Chapter 4

Sloan stared at the navigation screen, unable to fully focus on the task at hand. Her crew of thirty was counting on her to complete the drop-off, secure the next job, and get them safely back home. The run-in with Ganthar had been unexpected, but she knew that none of them would question her choices about the jobs she took. She’d freed at least a few of her crew during previous runs.

The majority of those she had freed had chosen to go back to their homes or settle on a colony, an outpost, or another planet. But others didn’t have anywhere to go or wanted to serve on her ship. The pickings weren’t always great, and she had to make sure she kept everyone fed. She was the captain, after all. She was also the person who had saved some of them from similar circumstances and found their newest crew members. This was probably why they were always searching for new jobs. So many credits were spent negotiating for extra “cargo” that sometimes Sloan wondered if being more heartless would have made the last nineteen years easier on her.

At least, she thought it had been nineteen years. It was hard to keep track of time when Earth’s sun was no longer winding your clock. Although she was only eight when her world was destroyed, it was strange to recall a time before she knew of the existence of other species, planets, and inhabited solar systems.

The highlight of every day had been breakfast at the table with her parents every morning . She only realized that now, though, when she thought back to it as an adult. She remembered being old enough to get dressed by herself and meet her parents’ downstairs before school.

“Sloan, hurry up or you won’t have time for breakfast,” her mom had called up to her as she made her way down the stairs.

“Coming, Mom,” she’d said at the top of her voice while bounding down. Sloan had had her backpack on, filled with everything she’d needed for her class presentation. She’d slid into her seat at the kitchen table and dug into her pancakes.

“Be sure to chew your food, honey, or you’re going to choke.” Her dad had chuckled. Sloan had smiled up at him.

“What do you want for your birthday, honey?” Her mom had reached for a muffin.

“Can I go to the movies with my friends?”

“Sure. You don’t want a party, sweetie?” her dad had said, ruffling her hair and placing a glass of orange juice in front of her.

“No, Dad. I want go to the movies and hang out with my friends.”

“Look at our baby. Growing up so fast.” Sloan’s mom had taken hold of her dad’s hand while she cooed.

Her birthday had been great. They went to a movie, and her mom and dad even took them out to dinner afterward. Mom and Dad had sat at a table next to theirs and let them feel like they were real grown-ups. Thinking back to how quickly she’d had to grow up after what had happened next, Sloan wished she could have had another carefree party with lots of friends, silly party games, and a big cake. That had been her last birthday on Earth.

It had been three weeks after her tenth birthday that the ships had arrived. Everyone had freaked out about their arrival, but Sloan had been happy to have a new Trapper Keeper to take to school and show all her friends. It had taken a while for it to set in that things had changed in a way she couldn’t even comprehend. Things had been mostly normal for a while, almost like being on school break. Sloan remembered being excited to get back to school to hang out with her friends.

That had been when her parents had told her she would no longer be going to school. Worried about not seeing her friends, Sloan had tried to convince her parents to at least let her walk to their houses, but it was no use. Her friends spent all their time in front of the TV. Sloan’s parents had tried to shield her from anything scary on the news, but a few things still stuck out. She remembered seeing buildings on fire, people running from something, and general chaos.

The power had gone out after only a few days, and it never came back on. Things had felt different when that happened. Her parents had tried to make it fun. They attempted to keep Sloan calm. Their days had been filled with hide and seek, board games, card games, sleeping in sleeping bags in the living room, and sitting around the radio listening to newscasts. She had been allowed to eat all the chips, cookies, and other junk food she could get her hands on. Her dad and mom had rotated coming home each day with armloads of food. They didn’t take trips to the grocery store anymore.

It hadn’t been until the day her family awoke to their door being smashed in that Sloan had realized things would never be the same. When the giant creature with a cream-colored hide had filled the front doorway, it was a signal of the end of her childhood and time on Earth. Its eyes had been red, and the claws on its hands could shred metal. Sloan’s father had attempted to put up a fight. He’d had a gun that Sloan had never seen before stowed under the couch. Her father dragged it out and two ear piercing blasts shot across the room. Two bullets hit the massive beast in the chest. The bullets ricocheted off its hardened hide and enrage it further.

Sloan’s mom had pushed Sloan down the hallway and told her to hide in her closet. Sloan had been frozen in fear as she watched the creature approach her father and grab him by the neck. Her mother had taken off running and slammed herself into the creature, making it stumble. As the creature had swung around and flung her mother into the wall, Sloan remembered screaming for it to stop. Her mom had screamed at her to run. But she couldn’t. She was stuck to the floor as if her feet had been nailed down.

She couldn’t move and didn’t move until another creature entered the room, grabbed her mother, and took her out the door along with her father. Her mother had pleaded with Sloan to run, but the shock of the situation had kept her rooted in place. It wasn’t until the creature returned for her that her fight-or-flight instincts had returned, and she ran for her life. The creature had easily closed the distance between them. It had picked her up off her feet and slung her over its shoulder as she struggled, kicked, and screamed. Her hands had been bruised and cut in her efforts to punch and hit the hide of that creature, and tears had streamed down her face as she was placed in the back of some kind of transport.

The last vision she had of her mom was her screaming out and reaching for Sloan as she was being shoved into the back of a separate transport. They had both struggled, screaming for each other until one of the giant beasts had whacked her mom on the side of the face and she had crumpled to the ground. Her mom’s lifeless eyes had stared back at Sloan from where she lay, her eyes meeting Sloan’s as her hand reached out to her. It was that memory that often woke Sloan from a deep sleep, panting and sweating with tears running down her face. She hated those dreams. It was much better to forget than to remember the past. Thinking of the past only led to heartache.

Sloan had shut down, going partially catatonic as she was pushed toward the transports. One side of the road had been lined with transports for women, and the other side with ones for men. The children had been relegated to a single smaller transport that hovered in the center of the road. A helpless feeling had settled into her. Could she have done more? Why hadn’t she moved when her mother had told her to? Why had she stood there and allowed herself to be taken? The crying and screaming she had heard from the children in the transport enraged her, as it had reminded her of her own inability and weakness to react and help her parents.

She was angry with her parents. Why hadn’t they run? Why hadn’t they found someplace for them all to hide and get away from the invaders? These thoughts had run through Sloan’s mind for a long time after she was taken. She had vacillated between deep despair and unfathomable rage at what had happened to her. Perhaps it was the anger that had kept her going so much of the time. Better anger than fear.

She’d wiped the tears from her eyes in the back of that transport, and plans for how she would escape formed in her head. Sloan was going to save her parents, hoping beyond hope that her mother wasn’t dead. They were fanciful thoughts from the mind of a child. Sloan realized it even at that moment, but it had kept her going through the next ten years of hell.