TRANSLUCENT TRAVELER

Native of Nowhere Book 1

Can a shapeshifter on the run from her cruel master find a place among the humans? Dive into this thrilling space opera where identity is a secret, loyalty is a choice, and a relentless pursuit across the galaxy threatens to return Kit to a life of slavery and exploitation.

With the next blast, Malcolm reached out and caught Kit by the arm. “Brace yourself!” he shouted, afraid that she might be thrown down and get hurt.

“I know that ship…” she confessed, the fear prominent in her voice.

“What?” Ian’s head spun around so fast he almost gave himself whiplash, “What is it doing here? And why the hell is it firing on us?”

Kit looked up at Malcolm wide-eyed, her body and her voice trembling. “They’ve come for me, Captain.”

Scared and alone, Kit is a shapeshifter on the run in a galaxy full of humans, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of her former master, Dantor Gretanius. When her identity is revealed aboard a small cargo vessel, she’s unexpectedly embraced by the crew as one of their own. But Dantor’s man, Lexor No, is in hot pursuit of the young Lucarn, and the crew of the Avoch Flame soon finds out how dangerous it is to keep Kit aboard their ship.

After narrowly escaping a surprise attack, the group heads for a sparsely populated world in the mid-reaches where they can lay low. There, Kit senses the presence of another telepath, one far stronger than herself, and she struggles to decide whether to stay with the crew or seek out the other telepath. Fearing a trap, the Captain is prompted to action, inadvertently setting off a chain of events that threatens to separate Kit from them forever.

Will Kit open herself up to her new friends, or will she decide to run again in an effort to keep them safe?

Can the Captain keep her hidden from the relentless obsession of one of the most powerful men in the galaxy?

The first book in the Native of Nowhere trilogy: Translucent Traveler, explores themes of trauma recovery, self-discovery, and the healing power of found family. Kit learns, not just how to survive, but how to form meaningful connections.

Translucent Traveler features a clean romance sub-plot (no spice), and a slow burn that carries through all three books... if Kit will open herself up to the possibility that she's worth loving.

—

Chapter One

Kit had never taken on the shape of another so completely as she had aboard the Avoch Flame. It hadn’t been necessary before, and her own shapeshifting abilities were limited, but when the voice in her head told her of the gene locked field, she knew that the only way to pass through it was to imitate as fully as possible the human form she was currently borrowing.

The woman whose form Kit was imitating was in stasis, and her pod had been brought aboard the Flame for transport to another world. Kit had no idea where they were headed, but it didn’t matter. When she’d discovered the unconscious woman, she seized the opportunity to flee yet again to another planet or spaceport. If she didn’t stay in one place for too long it would be harder for Dantor’s men to track her down, so she constantly kept on the move.

The ship had been en route for two days now, and so far Kit hadn’t had any issues. She was quiet, kept to herself, and the few humans she had interactions with were cordial and hadn’t suspected that anything was out of place. She was pleased that things seemed to be going so smoothly, at least so far.

When she had first felt the voice reach out to her, Kit was stunned. As far as she knew, there were only humans aboard the small passenger ship, and their species didn’t have telepathic abilities. She wasn’t sure who this person was that was calling out to her, or how they had sensed her alien mind, but they didn’t sound dangerous to her, they sounded scared. ‘I can understand that feeling well enough,’ she thought to herself as she contemplated whether or not she should reply.

Cautiously, Kit moved to a small hallway at the back of the common area, which was adjacent to the ship’s cargo hold, and noticed that a force field had been activated on the other side of the wall. It was apparently emanating from the stasis pod, probably activated automatically when the artificial atmosphere kicked in at the beginning of their journey. Perhaps it had been set close to the wall and no one had noticed the field, but it blocked access to the entirety of the outer corridor. It didn’t look like the narrow passage led anywhere, but there was no mistaking it. This was definitely the direction she felt the pull. That must be where the voice was coming from.

Looking around to make sure no one had followed her back there, she reached out again, warily opening her mind to the communication. ‘Who are you?’ she asked silently.

‘I am Jano,’ the voice answered, ‘There are four of us. We have been trapped back here for days.’

‘Give me a moment. I’ll see if I can get to you,’ Kit replied, examining the field, unsure if she could actually get past it.

Civilian containment fields weren’t usually too difficult to bypass. They were mostly used to maintain temperature or pressure conditions for sensitive cargo, but this one was gene locked, military grade. ‘What could a military grade gene locked field be doing on this tiny cargo ship?’ Kit wondered, but she didn’t have time to dwell on the question for long. For now she needed to get to the voice, this Jano. He sounded desperate. No doubt he, and whoever was with him, hadn’t eaten since they’d left the station. If it weren’t for this containment field, they would have been able to sneak out and find food scraps overnight, at the very least. She knew what that desperation felt like as well; she had been living like that herself for almost a year now.

Kit wished her ability to shift form was more polished. All she could do, really, was hold a superficial form of someone she had seen, either in person or on a picture or holo. Usually that was enough to get by. This time, however, she felt compelled to try and form a deeper connection in order to cross through the field. Looking around again and, seeing no one, she focused on her task.

She’d have to touch the mind of the woman in the pod: Mara Jane Sage, age 42, from somewhere called Milwaukee… ‘Sounds exotic,’ she mused. Concentrating, and putting forth more effort than she thought she’d have to, her skin softly glowed a pale blue gray and Kit succeeded (she hoped) in imitation on a molecular level. Cautiously, she reached her hand out to the field. Thankfully, she was able to touch it without sustaining an injury.

