Time for Memories

  A Lords of the Stars Novelette

  Mattias von Schantz

  THUD!

  Cold, hard steel struck her left cheek. A hard hand around her neck pressed bony knuckles into her flesh.

  THUMP!

  The other cheek. Muscles that couldn't handle the pressure. Blood slowly began to drip down her face.

  More blows. A man stood behind her, holding her against the wall. A cold, insensitive laugh.

  Sound of cartilage being crushed. A freezing pain pierced the nasal bone.

  Black. Pain that turned the world black.

  June 17, 1999, Sacramento, Earth

  07:04 AM

  "You don't look very cheerful today, Ellie."

  Her father glanced up from the morning paper as she settled into her chair at the breakfast table. A bowl of cornflakes and milk awaited her. She needed a hearty breakfast today.

  “I had a really bad nightmare last night; I couldn't go back to sleep after that.” She shuddered at the vivid memory of the bad dream that didn’t want to leave her waking mind.

  “No, I can imagine that. You can go to bed earlier tonight instead. You have to make sure you keep up with school at least.”

  Yes, of course. Now he would bring up that subject again. Always the same talk. Not that she was slow by any means, but school had never been to her liking. She couldn't really concentrate there, and somehow some of the things she was supposed to learn always became a tangled mess in her head. At the same time, other things she didn’t really need to recall, she could remember in striking detail years later.

  Breakfast disappeared faster than usual this morning. Maybe the lack of sleep had increased her hunger, she mused, as she brushed her long, ginger-copper-red hair. She had to wait an agonizing five minutes longer than usual before Sally, her best friend, finally arrived to accompany her to school.

  "Did you see what Tom wore last night to the arcade?" Sally asked with a wicked smile.

  "He could have been killed for wearing that ridiculous yellow cap!"

  "Don't talk about being killed," Ellie moaned, rolling her eyes. "Have you done your math homework? I didn't understand anything of it. Those quadratic equations blow my mind.”

  “You really don't look great! What did you do yesterday?”

  "Nothing. Forget it. Just a nightmare.”

  “It must have been a very convincing nightmare to get you riled up like that. What was it about? Tom's cap, I’m sure?”

  “Forget it, I said. And by the way, you shouldn't look at guys who are two years younger than you. Have you done the assignments?”

  "Me? Really, what do you think of me?” Sally laughed. “But we can probably copy them from Elizabeth.”

  “You’re still blackmailing her? Surely her father can't be that upset…”

  “You don't know him. If he knew she smoked, she would be under curfew for the rest of her life.”

  “Yes, maybe so. I don't really care.”

  ”… Sally Hoffman, Jerry Connor, Ellie McBrian…”

  Mrs. Johnson fussed as she handed out last week's ink-smeared English papers. Ellie hadn't expected to get a good grade on it, but this was even worse than she had feared. Her stomach tightened as she thought about how she would have to explain her disappointing score to her parents when she got back home.

  Oh, how she hated this school. It wasn't the worst school in Sacramento, not by a long shot. But she still didn’t want to be here. She didn't quite know how to describe her feelings, not even to herself. Somehow she was restless, longing to break free, looking to the horizon, to the other side of the sky. She wanted to be someone else, somewhere else. Not a freckled teenage girl who had to struggle day in and day out, both with her grades and her parents. If only she could escape…

  She didn't think much about it when she went to sleep that night. But when sleep finally came, the dreams set in, just like the ones the night before…

  A click behind her left ear drew her attention. But before she could move, a muscular arm was thrown around her head, twisting it violently so she was staring into the man’s eyes. Her neck throbbed with pain as he forced her head into a position that it was never meant to be in. She dropped the object she was holding in her hand. The man picked it up.

  THUD!

  Cold, hard steel struck her left cheek. His hard hand around her neck pressed bony knuckles into her flesh. Pain began to spread through her head.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  THUMP!

  The other cheek. The muscles couldn't handle the pressure. Blood slowly began to drip down her face, soiling her ginger hair.

  More blows, on both cheeks, in the face. The man behind her held her pressed against the wall, towering above her. His laugh was cold, insensitive, as if he was tormenting an animal, and enjoying it.

  She heard the sound of cartilage being crushed. A freezing pain pierced the nasal bone as her nose was mashed across her face by another blow.

  Black. Pain that turned the world black. Her left field of vision became a mess of red and black. How long would he continue this? How long would she last?

  August 19, 2347, Lowell City, Mars, Solaris system

  18:23

  “Welcome home, Mr. Williams. Did you find those criminals?”

  “Don't talk about it,” Paul muttered as he stepped into the kitchen. The computer, sensing his mood, fell silent for a moment.

  "I was this close to arresting an entire art association," he continued, holding his thumb and forefinger nearly together in front of the well-polished camera lens in the wall. “How do you get people to understand that they should report things like this before they do them, and not after? The woman who reported the mural was absolutely beside herself. That sort of thing shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”

  “Would it help to regulate the law concerning such matters?” the computer suggested. “If there were penalties for not informing the authorities ahead of time, people might think twice before acting.”

