Chapter 5: Hours

I was 13 space years old when Riker rescued me from The Zoo. On that same day, he tried to leave me. I wouldn't go because, ironically, I felt safer with him. But I also wouldn't leave his ship because I thought it was a trap. Stay or go, I couldn't help but think I was screwed, so I stayed.

I saw that he killed the people who held me captive. I saw him set the other children free, but something told me if I left that ship, I'd only end up somewhere worse than before.

So I hid.

Riker had just let the other children off his ship. When he returned to get back out of orbit, I hid. For three days, I kept out of sight. For three days, I watched my human savior from a safe distance. But it was only a matter of time before Riker found me.

Thats a lie.

He knew I was there the entire time. Riker didn't have a fleet ship back then. All he had was a two-story ship rigged with an illegal Sunray and an outdated light drop engine. There weren't many places for me to hide. I didn't have the skills or training to hide without being noticed either. Part of me should have known. The way he left food out that I ate when he slept. Those strange instances when he'd turn his back at just the right moment for me to move around a room. He always knew I was there, but for some reason, he played along as if I were invisible.

It wasn't until I started to get bold that he finally broke the silence. I peed in a pair of his boots. In my defense, I thought they were a pair he never wore. Humans weren't supposed to have a good sense of smell; I assumed he'd never notice. But that was the day he decided to wear something different. Even if he couldn't smell the piss, I suppose he felt it.

I was sleeping in an air duct in the kitchen when all I heard was the sound of something charging. As I raised my head, I saw a fence of light approaching me from front and back. I was confused until the lights touched the end of my tail.

Some of my fur was burned away.

Quickly I sprang out of hiding before my entire body was dismembered. Disoriented and afraid, I was caught off guard when I noticed Riker standing in front of me, holding a blaster aimed square at my chest.

"We need to talk," he said, but I tried to run.

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He started shooting, and I jumped around, trying to evade. I threw plates, forks, and food to put distance between us, but Riker wasn't phased. He threw a few plates back at me. Even back then, without training or experience, I was agile enough to avoid being hit by Riker when he was angry. Though it wasn't that I was extremely skilled, Riker was only slightly better in combat than me at the time. His attitude and demeanor were always the same, but back then, he was no master.

Neither of us could get a good hit on one another. Sadly, there was nowhere for me to go. Riker locked the only way out of the kitchen, so when I jumped for the door expecting it to slide open, I slammed into solid metal. While I tried to pull the door open, I was shot in my back.

It hurt like hell, but I was surprised to be still alive. Riker hadn't shot me with just any ordinary blaster. The round was small and metallic-like a bullet but flat and smooth like a disk. As I felt the spot where it pierced my back, I realized it was moving, drilling into my body till it was too deep to remove safely.

Lying on the floor in utter agony, I watched as Riker holstered his gun and stood waiting.

He shot me with a tracking device that was typically meant for pets. It came with several measures Riker would use in the future. But at that moment, the only thing I understood was pain.

I tried to pounce at the human, but he pulled out a remote and pressed a button on it. Suddenly my entire body, from the smallest strand of fur on my head down to the end of my tail, was electrocuted. The shock was subtle and ended quickly, but it stunned me enough to break my concentration.

"I said we need to talk," Riker repeated himself.

I might have lunged again, but Riker held the remote up to prove a point. I couldn't hurt him, not on his ship and not while that device was in my back. Unfortunately, being the young lemur I was, lessons took time to learn.

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