Unfathomable Chance

by K T Munson

  Their adventure was over; all fun and games had been put aside now that she had taken her place. Diana sighed heavily as she set the other Babel Stone on the plush couch and leaned back. Kal Zed yelled something before rushing off muttering something about fish.

  Dimar smiled after the irritated Catorian but when his eyes darted to her, and his smile faltered. He stiffened and turned back to the controls. Diana’s frown deepened—she did not like what was happening. She wanted to resume their daily banter and be challenged by his wit.

  “I can see them, you know,” Diana said to him.

  His bafflement was tangible. “What?”

  “I can see the eggshells you are walking on,” Diana said, sitting up and meeting his gaze. “Do your feet hurt?”

  His lips turned down into a deep from before shifting away from her. She thought he wasn’t going to respond, but after a moment he said, “It is more like fire.”

  “There’s no one here,” Diana pointed out. “Why the act?”

  His face was unreadable. “Things are different now.”

  “Now that I am going to be the Empress, you mean.” Diana didn’t ask; she knew. They could not be as they were; they had to become something else.

  “Yes,” he answered, turning back to the controls. “You’re dangerous now.”

  Diana crossed her legs. “Not as dangerous as you, spaceman.”

  He smirked, and for a moment she saw the old twinkle in his eye. As she scrutinized him she noticed he had lost some weight during his short captivity and the week that had followed, or perhaps he had just gotten rid of the last of his playfulness and, therefore, looked leaner, almost harsh.

  Diana went to stand next to him as she gazed out over the expanse of space. “Why can’t we be normal when we’re alone? I’d like just one being to treat me like a person,” she whispered.

  “You’ve taken too many risks. You are far too valuable for me to allow you to continue to take them,” Dimar said without looking at her.

  “Leaps of faith you mean?” she retorted with a sheepish grin.

  “You’ve been lucky up to now,” Dimar explained, finally meeting her gaze. “If you keep at it, your luck will run out.”

  His words chilled her. What was worse is he didn’t even know the half of it. “If you really believe that, then why did you come back?”

  Dimar hesitated a moment before saying softly, “You are my best shot at finding out what happened to my mother.”

  “How could I forget?” she said, hoping her face didn’t betray her pain. “The mama’s boy needs to find out the truth.”

  His head snapped up as she glared at him. They stayed like that as he searched her face and she stood her ground, half convinced that they might crack under the pressure. Diana had wanted to push his buttons, and it had worked—anything to get him past his stoic behavior. Her jaw tightened as she felt her teeth mashed together in frustration.

  Alas, as he was over three hundred years her senior, he quickly composed himself. “I’ll serve you diligently.”

  “I don’t want you to,” Diana yelled, pushing him back out of the chair. He stumbled to his feet, but she shoved him again. “You were the only one treating me almost normally besides Roddy. I am untouchable and surrounded by snakes. This bracelet is a chain, and I am a bird trapped in a cage surrounded by vipers that are nipping at my wings!”

  “Then why accept the position?” Dimar asked, taking hold of her arms to make her stop.

  “How else am I going to find out the truth and…” Diana started to answer. She was nearly in tears and realized with horror she had almost told him the truth—that if she found out what happened to Empress Katali she could be free. Backing away, she rushed from the control room and hurried towards the bedroom she was using.

  “Diana?” Kal Zed called out, but she ignored him.

  Locking the door behind her she threw herself onto the bed. Rolling onto her back, she gazed listlessly up at the ceiling. Diana couldn’t deny it even to herself—Dimar made her irrational. If it weren’t for Kal Zed, she would have gone insane from all the hidden meanings and underhanded deals going on around her while she was so lost. Was it too much to ask to have Dimar to banter with her so she could feel normal amongst the chaos? She’d been so angry that he had denied her, but she felt guilty for how she had lashed out at him.

