I plop down on the white cot and rub my hands over my bald head. It's so strange to feel the smooth dome that used to have long, thick, tangled strands of near-black mess.

Rubbing my head reminds me of Simon. My heart—heavy with the worry for all the people in my life—cracks. I don't know where I've had all these tears stored, but they break free again.

I scream and push myself forward, slamming into the invisible barrier. An electric bolt rips through my body on impact. I stumble backward and shake my head to clear the low-voltage buzz.

The shock wasn't so bad before. It seems as though the harder I make contact with the forcefield, the more potent the shock is.

The lingering current tingles.

The door is just on the other side of whatever this is. It tricks me, making me think I can walk across the room and let myself out of this disaster. But I can't. Not unless I can break through the wall first.

Backing up until I'm pressed against the wall next to my personal toilet, I prepare for launch.

An abrupt snore startles me from my concentration.

A few cots down, a man is face-first in the canvas cot. He shifts and snorts in his sleep.

No time to think about my audience. It's time to get out of here.

I run.

I smash my body against the electric wall that I can't see.

The shock spits me to the ground where I land hard on my back. On shaky legs, my bones still rattling, I rise.

The crackle of the wall prickles my hand, but seeing nothing in front of me, my frustration erupts. It hums under my skin as I consider it, contemplate what kind of technology could create such a field and what it would take to disable it. Or how much force.

I don't deserve to sit here and patiently wait for someone to tell me I can go get my baby now. Pressing one finger against the barrier doesn't bother me much. It's a tiny pricking, igniting my anger.

"Girlie, that's gonna make you black out faster than a rhino horn to the bunghole. Step down," says the voice from the cot.

"Don't tell me what to do." I lay my hand flat again and have to shake the high-pitched vibrations out of my head.

"Suit yourself."

Clenching my jaw, I slam the rest of my body against it. Once. Twice. The bolt cracks through my body like an entire skeleton being snapped in half one bone at a time. The world spins. I tilt and land hard on the tiles.

Enough for today.

I crawl to my cot and glare at the invisible wall from the cold floor tiles.

Hours pass. The back of my head throbs. My neck and back are stiff from all the impacts I've endured these last few days since breaking free from the cylinders. I hardly slept more than a few elongated blinks while curled into the cold floor. I can't stomach lying on another cot in this reoccurring nightmare. Not again.

Sitting up, I stretch my neck and wince when it cracks. I miss my bed on ARC10 more than I ever thought I would.

"Morning, Princess. I told you—"

"I don't care what you said."

"Okay, okay." He raises his hands in surrender. "Big tough girl with rocks in her britches. I see."

I slowly rise from the floor and stand, pushing forward again, seeing if I can break through the barrier.

"It ain't going to work."

I make eye contact with the stranger as I lean into the current, straining against the initial shock. I back up. The stranger reclines on the bench, lazily following my progress with pale blue eyes.

I look to my left and notice he and I are the only ones here. "It's worth trying."

He swivels around and places both large bare feet on the floor. "You think I haven't?"

I push harder, the buzz increasing again.

"Stop now while you're still conscious."

"I need to get out."

"We all have needs, girlie."

"I need to save my son."

He pauses. "Moon took your kid?"

I back off. The buzzing dies immediately. "No. Juno. Juno has my baby."

A stretch of silence fills the room. I turn to face him and catch his confusion and his pity. "That's some bad fucking news."

"So I've heard." I step back one more step so the ringing in my ears will silence. "What do you know about her?"

He rests his elbows on his knees. "Not much. You get different intel depending on who you're asking."

"I'm asking you."

"Never met her."

I shake out the tingles in my fingers. "What if I asked Teeno?"

"Teeno says she's a cutthroat entrepreneur with a gut for dirty business."

"And Nuna?" I swallow hard.

"A shit-souled, gold-coated autocrat jacking herself off on her absolute rule born from cold-blood." The man looks off to the side, staring a hold into the nearest wall. "And Moon? He don't say much about their past. But you don't need to say anything to get him started on his opinion of her."

"Manipulator, he called her."

"That's one. Among others."

I lean against the same wall he's staring into. We're separated by four sets of cots, sinks, and toilets, so I can't really see the details of his face. "I don't care who she is. I need to get to her and get back what she stole."

"And what was that?"

"My son."

We take a beat to sit in silence. After a few minutes, my brig-mate stretches, popping his spine as he leans back. "I'd give anything to find my family. Can't tell you how long I been up here. Moon and his crew don't keep track of Earth days. Says it's pointless to think about a life and timeline that's meaningless to us now. Have to say I agree on most days, but then I get to thinking about my girls. I want to know if my babies got married to decent men and have babies of their own." He leans farther and stares at the ceiling. "I've been concocting a way to head back for at least ten clyks now. No luck, but I ain't giving up."

He doesn't know. "Earth is dead. The Invaders destroyed it all twenty-five years ago. We were all that was left." I turn away so I don't have to see his reaction.

Even though I'm desperate for more information, I don't disturb the new intensity. I stare at the door that leads out of the room and will it to open, for Moon to step through so I can pop him right in his throat.

