Alien Death

By Cassandra Morphy

After being banished from Earth with the rest of the delnadians, Scar Bron is surrounded by the those she had considered her people. As the secrets that had been kept to her were laid bare, she's forced to realize that the delnadians aren't as strong and unbeatable as she once thought. They need to work together to return back home. But what will they find when they get there?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cassandra Morphy
• Release date: Nov 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005673406

Cassandra Morphy

Cassandra Morphy is a Business Data Analyst, working with numbers by day, but words by night. She grew up escaping the world, into the other realities of books, TV shows, and movies, and now she writes about those same worlds. Her only hope in life is to reach one person with her work, the way so many others had reached her. As a TV addict and avid movie goer, her entire life is just one big research project, focused on generating innovative ideas for worlds that don’t exist anywhere other than in her sick, twisted mind.

Book preview

Chapter One

Arrival

I might have confused the place for somewhere on Earth. Except for the fact that I had just come through a portal. Plus, wherever I landed was considerably colder than New Jersey. The land beneath me was covered in brown, packed dirt, cold to the touch. There was no sign of any grass in the courtyard that I was in, no sign of anything growing at all. The same could be said about back on Earth. Both areas were well-traveled enough to excuse that. Moreover, the metal walls that stretched around the courtyard looked exactly like the ones around the complex back home. The same pattern of plates. The same rivets holding them together. The same large, metal gates separating the complex from the world outside.

The same autoguns that were about to cut me to ribbons with their hot plasma blasts.

Unlike the ones at home, these guns didn't seem to want to give me much of a warning before killing me. All they said was human detected in the same voice that the ones back home did when speaking in Delnadian. There was no English translation after it. No warning. No calls for identification. I was a human and had no right to be there at all. It was set to kill me and that would be that.

Or it should have been that. However, Harry, my boyfriend, for lack of a better word, jumped between me and the guns before they could fire. Harry was injured. The gaping wound in his chest was empty of the dagger that had made it, but it showed no signs of healing. He powered through it, standing between me and death, protecting me from his people's technology. The autoguns didn't fire, not with a delnadian standing between it and its target. But it didn't go away. It didn't slow the spinning of the turrets.

Worse, it wasn't the only autogun in the courtyard, and it seemed these guns somehow talked to each other. Once the one closest to me realized it could no longer kill me without risking injuring Harry, two more started to spin up. They extended up above my head and aimed down at me. Suddenly, I wished I had a lot more boyfriends. Or perhaps that this one could be in more than one place at once.

Someone, turn off the defenses, Harry yelled, when he realized the issue. Turn off the guns. I don't want her hurt.

Her hurt? came a deep, booming voice from behind me. That's interesting. It was the first indication that I had that we weren't alone there. I hadn't had the chance to look around much, what with the guns threatening to kill me. But, when the voice came to me from over by the building, I looked that way.

The building looked exactly like the main building in the complex back on Earth, back home, much like the rest of the courtyard had. It seemed like all the bases, the fortresses as the wild humans had called them, were all exact replicas of each other. That would make getting around the place much easier. From my place next to Harry, I could see all the way down the hall to the gate on the far side of the main building. I had expected the portal to still be open within it, to still be blowing everything and anything it could find through to that side. The portal was gone, and there was a sizable chunk missing from the gate itself. While I was no expert in alien technology, I was pretty sure that was a bad thing.

The voice had come from a man standing near the door to the main building. There were yellow bruises already forming all over his chest and face, but I was still able to recognize him. He was one of the medics that had pulled the dagger from Harry's chest, the second to be pulled through the portal when it had opened. At his feet was the first one, laying in a crumbled ball on the ground. I hadn't seen him when I came through, had no idea he had been injured, or how he had been injured. But I could tell from the almost gray shade of his skin that the man was either dying or dead.

And it was my fault. It was all my fault. I brought that device into the complex back on Earth. I let the wild humans do what they did. All to save Harry's life, and even that was tentative at best.

Do you have any idea what this... thing just did? the medic asked. It's responsible for our current situation.

