“Why is everyone pointing guns at us and rejecting us?” I asked Caroline.

Caroline looked at me for a moment, thinking about her response. She then came out with a reason.

“They haven’t had one of their own annihilated for over two hundred years!”

“What happens when they get old?”

“They don’t update their digital copies. So when they materialise, they always materialise at the same age.”

“So everyone sees me as this murderer?”

Caroline nodded, “In a place that hasn’t had a murder for more that two hundred years.”

It sunk in for me and I felt sick in my stomach. I looked at Caroline in a confused fashion.

“What were you trying to do in there?” I asked.

“I was trying to get you your plot of land. For that I need to register you as a refugee, and then I can claim certain resources for you. But I wasn’t even able to finish the sign-up process.”

“What are we going to do?” I asked in a desperate tone not sure which direction to go.

“The Captain and Prime Minister should know about what happened here. I should be able to talk to The Liberty ambassadors who will then put me through to them. Maybe she can help!”

“I have the Captain’s contact.” I said to Caroline, remembering when the Captain wanted to make my stay as comfortable as possible.

“You do?”

“Yeah!”

At that moment, my head was spinning a little. I had felt for a while I needed to eat something.

Caroline stared at me for a moment. “What are you waiting for, why don’t you call her?”

I woke up for just a moment to realise what Caroline was asking of me and I called the Captain.

A hologram of her appeared in front of my eyes. “Hi James, I was wondering when you would call!”

“You knew I would call?” I asked, confused and then realising the stupidity of the question.

“Of course! I know you must be going through a hard time right now. I’m sorry I didn’t come to meet you before. It’s just everything is a little too political right now.”

I understood what she meant. Even with my hazy thoughts, I knew that since I was famous for murdering my best friend. I could see how it wouldn’t look right with her going to visit me. I remember wishing I didn’t understand at that point. A tear fell down one of my cheeks.

“Captain?” I said in a mild, desperate tone. “We’re very hungry and tired at the moment and it seems like we are struggling to find a place to stay.”

“Have you not tried the Immigration office and claimed your land yet?”

Another tear fell, this time down my other cheek. “They kicked us out.” I said trying to keep a straight face and seem like I wasn’t as upset as I was.

“Wait, what? What did you do?”

Caroline looked at me with worried eyes as I continued to speak. She was standing just behind the Captain and was looking right through the Captain at me. I could only see one of her eyes. I continued.

“I don’t know. We went in and I looked around, standing in one spot. Then Caroline went to a console and began pressing on it. Someone came to me asking if I needed help and then as soon as they learned who I was, they called the guards. After that, they forced us out. Is this going to be like this everywhere I go?”

The Captain had this face that looked mixed between being constipated and confused. She then looked at me with sympathetic eyes and took a deep breath. There was a moment of silence where she seemed to think. Then after a time she told me she will call me back. I was confused and just agreed with what she said.

I looked at Caroline and Caroline looked back at me. “Have you finished the conversation?” she asked.

“For now, I think. She said she would call me back.”

“Oh” Caroline looked confused. “Why?” she asked

“Don’t know.”

Some writing popped up in front of my eyes. “Call from Captain Sagax! Answer?” I accepted and the Captain was standing in front of me once again.

“I just had to call the Prime Minister.” she began. “She agrees to grant you protection. We understand that this is a strange situation for you and we will give you access to a VIP room again.”

I looked back, bewildered. It felt like I would take a step back after all I had been through. “No!” I replied.

The Captain looked shocked. “James, many people would love to have access to the VIP rooms even for a day. I am offering it indefinitely.”

“I don’t want it!” Knowing at the time that it was an irrational and childish reply. I felt a sense of freedom being in a centrifuge and I didn’t want to lose it.

The Captain seemed to know what I was thinking because the next thing she said seemed so close to my thoughts. “James, you won’t be trapped. You will be free to leave anytime. It would just be a safe place for you to be. To hide. It may get vicious down in the centrifuge for you. Especially if the media found out where you were!”

I pondered on what she said for a moment. Thinking about how I hadn’t met the Tuhingan media yet. Still, the thought of being hidden away from everyone and going back to the place I was when I first arrived wasn’t a pleasant thought.

“James?” Caroline asked, “what is the Captain saying?” she saw me staring into space. Unsure how to answer the Captain.

“Captain, I don’t want the VIP room. I want to be processed as a refugee, just like all the others I arrived with.”

The Captain stared at me for a moment as if she was trying to understand me. She was very confused with my answer. She took a deep breath. “Okay James, let me think about this.” She pondered for a moment, “I will send a representative for you. You can meet them in the pod station closest to the Immigration Office. They will register you without you having to set foot into the office.”

“Thanks Captain.”

“Just thank me by staying safe, being sensible and trying to keep out of any trouble. I don’t want the Prime Minister having to arrest you.”

“Arrest me?”

She looked at me as if I was stupid for a moment. “Yes James! At that point, I cannot help you!” There was a moment of silence as I allowed the information to sink in. After which we said goodbye to each other, then me and Caroline headed back to the station we came from. We went down the stairs and waited there for around ten minutes.

In that time I told Caroline about the conversation and we had one Tuhingan go by into a pod, staring at me as he went. Then some aliens went by, not paying much attention to me. Soon a pod arrived carrying my representative. The Tuhingan that would save the day for me that day. He came out of the pod and introduced himself.

