Chapter 5 (Revised Version)

She opened her eyes to darkness. For a moment, she was confused about where she was. Then she remembered. She'd been injured, but the dark-haired woman had tended to her, along with two males.

She turned her head to see glowing embers in the hearth. They provided just enough light for her to make out various shapes around the room. The woman was sleeping in a chair nearby. The larger of the two animals was sprawled across her legs and the smaller one was draped over her shoulder. She slid out from under both of them and sat up.

Something pulled on the hair on her forearm and she looked down to find the cloth the old man had affixed there. She carefully peeled the sticky parts up and held her arm up to the minimal light. The cut was gone. She did the same for the cloth patch on her thigh and found the skin smooth and healthy. She nodded to herself. That meant her body's natural healing abilities had kicked in.

She stood and stretched, listening internally for any problems her body might have missed.

There was only one, but it wasn't something that needed healing.

She looked around, wondering where the proper facilities might be. There were only two exits from the room she was in. Left or right?

She chose right, silently walking around the sleeping woman so she wouldn't disturb her.

Faced with another choice between steps leading up and a dark hallway with several doors, she picked the hallway. At the first door, she looked for the panel that controlled it, but the walls were blank. She swiped her palm along both sides, just in case, but nothing happened.

A squashed cylinder set waist high in the door looked promising, so she tapped it with her finger. When nothing happened, she pressed her palm against it, but it wasn't until her fingers naturally closed around the knob that she realized it was a mechanical device, no scan required. Of course, making it work was another matter.

She tried pushing, then pulling, and though she felt movement, the device refused to release the door. Finally, she hit on turning the knob, and once it was turned far enough, the door fell open.

She took a step into the darkness. The lights didn't activate when the door opened or at her movement. She felt along the wall, hoping against hope there'd be a panel. Instead, her fingers caught on a switch and suddenly the room was illuminated from overhead.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement and jumped back, ready to fight for her life if she had to. A woman stood there also in a fighting stance, her mussed blonde hair coming to rest just past the rise of her breasts hidden beneath her cloth shirt.

A moment later, she straightened and rolled her eyes at herself in annoyance. It was just her reflection in a mirror. She paused and leaned closer, inspecting the image of herself. Her face seemed right, but the hair... Shouldn't it have been shorter?

The pressing need in her lower abdomen forced her to abandon the thought before her head could start hurting again. She found the only likely device and used the facilities. With a little investigation, she found the lever that took the sullied water away and replaced it with new. She put the lid back down the way she'd found it and looked around the rest of the room. She turned knobs and discovered more places where water could be brought in through different sized faucets. She took a tentative taste and grinned. It wasn't stale at all and had a wonderful, natural tang, as if it had been poured over rocks or metal.

She drank her fill and then left, flipping the switch for the lights on her way out. She was starving.

She tried the other doors and found similar switches for the lights, but there was nothing that looked like it might contain food, so she turned around and went back the way she'd come.

The woman was still fast asleep, so she kept going to see what the left option offered. Instead of a knob, the door had a silver rectangle on it, which she tried to palm, but soon realized it must be there only for decoration as there was no locking mechanism. She pushed the door open and slipped through, letting it swing shut behind her.

She found the light switch and flicked it on. She immediately saw containers of food on the counter, judging by the images on the outside, and various devices she guessed were for cooking for the masters, so she was in the right place. A tray of silver rectangles, probably set aside for the slaves, sat on the counter and she quickly tore one open and stuffed the wrapper in her mouth. She waited for it to dissolve, but after a few moments, it was still intact, so she spit it out and set it aside.

She looked at the rectangles and paused. They didn't look anything like the dirty brown she'd expected. They were a light tan with some sort of white coating on one side. She sniffed and her eyes widened. If they tasted as good as they smelled...

She took a bite and hummed in pleasure. Sandwiched inside was a gooey red paste that tasted so sweet, she was sure she could feel the energy from the delicious substance coursing through her limbs moments later. She finished both slices and for the first time in her life considered opening another ration packet.

She held herself back, unsure what the rationing situation was in this place. That might have been her entire allotment for the day.

