THREE

- sedona -

"I can't take this anymore!" I jump at the sudden exclamation. Peering around Sabrina and Renata who are both staring at the source of commotion as well. "Let me OUT OF HERE!! I want OUT!"

Amari screams and thrashes, a feat that is incredibly difficult considering her wrists are completely immobilized. It takes a second for the remaining four bug things to take notice. We'd ended up with one of the tech dude and three soldiers. Not terrible odds, but not great considering they have three guns to our none. When she lets out a banshee-level wail, though, they certainly must feel the vibrations of that, and they all turn their bulbous yellow eyes on her.

Her hysteria rises as the bugs, caught off guard by her sudden outburst, rush towards her, attempting to subdue her. They try prodding her with their guns and clacking roughly at her, but her wails just intensify, and I have to wonder if some of it is real.

"I said let me OUT! I can't do this! I want to go home! I want to go HOME!"

Finally realizing none of their attempts to calm her are working, one of them walks to the wall and presses a button. Amari's portion of the strip lights red and her arms fall. She braces herself on her knees, her cuffs still holding her hindered, but not enough to stop her from springing forward. Knocking the smallest unarmed mantis to the side, she makes just enough room in their huddle to wiggle her small body through the space and to the control panel. She slams her hand into it, in the same space they had just hit. With a hiss, all of our cuffed wrists drop.

With the handcuffs still intact, my range of motion is not great, but it's better than being stuck upright to a wall. Wasting no time, Renata jumps into action and grabs the gun from one of the mantises. Before I can blink, she's shot one right in the chest.

"Not my first time." She gives me a cold smile and heads over to help Amari handle the tech guy.

I don't bother waiting to see what happens next. Instead, I rush into the fray, jumping onto the back of one of the mantises as it lifts its gun to shoot. It startles and begins swinging its body and clawing at me to get off. I hang on for dear life, clutching its body to mine like a baby sloth while simultaneously pushing my thumbs into its large yellow eyes. The feeling is disgusting as my thumbs crunch and squish through the eye tissue. I push down a wretch as it lets out a pained, gargled sound. Looking up, I see exactly who I need.

"Sabrina!" I grab her attention, and she reads my mind.

With the guard blind and disoriented, Sabrina yanks the gun from its hand and shoots it twice. First in the foot, and when I drop off his back and out of the way, she aims and headshots him. Goopy, purple blood spurts over my face, and I blink blankly at her for a moment.

"Sabrina!" Renata screams in warning, and both of our heads snap up as we see the final guard raising its gun to aim right at her. Renata takes off running towards it, her gun apparently lost in the scuffle with the other two. It all seems to happen in slow motion. The shot is fired before Sabrina or I can react, but Amari is close enough to shove the guard to the side just in time. The bullet goes astray, barely missing Sabrina's shoulder.

With the aggression of a woman in a terrifying situation, Renata bum-rushes the final mantis. They crash to the floor and its gun goes scattering across the room. She grabs the mantis by the head and slams it back over and over. With sickening smacks and a horrifying squelch, its brains squirt out like the squished bug it is, and its eyes finally go dark.

I let out a breath as I look around at the collateral damage. Every mantis in the room is dark in the eyes, or missing a head altogether in the case of one. I give a shiver at the thought and repress that particular memory. Wiping the goop from my face, I look around at the girls.

"Oh my god, you guys, we actually did it." One by one that realization dawns on each of them and we all share a triumphant smile.

"Now to get these cuffs off," Sabrina adds, looking between us and the cuffs on her wrists.

"I have an idea!" Amari walks over to one of the dead mantises. Lifting its arm with a grimace of disgust, she maneuvers until she aligns its finger with the center of her handcuffs. A second later, a circle in the middle glows blue before the cuffs fall to the ground with a hiss.

"Oh, they're finger-printed! Good catch, Amari." I mean the compliment genuinely. Between her incredible performance to kick off the plan and this, she's starting to make up for the hours of never-ending crying. Soon after, we are all free and standing around facing each other.

