Between Two Worlds

A loud banging wakes me up from my sleep. “What?” I ask the empty room. I sit up in bed and wait to see if the loud banging continues. After a few moments of silence, it does. I drag myself out of bed and slowly drag my feet to my front door. “Who is it?” I ask.

“It’s me, Kat.” The voice on the other side, says.

“What do you want?” I ask, annoyed.

“I’ll tell you as soon as you let me in. Hurry up, before someone calls Kyra, or worse yet, Altair.” Kat whispers.

“Alright. Hold on.” I say, putting my hand to the scanner, by the door. I hear a beep, then a click, and then the doorknob turns, and Kat walks in, quickly shutting the door behind herself. Her black hair is down and hanging in her face, and her eyes look bloodshot like she hadn’t slept in days.

“So, what do you want this late at night?”

“We need to go outside.”

I sigh. “When?”

“Right now.”

“Are you kidding me, right now?!” I asked, shocked. “It’s the middle of the night, and I was sound asleep, in case you couldn’t tell by my casual attire.”

“No, I’m totally serious. When did you think I meant?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe in the morning when the sun is out. When normal, sane, people go about their day.” I say sarcastically.

“We can’t go in the morning.”

“This ought to be good. Why not?”

“Because nighttime is when you find things out. Nighttime is when everyone’s hidden secrets are revealed.”

“Of course, the crazy reason.”

There is something strange going on around here and I need to find out what.” Kat says, pushing her black hair out of her face.

“You need to find out? What does that mean? Don’t you mean want? You want to find out? And what, possibly, could be happening that you want to know about?”

“Want, need, same thing, really. And I don’t know what’s happening, that’s why we should go out and find out. Besides, don’t you find the whole thing a little odd?”

“What whole thing?”

“The whole, don’t go outside without your life partner or your husband? Don’t go outside, after nightfall, period.”

“Well, yeah, that part is a little odd. But maybe it’s easier to keep the city safe if the people all stay indoors, after dark.” I say.

“Safe from what? This place doesn’t have any vagabonds, criminals, or enemies of any type. You can’t even get within twenty Klopins of the planet without running into the PDS.”

“Klopins? PDS?”

“Klopins is a measurement of distance. Don’t you guys use Klopins on your home world?”

“No, on Earth, each tribe uses its own form of distance measurement. My tribe uses something called miles.”

“Miles? Hm. That’s a strange word.” She says.

“It’s an ancient human word. But what’s PDS?”

“Planetary Defense System, or PDS for short. This planet has, by far, the largest and most complex PDS I have ever seen. And trust me, I have seen my fair share of them. I have served my General for forty-six years, I have been in more wars than I care to admit and have seen more planets than I can count. And of all the planets I have been to, only forty-two of them have PDS, and this one makes the other PDS’s seem like rock walls being held up by twigs.”

“First off, Woah. That was way too much information to take in all at once. You are going to have to explain that to me, again.”

“Which part?” she asks.

“How old are you? You look like you are my age, but I swear that you said that you served somebody for forty years?”

“Forty-six years, and that somebody is the General of the Copaie people. I guess in simple terms, he is our leader. His name is General Ikonyn. And I am seventy-five years old. Your people age three times faster than my own people. So, basically, I would only be twenty-five years old if I were one of your people.”

“Okay, that’s weird but whatever, I can handle it. But why did you compare the other PDS’s to a rock wall being held up by twigs? That would never work.”

“Exactly. The complexity of this one makes all the other ones seem foolish and outdated. Now do you understand why I have to go check out this city. And why I need you? If I should get caught outside, alone, we would both have to face The Cleansing. I’m not sure what exactly that is, but the way they describe it, it can’t be good.”

“No, I don’t understand why you need to check things out, but I will go anyways. You’re right, if you are caught, we will both get punished. Just give me a few moments to get dressed, I am not going to spy in my PJ’s.” I say.

“Hurry up. I want to check things out and get back to bed before anyone notices we are gone.”

“And if they do?”

“If they do, what? Notice we are gone?”

“Yes. What if they somehow notice we are gone?”

“Then I have a feeling we will find out exactly what The Cleansing is and no one will be able to save us.”