The door suddenly swung open, making her jump, and the large beast slid down from its hind legs where it had stood up to leverage the door open. It muscled forward before the door swung shut again and nosed against her bare leg, swiping its tongue along the side of her knee. She giggled and slapped a hand over her mouth even as she tried to catch the thing before it could do it again.

"Stop that," she whispered as she tried to sidetrack it with a rub on the head.

It sat down and looked up at her, then nosed a big silver bowl on the floor next to the cabinet before looking back up at her.

"Oh, I guess you want breakfast, too." She picked up the bowl. "So, what do you eat?"

She sniffed at the bowl, catching a pungent mix of smells she couldn't identify, but which she was sure she'd recognize if she smelled them again, and went in search of the scent. It didn't take her long to find a large cylindrical container with small balls of the animal's food. She wondered how many it got to eat each day. Judging by the size of the bowl, it was at least two helpings of the fist-sized scoop in the container, so she dumped two scoops into the bowl and set it back down.

The animal hardly chewed as it gulped down a dozen of the bite-sized bits at a time. It made her wonder. If the animal got to eat that much food, surely it would be all right if she had another ration packet.

She was just about to grab one when the door opened again.

The woman stood there, bleary-eyed and squinting against the light. She looked down at the large animal and then back up at her.

"You sjkgsp her?"

She frowned. Without the verb, the pronouns were useless, but she thought she might have gotten the gist of it, as well as the gender of the animal.

"I fed her, yes."

She sighed. She was still speaking in her own language. She was about to try again, but the woman shook her head and waved her hand, as if to dismiss any further conversation.

The woman held up a finger and then turned around and left. She heard the woman yell something and an answering yell came faintly from above. The woman came back in, motioning for her to sit in one of the chairs around the small table, and then began pulling things from various cabinets and storage containers. The woman found the discarded wrapper on the counter and picked it up, a moment later shooting a confused look at her when she realized it was wet. The woman opened a lower cabinet and tossed it in a small receptacle, then wiped her hand on her clothing and went back to work.

She watched the woman curiously. Blue-orange flames erupted from the top of one of the larger components and heated the food the woman prepared. The scents emanating from the large metal dish made her mouth water and it was all she could do not to walk over and try to sneak a taste.

She was startled when the boy suddenly burst through the swinging door and came bounding into the room. He greeted the woman first, then her, and then was greeted in return by the large beast, who seemed inordinately happy to see him. After a few moments spent in mutual affection, the boy pulled away, only pausing long enough to add to his heavy padded layers from several garments hanging on the wall before leaving with the animal through the door opposite the swinging one. He'd made sure to cover every inch of his skin, which made sense when she felt the blast of cold air sweep in from outside. She shivered, remembering a flash of trudging through knee-deep snow as icy wind blew sharp crystal pellets against her face, forcing her to half-close her eyes. She wondered what she'd been doing out there and a stabbing sensation made her grab the side of her head and moan.

In an instant, the woman was there, a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at the woman's urgent tone.

"Mwhp you gwlsi?"

She shook her head, unable to answer what she guessed was an inquiry regarding her current state. She shivered again and the woman nodded, gesturing for her to stay put before dashing out of the room. Barely a minute later, the woman returned with more scraps of cloth, though these seemed more substantial than the ones she'd received the night before.

She took the garments and stood to begin pulling off her current clothes so she could change into the new items, but the woman stopped her, glancing at the door the boy had gone through and frowning. The woman held up a finger and went back to the cooking apparatus, turning off the flame and setting the metal dish aside. The woman came back and beckoned for her to follow.

The woman led her back to the personal facilities room and gestured at several containers on small shelves set into the back wall of the enclosed compartment. She caught a few images indicating which ones to use first and how much. She watched as the woman turned the knob to start the water, but then pulled a piston on the faucet to force the flow through another spout higher up.

The woman pulled the door partially closed on the stall to keep the water contained and then turned back to her. The woman seemed about to say something, but then shook her head. The woman pointed out the door and then at herself and she understood the woman was reassuring her that she'd be outside if she needed her. Then the woman left, closing the door behind her.