“Here we go…” she whispered to herself and slowly stepped forward, “Deep breaths, Kit.”

Hiding as far back as the narrow corridor went, she found four people huddled together, two adults and two children, all of them pressed up against the far wall - Malarin from the looks of it. No wonder she could communicate with them. Unlike humans, the Malarin had the ability to speak telepathically.

Kit decided to speak with them in their own tongue. “Hello,” she said, her tone as calm and soothing as she could manage. She wasn’t fluent in their language, but she knew enough to get by. All four of them looked up at Kit and relaxed. They obviously hadn’t expected anyone on this ship full of humans to understand their language, and hearing it immediately put them at ease.

In response, the elder male spoke, grateful to be able to use his native speech instead of the central galaxy’s official language. He didn’t speak English very well. “I heard you moving about out there, amongst the other humans, but you’re different.”

“Are you Jano?” Kit asked, smiling warmly at him.

“I am. We are refugees from Malar, fleeing the burning grasslands. Our home will not survive, so we have set out to find a new home. This vessel’s passenger list consists only of humans but, unlike you, we cannot blend in. That is why we decided to hide back here.”

Kit could empathize with how they probably felt, escaping the fate of a dying world. She herself was a survivor of a planet-wide apocalypse that had killed most, if not all, of her people, and now she was alone.

“How did you know I wasn’t human?”

“Your mind doesn’t feel like theirs,” he explained, “Will you help us? There isn’t anyone else.”

Kit’s heart went out to these refugees. If they needed her help, she couldn’t simply walk away, especially since they had inadvertently gotten trapped behind this containment field. ‘Seriously, is that even legal on a passenger ship like this?’ she wondered.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

Jano looked down at the little ones with a sadness she could almost feel in her own chest, and sighed, “Yes. We had no provisions when we left, and no way to get out of this corridor once the ship left the port.”

“I’ll be back. Wait here,” she instructed, nodding at the four sympathetically.

Kit made her way back to the common area just in time for the lunch hour. She’d have to take what food had been allotted to her and share it with this poor family. She didn’t mind, though. She was often too stressed to eat, and the crew of this particular ship seemed to be generous enough with their passenger meal portions. It might not be much, but it would be something.

As Kit approached, a young man caught sight of her and smiled. He’d been serving meals each day and she had gotten to know him a little. He was always friendly and wanted  to talk.

“Hello again, Mara. How are you doing this afternoon?” he asked cheerfully.

“Hey, Neto. I’m fine, what about you?” Kit smiled politely.

“Same as yesterday, and the day before,” he shrugged, “But my sleep has been a little better. Thank you for the suggestions.” Since the young man seemed comfortable making pleasant conversation, she let him talk. Some humans were easier to blend in with than others. As he commented on several of the other passengers, Neto handed her a small platter. “Enjoy today’s special. Hope you like peanuts.”

“Thank you. See you at dinner.” Kit had found Neto to be the easiest to get along with of the crew that operated in the passenger area. Davide seemed very timid, and Ensam wasn’t particularly friendly. She hadn’t noticed anyone else, but there weren’t a lot of passengers. Maybe they didn’t need much in the way of crew in this part of the ship, and that made it easier for her to keep from drawing attention to herself.

On the way back, Kit grabbed two bottles of water, hoping no one would notice. She once again checked her surroundings and when she was sure no one was looking, she hurried off to the back of the ship. She had no idea if the Malarin could eat this kind of food, but she would offer it to them all the same.

Jano gratefully accepted the platter and handed the bottles of water to the others. “How very kind of you, Miss. May I ask your name?”

“Call me Kit,” she replied, squatting down beside the small family. Usually she was apprehensive about sharing her name, but with non-humans there wasn’t anything to fear, and these refugees were certainly no threat to her.

“And where do you come from, Miss Kit?” Jano asked, thankful to find such a kindhearted person in Kit. It was a rare thing these days, especially since you didn’t see non-humans traveling very often.

“Oh, here and there.” Kit wondered how much he knew about the Lucarn and their ability to change shape, but she didn’t want to talk about that, so she decided to shift the subject and gestured to the others, “Who else do we have here? Your wife and kids?”

Jano perked up, proud of his young family, especially the children. Gesturing to the three beside him, he beamed, “My wife Holi, my son San, and my daughter Lucia.” The little ones were quiet, but Kit noted that they were very brave and well-behaved. “Lucia lost her first tooth yesterday.”

Kit smiled again and leaned down to talk to the girl, “Oh, did you now?” Lucia jumped up from the floor where she had been sitting, excited to show Kit her now missing tooth, when suddenly they heard footsteps approaching. Immediately, they all fell silent and Jano tensed up.

“Stay here,” Kit instructed and cautiously got up to walk toward the sound to investigate.

As she held her breath and slowly turned the corner, Kit could see a woman walking in her direction, inspecting the integrity of the containment field. Recognition hit her like an icy comet - it was the woman from the pod, the one whose form she was currently imitating. Her blood ran cold and she froze mid-stride. ‘Crap. I was hoping she wouldn’t wake up… What am I going to do now?’ The woman looked tired, and incredibly unpleasant, so Kit silently turned around to tip toe back when she was spotted.

