Disappearance

KENNA

The stranger looked humanoid in appearance, but I was sure he wasn't human or Susohnnan. There was something that simply wasn't right about his eyes.

"If you're not sure what to do, it would be perfectly acceptable right now to run away screaming," he said with a mocking smile.

Dar stepped forward, drawing himself up to his full height.

"I am King Darvish Micah Nindan Therossell Shu'in. I am the king of Susohn, located in quadrant 415.29. We have a claim on Wormhole 87 that we share with the humans of the planet Earth. You are trespassing."

The alien's smile turned into a full-on laugh. But Dar continued, following protocol.

"If you handled the removal or deaths of the ten thousand personnel on the Susohn Space Station, I demand that you return them, or I will charge you with the highest penalty of Susohnnan law."

"You are an amusing little creature."

Dar continued as if he hadn't been interrupted.

"I further demand that you release all of the humans and Susohnnan on this vessel as per the Union treaty. It states that all descendants of the Great Race have a right to freedom of person and that no person may own any other person."

Dar finally got his attention. "Well!" The man considered Dar's request for a moment. "When you put it that way..."

He stroked his chin in an exaggerated fashion.

"No," he said, finally. "I don't have to abide by that treaty because my race is not a part of the Union. I am not a person."

"Not a person..." Jared muttered to himself.

"You're an alien," Mana said. "Then why do you look like one of us. How can you speak Unified?"

"Let's just say I'm a flexible sort," he said. "And I pick things up quickly."

I frowned. What was he saying?

He was playing with his words.

He was playing with us.

"If you are not part of the Union, then where do you come from?" Dar said. "What race are you?"

"I'd rather not say. And I don't take questions from slaves. You should feel honored right now that I am speaking to you at all."

"We're not your slaves," Jared said. He looked furious — like he was barely holding himself together. Please don't lose your shit, Jared. I thought carefully, trying to transmit my desires straight into Jared's brain. Who knew what else this nutcase alien could do?

"That's a matter of opinion," he said condescendingly. "When you are mind-wiped and distributed over the mining planets we own, you'll be slaves. Don't worry about that."

Mind-wiped? Oh, fuck.

All of us looked at each other and froze. Suddenly he seemed a lot more menacing. Being slaves was one thing. But being mind-wiped was something else entirely. The stakes had gone up considerably.

We had to get away.

Being mind-wiped cleared most, if not all, of a person's memory. I would still remember basic things — how to dress or cook supper. But the memories that made me who I am would be completely gone.

We might as well be dead because it would erase the parts of ourselves.

"Mining planets?" Dar said, keeping his eyes fixed on the alien.

"Our race requires certain rare minerals that we can only find on particular planets we control. Living creatures must extract the minerals. It is impossible to automate the delicate procedure required. The mining is destructive to the life forms, shortening their lifespan considerably."

"By how much?" I said, unable to remain silent any longer. He looked at me with a cold stare.

"75 percent."

None of us said anything.

"You better call some friends," Jared said, rolling up his sleeves. "We're not going without a fight."

"I'm the only one here, and I do not require backup," he said, looking amused again.

"The only one?" Mana said, looking as confused as I felt.

"This is a self-healing ship, manned by droids. I am tired of this conversation. You will make good slaves, I'm sure. You all look strong and healthy."

As he made this speech, there had been a conversation going on between Jared and Dar with their eyes and hands. They were making furious hand signals at each other.

I hoped they knew what they were doing.

I looked at Mana, but she was a statue, with an unreadable expression on her face.

Suddenly, Dar rushed the alien and Jared moved to attack him at the same time. I didn't see anything happen. The man barely touched them, and both Jared and Dar went flying.

Dar sailed across the room, hit the wall hard, and slumped down to the floor.

"Shit!" I ran to him. He was out cold.

"Enough nonsense. I will transport you to the slave cells." He made a strange sound from the back of his throat and disappeared.

"Is he alive?" Mana said, coming over as soon as the alien man was gone.

Jared got up, shook his head, and tried to focus his eyes.

"Is Dar okay?" he said, sitting down against the wall.

I had my fingers pressed to his neck and felt for a pulse. It was strong and steady.

"I think he's okay. Just unconscious," I said.

The world flashed white. Jared, Mana, and I reappeared in another cell. Dar was not with us.

"Where's Dar?" I said, starting to panic. How had I come to depend on him so much in such a short period?

We all looked around. We were the only people in this cell.

"Shit," Jared said, "I think I'm going to puke."

He stumbled over to the toilet and threw up. Mana turned away, one hand over her mouth, the other holding her head. I tried to ignore the ache in my temples. Someone needed to figure out what we could do and how we could find Dar.

I went to the door. They had firmly locked it; I don't even know why I tried. I walked around the room, pulling on the manacles, carefully avoiding the toilet region where Jared was washing his face off.

Jared leaned heavily against the wall and slid down it until he was sitting. There was a large bruise on his cheek from where he had hit the wall.

"Let me see that," Mana said. "You don't seem well."

"I'll be fine, Mana. Don't worry."

She looked surprised and then a little troubled.

"I'm not worried," she said, her eyes darting to me. "But you have a bad bruise."

She reached out to touch his cheek and Jared closed her eyes as her fingers gently traced the hurt part of his face.

"I wish I had my first aid kit," she said, softly.

He looked up at her, a smile on his face in spite of his injuries.

"Thanks, Mana," he said.

I felt like a third wheel.

Hours later, we were lying on the floor. Jared and Mana were asleep, but I couldn't calm down enough to sleep. I heard someone moan, and I looked up to see Dar lying on the floor in the middle of the room. I jumped up and ran to him.

Please be alive, I thought to myself. My movements woke Mana up, and she came over to evaluate Dar.

"They wouldn't transport him in here if he were dead," Mana said as she knelt beside me. Jared hadn't woken up.

I hadn't realized that I had been speaking out loud.

She was examining him, finding his pulse and checking other vital signs. "Still unconscious but vital signs are good. We just have to wait for him to come around."

Waiting. More waiting. I hated waiting.

After the longest hour of my life, he started to stir. I saw his body twitch, and then he groaned and rolled over.

"Dar?" I was beside him in an instant, my hand on his arm. "Are you okay? What happened?"

He didn't say anything but started coughing. Finally, he opened his eyes. Then he tried to sit up, and Mana and I helped him. Jared was somehow still sleeping.

"Dar?" I said, my eyes full of tears. "Can you talk? Are you all right? Will you tell us what happened to you?"

He stared at me for a long moment.

My blood ran cold. There was no recognition in his eyes, only confusion.