She looked around and decided the countertop would be a good place to set the new clothes out of the way. She took off her current garments and gingerly stepped into the stall.

The first touch of warm water made her sigh in contentment. She'd expected it to be cold. Her next thought was to look for the timer, but given how the water had been activated manually, she wasn't surprised not to find one. Still, she didn't dawdle and used the first pump to gain a small amount of cleanser for her hair. As soon as the scent reached her, she breathed deeply and smiled. It smelled wonderful, just like the woman. She brought her hand closer to her face and inhaled a few more times, enjoying the lack of antiseptic smell, but then finally set to work.

She did her best to rub it through the long strands of her hair, but her fingers kept getting tangled and it didn't feel right. Had she ever done this before? A low throbbing warned her the question was off-limits and she quickly blanked her mind. She decided the cleanser had likely done its job and ducked her head under the falling water, spending several minutes longer than was probably necessary to rinse her hair.

The next pump yielded another wonderfully scented concoction, this one thicker than the first, but still reminding her of the woman. From the images in the woman's mind, it seemed to be less a cleanser than some sort of healing agent and was to be left in her hair while she performed the task of scrubbing her skin with the solid cleansing bar and a fluffy sponge-like ball. The soft material of the ball felt so smooth on her skin, she cleaned her body twice just for the sheer pleasure of it.

Eventually, she finished with her skin and rinsed her hair, finding her fingers tangling less after the application of the second liquid. She hesitated turning off the water, but she didn't want to be greedy. The woman and the boy would need to clean themselves as well and though there wasn't a timer, it was unlikely the heated water supply was unlimited.

With the water off, she opened the door and found the room misty with steam. Unfortunately, the air was still far colder than the current temperature of her wet skin. She quickly looked around for an air blade to dry herself with, but the only thing she found were several thick rectangles of cloth hanging on a bar affixed to the wall. She hoped using one to wipe the water from her skin would be okay, that it might even be its intended purpose.

When she was dry, she picked up the new clean clothes, which included a long sleeved version of the shirt she'd been wearing and longer pants that were also thicker and gathered at the ankles. There were also several new items, a pair of thick socks that neatly protected her feet against the cold stone tiles and a smaller scrap of shiny cloth she realized was intended to cover her nether regions.

How many different ways must I cover myself here?

She tried the item on, not liking how the elastic bands gripped the creases at the tops of her thighs and pulled them off again, setting them aside. The rest of the garments fit fine, if a bit loose.

She used the cloth she'd dried herself with to wipe a clear spot on the mirror. It still caught her off guard to see her hair streaming past her shoulders. Her hair was a tangled mess from rubbing it with the cloth, so she dragged her fingers through it, trying to make it at least presentable. Even with the healing liquid, which made the strands release their grip on each other a little easier than before, she still couldn't quite make it settle the way she thought it should. Clearly, she was doing something wrong, but she figured the woman could probably help.

She left the facilities and headed for the kitchen, but movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She came to stand in front of an object hanging on the wall and frowned in concentration as she studied it.

At first, she thought it might be some sort of sculpture, but the radial pointer incrementally tracing a circle around its central point seemed to be counting seconds, though as she counted with it, one full circumference numbered sixty, instead of the fifty she thought it should.

On the inside edge of the circle she counted twelve groups of symbols, which took a little work to figure out, but it soon became clear the single lines counted for one, the crossed lines represented ten, and the top half of the crossed lines equaled five. If a smaller number came after the same or a larger number, it was added; if it came before, it was subtracted. The numbering system seemed archaic for the level of tech she'd seen so far, but it was possible the object was simply very old. Or maybe it was just meant to replicate something old.

There were dots between the symbols, which seemed to indicate increments of five between the twelve symbols for a total of sixty. That made sense for counting the seconds, but there were two other radial pointers, a long one and a short one, and as she continued to watch, she saw the long pointer move from one dot to the next as the fast-moving pointer completed a circuit. That meant there were not only sixty seconds in a minute, but also sixty minutes in an hour, rather than the seventy she'd been expecting.

