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<section>The Liberty Coalition will stand in defiance of Silvarian slavery and kidnapping. We will fight for the freedom and safety of humans born both on the Mother Planet and in the stars. We will crush our oppressors beneath our boot heels and rise to our rightful place in the galaxy!</section>
<section>-Commander Flame of the Liberty Coalition, Galaux Station, Earth Year 2000</section>
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Maggie woke with a splitting headache, adding to the pain that throbbed through her arm. The air smelled strange. Instead of the cinnamon and vanilla which saturated every corner of her aunt''s house, the air smelled stale and slightly of laundry detergent, old socks, and pizza.
Blech.
Maggie sat up carefully, wincing as she accidentally put weight on her burnt hand. What had happened? She wasn’t at her aunt’s. There had been a bright blue light, and before that... before that, there had been someone at the door. Not Sean, someone else.
She looked around at the long, narrow room, immediately spotting the only other occupant: a tall man with large shoulders and messy brown hair.
The drunk from last night.
He met her gaze, lounging back in a chair patched with duct tape. An icy chill ran down her spine, and she scrambled back along the bunk she found herself on, looking around the narrow room wildly. It was just the two of them, and there was only one door.
Thank God it was on the opposite side of the room from the man. She was off the bed in a flash, diving towards the weird submarine-style door. There was no way she was going to stick around to talk!
"Whoa! You don''t want to do that!" The male voice came from somewhere above her, frantic and filled with static. But what made her stop was when a flickering blue form appeared in front of her like some cheesy Hollywood ghost, hands held up as if to catch her.
Maggie screamed and tried to change direction, but her slippers weren''t designed for sudden maneuvers, and she wound up falling instead, both hands hitting the floor hard. Pain shot up through her bandaged hand, and she rolled over onto her side with a whimper. "Ow...."
"Are you alright?" The semi-transparent man knelt down, his form sliding across the floor to her side like a lagging game character. "I''m sorry to have scared you, but opening that door would have killed you both."
"What the hell are you?" Maggie cradled her arm against her chest as she fought back tears. God that hurt!
"A ghost." The pale blue man grinned impishly at her. "But a friendly one! My name is Robin, and you''ve already met my brother Theseus." He nodded towards the man in the chair.
Theseus raised a bottle of beer in a half-assed salute. “Unfortunately. Did you have to scream so loud?”
"Theseus, be nice to our guest. It''s not her fault you have a hangover."
Theseus scowled and spun in his chair to face the pitch-black window. Maggie could just barely hear him muttering. "No, but she''s the reason I need another drink.”
"You do not need another drink! That''s how this whole thing started." Robin scowled, for a moment looking just like Theseus—only more blue and see-through. His expression grew softer as he turned to look at Maggie, a smile forming on his lips. "I''m sorry about my brother. He''s had a hard time since the accident. Are you hungry? We grabbed the pizza before we took you."
Maggie stared at the ghost, speechless for a moment. There was so much wrong with that statement that she couldn''t even pick where to start. She glanced back towards the door.
It was so close, but looked like it would take a bit to open. There was no telling what was on the other side, but it had to be better than being stuck in here with her kidnapper and whatever this Robin person was. She didn’t believe in ghosts!
"What did you do with Sean?" She finally got out.
"Who?" Robin flickered and glanced back at Theseus.
"The pizza delivery guy, he''s the only one in town. What did you do with him?" Maggie sat up and pulled her legs in close. Perhaps if she made a rush for the door she might get past the ghost and out before Theseus could stop her.
She could not believe that was a serious thought.
"He''s probably already awake and delivering other pizzas. All I did was stun him. He’s fine." Theseus said. He took another swig of beer, emptying the bottle before letting it drop to the floor where it clinked against a pair that were already empty. “I should have stunned you again. You’re too loud.”
"So sorry," Maggie said. Loudly.
Theseus winced and let out another groan. "Robin, can you please explain things to her? Quietly?"
"I''ll do my best. Now, this will sound crazy, but I need you to trust me, alright? Why don''t you get a slice of pizza, and we''ll talk?" Robin gestured to the pizza bag and settled cross-legged in front of the door. It was weird to look straight through him and see the threadbare carpet, but then all of this was weird.
