"THAT IS WHY WHEN I HEARD YOUR VOICE REPEAT
COME WITH ME, IT WAS AS IF YOU HAD LET LOOSE
THE GRIEF, THE LOVE, THE FURY OF A CORK-TRAPPED WINE."

- Pablo Neruda, "Come With Me, I Said, And No One Knew (VII)"
[Theme.]

Almost wasn't sure how long she'd been in the room that looked out into the starry blackness. However long it was, it wasn't long enough. As she attempted to concentrate all of her energy on somehow destroying herself from the inside out, it was in vain. A memory leaked in... it was one of her first.

She was nearly brand new to this world, only a few months old, when she'd found herself in the presence of the ruddy human with the scar across her face. The young woman absolutely lit up at the sight of her. Time and wanting distorted Almost's memory, and she knew it, because she was born in the cold months of winter, but this memory occurred in summer's full bloom. The sun bled into the sky and Avalik was running, running with her under her arm, and she was looking up into her laughing face. It was a nice final memory in what ought to be her last moments in existence.

Or, it would have been.

"Something's happening," Touga's words barely penetrated her bubble of depression before the door blew open. It didn't fly open on hinges--there were no hinges on this space craft--it literally blasted open, partially melting and partially sliding into the door jam with an angry whirring noise. Deer don't typically make much noise, but Touga bellowed in surprise--but not out of fear. As badly as she didn't want it to, Almost's head pivoted on her neck to see what was interrupting her death wish.

"You kids get to come all the way up here without me? I don't think so."

Avalik!!

The force with which Almost nearly barreled into her handler would have sent her flying. But Avalik held up a hand to halt the charging Toki who slid to an abrupt stop. And then Almost saw in her other hand was some kind of gun. It was different from the guns they had on earth. Avalik held it high, pointed upwards and away from her and Touga. It was still smoking from the blast in the door. Almost looked up at her handler, puzzled. Somehow, between being abducted by these strange beings and put in this square little room aboard their ship of the stars, Avalik had managed to find her way up to them.

Her handler had been pining to return to space, Almost knew that--that's why she wished for it from the Great Aippaq atop the Ridge of Elders back on Earth. But then the aliens came for her instead of Avalik...

Almost's pupils contracted as it dawned on her.

Avalik had the means to return to space all along. She didn't know it though--she had given up on her ship, which lay broken and abandoned in the back woods behind their property under a weathered tarp. It was irreparable--or so they all had thought. This time Avalik had somehow found a way to get it flying again, to get the right amount of thrust, to be able to steer it and survive the impressive journey between the Troposphere and this alien ship with an adequate oxygen store...

Avi just needed the right catalyst: to rescue the one thing that meant more to her than anything else in, literally, the entire Universe.

Almost's eyes welled with tears.

"Come on," the petite woman grinned down at her love and wiped at an insignificant trickle of blood from her upper lip and nose. "Let's get the fuck out of here." She toggled a button on her blaster and a blue ball of energy began to form at the muzzle.

In an instant Almost blinked away her tears and flashed her a dogged grin, allowing just enough time for the woman to mount her before ripping down the halls to wreak havoc in their inevitable escape.