We were alone once again in our cage in the deathly silence having long run out of things to say.

“Did you hear that?” Tabitha murmured.

“Hear what?” I replied.

But then I heard something too.

It was faint but getting louder.

Then the two Irish-speaking boys appeared at the top of one of the stairwells.

My heart jumped.

I immediately spoke to them in Irish and said –

“Come down and chat to us. We mean you no harm. Where did you learn Irish?”

The two boys looked and muttered to each other. Then slowly they walked down the creaking stairwell towards them.

“What are your names?” I asked.

The eldest boy spoke.

“I am Padraig and this is Sean.”

“How did you get here?”

“Our transport vessel was attacked. My parents were merchants. They were murdered and we were sold as slaves to Barabus.”

The two boys were shaking with tears trickling down their faces.

“This is Tabitha, and my name is Ciarán. You have nothing to fear from us. We see the way that you are treated, it’s not right. If you help us out of this cage we can help you.”

The boys looked at each other. Then Sean went to the top of the room to retrieve the keys and then unlocked the cage.

Tabitha couldn’t but hug the two boys as she left the cage.

“Minions, put these intruders in the cage!”

A large cheer went up behind us. I felt a gun sharply pressing into my back forcing me to the rear of the room and into a large cage with black metal bars. I heard a large clinking sound just after the door slammed behind me. I quickly turned around to see that Tabitha was by my side.

The youngsters piled up against the bar, their eyes wide open gaping at us like we were some type of weird exotic animals. They just stared without fear or understanding.

“Get away from them! Pretend they are not there,” the large man bellowed.

Gradually, they averted their gaze away from us and back to him.

“You are not to messing with them. They are now valuable cargo and to be treated as such.”

When one of the younger ones fleetingly looked back at us, his face grew read and he hit him a thump reducing the young boy to tears.

Tabitha shuddered.

They were as much his prisoners as we were.

He then started giving them instructions on what goods they needed to bring where and when. They listened carefully. It was a mixture of weapons, drugs, and key parts needed for space infrastructure. Then after an hour or two they dispersed and went back to their duties.

I opened the heavy door and went out into a bright, white corridor. Tabitha followed close behind. We went slowly trying to ensure that we didn’t make a noise. It felt claustrophobic, so different to the other habitats I had been on. Each room we came across was full of the same boxes and they were in a similar state of disrepair. A repugnant smell of sweat pervaded the ship sickening the intrepid .

Then they heard the sound of shouting coming from in front of them. They continued on onwards to an open door at the end of the corridor. It led them onto a balcony. We peered down at what lay below. A big, heavy-set man was speaking to a large of people. What looked like a machine gun was strewn around his neck. They could just barely make out what he was saying –

“See I told ya. But did ya believe me? Not a chance. But the proof is with us now. I told you that there was a flaw in their security. Now we have their merchandise to sell to the highest bidder. And we will.”

Just then, I thought I felt something prodding my back. So intently was I listening that I ignored it, but then I got a much larger prod that sent a dart of pain into my side.

“What?” I whispered angrily as I looked back to guns pointing at my face.

“I have no idea. I’ve never seen such a shoddy ship before. How is it still even functioning?” I replied dryly.

Tabitha looked at me wide-eyed and then replied, “It must be a scavenger ship. I’ve heard about them. They bring goods of all types from one habitat to another for the lowest possible price. Many of the first-generation ships ended up getting purchased for this purpose and it was said that some of them are still out there. Scavengers have a very bad reputation for violence and I was told never to let my guard around them. There was one story about a group of rebels who asked to let them hide in their ship. The Scavengers said yes but they were not heard of or seen again. You ever hear about them?”

“No nothing. But the media and everything else were tightly controlled in my habitat so that might not mean much.”

A siren went off in the ceiling corner. We both froze. There was a scurrying sound coming from outside and instinctively we rushed behind some of the metal containers. The scurrying noise grew louder before receding away. Then the siren stopped.

I glanced at Tabitha knowingly.

“The siren is a summoning device. Come on, let’s see where they went.”

But she gripped my arm tightly.

“We have to see what’s going on. We’re not on the right ship.”

She let my arm go and nodded in agreement.

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.