‘I needed that stuff in my back pack,’ said Jan. ‘My phone. I’ve got stuff on it I need.’

‘That’s what happens when you get thrown in jail,’ said Tiz. 'But yeah. I know, right.'

At least all four had been put into the room together.

Thank goodness for that.

Peter had his arm around Walt’s shoulder as they sat shoulder to shoulder on a bench against the wall of the wooden walled room. Each of the cousins had taken things a different way. Tiz had put on a brave face and paced back and forth. While Jan had become defiant but Peter could see the sudden shift had shaken her in the shape of her hunched shoulders.

Walt shivered, though not from cold. The blackbirders had thrown felted blankets and some poncho type cloaks at them. And the cell had heating. They would not freeze. The downy inside of the spongy felt material felt luxurious against his bare skin.

‘Hey, dude,’ Peter said. ‘It will work out.’

‘How can you say that?’ Maggie turned on him. ‘You don’t even know what happened.’

‘Aliens, on Earth?’ Walt said. ‘They are aliens right?’

‘Of course they are,’ said Jan.

‘That screeching noise they made,’ said Tiz. ‘What was that all about?’

‘Them talking,’ said Jan. ‘I think.’

‘I know I know,’ said Tiz. ‘Aliens. I really need my phone right about now.’

Peter nodded. ‘Yeah. But I don’t think we’re in range of any signal.’

‘What? Why? Where are we? Can’t be far from Sumner. I mean…’

‘Yeah we can,’ Peter sighed. ‘I guess I had better tell you.’ And he filled them in, briefly, that he had fallen between worlds before.

‘So this is your fault?’

‘I’ve no idea why this happened,' said Peter. 'Before or this time.’

‘Two times is more than a coincidence don’t you think?’

What to say to that? No one is that special. Except it did happen twice.

‘But we’re not on this Eoth then?’ Jan said.

‘No. I think we’re on these Alien’s home planet. I met this species…’

‘You know these aliens?’

‘No. Something like them. Before. Blackbirders we called them. But that’s not right. They’re not all slavers.’

‘Slavers? You mean we’re slaves now?’ Jan jumped up and paced back and forth.

‘Prisoners more like,’ said Tiz

‘Arth. The Air Lord captured me and I heard them say they called their home world Arth.’

‘Arth. Not Earth, and not this Eoth?’

‘No. It’s strange…’

‘Wait? You can understand them?’

Peter shook his head.

Almost as hard to keep secrets from this lot as manisaur’s find it to lie.

‘I heard the name,’ said Peter. ‘That’s all.’

Jan slipped beside him on the opposite side to Walt. She acted a lot more mature than the boys, but at just 14 not a lot older than Walt’s 12 years old.

Heck, 14. My age when I came to Eoth.

‘What do we do now?’ said Jan.

‘I don’t know. But they won’t eat us. I’m guessing they will let us go when they realize we’re not a threat and that no one else will come through the portal.’

That started a whole new conversation about portals and mathematics and physics way past his pay grade.

But it passed the time.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

It took a while for Peter to realize the room they had been put in had not been intended to be a prison cell.

Light came from one of the glow panels on the ceiling set to a very low level, but enough to see by. It had no windows, only a single bench for furniture, and a door that locked.

Or at least it looks like it's locked.

The door had no handle on the inside. It reminded him of the key handle device Berg had used to get into the tunnels in the mountain on Black Spire Island. He crouched down to examine the hole.

‘Do you think we can pick the lock?’ said Tiz.

‘I don’t know,’ Peter said. ‘But it’s worth a try.’

‘But we don’t have anything to put into it,’ said Jan.

‘This really does look like they have just taken the handle off the door though. It’s not really a lock with a key.’ Peter stood up and looked around. ‘We just need something we can shove in and twist.’

Except they had nothing. Their backpacks had anything that might have been useful. And their captors had those. Swimming clothes didn't have anything they could poke inside. They sat quiet and despondent for a while.

‘Use my T shirt,’ said Jan. ‘Twist it into the lock.’

'What?' said Peter.

‘You’ll only clean the inside of it,’ said Tiz.

‘It’s a good idea,’ said Jan. She peeled off her poncho and T shirt then slipped the poncho back over her bikini top. ‘Try it. If we can get out I don’t care if the shirt is ruined.’

Peter grinned, and poked the cloth in and tried twisting it, but the soft material just slip around.

‘Make it wet,’ said Walt.

The Arthans had left a water container for them so Peter dampened the cotton, then twisted it into a tight spiral before poking it back into the opening where the door key handle would go.

First he twisted one way, and then the other. The door clicked, and the door opened a little.

‘What do we do now?’ Tiz came close and tried to peer out.

‘Where will we go? It’s dark and cold,’ said Jan

‘And we’ve not got shoes.’ Tiz stepped back.

