On the known universe’s Central Planet, Antaska from Earth was thinking about Marroo the Woogah slave hunter. It was hard not to think about him. For the past week, she’d spent every day being questioned about him by the Woogah experts at Central Planet University. And about her experience of being kidnapped and enslaved and then escaping from the Woogahs.
That’s the only reason he’s on my mind, she told herself as she walked through a courtyard full of college students who were tossing large, colorful balls back and forth to each other.
As usual, Antaska appreciated the many colored, many species of alien students from all parts of the Milky Way galaxy. Her bright pink hair, larger head, and shiny tan skin, genetically altered when she was enslaved by the Woogahs, didn’t stand out much in this colorful mix of aliens.
At the edge of the round courtyard, Antaska stopped in front of a lift to the crosswalk bridge three stories up. An orange-skinned female student was there ahead of her waiting for the lift car. Long bright orange hair hid her downturned face while she typed with long orange fingers on a small electronic device.
A beep sounded, and the door opened. Antaska waited for the other woman to enter, but she didn’t look up from her typing. So Antaska entered first and faced the front of the car. The other female still didn’t follow her in. When the door started to close, she looked up from her device and stared intently at Antaska. Through the closing door, Antaska watched the corners of the woman’s dark orange mouth lift and pull into a twisted grin.
That was weird, Antaska thought.
The car rose up to the level of the bridge, and its door started to open.
Before the door opened all the way, the walls on either side of Antaska made a small creak sound. Her survival instincts kicked into high gear. Without thinking, she crouched and then jumped out through the partly opened lift doors. Super-fast muscle reflexes, genetically enhanced by the Woogahs and strengthened by hard work in their factory, shot her out through the narrow opening between the two doors.