The vehicle moved slowly through space. In a small room, Slyiita groaned, rolled over, and opened her eyes. She was feeling groggy. She was surrounded by seven other kids, who were also waking up. Her mind seemed to be working slower than usual; it took her a few minutes to survey her surroundings. There were metal walls, metal floors, and only one blanket per child. Also, it was very cold.
The other children were sitting up now. Slyiita guessed everyone was between the ages of 7 and 14. The youngest was a petite, brown-haired girl and the oldest was a guy wearing a hood over his face.
One of the older boys spoke up. "So . . . what happened?"
"We were at that thing . . . that leadership thing," whispered a red-headed girl.
Suddenly Slyiita remembered where they were. A select group of students were chosen to meet the leaders of all the planets in the Inner and Middle Rings. It had been a good opportunity, and she was having a great time, until a group -- this very group in the cold room -- went to grab some food. For some reason, Slyiita couldn't remember anything after that . . .
"Leaders In Training. LIT." said the girl's twin brother. "But that still doesn't tell us anything about why we are here, or where we are going, or where here even is!"
Slyiita noticed that the youngest girl had started crying. Slyiita slid over to her and put her arm around her. She suddenly realized that they still had their name tags on. The young girl who Slyiita had comforted was named Jeeka. She looked at everyone in the group: Benjji, Mikaa, Mulaa, and Tomhhi. Strangely, the guy with the hood had no name tag. Was he even at the LIT meeting? All of the other names sounded vaguely familiar . . . but Slyiita couldn't be sure because she still felt dazed. She shook her head.
"Weren't we going to get some food or something? Didn't we get attacked or something?" said Tomhhi.
"Yes!" Slyiita said suddenly. "There were a ton of guys in dark blue suits. They put us in bags." She shivered with the memory.
It was silent for a few minutes. Everywhere Slyiita looked, scared eyes stared back.
"I've heard of the slave trade in the Outer Ring. Do you think we are going to be sold as slaves?" asked Mikaa, the redhead.
Jeeka's brown eyes widened. "S-s-slaves?"
Mikaa nodded. "The Outer Ring planets have the slave trade, the Middle Ring planets are struggling with famine, and the Inner Ring has all those wars." She shrugged. "We have been unable to make a peaceful society."
"Yea..." said Mulaa, Mikaa's twin. He smiled. "But we know a planet that is peaceful."
"If it's close, we can take over the ship from whoever captured us and steer it there. Not that we know where we are . . ." Benjji said.
"It's not real," scoffed Mikaa. "It's just a fairy tale our mother told us."
"It's real."
The voice from the boy with the hood startled everyone into silence.
"It's real and I know we can find it."
To Be Continued...