You don't know what you're talking about, Harry said. As he did so, he spun around, spun me around with him, jumping in front of the next gun in line. He stood there just long enough for the gun to register the obstruction before jumping to the next one. I knew that doing that couldn't be good for the gaping wound in his chest. But I had no other ways that I knew of to keep me alive. Now turn off the guns before I'm forced to rip them apart.

Yea, I'd like to see that, came another voice. This one came from a completely different location.

With my new location, my new orientation, I was able to see more of the complex than I had before. There was a large group of delnadians, all milling around by the main gates. The gates had been opened since I first saw them upon arriving in the courtyard. The delnadians had started filing out into the area beyond. But a group of them were still standing there, watching the two of us dance around in a circle. It seemed like they were taking bets on who would die first, or perhaps by which gun. None of them were paying much attention to us.

In front of the entire group, though, was a tall man wearing an outfit similar to the one that Dan and Paul had always worn on inspection days. Dan and Paul were both in the Delnadian military. Seeing it on this man suggested that their attire was a military uniform. I had no way of knowing if this man would have outranked them. From his composure, his stature, and how quickly Harry seemed to back down, I figured that was the case.

Despite his words, the man gave a signal towards the medic near the door. I looked back over to him, surprised to see the medic disappear back into the main building. Seconds later, the guns deactivated, going back into their shells. With the guns no longer threatening to kill us, I could finally relax. However, Harry didn't seem like he felt the same way.

Admiral Forester, sir, Harry said. He came to attention, standing taller than usual, and flung his fist into the air in a Delnadian salute. The salute must have aggravated his injury, as he grunted and squirmed as he retracted his hand.

At ease, scientist, Admiral Forester said. Now, care to explain what the hell is going on here?

I, uh... Harry looked back at me, at a loss for what to say, how to explain what had happened. Why it had happened. How it had happened. I couldn't quite come up with an explanation myself. Not without tipping our hand. Not without telling him that the reason why so many delnadains were pulled through the portal at once was my fault.

The portal acted up, sir, the medic said.

I turned back around to the front door to the main building, where he was just coming back out into the courtyard. He was carrying a tablet in his hand, probably itching to turn the guns back on and mow me down. Something told me he knew exactly the cause of the portal acting up. Fortunately for me, he didn't voice his thoughts.

It was pulling way too much power from the system. I've never seen anything like that before.

I have, Son said. The elderly scientist was standing in the crowd behind Admiral Forester. She made her way forward as she explained what had just happened with the portal. That's what happens when you put multiple controllers on it. That's why you're only allowed to bring one through at a time. It's too dangerous to have more than one on it. The controllers clash with each other and give the gate too many instructions at the same time. Even just having two on it causes the gate to pull all the available power and throw it into the portal. It drains all the power it has available to it until the gate itself shorts out. I don't think we'll be able to connect back to that sector anytime soon. Not without sending another through.

So that was what it was, the device. That was why it looked so much like the one that the medic had been using when he opened the portal. The wild humans hadn't come up with some new device or reprogrammed one for their purposes. How they knew what using two of them would do was beyond me. But David, the scientist among the wild humans, had seemed smart enough. It also explained how they managed to get a hold of one in the first place. It must have been with the gate that they had found.

I... I don't think that will be an option, the medic said. At least not with the one back there. We'll need a new one out of the factory and upload the Terran destinations to it. The one inside was destroyed once we came through it.

Destroyed? Admiral Forester asked. Scientist, um...

Harroditous, Harry supplied, giving the man his full name.

Whatever, go look at that, will you? Take your... pet with you. He looked down at me standing there like I was something he had scraped off his shoe.

Harry looked over to Son for a moment. The woman nodded to him before turning to the admiral. The two of them headed off together, discussing something in a low voice and generally ignoring the two of us.

Yes, sir, Harry said, even though the admiral was no longer paying attention to him. He saluted him again, before pulling me back towards the main building, and the gate within.

