Hazel made a beeline for her room to change into her own clothes. She chose something that accentuated her limited curves and put on some lipstick hurriedly. When she came back out the pizza had arrived and had been paid for. Amee and Olga were nowhere to be seen. Her wrist vibrated. When she tapped the screen it was Amee’s security team. Hazel smiled at the young woman who smiled back.

“Hazel, you have a guest. I was told to expect him, should I send him up?”

Hazel nodded.

“Yes please.”

“You got it. Welcome home.”

Hazel waved and tapped her wrist. She hurried to one of the bathrooms and looked into the mirror adjusting herself and making sure she looked good. She was kind of frustrated she didn’t have time for a shower, but it had only been an hour in the fighter. She heard the elevator ding and she rushed to the doors and opened them. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. For Miles it had been three weeks for her it had been so very long. She held herself back from charging at him. She saw his half smile and kind brown eyes. He moved towards her and hugged her tightly. She hugged him back grabbed his cheeks and kissed him passionately. He blushed. She grabbed his hand and tugged him inside and closed the door.

“Pizza’s here. Mom got you your rabbit food pizza.”

“You know, meat isn’t the end all and be all of food, blue eyes.”

She made a shh sound.

“No vegetarian debate today okay babe?”

He held up his free hand.

“Truce.”

Hazel sat on the couch and leaned forward to pull a slice of six meat pizza. She devoured the slice. Miles picked up a plate and pulled a vegetarian slice and started eating it slowly his hand on Hazel’s thigh. He knew better then to try and have a conversation with Hazel when she was in her can’t talk eating mode. She slowed down after slice three and sat back and wiped her fingers off with paper towels. Miles was still eating his first slice. She waited until he finished then pulled him close for another kiss. He laughed.

“You are in a mood today.”

Hazel’s eyes glinted with mischief.

“Scared?”

“Me? Nah. You’re just a cuddly teddy bear. So uh, where are your parents?”

“Mom is uh, recovering, and my stepmother is hiding somewhere.”

“As in here?”

“Yes, where else would she be?”

His hand quickly retreated from Hazel’s thigh. Hazel pouted.

“What’s the matter?”

“Your mom… stepmom can lock me up and throw away the key. So lets uh behave, please?”

Hazel pouted again.

“Okay Mr. Moodkiller.”

Miles kissed her again.

“I just don’t want us to get in trouble.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Why do you have to be so damn cute. You can talk me into or out of anything.”

He smirked. Hazel gave him some space and slouched back into the couch.

“Its part of my charm. Oh, I almost forgot.”

He reached into his backpack and pulled out a gift box.

“I missed your birthday while you were away. Hope you don’t mind that it’s late.”

Hazel kissed him again and took the present. She opened it and smiled when she found a couple of t-shirts and a glass snowflake she knew he made himself without benefit of matter printer.

“Like you, unique and perfect.”

Hazel grabbed him and hugged him tightly and kissed him again. She heard Amee clearing her throat. She broke her kiss which had been pretty passionate. Miles was a deep red. Hazel was less embarrassed and more frustrated.

“Should we leave you two alone again?”

Miles couldn’t form words and shook his head. Amee was a larger-than-life woman who had created a cult like following amongst many of the citizens of the Systems Alliance. Her, Maria, Eyre and now Enid were revered for their guidance and their genius. They had pulled the human race from near-extinction almost stone age levels to a people who could traverse the stars. The recent announcement Enid had set foot on a planet in the Andromeda galaxy and defeated aliens in battle with holo-vid proof had pushed her into their elite number. Had Enid been here it was doubtful Miles would have willingly visited.

Hazel took another slice of pizza and crossed her legs. She was wearing a skirt currently. Olga joined them on the couch and Amee went off to get drinks. She sat down and picked up a piece of pizza and devoured it. Then she downed one of the super sweet energy drinks. Hazel had often been amazed at her stepmother’s diet. It put hers to shame. Miles took another piece of pizza and ate it. Olga poked through the three boxes and frowned slightly.

“No pizza with pineapple?”

This was followed by Amee and Hazel making disgusted sounds. Miles motioned to his pizza.

“Mine has it, but no meat.”

Olga shrugged and took a slice of the vegetarian pizza and ate it slowly. Miles felt like he was being analyzed by her. He glanced at her shyly. He was feeling quite intimidated. Hazel never made him feel less then worthy but being here with the actual president of the System Alliance and one of her apparent friends made him self-conscious. Amee glanced at Hazel.

“Are you going to introduce everyone?”

