Zeke finished another twelve-hour dishwashing shift and exhaustedly threw the dirty dishrag into the sink. He walked out of the room to find Sadie waiting in the hall for him again.

"Hey stud," she said. "While you were working your tail enough I did a little more exploring of the Earth collection. Why don't you come hang out for a little while back at my room? I've got a surprise for you I think you might like."

"Is it a sexy surprise?" Zeke asked.

"I don't know, why don't you come find out?"

Zeke followed her back to her room and the door whooshed open to reveal Bumble-Boo, Milosh, Nulfar, and that weird blue donkey who was apparently obsessed with wrestling all hanging out on her bed.

"That's a no on the sexy surprise," Zeke said.

"I finally convinced Nulfar to let me get rid of the giant stuffed gorilla, so now there's actually a little bit of elbow room to hang out."

Zeke heard a bah-ing sound and he looked over to see a goat.

"Oh yeah, I found that goat hanging out in the Earth collection and thought I'd bring him out for a bit of company," Sadie said.

"Now this really better not be some kind of weird sexy surprise," Zeke said. "I know we've been out in space a long time, but a guy's got to maintain some standards."

"The goat isn't the surprise," Sadie said. "This is." She pulled out two bottles of beer and handed one to Zeke. "It's even cold!"

"So it is," Zeke said as he looked at it in wonder. "How'd you manage that?"

"I asked Nulfar if there was a way to chill them down and he let me use some sort of freeze ray device. Cool, huh? I thought we could have a little party so I invited everyone over to hang out."

"Is party time," Milosh said enthusiastically. Bumble-Boo smiled broadly and let out a high-pitched noise. The blue donkey attempted to put Zeke into a half-nelson before Sadie pulled him off.

"This is pretty cool," Zeke said as he twisted off the top of the beer and inhaled. "That smells amazing."

"Just remember to savor it," Sadie said as she clinked bottles with him. "That might be the last beer you ever drink."

"Well, since you put it that way, I'll be sure to take my time with it," Zeke said as he set the beer down on the nightstand. "Hey, I've been chained to a sink all day and I really need to take a leak. So if you guys will excuse me for a minute, I'll be right back."

Sadie attempted to make small talk with the other guests after Zeke had left the room. "Nice weather we're having, eh?"

"Actually our vessel is climate controlled to maintain a pleasant temperature and air flow at all times," Nulfar said.

"Right," Sadie said. "So how about those Mets?"

"What is a 'Met?' Is it contagious?"

The room suddenly flooded with an intense bright light and a doorway materialized in the air about a foot above Sadie's bed. It swung open and a strange-looking frogman stepped out.

"Hey there everyone," he said as he blinked his eyes. "The name's Maximillian J. Toad. You can call me Max if you'd like. You folks didn't happen to see a twelve-foot tall guy in a black robe come past here, by chance, did you? He might have been carrying a flask?"

"No," Sadie said. "We haven't seen anything like that."

"Shucks," Max said as he surveyed the room. His eyes fell on the bottle that was sitting on the nightstand. "Oh cool, you've got booze? Awesome! I'm parched." He grabbed the bottle of beer and gulped it down. He let out a loud belch and set the empty bottle back on the nightstand. "Well it was nice meeting all of you, but it looks like I'm in the wrong universe, so I'd better split."

"Is from other universe?" Milosh asked.

"Yeah," Max said. "What's it to you?"

"Milosh has never been to other universe," Milosh said.

"Well, come along, if you want. No offense, but this place looks like kind of a dump."

"Is inviting Milosh to other universe? Joyous day! Milosh has never been invited to go anywhere in Milosh's life." Milosh hopped onto the bed and jumped through the door.

"Anyone else?" Max asked. "No? All right, I'll catch you on the flip side." He stepped back through the door and it vanished into thin air behind him.

"Well, that was weird," Sadie said as she took a big swallow of her beer.

"Indeed," Nulfar said. "Well, shall we resume our shindig?"

The door to the room whooshed open and Zeke returned. "I'm back, everyone. Anything exciting happen while I was gone?"

"Nothing too interesting," Sadie said. "Some green freak popped out of a door and took Milosh away."

"Milosh is gone?" Zeke said. "Ah, well, that's a crying shame. We got any music?" He reached for the bottle on the nightstand. "What the hell? It's empty!"

"Oh yeah," Sadie said. "That weirdo drank your beer. Sorry about that. I would have tried to stop him, but it all happened so fast."

