Between Two Worlds

“Good. Time to end this hunt.” I say, turning to leave.

“Rayanna, wait,” Kat says, grabbing my arm.

“What?” I ask.

“You aren’t going to tell Altair about my plans, are you?”

“I already told you; I’m not going to be responsible for anyone dying. If I told Altair, I’m pretty sure he would kill you. Besides, as you recall, whatever happens to one of us, happens to both of us, and I don’t want to die. You know, the whole life partner thing.” I pull my arm away from her and walk off in the direction that I assume the town is in.

We begin the long trek back toward town, silence filling the air. The sunlight quickly fades, making it harder to see, and even the animals are silent for a brief moment. Suddenly, as if someone flipped a switch, the sound of night creatures fills the air.

“You would make an excellent Copaie soldier,” Kat says after a while.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“You are stubborn and strong-willed. Those are two qualities born into every good Copaie soldier.”

This information surprises me. “Your people value soldiers who are stubborn and strong-willed? Why? Wouldn’t that make them more likely to ignore orders?”

“No. When a Copaie is ten years old, they leave home and join the military. They are taught to respect those in charge of them. But this strong-willed stubbornness keeps them from going astray. It’s very rare for a Copaie to betray their own people. You can’t buy a soldier; their loyalties are not for sale.”

“Soldiers from the age of ten? Sounds kind of violent.”

“There was a time our race was violent, always out for expansion, willing to fight anyone or anything, but that time has long since passed. For the past three thousand years, we have been peaceful. That was when the first female General came into power. General Astra brought about many changes and her son has kept the changes alive. She fought to get the Copaie a seat in the IPC.”

“IPC?” I ask.

“Interplanetary Council. It’s a group of nation planets that came together and formed a treaty. Each planet sends a specific number of soldiers, and together those soldiers form the IPP or Interplanetary Police. They help enforce certain laws agreed upon by each member planet.” Kat explains.

“What kind of laws?” I ask. Ahead I can see the faint glow of lights. These lights are different from the moon or starlight. That must be the town up ahead.

“Very important ones. Such as, no race may infiltrate a planet with level 5 intelligent beings with the intent of taking over, enslaving, or murdering said beings. The punishment for doing so is the destruction of the offending race’s home world.”

“Wow. Sounds kind of harsh, to punish an entire planet for the actions of a few bad seeds.” I say, carefully watching every step I make. The sun has set, and only the moonlight lights our path.

“Yes, it is a harsh punishment, but it’s meant to force each planet to hold their own people accountable for their actions.”

I wonder... “Are the Ghemin, I mean humans, represented in the IPC? Are my people?” Weird saying humans and my people as separate individuals.

“No to both. The Ghemin refuse to join, they say they don’t want anyone breathing down their neck with rules. We can’t force them to join, all we can do is make sure they don’t break any of the rules already in existence. And no one really knew about the existence of your people until recently. Or had just learned of their existence not long before I had to come back in time. No one knew what the Ghemin were up to. And then one day, there was a Ghemin in a bar, bragging about the experiments they were conducting on your people. The IPC were informed about the situation and a motion was passed to free your people from the Ghemin reign.

Unfortunately, Altair and his experimental creatures were turned loose on several key IPC planets, murdering millions and forcing those planets to align with his agenda. Once that happened, it wasn’t long until the IPC fell under Altair’s command, and then things got messy. In my timeline, Altair rules the galaxy. So, my General sent me back to prevent any of this from happening. And I figure while I have this nifty little jacket, I’ll stop by the early days of the IPC formation and inform them of your people and the Ghemin problem. So, what do you think?”

“I think...” I say with a sigh, “that you just dropped a lot of information on me. That’s some pretty heavy stuff. Is that supposed to make me see things your way?”

“No. I just wanted to make sure you knew everything that’s at stake. I wanted you to know that this is not some little ill-informed mission, not some spur-of-the-moment decision meant to make your life more difficult.”

We pause just outside the glow of a building’s light. “Don’t you see? This does make my life way more difficult. I could never be happy knowing that there is even the slightest chance that you could be right. Knowing that there is a chance that all of the Ghemin rule and experiments could soon be over for my people. Speaking of my people, some of us do survive the experiments, and some of us do get to leave the planet. So, how has no one heard of us, before?”

“Just like you, the other Femlanders all claim to be human. Anyone that has never met a human, wouldn’t know any different. Besides, you were lucky, the Ghemin have a thing for crossing DNA, mixing your race’s blood with that of other races. So, for the longest time, no one really knew what you looked like. We thought they were actually humans who experimented on their own race.”

“Yeah, I could see that. But anyways, you have given me a lot to think about, so let us go back to our own apartments and sleep on it. I need time to sort out my feelings about this. Decide whether or not I really want to participate in whatever you have planned.” We go our separate ways back to our own places. Once I am laying safely in my own bed, I think back on everything Kat has told me. I also let my mind wander back to everything that happened in the other reality. Altair and his army of soldiers. But the more I dwell on that, the fuzzier the memories become until I am no longer even sure that was real.

Maybe it was just a nightmare brought on by the stress of all the new changes in my life. After all, I never really experienced a change until I met Altair, and he talked me into a whole new life that did not include my brother. It’s not happened again, and if I really was swapping realities, it should happen again. At least I think it should. Wouldn’t there be an infinite number of realities? So, doesn’t it make sense that I would automatically swap into a new one, even though I died in the old one? My mind is filled with questions as I drop off to sleep.