JADE
For once, I agreed with her. I had got some major learning to do.
And oh yeah, I trusted them.
Okay, it was mega crazy and all – but I was still alive. That was good enough proof, for now. And really, did they ever tell the kindergartners not to trust aliens?
Mesmer Zircon's trustworthiness was dubious. Change of plans twice in two hours? At this rate, she would probably turn us in before we get anywhere.
Azure Halo, oh please. Okay, maybe I could believe him, but that ravishing celeb looked good for nothing in a real life situation – except make his fans swoon and faint, maybe.
Saw – ah, not that I don't appreciate valiant efforts to save me, but he was as much as useless as Azure was. He would be down in seconds.
That left me – poor old genius girl me.
Honestly, I was seriously outmatched – alien vs. human was not fair. That only works out in movies. They only exist in movies. Didn't anyone tell them that?
But something – an animal instinct, perhaps – assured me that they could be trusted, at least in a worst-case scenario. But that didn't fix anything. We were still on a mad hunt for a mad army. How could an army even be hunted?
My logic in aiding (assuming I was of any help) the aliens was fairly straightforward – they were up against the Empyrean, and the only thing I was sure about them was that they were after me.
So yeah, I help them, not knowing when I would return (and if I return – that was a problem with an entirely distinct being of its own) and what I would do then. As blind as my Gran was to my existence, she would wonder someday whatever had happened to me – of course, and then, there would be police, the CIA and a lot of explaining to do. I didn't particularly like the idea of narrating this escapade to anyone – that would be an excellent excuse for them to believe I was mentally unstable.
But you don't think that much when the prime priority is staying alive and not freaking out after witnessing three supposed aliens, a spaceship crash, a real live spaceship, and guns on foreheads.
'So, it is bad we don't have a GPS,' I clarified.
'Um, yes,' she said. 'But we better get going, because, I don't think the Empyrean will take long to find out that we've different ideas.'
Mesmer started the engine.
Okay, confession time: great heights were NOT on my Top Ten Places to be list. No. That barely covers it. It'd be better to say I go catatonic when it gets high. My brain goes haywire – my muscles defunct – my aura gets short-circuited. Even that is an understatement.
Oh, did I mention the spaceship's hull happened to be one, darn window?
'Mesmer,' I croaked, leaning to the transparent wall for support, my vision bleary, sweating. 'That window is too large.'
'Mm, the floor should have been all see through too,' she said wickedly.
I looked down instinctively, and swallowed. Yeah, Mesmer, that would have really helped.
'What's wrong?' Saw asked me, genuinely worried. Well, hello doctor, can't you see the extreme case of acrophobia here?
'I think she's scared of heights,' said Azure, unbelieving. He sounded rather amused, which made me want blow up his brains with Mesmer's gun.
YOU ARE READING
Beyond the Stars
Science FictionI woke up in a metal cell, wearing some kind of black jumpsuit and bulletproof vest. It was strange that I knew the room was metal, or it was a cell, when I couldn't remember my own name. Or where I came from or what I was doing here. The room was t...