As the adrenaline from almost being shot faded, the pain in my right arm returned. I had hit the metal floor hard when coming out of the gate. When I first hit, first felt the pain from it, I feared that it was broken. But as I turned and flexed the arm, I realized that it was just a sprain. I had broken my arm before and could tell the difference without needing to go to a healer. As long as I didn't use it too much, I'd be fine in a day or so.

Entering the main building was weird. I had been gone from the complex for days. First, I had been camping with Harry and Merric. Then I was kidnapped and arrested by the wild humans. When I finally got back to the complex in Sector Five, I was so worried about getting Harry inside and helped that I didn't really take the time to appreciate the return back to the complex and the main building. It should have felt like I was coming home after a long time away.

And, yet, it wasn't my home. It wasn't the same place, which made it even weirder. The hallway looked the same, with the double doors on the one side leading into the cafeteria and three single doors on the other leading to the storage closet, bathroom, and stairwell. I could imagine opening the middle door and heading inside the closet. I knew exactly where the decorations were stored, the cleaning supplies, the old toys that I had played with as a child.

Yet, I knew, none of that was really in there. Nothing would be where I had left it. More than that, though, everything was backwards. The cafeteria was on the left as I came into the building, instead of on the right. The bathroom and storage closet were on the right. And right next to the gate was the stairwell, on the right side of the building. I'd almost think the gate was backwards too, but its circular form seemed to have no forward or backwards.

It was also weird because we weren't the only ones there. Several people were standing in the hallway, some of whom I recognized from the courtyard back on Earth. Some leaned against the wall, while others were sitting on the floor. The cafeteria was packed as we passed the double doorways. And everyone, and I do mean everyone, in there was staring at us from the moment we set foot inside. They were the kinds of stares people usually had when they had just been talking about you right before you had shown up.

Just keep quiet, Harry said, in English. The words came out huskily, grating, barely understandable with his delnadian voice. But it would be the only way for us to communicate without everyone overhearing. Let me do all the talking. And, above all else, don't mention that you brought in the other controllers.

Controllers? I asked, noticing the plural he had used. For a moment, I thought he used it accidentally, due to lack of familiarity with the language. Then I realized that there must have been two of them. That was why the third controller, the one that the medic had pulled out, was so much smaller than the device I had brought it. If two controllers would make the portal drain all the power it had available, what would happen with three?

Harry seemed to know the question before I said anything. "Like Son said, two controllers make the portal act up because they're both trying to send signals into it at the same time. The portals weren't designed to work that way. I don't know how the humans knew that, but that one man must have figured it out. As soon as I saw the device, I knew what it was. Two controllers strapped together into one. Just that alone would have been enough to get the whole network working in tandem to pull us all through.

It was a bug that they probably could have solved at some point. The ones we've been using were the first-generation portals, sent out with the exploratory vessels. We... We didn't exactly have a chance to find out how they solved the problem with the second-generation portal, if they had.

What are you talking about? I asked. Aren't... I mean, I kind of figured we were on your homeworld, or whatever. Delnadia?

We never called the world Delnadia, Harry said, laughing a little at the joke that Merric had said before. It was always just the homeworld. But... Well, you'll see once we're done here.

When he said that, I looked over at the destroyed portal. It hadn't fallen completely to pieces, like the one I had seen in the wild human's base. It came pretty close. The top section had been blown clear off. This was the part that was weakest in the portal, where the two sides came together after expanding. It looked more like a U than an O. The fractured sections were completely clean, smooth, just like the pieces of the broken one. The missing pieces that had broken off were sitting on the ramp that led up to the portal. Smoke was coming off of them, but they looked none worse for wear. At the time, I figured they could just be put back onto the base and the gate would start working again. But, unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

This entire thing is fried, Harry said. We're not getting any data off of it.

How can you tell? I asked. It looks fine to me.

These pieces aren't designed to separate like this. The way you spoke of the one they had in their base, that was completely destroyed. When they break apart, the connections between them are just gone. Think of it like if someone removed your arm, except there's nothing that can grow back here if it's reattached. The connections go down to the core of it. They're like nerves. Once dead, they're just dead. No fixing them. The technology is on a level that just... You can't fix it like the boards in the sensors, or the guns. These are melted and fused together on an atomic level. I mean, we could use the portal for scrap to create a new one, but that's about it.