  Sighing over her nonsensical behavior as she realized she was acting like a little human girl who had a crush on a four-hundred-year-old alien. Pheromones aside, she had to admit she liked him personally. His mindset was similar to hers—snarky at the best and worst of times—and she found comfort in the familiar. Holding up the bracelet she frowned at it.

  “You sure put me in a pickle,” Diana whispered before shifting onto her side.

  Diana was going to have to forget about everything that had happened before now. Dimar was not her friend; he was her ally, and she needed all the allies she could get. It was better this way. Dimar was right—she was dangerous.

  Chapter 31

  Pacing patiently outside Melanie’s little condo for a good fifteen minutes, she tried to decide how best to approach her friend. She was going to sound like a complete lunatic. Even with the other Babel Stone and Kal Zed, it might not work. Working up the courage she finally knocked on the door, and it swung open to a livid Melanie.

  “Where have you been?” she shouted. “I’ve been worried sick. Your mother said she heard from you but that you haven’t called since. Then you just show up on my doorstep with this lovely hunk of man without so much as a word about him or where you’ve been, and no doubt you want to come in. Well, get your overdressed ass in here and explain yourself while your piece of man meat stays out here where he can’t distract me from my anger!”

  “Man meat?” Dimar asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Diana had to fight to keep her laughter from bubbling over—she’d really missed her best friend. Melanie must be assuming that she’d run off with Dimar and hadn’t told anyone, which is the reason she was insulting him with the man meat comment. Boy, was Melanie in for the surprise of her life.

  “Stay here,” Diana finally said, but Kal Zed followed her in.

  “Now explain yourself this second,” Melanie said, closing the door in Dimar’s face.

  Diana held out the second Babel Stone to her. “Take this and don’t be surprised.”

  “A stone?” Melanie said skeptically as she set it on her hand.

  “A Babel Stone,” Kal Zed explained.

  Melanie’s eyes widened. “Did your cat just talk?”

  “His name is Kal Zed,” Diana said. “He is my guardian.”

  “A pleasure,” Kal Zed added with a bow of his head.

  Melanie screamed and backed up into the coffee table, dropping the Babel Stone in the process. She landed on her backside between the couch and the coffee table with her feet up and her arm draped over the couch.

  “Melanie,” Diana said, “try to remain calm.”

  Melanie panicked, her expression likely the same one Diana had worn before she’d fainted in her apartment. It was the look of a woman who, minutes before, had had a carefully constructed view of the world. A woman who had firmly believed that something supernatural or extraterrestrial could be out there but who had been secretly relieved that nothing so far supported those possibilities. It was the look of someone realizing that everything she’d thought she’d known was wrong.

  “She took it worse than you did,” Kal Zed said, licking his paw.

  “Yeah, well I got transported up to a spaceship hovering above Earth,” Diana reminded him. “I didn’t have much choice.”

  “You were abducted?” Melanie asked, her face set in horror.

  “No, I—” Diana began and then thought better of it. “I left willingly.”

  “It’s like bloody Doctor Who up in here,” Melanie said, lifting herself off the floor to plop down on the couch. “Were you some alien’s companion?”

  “More like he was
mine,” Diana said, coming around the coffee table to sit on it. “I bear the Heart of the Cosmos.”

  Diana held up her wrist. Melanie shook her head as her eyes glazed over. “The man meat?” Melanie thrust a thumb towards the door.

  “Alien.”

  “You ran off with an alien?” Melanie asked. All of the blood rushed out of her face. “Is he going to kill me? I shouldn’t have called him man meat. Twice.”

  “No, I did not run off with Dimar. He is my protector, nothing else, and no, he is not going to kill you,” Diana reassured her.

  “Good. Great.” Melanie sighed and flopped over. “I need a drink.”

  Diana laughed. “It’s 10:00 am.”

  Melanie breathed in and out as though fighting down hysteria. Diana just stayed where she was and waited it out. “What else on our planet is an alien?” her friend asked, clearly trying to find a grip on reality.

  “Not much else,” Diana admitted. “Most is home grown.”

