Two months after Sophie's fifteenth birthday, she was on the planet Ralpcator, going through the notes she had in her backpack. She was sitting on a park bench and was comparing the notes to her space map, and she realised that she was soon going to reach the end of the line, the last planet the Eridanus had visited before vanishing. Sophie felt kind of hopeless. So far she hadn't found any trace of what had happened to the expedition and by now it had been four years since it had gone missing. She was scared that she wasn't going to find anything, ever.
Her teleport watch beeped on her wrist and she looked down at it, half-sadly. It would need charging soon, as the watch required a large amount of power to function.
"No!" she exclaimed. "No, no, no, no, no." She tapped at the screen on the face of the teleport watch desperately, but even as she tried to fix it, the power flickered and then died.
As she fell into darkness there was suddenly a loud snapping sound, and the darkness began to twist and bend. Sophie's scream was lost in the madness and then she landed; knee deep in a bog, at the edge of a rainforest. The teleport watch gave off sparks, and Sophie looked down to see it dripping with mud.
"No!" Sophie repeated, trudging her way out of the bog, wiping the muck off of the teleport watch, but it was already dead. Sophie cursed, stamping the ground in anger. What had gone wrong? She knew that the teleport watch had been low on power but it hadn't been low enough for it to short out. She pulled her scanner from her backpack and scanned the surrounding environment. Squinting at the statistics she suddenly realised something. These weren't the coordinates she had set! It was a completely different planet! She was just trying to work out how she was going to fix the watch when there was a noise to her left through the trees, and not just any noise, the noise of a machine, almost like a hovercar.....
"Stay where you are!" a voice ordered, and Sophie jumped in surprise as a group of aliens burst through the trees with weapons pointed at her.
One of the aliens stepped forward, sneering at her. She stared back at it, taking in this alien's strange appearance. It had a humanoid figure, but speckled, reddish skin and two horns poking out from its slimy brown hair. It was wearing some form of army uniform, with a badge on the shoulder of its bright red shirt with white strips of fabric sewn on. The weapon the alien held was an energy weapon, like a spear packed with shiny blue firepower. Sophie stared warily at the spears of all the aliens, not just the leader's one, and raised her hands above her head.
"I'm sorry." She said quickly. "But what planet am I on?"
The alien smirked, its spear pointing straight at her chest. "You, foreigner, are on the planet Zegrafa, and you are trespassing!"
"Oh." Sophie didn't know what to say. She'd never been told that she'd trespassed on a planet before. "Sorry."
"Bind her!" the head Zegrafan said, and one of his buddies surged forwards and tied her hands with a length of rope. Sophie thought it was quite a weak attempt to subdue her until she tried to pull her hands back out of the rope. Man, it was strong.
"Do not attempt to escape." The Zegrafran who'd bound her commanded. "Or we will kill you."
Sophie gulped, and let them lead her away. They had a vehicle parked right at the outer edge of the forest and she was forced into the back of it.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked one Zegrafan fearfully.
"You'll be taken to the king." He replied coldly. "Just like all other foreigners."
Sophie had no idea what that meant for her, but she hoped the king was nice.
She couldn't have been more wrong as she found out when she was taken into the throne room of the king's castle half an hour later, and forced to kneel in front of him. Eventually the king ordered her to get up and look at him and she did.
The king looked the same as the other Zegrafan, except he had a beard and was wearing fine clothes and a crown. He had another, younger looking, Zegrafan standing beside him, and an assortment of women standing behind. Off to the side were the king's foot soldiers, holding their weapons by their sides and standing to attention.
The king stared down at Sophie with displeasure. "So you are the one who has trespassed on my land." He said in a deep and dramatic tone. He turned to the soldier who captured her. "Where did you find her?"
"Off in the outer reaches, by the rainforest." The soldier replied. "The electrical activity there alerted us of her presence but by the time we got there her ship was gone."
"Is that right?" the king turned back to Sophie. "Where did you hide your ship, girl?"
Scared of what would happen if she told the truth, Sophie wildly made something up. "It sank into the bog when I crashed."
The king squinted down at her. "Well you deserved it, for daring to come to this planet, the mighty Zegrafa!"