If she was right and this was a timekeeper, that meant those twelve symbols marked hours, so either the planet had a very short rotational period or it counted intervals. The question was how many?

A normal day was twenty-seven hours counted in three intervals of nine hours each, or at least it should be. That was standard time, which she knew didn't always match up with planet time, but since she'd hardly ever spent any time planetside, having grown up on a carrier ship, it had never really mattered much to her—

Sudden pain stabbed her temples and she grabbed her head.

Here and now. Here and now is all that matters. Only now.

She breathed through the pain and it slowly ebbed away.

She glanced back up at the clock, careful not to make any associations, and focused on the math. Correlating seconds, minutes, and hours, she worked out a simple ratio to translate one time measurement to the other. The seconds were the same as far as she could tell and there was only a difference of approximately 1.7 minutes from the hour she expected and the local one, which only left the number of hours in a day. If it was two intervals of twelve, then measured in standard time, it was just shy of 24.75 hours, only two and a quarter hours short of a normal day for her. If it was three or more intervals...

Well, she'd deal with it like she always did. It wouldn't be the first time she'd been expected to work for five intervals, with only one for rest, though normally she worked for two and a half and rested for half, but if she had to—

The pain came again and she shut down the train of thought as fast as she could, though she thought she'd finally figured out the pattern. If she knew something, she could use that information, but if she tried to remember how she'd acquired the skill or a specific time she'd used it, pain was immediate. So it was her personal memories that were off-limits, not common knowledge.

But why? What would cause—

She winced and backed off.

Too specific, apparently. I'm going to have to come at this more obliquely. There has to be a way to—

"Dnsin wqjl you jotsl?"

She turned to find the woman looking at her. The woman glanced around her face and she realized the woman was staring at her hair, while trying to suppress a smile by biting her lip. She frowned and reached up to try to comb her fingers through it again, but the woman shook her head and led her back to the facilities.

She watched the woman slide open a compartment and pull out a spiked weapon, but before she could guard herself, the woman offered it to her. She took it and found the spikes were actually flexible and their ends were rounded, but while that knowledge eased her wariness, it didn't help her understand what was expected of her. She looked up at the woman and offered the object back to her.

The woman frowned, but took it anyway and then moved to stand behind her facing the mirror.

She watched in the mirror as the woman carefully placed the spikes against her head, and then slowly dragged them through her hair. Tingles spread across her scalp, sending a pleasurable shiver across her shoulders. She smiled and closed her eyes, allowing herself to sink into the sensations as the woman ran the spikes through another part of her hair. She couldn't help leaning back a little farther with each stroke, until she felt the barest hint of contact with the woman's chest. She inhaled deeply, her heart beating faster as she sensed the woman was experiencing a similar feeling of pleasure.

She opened her eyes and found the woman intently focused on her hair, but when the woman glanced up, their gazes locked in the mirror and the woman paused in mid stroke. She felt her heart thudding against her breastbone and was sure the woman must feel it, too, but then the woman broke eye contact with her and completed the motion. The woman cleared her throat and motioned with her free hand. She stepped aside and watched as the woman reached for the drawer, only to stop as her gaze settled on the item resting on the counter. The woman glanced back at her, her gaze darting lower for a brief second, then just as quickly looked away again. The woman swept the previously discarded garment into the compartment along with the instrument and closed it.

Then the woman moved around her, muttering a few words, and left the room.

She wanted to reach out and stop the woman, pull her closer, but instead she simply followed her back to the kitchen and sat in the chair she'd occupied earlier.

As she looked around, she noticed the smaller animal was perched up on the counter opposite where the woman was working, quietly devouring a dish of food that appeared much wetter than the dry little balls she'd fed its larger counterpart. That made sense, since they were obviously very different species.

She continued to watch, finding the activity of the small animal almost hypnotic as it sat up and began languidly licking its front paws in between rubbing them over its cheeks. It eventually decided it was done with that task and lightly jumped down to the floor, then walked over to her, brushing its body against her shin on its way to the swinging door. She was about to get up and push the door open for it, when it walked its front paws up the edge of the door and methodically began rocking forward until a large enough gap appeared. Then it quickly slipped through before the gap could close on the next swing and disappeared. She shook her head in wonder at the creature's resourcefulness.

