Whatever Happened To Space Girl?
The bad guys won.
I couldn’t stop them.
I think that’s what happened.
Now the fog of an overwhelming hopelessness has sapped my will.
Food is tasteless.
Alcohol stopped working.
Music doesn’t inspire.
Fiction has lost its appeal.
I sit in my wheelchair, in this home for the almost dead, listening to the clocks ticking my life away.
It’s oddly comforting knowing it will all end soon.
A low rumble of thunder in the distance sends a welcome jolt of excitement through my body, I’ve moved to the window before I know it.
Henderson, the old man dying beside me, looks up from his book without moving his head, “What is it?”
“Thunder,” I respond, squinting into the darkness.
“What did you expect?” asks Henderson.
I don’t answer.
“You should escape,” says Henderson as he settles back into his book.
“And where would I go?”
He smiles without looking at me, “Eldorado Omega.”
I scowl at the odd combination of words.
“You should at least try, you used to be good at it, escaping,” he tilts his book back so I can see the cover:
SPACE GIRL:
IN THE HEART OF NOIRESS
by
Edward Prince
I’m Edward Prince.
I am told I used to write pulp novels of the sci-fi serial matinee cliffhanger variety. The Space Girl series was apparently my most popular.
I do not remember writing these books. The covers claim they were written by an Edward Prince, but that could be a simple coincidence.
My son Adam had stopped by and dumped a box of old paperbacks on my bed. He hoped it would jog my memory. I thought “jog” was a humorous choice of words since I’ve lost both my legs. Maybe “roll” my memory would have been more fitting.
Adam was very frustrated, “They’re so good, so influential, and so imitated, that it’s now boring to the modern audience. It was too good and too far ahead of its time, and now it has been mined for every original idea ever since. They now think you stole from your impersonators! It’s beyond insulting, it’s infuriating! Show some respect people! Know where you came from!”
Adam was mad about copyrights, film rights, and the public domain, wherever that was. He’s hoping I’ll write something new to spark interest in the back catalog, something to get the studios interested before time runs out. It all sounded very dramatic. To make him feel better I promised I would look through them.
Many people in the home were fans, grew up reading them, excited to see the old cover art, they told me how much they used to mean to them, especially Henderson.
I don’t really like Henderson, but I didn’t explicitly dislike him, so I guess that makes us friends.
I thumb through one of the books, picking a musty yellowed page at random:
“Eldorado Omega, the last lost place,” my dad says pointing at an empty void on the glowing star map.
“How is it lost if you know where it is?”
“It’s the only place it could be, Maddie, the only uncharted section in the universe. It’s unreadable by any scanner or wavelength. Lost a lot of good people,” my dad trails off.
“Is it a black hole?”
“No, a black hole is something, a force, this is nothing. A dead spot in space. Like they ran out of ingredients.”
“Maybe it’s just something we don’t have a name for yet. What do you think it is?”
“No idea.”
“If you have no idea what it is then how do you know it’s lost?”
“Because I can’t stop thinking about it. That’s why we have to find it.”
“But if you don’t know what it is, or where it is, how will you know when you’ve found it?”
“Smart kid,” I nod as I skim a few pages ahead:
A null field has wiped out our ship’s power. No alarms, no flashing lights, just darkness and the sensation of falling.
“You ready?” my dad asks.
“Of course,” I unbuckle from the co-pilot seat, give my dad a kiss on the cheek, take a few steps back to the drop door and punch the big button with the side of my fist. Light floods the cabin and I let the air pressure suck me out, I drop a thousand feet out of a plummeting spacecraft and hit the ground running, my gravity boots safely cushion the impact, and allow a 9-year-old and her overprotective father to treat this suicidal feat as routine. Danger is boring, it’s everywhere, so there’s no need to fear it. Wasting time is much scarier.
“Amen,” agreed Edward.
That’s how we have always faced the world: at full speed with smiles on our faces, knowing that we will always overcome any impossible obstacle, because we were together, and always would be.
“Sorry to break it to you kid, it doesn’t always work that way,” thought Edward, skipping a few more pages:
I was surrounded by the army of terraformed soldiers. The entire camouflaged landscape training their laser sights on me.
