Derelict 0006

"And it's just, what, luck? That I was in the path?"

"Yes," Hitomi blurted, and immediately regretted it. "That came out wrong."

"No, it's okay," Alise whispered. "It was honest."

"I feel like I'm having to defend not looking for you."

Alise peered quietly at her as they walked.

"I mean, You were dead. You were dead in my arms."

"You don't have to feel guilty—"

"But I do!" She laughed bitterly and shook her head. "How fucked up is that?"

They walked in silence for a few minutes down the narrow, windy street, neither getting closer to, nor further from, the distant sounds of city life. Every side alleyway was blocked, locked, or otherwise closed off, and it was making the hairs on Hitomi's neck stand up as she saw the writing on the wall; they were being herded exactly where she needed to go.

The street began to morph from her memory of it. Shifting imperceptibly. The buildings encroached on the street, creeping inwards above her. Her eyes drifted up, following the yellow towels floating lazily in the light wind. The end of the street ran directly into the front doors of the hotel. In her mind, there should have been a cul de sac in front. Open space for transports to pickup and drop off. This was like the hotel had been picked up and dropped at the end of a row of buildings. It made exactly as much sense as everything else.

If Alise noticed, she wasn't saying anything.

"Something is wrong with those clouds."

Alise barely looked up. "They look fine to me."

Hitomi shook her head as she put her hand on the front door of the hotel and pulled... and paused. Fifteen meters ahead of her, yellow towels floated lazily in a light wind. The bed was still unmade, sheets thrown from the end of the bed. Two half-finished wine flutes sat on the balcony table; condensed moisture trickling down the side. Hitomi held up her hand to Alise as she stepped through into, not the hotel lobby, but their hotel room. The last room they'd had together, exactly as it had been when they left it.

"Tomi, I..." Alise swallowed hard, peering through from her spot in the street. "I think we're in Heaven."

"You know I don't believe in that," she muttered, as she crept through the room. Rifle tight against her shoulder. She stepped up to the railing of the balcony and found herself staring down at the street they'd just walked down. At a thin blonde woman seventeen floors below, with long blonde hair flowing down her back as she held open the door.

"No... I know, but... it wouldn't be heaven for me without you..."

"Look to your left."

"What? Why?"

Seventeen floors below, the miniature figure in the street turned and looked over their left shoulder. Hitomi raised her M-2 and pressed her eye tight to the scope as she watched. Alise looked back behind her, down the street. "Don't move," she called, as she took careful aim. Just over Alise's shoulder.

"Why n—"

The sonic boom of the kinetic rifle firing shocked even Hitomi. When her eyes stopped fluttering, she had to blink a few more times; there was a crack in the sky. A smoking black hole, with several smaller cracks spidering out from it, just below the floor level of their balcony. Alise lurched and jumped back and forth between two of the cracks. Hitomi looked up in horror at the clouds and drew her M-109, pulling the trigger while her arm swept before her in a wide arc. A dozen bullet holes hung in the air a meter past the balcony. Behind the bullet holes, the clouds continued to float by unphased.

"I don't understand," Alise whimpered, suddenly beside her.

"It's fake..." Hitomi's lips worked slowly, as she tried to wrap her head around the scale of it. "It's a... screen..." She reached out, grabbed one of the wine flutes, and dipped her finger into the fluid. "...That's almost right," she said, smacking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, though her memory of the taste of the champagne they'd shared had been largely overshadowed by events that came soon after.

Alise slumped against the railing, putting her hand to her forehead. "I'm not her, am I?"

The Marine froze, hearing her own worst fears given voice. Fears her heart had refused to let her head acknowledge.

"I mean, I feel like her. I have her memories... but I'm not. I can't be."

"Don't say that." Hitomi's voice was hollow. Ragged.

"If everything here is fake, then why not me too?"

Time slowed. She could see Alise breaking down bit by bit in front of her, losing herself. Falling. Hitomi could see the pain behind Alise's eyes. Could feel the doubt gnawing at her. At both of them. It was fear that sent her hurtling forward. She grabbed the blonde by the shoulders and slammed her back into the wall. Alise gasped as the taller woman leaned in close, breath hot on her lips.

"You're real to me."

