With the four of us working together, we were able to get all the cargo secured before the jump to hyperspace.  After everything had settled down, I called  Janice and the Chief to my quarters to discuss our new passenger.

"If you could only see what the poor girl went through at the hands of those bastards," Janice exclaimed, "they treated the lab rats better than her!"  As Janice further told us what S'dira had shown to her, she continued, "they never gave her a moment of peace, continuing day and night with their tests.  Probes, biopsies, food, water and sleep deprivation... and then the worst thing that could ever happen to her... to any woman."  With tears now starting to form in her eyes, Janice choked out, "one of her guards raped her!"

"Please take a breath and calm down, Janice,"  keeping my own emotions in check over the last thing said, I continued to ask, "so, let me get this straight... you said she showed you all these things?  How did she do this?  Did she have some kind of recorder or commo pad?"

As Booker leaned against the cabin wall, he interjected, "damn, no wonder she was so scared of me and Krebs, probably thought we were going to do the same thing to her."  Then turning to Janice, "you said she showed you all these things... I'm with the boss on this one.  I didn't search her, but as tight as her clothes were when we found her, I'm sure I would have spotted something."

Listening to Janice describe how S'dira had shown her all she had endured, I said, "sounds like she's a contact telepath, otherwise she wouldn't have had to touch you.  She could have just projected her thoughts directly to you."  Both of them stared at me with a quizzical look on their faces, I responded,  "What?... I do read other things than cargo manifests, you know."  Thinking about what to do next, I told the pair, "all right... Chief,  inform the rest of the crew to meet in the galley in thirty minutes.  I'm sure by now everybody knows about our passenger, they need to be told this new info."  Turning to Janice, I said, "I need you to go get S'dira and bring her to the galley in an hour."  After they both left to complete the tasks I gave them, I whispered to myself,  "I could have been store clerk or waitress and led a nice quiet life... but no, I had to become a ship's captain."

Meeting in the galley with all the crew, Chief and I informed them what we had discovered about S'dira.  "Wait a second," Krebs blurted out, she's an alien telepath?  What if she decides to suck our brains out and make us slaves while she takes over the ship?"

"I don't think she's going to do that,"  Booker quipped to the man, "any way, it'd take her all of two seconds on you... probably wouldn't notice the change."  Replying to the remark, Krebs stated with agitation, "funny Chief, should have been a comedian."

As the meeting went on, the discussion about S'dira's fate came to a close.  "It's decided then,"  I addressed the crew,  "Janice should be here soon with her and I'll let S'dira know our decision."

Stopping in the corridor, S'dira turned to Janice,  "I'm scared Janice, what do you think they'll do with me?  I know you to be a kind and gentle person through our sharing.  And your thoughts also reflected the others are good people, but I can't help it, I'm so scared."

"Honey, I wish I could tell you what is going to happen, but I can't", Janice replied, "perhaps something a man over 400 years ago said, might help you.  He was speaking to his people during a time in Earth's history known as The Great Depression when his whole nation was frightened about what would happen to them next.  He told them, 'we have nothing to fear, but fear itself'... those words inspired his people to become the greatest nation on earth for over a hundred more years."  Arriving at the galley, Janice punched the button on the access panel.  As the door began to open, Janice turned to S'dira, "be brave sweetheart, you are among friends."

Later that night...

"Ship's log, November 29 2366," I said to the ship's computer as I sat in my desk chair, "leaving the Sol system far behind is a relief, scares the crap out of me every time we get so close to the Feds home base."  Taking a short breath, I continued my entry, "we got a surprise today, we picked up a stowaway."  As I told the computer all that had unfolded that day, I started to feel exhausted and closed out the log entry.  As I lay in my bunk, thoughts of the day replayed through my mind. 

As S'dira stood there in front of the crew, trying her best not to show the fear I'm sure raced through her thoughts, I got up from my chair and approached her.  Placing my hand upon her shoulder, our eyes met as I told her of the crew's decision...

"Welcome to the family S'dira, welcome home."

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Not sure what's going on?  Well give this link a click: A Little Introduction Is In Order and hopefully it will clear things up for you.
Thanks for dropping by and hope you enjoyed yourself!  Until next time, this is Aria... signing off.