Something rattling around in my head this morning. (Patreon)

Those were the four words that had echoed in my mind this last cycle.  I, Kaita, a simple grade III engineer, had no reason to be arrested in a security sweep.  I followed the laws, paid my taxes every cycle, performed adiquately at work, and was looking forward to finding a mate in the next few cycles.  Now I was one of a hundred people crammed into a transportation pod filled with murderers, rapists, and terrorists.  I hadn't even gotten to speak at my trial, which were with ninteen others far more criminal than I.

And now I was going going to Ferruxe.  Ferruxe!  I could see it out the tiny window over my shoulder.  Gray, black, and red.  It's surface glowed with red spots, like a surreal, magical pox.  Surrounding it was a cloud of thousands, perhaps millions of vessels in the process of being scrapped before being dropped on the world below.

"Quite a sight," rumbled a huge form above me in Galstand.  My ears perked and my tail tucked even tighter between my loins as I dared looked up at the flat faced, scaled... thing... I couldn't identify the species... looking out the window with me.  "I think that's a Korgal battle cruiser.  Didn't think there were any left."

"I shouldn't be here," I replied, speaking for the first time since I'd been thrown in here.  My fur was matted, and I reeked of a panopoly of stress and fear scents.  My own family wouldn't recognize me!  "I shouldn't be here.  I'm not a bad person."

"And I am?" the scaly thing replied, his eye brow arching in what I hoped was an amiable expression.

"I'm just a grade III engineer.  I shouldn't be here.  I should be back on Thach," I whimpered.

The scaled alien leaned down closer to me.  "Listen carefully.  Do you know why you're here?"   I stared at him, as if he had some fundamental truth I needed with an almost spiritual fervor, flatting my ears and finally murmuring a negative squeak.  "You're here... because you were put on a list."

"A list?" I blinked.

"A list," he echoed.  "Somewhere, there's a list with your name on it.  Now maybe you did something to get put on the list.  Maybe someone didn't like you, and that got your name on it.  Maybe you said something in a joke, but others took you seriously.  Maybe you just didn't like something you were supposed to like.  Or maybe your name was supposed to be someone else.  It doesn't matter.  Your name was added to the list, and the Republic security forces picked you up.  Not because you were a bad person.  Not because you did anything wrong.  Just because you were next on the list."

I couldn't stop shaking, curling up as tight as I could, hugging my tail to my chest.  "But... Ferruxe?  I'll die there."  The shaking was bad and getting worse.

"Yes," he said and I suddenly felt a very powerful hand grip my head.  The fingers held my skull in a vice like grasp, yet squeezed no further.  I felt myself still almost immediately.  "I could kill you right now, if you wish.  It will be quick.  You won't hurt much," the huge, scaled thing said in its low voice.

I sat there for far too long.  No one noticed, or if they did, made any effort to intervene.  Then, to my surprise, I whispered, "No."

The hand released my head.  "Then you'll have to die on the Rux.  Maybe you'll die in a few minutes.  Maybe a few cycles.  But you're going to die eventually.  It's your bad luck that its here."

I licked my whiskers, ears folded back as my mind tried to reject that horrible truth, failing.  "What's your name?" I asked.  He resembled a prehistoric predator, all thick limbs and black scales and a thick, finned tail.  It was no challenge to imagine my tree scurrying ancestors behind a meal for his.

"Water Upon Rocks," he replied.  "There's a lot more, but it doesn't translate to Galstand.  You?"

"Kaita, fifth daughter of tech master Karita, of Temama Refuge, Keltana sector, Teeki colony, engineer third class," I babbled out by rote, realizing that almost all of that was utterly meaningless to whatever Water Upon Rocks was.  I'd never even seen another sophont before being thrown in the transport pod.  I doubted he'd seen a Teka like me before.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kaita," Water Upon Rocks said with a soft chuffing noise that I hoped was a chuckle.

Mechanical noises thudded through the pod, and her hackles raised as my sharp nails dug into my tail.  "What's going to happen to us?"

"They're going to drop the pod," Water Upon Rocks answered.  

My tail tip immediately fluffed in alarm.  "Drop the pod!  That's insane!  This isn't a reinforced re-entry pod!"

Again, that chuffing noise.  "Twenty five percent chance we burn up on re-entry or get bounced off into the debris field.  Fifty percent chance we die instantly on impact.  It'll be quick, either way."

I clenched my eyes shut, the shaking returning.  "Why don't they just execute us?"

"Why, how could you say such a thing?" he asked with a gasp, and I peeked up to see the arched brow ridges.  "The Republic doesn't believe in capital punishment.  If you die in transit to a hostile penal colony, that's just your bad luck."

I peeked out the slit like window.  "And if we survive the landing?"

"Then you keep surviving, till you don't," Water Upon Rocks rumbled.

I closed my eyes again, trying not to throw up the small amount of ration bars we'd been given.  I shouldn't be here, repeated, but now it was tinny and dull.  Water Upon Rocks might have been wrong about the list, but the reality was no one came back from Ferruxe.  I didn't want to die, so that meant I had to live.

I regarded the hulking, scaled form.  "I guess you don't belong here either," Isaid, trying to give him an ear smile, but only managing one going half way.

Again, that brow arch.  "Why do you say that?"

My ears drooped in wariness.  "But... I mean... you're nice to me and..."  That chuffing increased in his chest.

His mouth parted, baring pristine white teeth.  "No, Kaita, fifth daughter of Karita.  I assure you, I absolutely should be here."

My sense of reassurance dropped along with the pod as it was jettisoned from the ship, tumbling towards the nightmare below, my ears filled with the screams of the other passengers and Water Upon Rock's chuffing laughter.