Chapter 5: Chapter 5

ISABELLE

Izzy paced, feeling like her mind would blow out of her ears. Could all this actually be possible? Their eyes, the way they healed her. Disappearing and appearing out of thin air. The voice in her ear.

~It all points to the impossible.~

She thought about what Mikhlas told her. About her boys going with her. She already knew what their reaction would be. They’d wallpapered their room in so many sci-fi movie posters she couldn’t see the paint.

These men came into her home and told her the most fantastical story. But they also proved to her that they weren’t lying.

They healed her broken body, and if that wasn’t proof enough, their eyes were, the way they changed. A small flutter of butterflies turned in her stomach.

~I think I have to go. Mikhlas didn’t give me much of a choice, but I don’t think he likes it either, for some reason.~

Another thought ran through her mind. ~Will they ever let me come back? Mikhlas did say that they cannot go back without me. Does that mean I will be stuck where they take me?~

A knock on the door brought her back from her thoughts. She looked at it, not saying anything. She needed a bit more time to think. The knock sounded again.

“Yeah?” she called out. The door opened and Silian came in. He stopped by the threshold and held the door open.

“I need a few more minutes,” she said to him.

“Captain Mikhlas has returned to the ship. He asked me to stay behind, and it occurred to me that you might have a lot of questions,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s an understatement.” She leaned against the counter and crossed her arms. It felt good to be able to move naturally again.

“Can I answer any of them for you?” he asked.

“I have so many, I don’t know where to start.”

“Dakira Isabelle, we are here to serve you. If you want to know something, anything, we are bound by law to tell you the truth,” he said. She let out a short sigh.

“It’s Izzy. Not Dakira Isabelle. Just Izzy will be fine. I never much liked the name Isabelle,” she said.

“It…wouldn’t be proper,” he said, before frowning. “I’m curious though, why? It’s a beautiful name, very musical.”

“It is. It just doesn’t suit me. I’m named after my mother’s favorite actress. I always thought someone named Isabelle should be artsy, a singer or a dancer or actress. Someone famous. I’m not any of those things, so Izzy, I insist,” she said.

His fingers tapped a strange rhythm on the door and she guessed he was thinking up some kind of response. “Just say it.”

“You’re to be Queen of the Realm, Dakira Isabelle.”

She shot him a filthy look.

“Billions of people are waiting for your name. Are you sure you want to go with Queen Izzy?”

“It’s my name. They damned well better call me Izzy. You people need to relax more.”

Silian smiled before he let the door go and stepped forward. “As you wish, Izzy,”—With extraordinary grace, he lowered himself onto the counter and sat down. His feet almost touched the floor.

She sighed and remembered she’d made him a cup of coffee. Needing the distraction, she grabbed it, checked that it still remained warm enough to drink, and handed it to him.

He looked perturbed but accepted the cup in his large hand with a nod.

“Silian, I can’t be a queen. I don’t know anything about… anything… All I know is this planet. This life. How am I supposed to rule over a whole other planet?” she asked.

“It’s not just one planet,” he said before taking a sip of coffee and smiling.

Izzy frowned and looked back at him. “How many planets in the Realm?” she asked.

“Eighty-four. Ninety-four if you count the colonized moons. But they’re just mines, so they don’t really count as inhabited planets,” he said.

Izzy just stared at him. “How many people live there?” she asked.

“Prime?” he said.

Izzy frowned and then heard the voice in her ear again.

“The Realm contains fifty-six different races. A total population of one hundred billion, three hundred and eighteen million, seven hundred and five thousand, one hundred and nine.

“That is from my last update,” the feminine voice of Prime said. Izzy felt sick and put a hand to her stomach. ~Different races? I just can’t believe it. So many aliens~.

“You have been chosen to rule over all of them,” Silian said.

Izzy shook her head. “No… I can’t.”

“Forgive me for saying so, Izzy, but I’ve only ever heard of one candidate not ascending the throne.”

“Who, and why not?”

“They…” Silian cleared his throat, taking another sip of lukewarm coffee.

“They died. Izzy, this is not something you have a choice in. Once the Sentinels choose someone and you ascend, you are the queen for life,” he said, sliding off the countertop.