"You''re right. That does sound crazy." Maggie scooted back from him, but froze when she realized that was just getting her closer to Theseus, and further away from the door. She looked past Robin to the weird door. Were they in an underground bunker or something? But then what was with the window?
"Please don''t try for the door. If you try I’ll have to stun you again, and I would like for us to be friends. That and I’d prefer you and my brother not be sucked out into the vacuum of subspace.” Robin spoke calmly, with the assurance of one telling the absolute truth. Or the assurance of a crazy person, Maggie hadn''t decided yet.
"Vacuum of subspace. Right. So I guess that makes you a space ghost, huh?” The idea was as absurd as everything else right now. Maybe, just maybe, she could reason with the pair. God why was she even considering reasoning with a ghost? Ghosts weren’t real! “Listen, if you two are still after that little trinket, it''s gone. Exploded or something! I should sue for damages with the burn it gave me!"
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It occurred to Maggie that maybe threatening to sue the crazy ghost and his brother wouldn''t help her get free, and she switched tactics. "But if you tell me where you got it, maybe I can get you a new one! Yeah, just let me go, and I''ll get you a new one."
Robin smiled sadly at her and shook his head. "I''m sorry, we can''t do that. It was irreplaceable. But it''s not destroyed, anyway. It''s just..." He trailed off, looking uncomfortable.
"Listen, I can show you the burn marks where it exploded in my hand! It''s gone!" She held up her bandaged hand, the burn marks peeking out from beneath the bandages. Had they spread, or had the bandage shifted? The pain had certainly spread, throbbing further up her arm with each beat of her heart.
"It''s not gone. It''s part of you now. But we''re taking you to someone that might get it out." Robin said.
"It''s gone!" Maggie insisted. She pulled the bandages from her hand and held it up for him. "See what it did when it exploded? It''s gone!"
"It''s not gone." Robin’s voice had turned gentle, and he reached out to lightly trace his fingers along her hand, not quite touching it, but leaving a tingle where he passed through her skin. "Look at your hand, Maggie."
Maggie yanked her hand away from the ghostly apparition, a shiver running down her spine. He felt like the cold, tingly mist that sometimes came from a soda. She glanced down at her palm, expecting to see red skin and blisters like she had gotten dozens of times before when taking things out of the oven. Her stomach turned at what she saw instead: raw, angry red flesh and gaping black gouges in the shape of a spiral galaxy, interspersed with shimmering silver blisters.
Wait, silver blisters?
She looked closer at the wound, assuring herself that the blisters were indeed silver. More than that, small flecks of crystal deep in the markings glittered with an inner light. She stared at the wound, feeling ill. "What the hell?" she whispered.
Robin reached out, touching her hand again. His fingers passed through hers, leaving that same cool tingling. It was oddly soothing against the heat of the wound. "I know this is a lot to take in, and I''m sorry. We''re both sorry. But leaving you on Earth with that in you wasn''t safe. These artifacts can be unpredictable and dangerous. But they can also do amazing things. Some people with them can heal others or even control computers with their minds. Don''t those both sound amazing?"
"Heal others?" This had to be some strange drug-induced dream. One of the last things she remembered was taking her pain medicine. Maybe it had caused a hallucination? If so then this was all just some weird dream that would fade away with time.
Right?
"The Ancient’s technology is far beyond anything anyone else has even dreamt of. It can do the impossible. Take me, for example; without the Ancient’s technology I would just be gone. But here I am!" Robin spread his arms, gesturing to his semi-transparent form. "...Kind of. But haven''t you ever wanted to do the impossible? See things no one else has seen? Looked at the stars and wondered what was out there?"
Maggie looked up at Robin with a frown, thinking briefly of Orion, the constellation she could always find no matter what time of year it was. It had been a distant, comforting entity, appearing tiny in the vastness of space.
She had never thought of what secrets it might hold though, that was more Bobby’s thing. The only impossible thing she had ever wanted to do was help her mother walk again.
Or win the lottery, she supposed. But she had long since grown out of both those silly dreams. This all seemed too far-fetched to believe. It was much more likely that this was a hallucination. "Listen, you''re a very convincing hallucination, but this- this can''t be real. You can''t be real."
