Luke woke up in the now familiar position of Aisell’s lap. He looked up along the towering cliff of Aisell’s body. She was wearing a tight dark top and a red skirt on the bottom. A bit more fashionable than her cleaning attire and more appropriate for being out in public than her nightie. He could see she was once again buried in her pad reading something. She had a rather serious expression on her face. He wasn’t quite ready for conversation yet and decided to keep quiet. He had some thinking to do.

“What if she’s not lying…what if I really can’t get home?” Luke thought staring up at the underside of his bed’s chin.

He mulled over his options. Stay here on the station and try to find some way home. He didn’t know anyone besides Aisell and half the people here seemed to want to kill him. On the other hand if he left he’d never see his family or live a normal life again but at least Aisell would look after him. If he went with her and became her pet he’d be safe and cared for but he’d also lose his free will, any chance of meeting a girl and falling in love, having kids or do any of the things he’d spent his life dreaming of doing.

He wracked his brain. Jumping back and forth between staying on the station or going with Aisell.

“No…I can’t stay…I won’t be a pet. No matter how nice Aisell is I will not be anyone’s pet.” He sat up trying to harden his resolve. The last few months had been tough and he knew once Aisell left it would only get tougher. He needed to learn to read so he could find his way around the station and find out which ships were going where. It was the only chance he’d have of finding a ship going to Earth. If one actually did go to Earth.

“Heeeey…you’re awake.” Aisell said looking down with what Luke could tell was a nervous forced smile.

“Yep, think I’m still not at my best after the other night. I just sorta drifted off.” Luke said rubbing the back of his neck.

“Can I get you anything?”

“No I’m good” Luke said and then sighed. He was getting bored of the dynamic they had somehow found themselves in. They would be nervous and awkward, then get comfortable with each other and then something would happen that would send them back a few steps. Their relationship seemed to one of snakes and ladders.

“Actually there is something you could do for me.” Luke said standing up.

Aisell lowered her hand down to her lap and let Luke step in. He seemed like he was getting the hang of it now and chose to stand rather than sit as she raised him up her face. “Sure, what is it?”

“I’d like to learn to read your language.” Luke said staring into her ice blue eyes.

Aisell’s brow ruffled a bit confused. “Can you guys read?”

“YES!” Luke shouted looking rather offended. “Before I got kidnapped I was studying literature! Not only can I read but I can write too! I told you this!”

“Oh…sorry…” Aisell grimaced. “Well sure I’ll do what I can. I’m no teacher though. Funnily enough I was just reading over articles on the security measures around Earth, to see if there are any gaps.”

“What does it say?” Luke asked excited.

“Ehhh well I’ll show you…if I’m going to teach you to read we have to start somewhere” she said sitting up and turning round to face the wall. She placed her pad against the pillow and let Luke step off her hand in front of the pad.

Luke felt the whole bed shudder and creak as Aisell lowered her massive weight down onto her front. The surface of bed started to incline as it adjusted to her. He still couldn’t believe how big she was, she must have weighed hundreds of tonnes easily. And she looked so damn skinny as well. If she was Human sized he could have thrown her over his shoulder without much effort at all.

“Now then!” Aisell said pointing to the pad with her extended index finger. She had noticed Luke gawking at her as she lay down. She didn’t like feeling like a circus attraction but she found the role reversal of a Human watching a Titan like a performing animal to be amusing. “We break words down into letters represented by symbols…”

Aisell went over the symbols and the word structure with Luke for a few minutes. Some of the symbols looked very familiar. He had studied ancient Greece as a hobby and was familiar with the language to an extent. Alpha, omega, pi, lambda and many others were there. Not exactly as he knew them but eerily similar. Luke already had a good grasp of the spoken language and with his existing knowledge of ancient Greek allowed him to pick up a few words quite quickly.

“Wow! You’re picking this up quick!” Aisell said more than surprised.

Luke chuckled quite pleased at being able to show he wasn’t a simpleton. “Well I can speak the language so I have a head start…plus I recognise a lot of these symbols already.”

“What?! What do you mean you recognise them!?”

“Well we call this symbol Sigma” Luke said pointing to a letter on the screen “It’s from an ancient language, over 3000 years old.”