“Great. Yeah, that’s just perfect. I go, or I die,” she said and turned away from him.

“It’s not all bad, Izzy. No one can tell you what to do. You’ll live in comfort with legions to serve your every whim.”

He looked at her with a speculative gleam in his blue eyes. “And I get a sense you don’t care a Fsrarn about that.”

“Money and power don’t make you happy,” she said. “We have a saying here on Earth, ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ I’m surprised your Monarchs don’t turn out to be despots.”

Silian grunted. “You know, you remind me of my favorite queen from history. Clau-Isna. She always said ruling the Realm was just like being a mother to a great many children.”

Silian gestured to a photograph of her smiling boys hanging on the wall.

“You look like a pretty great mother to me to have such happy children. Maybe that’s why the Sentinels chose you.”

His eyes found the window, but she knew he was not seeing the snow-covered ground outside.

She followed his gaze, looking at the blankets of snow and consumed by her own thoughts. What was she going to do? She couldn’t rule over that many different aliens.

Silian cocked his head to one side like a dog before he turned to her, “Your friend will arrive in a few moments. Would you like us to be here when she arrives?” Silian asked.

Izzy felt a weight lifting off her shoulders. ~Amy’s almost here.~ She needed something normal for a bit.

“I think it’s best I talk to her alone,” Izzy said, turning toward the front door.

“Very well. Prime,” he said, and she turned to look at him, but he’d gone. She looked around the kitchen and found herself alone. ~That is a neat trick.~

“Fuck,” she said as she realized that it was yet again, proof of what they said.

She heard the sound of Amy’s Mustang pull up outside.

“Dakira Isabelle,” came Mikhlas’s voice in her ear. “Be extremely careful what you say to her. She works for the authorities on this world. They cannot know of our existence, and we didn’t come here to hurt anyone.”

“And how exactly do you propose I explain my sudden perfect health?” she asked the room. There was a silence on the other end for a moment.

“You had to be healed,” Mikhlas said. “I don’t know what you intend to tell her, that is up to you. All I can tell you is the laws that are in place regarding this matter.

“If you tell her about us, or the Realm, the Sentinels, or the technology we have, you will leave us with only two options. One is, we will have to kill her.

“The other is she will need to leave this planet with you. Either way, she will not be allowed to speak to anyone about this.”

“What does that mean? Where are you?” she asked.

“I am on the bridge. On my ship. She cannot know about us,” he said. A knock on the door made her jump.

“I’m coming!” she shouted to Amy. “Are you going to listen to everything I say?” she asked.

“Not if you don’t want me to.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Very well, Dakira. If you need me, call for Prime. It will activate your communicator,” Mikhlas said.

Izzy made her way to the door. “Yeah okay. I will,” she said and swung the door open. A faint beep sounded in her ear.

“What took you so long? It’s colder than a snowman’s testicles out there,” Amy said, coming past Izzy with four large bags of groceries.

She stomped her feet a few times on the rug by the door to get the snow off and walked into the cabin with a tired sigh.

Izzy wondered how long it would take Amy to notice her healthy state. ~She must be exhausted or she would have noticed instantly.~

“Hey, Amy. How was the drive?” Izzy asked as she closed the door.

“Just awful. The beast isn’t built for this kind of terrain.”

Amy loved, more than anything, her Mustang Boss 500, and driving through the Canadian outback was not easy at the best of times, let alone in a tuned-up sports car.

“Yeah, I know,” Izzy said, leaning against the counter. Amy put all the bags down on the ground by the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine. She handed it to Izzy and then unpacked the rest of the food.

“Crack that open and start talking. What the fuck happened here yesterday?” she asked.

“What’s there to tell?” Izzy said, reaching for two glasses. She cracked the bottle open and poured them each a full glass.

“There was some guy in your house, remember?” Amy said.

“Oh yeah. That was nothing. A small misunderstanding.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? I did not just drive hundreds of miles like a bat out of hell through a snowstorm, freezing my ass off while roads were cleared for a misunderstanding. Talk!” Amy said and picked up her glass.

Izzy watched her face for any sign of realization. Amy widened her eyes at her and gave her a “come on” gesture.

