I stood pressed against the glass, trying to see as far down the hallway as I could.

The lights were spaced just far enough apart that the light didn’t fully cover between them leaving rows of darkness between the cells. The measurements of everything from the doors to the cups were uncomfortable and clearly not made for human hands. I stared through my window into the cell across from mine, leveraging myself up the wall slightly to see further.

It was empty. I was left with silence and isolation chasing nothing but the hope that last night had been a nightmare. She had been taken, and now it was only me. I could no longer sleep, and every moment I waited fearing the moment that they would come for me too.

Exhaustion crept through my muscles, I could no longer stand. I had been leaning against this door for ages just waiting. My muscles had gone beyond burning into a silent numbness as I attempted to lodge myself into the corner to take as much pressure off of my limbs as possible.

I blinked, staring as the lights flickered casting the halls into darkness.

I blinked and saw her face, screaming, begging, crying. Tearing at the creatures who grabbed her.

My fist slammed into the glass, hard enough to tear the skin on my knuckles. I pounded my hand against the immoveable alien material leaving stains of blood until her screams faded into the distance and I was left alone.

I blinked and I was tied to a table, that thing wearing the alien’s skin stared back. Its eyes, emptier than the impenetrable darkness surrounding me. I tore at my bindings, trying to bring my arms up in front of my bare chest, trying to shake loose to run, hide or do anything.

It lowered a claw and I felt it dig into my abdomen, tearing through my muscles with ease. I tried to scream but nothing came out as it carved symbols into my stomach, an arrow, a backwards three, many slashes, a-

I tore my hand up, pulling against the chains that held me. I felt the bindings give way and I slammed a hand forwards.

I screamed and jammed my fist into the metal bed frame before curling around my injured limb. For the moment I laid half asleep and silently shook myself, my blankets had been kicked off in my thrashing and I laid on the cold metal floor.

Breathing in and out was the only thing that returned me to normal. I did not know how long I laid like that, curled up and breathing, but like all things my nightmares and fears slowly faded away. When I had calmed somewhat I held out my hand and stared at my knuckles, and the split skin along a couple of my fingers that had long scabbed over.

I glanced at a simple clock in the corner of the room set to “human time” which meant it had twelve hours. I sighed and stretched, it was almost three and I had an hour before work. Despite fixing up the clock to display numbers I was familiar with, it still had errors just because of how time worked, or rather, how the ship was calibrated.

Ackiyon went off of a 27 hour day by human standards. Thus I had been told to wake up at three, and be on my way to my supervisor by four.

I rose from my makeshift bed on the floor, wiping the remains of sleep from my eyes and grabbed at a bottle of water I kept nearby.

The room wasn’t large in a big sort of way, but I had seen pictures of rooms on navy vessels that were essentially bunk beds bolted to the wall with just enough room to climb onto them. As it was, I could lay on the ground with my arms outstretched in every direction and touch neither furniture nor walls with room to spare. It even had an attached bathroom and closet.

I lifted up the bedding that I had spread on the floor last night and tossed it back up onto the empty metallic bed frame before leaving my room.

The ship was big, incredibly big. There were apparently tens of thousands of rooms just like this, each one packed with half a dozen of those little bug people. Even as I exited my room one of the little green things ran past me. It made sure to cross the hallway to put as much distance between us as possible as we crossed paths.

It mattered little to me, I did not want to spend time with any of these aliens any more than I had to. I watched as it scurried away from me, speeding up as it passed until it turned a corner and ended up out of sight.

I sighed before leaning against the wall and sat down. At four the octopus would arrive and tell me what I was supposed to be doing for the day. My legs were already tired from my short stand. My limbs had grown thin from my time in captivity and now struggled to properly hold my weight.

So I waited, staring at the wall before closing my eyes and wondering how I had even gotten to this point. One day I was driving home from work, a new bottle of wine in the back seat. The next moment I woke up naked in that prison. Had the aliens been watching me specifically and waiting for the right moment? Or had I simply been at the wrong place and time at the moment of abduction? If I hadn’t stopped at the store on the way home from work would I have been spared?

For a moment I fantasized about sleeping in the office. Coming home the next day and being anywhere but here. How the smallest changes to my schedule might have spared me of this fate.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

A gentle nudge woke me from my daydream and brought me back to reality. I leapt to my feet before realizing what was happening. I looked to see the octopus I was waiting for writhing next to me.

“Is your sleep cycle nonfunctional?” It asked in its translated monotone.

“I slept fine.” I grunted.

“Lying is suboptimal. Goal is not wealth. There is no need for exhaustion.” They chastised me, but I shrugged it off.

“Can we just start with whatever it is we are doing?”

The octopus silently stared for a moment, before turning.

“Follow.”

I verbally confirmed the order, “Understood.”

We walked down the hall, and the same as before another insectoid pressed themselves into the far wall as we passed, shrinking away from me. I stared as the thing sped away the moment they were clear.

The halls were spacious, and lacked windows or anything to break the monotony of the miles of metal and doors leading to places I wasn’t allowed into. Everything was constructed from a dark gray metal, doors were placed at regular intervals with crossing H-beams set between them. This place had no art or windows. Nothing to break up the monotony whatsoever other than the creepy little aliens that would run past every so often.

