"It doesn't understand Mis'stear.
It’s a Sandghost from the planet Prokne.
It has some fuel to weigh, classify and log in.
Go tend to it and I will get this robot upright.
You are falling behind and need to get more proficient at your job," Wurden stated primly, like he was talking to a small child.
Tik complied but was muttering under her breath the whole time about big clumsy Sandghosts and smart-alecky Bugs.
She classified the fuel, logged it in and then went back to her counter.
There were two messenger robots waiting and she still had to catalog the part that had been dumped in her lap.
She concentrated on her job but kept muttering periodically.
Finally the day was over and Wurden came to lead her away to the dining hall and her cell.
She was toward the middle of the line but she noticed they stopped to pick up a very large creature that looked like it had been sculpted out of sand.
Wurden seemed in a hurry to get them all bedded down so he didn't give Tik much chance to study the large creature.
The large creature sat at the table behind Tik in the dining hall so she just ignored it.
She had programmed the mother ship computer to make the fluid with the extra vitamins and minerals as part of her meal.
She made sure that she drank every bit of it.
She tried her usual gambit of trying to establish communication with no better luck than she had at the other dining hall.
As soon as the creatures in her line were through eating, Wurden lined the big sand creature right behind her and started them off down the passageway to the cells.
At first Tik was a little nervous about the large creature being behind her.
She was afraid it might step on her so she kept close to the creature in front of her.
After several stops and other creatures in the line entering their cells, Tik was the head of the line.
Wurden stopped her and a cell door opened.
She entered and suddenly she heard a shuffling sound behind her.
She wheeled and there was the large sand creature standing in her cell.
Tik yelped at Wurden, "Hey, what's this big dummy doing in my cell?"
Wurden didn't even reply.
The cell door swung shut and Tik jumped at it, trying to keep it open.
She was too late and the door was securely locked.
She tried it anyway and finally admitted there was nothing she could do.
She turned to pick a bunk and saw the sand creature shuffling to a bunk that was big enough to fit his huge frame.
Tik thought there was something familiar about that walk but just couldn't place it.
She picked one of the bunks on the other side of the room and checked out the drawers.
They were empty so she picked the lower bunk.
She laid her bag on the bunk and then sat down to study the creature.
Suddenly she knew where she had seen that shuffle.
She snarled, "You're that big lummox that almost killed me today aren't you?"
The creature didn't say a thing.
It just sat there staring at her.
Tik tried sign language by pointing at herself and then saying 'Tik'.
The creature made some kind of noise that wasn't even close to what she was saying.
It pointed at itself and made a low guttural sound that Tik couldn't even come close to imitating.
Finally she gave up and pulled out her mini-computer.
She worked at increasing her access to all parts of the computer for awhile and then started looking at the diagram of the space ship.
When the 3-D image of the ship appeared, the sand creature sat up straighter on its bunk.
It appeared to be very interested but kept its place on its bunk.
Tik was checking out every passageway and committing them to memory.
She located all the escape pods and kept looking for any other way to escape.
Tik pulled up a view of the incoming hangar and the creature suddenly moved off its bunk and stuck one of those huge fingers right in the 3-D view of the hangar.
Tik didn't know if she was being attacked or not so she growled a warning.
The creature ignored her and started making those same low guttural noises while pointing at the hangar.
She snapped at the finger and bit it.
The creature jerked back and went back to its bunk holding its finger in the other hand.
Tik studied for a little longer and finally shut everything down and prepared for sleep.
The 'rise and shine' bell went off and Tik jumped from her bunk to get ready.
She noticed the large creature had trouble getting up and getting started but it was ready when the door opened.
They walked to the dining room and ate in silence.
The large creature now sat right next to her.
Tik noticed it didn't like the food any better than she did.
It appeared interested when she drank her fluid.
Tik was the only one that had the special glass of fluid.
They finished the meal and headed toward the repair hangar.
Tik did a little better that day and wasn't as far behind.
Her cell mate brought another canister of fuel for her to measure and catalog.
She watched and to her it seemed the creature didn't feel too good.
She saw the outside hangar doors open and an obviously wrecked space ship was pulled in.
It was covered in space dust and had large holes in the fuselage.
Tik wondered if they would try to fix it or scrap it.
The day ended and they went to eat.
The large creature had been helping to clean the newly arrived space ship and had space dust all over it.
She noticed that it seemed to be feeling better.
After they got back in the cell, Tik again pulled out her computer and worked some more.
The creature watched her but didn't try to approach her again.
It took her several days to get the hang of classifying the different parts.
One of the biggest challenges was figuring out what the technicians needed to repair the different items.
After about two weeks, the light came on in her head and things started getting easier and faster.
After that, she had time to look around more and to observe the different routines.
She noticed her cell mate would start looking weaker until he had a chance to clean some dusty piece of equipment and then it would be better for a few days.