“Hey you! How did you get back here? No one should be able to-” the woman questioned, then stopped short, “How did you… What the hell are you doing, wearing my face?!” As the truth of Kit’s identity dawned on her, her expression darkened. “You’re an alien, a shapeshifter, aren’t you? A thieving rat who runs around stealing other people’s skins! How dare you impersonate me! You must have awakened me. You’re coming with me right now!” Ferociously, the woman grabbed Kit’s wrist and dragged her towards the back of the hallway. “And just what are you hiding back here?”

When the pair reached the end of the corridor, they found Jano and his family huddled in the corner. They were frightened by this loud, rough woman, but there was nowhere else for them to go. Even though both women had identical forms, it was obvious to them which of the two was Kit - she wore an oversized cardigan rolled up at the sleeves and a pair of dark gray leggings, whereas Mara’s entire ensemble was black and very form fitting.

“More dirty stowaways? The Captain shall hear of this!” Mara growled, turning on her heels and storming away. Kit followed after her, desperate to get her to calm down. She couldn’t let this woman bring harm to an innocent family.

“No! They’re just refugees. Leave them alone, please, they haven’t done anything!” she pleaded.

“But YOU did,” Mara sneered, quickly twirling around, stopping inches away from her. Gesturing angrily at Kit, her eyes narrowed, showing even more hostility towards the young woman, and she went on, “This face isn’t yours, and my gene code isn’t yours. No… You’re not going anywhere either!”

Pulling something Kit didn’t recognize out of her pocket, she paused and angrily tapped a few buttons. “Voice code, Mara Sage. Passcode as follows.” After she’d punched in some digits, she emphatically attached it to the wall just beyond and adjacent the containment field and jabbed a thumb toward the device. “You try to cross through this field without my voice print and passcode, and this little explosive will make sure you never make it to your destination. I’ll be back with the Captain, you wretch. He’ll know what to do with you!”

While the angry woman stomped her way back out of the corridor, Kit just stood there, speechless. Helplessly, she looked over at the device Mara had attached to the wall.

There was nowhere to go now. She was trapped.

Chapter Two

Kit felt frozen, rooted in place, and her heart sank. She would be discovered and so would the Malarin family. She knew that if she changed forms now, she’d be noticed. Not that it mattered; she’d already been found out, but she was so unnerved that she couldn’t slow her racing thoughts. She’d need to formulate some kind of plan of action, but she was so rattled that she just couldn’t concentrate.

Kit sighed heavily, anxious from the thought of having to deal with humans, especially the unpleasant ones. Mara Sage certainly fit that category, and she was afraid that the woman’s anger would stir the Captain up, too. He probably didn’t like non-humans either, and he would no doubt be displeased that she had impersonated a passenger to steal passage on his ship.

Kit imagined all the things the humans might decide to do with her now that she had been exposed, and a shudder ran through her tense body. There was no way to make the Captain understand that in her situation she simply had no choice if she was to keep safely on the move. Besides, he probably wouldn’t be interested in hearing her excuses.

As Kit’s anxiety rose steadily, her mind turned over thought after thought, but there just didn’t seem to be any way out of her predicament. Why did she have to choose that awful woman to imitate?

‘My clumsy attempt at copying her genetic code to get past the field must have woken her,’ she lamented. Kit had no formal training when it came to her shapeshifting abilities, and she wasn’t very practiced with her mental connections, but she’d had to establish some kind of link in order to safely cross through it. She must have been so noisy in the execution of her telepathic read that she may as well have shaken Mara awake.

When Kit first came across the woman, she thought it was a golden opportunity. She had no idea why Mara would be traveling in stasis; there weren’t very many reasons that she could think of, but at the time it seemed like an easy way to get to another station or planet. Now she regretted coming anywhere near this ship.

While she bit her lip and paced back and forth in her agitation, she struggled to come up with an explanation that would satisfy the humans without giving up too much information about herself… or at least placate them long enough to keep herself safe.

Again, Kit heard the sound of footsteps approaching, but these sounded different from Mara’s. They weren’t heavy, angry steps, but normal footfalls. Instead of retreating to the back, she swallowed down the rising lump in her throat and decided to stay where she was. Perhaps this was someone who would listen to her plight, or have a compassionate bone in their body (seeing as the possibility of Mara having any was just about less than zero). When Neto came into view, the tension in Kit’s shoulders lessened and she sighed in relief.

“Mara? What are you doing back here? I thought I just saw you leave,” Neto asked, then gestured to the field, “What’s all this for?”

Quickly, Kit threw up both hands in warning. “Don’t come any closer!” she exclaimed, “There’s an explosive on the wall there and if you try to cross the containment field without Mara’s passcode, it will go off!”

Neto was just about to reach the field when he stopped short. “What are you talking about?” he asked, scrunching up his brows, thoroughly confused, “I only followed you back here because you were acting strangely. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. Passengers don’t usually come back to this section of the ship.”

“There isn’t much time to explain…” Kit hesitated, unsure how much was safe for her to share, but Neto had been a decent human, and she decided that revealing herself to him might be safer than the Captain, followed by an angry woman spouting prejudices, and she was going to have to tell him something.