For how large I had been told the ship was, it seemed strange how few aliens I actually ran into.

“What kind of aliens are there on this ship?” I asked, “The Ackiyon are gone right? So is it just you, me and those bug people with the gray masks?”

“Ackyon feared intelligent creatures rebellion. Intelligent breeding strictly controlled. Statistically most crew is insectoid. Small percentage of crew is capable of higher learning, they directly report to Ackiyon.”

“I see.” I muttered.

The Ackiyon had a caste system designed to let them work as little as possible themselves. I wondered now if the insectoids didn’t like being around me because I looked smart and thus like a manager.

“What are the names of your species anyway?” I asked. “Is there anything I should know about the other people here?”

“My species has no verbal name, color communicate. Our designation is management dash amphibious dash three. The insectoids are labor dash one. Generally, three types of slave. Management, hauler, labor.”

I walked silently for a moment, swallowing and clearing my throat. My heart hammered away at itself and I walked with sudden discomfort. I opened my mouth to try to ask another question but fell silent instead. What should I even say to that?

We continued the silent march towards whatever it was they wanted me for as I was left contemplating. I considered myself and wondered why I felt such sudden tightness in my chest, why I had gone from questioning and curiosity to staring down at my feet and walking. I thought back to earth trying to pinpoint my problem.

Was it medical? It felt hard to breathe. Some sort of allergic response?

No, I didn’t feel itchy, soreness in my throat or pain when I swallowed. I remembered boarding a plane when I was small and feeling the same fluttering heartbeat and urge to suck in oxygen. I concluded that I was panicking, or possibly just anxious. My body was subconsciously reacting towards my fear. I had felt similarly way back then.

Was it the stark monotone delivery of the alien’s slave system? Or that these aliens did not even have names beyond a numerical system that defined their uses.

Finally, I realized the question I didn’t want to ask.

“What is my designation?”

The octopus continued along, oblivious to my sudden crisis.

“Currently unknown. That is goal today.”

They stopped and pressed a button. The door opened with a slight hiss, and then we stepped forwards.

“Your medical history shows malnourishment, weakness from vitamin deficiencies and exhaustion.” They said in a monotone, “Proper test diet will begin, followed by a physical test, and equipment measure.”

“Oh.” I muttered absentmindedly.

I had no real idea of what that meant. While I understood those words, physical test did nothing to tell me which muscle groups they would specifically be testing. Were they going to have me try a set of vitamins or finally feed me anything other than bowls of paste? Would I be lifting weights or running to test endurance?

“I’m wearing jeans.” I stated.

The octopus turned towards me, “Is it formal wear?”

“No, it's durable work clothes. It isn’t meant for running or physical exercise.”

“That is optimal. Sit on Bench.”

I sat down as instructed and started glancing around the office. There were no privacy curtains, beds or anything else I would expect in a medical office. Only a few desks and bookcases.

“I thought we would be doing this in the hospital, like the one they tried to cut me up in.”

“That room was contaminated. Too much blood on ceiling.”

“So then, what room was this?” I asked.

“A record storage room.”

“Why do they have books? Aren’t computers better?”

“They are backups in case of EMP, software attack or data purge. Take pills.”

The octopus wrapped a thick limb around a small metallic tray and held it to me, on it was a small set of fingernail sized pellets. They were oddly spherical and a pale white reminiscent of pearls. I reached out and began plucking them up, before cupping my other hand to hold them.

The octopus stared at me, and I saw its strange oval eyes dart between the pills in my hand and my face.

“Ingest the pills.” It corrected itself.

I stared down at my hand, feeling a slight trepidation for taking unknown substances. They could drug me and I could end up back in that cell, or strapped to a table-

The artificial lights on the ceiling beamed down on me as I realized that the octopus was positioned ever so slightly between me and the door. Was this intentional? Each tentacle on the thing was as thick around as my thigh and I would have no chance against such a creature.

My chest began feeling tight again and my breathing once again labored even though I consciously understood the situation. The other aliens were the bad ones, these ones would help me. They had not locked me in a small box, nor were they going to tie me to a table and cut me apart.

I felt at the wounds on my chest for a moment. The pattern that had been carved into me ached.

No matter what I told myself, I could not banish the feelings that this was a trick. That I would wake up back in that cell, waiting for when it was my time to be chopped apart.

I swallowed nervously, “What do these pills do?”

“These pills contain trace amounts of potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and thiamine.”

Most of those were things I had heard of, potassium and calcium for example. For a moment I ignored my thumping heart and stifled lungs to open my mouth. I slowly brought the medications to my mouth and immediately gagged.

The feeling of bile in the back of my throat overwhelmed me as my body fought on a subconscious level to avoid the deadly poisons that I may have just consumed. I clenched my mouth shut and held the small handful of pills on my tongue, feeling them begin to dissolve into a foul fluid.

I could not bring myself to swallow. No matter what I tried my throat remained impassable. So me and the octopus across from me simply stared at each other until the vitamins broke down in my mouth and I managed to down the disgusting slurry of saliva and powder.

“Optimal.” Their translator stated. “Now. Range of motion data.”