Darkness, again. Where are we this time? I take a couple of deep breaths to prepare myself and then open my eyes. I'm lying on my back, looking up at a ceiling that is made of metal. I hurriedly sit up and look around. Where's Amlican? I find him a few feet away, lying on his back, not moving.

           "Please don't be dead." I whisper as I crawl over to him. I reach my hand out and put two fingers on his neck, looking for a pulse. I feel a strong and steady throbbing. He's alive!

          "Amlican. Wake up." I say, attempting to shake him awake.

           "No. Stop." he mumbles, rolling to his right side and swatting at me with his left hand.

            "Amlican! Wake up!" I shout, shaking him, again. My voice bounces off the walls. The word, up, echoes and seems to be mocking me. I shift my eyes up and look around. We seem to be in a large, empty room of some kind. The walls are far away and the ceiling is so far above me, that I can barely see it. Hm. I wonder. I can hear Amlican starting to stir so I look back down.

            "Huh? Wha?" he says, opening his eyes and sitting up. He looks around and then looks at me. "Astra? It worked?"

            "Yes! It worked! It really worked!" I say, standing up. And then I do something that I rarely do, I laugh. Full out, belly shaking, bust-a-gut, laugh. I laugh so much that my stomach hurts, causing me to bend over and grab my stomach. After a few minutes, I calm down and the laughing subsides.

            "Wow, I haven't seen you laugh like that in a long time." Amlican says. "Must be from all the stress you have been under."

           "Don't get used to it." I say straightening up. I bend over and offer Amlican a hand up.

           "I'm just saying, the laughing and the smiling really brings out your beauty. I get tired of seeing you scowl all the time." he says, taking my hand.

          "I could just leave you here, on the floor. Or better yet, maybe I should just take you back to Talfar." I say, as I pull him to his feet.

           "Hey, Hey. No, need for all of that." he says, throwing his hands into a defensive position.

           "Alright then, how about we go see where we are?" I walk around, looking, and spot a door a few hundred feet away from where we are. On the opposite wall, I can tell that the entire wall retracts into the ceiling.

          "I wonder what that's for?" Amlican says, from behind me, pointing in the direction I was just looking.

          "Well, if we are where we are supposed to be, that is probably one of a hundred or so doors. It should lead into space." I say, walking towards the door.

           "Space?" he asks in disbelief.

          "Yeah, space. Big, dark, cold, airless vacuum, home to several species of Star Killers." I say, sarcastically.

           "I know what space is. I'm not stupid. I just don't understand how we are that close to it. Where did you bring us, Astra?"

          "Natatilis. At least I hope that's where we are. The whole point to all of this was to save my mother, remember?"

            "For you, yes, for me, this is just another one of our crazy adventures."

            I examine the door in front of me. It's tall, wide, and I don't see any doorknobs, control panels, or scanners. How in Talfar do we get out of here? I run my hand across the surface of the door. I hear a whoosh sound, and the door slides into the left wall. Well, that's new. Guess I need to leave Talfar more often. I step through the doorway, and into a hallway. I look both ways and see that the hallway stretches out and around a corner on both ends.

           "So, which way do we go?" Amlican asks, from my right side.

           "Hold on." I say.

           "What?" he asks, turning back to me.

             "We are in the past, if all went properly."

              "Yeah, so?"

              "So, you think racism is bad in our time? It's gonna be ten times worse, here. They will absolutely not except us as a couple. If anyone asks if we are together, the answer is no."

             "Astra..."

            "No. The answer should always be no. I don't know what they will do to us if they find out otherwise. Got it?"

              "Alright, fine." He says.

              "Okay then..."  I say, looking to the right and then the left. "I think we should go this way." I turn towards the left and start walking. The hallway is empty, but I can see several more of the doors, like we just came through, lining the wall on both sides, every so often. We come to an open door, on the right side of the hall, and cautiously, look inside.

          Inside we can see a large ship, blue in color, long, narrow, and tall. An assortment of wooden crates are stacked up next to it. All around I see Salmazin scurrying around, loading crates, inspecting the ship. A series of random clicking and hissing sounds fills the large space.

           "I never realized their ships are built just like them." Amlican whispers, beside me.

            I look closer and realize he is right. The Salmazin are tall, narrow, and blue. They bend in the middle, the bottom half on the ground, and the top half upright. The entire underside of their bodies are covered in thousands of little legs. The ship itself looks exactly like an outstretched Salmazin, complete with two round black eyes. Ugh. Those things creep me out. It's the scurrying that does it, and all of those legs.

           "Come on. Let's keep moving." I whisper, turning and leaving.

            We continue down the hallway, passing door after door, all closed. After a few minutes we come across another open door, this time on our left. I can hear someone giving orders, and the sound of someone being hit. I stop and peer inside the large room. I can see a strange species I've never seen before. They seem to be about my height, with a deep brown skin, and long narrow faces. Sharp claws protrude from each of their 3 fingers. A long, thin tail appears to help them balance on two legs. The legs are also long and thin, with three toes on each foot, each toe ending in a wickedly sharp claw, that could probably slice me in half without much effort. One of them opens their mouth to give another order and I spot row after row of sharp teeth, glinting in the bright light. They seem to be unloading their ship, bringing large metal crates off and stacking them near the creature giving the orders.

            "Oh, wow." Amlican whispers. "I've heard rumors about those things. Never thought I would see one for myself."

           "You've heard of this species, before? What are they called?" I whisper, unable to take my eyes off the apparent leader.

           "Ravog. They live further out than we've ever explored. Their ships are supposed to be so fast that they can travel through several galaxies in a manner of minutes. They are supposedly so deadly that they make, even the Copaie, seem like harmless whimpering babies. They are rumored to be pirates. Stealing ships and killing off the crew." Amlican explains, quietly.

             "What do they do with the ships, they steal?" I quietly ask, while watching the leader, kick a fallen comrade.

            "They have some sort of program, a computer virus, that infects the ship and changes it into one of their own. Rumor has it that they have explore more of space than any other creature." Amlican says as we watch the Ravog.

The three that sniff the air, drop the crates they were carrying and run towards the fallen one. In a matter of minutes, they devour it until there is nothing left but a pool of blood.

"Get back to work!" the leader shouts. Apparently, he was unaffected by the sight of the blood and the show of cannibalism.