"Dar? Do you know where you are? Do you..." I hesitated, not wanting to ask. "Do you know who I am?"

He looked at me for an extended time without saying anything. Then he shook his head no.

I lost all strength in my legs, and I sat down.

"Kenna, he might be suffering trauma right now. Maybe he's had a brain injury from hitting his head."

I closed my eyes, holding my stomach. I felt sick. He was as good as dead. He was no longer the man I loved. Just like that, he had been taken away from me. I bit my lip and tried not to cry. Jared finally woke up and came over.

"Mana, you know he's been mind-wiped. Don't try to pretend to spare me."

For the first time, I saw Mana get angry with me.

"Excuse me, you little upstart bitch. I've known him my whole life. We are best friends. I wouldn't bother to lie to spare your feelings. You would have broken his heart. And your grief is NOTHING compared to mine."

I stared at her, not understanding the flood of malice. Sure, she hadn't been very friendly towards me, but I hadn't realized that she hated me so much.

"Mana," Jared said putting his arm around her.

"No, Jared," she said, shaking off his arm. "She's comes out of nowhere and steals his heart, changing him and putting him in danger. And then she dares to think that her pain is somehow more than mine because of an infatuation?"

She stepped towards me as if she wanted to fight. If she wanted to fight, she would beat me to a pulp, and I would let her because I had no spirit left in me.

I felt like my heart had been ripped out.

"Mana," Jared said again, enfolding her in a tight hug.

I buried my face in my hands, crying. After a few minutes, I remembered that he wasn't dead — he was a stranger in a very strange land. And it was our duty as his friends to help him navigate it.

"Hey you guys," I said, glancing over at Dar where he was sitting and watching everything without any reaction. "He's not dead. He's right here."

"He might as well be," Mana said as I walked over to where they were standing close together.

"I know. But let's forget that his mind is missing. And remember that he needs help. He's lost and confused. If we're his friends, then we need to help him deal with it."

Jared's face got a sad look.

"He helped me when I needed it," he said.

Then we walked over to Dar.

"Hey there, my name's Jared," he said.

"We're your friends."

"I'm sorry," Dar said, a baffled look on his face. "But I don't remember you. And I don't know my name to introduce myself."

"Your name is Dar," I said. "And I'm Kenna."

"And this is Mana," Jared said. "You've been mind-wiped, that's why you don't remember anything. I don't want to overwhelm you by telling you too much about yourself too quickly."

"You are an important person on the planet Susohn," Mana said, her eyes devoid of any emotion. "We have been taken captives on a slave ship. I am your Senior Advisor and oldest friend. Jared is your Head of Security. And she..." Mana gave me a dirty look.

"Mana." Jared murmured, frowning at her. Mana turned away and went to the other side of the room, holding her arms clutched tightly around herself.

"Excuse me," he said, following her across the room.

Dar and I watched them go.

"Do you work for me, too?" he said, looking at me with absolutely no recognition in his eyes.

"No," I said. "No. I don't work for you."

"Who are you then?"

"Just..." I tried not to let the tears fall. "Just someone you used to care for."

"We have to convince him to escape with us," Mana said.

Dar had been stubbornly sitting in a corner, confused and frustrated at not being able to remember who he was. He was also wary of us. He had no recollection of us and questioned if we were who we said we were. I guess we could be anybody to him, and we might be trying to trick him.

"Don't we need to have a plan to escape first?" I said. "Did I miss a meeting?"

A guilty look flashed over Jared's face.

"We were tossing around some ideas when you were sleeping, and we think we've come up with something that might work. I forgot we hadn't told you about it. Sorry, Kenna," Jared said, looking a little bit sheepish.

"Oh, that's okay," I said, trying not to feel left out. "You can tell me now. But I don't know how we're going to convince him to come with us. He's pretty confused and upset."

"We'll think of something," Jared said. "If we have to, we'll bop him over the head and drag him with us."

Mana and I both frowned at him.

"Okay, okay," he said, holding up his hands. "It was just a joke."

"Ha, ha," Mana said. "We need to help him trust us and explain why he needs to come."

"How much are we going to tell him?" I said.

They both looked at me in sympathy.

"I don't want to tell him about our relationship," I said, staring down at my boots.

"Why not?" Jared said, looking confused.

"Because I just don't want to."

"She's hoping he's going to remember her spontaneously," Mana said, looking me over.

How had she guessed?

"No, I don't... I mean..."

"Is that even possible?" Jared looked at Mana.

"No one has ever regained their memories after being mind-wiped," Mana said, staring at me even though she was answering Jared's question.

"That's what I thought," Jared said, and he looked at me. "Kenna..."

"I know. It's silly. But I refuse to believe that he's gone. He can't be gone."

Mana rolled her eyes and turned away. Jared didn't say anything but gave me a hug.

"Whether his memory is coming back or not, we have to convince him to go with us. So, let's talk to him," Mana said. Jared and I looked at each other and followed her.

"Hey," she said to Dar. He was sitting and staring off into space. I noticed she avoided using his name.

He turned to look at us but didn't say anything. He had hardly said two words since he returned to us. I hoped he hadn't forgotten his ability to talk.

"Look, Dar," Jared said. "I know you're upset, but we can't be pussy-footing around you, trying to pretend that nothing has happened. What these girls want me to do is crazy."

Mana and I looked at each other.

"You were mind-wiped like we already told you. And who you thought you were is gone."

Dar stared at Jared, his eyes troubled.

"But who you ARE is right here."

I held my breath in shock. Of course, Jared was right. His memories were gone, but he was still here. I could tell that Mana had the same revelation. Dar seemed to be wrapping his head around the idea, too. Jared went on.

"We need to get ourselves and you out of here. I know you don't remember us, but you can trust us. All of us. Mana has known you for years. Kenna and I just met you, but we were your friends." He glanced over at me and then back at Dar.

Dar looked at me for a moment and then back at Jared, obviously trying to understand the undercurrents of the conversation.

"You can trust us. You HAVE to trust us if you're not going to live out the last short years of your life as a slave."

Dar frowned.

"This is a slave ship," Jared continued, feeling that he was gaining momentum. "The aliens will load it up with as many warm bodies as they can. They're going to take us back to their mining planets and force us to mine their minerals for us. If that sounds like a desirable future to you, then I guess we can leave you here. If you'd rather avoid being a slave, then you can come with us. It's up to you."

We all held our breath, waiting for what he would say. He looked down at the floor, not sure whether to trust us or not.

I knelt down beside him.

"Dar?" I said, trying to keep any emotion off my face that might scare him. He looked up and met my eyes and my breath caught in my throat. It was like the night we first met at the party — I couldn't look away. Finally, I found my voice again. "We don't mean you any harm."

