Juliette switched off the monitor with trembling fingers. A cold sense of dread pervaded her body. She was essentially on her own. Walking numbly back to Torrin and the lifeless blue Targo, she sank slowly to the floor. The past few days closed in on her, shattering her like fragile glass.
A tiny trickle of tears turned into a raging storm. She’d been on Earth when the Caldorian base was attacked. Newly hired to work on the base as part of an outreach medical group, she’d been inside the main building when the first blast came. She’d watched colleagues and friends die. Caldorians, too. Then she’d been taken. Aware, yet unable to move, they’d transported her to another alien ship. Poked her. Prodded. Assessed. She shivered through the tears. The process had been humiliating.
Then she’d be
