Authors: Kylie James
Chapter
Three:
A
Surprise on the Spaceship
Deidre
rubbed her temples as she sat in the lower level of the spaceship, waiting for
everyone to board the intergalactic flight. After tucking her blue hair behind
her ear, she frowned; she was still pouting after she realized Cronus had not
had the courage to speak to her.
Stupid
robot was probably scamming me for money somehow,
Deidre
thought to herself.
Damn scam bots.
After
the serious let-down, she just wanted to get back to the intergalactic airport,
so she could get a drink with Maleeq after work. All of a sudden, someone
knocked on the plexiglass door to the lower level and she gasped. Through the
clear wall, she could see that it was the senior flight attendant, Bert. He was
waving for her to come to him. Deidre rolled her eyes and opened the doors.
“Hi,
Bert,” she murmured, following him towards the spaceship stairs.
“Why
were you hanging around down there?” he asked. “Something wrong?”
“Nah,”
Deidre said, shrugging. “I just wanna get back to Earth. The stench around this
hellhole is starting to drive me nuts.”
Bert
eyed her and said, “Nothing else bothering you? You just seem a little off.”
Deidre
frowned.
“Everything
is fine. Let's just go get this thing going so we can get home, alright?” she
snapped.
Bert
held up his hands in surrender.
“Hey,
that's fine with me. I was just trying to be empathetic.”
Deidre
did not feel like arguing, so she ignored Bert and hurried to the aisle to meet
with everyone for the returning flight. She cleared her throat and fixed her
hip 3D-printed collar.
“Hello,
everyone! Welcome to the flight back to planet Earth. You will be pulling into
Vogma'at Intergalactic. Do any of you have any questions?” Deidre asked,
looking around the audience.
Someone
made a throaty noise and Deidre frowned. She tried to point at the man who made
the noise, but he sunk down into his seat and out of her sight. Deidre frowned.
“Sir,
were you—excuse me. Sir?”
The man
did not respond. Deidre cocked an eyebrow and decided to continue her short
speech, so they could depart on time.
“Anyway,
does anyone else have any questions?” Deidre asked, giving everyone a thumbs
up. “Everyone's been to Earth before? Nobody needs a quick planetary guide?”
“My
owner needs a quick planetary guide when you have a moment,” a familiar,
robotic voice said.
Deidre
furrowed her brow and looked for the owner of the voice. Then, her eyes
widened. It was CAMI. Beside her, the man that had sunken into his seat was
still cowering behind the lumpy Garvonian in front of him. Deidre put a hand on
her hip and approached the robot and her owner. She squatted down beside them
to speak to her and Cronus. The handsome Forbadian was blushing a soft, golden
violet. Deidre blushed too.
“You
never came to meet me, Cronus,” she muttered, holding out her hand. “My name is
Deidre.”
Cronus
gave her a meek grin and awkwardly kissed her hand. Deidre's face became an
even darker shade of pink.
“Nice
to meet you, formally, Deidre. I'm sorry I sent my personal robot to come speak
to you earlier. I was a bit nervous,” he murmured. “Ever since the war, I've
been really wary about meeting new people. I fought the War on Femeta.”
Deidre's
jaw fell agape in horror. The War in Femeta was known throughout the many
galaxies as one of the most horrific wars of all time.
“I—I
had no idea,” Deidre said. “I would quite like to speak to you more about this
when we land on Earth. How long are you going to be visiting the planet?”
Cronus
chuckled.
“I live
on Earth now. I lived in the Lak'aat Desert on Forbadia. My home was taken out
a hundred years ago. I'll take you out for ancient Chinese food if you want?”
he asked, raising an eyebrow. “I promise CAMI won't be coming along.”
“Hey,
that is pretty rude to say to your wing-woman,” CAMI spat, crossing her robotic
arms.
Cronus
and Deidre laughed.
“Yeah,
that sounds amazing,” Deidre said. “You're really c—”
“Deidre!”
someone suddenly shouted.
Deidre
quickly got to her feet and turned around to come face-to-face with Bert. He
cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow.
“Blue,
someone needs some Nebula Nuts—stat,” Bert said, looking from her to Cronus and
CAMI. “Am I interrupting something here?”
Deidre
gulped nervously and shook her head, quickly.
“N-no,
nothing at all,” she lied. “I'll get right on those Nebula Nuts!”
“Okay
then,” Bert said, narrowing his eyes, suspiciously and clasping his hands
behind his back. “Get them as quickly as you can.”
