This is a 1500-word short for the third round of the SciFi Smackdown 7. Quotes are in bold, my two characters were House, MD and Princess Leia, and the sub-genre was alternate reality. The story had to take place in a tube station! Happy reading!

Chord Change

(c) SP Parish 2014

Hugh breathed in the stale air, hardly noticing the papery taste it left on his mouth. Outside the windows of this metal cage, the wind beat by the sleek transport as they cut through it like butter. They were coming up on their next stop, but Hugh—even though he was the conductor—paid little mind to their destination. 

Instead, his hands caressed the sleek, brown, unscathed neck of his heart’s desire. Nothing could break his revelry, his worship, his love.

Stew punched the panel, causing the door to Hugh’s station to jerk open. “Hugh, what are you?” Stew let out a frustrated breath, “Are you serious? Come on, you’ve got work to do!” He leaned over Hugh and his Fender Squire to pull a release valve on the control panel, “I leave you alone for ten minutes—ten minutes!—and you somehow resorted to doing absolutely nothing.” He huffed again; this time for good measure.

Hugh shook his head, and his short bangs fell in his eyes. The conductor of the transport needed a shave, but besides that, the mature man made the navy blue of the fleet’s uniform look good. Not that he cared. Hugh cared about very little.

Well, besides his guitar.

He had the audacity to look shocked, “In what twisted universe does mastering Eddie Van Halen's two-fingered arpeggio technique count as absolutely nothing?” he asked as he pushed the appropriate buttons without so much as a glance. 

“Apparently this one,” Stew mocked. “We have a prisoner transport at station two-two-seven.”

“As I am aware,” Hugh answered, as he stowed his precious away with a pat, “Good night, Greta.” Stew rolled his eyes. Hugh stepped up to the controls, “Why are we doing a transport, anyways? It’s beneath us.”

Stew picked up the com device, “Not if it’s Leigh.”

Hugh jerked back his head in surprise, “Leigh?” Stew nodded before relaying their station their twenty. “How did I not know about this?”

“Maybe because you were asleep during the meeting.”

He had a point.

Still Leigh, Hugh thought. He wondered if she had changed at all. He ran his hand over his chin, suddenly wishing he had taken the time to shave.

The soft screech of the bottom of the transport scraping the rails of the tube station let him know it was too late.

“Wish me luck,” Hugh mumbled.

“Huh?” Stew called over his shoulder after him, but Hugh was already gone. He shrugged and turned back towards the controls.

Hugh cut through the transport, under the overhead pipes of the control room and through the cargo holds. Leigh—could it really be her? Would she remember him?

Hugh’s mind went back to his time at Ashbury Prep. The school on the Third Starwas home to easily the most prestigious and pretentious young offspring of the Cloud. Hugh and Leigh had been fast friends before moving off to their Universities.

Before Leigh’s mind was poisoned with these liberal ideas, Hugh cursed her in his head. Stupid bleeding heart.

Hugh had just crossed over into adulthood when he heard of Leigh’s association with the Sun—the aptly named nemesis of the Cloud forces, of which Hugh had been a faithful servant for these past twenty years. He remembered the day clearly that his protests had come to a halt. There was no denying her picture on the front of the paper. Leigh, for whatever reason, had jumped ship.

Stupid bleeding heart, though Hugh as he made his way to the main hold. No matter how the stiff navy uniform chaffed him sometime, there was no reason he could think that he would follow in her footsteps.

Except her… Hugh startled. Where had that come from? He gave a violent shake of his head and walked through the door and into the station.

As soon as he stepped foot onto the platform, the world froze. As many times as Hugh had experienced the Freezer, he would never lose his wonder at it’s ability to absolutely render a setting immobile in the blink of an eye.

Hugh reached out both arms and pushed the people in front of the main transport door to either side. It gave him a small delight to wonder at these people’s expressions once the Freeze was deactivated. Would they wake up amazed they were so close to a complete stranger? How would they reason that away? Either way, the Freeze did its job and did it well. All around Hugh, people were frozen mid-motion: drinking their coffee, tapping on their tiny computer phones, mid-sentence, mid-embrace. The first glance at the Freeze always gave Hugh some inner delight.

Hugh had to work to suppress a shudder. Across the station, in front of the slick, dirt-encrusted wall there she was.