He gazed at my face for a long time and then finally he nodded.

"I will come with you," he said. He turned away from us as if those five words exhausted him.

"Good," Jared said, clapping his hands together. "Good. Now we just have to get away."

DAR

The three finally left me alone after I agreed to go with them. I didn't know why the fact that there were three of them seemed significant.

I felt that three was a key number, but I didn't know why.

There were many questions. I had lost everything, but I wasn't sure what I had lost. Apparently I had been someone of importance. And I had friends. Other than that, I knew absolutely nothing about myself.

My life was a clean slate.

I probably would regret losing all of my memories if I could remember what it was I had lost. Jared seemed like a good guy, and Mana was someone dependable.

But that Kenna. I couldn't seem to figure out where she fit.

She intrigued me. When I looked at her before. When she spoke to me. Something happened inside of me. My heart stopped for a moment. I lost my breath. I felt like for a second everything clicked. And in spite of all that had happened to me (which I couldn't remember), it was going to be okay.

Then that flash was gone, and she was some random that I didn't know.

It was confusing.

It made sense to go with them. If I was ever to piece back together my life, I wasn't going to get a chance to do it if I was a slave in some far off galaxy. I wondered what exactly their plan was to get off an impermeable ship that was designed to keep people prisoners.

I had another nap. I was constantly exhausted - I felt like I could sleep for days. When I woke up, the three were talking in the corner. They spoke quietly, but I could hear them perfectly.

"It's perfect because it's simple," Jared said.

"It's perfectly simply stupid," Mana said in a disgusted tone of voice. "We're going to get ourselves mind-wiped or killed. But I can't think of anything better to try."

"Okay, so can you run through it one more time, Jared? You said the shuttle you came in on is still attached to the ship?"

"Yes. Some of the devices embedded in our skin are still functioning. We've determined that our shuttle is still there," Mana said.

"We need to knock over the droids that bring us our food and water and get out the door. We'll grab one of them and make a run for the cell that we entered through — that's only three doors down. We that know because of the device we recovered from Mana's elbow implant."

Kenna glanced at the dirty bandage wrapped around Mana's elbow. If we didn't clean it soon, it would get infected. She ought to take better care of herself, I thought, momentarily forgetting that personal care was probably pretty low on Mana's list of priorities right now.

"How will we get into the other cell?" Kenna asked.

"The droids use fingerprint identification. That's why we'll take either the whole droid or a hand. We'll lock the other droids in this cell."

"Okay, I'm following you so far. We knock over the droids when they bring us our food and water. We use their fingerprints to unlock the door on the other cell. We get inside. And the shuttle is on the other side of the hull. But how do we get to it?" Kenna asked. She sounded like a walking plot summary.

"Imagine the device we removed from her elbow is a souped up Swiss army knife," Jared said, grinning at me. "It has a laser beam that cuts through metal."

"You're kidding me," Kenna said.

"No lie," Jared said, holding up his hands to show his innocence. "We come prepared."

"Mana's right. This plan is stupid and needs a lot of luck. I haven't got any better ideas, so let's get ready."

I stood up. If they were going to enact that ridiculous plan, then I had better get ready, too.

The four of us stood on either side of the door. We were waiting for our food and water. I couldn't believe that we were doing this.

It seemed the height of folly to me, but they had faith that it would work, and I didn't care. For me, there were no consequences. If they caught us and mind-wiped us, I would be in exactly the same boat as I was in before.

Of course, I wouldn't wish a mind-wiping on anyone. It's horribly disconcerting, disorienting, and frankly irritating because I didn't know who I was or anything about the world. The three had only told me bits and pieces about my life. We were waiting to get away and then they would fill me in on everything they had left out.

I hoped.

Jared and I were on one side of the door and Mana and Kenna on the other. We waited silently. The droids should be here any minute.

I glanced over at Kenna. I didn't think she was particularly beautiful. But there was something about her eyes. They captivated me. I felt as though I could get lost in them.

She met my gaze and held it. She didn't speak or move, but I knew she were telling me something in a language that I couldn't understand. It was just out of reach, and it was giving me feelings I couldn't identify.

We stared at each other until my heart was pounding and my breathing coming fast. What was she doing to me? It felt like sorcery.

She hadn't even touched me, and my body was responding. I had no chance to think about it, though, because the door was opening.

The droids had a humanoid form and could perform simple tasks. But they weren't sentient, thank goodness. Jared and I quickly overpowered them. These were the servant droids, not the soldier droids I had seen in the med bay where they mind-wiped me. I assumed that there was a big difference in power and weight for different types of robots.

Jared and I picked one up and ran down the hall. Kenna and Mana had slammed the door and locked it. They were right behind us.

We made it to the other cell and used the droid's fingerprint to give us access. I wondered what kind of maniac designer would put prints on an android.

"What do we do with the robot?" Jared asked Kenna and Mana. No one asked my opinion, and I didn't offer it. I was a shadow now, without memories and almost without a personality. I would stay in the background and try to figure things out before I would offer my opinion on anything.

"Just take it into the cell," Mana said. "And hurry. They've been alerted. We have two minutes and forty-five seconds."

Jared rushed into the room. There were excited exclamations from our crewmen who were being held there. He ignored them all, running to the wall. Mana was right behind him and handed him a device that seemed microscopic. I hadn't even realized she was holding anything in her hand.

Jared aimed the laser at the wall and started to cut.

Nothing happened. He gave Mana an inquisitive look.

"I said before it took two minutes to cut the hull the first time," she said.

"That doesn't give us much leeway." His teeth clenched as he focused on cutting the right sized hole and keeping the proper distance and angle from the hull.

"I told you this was stupid," she said with a shrug.

I chuckled to myself. That was so like her.

I froze. How could I know if something was like her or not?

I stared at her for a minute before I shook it off. It was a fluke.

The mind-wiped had no memories or even glimmers of memories. The technology was made perfect in the last fifty years. The people who did that sort of work didn't make mistakes either.

I couldn't have remembered anything about Mana. My assessment had to have been based on what I had seen of her since I woke up.

There was a loud commotion in the room, disturbing my train of thought. My eyes drew to Kenna. She was surrounded by people asking questions or greeting her.

She was talking to as many of them as she could. Shaking hands, smiling, answering questions. Her long brown hair, I noticed, had been coiled on her head instead of being in a braid down her back.

I tried to listen to what she was saying.

"There's not room on the shuttle for all of us. We will return to the ship and make a plan to get you all out of here. You've got to be strong and stay safe until we return, okay? We won't leave you here."

There was a loud screeching noise.

