There isn’t much time to comfort her. But it must be terrible, knowing that your father wants you dead.

I wouldn’t know, since I don’t know who my father is. I don’t have the slightest memory of either of my parents. Ever since that comet passed Mina Dos, I kept thinking that sooner or later I would have some memory of them, some little scrap of something. But nothing ever came, and at this point I’ve lost hope thinking that it might. It just seems like too much to hope for.

I try to comfort her with just a look here and there, but I want to hug her and tell her that everything’s going to be fine, that everything’s going to work out OK.

But the truth is, I don’t know that everything's going to be fine. In fact, we’re going up against seemingly impossible odds here.

After a few hours, I think I’ve figured out the general structure and layout of the transportation devices on this planet.

There’s a transport tube near here, according to the map. All we have to do is leave this storage closet room and head to the tube undetected. Fortunately, there wasn’t a single sign of the aliens down here. Maybe they don’t come down this way much. Maybe it’s just for special situations. Who knows. These aliens with their antennae and extra arms have me completely baffled.

But I don’t need to understand them to defeat them.

The really tricky part is doing it at exactly the right moment.

“So we’re just going to get on the general’s ship and fly away from this crazy planet?” says Felia, interrupting my thoughts slightly, but essentially asking the same question that I was wondering myself.

“That’s the plan,” I say. “The less people we have to kill, the better. I think we can take over the ship without a great loss of life. As long as the alien blasters can be set to stun rather than kill.”

Felia nods. “But that’s not really answering my question,” she says. “I don’t have any doubts about your fighting abilities. But what about once we get out of orbit. We don’t know what kind of ships these aliens have. By the looks of it, they have some very advanced technology, and they might easily be able to hunt us down…”

I nod. “Yeah,” I say. “I’ve been wondering the same thing myself. But… well, I don’t know why I think this, but I’m pretty sure that different species develop their technology in distinct and different ways. These aliens seem to have developed their transportation and communication and espionage systems much farther than the humans. But I haven’t seen anything in their records here of space craft. Maybe the reason that they developed these white transporter tubes is that they never developed their travel technology by other means, and it seems like they wouldn’t have to with those tubes.”

“But what about traveling to other planets, to other solar systems, other galaxies?”

I shrug. “I’m not sure they’re so interested in that,” I say. “But again, this is just a hunch. Sort of like…”

“Intuition?” says Felia.

“I guess.”

“Cyborgs aren't supposed to have intuition.”

I don’t say anything, but nod my head. “No,” I say quietly. “No we’re not.”

“OK,” says Felia. “So what about the general’s fleet that’s sure to be waiting for us right outside the orbit? Even if these aliens don’t have space craft or planetary defense blasters, we’re going to have to outmaneuver almost the entire Earth flotilla.”

“It sounds bad,” I say. “But what other options do we have? Plus, I can do it. There isn't a pilot on that fleet that can beat me.”

Felia grins at me. “You really think so?” It’s the first time I’ve seen her grin since learning that her father ordered her dead.

“I know so,” I say, grinning back at her.

“There’s that cocky bastard I know,” she says. “He’s back again.”

“Hey,” I say. “We’ve been getting some pretty heavy news recently.”

She looks sad for a moment but grins again. “Well,” she says. “Are we going to hang around here all day, or are we going to get on with the first step of the plan. And what is that, anyway?”

“I’m ready if you are,” I say. “First step is to make it to the main transport hub. We can use one of the white tubes near us. It’s just a few meters away, hidden behind the wall, of course.”

“After you,” says Felia, grabbing a couple pieces of gear, and a huge blaster that she straps to her back.

I’ve already armed myself. I’m bristling with blasters, some set to stun, some set to kill, and some set to explode, in grenade mode.

I walk towards the wall, and the door appears, the wall separating in front of us.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” says Felia.

“Me neither,” I say.

“It’s creepy,” says Felia.

I couldn’t agree more, but cyborgs aren’t supposed to think things are creepy.

We walk through the door.

I go first, brandishing my blaster at what turns out to be a completely empty hallway.

“I don’t hear anything,” I say. “I don’t think they're here.”

“I think you’re right,” says Felia. “Now where’s this tube?”

I consult the memory of the map that I’ve etched into my partially cybernetic brain. “This way,” I say, pointing down the corridor.

“This one looks like all the rest,” says Felia.

“Trust me, it’s here.”

“It’s just another white wall.”

“That’s how they all look, remember?”

I can tell that Felia’s nervous.

I do it quickly, walking right towards the door.

The little chip inside me activates something, and the door opens, yawning out of the wall, the chasm opening up. This time there isn't a room to enter.

This time, it’s just another one of those creepy white tubes that I’m starting to get really, really tired of.

At the end of it, there’s that yawning cavern of empty blackness.

“Now that really gives me the creeps,” says Felia. “I don’t want to go into another one of those black chasms ever again.”

