by Maxi MacNair
She scoffed at him. “I’m trying to help.”
“I don’t want your help.”
“But you need it.”
He turned back to look out the window.
Nillana sighed. “Is there really no one who catches your eye?”
“No,” Kallos said without hesitation.
“How so?”
“They have no substance to them. I don’t want to marry someone who’s lived the same life as I. The mundane bores me.”
“You want to marry a commoner?” Nillana looked at him. “I mean—it’s been done, but rarely are they fit to help rule.”
Behind them, the advisor cleared his throat.
“My lord and lady? Might I suggest another alternative?”
“Suggest away,” Kallos said, still gazing out the window.
“Perhaps an ideal mate might be located elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere?” Nillana said. “You mean off-planet?”
Kallos’ pointed ears twitched.
“I do. Securing off-planet brides is becoming a trend across the galaxy.”
“She would certainly have lived a different life than you, Kallos,” Nillana said, then she turned to the advisor. “Do you have a specific system in mind? A specific planet?”
“Unless my lord has a particular taste, I have heard of a planet, with lovely specimens, that would provide little resistance to our technology.”
“Where is it?”
“In a system the natives call the Milky Way.”
“An odd name.”
The advisor raised a cupped hand in the air in a shrug.
“Well, Kallos?”
The prince turned on his heel and regarded the two of them.
“Very well,” he said. “But whoever you send to collect this woman, make sure they know how to choose. I will not marry an idiot or—”
Nillana held up a hand. “Rest easy. I will rally a team and go myself. I haven’t been off Halpa for a while.”
“You?”
“Oh, please,” she smiled. “I think I know my brother enough to make an informed decision.”
“Then I will place my future in your hands. Please, take care not to ruin it.”
Nillana patted him firmly on the shoulder.
“Our lives are intertwined, so I shall treat yours as mine. I’ll leave immediately.”
Nillana strode out of the room.
“You may leave me now, Ferrin,” Kallos said, returning his gaze to the stars.
“As you wish, my lord,” the advisor said, and left with a bow of deference.
Kallos slipped off the metal band around his wrist and ran his finger along a particular edge. His fingers danced on a blue grid projected in the air. In an instant, the image of a blue, green and white planet floated before him. It spun slowly on its axis. And for the first time in days, Kallos allowed himself a small, hopeful smile. It was not the responsibility of the throne that he feared, it was the responsibility of marriage. He dreaded the thought of having to marry one of those scrawny and boring daughters of the nobles, but the king must have a bride or he was no king. At least the possibility that his bride would be someone different and interesting made him happy.
Nillana better not fail me.
Kallos thought those words as he swiped away the image of the green and blue planet in the galaxy called the Milky Way.
~
Larisa wiped the sweat from her temple, sending beads of liquid glistening through the air. Her breathing was heavy, but she didn’t stop running. She was too close to slow down now.
Her sneakers pounded into the grass, the porch light casting her shadow against lopsided trees. Lactic acid gathered in her muscles, but she forced herself onward, into the field that was her house’s backyard. One thing she loved about living in the suburbs was the privacy. No one was here to judge her performance during her late night or early morning workouts, or stare at the slight jiggle of her belly and thighs when she ran. She could wear whatever she wanted and not have to endure the parade of airheaded sticks that filed through the locker room on their way to their light sweatless workouts or raw food lunches in their expensive workout clothes. Larisa always thought that if the clothes you work out in weren’t a sweat drenched mess then you can’t really call it a workout. There were plenty of those types at the gym she went to in the city. Now that she lived out in the suburbs though, the whole countryside was her gym.
The phone strapped to her arm beeped, and with a gasp of relief, she turned her run into a trot, and then the trot into a steady jog. She panted, the cold night air suddenly uncomfortable in her lungs. She gradually slowed to a walk, and pulled her phone to her face.
She smiled. Sweat dripped into her eyes. She had bested her previous time.
