"Mr. Hacket." The male voice rang from the speaker above my head and shook the floor underneath my chair. If he hadn't been so loud I might not have looked up from my computer screen with its distracting video feeds and top secret Hikarius documents. Ever since I'd become the new president, a title given to me after news of John Philip's death spread, I'd been given access to everything the company offered from hidden, experimental weapons to nuclear codes. I didn't plan to use them, though, since my alien artifact was ten times more powerful than anything they could offer.
Pushing my chair from the desk with my feet, I leaned back and angled my head toward the speaker. "What do you want?"
"Your daughter has arrived."
Finally! Something I wanted to hear.
As I marched toward the door my hands started to sweat and my throat became parched. I was racking my brain for a nice way to break the news to Polly because she didn't know what had happened here. I'd merely told her she'd be allowed to live on the station with me from now on. She'd assumed I'd meant Mary would be here too.
When I unlocked the door I found Zora standing before me, a gun strapped to her leg and a black hat covering the top of her head. She shot me a smile, one I still didn't trust, before stepping aside and allowing me to see my child for the first time in months.
She was still short for an eleven year old and her baby face made her look eight, a fact that she hated. I had always encouraged her, though, telling her that her growth spurt would arrive any day now.
Seeing her blonde hair and bright eyes, which grew brighter as she smiled at me, sent my heart throbbing and, before I could stop them, tears started streaming down my cheeks. She looked so much like her mother. I couldn't stand it.
"Daddy? What's wrong?" Polly asked as she clasped one of my shaking hands between her small, warm ones. "Where's Mom?"
Her questions grew muffled as I pulled her into the longest hug I think I'd ever given. I couldn't let her see me cry. I was supposed to be the strong one. I wasn't supposed to be the one who fell apart from loneliness and sorrow.
I was pathetic.
A few of the passing employees, all of whom had arrived a few days ago from the company to help me with my work, stared at me judgingly and that was enough to snap me out of my sobs so I could glare at them.
The only employees whose presence I didn't mind were the soldiers I'd hired to help me hunt down my wife's murderers. They were standing on each side of my door, dressed in black armor and helmets that covered their faces. If I gave the order, they could kill anyone I wanted. That was why I liked them. That and they didn't flinch when I started throwing heavy objects around the room to distract myself from thoughts of Mary.
"Everything's gonna be okay," I told my daughter, still holding her close as we entered the room. "I'm going to make everything okay."
"Why? What's wrong?" The girl's eyes darting back and forth between mine in search of answers. I felt a shiver run down my back in reaction to her intense stare. She'd be able to tell if I was lying or not so there was no point in hiding it.
"Polly." I took a deep breath, sucking in air to keep my nose from stinging. "It's about your mother."
◑○★☆●◐
I had been trapped in the dark for so long. The pain had subsided quite suddenly a while ago but I hadn't woken up. I knew I was sleeping and had been for hours, years maybe, but I couldn't seem to tear myself out of this mass of black ooze. It wrapped around my brain, dulling my thoughts and senses.
That's why, despite how bright it was, I felt relief when my eyes opened and started to sting from the giant light shining on my face. It reminded me of the lights they'd used at the dentist when examining your teeth, only this one was far brighter. Plus, it had been dark for so long that my eyes couldn't handle the adjustment.
"This isn't a good time to wake up," a voice to my right informed me. The male voice grated on my ears and I wanted to slap whoever it was for interrupting the blissful silence.
As soon as I knew I wasn't alone, though, I started to realize that this person was doing something to me. I couldn't feel it, since my whole body was frozen stiff, but they were poking around inside my stomach with some sort of device, similar to a dentist using a pick to look at my teeth.
"W..." I wanted to ask "Who are you?" but couldn't muster the strength. "Why am I still alive?" would have been another excellent question but, as I said before, I was more useless than a rag doll.
"Just doing one of my annual checks," the man informed me, removing the metal prick he'd been poking me with and turning off the light. "To be honest I thought you were brain dead or something, what with you never waking up."
How long had I been asleep?
Once he turned off the light I finally managed to get a good look at this stranger. He was an older man, maybe in his sixties or seventies (I wasn't good at guessing one's age based on appearance alone) and had a wrinkled face. He had grey hair with a few white streaks running through it, which looked so good it was likely intentionally dyed, and his eyes were a similar color, a blue so light that they could have identified as grey.
