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Back in the dorm, Trig lay with his head at the wrong end of the bunk, half reading his pad, half looking out the panoramic window.

Napla’a had just exited the scene and now there was nothing but the endless blanket of space stretched out before him. Earth was there somewhere, but in which direction? He had no idea.

Didn’t matter.

They weren’t going back there anytime soon. Not for the next six weeks at least. And when they did leave, it wouldn’t be in a spaceship, it would be through the portal again. Therefore, how far away Earth happened to be at the current moment was irrelevant.

In short: it was as close as walking out his front door and heading over to Zinc Burger.

He shifted on the bunk, hoping the movement would distract him enough to block all the Corleone burger scenes about to swamp his brain. It didn’t, so he tried the pad instead.

‘Nabians first attempted contact with a remote, Icelandic fishing community,’ he read out loud three times before it stuck.

There was a hissing noise from the bathroom, which, according to the dorm guide by his bunk, indicated the swift removal of steam via the ventilation system.

That was good, something similar to Earth tech. Albeit a hell of a lot faster.

Trig kept eyes on the pad as Salvo exited, expecting her to be wearing a towel round her body, half naked and blank-faced, but when she asked him quite jauntily what he was reading, he looked up and saw she was fully dressed and smiling.

‘You’re dry already?’ asked Trig, examining her outfit. Unlike his leggings and towel sweater combo, she’d gone with the green, college-esque DS7 shirt and meditation pants.

‘There’s an option in the shower, after the water stops attacking you from all sides…thanks for telling me that by the way.’

Trig laughed. ‘I wanted to keep our experiences in sync.’

‘Bastard. It was quite nice though, once I got used to it. Quite relaxing. And drying yourself…there’s an option at the end, switching the water jets to warm air. That’s quite relaxing too. Like a giant hairdryer.’

‘I’ll have to try it next time. My hair’s still a bit wet.’

‘You can do it now.’

‘Next time.’ He held up the pad. ‘Too busy swatting up on Nabian history.’

‘That’s what you’ve been reading?’

‘Yup. Just seeing if it matches what that waiter said. And…it’s pretty accurate so far. Worse, actually, when you get to the details.’

Salvo made a tutting sound and sat down on the bottom end of her bunk, looking at the window briefly then turning her back.

‘Listen to this part.’ Trig cleared his throat. ‘Although the Earthlings were primitive and had a tendency to quarrel with each other, the Nabian explorers felt a responsibility, and perhaps even a slight sense of guilt, at having surpassed their cousins by such a stark degree.’

‘What?’

Trig held up a hand, and continued. ‘In light of this, they attempted to instruct the few Earthlings they encountered in matters of physics, societal balance, philosophy and diplomatic strategy, yet often they would run up against a brick wall. The Earthlings felt patronised and folded their arms a lot, and in extreme cases, tried to smash bottles over the Nabians’ heads.’

‘This is real?’

‘Apparently, they landed in small, remote communities in the US, Iceland, China and a few other places. Tried communicating with us, then wiped our memories after we got aggressive.’

‘What about when they get aggressive? Trying to take me back to their dorm, for example.’

‘Yeah, it’s not the most objective thing I’ve ever read. In fact, I think it may have been written by a Nabian.’

‘Ah, fuck them. Why don’t you try looking for other humans like us? See if there’s any still here.

‘No point. It says they haven’t recruited from Earth in over fifteen years. All operatives from that planet are either dead or residents of an Alliance territory. ’

‘Where does it say that?’

‘On the Earth profile. Top of the page.’

Salvo stroked her lower lip, the expression on her face like a Klee fish. ‘Hang on…why did they have a portal to us if they’re not recruiting?’

‘Doesn’t say.’

‘Nothing?’

‘Not that I can see.’

‘Must be on a different page. Science-related maybe.’

Salvo stretched out fully on the bunk, shifting on her side so she could continue looking over at Trig. It wasn’t that far between them, but she went as close to the edge of her bunk as she could without falling off.

Trig read some more of the pad then looked up. ‘I do remember Jemba or Katya saying something about accidental pick-ups…and the science team doing experiments. Not sure exactly what they meant by that.’

‘Wah, I completely forgot,’ said Salvo, raising her head slightly.

