Jump

Written by @sigrist

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X.

If I had to use two words to describe her, they would be beautiful and dangerous--just like the universe she taught me so much about. My life with her was perfect--but everything comes to an end eventually.

"I need to do this." Was all I managed to say.

"I know you do." She smiled and I hugged her. "But don't worry; I'll have you by my side forever." I cried silently into her glimmering hair and as her body grew tight and stiff she whispered, "jump."

---

I.

From the cockpit of my old Salvage-Class X7C, I looked out at the ship which had simply popped into existence right in front of us. It looked like an oblong, white void in the blackness of space.

"You sure about this?"

"Munce, you said yourself there's no life signs, what danger could there be? Besides, this could make us famous!" I continued to watch the mysterious ship as I climbed into my exo-suit.

"And what about Earth?"

"Let them wait." I waved off the question. "We're just junkies, what can we do to help? I'm just gonna check this out and when I'm done we'll swing by home base and salvage what we can."

Munce rolled his eyes and went back to the controls. We circled the gleaming ship before he said, "I don't see a loading dock anywh--oh shit!"

I turned around and saw what had shocked him. A hole was opening up on the side of the otherwise smooth ship. "Look like we'll fit?" I asked.

"Perfectly."

---

V.

There was a strange pressure all around us. As she slipped away from me I noticed the interference on my radio was gone. "Munce? You there?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the strange woman.

"He can't hear you." Her voice sounded like it was reverberating throughout the entire ship.

"What do you mean?"

"We're too far away."

"What?" I unclipped the galactic positioning system from my belt. "Where are we? I'm not even picking up a signal."

"Far beyond the reach of your technology."

My eyebrows furrowed. "Bring me back! My crew need me!"

"Your crew are fine."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because I know. Just like I know they don't need you like I do."

---

II.

"The air's okay." I checked my purifier and removed my helmet. "Sure is dark though." The interior of the ship was just as white and glittering as the exterior.

"Anything that might be worth some coin?"

"You mean you don't already see dollar signs just looking at this baby? This is proof that we're not alone!"

"We still don't know that, looks kinda Japanese to me."

I turned a corner and the walls all instantly illuminated. There was nothing but bright, white light all around me.

"Captain, the ship just gave off a strange power signature..."

---

XI.

For some reason, the pressure of our jump seemed to persist longer than ever before. My body was aching and my ears were ringing. "What's happening to me?"

"We're altering the time line," she said, "when you're gone, everything will be reconciled and you'll stop experiencing these slips."

"This is it then...?"

She stepped closer, her glittering ebony hand found my cheek and she kissed me. "Go."

---

VI.

"You need me?" I gulped. "For what?"

"To be my companion."

"And... what does that job entail?"

"Seeing things and going places your species can only dream about. Come with me beyond space and time, be a true explorer."

"What's the catch?" Finally I came to my senses and pushed the woman away.

"You'll care for me while I recharge. you're speaking to a physical manifestation of my consciousness. When I release my consciousness, I join the void to recuperate my energy. However, that leaves my body defenceless."

"Your body?"

"You've called it my 'ship.'"

"So you're kind of like the brain of this... space creature. Every once in a while you need to sleep."

She blinked at me, then shrugged her shoulder. "What I do is a little more advanced than just... 'Sleeping.' But yes, if you want to simplify it, every once in a while I 'need to sleep.' You're an emergency plan to keep my body safe. While I'm 'sleeping' I can perceive a threat approaching but I don't have the energy to react to it."

"You want me to watch you while you're sleeping? Kinky."

"Kinky?"

"Look lady, I don't even know you. Besides, I need to get to Earth."

"You're the captain of a junker... What can you do? Come with me and the universe is yours."

I let her wrap her arms around my neck and when I looked at her I could barely even remember the faces of my crew. They were just another part of an old life I was ready to say goodbye to.

---

III.

"I think it turned on," I told Munce. A hole was melting away in front of me to reveal a room as black as the halls were white. As I entered, the door closed behind me and I was suspended in nothingness.

There was a far off twinkle of light. It was the only thing visible in the blackness. Then there was another one, equally as far away. Before I knew it I was floating in a universe of distant stars. 

---

VII.

As I sat outside her recuperation chamber, I turned my useless GPS over in my hands. The wall melted away and I saw the contrast of her black, glistening body against the startling white. She smiled, stepped towards me with slow strides and plucked the thing from my hands.

"Why do you keep this? You know it's useless so far away from your own galaxy."

I tried to answer but the words just wouldn't come. The truth was I didn't know why I kept the device. Rather than continue with the discussion, I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. "So, when and where will we be going now, my love?"

"Love?" She pulled away with a playful smile.

"I mean... Um." Oh no, did I cross a line? "Yeah. That's what I meant... Love. I love you."

She pressed herself against my chest. "I love you too, Captain."

With my index finger I gently lifted her chin so that she was looking at me. She raised to her toes and we kissed. I felt her limbs and back grow tense and as she pulled her face away she whispered, "jump."

When the pressure of our jump dissipated, I noticed a light flashing on my GPS. Almost without thinking I pulled it away from her and inspected the screen. I checked the coordinates over and over again before turning to her and smiling. "I'm home!"

She smiled back at me but something felt wrong. I turned to the far wall and pressed my hand against it. A view screen materialized in front of me but there was nothing there, only space junk and rocks.

"What's this? Where's Earth?"

