Different knobs, screens and buttons surrounded me. There was a massive window in my view which showed off the expanse of space. In the distance I could see the Hydra. It was maroon colored and looked pretty odd for a vessel from earth.

I tried to find anything labelled. Shouldn’t there be something called a throttle? I pushed the screen to my right and a menu popped up. Easy Pilot System it said. Accelerate, decelerate and stop were the only options. Must be for new people to learn how to fly. I pressed accelerate. The ship started to move.

Fantastic, I thought. I could get the ship to move forward, but how do I get it to change directions? Below the screen on the right was some sort of metal stick. I pushed it forward. The ship began to shake violently and made a nose dive. Quickly pulled it back to the center position, causing the ship to shake again. We were now going straight like before. At least, that’s what I thought. How did navigation work in space?

“The space debris almost hit us! Great piloting, janitor!” Came a voice from right behind me. Space debris?

“Thanks. Don’t want the ship to get damaged or anything like that,” I replied, pretending to know what he was talking about.

“When we get back to the Hydra, us on Alpha Team are going to request for you to get recognized for your bravery. You deserve it. Not many would have the courage to follow us into battle. All I came up here to say. I’ll leave you to it,” the man said. After patting my shoulder, he left the pilot station and closed the door behind him.

Some time passed. Getting the hang of this, I thought. The Easy Pilot System makes it so simple to fly around in space. I was also getting pretty used to changing directions. The Hydra was close to us now. Where was I supposed to land this thing? I looked around for a slot in the ship. Found one near the back.

After carefully positioning the transport, we were on a direct course for the entrance to the Hydra. Finally. It was time to get back home. The thought of falling into bed made me feel giddy on the inside. How late was it? Being in space made it impossible to tell and I couldn’t find a clock anywhere. Oh well.

We were extremely close now. Something struck me as odd, though. The Hydra had multiple levels. From the outside, it didn’t look like that at all. Only appeared to have enough room for one floor, maybe two at the max. It also looked pretty small from the outside. Wait a second. I stood up and left the piloting room.

“What color is the Hydra?” I asked.

“All white, shouldn’t you know that?” Said one of the infantrymen.

Fear shot through my veins. The ship we were approaching was maroon colored. Where was I sending us? Ran back into the piloting room and looked out the window. The slot on the ship wouldn’t be big enough to fit the transport and we were on a direct collision course. Obviously wasn't an entrance. Had to think fast. Opened up the Easy Pilot System and pressed stop. Wasn’t quick enough. We crashed directly into the other ship. I flew forward, hitting my head on the window. It knocked me out.

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I woke up. Had a killer headache and my body ached. Tried to stand. It was difficult, but I could still walk. I distanced myself from the window to try and see what was going on. All I saw was darkness and flames. I didn’t die again, did I? Had the thought to check on Alpha Team, so I left the piloting room. The door to leave the transport was on the ground. All the infantrymen were on the floor, their hands tied. Gathered in the transport were several humanoid aliens with green skin and gills on their cheeks. They were equipped with what looked like rifles of some kind.

“Sorry about your ship. Pretty sure we have insurance,” I said. The aliens looked at me and pointed their weapons.

“Gleeeeee tahk ook bah!” Shouted one of them. He gestured for me to get on the ground. Didn’t want to make the situation any worse, so I followed his command. The floor was freezing cold. Figured it would be, since it was made of metal.

After a few minutes of listening to the aliens talk amongst each other, they stopped. “Raaaaah yin hoo tael!” I heard one of them shout. The aliens began scooping up the infantrymen lying on the ground and carrying them on their shoulders. Eventually one of the aliens picked me up, too. Intense pain. I was still injured from the crash.

There was only overwhelming darkness outside of the transport. The only light came from the blue forcefield which covered up the area where we crashed. Those aliens must have already put out the fires, I thought.

Heard a door open and was blinded by lights. We were suddenly in a large hallway, colored brown. It definitely didn’t look as nice as what was on the Hydra. Passed by several doors until we reached the end of the hallway. There was a single door in front of us. The alien opened it. I could see several cages in the room with Alpha Team scattered throughout them. There were countless other humans in here as well, but I didn’t recognize what they were wearing. Appeared to be civilians.

I was thrown into one of the cages with a single man from Alpha Team in it. After wincing from the pain, I slowly stood up. Barely enough room for us both to lie down in there. I looked over to the infantryman.

“What are we supposed to do now?” I asked.

“I’m not sure, janitor. I’ve been in many impossible situations. This one doesn’t seem to have an escape. Why did they have to crash into us?” He said. I decided not to mention it was my fault we were in this mess.

“Are we going to be kept in here forever?” I asked.

The infantryman let out a long sigh. “I don’t know. I really don’t,” he said.

An alien walked up to the entrance of the cage, holding a large bowl in his right hand. “Jeeeeeen hah!” He said, motioning for us to step back. We both did. The alien opened the cage door and dropped the bowl inside. He closed the door again, locking it.

After he left, I walked forward and examined the bowl. Inside was an awful looking green liquid with two utensils sticking out of it. I guess it was time for us to eat already.

“Food’s here. Looks like some kind of soup,” I said.

The infantryman inside the cage with me stepped closer. He took off his helmet. He had green eyes, a crooked nose and small stubbles on his face.

“Might as well try some,” he said. The man picked up one of the utensils which was shaped like a spoon. After sipping some of the food, he smiled.

“Taste isn’t too bad. You should get some too,” he said.

Followed his suggestion and picked up the other spoon. While the soup was mostly liquid, there were chunks of things in it. I couldn’t tell you what they were. If I had to guess, they were the alien equivalent of vegetables. I tried some. The infantryman was right. Soup wasn’t gross at all.

I sighed. First a janitor, now a slave. Now I just had to figure out how I was going to get out of this mess.