I went over and tried to help her. It was jammed closed so I gave it a thud. It clamored open. I suddenly froze and Tabitha gripped my arm tightly. My eyes frantically scanned my surroundings but nothing stirred. Tabitha slowly released her grip.
We got inside the holding bay of the spaceship. Our instructions were clear. We needed to open one of the steel containers, which was never locked. One of them would be empty. And that is what we did, although it took a few minutes to find one. We had been told that this was a ship for perishable and sensitive freight so we would only have to deal with slow acceleration and deceleration. Our destination was called Decon XXV. I knew not what to expect. So I squeezed into the container with Tabitha and pulled it closed. We held hands in the dark and waited.
After a few minutes, we could hear the roar of the engines. She gripped my hand more firmly. Then we felt the ship begin to move. After a few minutes, I began to feel sick from the motion and tried to concentrate my mind on the day’s events.
Hours passed. Then almost imperceptibly it began to decelerate.
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