"Kenna," Jared said. He and Mana were pulling out a piece of hull.

Kenna smiled one last time and ran over to me. She grabbed my hand, and I felt an electric tingle zap me when we touched. She looked at me in shock, and I could tell that she had felt it too. There was no time to wonder about all of this.

We had to go. We could hear soldier droids pounding down the corridor.

She pulled me to the hole in the hull. Mana and Jared had disappeared through it.

"You first," I said.

She looked confused and paused for a moment. Then she shook her head.

"You don't understand, but you're much more important than I am. There are a lot of people depending on you to come back."

"Dar, Kenna," Mana poked her head back through. "Hurry up! Why don't you talk AFTER you evacuate? The ship's starting to close up again."

"Now, Dar. Just go," she said pushing me a little.

Something was wrong. I was experiencing deja vu. We had already had this conversation about who should escape and who was more important. But I didn't want to argue. I wanted to get to safety and, more importantly, I wanted Kenna to get to safety, too.

The sooner I went through, the sooner she would follow me.

I put my legs in and slid into the shuttlecraft, landing clumsily in a heap on the floor. Mana helped me get up. Jared was already powering up and getting ready to take off.

Mana went to the hole and called to Kenna again.

"Kenna, quick. You're next!" she said.

At that moment, we heard soldiers coming through the door. I heard the sound of shots. People screamed and ran to the walls and corners, trying to get out of the way.

"You have to come now!" Mana yelled.

My heart pounded at the sounds of chaos coming through the hole. I saw her feet dangling, but something was delaying her.

"Kenna, you're going to have to jump. The ship's closing up," Mana yelled again.

I moved to see if I could help. Kenna was sitting ready to jump through the hole. That's when I noticed the problem with the ship.

The ship was reconstructing its walls by itself. The hole was getting smaller. Soon she would not be able to fit through.

"Now, Kenna!" Mana screamed.

Kenna finally jumped, her body slipping through the ever-shrinking hole in the hull. But she had waited too long. In the end, her arm got caught and pulled back. Her forearm and hand slid through as the hole closed around it. The metal of the ship scraped deeply from halfway up her forearm to her fingertips.

She screamed in intense pain and fell to the floor in a heap, thankfully unconscious. Her arm was bleeding profusely.

I felt like vomiting. I did have memory problems, but I could not remember ever seeing anyone hurt so badly.

"Jay, get us the hell out of here." Mana said.

There was a lurch as Jared quickly accelerated away from the alien vessel. Mana tossed me the first aid kit.

"Stop the bleeding, Dar. Jared's piloting and I've got to make sure they don't transport us back." She ran for a console and began tapping furiously.

"Keep them from getting a lock, Mana," Jared said. "We'll be on the other ship in a few minutes."

I stared down at Kenna. Her arm was a mess.

I didn't know what to do.

"Dar!" Mana yelled, "Stop the bleeding. She's can't lose any more blood. Jared, he's just standing there. I can't let them get a lock on us. But Kenna's going to die. She must have cut an artery."

"Dar, we need you. Kenna needs you. Please," Jared said, his tone desperate.

I pressed my lips together and suddenly felt the ability to move again. It didn't matter how I sick I felt. This person needed my help. And I needed to help her.

I knelt beside her and tore open the first aid kit, finding packets that contained thick pieces of gauze. I opened two of them and used them as gloves. I picked up her arm, wrapping the pieces of gauze around at the same time. The raw exposed red flesh turned my stomach. But I ignored my nausea, focusing on the areas filled with blood.

There was a spot that was gushing, and I quickly tore open medical packets, one after another, pressing them against the bleeding. The pads turned bright red immediately. I opened more and pressed them onto the wound, applying as much pressure as I could. These soaked through, too, but it took much longer. Finally, the outer bandages stayed white. For that, I was truly thankful.

I found a roll of gauze and wrapped lengths of it around the pads that were already there. Then I continued wrapping until the whole bloody mess was covered.

In the end, her arm appeared twice its normal size. It was a terrible job and looked awful. But she wasn't bleeding anymore. I felt a sense of satisfaction. These people needed me, and I had helped them.

I wondered if I was the sort of person that helped other people.

KENNA

I was in agony. I couldn't think. I couldn't speak. I certainly couldn't move.

But I could hear.

"She moved. I'm sure she moved. She must be coming around," a man's voice said.

"That's not good. I'm not done," said a woman.

I heard myself screaming, over and over, as the excruciating pain became even worse.

I became aware of strong hands holding me down. Was this alien torture?

The darkness took me again.

DAR

Kenna was in really bad shape.

We had escaped from the prison ship and stopped at the other smaller ship for only a few minutes to gather supplies. Mana continued to evade their transporter beams while Jared and I grabbed food, water, and medical supplies.

We were on our way. After Jared had taken us into hyperdrive, the shuttle was well out of transporter range. Mana sat back from her console looking exhausted, but she got up a few minutes later and moved to Kenna's side. She looked at me and sighed deeply.

"I wish you remembered your first aid training," she said, sadly. She likely wanted me to remember a lot more, too — like who the hell she was to me. "But that doesn't matter. You'll have to assist me."

I nodded.

"Okay. Are you a doctor or nurse or something?" I said.

"No, but I have some basic emergency medical training. We have to cleanse the wound so it won't get infected, then rebandage it. You stopped the bleeding, but we don't know what weird stuff was on that metal that scraped her."

Jared came over.

"Isn't there any local anesthetic in here?" she said, poking around in a box that we had hastily grabbed from the med bay on the ship.

There wasn't.

"We have to work while she's unconscious, so let's get to it. Jared, come over here. You guys may have to hold her if she comes around while I'm cleaning her wound."

She carefully cut off the blood-soaked bandages and peeled them away, layer by layer. When she got to the bottom layer, they stuck to her flesh. As she pulled them away, I saw the woman twitch.

"She moved. I'm sure she moved. She must be coming around," I said.

"I'm not done yet!" said Mana.

The screaming started. The sound was terrible and indescribable. Jared looked at me with wide eyes.

"Hold her," Mana said coldly. We grabbed Kenna as she tried to sit up and get away from the pain. After only a few seconds, she was unconscious again, to our great relief.

"By The Three, we better get her to a hospital soon," Mana said, staring at the exposed arm. "Doesn't this look like it's getting infected already?"

Mana had finished peeling off the bandages. Jared and I had an unobstructed view of Kenna's wound. It was nasty.

"All I've got in here to disinfect it is rubbing alcohol." She looked upset.

"That's going to hurt like a son of a bitch," Jared said.