Nervously, Kit fidgeted with her hands while attempting to give him a brief account of what had happened, “I’m not Mara Sage, I just… borrowed her form for the trip. I- I’m sorry, but your passenger manifest was humans only, and there was no other way I could get on board the ship. I just needed passage to… to wherever it is you’re going. There are some refugees that got trapped here behind the containment field and I was trying to help them when Mara woke from her stasis pod and put up that explosive. The field is hers. She’s gone for the Captain.”

It was quite a story, and it took Neto a few moments to process what all she’d said. He had heard of such things - beings from a world far on the fringes of the galaxy, who could take on different forms simply by looking at them. Supposedly, it had been destroyed and there weren’t any of their kind left. Her story did seem to fit, though. The Mara he had seen leaving the corridor moments earlier was angry and obnoxiously rude, nothing like the woman he was speaking with now.

Turning his attention back to the issue at hand, he looked at Kit with a curious glint in his eyes. “What’s your name, then?” he asked with a slight nod of his head.

“Um… I’m Kit.” Suddenly, she felt the lump in her throat returning. Now he knew her for what she really was, and she wondered if his attitude towards her would change, seeing as she’d spent the last two days lying to him. She never revealed her name to humans, at least not her full name, but she couldn’t refuse to answer him, so she figured she had better be honest.

“Well, Kit, this is a military grade containment field.” Neto looked it over, trying to find a way to shut it off or get around it. “There’s no way she got permission from the Captain to bring this nonsense on board, and I don’t think an explosive attached to his ship’s lower hull is going to make her very popular with him either.” After a few moments of quiet contemplation, he stopped and looked back at Kit, interested to learn more. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“How could I? I’m not human…” Kit protested with a shrug. She knew there was no easy way for her to explain her situation, and she certainly wasn’t going to voluntarily admit that she wasn’t human and that she had no right to be there.

Neto’s brows knitted together on his forehead again and he frowned. He could understand why the young woman would be so afraid, if she really was what she said she was. “I see your point, but the Captain is a fair man. I’ve never seen him have any issues with other races, and we have dealings with all kinds. I have no doubt he’d be sympathetic to your situation, provided you didn’t imitate any of the passengers, of course.”

“Well, I- I…” she stuttered, thrown off by any expectation that her deception wouldn’t be severely punished, or at the very least, reprimanded, “I don’t…”

“Calm down, Kit,” he said, smiling at her again in an effort to lessen her obvious anxiety, “Things can be worked out, I’m sure of it. It’s not that big of a deal. Hell, I’ll pay for your passage if the Captain insists on it.”

“What?” she said, her voice betraying her complete and utter disbelief, “W- Why would you do that? You don’t even know me.”

“Why not?” he shrugged back, “You just said you were trying to help some others out who got stuck behind the field, and you seem nice enough. If I can help out, too, why shouldn’t I?”

“Well, that’s very kind of you, but, um…”

Chuckling at the red-faced, flustered woman, he turned his attention back to the device on the wall and took his chin in his hand, “In any case, we’ve got to get this thing off of the hull. Maybe if I just-”

“Neto, NO!” she yelled, reflexively taking a jerking step forward, but it was too late - the young man had already reached out for the device, and everything happened at once.

Kit saw sparks fly from the explosive, heard a bang and a sizzle, and her ears popped as the pressure changed. Neto’s body went rigid, then slumped down to the floor in a heap outside of the field, and the integrity of the ship’s hull was compromised. Rather than a hole, Kit saw a crack leading from the device toward the back of the corridor, where the refugee family was still hiding, all huddled together.

“No, no, no!!!” she cried out. Panicking, she ran for the back, hoping she could reach them in time, although she had no idea how much good it would do. With a tear in the hull like that they were all sure to be suctioned out into space.

The lights in the hallway flickered and went out, and as the crack got wider, it started to pull her towards it more forcefully. Kit stumbled and frantically grabbed onto a metal railing that ran the entire length of the corridor, hooking her elbow around it and praying that it was strong enough to hold up against the vacuum of space. The hull creaked and moaned in metallic tones as it pulled away from the frame of the ship, slowly but steadily, and the artificial atmosphere inside the corridor quickly drained away.

Thankfully, nothing past the containment field seemed to be affected. Kit had expected her body to be pummeled by anything and everything in the common area being sucked out through the growing tear in the hull, but at least it seemed to be holding strong. Everything on the other side looked to have been left undisturbed.

Even Neto didn’t stir, and he was right where the device had gone off. Kit hoped he was alright, but he wasn’t moving and that worried her. He must have been shocked pretty badly. She wondered how the explosive had caused the crack to spread behind the field only, instead of blowing a hole through the wall right where he was, but all she could figure was that it was somehow directional and it had been set intentionally that way.

Kit’s hair whipped across her face, blinding her as she held onto the railing for dear life. Tears stung her eyes like diamond droplets turned to ice from the cold, and her lungs began to ache as she struggled to breathe.

First, she felt a dull pain, but as the moments slipped by, a burn slowly expanded throughout her chest. She hadn’t even had a chance to take a breath before the oxygen had gone, and her panic intensified as she began to lose her grip on the metal rail. She had almost lost hope when, all of the sudden, red and yellow lights flickered on in the narrow corridor and the pull released her.

The hull’s emergency force field must have kicked in. Sparks danced and popped around her peripheral vision, and Kit used her last bit of strength to shift into the shape of a young woman before her body hit the floor and everything went black.