I hear the familiar hiss of a jetpack, like a fuse being lit, and I yell into the air, “Love you!”
Dad drops in to save the day like he always does, the army opens fire, his mouth is moving but I can’t hear the words over the battle, probably something he considers witty like, “Sorry to crash your party.”
His eyes shine, reflecting the laser fire all around us.
He winks at me.
Everything is going to be okay.
Out of nowhere, a swarm of hummingbats engulfs dad.
That’s not good.
I look around for their source among the chaos but find nothing. Dad is temporarily flying blind, long enough for the bad guys to get in a few lucky shots.
I watch dad die.
I’ve watched him die before, but he looked different this time, he looked scared.
Scrambling across the ground I grab his gun and his light file.
The horde advance, tightening their perimeter.
I wait until they are all within range.
They couldn’t possibly know what was about to happen.
I wish you could have seen it, Dad.
A pissed-off 9-year-old double-fisting fusion repeaters, delivering gravity boots to faces, and mowing down an entire jungle of soldiers.
I did it, Dad.
A hummingbat buzzes around my head, I swat it away only to feel my back on fire.
I look over my shoulder at my killer.
Noiress emerges from her swirling menagerie of shadow creatures.
I look into my mother’s eyes.
The universe is so cruel.
I get it now.
All of it.
I’m sorry, Dad.
“I really put this kid through the ringer,” is Edward’s last thought before dropping the book back into the box and heading to bed.
Edward woke the next morning to find a gun under his pillow. A ray gun. A shiny chrome handheld rocket with a trigger. Pure childhood wish fulfillment, purring with potential, oddly heavy, and begging to be underestimated.
He looks around his tiny shoebox of a room as if the culprit would suddenly be revealed.
The silence seems to laugh at him.
Edward remembers telling his son if he ever became a burden to leave a gun under his pillow and he would understand.
It was a morbid attempt at humor as he was first being moved into the rest home, but also a mercy for everyone involved.
This specific gun choice created more questions than anything. A toy? A prop? Had it been in the box? I’ll ask Adam, but if I ask him and I’m wrong then he will think that I have truly lost it.
My memory isn’t what it used to be, thought Edward, but I still feel like myself.
In control.
A knock surprises Edward.
He spins and points the gun at the door in one quick, purposeful motion.
Henderson is standing in the doorway, arms raised with a paperback in hand, “Easy space ranger, just wanted to grab another one if that’s okay.”
Edward is distracted by his sudden reflex. His hand has lost its tremble, his aim is steady and forceful.
“Ed?” Henderson asks with a hint of concern.
Edward lowers the gun, “Sorry, just kidding.”
“Weird sense of humor. Explains why you never tell jokes,” Henderson says as he digs through the box of books, “Is it okay if I take two?”
“Sure,” Edward says absently, studying the gun that seemed to have a mind of its own.
Henderson turns to leave, but stops when Edward asks, “Why do you like them so much?”
Henderson turns, shrugs, “Reminds me of better days, exciting times when I used to fight back, when I used to be brave. I don’t have anyone to be brave for anymore.”
Edward nods, “I wish I could remember those times.”
Maddie wakes face down in sand.
How am I still alive?
I’m surrounded by Noiress’ goons.
I roll onto my back. It hurts so bad. I aim my guns to the sky and fire until empty.
“You missed,” growls one of the ugly things standing over me as a small pebble hits it from above. The others look up as more fragments rain down.
An unsettling rumble is followed by a sharp crack fracturing the air.
By the time the distracted mob realizes I was shooting up at the cliff face under our ship, I am already in a full sprint.
The ship falls along with the crumbling ledge.
The goons scurry from the growing shadow like bugs underfoot.
“Come back! Do not let her escape!” screams Noiress as she too retreats.
With every ounce of remaining energy I leap toward the oncoming ship.
Using a stairway of scattered hummingbats I bounce directly into the open drop hatch. I crawl up the steep incline to the pilot’s seat and slam the accelerator bar to full.