Wrapped around his head was some sort of blue bandana, which looked quite comical, and his eyes were covered in thick glass, which was wrapped around his whole head with a brown strip of leather. Yes, he looked quite silly.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to trust this mad scientist look-alike but had no other choice. It wasn't like I could defend myself. Not with this stupid, metal bracelet around my wrist. I could still feel its cold bite.
"I suppose you'll want to know who I am and, since you can't speak, I'll just answer all the questions I would have had if I was in your position. Ahem." He cleared his throat and sat in a nearby, wooden chair, placing his hands in front of him like an attentive child. "No. I will not be giving you any alcohol."
I squinted at him, wishing I had the strength to scoff.
"Sorry. I'll be serious now." He giggled at his own sad attempt at humor. "My name is Alphenstine and you are lying in my home. I live in a tiny town, which you've probably never heard of, halfway up the Isabel mountains."
A mountain?
"Here I was, minding my own business and cleaning up a few of Odette's little robots when Joe here..." He pointed to Odette's little service bot who was sitting in the corner of the room.
Odette had closed down her bar a few years after I got married but I'd never bothered to ask where she'd sent her assistant bots. Now I knew.
"He rushed in and told me he'd found some girl trapped inside a pile of snow.
"So I followed him and sure enough, there it was. Tallest pile of snow I've ever seen in my life. It must have been three stories high. Took me half an hour to dig my way through. And just like Joe said," He shot Joe a thumbs up, "there you were smack dab in the middle wearing some kind of broken space suit. It was kind of freaky to see all the nearby snow covered in so much blood and even freakier to see your limbs all messed up but there's no need to worry. I've fixed them up and they've been healing really well."
So I'd landed in a conveniently placed pile of snow and that had been enough to save me a fall from space? I didn't buy it.
"I hate to break it to you, though. You won't be able to walk ever again."
I felt all color drain from my face.
"I couldn't find one part of your body that wasn't broken or mangled in some way. It's a miracle you survived at all. That's why I was so convinced you were stuck in a coma forever, seeing as how you were asleep for so long."
I opened my eyes as wide as they could go in the hopes that I could communicate my question. How long? How long had I been asleep?
Luckily, this guy wasn't as stupid as he acted. He knew what I was asking for. "You've been asleep for eleven months."
What?!?
◑○★☆●◐
I remembered how she'd looked when we'd learned about Polly.
Her face had gone completely pale, so much so that her skin had matched the color of her light blonde hair. Seeing her that way made me feel conflicted because what she'd just told me had given me the opposite reaction. I was thrilled.
"What's wrong?" I whispered, pulling my wife closer and running my finger across her cold cheeks. "Do you not want this?"
Mary shook her head. "I don't think I can be a mother, Derek. I...If she dies then I won't be able to stand it."
A knife played with my heart as I pulled her into my arms, pressing her cheek against my shoulder so she could cry without feeling embarrassed. What should I say? She didn't want this baby and I did. I wanted to raise children with her and grow old with her. I wasn't afraid of the "fate" that had been laid out for me because I knew we could change it.
"I love you," I whispered in her ear, making her nod slowly. "I will never let anything happen to you or our child, understand?"
My wife nodded again but pulled away, her reddening eyes boring into mine. "You have to promise me that no matter what happens to me you will not, under any circumstances, harm Polly."
"Of course I won't."
"You need to let her go to school and live a normal life and act like a kid." Her voice rose in desperation. "Please promise me that, Derek. Please." Her hands were roaming my face now, her eyes envisioning a future where she didn't exist.
She was about to say please again when I grabbed both of her hands and placed them against my heart, letting her feel the soft pounding within. "I would never do anything to hurt either of you," I told her but her face told me that I already had in another reality.
This was the memory that had repeated itself in my dreams ever since Polly had come to the station. As I sat in my cot, watching my daughter as she slept peacefully, tears created a path down my face.
Mary had been ready. She'd been expecting her death. She'd been preparing me and I'd been too stubborn to listen. Now I was alone, left with nothing but her words to haunt my nightmares.
[If you're still here after all this time then I thank you. As a reward (kind of) the third and final trailer has been attached (you can see it at the top of the chapter). This was my favorite trailer and I hope you enjoy it.]