In order to preserve the human race, it is no less than our duty to remove certain members of their population from Earth. We must gather from diverse populations and cultures so that when the remaining humans eventually destroy themselves the race will live on. Embrace your role in preserving the human race, safe in the embrace of the Alliance!

  -From The Alliance Council of Preservation

  -----------------------------------------------------------

  “Good! Very good Maggie, go ahead and set them down now.” Ambassador Ux’thu said, smiling wide. It was a bit unnerving with his sharp teeth, but by this point Maggie understood he was trying to show pleasure in a human way. It wasn’t that Silvarian’s didn’t smile, but they didn’t usually show teeth when they did.

  Shaking from the strain of holding up 6 of the training balls with her mind, Maggie gently lowered them to the sandy floor around her. She smiled and flopped back into the sand, spreading her arms as she enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment. It was like being a space wizard! She could move stuff just because she wanted it to move, she could even play music on the little computer they had given her to practice on and even solve simple math problems! She still struggled with the harder math problems, but Te’chik was a whizz with math and helped her find the solutions.

  “Tomorrow we will arrive at Silva Prime, and I will introduce you to Si’l Vala Reshka’i, the head of research for Ancients technology. She’ll be able to teach you more, and work with you to locate your ship.” Ux’thu started to gather up the balls, setting them in a padded case next to her training computer. Her normal tablet was in her room. For some reason Ux’thu didn’t like to have Robin around for her training sessions. It was one thing Ux’thu and her father agreed on, neither one of them trusted Robin.

  “Everyone is so fixated on that ship, what if it’s completely busted?” Maggie stared up at the artificial sky, the sound of waves coming from the other half of the large room. This space was usually reserved for Ux’thu and higher ranked Silvarians, matching the environment on their home world. It was a far cry from the ice and snow she dreamt of nearly every night with that mountain of a ship.

  “I doubt it’s completely busted.” Ux’thu chuckled. “It would be far too much to hope for an intact ship, but there are bound to be at least parts of it that are salvageable. Unless your dreams have shown you something different?”

  It wasn’t the first time he had fished for information about her dreams, but she had made a promise to Robin not to share them. She wasn’t going to break that promise now. “No, my dreams haven’t shown me anything really. I still don’t understand why you think they would.”

  “Often, Key Holders dream about their ships. I suspect that’s why so many went mad in the end.” He reached over and gently patted her head. “Perhaps it is best you don’t dream about your ship, but Si’l Vala Reshka’i has ways to prompt visions of it. Perhaps we can take you to see what remains of your mother’s ship as well. Most of it is at the research center on one of Silva Prime’s moons.”

  “My mother’s ship?” That was right, they had said that Maggie’s mother was a Key Holder as well. Did she dream about her ship too? Did she have people talking to her in her own head?

  “Probably. I’m curious to see the condition of what ships these people have gotten their paws on, and if they have any other Key Holders.” Te’chik’s voice whispered in her head, as if thinking about her summoned her.

  No damn privacy.

  “Yes, your mother’s ship. As well as some of the more intact ones. Are you ready to return to your room?” Ux’thu said.

  Maggie suppressed a sigh, rolling to her feet reluctantly. The sun-warmed sand had felt nice, but she supposed the Silvarians wanted to have their private little slice of paradise back. “Sure. but isn’t there anything else I can do? I’m going stir crazy!”

  “You still need to be resting. You’ll have plenty to do tomorrow.” Ux’thu patted her arm this time. He may be giant as far as otters went, but he was still shorter than most adult humans.

  “I’ve rested plenty.” Maggie brushed sand off her simple pants and shirt as she headed for the door. There was a soft mesh plate just before the door that would get rid of the sand she couldn’t, and cycle it back into the room. Even as she said that though, she felt a wave of tiredness wash over her. She had yet to figure out why exercising with the balls made her physically tired or sore, she wasn’t even touching them!

  “Then you can practice more with the balls or computer in your room. Or do some of the studies I’ve assigned. How has memorizing the star charts been going?”

  Maggie let out a groan, her shoulders slumping. Te’chik was good with the star charts, but to her, they all looked almost exactly the same. “It’s been going fine.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Has it?” Ux’thu raised a furry eyebrow, his head tendrils tilting in a way that was somehow skeptical. “Should I quiz you on them?”

  “Dear God no.” She blurted out, and immediately blushed. “I mean, that’s fine, no. I’ll study them some more.”

  Perhaps Te’chik could help her with that, or the little girl that usually hung out with her, she had been being awfully quiet lately. And she had been the one that wanted Maggie to study star charts! She wasn’t sure how that helped anyone, but both the little girl, Ux’thu and her father seemed convinced that it would help her find the ship somehow.

  To her it just seemed like trying to memorize a map and use it to find a place that you had no idea where it was. She supposed it was too much to ask for to have a universal GPS.