‘I’ve got flip flops,’ said Jan.

‘There’s the extra felt blanket,’ said Peter. ‘See if you can rip it up.’ He pulled the door closed and let it lock again.

‘Why did you do that?’ said Tiz.

‘Let’s get ready first.’ Jan had already started work on trying to rip the felt. The tough material did not tear, it stretched instead.

‘This is amazing stuff. What’s it made of?’

‘Feathers,’ said Peter. ‘Sort of. Not like a bird’s. Almost like fur or wool. But not.’

‘You mean they make it out of their own fur? Yuck,’ said Jan.

‘Don’t think so. They’ll have animals that grow it.’

Jan had not made much head way ripping the felt, then Walt picked a corner up, bent it over and dragged the edge along the corner of the wooden bench. He made a hole, pushed the corner of the bench into it to widen it then failed to make it any bigger.

‘That’s a good plan,’ Tiz said. ‘You just need more muscle.’ He pushed and then ripped at the opening and the material sort of unzipped. The ripped edge had not been sealed like the cut edges of the blanket.

Soon they had squares and strips of the material and had pulled them up around Walt’s feet to make tight coverings for him.

‘I’m hungry,’ said Walt.

‘They don’t eat as often as we do. They probably don’t even realize we might be hungry,’ said Peter.

In the dimness of the room time seemed to flow at a different speed.

They had eaten. The fruit and nuts and seeds at least. Peter had told them to avoid the meat-looking stuff.

‘I’ve no idea what that is, and I don’t want to know. I don’t trust these guys. Not even a little bit.’

‘How bad can it be?’ said Tiz picking a piece of the white meat stew.

‘Tiz. Put it down. I really mean it.’

So they ate and filled themselves, and stuffed more away in their clothing. They found places. Peter have didn’t think too hard. His board shorts had pockets. He didn’t want to know where the others stashed their extra food.

‘Do you think they have cameras?’

‘I don’t think so. This is all pretty low tech.’

‘Except the portal thing.’

‘Yeah, Except the portal,’ Peter said. ‘That’s pretty strange. We have to get back there somehow. It’s our only way home.’

‘Do you think they would just let us go back?’ Walt said.

‘No. You heard them,’ Tiz said. ‘They’re upset we used their power store. There’s no way they would let us do it to them again.’

Peter realized Tiz had got it right.

How would we even work out how the thing worked?

‘We’ve got to get out. I’m kind of surprised they fed us. And it worries me,’ Peter said. He hadn’t told them about the hunt and the way these Arthans fed their victims before they hunted them.

The door opened and the older blackbirder came in. Without pause he grabbed Walt and dragged him out.

‘Hey, leave him alone,’ Peter shouted.

He and Tiz grabbed at the blackbirder but more of his guards pulled them off, then herded the three out and along the corridor. They all ended up in another room with a workbench in the middle. And the contents of their bags had been spread out.

‘My phone,’ Tiz said and grabbed for it, but a guard hauling him back with a hiss.

‘Now if only we could get these human creatures to tell us where they came from and why.’ The old blackbirder picked up the phone, turned it on and stared at the lock screen. ‘There is more technology here than I have ever seem with humans.’

He turned on Peter and his aura rippled with determination. But Peter pretended he didn’t understand.

‘Tell me what this is.’ He shoved it at Peter who turned away, nodded at Tiz.

‘Give me my phone back, Tiz said. And to his surprise this time got his hands on it. The screen flickered as it opened with face recognition and the old one pounced on it.

‘It has some sort of imprinting on this individual.’ Then he poked and prodded and got some of the apps to open. Then he found the photos app and he rocked back.

‘Ah. Now this is useful.’ He turned away and swiped and prodded at the phone making satisfied noises. ‘They are indeed from another hypergraph. This is an amazing…’ He looked up. ‘It is no wonder they do not understand us. They are nuvra. Return them to the room.’

Guards pushed and showed the boys back into the room where Jan had remained locked up. She flew into Walt’s arms.

‘I thought, I thought…’ she fell silent and then glared at Peter. ‘Don’t ever do that again. You cannot leave any of us alone again like that.’

‘I’m sorry. It just happened,’ Peter said. ‘I think they just wanted to get us to show them how to use the phone or something.’

‘They used Walt as bait to…’ Jan said.

‘Something like that,’ said Tiz.

‘The trouble is,’ said Peter. ‘Now they know more about us than we do about them. All those photos of Earth…’ He fell silent. He didn’t want to think about that. Not when they had to get out first.

The light panel dimmed and then went off. Night had come. After what Peter guessed had been two or three hours they dampened the cloth, twisted it into the handle-key, and got the door open. Then they all slipped out into a dark quiet night.