And the data? I asked. The coordinates to the portals back home?

Oh, don't worry about that. Those were backed up somewhere, I'm sure.

It's just... I mean, the way that David and Simon had spoken about the reaction, they seemed to be under the impression that this whole thing would have happened all over Earth, not just in Sector Five. I don't see anyone here that didn't come through with us, though.

Oh, uh, well, yea, that's not... not really... I mean, everyone was in Sector Five earlier, for the celebration.

What do you mean everyone? I asked, smiling as if he was telling some kind of joke. You mean everyone here?

No, I mean everyone, he said. He pointed back towards the people in the hallway there and those that we could just see outside in the courtyard.

What about the other people on the planet? I asked. The ships out there exploring the galaxy? The other planets in the Delnadian Empire?

There is no Delnadian Empire, Harry said. Not anymore, not like there used to be. This is it. This is all that's left of my people. Our numbers are only dwindling. They have been for the past century. There's barely four hundred of us left, and after the attacks at Sector Eight and Sector Five, we're considerably less than that now. No, Scar. The delnadian people are an endangered species. Damn near extinction.

What are you talking about? I asked.

I was confused, stunned by what he was saying. No wonder so much of this information had been classified, had been hidden even from me. If the humans back on Earth had known about this, if they knew that the delnadians were so few in number, they would have staged an uprising ages ago.

What happened? How? How did you go from an empire to... to this?

That's the thing, Harry said. He shook his head as he stared at the remnants of the portal, the only link we had to get back to Earth. We don't really know. All we know is that it had something to do with your world. Your planet. Something, some event, that happened there almost a hundred years ago. That was why we were there, trying to come up with some way to reverse it. To fix what happened to us. To get back to where we were, how we were, our previous numbers. But, now, with the portal gone, with the portals gone, we're stuck here.

But... What about ships?

The Nos was the last ship we had. All the others died years earlier. When we first visited your planet, back when we accidentally abducted Merric's parents, we were down to five. Two of them were already nearing the end of their usefulness. As for the rest of our numbers, well, it's been a hard few decades. The hope was that with the resources we got from Earth we'd be able to rebuild. To make a ship that would work for us and reestablish a colony back here. All we've been able to manage, though, has been this base, an echo of our own, made from remnants of the same ship. If things hadn't played out the way they had twenty years ago, we'd all be dead right now.

And so would we, I said. I remembered how bad off the humans had been before the delnadians had come to Earth. The memory of the group of humans I had been with when the debris had fallen that night flashed through my head. Destitute, moving from place to place just looking for food. We were dying, but I was too young to realize it. I was too young to know how bad it really was. If the delnadians hadn't come, I'd have been dead already.

No, Scar. I'm sure your people would have figured something out. They would have gotten back on track. We just... sort of borrowed some of your time. Trust me, if you ever manage to get back to Earth, you'll be going back to a completely different world.

Back to Earth. I repeated those words over in my mind several times. If the portals were all destroyed like they had planned, and there were no ships available to fly us back, we really were on our own. We really were never going back to Earth, back to the humans that had stranded us there.

And, yet, all I could think was. Good.

Chapter Two

Stranded

Despite his immediate assessment of the destroyed gate, Harry took some time testing out its individual sections one at a time. I helped him where I could. This mostly involved me holding things and handing them to him when he asked for them. I used my left hand as much as possible, which made it more awkward than when I used to do that for him. But as the delnadians looked on, it probably made it look like I was less familiar with such activities. Given how much my education had been restricted, that was a good thing. After about an hour of him checking and rechecking the results, we were in the same place we had been before. The gate was destroyed, and there was no way to fix it. We were stuck on the delnadian homeworld, with no way to get back home.