  “That’s comforting.” Melanie nodded like a bobblehead, trying to convince itself everything was going to be okay. After a length of silence, Melanie’s eyes wandered down to Diana’s wrist. “What exactly does it mean to ‘bear the Heart of the Cosmos?’” Melanie asked, using air quotes.

  “I choose a husband, which changes me into that species, and we rule the universe together with the Heart of the Cosmos riding shotgun through all of it on my wrist,” Diana explained in short. “Kal Zed can explain more. I’m still learning, but right now I need to ask for your help.”

  Melanie sat up. “What do you need?”

  That was Melanie, quick to help. When Kal Zed had informed Diana that she needed a representative from her home planet, Diana hadn’t hesitated; she’d known it would be Melanie. If it came down to it, she trusted Melanie with her life.

  “I need a representative of my home planet to sit in council meetings,” Diana said, biting her lip. “There is so much you would have to learn, but Kal Zed would help you.”

  “I’ll do it,” Melanie said without hesitation.

  “You’ll have to leave here, and I don’t know when or if I can return you,” she said, trying to paint a picture.

  Melanie reached out and took Diana’s hand. “You are my family, so of course I’ll help you.”

  Diana hugged her fiercely. She’d known that if she asked, Melanie would likely agree but Diana had not expected to be so relieved. Tears of joy surfaced as they held each other. Diana finally leaned back and got her lip to stop quivering.

  “It means so much.” Diana focused on their joined hands. Diana picked up the Babel Stone from the floor and placed it back in Melanie’s hand. “I have felt very alone, even with Kal Zed. I carry home with me in my heart, but I don’t have someone that supports me.”

  “Of course I’ll come,” Melanie said, laughing. “It isn’t every day that your best friend becomes Empress of the Universe and asks you to come with her.”

  Despite her immediate consent to become Diana’s representative, Melanie still sounded as though she were in shock. Diana knew the feeling. No doubt Melanie half expected to wake up and find out it was all a dream. It would be long before that passed, and either she would accept it as truth or she wouldn’t have a short freak out. Either way, Diana would be there to support her.

  “Not an Empress yet,” Kal Zed said, jumping on the table. “Just the Bearer until she marries.”

  “That is going to be really hard to get used to,” Melanie said, eyeing Kal Zed him warily.

  “He is the least strange thing I’ve seen,” Diana assured her.

  “We are quite common throughout the universe,” Kal Zed said, raising his head. “Others have come.”

  Diana smiled hopefully before standing and going back to the door. Dimar stood next to their spaceship, which was currently invisible. On each side of it, hordes of cats had appeared suddenly and they were calling to her.

  “Bearer,” their voices were one rolling melody as though they were singing.

  “Do I need to pack?” Melanie asked, uncomfortablely. She eyed all the singing cats and didn’t cross over the threshold of her house. No doubt they unnerved her.

  Diana smiled. “I had Dimar pay off the mortgage on your house.” Melanie went slack jawed. “Consider it your signing bonus. You can leave, and everything will be kept safe. I’ll be back tomorrow to collect you.”

  Diana walked out, leaving her stunned friend behind, and smiled at the Catorians. They surged around her, but Dimar growled at them, like some sort of dog, and they parted for her, making a path to the ship. Diana was sure he was being too cautious; they were just a bunch of cats. Bending down she pet some of them, despite his frown. They all nudged her hands with their heads as she continued toward the ship. Kal Zed bounced down the steps back to her side as she straightened.

  “She said yes?” Dimar asked, his face set in that same stern look.

  “We’ll get her tomorrow,” Diana said softly, as Catorians brushed up against her legs.

  “Tomorrow?” Dimar said, confused. “What do you intend to do until then?”

  “Go home,” Diana said, striding around him and into the ship.

  Chapter 32

  “This is where you grew up?” Dimar asked, eyeing the small house.

  “Yes,” Diana said.

