Arkvar

by Cara Wylde

  “Okay,” she repeated. “What now? I’m here, with you and your crew. Where are we going? Where are you taking me? What’s the plan? Did you even have a plan when you kidnapped me?”

  “I didn’t kidnap you,” Ark quickly defended himself. Then, he stopped for a moment and reconsidered the facts. “Well, I guess I can see why you think I kidnapped you. It’s all about perspective.”

  “Perspective,” she chuckled darkly.

  “Would you have come with me if I had told you that your planet was about to be turned into a block of ice?”

  “No, of course not,” she replied. “I told you I didn’t want to go with you anywhere, and I was perfectly aware those pretty ships flying around weren’t there for a friendly visit.”

  “See now why I had to kidnap you?”

  “Whatever.”

  Ark took a deep breath and decided to let it go. He didn’t like that Alison thought he had kidnapped her, but there was nothing he could do or say that would change her opinion of him right now. Instead, he went back to her question.

  “We’ve set a course for the Galactic High Council of Seven. Our mission is complete, and we have to report back. This plan was so big and important that we have to do it in person.”

  “Wow! You’re taking me to your Council?”

  “Yes. I think that’s what I’m doing. I didn’t plan it ahead, I must admit, but now that we’re talking about it, it seems like the right thing to do.”

  “Okay, but why? Weren’t you supposed to get rid of all the humans on Earth?”

  Ark scratched the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.

  “Yes, but even as I was carrying out my mission, I had my doubts. Then, I met you and you only reinforced them. I think the Council needs to see you.”

  Silence fell between them and it hung heavy in the air for a few moments.

  “Ark, do you think you made a mistake?”

  He looked deep into her eyes and did his best to hold her gaze even though her direct question made him feel incredibly uncomfortable.

  “I don’t know, Allie. What’s done is done. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

  She nodded thoughtfully.

  Ark waited for her to ask more questions, but she remained silent. She seemed tired and confused, and he had the distinct impression that she didn’t want him there anymore.

  “If you want,” he said, “I can ask someone to show you around the spaceship.”

  “No. I would like to be alone now.”

  He opened his mouth to protest, but he stopped himself on time.

  “Ark, I want to be alone,” she insisted.

  “Oh, right… of course.”

  He shuffled awkwardly for a few seconds, then finally rounded the bed and walked to the door. He opened it, but before stepping over the threshold, he turned around to look at her. She was incredibly beautiful with that pale, white skin, those blonde locks, and sky-blue eyes. The red dress hugged her curves enticingly, but there was something else that made her look so sexy and feminine. It was the fact that she was completely unaware of the impact she had on him. Back on Earth, when he had seen her for the first time, she had shown a lot of confidence and self-awareness, but now she seemed too troubled with the new and insane situation she found herself in to be conscious of the way she looked or behaved.

  “Is there anything else you want to tell me?” she asked impatiently.

  “I… yes. Remember you can manifest anything you want.” He motioned toward the empty walls of the room. “All you have to do is think about it and be one hundred percent convinced that it will come to you.”

  He winked at her, and then he was out the door, leaving her alone, confused, and more lost than ever.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  She had wanted Ark to leave her alone, but now that he was gone, Alison didn’t know what to do. She found herself lying in bed for hours, staring at the ceiling and thinking about nothing. There was so much to take in at once that her mind had apparently gone on overload and decided on keeping it blank and simple. She had learned a lot in the span of a few hours, but it would probably take her days, if not weeks, to process it all.

  “Do I believe him?” she asked herself out loud.

  She closed her eyes, sighed, and let her hand run over her Kidem. The thing responded by pleasantly vibrating around her, making Allie smile. She was surprised at her own reaction to it.

  “I’m sorry I hurt you earlier,” she whispered.

  The alien being rippled around her and moved down her arms. It enveloped her elbows, her wrists, then her fingers, and Allie raised her hands to look at it move and caress her skin.

  “You know,” she said, “You’re actually a very fine fellow… Kidem… What on Earth does your name mean?” She chuckled bitterly. “Well, I guess now I should say ‘what on Old Earth does it mean’. Or… New Earth? This is so confusing.”

  All of a sudden, she felt her whole stomach and chest fill up with liquid warmth, with an all-encompassing feeling of compassion and understanding. Instinctively, she knew it came from the Kidem. In its own way, it was trying to communicate with her. They were friends now.

  “I bet Kidem refers to your species, right? Now that I’m stuck with you and we’re getting along so well, what do you think about a real name? Ark did say you’re like a pet. Hmm… let’s see… Kiddy?”

  The Kidem didn’t move an inch, which was the equivalent of choosing to stay completely silent.

  “You’re right, it’s not that fancy. What about Kimmy?” Allie smiled dreamily. “You know… back on Old Earth, there was this TV show I liked a lot. It was called ‘The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’. Funny name, right? I discovered it when I was going through a pretty dark period. I had just broken up with my boyfriend of three years, and it took me about a month to regain my footing and move on.”

  The Kidem rippled from around her fingers and wrists back up her arms, elbows, and shoulders, then down her chest.

  Allie started laughing and squirming.

