Boman was already up when Alyssa opened her eyes for the first time the next morning. He was dressed and looked ready to leave when he noticed her stir.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked.
Alyssa's first instinct as she remembered her discovery was to ignore him, but she remembered Ada's warnings and nodded.
"Good. Good," Boman said. "I'm about to announce the ships, but as my wife, I suppose it's fair you know ahead of the others. We have finished refueling, and we are going to be making the second warp jump today."
"Warp jump?" Alyssa asked, befuddled.
"Yes. We will move across space at a speed several times faster than light speed. It is the quickest way to get around the universe."
Alyssa nodded absentmindedly, comprehending nothing. Then something returned to mind.
"Wait...second?"
"Yes. Right after we left your planet, while your people were unconscious, we made the first jump to get closer to the edge of your galaxy."
Lacking words, Alyssa blinked twice.
"Is it safe?" she asked at last.
"Yes...and no."
"What?"
She sat up and he grabbed her hand.
"Calm down. For the procedure, we will all be rendered unconscious and restrained to pods for our own protection."
"Pods?"
"Yes. Pods. Before you argue, it is the only way. The alternative would be to have your body thrown about like a rag doll so hard you'd end up a smear on the wall." Alyssa's face turned up in horror and disgust. "Exactly."
"How long will this last?" she asked.
"About an hour and a half. The jump itself will last ten minutes tops, but unfortunately, we have not been able to create an anesthesia strong enough to completely knock us out and also wake us up in less than an hour."
"Why do we need the anesthesia?"
"Warp jumps are severely...uncomfortable. Trust me, you don't want to be awake for those ten minutes."
"And the other ships? Couldn't there be an accident of some sort?"
"There could be, but we prevent that by first syncing all ships and jumping at the exact second."
Alyssa was not convinced, and it showed on her face.
"Relax, wife. We have done this many, many times before. This is routine," Boman said. "Now, will you get dressed and join me for breakfast. I'll be making the announcement. It is time we show unity in front of others, don't you think?"
Alyssa nodded.
"Sure, but you go ahead. I'll be right after you."
Boman left the room, and having no reason to dally, Alyssa went about getting cleaned and dressed. She opened the door, intending to go to the dining but she found Blaze standing in the hallway about to knock.
"We need to talk," he said.
She ushered him in, then looked around to ensure he wasn't followed before shutting the door.
"Everyone's at the hall except for the crew members and Ada. Don't worry."
She closed the door after him and turned to him.
"What's this about?"
"We're going to be making another jump, not long after breakfast. The schedule was moved up, and I didn't know about it until this morning."
"I know. Boman told me."
"Well, it's the perfect opportunity."
"To do what?" Alyssa asked. He looked and sounded like a crazy person.
"You remember you agreed that if I took you to see your children, that you would trust me and listen to what I have to say?"
Alyssa folded her arms.
"I remember."
"Well, there's no time for that latter part, but I do need you to trust me on something. It's important if you want to free your people in time."
"What?"
"You're going to steal something from Central command."
"I'm going to do what?" Alyssa asked.
"It's going to be easy, don't worry. A walk in the park even."
"I don't see how that's possible. The ship is crawling with your kind, and I'm pretty sure they would notice me steal something from Central command!"
"That would...except they will all be asleep."
"What are you talking about?" Alyssa asked.
"What has Boman told you about the warp jump?"
She told him everything she knew.
"Of course, he wouldn't tell you." Blaze laughed to himself.
"Tell me what?"
"Before our first jump, we tested the anesthetic on one of your own to calculate the effect and duration of it on you humans. It turned out humans are much less susceptible to the effects of the drugs for some reason, and at the regular dose, you would wake up a whole hour before we would. So we upped the dose when administering on your people."
"What does this mean?"
"It means if, say your injection was to be somehow swapped dosage with that of one of ours, you would have a whole hour of awake time to roam the entire ship. More than enough time to steal it."
"Steal what?"
"A bio key."
"A what?"
"Bio key," Blaze repeated. "Think of it as an access card that allows you to have as much access within the ship as the average Bomani."
"Like a chip?"
"Yes. Like that. If you could somehow find the master key, that would be another ball game entirely. With that, you could go virtually anywhere, and at the right locations, you could activate weapons or even take over the ships."
"Why would you help me do that?"
Blaze sighed.
"Get this done, and we can talk about my reasons."
"But..."
"You agreed to trust me," he reminded.
"Fine." Alyssa scowled. "Just tell me what to do."
"I won't have time to repeat myself as we both need to be in the hall when Boman starts speaking to avoid raising suspicion, so listen carefully."
*****
Alyssa made it to the hall just in time to hear the beginning of Boman's speech and stand beside him. After that, she, along with the other humans, were taken first to the medical bay where they would be injected then led back to their respective rooms where the pods would be waiting.
Blaze had asked her to leave the swapping of the drug to him, and so she had tried not to think about it, happy to have one less thing to worry about.
After the injection, she went back to her room, and true enough, there were two pods waiting, attached to the wall like they had been pulled out of it —and they probably had.
Boman was yet to arrive as Helians were to be injected after the humans. She decided to wait up for him, sitting on the edge of the bed, despite the fact that the pod was open and waiting for her, and she was starting to feel the calm that came with the anesthesia. The thought of climbing into the pod filled her with anxiety as her claustrophobia set in. Before, they just got strapped to beds, not an enclosed space.
She didn't have to worry about that for long as, without warning, the sleep must have taken her.
Time passed in a breeze. She knew this because the next moment, she was lying face up inside an enclosed space, staring at a bright white ceiling less than a foot overhead.
There was a breathing mask over her face, but suddenly she couldn't breathe.