"To love someone... requires trust." She grabbed my hand and led me into her recuperation chamber. Her body began to fade away as she said, "you know, this room can be more than just a place to 'sleep.' I can project my knowledge of the universe for you to see. Let me finally show you what happened." She filled the white walls with her glittering blackness and I was suspended in the void. An image of Earth spun into existence in front of me and I heard her say "In the year 4043, in your own timeline." I recognized that year. "Earth was the centre of a growing galactic empire."

"That's when we met."

"Humans always had a tendency to believe they were superior. They were the only intelligent species in the confines of their empire and so they began to believe the universe was theirs alone." 

Earth sped away into the distance and I was sent careening through the galaxy toward the outer rim. I watched as a huge and ominous ship passed the boundaries of our satellites. It was much more advanced than any ship in the human fleet and clearly built for battle. 

"The vespari," she said, "another relatively young and arrogant race. The humans watched the warship approach for a while. At the extreme limits of their satellites' range they had no way of knowing what it was, but its predicted trajectory put it on a collision course with Earth. It was this exact moment that the humans realized what was happening. However, the planet was dangerously unprepared to defend itself. Officials sent out a distress call, one that commanded all Earth ships to report back immediately."

I zoomed away from the alien ship as Earth came closer. I stopped somewhere in between them both and noticed my own ship was hovering in front of me--attached to her just like the day we met. With the full weight of reality on my shoulders I said, "I chose to go with you instead of defend Earth..."

---

XII.

I was on my junker, staring at Munce's back. "Captain, the ship just gave off a strange power signature," he said into the radio.

As I stepped forward I heard myself respond through the static. "I think it turned on."

"Let's get out of here!" I took my seat and he stared at me.

"Captain how did you get there...? You were just..." He pointed out towards her gleaming white body.

"We gotta go," I said again, "now!"

---

VIII.

"You chose the life of adventure you've always dreamed of. There was nothing a simple junker could do to help."

"But, you told me my crew were okay."

As I stared at the scene in front of me, I watched her white ship vanish and my junker moved on. "When I took you away, your crew continued on their way to Earth. But they were too slow." The attacking ship sailed towards us through the darkness. "As the vespari rushed past your junker they didn't even slow down. Your ship was too insignificant to draw their attention." 

I followed the vespari to Earth where our ships--rigged for a hypothetical battle that none of us thought would ever happen--tried to stand their ground. In a blast of light, the vespari cut through the human ships, then fired on the planet. The battle was over as quickly as it had begun and the vespari casually moved on. 

"The attackers crippled the human empire. It wasn't long before the dregs of the colonies died off as well and the universe was devoid of human life again, almost as quickly as it had popped up."

"I should have been there," I whispered, "but I couldn't have stopped this."

The blackness of the room swirled away as she took her solid form once again. She looked at the tears that now glistened on my cheeks and said, "what if there was something you could do?"

---

XIII.

As I detached my ship from her I felt my ribs suddenly grow tight around my grieving heart.

"But what about meeting ET?" Munce asked, "what about becoming famous?" 

"Is that all you can think about? We got a planet to save!"

"What happened on that ship? Just a second ago you were all 'we're just junkies, we can't help.' Now you're mister hero?"

"Hero." As my ship rocketed away, the only partial reprieve from my sadness was knowing that at least she'd always have me. "I like the sound of that..."

---

IX.

"There's no way, you said so yourself! There's nothing a junker could have done. My ship was so damn insignificant those aliens didn't even bother to shoot it down."

"And that's why you're the only one who can save your people."

"How?"

"With a weapon designed by even greater minds than the vespari, your insignificant junker can destroy that warship before it even gets within firing range of Earth."

"Where would I get a weapon like that?" 

"I have one, a gravity mine, you could take it. Just leave it in your wake as you cross paths with the vespari. It will be triggered when it's pulled into the gravitational field of their ship and the vespari will be sucked into a localized black hole. They'll be crushed and Earth will be saved."

"Why would you do this for me?"

She smiled and moved closer. "Because I love you and I can see that the fate of your people upsets you."

"Won't this mess with the time continuum or something?"

"Do you think this could really change the universe? I thought by now you'd understand that you and your people aren't even a single thread in the tapestry. But here, in the small confines of human space and time, you could be the greatest hero your species has ever known. You could save everyone you've ever loved."

"What's the catch?"

"It's good to see that you haven't changed much." She turned away and crossed her arms over her chest. "For this to work I need to replace you in your own timeline, which means I need to take on a new companion... You'll never see me again."

Her words cut me. I pulled her around so we were staring into each other's eyes. I struggled to say something but I knew she understood how I felt.

---

IV.

The stars began drawing closer, all of them from different angels. I could see now that each prick of light was a galaxy. The beautiful clouds of colors all rushed towards me and drained the blackness from the room--leaving behind walls as white as all the others. Everything swirled around me but I stayed calm as each individual galaxy moved collectively into a tight spiral. Before I knew it there was a woman composed of the black nothingness standing in front of me. Her flesh absorbed the light around her and reflected it back in glittering patterns that mimicked the galaxies inside her. I stepped closer and her eyes opened. Such blue eyes. There was nothing but blue, no pupil, no iris, just solid blue. 

"Captain how did you get there...? You were just..." I could hear Munce's voice but it was lost to me as I took in the woman's beauty. "But what about discovering ET? What about becoming famous?" Munce's voice came through the static of my radio again. 

Before I could tell him just how famous we really were going to be, she grabbed hold of my body and the passion was like nothing I'd ever felt before. There was an energy coming from her that was frightening yet safe at the same time. She rubbed against me and whispered "I told you we'd be together forever."

"What?"

Her body grew tense. She threw her head back and as she went limp in my arms she whispered, "jump."