The Girl Who Fell From The Stars
On the 6th of July, 2019, Alex and I went out on one of our weekly dates.
We drove out to the little prairie outside of town and set up a little picnic. I was in the middle of eating my sandwich when there was a large woosh from above us, sounded kind of like when a plane flies over you. Of course, we both look up, but instead of a plane, a black-haired girl is falling from the sky.
I froze up, but Alex luckily took one of our extra picnic blankets and stuffed it into my hand, then grabbed the other side and pulled it taut.
Turns out that's not a good way to catch a falling child, because we ended up bonking our heads together when they landed. But that was the least of our worries.
After making sure everyone was alright, the girl introduced herself— I think I remember the exact quote:
"I'm Alison Chao. Your universe is in danger."
Recording
It was around this point I started to think that I had a concussion and I was dreaming or something, but I wasn't. And I know it sounds like the plot of a horrible B-list movie, but it happened, so I took out my phone and recorded our conversation as proof. Transcript is here:
Alison: That thing on?
Faeowynn: Yep.
Alison: Alright. Well, I'm Alison, or as some people know me, The Black Queen.
Alex: So… just… why are you here? How'd you even get here? There's just—
Alison: Slow down, I can only answer so many questions at a time. Why don't I just start from the beginning, eh?
Faeowynn: Sure, sure, go ahead.
Alison: Well, first off, I'm from another universe. You see, there's a bunch of them, so me and the other… of me gathered together into a big group. How we got there is a whole story in and of itself, but… My dimension was a lot like this. Perfect, for the most part. Sure, the Foundation was still there— or you probably know them as the Supervisors— but Wilson's Wildlife Solutions played a giant role in protecting the planet.
Alex: Then what happened? Why'd you have to come here?
Alison: Up in the cosmos, a being crawled out of a black hole, a suffocating, cold darkness that we called Drakhul, and it was coming straight for us. Of course, the Foundation jumped to action. They tried just about everything, but one universal factor within all of their methods was their violence. And what do you know: they ignored Wilson's advice and pushed your organization away. So the Earth got sucked into the void, and I narrowly escaped. But… this dimension has its own Drakhul. It's likely emerged by now. But you can stop it.
Faeowynn: How?
Alison: With you, Fae. And of course me to a lesser degree. You see, that Earth didn't have a Faeowynn. Their leader was pretty spineless, really. But the point is, with our headstart, we can stop Drakhul.
What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck
After that whole talk I kind of just had to sit down for a bit. I had no reason to believe her, but I had a strange feeling she was telling the truth. While Alex comforted me a bit— because at least the fate of Earth wasn't resting on his shoulders— the girl walked further down the prairie and raised a hand to her ear.
"Hey, Ascedes! Did you get out in time? I really could use your help again, it'll be safe this time, I swe—"
She was interrupted (or maybe just drowned out) by a sudden boom as a giant goddamn spaceship appeared above her. Now, I know this world isn't exactly normal, but I didn't think fucking futuristic spaceships existed. I always forget how simple my job is— taking care of cute animals— when I see this kind of shit.
Anyways, Alison moved over as it descended to the ground in front of her, and a clanky door opened on its side. Another black-haired girl stepped out, she looked exactly almost exactly like Alison, other than the fact she was in more punky clothes and also had three fucking eyes.
"My ship almost got destroyed because of you! Why should I help you? This universe is just going to die. Accept it, Allie. That thing is impossible to stop."
"We won't know unless we try. Please, Ascedes?" The girl frowned, approaching her alien counterpart with puppydog eyes.
She looked away, crossing her arms. "No."
"But… Pleaseeeeeeeeeeee—"
"Eughh… Allie…" Gritting her teeth, Ascedes glanced at Alison before flicking her three eyes back and sighing. "Fine."
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Alison squealed, pulling her into a short hug. After a few seconds the now-beaming girl was softly pushed away, at which she began to speak. "So here's what we're going to do…"
A Not So Simple Plan
Basically, we didn't have one. At least, not a full one. We were going to ride the spaceship up to the monster and hope it wanted to talk out our differences or something like that.
They didn't let Alex come because he was considered 'unnecessary,' so we kissed for what we were hoping wouldn't be the last time and I got on the ship.
Spaceships are much more different than I was expecting. It basically looked, smelt, and overall felt like the economy-class area of a plane. Ascedes told me it's because she basically runs a black-market taxi business back in her universe, which is pretty cool.
