A woman floated alone in the darkness. A thick dark bandage was wrapped around her head and there were cuffs on her hands and ankles that would become shackles at the push of a button.
She was dressed in plain grey prison clothes and her black hair, about shoulder length, peeked out from under the bandage. If one were to see only one picture of her, one could mistake her for a Buddhist monk or something similar.
...
She liked her new home. To her, the room she was in was brightly lit. The light from space penetrated everything around her and made the structure of the station shine brightly.
As long as no one was in the way, she could see all the way through the station. The light showed her layer by layer and room by room everything there was to discover in the station. Only the inhabitants were a problem. Humans and other creatures were dark spots in her perception that seemed to absorb the light around them, so she could not see past them.
She knew the humans had brought her here as some form of punishment, but it was the opposite for her, being on a planet full of people was way more straining and annoying for her.
A long time ago, she had been like them, blind, scared, innocent and ignorant. Floating through the darkness as if they had conquered it as if they knew everything and had nothing to fear.
Then she had changed, dark had become light, everything inverted and she no longer needed her eyes, that had been unable to see the truth. Others could feel the change as well and started to fear her.
At first, she fought them, escaped them and tried to find others like her, but there were none.
At some point, she had given up and allowed the humans to capture and imprison her. She had tried to live among them, to be like them again, but that seemed impossible.
There had been those who wanted to help her, but in the end, no one had understood her.
Then she had changed again, suddenly her presence had a negative effect on the people. They began to sleep badly or had problems talking to her and looking at her.
From then on, she began to distance herself more and more from them. She no longer wanted to have anything to do with these creatures who only brought her suffering and trouble. Unfortunately, people seemed to see it differently.
She was passed from one to the other, examined and medicated, but nothing seemed to help. Finally, she ended up at the slave market and later on the military station.
She had more or less realised what fate awaited her, but it no longer mattered to her. She had her peace and could observe the play of light around her, that was all she was interested in.
...
She noticed the group marching towards her cell long before they actually reached it. Their outlines looked human to her and she was about to ignore them when she noticed that one of them seemed to reflect the light a little.
It was not the first time she had seen this phenomenon, but it was rare enough to spike her interest. The reflecting person was likely the reason, the humans were on their way.
The group stopped some distance away from her cell. To her surprise, they just seemed to stand there as If waiting for something. That's when she heard her cell door open and close.
Out of instinct she spun around to face the sound, but could not detect anyone. The black figures of the humans were still standing at the other end of the corridor.
...
Jack looked at the woman floating in front of him, for some reason they had turned off the gravity in the cell. Currently, she was floating a few meters above the ground. She had been in a Monk's pose with her legs crossed, but when he entered, she turned around and got into a slightly crouched position, reminding him of a scared cat.
He could see her head move as if looking for him, so he cleared his throat to speak to her.
Immediately the woman bounced back and drifted away from him, till she reached the wall on the opposite end of the cell, where she crouched down again. He could see the tension in her body, ready to jump at a moment's notice.
"I'm here to help you, you don't have to be afraid."
He could see her head moving around frantically, but with the blindfold on there was no way for her to spot him.
"I'm standing right in the doorway. I won't move ok? I am really not here to harm you or anything."
...
She was quite shocked when the light suddenly spoke to her. At first, she thought her mind was playing her a trick, but after a short while, the voice continued talking. It was hard to understand the language like she should know it but hadn't heard it for a long time.
The tone was warm and soothing as if to tell her there was no need to fear. The origin of the voice did not move and continued to talk so she was slowly able to focus on the spot.
Her curiosity got the better of her and she pushed herself off the wall and slowly floated over to the spot she had made out to be the source of the sound.
The voice continued to talk as she hit the ground about an arm's length away. She slowly began to circle the spot, but could not make out any difference in the surrounding lights.
Suddenly something touched her head. She ducked and tried to evade the perceived blow, but whatever it was only touched the blindfold.
The voice sounded apologetic for a moment before it continued to try to appease her.
She was torn between her curiosity and the instinct to escape. Eventually, curiosity won out.
Slowly she moved back in the direction of the voice and allowed whatever it was to touch her head again. The bandage around her head got loose and fell to the ground. Her vision changed in a strange way she never had noticed before.
The light in front of her had taken the shape of another human. It looked exactly like the black outlines still waiting outside her cell but was filled with light. The human seemed to look straight into her eyes as well normally they went crazy after doing that.
"Leerenauge"
The word startled her. The human knew her name.
"Verstehst du mich?"
She had given up hope long ago to find someone she could talk to.
The human nodded and continued to talk in the same language as before. Suddenly it sounded much nicer to her. She curiously floated around him, touching his face and body while trying to make out his features against the light. Short Hair, beard and muscles told her she was dealing with a male most likely, not that it mattered to her.
As he didn't seem to mind, she continued to explore his features while he took out a device and started talking into it.
After some time, the other humans started moving as well, but she did not care. Then, the light human suddenly started walking towards the cell door. It opened and he stepped through.
After waiting for a moment he turned around and gestured for her to follow, when she still did not move he spoke again.
"Komm"
Her heart began to race. Someone knew her language. She had finally found what she had been looking for all this time. With renewed determination, she floated towards the door and followed the man.