Something’s wrong with this damn Key. With this damn ship! I keep thinking I see people out of the corner of my eyes, but when I look, there’s no one there. Then there’s the voices, whispering in the halls. I checked to see if maybe some of the people had woken up, but all the remaining pods are operating properly. I don’t know, maybe the place is haunted.

  -Log Fragment 128-C - Te’chik

  ---------------------------------------------

  Wind howled across the desolate landscape, giant drifts of snow piling up against a spaceship as big as a skyscraper. Maggie stood in the snow beneath the behemoth, staring through the shattered glass of one of the pods at a strangely familiar figure. It took her a moment to recognize the curly red hair held back by a headband, the pale face dappled with freckles and the plain blue jean overalls with a flower embroidered on its pocket.

  Heart pounding, Maggie took a step back. “What the hell?”

  She looked at the other pods, noticing other familiar figures: Robin, Becca, Bobby, Ross, her aunt, her mother. All frozen in the strange glass pods, snowflakes gathering on their eyelashes, piling into folds of clothing and the crooks of arms. “Momma? Aunt Electra?”

  The frozen figures gave no sign that they heard her, and Maggie knew, she just KNEW that they were dead.

  Maggie sat bolt upright in her bed, covered in a cold sweat. “Momma!”

  “Maggie? Maggie it’s alright.” Robin was at her side in an instant, popping into being like someone had flipped on a light. She looked at him, mind scrambling to remember where she was. He sat on the edge of the bed, his ghostly form not even making a dent in the covers. But when he touched her hand she could once again feel the cool tingle, and the gentle pressure of his skin against hers. “It’s alright.” He repeated.

  Maggie gripped his hand like a lifeline and looked around the room. She was back in her pod, the colorful quilt a tangle around her legs and the single poster of Lix’al hanging crooked on the wall. An artistic choice she had made on the fly, planning to add more pictures as time and opportunity allowed.

  “Another nightmare?” Robin asked softly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

  Maggie nodded, putting a hand to her chest as she tried to calm herself down. Her mom and aunt were both safe back on Earth, as were her friends. They weren’t in some crazy spaceship on a snow planet. She wasn’t even sure how she knew it was a spaceship! It looked more like a tomb. “Y-yeah. How did we get back here?”

  “Doctor Tomas had you brought back here after he made sure you were alright. He thinks you just wore yourself out or something, because all your scans are as normal as can be expected. Jo should be by soon to check on you too.” Robin smiled, although there was still worry in his eyes. “You scared me, passing out like that.”

  “I don’t remember passing out.” Maggie said, trying to remember what exactly had happened in the medical sector. “I just remember someone saying they needed me, that I couldn’t die.”

  But it hadn’t been Robin, who had it been? She frowned as she thought, the vision of the frozen spaceship looming in her mind like a dark cloud. Robin’s smile disappeared. “No one said anything like that Maggie. Although I would be sad if you died. But you’re not going to, alright?” He hastened to reassure her.

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  Maggie let out a ragged laugh, looking up at him. “And how can you be so sure about that? What’s to keep Flame from killing me to get this stupid Key? Or what if it just takes me over, and I turn into some kind of monster?”

  “I know, alright? Neither me nor Doc Tomas are going to let Flame kill you, and there’s no sign of you turning into some kind of monster. Unless it’s a fart monster after eating those meatballs at the laundromat.” Robin’s impish smile returned, and he gave her a light squeeze.

  “I’m not going to turn into a fart monster.” Maggie said, a blush rising in her cheeks. How had he noticed that? He couldn’t smell, right? And it was only the one time!

  Robin just laughed, the worry fading now that things were back to normal.

  Maggie froze, staring around the room with wide eyes. When had all this started to feel normal? Nothing about this should feel normal! Not the aliens, or the job at the laundromat, or the Key, or the holographic ghost!

  And yet somehow it was starting to feel normal.

  She was startled by the soft chime of the doorbell humming through the pod, a blue light glowing next to the door. “That should be Jo.” Robin said. “Do you want me to open it?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Maggie slumped back against the padded wall behind her bed, not willing to fold it up into a couch right now. She felt a pang of guilt as the door slid open, and the polite little Silvarian waddled in, his baby comfortably strapped to his back and a bag in his paws.

  “Maggie, it’s good to see you awake.” Jo said, his head tendrils perking up. “I brought you some food, and a nice big thing of sweet water. How are you feeling?”

  “Hi Jo, I’m fine, just tired. How are you and the little stinker?” Robin didn’t know a fart monster until he had smelled one of Tommy’s farts. Could he even smell though?

  Jo laughed, setting the bag on the edge of the bed. “We’re both good. Tommy is going through a growth spurt, and he’s started to walk! He got across the pod all by himself last night.”

  Maggie grinned, accepting the weird normalcy of it all for right now. She couldn’t stay tense all the time, could she? It would make her sick! It had already made her sick, hadn’t it? Other wise she wouldn’t have wound up laying in bed like this. She dragged her mind away from the troubling thoughts, focusing instead on the more pleasant subject of adorable babies with just as adorable furry caregivers. “Soon enough and he’ll be able to carry you around.”

  Jo laughed, opening the bag to release the scent of spiced meat and rice into the air. “Soon, yes. Soon I won’t be able to carry him on my back anymore either. My neighbor Bernadette says she has a wagon though.”

  “And what about when he grows out of the wagon?” Robin looked over the food, and shrank down to his chibi size so it was harder to see the longing on his face.

  “He should be big enough to walk at that point.” Jo smiled, teasing Tommy’s nose with one of his head tendrils. The baby giggled, kicking his feet against the blanket that swaddled him, a chubby hand escaping to wave at the colorful tendril. “Did you need anything else Maggie? You just need to ask.”

  “I’ll be alright, this smells delicious.” Maggie leaned forward, pulling the bag towards her, looking in at the bottle of light pink water and the box of food. Her stomach growled, and thankfully she didn’t feel any heartburn. Maybe it had just been the weird meatballs at the laundromat. “Thank you.”

  Jo beamed at her, the tips of his head tendrils glowing faintly. “You’re welcome Maggie. You know how to reach me if you need anything, and Maue will check in on you later as well.”

  Maggie blushed, sitting cross-legged on the bed as she opened the box of food. “I’m sorry to be such a pain, I’m fine, really. You can tell Maue he doesn’t need to come check on me.”

  “He would come by anyways.” Jo laughed and headed for the door. “You know how he is. A proper stray, that one. I’ll leave you to rest now, if you feel up to it, tomorrow we’re having a neighborhood potluck.”

  “I don’t have anything to bring.” Maggie looked around the pod, there wasn’t even a place for a stove in here! How were people going to do a potluck?

  “Just bring yourself.” Jo offered her a toothy smile, before heading out the door. Just before it closed Tommy waved, giving her his own drooly smile.

  “I miss food.” Robin said wistfully, settling on Maggie’s shoulder as she opened the box. The meal was set up bento-style, and included chopsticks and a fork. Maggie considered the chopsticks for a moment, before admitting to her own lack of skill with the things and reaching for the fork.

  “Maybe you’ll be able to eat some time? If you can feel now... maybe you’re getting better?”

  “People don’t get better from being dead.” Robin laughed.

  “People also don’t float around as holograms after they die either. So who knows what can happen.” Maggie stabbed some of the meat with her fork. Life was full of impossibilities right now, so it didn’t seem like that big a leap from aliens and space ghosts to people coming back from the dead.