At the front desk the nurse drew him a map to his pod.

“Good luck newbie. It’s a big galaxy out there.”

The hospital was just a big box with a huge red cross painted on the outside. The air was hot and dry in the station and the was noise everywhere. He followed the map down a high boardwalk over a road of some sort. The boardwalk led to a tunnel between some more boxy buildings before it opened to a wide courtyard. He was looking at some food stalls set up on the other side when a rider on a sculpted flying bike shot past him at terrific speed.

“I need one of those” he thought to himself.

Finally, he came to an orange wall of pods and climbed a flight of stairs to his level. Using his ring to open the door he walked into a room twice his length, equally wide and two heads taller than him. The walls were white, and the room looked like it had been mass produced in a roto mold, no love, just function. On one side a bed with drawers, on the other side a cupboard and a seat with a screen built into the wall. There was a box on the bed and a note on the desk. Shige, I am truly sorry for causing such a terrible accident with your friends. Please accept my gift to you all of hospital care and accommodation. I know it is only a token, but it is all I can do from my end. Take this ticket to the docks to retrieve your gear. I hope your new life goes well. Sincerely Franco.

Wrapped in the note was a metal disc about the width of a teacup. Shige turned on the screen and followed the prompts. Swiping his ring set the language and opened his portal. He discovered that he had two earth weeks of food credit, 30 earth days of accommodation, zero credits, no contacts and no items marked or ordered.

“Well, I suppose it starts here, so long as this isn't some weirdo dream.” said Shige to himself.

He found a cupboard with three rows of plastic tubes. Each tube was marked with the word Human followed by Start, Middle or Finish written boldly on the body of the tube and please return to tube provider. Written across the bottom. There were fourteen tubes on each row, so he assumed it was two weeks' worth of food. He grabbed a tube marked middle and unscrewed the lid inside was a light brown paste which smelled mildly fermented. He squeezed some of the contents into his mouth, it tasted like miso and had no real texture, happy with his discovery he squeezed the rest into his mouth and placed the tube back on the shelf.

On the screen he found the docks on the map, it said it was two hours walk from his pod.

“Maybe a bit much for my first day.” He decided to investigate the box instead. Inside were some synthetic blankets and a small roll labeled pillow.

"That will do" he said to himself.

In the drawers he found a file. It was essentially like an Airbnb book explaining rubbish, washing, and household things. Following this were pages of advertisements for restaurants, and other facilities, each had a row of symbols underneath, he recognized human and Dr Tesheine’s species but there were at least a dozen more he didn’t recognize. Suddenly he was overcome with a wave of tiredness. He lay on his bed for a moment to reflect on his day.

Shige woke up disorientated and thirsty. He took a moment to work out where he was. The default screen was a clock reading 57.5 and 45/39/50043 whatever that meant. He tried standing up and felt a wave of fear building, what the hell was happening, yesterday we were in a car on a roadie. He sat down again.

“You can do this, you just have to” he told himself and did some breathing exercises.

He got up again and thought about changing but realized he only had the clothes he slept in. Determined not to be beaten he grabbed a cleaning wipe, washed himself then sucked on a start tube. To his disappointment it too tasted faintly like miso. He pulled on his leather jacket, refreshed his mental map to the docks and grabbed the token.

Standing at the door he took another deep breath. “You are powerful” he said in Japanese, something his dad said in the morning before a big meeting. He surprised himself saying it but put thoughts of his parents out of his head and stepped out the door.

The heat, smell, noise and lights hit him like a wave as he opened the door. He shut it again and repeated the process another two times before he stepped out.

“Skuzzle waka aka fissss yukio doihg righiol” he turned to his left and there was an alien with short blue fur and horns like a highland sheep. Three eyes were arranged in a triangle above a short, rounded rodent type of nose. It tapped its horn with one of four arms.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Yukio doihg” Shige could do nothing but stare in dumb silence for a moment.

He gathered his wits “Hello” he tried.

“Yukio doihg, hirrent farrr” it said tapping its horn and pretending to put something behind it.

More awkard silence before Shige had a small revelation.

“My translator! sorry.” He raced back into his pod, slapped himself to see if it was indeed a dream then went back with his translator in place.

“New person here,” said the alien gruffly.

