"Maya! Pull yourself out! Fast! I can feel a dinosaur coming." Ethan's slightly panicked voice reached into the tunnel.

"I'm going as fast as a I can. I can't crawl any faster while carrying a meter long alien." I yelled back. I pushed the statue of my alien farther and crawled after it.

"Maya fast!" Stephen yelled into the tunnel.

"Instead of yelling at me," I shouted back, "do something about the dinosaur, there are four of you." 

I could hear the thumping of the dinosaurs feet coming closer and I hastened my progress. But as I said, I was crawling in a tunnel with an alien statue. There was only so much I could do.

After ten excruciating minutes, I finally came out into the sunlight. I dropped the alien on Ethan and looked around for the dinosaur. 

"Why am I the one to carry the alien?" He grumbled. 

"I went in the tunnel. I'm not doing everything. Come on, the dino is far enough, we can outrun it." 

"Easy for you to say." Kevin muttered. He and Ethan were lugging the statue between themselves. 

I sent a grin to them and took of a run, followed by the others. We could do this easily.

I know what you're thinking. 

Aliens? Dinosaurs? Statues? Tunnels? What's happening? Who are these people? What are we doing? And why are we lugging an alien statue? 

For that, let's begin from the beginning. The day I joined the SpaceCops.

⊙_⊙   ⊙_⊙

"Have you got your comforters? And snacks? And your forms? And the identity forms? Your ID..."

"Dad, relax. I am not a little kid. Besides, we already cross checked everything." I sighed. For a dad of twenty two year old adult, he worried too much.

I, along with my mother, father and brother, was standing at the gates of the space-port with three suitcases and one handbag containing important forms and details.

"You will always be a little kid for us, betu." My mom said, squeezing my cheeks. I winced at her nickname. It was not that I didn't like it. I loved it, but I didn't want any of my co-mentees to hear it. Or worse, my mentor. 

"Maya, I still think it's not okay that you are going to be alone with all those boys. Can't you request them to put you with a girl." My brother said anxiously. 

"Oh for God's sake, I am military trained. Relax!" I said, knowing it was going to fall on deaf ears.

"Hey, is that lady with you?" My mom said, pointing behind me. 

I looked around. I was only able to catch someone's ponytail before they entered the space-port. I shrugged.

"Anyways, mom, dad, bhai, I need to go. I don't want to be late." I said, picking up my suitcases. 

My mom nodded, "Oh, yes, yes. We don't want to make a bad first impression. And don't forget to call us."

"As soon as I get some sort of connectivity in space." I promised. This was the third time she had made me promise that.

The space-port was similar to an airport in many ways. The white lights, high ceiling, the white tiles that made a sharp click-click sound under my boots and scanning centres. I felt like the CEO in a Korean drama.

I wonder why they made it so large and grand. There was only one lady at the counter and four people aside from me — the ones selected for Intergalactic Security Team. Perhaps they wanted to make it intimidating. 

'Oh God! I am the last to come.'  I hoped they weren't waiting for me.

I smiled at the lady at the counter and went towards her. 

"Maya Pathak, I assume?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Please show me your documents." I handed over the documents. I was suddenly hit with an irrational feeling that I had forgotten to take something, some document, despite having cross checked everything multiple times. 

After a few minutes, the lady handed back the documents after quickly flipping through them and checking on her computer. 

"Please wait for a while. Someone will be here soon." 

"Thank you." I smiled and walked away.

'Phew!' That was easy.

I went and sat beside Stephen, the only one from my department. Even then, I didn't know anything but his name and a few odd rumours. 

Fun fact. I suck at introductions and small talks. And Stephen was not too interested in talking, so we both sat in silence. 

Kevin and Tanya were talking to each other. I had seen them in inter-departmental tournaments. They seemed to know each other closely. 

The only guy left (Ethan, I assume) was sitting alone, looking around. I wondered who our mentor would be. 

On that note, I wondered what my job would be, exactly. I had no idea what space was like or what I had to do or what aliens were like. The introductory pamphlet we had recieved was a lot of technical bullshit that boiled down to 'You are going to be a space cop.' 

That was what the mentoring was for. An introduction to the space system. 

I heard the click-click of shoes on the tile floor and looked up. 

It was a guy, just about the same age as us. He had a thin beard, but it was more of a I-forgot-to-shave beard rather than a I-am-trying-to-look-very-manly beard.