Hazel blinked and sat forward.

“Umm, so, you know Amee, my stepmom, and this is my friend Olga, she’s Russian, and this is Miles, my boyfriend.”

Miles shifted closer to Hazel, realizing that Olga was her friend and not Amee’s made him less uncomfortable. He offered his hand to Amee, who shook it and then he did the same with Olga, she also shook it. Now Olga’s appraisal of him made a lot more sense. He sat back down and inched even closer to Hazel. Conversation drifted from subject to subject, but Hazel got impatient for some alone time with Miles, so she glanced at him then Amee.

“Uh, hey so, I’d like to see my friends before school tomorrow, is that alright?”

Amee nodded. Hazel looked at Olga.

“Olga will you be okay here?”

She nodded. Amee glanced at her.

“I think maybe I should have a talk with Olga about her future.”

Hazel grabbed Mile’s hand and started to drag him towards the door. Soon the pair vanished into the elevator. Olga watched after them. There may have been a slight hint of jealousy in her glance. Amee looked her over. Olga’s eyes snapped back to Amee when she was addressed.

“Olga?”

“Yes ma’am?”

“Is anything wrong?”

Olga shook her head. Amee smiled.

“I don’t believe you. Mostly because I can tell you’re lying. Sorry cybernetics.”

Olga blushed and avoided Amee’s gaze.

“Are you jealous of Hazel?”

“Not exactly.”

Amee blinked a few times.

“Oh, I see.”

Olga nodded. Amee held up a finger walked to her bar and pulled down a bottle of vodka. And two shot glasses. She poured one out for herself and one out for Olga. Amee put the bottle down and put the cap on and lifted her glass.

“To the ones we are attracted to, who aren’t attracted to us.”

Amee downed it. Olga showed some hesitance but then downed her shot. She coughed afterward. Amee narrowed her eyes at Olga.

“Don’t tell me, you’re from Russia and you don’t drink Vodka?”

Olga shook her head.

“I don’t…well that’s the first time I’ve had alcohol.”

“Oh, well I apologize I assumed with your age, and your time of origin you were an old pro.”

Olga shook her head again.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“No, I don’t smoke, take drugs, or drink, well I guess I do now. Does it get less… burny?”

Amee chuckled.

“Well honestly, for you, if you want more we should mix it, but perhaps we should stop at one shot.”

Amee motioned towards the door.

“Hazel is most definitely not into women. But many women are these days, so as annoying as the saying is, there are plenty of fish in the sea that you can catch.”

Olga smiled and laughed softly. Amee straightened up a bit.

“I was hoping she’d give us some time to chat alone. Your situation is a bit unprecedented. Enid is a rather ancient being, so she adapted quickly. Hazel took some time, with a little pizza to grease the wheels, but they were known to me, or at least close friends of the family. You however are an unknown. Now I can just have Maria rewrite your memories, make you a perfect little member of society, but that rubs me the wrong way. So please, convince me you deserve to be let loose knowing very damaging information.”

Olga swallowed hard. She had misjudged Amee’s friendly demeanor. How casually she referenced wiping her memories was frightening, like she’d had it done before.

“I uh… what can I say to that?”

Amee smiled.

“My options are fairly limited with you, kill you, lock you in a box somewhere for life, wipe your memory or trust you. I would before the last option. I could sugarcoat it, but you seem like someone who wants to know what’s at stake. Maybe because you’re Russian. Now based on your debriefing at Pluto Station, you were going to die, but my stepdaughter, bless her kind heart, decided you were worth saving. So, what can you do for me?”

“I have no idea how to use a computer, I am completely… lost here. I feel useless.”

“And you walked through that portal because you thought you might have a chance…”

“I have never been in love, never dated, never… I have so much I haven’t done, I don’t want to die.”

Olga has tears on her face now. Amee’s façade of kindness and openness hid a ruthless core. Amee pulled Olga close and hugged her. Patting her back.

“I did not think I would get this response. I appreciate your honesty. Tell me, you’re a KGB spy, or well former, how did you get caught?”

Amee released Olga who started pushing away her tears and tried to regain some measure of dignity.

“My handler gave himself away, and burned me.”

“How much did you tell the people who captured you?”

“Nothing? I don’t know they drugged me. Who knows what I said?”

“Did you have a capsule to end your life?”

Olga nodded.

“Why didn’t you?”

“I did not want to die.”

Amee nodded and lifted her leg onto the couch her foot pressing against the black legging on her other thigh, her elbow leaning on the back of couch.