“Well, it turns out I have new neighbors. They got lost in the storm. Ended up walking into my kitchen by mistake,” Izzy said and took a sip of wine, all the time watching Amy and waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“That’s it? Neighbors? Izzy, why are you lying to me?” she said. Izzy took a deep breath and thought about what she could say to Amy that wouldn’t get her friend killed.

“Amy, I wish…I wish there was more to it than that. They live like a mile into the valley. They were coming back from town and got caught in the storm.

“They got turned around and found this place, thinking it was their cabin. I walked into the kitchen just as they came in,” Izzy lied. Amy put her glass down and stepped forward.

“Izzy, when you called me, you told me there was someone in the cabin. You were freaked out and then I heard you talking to someone. Begging them not to hurt you. Now either your neighbor is a bear or…”

She stopped. Izzy looked into her eyes and saw Amy’s mind working.

“Are they still here?” Amy whispered. Izzy let out the breath of anticipation she was holding in.

“No. No one’s here. Just us,” she said.

“If they are, you can tell me,” she said, taking her gun out of its holster.

“No, Amy. Put that away. There is no one here but us. I swear.”

“I’m going to check the cabin,” she said and walked out of the kitchen. Izzy smiled after her and once she’d gone the smile fell off her face as she frowned at the ceiling.

“What am I supposed to tell her?” she asked but didn’t get an answer. She remembered what Mikhlas said about activating her communicator.

“Prime?”

“Yes?” the mechanical voice replied.

“Hi…Um…Is Mikhlas there?” she asked as though speaking to someone on the phone.

“Dakira Isabelle. Is everything all right?” His voice came into her ear. Her heart did a little flutter at the sound of it.

“Listen, Amy is not stupid. She’s going to figure it out, and I have no idea what to tell her,” she said.

“She’s coming back,” Mikhlas said.

~Oh, that’s—~Her thoughts were interrupted as Amy walked back into the kitchen.

She stepped in through the door and tossed Izzy’s heavy leg support on the floor in front of her. She ran appraising eyes up and down Izzy’s body and crossed her arms.

“How...the fuck...are you better?” she asked.

“Amy, I want to tell you, but I can’t.”

“Are you kidding me? I saw you three days ago, pins holding your broken leg together. Now you’re walking? And your face? Your ribs?” Amy said.

“Amy, please. I want to explain, but I can’t. If I do, they’ll...” Izzy stopped. ~Shit.~

“They? Who’s they? And what will they do?” Amy asked.

“Amy, you have to trust me. I cannot tell you more. Please, don’t force me to,” Izzy said, looking down.

“Two options, Izzy.” She heard Mikhlas.

“Yeah, I know, thank you,” she whispered back before she could think about how that would look to Amy.

“You know what?” Amy asked, her eyes narrowing and raking across her body once more. ~I have to tell her something. C’mon, Iz, you have to get her to drop this. Two options, remember? She’s in full-on detective mode.~

“Nothing. Just drop it, Amy. I’m fine, that’s all that matters. You have to let this go and trust me and not be a detective for one day. Just be my friend and be happy I’m not in pain,” Izzy smiled at her and picked up her glass.

“Isabelle Jane Moss—”

“Don’t treat me like a child, Amy!” she said, slamming the glass down hard enough to break the stem. She tossed the glass into the sink to clean up later and turned angry eyes to her friend.

“If I tell you I can’t talk about it, I can’t talk about it, okay!? Quit pushing or I’m going to tell you to get back into the Beast and drive off. Am I clear?”

~C’mon, please work, Amy. I don’t want you pulled into this crazy shit.~

Amy stood silent for a while, clearly shocked at her outburst, before she rested her hands on her hips and stared Isabelle down.

“No. There is something going on here, Izzy, and you have to tell me. If you don’t, so help me...I’m going to beat it out of you!” she said.

“Amy, please. Don’t—”

The door behind Amy crashed open and Izzy saw Silian take one step inside before he launched himself across the intervening space like a linebacker.

Amy managed to turn into the charging body before Silian’s mass took her off her feet and she slammed onto the floor with a whuff of expelled breath.

With one hand, he pinned both of Amy’s hands above her head and drew back his other arm, a silvery glint emerging from his right cuff.

“Silian, NO!” Izzy shouted.