Take that, world, she thought. Her chest swelled with pride.
Larisa plopped down on the grass and leaned back. The light breeze was bliss against her skin.
As her heartbeat gradually calmed, she opened an app on her phone and tapped to mark the time and distance of her run. She then swiped through her friends’ latests posts and liked a picture one of her friends had posted. It showed a tall, slender woman with piercing hazel eyes and red hair. Her crop top and low rise yoga pants showcased impressive abs and chiseled arms. She definitely wasn’t a size 0 fitness model. The caption read: “Some women compare dress sizes. I would rather talk about how many chin-ups you can do.” Larisa liked that. She never wasted time wishing she was smaller or skinnier, and she definitely wasn’t as ripped as that woman in the picture, but Larisa liked how she looked. Even if the rest of the world didn’t see it that way.
She set her phone on the ground and looked up into the sky.
The city lights were still close enough that the haze of light pollution diminished the intensity of the stars, but she couldn’t argue that the view wasn’t better than if she lived downtown. She’d rest for a while here, with the grass frisking her legs, and then head back inside to rehydrate and wind down for the night.
It was a quiet night. A rare quiet, and she wanted to savor it a moment longer. There were only faint car engines rumbling in the distance, no wandering cats shrieking for sex, and, for once, no pestering phone calls from work. Larisa had been getting a lot of those lately, and was starting to get fed up. It’s not like she got along with anyone there anyway, but everyone seemed to like coming to her when they didn’t know how to do something. The fact that she didn’t have many close friends though didn’t really bother her. She was used to be a bit of a loner, and to making things happen for herself. She was used to just being comfortable being alone.
Her mother had actually abandoned Larisa as a young teenager, and Larisa grew up in foster care. It wasn’t the tragedy everyone envisions when she mentions it. Sometimes the system works out, and it definitely made her stronger and more independent, which is why it was nice to not have to talk to anyone right now. A few years ago she had actually reconnected with her biological mom, and she was glad they did, but Larisa didn’t feel overly emotional about it. It’s not like she felt like she had found her home or her family now.
Larisa closed her eyes and laid all the way back. She had to shower anyway, so it made no difference to her if she got bits of grass and dirt in her hair.
Her mind began to drift away from her, the distant sound of cars on the freeway taking up residence inside her ears and wrapping around her like a blanket. The stars were coming down from the sky to sing a lullaby to her…she closed her eyes
She jerked to her elbows, eyes flashing open. There was something not right in that one spot in the sky she was looking at as her eyes closed. As she scanned the area in the night sky nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary though.
I must have pushed myself a little too hard this time. She thought when she checked the time on her phone.
She rolled onto her stomach and stretched, then pushed herself up into a plank, held it for a few seconds, then transitioned into a downward dog. After a minute
of shifting between that and a cobra, Larisa got to her feet and stretched her arms above her head. Her gaze wandered up to fall on that section of sky again and a particularly bright star seemed to be there. She tried to remember the name of the visible stars she knew of—the brightest star in the sky—but it escaped her. All she could remember was that it shared a name with some pop culture character…
The star seemed to be growing brighter now though and Larisa squinted at it. It also seemed to be noticeably moving in the sky. Her arms fell to her side.
Was it actually a satellite? She mused. If it was the star she was thinking of, it should be in Orion’s Belt—but that was behind her.
She shook her head then looked again. She couldn’t tell now if it was moving, but she could swear it was still getting brighter. She wondered what else it could be that explained it. Maybe there was some weird meteor shower tonight or some other type of natural phenomenon. She liked looking at the night sky, but she was no astronomer.
Larisa kept her eyes on the light as she started moving back to her house. Taking a few steps backwards and then turning around to take a few steps before looking back over her shoulder. The edges of the white light transmuted into turquoise, then continued to get even brighter, and bigger and she stopped moving. This light now seemed to hover in the sky barely twice the height of the treetops before she even knew what was going on.