"Hah!" all the soldiers around the room stamped their feet on the ground. Sophie stared at them curiously.
"Anyway," the king continued, bringing Sophie's attention back to him. "Because of the crime you have committed of trespassing, you will be made one of the slaves and will work for the army, doing all the dirty work your kind of filth deserve."
"But-" Sophie began to explain but was cut off.
"Do not speak, girl, unless explicitly told to!" the king roared, plainly furious. "Guards, take her away to begin her punishment!"
Some soldiers moved forwards to grab her but before they could the Zegrafan standing beside the king stepped towards her.
"Wait!" he cried out, his eyes ablaze with interest. He turned to the king. "Father, may I take a look at her first?"
"If you must." The king nodded his head to the man who was obviously his son, who then walked over to Sophie.
He had a cruel smirk on his face as he approached her. He was wearing the same sort of clothes as the soldiers, but had a ringlet of silver set in his short black hair.
Anyway, so the prince circled around her, his eyes taking in every inch of her as Sophie watched him defiantly, wishing she could cross her arms but, alas, her hands were still tied. The prince eventually nodded, stepped back and smiled, quite evilly.
"Yes, father. I quite like her." He turned back to the king and addressed him.
"But she is of an inferior species!" the king replied almost angrily. "Are you sure you would not prefer someone of our own race?"
Sophie was now feeling quite lost, she couldn't understand what the king and his son were discussing. The prince liked her? What did that mean? And the king asked him if he wouldn't prefer a Zegrafan instead. She was quite scared to discover what it all meant, but at least for now she wasn't being forced into slavery.
"This girl is an interesting character." The prince turned again, grabbing Sophie's face by the cheekbones and examining it. "I like her spirit, and she is fairly attractive, for such a fleshy species. Besides, I already have many wives from this planet, and she would be a fair flower to have."
Sophie's mouth dropped open as the prince moved back to face his father. He wanted her to be his wife? No, that couldn't be right. She was only fifteen and there was no way she was going to be forced to marry an alien. From what she'd seen of the king though, he wasn't fond of 'foreigners' as he called them, and she was sure he would not allow his son to marry her.
Evidently she had observed wrongly, for the king then sighed and gave in. "Alright Grefayis." He addressed his son. Grefayis must have been the prince's name. "You may have the foreigner as your wife, but she will still be made to work as a slave, and will have none of the luxuries of your other wives."
"Of course, father." Grefayis bowed, grinning wickedly.
"Soldiers! You may leave now." The king boomed, and the soldiers who had brought Sophie in left, as well as all of the king's guard save two.
"You'll come with me." Grefayis grabbed Sophie's arm and pulled her out of the throne room into the adjacent hallway.
"Hey!" she complained, but he hissed for her to be quiet.
The prince pulled her throughout the castle, up hallways and past lushly furnished rooms, until they reached a small room near the back, basically the equivalent of a stable. There were no animals in there, but there was hay on the floor and an unpleasant smell caused Sophie to wrinkle her nose. There was an iron framed bed that looked extremely uncomfortable along one wall, and Sophie realised this was probably her bedroom. Grefayis let go of her arm as they entered.
"Since you will soon be my wife and are now my slave, you will stay here." He sneered at her. "You will work in the kitchens or the castle yard throughout the day, doing the meagre jobs of your peasant class, except for when you attend to me. When you are dismissed at night you will be returned here, and locked in. Is that clear?"
Sophie turned her furious gaze upon Grefayis, her groom-to-be. "Yes that's clear, but you know what isn't? Why do you want me as your 'wife'?" she sneered, and received a cuff on her cheek for insolence.
"If you had used your ears, stupid wench," the prince replied. "Then you would have heard that I desired you for your spirit and your fair looks. But if your attitude gets out of hand you will be punished, just like any other peasant."
"Fine, then." Sophie replied, and Grefayis' eyes narrowed at her. "So when's the wedding?"
"When I desire it to be." The prince told her and then stormed out of the room, the door locking behind him.
Sophie stared around at the desolation of her new bedroom, and reflected on how she'd gotten herself into this mess.