Alise whimpered into the desperate, passionate kiss. Melted under the heat of it. Strong hands pinned her, and held her. Supported her. Mauled her. The shirt, ripped off. The shorts pulled down just far enough to be irrelevant. Hitomi's suit, unzipped and discarded. Bare fingertips parted and probed, drawing a shuddering breath from the crying blonde. Hitomi's teeth sank into the soft flesh of her neck. Her eyes stung from the tears.

"Mine," Hitomi growled, and the thin woman's body wracked with sobbing convulsions.

It was as it had ever been between them, and they slipped into their patterns like finely tailored clothes. Alise rose up on the balls of her feet as her head rolled back into her shoulders. Her clit, stroked and teased masterfully. The soft coo delivered with lips caressing the edges of Hitomi's ears. One wrist grabbed and planted firmly against the wall. Their roles, oft practiced and well rehearsed.

The shorter woman's moans filled the room, overshadowing Hitomi's grunts of effort. Tears stung both their eyes. Alise yelped as her arm was pulled up, and she rose up on her tiptoes. The arm stayed in place as Hitomi reached down and hooked her hand beneath Alise's knee. The young blonde perched on the tips of one foot while the other craned up at the Marine's whim. The petals of her flower spread as if in bloom, and Hitomi's fingers slipped inside her. As if they'd never been apart.

Alise cried out as her orgasm tore through her, upright only by the design of the woman holding her. Strength of will and confidence that had been there long before the Corps. Hitomi lowered the shivering woman to her knees, bent her forward at the waist until her shoulders pressed softly into the carpet, and knelt down behind Alise's upturned rear. The tips of her fingers danced along the backs of thighs, and Alise's feet twitched beneath her. Alise looked back and gave a little nod, and with that, she was off again.

One hand pressed firmly into Alise's lower back. Three fingers slid into her pussy, stretching the smaller woman's walls. Alise moaned as the fingers whipped in and out of her rapidfire. Her arms drew tight beneath her torso, fingers knitting into the carpet for leverage as Hitomi fingerfucked her harder than she ever had before by a full order of magnitude. Her toes curled tightly into the balls of her feet.

There were no words, no intelligible sounds between them; Hitomi's labored grunts, Alise's high pitched squeals, and the machine gun schluck-schluck-schluck. Her blonde hair gathered over her face, catching wherever it came in contact with sweat. For a moment, Hitomi could put everything aside, and the bliss of purpose carried her onward.

Alise was wavy, through the tears, as Hitomi twisted her arm to feather the g-spot with the pad of her middle finger. Two fingers of her other hand pressed against the blonde's puckered anus, penetrating via copious sweat and hooking inside. Tugging at the ring. Pushing against her darkened walls. Alise wailed; putty in her hands. Just as her second orgasm reached it peak, Hitomi withdrew and brought her palm crashing in hard and flat over the quivering lips.

Alise tumbled onto her side, curling in on herself as her muscle spasms overwhelmed her self-control. Hitomi smiled as warm ejaculate sprayed over and between her knees. Wept, as she swiped a droplet from her thigh and brought it to her lips. Thick, with a heavy taste that lingered on the back of the tongue. Slightly bitter.

It was too much for her. Hitomi fell back on her heels, finally seeing the anxiety she'd been sensing for what it was. She shook her head, as if to deny the writhing blonde before her.

"Tomi?" Alise drawled, as she rolled onto her back. "You okay?"

"I'm alright," she lied, as she reached for her suit.

Alise sat up, smiling hopefully. "You don't want me to... you know..."

"It's fine," Hitomi lied. "We have to go."

Alise nodded, and bit her lip as she picked up her borrowed clothes. "I know it's not the same for you, but I've cum, like, seven times in the last few hours."

Hitomi's head dropped forward, planting her chin on her chest. They'd fucked like rabbits and gone down for a late lunch. She grit her teeth, doing everything she could to hold back the bile.

"Tomi?"

The dam burst. Hitomi struck out, putting her fist clean through wall board. The concrete just behind that was less forgiving. "Please stop calling me that," she growled, hand and wrist still hidden through the hole.

"Calling you... Tomi?

"I lied. It's not okay." Her knuckles were scraped, blood already dripping down from her fingertips.

"W-w... Why didn't you tell me?"

"What was I supposed to say?" she barked. "It's been twenty minutes for you. Nothing's changed. Everything changed for me! You were gone!"

"I—"

"I know!" she screamed. "I shouldn't be mad at you. It's not your fault, but I still can't handle it!" The blood felt warm as it ran down her forearm.

