by C. F. Harris
First, though, I could be a little more personal and direct than using the gun. He'd positioned himself right in front of me. He should've learned from what I did to his friend at the pawn shop that wasn't a very good position to stand in.
I reached back and punched him in the nuts. At least I assumed it was his nuts. Flin said we were all human, after all, just from different worlds. I figured he kept his most sensitive bits in the same place as the guys on this world. I figured he would be just as happy about getting punched there as a guy from this world would be.
He fell to the ground screaming. Several of his men moved as though they were going to fire their weapons at me and I tensed. But he held out a hand and they stopped.
"Wait!" he screamed. "I'm taking care of this bitch personally!"
After a few minutes he managed to get back to his feet, though I noticed he was walking somewhat gingerly compared to what he'd been before. All of that confident swagger was gone. I figured if that had happened to Flin he wouldn't lose the confident swagger.
"You can do whatever you want to me," I said. "But you're not going to get away with this. You're not going to steal all the women from our world!"
Okay, so I probably had no way to back that up. I was just one woman with a single gun against all these men. No matter what I was probably going to die here, but it felt good to spit defiance at them up until the last moment.
The man shook his head and chuckled. "Why would we want to take over your world? This is just a simple smash and grab. I would’ve thought Flin explained that to you."
And suddenly the true horror of what I'd said in that angry moment hit me. I might've just given something away. Something that probably shouldn't have been given away. Sure this guy would likely figure it out eventually anyways, but I didn’t have to give up the game right away. And so I shut my mouth and looked down, suddenly trying to seem meek and compliant. Maybe that would get him to shut up and not ask too many questions.
The man took a couple of steps forward, though I noticed this time he stood slightly to the side so I didn't have direct access to his nether regions. He leaned down and his voice was quiet.
"What did Flin tell you about this world that made you think we would want to try and invade?"
I kept quiet. He chuckled again and shook his head.
"No worries. We'll find out one way or another. I think I'll go back and recommend that we invade this world simply because the great Captain Flin thought it was worth doing. How do you feel about that? Knowing your world will be destroyed because you defied me?"
Tears streamed down my cheeks. Everything was lost. Seven billion people on this world, and I’d just doomed all of them. Assuming this guy was actually telling the truth and not just trying to twist the knife before he killed me with it.
Either way, I felt like absolute shit. I couldn't believe I'd done this. Melissa, unintentional destroyer of worlds.
He pointed his weapon at my head and I squeezed my eyes shut. So much for all the defiance I'd been talking about. It was no matter. He was going to destroy this world, and he would pull the trigger before I had a chance to bring my gun to bear on him anyways.
I should have shot him as soon as he approached me. Back when I actually had the chance. I heard the zap of an energy weapon. I waited, wondering what it would feel like to be disintegrated. If I would even feel anything. Was it possible to feel anything when the nerve endings on your body were being destroyed at the atomic level right along with your brain?
I certainly didn't feel anything yet. Now that was weird. I was still conscious. I figured having my brain melt away would be enough to remove consciousness. What the hell?
I opened one eye. And I saw my captor looking very surprised for a moment, and then he fell back. At the same moment the other assholes around me were hit by a strange green energy and they all went down as well. And when my asshole captor went down I saw a tall broad shouldered figure standing behind him with his gun held out. A smile on his face. And a bunch of people in similar uniforms all carrying heavy weaponry surrounding him.
Flin walked over to me and took my hand. Pulled me up. He leaned in and gave me a very thorough kiss. There were several whoops from his crew behind him. Then he pulled away and smiled down at me.
"What happened? I saw you being disintegrated!" I said.
"I guess I was disintegrated from a certain point of view," Flin said. "I was taken to my ship by a teleporter. The thing is when they disintegrate me like that they can put me back together on the other end. Works on a different principle than these guns."
"I thought that sounded different from the weapon blasts," I said.
"Yeah, they really cut it down to the wire. A good thing they got me when they did. Half a second later and I would've been hit by the disintegrator rather than the teleporter beam. As it was it kind of tickled as the disintegrator blast went through me."
I laughed but then I got serious. I grabbed his uniform. Stared up at him. "What about my friends?"
He looked down and then back to me. "Well the Imperium ship sort of turned and ran, leaving its commander behind, when they realized my ship was out there and fully repaired. We have to get back to my ship very quickly or we’re going to lose them."
"We have to get them. You know what's at stake!"
"And I have every intention to. I couldn't very well leave you down here with the Rethvar though, now could I?"
He turned to his people. "Okay! Gather them up. Prisoners of war and all that. Don't bother to be too gentle with them, though. They are slavers after all."
“So that means we’re at war with the Imperium, cap?” a lady asked.
Flin frowned. “We will be after they realized they’ve discovered the Origin.”