“That’s really weird that you guys would come up with similar characters, I wonder if it’s coincidence?” Aisell asked.

Luke raised an eyebrow “Really Aisell? You guys have been interfering with Earth for a while, it’s clearly cultural contamination. A lot of these symbols are used in every day languages and mathematics. Nicely done on the non-interference side.”

“Hey!” Aisell said crossing her arms across her chest. Luke didn’t seem to be being playful. “Don’t blame me! I had nothing to do with it!”

“Ok…ok…” Luke said realising he may have hit a nerve. “Did you find anything in there that could help me?”

“Ehhh well I learned the Sol System is dotted with sensor arrays and there are VERY few gaps…it didn’t even say where. There’s also patrol ships including one of The Fleet’s fastest cruisers, The Gyfjon, ready to destroy any ship that approaches Earth.” Aisell pointed to a long, sleek, shiny looking ship on the screen. “There’s plenty of documented cases of smuggler’s ships being destroyed in order to prevent them reaching Earth. The one that got you was exceptionally lucky…”

Luke looked over a long list of confirmed kills and the map of the location. VERY few had even made it anywhere near Earth’s moon never mind Earth itself. The origin of the ships also appeared to be extra-solar. It didn’t make sense to leave from an Imperial station to violate an Imperial embargo.

“It does not look good…not good at all…” the dejection was clear in his tone and Aisell couldn’t help but place her thumb along his back in a hug like embrace.

She wanted to offer for him to come with her, not as a pet but as a friend but she needed to let him work through this. He was clearly worried about ending up like every other Human in the Empire and that wasn’t unfounded. She did want to take him as her pet when she thought he was just a stray Empire raised Human. He needed to get to properly trust her before she could even consider raising it with him again.

“If there’s a way off Earth, there’s a way back.” Luke said forcing determination into his voice.

“Well we have a few days to keep looking but for now I have to go to work!” Aisell said getting up and walking to her drawers removing her work clothes from the drawer. Luke automatically turned around to give Aisell some privacy. He didn’t want to come across like a creep again.

“Thank you!” Aisell said cheerily pulling her baggy cleaning clothes over her head.

“You can turn around now.” She said heading back over to the bed when she had finished getting ready. “Do you want to stay here or do you want to come with me to work?”

Luke pondered for a moment. He didn’t really want to spend a full Earth day on his own in an oversized room. “Ehhh I’ll come with you if you don’t mind.”

Aisell smiled and set her hand down beside Luke. “I hoped you’d say that. C’mon let’s go!”

“You have no idea how much that thing terrified me!” Luke said from the safety of the table top.

Aisell looked down at the decon unit she had just activated, ready to clean. “What this thing? It’s harmless!” She added a titter at the end to be extra patronising.

“It dissolves EVERYTHING underneath it!” Luke said with a terrified expression on his face.

Aisell grinned wildly and lowered her hand slowly down towards the glowing, green disk. Her fingers got closer and closer and Luke felt an instinctive shiver run up his spine.

“Aisell! Don’t!” He screamed.

Aisell held her hand under the green disk and it was bathed in green light but nothing happened.

“What the…?” Luke said taking a step forward.

“It automatically detects living creatures!” Aisell smiled and took her hand out from underneath. “It can’t hurt you, silly!”

Luke’s eyes were wide with disbelief. “You mean?! I was terrified of getting killed by that! For months! And it could never have hurt me!?”

Aisell laughed more and Luke’s shocked expression. “Nope, you were perfectly safe.” She quickly snapped the decon unit up and held it mere feet from Luke’s face. He was bathed in a glowing green light and a high pitched buzzing. He stumbled back terrified, not quite convinced he was safe but nothing happened and Aisell lowered the unit giggling. She locked eyes with the terrified looking Luke.

“You have no idea how many times I ran from that thing! Ran from you!” Luke shouted.

“Awww…you ran from me? But I’m so pretty!” Aisell cooed as she started to dance up the isle cleaning under the tables.

Luke sat down on the table’s surface and watched Aisell work. He’d seen her do this dance many times but never from this angle. It was actually quite pleasant to watch from the vantage of the table top. And she was right, she was very pretty.

“It’s your fault I’m this skinny, ya know?” Luke shouted to her instantly regretting it the moment the words left his mouth. She was some distance away now.