Halfway through the testing, Admiral Forester had come back into the building. He stood there, watching us, watching Harry, as he did the testing. It didn't help Harry focus on the task at hand. He was actually nervous, working under the admiral's steady gaze. I wasn't sure what the relationship between the two of them was. It was clear that the admiral outranked Harry in a substantial way. If I had to guess, it seemed like the admiral was in charge of the entire remnant of the delnadian people. That pretty much made him the emperor of an empire that no longer existed. With that in mind, I probably would have been nervous myself, if he even bothered to notice me.

For the most part, no one there bothered to look twice at me. I might as well have been a coat rack, a table, barely useful enough to hold the devices that Harry needed. I knew he didn't feel that way. I knew that he loved me, in his way. I was important to him. To everyone else, though, I was a pet again, Harry's pet, and counted for little more than that. With the prospect of never going back to Earth, it looked like my pet status would be my new norm. I could already see more restrictions being put in place, most of which would limit who I could talk to or where I would be able to go. Perhaps I'd be allowed to sleep in Harry's room, probably at the foot of his bed. Maybe I'd be able to walk around the place in his presence. But not much else.

Once Harry checked the base of the gate for the fifth time, returning the same results as the last four, he finally turned around to Admiral Forester and the group of delnadians that had assembled over the span of the hour. They all seemed to draw in a collective breath, holding it in until Harry gave the news. Or, at least, the delnadian equivalent of that, which was much weirder and hard to describe. It involved them putting their hands behind their back and bending their elbows at uncomfortable angles.

It's destroyed, Harry said.

Sounds of disappointment spread throughout the group, though Admiral Forester seemed to expect the result. He simply nodded before turning around. The crowd cleared a path for him as he pushed his way towards the cafeteria. Everyone filed in after him. Some found seats at the tables that filled the space, while the rest of them managed to find some room to stand in. Harry and I headed down the hallway last, and barely managed to find some space in the doorway. Of course, this meant that neither of us could see anything that was happening inside the room. All the delnadians in front of us were taller than we were. I almost asked Harry if I could sit on his shoulders to see, but I felt like that would make me seem childish. Like I was nothing more than the pet they all saw me as already.

Well, that's it then, Admiral Forester said. His voice came to us through the crowd, slightly muffled but still audible. Our access to Earth is cut off... for now. What's the status of our supplies?

Our food stores will be able to get us through the next few months, someone said. I couldn't see who it was, as they were closer to the front of the cafeteria. Beyond that, we'll have to rely on the local farms.

And how are those going?

Sir, not to be...

Spit it out, Stond, the admiral yelled. I hadn't recognized Stond's voice before he said his name, hadn't even noticed him being in the crowd when we arrived.

I don't think we should be discussing classified information in front of the human. Stond sneered at the word human, like it was a curse word of sorts.

Everyone turned around to look at me. The noise of it was almost deafening in the otherwise silence that followed. I could feel their eyes boring into me. Even those that I couldn't see, those that couldn't see me. Despite them only seeing me as Harry's pet, rather than his girlfriend, I was suddenly the center of attention. For some stupid reason, I felt compelled to give them a subtle wave before ducking back behind Harry, hiding from their sight.

The human is holding the same cheese as the rest of us, Admiral Forester said. Would you keep these secrets from her until we all starve? Who would she tell? Everyone is here already. No point in keeping secrets now.

But, sir, when we get back to Earth-- Stond said.

When we get back to Earth, if we get back to Earth, the world will have changed. Our relationship with these humans is going to have to change if we're to survive the conflict ahead. The fact that she is here might actually work to our benefit. These humans, the ones we encountered outside Sector Five, those are the danger that I had been cautioning about all along.

Uh, sir, I... Stond said. I couldn't hear it, but I could feel it, could somehow sense it when everyone stared at Stond, drawing his words to their premature end. I smiled a little at that, as if my own feelings about the guy had somehow been vindicated.

Yes, yes, Admiral Forester said. My assessment was largely from your own reports. No one is debating your contributions to the human issue. That isn't what we're discussing here. What we're discussing is the fact that they largely outnumbered us. According to Sora's reporting, the wild humans numbered over a thousand with just this one cell. That's not something we can risk going up against, not with our numbers reduced to current levels. Do we know how many we lost outside of the Sector Five complex?