The immense blast incinerates the ground below, and hopefully everyone with it.
The ship begins winning its battle against gravity, almost slowing to a stop. I buckle in seconds before the ship slingshots back into the sky with a jolt.
I take my dad out of my pocket. The light file resembles a large coin with a heartbeat, its red light fading in and out.
I give my dad a kiss, “Eldorado Omega, here we come.”
“What’s a light file?” asks Edward begrudgingly.
“You’re asking me? That’s hilarious,” says Henderson over his shoulder, sitting by a window in the common room.
Henderson seems to puff up at the opportunity to educate Edward on his own creations.
“As everyone knows, when you die your information is backed-up to your light file so you can later upload your information to a new model in a reconsti-tube.”
The rolling echo of a distant stampede grabs Edward’s attention.
Henderson is annoyed by the interruption, “Let me guess: thunder?”
“Yes, always thunder, never rain.”
“Never noticed. Anyway, one of your more famous stories had Dad die, but the tube to bring him back was damaged so he became stuck as a little boy right when Noiress discovered their hideout and took them captive. Noiress shattered Dad’s light file. It was very popular and led to the big final story where Space Girl dies.”
“Space Girl died?” says Edward, surprised at his own concern.
“Yeah, her light file was corrupted by Noiress, so she couldn’t be brought back. Quite the cliffhanger, it was a big deal.”
“What happened next?”
“You tell me, that was the last book you wrote.”
“Dad?”
“Yes, Maddie,” says Edward, amused at the sight of his little girl sitting in the passenger seat of his car, legs dangling over the seat, ray gun pointing out the window.
“After I’ve passed through the school nebula today can we go to the ice cream planet?”
“Your teacher said you’re falling behind. You can’t be afraid to ask questions.”
“But everyone will think I’m dumb,” says Maddie, shooting out the window.
“Not true. The person that admits that they don’t know something is the smartest person in the room.”
“The person that doesn’t know is the smartest?”
“The person that admits they don’t know is the smartest and bravest. Trust me, most people are too scared to raise their hand and the others will be grateful you stepped up to save them.”
“So after I save everyone can we then go to the ice cream planet?”
“If you promise to always be that person, you can get anything you want, Space Girl,” was the last thing Edward said to his daughter before he saw the oncoming truck.
A boom from outside makes Edward flinch.
Henderson looks around confused but keeps listening.
“The bad guys won. I lost my daughter and my legs and all that asshole lost was his truck. I felt completely helpless. My memories of her began fading so quickly, her voice, her laugh, her energy, I had no idea how much her existence fueled me. I started writing. I wrote about her constantly because I was forgetting her daily. I couldn’t let her drift away. I felt compelled to write stories where I saved her, and she saved me, over and over, as a way to feel in control. My head was suddenly full of these fantastic visions, strange people and exotic places. I couldn’t write fast enough, racing to catalog these fading memories,” Edward finishes his story still lost in thought.
“I’m so sorry to hear that, Ed, horrible thing to go through,” Henderson gives Edward an awkward pat on the shoulder.
“It’s almost as bad as that story where Noiress had them beat, completely defeated. She tortured Dad, pulled his legs off like a bug,” Henderson delivers his words carefully, studying Edward’s reaction.
Edward adjusts himself in his chair, visibly uncomfortable.
Henderson continues, “It was horrifying, and then the biggest insult, Noiress’s greatest victory came when she revealed Maddie never died. She’d been transformed into a disturbing mini-version of Noiress, at long last, mommy’s little girl. They were both attacking Dad, Noiress teaching Maddie to use her newly discovered “noir magic” slowly turning Dad into one of her mindless shadow creatures.”
Thunder rattles the windows, Edward’s knuckles are white from gripping his chair.
“Maddie turned on her, using her own file to corrupt Noiress temporarily. Noiress was horrified at what she had become and set her own file to self-destruct.”
“How,” Edward attempts to interject.
Henderson pushes on, “Dad’s light file was destroyed, he was completely helpless, Maddie threw him into an escape pod and set a course for the one place no scanner or wavelength could find him. She needed him safe until she could come for him.”
