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The worker squinted at her screen and brushed at it with her finger. She looked surprised when it didn’t come off. She thought Earth was a piece of lint.
“Huh,” she said. “Would you look at that. I never knew there was a solar system all the way out there. What’s it like? I might go there on my next holiday.”
“It’s… okay,” I said. “We have some nice beaches.”
“Mm-hm. Now that’s what I like to hear. How many tickets do you want, sugar?”
I was glad she was kind. It’d been a while since I saw a friendly face. Maybe it would be okay for me to share my story with her after all…
I stamped on that desire to ask for help. It always got me in trouble on Earth so why wouldn’t it wind up doing the same thing here?
“Just one, please,” I said.
“Pod class?” the worker said.
Pod?
“What’s pod class?” I said.
The worker looked me over.
“If you need to ask, then you will definitely travel by pod,” she said. “It’s a little box they put you in so you sleep the whole way. It’s the only way poor people get to travel any further than their solar system. Pods take up less space and require less energy and food. Hence the lower price.”
Pod.
I could still remember the last pod I’d been in. Well, to say I could remember it wasn’t exactly right. I didn’t remember being put inside it. I only remembered waking up from it. That was bad enough.
I didn’t like the idea of getting into another one. Who knows where I might end up. At least if I was awake during the journey, I could fight or run or hide. When you were asleep in a pod, all you could do was hope they didn’t accidentally jettison you off into space.
“How much for a different class?” I said.
“A lot,” the worker said. “And between you and me, it’s not really worth the price. All you ever get to see is a bunch of walls and endless darkness. You might as well be standing in an empty room with the lights switched off.”
“I’d like to know anyway,” I said.
“Second class is five thousand credits,” the worker said.
I had no idea how much that was.
I reached into my pocket and withdrew the little bag of coins. I added the other random items I’d swiped too. There was a nice necklace among the crap. I pushed it all forward.
The worker peered at my meager collection.
“Well, honey, I don’t think you need to worry about any class better than pod,” she said. “You haven’t even got enough for that.”
“I don’t?” I said.
“Nowhere near.”
“What about this necklace? And this… bracelet thing? It has to be worth something?”
The worker sighed and pawed through the items.
“We’re not supposed to accept pawned items as payment,” she said, casting furtive glances at the other windows. “We can get into a lot of trouble.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” I said. “Please. I need to get out of here.”
I sensed she was a good person, even if she was a different species. I could tell her the truth… or at least a version of it…
