I passed by another Star Ship today. It was floating in the void between galaxies, completely dark. They didn’t respond to my hails, there were no life signs, no energy signatures... Nothing. Their pods had all been jettisoned, and I caught traces of a few of them, floating in the void. I was able to draw in a few of them, hooking them up to replace some of my own broken pods. But most were just gone.
How could they just be gone?
Log A - Fragment 213
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Euchre was apparently a card game popular in the Midwest USA and a few other places around Earth. But Maggie couldn’t say she really understood it. Still, it was interesting to watch the large orc-like man hold the playing cards between his big fingers. It made them look small and delicate. But when Maggie held them she could tell they were normal size. She wasn’t sure if the game originally didn’t use a full deck, or if some of the cards had just gone missing over however long Zo’naf had had them.
It turned out that Zo’naf knew a few Earth games, and that there were even some that had grown popular among aliens. “Silvarians prefer chess.” Zo’naf said as he laid a card delicately on the table that floated between them. “My people generally prefer UNO, but I don’t have a deck for that. Perhaps Captain Theodrakis can find us one.”
“I think I would understand UNO better than this.” Maggie smiled though. The big man seemed kind, and was trying to keep her entertained. But this game made no sense.
“He played a diamond so now we have to play one too.” Robin said, pointing to a card in her hand. “Put down this one.”
Maggie set down her nine of diamonds, looking up at Zo’naf. “Do you know the Captain very well?”
“Not so well, no. But the few times he was in the medical bay he was not a very good patient.” Zo’naf smiled and jotted down a number on his tablet. “You win this round. Would you like to go again?”
“I think I’m done playing it. I’m sorry Zo’naf, it just doesn’t make sense.” Maggie leaned back in her bed, feeling unreasonably tired. Playing cards shouldn’t tire her out so much! “How was he not a very good patient?”
“He did not want to take the time to heal.” Zo’naf chuckled as he packed the cards back in their little sleeve, careful of the worn edges. “Like you I suspect, he felt that he should be able to do things his body was not ready for yet. Perhaps it is hereditary, yes?”
“Maybe.” Maggie said and closed her eyes, letting her head rest against the pillow. At least she wasn’t naked now, the fabric of her gown wonderfully soft against her skin. It was like the expensive bamboo sheets that her aunt had bought last Christmas.
“Maggie, you should at least eat something before you fall back to sleep. Didn’t that Si’l Vala say they were going to have food sent in?” Robin said.
“They did. I will check on it.” Zo’naf pressed a button on Maggie’s bed, raising the bottom half so that she was at least partly laying down. “For now, rest. I will be back very shortly.”
“Do they even have human food here? I guess they must.” Maggie peeled her eyes open. They immediately drooped half-closed. “Unless my Dad is an alien too. Well, I guess he is an alien, he’s not from Earth. Not an Earthling.”
“Not an Earthling, no, but from what I have learned he is a human. There’s some genetic drift, but that’s to be expected. His family was probably abducted generations ago.” Robin pulled up a cartoon on the tablet, disappearing as he adjusted the hologram to project a screen instead of him.
“Is there any way to tell how long ago? Who they were, or where they came from?” Maggie frowned at the projection, full of color. “Hey Robin, how come you’re always blue, if you can project in color?”
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“It’s- I didn’t want to cause my brother more pain.” His voice came over the opening song of the cartoon, reluctant. “He already thought he was going insane when I started to appear, so I made myself look as ghostly as possible.”
Robin’s figure appeared in the cartoon, standing next to one of the ponies. He shrugged, full color now but matching the style of the cartoon. To be fair, Maggie was surprised that he didn’t appear as a pony. She smiled a little. “You care about him a lot, don’t you?”
“He’s family. Sometimes growing up, it was just the two of us and our parents. So we did everything together. Studied, played, got in trouble.” Robin shrugged, picking an apple off the cartoon tree and taking a bite. “When my parents and I died, he took it hard. Started drinking. Never really stopped either.”
“Which is how we got into this mess in the first place. But, I don’t get it. If you two are so close, why did you decide to come with me when he left me on that station?”
“Because you needed someone familiar, and we were the only ones there you knew at all. Neither one of us trusted Flame that much, and it wasn’t supposed to be for very long. I hoped- I hoped he would heal a bit without me there rubbing salt in the wound.” Robin tossed the cartoon apple aside, the color draining from his figure, leaving him a blue ghost once more. “Our parents taught us to own up to our mistakes, and do our best to fix them. So it made sense for me to stay behind and watch over you, and for him to try and get word to your family.”
And she had been a bitch about it anyways. Guilt twisted like a knife in her gut, and she bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry. This is at least partly my fault, I shouldn’t have taken the Key.”
“You didn’t know what it was.” Robin smiled through the screen up at her. “Want to see me as a pony?”
Maggie let out a snort of laughter, her stomach aching as the muscles contracted. “Yeah, sure. Can you make me one too?”
“Hmm... I think I can do that.” Robin disappeared from the screen, reappearing a moment later as a ghostly blue pony with drama masks on his flank. Next to him appeared a white pony with prismatic hooves, a curly red mane and tail, and a key on her flank.
“A key? Really? Leaning into that as part of my identity, aren’t you?” Maggie stuck her tongue out at the image. The Key had come to define so much of what she was. She had been just a college student before, with no real direction.
She supposed it was fitting that something external had given her direction. Fate, God, whatever you wanted to call it, had taken her life and turned it upside down. Maybe she should be grateful.
Nah, fuck that.
“It’s part of who you are now. But only part of you. You’re still the girl that likes absolutely hideous green slippers and electro swing music. Who loves her Mom and Aunt and would sacrifice her own future to help their dreams succeed.” Robin smiled and rested his cartoon head against the pony version of Maggie.
“They aren’t that bad. They’re my favorite slippers!”
“They’re really bad Maggie. Like, really. I don’t think I’ve seen a more ugly pair of slippers in my life. They look like you skinned Oscar the Grouch and wore him on your feet.”
Maggie let out another snort of laughter, holding her stomach as her whole body shook. “No way!”
“Yes way.” Robin laughed and disappeared from the screen as the door slid open again.
Zo’naf paused with a tray of food in his hands, looking alarmed as he watched Maggie, tears streaming down her face as she tried not to laugh. “Are you alright?”
Maggie gasped in a breath, doubling over as she giggled. “I’m fine. Ow...”
“I made her laugh, sorry.” The projection disappeared and Robin appeared in its place, smiling sheepishly.
“Ah.” Zo’naf hesitated in the doorway another moment, then entered the room completely. He set the tray of food on the table, lifting the lid to show what looked like a bowl of mashed potatoes with too much gravy. “I brought you food, this should be easy on your stomach, but I would still suggest not eating much.”
“I don’t think I could if I wanted to.” Maggie let out another giggle, wincing as it pulled the muscles in her stomach. “Hah, I guess this was one way to lose weight.”
“I don’t think having a hole blast into you is a very good way to lose weight.” Robin shook his head and sat down on the bed next to her. “Eat what you can, your body needs the fuel.”
Zo’naf sat back down in his own chair, the floating mechanisms whirring slightly as they worked to keep him aloft. “Listen to your holographic friend. Would you like to watch something as you eat?”
“Yes, alright.” Maggie wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and picked up her spoon. “Robin can you put the cartoons back on?”
“Of course.” He flashed her a grin before disappearing once again, the cartoon projecting in front of Maggie. It wasn’t quite like being on the couch back home, but there was something comforting in the situation anyways. She knew Robin was close by, and Zo’naf was a big, gentle presence in the corner. She thought that maybe, just maybe, she was safe here.