The world was rumbling. Zev woke up, startled by the sudden turbulence. What was going on?

They sat up against a nearby wall. The walls, the surroundings – Zev was in a spaceship.

Ah! Yes! Things suddenly made more sense as they remembered what was happening, though there was little explanation for the rumbling.

That is, until Zev looked outside through the ship's main view port. Wherever they were, their ship was about to land, presumably guided by the autopilot program. The area beneath the ship was filled with tall structures, scattered fences, and tall orange and blue motifs hanging high just outside the settlement's circumference, all connected to one another via paved roads. The world was an amazing and almost mystifying sight compared to their previous home; the Illian Cluster had no orbiting stars to paint beautiful sunsets like this one, no day and night cycles to give each passing moment meaning, and no vast horizons to view with immeasurable wanderlust. Zev didn't even know where they were, but they were already mesmerized.

While the indescribable excitement that came from being free of Illian was almost overwhelming, the prospect of being discovered by the city's inhabitants was just as unnerving, even if these people might be the humans Zev had become so familiar with during their time on the space station.

Boom. With one painfully rough bump, the ship hit the ground. It didn't touch the ground, it hit the ground, jostling the inside of the ship even more. Zev got jerked around a bit, hitting their head on the wall behind them.

Autopilot needs lessons, Zev grumbled.

“We have arrived at: Karma's Gateway!” the ship's computer blared out at an annoyingly loud volume. With that, the rumbling and the movement ceased. However, the view of the outside world had been completely blotted out by something. It was suddenly total darkness outside.

This was a mystery that needed to be solved.

Zev stood up, though they had to hunker down uncomfortably low just to stay on their feet; the ceiling of the ship's bridge felt even lower than before. Zev wondered if their recent meal had triggered another growth spurt, or if the size of the ship was just smaller than they remembered it to be. Regardless, it was a pain just to move over to the main door on other side of the cramped vessel.

Lumbering around as awkwardly as ever, they opened the portal to this new world, ready to face whoever or whatever was on the other side.

However, almost to Zev's disappointment, there was no one there to greet the ship's lone passenger. All that was on the other side of the door was the interior of a dark, rusty garage, with metal workbenches and tools lining one side of the room, and miscellaneous metal parts sitting on the other side. The only illumination came from a single lightbulb hanging from the room's ceiling between two heavy duty fans, painting the walls and floor with withered shades of brown and maroon. There was no light coming from directly above the ship – did Zev land inside a building?

Maybe this is a human town, Zev wondered, piecing together a few details they picked up on during their travel. The familiar tools, the autopilot's destination – perhaps this was a settlement of the species they knew most about.

Zev leaned out of the ship's entrance and clambered outside, accidentally stumbling and falling onto the cold floor of the garage, unharmed but rather irritated. They appreciated the garage's high ceiling after getting up, allowing them almost enough room to stand up straight without hunkering over like in the ship.

If there was one thing Zev would miss about the Illian Cluster, it was the vast and spacious rooms and hallways. The most frustrating aspect of this new location was the door to the rest of the building was probably meant for people six feet tall, not sixteen feet tall. There was no way Zev would be able to fit through that door.

However, there was a solution.

Arms, legs, torso, head – Zev molecularly rearranged every part of their body in a strange and eldritch display: skin and muscle contracted and compressed, organs groaned as they moved around, limbs almost vibrating as they morphed. Even Zev's clothes were reformed, as those, too, were part of the shapeshifter's flesh.

They faced the door once again after their transformation finished. Zev was much smaller than they were moments ago, but their weight and appearance remained unchanged. They were still a few feet taller than the doorway, but Zev wasn't so tall that they couldn't crouch under and make their way into the building. Before opening the door, they made a point of listening to check if there was anyone else there, disregarding all the ruckus they made simply getting to the door. The lack of sound hinted towards abandonment, not too different from their old home.

With a turn of the doorknob and a gentle push on the door, the inside of the building revealed itself. From first glance, it looked a lot more comfortable and interesting than the chilly and boring garage. Working their way inside wasn't too hard with their new form – Zev ducked their head through the doorway and sidestepped in.

Carpet, they quickly noticed. Zev enjoyed how comfortable and warm the floor was, but was still upset that the ceiling was once again restricting their posture down to an awkward, crouched state.

They found themself in a rather wide hallway with poor illumination and many rooms branching off from either side. On their right was both a staircase leading to a higher floor and a room with a stark white colour scheme. To the left was a very dark room, and straight ahead was a very open room.

