Chapter 7
~Jives~
The two of us stayed like this for a long time, and while I was happy, I also felt incredibly nervous. What would we do now? What was next for us? I didn’t know, but I hoped it would all be okay. I walked her down to her car, smiling as I felt her hand touch mine. There was something nice about human contact.
It was different from typical contact that people on Klanden had. I’d had flings before, but the women were always so rough, only going for a few of the men there, and often, it just didn’t feel right. They were never happy. But, when I looked into her eyes, I could tell that she was happy with what we did. She didn’t seem scared, but rather, she was happy with me, with our lives, with the results of our endeavors. I brought her over to the entrance, and as we stood near her car, she looked at me.
“You’re serious about this, right? You’re not going to leave me?”
“I’m serious about this, Tracey. I don’t want to leave you,” I admitted. That was one of the first things I realized.
I didn’t want to leave her. I felt happy to have her, and it was the first time that I really did feel comfortable with this. I started to smile, and I felt like I could be myself around her. She seemed thankful to hear that.
“Thank you, Jives. You know, I was worried that you’d never tell me the truth. That you were… too scared to. But you did, and that makes me happy.”
“I’m glad that I did, Tracey. I definitely feel like a weight has been lifted off my chest. But, I will warn you that I’m not the best lover. I probably will fuck up, but I do care about you a lot,” he said.
“I know, Jives. And that’s why I’m taking a chance,” she replied.
My heart felt a strange surge at this point. What was this? I began to embrace her, holding her there. We were so different, and yet, so very much alike. After we parted ways, I went back to the office to get a few things before heading back home to get some work done.
I was happy to finally get my thoughts together regarding her, but there was still something eating away at me. I don’t know what it was, but it seemed off. A part of me wondered if it was because I finally told her. Maybe it was because of that alien that I saw. I didn’t want to worry too much about it right now, so I went home and slept.
Over the next couple of weeks, I spent my time both with her, and at the office. She seemed to understand, and when I didn’t answer right away, she left me alone. That was good. I’d been doing a bit of research on what’s been happening, especially with the recent events involving the whole mess at the pier. I did some research on the surveillance footage that I’d been looking at.
“Why was that here? That experiment?” I said. I knew that it had something to do with Lavvy. Maybe I should just try to find out about some of the aliens that have come in.
I went over to the office where the recent aliens here have landed. I couldn’t find a single name related to this. So, someone was sneaking them in. This wasn’t good.
I didn’t know where to go with this next. I mean, I saw it, and I knew that someone was causing trouble, but just who was it? Who could be doing this?
That’s when I got the call.
It was from Remi, something that surprised me. He’s been in la-la land with this dumb baby thing, and I’d been unable to get into contact with him. But when he finally called me, I had a feeling that this wasn’t going to be good. I picked it up, feeling nervous about this.
“Hello?” I said.
“Oh, good. You picked up. It’s Remi,” the voice said.
I stiffened. This was the first time in a long time that I’d heard from him.
“What’s the matter?” I said.
“Well, I think it’s best if we discuss this in private. Are you alone?” he asked me.
I looked around. The doors were locked. “For now, yes.”
“Okay, good. Well, we have a problem. Apparently, the people Lavvy was with now have their sights set on Earth. They’re pretty upset that Audrey and I took out one of their own. But, I think there’s more to it than that,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, there’s been reports of terrorist attacks on other planets, all of them following the same pattern. Some strange… slime monsters have been thrown onto the streets of planets, scaring the alien people. These monsters are hard to kill, and they’re all from the same person,” Remi explained.
“Oh. That’s not good.”
“Not at all. I don’t know if you’ve been able to find any, but they are pink slime monsters. They’re all saying that they’re taking revenge on one of their own. Know anything about that?” Remi asked.
I thought about what he just said. Was I truly imagining this? I didn’t think so, but maybe, just maybe, the whole thing with Tracey the other day wasn’t just a figment of my imagination.
“Unfortunately, I might. See, I got attacked the other day. I was with Tracey,” I said to Remi.
“You two are together?”
“Yes. But that’s a moot point. Right now, we’re discussing this mess. But, I did get attacked, and I had to fend it off. I fear that if this is the same creature as the rest, we might have a huge problem on our hands,” I told Remi.
“Yeah, the people are getting disgruntled. Normally, Audrey handles this, but she’s been puking her guts out, so she left me a list of instructions. She worries as well. But I think that there is something more here. Do you know of anyone that might have something like this? Someone that would love to get revenge on us?” Remi inquired.
I did know one person, but I didn’t want to acknowledge that it might be him.
“Possibly. I don’t know for sure though if it’s him or not,” I told Remi.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, he’s someone from my past, someone that was around before your father took me in. I don’t want to get into it, but if it is him, then this might be a bigger mess than I thought,” I told him.
“Okay. Well, I think you should keep an eye out on things. I don’t want you getting hurt,” he told me.
“I will, Remi. I mean, if that is the case, I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” I told him.
“Keep me posted. Send your reports. If needed, I’ll send a ship there to deal with it personally.”
“Thanks, Remi. I’ll get back to you.”
We said our goodbyes, and I began to wonder if this was true. Was he really bad? My father? I mean, he did go missing after he ousted me from the lab. I began to shiver, wondering if I would have to see him again. It was the last thing I wanted, that’s for sure, but I knew that if I needed to, I’d stand up to him, to protect the people, and to protect her.
That was my job. To protect everyone. I knew I could do it, so why did I feel so scared? Was it because he was a part of my past? Because he could potentially ruin the future? I knew a war was coming. If it was from the same place Lavvy was from, from that group that wanted to destroy Earth, this could create major consequences. I felt fear, complete and utter fear, but I didn’t know where to go next.
The only thing that I knew for sure, that was obvious to me at this point, was that I had a bad feeling about this, and that I would soon find the answers to these questions, but not in the way that I wanted to.