Chapter Three

When Kit woke up, she found herself lying on the floor in the common area of the ship, surrounded by crew and passengers. She felt, and then saw, the group around her as a jumble of colors and movement like shapes all blurring together, and at first, she couldn’t focus on anything. She was so disoriented that she wished she could stay down and surrender to a state of unconsciousness and float away.

It took a few moments for her muddled vision to fully clear, but she could definitely feel the humans studying her face and whispering in hushed tones. Her head was pounding and her entire body ached from the stress of the terror she had just lived through, but she attempted to gather herself and sit up in preparation for whatever was to come next.

Recollection flashed across her mind in short, manic bursts of light. ‘The Malarin! Neto…’ she thought to herself while her panic and concern returned with a vengeance. Cautiously, she turned herself towards the back corridor, looking for any signs of life. When her eyes spotted a body lying on the floor covered with a thin sheet, her breath caught in her chest and the color drained from her face.

‘Oh no…’

Behind her, she heard a familiar voice, sharp and cold as a knife, “She’s awake. Quick, before she changes shape again!” Mara Sage was urging a man, a crew member, towards Kit. She recognized Ensam as his large hands reached down and roughly grabbed her by the arms, yanking her up and standing her in the center of the curious group, glaring down at her with piercing, angry eyes.

“Who are you? And what the hell are you doing on board this ship?” he questioned, his tone gruff and harsh.

Kit just looked up at him wide-eyed, much too frightened to give the man any kind of coherent answer. He was easily twice her size, and he radiated aggression. He hadn’t been pleasant before, but now that he knew what she was, she could feel the animosity dripping off of him like sweat.

Kit could tell from the look on Ensam’s face that her lack of cooperation was going to be a problem. She knew from experience that suspicious humans were impossible to reason with, and they were the most difficult to appease. There was no way she could attempt any kind of an in-depth explanation, not with someone so hostile, and certainly not in front of a crowd of complete strangers. Who knows what kind of reaction she’d get from them.

Her apprehension was less about the situation she found herself in right now and more about staying safe in the grand scheme of things. She was well aware that the more these people knew about her, the more danger she’d be in. Sharing the truth with Ensam was simply not an option. She’d have to be cautious and word things very carefully from this point forward.

“I’m talking to you, girl. Are you deaf? I asked you a question!” Ensam demanded, shoving her shoulder back with a clear aim at intimidating her. With a deep scowl on his face he continued, “Mara here says you’re an alien, a shapeshifter. I’m inclined to believe her, seeing as you don’t account for anyone on the passenger list, and I haven’t seen you before. Who are you and where do you come from?”

“She doesn’t have much to say, Ensam. Pretty quiet for such a bold thief,” Mara sighed, looking down at her nails, seemingly disinterested in the drama unfolding before her, and leaned up against one of the pillars with her arms crossed over her chest. “Cuff her before she steals anyone else’s skin. You can’t let her get away with this!”

Kit wished this Mara woman would just shut up. She was obviously trying to stir everyone up, especially the big man that was staring her down in the center of the small crowd. She’d seen situations like this get out of hand, and non-humans were always in the minority and disadvantaged. This was precisely the kind of interaction she had wanted to avoid, and she was scared.

Kit didn’t know what to do if tensions kept escalating, and the last thing she wanted was to have to shift in front of a group of people simply to hold a form that was physically stronger than the one she was holding right now. She would need to if she was to successfully fight off someone Ensam’s size. Her only other option (and the most likely to happen anyways) was to simply take the beating and suffer through it as quietly as she possibly could.

“I- I didn’t mean any harm. It was Mara’s explosive that killed Neto, not me!” Kit barely managed to squeak out, “What happened to the Malarin? Are they-”

“You’re not the one asking questions here, girl, I am, and you still haven’t answered any of mine!” With that, Ensam shoved her even further back, more forcefully this time. Kit was knocked off balance and frightened, but she was also starting to get pissed off.

Mara unfolded her arms, planted them on her hips, and turned back towards Kit, coldly advancing on her. “Oh, please. They weren’t passengers, they were just lousy stowaways. They got what they deserved. They got sucked out of the hull breach, like you should have been, you rat.”

Kit’s eyes widened in her horror, appalled at the casual way this woman spoke about the deaths of four people, deaths that she had caused, without batting an eyelash. “How could you? They were innocent refugees. Children! You’ve killed children!”

Ensam, fed up with her lack of cooperation, grabbed Kit abruptly by the waist and slammed her up against the opposing pillar, pinning her in place. “HEY! Let me make your situation perfectly clear to you, shapeshifter! You answer questions and that’s it! Now, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll tell me what I want to know before the Captain gets here. God only knows what he’ll do with the likes of you!”

Kit could feel the man’s rage intensifying, and it seemed that at this point there was nothing she could do to avoid a violent confrontation with him. She was going to have to start thinking about self-defense if things didn’t calm down somehow.

“Hey, back off!” Kit said, looking Ensam straight in the face, hoping her voice carried a confidence she was sure it didn’t, “I don’t want to fight you.”

The man’s eyes flicked down disdainfully at the woman as her slight body shook in his hands, and he let a faint smile curve upwards on a corner of his lips. Apparently, he was amused with her response. More than that, he was sure that she was much too small to resist him. “Oh yeah?” he growled at her, his voice low and his face inches from hers, “What are you gonna do, little girl?”

