Dear diary, I am a space fugitive.

I am woken up early by a knocking on a door. Okay, I don’t really know if it is early. There is no day-night cycle, and the clock on the wall makes no sense to me at all. I get myself out of bed and open the door to my room.

“Hey, what can I help you with?” I ask to the soldiers standing outside

“High command would like to speak to you. We are here to escort you”, one of the soldiers says. her voice does not sound familiar, making me think it is not Derk or Simon from last time.

“That is good. Let’s go then”, I say as I start walking outside.

“Don’t you need to get ready first, ma’am?” the soldier asks.

“I mean, I could, but I don’t feel like wasting everyone's time today. But who knows what I will do tomorrow,” I say with a smile.

“Right then, follow me, ma’am,” the soldier says.

They lead me further into the spaceship. It was still somewhat incomprehensible mace to me, but I at least understood that we were going up at the moment so that at least was progress. We finally arrive at what I assume is the control room. There are windows all around the room, displaying the fastness of space. Panels filled with buttons and screens with diagrams are plastered on any empty space on the wall, still, and there is a round control-looking thing.

“Good to see you, ma’am,” a person in a fancy suit says as I walk in. He is not wearing the normal battle suits of the other astronauts, revealing his features. He mostly looks human, but his skin looks a bit pinker than normal, like more Barbie pink.

“Thank you for having me,” I say with a smile, trying my best to stay polite.

“I regret to inform you that we do have one minor issue.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Not that bad. We are chasing an escaped prisoner, and we don’t want to lose her trail, so we can’t drop you off somewhere safe because we fear she might get away.”

“I see. Must be a crafty prisoner then.”

“Yeah, the Travellers always are.”

“Excuse me, what?”

He looks back at me and then presses the button “the Traveller, the Chaos Bringers.” in the middle of the room, and a holographic screen pops up on it. A video plays of a red-skinned demon being restrained in a straitjacket and chains, shouting something that can’t be heard as flames come off her.

I swallow, trying to wet my dry throat. “Can’t the like teleport away or something? That is what they do in the stories.”

“You are right, but we hold her special travelling device in a secure room on this ship.” He says with a smug smile, “She won’t be going anywhere without it.”

“That is impressive, and she can’t break into the room at all?” I say, getting even more nervous

“I understand your concerns, but there is under twenty-four-hour guard.”

“That is rather impressive.”

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“So, was that all you needed of me, or is there still something else?” I ask, wanting to get the hell out of here.

“Well, ma’am, I am still quite curious how you got on the ship?” the guy says.

“I don’t really know. I stepped on a teleport pad, then there was this awful smell, and I was there.”

“Teleportation malfunctions are quite rare, but I guise it makes sense we have been powering the traveller's artefact.”

“Power it, why?”

“We want to know how to use it, but so far, nothing has worked yet, but that might have caused your teleportation to misfire.”

“Well, don’t worry about it, uh...”

“Captain Steven Morgon, and you are?” he asks while reaching out his hand.

“Annabelle von Blanch,” I say while shaking his hand.

“A pleasure to have you aboard. If you need anything, you know where to get it.”

I am about to leave, so I think of something else. “About that, since I am staying here longer, I did not bring my entertainment system. Do you have a spare one by chance?”

“Most certainly, we will deliver one to your room as soon as possible,” he says with a smile.

“Okay, then I will take my leave and let you get back to catching the criminal,” I say as I head to the door, the two soldiers following me.

The soldiers escort me back to my room. Once I close the door behind them and am alone in the room again, I jump on the bed and let out a deep sigh. Well, this is a big mess. They are chasing a Traveller, and they have their plate. Is there anything I can even do? I can try to steal it, but then what? I am stuck on a spaceship. I guess there were small ships in the hangar. But I don’t know how to fly them at all. I could try to send the other traveller a message, but now I don’t have a phone anymore, and even if I had one, I don’t have their number.

I keep mulling over this problem until I hear a knock on my door. I opened it to find a small girl with green skin and brown hair. She is wearing what looks like a uniform but not of the military type. Her gaze is cast down, and she is not even looking at me.

“Can I help you?” I ask.

“I am here to help you with setting up your entertainment device,” she says as she takes out a black rectangle and hands it to me.

“Thank you, but help me set it up?” I ask, confused.

“It’s a pretty old device, so it might be different from what you are used to,” she says with a nod.

“Well, thank you. Can you set it up so I can search for information? There are some things I want to read up on.”

“Ah yes, most certainly I can help with that.”

I let the girl inside, and she went to work. The thing is basically a tablet but without a proper operating system or a really barebones one. Once she is done, she gives the tablet to me.

“That should do it. Type anything you would like to know more about in there, and it will come up with the results,” she says, still a bit shy.

“Thank you so much. You have been a great help.”

“You welcome, ma’am. Is there anything else you would need?”

“Yeah, one more thing. Is there a way to get some food?” I ask, feeling a bit hungry.

“Ooh yes, let me set it up.” She presses some more buttons. This is what is currently available in the kitchen. You can order it from there, and It will be brought to you.”

“Thank you. That is great.”

“You're welcome,” she says before leaving.

After she leaves, I start searching for information first on why they all seem so servile to me and second, let's see if there is any information on how to fly a spaceship.

The first question is easily answered: this ship belongs to the Terra Optima Alliance, mostly founded by humans as humans started to travel the stars and mix with other races. Technically, everyone on board is a human, just a human with something else. Leaving a small group of humans pure, for lack of a better term. And all those humans are in positions of power, making them think I am someone high up.

As for the second thing, there is a handbook for spaceship control, but it is really complicated, so it is going to take me a lot longer to understand what they are saying, so I decided to hide my incompetence by ordering food.

While I wait for my food to arrive, I poke around some other information sources. It is kind of crazy that this thing has everything, including the blueprints of this ship. Finely giving me a map but also a better guess at where the other abacus might be. Now, I just need to get in there, grab the abacus, walk out of a spaceship ship, and fly away.

Maybe I can cause some fires, making them worry about something else, but somehow, that doesn’t feel like something that would work. Their fire suppression systems seem pretty advanced. Fighting also is not really an option. The only thing I have is a sword. While they have guns, I am not stupid; I know how these things usually go. Also, I am not really sure if I can kill anyone. I mean, according to the info on the tablet, that might be a bit biased. They're not really bad people. Everyone is welcome in the alliance, and everyone is equal.

While I am moping about the subject, my food arrives, and I dive in with gusto. Once I have finished eating, I decide to bite the bullets and start to try and learn how to fly a spaceship.