Sugar w'ere going down.

“No.” He answered surprising me.

“Your punishment yes., but not what they decided for your world. It is unjust.” Unjust? I thought. That was the word he used for a planet being destroyed?! I said nothing out loud however just lay where I was.

'You need to get up now or...”

“You will kick me?” I finished for him. Was that a hint of a grin on his face?

“If you don't move fast enough.” and just like that it was gone. Might as well go ahead and get up. Lot of good I was doing anybody on ground. My outburst had been childish, but it had made me feel a little better. Not much, but it had let me get someone of the pent up rage out. So I stood and without a another word began following Tober back to the ship.

If I had not stepped on it, I never would have known I had dropped the mysterious device Medi had given me. I didn't even know what it was until I looked down. Making sure Tober's back was still turned I quickly squatted down and slipped and back in my sleeve and then rose with him none the wiser.

We made our way back to the ship and soon we had taken off back into space again and back toward what would be my home for the rest of my life. Yet again silence lapped. I felt no need to break it and instead slumped in my chair eyes closed. I did not bother looking out the window anymore. Two roundabouts passed without incident and I suddenly felt the ship lurch violently to the right, throwing me from my chair.

“What happened!” I asked, alarmed as I picked myself up. The ship suddenly plunged downwards and I felt my stomach jump to my thought. I gripped the sides of the seat with both hands, wondering why aliens had never heard of seat belts.

"We are being attacked!' came the frantic reply from Tober.

'We are what?!” I glanced behind us and out the back window to see a much large ship advancing on us. Blue spheres of light would shoot from the ship, ones we only narrowly managed to avoid. My heart leapt to my throat. Who where they? Why where they attacking us?

“Why?!' I asked but got no answer Likely because he was to busy on trying to not get hit. My gaze flickered between him and the ship which was still on our tail Suddenly one of the beams of light struck the ship and it shuddered violently. A siren began to emit. One that made me clamp my hand over my ears . I felt something catch around my midsection and let out a screech. I looked down to see a bar of sorts had suddenly restrained me to the chair. I clawed at it, but it held.

' Reap or pact!” Shouted Tober above the siren

“What!?” I screamed back.

“Prepare for impact!” Impact? What impact I thought?! Then looked out in front, we where hurtling toward a planet a large green looking planet. I watched as it drew closer and closer and felt myself pinned back in my seat. Splotches of blackness began to invade my vision as we drew closer and before I knew what was happening I had blacked out complete. I could definitively cross astronaut off my job list.

The first thing I realized when I came to was that I hurt. I felt like I had been put inside a washing machine. I groaned and opened my eyes to see I was still in my seat, but it seemed the bar had disappeared. I tested my limbs and was amazed to see that nothing appeared broken, just really stiff and sore. I forced myself to stand groaning the whole while but I made it to my feet. I looked around the ship and the first thing I noticed out the see through walls was that we had landed. Massive tree trunks spread out in every direction.

The second thing I noticed was that Tober was laying unmoving on the floor of the ship. Dead or alive, I could not tell and part of me debating with just leaving him there and trying to find a way out of the ship. The thought came and went however. I couldn't do that, not even to Tober. Instead I mad my way over and squatted down besides him. The thought to try and kick him awake was tempting but one that I resisted. Instead I put a tentative hand on his shoulder and gave it a small nudge.

“Ummm.... Tober?” I said awkwardly, not knowing what to do. How do you check a cyborg to see if it was alive? Could you damage their back if you moved them? Did they even have a spine? When that did not work, I looked him over checking for what I did not know. An on and off switch maybe? I found nothing and he still looked as dead as a doornail. Finally I stood with my hands on my hips as I stared down at him. Maybe he needed a jolt or something. You could poor water on people and they would come awake. I was worried water would fry him. Besides we had no water or anything else.

I drew back my foot and kicked him in his midsection. My foot clanked against metal and I was drawing it back I felt something suddenly latch onto my leg and yank hard causing me to topple over onto my back. I winced and then craned my neck to see an angry looking Tober standing above me.

“What the frag!” Maybe I should have just left him where he was.

“I.... you weren't moving!” I stammered praying he didn't start cooking my insides.

“So you decided to kick me?”

“It worked.” I managed with a weak grin. Tober growled but said nothing and I climbed to my feet.

“Where are we exactly?” I asked as I peered out the window. It looked like a prehistoric jungle.

“An unregistered planet. I had to veer off course when we where under attack. “

“and who attacked us?”

“I don't know he admitted.” He began to move around the ship, pressing a button here or there or toggling a switch. I stood around feeling useless. He mumbled under his breath the whole time and while I did not catch a single word I could tell he was not happy. Finally he slammed a fist into the control panel.

“What?” I asked

“The whole ship's dead. I have no way to send a distress signal out.”