Kit swallowed down that lump in her throat that betrayed her fear. She might be aware of the things her people were capable of (both physically and telepathically), at least to some extent, but she knew she couldn’t throw off this man like a fully trained Lucarn could. Kit wished she could somehow get away from him, but she knew there was very little chance of that actually happening.

Kit had purposefully chosen the most non-threatening form she could think of before passing out in the back corridor: a young woman with long, dark hair, and a small frame, which wasn’t actually so far off from her natural form. While she was concerned with not looking aggressive, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t do what she could to defend herself. Quickly, she took stock of the situation, looking around for any kind of an exit. There wasn’t really anywhere she could go, at least not until they reached another station, but she felt a desperation rising hot within her stomach, and an uncontrollable urge to run.

Deciding that shifting in front of the crowd was not an option, Kit tensed her muscles and prepared for whatever violence was sure to come from this human. He was much stronger physically than she was, though, and she held out no hope that anyone there would step in on her behalf. Kit was on her own, and she wished more than anything that she had never set foot on this ship. ‘Clearly, humans are not to be trusted…’ she thought ruefully to herself.

While Ensam held her pinned to the pillar, murmurs started coming up from the crowd around them: ‘She put an explosive on the hull?’ ‘Those poor children.’ ‘I didn’t think there were any shapeshifters left in the galaxy.’

At least the other humans there didn’t seem to be as hostile toward her as these two were, but Kit knew it wouldn’t take much to turn the prevailing opinion to one that put her in a bad light, regardless of what had actually happened. That horrible woman had already killed five people, one of them human, and seemed to be showing absolutely no remorse at having been the direct cause of their deaths.

Instead of focusing on physical strength and defense, Kit thought that perhaps she could sway the group in her favor. She had only been trying to help after all, and the ship would never have suffered any damage if it hadn’t been for Mara’s insane reaction. So she softened her tone and spoke again, pleading with the man, “Let me go, please. I’m not a threat to anyone here. If you’ll just list-”

At that, Ensam decided he’d had enough. He clamped a hand harshly over Kit’s mouth to silence her and slid his other hand up from her waist, just enough to intimidate and humiliate the young woman into submission. Clearly, this girl needed to be subdued if he was going to get any sort of a resolution. When her breath caught in her chest and her eyes looked up at him filled with fear, she could sense a strange feeling of satisfaction coming from him.

Asserting his dominance, he raised his voice while the crowd around them went instantly quiet, “Shut it, woman! Your lies are so obvious that everyone here could see right through you!”

Kit reached up, pulling on his arms and struggling in vain to push him away while her feet scrambled beneath her, barely able to reach the floor even on tip toes. Ensam was hurting her, and her panic was mounting.

Suddenly, another voice called out, pushing its way through the crowd, “Whose lies?” It was a man’s voice that Kit hadn’t heard before. Obviously, he wasn’t a passenger. He had to be crew, perhaps bridge crew, and he didn’t sound angry, but rather, he sounded confused.

“What the hell is going on down here?” he asked.

Soon, the man made his way through the small group of passengers surrounding the trio in the center of the room and came into view. Then he saw Mara Sage with her arms crossed leaning up against one pillar, and Ensam forcefully restraining Kit’s small frame, pinning her up against the other.

His eyes flashed at the shocking sight and he moved quickly forward. “Ensam!” he shouted, “What the devil do you think you’re doing?”

“Nothing, Captain,” he answered, then turned his angry eyes back to the girl he held still, “I’m just holding this little snake here so she can’t slither away.”

Chapter Four

“Snake? What the- Ensam, she’s just a child!” The Captain shot forward, pulled his crewman’s hands off of Kit, and stood in between her and everyone else. Turning to half face her, he asked, “Are you hurt, Miss?”

“Don’t be fooled, Captain. She’s an alien, a shapeshifter. She took the likeness of this woman to steal passage on the Flame.” Ensam gestured toward Mara Sage and then turned menacingly back on Kit, “She’s no more a child than I am a ballerina.”

“It’s true, Captain. There I was, happily asleep in my pod, when this little thief stole my genetic code and woke me,” Mara stated accusingly.

Kit’s cheeks burned as her face flushed a bright red. She had no idea how she would explain any of this, especially once he found out that Neto had been killed. He’d probably hold her responsible for everything that had happened.

The Captain looked down at Kit. “Is this true? Why would you do such a thing?” he asked, his accent thick and rugged. She wasn’t sure where exactly he was from, and it took her a moment to adjust to it. It wasn’t one she heard often.

Kit couldn’t breathe. She wanted desperately to run, but there was nothing she could do except try her best to answer the man. She could only imagine what he would do to her if she refused. “I- I only did it to blend in. I needed passage to another system and your passenger list was humans only,” she explained, praying he would believe her, “But once I discovered the gene locked field-”

“The what?” the Captain interrupted her, the expression on his face changing as he turned back to Mara, “You brought a military grade containment field onto my ship?”

“It doesn’t matter. It wasn’t hurting anyone until she decided to pass through it to help out the other stowaways,” Mara spat out, contempt still dripping from her tongue. She was hell bent on blaming absolutely all of this on Kit.

“What stowaways? What the hell is going on here? What caused a hull breach on my ship?” The Captain looked at everyone in turn, but no one spoke. With irritation in his voice,  he breathed out sharply and demanded, “Someone had better start talking.”

