The pajamas the nurse gave me were softer than silk compared to the scratchy orange prison jumpsuit. I almost didn’t mind the SpaceTech logo above my left breast. Almost. The pants were loose, but not too baggy. I pulled the drawstring and double-knotted it. The tank top was fitted, but thankfully not as thin as the pants. Otherwise, it might have been indecent. They’d given me a pair of slip-on running shoes that had papery soles with the lightest touch of rubber coating. I wasn’t sure they’d hold up for anything but walking to the cryo chamber, but all in all it was way better than I was expecting for a convict.

When I exited the changing area, Ahiga was sitting in one of the cushy white chairs sprinkled throughout the mostly empty room. He was wearing a pair of navy sweatpants and a gray tank top with a SpaceTech logo on the left chest. It showed every inch of his arms. He had muscles piled on muscles. Not that I was particularly surprised. The man was massive.

I wasn’t sure what to think of Ahiga. I was leaning toward him being an ally, but he was big and scary and looked like even the fires of hell wouldn’t thaw the ice in his heart. The tribal tattoo that covered the right side of his face might have scared off most people, but I was in the Crew. Everyone in the Crew had tattoos, even me. Mine was a tiny little thing, just on the inside of my hip bone, but it counted.

One of Ahiga’s giant hands nearly concealed the glass he was drinking from. He placed it down next to him absently. His gaze was fixed on the vidscreens across the room from him, and I could see his jaw ticcing.

The news was showing footage of one of the colonies. Ships were taking off from a massive spaceport. The reporter was yammering about IAF being ordered to a system I’d never heard of.

I glanced back at Ahiga, and his jaw was still tight. I wasn’t sure what he was upset about. It looked like business as usual to me, but there was a lot I didn’t know. My resistance sites had a hard time confirming their stories, and I was never sure who or what to believe.

I took another step into the room to find a place to sit, and that was enough to catch Ahiga’s attention. He waved me over, and I went to stand next to him.

“Why are we the only ones here?” I figured that there would be more people waiting, but it felt like a ghost town. A way too clean ghost town.