We walk and turn, I think we went into an elevator at some point, and then we finally stop. They push me into a room and pull the blindfold off. This is just another small room, but there's chairs and a table. I think it's an interrogation room, like in the movies. I shuffle kind of awkwardly, not knowing what to do now. 

The door opens again, and a man walks in. His clothes are grey and they have a strange hexagonal light pattern over his heart and spine, well where I assume his heart is. He's wearing command gloves like the ones from the ship. He is humanoid in shape, but his legs fold like a bug's, backwards and then forward, and his skin is a colour akin to navy blue. A large purple horn protrudes from his head and there's a four pointed star-shaped hole over the left side of his face. A small, pinkish eye is embedded in it. Overall, very alien to me. 

He sits in the chair facing me and gestures for me to do the same. I hesitate. 

"Why am I here?" Is the only thing I can blurt out. 

He looks sternly at me, at least I think so. 

"You're here because we want the truth out of you. Your ship's AI says you ran from your planet, yet you controlled the ship, drove it in fact, without any training. You used our technology like you knew how to use it, and we want to know why."

What?

"She showed me. Seven, the weird blue lady. She told me how-"

"The AI is programmed to help trainees learn the controls, and take refugees to home base."

"But I AM a refugee!"

I feel like he's raising an eyebrow. He sighs. 

"I feel like we started off wrong. How about a re-do? I'm Gen. Lao, you must be exhausted."

Hm.

"Yes, I am."

"Tell me then, uhhh-"

"James."

He nods. "James. Tell me how you came to be here in one of our lost ships."

"I don't know about 'lost', but it fell from the sky like a meteor, in a forest close to my home."

I continue to talk, telling him all about the invasion, my dad. At that point the ball in my throat gets too hard to keep back, and I cry. I'm so frustrated and sad, the emotions are choking me. I sob as I tell him I had to get to the trees, any kind of cover. I get ti the part where the ship calls for me, and absorbs me. How crowds of people found my location and Seven told me to get the ship going. How she said she'd take me here, and I'd be safe. I run out of words, run out of voice, and just let my emotions go free. I'm a mess, I feel like a mess, and I probably look like one. He nods the whole time, doesn't interject. When I'm done he gives me a tissue and sighs again.

"I see. So the ship called to you, brought you to safety. I'm sorry you got here and it was nothing but."

"No, it wasn't. It really wasn't. I was hit and jailed and and-"

"Interrogated like a criminal?"

"Yes! How would you feel if your home was gone and you're put in prison for escaping!"

His face changes, from his expression of calm to something I can't quite place, like a sadness he can only hold back and never show. 

"The council already made a decision, but I had to talk to you first. You're going to be offered a choice here. Either you join our fight as a recruit, or you can ask for asylum and stay here, troubled as the peace may be. What do you think?"

I don't know. I can't really think at the moment and I want to scream and curse this infuriating man for making me sit here and tell him everything I wanted to avoid right now! Who the hell gets their home taken, gets treated like shit by their 'saviors' and accepts to fight for them?

As I calm down I know. If I want to make a difference, it's gonna be with them. It's gonna be fighting against that Empire, not cowering like an idiot. 

I nod. "Okay. I'll do it."

9:57pm

I'm taken to the barracks. Every recruit has to share a room with two others. I wonder who mine will be? I'm exhausted, and I honestly hope they won't expect me to talk to them much right now. They gave me a bag of stuff, probably clothes, and now here I am. I sigh and go into my new home, hoping my bunkmates aren't there. 

"I'm telling you, it's the guy! The one who stole the-" As I come in the speaker stops, turning to look at me. Both boys look to be my age, and I recognize one of them immediately. 

I groan and sit on one of the beds. This isn't going to be fun. 

The pink boy stares me down. "What the fuck do you think you're doing? That's my bed. Get off."

The other one, a little smaller than me, with orange hair and skin black as soot, smiles. "Cut him some slack Star, he's tired!" He offers his hand to shake. "Hi! I'm Kiryo! You're the new guy right? Nice to meet you!"

I shake it half-heartedly. "I'm James. James Atkins. And you are?" I say, turning to the angry one. 

"Starchaser. I don't trust you, barging in like that and being taken in like you didn't steal this ship and pretended to run from somewhere. Don't talk to me."

Wow. This is going to be a fun ride...