by Myra Star
“Optimistic of you,” he murmured.
“Faddon,” he turned and addressed one of the aliens, “wake Lieutenant Varga. I want this,” he kicked the squat alien’s body, “dealt with immediately. He’s going to be an example to all those who offend my wife - thereby offending me.”
The alien nodded, and with the rest of his group of liquor-smelling aliens, he left the banquet hall abruptly.
Lily was baffled why he seemed so intent on punishing the alien. By the sound of it, the rest of the palace felt the same way about her; she knew from her time at the bar that all of the species in this solar system believed humans to be inferior to them - no better than animals.
Surely, it would be easier to just get rid of her, to find another subservient female he could bend to his will, one who would come willingly to his bed when she never would.
“You shouldn’t punish him,” she said, “I’m sure everyone’s thinking the same thing.”
“Yes. Probably.”
He turned to her, his face a mask of cold indifference. Lily inwardly quailed under his gaze.
“Which is why I want you confined to your room. That man was a good soldier - one I couldn’t really afford to lose.”
“Then why did you?” Lily spluttered.
“He is a traitor, and he should be punished as one.”
His tone made it clear that the matter was closed, and Lily didn’t want to know any more about the justifications of his cold-hearted actions. If he was this uncompromising toward a soldier that he valued, then Lily should be wary of crossing him.
“I wanted to go to the garden, I need some fresh air.”
“That’s unfortunate. You will be staying in your room for the rest of today.”
“At least provide me with a room of my own,” she pleaded, “I will be out of our way then, and promise to stay indoors.”
Her captor smirked, “until I know I can trust you, you will be confined to my room, and my room alone.”
He took her by the upper arm, roughly, before she could protest any further. Stalking back toward the door, with Lily stumbling to keep up with him, he marched out of the room. They made the journey in silence, her captor staring straight ahead as if he were deep in thought.
When they arrived back at his chambers, Lily was shoved inside.
“Stay there,” he commanded, “until you are called for.”
Lily opened her mouth to reply, but the door was slammed in her face.
Chapter Seven
The afternoon suns blasted an inhabitable heat down onto the training yard. Lagos, the summer sun, and Kelpit, the autumnal sun, were crossing paths at this time of year, and their combined blaze would turn the gardens of Epsilon a burnt brown within the month’s end.
Caleb was walking with Lieutenant Varga as the soldiers shot at fast moving holograms, which flickered to life across the stone floor, creating an assault course designed to be impossible to complete.
“Caleb, I wish you would change your mind,” Lieutenant Varga tried to reason with his Commander once more, “we need every body we have at the moment - his execution is ill-timed, and will not endear this mad decision of your marriage to the soldiers nor the rest of your people.”
“I do not care what they think of my marriage; he is a traitor. We have the rules for a reason, Varga.”
“Look, I do not care for the man - he’s always been a monster, that his end would come about this way doesn’t surprise me in the least, but to do all this to protect an earthling’s honor…”
Lieutenant Varga’s voice trailed off.
“It’s to protect my honor,” Caleb replied acidly, “not hers.”
Varga scoffed, “Caleb - you have never done anything to protect your honor. You have treated it with the same contempt with which you earned it - as if the love of your men meant nothing to you - and yet they love you greatly.”
“Yet evidently not enough to desist in attacking my wife.”
“He was drunk - he is a lone fool.”
“The others did not stop him,” Caleb argued, “and so it must be punished publicly. We will begin in an hour, don’t argue with me anymore Varga - it’s too damn hot.”
The men continued to walk in silence.
Caleb was lost in his own thoughts. He found the execution abhorrent - Varga was right, they needed all the men they could get to protect Epsilon from invasion. Caleb greatly respected his soldiers, the behavior of this morning was an anomaly - they were good men, each willing to lay down their lives for both Epsilon and him.
So don’t do it then! Recall the order!
He was acting out of fear, ignoring his best judgment in a bizarre and unfathomable feeling of the need to protect Lily at all costs. When he’d walked into the banquet hall, and witnessed the scene before him, it had given form to the tug of anxiety that had gnawed at him since he’d brought her back to Epsilon.
He had known that his people would resent his choice. He didn’t intend to keep Lily captive in his room for her entire existence - she would have to be given freedom to roam the villages and towns of Epsilon’s capital eventually, and the very idea that she might be attacked, all because of his selfish actions, made him feel furious at himself and afraid for her.
He couldn’t have her death on his hands. Better to act now and quell the disquiet than let it fester within the hearts of his people.
But why do you care so much?
He ignored the whispered voice in his head. It was merely because she’d endured so much already. That was all.
In the distance, he could see the timid, scurrying figure of Credor.
“My Lord! My Lord! Tell me I can dissuade you form this…madness! Sheer madness!”
Credor turned to Varga, looking for support.
“My lizard friend,” Varga replied calmly, “I have tried, but he will not be dissuaded.”
“Enough.”
Caleb turned to both men, his voice weary.
“Credor - tell the people of the village to gather. The execution will go ahead - by the end of the day, they will know that attacks against my bride are attacks on me, and they will not go unpunished.”
