In my previous life, I had always thought of reality as something that was difficult to face.  It was the very reason that I buried myself in stories and fantasy worlds.
Of course, I was aware that there were so many people that had to face realities far worse than my own, yet that never gave me enough self-justification to think much better of my own circumstances.
I hid myself away and faced only what I had to, when I absolutely could not avoid it.
There was always somewhere to hide, some way to ignore the world around me and, despite my general lack of awareness, I was grateful for the reprieves.
The reality that currently surrounds me is unavoidable on every single count.
There is no where to hide, not event the most brief reprieve is permitted.

I eventually pried myself from the folds of my new bed, where I had been cocooned inside several blankets, to find myself in a room at least twice the size of my room on Kenglowe.  Decorated with rich materials: dark browns and deep greens, it felt as though I were in some forest hideaway.
A huge screen for a dedicated console took up the majority of one wall, with extra controls built into the table in front of it to allow for more accurate and immersive control.
A hygiene cubicle was opposite the door, which had a real sink and cleaning cloth dispenser, as well as a medical station.
I washed my face and pulled my hair back into a thin ponytail, secured with my tattered scrunchy.  Quite how it has not snapped yet is beyond me.  Gently pulling a few strands forwards, I wound them around my finger and let them hang, loosely framing my face, a habit I picked up after noticing that I looked fairly masculine from behind without my hair to hide the fact.  The thin spirals helped to soften and distract, or so I had convinced myself.
All of the cupboards and draws were empty; whatever crew member had been using it before me, had left it bare of personal items.
A display cabinet sat above the head of the bed.  It had likely been used to house weaponry, however all that hung there was my necklace.
Slipping the battered silver chain over my head, I headed out of the door, suppressing the urge to reach for my bag, which, as far as I was aware, was still on board the Piti.
The room I found myself in was completely black, yet lit up by various hidden lights scattered all over the place.
It was yet another round room.  The door through which I had emerged, opened up onto a ramp that wound up at a shallow angle around three floors, twenty-nine more doors leading to other bedrooms.
In the centre of the room was a selection of tables and seats; both functional and comfortable.  A fully formed kitchen sat in the area beneath where the first bedroom of the next floor up sat.
There were three people sat at one of the tables.  They had been eating, however as I had made my entrance, their attention was squarely upon me.
Suppressing a sigh and the urge to go back inside and lock the door, I made to move towards Oscar Hart, Amelie Crewe and Lesley Cleese.
Oscar and Amelie had been on the same course as me at university and Lesley had been our course leader and television lecturer for our first year.
Amelie had also been in the same year at secondary school and, although we did not share any lessons, we were occasionally mistaken for one another in the early days of year seven due to the fact that we were both blonde and of the larger body size.  It did not matter that I wore glasses and she did not, we would be called by the other’s name.
When we met again in university, I cannot really put my finger on it, however she was never expressly friendly towards me in particular.  Not to say that she was hostile at all, yet it felt that I had done something to offend her without knowing what.
Lesley stood sharply as I approached, a patiently calm expression on her face.
“Your crew are waiting for you downstairs,” her voice was curt and to the point, which it always had been, however I had not heard it to that degree before.
It took me a moment to realize that she was talking about the passengers of the Piti.  I opened my mouth to argue that they were not exactly a crew, least of all mine, however common sense told me to ask about food instead.
She nodded to the kitchen area and sat straight back down to where she swapped unconcealed glances and raised eyebrows with her companions.
In the kitchen there was a selection of food that far outdid anything that even our accommodation on Kenglowe had offered.
My stomach growled at the prospect of food with various textures, yet I had to ignore anything that would take time to put together or require sitting down.  Keeping my presence in the new common area to a minimum, I grabbed a few bars of what resembled cereal as well as a bottle of a flavoured water and headed through the only door that did not lead to a bedroom.
The ground sloped downwards in a dimly lit corridor, the diameter of which quickly expanded until it opened up and I found myself circling the flight deck.
The ramp lead round and around, a path that would have taken several minutes to walk down.
Allowing myself to be excessively lazy for the first time in many units, I jumped over the edge of the railing, casually dropping myself the three or four story distance to the floor.
The passengers of the Piti all turned to face me, faces as impassive as though they had not recently had a hand in liberating not only a living from the grasp of a highly dangerous crew of bounty hunters, but freed the majority of humanity from enslavement.
However, as I drew closer, it became clear that their expressions had been schooled for my benefit.
The journey from the edge of the room to where they were stood nearer the center took long enough for me to completely finish off one of the cereal bars.   I tipped my head up in greeting as I came into a conversational distance, gulping down almost half of the water.
