Miles Alderman sat in his cell feeling depressed and hopeless. He wanted to see the sun, but there were no windows. There was only the indirect light from the windows that he hadn't figured out where they were. He had been a part of Travis Nichols's group. He didn't really believe like his former leader, but he needed others around him to prevent him from turning into a lunatic.

Miles heard the door to the corridor open and then the footsteps of the guards coming down the hallway. Two guards suddenly arrived at his cell. Miles's face paled. When they come for someone, they take them to be executed.

"Stand. Turn around and lay your palms on the wall, feet apart," one guard ordered. The other guard held the chains and bar shackles in his hands, waiting for Miles to do what he was told.

Miles quickly did as he was ordered, standing up and placing his palms on the wall. It wasn't that quick. He was weak from not having enough food. The aliens didn't feed the prisoners very well. Miles started shaking out of fear. He wasn't ready to die.

One of the guards quickly used the bar shackles and bound his hands. The two guards left his feet unchained so that he could walk. Miles knew they used the one for the ankles only after they arrived at wherever they were taking him.

Pushing him out of the cell, the guards guided Miles through the prison and out the clear double doors. Miles wanted to know where they were taking him, but was afraid to ask. He knew it was probably his execution.

The sun shone above him, making him squint. He had been in darkness for a long time. Only the faint light that reflected in the daylight, making it possible for him to see, was the only light he had been subjected to since he was taken to the cells.

The guards guided him through a cluster of dwellings until they came to one that declared itself 'the clinic.' Fear swelled in him. He didn't like doctors to begin with. Miles knew that the aliens tested things on prisoners. The prisoners were considered unworthy and expendable, and it didn't matter to them when they died during their experiments.

The two guards guided him inside the clinic and through the main room, then into a back room. Six beds lined up in a tight row. Five of them were occupied by other humans. Four were female, and only one was male. He looked at the empty bed. In his heart, he knew it was for him. His thin frame shook with fear as they continued toward the unoccupied bed and a lone chair sitting next to it.

Miles looked around the room. Two alien men were there, watching two of the females. They looked up as the guards escorted him past. A medic stood in the back of the room with their species leader. He knew who it was because he was questioned by him when he was first imprisoned.

"Sit him on the chair," the medic told the guards, pointing to the lone chair near the empty bed.

The guards quickly did as they were told and stood behind the chair to grab him if he tried to escape. He wouldn't; he knew it would be pointless. He was too weak to go very fast, and there were too many obstacles in his way to the front door of the clinic.

Once seated, the medic took out an injector and came up to him, holding it up, ready to inject him. Miles couldn't help the shaking fear, seeing that they were about to inject him with something.

"Turn your head to the side," the medic ordered. The medic was all business.

Miles forced himself to do what he was told, still shaking in fear.

After quickly injecting him in the neck with the injector, the medic stepped back and watched him.

A sharp pain shot through Mile's neck. After the pain of the injector, a euphoria washed through him. He only saw a white haze, nothing more.

"What is your name?" the voice of the leader asked.

"Miles Alderman," he responded. His voice was monotone. He could tell that even if he didn't want to answer, he would have anyway. His response was a forced compulsion. He had no choice but to respond.

The voice of the leader continued. "Why are you housed in the prison cells?" he asked.

"I was part of the group with Travis Nichols," Miles stated. He knew what he said; he just didn't know how to stop it. The words flowed out on their own.

"Why did you choose to stay with Travis Nichols?" The voice of the leader asked quickly.

"I had no other place to go," Miles answered. Shame filled his soul at his words. It was something a child would say, not a grown man who should have been able to care for himself.

"Did you have the same beliefs as Travis Nichols regarding us and anything else he believed in general?" the voice of the leader asked.

"I don't know all of his beliefs. I stayed with him because I needed other people around me. I didn't want to be alone. I stayed away from him. He scared me because he had a darkness about him," Miles responded.

The leader sighed heavily. "Can you live at peace with the human survivors, the Kreq people, as well as our people, the Ramesians?" he asked.

"When I watched, I saw you were helping our kind. I wanted help, but was not taken to the dome by those who ran to it. I wanted to be with them. I did not like what Travis Nichols wanted to do. He tried to feed us stew containing your people's flesh," he stated, his monotone voice echoing around him. Inwardly, Miles cringed at the thought of that night when Travis tried to feed the stew to everyone.

