Earth

2019

The cyber attack on the base hadn't made the news or managed to damage the military whatsoever. It had only managed to make Rory's life that much harder as security tightened severely.

The US successfully hid the attack, even though her friends had questioned what happened to make Rory go offline suddenly. She'd excused it as a false alarm, not wanting to give attention to their attackers. The weeks following that attack brought more attempts, each thwarted.

The prison walls closing in on Rory only grew taller. A full three months had passed before she was allowed to leave the base, and only then to attend a panel at the Whitehouse to discuss the issue of her human rights. During those few months, though no international military attacks had been successful, the cultural division worsened. It seemed that the world was in a slow motion free fall that might never end.

Conspiracy theories abounded while violence increased–not only at protests but even just in public spaces. Everyone vied for dominance and Rory was at the center of it all.

Ironically, that landed her isolated in her home on the base, with her access to the internet a shadow of what it had once been.

Time crawled as the world struggled to deal with the aftermath of first contact and the painful silence that met all the questions they had.

As the two year mark of Rory first appearing in the desert approached, she had finally managed to accept that this was her life now. For all the time she'd spent thinking about what she'd lost, the danger the Earth faced, how she didn't want to be responsible for the downfall of an entire planet, she'd paid little regard for herself as a person.

It was always Theo who pushed her to start caring for herself. Even after she'd made friends in the base and developed a social life beyond her computer screen, still he told her that she needed to think about what she wanted in life.

As if her life would ever be her own again.

At some point as a whole world full of people tugged on her in all directions, Rory had decided that she couldn't do it anymore. Theo was right. Rory was alive and it was time acting like it.

The grief buried beneath her lack of self-consideration had burned for many days, because starting a new life here on Earth felt like abandoning whatever she'd left behind on her old world. She'd never truly be welcomed here. This was not the kind of life anyone would choose for themselves. It didn't change reality, though.

Rory could live or she could waste away into nothing.

So when she honestly thought about what she wanted and what would make her happy, she'd known immediately. And that was what had led Rory to lying on the ground in the middle of her living room with a dark crate right in front of her.

"He's so scared," Theo said, lying down beside her.

A thin boxer missing a chunk of his ear stared out at her.

"Benji," Rory whispered. She stretched her hand out toward him, holding kibble in her palm. "It's okay. You're safe here."

The whites of Benji's eyes bulged around his beautiful golden irises. He cowered in his crate with his tail tucked, trembling.

Rory turned her face away while lying on her stomach, still holding the food out to him. She relaxed her body and tried to send him every signal that she wouldn't threaten him. It had been like this for nearly an hour, though. After Theo picked him up from the rescue and brought him to her house, they'd very carefully approached, but Benji was just too traumatized by whatever he had been through.

One day, he would feel safe. Rory could wait until then. She looked at Theo while they waited with the hopes that Benji would eventually take a treat from her.

"Thank you for bringing him," she whispered.

Theo looked relaxed on the ground with sunlight glossing him in gold, like he could fall asleep at any time. His eyes closed slowly. "No problem."

"You're tired."

He smiled without opening his eyes. "A little."

If he felt anything like she did, then he was exhausted, all the time. There was never any true peace. Last week, Rory had criticized the United States live on air for not allowing the international community more authority with her, when it affected the entire planet. General Price hadn't talked to her since, but he'd made sure to suggest plenty of interviews to her task force, knowing Rory hated doing them. Whatever. If she had the chance, she would have said it again. The U.N. needed to vote on everything with her.

"Come on," she whispered quietly to herself. Maybe Benji really wouldn't open up to her.

When she was about to give up, the blankets in the crate rustled. Rory resisted the temptation to look and was rewarded with a cold, wet nose barely grazing her fingers. Benji paused. When she didn't move, he lowered his mouth to her hand and began to eat.

With his mouth wetting her skin, she slowly turned to see him and smiled. He froze, eyes still wide, and body wound tight with terror. His muscles were ready to launch him back into the safety of his hiding place.

Benji ducked his head back inside his crate for a few seconds and then slowly emerged once more to sample the kibble from her palm. Her insides melted like heavy snow falling from the trees. What had this poor boy been through?

Eating the last of the kibble, he briefly met her eyes and lowered his head with his ears tucked. Gave her palm a single lick and backed up deep within his crate.

"I thought he'd be too scared to eat," Theo said. "Good job."

A sigh loosened the remaining tightness in her chest. "He doesn't know he's home yet…" She settled her head against her arms and studied his lean legs and freshly washed fur. "He will one day."

Theo cautiously crawled closer to the crate. He turned his face away from Benji but extended his hand. The dog craned his neck to sniff without moving closer.

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"When he finally realizes he's home, I wonder…" Rory met Theo's eyes now and spoke softly. "Will he accept it? Or will he wait for his other people to take him back?"

Her friend's jaw tightened, though his eyes only looked all the more soft. "He must know he's been brought here for a reason."

Two years and finally Rory had an ID card with an address. An address for this house she lived in. But she'd been home for some time now, even before this had become her own. She'd been home any time Theo was with her.

"Do you think he loves them still?" she asked. "His old family?"

"Dogs are very loving."

"Do you think they loved him?"

"Who wouldn't? Look at that face." He smiled and glanced at Benji. "The vet said he seemed like he'd been well cared for. He probably lost his microchip in an accident. See his ear?" Theo nodded at the hunk of ear he had lost. "He doesn't have heart worms or anything you'd expect a stray or neglected dog to have."

"His family was probably devastated to not ever find him."

"Yes." Theo watched her again. "He still deserves a home, even though we can't find the one he came from."

Tears wet her eyes and for once she didn't try to hide them. "I can't imagine they'd hate him for loving his new family."