Mana nodded and opened the bottle. She emptied the whole thing all over Kenna's arm. We held her in case she regained consciousness but thankfully she didn't.

After Mana had rebandaged the wound neatly, Jared and I carried her to the dorm room. The shuttle was so small that there weren't individual quarters. There was only a small room with six bunk beds. We put her safely on one of the lower ones and returned to the bridge.

Mana was checking our coordinates.

"Hey," Jared said. She ignored him, continuing to tap at her console. "Mana."

"What?" she said, looking up at him in irritation.

"You need to go rest. You're dead on your feet."

"I'm all right," she said. I could see the dark circles under eyes and the way her body was sagging.

"You've been awake for over twenty hours," he said.

"So have you," she said, glaring at him. He was slowly blinking his eyes; he must be just as tired as she was.

I watched the two of them in their standoff. Then I walked over to the captain's console. They turned to watch me as I did.

"I still remember how to pilot this thing, and I've had a lot of naps." I said.

I wasn't sure if I could do it right now, but I knew for sure that I had done it before, and I was awake.

They glanced at each other, not sure what to say. Mana had told me that I would retain some of my basic knowledge. All the memories would be lost, and specialized skills like piloting a shuttlecraft would be forgotten.

"Show me," Mana said, so I sat down at the controls. I was nervous, but I was able to do some simple maneuvers. When I looked up, she was giving Jared an incredulous look, which she wiped off her face when she saw me looking at her. "Okay."

"Okay, what?" Jared said.

"Okay I'll go and rest, you jerk," she said. "And so will you."

He grinned and slung his arm around her shoulders. She smiled a tiny smile as he did so. I heard him as they walked down the hall.

"You can sing me a lullaby, Mana." And I snorted. As if Mana would ever sing anyone a song, I thought.

It occurred to me that this was another thing I shouldn't know about her.

KENNA

I was awake, but I kept my eyes closed.

My first thought after I woke up again was that my arm hurt.

My second thought was that we needed to get to Earth. We needed help dealing with the alien attack force. Before I could finish thinking, I was interrupted by a familiar sound.

"Kenna?" I moved into a more comfortable position when I heard Dar's voice. I opened my eyes, and a wave of sadness washed over me.

He was right here with me. He was right beside me.

So why did I miss him so much?

"Are you all right?" he said, hesitantly. "The pain must be incredible. I'm sorry, but we used up all the painkillers in the first two hours."

"Two hours. How long have I been out?"

"About eight, same as Mana and Jared."

"Who was piloting the ship?" I asked.

"The guy without a memory," he said with a grin.

I wrinkled up my nose.

"I thought that Mana said that would be impossible." I trailed off. He shrugged.

I stared at him for a moment.

That's when I realized that I was stupid. Dar could have died. They could have killed him. Instead, he had only lost his memory but like Jared had said — he was still here with me now. I hadn't completely lost him, and I needed to be thankful for what I still had.

If he had fallen in love with me once, then he could do it again.

I smiled at him, and I knew it was a happy, hopeful smile and he wouldn't understand it. But I couldn't help it.

For the first time since he had looked at me with his blank, unknowing eyes, I had hope that maybe everything wasn't over.

"Are you in pain?" he said.

And as I thought about my arm, I realized how much it hurt. But it was nothing to what it had felt like when I had got my scar.

"Yeah," I said. "But it's not that bad. I've had worse."

"You have?" He seemed skeptical.

I nodded.

"Why don't you tell me what happened after I passed out?" I said.

After Mana and Jared had woken up, I discovered I was the only one who thought to go to Earth was a good idea.

"Mana," I said. "I know you don't like to depend on anyone but the Susohnnan, but you know that there have been changes in the relationship between our planets." My eyes darted to Dar, but there was no reaction. He probably had no idea what I meant. "We have a treaty now. Everyone's going to help each other."

"But how are we going to get in to see the President of Earth? Dar has no memory of any protocols or passwords." She gave me a Look.

Of course, she was right. How could we get in to see the President without Dar?

He hardly looked like a king. He had let his beard grow, and there was something different about the way he projected himself. He lacked a sense of confidence.

Mana's position as Senior Advisor wasn't enough to get us through the door. Jared and I were nobodies. None of us had identification, as we had lost many belongings during unexpected transportation.

Shit.

"You're probably right, Mana, but do you have a better idea?"

"I don't think this would be a great thing to do," Jared said. He looked more uncomfortable than I had ever seen him. Mana and I exchanged a concerned look.

"Why?" I said, confused. "We need help, right? There's no way that Susohn can handle this threat on its own. We might not have a chance even if we're together. Maybe other planets need to get involved, but it makes sense to start with Earth."

Mana nodded. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Kenna. My problem is the logistics."

"There's got to be another way." He stared down at his hands, then ran his fingers through his hair, making the golden curls stand on end.

"Of course, there are plenty of other ways but they don't make sense." She sighed. "We're going to Earth. We'll figure everything else out after we get there." she said in a tone that brooked no opposition.

Jared glanced my way, but he would get no help from me.

Even if we couldn't get an audience with the President, there would be something we could do. We could ask Dar's mother to intervene. We could stage a protest, lie down on the street in front of her office — we had to do something, anything.

The aliens could come back anytime.

"Well, what now?" I said, staring up at the skyscraper that housed the offices of the President. Mana and Dar and I had tried get in to see her and had been politely asked to leave.

There was no way we were going to get past her gatekeepers. They didn't believe that Dar was the king of Susohn and that Mana was his Senior Advisor. Didn't they have a picture of them? Maybe they thought everyone from Susohn looked the same.

We had cleaned up as best we could, but we didn't have enough money to outfit ourselves as a delegation from Susohn.

They thought we were a bunch of pranksters.

"Let's meet Jared back at the hotel and tell him what happened. Maybe he'll have some ideas."

I doubted it. He had been silent the entire trip back to Earth and refused to come with us.

We got back to the hotel, and I flopped down on the bed, gazing up at the ceiling.

My mind drifted to Carson, my favorite engineer who I had eaten with a few times before he had been stolen away for a life of slavery in the mines. I remembered his smile and how he had always been so kind to me. It wasn't right that he should be forced to live out the rest of his life under inhumane conditions.

We had to get in to see the President. She was the key. She would get everything going.

Mana finished telling Jared what had happened. When she finished, he closed his eyes as if asking for strength from the divine. Then he opened them and spoke.

"I can get you in."

We all stared at him.

"What do you mean?" Mana said, puzzled.

"I can get you in to see the President."

"What are you going to do, flash your AEA terrorist card and they'll buzz you right in?" Mana said, and I laughed.

"No. But the President will listen if it's me that shows up at her door."