"Okay," I announce, giving everyone a small smile, "let's look at the control console and see what we can do."

We all walk to the large tech island in the middle of the floor. As we circle it, we pause, staring hard.

Sabrina's the first to speak, "Um, has it—"

"—been shot? Yup." Renata looks at the thing in distress.

As we stand there, catching our breath, a sinking feeling settles in my stomach. We've escaped our captors, but now we're adrift in space, with no hope of rescue. And as the ship hurtles further into the unknown, I can't help but wonder if we've traded one form of captivity for another.

"Okay, well, everybody stay calm," I instruct, pulling my eyes from the smoking hole of what might have been our last hope. "We need to figure out if the ship is moving first."

Renata leans over the control panel, looking at the buttons that are still intact and the parts of the screen not inked over with black. She pauses for a second, staring at the gibberish on the screens below us. Each symbol on the screen looks like various combinations of lines, circles, and dots with no true meaning.

"And we need to find a way to read it." Renata pushes away from the panel with that addition and begins walking around the room, looking for something to help us.

"True, it's not like it'll just up and talk to us in English," Sabrina adds sarcastically.

Her words strike a chord and a thought hits me. I cock my head for a second before I open my mouth to speak, looking up toward the ceiling.

"Computer, do you speak English?"

"ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE DETECTED: HUMAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH. WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTINUE IN THE DETECTED LANGUAGE?"

"Yes!" I exclaim, pumping my fist. The other girls glance around with wide eyes.

"Okay, or it will do just that," Sabrina breathes out in awe.

"CEASING XCLIXAN, ENGAGING ENGLISH SYSTEM UPDATE. WAIT." It continues calling out ‘wait' over and over with small beeps in between the words.

"How did you…." Renata peers at me in shock, talking over the computer.

"I like sci-fi, and I had a hypothesis, so I tested it." With a shrug, I continue, "Let's see if we can voice activate our navigation."

"Amazing!" Sabrina squeals, clapping her hands before she and Amari hug tightly in celebration. "We're going home."

"Maybe. It's a long shot," I contest. I don't want anyone to get their hopes up because of me.

"SYSTEMS OPERATING IN ENGLISH."

"Computer, run diagnostic," I announce loudly.

"DIAGNOSTICS ENGAGING. MANUAL STEERING SYSTEMS—DOWN. NAVIGATION SYSTEMS—ENGAGED. SECURITY SYSTEMS—ENGAGED. OXYGEN CONSUMPTION—HIGH. LIFE SUPPORT—80% EFFECTIVE. COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS—ENGAGED. PROPULSION THRUSTERS—FUNCTIONABLE."

"What does any of that mean?" Amari's eyebrows pinch before she looks at me.

"We can't steer the ship manually, but there's a small chance we might be able to change the autopilot's destination via the computer."

"Okay, see if it works," Renata encourages.

"Computer, where are we headed?"

"CURRENTLY NAVIGATING TO SYSTEM 2167, PLANET NUMBER 21, COMMONLY KNOWN AS HESCTONA."

"Computer, navigate to Earth."

"365 EARTHS LOCATED. SPECIFY NOW."

"Fuck," I curse. "Navigate to the Earth with human civilization."

"EARTH 231 IS A RESTRICTED ZONE PER INTERGALACTIC CODE NUMBER 2946. PROVIDE SYSTEM OVERRIDE CODE NOW."

"Okay, well that's not happening." I rub my face with my hands. "What now?"

"What's it restricted for?" Sabrina asks curiously. "I mean, they came to get us from there, so how can it be so restricted?"

"Hmm, good point." I lift my eyes back to the ceiling and begin talking again, "Computer, what is Intergalactic Code 2946?"

"DELIVERING INFORMATION TEXT NOW." A second later a holographic image screen is projected in front of us in English. It's a bit pixelated and some places flash in and out from the damage to the panel, but I lean forward to read:

Intergalactic Code 2946: Colloquially known as the "Non-Intervention Directive," it mandates the non-interference in the developmental trajectories of sentient life forms inhabiting designated planets. Under Code 2946, advanced civilizations are prohibited from directly intervening in the technological or societal evolution of lesser-developed sentient species. By allowing civilizations to progress naturally, uninfluenced by external forces, Code 2946 seeks to preserve the integrity of each species' unique cultural and technological heritage. Violations of Code 2946 carry severe penalties, including galactic exile and death .