There was a collective gasp from the crew around him. Some looked incredulous. Others were looking around this cell phone tower farm as though they were having a religious experience. Weird.
One thing caught my attention more than anything else, though. He was leaving. I grabbed his uniform. "You have to take me with you!"
A supremely sad look crossed his face. "Melissa… You have to understand. I’m a Captain. The loneliness of command and all that…"
He kept that serious look on his face for maybe a beat, and then he burst into laughter.
"No, I'm just mating with you," he said.
"I think the phrase you're looking for is you're just fucking with me," I said. "But I'd be more than happy to do what you just suggested as soon as we get up to your ship!"
He put an arm around me and grinned. Leaned down to kiss me again. "Well how could I leave you behind on this world after an offer like that?"
He pulled out a small device and spoke into it. "We're ready to go."
"Aye aye captain," a voice came from the device.
He looked down at me and grinned. "Now be prepared. The first time you teleport it can be a little unsettling."
I didn't care. I squeezed my arms around him. I was going to travel to the stars, and hopefully save my friends. Hopefully save the world.
I couldn't wait!
The world melted around me in a bright flash of light, and I was off to my new life with my dashing space captain.
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Royalien
1
Stacy
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“What?” Tara asked.
&nbs
p; “You said we were going to a cabin in the woods,” I said. “You didn’t say anything about something like this!”
“I don’t see what the problem is,” she said. “I told you we were going to my dad’s cabin and this is a cabin. What’s the big deal?”
“What’s the big deal?” Rachel said, coming up to stand beside us and stare at the massive cabin with just as much awe as the rest of us. “You never told us your dad was loaded.”
Tara shrugged. “I guess I never thought about it.”
My mouth hung open. The little cabin in the woods Tara had suggested for Rachel’s bachelorette weekend was actually a palatial log mansion in the middle of a forest with a private ski resort a short walk away through that forest. I could see a trail from the light cast by the SUV’s headlights, and a picturesque view of the mountains in the distance.
“Damn,” Rachel said. “I thought we were going to be roughing it when we came up here. You didn’t say we’d be staying in a mansion!”
“It’s not a mansion,” Tara said, a touch of defensiveness coming to her voice.
“That’s a fucking mansion,” Kayla said. “God, we’ll each get a room to ourselves in that thing! Are we allowed to bring anyone back here? Do you have maids to clean everything up when we’re done?”
“Come on Kayla,” Tara whined, stamping her foot in the snow. “Can you try to keep it in your pants for one weekend please? The cleaners won’t come around until after we’re gone and I don’t want to deal with that.”
Everyone burst into laughter and I joined in right along with them. Tara looked at each of us as though she wasn’t sure if she should be laughing or getting pissed because whatever we were laughing about was at her expense.
“What’s so funny?”
“Sorry,” Kayla said, wiping a tear from her eye. “The cleaning people won’t come until after we’re gone.”
“It’s going to be terrible roughing it like that,” Rachel added, trying her best to sound serious.
“I know,” I said. “I don’t know what I’ll do without a maid there to make my bed in the morning.”
“You’re making fun of me,” Tara said. “Come on. That’s not very nice. Especially since my dad’s the one providing the cabin for the weekend.”
I held up a hand to placate her. “We know, and we’re very happy that he did. We’re sorry. Right girls?”
I looked at each of them in turn and they smiled and nodded. We might give each other shit from time to time, but at the end of the day we were all friends and that’s what really mattered.
“Enough about Tara’s charmed upbringing,” Kayla said. “Let’s check this place out! There’s an airbase nearby and I’m hoping to maybe meet a sexy pilot or something on the slopes and bring him back for a little fun!”
“Joke’s on you,” Tara said. “No one from the base goes to the resort. It’s very exclusive.”
“Well la dee da,” Kayla replied. “In that case I’ll have to settle for a handsome guy with a big dick and a trust fund.”
“You’re so crass Kayla,” Tara replied as the two of them made their way up the stairs to the front door still arguing.
“I really hope those two tone it down by the end of the weekend,” Rachel said. “I’m not looking forward to three days of them bickering like that.”
“I don’t think you have much to worry about,” I said. “Kayla will find some guy to occupy her attention and Tara will have a few drinks and relax. You know how it is.”
“I know how it is,” Rachel said, her mouth compressing to a thin line as she watched the bickering friends disappear into the house still going at it. “I’m just thinking of the headache while we wait for all that too happen.”
I let out a long breath, mist forming in front of me in the cold. I always liked it when it was good and cold, and the woods around us looked inviting. Not that I had any intention of going there at night, but I was already thinking about how fun it would be to go out during the day. This weekend was going to be fun. Just like exploring back home when I was a little girl.
