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<section>Wash! Fold! Freshen and pack! Get all your traveling needs met at Galaux Station! With our state of the art laundry facilities, comfortable lodging and wide array of entertainment options you and your crew can unwind and decompress before continuing on your travels. Stop by today!</section>
<section>-Galaux Station Advertising Department.</section>
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The ship shuddered around them, metal groaning and rattling as screens lit up with symbols and numbers. Theseus held the breadstick in his mouth, hands flying over the buttons, switches, and dials that made up the huge control board in front of him. Maggie suspected the whole weird setup was something like a pilot’s cockpit. Although she hoped most pilot’s cockpits weren’t held together with duct tape and hanging wires.
Another shudder ran through the ship, and Maggie’s eyes widened in alarm. It sounded like the whole thing was trying to rip itself apart!
Theseus grabbed ahold of two throttle levers as the window filled with a swirling rainbow of colors, empty beer bottles rattling against each other, and a stray wire falling down from its precarious hook above the window.
Then, it was like a bubble popping in front of them, and they were floating in a sea of stars. More than Maggie had seen in her entire life, more than she thought could exist! She stared out the window, her mouth open slightly as she stared out at the swirling gases of a sunset nebula. Theseus flipped switches on the board, and a soft hum filled the small ship as the engines powered down. The smell of something burning filtering faintly through the vents.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Robin asked softly, staring out the window with a small smile. “The locals of this system call it Flor’i’navis, Flower of the Gods. We’ll spend the night here and tomorrow we’ll be at Galaux Station.”
Theseus kicked his feet up onto the second chair at the control board. “It’s interesting, like a fancy super truck stop in the stars. Who knows, maybe you’ll like it there.”
“I liked it back home.” Maggie said. But she couldn’t deny the beauty on the other side of that window. Or how tired she felt, the throbbing pain in her hand sapping away her energy. How could a dream hurt so badly?
It’s not a dream.
“What?” She looked around for the other voice, pausing with a pizza slice halfway to her mouth.
“What?” Theseus asked, an eyebrow raising. “Listen, I know you liked it back home, and we’ll do our best to get you there. For now, let’s get you started on that recording. Maybe it’ll make you feel better.”
Was there someone else here? She glanced into the only other room she saw, seeing nothing but a toilet and an incredibly compact sink and shower setup. Perhaps on the top bunks? She couldn’t really see on top of those. But if there were someone up there, surely they would have been lured down by the glorious scent of pizza. “Yeah, maybe.” She agreed reluctantly.
“Excellent! Allow me.” Robin floated a few feet away from Maggie, an old-fashioned camera appearing on a stand in front of him, complete with film reels. “Are you ready for your close-up?”
Maggie felt laughter threatening to bubble up out of her, and shook her head. “Are you always this much of a ham?”
“Only when it makes pretty girls smile.” Robin chuckled. “Tell me when you’re ready to start recording.”
“Alright, alright.” Maggie took another bite of her pizza before she set it down on the pizza bag, and looked into the camera. It was weird, since she could see right through it. But then this whole thing was weird. “I’m ready.”
“Lights, camera, action!” Robin gave her a thumbs up, and a small green light appeared next to the camera lens.
They were recording.
Maggie took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before she started to talk. “Hi Aunt Electra, hi Mom. I- well I guess you know what happened. These guys, uhm, well, they kidnapped me. But I’m alright.”
Her hands trembled, and she curled the bandaged one against her stomach, trying to ignore the pain throbbing through it. “Sorry Aunt Electra, they took the pizza too. They said Sean should be alright though, they just stunned him, like they did me. I’m not sure what all to tell you. Uhm, they say we’re in outer space? I think I’m starting to believe them. There’s this really pretty nebula right outside the window, but it’s just a stop-over until we reach someplace called Galaux Station. They’re going to try and get this Key thing out of me. Oh, that’s what they’re calling the thing I found at the laundromat. A Key. I guess they know a doctor that might be able to get it out?”
This was just feeling more and more awkward. How much was supposed to be a secret? Her family would probably think she’d lost it with her talking about being in outer space! She plowed on though, looking down at her hand. “Hopefully I’ll be able to come home soon. I love you, and I’m- I’m sorry. I’ll come home as soon as I can.”
Tears gathered in her eyes as she stared at the holographic camera. She wasn’t even sure if that was actually what recorded her, or if it was just Robin being a good. But the light turned red, and the camera disappeared to reveal Robin’s worried face. “Hey... it’s alright. We’re going to do our best to get you home too. In the meantime, maybe this will help put your family at ease?”
The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Yeah.” Maggie whispered. “Yeah, maybe.” She sniffled, the tears rolling down her face to land on her lap. “I think I’d like to lay down now.”
“Sure, you can have my bunk.” Robin stood up, gesturing to one of the lower bunks. “You just gotta move my brother’s clothes out of the way.”
“Here, I’ll move them.” Theseus stood up, hurrying the few short steps across the cabin. He grabbed the bag of laundry off the bed and tossed it onto the upper bunk. “Get some rest, I swear you’re safe here.”
Maggie let out a short, bitter laugh. Safe. Yeah right! But she crawled onto the bed and curled up anyways, suddenly exhausted. She wondered what exactly she was safe from.
“I’m going to lower the curtains so you have some privacy and won’t be bothered by the light so much. Just call out if you need anything.” Theseus pressed a button on the side of the bunk, watching Maggie as thin black curtains stretched around the bunk, magnets snapping them in place and plunging her into darkness. They even muffled the sound of the ship and its other occupants.
