Soon, the hallway came to a dead end. Stephenie was just about to ask when A-rec lifted his palm, and a door whooshed open ahead of them.
This room was all but clear from smoke, protected by the thick metal doors. The three of them hurried inside, and A-rec shut the door behind them before the bridge of the ship became overpowered by the smoke clouds in the hall.
Stephenie inhaled the fresh air deeply and coughed. Each breath ached like needles being stabbed into her lungs. “Fuck!” She coughed. It seemed Ee-rah’s fire distraction had worked perfectly.
When she was finally able to straighten up, she took a look around while A-rec rushed with what looked like a computer screen reflected on the wall.
The bridge of the ship reminded her very much of something she’d seen in an old Star Trek rerun- or possibly one of the ALIEN movies. She could hear the whirl of the engines- did alien spaceships run on engines? She didn’t know.
The entire room was filled with different computers and chrome chairs built in front of them. One, two, three, four, five… How many people did it take to run this thing? A lot, apparently. Which meant there were a lot more people on the ship than she had originally realized. That in itself was terrifying.
She ran her fingers along one of the chairs. It was smooth and cold to the touch and not unlike the ones from her University classrooms. Someone sat here…an alien just like Ee-rah and A-rec. They helped pilot the spaceship… A spaceship. A ship actually in space. Stephenie’s thoughts swirled, trying hard to fully comprehend something that should be impossible.
It was then that the viewport caught her attention.
The entire far wall was a large window.
Space.
They were actually in space. She knew that, but for some reason it didn’t really register until now. It’s like she needed to see it to really believe it.
The ship was at a standstill, and they were surrounded by darkness and stars. Everywhere she looked, there was nothing but vast emptiness, nothing but darkness, only occasionally interrupted with the subtle blinking and glowing of exploding space gas. It was different from what she had thought… bigger. The photos and images she had seen back home did not do it justice.
“Holy shit.” She said through numb lips.
This was beyond understanding… She was actually in space. She had actually made love to a big blue alien.
Ee-rah.
He wanted her to stay with him. He wanted to take her back to his home planet and build a house for her and create a home with her somewhere among these stars- or stars in another galaxy.
Now that she was face to face with the vastness of everything… She could see the possibilities of it all.
For some reason, something inside of her refused to believe that all of this was real. That at some point, the other shoe was going to drop, and she’d wake up from a crazy dream back in her dorm room. Like Darcy had said earlier, alien abductions aren’t real.
Great. Now she was having some sort of existential crisis in the middle of her attempted escape.
“Stephenie,” Darcy called from where she stood next to A-rec. Stephenie hadn’t noticed that she had been slowly advancing on the viewport window. She was close enough to reach out and touch it if she wanted. “Stephenie, we’ve got to go soon. Someone could come back any moment.”
She turned to face them then, suddenly brought back to the reality at hand. “But what about Ee-rah? I didn’t get to say goodbye…”
“There’s no time for that, human,” A-rec replied in that husky voice of his. “If you want to return to your home planet, you need to leave now.”
“B-but I didn’t get to say goodbye!” She said again. Stephenie knew she was being ridiculous, but she couldn’t help it. Her heart ached for that big blue guy. If she couldn’t stay with him, then she should at least be able to give him a proper farewell.
“We’re running out of-”
“And what do you think you’re doing with my cargo?” A voice rang out as the door to the bridge whooshed open.
The three of them turned and saw a red Toxhocan Ee-rah by the arms. He was slumped over, his head lolling to the side.
“Ee-rah!” Stephenie cried. She started to dart toward him, but came to a halt when the red one spoke.
“Don’t move,” he said. “One more step and I break his arms.”
Stephenie put her hands up, signaling surrender. “Please,” she said. “Don’t hurt him.”
“What is the meaning of this?” A-rec bellowed, drawing the attention of the room to him. “I-ya. Explain yourself.”
