The halls were nearly as empty as they had been yesterday. “Where is everyone?”

  “You saw about a quarter the crew yesterday. The rest were either working, asleep, or busy with something personal.”

  “But that would only mean your ship needs just under one hundred people to function.”

  “Well yeah,” her tone made it sound like that was a normal thing for their ships. “Why would we need more than that to operate this ship. Most of the functions are handled by enchantments or automation. Wait, how many people are need for one of the human ships?”

  “That…our ships…”

  “The human ships. Remember, you are not human anymore. You will never be human again. You need to get used to it.” She interrupted me, emphasizing the words not, never and need as she tried to get her point across.

  “The smallest human ships,” I said through my teeth. “Require hundreds of people to function.”

  “And the ship you were on? How many people did that one require?”

  “To run, maybe a thousand or two. How many were assigned to at any given time? Probably around ten thousand.”

  She whistled. “That is too many people needed for one ship. The only ships that come close to that number would have to be the goblin troop carriers and they only carry eight thousand. Two to three hundred to run and maintain the ship. The rest are the troops they are transporting.”

  As we approached the cafeteria, I could hear people talking. They all stopped as soon as I walked in. The tension in the room suddenly felt thick enough to cut with a knife.

  I just lowered my head and walked over to where the food dispenser was. A small platter formed on the top of the ledge as I approached. Grabbing it, I waited for Kyla to lead me to a table. She grabbed her own food and walked to the table I had been hoping she wouldn’t. The table in the center of the room.

  I felt the eyes boring into me as I walked behind her. Eyes that, if I met them, would tell me I did not belong. Silently sitting at the table, I looked over the selection of food that she had ordered for me.

  On the plate there was something akin to scrambled eggs with a bunch of vegetable and meat mixed in. Next to the plate was a large cup of a different colored smoothy than yesterday. This time it was a pale yellow.

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  As I grabbed the two tapered metal sticks off the platter, I thanked Brian. On our last vacation, he had insisted staying at one of the Asian colonies. The experience had taught me how to use chopsticks. The memory nearly had me in tears as I remembered that he was dead. I would not cry, not here, not now. He always said to never show weakness to those you did not know and fully trust.

  Obviously, I did not trust anyone here nor did I know how they would react so I did everything I could to force the tears back. Head down, eyes closed, I held my breath before letting it out slowly. Forcing my emotions back as I mentally boxed everything up. Shoving it into the corner of my mind for later.

  The moment I felt less likely to cry, I opened my eyes. Quickly starting to eat while I ignored everything and everyone around me.

  Seeing me eating, the rest of the room seemed to relax. Conversation slowly resumed. I managed to hear snippets, but nothing worthwhile. Or at least I didn’t think so. Most of it made little to no sense to me as they talked about magic or some swarm.

  Putting my chopsticks down, I slowly took a sip of the shake. It was a banana flavor this time. Drinking it forced me to look up and I saw that Kyla was watching me. She had already finished her plate and was waiting for me.

  Finishing my cup, I slowly put it down and said, “Thank you for the food.” Hesitating a moment before continuing, “and for everything else. You didn’t have to do any of this.”

  She shook her head. “While I don’t know how hard it is for you, I have heard stories of how traumatic the transformation can be for some individuals. My grandmother was one of those changed during the last species introduction.”

  “What did she become?”

  “She was born a siren. A male siren.”

  Three questions came to the front of my mind but the one that I ended up asking was “How did they do any sort of metal working, let alone get into space?”

  Her laugh filled the room. “Of all the questions you could have asked, you went with that one. Sirens used the thermal vents of their planet to do forging and metal work. Enough to get them onto land anyway. After that they managed to make their way out to space and nearby planets. Eventually making their way out to the stars. While they are relatively new, the sirens are sought out for their environmental technology.”

  “Environmental as in those used on ships and stations?”

  Her head wove a little. “Well, they do have those technologies too, but mostly for planetary terraforming and environmental reclamation and repair projects.”

  Suddenly, I felt tired. As if my body had decided that I had been up for too long and it was telling to either sleep or it would force me. Jerking my head in an effort to push the lethargy away, I wondered out loud, “I just woke up, why am I so tired all of a sudden?”

  I didn’t expect an answer, even if the answer was sort of obvious once you thought about it. “The process to change you is sapping every bit of energy you have. It likely only let you wake up to eat. Once you did that it is putting you back into a sleeping state.”

  “Why? What would that achieve?” At this point my eyes were a bit heavy. I was able to fight the lethargy, but I knew it was a losing battle. Maybe she would be able to give me something to stay awake.