Eriph finally stopped next to a large steel door in the tunnel wall. This one slid open to reveal a space the size of Jane’s closet at home. A circle of shiny black material covered most of the floor. Eriph tapped a seemingly random spot on the wall, and a semi-transparent glowing rectangle appeared in the air.

“Get her a translator while I set the warp coordinates,” Eriph said. A flick of his wrist caused a keyboard covered in strange markings to slide onto the screen. At least, Jane was pretty sure it was a kind of keyboard. She’d only seen pictures of computers.

Maybe she had been unconscious this entire time and everything happening was a strange dream.

Ybra slid Jane off her shoulder and onto the floor with surprising gentleness, leaving Jane sitting, dazed, with her back to the wall.

“You can drop her,” Eriph muttered. “She’s human, not glass.”

“I don’t want to lose money over bruises or scratches.” Ybra crouched and held up a black sphere the size of a grain of rice in front of Jane’s face. “You can swallow this, or I can find a more painful way to get it into your skull.”

Jane mustered the strength to glare at her. “How is swallowing that going to get it into my skull?”

“It knows its way around. If you don’t have it, you won’t understand a thing that’s going on.”

“I already don’t understand.” Jane tried to stand, but her limbs refused to cooperate. “I want to go.”

“That’s not an option,” Ybra hissed. “Do I need to get out my knife?”

Jane held out a shaking hand and let Ybra drop the sphere into her palm. “What does it do?”

“You ask a lot of questions, kid.”

Jane responded with another glare.

Ybra rolled her eyes. “It’s a universal translator. Programmed with every known language. Works for reading and speaking.”

Jane would need that if she wanted a chance of escaping and getting home. She put the thing in her mouth and swallowed, grimacing at the metallic taste it left on her tongue. “How long does it last?”

“It’s permanent, unless you have it removed or upgraded.” Ybra straightened up. “Make sure you’re all the way on the warp circle.”

Jane tried again to climb to her feet. She nearly collapsed, but Ybra grabbed her arm and kept her upright.

“If she can stand now, the pulse will finish wearing off by the time we get her checked in,” Eriph said. “Maybe I should give her another one.”

“The port has guards. She won’t stand a chance of escaping.” Ybra shot Jane a warning look.

Eriph tapped the center of the floating screen, and it disappeared. A deep, monotone voice spoke. “Prepare to warp.”

Jane understood the meaning of the words, but she could tell they weren’t English.

There was a blinding white light, and the sensation of being flung through space while suspended in the air at the same time. Jane’s ribs squeezed her chest, air abandoned her lungs, her stomach twisted. She tried to scream, but she couldn’t hear anything except wind rushing past her ears.  

Then they were standing on the warp circle again, only it was a different circle, red instead of black and in the middle of a large open space. And Ybra and Eriph were the ones standing. Jane smacked into the ground face first.

White. Pristine. Blinding. Jane struggled to adjust to the bright lights after so long in the dim tunnels. More warp circles in bright colors lined the floor along the wall behind her. A light shot out of one nearby, and a woman with blue skin like Eriph’s appeared. She stepped out of the circle as the light faded.

Eriph and Ybra forced Jane to her feet and off the warp. Her head swiveled back and forth as they led her through the place they’d called a port. She couldn’t watch the people passing long enough to fully process what she was looking at. There was skin in a wide variety of colors and textures, scales and feathers and tails, people that were too tall or too short. Sharp teeth. Clothing of strange materials. Too many limbs. Things that should have been limbs but were tentacles instead.

Aliens.

Aliens.

Many of the aliens had smaller ones with them. Other kids. Judging by the fear on their faces, they were prisoners, too.

Jane nearly walked into a wall and was only saved by Ybra yanking her back. They’d stopped in front of a large window set into the wall. A man sat at a desk on the other side. He could have passed for human when Jane glimpsed him out of the corner of her eye, but his pale skin was slightly transparent, he had four completely silver eyes, and his proportions were just a little off.

“You two in the system already?” he asked, his voice raspy.