Zev decided to go into the white room beside the staircase. There must have been some reason this spot was a different colour.

After a careful inspection of the immediate area, Zev saw it. On the far end of the room, beneath a series of shelves, was a small fridge. Zev knew what that meant. This must have been a kitchen!

They rushed over to the fridge and yanked the door open, quickly falling to their knees to look inside. In front of them was a huge assortment of edible goodies, all free for the taking. Zev didn't recognize any of it, which made it even more exciting. More new things to taste.

Zev took everything in reach – small plastic containers containing meat of some sort, cylindrical containers holding some sort of liquid, a bar of something wrapped in a foily material – and chowed it all down. Zev didn't care one bit about eating the containers; their only goal was to get at the contents of each one, and with every bite they took, a new flavour washed over their taste buds.

Unfortunately, the fridge was rather small, and the hungry alien cleared it out much faster than they wanted to. But, for now, their appetite was put in check.

There was still so much to explore. Pleased with their findings so far, Zev ambled back to the hallway and made their way back over to the staircase, carefully walking up each step. There was almost enough room to let Zev stand up straight while on the steps, but their posture returned to its bent-over state after they reached the second floor.

This floor seemed to be made of just two rooms: a wide-open living area and a sizable closet. The far end of the living area was illuminated by an open window almost the size of the wall itself, giving the room a gentle orange glow. Two loveseats on the left side of the room faced an exceptionally wide desk with both a holographic television set and a small laptop computer on top. Aside from a couple of potted plants near the corners of the room, there were no other objects of interest.

The computer had no external controls like the ones up at the Illian Cluster, so Zev touched the screen in an attempt to make something happen. To their surprise, the screen lit up when they did so, presenting them with a dark blue screen with some white words in the middle.

“Seth – enter password” was displayed on the monitor, followed by an empty box. Zev touched the empty box, and a large assortment of buttons appeared near the button of the screen.

This must be Seth's home. Ah, ah, ah, I don't know the password. But... ah, it's worth a try!

Zev had one idea for what the password might be. Kneeling down to get in a better position to type, they hit the keys T-I-N-A and pressed the “submit” button.

Incorrect.

Zev grumbled. That was all they could think to try, so they decided to leave the computer alone.

Instead, they turned their attention towards the holographic TV right beside it, sliding across the floor on their knees to position themself directly in front of it. The base of the TV had a series of buttons on the front, including one large button labeled “power.” Zev pressed it.

Immediately, the translucent screen popped to life. Quickly looking up to see what was on TV, Zev was taken aback by what they were seeing.

EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM

Civil Authorities

Issued a

Civil Emergency Message

White words on a black background. The TV was blaring an intermittent alarm, followed by a much longer solid tone. Finally, someone began speaking.

“The following message is transmitted at the request of HLC fleet command of HLC Mystified Path in space sector F-3. A large, unidentified spaceship has exited subspace in close vicinity to HLC Mystified Path. The vessel is larger than HLC Mystified Path, and it is not of human origin. We have attempted communication with the unidentified spaceship and we have received responses in the form of an unknown language. There is a possibility that this vessel is of extraterrestrial origin. We do not know if this vessel is dangerous; all deployed human spacecraft in the vicinity of space sector F-3 should immediately return to HLC Mystified Path or the nearest HLC space station while we continue establishing communication with the unidentified vessel. This advisory will remain in effect until further instructions or additional updates are broadcast.”

Beep. Beep. Beep. The TV then changed from the black screen to what looked like a weather report.

Zev couldn't comprehend half of what was being said in the alert. However, they did understand certain key phrases, such as “human,” “spaceship,” “unidentified,” “not of human origin,” and “unknown language.”

Then this must be a human planet... but do the humans know about me?

Zev grew anxious. The idea of humans discovering them was frightening. How could they hide their true identity without having any other physical forms in memory?

But then, they remembered. Zev reached into the pocket of their coat, taking out Seth's ID card. It had a picture of Seth's face on it, along with some other miscellaneous details Zev didn't care to interpret.

The only thing Zev needed was an appearance.

Morphing into a human's physique would be comparatively easy, since they just had to change how they looked on the surface rather than rearranging everything. Zev could even keep their clothes intact.

Taking a good, hard look at the photo, Zev memorized as many details as they possibly could from such a tiny picture. They changed the pigment of their skin and hair to match the photo, shifted the structure of their face around and gave themself a 5 o'clock shadow, grew a human nose and pair of ears, hid their volon teeth behind a fake set of human teeth, and created fingernails on their hands. Most importantly, they changed their big cross-shaped eyes to the smaller eyes and eyelids of a human. They didn't like how limited their vision was in this form, but it was a necessary step to take to avoid detection.

