I stood, numb.

For a moment my hopes had been raised. This freakish alien thing had told me I could get home. Earth may have been in danger but we were about to do something about it. Now I stood in a hallway and wondered if the problem was with me daring to have hopes in the first place.

I tapped my head against the wall.

“I was kidnapped, everyone else died. They died horribly. I am alone-” I began mumbling to myself, “-So why wouldn’t I just be trapped like this. No one had ever actually been abducted by aliens before, clearly god hates me, so why would everything just get to be better now?”

No, it was obvious. I was cursed, expecting things to get better was a mistake. I was only setting myself up for disappointment.

A tentacle as thick as my thigh wrapped around my waist.

“God is not real. Repetition is annoying. This airplane prototype is too powerful, must be captured.” The octopus offered. “I am crew manager. Follow my orders. The ship must be reverse engineered to defeat Ackiyon.”

“You said there is no going home.” I muttered, feeling fresh tears beginning to sting at my eyes.

“If Ackiyon breach subspace they are undetectable. The United may be losing//may have lost if their airplanes go unnoticed. If we wish for to continue exist, we must escape.”

I stood for a moment before nodding, there was something that I could do to improve our odds. It might be a false hope, a lie told to a gullible primitive purely to stop them from causing problems, but if I could believe that I could trust this octopus person then that meant I had a direction to move in.

“I understand, what do you need me to do?” My heart began to pound as I stood tall.

If there was even a chance this would work then the only thing to do was throw everything I had into it.

The translator whirred to life and answered, “Medical date entry, humans are capable of existence without rest for extended time.Therefore your body will suit long term work.”

“You don’t know yet?” I asked as my hope began to fade. “It sounded like there was something important to do.”

“Airplanes need many tasks to run, all important. Everything must be done. The airplane needs crew to operate.” They explained. “You are not trained. But if you learn to do task efficiently, we can achieve objectives.”

I nodded, before realizing I had to speak for the translator to work.

“Okay, so what are we doing now?” I asked.

“You will follow me. Do not touch anything. Do not operate any devices.”

“I understand. No touching.”

“Optimal. Follow. Do not touch anything.”

The octopus began dragging themselves down the hallway and I followed as instructed. We walked on the steel gray tiles that made up the halls. The insectoids turned to follow my movements as I passed and I pushed down a surge of fear to the thousands of alien eyes.

We walked for minutes in a straight line and yet I never saw the end of the hallway in this ginormous ship, we stopped only because we seemed to have arrived at wherever the octopus needed to be. We turned to face a door.

It was the same as any of the doors; it was automated and opened with a hiss when you pressed a small blue button on the side. I waited outside until the alien managed to turn a light on within the room and then entered to find the least amount of alien scifi gadgetry that I had ever seen.

There were rows and rows of books and in shock I reached out to grab a small paper volume before flipping to a random page. What use would a space age society need for paper?

One of the octopus’s tentacles whipped painfully against my wrist before seizing around my arm and hoisting me up into the air.

“Do not touch anything.” The translator’s verbal monotone did not fully translate the fact that the alien had turned bright angry red.

“Okay, sorry-” I was released and fell onto my ass. “I didn’t mean anything, it's just a book.”

“Now is books. Later is buttons. Then is levers.” The monotone voice scolded. “How will I know? You will press buttons, then the ship explode.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I rubbed at my limb, the sudden jerk had nearly ripped it from its socket. I wasn’t a chimpanzee, I knew better than to press random buttons. Still, I bit my tongue and gave a half nod before remembering the translator.

“I understand. I apologize, I was merely surprised to find something I recognized-”

“You lack restraint. How can I trust with importance//tasks?”

“It won’t happen again.”

“Adequate.” The octopus paused for a moment considering, “You may operate that book.”

I sighed, I didn’t even really want to read it. The odds of it being in english and not some sort of alien scrawl were low. The curiosity had actually just gotten the better of me, though regardless of my current feelings the octopus was now staring at me. I imagined admitting to them that I had gone and started grabbing things that I didn’t even want…

I took the book, hunched over on the floor and started flipping through the pages. They seemed to be satisfied and left me with my little distraction to go and start digging through a few drawers.

Looking around this place seemed to be rarely touched. I wondered if it was some kind of record keeping office. Many of the papers seemed to be held together in metallic binders while some were standard paperback books. Still, I kept my hands to myself and leaned against the wall with the one thing I was permitted to touch.

Flipping the page revealed exactly what I had expected. Ackiyon print tended to favor sharp edges and little spacing. I obviously couldn’t read anything as I flipped through the thick pages.

I quickly gave up on the book when flicking through the pages revealed there were not even pictures to give context.

The octopus turned to eye me for a moment, before resuming their work. She must have been satisfied that I was lying exhausted in the corner and not nosing into anything. I curled up slightly, putting my hands behind my head to cushion it against the metallic surface behind me.

I stared up at the lights for a moment, then shielded my eyes.

Was that monster I had seen real? Or was I just hallucinating from the shock?