Larisa eyes teared up from the brightness. Something in her gut tried urged her to run to the house, but her feet had rooted in the earth now. A tingling sensation began at the back of her head and prickled its way along her cranium and to her brow. Her vision became spotted with orbs and auras. Her head felt like it had been swept up in the waves of a fierce storm.
As the dizziness increased, she tried to reach out to steady herself on something, but there was nothing to grab onto. She stumbled, but somehow didn’t fall. She clenched her eyes against the glowing lights that were suddenly surrounding her. It was warm—hot. She felt like she had ran a mile in thirty seconds. She was covered in sweat again.
Larisa heard a buzzing in her ears. She opened her eyes, but was blinded by white floodlights. Her head spun and the bits of darkness at the edges of her vision swarmed to takeover the rest.
Then everything was black and silent again. She didn’t even feel herself hit the ground.
~
Larisa awoke to a blazing headache. She didn’t even open her eyes, just mumbled in pain and tossed her head to the side. She threw an arm up under her head to squish the pillow into a more comfortable form. After bunching it to form a partial cavity around her head, she started to readjust one corner, then stopped, and slowly drew her hand back.
This wasn’t her pillow. It was beaded. She hated beaded pillows.
Her heart began to thunder in her chest, its rumbling matching the screaming in her head.
She opened her eyes, but everything was hazy and out of focus. The shapes didn’t tell her she was back in any room in her house.
She replayed what she could remember of what happened before she fell asleep. She was running, did some stretches…
Had a neighbor found her passed out on her lawn? Did she accidentally overexert herself?
Larisa tried to quiet the aching in her head and listen. There was the sound of metal scratching against metal, and footfalls on a hard surface. They sounded across the room, and that felt too close. Much too close. Was that the shape of someone in the room watching her?
Then she realized that maybe she was in a hospital. There wasn’t the typical chatter she expected, but it was possible she was put in a private room.
The scratching sound ceased and something scampered across the room. Larisa could hear the mumble of whispers.
There was a moment of silence and then the footsteps turned in her direction, and a figure seemed to be coming closer to the bed she was on.
“So, you are finally awake,” the figure clearly said from the foot of her bed.
Larisa blinked her eyes and was about to respond, but the words got stuck in her throat. Whatever was wrong with her eyes seemed to vanish and everything came into clear focus. She scrambled backwards, but only succeeded in pressing herself into a corner. The wall was strikingly cold.
The being before her was humanoid, but far from human. No human had violet pupiled eyes or a slight gold shimmer to their skin. Nor ears that sloped down before drawing up into a point.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” the being said in a gentle voice. The figure was tall and slim, with little in the way of curves, but facial features and long white hair that suggested it was female.
Larisa’s eyes darted across the room at the implication of there being more than one strange creature standing watch over her.
Another one of the beings, even taller than the one standing before her, sat on a high stool across the room. Its shoulders were broad and it wore pants instead of a skirt. It was mid stroke of brushing a dagger across the lid of a metal box when it paused to look up at her, expressionless.
There were two others standing at the opposite end. One was garbed in a silver gown and held what looked like a tablet, while the other simply stood straight, watching quietly with its hands clasped before it.
“It’s all right,” the woman in front of her said. She turned to the one holding the tablet. “What’s that greeting they like to say here?”
“‘We come in peace’?”
“Yes,” she turned back to Larisa. “We come in peace.”
“Who—who are you? What are you?” Larisa’s hands started to sweat as she suddenly became aware that she was no longer in her exercise attire, but wearing a satin gown with spaghetti straps. “Where am I?”
The creature before her smiled. “My name is Nillana Nyh’jas. We are Halpasen, of the planet Halpa. And this,” she waved a hand in a massive arc above her head and in front of her. “This is the New Nova, my ship.”
“Why don’t you tell her what happened to the old one?” The Halpasen sitting on the stool said with a short laugh.
