This universe was a strange one, where I found that I could run much faster and easier out on the asteroid—in spite of a bulky spacesuit. That was entertainment for a day or two, but we’d been stranded out here for three weeks by now. I began to see the wisdom in Sofia’s words about conserving my energy. Oxygen and water would be depleted quicker if I exerted myself. My mind was beginning to slip a bit from the stress, judging by the wild, fragmented dreams I had.
We ran the heating on the ship as low as possible, to conserve the emergency power supply, which was why my teeth were chattering now. I’d suggested to Sofia that we should end the looping radio transmissions, and spend that power on keeping ourselves from freezing to death. The Earth Space Union had allocated enough food for a month’s travel, but we were staring at cupboards that were getting empty. I’d begun rationing the food three days ago, and could feel the hunger already creeping in. There was nothing to eat out here.
When people get desperate enough, they’ll eat inedible seat cushions or each other; the most basic of boundaries just break down. I’ll step out into the vacuum before that happens. Maybe I should stop taking rations at all, if that’s my out, so Sofia can have food for longer…but she’ll never allow that.
I placed a card down on the floor, as we busied ourselves with a round of Carnival Run. “Clown. That Juggler card—poof. Neutralized.”
“You had another Clown?!” Sofia protested, throwing her hands up in exasperation. The Juggler was supposed to force me to shuffle my cards and discard one at random. “Bet, anyhow…I just have to play my Balloon Animal instead.”
“You had a Balloon Animal this whole time?!” That card could be changed into any role in the deck…and there was one in the whole collection. “You tricked me into using my Clown!”
“Guilty as charged! You should see the look on your face, Preston. I guess if it becomes a Serial Killer, your tokens go to zero and I—”
The wreckage of our ship suddenly rocked, as if buffeted by a gust of wind. That had me on edge in an instant, and I abandoned the cards on the floor. There was no breeze in the vacuum of space, at least in our universe. I crawled to the windshield and turned my gaze upward, before my jaw fell open. Sofia joined me a second later with a delighted gasp; she also saw the parallelepiped ship above us, which appeared to be scanning us with some sort of light. My first thought was that it was a tractor beam, but we were not sucked up to our mysterious onlookers. I could feel my throat locking; I was at a loss for what to do.
Who the fuck was piloting that ship? The design was completely alien—and of course it was, in this haywire-physics universe. The writing was made of bizarre scratches that were nothing like our languages: as if I didn’t know at once this wasn’t being flown by humans. Someone must’ve answered Sofia’s calls for help, and that was terrifying. We were at these…we had no idea what they were…their mercy! Like any good soldier, I tried to fall back on procedure; the first contact instructions had been drilled into my head. My partner was one step ahead of me, sending clicks counting upward in the hopes of communicating. That was when things got more peculiar.
Every single function on the ship’s computer came online, siphoning precious reserve power. Meanwhile, I saw data being downloaded without our consent; they weren’t just probing us! They were trying to get into our systems, and were doing it at a concerningly quick pace. That seemed to be a hostile deed. I leapt into action, and tried to shut down the systems. However, they remained online. I pulled out my Swiss Army knife, and resigned myself to figure out what wires to cut. Sofia ran over to me, pushing me back from the console.
“What are you doing?” she shouted at me.
I pointed a finger toward the windshield. “What are they doing?! They’re going to have their hands on all of our data if you don’t help me secure our proprietary—”
“Calm down. Even if they’re hostile, you cut the wires and then what? They land and remove the data manually? Just breathe.”
“These creatures got into our systems like nothing, and overrode our control like nothing! They could trigger the self-destruct, if they decipher the schematics.” I pressed a hand to my head, unsure whether to abandon ship. She had a point. We could grab food and a tank of oxygen…but then what? “We have 3D diagrams. It can’t be that hard for them to glean that much, even if language is—”
“Preston Carter. They also are our only hope at getting out of here alive. They haven’t done anything to harm us; maybe they’re just curious. We’re the aliens in their space. How do you think we would’ve reacted to a strange shipwreck that wasn’t us right in our backyard?”
“We’d want to know everything about them, and that’s what’s scary. I don’t want to be a guinea pig for a mad scientist; they haven’t answered your little number clicks! If they don’t want to talk, then—”
“Greetings.” A stilted, inhuman voice chattered over the radio, stunning us both to silence. The hairs on my neck stood up. “You are trespassing in Vascar space. Your vessel is unknown. Your language is unknown. Furthermore, your ship schematics make no sense as a functioning apparatus. Identify yourselves at once.”
Sofia’s mouth opened and closed several times, before she turned a wide-eyed glance toward me. “You were saying, about them not wanting to talk? Wow, Preston. They were trying to learn our language!”
“How the fuck can they even…” I choked out.
“It sounds like a mechanical voice. They have a program and a procedure to handle this. We need to respond to them! Real intelligent life with ships that run on this universe’s logic. This is so exciting; get a camera out to record. We must document this!”
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“Slow down, Sofia.” The scientist frowned at me, setting a handheld camera up on the dashboard herself, after I failed to comply. “How do you think they’re going to react to us saying we flew through a fucking portal?”
“Better than if we don’t answer.”
The mechanized voice came through our radio once more. “We can see you moving within your vessel. One of you appears to be holding a cutting instrument. We know your communicator was working from those clicks. Respond in some form, or we will be forced to assume you have hostile intent toward our people.”