  When she was a little girl it had been a castle to her, from the white banisters on the front deck to the circular window in the attic. It had been her safe haven. Now looking at it, it seemed so small. Even after she’d left for college, it had seemed big when she visited. Now it looked like a dollhouse. Perhaps she just felt too big for it.

  “Well?” Dimar asked.

  “Well what?”

  “Are you going to go in?” Dimar demanded.

  “When I am good and ready,” Diana retorted, shooing him away. “Go and buzz around someone else’s ear.”

  “As the Bearer commands,” he said, turning away.

  “And Dimar,” Diana said, looking over her shoulder, “don’t worry about our earlier conversation. I won’t bring up the topic again.”

  Facing her house she stepped off the ship onto the grass, feeling it give way under her feet. Wiggling her toes in her shoes, she tried to remember playing on that very same grass when she was younger. Feeling a sense of tranquility wash over her, she went up the short steps and onto the porch.

  The door was unlocked because her mother always thought it was a safe neighborhood, and stepped into the house. The smell of cinnamon washed over her. It was Saturday, and her mother always rose with the sun to make cinnamon rolls on Saturday. Entering the kitchen, on the table Diana saw a plate with a single cinnamon roll. It took Diana a moment to recognize the plate. Her hand dropped to it, and she ran her fingers over the faded faces of Aladdin and Princess Jasmine. She gasped a little. Her mother had left a cinnamon roll out for her on her childhood plate. Taking a shaky breath she sat down at the island, trying not to cry.

  “Diana?” Her mother’s voice sounded so hopeful.

  Diana looked up as her mother stood in the doorway of the kitchen. “Mom.”

  Rushing around the counter and across the short expanse of the kitchen she threw her arms around her mother. Her mother’s arms went around her so tightly that she could feel her fingers digging in. Diana started to cry quietly. It was some time before Diana was able to let her mother go.

  “Where have you been?” her mother sobbed.

  “It doesn’t matter right now,” Diana said, drawing her towards the kitchen chairs. “What matters is I am home safe.”

  “Are you staying?”

  Diana averted her eyes. “No.”

  “Your father and I have been so worried,” her mother said angrily. “You won’t tell me anything, and you expect me just to let you leave again?”

  “I expect you to trust me,” Diana said. She wasn’t allowed to tell anyone on Earth about what she was. They were ground-bound. Only if she became Empress could she tell them. “I wouldn’t
go if I didn’t have to.”

  “How long?” Mary-Ann demanded.

  Diana took both her hands. “It’ll be at a least a month before I can return.”

  “Return?” she asked, tears still on her face. “Return from where?”

  “I can’t tell you.” Diana sighed. “But Melanie is coming with me, we are safe, and we’ll be well cared for.”

  Her mother stared at her up and down. “What are you wearing?”

  “A dress,” Diana said, trying to make it look natural. Her mother eyeballed the maroon fabric and the detail of gold around her waist and at the top hem. The sleeves were nearly transparent with loose fabric that flowed around her with every step. She realized looked like a Greek fairy and that her attempts to make it seem natural likely failed.

  “I can see that,” her mother retorted, reminding Diana where she’d gotten her own sarcasm from. “Are you really not going to tell me anything?”

  Her mother suddenly looked so tired. “I’m sorry.”

  Mary-Ann pulled her into a hug again. “I’m not letting you go. You can’t force me to let you go.”

  “You’re going to have to. I can’t stay long,” Diana said, frowning. She wiped the tears off her cheeks when her mother released her. “Where are the boys and Dad?”

  Mary-Ann put a hand on her cheek. “You always were the responsible one, looking out for others and going with the flow.” She sighed and seemed to accept Diana’s request to trust her. “Your dad has been sleeping on campus. He didn’t handle your disappearance very well and has buried himself in his work. You know how he gets. He was threatening to pay to have your face put on milk cartons,” Mary-Ann said harshly, but there was love there. “Bloody fool.”

  “I’ll go see him,” Diana reassured her. “I promise.”

  Her mother patted her hand and said, “Hopefully that will set him right.”