  “What is making you struggle with them?” Ux’thu asked as they walked down the hall back towards Maggie’s room, his cane tapping lightly on the floor with each step. She half suspected that he carried it around just for show. After all, they had grown back entire organs in her body, surely they could fix anything that might need a cane or a wheelchair, right?

  “They all look the same. They’re just masses of stars with lines through them. I don’t know where any of them are, so they don’t mean anything. And I can’t find Orion to save my life. At least on Earth I could find Orion.” Maggie said.

  “Ah, I see.” Ux’thu frowned, his head tendrils laying back as he thought.

  Maggie let the silence stretch as they walked the ship halls, thinking of home. How were her mother and aunt doing? Were they even still on Earth? It seemed like they would have to have a spaceship to have gotten there in the first place. What if she got home and they were just gone?

  “I am going to update the charts you have, look at them later tonight, perhaps in two hours. I will give you landmarks you can use to help you differentiate the different systems and stars.” Ux’thu pulled her out of her brooding with a smile. “I am familiar with human constellations, so I will add those to your charts as well. Perhaps it will help when you can locate the stars that make up familiar constellations and know which ones have inhabited planets around them. Or in fact are planets.”

  Maggie couldn’t help but feel a twinge of curiousity. It would be interesting to see the stars that made up constellations in a more 3-dimensional way. Star charts at the planetarium were always flat. “I- I’d like that. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome granddaughter.” Ux’thu paused in front of her door, leaning on his cane as she set her hand against the sensor. The door slid open with barely a whisper of sound. “Get some rest, don’t overdo playing with your training toys.” He held out the case to her and she took it.

  Toys, playing, they tried so hard to make the training like a game. And in a way she felt they were games. But it was still one of many weird things in the universe.

  “Of course they’re weird. You’re from Earth and you’re grandfather is a little furry alien. Oh and ya can’t forget the ship key that’s made itself at home in your body. Or the ghost in your tablet.”

  Thank you Te’chik. Maggie didn’t dare say the words out loud. As far as she knew no one knew about Te’chik. Hell as far as she knew Te’chik was a sign she had completely lost her mind. “Thank you, er... grandfather. Will you and my dad be coming for supper?”

  “We’ll see. I’ll let you know.” Ux’thu patted her arm again, and started back down the hall. Maggie watched him go for a moment, frowning. Then she just turned and headed into the room, the door sliding closed behind her. A red light lit up above it, indicating that it was locked. She was stuck until someone let her out again. Like a prisoner.

  Maggie shook that thought away, and set the box of training toys down on the low table in front of the couch. “Robin?”

  “Welcome back Maggie.” Robin’s form appeared next to the table, a faint blue glow surrounding him. “Are you alright? They didn’t do anything to you, did they?”

  “Just training. Nothing malicious.” Maggie smiled, and stepped around the table to hug him. “I keep telling you, you don’t have anything to worry about.”

  “You don’t worry enough about these people. But I’m glad you’re alright.” He returned the hug, the familiar cool tingle running along her body where they touched. “We’re almost to Silva Prime, that’s the Silvarian’s home world. I want you to be extra careful there. Alright? These people are used to seeing humans as pets or test subjects. Especially with your Key they’ll see you as a test subject more than anything.”

  “Ux’thu said that I’ll get some more training there, and that I’ll meet someone called Si’l Vala Reshka’i? That she’ll help find my ship.” Maggie frowned as she broke the hug. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. What was this new person going to do to try and find her ship?

  When had it become normal to think of it as her ship?

  “Si’l Vala Reshka’i?” Robin paled, his eyes going wide. “She’s the one that’s done most of the research into Ancients technology over the last century or so. She’s a dangerous person, especially for you. The experiments I’ve heard about...”

  “Ux’thu doesn’t seem worried.” Maggie headed over to the little kitchenette on one side of the room, opening up the cupboards in search of something to snack on.

  “Of course he’s not worried! but you should be. Damnit Maggie you trust them too much!” Robin clenched his fists, glaring at her back. “They call themselves family, but you barely know them!”

  “They act like family too. And they aren’t trying to kill me.” Maggie pulled out a box of cookies, heading back to the couch. “Unlike Flame.”

  “It wouldn’t help them to kill you, better for them if they can control you. Which they’re doing! Don’t you realize you’re as much a prisoner here as anything? You aren’t free to wander the ship, and you certainly aren’t free to leave it! And have you tried telling them no on anything they’ve wanted you to do? How do you think they’d react?”

  “They haven’t asked me to do anything unreasonable, and as for the rest, how is that any different than when I was on Galaux? I couldn’t leave there either! I’ve been a prisoner since I got this stupid Key!”

  Robin clenched his jaw, but said nothing, just watching as she slumped down on the couch. What could he say? She wasn’t wrong. And it wasn’t likely to change any time soon.