Her sleep was restful, so she didn't understand at first why she had awoken suddenly with a start. She blinked, looking around for anything out of the ordinary. Blurry vision scanned the small area of the hut looking for something out of place, but everything in the circular room was in its place. She blinked a few times, clearing her vision, listening to the insects outside buzz and whine and roar. Wait… roar?

Kaylin suddenly jumped out of the bed, hurrying to get dressed, stumbling with her shoes and rushed out of her hut. Running out without any bug repellant or food she dashed along the road, looking up constantly through the only real break in the trees. Finally she saw what she wanted: the aircraft, a dark-grey inorganic thing against the periwinkle sky, roaring with the power of its engine, angling up to exit the atmosphere of the planet again.

Panicking, Kaylin turned suddenly into the trees at a perpendicular angle to the aircraft and ran through. She could feel the leaves beat and cut against her skin as she ran, small branches scratching and drawing blood, her lungs already burning and her legs already tired. She had never really been athletic in her life, but now less-so than ever. She always told herself she would work-out more, for cases such as this, where running was important.

She wished that she had gotten up sooner when she had awoken, she would have a clearer idea of where it was she was going. Right now she was hoping that this path would at least have her running into someone, hoping she would be there soon enough to be of help. She should have kept track of the date, but as she thought about what today was, realized that the drop was too soon.

She was spurred on when she heard shouting, thoughts about the peculiarity were pushed aside, even though her legs felt ready to give out from under her. Her own breath burned her as it entered and exited her throat and she had a horrible stitch in her side, but still she ran. She finally broke through the trees and saw what she was looking for. A group of men in orange jumpsuits standing around a circle, shouting, paired off here and there, some in groups of three or four, watching as two figures wrestled on the ground.

"Stop!" she called, stepping forward with her hands held up, "please stop fighting!" thank god she was here first.

Her movement caught the attention of most of the men there, and the shouting quieted only for a second, probably confused at the brave slight woman walking towards them. She could hear grunting on the ground as she approached the fight.

"Give it—give it to me! Give it to me dried shit!"

Kaylin stopped a distance away as the other people went back to screaming and yelling, some in languages that she didn't understand. Looking on she noticed that of the two wrestling, a Caucasian and a man of African descent, the Caucasian had his hands uncuffed.

"Please stop!" she yelled and moved closer, hands held up pleadingly.

"Stay out of this chink!" someone yelled but she took that final step into the space of the two men, then quickly grabbed the darker man, who was on top and winning the fight, by the collar of his jumpsuit and pulled. He swung back to hit her but got just the fold of her shirt, but she did let go in surprise. He turned to go back to punching the white man in the face some more but she grabbed him again and pulled.

Already furious the man whipped around and stood, just as she felt other hands behind her grab her and try to pull her away. She was hit once hard in her stomach, causing all the breath to leave her and stars to dance around her eyes. She was suddenly dropped to her knees as yells erupted around her. She coughed, swallowed and tried to breathe coughing again, feeling a hand against her shoulder and steady her. The small group of Asians that had been present had taken offense for Kaylin and got between her and the black men who had grabbed her.

"Are you okay?" she heard a voice and looked up to the thin bloodied face of the white man she had helped. She didn't answer, instead she stood up and saw that there was now an even bigger fight going on than the one she had tried to stop.

"Stop!" she yelled and stepped towards the mess. She felt her arm grabbed from behind and looked at the white man, who had glasses haphazardly set on his nose, broken.

Then everything erupted from around her. People rushed in, grabbing other people and dragging them away from each other. She found herself protected by the uncuffed man as people were being separated into groups. Kaylin breathed a sigh of relief.

"Kay's here! Kay's here!" came the cry and it was what she wanted to hear. When new inmates were dropped off, it was only her presence that kept the 'wrong race' from being killed; the wrong race being whoever wasn't a member of the race of the gang who arrived first. This time it was the Mels, which would have been bad for much of the group, as only five of the fifteen or so present where appropriately dark-skinned.

Kaylin gently touched the shoulder of the man who was protecting her from the fight for dominance that immediately occurred between the leader that Kaylin had offended of the African-Americans who arrived with the shipment and Jone, the established leader on the colony. The man looked over his shoulder. His face was initially disarming, thin with wide blue-grey eyes set under short dirty-blond hair, looking more like a man of deep thought than a man of crime, but Kaylin knew better to make assumptions based on appearance.

"Let me look at your nose," she said and he studied her carefully before bending down on one knee to where she could inspect it. The Skulls were the next to arrive, dragging away their Caucasian people from instigating another fight with the much larger Mel gang. Cries declaring Kaylin's presence also went through this group, started by Cee.