As he stepped out of the pod, I could see that he was dressed in a smart jumper and black trousers. With some dark blue shoes. He looked skinny and small, had glasses sitting on the end of his nose and had a very serious look, as if everything irritated him.

“Hi, I am Quo Lure. You can call me Quo.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m James” I said as I held out my hand.

He looked me up and down and then at my hand. “Right!” he said. “Now I understand that you have a minor issue with registering as an Immigrant, is that right?” He looked at me over his glasses as he said that.

“That’s right!”

“The Captain has hired me to help you change that! Unfortunately for you I was the only one willing to help you!”

I looked at him confused. “Why unfortunate?”

He looked at me again just over his glasses and then looked down at a pad he had just pulled out of his shoulder bag. Then continued like I said nothing. “Right, it seems like it is a simple case. Waste of my talents! I’ll just walk into the Immigration Office and just register you.”

“Why a waste of your talents?” I asked.

Again he looked at me over his glasses. “James, I am a lawyer! I am taking this simple and ridiculous case on because I know you will need me and I want to be there when you do!”

“Oh” I said to him as I didn’t know how to react. Caroline was standing silently next to me. I turned to look at her and she looked at me, shrugging.

Quo looked at us both, “Okay, so I guess I should do the job then.” He said as he put the pad away, the turned and walked away. We followed, he stopped and turned to look at us, “no, no. You two stay here! We don’t want another conflict, do we..?” there was a moment of silence as we didn’t know how to respond. “No, you two stay here, I’ll be back in a moment.” He left up the stairs and me and Caroline were left looking at each other.

“He’s a little strange.” I felt I should comment, feeling at that moment like everything was a dream.

“Yes, but it seems he will get the job done.” She was staring up the stairs at that moment as if concentrating on his presence, like he had left a stain on the stairs.

I didn’t pay much attention to it and found myself a bench to sit on. “I guess we’ll be waiting a little while in this station.” Desperate to sit down and relax my legs I sat down falling onto the bench. As I relaxed, I closed my eyes, however it made me feel my hunger was stronger and I soon had to open them again.

“James, are you still hungry?” Caroline asked me. I looked at her as if she had said something astonishing.

“I am, but Quo told us to stay here!”

“Yes, but he can also contact you. I am sure he has your contact. Plus, we are only going to the next room.”

I stood up and Caroline began turning. She was then walking towards the room we went before to retrieve a car for ourselves in the other station. As I entered, I saw that a van was materialising. It looked like a food van and I could see a figure materialise inside the van.

I walked over and was standing in front of some alien food truck with an alien server asking us what we would like. Caroline told him to give us a moment. I looked at the menu that surrounded the window, which Caroline was talking to the guy through. Again the menu looked alien with fish dishes, meat dishes and so much more, the list was longer than any menu I had seen before.

I looked at the alien standing in the truck and saw him as someone who can serve me. “I would like steak.”

“Absolutely sir, which type of steak would you like?”

“What have you got?” I asked

“We have toad steak, snail steak, cat steak, sheep steak, cow steak…”

“Wait!” I said as I recognised the word ‘cow’. “I would like a cow steak.”

“Dressing?”

“Mayonnaise,”

“I’m sorry Sir, I think you’re more likely to find that in a brothel. How about a nice bearnaise sauce?”

“That will do!”

Caroline was laughing next to me at the blunder. “Maybe I should have materialised a brothel for you James?”

“Haha!” I said in the most unenthusiastic way. I was starving and couldn’t concentrate so well on what was happening.

“Drinks?” the alien server asked.

“Just juice for me, please.”

“Sausage juice?”

My mind was fuzzy and I was finding it hard to concentrate. I stood there bewildered for a moment. “Eh, no, just a fruit juice.”

Caroline laughed even more.

“Ahh, kiwi juice it is!”

“Eh, yeah.” At that point, I didn’t care what I got. I just needed to eat.

“And you Madam, what would you like?”

“Just the Pasta Salad and water for me thanks,”

“Sure, coming right up!”

The server turned around for a while as we heard wind. Flashes came from in front of him and then he soon turned around and gave us our dishes.

My steak looked amazing and smelt great. It came with potato wedges and a few vegetables.

“Thanks!” Caroline said as we grabbed our food and then turned towards the door to this room. There was the sound of wind and a flash behind us as the truck disappeared. We went back into the station and sat on a bench awkwardly.

“Hmm, this isn’t good!” Caroline said and went back into the room. I placed my cup on the ground and tried a potato wedge. It tasted amazing, it had a mix of herbs on it that just made it to be what I wanted. I had another and then another. Focused so much on the food, I didn’t see Caroline leaving or returning.

She unfolded some folded tables and placed one in front of me. Then she sat down after she unfolded another. Placing her food and drink on the table, then dragging it closer to her. I did the same. She handed over knives and forks which we used to eat with.

I was so hungry. I ate every bit of my enormous meal. The drink was very sweet and tasted nothing like kiwi fruit, however I drank every bit. I was still craving more, but I felt myself being full. I pushed the table away as Caroline continued to eat slowly. I leaned back on the bench and closed my eyes. Relaxing as we waited. The meal was exactly what I needed.