"Did you eat it?" the voice of the leader asked quietly.

"I do not eat the flesh of men. I refused when he tried to offer it," Miles stated. He tried to see through the white haze but couldn't. Every word he spoke was the truth. Much of it, he wished he could have kept to himself.

Council Leader Vorik looked at the two guards before looking back at Miles. "If I free you and give you a dwelling, are you going to retaliate against us for any reason at all?"

Miles spoke again. "I will not. I know the invasion of my home planet was not done consciously. I overheard it while I was in my cell. A controlling serum was used. I will cooperate and cause no problems."

Mile's eyes began to focus; the white haze started to fade from his eyes. His head felt woozy. He shook his head, trying to clear it. As he came out of his disoriented haze, he looked around the room, not remembering what had just happened. He only remembered the medic coming toward him with an injector. He remembered nothing else.

The medic took a scanner, pressed several buttons, and scanned him. When he was finished, he went to the replicator and ordered a large glass of something. "You need to drink this," the medic told Miles, holding the glass to his lips. Miles was still chained. He couldn't lift his hands to hold the glass. The medic had to help him drink it.

Miles did as he was ordered. It turned out to be a cup of cream of mushroom soup. He drank all of it, trying to take the last drop, savoring it as the medic held the glass to his lips. They didn't serve prisoners very appealing meals. The soup, however, was delicious.

Council Leader Vorik looked at the two guards. "You can go back to the prison. This man is no longer a prisoner," he told them.

The two guards nodded, then took the shackles off of Miles before leaving him alone in the room with the medic, the two men, and the leader of the alien people.

Miles looked around the room, his gaze scanning the five bodies in the beds with strange plasma domes over them. His gaze stopped at the empty bed he was sitting beside. Swallowing hard, his voice barely a whisper. "Is that one for me?"

Medic Renn turned to Miles. "Only if the serum causes you problems. The others were given a tainted version. It nearly killed them. The quickness of their symptoms showed us that when you were injected, we needed you near so we could treat you as quickly as possible. You seem fine. I want to keep you here a little longer for observation, though, just to make sure."

Miles looked up at Renn. "Injection?" he asked, confused. The last thing he remembered was being placed in the chair and the medic coming toward him.

"You were injected with a human version of the truth serum. When I compared the original formula to the ones they," Renn said, pointing to the five filled beds, "were injected with, I found they were given one that had been tampered with. I used the original formula to inject you. The truth serum is what freed you from being a prisoner," he added.

"I'm not a prisoner anymore?" Miles asked to clarify. He was suddenly confused.

Renn smiled. "No. You were questioned under the influence of the truth serum. Your answers freed you."

Council Leader Vorik looked at Miles. "Until I can find a dwelling for you, I will put you in the dorm. Once Medic Renn is satisfied that you won't have adverse symptoms from the injection, he can take you into the washroom for a bath and then give you a meal while you wait for us to come get you to take you where you will be staying."

Miles nodded, dumbfounded. He watched as the alien leader left the room. The two male aliens continued to stand at two of the beds. Miles watched them as the medic worked.

Renn noticed Miles's gaze. "The females they are watching are their mates. They are worried that they can't be saved," Renn told him. "That's why you were brought in here for your injection. If you had become ill, we would have been able to help you much quicker."

Miles thought for a moment. He was surprised that the aliens cared. He was given the impression that they didn't care about the prisoners.

"Who is the male?" Miles asked quietly, unsure if he was allowed to ask questions.

"He was a prisoner. He was given the same injection as the females. The serum was tainted. The one you were given was not," the medic told him.

Miles turned his gaze to the male in the strange domed bed. He had been led to believe that prisoners were expendable, yet he was seeing with his own eyes that the aliens were trying to save one of them. He knew right then that whatever he heard, he needed to verify it for himself. He was clearly given information that was false. He didn't like to form false beliefs.

"I'm sorry," Miles suddenly said.

Medic Renn turned to Miles. "What are you sorry for?"

"I'm sorry for believing that no one cared about the prisoners," Miles told him.

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