“As good a reason as any. So your government responded by sending a kill squad after you?”

Olga nodded.

“Luck it was someone who cares about you. If I’m being honest, if it wasn’t for Hazel we would not be having this conversation. You owe here quite a lot. Your life two times over now. So, if you could do anything, anything in the world, what would your dream job be?”

Olga shrugged.

“I have never had a choice, so I have never thought of it, I was picked as KGB by the time I was ten years old.”

“Believe it or not, I know how you feel. The cybernetics you see and don’t see on me, I never had a choice. They infected me. I was always going to end up doing the job I’m doing. It has had the unfortunate side effect to make me overly ruthless when enforcing things, I think are necessary. Such as the secrecy surrounding the origins of our Stargate Program. People find out we can possibly travel through time, who the hell knows what they will break. A lot of the secrecy around Pluto Station and our space fleet has been lifted now that we’ve acknowledged alien races exist and that they are a threat in some cases. So its mostly the time travel thing, we will never let that cat out of the bag. And you are living proof. Do you see my challenge here? Your life vs the lives of billions. The math is pretty easy for a world leader.”

Olga nodded.

“However, you are a trained spy. You don’t exist in any database. Your Ident-chit is blank. That is very valuable resource to squander on paranoia. You are what we call a zero, a blank. A nobody. You have no history no skeletons in your closet to come out and haunt us. And I don’t mean you’re a nobody as in your life doesn’t matter, I mean it as in computers can’t ID you.”

Olga nodded again.

“So here are your options. I get you a ride to one of the new colonies, you make a fresh life, no one knows who you are, make your own way, choose your own path. So long as it is on a colony world far away from here. Or, you stay here, and you work for me. I will equip you with whatever cybernetics you want, sky is the limit, access to military grade kit, all the best training money can buy in infiltration, piloting, computer hacking. We put a swappable ident-chit on you. Give you a full shapeshifting kit and you can be whoever we need you to be. Fastest cars, fastest ships, expense account. Whatever you need to get the job done. Give me twenty years, then you take your salary and pension, do whatever you want with your life, never disclosing your job or past. I’ll arrange whatever ID you want either way.”

Olga leaned forward and put her face in her hands. She lifted her head again. It was such a huge decision.

“Do I have to say now?”

Amee shook her head.

“No, take some time, this is the rest of your life we’re talking about. I mean there are other options, they all involve some manner of military service so we can ensure you keep your mouth shut. Those are the two best options.”

Olga shook her head.

“I don’t need time. I was born to be a spy, what do you want me to do?”

Amee smiled.

“I thought that would be your answer. Wise choice. For now I want you to get used to the world. You’re no use to me looking like a wide-eyed tourist. Stick with black credit chits. I’ll get you some. Explore.”

Olga nodded not that she understood what a black credit chit was.

*****

Miles was already looking more relaxed by the time the elevator had reached the bottom floor. He laughed.

“Wow that was stressful. Your stepmom. She eats people alive.”

Hazel punched Miles’ shoulder.

“Jerk, she’s nice.”

“Only because you’re related to her. For anyone else.”

He shuddered. Hazel frowned.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Miles elbowed Hazel gently.

“Sometimes you’re so oblivious. You don’t get to be the leader of like her without a ruthless streak.”

“My mom is way worse than her.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m the oblivious one?”

“I mean yes she flies starfighters. Explores space, fights aliens, but I mean… your stepmom is the President of the System Alliance, Commander and Chief.”

“My mom is a three-thousand-year-old vampire. She drinks human blood like we eat food. And Synth-O was only recently invented. Do the math space cadet.”

Miles usually dusky skin went several shades paler.

“And if you watched all the news, you’d know she’s also the Vampire Empress. If you think human rulers are ruthless… I’ve watched her snap her fingers and kill a vampire a billion kilometers away, his crime? He disagreed with her ruling.”

Miles tugged on the collar of his t-shirt.

“Your family is scary, yo. Wait…if she’s a vampire how did she have you?”

“Did you see the ads from BMC?”

“Oh yea.”

“They had to test on someone.”

Miles walked to his car in the underground parking and got in. Hazel got in the passenger side. The time between the doors closing and them locking lips again was measured in milliseconds. His hands roamed as did hers. He finally broke the kiss and leaned back. Hazel’s hand was still on his inner thigh. He looked a bit distracted.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“That was so very believable.”

He looked out his window when he heard the squeal of a tire then turned back to Hazel.

