Paula had woken up in the softest bed she'd ever been in. when a man told her how they found her they also added “i love being called a god but as far as i know, i'm not one.”

Hearing that she felt a bit embarrassed. She spent the night in this clean room with a few other people she recognised from the village. When she woke up people told her it was already noon. it was hard to tell there were no windows but everything was clear as day. Perhaps even brighter. Most walls around the place had screens on them displaying information or talking about a product. her father had joined her while she was sleeping. He had told her the leaders would gather them in an auditorium for an explanation. she had heard the woman on the wall talk about this. Yoshiko came by to check paula's health. “It seems our medicine is reacting well. if nothing happens there will be no risk of sprains or fractures.” 

her long white coat was so clean as if it had never been used. Antony pulled the doctor aside “what about maria?”

“yes there's good and some bad news. The good is most important, namely she'll survive. the bad however is her leg was crushed and mangled the fractures to her ribs can heal with some old methods but her leg we can not recover without a proper dna sequence… I'm sorry I forgot a lot of this is foreign to you. Basically we can copy body parts but we need to see the original once to do that. that's to say we can use prosthetics to replace her leg which is kind of custom made…”

Antony stared blankly at the doctor “you're going to give her a pegleg?”

Yoshiko chuckled “kind of but nothing so crude.”

She guided Antony to a screen. Paula stood up to see what the woman would do.

The doctor approached a screen on the wall “Clara, show us the prosthetics list. leg category.”

The screen showed several different images of legs. These were either made from something that looked like flattened metal crowbars to straight up detailed legs 

“In case she's not satisfied, we can replace the leg later. but without proper DNA we cannot give a real one unless she wants 2 left legs. There is another problem. your wife woke up earlier but she's still unresponsive but clearly awake. she might be in a mental shock from what happened. maybe under the impression this all is a hallucination before death.”

“I can hardly believe anything I hear in this temple.”

“I thought we made it clear during the meeting: we are not gods. it's supposed to be a ship in space to travel among the stars. now it's more of a giant citadel.”

“So you are star people?”

“I guess you can put it like that." 

After they discussed Maria's condition, Paula was given the ok to leave the hospital. She and her father were guided to the auditorium. A massive room with lots of seats it reminded paula of an adventurers description of an arena. But it was only half of a circle, there was little room to fight and the massive flat object behind the stage would get damaged. she could not imagine a fight being displayed here. the description of a theatre was a better fit but she doubted they would perform a play for them.

Paula saw a man on the stage who looked like he could be captain of the guards or a noble officer. He stood on a podium talking with the woman that appeared on the screens. when they arrived near the front she overheard their conversation 

“that will probably be all the ones we can bring for now. The rest are still hospitalized.”

“that'll have to do for now then Clara.” the big man turned to the stand and announced “can i have your attention people!”

 The room got quiet. There were about 15 people from the village there. the man introduced himself “my name is Harold Weatherfield. I am the current captain of this ship. Though I am commonly known by my nickname as the commander. There are a few options for you from this point on. we can transport you to a nearby location of your choosing and ask that you keep our existence a secret for now.”

No one was eager to take him up on that offer. Most people there had given up all they had to live in the new village. There was nothing to return to and even if they did, who would believe the prince had tried to kill them.

“the other is we can attempt to integrate you in our society. We'll provide a basic home and some credit plans. These are our currency and will last you while you find your way.”

This was too good to be true. the locals doubted him since nothing is free. 

“A few things need to be discussed but as you guessed we expect some things from you.”

the people braced themselves wondering how much tax he would ask. how much work would they have to do? 

“Namely you will submit to a dna recording for insurance, if you want to challenge someone's authority go through proper channels this includes mine, anyone wanting to start a business must register with the commerce department, weapons are allowed in public but any unnecessary use of them will be punished and can result in fines or imprisonment,..." 

The list went on. Most of it were minor registration requirements or obvious laws. After announcing they would need to sign up for a guided  trip to pick up any valuables left behind at the outpost, the commander ended with “if anything is still confusing you can contact clara our ships ai at any screen on the ship.”

He left the auditorium as some people in uniform shouted names of the locals and sent them on their way. Natlee arrived and waved “Antony, Paula! Come with me.” 

They walked the metal hallways and came to a big hall. The hall showed platforms to at least 5 floors and the middle had small parks with playgrounds and flower patches. The latter seemed a bit roughed up though. looking past the small parks they could see the hall stretching farther than they could see. the hallway had people going about their day like they were out in a street. the lights above were like a sun and provided both light and heat like the real thing. it was hard to believe they were inside a building bigger than a city.

Natlee looked at her pda “ah 3rd floor, family housing district 2, door 10.”

She led them to an elevator, guided them through its operation and a swift ride upwards stepped off at the 3rd floor. they passed a few doors one of them opened as a man stepped out. he had to look twice before asking “Excuse me... wait, are these? the people i heard about?”

Natlee guided them past the man calmly stating “you’ll have plenty of time to meet them once they get settled”

The man smiled and waved at them “well I'll see you later then neighbours.” and left towards the elevators. 

They finally arrived at a door marked with 10. It opened with a whoosh as Natlee explained to them “The doors will only open to people living here or authorized people. meaning if you tell Clara to allow someone in your home it will open for that person as well. officials can have access within reason. they can't waltz in whenever they want.”

She guided them through a living room, shower room with an average bath and shower, toilet with a quick awkward explanation, kitchen and 3 bedrooms and additions like a microwave, a fridge even the sofa and beds looked more expensive than everything they once owned combined. one of the bedrooms even had a few strange machines set up. 

“um yeah those are to assist ms Maria. she'll have trouble walking which could be helped with practice once she's…” as if on cue a ringing sounded “ah that'll be your doorbell. You can change the sound if it's not to your liking. in any case that must be…”

“The nurses, bringing Mr Antony's wife.” said Clara as the door opened, letting a nurse bring Maria in.

She was silent and almost looked as if she was drugged into a coma. still her eyes seemed open like she was awake. 

“We have a therapist assigned to try and help her snap out of this trance. but it might take a while.”

Clara showed a profile picture of the therapist. After Natlee and the nurse explained a few more things and how the machines worked they said their goodbyes and left. Paula and Antony sat across from each other in the living room. The room was still quite empty. Paula wasn't sure how to feel. On one hand they just got what looked like a great deal, on the other hand all her previous dreams were shattered, her friends were dead and her mother had lost a leg and probably her mind. she stood up and walked to the door 

“I'm going to wander around a bit.” she said meekly. her father didn't stop her, he was still trying to understand everything.