Planet Earth is blue 3

She glanced up at me from her corner of the holding cell, her eyes dark and impenetrable, her skin bone-white under the flickering arc lamp. The prison ship’s hull shuddered beneath us.

‘So how long were you running?’ she asked in a faintly mocking tone. When I told her, she laughed. ‘Poor boy! You don’t know where to hide.’

I began a retort but she waved it aside. ‘Don’t be so sensitive. I’m sure you did your best.’

‘What about you?’ I asked and the laughter left her, as if a cloud had passed over.

‘I’ve been hiding so long, they’ve forgotten they’re looking for me,’ she murmured. When I asked her how she was caught, she shrugged. ‘I don’t belong here – this close to the sun. I should never have come in.’

‘They’ll be taking us home, to Earth …’ I began, but then noticed that she was smiling again.

‘I’ve got other plans.’ She made a slight movement of her hand and there was a flash of blinding white light. When I recovered my eyesight, most of the floor was a gaping hole.

‘Hurry up!’ she called, climbing through. The ship hissed and crumpled behind us. No one survived.