2938: Rigel

Chapter one: The Ragged Stars
. The stars shone raggedly through the porthole of the century ship as security officer Andronicos Rex walked along the empty hallways keeping an eye on his wristband which was tied to the ships systems. Just as he was about to return to his cryopod to sleep a way the remainder of the journey to Rigel his wristband began to beep with increasing urgency letting him know that a pod in sub deck p6 was opening they were still 3 light years from their destination. There was no reason for those pods to be opening this far from port.

He made his way to the lift and swiped his card and punched in his hexadecimal security access code. After a few minutes the ship's computer replied access to sub deck p6 was restricted to administrative personnel only.

He brought up the ship's layout on the screen and cross referenced it with the ship's manifest. According to the manifest that sub deck was carrying child slaves bound for the royal pleasure palaces.

After much hemming and hawing Andronicos decided the best course of action was to take the maintainance ladder.

After what seemed like an eternity he finally reached deck p. For several minutes Andronicos pushed on the hatch with all his strength. Then as considering what to do first one then two then three slender fingers slid into the small space between the hatch and the bulkhead and swung open the hatch with astonishing ease.

As he climbed out of the maintaince tube he looked at his would be rescuer for the first time. She was a willowy girl wearing a floral dress. He noted with a growing unease that her eyes multifaceted like an insect and she had 3 fingers on each hand 3 toes on her bare feet.
As she watched her nervously who are you he demanded in a in a gruff voice she just looked at him levelly without answering then finally said my name is Arielis and may I ask who are you he said nothing for a long time then finally grudgingly said my name is andronicus what are you doing out of your party asked she said I could ask you the same thing I'm a security officer he said I was just finishing my rounds when your pod opened.