Curiosity causes me to take a small step forward. Did they really just eat their comrade? My foot accidentally kicks a metal pipe laying at my feet. Suddenly, the four Ravog turn their heads our direction. A loud noise, a cross between a snarl, a growl, and a howl, comes from their mouths and they run towards us.

          "We are caught! Go! Go! Go!" I shout, turning back around.

           Amlican takes off, but those things are surprisingly fast, because despite my head start, they quickly catch up to me. One of them, grabs me, its long claws digging into my arm, causing searing pain. "Let go!" I shout. I turn and punch the creature in the face, hoping it will loosen its grip. Instead, it digs it's claws in, deeper. I reach for my blade, but another Ravog grabs my other arm before I can reach it. The two of them drag me, kicking and screaming over to their leader. At least Amlican got away.

          "What do you want with me?" I shout, still struggling to get away. But with every movement I am rewarded with more pain.

          "You were spying on us!" the leader shouts, turning his head to the side to look at me and pointing a clawed finger.

          "No, I wasn't. I was walking by. I was lost. I was going to ask for directions." I lie, shaking my head.

          "Where's your friend?"

             "What friend? I was alone. No friends. No one but me." Please let Amlican be hiding, far away.

           "Guess you won't mind when my boys eat this one." the leader says, motioning towards someone, behind me.

            "Astra!" Amlican shouts as one of them drags him over beside me.

            "Amlican! I told you to run! Why are you still here?" I ask in a panic.

              "I wasn't going to leave you alone. I was attempting to rescue you, when this thug caught me." Amlican says.

             "So, you two do know each other." the leader sneers. "Who do you work for? Why were you spying?" He turns his head and walks towards Amlican.

              "We don't work for anyone. We weren't spying. We really were lost." Amlican says.

              "Shut up!" the leader shouts. He turns his head my direction, walks over to me, and puts his face in mine. "You appear to be the leader, I'll give you one more chance to tell me who you work for and if you lie to me, your friend is dead. Got it?"

            "I'm telling you the truth!" I shout.

            "Fine. Have it your way!" the leader shouts, walking over to Amlican. He pulls his hand back and then brings it forward, swiping his sharp claws, down Amlican's chest and then across his stomach. The claws must have cut deep, because blood starts flowing from the wounds, and he falls to the floor, dead. Both Ravog holding me let go and dive for Amlican's dead body. The three of them start eating him.

            I stand and stare at the horrifying spectacle in front of me before I remember the time travel jacket I'm wearing. I double tap on the sleeve, the screen pops up, but before I can start entering a date, a clawed finger slams the screen back closed.

      "I don't think so." A voice hisses.

       I look up, completely confused. Before me stands a Ravog with a gold ring in his nose. It's not the leader that was shouting at me, it's a completely new one. How did he see the screen? Or did he do that by accident?

       "No time traveling here, dearie." the voice hisses again. This time, I realize the voice is feminine. A female warrior?

        "How did you know?" I ask.

        "These jackets were designed in a way that ordinary eyes cannot see it. We, on the other hand, do not see the same way you do. What's invisible to you, is visible to us." she says, clamping a clawed hand onto the arm containing the computer screen.

        The Ravog marches me onto his ship, through twisting halls, stopping outside of a metal door. She lets out a series of high-pitched clicking noises, and I turn to see two more Ravog coming up behind me, neither of which have a gold ring in their nose.

          "If she attempts to run, kill her. If she attempts to access the control panel, kill her." Orders the Ravog who marched me onboard. She turns to me and says, "Now take off that jacket, nice and slow. I can't have the Copaie gaining access to such a dangerous technology."

       I do as I'm told, and the Ravog snatches the jacket and walks away. She shouts back to the others, "throw her in the cell."

         One of the Ravog grabs my arm, and the other punches a series of buttons on the wall next to the door. I hear a click, then a whooshing sound as the doors in front of us open. The room is round with three cells divided like pie wedges in front of us. I am thrown into the middle cell, one of the Ravog pushes another button, and then the two Ravog turn and leave.

         "Well, that was stupid. There are no bars, or anything else to contain me in this cell." I say to myself.

        I start to walk towards the door when I hear a deep, mysterious voice. "I wouldn't if I were you."

        I stop and look around, trying to find the source. "Why not?"

         "There is an electrical current that runs from that black metal post on your left to the one on your right."

        I locate the posts I assume the voice to be talking about and stick my left hand in between them. A hot burning sensation runs through my hand and up my arm, causing me to jerk it back towards me. "Ow!"

        "I told you." The voice says, almost as if it were taunting me.

         I look around my cell and see nothing but solid wall except the bottom of each wall there is a small hole near the floor. The hole doesn't appear very big, about the size of a large drain. This seems to be where the voice is coming from. I walk over to that section of wall and sit down. "Where are you?"

        "I am in the cell next to yours. Didn't you see me when you were brought in?"

         "No, I was a bit preoccupied. So, who are you? And where are you from?"

           "My name is Jalqor and I am a Copaie from the planet Saltu. Who are you?"

          "I am Astra and I am the only Talfarian princess."

         I hear a grunt from Jalqor before he speaks again. "I know I have been locked up for a long time, but not so long that I don't recognize a fellow Copaie. You are no more a Talfarian than I am. Your yellow skin gives you away."

         "I am a Talfarian princess, or rather I was. I am not lying about that. My mother found me abandoned on a planet and took me home, raising me as a Talfarian princess."

        "Then what are you doing here, your highness?" he asks, with a note of sarcasm in his voice.

         "My mother was killed by a man named Malum. Malum then released a virus that would only attack and kill those with Copaie DNA. Someone gave me a time travel jacket and I went back to Natatlils to prevent them from falling in love and getting married." I explain.

        "Don't you know that time travel is both illegal and dangerous?"

         "Did I mention that the virus was dropped on Saltu and was carried by other races so that every Copaie, except for me, was extinct? So, not really a future I would care to repeat."

         "Point taken."

          "How did you end up on this ship? What did you do to get yourself captured by the Ravog?"

         "I offered to show them how to work some secret Copaie technology."

         "What technology?"

          "If I told you that, it wouldn't be much of a secret, would it?"

           "Why would you betray your own people? What did they offer you? Money?"

          Jalqor lets out a deep hearty laugh before answering, "Money? Please. There isn't enough money in all of existence; past, present, or future." He drops his voice to a whisper. "I'm on a secret mission from the General himself."

         "What's your mission?" I whisper.

       "There you go, wanting to know secrets, again, I can't tell you or it wouldn't be a secret. Now go find your bed and go to sleep, we will talk again in the morning."