Eriph nodded. “We just need a form and a chip.”

“Great.” The man reached through the hole at the bottom of the window, a small metal square pinched between two fingers. “Payment will be sent to your account once she’s assigned.”

“Arm on the counter, kid,” Eriph said. “Let him put the chip in.”

Before Jane could protest, Ybra grabbed her arm and positioned it where the man could reach. The chip touched the skin of her upper arm.

It burned. Jane cried out as the metal sank beneath her skin. She couldn’t think through the pain. All she could do was act on instinct and try to yank her arm free, but Ybra’s steel grip didn’t give her an inch.

When the man’s hand finally moved away, Jane’s skin resealed itself over the chip. The only thing left behind was a mild throbbing sensation. Jane gasped for air. Ybra released her.

“Go ahead and take her to the transport craft,” the man said.

Her captors pushed her forward again, this time escorting her toward a crowd. Jane’s eyes widened. The waiting spacecraft was so shiny it was practically a mirror reflecting the port around it. It vaguely resembled an airplane, but sharper and smaller and sleeker. Guards dressed in black and red led kids up a ramp into the craft.

The guards all had tattoos of bloody knives on their arms. Or necks. Or wrists.

“We’ll take her from here,” one of them said, nodding toward Jane.

Ybra and Eriph left without another word. Jane found herself scanning the crowd for them as she was led into the spacecraft. That was it? They’d taken her off the streets, dragged her here, and now they were dumping her into the hands of—

“This one seems pretty agitated,” a woman said. “Give her a pulse.”

Cold metal touched Jane’s neck. Another shockwave ran through her. This time, it took longer for her to come to. She was sitting down when her eyes opened. A very human-looking woman sat next to her, the tattoo on her upper arm marking her as one of the guards.

Jane tried and failed to speak a few times before finding her voice. “You look human,” she finally croaked.

The woman gave her an annoyed look. “And?”

Jane swallowed. “How did you end up here? Were you taken?”

“My family’s been out here for generations.”

Jane almost wished she could go back to the disorienting semi-conscious state the pulse put her in. Her heart beat so hard she thought it might explode. Every breath hurt. Her own voice sounded strange to her when she asked, “Where are we going?”

“You nosy kids are the worst.” The woman blew out a breath of air. “And we’re too close for me to give you another pulse—If I answer this, will you shut up?”

Jane nodded.

“We’re going to the city-planet Kronos. Capital of the Janus System. It’s a mix of people and cultures and tech from all over, Earth included.” The woman glanced at the watch on her wrist. When she tapped the top, it projected a screen into the air, casting a pale glow in the dim spacecraft. “Now, leave me alone.”

There were no windows inside the craft, so Jane turned her gaze to the ceiling. Was anyone going to find her? Rescue her? Maybe she could find her own way back.

Then the woman was standing, pulling Jane to her feet with her. They joined the crowd pouring out of the ship. Jane became one of many kids standing in a line.

It didn’t take long after that for Jane to realize what was happening. They were getting assignments. Some kids were sent to ‘the palace,’ others to what sounded like factories or warehouses. The rest were going to a lab.

The assignments were issued by a man who towered over the children and most of the guards, easily standing over six and a half feet tall. His pale skin shimmered slightly in the light, and the opal eyes he swept over the kids were cold. The sharp, hard features set into his face were a little oddly proportioned. They gave Jane the impression that the man had been carved from stone.

He wore clothing that could almost have passed for a business suit, but the blue and black material was strangely slick. It made him look important, regardless. Bits and pieces of conversation around Jane allowed her to piece together the man’s identity. It was the governor of Kronos himself, a man named Tyrso Starr.

When he reached Jane, he studied her with a raised eyebrow. “Human. From Earth?”

“Uh…” What did it matter to him? What answer would save her? Jane didn’t dare meet his eyes. Her gaze slid up to his cropped black hair before darting to the floor. “Yes.”

“Put her in the palace.”

Then he was gone, strolling away to determine the next child’s fate.