A bright white flash, light, blinded me when I tried to open my eyes again. I never thought I’d see light again, never thought I’d see anything again, not in this life anyways.

Slowly I got used to the light, my vision came back to me and I saw… grey, more precisely, a large grey room, filled with other people. Did I get rescued somehow? I tried to move my hands but couldn’t, I looked down and saw that we weren’t rescued, but captured. A form of handcuffs immobilized my hands, and my legs weren’t any better off. I definitely wouldn’t get out of this chair I was sitting in.

‘’Morning, or evening, I don’t know.’’ A voice said besides me, I turned to it and saw a young man, wearing blue for science with yellow stripes for physics, looking back at me. He was cuffed to a chair like mine.

‘’What?’’ I replied after studying him.

‘’You’re awake, just wanted to greet you. I didn’t want to say ‘good’ morning since it’s hardly any good.’’ He said before looking back to the grey in front of him, the back of another identical chair.

I looked around, to my other side there was a hallway with more identical chairs and people cuffed too them along it. I sat still for a while, considering the situation, before saying: ‘’Colleral don’t take prisoners?’’ He immediately replied: ‘’Apparently they do.’’

‘’Why’d they start now?’’

He looked back at me: ‘’I’m just as lost as you are, I was in the medical facility, I had to take a spray to fall asleep, I did, next thing I know I wake up here.’’

‘’Colleral attacked the station, I was in the mech bay, managed to get to a mech before my wounds knocked me flat, next thing I know a physician tells me he doesn’t know morning from evening.’’

He chuckled before I continued: ‘’I don’t even know your name yet?’’

‘’Serren, Philip Serren, and you are?’’

‘’Steele-‘’ He interrupted: ‘’Sheridan Steele?’’

I nodded: ‘’How’d you know?’’ He paused for a while, thinking: ‘’I read a report that some mechanics would be joining us, your name stood out.’’

‘’Why?’’

‘’You did come second in a whole region, that counts for something.’’ He smiled, I couldn’t help but smile back.

For a while silence fell over us, then something hit me: ‘’I know were cuffed, but wouldn’t there probably be at least one guard overseeing us?’’

He pondered for a while: ‘’Colleral despise humans, they hate how they look, smell and think that they’re symbols of weakness.’’

‘’I’m very fond of them too, go on.’’

‘’Well...’’ He paused: ‘’I suppose they simply don’t want to associate with us at all.’’

I sighed: ‘’That’d explain why they don’t take prisoners, and why they wouldn’t associate with them if they did… I guess.’’

I heard a voice, some other poor soul yelling: ‘’I’m by a window, we just went out of pro-light speeds and we’re are nearing some green planet.’’

‘’Colleral home world?’’ I commented to myself. Serran heard it: ‘’No, Colleral is crystalline just like its inhabitants, it’d look white from space, we’re somewhere else.’’

‘’Colleral either found a completely habitable world or just suddenly invented quick terraforming?’’

‘’It’s green, doesn’t mean habitable.’’

‘’Guess we’ll find out real soon won’t we?’’

For several minutes after that we just waited, the ship shook a few times, when we entered the atmosphere and landed I guess.

‘’We’re on ground!’’ The guy by the window yelled after a large quake, least the wait was over. If only I knew.

Nothing happened for a few seconds? Minutes? Until the room was flooded by green gas from all directions, and I started feeling very sleepy. After that it was just a moment of waiting for the darkness to surround me again, it did.

I opened my eyes again and punched a wall seconds later, I saw grey again, I’d gotten enough grey for two lifetimes already. The room itself was small, grey walls, grey roof, grey floor and grey door that I quickly found out was locked, the only things that weren’t grey was a black desk with a Colleral pad, adapted for human viewing I guessed, a window I couldn’t see through from here, and a chair by the desk. Colleral were such colorful people.

When I stood up I peeked at the very uncomfortable bed I woke up in, grey of course.

Slowly, I walked over to the small window and peeked though, the colors I saw surrounded me as I almost trembled back in the grey room. Beyond that window was what looked like a rainforest, a huge rainforest filled with colors, green leaves, red, blue and yellow flowers scattered among them.

It was an amazing sight to say the least.

I rubbed my eyes and looked out again for a little while, getting used to the color while enjoying the view, I wasn’t planning to stay here whether or not the Colleral wanted me to.

The Colleral pad glowed slightly while I sat down, I picked it up and saw a very subtle message:

‘’this will be your location until further notice’’

Grammar was off, I kind of feel bad for that being the first thing I noticed.

I was about to punch the window in a futile attempt to get out, didn’t plan to stay here and wait for the Colleral, I stopped myself when I realized that the atmosphere outside could very well immediately kill me. Then I just stood there, hand raised in the air ready to punch, thinking.

Even if the Colleral hadn’t secured the glass, getting out there wouldn’t help me, I’d still be stuck on this damn planet, probably filled with deadly wildlife too.

Then it came to me, none of that mattered, anything was better than just waiting here for the Colleral. I punched the glass hard enough to almost break my hand, of course the glass, it didn’t even scratch.

I fell back in hopelessness and held my own hand as if it’d make the pain go away, I sat there for seconds? Minutes? Hours!? Until a cube fell down from a spot in the roof, when I looked up I saw nothing and realized that it must’ve closed itself. I went over to the desk where the cube landed and picked it up, it was soft and easy to recognize.

It was a nutrient box, you could live of a diet of only these things and water indefinitely, but you didn’t want to, the taste hurt you more than any kind of starvation could.

I reluctantly, and very slowly, took a bite out of it. My reflexes spat it out, it was even worse that it’s human counterpart. I couldn’t help but slowly eating it though, there’d be nothing else in here.

And when I say that, I’m not just talking about food.