  “Stop that! You’re tickling me.”

  The alien pet did stop, but only once it had secured itself around her torso.

  Allie sighed when she felt its warmth flowing through her muscles and bones, straight to her heart. It felt like the most caring, loving hug she had ever received. She wrapped her own arms around her chest, hugging the Kidem back.

  “It’s a long story,” she continued, “so I’ll spare you the details. I was about to ask you if you understand the concept of love, but I think you do. Maybe not in the same way as humans, but if I think about it, love should be some kind of constant in the universe. No matter whether you’re human, Unxendi, or any other sort of alien. No matter whether you’re an alien pet, or just a spirit without a physical form. I guess the one thing that we all understand and feel completely is love, right? Do you agree with me, Kimmy? Or am I just babbling here?”

  The Kidem squeezed her tighter, but not tight enough to hurt her.

  Allie took that as a “yes”, and also as a sign that her new pet liked its name.

  “Back to why I named you Kimmy… You see, this awesome show helped me through a very difficult period of depression. It’s so positive and empowering, so full of energy that you just can’t sit there watching it and not feel like the world is your oyster.” She laughed and made herself more comfortable on the big, fluffy pillows. “I’m pretty sure Kimmy Schmidt used to say that a lot… that the world was her oyster. And, believe me, that girl went through traumas you can’t even begin to imagine. Or, maybe you can. What do I know about your kind?”

  Kimmy shuddered around her, and Allie had the feeling that the pet understood more than she could know. It wasn’t only listening to her, but it also connected to her emotions and read a good part of the things she couldn’t put into words.

  “I’m glad I met you,” she thought. “You’re about the only thing that makes me feel safe on this ship.”

/>   Kimmy responded just as strongly as before, which confirmed what Allie had been suspecting. In order to communicate with it, she didn’t have to speak out loud. She could just as well do it mentally.

  “Ark did tell me the truth after all, huh? You are what he said you are, and I do have the ability to communicate telepathically.”

  Kimmy didn’t say anything. It was as if it didn’t want to influence her in any way.

  Allie took a couple of deep breaths, then pushed herself off the bed. She walked to the window, pressed her palms on the cold glass, and allowed herself to get lost in the amazing dance of lights, flashes, and colors. It was weird and hard to admit, but the sight gave her a sense of peace. She felt, deep down, that everything would be okay in the end.

  As she was looking out the window, she found it easier to think back to everything Ark had told her, and begin to process parts of it. Even though she had said she didn’t want to think about death, and that the idea of dying made her feel uncomfortable, it was time for Allie to be honest with herself. It might take her a while to trust him, but there was no point in lying to herself. The truth was that death had never terrified her. Ever since she was a child, she had believed life was a much bigger challenge than death. She had always had this strong, unexplainable feeling that all humans actually knew how to die, and that it was an easy transition for them. A transition to what, though? She had never taken enough time to think about it. Maybe because it didn’t really worry her? And she’d never asked herself what lay beyond the cessation of life as humans knew and understood it.

  “All right, Kimmy,” she whispered, “here is something that might blow your mind. I understand what Ark said about the physical body being dense, heavy, and sometimes too rich and overwhelming for us. And I know without it we…” she paused, suddenly unsure about who this “we” was, given that her fellow humans didn’t exist in their material forms anymore. “I would feel lighter and freer without it. I know the feeling, and it’s incredible. Completely out of this world.”

  Kimmy rippled around her and moved to attach itself to her entire back. Its soft vibrations reminded Alison of the purr of her cats. For a moment, deep sorrow enveloped her heart, and she had to take a couple of deep breaths to keep the tears at bay.

  “I’ll have to ask Ark about that,” she said out loud, at the same time adding a mental note to actually do it. “On the other hand, if you ask me, Kimmy, I believe you do have a soul, and if you, as my new pet, have a soul, then it makes sense that my pets on Old Earth had one too.”

  She shook her head to clear her mind and refocus on the matter at hand. Yes, she felt the truth of it all. Even though she knew it was all real, being on The Hesperia still felt like a lucid dream, and Allie was very much used to lucid dreams. Ever since she was little, she had experienced them countless of times, and later in life, when she got older and wiser, she had learned to use them to heal some of her fears. For instance, she had healed her fear of heights almost completely by taking control over those unpleasant dreams of falling. At first, she would wake up with a startle and her heart beating so fast in her chest that she could swear it would jump out and make a run for it. Little by little, she forced her own mind to remember that whenever she was asleep and felt like she was falling into an abyss, it wasn’t real. It was a dream, and she could control her own dreams and decide where they went. Through the years, she had managed to turn every dream of falling into a dream of flying or floating. It was this small shift in perspective that had later allowed her to take skydiving classes just to prove to herself that her fear of heights was completely in the past.

  It hadn’t been only the lucid dreams which had convinced Allie there was more to her existence, and maybe to the existence of all human beings. She was probably around eleven years old when she had her first out-of-body experience. For years, she hadn’t known what her nocturnal trips out of her physical body meant. All she knew was they felt amazing. They would start with a feeling of weightlessness, the relief of not feeling her feet, hands, and head anymore, and with delicious vibrations which would envelop her entire being and push her out of her body. There was this sense of peace and freedom she felt every time she found herself floating above her bed, sometimes near her ceiling, or above her wardrobe. She could rarely control what happened after she found herself outside of her physical form, but it wasn’t like she wanted to do anything special. The sensation itself was enough.