A moment later, the boy returned, bringing another gust of icy wind with him, but she was ready for it this time and blanked her mind to any associations. The large beast followed him in after shaking itself just beyond the doorway, for which she was quite grateful, and then it pushed its way past the swinging door and disappeared the same as the smaller one had. The boy spoke over his shoulder to the woman as he hung up his outer garments to drip into a tray on the floor. She thought she recognized the word for 'fed' again, but the rest was still incomprehensible.

She was in the middle of wondering what other animal the boy might have fed and why it wasn't in the house with the two she'd already met, when the boy set a dish in front of her, along with two others she guessed were for him and the woman. He added cups and knives, and some sort of multi-pronged instrument, and then the woman came over and pushed a portion of what was in the cooking dish onto each of the dishes on the table.

The boy came back with a stack of what looked like extra large ration bars and three small lidded containers, which he placed in the middle of the table. A moment later, the woman filled each of their cups with an opaque orangish-yellow liquid, and then brought over a dish of something else she couldn't identify, but which made her stomach growl loud enough to be heard by the others. The two smiled and shared knowing looks as they sat down.

They each took one of the square bars, so she followed suit, surprised at how light it was. She watched them each use their knives to spread some sort of concoction that melted into the square, so she did the same, and found it softened the bar. Then she noticed they'd each added a thick paste to their bars, the woman a dark purple and the boy a bright red. She considered and decided to go with the red, hoping it would taste as good as the ration bar she'd eaten earlier, and was not disappointed.

It wasn't until she'd finished the light ration bar that she realized the others were taking turns between eating the bar and what was on their dishes. They'd also both taken strips of the food that still had her swallowing to control her drool.

She only took two strips, just like they had, even though she really wanted the other three left on the communal dish. She tore off a bite and couldn't help her groan of pleasure as the salty flavor flowed over her tongue. She chewed enthusiastically and was onto her second strip before she noticed the woman watching her curiously, though the boy seemed to be enjoying his meal with just as much gusto.

She swallowed and took a sip from her cup in a conscious effort to slow down, but then had to suppress another moan as tart and sweet made the perfect counterpoint to the salt she'd just eaten.

She decided to move on to the last food on her dish, though she wasn't sure what to make of it. It wasn't solid like the other kinds of food, so she couldn't pick it up with her fingers, which meant she had to use the multi-pronged tool instead. The ease with which the woman and boy were using theirs told her she'd probably get another odd look if she didn't appear to do the same, so she surreptitiously studied both of their techniques while she took several more sips from her cup.

The tool seemed to be held somewhat like a stylus, but not quite. She picked up the tool and tried to modify her grip, but it felt awkward. It occurred to her that unlike bathing, this felt completely foreign and unfamiliar, and she was sure she'd never used the tool before.

After dropping two bites before making it to her mouth and receiving a concerned look from both the woman and the boy, she gave up and used the same grip as she would when using a stylus. She had more control that way, but she could feel the woman watching her again, as if trying to figure something out.

She was distracted from her self-consciousness as the taste of the food sparked a sense of familiarity and she forgot that she shouldn't try to remember where she knew it from. She'd been sitting at a table like this one, only rougher hewn, and her mother had been telling her about the eggs the wild birds laid in the bushes every day—

She dropped the tool on the dish with a loud clatter and grabbed her temples, shutting her eyes tight. It was several moments before she noticed the woman squeezing her shoulder. She opened her eyes and saw both of them watching her with concerned looks again.

She considered what she could say to ease their minds, but she didn't think she knew enough of their words yet to get the message across, so she settled for a weak smile. The woman watched her another moment, but seemed to decide to leave it alone.

The woman pointed at her dish and raised an eyebrow in question. She shook her head to indicate she wasn't going to eat any more, so the woman gathered it up, along with her own empty dish and the boy's, and took them away. The boy followed the woman's lead and picked up all the utensils, though he did manage to swipe the last three strips of food from the communal dish before the woman came back and took it and their cups away, too. He shoved them in his mouth, and then picked up the other items left on the table and returned them to their rightful places.

