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I was heading home.
Alone.
We descended the final few miles to Earth and came to a stop beside that road where the minivan had sailed through the barrier, over the cliff edge, and down into the deep ravine below.
Shards of rented minivan lay scattered like confetti, bordered with yellow police tape around the affected area. I thought of our families, how worried they would be, how upset at losing their daughters. None of them could imagine what really happened.
What would I tell them? And how would I say it?
I had no idea. I needed time to think.
If I couldn’t find my friends, could they instead find their own way back how I had? Maybe they were already back? Maybe I was the slowpoke to the party—as usual. They were much stronger and more driven than me.
At least, they used to be. I no longer felt like the same person who careened over that cliff to her doom.
If I could make it back, I was certain they could.
I was a bundle of nerves as I descended the ramp. I hesitated before I stepped on the black tarmac. A tingle slithered up my leg. It felt strange to be setting foot on another alien world. Only this time, it was one that belonged to me.
A sense of calm swept over me. This must have been what it felt like for Columbus to take his first step on the new world. Or Armstrong stepping on the Moon.
I’d once thought I would ask him to join me on Earth, to spend the rest of his life with me, but my emotions were still raw. They were pulling me in a bunch of different directions. He’d lied to me, had lied about the one thing I cared about most.
My friends.
And now, thanks to him, they were out there somewhere among the stars, scattered like grains of sand. I’d seen with my own eyes there was a near-infinite number of alien worlds out there, and my friends could be on any one of them.
I knew deep down in my heart I would never see them again.
Nighteko followed me down the ramp but kept a discreet distance. I didn’t want to look at him but I couldn’t help myself. When I looked into his face, I saw his sadness. It was the same expression he’d worn whenever he spoke about his parents. Only now that expression was tied directly to me.
I tore my eyes away. They began to sting.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to drop you off at your home?” he said.
“No. I need to make a statement to the police here anyway. And I need to think about what I’m going to say.”
He nodded.
The silence stretched for too long, becoming awkward.
“Alice,” Nighteko said. “It was… great meeting you. There’s not much about being a smuggler I’m proud of, or glad that I did, but if there’s one thing I’m happy about, it’s your holding that ruler to my neck, of running into that meteor field that disabled your pod, of you coming to speak with me in that bar. I don’t regret any of it.”
My nose was blocked and my throat stung. I could barely hold back the tears.
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” he said. “If there was some way I could go back and change something, it would be wishing I put a tracking device in your friends’ pods. But I don’t regret abducting you. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’ll care for you always.”
I want you too.
I want you to come with me.
I hate you.
Come share your life with me on Earth.
Go away! I don’t want to see you ever again!
My emotions were all over the place. I didn’t know what I felt. I couldn’t make a coherent decision now.