“I mean, you just vanish sometimes. Like and come back and your different. Your hair mostly. Its like its longer but, you’ve only been gone for three weeks. And before it was the same and it was like two days.”

Hazel rubbed the back of her neck. She hadn’t really accounted for hair growth and what was going on with her legs and pits was a whole jungle currently she hadn’t taken the time to clean up, which when she was in the 29th century she liked to do.

“I can’t tell you Miles.”

Hazel slouched in her seat. This is the conversation she had been avoiding since they started dating.

“I’m just wondering where this is going.”

Hazel threw her hands up.

“Can’t we just be teenagers having fun are parents don’t want to know about? You’re a boy, I’m a girl, we parts that fit together well…”

Hazel tugged her shirt down a bit showing some cleavage, Miles lifted a hand and his eyes darted to her chest but then he shook his head.

“Hazel, we have fun, but I get the feeling… you’re not as into me as I am into you. I’m head over heels for you. I think I might love you.”

“Oh, that sounded believable.”

Hazel crossed her arms.

“I donno, you’re like my third girlfriend and it never felt so real before.”

“That’s called hormones.”

Miles hit his steering wheel.

“I’m being serious. You’re beautiful. When I see you my heart skips a beat. But like… it feels like you’re just using me for sex sometimes.”

Hazel looked out the window, arms still crossed.

“Isn’t that what most men and boys want?”

He touched her arm and she looked at him.

“I want you. Not who you pretend to be. You joke and you screw around, but you have a serious side I never see. Like I’m only seeing a small part of you. You know everything about me, down to the serial number of my… look, I want to know are you in this with me, or is this just a friend who have sex thing for you?”

Hazel hit her head against the back of the seat few times. She wanted to tell him all about how she was a werewolf, how she’d fought zombies at the red sea, how she’d trained as a spy. How she had a pet raptor, the time travel, where she was born…her brothers and sisters. She could say none of it. She closed her eyes.

“Look Miles, I’m in. There’s some… family issues that might get in the way, but I just can’t tell you about part of my life. Its not that I don’t want to but you even knowing would get you vanished like you’re so worried my stepmom is going to do.”

Miles blinked his chocolate brown eyes at her.

“Why are you involved with it then? You’re only eighteen.”

Hazel thought, not really.

“Look, I’m not normal.”

“I know, you’re beautiful, brilliant. Strongest person I know.”

“Yea, well there’s other stuff I can’t talk about. But trust me, none of it means I care about you any less. My mom, she needs me sometimes, even if she doesn’t think so.”

She heard his holo-phone start vibrating. He glanced at it he tapped it. The holo-feed was blurred. But she recognized the voice. It was Pinto. She didn’t have much love for him. She knew he was into some shady dealings. She’d told Miles the guy was bad for him but they were friends from their neighborhood.

“Yo. Shit is going down tonight.”

“I can’t.”

“Is the bitch back?”

Hazel clenched her fist and released it a few times. She’d never met Pinto in person but if she did it was likely he would need medical attention. Miles glanced at Hazel, didn’t take a genius to tell what was on her mind.

“Don’t talk about her that way.”

“Don’t get hung up on some cunt. We got work to do tonight. Ditch her and let’s go.”

Hazel leaned forward so her face was visible and spoke.

“Let’s go. I’m in. But call me a cunt again I’ll shove your cyberarm up your ass fuckhead.”

Miles blinked at his girlfriend a little bit in shock. There was silence on the other end of the line. He’d never heard Hazel curse in the entire time he’d known her. Miles found his voice a few seconds later after staring at Hazel.

“You said we couldn’t do the job, no pilot.”

Hazel interjected

“I’m a pilot.”

Miles looked at Hazel again his forehead was creased. He mouthed a few words that Hazel could tell was you don’t even have a license. Hazel shrugged. Pinto finally spoke.

“Miles, you didn’t tell me she could pilot. Sure, she can come. If she can pull this off, I’ll apologize for all the shit I’ve said about her.”

“Okay, we’ll head to the harbor.”

Miles ended the call and looked at Hazel.

“What the hell Hazel? I was trying to keep you away from that stuff. And you can’t even drive a car.”

“Just trust me.”

“Hazel, you shouldn’t be involved in this sort of thing. I mean, its…we could get in a lot of trouble.”

Hazel pointed at the steering wheel.

“Just drive. I’m a big girl. I can make my own choices, if you’re doing something stupid, I’m coming with you. Everything you’ve told me about Pinto tells me he’s an idiot. And if you need a pilot you’re doing something really stupid.”