Kit decided that if anyone was to speak, it needed to be her, or he was going to get a heavily biased version of events. She needed to be honest, but she hesitated, still afraid of what he’d decide to do with her.

“I- It’s true, I imitated Mara Sage…” she began, her voice small and shaking, “and I passed through her containment field… and I woke her up…” Boy this was sounding great. ‘Keep going, Kit, you’ll dig your way out of this hole somehow…’ she thought to herself. “But I swear it was only to help the Malarin family. I didn’t know Mara would wake up, and I didn’t know she would put an explosive device on the wall to keep us trapped behind the field. Neto came back there and tried to deactivate it, but it went off - I begged him not to. The Malarin family was killed by the hull breach before it patched. I- I swear, I only meant-”

The Captain held up a hand to stop her from speaking, and turned to face her directly. She couldn’t read his emotions but the look on his face frightened her. “What’s your name?”

Again, she hesitated, wishing she could sink into the pillar she had been shoved up against and vanish into it. With so many eyes on her, she felt awfully exposed. “Um… Kit,” she answered quietly.

“Neto’s dead?”

She nodded her head, and he looked behind her towards the back corridor. When he saw Neto’s body, something in his eyes changed and his shoulders lowered. Then he turned around again, facing away from her.

Speaking to someone else, he said, “Ian, would you kindly escort this woman to the brig?”

Kit’s eyes dropped to the floor. She was going to be locked up again, but at least she could get away from the crowd, and that horrible man who had been intent on hurting and humiliating her.

“Hey, get your hands off of me! What are you doing?” Mara’s voice raised in pitch, incredulous, “You can’t do this to me! She’s the one you should be locking up, not me. She’s a monster!” Kit watched in disbelief as a man dragged Mara away and her shrill voice faded down another corridor.

“You,” the Captain looked down at Kit and gestured with his thumb, “with me.”

Kit couldn’t move, she just looked up at him, frozen in place. He was even bigger than Ensam, and she didn’t like the thought of being alone with him. She wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but whatever he wanted, it couldn’t be good.

“I’ll get her, Captain,” Ensam volunteered. Savagely, he grabbed Kit’s arm, prepared to drag her out of the common area, drawing an involuntary gasp from her lips and bruising her as he did so.

“Ensam!” the Captain’s voice boomed and his eyebrows hooked together, “I said, ‘with me.’ You can go.” He pulled Ensam’s hands off of Kit’s arm and drew her toward himself while her heart hammered in her chest.

“Kit, was it? You’re with me,” he said, then looked over to his left, “Santus?”

“Yes, Captain?” A burly older gentleman, who had just made his way into the common room, stepped forward from the small crowd. Kit wondered how much he’d heard, and if he hated non-humans, too.

“Make sure no one follows along and interrupts, will you?”

“No problem,” he replied, nodding and glancing down at the frightened girl, whose eyes quickly darted away at his gaze.

As Kit was pulled along the corridor, she felt a familiar dread - the dread of being locked up, or worse. Even if she was innocent, there was still the very real possibility that she’d be turned in to whatever local authorities there were at the next station. If that happened, she’d surely be found by Dantor and sent back to his estate…

Kit had no idea what to do. Everything had gone so wrong and there was literally nowhere for her to run to, but she couldn’t go back. She tried to control her breathing and regain her composure, but the uncertainty of the situation wasn’t helping, and her eyes kept frantically darting left and right, desperately searching for a way out.

The Captain glanced down sideways at the young woman as they made their way through the corridor. He could tell that she was panicking and drew her trembling figure along as gently as he could. ‘Got to get her away from all those prying eyes if I’m ever going to get the truth out of this one. She’s skittish. Some privacy will help,’ he thought to himself.

As they passed through a doorway, he released Kit’s arm and spoke with the burly man, “If you could keep curious minds out, I’d be grateful. Oh, and make sure Ian keeps an eye on that breach. I’ve already had Salayah change course for the nearest station for repairs. We’d better make it there fast, or we’re going to have bigger problems.” He turned towards Kit again, but then paused and turned around. “And can you ask him, please, to take care of Neto? I don’t want him left down there like that. Thanks.”

Finally, the man tapped the control panel, closed the door, and turned himself back to face the frightened young woman. “So, Kit. Where were we?”

When she didn’t answer, he spoke calmly, “We won’t be disturbed in here, not while Santus is standing guard.”

Feeling him out, she could tell that his eyes looked on her with curiosity, but she could sense no animosity in him, not like the other human. He was more like Neto. Maybe he’d been right about the Captain after all.

“Nothing to say?” he asked, his eyebrows raised.

Kit took a moment and looked around herself. This was someone’s room, definitely crew quarters. She was sure she was going to be locked up and interrogated, but that didn’t seem to be his aim. Finally she spoke, her voice hardly more than a whisper, “This isn’t the brig?”

“Well, so far as I can tell you’re not responsible for the breach in my hull or the death of my crewman, but if you’d prefer the brig we can always-” he turned back toward the door and held a hand up to the control panel, as if to open it and call the burly man in.

“No, this is fine,” Kit replied hastily, speaking a little louder and clasping her hands together in front of herself to keep them from shaking. She was apprehensive about being in anyone’s quarters, but the last place she wanted to be was the brig.

“Okay. Well, I think you’d better start at the beginning.” The Captain pulled out a chair for her and gestured to it, then sat down opposite her. “What are you doing stowed away on my ship? Why not just pay for passage?” he asked.

