The fake sun continued to sink toward the horizon. A light summer rain began to fall. Jewel rolled over onto her back to stare at the ceiling, wondering how in the hell that was happening. At least the projection on the ceiling had turned appropriately gray and rainy. Jewel headed under the cover of the trees for some shelter and sat staring out at the rain. She was slowly coming down from the initial panic. Now it was time to plan.

"So here's what I know," she said to herself. "I've been taken. They probably snatched me right off the road. They do not appear to be human."

As much as she wanted to believe that was makeup and high-tech wizardry, things just didn't add up.

"They have put me in this . . . habitat?" she continued, wrinkling her nose at the pleasant park-like forest around her. "So I can assume they don't want me dead immediately. But they don't want me leaving either. So what do they want me for? Food? An experiment? A hostage?"

She had no way to confirm any of the possibilities so she shelved that question.

"Okay," she muttered. "They don't want me to get out. So that's goal number one. Can't try that door again, so . . ."

She stared up at the ceiling apprehensively. The rain only lasted about an hour. She got started as soon as it passed. First, she headed back to the cliff to find a few sharp rocks, chipping them against each other to make them sharper before she used them as improvised hatchets to break off another branch from one of the trees. The artificial moon, which rose from the riverside wall in the exact path of the sun, was full and bright, making things a little easier on Jewel as she located the tallest tree in the false forest and began climbing. She'd stripped the leaves and twigs from her branch and stuck it through the back of her shirt. The sharpened rocks were in her pocket.

She had to climb to the absolute highest branches that would support her to even get within reach of the ceiling. She wobbled dangerously on the highest limb of the tree as she pulled the branch from her shirt and jabbed it upward at the ceiling. To her delight, a panel of sky lifted away with only a little jostling, like the drop panel ceilings in a school. A dark crawl space opened beyond. The friendly chime sounded, much louder from this close to the ceiling, and Jewel looked down, suspicious.

There was the usual fruit again, and some kind of weird, brightly colored object that looked made of plastic. It was made of chunky, friendly looking tubes in the shape of a ball. A gently glowing smaller ball was inside the cage of tubes. Jewel bet it would jingle if she shook it. She was smart enough to recognize a toy when she saw one.

"Fuck you," she declared and climbed up into the crawl space. So they knew she was out again. She'd have to work fast. She shuffled along the dark, narrow space as quickly as she could, dragging her branch with her. She hadn't been crawling long before the tunnel ended. She peered out cautiously and realized she was back out in the arena space again. The tunnel she'd crawled through was one of many, not tunnels or vents as she'd supposed but gaps separating what she could only describe as modules, cubes with glass fronts which composed the walls of the vast room. As she watched, they shifted and rearranged according to some mysterious purpose. Some grew larger or smaller before her eyes. She dropped her stick over the edge and winced at the clatter it made. That had to be about twenty-five to thirty feet. This was going to suck. Slowly, she slid over the edge until she was hanging by her fingers, took a deep breath, and dropped.

She hit the ground hard and rolled instinctively, feeling the painful shock up her legs and the instant bruises everywhere as she slammed into the floor, which felt like metal but had a slight give like warm plastic. She lay on the ground for a minute, wheezing, as soon as she stopped rolling, mentally evaluating herself. Nothing broken, and her ankles didn't feel sprained. Best-case scenario. Slightly dazed, she got to her feet.

Her module was in front of her. Its glass front must have been some kind of one-way mirror because she was looking through the riverside wall. She could see the churned up sand on the bank where she'd climbed out of the water not that long ago. She'd been lying against this very wall crying just a few hours earlier, on display for whomever this place belonged to. The thought caused a bloom of hot, shameful anger in her stomach, but she didn’t have time to be outraged right now. She needed to find a way out.

She stumbled away from her module toward the others. Across from her, the glass looked in on a craggy, almost Martian landscape, the mountains and earth all in shades of purple and red. Some kind of strange blue grass was growing in sparse patches. As she watched, a herd of something that could only very loosely be described as horses galloped across the strange landscape, their too many clawed legs throwing dust clouds behind them in the strange desert landscape. In the module beside that, a massive furred creature, larger than an elephant and vaguely reminiscent of a sloth or an anteater, ambled slowly past large crystalline rock formations.

Another module was filled with a strange sea. The water had the wrong consistency, more like rubbing alcohol than the water she was used to, and it thronged with weird, half jellyfish-half nudibranch creatures that made Jewel dizzy to even look at. The modules seemed to go on forever in both directions. Her module alone was more than a mile wide, and some of the modules around her were even larger than that. Too confused and amazed to process what was happening, she began running, jogging past window after window into wonders she couldn't even imagine. Finally, the massive stadium curved toward an end point, and as that end came into view, Jewel felt her heart stop.