"Why? She didn't listen to Kenna. Her staff didn't believe Dar and I. Why is she suddenly going to listen to a nobody like you?" Mana said.

Jared sighed deeply and rubbed his forehead with one hand.

"She'll listen to me because I'm her son."

We were back at the President's offices very quickly.

"Tell her Jared's here," Jared said. When we had entered the building, he had assumed an authoritarian air.

I didn't even know how to describe it. It was like he expected people to listen to him and do what he said.

The people in the office apparently felt it, too. But they also knew they would be in big trouble if they gave unauthorized people access to the President.

"I'm sorry sir, but that simply isn't possible," the small officious secretary said. He pressed his lips together and nodded.

"If you don't tell her, and she finds out I was here, you'll be wishing that you hadn't kept me waiting," Jared said. He planted his hands on the desk and leaned towards the man, the menace in his tone unmistakable.

I was shocked and looked at him carefully. Was this the same cheerful, easy-going guy I thought I knew?

The secretary was unsure of what to do.

"Look, why don't you take my name back to her and see what she says," Jared suggested.

"Fine, since you are insistent. I'm sure she won't see you, sir. What is your full name?"

"Jared Mahaar."

The man froze.

"Pardon me?" he said, his eyes wide.

"You heard me." Jared's eyes showed a hint of a smile at the man's sudden change of manner.

"I...I'm sorry, sir. I didn't realize. Your mother asked us to screen everyone. I was just following orders. Your appearance has changed."

Jared cut him off with a hand gesture. Then he marched towards the President's office without waiting to be announced.

We followed him as the others in the office stared at us. I would never have imagined that Jared had been born into affluence. He was always down-to-earth, friendly, and personable! He had never once acted like he was better than me or anyone else.

To learn that his mother was the President was quite a surprise.

When he opened the door, we heard a woman's irritated voice.

"Jeffers, I asked you to leave me for the next hour, I've got work to do!"

As Jared appeared in the doorway, her voice trailed off.

It wasn't the tearful reunion that I had imagined. I guess he had told me the truth when he said that he had a falling out with his mother.

"JJ? Is that you?" she said. Her voice projected uncertainty and fear.

Right now, this was not the dominant woman who ran our planet. She was a mother, hoping for forgiveness from her only son.

As we came through the double doors, I was surprised by her appearance, now that I saw her compared to Jared.

I had seen her before on TV but now that I thought about it, Jared looked nothing like her. He was tall and blonde and wiry. She was small and had straight, dark brown hair, with a compact, sturdy body and darker skin.

I had always assumed she was from the Middle East. I had read about her before, but I didn't remember her home country.

She and Jared were nearly complete opposites in terms of looks, and I assumed that either he took after his father or had been adopted.

He certainly didn't look like his mother.

"It's me, Mama," he said, dropping the aura of power he had carried since we had walked into the building. He looked hurt, and he was trying to keep his distance from his mother. Was he were worried she might hurt him again?

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

Jeez, was this woman the brilliant mind that ran the entire planet? Couldn't she see that Jared just wanted her to love him?

Perhaps she was an intellectual, but inept in relationships. How could she ask him what he was doing here? Why wasn't she running over and giving him a hug? I shook my head, stunned by the scene unfolding before me.

"Could it possibly be because I want to see you?" he said, his voice bitter. "Do you have time in your busy schedule for me?"

"You told me the last time we spoke that you never wanted to see me again. You didn't want me meddling in your life. You didn't want to go into politics and that I should leave you alone." She seemed close to tears. "I left you alone because that's what you wanted."

Jared shook his head, staring at his mother. The rest of us watched the drama unfold.

"No, you were doing what you have always done — ignoring me." His voice was harsh and filled with pain. My heart ached for the boy Jared had been and the man he still was, who had never been loved the way he had needed to be.

"It took years of hard work to get where I am now. It doesn't happen over night. I had dreams, Jared, and I had to follow them. They were important. That doesn't mean that you are not important."

She walked around the desk until she was standing before him. The difference in their heights was evident as they stood facing each other. They were completely oblivious to the rest of us in the room.

"Jared." she said, but he stared stubbornly at the floor. "Jared, look at me."

Reluctantly, he lifted his stormy green eyes.

"Ever since we fought, all of this..." She gestured around at the luxurious room. "...has been empty. I'm sorry I wasn't the mother you wanted me to be. I regret that every day. But it's in the past now. I can't fix it. There is only now. We can only go on from here."

She reached out tentatively and took his hand. He let her take it, staring at her with troubled eyes.

"And what does that mean?" he said.

"I don't know," she said. "But maybe we can figure it out together?"

She looked scared.

"If you could consider forgiving me, that is?" she added.

He stared at her for a long time, different emotions chasing each other across his face. I looked around at everyone else in the room.

Dar had a confused look on his face. He looked like he remembered something painful. I thought about his reconciliation with his mother and wondered what he was thinking.

Mana was watching Jared intently. She focused her entire body on him. She looked like she could feel all the pain he was feeling.

There was another emotion on her face that I struggled to identify. As I watched her, I realized that it could be called longing.

"I don't know," he said, and her face crumpled. "But I guess I could think about it."

She got a funny look on her face, and I thought that she would cry this time. But then she smiled.

"Okay," she said. "I'll take that."

All of a sudden, she seemed to realize that she and Jared were not alone.

"But why are you here, Jared? You didn't just come to see your dear old mother."

And when she said that, she looked nothing like a dear old mother. She looked like the woman who had climbed to the top and had the power of an entire planet at her fingertips.

"No, mama. We've got a bigger problem on our hands."

And I watched as she transformed into the President before our very eyes.

"What's going on?" she glanced around at the rest of us.

Mana finally spoke up. "We have a problem at Wormhole 87," she said. "A significant problem. The space station has disappeared, and aliens took everyone on it as slaves."

Mana, Jared, and the president had gone to contact Susohn. We had explained what had happened to Dar, and she volunteered to communicate with the queen mother, instead, considering the circumstances.

"I have to find a bathroom," I said, feeling a little nervous about being alone with him. It was the first time we had been alone since he had been mind-wiped.

"I'll come with you," he said, immediately.

"It's okay. I'm sure I can manage on my own. I've used a bathroom my entire life." I laughed.

"You don't want me to come with you?"

There was an unexpected note of yearning in his voice that took me by surprise.

"No, I didn't mean that. You can come with me. Just wait outside." I gave him a weird look, but he didn't notice.

I felt unsure and nervous. It was like we were starting all over again. We were meeting for the first time, and it seemed odd. I sighed as we walked down the hall together. I'd been told to go down the stairs, and I would find a washroom on the right.

