“James, he may have committed a crime against you. Luckily, you can say that you don’t want to follow it up. Tell me that now!” “Okay… Elatio has done nothing wrong and you should not follow this up!”  She relaxed for a moment. “At least that’s one problem solved. I will contact him personally after this.” I found it super strange why she had to do this, and it was a stark reminder to me that Caroline wasn’t completely human. But it relieved me when she took the contents of the message seriously. “If Elatio is right, then you are in a lot of danger out here, James! We need to scan you immediately! Are you wanting to keep your conversation with Elatio secret?” “There wasn’t a conversation. He just sent me that message.” I said in a panicked tone. “Okay, request that I check your data for corruption and…

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We approached the group, and they seemed happy to see us.  “Are you guys okay?” Nuntium said in a compassionless way. He was with the group and approached us. “Yeah, we’re fine!” Caroline replied. “Shame about Adventum, however, I am glad that you are okay!” Nuntium said as he stared at me. I felt my skin crawl as I looked at him. I wasn’t sure how to take him. Caroline seems to feel it too. “You seem to have settled well in the group!” “Yes, but we should all stick close together from now on!” He looked between me and Caroline. “We wouldn’t want anything to happen to you!”  “We wouldn’t want anything to happen to any of us!” I corrected him.  “Yes, exactly!” Nuntium looked around at the group who were leaving. “We’d best get going with the group then!” On that, he left. “Now I would understand if…

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We soon arrived at this station and as we came to the surface, this enormous wall confronted us. The tallest wall I have ever seen. The light from the reactor that heats the Liberty was weak over here and it was cold. There were a few tall buildings around, but they all looked abandoned and had trees growing through them. The road we began walking on was crumbling and disused. Very different from the wall, which seemed almost new. “Ahh, the great wall!” A Tuhingan with a pink scarf said while looking at the wall. “The thing that separates us and horrors from The Liberties past!” “Why would that little girl come this way?” Caroline inquired. “She was an explorer. She wanted to prove to her mother she was ready to go out and be a scavenger. So what better place than the dark side of The Liberty.” Adventum explained. “How…

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“Why don’t you eat?” Caroline said as I was moving my spoon around the bowl of something resembling muesli.  “I know I am going to be murdered again!” I said with absolute confidence. “You won’t James! They need all the help they can get to find this child. Besides, we can always separate from the group.” “To find ourselves lost and unable to get back?” “Or to be eaten by something resembling a Lion” she joked, chuckling. “Can that happen!?” “James! Does it matter? You’ll be fine!” I looked at her, trying to think how I should respond to her. I wanted to appear brave, even though I was terrified. Seeing those news articles made me feel so much more anxious than I ever did before. I felt like there was a genuine threat, instead of just the stress of not knowing what was going on most of the time. …

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We all went to the door and opened it to find an extensive amount of security officers gathered around the building. They were all hiding behind cover and facing their rifles towards us. “Let the child go!” An announcement said.  “What!? Caroline?” Elatio looked over at her and said this in such an accusing way. Caroline looked at him, shocked. “This is nothing to do with us! You did nothing illegal.” Caroline said.  “Bah, you cannot trust Companions.” Elatio continued. “And after all of that pleasant stuff, you said!” “Honestly, Elatio, I do not understand what is going on!” “Bring the child, now!” said the announcer, using an alien device to make their voice louder. “I believe her Elatio, Caroline, wouldn’t do this!” I said He took a deep breath. “I suppose it could have been Nasum. She may have contacted one of my mothers. I’ll talk to them! Make…

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As I awoke, my BCI (the chip in my head) was waiting until I woke. It displayed a message as soon as I was getting up. It was from Elatio. I was excited to read the message he sent. It said, ‘Hey James, How are you?’ I didn’t want to respond straight away, so I put it away and turned over. Caroline had already got up and I could hear the shower running in the bathroom. I smelt my underarm and found that perhaps I should be in the shower. I went to the edge of the bed and placed my feet on the floor. They looked so thin again. I attempted to get up and found myself weak. I just ended up falling into the wall. I felt upset that I had to go through all of this again and went to the EMC we got yesterday. Materialising myself…

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All the Tuhingans were standing there dressed in sky blue clothing. There was a small group of around three of them, turning and looking at us. I looked back at them and felt worried about what they would do about our presence. One of them attempted to pull away from the group as they saw us. Another stared at us and attempted to hold the one pulling away back. He pulled himself away from the staring one and began heading towards us. The other following close behind him. He walked right up to us and asked, “Are you James Foreman?” I looked at him for a moment, wondering whether I should admit to who I was. “Yes, I am.” I said hesitantly.  The Tuhingans eyes smiled and looked at me endearingly. “Periclum talked about you for the small time I saw him. He was always more interested in new people…

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Later that day, after we had really gotten to know each other. Caroline pulled out some incense and lit them. Within a few minutes, the cabin began filling with a nice incense aroma. It created a very peaceful atmosphere, and Caroline continued to tidy the bed. “This doesn’t smell like it does on Earth. However, I was lucky to have found another species that uses incense to make indoor spaces smell like outdoors.” I nodded in agreement. “It still smells great.” I replied. In all honesty, I had smelt little incense to tell if that was from Earth or not. It was just a pleasant aroma, and I felt relaxed because of it. Once Caroline had finished with the bed, we both went into it. Even though it was the middle of the day at that point, we still both felt the need to rest and perhaps sleep. We continued to…

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I slept heavily that night. There weren’t many nightmares haunting me, I was thankful. Awaking from a calm but strange dream involving weird goop and an Olympic run, I noticed a weight on me. Touching it, I realised it was an arm. Half asleep and with a blurry vision, I looked over to see Caroline’s face lying towards me. She had her eyes shut, and she seemed very much at peace. My heart felt like it had skipped a few beats as I saw her peacefully lying there. I kept as still as I could and gently tried to move her arm back. Needing the toilet, I realised I needed to get over her to escape the bed. I placed her arm on her side and she moved clumsily, clearly still asleep.  Coming out of the duvet, I moved it more onto Caroline, then twisted over her. My arms were…

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It wasn’t long before Quo was coming down the stairs to the station. At first I didn’t notice him, distracted by my meal. But then he was on top of me, saying my name sharply. “James!” I opened my eyes with a start. “I see you have been enjoying yourselves!” Caroline had finished her meal and pushed the table away. She also seemed dazed when Quo had arrived. Quo waved, clicked his fingers and pointed to the tables, plates and cutlery to some invisible force. It wasn’t long until I realised he was looking at a drone in the corner which activated. It came over and dematerialised the tables with everything on them.  “Let’s not make the place untidy!” he said in a stern tone as I nodded in agreement. He looked confused by my gesture, but then got out his pad and began looking at it in a concentrated…

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