Her small frame was dwarfed between three Cloud enforcers, with one on either side, and another behind her. Her brown hair, neatly tied at the back of her head in a soft bun, was streaked with grey.  Instead of making her look old, it gave her already stiff posture a regal air.

The same uppityness with which she stood laced her words, “We have powerful friends,” she grounded out from between closed teeth. Hugh could feel the anger from where he stood. She glanced from one of her guards to the other. “You’re gonna regret this.”

The only reply she received was one of the guards scoffing, “You’re just sore that we caught you,” he bragged.

“Yes, but it took you nearly twenty years,” Hugh said. The enforcers snapped to attention at the sound of their officer’s voice. “Hello, Leigh.”

The princess’ face quickly sipped from anger to surprise as he came closer. “Hugh?” It came out half question, half comment as his old friend looked him over. She shook her head, “Blue never was your color.”

“Yellow washes you out, dear,” Hugh returned. For a moment, they were both smiling, oblivious to the absurdity of the situation. “So they finally caught you, hmm? Where are we taking you today?” Hugh asked as he took the clipboard from one of the enforcers.

Leigh had the decency to look shocked. “You’re the transport captain?”

Hugh looked up from flipping pages, “What, did you think this was a social call?”

“Hoped,” Leigh tacked on.

Their eyes met over the board, Come on, Hugh, don’t you want to join us?

You know I can’t, Leigh.

Her brows furrowed over her tiny nose, Can’t or won’t, Hugh?

He shook his head, looking back down to the transport order, “The Sun kill people, Leigh.”

“The Cloud’s not any better, Hugh.” She scolded. 

It was an old argument. Besides a hooded glare, Hugh did not dignify it with a response. The seconds ticked quietly by as he transferred the information into his com. Leigh said something under her breath, Hugh looked up, “What was that?” he asked, slipping his com back into its holder.

“We could change that,” Leigh said louder.

Hugh’s heart leapt. A life away from the senseless violence, the orders, the stress. A life where there was hope of a brighter tomorrow where, ironically, neither Sun nor Cloud reigned? Was it possible?

Looking at Leigh, in that moment, he believed it was.

Leigh saw Hugh hesitate. “We could do it,” she insisted. “It would be just like we talked about all those years ago. Think about it, Hugh.”

Hugh shook his head, “The dreams of children.”

“Those are the best kind.”

Hugh stepped back, “Come on,” he motioned.  But Leigh did not move. Instead she glanced over his shoulder. Hugh’s gaze followed, “What the?”

On Leigh’s signal, two men dressed in Earth clothing stepped out of the crowd and raised their guns. The enforcers fumbled for their weapons, but they were too slow. Before anyone could register what was going on, there was a heap of navy blue scattered around Leigh.

The Freeze wore off, and from one moment to the next, the platform was full of milling bodies waiting on their train. Hugh didn’t have to look behind him, he knew the rules—the two dimensions could not exist in the same time plane—his transport was gone.

That meant…

Hugh jumped when a petite hand slid into his own. He looked down to see Leigh’s shiny blue eyes staring up at him. The years had done nothing to diminish her beauty. Hugh’s heart raced.

“Hugh,” Leigh began, pulling him towards the stairway, “come with us.”

Hugh pursed his lips, “And if I don’t? Will you kill me, too?”

Leigh shook her head sadly, “We didn’t kill them, Hugh. And I would never kill you. It’s time for a new era. We teach our children we shouldn’t solve conflict with violence. It’s time we heeded our own advice.”

The words struck a familiar chord inside him. How many times had he thought the very same thing?

“Come with us?” Leigh pleaded.

Hugh squeezed her hand in his, “Yes.”

The princess gave a very undignified squeak before throwing her arms around his neck. “Oh, Hugh! Come,” she said, grabbing his hands, “we must hurry.”

When Hugh did not move, Leigh looked back at him, worry written all over her sun-kissed face, “What is it?”

Hugh let out a tired breath.

“What?”

“You know my guitar was on that thing?” he said, seemingly distraught.

Leigh rolled her eyes, “Some thing never change, do they?”

Hugh looked back down to her, “You’re wrong.” Leigh gave him a confused look. He continued, “Everything’s about to change. We will make sure of it.”

Leigh reached up to touch his cheek, “We absolutely will.”