She watched them move around the room and let their well-practiced routine distract her from her worries. It was obvious they'd done this many times before and not even her sudden presence could alter it very much. Almost as quickly as the woman cleaned an item, the boy dried it and put it away in one of the various cabinets or drawers. She memorized where each item went in case she was asked to locate the items again.

She felt the change in energy as the woman turned off the water and left the room. The relaxed atmosphere of the morning meal was over, which could only mean work would soon begin.

The boy finished putting everything away, and then went back to where he'd hung up his clothes and began putting them back on.

A few minutes later, the woman returned, wearing thicker clothing just like the boy's. She was also holding a thick stack of folded papers behind her back. She pulled them out so the boy could see them and he took them from her. He unfolded the paper and began reading. Then he flipped to the last page.

Even before the whoop of exhilaration, she could feel the boy's emotions shift from logical interest to joyous excitement. The boy jumped into the woman's arms and hugged her, and then backed up and began talking quickly. The woman replied and moved to put on her outer garments.

As she watched them, seemingly oblivious to her presence now, she wondered how to explain to them she was capable of working. As long as she didn't try to remember anything, she was sure she'd be fine.

She stood up and the boy noticed her. He stopped talking, so the woman turned around to see what was going on. She picked at her clothes and then placed her hand on the woman's thick jacket. Then she gestured to herself and then to both of them.

The woman glanced at the boy and they shared a quick conversation. The woman seemed unsure, but then shrugged her shoulders. The woman headed for the swinging door and waited.

She followed the woman, wondering if they had anything in her size. She wasn't nearly as tall as they were, and she was a lot thinner, but if they had another worker like her, she thought it might be okay. However, the woman didn't take her to the clothing. She took her back through the main room and then down a set of stairs into another room similar to the main one. The woman picked up a small rectangular device and pressed a button, which activated a large screen on the wall showing people talking and moving around. Then the woman picked up another small device and handed it over.

She took it and saw it was covered with buttons, some with symbols on them, some with different colors, and some with what appeared to be words written near them. She looked up at the woman and offered the device back to her.

The woman sighed and pointed it at a small box located below the screen. She watched the woman's hand carefully to see what she did. When the woman pressed one of the central buttons, the screen changed to show different people in a different setting.

She suddenly understood what the woman wanted her to do. She took the device back and immediately began looking for a learning stream. The woman probably thought she was brain-damaged by now, not even knowing how to work a simple education/entertainment device, but she would do her best to learn quickly and become productive. Once she learned the language and could communicate properly with these people, maybe they could help her remember who she was.

She felt the woman leave as she found what appeared to be a children's learning program. It showed individual symbols in large print and sounded them out for her while also using them in simple words with explanatory pictures. As the program continued to introduce new symbols, they felt more and more familiar with the sounds turning out to be exactly what she expected and she was even guessing some of the new words' sounds and meanings before they were explained. She could have done without the strange hand puppets and funny voices, but the children seemed to enjoy interacting with them and once she understood what was being said, sometimes they were quite funny.

In the middle of one such program, she was joined by the animals again, the smaller one nestling into her lap while the larger one rested against her side. She closed her eyes for a few minutes, enjoying the waves of peaceful contentment that flowed from them and made her feel safe as she ran her fingers through their soft fur. She tried not to think too deeply about it, but something about the sensation gave her the impression that wasn't an emotion she felt very often. Before the pain in her head could become too sharp, she let the thoughts go and went back to concentrating on the language lessons.

After several hours and switching between different streams to find more educational programs, she'd learned enough to know she needed two things if she wanted to speed up the process: a lexicon and a network-connected computer. She maneuvered herself out from under the sleeping animals and looked around the room. A few minutes' investigation revealed both items based on props she'd seen in the programs.

The lexicon was a bound hardcopy and had an introductory section explaining the origins of the language, called English, which she now understood was what the woman had been inquiring about the night before. Though she didn't understand all the words, she was able to fill in most of the blanks by context as she read the introduction. According to the language's history, its roots lay in another language, German, and had strong ties to a second language, French, due to a war and subsequent foreign occupation.