It was a window, massive and curved like the bow of a ship. Which it must be, she realized, albeit a ship larger than any ever conceived. Because outside that window stretched the vast, starry emptiness of space. They were passing by a stellar cloud, a strange drifting cloud of gas and dust. A nursery for stars. There was a planet in view, only the size of a ping pong ball from this distance. She thought about how, in a billion years, when a star formed in that cloud, that planet would probably be destroyed. She laughed hysterically, then cried, then sat down, staring out at the slowly passing majesty of space.

She'd been sitting there a while before the sound of a footstep behind her sent her into high alert again. She spun around with a yell, brandishing her stick. It was the alien again, tall and blue, and judging by its expression, it was not amused. It said something in its rolling, lyrical language.

"Where am I?" Jewel shouted back, threatening it with her stick. "Take me home! Right now!"

Rather than answering, it lunged at her suddenly. Jewel dodged and tried to run, but it caught her by her ponytail and yanked her back. She yelped in pain and kicked out at him, trying to get away, but her attacks didn't seem to have much impact. She was pretty tall at five foot eleven, but this thing had to be eight, nearing nine feet tall and built like a linebacker. It picked her up like she was nothing, pinning her arms to her sides and holding her against its broad chest as it started walking back toward her enclosure. Despite everything, it was surprisingly gentle, tolerating her flailing with little reaction. Whatever else it wanted, it didn't seem to be trying to hurt her. Its skin was silky and slightly cool, as though it were coldblooded.

"Let me go!" she shouted, struggling as hard as she could. "I'm an intelligent fucking creature deserving of some goddamn respect!"

Out of ideas, she bit the arm that was around her as hard as she could, drawing blood. It tasted like raspberries and battery acid, and she pulled away instinctively, retching. The alien hissed in pain and dropped her, planting a foot on her to pin her down as it dug in the pockets of its long white robes for something. Jewel struggled, humiliated to be so easily pinned. If this thing wasn’t so ridiculously big, she would have kicked its ass. It pulled out a small white square like a nicotine patch, then knelt, removing its foot but catching Jewel by the throat and holding her to the floor. Jewel fought, panicking, but the alien calmly slapped the white patch onto her arm before letting go. The patch, it turned out, was some kind of sedative. Jewel managed to scramble to her feet, but she only got a few steps before she collapsed, blacking out.

* * *

She didn't so much wake as drift briefly into consciousness, her limbs too heavy to move. The world swam dizzyingly before her eyes, a bare clinical room. She was lying on a cold white table, a bright light shining into her eyes. The place felt weirdly familiar. She'd been here before. She'd almost forgotten or dismissed it as a dream. But she'd woken up in here before the meadow. She'd been tied down and there was a machine—

She shuddered, her thoughts skittering away from the memory like an insect away from the light. She didn't want to remember what had happened on this table before. But she knew she didn't want to be here now. She struggled to move, to fight or run away, but she couldn't even lift her arms. She didn't think she was tied down, just too heavily sedated to function. Her eyes roamed the strange white room in search of something to help her.

The alien stepped up to the table on her left and she made a small, frightened sound, the closest she could get to a scream. Its arm was bandaged where she'd bitten it. It was holding something like a tablet, reading it as it reached for her. She flinched but couldn't do anything to stop it as it ran a curious hand over her stomach, her throat, her arms. Its touch was gentle, its skin soft as it explored her with detached curiosity, leaving weird tingles in the wake of its touch. Finally, it found her pulse in her wrist. It frowned, or at least she assumed that was a frown. For an alien, that might be smiling.

Seemingly satisfied, it started to move away. She summoned every ounce of strength she had to lift her hand and reach for it. She didn’t have the strength to grab its hand, but her fingers snagged briefly on its sleeve. It paused, clearly surprised, and looked back at her.

"Please," she said, struggling to stay conscious, to find the energy to speak at all. "You have to understand me. I just want to go home. Please. Please . . ."

Then she was out again, her energy spent.

* * *

She woke face down in the grass again and groaned miserably. She rolled over to confirm that she was, in fact, back in the fake forest. She felt groggy and dizzy, her arm itching. She limply reached over to scratch it and felt the white patch still there. She peeled it off and instantly felt more alert, energy slowly returning as whatever sedative the patch released stopped flooding her system. It must have been running low anyway. She sat up, looking around unhappily. The sky was several feet higher now. She wouldn't be getting out that way again.

Not that there seemed to be much point in getting out. She was on an alien ship somewhere in space, and judging by the planet and the cloud she'd seen, nowhere near the solar system she knew. Even if she could break out of this habitat again, she couldn't get off this ship. She was stuck here, at the whim of her alien keepers.

Her stomach growled noisily. It was early morning, the fake sun rising in the pale blue sky, and she hadn't eaten since lunch the day she'd been taken. God only knew how long she'd been unconscious between then and now. She was starving. Thirsty too. And she could use a shower.

