The Xathi herded us into a dark and cold room, with floors out of some sort of metal that sucked the warmth from us the moment our skin made contact.

I kept a tight hold of Calixta’s hand as the heavy door slammed shut behind us. I heard a thunk as the locking mechanism slid into place.

The only light came from a series of glass panels on one side of the room. On the other side was a room of some sort filled with equipment I didn’t recognize. I didn’t want to know what it was for.

Beside me, Calixta whimpered.

“Hey,” I said softly, crouching down beside her. “We’re okay.”

She leaned into me, hiding her face in the crook of my neck.

“I don’t like the dark,” she cried. I rubbed her back in small circles.

“That’s okay,” I said, trying to keep my voice bright. “I don’t like the dark either! Let’s try to be brave together, okay?”

Calixta sniffled and nodded, wiping at her tears.

“Is Koda here?”

“I’m sure he is!” I smiled, even though the answer to the question made me sick to my stomach. “Let’s go find him, okay? You know, sometimes the dark can be really scary but it’s also really good for playing make-believe. Maybe you and Koda can think of a fun game to play!”

The idea appealed to Calixta. She nodded and excitedly began to look for her friend.

I didn’t want to think about what I would tell her if she couldn’t find him.

When she found Koda, she let go of my hand to hug him. I chewed on my bottom lip, trying not to cry.

“How about you two play for a bit while I talk to some of the grown-ups? But play quietly, though, okay?” I asked, trying not to look nervous.

“We’ll be quiet so the monsters don’t come,” Calixta said with a somber nod.

I was truly amazed at how much she and the other children understood. But at the same time, I was immensely relieved they couldn’t grasp the full reality of our situation.

“Let’s build a big laser so we can help the green man kill all the monsters!” Koda whispered excitedly.

I couldn’t help but smile. If…no…when I saw Axtin again, I think it would make him happy to know how much these kids looked up to him.

Leaving the kids to play, I found Vidia standing by one of the glass panels, her arms wrapped around her body. She was staring intently at the various machines on the other side of the glass.

“What do you think they’re for?”

“I’m trying not to think about it,” I said bleakly.

“Will your friends come for us?” she asked as she turned to look at me. Her face was drawn. She looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks.

I’m sure I didn’t look any better.

“Of course,” I said with confidence. “Axtin wouldn’t just leave us here to—” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word ‘die’. I wasn’t going to let myself go there.

Axtin was probably on his way right now.

“Those…things took all of our equipment,” Vidia spat angrily. “The radios, the nav units, everything! What do they even need it for? How is your friend going to find us if you don’t have your nav unit?”

“The Xathi are too big to move stealthily through the forest,” I said as calmly as I could manage. “A hundred or so people aren’t subtle either. We would have left a clear trail behind us. Axtin and the others will have no problem following it right to the ship.”

“You have a lot of faith in him,” Vidia mused.

“What’s the alternative?” I replied.

Before Vidia could answer, the door we had been herded through slid open with a loud bang. Two Xathi, one black and one blue, stood in the doorway. They clicked and chirped to each other.

For some reason, the fact that they had a language disturbed me even more. Because of their appearance, it was easy for me to categorize them as animals that killed because it was their nature. But no, they were intelligent beings who knew exactly what they were doing.

They were systematically trying to wipe out humans.

Suddenly, the black Xathi dashed forward. Everyone scrambled to the back of the room, desperate to escape its grasp. But the Xathi already had its target planned out. It took hold of Anton, who screamed and thrashed in its grip.

Myself, Vidia, and a few others moved forward to help him.

Anton’s pleading cry echoed through the room even after the metal door slammed shut again. But what I did not expect was for the two Xathi to appear in the next room over, the one we could see through the panels.

They dragged a still struggling Anton into the center of the room and strapped him to a table. He thrashed frantically, even when one of the Xathi pushed a long, thick needle into his ear.

I gently pushed Calixta’s head down so she couldn’t see anything, but I couldn’t look away.

The room was a lab. The Xathi were experimenting on us. When they removed the probe, they plugged it into one of the foreign machines, which immediately flickered to life.

I didn’t understand what they were measuring or the reading they were getting but they didn’t look pleased.

They scuttled back to Anton. Each Xathi took up one of his arms and one of his legs. In a movement so swift I could only process it after it had happened, they ripped him apart. The survivors screamed, moving as far away from the windows as they could.

“Gather the children and get them as far away from the door as possible,” I heard Vidia command. I couldn’t move. I watched in horror as one of the Xathi ate one of Anton’s arms.

Someone took Calixta from me. Her cries sounded far away, like a fading echo. I couldn’t look away from the pile of blood and bones that had once been a person.

I felt myself closing off from the other people around me. I needed to think. I needed to examine the facts. I could figure this out if I just had a moment to think.

The door snapped open again and the Xathi came through to collect their next victim. They chose another man, larger and sturdier than Anton was, but he was still no match for them.

A woman ran forward but the others restrained her. She fought against them, screaming and sobbing.

“I love you, Miguel!” she cried.

I could practically feel her heart as it cracked open.

“I love you, Leticia,” the man, Miguel, yelled back before the door closed again.

Vidia immediately went to console Leticia, who had crumpled to the ground.

I watched, unblinking, as the Xathi strapped Miguel to the same table that was still covered in Anton’s blood. They performed the same test and measured the results in the same way.

But Miguel wasn’t ripped to shreds. Instead, they injected him with something that appeared to render him unconscious and ushered him into another room.

Data. This was data. Something I could work with. Something I could measure.

I began to pace frantically. There were pieces of this puzzle scattered in front of me. I just had to put them together. I could do this.

One result means food, I thought. That was pretty obvious. The other result means…a successful injection of something. Something like the language implants Jeneva and the others had back on the ship? Maybe. A successful injection of...something without side effects? Okay. It wasn’t much but it was a starting place.

What were the Xathi after? They were an advanced species physically and technologically. What were they missing?

My thoughts chased themselves in the same circles over and over until pain sprung up between my temples. I continued to pace even as the Xathi came and took more people for their tests.

I paced through screaming children and crying loved ones. I could solve this problem. I could fix all of this if I could just think.

I walked to the darkest corner of the room, as far away from the others as I could manage. I sat with my back pressed against the icy metal and squeezed my eyes shut.

The ones the Xathi don’t like get eaten. All I have to do is figure out which people those are and make sure they get taken last.

Wait, no. That isn’t right. Too much conjecture. Not enough facts. Not enough data. No data. No data. No data.

I didn’t realize I was crying until I choked on a sob. I couldn’t solve this problem. People were dying and they were going to keep dying. There was nothing I could do about it.

There was no magic equation to make it all better. There was no process to follow to get the results I wanted.

It was just me and the cold and the darkness.

“Axtin,” I moaned quietly. I needed him. I wanted him to wrap me in his strong arms and tell me that everything was going to be okay.

I would do anything to see him again. I would give up my life’s research if it meant I could see him again, if it meant an end to the slaughter.

“Axtin, please save me,” I whispered into the darkness. The darkness didn’t answer.