  “It all makes sense,” she said, unsure whether she was talking to Kimmy or to herself. “It really does. What Ark says he can do is way beyond what I could do back on Old Earth, but I did experience some of it to a small degree.”

  Once she said that out loud, and her whole being accepted that the situation was what it was, Allie felt a cleansing sense of relief take away all the tension in her body and mind. As if on cue, her stomach rumbled to remind her that, despite thinking so much about OBEs and existing on a non-physical plane, for the time being, she very much had a perfectly solid biological body, and that body needed food and something to drink. Her lips were parched. She moved away from the window, stretched her arms above her head, and scrunched up her nose when she realized the scent of her perfume wasn’t as fresh as when she had first applied it.

  “Oh God, I need a shower. I need a shower badly.”

  Kimmy rippled around her body and moved to wrap itself around her wrist as if to agree.

  Alison looked at it thoughtfully, cocked an eyebrow and smiled.

  “Will you ever leave me alone, or am I stuck with you forever? I’m not sure how I’m going to take a shower right now, but I’m pretty sure I’m not seeing myself using you as a washing cloth.”

  The Kidem vibrated in protest and did something Allie hadn’t expected. It unwrapped itself from around her arm and jumped on the bed, spreading it’s soft, slippery body so wide that it covered almost three quarters it.

  “Oh wow! I had no idea you were so big. But I guess you can change your size and colors as you please… That must be fun, huh?”

  She ran her hands through her hair, and cringed when she felt it tangled and slightly greasy. She saw Kimmy move all over the bed, ripple over the pillows and up the headboard, as if it was trying to find a more comfortable spot. Allie lost interest in what the Kidem was doing. She crossed her arms over her chest, looking around the room and wondering what next. She needed a shower, and she needed to use the bathroom, but there didn’t seem to be any bathroom in sight.

  “Ark said I can manifest anything I want,” she whispered thoughtfully. “All right, let’s see how this whole manifesting thing works.”

  She cleared her throat, closed her eyes, and furrowed her brows in concentration. She forced herself to think about a bathroom, but the images kept slipping out of her mind as soon as she conjured them. She sighed in annoyance and sat down on the edge of the bed. She took a couple of minutes to relax her entire body, breathe deeply and evenly, and clear her mind of any thought and worry which might have had the potential to distract her.

  The second time she thought about the bathroom she needed, Allie did her best to imagine every single piece of furniture and every single object she wanted it to have. She smiled, and mentally patted herself on the back when the images became more and more vivid, and a sense of certainty started somewhere in her chest and spread all over her body. When she opened her eyes, there was no doubt in her heart that the bathroom would be there.

  In other circumstances, maybe Alison would’ve said it was a miracle there was now a door which had not been there before, on the wall opposite the bed. Her face lit up with pride. She stood up, confidently approached the door she had materialized out of nowhere, and opened it in a swift motion. The exact bathroom she had pictured in her head was there, right before her eyes, and it was equipped with everything she could possibly need.

  “Well,” she whispered in awe, “I don’t mind this. I don’t mind this at all.”

  She stepped inside, c
losed the door behind her, and took a moment to look around. She knew where everything was and how it worked because she had, in some way, created it. She quickly got rid of her clothes, turned on the shower, and grabbed the bottle of shampoo. It looked exactly like the one she had had on Old Earth, but when Allie opened the cap and smelled the sparkly liquid, she jumped in surprise. It smelled nothing like roses.

  “Oh wow! This is… certainly different…”

  She inspected all sides of the bottle, but there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it. Just with its contents. She turned it upside down, poured some shampoo in her palm, and her blue eyes grew wide with wonder. The liquid was so dark that it was almost black, and it spread that intense, sweet smell into the air. Allie set the bottle down and played a bit with the strange liquid. Once she made sure it did behave like a common shampoo, she proceeded to slather it on her hair, praying it wouldn’t turn her beautiful blonde locks black. Or, even worse, blue. She rinsed it off and sighed in relief when she saw everything was fine, and the dark liquid had cleaned her hair and left it smooth and shiny.

  As she went on with her shower, Alison thought about why the things in her manifested bathroom looked the way she had wanted them to look, but contained something different from what she had expected. Even the water felt weird on her skin. It was harsher than the one on Old Earth, and it didn’t smell very fresh. The only logical conclusion was that, yes, she could manifest anything she wanted, but the results she got depended on the resources at hand.

  “Does this mean…” she wondered out loud.

  Suddenly curious to test her theory, she finished her shower and dried herself off with the fluffy towel waiting for her on the edge of the sink. She then cleared her head, closed her eyes, and did her best to manifest a tight pair of black jeans and a red, elegant blouse. When she opened her eyes, the garments were waiting for her on the floor, along with the pieces of underwear she needed and a gorgeous pair of red, strappy sandals.