That made sense. Her own language was full of words borrowed, and later assimilated, from the languages of a dozen other species. She could speak most of them fluently, though she was only permitted to speak Standard to the masters. The slave languages were only for the slaves...

She felt a low throbbing in her forehead and backed off, refocusing instead on the task at hand.

She set the dictionary down on the large square table pushed up against one wall of the room and took a seat in front of the computer she'd found there, which had been referred to as a laptop on the large screen. She found the 'On' button, a symbol she'd seen on several programs, though she wasn't sure what a circle partially bisected by a vertical line had to do with running electricity through a device.

The screen clearly showed it required a secret access code, which she found on a small brightly-colored note stuck to the top of the table. She located the symbols on the keyboard and typed them in exactly as they appeared on the note, though they showed up on the screen as identical little dots. The screen refused to change and she wondered if she'd broken it somehow or if it had already been damaged. Then she saw the word 'Enter' next to the code box. She found the same word on the keyboard and tapped it.

The screen changed, but only to alert her that she'd entered the wrong password. She tried again, but received the same 'Incorrect Password' notice. Maybe the password on the note was old or invalid. It did seem a little odd to keep a security key right next to the device it was supposed to be protecting.

She tried a few more times, a little frustrated that she couldn't actually see what she was inputting, but nothing worked. She even tried talking to it, wondering if there was a secondary voice activation protocol, but saying the letters and numbers out loud didn't do anything either.

Eventually, she noticed the variation in the letters on the note and remembered what they'd been called in one of the video streams. Capitals. She found the key labeled 'Caps Lock' with a capital 'A' on it and wondered. She held her breath as she pressed the key. A light lit up on the keyboard. She re-entered the password, this time turning the capitals on and off as needed, and the password screen changed to something that appeared much less hostile.

Before she could do anything else, she was startled by the sudden appearance of the little furball alighting on her thighs. It looked up at her and gave a loud cry before pushing its head against her chest. She reached up and rubbed its head, which got her an instant vibratory rumble that ended with a phlegmy chirrup.

"At least I seem to have learned your language," she told it as it made several turns before settling on flopping over onto its side. It began alternately pushing its paws against her stomach, which was oddly soothing.

A moment later, she felt a warm weight settle on top of her feet as the larger beast claimed the only part of her it could. She considered moving back to the couch, but both animals seemed content, so she went back to what she'd been doing.

As she looked over the small screen, it occurred to her she didn't really know how to interact with the device beyond typing in letters and numbers. Typing letters highlighted various icons and their labels, or if she kept tapping the same letter, it cycled through all the icons that started with that letter. However, she didn't have a clue how to activate any of them or the one she wanted in particular, which was titled 'Myria.' She'd just seen several notices explaining it was the best way to access the 'Web,' which seemed to be where she needed to go.

Several times while watching the large screen she'd heard the phrase, 'For more information, find us on the Web at...' and then a location code had flashed on the display while the speaker spelled out the words and symbols. Clearly, the 'Web' was their version of the interstellar information and communications network she was used to and most likely held vast amounts of information. Information she would need if she hoped to fit in and figure out what had happened to her.

In frustration, she poked at the screen with her finger.

"I want that one. Go there," she told it.

The icon lit, much to her surprise. Given the level of tech she'd seen so far, she'd just assumed the only input device was the keyboard. She tapped another small picture and the highlight moved to the new icon, but nothing else happened.

Now what?

She was considering going back to the large screen to see if she could find a video giving more detailed information regarding the use of the laptop, when she touched the Myria icon again and accidentally let her finger rest on the screen for a couple seconds. A square formed around the icon. She removed her finger to see what it meant and a menu list popped up next to the icon. The very first item on the list was the word 'Open' in bold. She grinned and tapped the word.

A moment later, a new screen appeared waiting for her instructions.

Now that she knew the screen could accept direct input, she tapped inside the box labeled 'Search' and began typing in her queries.

She had a lot more to learn.