Now I'm Seth, Zev happily recited in their head.

The light of the sunset outside was slowly fading away as the minutes passed by, leaving the building in a progressively darker state. Perhaps there was a light switch somewhere, but Zev didn't expect to be in the house for so long that it would become untraversable.

They did want to learn more about Seth and what he was doing on the Illian Cluster, though. With the computer inaccessible for the moment and the TV now playing some uninteresting program, Zev decided they would continue their search elsewhere. They went over to the nearby closet and opened the doors.

Nothing but hanging clothes at first glance. However, after taking a closer look at the small shelf above the clothes rack, there seemed to be some box-shaped object sitting by itself. Zev tried pulling it off, but the box flipped open when it was carelessly yanked off the shelf, spilling several papers everywhere on the ground.

Irritated, Zev stepped back and looked down at the mess. They knelt down once again, trying their best to gently pick up the pages and stack them nicely, not bothering to figure out what order they were supposed to be in. As they were rustling the papers around, a picture of a spaceship on one of the pages caught their eye. Suddenly curious, Zev decided to read the page over.

“[...] boarding the ship, Aidan will cut the electricity and Tina will take the research crew hostage. Seth will secure the drive prototype, Aidan will leave, Seth will leave, and Tina will leave IN THAT ORDER.” Beneath the writing was what looked like a diagram of a large spacecraft, with several markers indicating different rooms, power routes, walkways, guard positions, and many more details Zev couldn't even begin to understand.

Is this a plan for a heist? Was Seth a pirate? Things were becoming a little more clear, but as Zev's questions were answered, more questions appeared.

Shuffling through a few more documents, there was one more page that looked like it contained relevant information.

“The target is HLC Hopeful Venture, the civilian capital ship one sector from Hallow. It is serving as a front for a small but advanced FTL research division, where a prototype subspace field emitter is being heavily developed. Hopeful Venture currently contains a functional prototype of this field emitter, which is rumoured to have multi-sector jump capabilities, significantly more powerful than the HLC's current FTL drives.

We will board the ship from the lowest docking bay, closest to the location of the research bay. Upon [...]”

Mostly meaningless. However, Zev's suspicions about this whole heist business seemed to be confirmed.

Deciding to leave the papers on the floor, Zev rose to their feet and started walking back downstairs, once again enjoying the brief respite of the high ceiling above the stairwell.

Just across from the stairs was a small, dark room – too dark to see in. Zev reached around the door frame in hopes of finding a switch, and their efforts were rewarded: they felt a small knob on the wall, and, after a flick, the room was brightened with vibrant light.

Zev recognized this room – it was a smaller version of the big laundry room up in the Illian Cluster. This room seemed to match the kitchen's decor – white walls with a grey floor and ceiling – and it was also very crowded; there was just enough space to walk between the washer and dryer on the left, and the storage cubbyholes lined with books and other unidentifiable objects on the right.

On the far wall was a tall, monochrome poster hanging by a tack, featuring a military tank with the caption “DESTROY” written beneath it in capital letters. Zev couldn't help but think of it as a clue to Seth's personality.

BANG BANG BANG.

Someone was slamming on a door. It sounded like it was coming from the front of the house. Zev immediately froze and listened.

The sound of a lock rustling around, followed by a door opening and gently closing, petrified Zev.

“Ey, Seth. Fuck-face. It's your good buddy, huh! Remember me? Aidan?!” a human voice rang out.

Zev panicked. They didn't have Seth's voice memorized, and they weren't even sure how well their disguise would pass.

“Where the fuck are you? I got a surprise waiting for you. Yeah, those techies you left me to get fucked by? Gave me a nice deal for your head. Good job coming straight back to your own home, by the way. Real smart move. Fuckin' idiot.”

Zev needed to get out, fast. There was no time to change their appearance. The front door was only a few seconds away, but Zev didn't know where this angry person was. Following their instinctive reaction, Zev jumped out of the dark room and turned to the left, ready to escape through the front entrance.

“Freeze, asshole.” Standing just before Zev was a human, presumably Aidan, holding a gun straight at Zev's face. “Wh... what the fuck?!” he shouted, clearly perplexed.

Zev quickly realized they were still scrunched down because of the ceiling. They forgot they were nowhere near the correct height to pass as a human.