‘About what?’

‘That runner guy, the one who came out with green shit on him.’

Trig put down the pad and stared across at her bunk.

‘He was in there about the same amount of time as Cav, right?’

‘Roughly.’

‘But he came out looking messed up, mumbling things.’ Salvo paused, pulling down her lower lip. ‘Do you think he was part of those science experiments?’

‘A mix-up maybe. Let me check.’

Trig pulled up his pad [yet] again, but seemed to get stuck when it came to swiping movements. What exactly was he supposed to look for? The topic was too dense, too hard to break down.

‘What if they’re doing the same thing to Cav now? And the whole mission spiel they reeled out was a lie…’

‘I don’t think it’s that nefarious,’ Trig replied, staring at the pad menu, still stuck.

‘Why not? It’s an alien station, in the middle of deep space. Completely isolated.’

‘Technically, it’s in a solar system.’

‘Anything could be going on out here. They could be tricking us into feeling comfortable, but really it’s some kind of test. Like us, humans, the way we experiment on animals for medicine and Korean make-up and shit.’ She changed from pulling her lower lip to biting it. ‘But then…why would they set all this up just to do that? Wouldn’t they just put us in a cage or something? That makes more sense…right?’

Trig put the pad down again and walked over to Salvo’s bunk. He stood over her for a moment, clearly prepping for some kind of comforting speech, but then he caught the reflection of himself in the window, the towering head from above, and sat down on the end of the mattress instead.

Before he could start speaking, Salvo reached over and put a hand on his knee.

‘It’s okay, you don’t have to talk me down. I’m just trying to piece things together.’

‘At a hundred words a second?’

‘Yeah, the shower must’ve re-energised me. Then I remembered the runner guy and…I guess it just snowballed. Really, I’m fine, though. It’s just random speculation, not paranoia.’

‘You mean I don’t have to do my logic monologue?’

‘Maybe they’re tricking us, maybe they’re not. One or the other. Logic? Yeah, you can leave that. None of this has much logic to it. In fact, I’m still not convinced we’re really here. Could all be a dream and when we wake up, we’ll be back by the river or something.’

‘Dreams aren’t usually this drawn out, or this detailed.’

‘True, but when you’re in the dream, sometimes time isn’t passing how it normally does. Right?’

‘You think we’re both sharing the same dream?’

‘I don’t know. Probably not. But maybe.’

‘Guess the only way we’ll know for sure is when we wake up tomorrow.’ Trig raised himself off the bunk a bit, loosening the legging-like pants he’d put on after his shower. ‘If we can get to sleep.’

‘You okay?’

‘These pants are just a bit tight…they keep pinching my leg hair.’

‘You should try these ones.’ Salvo pulled up her meditation pants, showing at least a two inch gap between the material and her thigh. ‘It’s like wearing those ryokan pants in Japan.’

‘Maybe I’ll go and change.’

‘Good idea.’

Despite his line, Trig carried on trying to manually adjust his pants for another minute before Salvo put both feet on his back and forced him off the bunk. He feigned complaint, which was tradition for both of them, and then strolled off into the bathroom as if he really were in a hotel somewhere in Japan.

Salvo waited until he was out of sight then rolled on her side and faced the wall. The control panel stared back at her.

If this is a dream, she thought, why would this panel be so detailed?

Why would I even be allowed this thought?

She put her hand back across the bunk and picked up Trig’s pad. The page on Nabian history was still on screen so she tried reading a bit more of it. Apparently, they’d set up a base on a dwarf planet called Eris in the outer solar system, to continue observation, but ever since the portals had been invented, they’d stopped using it.

She lowered the pad and flipped back onto her other side.

The window was still planet-less.

The dorm was human-like.

If I stay in here, she thought…

If I stay in here and read, then eventually I might not feel so bad when I go out there. Not so up and down. More balanced. It’s bound to happen. If I learn more about all these aliens. If I can avoid all the sleazy ones and that green thing in Security. Just like Jemba said, the first few days are rough, but you’ll get used to it. Did he say that? Someone did. And they’re right. It’s normal to be freaked out, anxious like this. I just have to let my brain balance itself. Read about the station and adapt. Be polite to the other aliens. Treat it like any other social performance. You can do this, Salvo. Six weeks then back home. You can survive it. Assuming it isn’t all a dream. It might be. I hope it is. It’s probably the most likely option, now that I-

She focused on the window, the planet Napla’a creeping slowly back into view.