The current estimate is twenty to thirty, came another familiar voice. I wasn't sure if it was Sora or Son, as I hadn't heard them both talking together. Their voices did sound similar. And considering that Son is Sora's mother that would make sense. We're still trying to narrow that down, but I don't think we lost more than thirty. It's just a matter of getting the proper list of everyone that is here.

That's assuming that everyone was pulled back through the portal, Stond said. There are still a few unaccounted for that weren't at the Victory Day celebration.

But, without a way to connect Earth, they'll be stranded on the planet, Admiral Forester said. They'd be on their own. Something you, Stond, have some experience with, if I recall. You know. That time you left my son on that planet, alone.

Yes, sir, Stond said. From the tone of his voice, I guessed that the subject had been brought up on multiple occasions.

I looked over to Harry. He gave me a shrug before sticking his finger up in the air to indicate that we should just continue listening in. That didn't necessarily mean he didn't know anything, especially since I remember him saying something about a delnadian being stranded on Earth at some point. It just meant that it was a topic for another time, one we couldn't discuss with the other delnadians listening in.

How many are we talking about, though? Admiral Forester asked. We can't afford to lose people if there's any chance of rescuing them.

We don't have those numbers, Stond said. It wasn't like we were taking attendance at the celebration, what with it being optional and all. Besides, the humans attacked us before we had all arrived. There was no time.

Contrary to what Stond is referring, my twenty to thirty numbers are confirmed dead and currently missing, the woman said. The confirmed dead is only twelve, with an additional five possible. The rest is currently missing. The hope is that they are all back on Earth, alive and well, and wise enough to remain in hiding. However, I've gotten reports of at least three that were known to be present at the celebration but haven't been seen since our return. Nar, Sel, and Jor. Only Jor was a soldier, among the three of them, but he was in no state to engage with the humans. Without being able to scout Sector Five, we have no way of knowing if he is still back there, inside the complex.

Well, we can assume that the complexes are secure, and will remain secure, Admiral Forester said. This will give those still on Earth some protection against the local population. However, with no way of getting back there, they would be on their own.

Actually, sir, came another familiar voice. This one I knew belonged to Zack, simply from the condescension and ego that was dripping from his words. I have put some fail safes in place, for just such an issue.

You can get us back to Earth, then?

I believe so, though not right away. It would probably take a Terran week. We would also need to use a new portal off the factory line.

Wait, why can't we just connect a new portal to one of those still on Earth? Stond asked. Noises of agreement came from the rest of the crowd, and I found myself making similar noises myself. As soon as I did, though, I felt like I needed to take a long shower. One doesn't just agree with Stond without feeling at least a little dirty.

Who is in charge here? Admiral Forester said, his voice coming out in a bark. Who has been appointed to keep us safe? To drive the needs of what's left of the Delnadian Empire?

Forester, came a united call from the crowd, a well-practiced response to the question.

That was one of the first things I tried once we were pulled back through, Forester said. Once Son confirmed what happened, I sent word to the factory. They pulled a gate out of storage and dialed up Sector One. The good news is that the gate didn't short out when trying to do so. I've since been informed that was a possibility, if the gate at Sector Five was still overloading the system. Unfortunately, it didn't go through either. We'll need a new, fresh portal set up on Earth in order to get back there.

And that's exactly the plan, Zack said. I set a portal up back in Sector Twenty, one not connected to the rest of the network. It's not even activated.

Well, then, what good would it do us?

It'll come online when no one tells it not to, which will be in about a week, Zack said. I never trusted these human things. Never believed they were as docile as some of you wanted to think. Like Stond and your son, I've had firsthand experience with these things. We should have exterminated the lot of them the moment we came out of the portals onto Earth.

If we had, we would have been no better off than we were before coming through the portals, the woman said. From the disappointment in her voice, it was clear that it was Son, and not Sora. With so few of us remaining, we needed the workforce to help get us back on track. Not to mention, wasn't that Stond's idea in the first place? Are you seriously admitting to agreeing with him?