“Me neither,” I say. “But it doesn’t look like we have much of a choice unfortunately.”

“After you,” says Felia.

“I would,” I say. “But I think we’d better stick together on this one. I don’t want us to get separated. Hold my hand.”

She holds out her hand for me, and I take it in mine. Her hand is cold and clammy and partially shaking.

I give her a look that’s meant to be comforting but I don’t think it helps. All I see is pure terror written across her face.

“Now or never,” I say, stepping forward into the tube.

Felia follows me, and just a couple steps later, the blackness is all around us.

Just a couple more moments, I think to myself, and we’ll be at the main transport center, where according to the maps there will be dozens and dozens of white transport tubes. We’ll have to fight our way through. But that shouldn’t be too hard. The aliens, after all, aren't great fighters. Even if they’re armed with blasters, they’re not going to be any match for my reflexes.

But something strange happens.

Every other time we’ve traveled by the tubes, the transportation happened instantly.

This time, it seems to take a long time.

We’re lost in the blackness. I can see Felia next to me. I open my mouth to speak but no words come out.

She opens her mouth and moves her free hand, gesturing towards me, but I can’t hear anything she says.

There’s silence all around us, but it’s not normal silence. It’s the heaviest, most intense silence that I’ve ever heard in my life. It sounds almost so silent that it’s just as intense as the loudest noise I could imagine.

There’s nothing to see but Felia and myself. It’s like we’re in a complete vacuum.

And then, we start falling, falling and falling through nothing.

It’s a strange sensation, to say the least.

Felia’s face is frozen in terror.

And then… nothing at all.

The blackness vanishes and there’s nothing left.

I don’t know if I lose consciousness or… or if something else even more terrifying happens. It’s as if everything vanishes, including Felia, including myself.

The next thing I know, my feet touch solid ground.

I look up, and there’s the sun.

But it’s no sun that I’ve ever seen before. It’s big, bigger than the sun we can see from Mina Dos, which is distant. It’s far bigger than Earth’s sun. It almost looks like I could reach out and touch it.

We’re on some far away planet.

“You OK?” I say to Felia.

Feeling her hand in mine is comforting, reassuring. Wherever we are, whatever strange place we’ve been taken to, at least I still have Felia.

And I don’t feel relief just because she’s supposed to be my captive. So much has happened, and so many things have changed, that it’s like she’s not my captive at all. Our roles have changed, and the games we were playing all our lives have begun to fall away, leaving… I’m not sure.

“Hi,” says Felia, her voice weak, but happy.

“Hi,” I say to her.

I look into her eyes and I see an eternity, something powerful and intense.

“You OK?”

She pauses for a moment, looking around, then back to me. “I’m fine,” she says. “I don’t know where we are, but I know that I’m happy to be here.”

“I… I guess I am too,” I say, realizing as I speak the words that it’s the truth.

A feeling of calm and peace fills my whole body. It’s the strangest sensation for me, because I’ve never really felt this way before, ever. The closest I’ve come is after making love with Felia for the first time. But this is something… even more intense, something more palpable. I feel like I could reach out and touch this feeling of peace. I feel like it’s inside me and all around me at the same time.

We’re both silent for a moment, and somehow I know that we’re thinking the same thing: we both don’t care where we are, so long as we’re with each other.

Finally, we decide to explore a little. After all, we’ve been standing in exactly where we “landed” for what could be close to half an hour.

The terrain of this part of whatever planet we’re on is a little dry, but there are plenty of green bushes and trees.

“It’s beautiful here,” says Felia.

I nod in agreement. “It really is,” I say. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I have,” says Felia. “When I took a tour of India once. It looks very similar. It was me and my…”

I know she’s about to say “dad,” but that she can’t get the word out.

I nod my head gravely, not knowing quite what to say. “Could we possibly be in India?”

“I don’t think so,” says Felia. “This place feels so… different. And there are little differences here and there in the vegetation. And there’s the sun.”

We both look up at the sun briefly, which still seems so impossibly close to this planet.

“Why isn’t it incredibly hot here,” says Felia, “if this sun is so close to us?”

“Maybe it’s an older star,” I say. “Maybe it doesn’t give off much heat for some reason. I don’t really know. We could be anywhere in the galaxy or beyond.”

“But how did we get here? We were supposed to be transported to another place on that alien planet.”

“I have no idea,” I say. “The maps and documentation I studied didn’t say anything at all about traveling between planets. I have the feeling that… someone took us here.”

“You think so?”

“That’s my…”

“Intuition?” says Felia, completing my thought for me.

“I guess so,” I say. “But it feels weird to say that.”

“Hey!” says Felia. “There’s someone there.”

There’s a woman standing on the horizon, wearing a yellow robe.

“Looks just like what they wore in India,” says Felia.

“I don’t know if I’m ready for another strange alien that I might not trust,” I say.

“Tell me about it,” says Felia. “After those antenna bastards, I don’t know if I’ll ever trust another alien again.”