No, don’t fall back on that. It’s not a dream. Trig’s right, it’s too detailed. It’s just my brain trying to find a path out, to stop feeling so anxious. No, not just anxious…volatile, erratic…

But why isn’t his brain trying to do that too?

How is he just wandering around this place as if it’s a shopping mall back home?

Is there something wrong with me?

Or him?

Salvo heard a voice coming from the bathroom and put the pad down. In truth, she’d forgotten she was holding it.

A few seconds later, Trig emerged, looking a lot more comfortable in his meditation pants.

‘You were right, they feel great. Way more airy.’

‘Told you.’

‘Might even be comfortable enough to get me to sleep.’

‘If you can stop reading the pad.’

‘Ah, I think I’ve had enough for today. Anyway, we’ve gotta get up early tomorrow. If I don’t get some sleep now, I won’t even last half the day.’

‘Are you tired?’

‘Not really, but…’

‘Me neither.’

‘…if we close our eyes, we’ll fall asleep sooner or later.’

Salvo rolled onto her back and looked left at the control panel. ‘There is a faster way.’

‘The beam.’

‘I thought about trying it when you were in the shower.’

Trig sat down on his own bunk and scrutinised the panel on the wall.

‘Couldn’t do it though,’ Salvo continued, turning to face his bunk. ‘Feels a bit too fast…the idea of it. Like someone shooting you in the head and you’re dead, and you don’t know anything about it.’

‘That’s a bit morbid.’

‘Seems kind of similar to me, the concept of it.’

‘Nah, with this one you wake up again. Not that similar at all.’

‘Are you gonna use it?’

‘I might.’

Salvo sat up and put both feet back on the floor, a bit hesitant at first as she expected it to be cold. Luckily, it wasn’t. Just like the dorm itself, the temperature never seemed to become too warm or too cold, it just stayed moderate at all times, unnoticed even.

‘What about you?’ asked Trig.

‘If you do it first, I’ll follow.’

He nodded, looking back at the control panel, and then the ceiling above his bed. ‘I’m not sure where the beam actually comes out from…probably the ceiling.’

‘Or the wall.’

‘Maybe. I suppose I have to lie down first, get into a sleeping position.’ He did what he described, keeping his head close to the control panel so he could reach over and hit the right icon. ‘Do you wanna talk a bit more first?’

Salvo came over to his bunk and sat down, putting the blanket over him. ‘I’m okay.’

‘You sure?’

‘Soon as I know you’re not dead, I’ll do my beam.’

‘That’s a nice way to put it.’

Salvo put her hand on his, and then lifted it up so she could slip her fingers inside.

‘Okay, here we go.’ Trig put his finger next to the icon on the control panel, hovered for a few seconds, checked the ceiling, then pressed down with minimal force. ‘Sleep ti-…’

The same kind of red-tinted beam that had calmed Salvo in the Medical Language Mist Room earlier, shot out like a special effect from the wall, hitting the side of Trig’s head.

His eyes closed instantly.

Just like he’d been shot in the head.

The beam persevered a moment longer then cut off. Salvo checked his heart beat and his pulse, and then checked them again. It seemed that he was okay, but she was only truly convinced when she saw his chest rise and fall.

Right, he was still breathing.

Her turn.

She got up and walked over to her bunk, getting under the blanket and next to the control panel as fast as she could. Any delay and she wouldn’t have the nerve to do it. The anxiety would take over again. And she didn’t have the energy to deal with that again.

Sleep. Instant, uninterrupted sleep.

It sounded so good.

But as her finger hovered over the ‘beam’ icon, she started to think other things. The beam was a weapon. Sleeping now would bring hellish nightmares. The dorm was still and quiet. Being alone was peaceful.

Across the room, Trig started to snore, his nose producing a kind of whistling noise every time he breathed out.

Salvo dropped her finger onto the blanket and grabbed the pad again. Swiping off the Nabian page, she flicked through a few other aliens before going with the Terzo Collective.

