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glow
resolved into tiny, moving, hard spots of light gleaming into the room, making
faint shadows behind his legs.  As his eyes adjusted more, a swirling powder of
shining dust became visible among the harder lights. 
    Tommy slumped to the floor and crawled to the wall.  He was
either watching the largest television screen he had ever seen, or he was
looking out a window at the stars.  If it were a window, he should see ground
below, but all he saw when he looked that way was more stars and blackness.  He
turned to look at Mark, standing against the far wall.  "Where are we?”
    "This is a viewing room," said Mark.  "I like
coming here on rest days because the other boys never do.  I thought you might
like it, too.  Sometimes I sit here for hours."
    "No.  I mean what are we looking at outside this
window?"
    "How would I know?" said Mark.  "We're wherever
the lords want us to be, looking at what's there."
    A white and blue crescent appeared at the bottom of the wall
and slowly expanded until the crescent became a ball, filling the window and
the entire room with its light. 
    "When we're traveling, the window's black," said
Mark.  "I think I've seen this world before.  If I'm right, we'll be
getting some new animals in the stable." 
    The ball rolled out of the window and the room was dark
again, except for light from the hard points of stars.
    "We're in a spaceship," Tommy almost whispered the
words.  "I'm in a spaceship."
    Tommy felt tears rolling down his cheeks.  He thought he was
done crying.
    "Yes.  Where did you think we were?"
    Tommy pushed away from the emptiness beyond the window. 
"In a big cave.  A hidden colony, but somewhere on Earth."  His voice
was hoarse.  "I never thought about being on a spaceship.  How could we be
in a spaceship?  I never feel anything moving.  It's not possible."
    The planet rolled into the window again.  Light glinted from
an oval object growing larger in the window. 
    "That's one of the landers," Mark said.  "It’ll
be bringing something from that planet."
    "A lander.  Is that what was used to kidnap me?"
    "I don't know anything about that."
    "I'll never see my parents again," Tommy said. 
"I'll never go home."
    Mark's voice seemed to echo, "I don't know why you ever
thought you would."
     
     

Forset
     
    Forset, the priest, hesitated in front of Tommy’s cabin.  He
made a few unnecessary adjustments to his robe, and then rapped firmly on the
door.  Three heavy thuds from within, followed by a quick drum roll of softer thumps,
forced him back half a step.  This is silly.  Four farmer boys live in this
room.  There’s nothing to worry about.
    He turned the latch and stepped into a dimly lit four meter
by five meter room.  Looks like the one I lived in, including the piles of
clothes on the floor.  The light switch should be...   He flipped a recessed
switch and the room brightened.
    One of the piles moved, and an orange cat raced under one of
the bunks.  “Lords!”  He quickly shut the door.  “Letting you out would be a
bad start.”
    He crouched and addressed the cat under the bunk, “Were you
told when to expect anyone to return?”  He straightened.  “I suppose not.  You
won’t mind if I wait?”  He shrugged and sat on the edge of another bunk on the
opposite side of the room.
    A tentative “meow” came from behind his feet.
    “Another cat.”  Forset bent over, moving his hand in a
scratching motion near the floor.  “Come out.  I won’t hurt you.”  He made a chirping
sound with his tongue.
    The cat meowed again.  The overhead light reflected from
yellow eyes, and a black head with a diagonal white stripe across the forehead
appeared.
    “You’re Tommy’s cat, Potter, aren’t you?  Is this Tommy’s
bunk?”
    As if in answer, the cat leaped in one smooth motion onto
the bunk and sat primly on the pillow, black front legs straight and white paws
together, white chest thrust forward.
    “It’s your bunk then.”