“I don’t have ID,” Kit answered honestly. She’d been outed, so she figured she’d better come clean while she still could. She was wary of revealing anything to him, but she feared the consequences if she didn’t answer at least some of his questions. “It’s true that I’m not human, and like I said, I did impersonate that woman. Since she was in stasis it seemed the safest way to go… at the time.”

Kit lowered her head and prepared herself for the rage, but to her surprise, the man’s demeanor and tone didn’t escalate. “And how did you end up behind her… illegal containment field?” he asked, sounding more irritated than anything else. Clearly, he didn’t like Mara. ‘Good,’ Kit thought to herself, ‘At least we’re in agreement on that.’

“I heard the Malarin calling out to me,” she answered. She had no idea if he’d believe her, especially since they were no longer on the ship and couldn’t corroborate her story. “Their race is telepathic too, and he could tell that I wasn’t human. The only way to get to the back of the corridor was-”

“Through the field. I see. So, this Mara Sage wakes up, puts an explosive on my ship, and walks away?”

Kit nodded yes. She knew he had every right to be upset.

His expression softened and a sadness crept into his voice, “What happened to Neto?”

Kit was still trying to figure that out. He hadn’t borne the brunt of an explosion. It seemed more like the device was meant to send an electric shock, incapacitate the individual tampering with it, and perhaps poke a pinhole into the side of the ship. Apparently, it was enough of a shock to kill him, though. Mara’s aim must have been to cause the crack and hull breach beyond the containment field and affect only the non-humans. ‘What a maniac,’ Kit mused.

“Neto came back to where I was because he noticed that the other ‘Mara’ was different,” she replied.

“Oh, I’ll say. She’s not a very pleasant person, is she?”

‘That’s an understatement,’ Kit thought to herself. She was sad that Neto was the first one to get hurt because of Mara’s actions. He had been so kind to her.

“I think the explosive released an electrical impulse, rather than a detonation,” she answered quietly, “but I’m not sure if it was that which caused the crack in the hull. It knocked Neto out immediately.”

“He should have come straight for me,” he growled. Kit saw the anger darkening the man’s face and his distress at having lost the young man. Human emotions were so hard for her to follow, and she was unnerved by the swiftness in his change of mood. Shaking his head, he continued, “Neto has… had… a heart problem. An electric shock must have been too much for his system to handle.”

Kit looked down at the floor feeling incredibly guilty and softly spoke, “I’m sorry.”

The silence in the room sat heavy on the both of them, but after a moment, the Captain’s attention drifted back to the nervous young woman. “What are you running from?” he asked.

All the color drained from Kit’s face, going deathly pale, and she looked up wide-eyed at the unexpected question. “W- What do you mean?”

“Any race can obtain an ID, and I don’t discriminate on who can buy passage. There’s no need for you to impersonate anyone to travel on my ship, not unless you were trying to escape notice altogether. Therefore, it seems to me you must be running from something.” His clear reasoning and the intensity of his eye contact made Kit squirm, and her eyes dropped back down again before answering him.

Damn, this human was smart. “I…” she hesitated and her voice shook as she hugged her cardigan closer to herself, “I ran away from my master. Lucarn slaves are very valuable, and he no doubt wishes to reclaim his lost ‘property’. I can’t… I can’t risk being found…”

The Captain noted how her countenance had changed with just that one question. Her whole body was shaking, her breathing was shallow, and her eyes refused to meet his. He could tell that she was well and truly frightened. “If the Central Government knew of this slaver, they’d put an end to him,” he offered, speaking gently, “Why don’t you report him?”

Kit’s eyes snapped back up, surprised at his suggestion. She wondered if he had any idea how impractical and dangerous for her that would be. “No way!” she protested, “He’d find me. He’s too powerful for that, too influential. The CG won’t do anything.”

The Captain had no idea who she could be referring to, but perhaps it was naive of him to think that her problems could be so easily resolved. After all, she wasn’t human, even though he’d been thinking of her as one. As sad as it made him, the other races weren’t treated with the same respect as his own.

“Well, maybe I’m idealistic. I’m sorry,” he sighed, “I don’t know what it feels like to walk in your shoes.”

Kit couldn’t believe that this human was apologizing to her. It had to be some kind of trick. She didn’t say anything, she just looked up at him in her bewilderment.

“Okay,” the Captain breathed in, “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’ll stay here in my quarters until I finish my investigation. We’re going to put into the station and if what you’ve said is true, that woman will be dismissed… and sent the bill for the repairs. Ensam’s behavior was unacceptable. He may apologize or he may choose to leave the Flame. Don’t worry, we’ll get this all sorted out-”

Without thinking, the man leaned forward and put a hand out to her shoulder, but her flinch was so pronounced that he was cut short.

‘Wow, she’s more frightened than I thought,’ he realized, and he froze, then backed off a little slower, keeping his hands raised where she could see them. “It’s alright, Kit. You’ll be safe here. Just don’t… change forms or anything. We have to keep track of you somehow. Agreed?”

Kit tried to breathe and nodded slowly.

“By the way, I’m Malcom.” He smiled briefly and then got up and turned toward the door. “I’ll check on you later.”

—

Other books by Elle Rushing

NATIVE OF NOWHERE

Translucent Traveler

Shattered Crystal

Dispersion of Light