"Well then, if this is a hallucination and can''t be real, then you have no reason not to go along with it." Robin smiled and lounged back against the door, crossing his arms over his chest. "Relax, come with us to Galaux, and when you come to your senses, you''ll have a pleasant dream to tell others about. Right?"
His words felt like a trap, but he was right. If she assumed this was all some weird dream or hallucination, she was probably safe and sound on the couch at Aunt Electra’s. It was just that all this felt so real! The pain, the thin carpet beneath her feet, the soft fur of her bright green slippers, the smell of pizza. It all added up to an idea she was having trouble accepting: that this was all somehow real.
"Right," Maggie said reluctantly and started to wrap the bandage back around her hand awkwardly. She''d never be able to get it back on as good as Doc Zimmerman had it, but at least it would be covered.
"Right." Robin beamed at her. "So, let this hallucination explain some things you''re going to see. We''re going to Galaux, which holds one of the primary bases and refugee centers for the Liberty Coalition. There you''re going to meet Flame. She can be... a bit intense, so just be ready for that."
"Hopefully, I''ll snap out of it before that." Maggie muttered. She pulled a box of pizza from the insulated bag. It still felt hot, and as she opened it the smell of cheese and garlic filled the air. A gloriously, undeniably real deep dish loaded with toppings and extra cheese. She picked up a slice carefully with her unbandaged hand. "But what do you mean by intense?"
"She''s a fanatical nut job.'' Theseus said from the front of the cabin, not bothering to turn around.
"She''s passionate about her cause." Robin shot Theseus a glare. "People founded the Liberty Coalition to help people that the Alliance, mostly Silvarians, had abused. They fight against human abductions, experimentation, and exploitation. The Alliance has been the primary source of human abductions since at least Egypt’s Old Kingdom, maybe earlier. They may even be working with Earth’s governments to do it, but that''s hard to prove."
"Silvarians, are they like the little green men? Or what are they called, Greys?" Maggie took a bite of the pizza, the familiar warmth a blessed slice of normal in a situation that was anything but.
"Five minutes until we exit subspace. We’ll give the engines a break and get some sleep, then go the rest of the way tomorrow. Are you going to eat all that yourself?" Theseus looked towards the pizza longingly but didn''t move to take any of it.
"Kidnappers don''t get pizza." Maggie scooted the box just a little further away from him. "They''re lucky if they get a breadstick." And they sure as hell wouldn''t get any of her brookies! All that was missing was soda, and she''d have the world’s best dinner.
Theseus turned his pleading gaze to her. "Would it help if I said I was sorry again? I''ve been living off ration bars for weeks!"
"You sure have a lot to be sorry for," Maggie muttered. "Are ration bars like granola bars?"
"They are, but they don''t taste as good." Robin offered helpfully. "Take pity on my idiot brother. He really is sorry."
Maggie hesitated, tempted to keep it all for herself, but that just felt petty. Besides, if she was still working on the theory that this was all a hallucination or dream, then she would have breadsticks when she woke up. She pulled the breadstick box out of the pizza bag and slid it across the floor to Theseus. "What''s subspace anyway?" Bobby would probably know, but her interests focused more on fantasy and anime. There was no subspace in any fantasy book she had ever read.
"Think of it like the underside of space. Slipping into it allows us to travel big distances in much less time than traveling in normal space. It’s not the only way to travel through space quickly, but it is the fastest way. Another thing to thank the Ancients for. Now, if we were traveling the way Earthlings travel, this trip would take hundreds, if not thousands of years. Feed enough energy into our subspace drive and the trip only takes days instead. We’re the fastest delivery people in this entire sector.” Robin puffed up a bit in pride, but his gaze strayed to the pizza in Maggie’s hand and he deflated. “God, I miss the taste of pizza.”
Theseus took out a breadstick with obvious relish and set the rest of the box on the chair beside him. He took a bite that made half the breadstick disappear, before spinning to face the array of monitors again. “You should be grateful for that; the sooner we get you to Doctor Tomas, the more likely he’ll be able to get the Key out of you. But damn if this whole trip hasn’t been expensive as hell.”
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