Although back home didn’t have a view of the mountains like this place did. There was enough light from the full moon overhead to illuminate them in the distance and the whole effect was breathtaking.
“Looking forward to this weekend?” Rachel asked.
I turned to my best friend and forced a smile. I wasn’t feeling it deep down inside, but this weekend wasn’t about what I felt. It wasn’t about wallowing in a wound that still felt open a year later.
No, it was all about being happy for Rachel and her big moment even if it was a constant painful reminder of how my own big moment had been torn away from me. Fucking cancer.
“Totally,” I said. “It’s gonna be awesome! Rachel’s last dance as a truly single girl! All those trust fund guys at the resort better watch out!”
Rachel smacked my shoulder. “Come on. You know I wouldn’t do that to Brad.”
“Of course you wouldn’t,” I said.
“I’m almost jealous of you single girls getting to go out there and… oh shit. I’m sorry Stacy. I didn’t…”
I held up a hand to stop her. Took a deep breath to try and get everything under control. That pain welled up inside me again, though it wasn’t as clear or as sharp as it had been a year ago. It was still there though. A dull ache every time I thought of Travis.
The harsh truth was that weekends like this were tough for me, and why not? After all, nights like tonight were a reminder of what the future held for me. I was going to be a spinster forever. Not because guys weren’t interested in me or anything, but mostly because once you’d had the best it was impossible to have anything else. As crazy as that sounded.
Some of those guys had even been tempting. There was one guy at the office who’d been persistent and damn did he look good when he loosened his tie a little, but there was a small part of me that couldn’t get over feeling like I was cheating on Travis by even considering getting with another guy.
I sighed and it looked like I was smoking. That led to a smile. We used to pretend we were smoking standing outside the elementary school until old Mrs. Talbot with her mouth that was perpetually puckered like a cat’s asshole found us and screeched at us until we never wanted to fake smoke again, let alone real smoke.
“You sure you’re okay?” Rachel asked, piercing the silence that could only come from a night when snow blanketed the world deadening all the other noise.
“I’m fine,” I lied. After a year the lie was getting easy enough that I almost believed it. “I guess that’s what I am, right? Single and ready to mingle.”
I laughed, but it didn’t hold any joy. Another sigh as I forced my next words out.
“I need to get used to it sometime.”
“I guess,” Rachel said, eying me warily as though she didn’t quite believe that I was telling the truth. Which meant that she knew me well. I was lying through my teeth, but I had no intention of making that obvious and ruining her weekend.
She looked up to the sky overhead and I followed her gaze. The view up there was almost as breathtaking as the view of the mountains in the distance or the sight of that obscenely huge log cabin mansion in front of us.
“I forgot what it was like to look up and see the stars in the sky like that,” I said.
“Yeah,” Rachel said. “We’ve been in the city way too long, but I never had a view like this even at my place out in the suburbs.”
“Yeah? I had a view like this all the time where I grew up, but it was out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by cornfields on all sides.”
“Country girl, eh?” Rachel asked.
“You know it!” I replied. “Even if I got the hell out of there as soon as I could. Still, it’s nice to look up and see the same old sky still up there. Reminds me of stargazing with my dad when I was younger. He could name just about everything up there.”
Rachel pointed to a particularly bright star that looked like it was near the top o
f one of the peaks off in the distance, but of course that was an illusion. My dad taught me all about it. Still, it was one thing to know for a fact that all those points of light were trillions of miles away and another thing to convince my mind that was used to dealing with distances measured on much shorter scales.
“What’s that one over there?”
I squinted as I looked at the bright point of light. I would’ve guessed it was Jupiter, but at this time of year Jupiter would’ve been way lower than the mountains. That was odd, the thing seemed almost too bright to be anything I’d seen before.
The thing moved. I’d seen that before, satellites and even the space station which my dad loved pointing out, but this was different from anything like that. Satellites moved in a steady motion. Shooting stars went down and that was that.
This thing suddenly got much brighter as though it was coming right for us which made me think we were maybe seeing a commercial jet or something making an approach, but then it streaked off to the right like a shooting star before coming to a sudden halt over the forest in the distance.
The light came to a halt. I frowned. Shooting stars definitely didn’t do that. Planes weren’t supposed to do that. Travis had been something of a UFO nut and I’d gotten good at debunking that stuff as a sort of game so I knew a plane that was moving horizontally but suddenly turned towards you could look like that, but there was nothing I’d ever heard of on earth that moved that fast.
Or that could go down. Straight down. One moment it was seemingly hovering and the next it shot straight for the trees. I winced and waited for an explosion on the side of the mountain, but nothing happened.
“Um, did you see that too or am I going crazy?” Rachel asked.
“You’re not going crazy,” I said. “That really just happened.”
