“Damn bitch!” he curses.

“Kneel before me now!” commands the petite woman with a scream.

“Kaia, stop it!” interrupts Otscharsan. “The guy’s learned his lesson! Besides, he’s a Zeitstürmer, and you know how angry Torsos gets if anything happens to them here.”

“Bastard!” Kaia snaps at her opponent. Reluctantly, she ends her psychic attack.

Immediately, the men in gray rush to the man, who now gasps for breath and doesn’t even resist as he is shackled again. They take the piece of metal away.

Suddenly, someone else steps into the scene.

Just like Kaia’s, his short hair is red, and so are the irises of his eyes. He wears a black jumpsuit with red stripes on the shoulders, just like hers. Overall, he is a very attractive and muscular man in his mid-twenties.

Again, I wonder if all the men here are so muscular, and then my thoughts turn anxiously back to Kaia.

The red-haired man’s gaze shifts from the still gasping prisoner to the woman and back.

“Kaia, what the hell is wrong with you!” he scolds her angrily.

But she only turns her gaze away from him, sulking. She leans her body against the wall and sinks down weakly to the floor. She presses her hand against the painful spot where the man’s blow had struck her.

“Damn bastard!” she hisses again.

The red-haired man looks satisfied with her appearance.

“Well, my lovely,” he says with a broad grin. “If you’re always looking for trouble, you deserve nothing better!”

She doesn’t give him a single glance.

“Seems like he’s right!” Otscharsan nods to confirm his words. “Get these guys out of here!”

The men in gray obey immediately.

I kneel next to Kaia and look at her worriedly. The faint red stream running down her cheek doesn’t disturb me as much as the severe blow she received.

“No one needs to worry about this beast!” The red-haired man puts his hand on my shoulder. With a gentle push, he moves me away from her, then tries to take Kaia’s hand from her stomach. “Let’s see if he seriously hurt you.” He says this calmly, almost lovingly.

Who is this gentleman? Surely the second of her kind she mentioned.

“Don’t touch me!” she hisses at him and swats his hand away as he tries to touch her. In doing so, the petite woman makes it very clear how repulsive she finds any contact with him.

To me, he seems so nice that I can’t understand why she rejects him. Besides, he looks damn good!

“Sounds like you’re doing great!” the red-haired man remarks. “Stop getting worked up!”

She turns her gaze away from him again.

“The guy is a Zeitstürmer,” Otscharsan notes. “You should have seen my face when he appeared in front of us and steered his spaceship straight into mine. We managed to capture him before his ship’s self-destruct started. Unfortunately, it was unstoppable after that. His and my ship are now nothing but tiny scraps. And, as it should be for someone nice like me, they’re in recycling.” The red-haired man seems irritated by these words, while I understand nothing of what they’re saying. “Now I’m looking for Torsos, hoping he’ll be interested.”

“You might try his quarters,” suggests the man. “Maybe you’ll have some luck there.”

“Why don’t either of you know where he is?” Otscharsan asks.

“And you could also try to reach him with your communicator,” the red-haired man suggests.

“Don’t be mad.” Otscharsan seems embarrassed by this confession. “I can’t help that this stupid Zeitstürmer took ‘walking into our arms’ too literally and destroyed both ships. The new inventions of yours that I was supposed to test were in my ship at the time.” He scratches his head awkwardly. “Maybe you can piece them together; they’re now somewhere in the recycling pile.”

The man lowers his head. Dejectedly, he leaves us toward the elevator.

“Your race gets offended pretty quickly,” Otscharsan remarks, addressing Kaia.

“Come on, little one, I’ll show you everything!” Kaia calls out, her voice full of energy despite the pain that still torments the petite woman. This becomes especially apparent when she tries to straighten up. Her fingers grip the wall she’s leaning against, trying to hide any emotion from her face, which she fails to do.

She falls back to the floor.

I want to help her, but Kaia swats my hand away.

“Don’t worry, everything’s fine!”

Is that true? I’m not so sure. Kaia seems to be trying to play the strong woman. She mentioned earlier that we could become friends. And friends are supposed to help each other.

So I don’t let her dismiss me and help the petite woman up.

Only then do we slowly head toward the door through which the two men in gray went with the prisoner. What lies here makes my steps stop abruptly.

We are in a gigantic room illuminated only by a faint light. Bright enough to reveal the horror within.

My gaze wanders over cells. No, more like pens that I wouldn’t even use to confine an animal. Simply unworthy of housing a living creature.

Always two rows lined up, separated by pathways.

It’s neither the length nor the width that makes the room appear gigantic. Rather, it’s the rows of cells extending over several floors up to the ceiling.

A queasy feeling washes over my stomach as I look up. There’s just a narrow walkway with a railing running along the cells. Nothing more.

The cells themselves offer little privacy. Only a thin curtain offers protection from the view of neighboring cells. Comfort seems to be barely considered.

Inside these cages, there are beds attached to the bars at the back part towards the neighboring cell and opposite the door. Beside them is something that resembles a toilet. On the side is a structure that looks like a sink to me.

Whatever I had imagined a prison to be, this certainly doesn’t match it.

“Can you please hit me!” I babble in disbelief, causing the red-haired woman to look at me in surprise. “I think this is a nightmare I want to wake up from as soon as possible.” My gaze wanders shockingly over the cells again.

If my father was a celebrity, why do I have to end up in a place like this? I ask myself silently.

“Poor little one!” she sighs. She gently strokes my hair with one of her delicate hands. “I’ll ask if I can let you stay in my room for a while.”

She urges me to keep moving.

“There’s a communal shower at the back,” she explains. “You don’t have to share it with all the guys. Just ask the guards.” She thinks for a moment. “If they give you trouble, show them your armlet. They should be nicer then. We usually only use it when we want to find something out down here. I don’t know why he put it on you.”