Bert
slowly wandered by, and Deidre leaned down to whisper one more thing to Cronus.
“Search
Deidre Davies on SocialGalaxy. You'll find my phone number.”
Cronus
grinned. The blue-haired vixen had made his day a hundred times brighter.
Chapter
Four:
The
Date in the Dragon Star
It was
not a surprise to Deidre when she was unable to find Cronus after the spaceship
landed. However, the feeling of being unable to find him left a strange, uneasy
feeling in her stomach. For some reason, Deidre was beginning to feel very
strongly for the foreign stranger. She took a deep breath and crossed her arms
as she started pacing the long hallways of the airport.
“Hey,
Blue!”
Deidre
turned around and raised her eyebrows. Maleeq was grinning at her with her
bizarre, pointy teeth. Deidre gave her a small smile.
“Hey,
how was your trip to Morta?” she asked.
Maleeq
approached her, slightly out of breath, and then chuckled.
“Probably
about as great as Rorak was,” Maleeq replied. “I assume it was pretty crappy?”
Deidre
chewed on her lip and tried to hide a grin. Maleeq narrowed her eyes as a
knowing smirk grew on her face.
“Wait a
minute...” she said, wagging a colorful, pointy finger. “It wasn't crappy at
all! Something happened. Tell me! Tell me!”
Deidre
blushed and murmured, “Nothing happened. Just stay cool, okay?”
“Come
on, Blue! My day sucked and I need something juicy,” Maleeq begged. “Spill!”
Deidre
sighed.
“Okay,
fine!
”
she whined. “I met someone—well, kinda.”
Maleeq
raised her brow.
“Kinda?”
she inquired.
“Well,
he's supposed to add me on SocialGalaxy so we can meet up, but I don't know
when. I'm a little nervous. He's
really
handsome,” Deidre ranted. “He's
a
Forbadian
.”
Maleeq
beamed.
“A
Forbadian?” she hissed excitedly. She then playfully smacked Deidre's arm and
said, “Girl, you dog! They got huge—well, you know!”
“I
know, I know! That wasn't why I was interested, though,” Deidre insisted. “He
was honestly just really shy and seemed really fascinating. I don't know. He
sent his robot to talk to me first. It was sorta cute, really.”
Maleeq
furrowed her brow.
“You
like the fact he couldn't talk to you himself?” she asked.
“I mean
he—”
Deidre
was interrupted by a beeping sound from her wristlet-phone. She held up a
finger to Maleeq, indicating she needed to check her notifications. After
running her finger over the touch-pad, her eyes widened and she grinned at
Maleeq.
“Maleeq!
Come here!” she exclaimed. “He just added me!”
Maleeq
looked over her shoulder and smiled, nodding approvingly.
“He's
pretty easy on the eyes,” she said. “I personally prefer green or blue men, but
that's just me. Hey, is that a text message?”
“Sure
enough!” Deidre said, excitedly, quickly opening the incoming text message. “He
got my number pretty fast. That means he's interested, right?”
Maleeq
raised her brow.
“Girl,
that means you should
marry
him. Text him back!”
Deidre
bit her lip as sweat glistened on her neck.
“What
should I say?” she asked.
“Ask
him out to dinner later!” Maleeq exclaimed.
“Is
that too forward, though?”
“Hell
no!” Maleeq said. “He's cute. You're cute. You like each other. Ask him!”
Deidre
took a deep breath.
“Okay,
here it goes,” she said, tapping out a message with her thumbs. “This better
not backfire. I hope I didn't get the wrong idea.”
“Oh,
shut up. You're a grown woman. You can make a pass at a man if you really want
to,” Maleeq said, rolling her eyes.
“Alright.
Sent,” Deidre replied, ignoring Maleeq's rude comments.
“Now we
wait.”
*****
It was
no longer than fifteen minutes that Deidre had to wait for a response. To her
excitement, Cronus not only agreed to have dinner with her, but he asked her to
meet him between her flights the following day. She dressed as well as she
possibly could, so she could impress the alien she believed could be her Mr.
Right.
As she
hung up her keys in the lounge, Maleeq grinned and smacked her bottom,
playfully. Deidre scowled and turned around, raising an eyebrow.
“So?
Did Forbadian Romance text you back after I left?” Maleeq asked.
“Ha,
ha,” Deidre said, sarcastically, rolling her eyes at Maleeq's pun. She then
cleared her throat and excitedly added, “But yes, he did text me back. We're
actually meeting between my two flights for the day.”
