Everywhere the little girl looked, people were running back and forth, screaming or crying or both. The sight of so many grown-ups in such a state of abject panic and terror was enough to cause the little girl to break out into a fit of weeping of her own, adding her scared sobs to those of all the other Norcadians in the corridor.
The little girl had been awakened when the ship starting shaking and trembling so much that she had been afraid of falling out of bed. She had screamed for Mommy and Daddy, but Mommy and Daddy didn't answer, and still the room shook as if caught in an earthquake.
But even at her age, the little girl knows that this couldn't be an earthquake because there was no earth to quake. Mommy and Daddy had brought her aboard a starship, and the starship was going to bring them to a new home on another planet, a home where Mommy and Daddy wouldn't have to worry about the Bad Men again. The little girl had had to leave all her friends behind on Norcadia, but she knew that Mommy and Daddy would be happier at the new home, so she tried to be brave.
But when she couldn't find Mommy and Daddy in their small room on the transport ship, she began to feel less brave. And when she left the room and saw all these other people – other di-si-dents, Mommy and Daddy called them – running like droks with their heads cut off, she lost all of her bravery.
The little girl collapsed into a corner, curled up into a foetal position, sobbing. Other Norcadians just ran by her, some with bags or other luggage, paying no heed to the crying child. Finally, someone stopped and put a hand on her shoulders.
"I want my mommy!" she cried out to him before he could say anything.
"Where is she?"
The little girl stared at him, not knowing what to answer. The Nice Man seemed to guess this because he said: "Let's go find her."
The Nice Man scooped her up in his arms and the two of them joined the flow of people in the corridor. Still awed by the panic around her, the little girl asked: "What's happening? Why is everybody running?"
The Nice Man seemed to hesitate. "We're getting off this ship. Some… bad men are coming aboard."
The little girl stared wide-eyed at him, feeling even more afraid now that she had a focus for the fear. How could the Bad Men be here? They were supposed to have been left behind on Norcadia. Were the Bad Men after Mommy and Daddy?
She wasn't sure how long they had been running, but between being bounced in the Nice Man's arms and the tremors of the ship, the little girl was starting to get queasy. Then some of the people in front of them stopped running, and tried to turn around, but they started falling. The little girl saw two men walking amongst the other people, and it looked like they were the cause of all this panic.
These are the Bad Men? They don't look like the Bad Men. In the past, the Bad Men had always worn uniforms with weapons, and they told people what to do and were very mean. O-pres-sive, Mommy had said. But these men weren't wearing uniforms. Instead, it looked like they were wearing machines. And their skin was all white and icky-looking. Somehow, the little girl knew that she should fear the things walking down the corridors. They're Worse Men.
The Nice Man spun around, away from the Worse Men. They had barely taken a few steps down the corridor when two more Worse Men came around a corner close to them. The Nice Man let out a startled scream as one of the Worse Men touched his neck, and suddenly the little girl felt herself falling. She hit the floor hard, scratching her knee. She looked back, saw the Nice Man slumping against the wall, and began scrambling away on all fours. She crawled with all the energy born of her desperation, and didn't stop until she reached another wall in front of her. She turned around, then screamed then she saw that a machine-wearing Worse Man had followed her. She kept on screaming, trying to press herself against the wall, as the Worse Man reached out with a claw-like hand to seize her–