Renata's brow furrows in concentration as she reads before she pulls away and sighs. "Maybe there's a backup control panel somewhere on the ship. We just have to find it."

I nod, "Good point. Computer, where is the backup control panel for the ship's steering?"

"BACKUP SYSTEMS NOT DETECTED. CONTROL PANEL COMPROMISED. MANUAL STEERING DISABLED. COORDINATES DESTINED FOR SYSTEM 2176…"

"Well, fuck." There is no other control panel. No backup anything. So, it's just us and the vast expanse of space, and a destination none of us want to arrive at.

"Let's split up and search the ship." Renata is moving as she speaks, never one to stop for too long. "There has to be something."

"Maybe even an escape pod." The thought fills me with hope again as soon as it slips from my mouth. "Sometimes ships like this have emergency crafts in the shows and books I like. Maybe this one does too?"

"Well, let's get a move on," Amari butts in following after the rest of us. "We have to do something before it's too late."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that computer told us we are hurtling towards our delivery point with no stop. Gotta hustle ladies," Sabrina says as she exits the control room.

With that, I walk out behind everyone else. The first few feet of our walk are single-file, but at some point, the ship begins to branch. We stop at a fork and turn to each other.

"We should all be able to move around fairly easily. There's no way this ship is as big as the last one," I begin. "But if anybody gets lost, just ask the computers for directions."

"Everyone, be smart and keep an eye out for additional guards or techies," Renata instructs.

"Got it. Let's do this ladies." Sabrina gives us all a determined smile before walking away with Amari. Renata and I separate without any further words. I head straight and she veers to the right.

The walk through the ship is kind of eerie. I find myself wishing I'd thought to bring one of the mantis' guns just in case we had an extra interloper on the ship. The thought of that has me checking over my shoulders and turning corners extra carefully. I pass by what appears to be a crew's kitchen. When I stop in though, I grimace at the sight of small larvae and refrigerator containers of what appear to be purple ants–this kitchen is definitely not stocked for humans. Another issue that we will now have to contend with. This self-rescue mission is getting more and more complicated.

As I turn a corner, I finally find something interesting. It's a pocket door, very different from the control room sliding door. Without hesitation, I reach for the smooth metal handle. The door flings open easily, revealing a room bathed in an ethereal blue light.

I step through the entryway and come up short when I see two rows of shipping crates lined across the outer edges of the room. Curiosity gets the best of me and I make my way down the line, trying to see if any of the units are open. None are until I finally get to the last one—the only one with an orange light instead of blue over the top of the door.

Carefully, I push the large screen next to the opening of the unit. When it opens, my breath catches. The inside of the unit is covered in high-tech equipment, tubes, and monitoring screens. But, as I walk the short length of the crate—close to the size of a small classroom—I catch my breath when I get a closer look at what I first thought were some kind of weird storage containers. There are eight of them, four opened. But the other four are what make me clutch my heart.

There are women in each of them, all seemingly asleep.

Oh my god, they're stasis pods. I remember seeing things like this in movies and always thinking the science to support them had to be shoddy, even for science fiction. But there they are—four women suspended in time, in unrelenting slumber. I stand in front of each pod and I watch every chest give a soft rise and fall, so I know, thankfully, they are all living.

When I inspect closer, I realize that all eight pods are numbered fifty-two through sixty. My blood chills as I determine that the other matching crates must hold additional women just like this. But the four empty pods make me queasy as I realize that there is only one logical answer for who those were for.

I stumble out of the crate, out of the room, back into the hallway, and begin walking up and down the corridors, calling out to the others. Before too long, I've gathered everyone in the control room, at which point I lay it out for them.