“So we are stuck here then?” I asked, putting two and two together.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Is there anyone out there” I said with a gesture beyond the walls of the ship. “That would help?”

“I said it was an unregistered planet.”

'”I don't know what that means.” I admitted.

“It means the species are considered even more primitive then your kind. They have no contact with life outside their own.” Well, that was just great. It looked like we where stuck here indefinably

“Soo...err, what now?” I asked

“I am going to try and work on the ship to see if anything can be savaged or repaired. You are going to stay out of my way.”

'I can leave.” I suggested

“You do and you will be dead before you get a foot out the ship. You are still under my care. You are a prisoner.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. He was still on this kick. So I sat and watched and was a good little prisoner . After about two roundabouts I grew bored of being a good prisoner. Besides that I was hungry and thirsty. It had been close to an entire roundabout since I had last had something to eat or drink.

“I, uhhh.... need something to eat.”

'To bad.” Snapped Tober not looking up from what he was tinkering away at.

“I have to have something to drink at least.” I tried. Again with his growl.

“There is a stream twenty Links ahead. You veer off the path and you will regret it”

“Links?” I asked. It was a measurement more than likely, but I had no idea what it was. It could be feet or miles.

“I keep forgetting your species. Just keep walking in front of the ship in a straight line and you will come across it.”

'You are trusting me to go alone?”

“I will be be able to watch your every move. I will notice if you attempt to get away. You have ten clinks to be there and back.”

“The, uhh... door.” I commented. I hoped it would open without power. Being stuck in a ship with Tober would be hell. Not to mention slowly starving to death in the process. Thankfully he managed to get the door opened while giving another warning about coming back.

I stepped out onto my second alien planet in the same day. This one was vastly different from the last one in that where where trees. Massive trees that stretched up as far as the eyes could see and where as big around as houses. They would have put the redwoods to shame. The trunks where an odd yellow white in color and the leaves that had fallen where the size of some cars . Vines snaked around the trunks of the trees and across the ground like dozens, no hundreds of snakes. I could hear strange alien like cries, excuse the pun calls from above. Birds, I thought. Birds, I hopped.

There was a piercing wailing sound that came from somewhere to my right. It reminded me a little of a tornado siren going off, a sound that always managed to chill me when I heard it in movies or on television. I quickened my step ready to get to the water and return back to the ship. About one hundred feet in I could barley see it when I glanced behind me and I still saw no source of the so called steam. Either Tober had eagle eyes or he was screwing with me. Why screw with me, I thought? It made no sense. A few more feet onwards and the trees cleared somewhat and the land slopped downwards. I thought I caught sight of something glimmering up ahead.

A few more yards and I could clearly see the stream now, just as Tober had said. I hurried toward it, my thirst pulling me. The water looked like...water. I mean it looked like our water that is. I squatted down and scooped up a hanful and took a small sip. It tasted like water, ice cold refreshing water and I quickly slurped down the rest. After sevreal mouthfuls of water I was finally beginning to feel better. I would have liked to have stayed longer, but knew Tober was waiting for me.

I was about to stand when I heard something out of the ordinary. Or at least if you considered a voice to be out of the ordinary.

"Watch it Nyiat!” I froze, heart pounding. That was not Tober's voice.

“You watch it!' Another voice hissed back. It sounded like it was coming from down the hill. Still crouched I looked ahead and saw several figures about fifteen yards in front of me where the ground began to even out.

“Where the frag are we?' The first voice I had heard spoke up again. There was something about the voice that I did not like. Something that was not friendly. I moved down the stream, still keeping low and cheeped up behind a large bush with purple leaves. I counted half a dozen figures in all and they where of a race I had not seen before. They where tall and lizard like, or maybe more alligator like would have been a better time for they had squaring snouts and where more... bumpy. Nearly all of them carried a small devices in their hands that from here I could not identify. Hell, I probably could not identify them up if I had them in my own hands.

“An uncharted planet. It was where Tober's ship went down.” They knew Tober I thought. Could they be here to rescue us then? Maybe I was just being overly paranoid. Yet I didn't move from hiding spot, something kept me there.

“Well, we had better find him fast then. I have no urge to spend any longer in this planet then I have to.

“Quit your fragging. Our scanners show he went down in this area.”

'Shame we couldn't have taken the gunner ship and just blown him up in one shot.” Said another voice. Where they the ones that had been shooting at us? Why? Well, I could think of ten reasons of the top of my head why they would want to take down Tober

“It was being worked on. Besides, I prefer the thrill of the hunt.”

I needed to alert Tober. If these aliens where after him then that meant they where after me as well since I was stuck with him. I should head back before he gets impatient and comes looking for me. Against an unarmed human female he had no problem, but against six others?