Betrayed by Utopia

Light, from a small dusty window, high overhead, swirls down, attempting to banish the darkness. The room contains one bed, a toilet, and a sink: with barely any room for its occupant to move around. One of the three walls appears to be nonexistent, but appearances can be deceiving. A low energy force field takes the place of a fourth wall, meant to keep in anyone currently staying in that room. The current occupant lies sleeping on a bare, yellow stained mattress, curled up in a ball.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“What the. . .” The sound of metal on metal causes me to jolt upright in my bed.

“Sol s’theg, lrig!” says a guard standing at the foot of my bed. He’s wearing an all white suit made out of some sort of hardened plastic, and a helmet that matches, with a reflective visor that keeps me from being able to see his face. He’s some kind of an alien called a Ghemin. He’s holding some sort of deadly looking weapon in his hand. A gun? A laser? I don’t really want to find out. But whatever it is, it’s made of metal and must be what he banged on the metal bed frame to jerk me from my sleep. “Tztej evom hcid!”

“What? I don’t understand you!” I say.

He waves his gun around at me angrily. “Tztej evom hcid!”

“I still don’t understand. Your translator must be broken.” His next words come so fast they don’t even sound like a language. But he points to me with his gun, and then moves it out towards the door. “I’m guessing you want me to go out there?” I point where the invisible door used to be.”

He nods his head. “Tztej evom hcid!”

“That must mean, get going.” I get out of bed and

head into the hallway where I meet another guard and a young woman. Her hair is a golden color, and her eyes are a deep green.

“Carina.” She whispers when I get close. So, she is the mysterious woman I’ve been talking to through the wall of my cell. It’s nice to be able to put a name with a face.

“Rayanna.” I whisper back.

“Nice to finally meet you.”

“Same.”

“Tztej evom hcid!” says my guard, shoving his gun into my back.

A guard pokes Carina in the back as well. Guess we are going to the same place. “Okay. Okay. I’m going.” I say, moving forward.

“I wonder where we are going,” Carina whispers.

“I don’t know.”

“Eterly Station.” one of the guards says. Nice to know that at least one guard’s translator is working today.

“What is that?” I ask.

“Sad theg hcid sthcin na!” another guard answers.

I may not be able to understand that guard, but based on the timing of his responses, I’m fairly confident that he can understand me. Either he doesn’t speak my language, or he just choses to answer me in his own language. Either way, I find it extremely annoying.

“I’m assuming Eterly Station is the name of the port we are going to.” Carina says.

“Probably so. Maybe if we can get away. . .” I trail off. Best not to inform the enemy of my plans. We march through hallway after hallway and end up walking down a familiar corridor. Maybe it was one I passed when they brought me in? I don’t remember much about my life before I was brought here. I’ve been locked away in my cell for so long, days have melted into weeks. I know I’m twenty-one, and that I have family, somewhere. The rest of who I am seems to have been erased from my memory, somehow.

The wall to my right says Block D. Large sections of the wall are clear, just like the cell I was locked up in. Did they seriously scare me awake just to stick me in a different, identical, small room? As door after door flashes past me, I catch glimpses of men in the cells, one man per cell just like the women’s block. Suddenly, I am walking by a cell with a familiar face, Wolfe. My older brother! His arms are wrapped around his legs, and his head is down. Relief washes through me, he looks okay. But why is he here? When did he get snatched?

“Wolfe!” I scream, running towards his door. “Wolfe! Help me! Please!” A soldier catches me by the arm and jerks me back, just before I can touch the wall. “Let go of my arm!” I scream at the soldier before turning back towards my brother. “Wolfe?” He doesn’t lift his head from his knees. Either he didn’t hear me or doesn’t want to hear me. Why is he ignoring me? I know he can hear me, I could hear everything happening from inside my cell. Maybe it wasn’t him? But no, that hair is unmistakable, not to mention the scar on his left knee. That was Wolfe, and for whatever reason he isn’t acknowledging me. Feeling defeated, I allow the guard to pull me back over towards Carina and we continue our march to Eterly Station. My brother hates me. My only family member. My protector. Now what?

I am so miserable and feeling sorry for myself that I don’t even realize where I am going until I hear one of the guards saying we have arrived. I pull myself out of my thoughts and look around. Carina and I are in some strange building. The room itself is huge with the ceiling extending way above my head. How much time has passed?

The walls are made of some kind of strange metal. The floor and ceiling seem to be painted like the night sky, black with brilliantly colored white specks to represent stars. I bend down to check out the floor, reaching out a hand to touch it, and realize how wrong I am. The floor is cool to the touch. It must be made out of some kind of thick plexiglass type material. What I thought was a painting is real. Apparently, at some point during my pity party, we left Earth. Everything under my feet is stars and the occasional rock. Asteroid? The floor under my feet vibrates, slightly, making the world momentarily swoosh down around me. I throw out my arms, trying to maintain my balance.

I wonder what that’s about? I straighten up, the thought of being so high up only makes the dizziness worse. My stomach starts to churn, and I fight the urge to throw up. Good thing the soldier is holding my arm, otherwise, I would probably fall over. Once I get past my initial amazement at the room, I realize that we aren’t alone.