What? No. Never, Zack said, causing a ripple of laughter to stem up from the crowd. Knowing the two of them as I did, and how they would disagree about the color of the sky, I laughed along with them.

In any case, there's not much we can do right now, Admiral Forester said. With the gates down, we can't access Earth in any way until Zack's failsafe triggers. Unless someone else has something to add.

Silence filled the room. With my view blocked the way it was, I couldn't really see what was going on inside there. I imagined them looking around at each other, searching their friends and fellow delnadians for a solution to a problem that none of them had even considered before. The delnadians had been too reliant on their technology, and on their control of the humans, for them to know anything of what was going on, given how cut off they were. It felt strange that these giants, both literal and figurative, would have been so foiled by a group of humans. To be left with nothing to go to, no avenue to pursue to re-establish their dominance in the galaxy. Even Harry looked so humiliated, so humbled, by this defeat. Yet I thought no less of him, no less of any of them. They were, after all, only delnadian.

I'll take that as a no, Admiral Forester said, when the silence lasted long enough. Son, if you wouldn't mind, would you look into getting some sleeping arrangements for the new arrivals. For those of you that were stationed here at Sector Zero, you'll be getting new roommates. There's a good three hundred or so of us here today, and only so many beds. Some of you will be sleeping on the floor.

Despite not being able to see him, or him me, I had a feeling that he was staring at me when he mentioned the floor. It wasn't like I hadn't slept on the floor before. I wouldn't mind it that much, assuming I had a bedroll. I just hoped that they had enough bedrolls to go around, as I would probably be the first to go without one. Given my pet status, they probably would expect me to be grateful for being allowed to stay at all.

While she handles that, Stond, start putting together a watch list. Make assignments for everyone. It would be best if we all stay busy. First watches should be Jot and Dun for kitchen duty. Scar and Mor on the bathrooms, as those are bound to be overused until we set something more substantial up. Harry and Zack on repairs, what with our low scientist numbers those have been getting behind as usual. Watches will be two diddies long each, five a day, with a rotating schedule. And I do mean rotating, Stond. No putting the human on the bathrooms every day, unless you can come up with enough posts to warrant it.

Yes, sir, Stond said. There was an eagerness to his voice that made me think he was going to try to come up with enough postings to do just that.

I was surprised to be included in the rotation so quickly, though I guess that shouldn't have been that surprising. Pet or not, I was still capable of accomplishing something. I was still capable of working to the betterment of the new colony. Of course, cleaning the bathrooms wasn't the most dignified position, but it was one that I had done often enough and was probably the most qualified there to do. I wasn't sure who this Mor guy was, or what he had done to get stuck with me, but I looked forward to showing my ability to contribute.

Job postings and quarters will be posted in the cafeteria before dinner, Son said. No excuse for not knowing either before last watch.

Yes, Admiral Forester said. It is five eighty-two currently, so the first group will have a slightly longer watch than the rest. Those of you not on watch, please wait out in the courtyard in case you're called on to stand one. Cutoff will be seven hundred, so, Stond, if there is a posting that we need that I missed, you'd best get to staffing it.

What about taking the old gate out of the hallway? Zack asked. We'll probably need that space at some point.

Good point. Mor, you'll be helping Lan and Nor with that. Scar can manage the bathrooms alone for a bit. The rest of you, dismissed.

Chapter Three

Assigned

Cleaning the bathrooms wasn't that big of a job. Usually, it only needed to happen once a day at most, even with five people using the one. But, when it was three hundred, it was a different story. Just like back home, there were six stalls with commodes in them and three showers. More than enough for just five, but far too little for the current population.

When I had first moved into the main building on Earth, I had been surprised by the similarities between the delnadian toilet and shower and those of the humans. However, given the fact that we both sat down the same way, both excreted in the same direction, it made sense. Just how many ways can one make a toilet anyway.

The first few minutes of my watch was spent pulling the cleaning supplies from