“You. They want you. The image cut out when the Yayora stormed the scene. We’ve never done anything like that before. The viewers saw something. They’re not sure what, but it was more than the Controllers wanted. And if the Changelings hate anything, it’s losing control of their TV shows. We rescued you. Now they’re looking for our base.”
I never realized they’d taken such a risk with rescuing me.
“You put the Yayora at risk for me?” I said. “Why would you do that?”
“Because we need you. We’ve been underground, preparing to attack them for years. We now have the forces we need to take back our home planet. The only thing we don’t have is the knowledge of their communication systems. At the very beginning of your episode, you mentioned you were an engineer on your home planet. Were you telling the truth?”
“Yes,” I said.
Stari breathed a sigh of relief. She braced my shoulders with her hands.
“Then rescuing you was worth the risk,” she said.
“You have lots of engineers,” I said, and pointed toward the door. “I saw them working on the ships outside.”
“They’re mechanics, not engineers. We need a communications expert.”
“Surely you have someone like that here already.”
“We did. But when the Changelings first came, they murdered them all. Anyone with knowledge of advanced technology. They left the rest of us alive. Fodder for future episodes.”
“I don’t understand how I’m supposed to help you.”
Stari took a seat beside me on my bed. The Yayora were small people and her legs barely reached the floor.
“To explain, I’m going to need to tell you about what happened when the Changelings conquered us,” she said. “Yayora are peaceful and not skilled in the art of war. We had few colonies and never had much desire to spread beyond our home planet. They defeated us easily.
“They disappeared anyone who they considered a threat. Our politicians, military personnel, our scientists, and engineers… It was a slaughter. They took control of everything and turned us into slaves. Some of us fought, most didn’t.
“Then they divided our planet into sections with tight security defenses around them. There was no way for us to pass from one section to another. We were not only trapped on our planet, we were trapped in our small sections. They used our planet as a giant TV studio to play out their dark and sinister games. Whenever we got in the way, we were cast aside and considered nothing more than collateral damage.
“When we fought back, we became an extra obstacle in their TV shows. They tortured and beat us, showing anyone who tried to stand against them would be dealt with harshly. We hid wherever we could. Underground, mostly. That’s where we are now. An old research facility we hadn’t used in years. We hid and built ships and weapons, hoping one day to return to the surface and fight the Changelings and win back our home.”
“What’s this got to do with me?” I said.
“We know the Changelings have a Control Room somewhere in this section. It’s where they run Lovers’ Escape from. We know they’re out there but we have no way to find them. They’re invisible, cloaked somehow. We need you to use their technology against them, to find their location so we can take our planet back.”
Her look of hope would have raised my spirits if it wasn’t for one thing…
“I don’t know anything about their technology,” I said. “It’s way more advanced than anything we have on Earth.”
Stari’s shoulders slumped.
“Are you sure?” she said. “Any assistance you give us would be a huge help. The Changelings have been looking for the resistance since the beginning. One day, they will succeed, and when they do, we won’t stand a chance.”
These people risked their lives to save me. They fought my enemy, the enemy that killed my one true love, Chax. If I could do something that would seed their destruction, I would do it.
“I don’t know if I’ll be any help,” I said. “But I’ll give it a damn good try.”
“That’s all we ask. If you’re ready, I’ll show you to your workstation.”
Stari marched through the doorway. It hissed open as she passed through it. She paused when she didn’t hear me following her. She turned back to the room and waited, just as she had that morning when she was going to lead me to Chax’s dead body.
Dead body…
Don’t think of that now, I told myself.
Stari didn’t say a word as I edged toward the door and that black line that delineated the two worlds. The one I inhabited where I could fool myself into believing Chax was still alive, and the real world where he was gone.
The difference couldn’t have been starker. The tiny cell versus the vastness of the galaxy.
Did I want to live in the past and never let go? Did I want my future to be dictated by a lie I believed, no matter how pleasant it was?
I took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold. Once the first foot was over it, the second followed easily.
Stari smiled at me. It was a friendly, supportive smile that I very much needed to see at that moment.
I peered back at the little room I just left. The memories I had of Chax would never leave me. They would be with me, always, tucked away safe and sound in my mind. Billions of Changelings might have seen our romance blossom and grow but none knew what it felt like to have him touch me, the warmth and strength of his fingertips on my skin, and the shiver he gave me every time his eyes ran over mine.
They hadn’t seen every part of our relationship. That moment in the loft of the dilapidated barn was ours and belonged to no one but us. There had been no cameras up there. No one could spy or steal it from us. I would carry it with me always.
Even they couldn’t take
