Diary of a space station swabber

Sidereal year 4301. Day 252.

Sidereal year 4301. Day 252.I woke up to the creaking sound of the opening door of my cell, as a pair of handcuff landed on my head.

"Put it on!” commanded Lydia in an imperative voice.

I put on the handcuff and waited, as I’ve been told. Soon, the door opened and there she was. She seemed so much different than her former self on the Space Station. She wore something that mostly reminded me of a uniform and I could read from her whole radiance that it would be the wrong time to cheek her.

"Follow me. Don’t stay behind, don’t ask any questions! You will know everything soon enough."

Given my hopeless situation, I had no other choice than to obey. We roamed through many corridors until we reached the room we headed to. There were four others, waiting for us. I understood that one of them must be the kind fellow who knocked me out. Twice.

"Welcome at StarShine!" said Lydia "We brought you here because we did not want an innocent citizen to die for our cause."

"How nice of you"

"I don’t remember giving you the permission to speak." I could almost literally see the flames in her eyes, so I decided to shut my mouth. I did not risk provoking her and end up thrown out to space… after she saved me from certain death, as I was thrown out to space.

"You’ve already met me. My name is really Lydia. Let me introduce you to the rest of the crew."

Bale mostly reminded me of a walking reptile, with his green skin. Dom was humanoid, with fair hair, yet I felt something really uncanny about him which made me doubt that he is actually human. Rox was enormous, with reddish skin, but otherwise, he seemed like a humanoid; probably a Ploxar. And most probably, it was his punch I had close encounters with. Last, but not least, Queep was a skinny creature, seemingly weak, but his gaze made me suspect that there is more under his purple skin that meets the eye.

"We were all slaves at Xendon. Today, we are assassins, killing for the revolution. You might not know, but there is a civil war raging on Xendon since the Emperor disinherited his youngest son. He did not agree with his father’s way of politics. Since that day, his primal goal is to upset the current government and give back the power to the people. This is why needed to assassinate the Royal family.

This is the reason you are here now. We have two choices from now on. We can either land you at the next planet in our way, or you can join us in the revolution. It is your choice.

"But… the Royal family is over, right? Doesn’t it mean the end of the war?" my confusion was just logical since I thought that the members of the Royal family meant that three people at the Space Station and they were already dead.

"No. In fact, it is just started. Now that the Emperor, the Empress, and the crown prince died, their relatives are going crazy. Everyone, who has some connection to the family through bloodline, is now trying to grasp the power. Until now, we had to play against one enemy, but now we have numerous new opponent in the game."

"And aren’t you afraid that the cast-away guy will eventually claim the throne to himself?"

"He could have done it by now. But if it happens… we know very well what do to."

"Where are we heading now?" I asked as I curiously peeked out at the window of the spaceship.

"To the AA00AA Space Station."

By that time, I had absolutely no strength to hide my shock.

"That one is destroyed completely" I shook my head "It was driven into its own star when they found out that all the whole self-supporting system is past bearing. It was cheaper to build a brand new one."

. "Yes. We want everyone to believe that. Unless the AA00AA is not destroyed at all, it was replaced somewhere hidden. If you come with us, you will be convinced."

I didn’t know how long I was standing there, all pensively. It could be for ten seconds or ten minutes or even hours before Rox let out an impatient, thundering growl.

"What? Are you having a stroke?" Lydia’s urgent voice rived me from my thoughts "It cannot be that hard to decide."

I gave the crew of the StarShine the once-over and my gaze ended up on Lydia.

"I will join you."