So far, she’d met two representatives of their kind; Katya and the pervert in the corridor outside. One good, one bad. Not the worst ratio ever. And at least they weren’t patronising.

She prodded their icon and read the introductory spiel:

‘The Terzo Collective is an eclectic mix of various alien species, all descended from slaves who worked together to free themselves from the incredibly complacent Satath, a largely defanged yet belligerent race who believe their ancestors to be responsible for the Big Bang.

Due to this chaotic history, Terzoans, more than any other alien collective, can stake a claim to being utterly uncategorisable. Though, it is the experience of many other species, that they are quite blunt. Some may even say rude.’

Salvo stopped, going over the lines she’d just read.

It was weird, if the words Terzo Collective weren’t there on the page, she’d think they were describing Hong Kong people. The character aspect, at least, not the history of slavery by another alien species.

Blunt, some may even say rude.

On the bunk opposite, Trig’s nose whistle went up another pitch, making her laugh out loud.

It was a ridiculous noise.

Something only a human could come up with.

Going back to the control panel, she swiped onto the menu and found the words Comfort Holograms.

Clicking on it, she discovered that there was a catalogue just like on websites back home, with a search option and sub-menus like Best Rated and Most Used.

Suddenly getting the feeling that she was being watched, she glanced over at Trig, and then the window. There was no sign of any cameras or secretly opening eyelids, so she wiped the sweat growing on her palms on the blanket and started her search.

After ten minutes of going through Earthling and Terzoan, she found a man who looked vaguely Chinese, vaguely attractive, and pressed Initialize.

Without fanfare, noise or any type of visible beam, that same man was sitting on her bed, shirtless, asking her what service she wished to receive.

‘Err…I don’t know,’ she said, half raising her hands in defence.

He moved along the bed until he was close enough to put his hand on her waist. ‘I can offer cuddling, massage, words of comfort, kissing, straight sex, anal sex, clitoral stimulation, mime and revision of alien profiles.’

Salvo checked the man’s pants and breathed out in relief when she saw no lumps. ‘Cuddling?’

The man nodded and climbed into the bed beside her. Salvo flinched a little as he lifted his arm over her waist and onto her stomach, and even checked again to see if Trig was covertly watching all this, but the nerves didn’t last long. He’s a hologram, she told herself. Not real. And all they were doing was cuddling.

‘The sky is always darkest just before dawn,’ the man whispered softly into her ear.

‘Sorry?’

‘Tomorrow is a brand new day full of opportunity.’

‘Okay.’

‘The journey is more important than the destination.’

‘Are these the words of comfort?’

‘Correct.’

‘Can you stop?’

‘If you wish.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Would you like another service?’

‘No, just cuddling.’

The man didn’t reply, but he didn’t reel off any more platitudes either so everything was sedate again. Salvo closed her eyes and started to conjure up images, picking and choosing the most relaxing ones to take with her into her dreams.

Trig’s snoring continued as background noise.

Salvo matched her thoughts to the rhythm of her friend’s sounds and started to feel sleepy.

Then the hologram’s hand started to move. First up from her stomach, edging towards the underside of her breasts, and then, when she pushed him back down to her stomach, under and inside her meditation pants.

‘What the fuck…’

She shot out of bed and grabbed the closest thing to her, which happened to be her pad.

‘I said I wanted cuddling, not sex.’

‘It is in my programming to anticipate the patient’s wishes. I sensed from your body temperature and movements that you desired more than cuddling, so I advanced.’

‘My body movements? Fuck…how do I turn you off?’

‘You can deactivate me by pressing the button labelled OFF on the control panel.’

Salvo looked at the control panel and the holographic pervert blocking her way to it. ‘You do it.’

‘As you wish. Though I sense that you are conflicted about this action?’

‘Off. Now.’

The hologram nodded curtly and put his finger on the control panel. He vanished the same way he had appeared.

‘Fuck…’

Salvo stood around a little while longer, getting her breath back. Finally, when she was certain he was gone, she put the pad down and cautiously crawled back onto the bunk towards the wall.

Okay, she thought. Male hologram was a bad idea. Probably programmed to be perverted. How about a female?

She loaded up the options, this time reading the profiles next to each one. 

Female Terzoan

Soothing features.

Supple body.