"It's broken," she declared and the man sniffed. She used the cuff of her sleeve to gently wipe away the blood, looking at where the bruises were developing on the sides of his nose, bleeding into his eye sockets. Cee came over and looked from the man to Kaylin.

"Hey Kay, already hard at work?"

"Yeah," she sighed and coughed again.

Cee looked at her with a hard gaze and asked, "you hurt?"

She shook her head but her present patient interjected, "one of the men hit her," and nodded towards the group of Mels where it seemed the man in question had submitted to Jone's leadership, for now. Cee gave Jone a hard look and took her patient with him to the group of Caucasians.

"Honkey over there's got a key!" yelled one of the newcomers and Kay stopped the man for a moment, turning him around.

"Can I have it?"

The man hesitated at first, probably sore about being beat-up on by the man Kaylin intended to free, but passed over a home-made key. She brought it to Jone, who unhandcuffed the remainder of his new people and gave it back. She them took it to Cee who did the same, and then moved to the Eagles, who had arrived for their people. One by one everyone began to show up and divide and share their people, the Red Dragons, then the Cazadores and the FSA who had no one to pick up so left.

Kaylin had gone with Cee to his group and had straightened the man's nose with a small warning and a quick movement. He held it in pain groaning, as she was requesting he come by her hut with her so that it could be properly set. She heard yells calling up again and turned, noticing Cee approach the Mels and outrage was picking up at his brazen act.

"One of your new people hit Kay," Cee said to Jone and the man he was referring to looked pointedly at Kaylin, nostrils flaring, "you better teach them quick," it was all Cee said before returning to his people and Kaylin's lips thinned in a smile.

"Alright listen up!" Jone called to his new people, "this here's Kaylin," he pointed at her, "we call her Kay. She's the only doctor we got on this whole damn planet!"

"She's the only one who knows how to take care of us," Cee added, addressing his people, "and is willing to give a damn enough to do so. That means she's off limits. You don't hurt her, you don't rape her your don't try to kill her."

Kaylin could hear Adolfo translating, or maybe just adding his own thoughts on the matter in Spanish to his new people, though Kaylin didn't understand. It was, after all, the one rule everyone agreed on.

It was all anyone had to say on the matter, and soon everyone was on their way with their new people, except Cee, who Kaylin stopped and asked if someone could come with her and the new guy, so that when she was done treating him, he could be shown the way to the Skulls territory.

"Sure thing Kay," he said and moved his head towards her in a jerky fashion. One of Cee's usual buddies, Karson, a big man with a talent for crafting ceramic, stepped up and Kaylin smiled.

"Hello Kars," he smiled and nodded, and the three of them were on their way to her hut. She, took the time that they were walking to look at the small cuts and bruises she had acquired from the jungle, and also to look at her stomach where a bruise was forming as well. Once they arrived at her hut, which the new man seemed to admire for a bit, she had the man sit down on her cot and went immediately to work.

"Your name's Kaylin?"

She looked back over her shoulder as she opened a cabinet, "or you can call me Kay, most everyone else does," she smiled, "what's your name?"

"Julian," he answered, taking off his glasses and looking at them, then began to bend them back into shape, "you're a doctor?"

Kaylin returned to him with a bowl of something that looked like honey, and a couple of small sticks. She gave him a smile and set things down, "there's isn't anything I can do about the bruising, but I'm going to make a small splint so that your nose heals straight. It'll be easy to take off, so try not to touch it too much."

She began to paint on the sticky substance, onto and around the stick, effectively gluing the twig to the side of his nose.

"What's a doctor doing here?" Julian asked bewildered, "I figured they were dropping us off here to die, so why give us medicine?"

"The story is that she killed like ten people," Karson said for her and she smiled through a tight jaw. Julian blinked up at her but she just kept working, "none of us believe it, she won't hurt a fly, she was probably framed."

Julian was silent as Kaylin applied the other side of the makeshift brace. When she was done, she blew on it lightly to help it dry.

"So there are women here as well?" Julian sounded disappointed. That wasn't the usual reaction she got from male inmates when they heard that their kind of women inhabited the planet.

"Yes," Kaylin said, "it's just a penal colony, we call it Neo Australia. Everyone that no one wants to deal with is dropped off here, usually just once a year." Kaylin turned to put her things away.

"But more are coming."

"Eventually," she answered, putting cloth over the sappy bowl so it wouldn't dry out, and putting it away.

"No, I mean, another drop ship, in just a few hours."

Kaylin froze and turned around, looking at Julian with a mixture of confusion and horror.

"They're going to be dropping off over a hundred more."