Familiar compassion burned in his eyes, so he looked wise and steadfast, with the same knowing in his gaze as when he wrote his research papers or studied her lab results. The confidence that came with mastering something. "It's okay, Rory. If we lost you, I'd want you to be happy."

"You're the only one who would really care about losing me."

His voice was quieter now. "I would never get over it."

Familiar. Why did that feel so familiar? "I'm home, aren't I? This is my home now."

Theo didn't answer, except with the kindness in his eyes. He was so familiar now.

"You're my best friend," Rory said quietly. Other words nudged at her lips, left unspoken, even in her own mind, while a thread that had silently twisted through her heart for years now tugged and tugged.

"I know. Do you realize you're mine too?"

And she thought he'd meant something else as well. His hand was still close enough for Benji to sniff if he so chose. Theo waited without moving. Rory took a treat and settled it against his palm.

While their eyes were on one another, Benji quietly craned for Theo's hand, and took the treat with his teeth.

They spent the next hour lying beside Benji, giving him time to learn their scent, and to trust they meant no harm. By the time heaviness weighed Rory down and she let sleep take her, Benji had curled up a little closer to them than before.

Benji hid in his crate for days after that, and then he'd started hiding in one of the closets. This seemed like progress considering he'd ventured out to a new place. Patiently, Rory waited for him to feel safe with her, until one day with no indication that anything out of the ordinary was about to happen, he jumped onto the opposite end of the couch as her. She'd grinned while watching the television and looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

The first jump had come two days later. He hopped up and rested his paws against her belly with his tail wagging wildly behind him.

As slow as it had been for him to come to love her, once he did, it was all-consuming.

Benji followed at her heels everywhere she went. If she even shifted on the couch, he leapt onto the ground, ready to go wherever she went. They made a good pair, considering Rory rarely had occasion to leave him alone.

Having him brought a deep peace into her heart. She walked him around her neighborhood every few hours because he could never get enough of his favorite smells outside, and she could never deny him.

In the old days, the General had forced her to remain at her house. Now she could travel the streets of her neighborhood any time she wanted. The base was secure and she'd earned their trust the same way she'd earned Benji's. With great patience and consistency. It made up for the less freedom she had online.

Rory smiled at one of her neighbors and waved. She was the wife of a very nice major who had done several favors for her. Theo had planned to meet with her at the little park two blocks down, but she caught sight of him walking toward her.

"You were early, weren't you?" she called.

He waved and grinned. "No, you're late. I came looking." As he approached, he smacked his thighs twice, the way he always always called to Benji. "Benji boy!"

The boxer whined and looked at Rory before running forward, tugging her along, biting off several excited barks. A laugh bubbled up at the waggle of his behind and at the sound of his pure joy.

A shot of fire erupted in her thigh.

A crack that reverberated through the neighborhood.

The force of it knocked her leg out from under her. Benji bolted forward before she'd even hit the ground.

Shock paralyzed her body and mind, refusing to allow her to understand what she felt, heard, saw.

The major's wife faced her with a wavering gun aimed right at her. A second bullet bit into the ground and sprayed her with chips of concrete.

That moment of shock dissolved with the second shot. Awareness flooded her in an instant–the exact position of Theo and Benji, the angle of the gun, the determined but panicked scowl of the shooter. Danger.

Rory rolled as two more bullets shot into the ground. An inferno raged in her thigh with hot blood pumping out of her wound. But there was no time for pain or weakness. Not even for fear.

She pushed off her good leg, landed on the injured one, and screamed through the pain as she threw herself for the woman. Rory's right hand wrapped around her wrist while the other clasped the hilt of the gun.

With a crack she wrenched the woman's arm and twisted the gun free.

Theo was yelling her name, yelling for help, racing toward her while Benji ran in circles, snarling and barking.

"You should die!" The woman spit at her feet and stumbled back, as afraid as she was angry. "You're an abomination. You can't be trusted!"

They needed to take cover because there wasn't enough known about the situation to determine whether it was safe. But the vitriol in the eyes of a neighbor Rory had smiled at every day for months and the blood pouring from her leg sapped what little strength remained.

The world tilted. Just as she started to collapse, Theo grabbed her, and went down hard on his knees with her.

"Rory!" His hands shook wildly as he reached for her wound and then her face. Froze, looking lost. Theo was a scientist. He knew what he needed to do for her. But Rory could see he wasn't thinking right.

Why was she able to?

Familiar.

"Cover…" The sound of Benji's terrified barking broke her heart. "We should take cover."

"Help will be here soon." Theo seemed to snap himself out of his panicked stupor and pulled her back against him as he clasped her leg to apply pressure. Rory threw her head back and cried out through clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry." Theo's tears wet the side of her face. "It'll be over soon."

Anger leached through the hard wall that Rory naturally erected around herself as she looked to this woman who had shot her and endangered others in the neighbhorhood. Endangered her dog and her best friend.

The older woman was sobbing on her knees. "Everything was fine before you came along."

Rory heard a siren as the world grew darker. Blood covered her and Theo both. Black puddles of it were splattered across the road. Benji finally ran to her, licked her face, and barked so loud her ears rang.

"I'm okay, buddy." She scratched at his neck weakly.

As the world began to fade, her mind drifted through dark halls she couldn't see. Too much blood loss. "Paste…"

"Paste? What?"

"I don't… know…" Confusion swirled with the pain, but something swam beneath the surface, something she couldn't quite glimpse. Shadows mingled with the black spots dancing across her vision. The agony, familiar.

Paste gliding along her skin. Hands closing her wound.

"I remember…" Rory whispered

Questions filled Theo's eyes. And then everything snapped black.