"Is everything OK?" he said to me.

"Yeah, I'm all right," I said. It was a complete lie. I had lost the love of my life, even though he was walking right beside me, and it was tearing my heart out. Fine probably wasn't the right word to describe what I was. "Not all right" would open up a big can of worms.

"You seem different from the rest. Could you tell me about our relationship before I was mind-wiped?"

My mind clouded, and I forgot about needing the washroom for a moment. He wanted me to tell him about our relationship? He wanted to know about what we had done together? How could I tell him that? I couldn't explain to a complete stranger about what we had been through together.

The idea was ludicrous.

How long had we been walking to this bathroom?

"I'm not sure if I can," I finally got out after a minute of silence.

"Why?" he said, confused.

"It's complicated, and I have to pee," I said, changing the subject.

I started walking faster down the hall. He matched my pace easily with his long legs.

"Here we go," I said. A door appeared in front of me. I was desperate to get away from him before he asked any more difficult questions. I turned and walked in with Dar following behind me.

As he let go of the door, it shut behind us, leaving us in the dark. Or it was almost dark. There was a tiny emergency light that gave off just enough light so I could barely make out his features.

"This is not the bathroom," I said.

"I think it's a closet," he said, and I could sense his presence quite close beside me because the closet wasn't very big at all. I breathed in his scent, and I felt like crying.

"Shouldn't we go?" I said, not wanting to move. Not wanting to touch him.

"Kenna," he said, and my heart jumped when he said my name. I swallowed. "Please tell me."

I felt myself relenting. It wasn't fair to keep it from him, I supposed. Maybe the darkness would make it easier.

"We loved each other," I said, feeling the tears close at hand. "We met on Dobu and well, we hit it off, so to speak. Then some terrorists attacked and we escaped from them together." Our entire relationship flashed through my mind. Something inside me hoped that if I remembered the past, Dar would be able to remember it as well.

Our first night together and how amazing it had been. How I had disappeared, and he had been searching for me. That moment when he had found me in the lab, and we had done it on the countertop. The explosion. Our escape. The slow, hot morning sex. The terrorists taking us prisoner and how we had jumped into the river. I had saved him. And then he had saved me.

In the end, we had saved each other.

That was a lot. I couldn't tell him all that.

"I became Susohnnan," I said, skipping over what I had gone through to get the bright red scar on my left hip. "And we were going to get married, eventually."

I stopped talking then. Those were the high points, and it would have to be enough because I couldn't stop the tears that were streaming down my face. Thank goodness it was dark in here.

I tried to go past him out the door then, but he stepped closer to me. I could feel the heat of his body. It was so close to mine.

"Kenna," he said. His voice twisted my heart and made it beat faster simultaneously. The tears dried up.

"Yes?" I said, not moving away. I probably should have.

"I need to kiss you," he said, closing the distance between us.

My body tingled all over.

Then he leaned down, and our lips touched. It hadn't been that long since he had last kissed me, but that was a different person.

I hadn't expected that we would ever kiss me again, and the result was electric.

Fireworks exploded behind my eyes. I felt a shot of excitement zing down to my core. My body filled with energy and my heart felt light. Oh, yes. Oh, I loved him so much. I missed him so much.

I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him close. He kissed me — hungry and desperate — as if he were a drowning man, and I was his life preserver. Our tongues twisted together. Our bodies pressed tightly against each other. I never wanted it to end.

But when I felt his hardness pressing into my pelvis, I knew I had to stop this madness. I stepped back, giving him a push on the chest to make him move away.

"Kenna, please," he said. "I've been dreaming of you. Memories, maybe fantasies, but they seem real."

"Dar. We can't do this. What are you thinking? It wouldn't be right."

"Are you taking advantage of the mind-wiped guy?" he said. "I promise I won't complain. Please. Take advantage of me. I'm begging you."

I laughed. I couldn't help it.

"We need to go," I said, squeezing past him. That was a mistake, because my whole body rubbed against his, making me gasp at the sensation. I opened the doorknob quickly and burst out into the brightness of the corridor.

"Kenna, wait," he said, catching up to me in the hallway and reaching for my hand. I paused, enjoying the feeling. "I don't remember everything that we went through together. But whatever we had..."

He stopped.

"Yeah?" I said, suddenly really wanting to hear what he had to say.

"I don't think that it got wiped. Not completely."

I drew in a shaky breath at what he was saying, unable to look away from his eyes.

"It was your mind that got erased," I said gently.

He nodded, his eyes never leaving mine.

"My mind. Not my heart."

He pulled me back to him and kissed me again, deeply. The way he used to.

DAR

I had a richly decorated room in the President's offices. I walked in, leaving the door unlocked. We would be lodged here until we left.

I sat down on the bed. I felt ready to collapse with fatigue and emotion. The constant uncertainty and confusion of not knowing anything was exhausting.

I buried my head in my hands. I felt completely overwhelmed and sad at all that I had lost.

Everyone else, along with the President and her advisers, had been having a meeting about assembling a joint human and Susohnnan army to fight the threat. The Susohnnan and the humans were going to meet at a rendezvous point and then proceed together to Wormhole 87 to defeat the aliens. Mana and Jared would lead the combined troops.

I was unable to participate in the meeting, but I listened. Mana had told me that we were usually peaceful people, but when anything threatened our peace, we were willing to fight to protect our lifestyle.

I had met my mother on a view screen. She was participating in the meeting remotely because I was unable to fulfill my duties. I didn't have any memories of her, and she was devastated.

I knew I was breathing too fast, but my life were spiraling out of control.

I didn't know who I was. I didn't remember anything about who I had been.

I used to wield immense power, and now I had nothing. And I didn't know if that bothered me or not.

"Dar?" I looked up. It was Kenna. She was holding her bandaged hand up in front of her chest. "I knocked, but you didn't answer, and the door was unlocked. I locked it now. You really shouldn't leave it open. We launch tomorrow at oh nine hundred hours, and you need to be ready."

Finally, her flow of words stopped as she studied me.

"Are you all right?"

I closed my eyes and told her the truth. Maybe she would understand. She was the only thing that made sense in all this madness.

"No. I'm not all right. Not at all."

She sat down beside me and reached out her good hand, tentatively, as if she wasn't sure if I would want her to touch me. I clasped her hand and immediately felt better.

All of a sudden, even though the world around me was crazy, it felt manageable. I could do this as long as she was holding my hand.

When I looked at her, I could tell she was affected too. She wasn't breathing.

"Kenna," I said, feeling hopeless. Surely, she wouldn't want to be with a man without memories. A has-been. "I don't know if I'm the same man you loved. I feel like I'm no one anymore."