Tik knew she was getting weaker but she didn't know what to do.
She noticed there seemed to be a big turn over of the workers in this section.
She started noting the different creatures and one evening she looked up the personnel in that section.
She discovered that all of the foreign creatures had serious health problems and most of the ones that left were marked dead in the records.
Suddenly she realized that her, her cell mate and all the others were being worked until they were no longer cost effective to keep alive and then they were left to die.
Tik vowed right then to work to avenge those who were already dead and those who were dying right now.
The next morning Tik was feeling pretty weak when she headed to the dining room.
It was all she could do to carry her tool bag.
Wurden was gliding behind on his disk as usual when they came to a right angle corner.
There was some commotion up ahead and the line of workers stopped.
Wurden glided up the passageway and around the corner.
Tik set her tool bag on the deck and just then a single Bug came to a stop right by her bag.
It reached down and grabbed her bag.
Tik reacted instantly.
She leaped at the Bug and snarled, "Let go of that, you sewer vermin.
That bag belongs to me!"
The Bug pulled harder on the bag and started to lift off on its disk.
Tik jumped at its arm holding the bag and did her bite and twist like she had on the first Bug.
The Bug's arm came off in her mouth.
The Bug screamed in pain and reached in its robe for the stingerray.
As it pulled it out and aimed it at her, Tik saw her cell mate come up behind the Bug.
It raised a huge fist and slammed it down on top of the Bug's hood.
Tik heard a sickening crunch and the Bug dropped on its back on the disk.
It dropped the stingerray and started twitching.
It looked like it was trying to walk while it was lying on its back.
Tik could smell a sour smell like someone had stepped on a stink bug.
Her cell mate grabbed the disk and gave it a fling down the passageway.
The disk and the Bug went sailing out of sight.
Her cell mate picked up the Bug's arm, broke it into smaller pieces, then stuck both the arm and the stingerray into the tool bag.
It carried the bag and pushed Tik back into line.
Just then the line started to move and they entered the dining hall.
After the meal, her cell mate continued to carry the tool bag until he dropped off to go to work.
Tik grabbed the bag and went about her day.
Her opinion of her cell mate took a drastic turn.
Later that evening when she got back into the cell, she opened the mother ship computer and researched information about Sandghosts.
She found out that the voice boxes on the large creatures wouldn't make the higher pitched sounds like she made.
She also discovered that they didn't hear all of the higher frequencies.
The Sandghosts could make much lower sounds than she could, so Tik decided to start some kind of sign language to communicate with her cell mate.
For the next two weeks they worked on the sign language and establishing communications.
The Sandghost carried Tik's tool bag to and from work everyday.
At work, he gave it to her to take to her counter and in the evening he laid it on her bunk.
Tik grew worse and her fur started falling out in patches.
It was getting matted and clumped together in spots.
She looked awful.
The last two days the Sandghost had carried her back to their cell.
Her cell mate's health was up and down depending on how many dirty projects it worked on.
On the day of the Sandghosts lowest ebb their routine changed.
Ron took up the narrative at this point.
The Bugs kind of herded him into the cell.
He saw a giant sand man lying on the bunk on the right side and a small furry canine creature that looked like it had the mange or something worse on the other side.
The small furry creature snarled, growled and whined at him and the giant sand man moved to a sitting position and muttered some low guttural sound.
The two were making some kind of hand signals back and forth and Ron wondered if they were doing some kind of sign language.
Thanks to the translator, Ron knew what both of them had said.
The small furry creature said, "Hello there.
What do you have wrong that condemns you to this flying Hell?"
The sand giant was muttering, "Little creature, don't lose your temper.
This creature may not be bad and maybe it can help us."
The two on the bunks were looking at a type of creature neither had ever seen before which walked on two legs.
It had blue eyes set in a softer rounder face than the Sandghosts and its arms and legs looked fairly muscular.
It was smaller than the Sandghost standing only six feet tall but it moved much easier than the Sandghost.
It had reddish hair that was gray on the sides.
It also had a short gray beard.
He waved what he hoped was a friendly wave as he stood, trying to decide what to do.
He didn't try to speak because he didn't know if the translator would make his words into their language.
The small furry creature looked like it had something that might be catching so Ron decided to sleep in the bunk above the sand giant.
He slowly and cautiously approached the bunk and took off his tool pouch.
He put the tool pouch on the bunk and then climbed up.
He was still a little stiff from the stingerray and being 60 years old didn't help his agility.
He hoped he didn't look too undignified climbing into the top bunk.
Ron really wanted to pull out his two new-found items and study them.
He didn't know what the other two would do so he just waited.
The small furry creature pulled out a small box and started working with it.
Suddenly a 3-D image of the mother ship appeared.
The small creature magnified the image and traced passageways to what appeared to be some type of hangar with smaller space ships.
Ron recognized the one that had brought him here.