Steady breathing, slowed blinking and an even heartbeat were what I tried to employ in myself as I opened my mouth to speak, “so, what’ve I missed?”
“Quite a bit, actually,” Ishni’s voice was doing a good job of hiding how solemn his intent was, “first thing’s first, we’ve been able to contact Gheetoh.  She reached Virrion without any issues and worked with the people there to help lay the bodies to rest.  She’s going stay there either until we arrive or ask her to come get us.”
Burdening Gheetoh with the fate of the dead had been an easy choice.
Any plan that involved all of us captured would have been moronic.  There was nowhere to hide from scans for life signs so hiding was out of the question, especially as they would, without a doubt, take the Piti along with us.  The only reasonable course of action was to instigate that we had a traitor.
Simple enough a premise to believe, we even armed her with a baton that Ishni had produced from amongst his belongings.
Despite my own passive-aggressive conversations with her and a hefty amount of mistrust concerning her reliability when it came to anything to do with me, she was the right choice for the task.
Culpin trusted her and even I could see that her integrity was solid.  If our captors-to-be had been able to monitor us in any way, the animosity between us was unavoidable.  It would not be an unimaginable stretch to believe that she had decided to turn on me.
I had no trust in her whatsoever and, in all honestly, if it came down to something between her and myself, I still have reservations.  However, I can now admit that her loyalty is sound and her word is unimpeachable.  If it comes down to relying upon her, I believe that she will be more than stalwart.
“I owe her a lot then,” my thoughts found a voice, “all of humanity does.  She’ll be an asset to Rapture, if we can ever get her there.”
All of the others responded with agreeable nods of their heads.
“The Community has also responded to the evidence that Ven sent out to them,” Orthus spoke with his usual steady tone, “given the footage and records that have been submitted to them, they have declared every contract formed, at that time, void.  Humanity has been legally released from their contracts.”
The breath that I took filled my lungs as it always had done, however it was the first time in so long, that I had been able to breathe.
“However,” Orthus’s sharp continuation froze my relief, tethering them before they could be realized, “every bound human was fitted with a taucil that cannot be deactivated remotely.  Without a Community officer to enforce their release, there maybe some holders who have no incentive to dissolve the contracts themselves.”
The optimism within me refused to let myself assume the worst, it needed facts first, “how likely will that be?”
He exchanged glances with Ishni and Culpin, “well, Ven has given us a list of all of the contract holders and, based on what we know of a few of them, it is likely that they will want protect their investment.  Less than a tenth of the credits held by Nesutten are untraceable.  Culpin has been authorized to use the remainder to offer to those individuals, however it will be a very small percentage of what they originally paid, so there will likely be resistance.”
“There are several holders which are falsified,”  Culpin’s words appeared in my mind, “we have no way of tracing them.”
When I had woken up, not twenty lals previously, I had been refreshed from a decent sleep and emotional purge.  Whatever benefits had been gained, felt as though they were draining out of the soles of my feet.
“Not to mention,” Ishni was the one to deliver the next blow, “the holders are under no obligation to help them to get to either Virrion or Rapture.”
Every last part of me went slack.  It was all I could do to remain standing, “what about the Community?  Are they helping out at all?”
More swapped glances before Deia spoke up, “the Community have expressed that they have already exceeded the amount of aid that they can offer humanity until this point.  They will enforce the law, but they will not be committing any more resources to a race that is still, considered by many, as pre-sentient and thulai.”
I wanted to be angry.  I wanted to shout and curse the Community.  How dare they abandon us?  Do they have no compassion for friends and families that have been torn apart and put through goodness only knows what kind of hell on top of everything else?
Yet the swell of rage never came.
The feeling of it was present, however it was not my own.
Bernard was leaning against a blank console.  His face was turned away from me, his emotions were not.
I considered taking a hold of his frustration and venting that which I wanted to feel.
Irritatingly astute common sense kept me in check.
Deia was right, the Community had given us everything that we needed; the highest vein of education and a planet to call our own.  The had given us exceptional aid in the initial fall out of the kidnapping and had done a thorough investigation into the situation, regardless of how little it actually uncovered.
Humanity has yet to prove that we belong with them.  As we currently exist, we would do nothing except drain their resources with no foreseeable return for them.
We had received far more help than we could ever claim to have deserved.
To my frustration, I understood that fact clearly enough.
My hands spent several moments making frustrated poses on my face until eventually I found the words that I was looking for.
“Okay, we need information then,” I started pouring over what we would need to know in my head, desperately wishing I had a notebook and a pen, ruing the gap at my hip where my bag should have been.  I pulled up a blank digital note pad on the nearest console and began making notes, “we need to know the names and locations of as many people as we can, who has been released, who needs passage to either Rapture or Virrion and who needs a more… strategic extraction from where they are. Then we need to work out priorities; pregnant, elderly, children and anyone in a dangerous situation.  Now all we need is a way of getting to and from everywhere.”
