I stared out of the closet into the vast emptiness. My home...gone. I only hoped my parent had made it. The last letter I got was about him coming home...and I hadn't heard news from him since. I couldn't imagine how he would feel if he made it, too. Would he be just was scared and worried? Did he think I died? i hoped not.

I opened the closet door, stepping out. Frightened voices were a steady drone. I watched as a few people shuffle past, some with hatchlings. Few words could be made out. Things that I wondered myself.

"Attention!" A voice sounded over...the intercom? I wasn't o sure...it almost sounded like it was coming out of the hip itself. "Attention, everyone!"

'What was that?" A pink-furred individual spoke, looking around. I was glad to know I wasn't hearing anything.

"Don't be afraid," The voice said. "You are safe now. Welcome aboard the Anerias. I am Actias, your SNAI. Or Ship's Navigtional Artificial Intellegence."

"What happened? What's going on? Where is this?" The speaker was blue-furred, covered in floral markings.

"Take us back!" I couldn't see the speaker.

"Yeah, we belong back home!"

"I understand your fear and confusion. Alm T’ann is unfortunately no more. Our ancient foe has found our home planet...and like any inevitable force of hunger, they consumed it." The voice was a monotone...devoid of all emotion. I suppose it made sense...wouldn't an AI be emotionless? "This ship has been built and I have been created in order to seek a new world to live on in the event of an extinction level event."

"Thank you, Actias." Another voice sounded over the intercom. "I'm sorry about that, Actias hasn't learned tact yet."

I grabbed the nearest person. "Are you getting any of this?" They shook their head, nearly slapping me with their extremely floppy ears.

The new voice continued. "I'm Doctor Eloise. I'm not your captain...in fact, we haven't quite located the captain yet. But, my place here today is to fill you in on what's going on." There was a heavy sigh. "Actias is correct...our plant has been lost. It saddens me to know that we won't be able to go back home. One of my colleagues will be coming by later to get a consensus of who is here. This list will be publicly available, so that any families that were split in the chaos will be reunited."

Maybe my parent lived? But...what if he didn't? I couldn't bare the idea of looking at the list and having my fears confirmed.

"I'm afraid we no longer have a home to return to. I estimate a good ninety-nine percent of our population has been lost despite our best efforts." Despair leaked into Eloise's voice. "Our plans were to create a whole fleet of ships like the Anerias, stocked with everything we need for the journey." There was a pause as they seemed to choose their next words. "We only managed to build the one...our prototype."

Voices raised in panic. Our home? Our species? Gone? What if this was all a cruel trick?

"We've managed to get a few thousand of us on board as well as several thousand eggs." This triggered another wave of murmurings. "We have enough food on board to last for at least two years before our Bokkin population is stable enough to feed on. Sadly, our insects proved to be too delicate for the journey."

So...what were we eating? Rations? It had to be. I began pushing through the crowd. Maybe I could find my answers elsewhere.

"We're at least two thousand light years from our home...we're seeking an uninhabited planet, one with no other sapient life, to settle on. With luck, we will find one before the rations run out."

The intercom went silent. Leaving me with so many more questions. Ones I wouldn't have any answer for.

"Hey, dude, be careful." It was the blue person from earlier. "You almost stepped on a bean."

A...bean? I looked down. A squishbean was rolling around near my feet. "Oh, sorry. Is it yours?" I scooped it up, wary of crushing such a small animal. It had brownish fur with a white face.

"Oh, not hardly. I think it's a wild one." They shrugged.

"Oh, then I guess we'll have to find it a home." I managed a nervous laugh. This whole evacuation had me on edge. "Unless you think it's got an owner."

"I don't think it does." They shrugged. "I'm Gable, by the way. Uh....Zir, Zim if you need to know." Ze seemed more frayed than I felt, zir fur frayed where zir seemed to have picked at it.

"I'm Idris." I answered, my brows furrowing with worry for Zim. "He, him, she, her, if you wanted to know."

"Nice to meet you, Idris." Ze perked up. "Wanna check out the place? Maybe there's assigned sleeping...but I kinda want to see what we're dealing with."

"I'd love to!" Maybe this would distract me from my worries.

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