“Well,” I say. “Should we go see what it’s up to? I have a feeling it’s the thing that brought us here. And it’s going to talk to us if we want to or not.”

“Sure,” says Felia, shrugging. “I’m beginning to think ‘what the hell’ a lot more.”

I laugh.

We walk towards the figure on the horizon. For a while, all we can see is that it’s probably a woman wearing yellow robes, the color in stark contrast to the natural surroundings, which are earth tones, brown and green.

When we get close enough, the figure walks towards us.

Now that we’re up close, I can see that it’s an older woman who looks… very human. She’s beautiful, with long, flowing hair.

“Hello,” she says, her voice sweet, soft, and calming.

“All right,” says Felia. “Let’s just get it over with. Whatever you’re going to do with us, wherever you’re going to imprison us, let’s just do it now. I don’t feel like going through this whole deception thing, where you pretend to welcome us to your planet and then betray us.”

“Felia!” I say.

“It’s OK,” says the alien woman, chuckling to herself. “First of all, I apologize for bringing you here like this.”

“So you admit it!” says Felia, her voice tense and frustrated, full of anger. “You stole us away from our plans, from the planet we were on.”

“That’s true,” says the alien woman, bowing slightly. “And I apologize for that, but I had the best of intentions. And I don’t ask you to trust me with that. It’s understandable that you’re angry. Please take a moment between yourselves to discuss whether you would like to accompany me to my camp to have some tea. I can promise that you’ll be safe, but I know that my promise won't mean anything after what you’ve been through.”

“What do you know about what we’ve been through?”

The alien woman retreats a little, not answering, bowing her head slightly. There’s a look of complete contentment on her face. Her whole body seems relaxed and at peace.

I remember the feeling I felt when we first landed on this planet, and the peace seems to wash over me again.

But Felia remains angry and worried.

“It’s just another trap,” says Felia.

“I don’t know,” I say. “There’s something different about her…” I don’t know how to communicate the feeling of peace that I feel to her.

“How can you say that after what we just went through with those antenna bastards? They seemed nice at first and look at what they wanted to do to us. How do you know this isn’t just another trap?”

“I don’t,” I say. “But I’m just going off…”

“I don’t want to hear about your stupid intuition,” says Felia. “After all, you’re more machine than man, aren’t you?”

That hurts, somewhere deep inside me. I don’t say anything, but the pain is there, real and palpable. It feels like she punched me in the stomach.

“Let’s just go with her and have some tea,” I say. “Plus, maybe she has something to eat. I’m starving.”

“I didn’t even know cyborgs ate,” says Felia.

I don’t know where all this anger is coming from with her.

But what she says hurts…

I guess I’ve been starting to think of myself as more human, and it was all because of her. And now she’s reminding me that I’m a cyborg after all and not really human.

But what can I do?

“Let’s just go with her,” I say.

“Fine,” says Felia. “I figure we don’t have much of a choice. Let’s just get the next horror over with.”

“That’s the spirit,” I say, trying to make a joke out of it. But of course the joke falls completely flat, and Felia glares at me.

“We’ll come with you,” I say, calling out to the woman.

“Good,” she says, approaching us and smiling.

There’s something about her presence that seems to calm me down… something strange and eternal, and… I don’t have the words to describe it. I suppose it’s something mystical. But I’m a cyborg. I’m not supposed to be susceptible to that kind of thing.

We follow the woman along a path that leads through the bushes along loose dirt. It’s only a short ways away, and the camp is surprisingly simple. There’s a clearing. The ground is just loose dirt. Some rocks are off to the side, and bushes surround the camp, making it not very visible from just a few feet away, unless you’re within the clearing.

There are a dozen tents or so, and some people sitting around a smoldering fire.

“Let me present you to my friends,” says the woman. “I’m Aisha, by the way.”

“I’m Vex,” I say.

The woman bows.

“Felia,” says Felia, practically spitting the words.

The woman bows.

Her friends are of a variety of ages, but they're all over 50. And the strange thing is that they feel much older, as if they’re much older than the way their bodies appear.

Aisha presents us to them one by one. They all have names similar to hers. There’s Neemu, Ashwan, and Nathan, among the others. About half are women and half are men.

Aisha invites us to sit around the fire with the group, and pours us some tea out of the rustic pot that they use to boil water. The cups we drink from are simple pottery.

It’s strange being among them. There’s a strange, calming presence to them. And what’s even stranger is being in the presence of such antiquated technology. I mean, who still uses fires and pottery, making tea the old fashioned way like this?

“So what next?” says Felia, her voice still full of anger and frustration. “You about to eat us or what? Or are you in line with the general too?”

Aisha looks at her with nothing but joy and love on her face.

I’m starting to get the sense that I’m in the presence of some very important and spiritually evolved beings here. It’s hard for my cyborg soul to come to terms with, but the human side of me starts to open up and accept the impossible.