“I would like to offer my assistance,” Ven’s voice came from the same console that I was using, “or rather, I would like to purpose a partnership.  I wish to continue with the job that I designed myself to do, however I cannot do so without a crew.  If we were to work together, we can bring justice to criminals and get your people home.”
“Ven...” I was speechless.
“I also wish to offer you with mine and Deia’s services.  I still feel the weight of responsibility for your people and I will not give up until everyone that can be, is saved.  Once we reach Virrion, the Piti will also be at your disposal.”
Breathing was becoming a challenge, I was beginning to choke on the large lumps of air that were forcing their way our of my chest.
“You’re gonna need at least one bounty hunter on your crew,” Ishni was chuckling as he spoke, “I’ve got a little experience in that area.”
I balled my hands into fists in an attempt to stop them from shaking.
“I signed a contract with you, mostly due to the circumstances at the time,” Desmosa’s voice admitted, “however, even without wanting to express my gratitude, I would want to be here.  If I can help save your people, I would consider myself honoured.”
Forcing myself to take deep, measured breaths, I lifted my head to meet their eyes.
“I’m sticking with you until I find Leah and our baby,” Bernard’s voice was stiff, yet he felt the need to throw his metaphorical hat in, “I’ll be a bounty hunter to, we’re going to need the man power and I could use the practice.”  He still would not meet my eyes.
Culpin stepped forwards, “I am to stay with you until my superiors instruct me otherwise, which I do not imagine happening any time soon.  They have given me access to the funds that have been recovered from this crew, to be used to compensate some of those contract holders.  As long as I am with you, I am bound by oath to up hold the law.  You can count on my support in anything that involves getting your people to where they belong.”
My lips trembled as I fought to keep them pursed together.
Tallou stood up from where he had been sat on the floor, “you have a noble mission, Laura.  As a child I always wished to go on adventures, it’s part of why I was convinced to join Nesutten’s crew in the first place.  The credits that he paid me, paid off the reason that I needed the funds in the first place.  I still have a few issues that have yet to be dealt with, however if you can offer me paid work as a navigator and copilot for Ven, I will offer my considerable expertise.”
Considering the fact that he had all but told me that he wanted to jump ship at the first opportunity, I was torn between being touched at his offer and hesitant due to his very recent associates.
We needed all of the help we could get and we were far from being in a position where we could be picky about our allies.
Quite how we would be able to pay him however, was a little more of a tricky issue.
Almost as though reading my thoughts, he spoke up, “I require my fee on a percentage basis.  For each criminal that we hand over, I will take seven percent of the bounty.”
“Five percent,” the words were out of my mouth before I realized it or could stop myself, so I added, “and we’ll keep you fed and medicated, if necessary.”  My mind sprang back to when we were in the med-bay and he had feigned taking something in order to get the shot to counteract the gas.  Without knowing his personal history, I could be offering something dangerous.  I decided to talk with Deia, perhaps we could convince Eleoca to pass on his knowledge of the situation.  It was also likely that Ven could come up with some sort of record.
He smirked, more from resignation than irritation, “I suppose I can live with that for now.  I look forward to working together then I suppose.”
I had calmed down, my voice was steady, my breathing regular and my eye contact constant, as far as it usually was.  Yet the tremble in my hands persisted.
“Me to,” it took a moment to find my voice, “thank you, everyone.  Words cannot express how much gratitude is owed to each of you.”  I fought for several minutes to come up with some sort of motivational monologue that confirmed that if we worked together, we would, undoubtedly, liberate humanity.  However, my mind was as blank as a sheet of paper and I was trying to write in white chalk.  A part of me could not help but think that they were beyond foolish for putting their faith in me.  As much as making-it-up-as-I-went-along had worked so far and regardless of how powerful I was, the task ahead of us was going to require more than simple luck and brute strength.
I could hardly say any of that out loud so I simply went with, “we’re far from being humanity’s last hope, but we will absolutely give them something to hope for.”
My companions began to nod, straightening their backs and raising their gazes.
They all seemed to take a few steps forward until they were all standing in a crescent shape before me.
All ears, eyes and attention directly upon me.
Without even realizing it, I had become their leader.
Every part of me froze and I instantly began to regret that I had not even attempted to shift the responsibility to someone else. 
Yet it was a responsibility that would never belong to anyone else.
The crew of the Venanth-Nepha stood before me.
Orthus was the first to speak.
“So, Captain, what’s first?”