There’s where all the spaceships were.
The station looked massive. Like the size of an oil tanker or something, and there were ships attached all over it. Several types and colors. It was easy to see that they all were from different places. The shapes were very different, sticking off the station like an RNA chain, spinning on its single ribbon with the ships like strands of nucleotides.
“It’s like an RNA chain,” Jenny whispered.
Brooklyn chuckled. “I was just thinking that.”
They both chuckled again.
“Bioengineer for the win,” Brooklyn said and they high-fived, jarring them both in the weightless environment.
“This is amazing,” Jenny grinned, and turned her attention back to the window. “What’s that, look.”
An arm came off the station and swung around to the ship. The ship slowly twisted, and she wasn’t able to see the station anymore, just the vastness of space.
“Wow,” she whispered, staring at it for a few minutes. “The stars are breathtaking.”
A loud thunk made her jump. The ship jerked, and the grinding of metal on metal echoed as something connected to the ship.
There were several cries of alert.
“We’re connecting to the station,” Polly said. “If you’re not in your seat, get back in it, the gravity will be returning in a moment.”
As the ship attached, Jenny felt the twist in the ship, and slowly, the gravity came back. “Does the main station spin for gravity?”
“Yes,” Polly said. “There’s redundant systems too, I’m told, but spinning is the way it keeps up with the gravity.”
As everything in the ship aligned with the gravity, Mr. F expressed his disapproval, and when Jenny glanced inside his carrier, all the food she’d put inside spilled all over the case.
“We’ll get you cleaned up in a minute,” she said, reaching through the holes.
She looked up. “We’re not on Earth anymore. I don’t know if that means anything to you, but this is a completely new place. All new hunting grounds,” she said.
This seemed to calm him for a bit.
She wished it calmed her down.
If anything, she was more anxious than ever.
5
The incoming personal deliveries arrived, and many of the workers lined up to pick up packages from their homeworlds that they ordered.
Karuk stayed back.
He had nothing coming. He doubted he’d ever see anything from his homeworld again.
At least not as a care package.
Still, he watched as others received their things, observing the materials. Part of his habit to always know what was coming in and going out, from his previous life.
He stayed away from everyone, as much as he could, anyway. He interacted with as few humanoids as possible. He needed no one around him, only the basic nutrients and protection from the vacuum of space.
He was better that way.
He took a bite of the mush they were serving. It had no flavor, and the texture made him angry. He grimaced while eating. What he wouldn't give for a proper piece of Darvian Grazing Beast. Thick, hearty, burned by a fire?—
"No one cares about you?" Cher asked as she and Bardon walked by, digging through their packages they had received.