"God damn it," Zeke said as he sank onto the bed.

"You can have the rest of mine," Sadie offered as she held out her bottle. "I promise I don't backwash too much."

The blue donkey chose this moment to try out a flying kick move he'd been working on. He bounced off the bed and knocked the bottle out of her hand with his foot. It fell on the floor and the rest of the beer spilled out on the carpet.

"What do you think of that one, eh?" the blue donkey said. "I'll be winning all of our future wrestling matches with that move for sure."

"I know something that will cheer you up," Nulfar said as he stood up and walked toward the door. "Be right back." The door whooshed shut behind him as he left.

It whooshed back open a few minutes later as he returned with Milosh right behind him.

"Is very happy to see Zeke," Milosh said as he walked over and gave Zeke a big hug.

"I thought you said some guy took Milosh away," Zeke said.

"He did," Sadie said.

"Milosh is very happy in other universe," Milosh said. "Lots of new things to see and lots of new friends to meet. Is also happy here on spaceship with Zeke. Is also playing killer golf game right now on Ingleblott. Also exploring beautiful forest and still meditating on mountaintop."

"There you go with that crap again," Zeke said. "What the hell are you talking about? And how did you get back here?"

"I believe I can answer that," Nulfar said. "We took the liberty of bringing more than one member of Milosh's species aboard the spaceship when we left Ingleblott. We've been keeping this one in a separate area and asking him questions about his planet. We've come to discover that his entire species shares the same mind."

"Say what?" Zeke said.

"What one Milosh experiences, all of the other ones experience as well. It's a phenomenon that's sometimes known as a hive mind."

"That's all well and good," Zeke said. "So if I'm understanding what you're saying here, this isn't the same Milosh as the one that was taken away."

"It's a different body," Nulfar conceded.

"But I was married to that other Milosh," Zeke said. "Not this one. I don't have any sort of marital obligations to this one."

"I wouldn't say that," Nulfar said. "It's true this is a different body, but it's still Milosh. You're effectively married to all of the Miloshes as there isn't any individual distinction between them."

"I'm married to an entire alien race?" Zeke scrunched his face up. "I don't remember signing up for that. I think I'm going to need to get some sort of lawyer involved here somehow."

"Is very excited to spend rest of long life in marital bliss," Milosh said. "And very close contact with Zeke."

"Uh, remember that conversation we were having about needing space?" Zeke asked.

"Milosh have plenty of space. Milosh is experiencing all kinds of wide open spaces right now without having to be apart from Zeke for one second."

"That's wonderful for you," Zeke said. "You can be out on a camping trip all alone at the same time you're here, but I'm only here. I need space."

"You need space?" Nulfar asked. "We are surrounded by vast quantities of space all around us. If there is one thing the universe is not lacking in, it is space."

"No, I mean personal space," Zeke said.

Nulfar chortled. "One cannot claim ownership of space. It belongs to all. There is no such thing as personal space."

"I don't want to own space," Zeke said. "I just want to experience space by myself."

"You wish to be ejected out into the cold vacuum of space alone?" Nulfar asked. "A curious request, but I suppose we can fulfill it, if you'd care to follow me to the airlock."

"I'm not talking about outer space, for crying out loud," Zeke said. "I just need some time to be by myself without anyone else around once in a while."

"Well someone's being quite antisocial, aren't they?" Nulfar asked. "Way to bring down the party. You are being what I believe is referred to as a buzz kill."

"You know what's a real buzz kill?" Zeke asked. "Getting kidnapped by a bunch of rude, condescending aliens and taken millions of light years away from your home, and then being tricked into getting married to a whole other species of aliens against your will. I apologize if that kind of harshes my buzz a little bit."

Nulfar whipped out his little notebook and began writing. "It has been observed that Earthlings are prone to irrational temper-tantrums at completely random times, possibly due to their highly underdeveloped brains."

"This is ridiculous," Zeke said. "Jeez, Sadie, how come you never have my back on these arguments?" He turned around to see Sadie had fallen asleep with Bumble-Boo nestled in her arms. His little face was nestled under her chin and he was snoring softly. "How the hell does she fall asleep with all this racket going on?"

"You want to go to sleep?" the blue donkey said as he threw an arm around Zeke's neck and began to squeeze. "This is my patented sleeper hold. Check it out!"

Zeke grasped at the donkey's arm, but was soon overcome by blackness.