“What?!” Aisell said turning off the decon unit. She looked quite shocked.

“Ehhh…never mind…” Luke backed off realising just how guilty Aisell would feel if she knew the truth.

Aisell marched over the Luke’s table and crossed her arms over her chest. Luke was only at waist height and she was glaring down at him from on high looking quite annoyed at the accusation.

“I helped you! Gave you food! Just how did I starve you!?” She demanded.

Luke decided Aisell’s reaction was unjust given that it was her fault he’d barely eaten for weeks. He was rather annoyed at how she was looming over him like she was. “You and your cleaning! The last cleaner was lazy! Always late! Slow! She left loads of stuff!” He stalled for a second as Aisell’s expression started to soften. He decided to tone down his shouting. “But you were always on time…always so damned thorough…you left nothing…”

Aisell’s face broke into a look of deep sadness and she dropped to her knees bringing guilt etched visage right up to the edge of the table. “Luke…I…why didn’t you say something?”

“Sorry Aisell…it’s not your fault…you were just doing your job…” Luke walked towards her. He felt her warm, soft breath wash over him as he got closer. “I couldn’t say anything…I was terrified of you, that device, everything really…” He reached out with a hand and stroked the warm, smooth skin of her cheek. “If it weren’t for your kindness, I’d have starved to death by now. Or been killed by that monster. You’ve saved me a few times now…don’t feel bad.”

“Luke…I…” Aisell said before she was cut off.

“Evening Miss Maris.” A loud, male voice spoke behind her.

Aisell shot up to her full height and turned around nearly blowing Luke over with her wake. “Chief Kir…it’s…nice to see you.”

“You too young Miss. I’m very happy to not have to arrest you this evening!” The large man said getting closer.

“Of course, I told you, I’m not a thief.” Aisell said removing the nerves from her voice. She had no reason to fear Kir but some of the station’s military personnel could be quite rude. The younger men often flirted aggressively with her or tried to get her to go back to their quarters. They rarely accepted “no” from her the first time.

Kir got a bit closer and relaxed his posture a bit. He spotted Luke creep out from behind Aisell on the table. “And just how is the little fella then?” Kir said extending a finger to Luke causing him to dart back behind her.

Aisell smiled and stepped aside giving Luke a full view of the man who dwarfed Aisell. “He’s called Luke. He doesn’t like being called little…”

“Oh right? Precocious Human ain’t he?”

“He’s from Earth…he’s been living under the canteen since he escaped the pet shop.” Aisell explained.

Kir took a few steps closer making Luke quite nervous but he decided to hold his ground. Kir locked his eyes on him and grinned. “Living here on the station for all these months by yourself? I’ve got to admire that. You’re a survivor you are!”

“How do you know I’ve been here for months…?” Luke spoke up, his curiosity overriding his anxiety.

“My old partner and I, we caught some insectoid smugglers with a batch of Humans taken from Earth. We gave them to the pet shop owner. There ain’t been another batch as long as I can remember…”

“How long ago was that?” Aisell asked.

Kir stroked the hair on his chin for a few seconds and looked up towards the high ceiling. “I suppose it must have been four…four and a half months back.”

“Four and a half months…feels longer…” Luke gasped. “Do you know any way I can get back to Earth?”

Kir grimaced. He didn’t usually talk to animals, even the talking kind but this one was tugging on his heart strings. “Sorry kid…no ships go to Earth, them’s the rules. Any ship that goes through the cordon gets taken out by the fly boys…”

Luke sunk back into himself feeling thwarted yet again. He was getting pretty sick of it. Kir noticed just how much effect his glib words seemed to have on the poor creature and he looked to Aisell who had her eyes fixed on Luke. “I’ll leave you to your cleaning then Miss, take care.”

Aisell waited for a few seconds for Kir to round the corner before dropping to her knees to face Luke. She could see tears running down his face and his lip trembling. As his eyes looked into hers his face cracked and he started to sob heavily.

“I just want to go home…please Aisell…l want to go home!” he cried.

Aisell gently wrapped a hand around Luke and held him into the top of her chest, stroking the back of his head with her thumb. “Oh Luke…I’m so sorry…”