She pressed her lips together and a tear escaped her eye and trickled down her cheek.

"You're still the man I fell in love with," she said.

I shook my head, staring at her. How could that be?

She looked at my lips and then back up at my eyes as if asking permission. Then she moved towards me, and we were pulled together by forces stronger than either of us could resist.

The kiss was hot, and I wondered what it had been like to make love to her. We must have burned up the sheets. At the thought, I started to harden. I wondered if it was right to do this.

This time it was me that pulled back.

"Kenna, what are we doing?" I said, breathlessly.

"I don't know," she said, her eyes full of longing for me.

"I'm not sure I can be who you need me to be," I said.

"I don't care," she said her eyes burning. "I have missed you so much, and right now I just want to be close to you. Do you want to be close to me?"

I closed my eyes. She was asking if I wanted her? God, did I want her. But I didn't know about taking this next step. I had a feeling it wouldn't be easy to let go of her, once I had tasted her sweet body and been so close to her heart. If she dumped me after we had fucked, I was pretty sure I would be broken.

"I want to be with you more than anything. But I don't know if it would be right."

"Don't you want to take advantage of the girl who's man was mind-wiped? I promise I won't complain. Please. Take advantage of me. I'm begging you."

She repeated the words I had used yesterday and at the same time, she took the hand that she was holding and placed it on her breasts.

I drew in a shuddering breath. I didn't think I could resist her any longer, not if she wanted it as much as I did.

There was a knock on the door, and we jumped apart, looking at each other with a guilty expression on our faces. I stood up and went to open it.

It was Jared, and he was looking for Kenna.

"Hey guys, I just need Kenna for a quick meeting," he said, looking back and forth between Kenna and I. "Am I interrupting something?"

Kenna glanced at me, and though she was trying to hide it, I could see the disappointment on her face.

"No, Jared. You weren't interrupting anything."

She gave me one more long look before she followed him out the door. When she left, I sighed deeply.

I wanted to make love to her, and if we hadn't been interrupted, I don't know what would have happened. But surely it wasn't right to do this. Not the way I was now.

I wasn't worthy of Kenna, and I wouldn't hurt her by continuing this farce.

That felt like the right thing to do. I would avoid her. I wouldn't facilitate this nonsense any longer.

If my memories came back, then I would obviously continue the relationship. But if they didn't...well, then she would have to move on.

She would have to find a whole man who knew who he was. I would tell her soon. She would be okay without me.

What would I do without her? I had no idea.

KENNA

We had arrived at the wormhole with the vast armada of ships about five hours ago. Mana and Jared were leading the troops in the largest of the fighter craft. I watched from the bridge as the joint human and Susohnnan army devastated the alien ship. The ships were firing simultaneously, and there were hundreds of holes in the hull of the enemy.

We were winning.

I scratched some of my good skin that was itchy under the bandage and looked over at Dar. At the same moment, he looked at me. He gazed at me with no expression on his face. He nodded his head towards the door. I had a bad feeling about this.

He left the bridge and a minute later, I followed, leaving President Mahaar and Dar's mother on the deck with the rest of the crew. They couldn't stop watching the viewscreen, and they didn't notice we had left.

When I got into the hall, I looked for Dar and heard his voice behind me.

"Kenna."

I turned to him. He didn't SAY "We need to talk," but I sensed it.

"Look, I've been thinking," he said. "I believe that the best thing for us right now would be to back off. I still feel confused, and I don't know how I'm going to rebuild my life. There's so much going on right now that I just think it would be better if we didn't see each other for now."

"You're breaking up with me?" I said, shocked. "The alien is breaking up with the human."

"I'm not breaking up with you. I'm just asking for some time. That's all."

"I know what that means," I said coldly. I could hear my voice getting thick.

"Kenna, I can't promise you anything. I don't even remember who I am," he said, his eyes pleading with me to understand.

"But I do. I do remember who you are. I'm not sure I can live without you anymore, Dar."

He shook his head. His eyes were sad, but he pulled himself up with a look on his face that said further arguments would be futile.

If telling him that I couldn't live without him didn't do it, nothing would. Tears filled my eyes, but I held them back, not letting them fall.

This was worse than when I thought I lost him the first time. Losing him was different than an active rejection me, which was a thousand times worse. I didn't know how I would ever get over this.

Right now, I just needed to get out of here. Get away from him and this conversation.

"We have to get back," I said, turning and trying not to cry. He followed me back on to the bridge.

Everything had been going so well until this. We were dealing with the alien ship. Dar was regaining portions of his memory.

Even if he never got it back, he was still the same person inside.

Now he was telling me that in spite of the fact that he clearly still cared for me, he didn't think that it was right for him to be with me.

What the fuck?

After all that we had been through, it was going to end here? Just like that? It wasn't fair.

As we walked silently back on to the bridge together, I noticed his mother was watching us with a speculative glance. She was probably calculating the chances of still getting babies out of me. Unfortunately, her chances were slim to none and plummeting fast.

"Oh no," the President said.

"What?" Dar's mother said.

"All the places where we've struck and destroyed a piece of the enemy ship have regenerated." She looked around at all of us. "Those pieces are reappearing. There are half as many holes in the ship now as there were a minute ago."

The dangerous situation took my mind away from my problems. We had thought that with so many blasts being directed at the alien ship all at the same time that it would not be able to regenerate quickly enough to overcome our assault.

We were wrong.

"No."

"Yes," the President said. Then she spoke into a direct link to Mana and Jared's fighter craft. "Jared, Mana. Order a retreat immediately. I repeat, order a retreat. The ship is regenerating faster than you are destroying it."

"We copy that, mother. Ordering a retreat," Jared said. We saw some of the ships begin turning and heading away from the alien vessel.

Without warning, the army of fighter craft was all gone. Then the alien craft flew into the wormhole and disappeared too.

We stared at the screen in horror. The bridge was silent.

"What's wrong with the viewscreen?" Dar's mother said. "Pull up the battle again, ensign."

"Your Majesty, that is the battle," the ensign said in a shocked voice.

"What do you mean? There's nothing there. Everything's gone. There must be a glitch. Fix it." Her voice became urgent.

"Mother," Dar said, and she turned to look at him. I could see that she was pleased that he was calling her by a familiar name, even though he didn't remember her. "The army is gone, and so is the alien ship. We've failed. And we just lost another thirty thousand people to the aliens."

We all stared at the space in front of the wormhole. My heart filled with grief.

How would we defeat them now that our army was gone?

Where were Jared and Mana and all the others?

How would we ever get our friends back?