"So, there's eight in our crate, and our pods—I'm assuming the four empty ones are for us—are labeled up to sixty. I think the closed shipping crates are more pods with more people." I nervously chew at my lip, looking between the other four women.

"What do we do with them?" Amari asks, looking at each of us wide-eyed. "I mean, do we wake them or let them sleep?"

"Well, I don't know how we would get to the pods in the other shipping crates because I have no idea how to even go about opening one of those things."

"What does that matter?" Sabrina looks at us incredulously. "There is no way we can leave them asleep. It's life or death, and they deserve to know what's happened to them. We have to at least try to get them open"

"We can barely handle four women on this ship. What the fuck are we going to do with sixty?" Renata counters.

"Also, we could do something wrong in waking them up. Is it like a sleep-walking thing where you shouldn't wake them quickly?" Amari bites at her thumbnail nervously.

"Besides," call me selfish but I really don't want to wake all of those girls, "what do we do, just open the pods and go, ‘Hey, you've been kidnapped by aliens, we broke the ship, and now we're all hurtling towards almost-certain alien slavery?'"

"Also, we don't know for sure that there are human women in all of the pods," Renata points out. "They could have other aliens or animals. There could be anything in those pods."

Sabrina gives us each a glare. "So, you'd want them to just die never knowing what happened? Regardless of what they are, they're probably still sentient. If things go wrong, they should know what it is and have the chance to face it."

"Let's just vote," I interject, "before this gets heated."

Everyone else voices their agreement, and I'm just about to open my mouth to give my vote, when the ship lurches violently, throwing us off balance. We stumble and tumble around the control room. My arms flail as I grab for nearby handrails, alarms blaring through the chamber. My heart nearly beats out of my chest as I listen to the computer's loud ass warning.

"WARNING! ASTEROID IMPACT DETECTED! NAVIGATION SYSTEMS COMPROMISED! COURSE REDIRECTED! EMERGENCY SYSTEMS ACTIVATED!"

"Computer," I yell out over the alarms, "Where are we headed now?"

"NAVIGATION SYSTEMS COMPROMISED! COURSE REDIRECTED! SEARCHING FOR LOCATION COORDINATES!"

Another obstacle to overcome, and no easy solutions in sight.

"So, we can't be completely screwed. Let's think this through." Part of me is getting sick of Renata's eternal determination. Another part of me is grateful for it since it's helping keep us all from hysteria.

Out of nowhere, the ship's computer announces, "LOCATION DETERMINED. NOW ENTERING…SYSTEM NUMBER 2189 UNDER INTERGALACTIC CODE NUMBER 2946 —EMERGENCY OVERRIDE ENGAGED."

We all share a look before rushing out of the control room and down the hallway until we reach a row of windows. Parking in front of one, I press my face against the glass like everyone else. Every breath in the room hitches at what's before us.

An expanse of swirling planets, dotted with a myriad of moons and bathed in the light of two—no, three blazing suns. The whole thing seems to be filled with asteroids. I bet it was one of them that strayed and hit us, ensuring we'd end our lives in this planetary system.

The ship quakes again beneath my feet, sending shockwaves of fear rippling through my body. With each impact, the alarms blare mercilessly louder and the computer announcements get increasingly worse.

"WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! CONTROL SYSTEM DOWN! AUTOPILOT DISABLED! MANUAL CONTROL DISABLED! OXYGEN STORES DEPLETED! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!"

My heart races as my mind frantically searches for a solution to our dire predicament. When the ship shakes violently with yet another impact, I know we only have one option left. At least the only one I can see.

"I'm getting in my pod." I don't stop to argue, and I don't stop to see if the others follow me.

When I finally reach the shipping crate room and stop at my pod, I notice that all of them have followed me. Renata is the last to enter and closes the shipping crate from the inside. We give each other one last look of support, and then we step into our pods. The moment I close my pod door over me, it begins to fill with gas. Darkness claims me quickly, but through the muffled sounds of alarms and warnings I make out the computer's words:

"IMPACT CRITICAL! REPAIR NEEDED! EMERGENCY LANDING PROCEDURES BEGINNING NOW!"