“Yes.” Shige answered realizing he recognized the kind of alien from the restaurant guide.

“You have to shut door so I can get past.”

“Oh, sorry” said Shige closing his door.

The alien shoved his way past without another word.

“Don't worry about Tiko, he is prick.” A second alien like the first was leaning over the rail above him, it had shorter horns.

“Thanks” trying, but failing, to get his brain to string together more than one word at a time.

“I am Trise you look like that you just got here.” she said.

“Yes, just yesterday I am heading to the docks to pick up my gear.” said Shige.

“I will walk with you” said the alien “don't forget to lock the cabinet front.”

Shige met Trise at the bottom of the steps. She was two thirds his size and had shorter horns. She wore a brown jump suit and carried a large leathery looking backpack.

“Here way to the docks” she said merrily and scampered away on all fours.

Shige followed her through a maze of passageways.

Trice stopped. “This old station is rough, there are nicer ones and worse. Go down that way and follow the green line.”

“Thanks Trice, it was nice to meet you” he bowed again instinctively.

Trice bowed back “it was nice to meet too.” before carrying on her way.

Looking at the walls he saw colored lines that he hadn't noticed before. District line here we go, he thought remembering family trips to London and followed the green line down a large corridor. The corridor widened again linking to what he guessed was a main access way through the station, vehicles of all shaped and sizes whizzed past.

Finally, he made it to the docks, a small pedestrian door sat beside some serious looking blast doors that covered the larger entrance. He presented his chit to a reader that looked like a dispensing machine. A screen lit up to show that the items were on the way. Eventually a window opened to reveal a reception desk. A bunch of boxes arrived on a pallet pushed along by a floating forklift making a low hum. The driver got off and made his way behind the desk.

“How are you going to transport the boxes newbie?” He asked.

“I have no idea. Can I go through them here?” replied Shige.

“No this is a restricted area, once goods are signed out, they are your responsibility. Here is the form, just tick the boxes and swipe your id chip.”

Shige was trying to work out how he was going move all the gear if he signed it out when a second worker came up who had been watching their conversation.

“Hey Shane, don’t be a dick this must be the one of the guy's Franco hit with his truck. What's you name kid?“ Shige answered “I imagine you are based in the tubs. You can get a loader to drop the gear for three or four credits.” She said.

“I don’t have any credits, there are some English pounds in there somewhere if everything is there.”

“They won't do much good here, you are better off holding onto them till you to some outer colony that uses them for trade. Why don’t you just grab the things you need and come back later for the rest.”said the worker.

“He can't without a docket,” said Shane.

“Then give him one you arse” said Francos's friend.

“But what if he steals something or gets injured, I will be in deep shit.” said Shane.

“Hey kid, are you going to steal anything?” asked Francos's friend.

“Why would I do that” replied Shige.

“See, write the form Shane. I'm Kathy by the way.”

Shane reluctantly punched some keys. A chit spat out the bottom of the machine which he handed to Shige.

“Thanks, I appreciate you putting yourself out for me. I give you my word, I won't make any trouble for anyone here.” said Shige.

“Good, make sure you don’t" said Shane gruffly.

Kathy jumped on the loader and put the pallet of gear in an empty corner for him.

“Go through it in your own time, your gear will be safe here. I know there isn't much room in the tubs. I will make sure the rest of the crew knows what's happening. Franco is a good man, most of us know him well. I was sorry to hear about your accident.”

He took the first load back to his Tub, changed and then went to the hospital. He was telling the unconscious Amanata and Paul about his adventures hoping it would sink in when Dr Teshiene arrived.

“That is a good work, the patients are very going well. Paul will lose his legs, better than losing a life. Amata's arm is good, bone was smashed now some synthetic bone, better like that, some scars but money can fix on other planet," said Dr Teshine.

"How long do you think till they wake" asked Shige who was missing his friends in this strange place.

"Better asleep for two days."

"Good to hear" said Shige.

"Days are 100 hours by standard time so earth time of 8 days I think." said Dr Teshine.

"Not as good but still ok," said Shige thinking about the time differences.

The Dr asked how he was settling. Shige told him about the gear at the docks. The Dr told him not to sell earth things here as they were worth more further out away from the earth link and to keep weapons handy.

"Sometimes trouble might come, ice valuable and portal too."