“How do you know that story? I never wrote about it.”
“How do you know you didn’t write it?”
“Because I remember. How do you know that story?” demands Edward.
“Glad you’re not afraid to ask questions anymore,” says Henderson.
“What?” says Edward as a thunder clap shakes the room, there is an explosion down the hall. Edward rolls out of his room into the smoky hallway to witness the silhouette of a little girl running toward them as she fires ray gun blasts at the growing shadows behind her.
“Maddie?”
“No, that’s your granddaughter, Olivia,” says Henderson, but as Edward looks up at him, Henderson’s appearance becomes fuzzy and glitches like it has bad reception, revealing a woman underneath.
“Hi Dad,” says a woman he has never seen before, but immediately recognizes as his grown daughter.
“Maddie.”
“Do you still have the gun I left you?” says adult Maddie.
“You did?” Edward shuffles through his chairs’ side pocket, and hands it to Maddie.
“Did you forget how to use it?”
Edward’s interrupted by little Olivia sliding behind his chair for cover, “Hi, Grandpa!”
“Hello.”
“Mom, can we go now, it’s getting thick out there.”
“Yes dear, cover us for a second.”
Maddie rolls Edward back into his room while Olivia continues blasting down the hallway.
“I needed to trigger your memories to break Eldorado Omega’s hold on you, otherwise none of us could ever escape this thing.”
“You found Eldorado Omega?”
“Yes, you’re in it.”
“Eldorado Omega is a nursing home?”
“No, it’s a perception engine. It is what you make it. It feeds on your emotions. Multiplies them, good or bad, fulfills dreams and amplifies nightmares. It’s often mistaken for the afterlife. For some, a paradise, for you, a self-inflicted prison. In other words: be careful what you wish for.”
“But why all this?” Edward asks waving at his dour living conditions.
“You tell me, you’re the depressed writer. You created a second life for yourself, got married, had a son, became a famous author. Apparently, Earthers fantasize about space travel and alien worlds, while space-borns dream of a linear life and the simple pleasures of weather and gravity, go figure.”
“Was any of this real?”
“It’s all real, it all happened, and it will live on after you’ve gone.”
Maddie grabs the gun out of Edward’s hand and shoots at a black tentacle creeping around the doorway.
“The only way in was to succumb to the world you created, become a part of it. I had to trap myself inside to save you.”
“That was a big risk.”
“I didn’t have a choice, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
“Have you always been Henderson?”
“Not always. I’ve been Adam, nurses, doctors, and staff whispering in your ear, hoping to gently free you from this reality without causing your brain to explode.”
“That could have happened?”
“Well it didn’t, you’re welcome, and at the same time Olivia’s been outside on the ship hitting it with every known weapon.”
“I’ve been trying to blow it up!” Olivia yells from the hall enthusiastically.
“The thunder,” says Edward.
“Yes, it was the sound of us coming to save you. The plan was to come back after everything calmed down, but life never seems to calm down, you know how it is, always a new adventure.”
The reflection of Olivia’s suppressing fire flashes across Maddie’s eyes, “Unfortunately, ten years for me has been forty years for you.”
“So the bad guys won after all.”
“No, the bad guys did not win. They just made you believe they did. Come on, we need you back.”
“But I’m,” Edward motions to his wheelchair.
“Oh right, I forgot about this part,” says Maddie digging in her pocket.
“What part?”
“Catch,” Maddie flips a red coin off her thumb, Edward manages a clumsy grab with both hands, too distracted to notice Maddie unholstering her gun.
“Sorry, Dad.”
Maddie shoots Edward, collects his light file, and joins Olivia blasting down the hallway, “Let’s get you out of here.”
Henderson walks to Ed’s door, book in hand, and stops himself from knocking when he sees Edward’s room is being cleaned by one of the staff.
“Where’s Ed?”
“Mr. Prince passed last night. Were you close?”
“Oh, yeah, I guess so.”
Henderson walks back to his room, sets the book on the end table and pats it gently.
He looks out his window, gazing at the few visible stars, and then he smiles.
For the first time, Henderson can hear the thunder.
THE END
