Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
A shadow falls over my shuttle, as a bigger ship moves between me and the nearest sun. I feel myself hunkering down, a simple animal instinct bred into me in a world where we never left the atmosphere.
My orb is sucked up, like the vacuum of space just got turned on. I laugh with glee as everything goes smeary for a second. I’m moving too fast to be able to focus on anything. I end up closing my eyes so they don’t feel like they’re about to fall out.
I brace myself for hostile aliens, but when I open my eyes, I discover that the red alien ship didn’t get to me first—my alien captors did. Boss, Kronos and yep, Sharp are all standing ready to grab me out of the pod. Kronos is the one who gets the best grip on me, so he’s the one who throws me over his shoulder like a sack of spuds.
They take me to the bridge of the ship without saying a word. I don’t know what to say either, so we all go with nothing.
“Stay,” he says, slinging me into a chair and strapping me in. “This is about to get messy.”
Sure enough, a second later the whole ship rocks back and forth. We’ve been hit by some kind of bomb or missile or whatever aliens call their weapons. I giggle uproariously. This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Almost dying is like being edged by existence itself. I won’t feel like that once the drugs wear off, but given we’re under bombardment, there’s a high likelihood that won’t matter.
“Let’s go, gentlemen,” Sharp says with completely collected calm as he takes the main console. He barely seems to be reacting to the attacks. I wonder if he’s had a little something too.
The ship makes a humming noise, a deep sound that gets all the way through to the marrow in my bones. Then it sort of… blorps. Like a bubble bursting in water.
We’re no longer in the same space. There are different suns, and there’s a very pretty purple nebula in the distance.
“Are we clear?” Boss rumbles the question.
“I believe so. We’ve jumped three lightyears. They might pick up our signature if we approach occupied space, but I’d say we’re remote enough that they won’t be able to find us in the short term.”
All three of them turn to me. I scream with laughter, because it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever experienced. These men are all so hot in their various alien ways, and they are all so mad, too.
“What is wrong with you?” Kronos demands. “Why are you laughing? Do you understand how close you just were to killing us all?”
I try very hard not to laugh. I fail.
“Sorry,” I explain. “When I thought I was going to die, I had a pill.”
“What kind of pill?”
“Pure neurotransmitters, straight to the dome,” I giggle. “I have more, if you guys want some. Feels to me like you need some.”
“Show me,” Kronos says, extending his hand. I pull a baggie and drop it in his palm.
“I don’t know if your brains will respond to any of these, but you could try,” I suggest.
“We are certainly not going to try,” Sharp says.
“I’d give it a go,” Boss responds.
“Yes! Give it a go! Find out what real happiness is. The kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on circumstances or achieving anything, or being loved, or any kind of external reward. Feel true internal happiness, manufactured by the stimulation of your reward centers!”
I give the little spiel without thinking. When I signed up to sell the pills, I had a sort of underground sales training first. They taught us how to shank the competition, flee from law enforcement, and tell people how taking the drug is actually good for them even though long term it completely deranges the mind.
Kronos’ jaw tightens. He hasn’t bought my little patter. I see his hand contract roughly, crushing the bag. The pills will be all mixed up together. That’s okay. You can snort the dust. Micro-dosing happiness is more natural anyway.
“She’s out of her mind,” Kronos says to the others. “She’s on drugs. Our sweet little pet is a junkie. We’ve failed her.”
“No, we haven’t,” Boss says. “Humans do this. If you put a human within a mile of a hallucinogenic substance, they’ll have snorted everything between them and it. They love this. It’s what they are.”
“Well I don’t intend to accept that,” Sharp says sternly. “I have standards, and she is going to…”
Boom!
The ship rocks again, and I burst out laughing.
“They found us?” Boss asks.
“No. Different hostile actors,” Sharp says. “The universe has gone to hell. One moment.”
The ship rocks and sways as Sharp takes the helm and pilots us through a series of maneuvers I first take to be evasive in nature. Kronos and Boss take two other consoles, and pretty lights start to emanate from the ship. I can see them through the main screen, which provides a view of the space around the bridge almost three hundred and sixty degrees.