If she'd charged the teleport watch, and double checked the coordinates she'd set, then she'd never have 'trespassed' on this horrid planet, never been captured and sentenced to being a slave and wife of Grefayis, that evil prince. Ever since Aldred's death, her travels seemed to be going downhill. That was probably because Aldred had always been so careful of each trip, that there'd never been any room for fault. Sophie shook her head. There was no point in dwelling on what she'd done wrong, now she had to think of a way out of this dreadful situation.
Normally she would just teleport away, but guess what? The teleport watch was broken. Before she could even think of leaving Zegrafa, she would have to fix it. At least she knew how to do that. The only piece of equipment she had left, apart from the teleport watch, was her scanner. Pulling that out of her pocket, she decided that she could sacrifice some of its parts to repair her watch, particularly the battery, which would be adequate for one trip, back to Earth. Sadly, her backpack had been confiscated, and Sophie vowed that once she'd fixed the watch, she'd get it back. She'd need to find out where it was, of course.
Suddenly she heard footsteps approaching her room, and quickly stuffed the scanner back into her pants pocket just as a key jingled in the lock and the door was opened. One of the guards was standing there, with his mouth set in a straight line.
"You are to be taken to the kitchens." He said obediently, and Sophie nodded glumly.
"Do you know where my belongings were taken?" Sophie asked hesitantly.
The soldier glanced sideways at her. "Yes, your bag was taken away to our storage chambers." He eventually replied.
"Is there any chance they could be returned to me?" she pressed, as they walked up a wide hallway. "There's nothing dangerous in them, no weapons or anything... just my clothes and books." Okay so they weren't books they were files but whatever.
"Yes I know, your bag was checked."
Of course it was.
The soldier hesitated. "I would have to ask the prince... but if he agrees then yes, we will place your belongings in your room."
"Thank you." Sophie said gratefully. At least these people weren't completely cruel.
They turned a corner and the soldier pulled her towards a room with a warm glow emanating from it.
"Here you are." The soldier said gruffly, pushing her inside.
It was a kitchen, with coal-fuelled ovens and stoves, grimy benches and food sitting on shelves. Sophie thought it looked like a medieval kitchen from her old history classes when she was at school. For a planet that possessed energy weapons, she was surprised at such primitive technology.
There were a few servants (or slaves) milling around, stirring pots or moving platters of raw food, preparing to cook dinner. Sophie noticed that almost all of them were women and felt a surge of feminist rage. One of the workers, an old woman with a sunken face, came over to Sophie and addressed her.
"So you're the new mistress of the prince, eh?" Sophie blushed, not ready to be called that one bit. "Well now you're bound to work with us. What race are you anyway?"
"I'm human." Sophie replied in a rush. "And I came here by accident." She finished, scowling.
The old woman laughed spitefully. "Well, the king won't let you off for that. He doesn't take kindly to strangers, especially ones from other planets."
"Yeah I noticed." Sophie said, frowning.
"Well, come on then." The woman continued in a venomous tone. "We have to cook dinner for our masters."
Sophie followed her glumly and got to work. For the rest of the day, she cooked, cleaned, and worked tirelessly, doing all the jobs that no one wanted to do. When she was finally relieved of duty late at night she didn't sleep, instead she stayed up by the light of the moon and worked on fixing the teleport watch. Over the next couple of days, she started to grow a hatred of the men in this world. They thought themselves dominant over the women, she noticed, and so forced them to do their dirty work, while they lived (and fought wars) in luxury. She noticed that of the men in slavery, almost all of them had been criminals, whereas the woman for the most part had been sold into slavery as young women. Even the princesses, daughters of the king, seemed miserable as they were not really allowed to do any interesting things because they were women. It seemed like a strange, sad life to Sophie, but she knew that Earth had been that way once.
A few days after she had arrived, Sophie had fixed the main section of the teleport watch and installed the battery from her scanner. All she had to do was calibrate it and she was done. But just that would take a while since she had to do all her work on the watch in secret. Anytime someone asked about the teleport watch, she would tell them that it was a bracelet that had been her mother's, passed down to her.