With a whimper, Maggie hid her face against the pillow, shoulders shaking with sobs as she cried herself to sleep.
She woke hours later to the ship shuddering again, and an alarm blaring somewhere nearby. “I told you the engines couldn’t take a jump that soon!” Robin’s tense voice came through the curtains, and Maggie scrambled to escape the bunk. The curtains raised back into their pockets at the top of the bunk the moment she exerted pressure on them, light flooding in from the ships cabin.
“Yes, yes. You were right. Could you not yell so loud?” Theseus sat at the control board still, his hands flying across the various keyboards and switches as lights flashed red and the alarm continued to blare.
“What’s going on?” Maggie grabbed ahold of the bunk as the ship lurched violently.
“Just a little problem with the engines, nothing to worry about.” Theseus grit his teeth and slammed the side of his fist against the control board. Immediately half the lights turned back to green. “Robin, shunt power from antigrav to the engines, or we won’t make it out of subspace.”
“Hold on Maggie. Actually, strap yourself into the seat next to Theseus.” Robin’s voice came from somewhere above her, but she didn’t see him anywhere. She stumbled to the chair next to Theseus, barely reaching it as her feet suddenly left the floor.
“What the hell?” She gasped, hanging onto the back of the chair to keep from floating away. More lights on the board turned green, and the shuddering became a little less violent.
“Strap in!” Theseus said, pulling his own seatbelt down across his shoulders. It looked like someone had jury-rigged two cross-shoulder seatbelts together, and they snapped in the center at his waist. Maggie awkwardly dragged herself into the chair, hooking her legs beneath it so she wouldn’t float away again as she fumbled with her own seatbelts.
She wasn’t surprised when she saw the Pontiac logo on one of them. “What happened? What’s going on?”
“I was trying to get you to Galaux Station faster.” Theseus looked over a screen that was scrolling numbers by rapidly. “But if we don’t get out of subspace we won’t get there at all. Five second count-down!”
“What do you mean we won’t get there at all?!” Maggie felt the color drain from her face. Shit, was she going to die in space? No one would even know what had happened to her! She would just be one of hundreds of cold cases, never to be solved.
“Four, three, two-” Theseus ignored her question, counting down as he watched the screens. He gripped both throttle sticks, knuckles turning white as the ship bucked again.
Touch the board.
“What?” It was the same damn voice again, this time carrying the tone of an order.
Touch the board!
Shit, what did she have to lose?
She reached out, grabbing the edge of the board with her bandaged hand.
“-One!” Theseus slammed the throttle levers forward, rainbow light bursting into life on the other side of the window. Pain shot through her hand as the ship gave another lurch. She could feel it trying to pull itself apart around them, old screws rattling in their holes. Her eyes widened in panic, and she fought to hold it together. How she had no idea, but the crystal parts that wanted to rip away pulled back into place, screws tightening that had been lose. She felt a wave of dizziness pass over her, and suddenly the rainbow light was gone, leaving behind another sea of stars. And floating among those stars like some art nouveau jellyfish was a massive structure of light and glass.
Two glass towers dominated the top of the structure, elegant tendrils curling around them like vines. Lights darted through those tendrils like car headlights on a dark highway, dancing up and down the giant structure. More tendrils of light floated down beneath the massive bowl base, gently connecting with the ships that darted around it like guppies to draw them into the hundreds of holes that opened and closed along the bowl.
Maggie stared, mouth agape as the ship stopped shuddering. Whatever had happened, they had made it through. She pulled her hand from the control board, the pain agonizing, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the giant structure.
It was beautiful, half the size of the moon it orbited but still bigger than anything she could have imagined. One of the many computers perched on the control board blooped, and a voice came through. She couldn''t understand what was said, the words fluid and slow, bearing the lazy drawl of someone who was bored doing their job.
Theseus responded in the same language, but his voice was not as smooth as the one that came through the computer. His words sounded clunky, while the other voice made them sound smooth and almost musical.
"What are they saying?" Maggie asked, unable to tear her eyes away from the fantastic sight.
"Theseus is just arranging for us to dock and meet with Flame. Don''t worry; we’ll get you a translator so that you can talk to people who don''t speak English. They''re a lifesaver with all the languages spoken on this station." Robin appeared next to her, watching as one of the glowing tendrils extended out to fold around the ship gently. It looked like some kind of weird Venus Flytrap with soft edges and suction cups instead of spikes.
Another shudder went through the ship, and Theseus glanced at some dials. He exchanged a few more words with the person on the other side of the computer as he flipped switches, systems humming as they powered down. "We''ll be docked in ten minutes, then you''ll have to meet Flame, and we''ll get you to Doctor Tomas. If anyone here can get the Key out of you, he can." He said.
"The key?" A key suggested a door or something that it unlocked. Maybe she could unlock whatever it was for them, and they''d let her go back home.
"The thing you, er... absorbed. It''s a Key; we''re pretty sure it''s to a spaceship somewhere in the Solaflor Sector; we just haven''t found it yet." Theseus said.
"You''re pretty sure it''s to a spaceship? You haven''t found it yet?" Maggie''s voice squeaked a little as it rose. What was she doing here if they weren''t sure what it belonged to, or where it was?
Theseus winced, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "It''s a process. We need the key to find the ship and to access it. They''re nearly impenetrable as long as they''re in one piece."
"The Key puts out a signal once it''s bonded with someone, which can usually be tracked. It''s difficult, but it can be done. If we can find the ship, use the Key to access it," Robin paused and shook his head. "Maggie, with that Key and the ship it opens? Miracles are possible."
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