Not one of the aliens seemed to believe me, none of them. They even had half correct sounding explanations for what I could have seen. If it hadn’t been real, what had really killed the Ackiyon? Some kind of alien Navy Seal or something?

Earth had legends of creatures like those, skinwalkers and the like.

Were magical creatures real?

I almost snorted, of course they weren’t. Magic is not real.

Unless it is. If even a fraction of the stories humans had possessed a shadow of truth…

Instinctually I had feared it.

I was terrified of being strapped to that table. I had pissed myself when the doctor went to grab his scalpels.

None of that felt anything like gazing at the empty void in front of me. No, I had heard the screams and the bones breaking. The way it stood over me.

Clearly there was some sort of magic in place. If not magic than something else that could be equated with it. And if magic was real then-

Could my friends have made it to heaven? Was the afterlife real?

I reached a hand up towards the ceiling light, fully extending my hand and closed my fist, as if trying to grab light itself.

I remembered their names.

Chell Armette. Diane Tykia. Lucas Bretton. Brandon… Three of the people had not spoken English, and we couldn’t get their names. Jules had only known French and Diane had to translate for him.

Brandon was the first to be taken, before we had known our time was limited and begun sharing information in the hopes that some of us would escape. I knew nothing about him other than his first name.

Of the fourteen humans who were once on this ship, thirteen were dead. I had nine and a half names, eventually I would have to track down each of their families. All of us who could communicate had promised, and now I was the sole survivor to carry on this agreement.

“Brandon, Chell Armette. Diane Tykia. Lucas Bretton-” I repeated the names, in order of those who had cells furthest from me to those closest. “Jules Martin, Olivia Teach, Emma Abden William Secula, three people who did not speak english, Harper Smith, Emily Abdot-”

I went over the names like a montra, refusing to forget the people who did not make it. Repeating them over and over again. I continued again and again until the octopus alien spoke to me.

“This is yours, possibly.”

They turned and dropped a ball of cloth onto the ground. I reached for it, unraveling the rough fabric into a white blouse and thin dark skirt. I identified it as some sort of work uniform.

“I do not understand what the spike on the bottom of the footwear is for, but the leg robes seem highly efficient for comforting your genitalia.”

“Actually, this isn’t mine.” I corrected staring at the high heels on the ground, “This is for a girl- er… a female.”

“Really?” They flipped through one of the plastic binders, “Females have internal reproductive organs. This suits external reproductive organs due to the open bottom half.”

“Yes, but men do not wear skirts. I would prefer my original clothing.”

I had woken up in my cell naked but I didn’t think that they had actually stored my belongings as some form of evidence. I didn’t think they actually cared about us or anything we had. The hope that this was all just a robbery or that we had something valuable had floated around a few times though no one truly believed it.

The octopus turned towards one of the drawers for a moment before turning back with a slight yellowish hue.

“These drawers store human made objects. You may have them.”

I nodded reflexively before speaking, “Thank you. I will tell you if I find anything nonhuman in there.”

“Efficient.”

I reached towards what seemed to be filing cabinets, or some sort of metal storage locker. Its design was very human, only the size hinted at alien origins. I wondered what scientists would say about two isolated species coming to the same conclusion on storage design. Opening one of the drawers revealed a black t-shirt dumped on top of a pair of jeans.

Not mine. I decided and shut the drawer.

The next drawer had a knitted sweater, and then the next had a shirt with some kind of anime character on it. After four drawers I found my clothes, a bright red shirt and a pair of jeans. I dragged everything out of the drawer and dumped it onto the ground next to me. Pants, underpants, shirt, shoes, socks-

I held my phone for a minute, it still had charge. My wallet was even in here, which would be lucky if the money or cards had any value whatsoever. I stood in front of the cabinet and took a deep breath in. I knew what I had to do, it was more important than even my current nakedness. I ripped each of the files open and pulled out each of their wallets.

Thirteen wallets in front of me. Thirteen drivers licenses and thirteen names, though I could not read four of them.

They had all left family and friends behind on Earth. For a while I had worried that I would have trouble finding them if- when I managed to return home. But now as long as I had a form of identification I could easily track down those related to my fellow abductees. As the only survivor it was now my duty.

I gently placed the cards down in front of me and then slid my clothing on, the octopus behind me watched silently as I said a prayer before pocketing the licenses.

“God is not real, human. Leaving behind superstition will lead to higher learning and efficiency.”

“I have seen demons with my own eyes, why would I not believe in everything else?”

The octopus turned a slightly irritated red, but said nothing about the subject, instead turning towards the other drawers.

“Fine, if that is all then we should be moving. You should take the rest of the clothing with you. It may take some time before we can fabricate personal items.”

I really did not want to wear dead people’s clothing.

“The previous owners might have diseases.” I lied, “Possibly very deadly ones.”

They turned a slight green for a moment, before replying, “Inefficient, though sanitation is the origin of burial rituals. I will show you your room. If you become diseased return to your room. If you commit crimes you will also be restrained in your room.”

“Understood.” I sighed, obviously if I ran around trashing the ship they would lose patience with me and I would end up locked away. It's not like they needed to tell me that.