One day Sophie was called into a royal dressing room, and told that the prince had planned their marriage ceremony for the day after. They fitted her with a red wedding dress, a long flowing thing lined with white fabric, with long sleeves and a veil that matched it. The dress was beautiful, but that wasn't much consolation to Sophie. She really, really did not want to get married to the stuck-up, pompous prince Grefayis, or married at all for that matter. After being fitted into the dress, she was sent back to work.
Soon the dreaded day of marriage was upon her, and she was given two hours off work to prepare for the wedding. Instead of actually getting ready in the first hour, she finished calibrating the teleport watch.
Just in time, she was finished! Slinging her backpack (which the prince had thankfully allowed to be returned to her) over her shoulder, she set her coordinates for Earth and pressed the button. Nothing happened. Sophie looked down in despair at the watch, sure that she had fixed it and saw a message scrolling across the screen.
Teleportation not allowed.
What?
Checking the statistics with her scanner, she deduced that there was a low level force field around the castle stopping her from leaving. Sophie scowled. This was just perfect. She dropped her backpack to the floor as two guards and one of the slave girls came in, to take her to put on her dress for the wedding.
Sophie brought her backpack with her, in the pretence that she wanted to put her clothes in there once she was changed, but in reality she wanted to have it ready in case she could teleport away once she was out of the castle.
Once Sophie was dressed, she was transported to near where the wedding would be held, which was a field beside the neighbouring village. She placed her backpack at the edge of the field, and rounded the corner with flowers in hand, to find herself face to face with the setting of the wedding ceremony.
Many Zegrafans were standing respectfully either side of the aisle (a strip of carpet) that stretched towards the 'altar', a clearing with an archway set up where Grefayis and a few other people stood. As she descended the aisle, Sophie glanced up at Grefayis' smug face, and was filled with rage. She still had no idea why he wanted to torture her by making her his wife. She then looked down at her watch, and her face lit up with joy as she saw that she was no longer in range of the force field. A mischievous smile formed on her face as she remembered that she was wearing high heels, and had a plan for her escape.
She reached the altar and smiled at her groom. The prince reached out to take her hand and Sophie's smile changed into a smirk. Her foot came up and she kicked him hard in the chest. Then she ran, kicking her heels off as she went.
The crowd was in uproar as Sophie leapt and dodged around them. Luckily she'd had lots of practice running from stuff because there were so many guards after her it was ridiculous.
"Catch her!" Grefayis shouted. "She doesn't have anywhere to go, anyway!"
Sophie grinned. If only he knew. She reached the edge of the field where she'd left her bag, scooped it up and turned around to face the Zegrafans who were chasing her.
"Bye!" she yelled, pressing the button on her teleport watch and, successfully for once, disappeared.
She reappeared in the courtyard of the Science Institution on Earth, and bent over double, immediately gasping for air. She never wanted to do that again.
In a few moments, about twenty scientists streamed out of the building and just stood there staring at her. She'd landed there heaps of times so she didn't realise why they were all staring. That was when she remembered the elaborate dress she was wearing. Sophie stared down in embarrassment then looked back up and waved at the scientists.
"Hi, I'm back."
Fifteen minutes later, she was in the records room with Louise, recalling the entire event.
"You need to be more careful Sophie!" Louise scolded her once the young girl had finished.
"I know, I know." Sophie replied sadly. "It won't happen again."
"I'm worried about you." Louise said.
"You don't need to be." Sophie mumbled. "I'm absolutely fine; I just made a mistake that's all."
Louise sighed. "Sometimes I wish you could just live a normal life."
Sophie smiled sadly in response. "I don't think that's ever going to happen." She said, and then sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do now, though. Soon, I'll have visited all the planets on the expedition's list, and then I'll have to work out what to do. Maybe I'll end up following spaceships or something."
"You'll have to be especially extra careful if you do that." Louise replied. "Most people aren't keen on being followed, and you can't know what kind of people they are unless you meet them. It would be extremely dangerous."
"I know." Sophie looked sadly down at her feet. "And I promise I'll be careful. It's just... I feel so hopeless, like I'll never end up finding the Eridanus, that I'll never see my dad again."
Louise placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and smiled. "Just don't worry about it." She said. "Come on, let's go home."
And with that, Sophie hitched up her skirt and followed Louise out.