After the fiftieth sharp shock, I knew I had to change my strategy. If being noisy and attracting attention hadn’t even worked to draw Vidar from his work, he was either too determined, or he’d already left his ship.
I looked at the nearly invisible forcefield for a few minutes, staring hard until I realized that the forcefield wasn’t exactly invisible… It was like there was a thin sheet of glass separating me and the outside world. Some mixture of ions and electrons held this in place and if I could just find the right material, maybe I could disrupt it…
I stripped apart every corner of my room. I didn’t think Vidar put that much thought into how strong his forcefield should be since he hadn’t even planned on rescuing John. Or maybe he’d known I would insist. Half the time, I couldn’t tell what he wasthinking. He always seemed to know what I was thinking and maybe he knew when it came to John.
Vidar had walked through the forcefield easily, but I hadn’t. Why? Of course, we were different species, but we were both mammals and we should have both been susceptible to the shock.
What had Vidar told me about his species…
I recalled some of the experiments and then what he’d mentioned about evolution. His species had evolved from ocean dwelling creatures, similar to whales on Earth.
Maybe I needed… more water.
The quarters Vidar had locked me in were near identical to a human arrangement with a bedroom and attached bathroom, typical for a studio apartment. He’d wanted me to be comfortable, hadn’t he? I rushed into the space-age bathroom with a large shower head and ahugedeep tub that could easily fit two people as large as Vidar, possibly more. I turned the knob on in the shower and stripped naked.
I got wet —reallywet — and then ran out of the shower at full speed toward the forcefield. I ran through, half-expecting to be stopped, which is why when I made it through the forcefield, I landed face first into the opposing wall.
“AHHH!” I shrieked as my legs slipped out from under me and I flailed like a rag doll in the breeze as my tail bone hit the ground with a loud exaggerated thud.
“UGHHHHH,” I groaned.
That hurt like hell. My butt, thighs and entire body ached. My face hurt too. I bet my cheeks were bright red. I lay there for a few moments partly humiliated and partly feeling sorry for myself before I hobbled up to my feet.
Great, one hour awake on Vidar’s ship and I was already scampering around stark naked. If he came back and found me like this, he’d probably laugh so hard and then never let me liveit down. That’s if his lusty tentacles could stand the sight of me like this without wanting to take me in every one of my holes…
I raced down one wrong hallway, then another, then I got myself turned around and realized that I’d somehow climbed two decks up. Ugh! I was running around naked and now getting bone dry andverycold. My nipples must have been rock hard and standing on end as I ran around another thirty minutes before finally coming to the doors of the cockpit.
I cleared my through, preparing to give my best “commanding Polluxian” voice to open the doors.
“Computer,” I announced, “I need access to the cockpit.”
“Place handprint for authorization.”
“Oh. Okay.”
I placed my handprint on the pad outside the cockpit and the doors slid open. I actuallyhadauthorization. My escape mission was going a lot more easily than I’d thought it would. The cockpit doors swung open and I sighed with relief.
I’d made it. Now, there was only one thing to do… figure out how to get off this ship and down to earth.
“Computer, where is Vidar.”
“Proconsul Vidar is not aboard the vessel.”
“Is he on the planet below?”
“Activate scanning tool.”
“Uh… How?”
“Push the purple button.”
The button she spoke of was large — the kind of button you push when things are effed up beyond recognition.
“Are you sure?”
There was no way this computer could lie to me, could it?
“Push the purple button,” the computer repeated.
