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 bootheels and rise up to our rightful place in the galaxy!

-Commander Flame of the Liberty Coalition, Galaux Station, Earth Year 2000

Maggie woke with a splitting headache adding to the pain that throbbed through her arm, the scratchy texture of carpet over hard metal flooring cold against her back. The air smelled strange, she could smell pizza alright, but instead of the cinnamon of her aunts candles, she smelled something akin to old socks.

Blech.

She sat up carefully, avoiding putting weight on her burnt hand as she tried to remember what exactly had happened. She had been talking to her Mom, and the doorbell had rung. She had went to get the pizza, but after that all she remembered was a blinding flash of light.

Maggie looked around the long, narrow room. It had the same feeling as a dorm, all efficient use of space and the random clutter of life. One wall held four narrow bunk beds, the top two piled with junk. The other wall holding lockers, drawers, and blinking panels of lights and buttons. There were only two doors: one a thin fabric door that led to a bathroom, and the other a heavy metal door that she'd expect to see on a submarine. There was one massive window, cluttered by a variety of screens and wires. One she swore was an old 90s computer, the type that came in different colors. This one happened to be green and held what looked like a star map. There were only two seats, both attached to a track on the floor and patched with duct tape. Only one was occupied by a large, familiar figure.

The drunk from last night.

Maggie scrambled to her feet and dove towards the submarine style door. That had to be the way out!

"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 to try to break her fall. 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. "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 turned around in his chair, looking at the pair of them with a pained expression. "Unfortunately. Did you have to scream so loud? Some of us have a hangover."

"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 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 in the first place." 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 of things 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 close, but looked like it would take a bit to open. And she had no idea what was behind it, it didn't feel like they were moving. But where were they?

"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, pulling her legs in close. If she made a rush for the door she might be able to 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 rubbed his head with a groan. "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 is going to 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.

"You're right. That does sound crazy." Maggie scooted back from him a little. But she still looked at the door. If she could just get past him, she could be free.

"Please don't try for the door, I'd hate to have to stun you. But if you open that door we'll all be sucked into the vacuum of subspace, and I'd rather you be pissed off than dead." Robin spoke calmly, with the assurance of one telling the absolute truth. Or the assurance of a crazy person, Maggie hadn't decided quite yet.

"Vacuum of subspace, right. So I guess that makes you a space ghost, huh? 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!" 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 to her and shook his head. "I'm sorry, we can't do that. It was... irreplaceable. But it's not actually destroyed anyways. 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. It was like it had spread down her wrist. The pain certainly had. It was throbbing 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 be able to get it out." Robin said.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"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." Robins voice had turned gentle, and he reached out to lightly touch her hand. His fingers passed along her palm, leaving a faint tingle. "Look at your hand Maggie."

Maggie yanked her hand away from the ghostly apparition, a shiver running down her spine. She glanced down at her palm, her stomach turning at the sight of burnt flesh and silver blisters.

Wait, silver blisters?

She looked closer at the wound, assuring herself that the blisters were indeed silver. More than that there were small flecks of crystal deep in the markings, glittering 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 a warm tingling. "I know this is a lot to take in, and I'm sorry. We're both sorry. But it wasn't safe to leave you on Earth with that in you. These artifacts can be unpredictable and dangerous. But they can also do amazing things. Some people with them can heal others, or 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 would fade away with time. Right?

"The Ancients technology is far beyond anything anyone else has even dreamt of. It can do the impossible. Take me for example, without Ancients technology, I would just be gone. But instead 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. 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. "Relax, come with us to Galaux, and when you come to your senses you'll have a nice 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, then she was probably safe and sound on the couch at Aunt Electras. 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 somehow real. But if it was real, then he had to be some kind of hologram, a trick with smoke and mirrors. Not that she saw any smoke.

"Right." She said reluctantly. She started to awkwardly wrap the bandage back around her hand. 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 main 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 nutjob.' Theseus said from the front of the cabin, not bothering to turn around.

"She's passionate about her cause." Robin shot Theseus a glare. "The Liberty Coalition was founded by people that had been abused by the Alliance, mostly Silvarians. They are the ones behind most of the human abductions in the past few centuries at least. We think the Alliance has been taking people since at least Egypt's Old Kingdom, maybe earlier. They may even be working with Earths 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 helping put her at ease. It was a slice of normal in a situation that was anything but.

"Five minutes until we exit subspace, are you going to eat all that yourself?" Theseus looked towards the pizza longingly, but didn't move to take any of it. He was giving her space, but he was eyeballing her pizza.

"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 brookie! All that was missing was soda and she'd have the best dinner the world could offer.

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 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. She pulled out the breadstick box, sliding it across the floor to Theseus. "What's subspace anyways?" She had a feeling Bobby would know, but her interests tended to focus more on fantasy and anime. Somehow she doubted that any of that was based in reality.

"Think of it like the underside of space. Slipping into it allows us to travel really big distances in much less time than traveling in normal space would. For instance this trip would take hundreds of years in normal space, but in subspace it only takes hours instead. That's about what I understand of it, if you want more details you'd have to ask an engineer or scientist." Robin shrugged, his own gaze drifting to the pizza. "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. Then he spun to face the screens as a shudder ran through the ship. Metal groaned and rattled. Screens lit up with symbols and numbers. The breadstick sticking out of his mouth, Theseus's hands flew over buttons, switches and dials. He grabbed two throttle levers, another shudder running through the ship as the widow filled with a swirling rainbow of colors.

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! And floating among those stars like some art nouveau jelly fish was a massive structure of light and glass. The top was dominated by two glass towers, elegant tendrils through which motes of light ran curled around them like vines. More tendrils of light floated down beneath it, occasionally connecting with the ships that darted around it, drawing them into what could only be docking bays underneath it.

Maggie stared, her pizza half forgotten in her hand. It was beautiful, half the size of the moon it orbited but still bigger than anything she could have imagined herself. One of the computers perched on the control board blooped, and a voice came through. She couldn't understand what was being said, but her mind tried to relate it to French or Spanish.

Theseus responded in the same language, his voice not quite as smooth as the one that came through the computer. His words sounded clunky somehow, 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 that don't speak English. They're a life saver with all the languages that are spoken on this station." Robin floated up to his feet, watching as one of the glowing tendrils extended out to gently fold around the ship.

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 started to power 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." Theseus scarfed down the breadstick as he spoke, and Maggie wrinkled her nose. At least she was far enough away that she didn't get a good view of his half-chewed food.

"The key?" A key suggested a door or something that it unlocked. Maybe whatever it was she could unlock for them, and they'd let her go back home.

"The thing you, errr... 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 even 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 can usually be tracked. It's not easy, 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, miracles are possible."