He walked towards us briskly. He looked at a piece of paper he had in his hand and then at the five of us. 

"It's you peeps, right?" He asked in strangely informal language, "The Intergalactic Security Mentees?" 

We all nodded. 

His brown hair were neatly combed. He was wearing loose pants and a shirt. They seemed super comfortable and stretchy. 

"Right. I just need to do a verification scan. Alright, Ethan Morris?"

Ethan stood up. He seemed unsure of what was happening but did as told. 

I am so glad my first name and last are in the middle of the alphabet. I am rarely ever the first one to do something. 

"Extend your right hand fore finger." 

He did as told. 

The guy moved his closed fist over Ethan's  finger. The black coloured band, which I had earlier thought of as an accessory, scanned his finger and then dinged red. 

The guy nodded and handed Ethan a copper coloured band. 

"Put it on. Scan yourself there" he pointed to one of the scanners close by, "and wait by the ship." 

Ethan nodded and walked away. I offandly appreciated his ability to keep confusion off his face and nod. I would have asked so many questions. 

The guy proceeded to do the same thing for Kevin Wright before calling me.

He did the same scanning for me. He handed me the copper band and repeated the instructions. 

The band felt like metal, but it was so soft and crimped so easily, as if it was made of cloth. I started walking and looked for a clasp to put it on. 

"You just have to put it on. It's elastic." Kevin said. 

I hadn't realized I had reached the scanner. I nodded and put on the band, saying a soft thank you. 

"Aren't we supposed to scan and wait outside?" I asked as I realised both of them were standing in front of the glass gates.

"Yeah, but where? I mean, I know our band has some fancy tech for scanning but there must be somewhere we have to poke our hand, right?" Ethan said. 

I looked at the scanner. He was right. It was just a black square patch. 

"Maybe we have to touch the scanner?" I asked uncertainly.

Kevin shrugged, "Try it."

"Me?" I asked hesitantly, before saying, "Alright." I brought my hand closer to the black square, hoping it would not suddenly electrocute me. But the moment my hand (or perhaps the band) got closer to the scanner, it flashed red and opened the glass door.

"Red means good, right?" I asked.

"Hopefully." Kevin said uncertainty. I walked towards the open doors. It didn't close on me and squash me immediately (whew!), but closed immediately after I went out. 

I was soon followed by Ethan, Kevin and Stephen. 

After the door closed, Stephen asked, "Anyone knows who that dude is?"

We were all too busy looking at the spaceship to answer. 

It had looked small when I had seen from the window, but up close it was larger. It was approximately two storey high. It was the shape of a squashed dome, as if someone had taken a marshmallow and squeezed it to the shape of a semi circle.

It had black, grey and coppery designs and strips from the outside. The front part was made of glass and I could vaguely see some chairs in it. 

The glass was black tinted and so I could not see any more inside the ship. I perhaps would have, if I went closer, but none of us dared to. 

"Hey, want to go in and snoop around? We have these scanners now." Stephen suggested. 

I had a moment to look at him and wonder if Stephen had a death wish to be electrocuted before the guy came in from behind with Tanya. 

Tanya bee lined for his friend and the guy started walking to the ship.

"You cannot 'snoop around' the ship, because your bands don't have the clearance to open it." He said, looking behind his back at Stephen. "I'm Steve, by the way. Come on."

He motioned them to follow. He scanned his band on a small scanner on the ship's door. I breathed out through my mouth. I was going to enter my first spaceship ride.

The inside of the spaceship was rather anticlimactic compared to the grandeur on the outside. 

The room they entered looked like just a regular living room. It was painted cream, with some couches and a coffee table. It was overall a cozy room, but not one I would expect in a spaceship. 

Steve must have noticed our disappointment, because he said with a laugh, "This ship is customized for humans, that's why it looks so normal." 

That made sense.

"So," Steve said, "Put your bags here. The toilet's that way," he pointed to a door, "and there is some food in that room. That one is the viewing gallery, but it is closed right now. It can be distorting to see outside when the ship is going at full speed.

The engine room is upstairs. You can come see if you want to. You can sit here if you want, there are some guides on aliens below the table." 

I nodded and followed Steve to the engine room. Stephen and Ethan came too, but Kevin and Tanya decided to stay behind. 

The staircase was a little spiral around a pole which ended in another doorway. Steve scanned his wrist and the door opened.