“Thrust it, Gero,” Nillana snapped. “Don’t listen to him. That was an isolated case and this ship is leagues ahead.”
“I—I’m on a spaceship?” Larisa couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This had to be a dream.
“Spaceship? Well, yes, I suppose you would call it that. Since it does traverse space.”
Larisa put a hand to her head and pinched her eyes closed.
“Where did you think you were?”
“In a hospital?” Larisa said, hoping that her initial guess was actually correct and all of this was just some strange hallucination. She reopened her eyes, but nothing had changed. The aliens were still there, with their slightly golden hued skin and elven ears. The sleek, metallic walls and spherical electrical equipment lining one of them—those were still there as well. If anything, everything seemed more there now. Clearer.
“Well, this does serve as our medical bay,” the alien said. She brushed her long white hair over one shoulder. It rippled in the overhead pot lights like ocean waves in the sun. “Not quite a hospital, however.”
“Why…why am I here?”
“There’s no easy way to say this,” Nillana said. “You’ve been selected to marry Lord Kallos, my brother and heir to the Halpasen thrown. You will wed him and become his queen. This will be the start of a new life for you.”
“What?” Larisa blinked. “M—marry?”
“I understand this is sudden and a great deal to process, but you need not be afraid. Our people will take care of you, as will he. You will be our first human queen.”
Larisa shook her head repeatedly. “No, no. I’m not marrying an alien! This must be some sick joke.” Her gut wound into knots.
“A joke?” Nillana’s eyes narrowed. “It is a remarkable honor.”
“Easy, Lady Nillana,” said the alien holding the tablet. “Remember, she’s in shock. And her species is not spacefaring.”
“Wait…” Larisa cle
nched the bedsheets. “If this is real, and if you’re aliens, how can we understand each other?”
“Trella here,” Nillana gestured to the one who had just spoke, “adjusted your body so you can function in Halpa: breathe our atmosphere, eat our food, understand and speak our language.”
“What? You—you did what to me?” Larisa ran her hands over her arms and legs, then up to her trace along her neck and head. Her fingers stopped their panicked search upon touching a thumbnail-sized bandage just above her ear.
“Please, do not worry,” Trella walked forward, her eyes wide with sympathy. “I can understand this might sound frightening, but the procedure is quite harmless. So far, you have been free of any negative reactions. You appear to be, so far, an ideal candidate.”
“Did—did you turn me into a robot?”
Gero burst into a laughter that shook the ship.
“No, nothing so absurd. Only equipped you with the most basic of biological implants.”
“Basic?” Larisa’s head began to throb again. She leaned back against the wall, head to the ceiling and willing herself to wake up from this far too realistic dream.
“Perhaps it’d be best to let her rest for some time,” Nillana said, her lips turning to a slight frown. “Trella, give her something to soothe her nerves.”
“Yes, my lady,” Trella said. She walked over to cabinet that slid open at the wave of her hand.
Larisa’s mind didn’t register what either of them had said. She didn’t hear the sound of bottles clanking against each other as Trella shifted through them to withdraw a jar of pale green liquid with fibrous herbs resting at the bottom. She just stared into the ceiling, everything outside of that falling away into white noise.
“Here,” Trella shoved a small cup towards her. “Drink this tea. It will help.”
Larisa didn’t move. Trella glanced back at Nillana, who nodded curtly. Trella took Larisa’s hands and wrapped them around the cup and helped the woman lift it to her lips.
“Drink it, slowly,” Trella coaxed. “You will feel better shortly. After you rest, we can discuss more.”
The liquid dribbled past Larisa’s lips, over her tongue, and down her throat. Larisa hadn’t noticed that her mouth had been dry. She tasted a spice that reminded her of ginger, and a floral essence caught somewhere between jasmine and rose. But the sensation only played in the background. It was still an alien that poured the drink into her mouth.