"It's gone? Honest?"

I cross my arms and stare harder at the door. "Twenty-five years ago."

We are quiet for a very long time.

"Juno makes gold." The stranger stands and plods over until he's facing me. He's bulky, fair-haired and dusted with freckles. "She's had the monopoly in the galaxy until Moon stole her algorithms and started making gold himself. Back on. . . " He trails off. "It's more valuable here than I ever dreamed it'd be. Creatures kill for it. Most precious metal around. And Juno was the only one who could whip it up from scratch. Until Moon took her cookbook, that is."

"That explains a lot." I look around the room again, still avoiding eye contact with the man.

"Rumor has it that he and Juno used to be together. Lovers or some shit. But he stole her methods and is now a direct competitor. We raid slave markets, freeing the abductees from Earth before she can. Her whole business is freeing the people from the markets, giving them a chance to be free, to run her gold factory—or take their chance on their own. Sometimes we make it and save them, sometimes we don't."

I grimace and turn to face him. "That's disgusting. He's benefitting from trafficking trafficked Earthlings."

"Earthen. They call us Earthen out here. Or Softies because we're so pliable. It's why there's a big demand for us. We're small, bendy, smart, and strong. Not too many species can brag all four of those qualities."

"Were you abducted?" This feels like a really personal question. I regret it the second it comes out of my mouth.

"Sure thing. Taken from my bedroom with my wife sleeping right there. Thought I was a goner until Moon's men flooded the place and got me and six others. Still a whole group of them that didn't make it. I thank the Lord every day for that small miracle."

"What miracle? You're trapped here."

"It could've been worse. Rumor is Juno works her captured Earthen to the bone. Moon treats us fair. He protects us. Asks nothing of us that he wouldn't do himself or hasn't done already."

I return to glaring at the door. "What planet is that asshole from, anyway?"

"Earth. Like you and me."

I double-take. The man's muscular arms cross over his chest. Our stances are identical. His boots are tied up tight and his green tank is stretched against his broad chest. He glares at the same door like me. I suddenly relax in his presence. "Military?"

"United States Marine Corps. Ooorah, sister."

"Earth's Militia Reaper. Commander Janika Lorn."

"Master Gunnery Sergent Falcon Elias."

I nod at him. He nods in return. It's all the introduction we really need. The brotherhood has already united us. "So Falcon—"

"Elias."

"Elias. How the fuck are we going to get out of here?"

Just as he opens his mouth to respond, the enormous black door before us flies open, crashing against the wall and bouncing back. Moon strides through.

"I told you I'd explain it all once we got on the ship. But you had to go throwing your weight around like you didn't trust me to fulfill my end of the deal." He grumbles as he paces the space between the door and where I'm still standing with my hands on my hips. "Now you're a prisoner," he stops before me, faces me, and shouts so loud, I have to fight the need to recoil. "Now you're my prisoner. Does this please you? There's nothing here to help you and all you managed to do was piss me off."

I can hear the soft hum of gears again.

"You're going to fester in here you miserable smudge."

I take a swipe at him, attempting to cut his chin with my elbow. The patch on my arm halts my progress mid-air. It never makes contact with his face. We lock eyes, him glaring at me through the strands of his black hair covering his face. I glower over my raised arm as it trembles with effort against the electric forcefield. I want to connect it to his bones, but I can't move it another inch forward. I don't drop it even though I know it's fruitless.

"That's no way to speak to a lady, Captain," Elias says.

Moon rounds on my new friend, his black coat billowing behind him. His glare would pierce the bars of our cells if we had them. "What lady? All I see a petulant ingrate. When she's willing to listen, I'll speak."

He exits, slamming the door behind him.

"What was that about?" I drop my arm and relax, breaking my lock-kneed stance and slump onto the floor.

"He's prone to outbursts. He's got some screws loose, they say. Literally."

I can't shake of the familiarity of being near him. The shape of his eyes, gold and organic, the curve of his cheek, I'm drawn toward them. But it's crazy. "Are you sure he's human?"

"There's lots of different kinds of humans out here."

"Earthli— Earthen? Are you sure he's from our planet?"

"No one can be sure of anything when it comes to Captain Moon. Some say he's over five hundred years old. Story goes, he's had his skeleton torn out and replaced with alien fixtures. Some say it was because he was made to be a super-soldier. Some say it's because he was supposed to be Juno's pet monster, consuming his lovers after she watches him fuck them.I don't know what to believe."

Lovers. The word triggers cold loneliness. "So how do we get out?"

"We bide our time until they release us."

"Are you kidding? There has to be—"

"You saying you don't think I've tried? How do you think I got into this place to begin with?"

I raise my eyebrow at him.

"Caught stealing an EVAC pod. Tried to escape to get back to Earth and home to my girls. I've been stuck here about three clyks now."

Lady Almighty, I wish McCroy was here to geek out and help me understand the timeline I'm suffering through.

He must sense my confusion. "It's a long fucking time."

"So how do we bide our time."

He spins around, showing me all his straight teeth and the mischevious glint in his blue eyes. He extends an arm and leans against the back wall, crossing his ankles casually. "We do what we do best."