unique and futuristic feel.

The air was electric with energy, and I couldn"t help but feel a sense of awe as I explored this impressive architectural masterpiece.

Small silver and black drones flew overhead, most likely a security detail that monitored everyone checking in.

We walked along the massive ramp leading toward the monorail station, which displayed Outer World's Terminal.

"Oh, my God. I'm really here." I muttered in utter excitement.

The train, the smell of the food court once I stepped off, the look and feel of this place felt like I had entered the future; I scanned my card, hoping nothing was amiss, and smiled when the woman handed me a brochure package.

"Where are we going?" I asked Derek as they shuffled us down a hall.

"Looks like we're going right to the shuttles that will take us to the ship."

"So, we're just gonna board?"

"It looks like it," he said, surprised. "I thought boarding procedures didn"t start until tomorrow. I was even assigned a hotel room near the terminal and everything."

"So what"s gonna happen?"

"I don"t know, just play it cool."

"Holy…" I gasped. I silently prayed, hoping my ID card would get me through.

We checked in our luggage and boarded one of the one-hundred-passenger shuttles.

The shuttle wasn"t anything remarkable. It resembled any plane on the inside with seats lined, but there were no windows. Just walls and seats. The attendants helped us get strapped in and even put on a safety display, teaching us how to use the oxygen masks overhead.

The flight to the ship took a little under thirty minutes. My stomach dropped and I felt my butt lift off the seats but the straps kept me from floating off. This was amazing! I wanted to unbuckle and float around as if I was suspended in a deep pool without water.

The wait to get off the shuttle was longer than the flight. Derek didn"t seem interested in talking so I sat in silent with the loud machinery and rumble of the ship along with everyone else chatting away.

Finally, the doors opened and a man dressed in a simple blue uniform with black pants announced that it was our turn to board the colony ship in a single file line.

Once we stepped onboard the ship, it looked like something out of a sci-fi show. A massive pearly silver hall was jam-packed with people, and white uniform-clad androids were directing the flow toward the row of booths.

"Oh Shit," I exclaimed, hoping nothing would be amiss. All I had to do was pass the booth, and I was in; I didn't care if I had to stow away in a cargo hold. I would make sure I didn't come this far only to get tossed out on my rear end.

The lady who checked me in was nice, but I was a hot, swamp ass sweaty blubbering mess and was that way until I reached my assigned room and closed the door.

Apparently, we should have departed an hour ago instead of the next day, which is why everyone was shuffled directly to the ship. So, I guess this was fate working out in my favor. Everyone had to be vaccinated right at the check-in booth. It was chaos, but chaos that worked out for me, so I wasn't complaining at all.

I didn't even check where Derek was heading off, and he didn't seem to check for me. Perhaps he was salty about giving me money, as I said before. I don't blame him for feeling some way about it. But I was here in this tiny dorm room onboard the ship. It was about the size of one of those single cruise ship cabins, except instead of a single bed, we had a bunk bed in here. I stuffed my luggage into the overhead bin above the top bunk and climbed the ladder, and I swear it was like every joint and muscle was relaxed. My adrenaline crashed hard.

I was here, I don't know how, but I was actually onboard a freaking spaceship!

I opened the little sliding window. It wasn't a real window but a screen that showed what was outside my side of the ship. I wanted to close my eyes and go right to sleep until the door buzzed open, and the person who entered the room was a somewhat familiar face I wanted to punch.

"You bitch!" I yelled, charged from the bed, and grabbed the ginger haired tough guy by his jacket. "Where's my fucking wallet!?"

"Holy shit! It's… who are you again?"

"You just run around stealing so much crap you don't even remember all the people you stole from? Just give me my wallet. It was my dad's."

"I don't have your wallet." He shrugged, not giving a damn, and scratched at his strawberry birthmark near his ear.

"Then I wonder what Outer Worlds will think about a thief onboard their ship!"

"Probably the same thing they think about a man who snuck onboard their ship."

Well, shit and touché. I let him go.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about." I folded my arms.

"Oh, but you do? Some people are here that aren't supposed to be, and I don't recall your face being the same as my assigned roommate."

He held up a small tablet with his picture next to a man I couldn't pass for even if I wanted to. "What should I say when my real roommate arrives?"

"Maybe they made a mistake and gave me the wrong room."

"Or you're here because your card uses his chip."

"And how would you know?"

"I'm a thief." He said as though it was the most obvious answer.

"They accepted you?" I backed off.

"Yeah, I can put together a damn good vid of my brother's achievements. We're twins, so he was the model choice for a few splices here and there."

"Well…" I thought back to my haphazardly spliced vid.

"Look, I'm not here to crush your spot. I want to fulfill my dream of traveling through space, and I don't wanna do it when I'm old as hell."

"You realize that you'll be doing a hell of a lot more than just traveling through space; this is a one-way trip."

"One way for five years, and if I hate living on the planet, then I'm sure I can sneak onboard a cargo ship or something and head home."

I laughed. "Good luck! Those cargo ships will use true FTL travel with an all-android crew. You'll be dead long before you make it back."

"What?!"

Ha, I felt mighty damn good getting one up on him.

"But we're using FTL to get there." He exclaimed in disbelief.

"The ship has shielding on it to protect us, and we're going near FTL, true FTL wouldn't take a whole year to get there."

"Well, look who did their homework." He sneered. "Just stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours."

"And if your roommate arrives?"

"I'll say sorry, wrong room; there may have been a mix-up." He laughed. "Though if I were you, I'd kill him and put his body in the cargo bay. Nothing like a displaced passenger to get the authorities sniffing about."

I left the room and headed for the cafeteria, which was like one of those old-school buffet restaurants; thankfully, the place wasn't crowded like the halls. Everyone was in awe of the ship, feeling the walls and clamoring to stand on the observation decks where they could get a clear view of real space and that big blue ball we called home. I wanted to join them to revel in this adventure, but I had my own adventure to worry about.

"Still onboard, I see." I heard the male voice behind me, it was familiar, it was both reassuring and judgmental all at once, it was Derek. Dressed in a white uniform like something out of the military with a golden name tag on the chest. Derek S.

"What the hell?" I laughed, not at him but at the situation. "What are you, some sort of officer here?"

"You can say that." He smiled. "I'm in charge of the first-floor sector-one VIP suites, keeping everyone out of trouble, and hell, even saving their lives if I have to."

"You were someone important to this ship and helped me…?" I whispered harshly. This had to be some elaborate joke.

"You can make it up to me by eating… what would it be? Lunch around this time?"

I laughed and hoped I wasn't blushing. "Yeah, I think the buffet is even sitting out new food."

"Good. They told me getting to the cafeteria first was best."

"Then let's go," I said, heading inside and grabbing a plate. My stomach was growling, as I hadn't eaten since that burrito at the last stop. If we hadn't been corralled onto the shuttles, blasted into space, and then corralled onto the colony ship, I would have stopped to eat at one of the restaurants at the port.

Two men entered the cafeteria dressed in what looked like guard uniforms, and I ducked low. Spilling some of my food with me.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Derek whispered.

"Nothing, don't say anything."

The men stood near Derek… okay, they were just coming in to grab some food, and I felt like an idiot, so much so I wanted to live under that table.

I stood up, piled the food on my plate, and ran without stopping to focus on Derek calling my name.

I planned on hiding out in my room until this ship moved!

After gobbling my food, I crashed hard and woke up to a small whirring sound. I ran to the window and turned on the screen. The ship was slowly moving and departing from the station.