“Oh
yeah?” Maleeq inquired, smiling. “You gonna get some Indian burritos at
Guirripo's or something? Sounds real freakin' romantic.”
Deidre
laughed.
“Nah.
He wants to get ancient Chinese, I think. Guirripo's would be fine, too. I
don't care. I just want to learn more about him,” she replied with a dazed
smile.
Maleeq
pointed at Deidre with wide eyes and an accusatory finger.
“You
aren't just going on a date with this guy,” she said as she began to have an
epiphany. “You really like him! This isn't that Garvonian guy all over again.
This is the real deal. I can tell by the look in your eyes.”
Deidre
blushed and confessed, “Well, I don't know about that, but I sure do like him a
lot. I don't know. He gives me this feeling in my stomach I just can't
describe, Maleeq. I hardly even know him, but his modesty, and his innovation,
and his—”
“I get
it, I get it,” Maleeq said. “God, gag me. I'm happy you're happy but tone it
down with the mushy crap.”
Deidre
laughed.
“Want
me to give you all the gooey details afterward?” she asked.
Maleeq
chuckled.
“Only
if it gets to home base.”
*****
Deidre
fixed her outfit in the mirror of the airport's ladies' room. She took a deep
breath and tucked her sky blue hair behind her ear and hissed at the restroom's
service bot.
“Hey,
Hattie!” Deidre hissed.
“Yes,
ma'am, what can I do for you, ma'am?” the purple robot asked.
“Could
you touch up my eye makeup?” Deidre asked. “I think I didn't quite get my
eyeliner right, and I'm about to go on a date, so I need it done really well.”
“Yes,
ma'am,” the purple robot replied, pulling a laser-liner from her service belt.
She then began applying it and said, “That looks beautiful, ma'am. You will
surely be turning heads with this look, ma'am.”
The
robot stopped and Deidre looked in the mirror. She was pleasantly surprised, so
she tipped the robot on her HoloCard and hurried out of the bathroom. Cronus
had asked her to meet him by Dragon Star, the airport's only ancient Chinese
restaurant, so that was where she headed
As she
approached the restaurant, she saw the tall, muscular man rocking on his heels
with his hands in the pockets of his trendy silver-and-black suit. Deidre
grinned and held out her arms. Cronus pulled her into a tight hug and she
blushed.
“You wanna
get some General Tso's chicken?” she asked. “That's my favorite.”
“That's
my favorite too!” Cronus said, chuckling. “What a coincidence.”
“No
way!” Deidre replied, laughing as she followed him into the restaurant. “The
next best thing is—”
“Sweet
and sour pork!” the two of them said in unison.
They
laughed together and Deidre bit her lip.
“I'm
glad you brought me here,” she murmured. “Thanks for sending CAMI to talk to me
yesterday. It really brightened up my crappy day at work.”
Cronus
grinned.
“Well,
you brightened up my crappy life, so I suppose I oughta thank you for that.”
Deidre
opened her mouth to reply, but she was approached by an obsolete service bot in
a uniform and she swallowed her words.
“Hello.
Welcome to Dragon Star. I am your service bot today, ” the robot said.
“Two,”
Cronus said, holding up two fingers.
“Did
you say two?”
“Yes, I
said two,” Cronus said, annoyed.
“Finding
table for two,” the robot replied. “One moment please.”
The
robot stood, frozen, as it computed. Cronus rolled his eyes and looked at
Deidre.
“Slow
as hell, these service bots. What year is it? 2467?” he asked, chuckling and
shaking his head.
Deidre
laughed as the robot dinged.
“Table
for two is this way,” the robot said, and began to buzz around the aisles of
the restaurant.
The
robot bumped into several tables as it navigated around the lobby. Finally, it
stopped by a table underneath the starry ceiling and pulled out a chair for
each of them. Cronus and Deidre smiled at one another as they sat down across
from each other. The robot pulled a menu from its side-slot and set it on top
of the table.
“Here
is a menu. Please use the blue touch-pad in front of you to place your order,”
the robot said. “Thank you and please enjoy eating at Dragon Star.”
Cronus
and Deidre exchanged amused looks as the rusty robot rolled away.
“Wanna
see who can eat more General Tso's chicken?” Deidre asked, raising an eyebrow
and hovering her finger over the touch-pad.
Cronus
smirked.
“You're
on!”