He whines by my side. He's cold and hungry

He whines by my side. He's cold and hungry and I want nothing more than to give his weary tiny legs a break from our trek. I want to offer words of comfort, but we must keep moving

as the farther we go, the less time we'll have to hide. My anxiety was growing to a stifling amount and there wasn't much that could be done to stop it. They were following us, and

we couldn't let the kids know that we were intergalactic fugitives with multiple hit squads out to kill us and mount our heads on their den walls. I still took Brie to her lacrosse

that day although there was a heavy awkwardness in the air as we drove. She always knew when something was off and the terrifying facts about life off-planet weren't easy to hide.

I'd seen ionic storms decimate the outpost at Io & been there during the mutiny of the Ceres prison factory.I hadn't told her I was a synthetic & my memory of her a phantom. She

gave me a ride to Vesta. "How were the Io storms & the Ceres mutiny?" she said. "Bad" Was I lying? I don't know. I had an urge to suck her spinal fluid. "I'm synthetic," I blurted.

heartbeat, if there is one. I nudged my ear to her tailbone. "Watch it!" she cried. "I'm...I'm delicate." I listened carefully........nothing. Then: "thump"..."thump-thump"...

"Hello, is there anyone in there?" I called. A tiny voice called out from behind her tailbone, "Do you mind? I'm trying to practice my bass guitar!" it said. Then more thumping.

We played drums and fluttered like the notes we played, whilst the tenth folder pretended to not notice it was not after 10pm. No folding stories lest everyone couldnt sleep.