Credor’s face drained of its rich green to turn a yellowish pallid colour, but he merely dropped his head in deference to the commands of his Lord.
“As you wish, my Lord.”
******
“What monster are you?”
The question was so softly spoken, Caleb barely heard it. He had escorted Lily from her room in order that she be present at the execution; a show of unification to his people, but also as a deterrent to her so she might know the danger and the price of her venturing out too far from his chambers.
Her question took him by surprise - he had rescued her from this monster, and now she stared, horrified, at the presence of her attacker, alone, on the training field.
A crowd had gathered as requested, bordering the signposted circumference of the execution ground in five tier rows; numbering just short of two thousand.
“I am no monster, earthling. My decrees are hard, but they are my decrees. They will be obeyed by my people.”
She didn’t look at him, just trembled quietly on their dais above the hushed crowds. He had ordered her to wear a silk white robe, as befitted her station.
Her golden hair poured in waves down her back, and aside from her deeply pallid expression and the purple bruises of sleep deprivation beneath her eyes, she looked magnificent.
The silence of the crowd thickened, so dense as to take form and mutate into being. Caleb stepped down from the dais and made the short walk to the executioner spot.
Traditionally, the role belonged to Lieutenant Varga, but Caleb didn’t want him to play this role. The decision was his, and he must face both the deed and its consequences.
In full uniform he stood in the sweltering sun, a laser gun clutched in his left hand, and a Crocoite crystal clasped in the other - the emblem of Epsilon.
Caleb raised the gun with a steady hand. A low
drone sounded, the horn of valor - played out for all that the soldier had done in his years in defense of Epsilon. Caleb took a deep breath; the time was now, and he must not falter.
“Stop!”
A piercing cry rose from the dais. Caleb looked up to see Lily moving swiftly off the platform. She ran across the training yard, before Caleb could warn against it, and flung herself in front of her attacker.
The crowd held its collective breath.
“Please - Lord Commander, please don’t do this!”
Lilly gazed at Caleb in desperation, tears flowing down her pallid cheeks.
“I’m begging you - imprison him if you must, but please don’t kill him.”
Caleb lowered the gun. The crowd hadn’t made a sound. As the soldier dropped to the ground in a mixture of fatigue and relief, a lone whistle of appreciation cut through the crowd. Caleb recognized it, even if others did not.
Bloody Varga.
Varga’s whistle seemed to animate the crowd. They burst into loud cheering, the younger members chanting her name - Lily the Earthling, in appreciation.
Lily, too distraught to notice, kept her eyes on Caleb. He couldn’t read the expression in them, but it appeared to be a mixture of fear and sympathy - as if she pitied him somehow.
Caleb raised his eyebrow sardonically. Looking around at the crowd, he could help but give a wry smile, clearly his bride had won their appreciation - but how long her newfound popularity would last, Caleb could not guess.
Chapter Eight
The room wasn’t as grandiose as the banquet hall, but it was impressive nonetheless. The walls were concealed completely by live roots and tree boughs, twisting their way around one another, sprouting shoots of vivid green and perfectly white flowers, their petals each the size of a fifty cent piece. Lily felt as if she was encased in a living, breathing organism and the effect was at once both alien and utterly wonderful.
She had spent most of the afternoon back in her captor’s chambers, anxiously fretting that her attacker would be put to death, despite what she had done.
She didn’t trust the commander at all; he had hauled her to the room after she’d embarrassed him in front of the crowd, and ignored her pleas that the attacker would live.
Now, he sat opposite to her, leaning back in his chair and idly playing with a hunting knife - the food in front of him untouched. Every so often, he would look up and gaze at Lily in an uncomfortable silence.
Lily had been instructed by the lizard-man that she was to join Caleb for dinner; her protestations had been for nothing. The lizard threatened to dress her himself if she did not comply. Hurriedly, she had prepared herself, and followed the creature through the winding paths of the palace to where Caleb was waiting.
Now she sat wondering why he had bothered to request her presence - clearly he wasn’t going to attempt to make conversation, and there was no one around to observe that they were complying with “marital” traditions, so what was the point?
“How long are you going to keep me here?”
Lily decided to break the silence and take the opportunity to get some answers out of him while she had the opportunity.
“Well,” he smirked, “our vows promised it would be till our particles were swallowed by the night’s pitch sky, and our souls entwined in the blanket of the cosmos - don’t you remember?”
“I had no way of saying no,” she pointed out, “so it was unlawful, immoral or whatever - it can’t count.”
“I’m afraid it does. We made an oath, and I intend to take that seriously.”
Caleb took a sip from the goblet in front of him, with an air of smug satisfaction. Lily wanted to throw something at him, and clutched her hands tightly in her lap to restrain them.
“Please,” she tried to keep her voice calm, “let’s come to an agreement that benefits us both - you can be rid of me, and I can go home.”
Caleb sighed and slumped back into his chair. Lily was instantaneously struck by his appearance; he looked like a world-weary king in a throne he’d sat too long on, wearing an expression that said he had seen too much.