Topics of Interest: Astrology. Medicine. Cats.

It turned out that it was a waste of time; all hologram profiles had the same description – soothing features, supple body – with the only real difference being their topics of interest.

After selecting a nerdy, Brazilian-looking Terzoan [Topics of Interest: Economics. Geology. Terzoan turtles], she tried searching for advanced filters on behaviour and level of sleaziness. There was an icon for it, but every time she choose it, text appeared that said IN DEVELOPMENT.

Okay, forget filters. Focus on the soothing features.

Hesitating a little, she lay down on the bed and muttered ‘completely normal behaviour’ before pressing the icon to initiate.

As before, the female hologram appeared out of nothing, with a shirt, and immediately offered her range of services. The list was identical to the male’s, so Salvo told her directly, no sleaze, just cuddling.

The woman didn’t bother nodding, she just climbed into bed next to Salvo and put her hand over her waist and onto her stomach.

‘Every cloud has a silver lin-…’

‘No words of comforts,’ said Salvo quickly, cutting her off.

The woman fell silent and her hand remained stationary. Salvo waited a minute, two minutes before closing her eyes, then tried again to focus on images to dream about.

Just as she was about to settle into a Japan-set scenario with pirates, a drunken Ryukahr and steampunk airships, the female hologram’s hand started to move. Unlike the male hologram, her right hand went up Salvo’s side and onto her shoulders, kneading into the pit under the shoulder blades.

It actually felt quite good.

Salvo told her that and said massage and cuddling was now approved.

As soon as the words were out, the female hologram’s massage hand moved down over the shoulder and directly onto the top of Salvo’s right breast.

‘Wah…’

Salvo grabbed the female hologram’s hand and threw it backwards.

‘Don’t do that,’ she shouted, half turning her head.

‘It is in my programming to anticipate the patient’s wishes. I sensed from your body temperature and movements that you desired erotic stimulation, so I advanced.’

‘Your senses were wrong.’

‘Understood. Do you wish me to go directly to your clitoris?’

‘What?’

‘My finger speed is three times that of a typical Nabian male.’

‘Stop. Off. End. Right now.’

‘If fingers are uncomfortable for you, there are other tools available.’

Flipping over, Salvo pushed her right knee into the hologram’s gut, crawled to the control panel and jabbed STOP.

The bed became empty again.

Catching her breath, Salvo resisted the urge to select another hologram and say ‘massage only’, and instead got up and walked to the window.

Planet Not Neptune was up to a quarter of the glass and looking stormy. Too stormy. Some of it seemed to be erupting outwards, too, out into open space.

She turned left, then right, her breath finally returning to normal.

The two neighbouring dorms were visible, but there must’ve been some kind of screen covering the windows as it was impossible to see inside.

Probably filled with more perverts anyway, thought Salvo.

Was the whole station like this?

Trig’s nose let out a defiant whistle, prompting her to turn to his precious logic. Let’s see. She’d met or encountered about ten separate aliens so far. One had sexually assaulted Trig. One had threatened to assault her. The Nabian in the bar, the Terzoan in the corridor outside, the two holograms…they’d all tried something sexual with her.

That was five.

Technically the holograms weren’t real, so call it three.

Three out of ten. Just off the top of her head. Maybe it was more than ten, she couldn’t quite remember.

Three perverts out of ten new faces.

Was that bad?

Wasn’t it just the same in Hong Kong?

She stared at the planet Napla’a for answers and instead got violent blue bursts of an element she couldn’t name.

It’s only for six weeks, she reminded herself, wiping both hands on the meditation pants.

Four of which I’ll be someone else, apparently.

So two more weeks.

Of this.

Her arm spasmed, the same as it had most of the day. The same way it did whenever she started a new job and the boss explained things to her. Whenever she saw the customers’ faces and how inscrutable they were. How compact the working space was.

God…was this really her then?

Erratic forever?

Another burst of blue shot out from the atmosphere of Napla’a, the particles dispersing almost as fast as they’d formed.

Salvo backed away from the window and followed the sound of Trig’s snoring until she was sitting on his bunk.

Any other time, any other place, it’d be deeply annoying, but now…it was real. A genuine, human sound.

‘Just for a while,’ she said, laying down next to him, draping an arm over his waist.