Sam opened her eyes before the lights came on, staring upwards into the darkness. A tentative touch drew the precursor that had built up overnight into her. Unlike the nightmare that had attuned her, the current experience felt vaguely pleasurable. Apart from the sensation itself, the joy of holding power rose in her. She popped the hatch to her capsule and climbed out to wander through the dimly lit common areas.

The sphere formed around her and Sam reached out to push a bowl across the counter. Back and forth she shuffled the bowl, her control growing each time she manipulated it. An attempt to lift the bowl proved challenging, so she increased the amount of power she drew through the hole in her mind. She lifted the bowl with her corona, then set it down. Next, Sam attempted to lift herself. The weight proved too much, so she seized yet more power, until she could draw no more. With a mighty effort, she tried to levitate again. The best she could do was reduce her weight so that she could bounce across the space like Neil Armstrong on the moon.

The door beeped, giving Sam just enough warning to touch down before it opened to admit Darla. Lights came up to full level and the woman scowled at Sam. She made a strange gesture, pointer and middle fingers extended upwards to dip down to her thumb like a pantomime of a beak closing. Sam frowned at the gesture, which seemed to surprise the woman. Darla did it again, her demeanor changing. With skittish movements, Darla moved past Sam to hit a button in the corridor with the sleeping berths without ever turning her back on Sam.

As the first women began to exit their pods, Darla flashed the gesture at them. Every last one responded with a blank face, all previous emotion scrubbed in an instant as they fell into quiescent obedience.

Darla verifed all the others were still under the compulsion of the mind control installed in them on the shuttle, all the while keeping Sam in her eyeline.

Well, I think I'm caught, Sam thought. Mimicking the other's reaction to the hand gesture at this point would likely only look more suspicious. Besides, who knew how many other secret signals existed.

Trying to minimize any suspicious behavior, Sam went about her morning routine. She even drank the caffeinated beverage Alicia set in front of her while eating breakfast. No one spoke to her as Jess still seemed to be avoiding her.

Then Ayla soared through the door and rushed into an open seat by Sam.

"Sam! You work with me today!"

"Sounds great, Ayla."

"No," Darla said. "Pick another woman today."

Kistlen suddenly entered the conversation. "No one from my group."

"Fine," Darla said. "Take any woman you want from my group, but not Sam."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I want Sam to be my helper . . . ."

Darla shook her head. "Not Sam. She . . . I want to keep an eye on her."

The obvious panic on Ayla's face made Sam want to kick her. That would probably be out of character for a mind-controlled slave, so she restrained herself. Darla sighed. "You can have Alicia today. She is my best worker."

"Yes . . . ." Ayla shuffled towards the door with the hispanic woman in tow, looking back towards Sam until they were out the door.

"You don't leave my sight today," Darla said to Sam, "and be on your best behavior."

"Yes, super," Sam said.

So began another micromanaged shift under the dour supervisor. Playing around with a tiny amount of the precursor, Sam dove into the repetitive work of her job. She took over lunch preparations in the absense of Alicia, pretending to ignore the fact that Darla had not left the fifth floor throughout meal preparations, acting the obedient and motivated employee to the best of her ability. The afternoon went fast as her enhanced mind brought her to new levels of efficiency with her maintenance tasks. They broke for dinner at the end of the day and Ayla reappeared to drop of Alicia.

Sam rushed over to the small supervisor and initiated one of the clingy hugs Ayla enjoyed so much, putting her lips close to one ear. "Tell your aunt that Darla knows I escaped my mind control."

Ayla stiffened in her grip. "Bad, bad, bad . . . I will tell Aunt Cassandane you are in trouble."

As they separated, Darla's eyes drilled into Sam with palpable suspicion. Sam ate a quick dinner, then grabbed an early shower. When she emerged, Darla had disappeared to be replaced by an apathetic Kistlen, who made the hand gesture at Sam. Staring forward with a blank expression seemed to placate Kistlen, who instructed Sam to not cause any trouble before leaving herself.

Knowing she wouldn't have much time, Sam cornered Jess, whose eyes darted around frantically at her approach. Sam copied the finger gesture, causing Jess to relax. "Sorry about this, Jess, but if we're going to be in this together, I need you to be yourself." She seized one of her friend's hands and pushed precursor through it. Jess blinked and stared at Sam as if seeing her for the first time.

"Sam . . . what are you doing?"

"Trying to fix your brain." After a few moments, Sam released Jess and made the hand gesture again. Her friend once more went into hypno-trance mode, so Sam repeated the process of transferring precursor, pulling as much power as she could this time.

Jess laughed randomly. "This are the superpowers Lawrence was talking about. Holy shit, Sam, how did you get these?"

"Long story. I'm trying to break you out of their jedi mind trick."

"Whoa. Do the Angmari have jedi? So much for us scoring some Star Fleet captains."

Sam pulled free and put her fingers to her thumb like a bird mouth closing. Jess raised a brow. "Are we doing shadow puppets now?"

"If you ever see that gesture from a supervisor, do your best senior moment impression. It's some sort of secret command for mind controlled people."

"Sam . . . what are you talking about?"

"Watch." She flashed the gesture at Space Rhonda and the woman went momentarily slackfaced.

Too late, she registered the beep at the door. Darla emerged just in time to see Sam's hand gesture complete. The fear on the woman's face mirrored what Sam suspected was on her own. After a moment's hesitation, Darla barreled forward. "Sam, hit the bathroom if you need to. You are going to be locked in your sleeping berth overnight. Hurry, now, don't cause any problems."

Knowing she had no option of escape and resistance could only exacerbate her problems, Sam allowed herself to be shepherded into her sleeping berth. It locked from outside, causing a red X icon to light up on the inside panel. "Well, this isn't ideal," she muttered.