“How long since you were home?”
The question threw Lily.
“One year…three months and four days, I think.”
He nodded, “How much of that was spent in the bar?”
“The three months,” she hesitated, “but I can’t be sure of time. It’s more of a guess.”
“Did you know that time moves differently here and within this solar system than it does on your earth?”
Lily’s stomach twisted sharply.
“No.” She whispered.
“It does. It moves incredibly slowly,” he took another sip, “very slowly.” He repeated, as if lost in some other thought that wasn’t related to the here and now.
Lily felt relief flood through her, “oh, that’s fine, I thought that you might mean that we were thousands of years ahead here, that all my family would be…dead.”
“On the contrary,” Caleb shrugged, “they are not born yet. Neither are you.”
“What?”
Lily froze, experiencing a kind of hysterical deafness caused by her own blood pounding in her ears.
“I don’t understand,” she repeated, “how can that be? It’s impossible!”
“Not really,” Caleb replied, “you now exist in this solar system, but not in the other. You essentially time travelled the moment you landed in this solar system.”
Lily laughed at him, “I’m sorry - but that’s impossible. How would I exist if my time on earth hasn’t even happened yet?”
Caleb shrugged, “you can believe me or not - it makes no difference. But you have not only come from a different planetary system, you have come from a different time - one that you cannot get back to.”
Lily’s stomach started to churn. It was the same stomach plunging sickness that she’d felt during her time at the bar; the day she’d realized that there would be no escape for her, that her life would be spent trapped within the dirty, grubby four walls, and that most likely she would die there.
“I don’t mean to alarm you,” countered Caleb, “but it is the way of things. I do not want you to hold false hope that you will get back home one day; most likely you will not.”
“You forget,” Lily replied scathingly, “I am a scientist, or at least I was before arriving in this god-awful place, and I know that what you say is impossible.”
Lily looked down at the food in her plate. It was similar to what the servants had fed her the night before her wedding; raw meats and colourful vegetation that she didn’t quite recognize - but it was close enough to the roots and leaves of earth to be palatable.
“I can prove it to you.”
“What do you mean?” Lily asked.
Caleb sighed, “Follow me.”
He stood up, his large frame casting the dining table in shadow. Lily hesitated. The logical part of her wanted to follow him; safe in the knowledge that she knew his time hypothesis was laughable and utterly ludicrous. Her body and her heart felt differently.
As if part of her knew that if she were to follow this man, her perception of reality would never be the same again.
Slowly, she stood from her chair, dinner untouched.
Caleb led her from the room, and down through the palace. As they continued their journey in silence, Lily thought she was starting to recognize some of her surroundings.
She was proven to be right, when they turned a corner and were faced by the large banquet hall again. Her captor strode through the room to the doors at the far end.
He flung them open, and Lily realized that her initial search this morning hadn’t been far off. A large, brilliant moonlight flooded in through the doors, and soaked the garden vista in a silvery white light.
“Oh, it’s so beautiful!” gasped Lily.
Her captor turned to her in surprise, “yes - I suppose it is.”
He gave her a long look then, as if she were an unpleasant puzzle tha
t he couldn’t work out, and was growing incredibly frustrated by.
“Keep following,” he barked at her, “stay close.”
Lily hurried after him, wondering why he seemed to be developing such paranoia about her spending time outdoors. The air smelt beautifully fragrant from a cacophony of fauna; jasmine, honeysuckle and bluebell melded with other, more exotic scents that Lily didn’t recognize. The sky was a rich navy blue, with a final burst of turquoise where the last of the suns had set.
Her breathing had started to become labored as she tried to match his long strides with her much shorter ones; his grace was starting to make Lily feel like a stumpy elephant.
Finally, on approaching a close cluster of Cyprus trees that formed a circular formation in the middle of the garden, her captor came to a halt. He stepped through a parting in the trees, and beckoned her forward.
Lily followed him, more eagerly this time. She could see a light emanating from where he stood; the same silvery-white of the moon’s beam, but far more concentrated and solid looking.
She stepped through the gap, aware of her captor’s closeness as she brushed up against his arm to make her way past.
The light was coming from a large, smooth disk that hovered in the center of the tree clearing. Its matter looked so fragile and thin, as if it were a pool of suspended water, gently undulating in the breeze, but it’s colour was solid - more like glass or mirror, though when Lily looked into it, she saw no reflection.
“Touch it,” her captor murmured, “it will show you what you need.”
Lily had half-forgotten that he stood there, but on his command, she tentatively raised her palm to the silvery surface.
As her fingers touched the surface it rippled gently, as if she’d touched a still pool of water. Her jaw slackened in amazement as black shadows started to appear on the silvery mass, and then seconds later, she drew her hand back, stunned, as the shadows became recognizable images.
“This is your planet as it is now,” he spoke softly from behind her.
Lily watched scenes unfold in front of her eyes; a man exiting a doorway, a woman in the arms of her lover, an elderly lady leaning on her cane as she took her dog for a walk.