  "Bah!” Paul grumbled as he dropped into his favorite chair. “We might as well just legislate against art associations entirely and avoid the problem altogether. But no, I spent the entire day chasing down a bunch of eccentric artists. How anyone can order art like that is beyond me!”

  "It is my firm belief that people’s taste in art varies significantly," the computer replied.

  Of course, it had a unique opportunity to judge such things from a slightly different perspective than its flatmate. “Biots are not exempt from that, right?”

  “No, of course not,” Paul muttered. “But I can’t imagine living in a house painted like that. I don’t see how anyone else could want to, either.”

  “I trust you don’t intend to repaint our home, “ the computer joked.

  Paul shook his head and left the kitchen, walking down the hallway that led to the bathroom. He splashed cold water onto his face, scrubbing away at the dust. There hadn’t been anything tangibly wrong with the street cleaning down by Colony Park. But somehow the dust had settled on his face during his time there, and it wouldn't go away when he ran his sleeve over it.

  “You have a message from Admiral Otter,” the computer informed him when he returned to the kitchen. "They believe the 256th is due for another training exercise.”

  “Of course they do," Paul sighed. "I should just request a transfer. Just because we are the last Army, we have the eyes of the entire Federation on us.”

  “Do you intend to protest against the Solar Command's proposal? After all, it has been eight years since you last trained the entire Army.”

  “Yes, I know,” Paul said, his voice betraying his resignation. “Well, you can let Admiral Otter know I'm taking them out to the end of the Crazy Century. But it will only be a short training session, a year at most. I feel like I’ve spent the last few decades out there more than I’ve been here.”

  June 18, 1999, Sacramento, Earth

  10:47 AM

  The smell of smoke hung heavily in the air, clouding the atmosphere of the dimly lit arcade. A pair of fluorescent tubes clung to the ceiling, though whether they were functioning or not was a mystery, as no one seemed to care. Just inside the entrance stood a stereo with cracked speakers, blasting rock music that was at least ten years out of date at a volume far too loud for comfort. For most, the place was anything but welcoming, but for Ellie, it was still better than school. At this hour, those who didn’t skip class had to endure the mundane routine of history lessons instead of spending their day among the video games and the older guys who frequented the arcade. Ellie smirked to herself at the thought.

  She had already spent all the money she had brought and now found herself lingering by the vending machine, eyeing Sally’s soda and hoping for a taste. Without warning, someone wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  “Richard? Knock it off, I have better things to do,” she snapped.

  "You just say that. Come on, loosen up,” he coaxed.

  “No, stop it! Get lost!” Ellie pulled away, frustrated with him.

  "Hey, relax, babe!" he said, trying to reel her in again.

  “I said stop!” Ellie shoved him.

  Suddenly, the world seemed to stand still, as if time itself had paused in some bizarre way. No, not completely still. Everything just seemed to go slower. Richard released his hold as she pushed him, and now she grabbed his arm. Her right hand moved as if on its own, seizing his neck and twisting him sharply, forcing him to turn his back to her. Her left hand shot out, yanking hard. She heard the blood pulsing through her ears, Richard's desperate screams, and the sickening sound of bones snapping.

  Ellie jerked back, her heart pounding in her chest. All around her people shouted in terror. Richard stood before her, his arm grotesquely twisted, hanging at an unnatural angle. What had happened? Why was everyone staring at her like that?

  “Ellie! What have you done? Are you insane?” Sally was on the verge of panic.

  “We have to get out of here, now. Move, Ellie, come on!” She tugged on Ellie's arm, as if to force her to move. But Ellie felt paralyzed, her mind unable to make sense of what had just happened. The world felt upside down, foreign, but eventually her legs responded, and she followed Sally.

  They ran in a panic through narrow streets and alleys, their foreheads slick with sweat. They didn’t stop until they were breathless.

  "What were you thinking back there?" Sally still couldn't believe what she had seen. “Did you try to kill him?”

  Ellie stared blankly, her thoughts jumbled. She hadn’t seen it happen. One second she had pushed Richard, and the next, he was standing there with a broken arm. “What happened?” she asked.

  "What do you mean, what happened?" The way Ellie had said it made Sally tremble. She had never thought she could fear her best friend, but now she was dangerously close to abandoning her to her own devices.

  After crossing a few more narrow streets, they slumped down in an alley sheltered behind a large dumpster.

  "Don't you know what happened?" Sally asked, her voice trembling.

  Ellie shook her head in confusion.

  "No, I don't understand… Did I break his arm?"

  Sally gave a reluctant nod, afraid to say it out loud.

  “How could I have done that?” Ellie whispered. “He weighs at least twice as much as I do. Why didn’t he fight back?”

  “It happened so fast, I couldn’t even tell what was going on,” Sally said, still shaken. “If I had seen what you were doing, I would’ve stopped you. You mean you didn't do it on purpose?”

  “I swear I didn’t,” Ellie said, tears threatening to spill. “I just wanted to push him away, not hurt him like that. Promise me, Sally. Promise you’ll stop me if I ever do anything like that again. I don’t want people to be afraid of me.”