“Drop the knife!” Sofia hissed at me, before scrambling over to the radio. “Vascar, we are, um, trying to figure out what to do. We’re a scientific vessel from a planet called Earth. On behalf of humanity, I assure you that we come seeking peace and friendship, and bear no ill will. T-that knife was when my friend was considering cutting the computer wires, which…he, ah, panicked.”
I scoffed. “What? I did not. Why are you telling them this?”
The scientist ignored me, continuing her spiel. “We’re terribly sorry for trespassing. I don’t know how to convey this, but we seem to have been locked in some kind of, um, pocket dimension that was just our star system. I don’t know if you know anything about that? We found a portal out, and our ship began going impossibly—or what we thought was impossibly fast. We lost control, and now we’re stuck here. I can only ask your kindness to help us, as we’ll die without immediate rescue.”
There was a very long pause from the aliens before receiving their response; I facepalmed at Sofia’s insistence on telling them about the portal. “I do not know what to make of your story. If this is true, a pocket dimension that small can only have been artificially created.”
“We agree. I’m going to take it you aren’t the ones involved with this?”
“The Vascar have no interdimensional capabilities. We are familiar with the ones who do, but we…stay out of their way. They usually guard their breaches: the tunnels between planes.”
“We didn’t see any guards. We’d definitely like to know why they put us there?”
The being seemed to try to laugh in its own way. “You’d have to ask the Elusians themselves; we know nothing of you or why things were done to you. We may choose to tell you what we know of them, if we decide to help you.”
“We would be most grateful. Wouldn't we, Preston?”
I flinched, as my coworker pointed to me. “Um, yes. We’re lost, and our ship is…”
“A bizarre creation. The amount of power it generates is suicidal for any thruster system,” the alien commented. “It is no wonder your ship did not function. This is like it was created in a universe where velocity requires thousands of times more force…and perhaps that’s an understatement. I am struggling to decipher it.”
“We’re equally stunned by the physics contrast, but in reverse. Also, um, we’ve never met aliens.”
“Is that so? So you are not a species from The Alliance trying to trick us? You just appeared inside of our border checkpoints, so I am inclined to believe your portal claim, but…”
“The Alliance?” Sofia asked. “We really have no idea who they are. Do they…build ships that come out of nowhere?”
“No, but they could always start.”
I folded my arms. “You sound like military, sir or madam…?”
“I have no particular affinity for either characterization. It is not applicable to my species. Call me whatever you wish: my given name is Mikri. And I am of the Vascar military.”
“Mikri. I’m Preston Carter and my partner is Sofia Aguado. Nice to meet you? Yeah. I’m glad you at least have names, or this could’ve gotten awkward fast. Um…as also a member of the military—not a threat to you, to be clear—I must ask if these Alliance are a threat?”
“To you?” The creature gave its uncanny version of a laugh. “No.”
“You’re not very forthcoming. Who is this Alliance, Mikri?” Sofia pressed.
“Three species we are at war with; they wish to destroy us, and only us, as an entity. No doubt they will attempt to recruit you and turn you against us. You do not need to know more. If we are to work together, you will respect our privacy. We do not share things as easily as your species seems to.”
Why do they want to destroy these Vascar? Are the Alliance an evil entity, or have the Vascar done something wicked against them? I’m lacking the details to decide who the threats are—if not all of them.
Sofia hesitated, leaning over the console for a moment. “We hope you’ll come to trust humanity, but we won’t pry. You don’t have to share anything you don’t wish to.”
“And you will not nose into our business, in places where your attention is not permitted?”
The scientist narrowed her brown eyes at the strange question, but seemed to realize we needed their help, regardless of how suspicious Mikri sounded. “We’re your guests. You have my word that we’ll do our best to respect your wishes.”
“At least that is an honest promise, given that your sort’s penchant for irksome curiosity will inevitably become a problem. I have requested and received permission to help you, humans. Permission to come aboard?”
I lingered on the mixed messages; perhaps it was a good sign the Vascar captain asked to board, when we clearly couldn’t stop them. “Permission granted.”
“Very well. We’re landing now. We will tow your vessel and bring you two onto ours. Do you have any weapons aboard?”
“No. We’re an exploratory mission,” Sofia jumped in.
“Well, we have no weapons, other than the Swiss Army knife,” I interjected. “Which is really more of a tool?”
Mikri’s distrust could be felt through the line. “That better be the truth. We intend to vet your story. Any attempts at hostility or giving us trouble…we are not afraid to use force, humans.”
Sofia drew a shaky breath. “We understand. You’re a literal lifesaver. Thank you, Mikri. Do you have a rank, um, sir?”
“No. I lead. That is all.”
“Right. I was just ensuring I addressed you with the proper respect…we’ll see you soon.”
The Vascar disconnected from the line without affirming that much, but I could see the ship gracefully touching down next to us. Bipeds in sleek, black suits disembarked in a hurry; while we didn’t have weapons, it didn’t escape my notice that they had rifles slung across their chests. I couldn’t make out much about them from this far, though they didn’t look that eldritch. It was unnerving to peer out and know they were an intelligence that wasn’t human. However, unlike a half hour ago, at least Sofia and I weren’t guaranteed a slow, painful death withering away.
I didn’t trust the Vascar, but they had ridden to our rescue. Perhaps I could reserve judgment until we learned a bit more about them.