We enter another room. Clearly a cafeteria. Tables and benches, fused with the floor, are everywhere. Everything here seems to consist of bare walls. But once again, it quickly becomes clear that some things are only noticeable upon closer inspection.

“The food down here takes some getting used to,” Kaia explains. “You can get used to it. It just takes a little longer.”

The thought of food is enough to make my stomach growl loudly. So loudly that, with my cheeks slightly flushed from embarrassment, I place my hands on my stomach, which has been feeling a slight hunger for a while now.

“I’ll talk to the ladies,” she suggests. “Maybe I can get them to give me something.”

Kaia approaches the wall opposite the door and knocks on it. Immediately, the metal becomes transparent, revealing a window into a small room where two women are busily moving about.

When the older woman’s gaze falls on Kaia, she opens the window all the way.

“Oh Kaia, what brings you down here?” She smiles at the red-haired woman with her kind brown eyes. The woman, clearly over fifty, has her still-brown long hair pinned up. Her clothes are hidden under a white coat.

“This is Akara,” Kaia briefly introduces the older woman, who greets me kindly. I return the greeting. “The other lady is Tosa.”

The girl, barely nineteen, gives the red-haired woman a brief suspicious glance from her fascinating green eyes before returning to her work. She barely acknowledges me.

Still, I greet her as well.

“Nice girl,” Akara notes.

“I think so too.” Kaia smiles at the older woman. “This is Janine, and I wanted to ask if you could give the little one something to eat.”

Akara shakes her head in disappointment. “That’s not possible; the daily rations are precisely measured,” she explains to us both. “It would only work if someone voluntarily gave up their portion, but you certainly wouldn’t do that.”

Kaia shakes her head, then begins to grin. “You could let Gasard go hungry. He’s put on a bit of weight anyway.”

“You’re something,” Akara responds with a sigh. “The poor boy deserves sympathy, the way you treat him.” She thinks for a moment, then her expression brightens. “Well, someone—let’s not be too harsh and complain about him,” she begins. “For him, I always must cook something different and also make two portions, which he never eats both. The second portion I can give to the girl.” She winks at Kaia. “Just don’t tell him, or he’ll be upset again.”

Kaia turns to me.

“See, I can manage everything,” she exclaims happily.

“You just need to come last,” Akara tells me with a smile.

I’m much happier about this than having to try the usual cafeteria food.

Kaia calls for us to move on. Next, she takes me to the largest room in the death zone, the workroom.

The overhead lighting casts a warm orange glow over everything in the room. Platforms are mounted on the walls, from which the men in gray uniforms can oversee everything.

Thus, they act as guards over the prisoners.

Only a narrow walkway connects them.

Inside the room are several spacecraft. Kaia has explained that the main task of the prisoners is to repair the spacecraft.

Among these ships, which are the most interesting to me, some men are moving about. Some of them look eerie to me.

Even though I seem slightly interested, I’m actually not thrilled about this area that I’ll be calling home for a while. To my surprise, someone gives me a shove into the room.

When I look back, I see Kaia’s face, which no longer looks kind but arrogant, making me feel as though I’m just an insignificant object to the cool red-haired woman.

At first, I’m confused, but it’s clear that she’s changed her behavior towards me for my protection. Kaia herself said that she can no longer be nice to me here.

It’s clear that everyone else would immediately consider me a spy if I engaged in friendly conversation with someone like her. I would have liked to ask her a few more questions.

Now, though, I awkwardly stumble into the room and try not to step on the toes of the grim-faced figures. Kaia’s gaze, from behind, seems interested but also amused before she leaves the room. She doesn’t seem to worry about me.

Does she trust me to manage down here somehow, or is there another reason? I wonder.

Suddenly, two strong hands grab my waist.

"Hands off!" I snap at the tall, brown-haired guy holding me.

"Don't panic, little one!" the man replies, removing his hands from where they shouldn't be. "Come with me!"

He walks ahead, and I follow – willingly, but still fearful, especially considering he was the one who fought Kaia earlier.

What does he want from me? I can't imagine anything at this moment. All I feel is my anxious heart pounding in my chest.

"You're the girl that the fury was leading around," he observes. "I saw you come down here with her." He looks directly into my eyes, his gaze warning me. "A little tip: Don't get too close with that bunch! It could lead to a not-so-painless death."

My eyes now look fearful. I understand, and I certainly don't intend to. But at the moment, he's the one who scares me the most – mainly because of what happened earlier.

"Especially that fury isn't very popular down here." The man smiles at me as he notices my frightened expression. "I just want to warn you. You're too sweet for such a death."

I blush.

"My name is Moriphos. And what's yours?" The impressive, large man seems kind as he asks for my name. But can I trust him?

"Janine," I reply.

"Women down here, that's unusual," Moriphos remarks. "I've heard that the prison on this station only holds male prisoners." He seems to be thinking. "I'm here because someone in my group is of some value. And you?"

"I heard you destroyed one of their spaceships," I mention.

"One more or less doesn't matter to them," he says. The red-haired man from earlier seems to think otherwise. "It's just a shame I didn't hit the spaceship better. Losing a commander would have been a success." He looks at me curiously again. "Why are you here?"

Moriphos sits down on the floor and leans against the wall. I do the same. At least for now, he doesn't seem to want to do anything to me, which calms me.

"No idea," I answer truthfully.

"But you must be here for some reason," he presses further.

I'm curious how Malgard's daughter will fare in a place like the Death Zone, I hear Torso's voice in my head.

What did he mean by that? I wonder.

But I don't give that sentence as my answer to Moriphos.

"Maybe they ran out of suites for their female guests?" I say instead.

Moriphos laughs. "I hope you don't lose your sense of humor."