“It was a plain, ordinary day. Em and I were foraging along the coastline when we saw a strange streak of light, and being curious idiots, we ran to see what impacted the ground with enough force to shake us.“Now, remember, we hadn’t seen a Tokkel ship before. The attacks hadn’t started, and this was the first alien craft that any Gaian had seen since before the colony began. I headed for the silver hulk while Em ran back to the habitat to alert her parents and call the authorities. The ship opened, and a gross, green, lumpy hulk of a man stepped forward, shouting at me in a language I did not understand. He fired and missed me by inches, so I turned to run. That is when I was struck in the back.“Pain burned outward from the strike point, and I blacked out.”She shuddered at the memory of what happened next. “When I woke up, I was in a full-control harness. I could move my body slowly, but whenever I shifted quickly, I locked in place and fell over.”Cavos nodded. “That is the tricky bit of those harnesses.
