“Well, girls, homeward bound,” said Laura, pouring them all some more of the aliens’ excellent Chablis.
“I’ll say this for them,” said Gemma, “they do keep an excellent cellar. It’s one thing I’m certainly going to miss.”
“This vintage certainly travels well,” added Laura, laughing.
She, Gemma and Amisha were sitting in what they had come to refer to as the VIP Lounge, with its oh-so comfortable chairs and the panoramic view of space. It was the third day after the destruction of the alien ship and, true to their word, the aliens had set course for Earth, a journey - they had painstakingly tried to explain - that would take less than the outward one due to a complicated gravitational theorem. “Going downhill, I suspect,” was how Amisha interpreted it. Whatever the explanation, they would be seeing Earth in just over a week.
But the first two days had been difficult.
Kate, exhausted and more than a little traumatised by her ordeal, had just wanted to sleep.The three other women had looked in on her from time to time, sometimes finding Matias sitting quietly near her bedside. Apart from this, the aliens had kept very much to themselves and were clearly distressed at the destruction of the other ship and the deaths of their comrades. They sometimes met at meal times, but never stayed long, hardly talking to the women, or even to one another. It was never easy to read their expressions, but the women half suspected they were embarrassed by the dangers into which they had plunged their captives. Not to mention the threat to Earth.
On this subject they had said very little other than to reassure the women that they believed Earth was safe, the secret of its discovery having died with the other ship.
“But they traced you once,” Gemma had asked, “what’s to stop it happening again?”
“We plan to leave the Solar System,” Irvn explained, “to get as far away as possible.”
“But where will you go?” asked Laura, surprised to find how much she minded what happened to Teo, thinking about the bleak future he and the others faced, alone and forever running.
“One possibility we’ve considered,” said Teo, “is to return to Sacmis, in secret, and join up with others who feel as we do. Perhaps a proper embassy might then be sent to Earth and - ” he hesitated, “ - women could be invited - freely - to join us.”
After he said this, there was a long silence broken by Amisha, who burst out laughing.
“Of course. You could set up a dating site - like Tinder,” she hooted.
“Alien Dates,” added Gemma, giggling. “It can’t fail.”
The laughter had been what was needed and even though it was at the men’s expense they smiled along with the women.
“Seriously guys,” said Laura, “you have a lot going for you. I can genuinely see how many women might be totally intrigued, fascinated.”
“But not you?” asked Teo quietly.
To which Laura had said nothing, turning away rather than meet his eyes.
Now, the day after this ice-breaking meeting, as Amisha, Laura and Gemma sat alone in the VIP Lounge, thoughts of what they would do after returning to Earth occupied them all.
“I guess it’ll be back to the Law,” said Laura. “But certainly not back to the jerk called Jake,” and she mimed quotation marks in the air. And how about you, Amisha?”
“I guess it will be back to Afghanistan,” replied the Indian girl. “After I’ve seen my family. I really hope they bought the messages these guys sent them.”
“Gemma?” said Laura.
It was a moment before Gemma replied.
“I don’t know. I really don’t know,” she said finally. “I can’t say I’m ecstatic at the thought of going back to teaching my sociopaths in Year 12. But I have decided I’m not going back to Brian. Whatever we think about the events of the last two weeks, you have to agree it’s been…exciting. I was already thinking of leaving when I was abducted, now the thought of going back to - to just him - fills me with dread. I want more.”
Before any of them could say anything a voice hailed them from the hatchway to the lounge.
“Hey girls!”
It was Kate. And a Kate much more like the one they knew. No longer so pale, she looked great in skinny jeans and long-sleeved tee - a big improvement on the shapeless black coveralls she’d been wearing when rescued.
She scooped up a glass as she bounced towards them.
“I see you started without me,” she teased, “so I’d better catch up.”
And she downed most of her glass in two big gulps, thrusting it back towards Amisha.
“More, please.”
Amisha refilled the glass. “Welcome back,” she said, “you had us worried for a while.”
“Nothing like sleep,” said Kate “and I just had a quick workout in the gym.”
The others rolled shook their heads and rolled their eyes.
“With our without Matias?” enquired Amisha sweetly.
“Just me,” said Kate casually.
There was silence while they enjoyed the wine and the emotional warmth of being together again. Then Gemma said gently:
“If you feel like telling us what happened on Mars, we’d love to hear about it.”
But the reaction this provoked in Kate took all of them by surprise, as she immediately blushed from her neck to the roots of her hair and took a quick gulp of her wine in an effort to hide her confusion.
“I think she was talking about the sand storm and all that,” said Amisha with a half-puzzled, half-knowing glance at the others, then added with a smile “but do I detect there’s more? Do tell.”
Kate’s feelings were a whirlpool of contradictions. On the one hand she was embarrassed, even a little ashamed at what had taken place with Matias. On the other, she felt that to regret what had been one of the most astonishing episodes of her life, to denigrate an experience so intense, so beyond any frame of reference, was to be untrue to herself. And mixed with all of this was the female need to understand better herself what had happened, to validate and explore the event with other women she knew well enough to trust.
To share, or not to share?
She shared.
First, the terror of the sandstorm and carrying Matias to safety, then second - but at much greater length and in faithful detail - what had happened between them after his rescue.
“You didnt!” Gemma had said, a heartbeat after Kate had started the second part, only to be immediately shushed by the others.
“Go on darling,” said Laura, “you can tell us. Besides, who else could we tell who’d believe us?”
They all laughed, which immediately made it so much easier for Kate to go on.
Not one of the others said a word while she spoke, but any reader of body language would have seen that they were anything but unmoved - in every way - to what she had to tell them.
“Whoa, stop,” said Laura, “I’m not sure I can take much more even at second hand.”
“So let me be sure I’ve got this straight,” said Gemma, “it was like you could be him, as well as yourself at exactly the same moment. With the same going for him?”
Kate nodded.
“Like you actually had a dick of your own and shagged yourself?” said Amisha crudely.
“I think we got the picture, Amisha,” said Laura.
“Just wanted to be ab-so-lutely clear on that point,” said Amisha. “You little tinker,” she added with a big grin, punching Kate lightly on the shoulder.
“And this could happen with any of them?” said Gemma thoughtfully, twirling a lock of hair between her fingers and shifting slightly in her seat.
“I guess so,” said Kate. Then suddenly a thought came to her. “And I haven’t even told you about the alien lesbian yet,” she added.
“Enough!” cried Laura, “Just stop. Now. Please.”
© Adriana Nicolas 2015