I stared down at the printouts, blinking slowly. Dumbly. As though I couldn't comprehend any of what I was seeing.

"Take your time," the creature across from me cooed. They were spindle-thin, with too many fingers and too many eyes and too many legs. Completely and totally alien - which was only to be expected, after all.

Alien abduction was something that happened to other people - crazy people living in trailers out in the woods, complaining about the fluoride in city water and the government satellites spying on them in their homes. Not me.

I'd learned otherwise.

"I...don't know," I said, furrowing my brow carefully. The alien across from me sighed, unable to mask its smile. Gaelinin, I'd been told to call it.

"That's fine. It's fine," it said. I understood every word, somehow, despite the fact that its reedy, wind-chime voice should only sound like meaningless, nonsensical noises.

They'd...done something to me. I couldn't remember. But when I'd awoken, my head was shaved, and there were scars all over my scalp. They'd put something in me. I didn't know quite what, but we could understand each other.

"I'm tired," I said plaintively, fixing the alien with my biggest puppy-dog eyes. "Can I go back to my room?"

Its skin flushed in the way it always seemed to when it was happy. "Oh. Just a little more, Sam. Just one more. Here. Could you solve this problem for me?"

It slid another sheet across to me. I looked down carefully, deliberately slowly.

X=4

(2X+10)/2 = ?

Inwardly, I groaned. More middle-school math. They kept doing this - checking and double checking my mental acuity, my speed, as though they couldn't quite believe the results they were getting.

I stared down at the numbers, pressing my nose closer inch by inch.

"Is it six?" I said, pursing my lips as I looked back at Gaelinin.

It made the hissing, gasping noise that was its laughter, then held a many-fingered hand up like it was trying to hide the expression. It was a bit of humanity I wouldn't have expected.

"Oh...I'm so stupid," I said slowly.

"No. It's fine, Sam. Why don't you go back to your room, now?" Gaelinin's voice said soothingly.

My collar beeped. I swallowed hard. That meant I could leave - I could exit the test chambers. Thank god. I'd seen what their device could do, and I could never quite rest easy until I knew it had gone into 'rest' mode.

The fact I'd seen what it could do was the reason I was playing this damn stupid game, after all.

I rose, my motions wooden and slow, and slipped into the hall. The panel on the wall beeped, letting Gaelinin know it had locked onto me - following me. They'd let me walk myself home, at least. Why not? Where was I going to go? I stepped from the room, letting the door slide shut behind me.

The sound of screaming echoed down the hallway. They weren't human - I knew that much. I hadn't seen any other humans on this ship, in fact. But I'd seen them through the windows of their test chambers.

The sight of them as I'd first been pulled into Gaelinin's room had put me into such a shock that I'd been dumbfounded, frozen solid. The tubes hanging from their arms, the way they writhed as the system put them through test after test after test - pushing them farther and farther, finding their limits of mental and physical acuity.

I hadn't realized it at the time, but that very dumbfounded reaction had saved me.

The door slid shut behind me as I stepped into my room - tiny, windowless, and bare. There was no doorknob. I was little more than an animal to them, after all - just a curiosity.

But they wouldn't expect greatness out of an animal. They wouldn't do the things to me that they'd done to the rest of their subjects.

And animals wouldn't be considered a threat. Humanity would be safe. Wherever Earth was. I had to hope that we were still close, at least.

It had better be. When I made my escape, I wanted to go home.

Slowly, carefully, I ran the plan over in my mind again. The little device Gaelinin wore on its belt would do the trick - I'd seen it open the forbidden doors. The caretaker wouldn't expect it from me, and that gave me an opening.

If I failed, the game would be up. The aftermath would be...unpleasant for me. I was sure of that much.

But I had to try. I wasn't going to stay here forever.

Sliding my eyes shut, I pushed the doubts away.

There was only the plan. That was all.

And it was nearly time.