The females then take me to a canteen with other Silvers in similar uniforms to ours. They show me how to work the machine for food. It’s activated by my DNA. “You can have food four times a day,” one of the Silver females says. “More than four….” she slaps her hand with her other hand to make it clear to me it’ll result in a punishment. I’m not surprised as Silvers liked physically punishing each other on the farm. Then she brings up another menu on the machine, I can’t read it, but I can see the script is in the color blue, not green. “And not this.” she slaps her hand again to let me know this menu is also forbidden.

“I understand.”

“Also,” the females lead me back to my tiny room and show me a little computer. “You learn here.” They touch a button, and suddenly a holograph of a Silver woman speaking appears, and it’s not long before I realize it’s a Silver language learning program.

“Thank you,” I reply and begin watching the program. I realize instantly it’s interactive, and already the program is measuring my ability. I pause the program because I must eat first. I get Silver oatmeal from the food machine and juice because it’s all I know how to say. I scarf it down and then return to the language program. I’ve been told my room will buzz when the Commander needs me. I assume my patient is the Commander, and I don’t know why he took me from the farmhouse, but I hope it’s only because I saved him from the transport crash and nothing more.

I never enjoyed school, but now that it’s vital I learn this language, I’m inhaling the program. Once the buzzer sounds off, though, I know I have to run to the Commander’s quarters which aren’t far from mine and are well-marked. Also, as the language program has been tailored to me and my new life here, I’ve already memorized the alien written word for ‘Commander’ and can even say some appropriate words I need to serve him. I quickly put on my new shoes, similar to his, that attach to my trousers and race down the corridor out of the servants’ quarters into the officers’ quarters. Once I arrive. I catch my breath and wait outside his door. I know that I need not press any buttons or say anything. He has been alerted to my presence with sensors. After a second, I hear his deep voice, “Enter Volunteer 4711.”

CHAPTER 6

COMMANDER

I turn and see my new valet enter. She looks better now that she’s out of that dirty farmhouse and those rags they had given her to wear. I had my first officer look up her details, and she was traded on a low-quality deal by lesser members of my species. She had been chosen for her endurance and health. I’m still impressed she was able to pull me from the transport, which I would’ve surely died in had she not been there, as the farmers, like most of their class, would like to see me dead.