She pulled herself together and headed toward the river. She wondered how to make the chime thing send her fruit again. As she reached the water, she knelt beside it to drink, hoping it was safe. It had seemed normal enough when she'd swum through it yesterday, but this was an alien ship so there was no telling what might be in it. She supposed it was worth the risk not to die of thirst. There was only so much she could worry about at one time here.

Once she'd drunk her fill, she sat back, wondering how to tackle problem number two—food. She hadn't seen any fruit trees, but there were maples. She could figure out how to get syrup from those maybe. Were there any fish in this river? She squinted at the water thoughtfully. Fine. Food could be problem number three. She'd think about it while she dealt with the next problem, which was that she wanted a shower. She glared at the far wall, knowing any number of aliens might be watching her through it right now. Oh well, she thought. Fuck them. Let them get an eyeful. Who cared at this point?

She pulled her clothes off almost aggressively, stomping into the water, all the while glaring at the far bank of the river, daring whoever was looking to say something. The water was cold and it felt good to get clean. As she examined herself, she realized the bruises and scrapes from yesterday were all gone, vanished overnight. Handy. The aliens must have some kind of advanced medicine.

Yesterday during her exploring, she'd discovered that the river turned as it approached the corner of the room, growing shallower until it vanished through a thin gap under the riverside wall. No way out there. No sign of fish either. Maybe in the center of the river where it was deeper? She'd seen a handful of small animals and insects so far. Bees, a few birds, pollinators and seed carriers. Cornerstone species. It seemed like this habitat was meant to self-regulate for the most part. She was the biggest thing in here so she had to assume it was intended to be for her. So there had to be some way for her to feed herself, right?

Done washing, she climbed out of the river and sat on the rocks in the sun for a moment, drying off. The constant, fanlike breeze helped even if it made her shiver. She sat with her back facing the riverside wall, wondering if she really was being watched. Maybe that was the solution, actually. Maybe watching was exactly what she wanted them to do.

Instead of putting on her clothes, she took them and held them over her head as she swam across to the narrow bank on the wall side. She shook off and got dressed, not caring that she was still a little damp. This was more important. She banged on the wall with her fist.

"Hey!" she shouted. "Hey, are you out there? Can you hear me? I'm done with this shit. It's time to have a conversation. You and me, E.T."

There was no response, but she hadn't really expected one. She remembered an article she'd read on the internet once about first contact. There'd been a whole complicated process of figuring out how to ask and answer simple questions using a language based on universal mathematical principles which had been way too complicated for Jewel to totally understand or remember. But step one was making the alien species recognize that you were intelligent and capable of communicating in the first place. Any species intelligent enough for space travel would have to understand basic math. So if she could show that she knew how to do basic math, it would recognize it and realize she wasn’t a wild animal. She just hoped that mattered to this species.

"All right," Jewel yelled through the wall. "Pay close attention, because I'm not sure I remember all of this, so I really need you to pick up on it, okay?"

She banged once on the wall.

"One," she shouted. Just for extra emphasis, she bent and drew a line in the sand, repeating, "One."

Then she hit the wall twice.

"Two," she said, adding a second line next to the first one. "Got it? One, two?"

She went all the way up to ten, then went through it again.

"God, I really hope there's someone on the other side of this wall," Jewel muttered, exhausted. She kicked it in frustration. "Can you hear me, you big blue asshole? I'm hungry, damn it!"

She heard a chime and turned around to see a pile of fruit on the other side of the river. She sighed. There was no telling if it was an answer or just the room trying to get her to stop messing with the walls again. Whatever, so long as it was food. She took off her clothes again and carried them across the river, redressing on the other side before she sat down to eat. If this stuff was poisoned then oh well, she guessed she would be poisoned.

There wasn't just fruit this time, but nuts and vegetables as well. A balanced vegetarian breakfast. At least she wasn't going to die of malnutrition from eating nothing but fruit. Things were looking up.

Once she'd eaten enough to satisfy herself, she wrapped the rest in her shirt and waded back across the river. She went back to counting, even throwing in some basic addition and subtraction just to be fancy. She kept it up most of the day until her voice was sore and she was so sick of counting that she never wanted to see a number again for the rest of her life. She was just about ready to give up, her head leaning against the wall, croaking out numbers on autopilot when she heard a chime.

She looked back at first, but there was no fruit behind her. Instead, a panel in the wall beside her was opening. She scurried backward nervously as the alien stepped through the doorway. The door closed behind the alien as it came to a stop, looming silently over her. She slowly got to her feet, watching the alien warily.

"I'm warning you right now," she said. "If you come after me with one of those sedative patches again, I'm going to drown your ass in the river."

She saw the alien's nostrils flare, its mouth pinched in a thin line, expression annoyed and put upon. Its face was really surprisingly human, its expressions clear. It was almost handsome in a strange way.

"It seems," the alien said in perfect English in a low, clear voice, "that a mistake has been made."