"Baby, do you not..."

"Not what? Love you?"

Alise nodded, hurt.

"I buried you! I buried you, and I buried us, and I buried all the... all the..." Hitomi put a hand to her throat to steady herself. "I buried it all."

"And now here I am... like nothing happened..."

Hitomi nodded, tears overflowing. "I feel like I'm losing my mind." Alise rolled back on her heels, lips quivering like she was on the verge of saying something, but it was more than Hitomi could bear to take care of her too. It was taking all of her own strength not to simply shut down.

"We have to go," Hitomi croaked, several minutes later. Alise nodded blankly, and they both dressed themselves mechanically. Without eye contact. Hitomi felt weight in her chest as she lurched toward the door to the bathroom; the only other door led back the way they had come. She paused with her hand on the knob, unsure if she could take what might be on the other side, and managed one step through once she finally opened it.

"Noo," she cried. Alise wept too.

They both stopped and stared and knew, needing no reminders. The details permanently etched in their brains. They didn't need to point out the faded red padding on the boothes, or the half-eaten apple pie underneath the glass cover on the counter. The song playing on the jukebox. The slightly green tint to the setting star Viridian, visible through the front windows. They were in Oort's Diner, site of their first date. Except, on the table at the booth closest to the restrooms, was a single cupcake with a single burning candle. Alise gasped as she picked it up and blew it out.

"Our first anniversary," she whispered.

"This isn't happening," Hitomi cried softly. "This isn't happening."

"This is a sign." Alise's voice rang with adulation and hope.

"It's not a sign." She took a dazed step, bracing herself against the register. "It isn't real."

"It's chocowate," Alise mumbled, turning to show Hitomi the dark inner profile of the cupcake.

"This can't be it," she whimpered, knowing full well how far she'd traveled. This was the node. This was what she'd been sent to see.

"But what if it is?"

"...is what?"

"Heaven," Alise said, her eyes tearing up again.

"Alise—"

"I mean, what is Heaven?" she rushed. "A... a... a greatest hits collection? The best parts of your life over and over again?"

"This isn't heaven," Hitomi croaked. "It's a ship, drifting in space. This is reality."

"How do you know?"

"What do you mean, how do I know?"

Alise licked her lips as she rushed back to the counter. "Maybe you... maybe you had an aneurysm."

"I didn't... I'm not dead, Alise."

"How would you know? You just close your eyes and it's over!"

"I would know."

"How could you? It happens so fa—"

"Why do you keep trying to get me to believe that I'm dead?!"

"Why do you keep trying to take this away from me?!" Alise cried. "Look around! Can't you see where we are?"

"It isn't real! None of it!"

"I'm real," Alise whispered, stepping even closer. "Even if I'm not her, I'm real."

"No," Hitomi whimpered, taking a step backward.

"I could be her for you."

"No."

"I—"

"Stop!" she cried, taking another step back and snapping up her M-2 in desperation. Alise gasped as the barrel settled against her forehead, fear frozen on her face. "I can't stay here! I can't do this!"

"Don't leave me," Alise pleaded. "Please..." Hitomi took another quivering step backward through the door, passing impossibly across galaxies and time from a diner in one to a hotel room in another. "Please don't leave me!" Alise took a step after her, and shrieked as Hitomi jammed the gun back into her brow.

"Don't make me do it," she wept. "I couldn't live with myself if I had to shoot you. Not while you're wearing that face."

"If you leave me here alone," Alise sobbed, "I'm dead anyway."

Hitomi grit her teeth, her arms shaking violently in hysterics. The kinetic rifle and the love of her life at the other end of it were watery blobs through the tears streaming down her cheek. Her finger rested snugly against the trigger.

***

"Corporal Givens, checking in."

Colonel Gormes shook his head and sighed as he hit the comm button. "Go ahead, Corporal."

"BINGO, sir. No sign of her, and no comm traffic."

"Anything on the derelict?"

"Derelict, sir?"

"The ship, you moron!"

"Oh. No, sir. Nothing. Half the sensor stations out here still say nothing passed through."

Gormes stared sadly at the countdown clock he'd set up on his display. Captain Motomo was 26 hours overdue. "Not again," he whispered.

//Follow-up note: Votes and comments are dearly appreciated. This is one of seven stories I'll be uploading (hopefully) on successive days. If you liked this, stay tuned and be sure to check out the others!//