Then she told Alison and I that the trip was going to take two hours, which well impressive considering we were going to a black hole far outside of the solar system, is still a pretty long time considering we have nothing to do. So when she went up to go pilot the ship, I sat and turned to Alison.
"So… Allie—"
"Stop it." She huffed. "Just call me Alison, please."
"What… Why?"
"I just like it more."
"Then why do you let Ascedes call you that?"
"It's just…" She paused for a moment, then sighed. "You know how I said I'm a Black Queen? How a bunch of us Alisons gathered together? I don't wanna go into it but a lot of us didn't exactly enjoy our old lives. Or our old identities. Almost all of us find a new name. Some of us also modify our own bodies. Ascedes didn't always have a third eye, you know? Anyways, when we communicate with each other, we don't usually use the name 'Alison Chao.' It can stir some bad shit up. But… I don't mind being Alison. But still, most of my sisters insist on calling me something else, so to them, I'm Black Queen Allie."
Strangely, I found myself blinking away tears as my eyes began to water. Pushing up the handrest between us, I leaned over and pulled her into a hug. "I think I get it, Alison. In a weird, opposite kind of way, I get it."
Her arms wrapped around me, and I felt her bunch the back folds of my shirt in her hands, gripping tighter. "Th-thank you…"
We sat like that for a while, and the ride seemed to go a lot faster.
Drakhul
I didn't really think about what I was doing when I agreed to go out and tame an eldritch void being that could probably destroy the entire universe with the flick of its… void? But then Ascedes told me we were close to it and I realized I had no clue what I was going to do. How do you tame something that's a void?
Well, first I went up to the cockpit and looked out into the vast cosmos. Drakhul basically just looked like a… a vantablack lump of darkness. Like if it wasn't so massive, you'd be able to take it in your hands and squish it like putty. Not much else to say about it, surprisingly. However, it was slowly moving towards us.
"You're going to have to go out there," Ascedes said, grinning. "That's why we prepared something for you. Here."
She led me into another room of the ship, turning on the lights to reveal a bulky, old spacesuit— like the ones NASA wears.
"I know, you were probably expecting something more futuristic, but this is all I could find in my stash that would fit you on a short notice, okay?"
Alison and her helped me into it, and it super musky and stuffy. It got a little better once they connected this air tube thing, but not by much. I lumbered over to the airlock, which opened as I heard a voice in my helmet. "Just keep calm, control your breathing."
Turns out I hadn't realized I was practically hyperventilating. Fuck, I was in space! Me, Faeowynn Wilson, new head of Wilson's Wildlife Solutions, a tiny nonprofit in literal fucking Boring, Oregon in space! And I was about to save the world! Not really thought I'd end up… like this.
So, I floated up onto the top of the spaceship, looking up at Drakhul. "Hello?" I said.
It looked as if it had stopped for a moment. Really? Was it going to be that easy?
Oh, and fun fact, sound doesn't travel in space, but somehow it heard me.
"Why are you doing this?"
It kept moving forwards, getting closer to the ship.
"This world is… okay, I guess, why would you want to destroy it?"
Nothing.
"You know, I run this organization. We study wildlife, all kinds of it. Even strange creatures. We actually, uh, had a pegasus once, and those aren't supposed to be 'real.' So everyone is welcome there, even you! That is, uh, if you stop trying to destroy the universe."
I swore I saw it turn a lighter shade of black for a millisecond, like the void was fading.
"Would you like that? I can—"
In a flash, it was before me, sitting in front of the ship just a few feet from my face.
"Help you…"
A small slithery hand of darkness reached out, curiously hovering around me.
"Um… We could take you back to Earth. Show you around, feed you, keep you safe, and you wouldn't have to destroy us. What do you say?"
The voidish hand latched onto my spacesuits with a firm grip, shaking it. A yes. Drakhul turned to its body and snapped, dispersing the flickering void into the stars.
And so, I stepped onto the ship with a brand new friend.
The End (Kinda)
When I walked onto the ship with hand-form Drakhul, Ascedes refused to touch it (and also refused to say that she was scared). Meanwhile, Alison and it started to play catch with a bunched up ball of paper together. Quite heartwarming, actually, considering minutes earlier it was drying to destroy all of humanity.
Me, on the other hand, passed out on my seat after Ascedes helped me out of the clunky spacesuit. It felt like I was just… depressurizing. Like a massive weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I slept the whole way back, until Drakhul woke me up with a poke to my cheek. We had landed at the prarie, right where Alison had fallen from the sky hours before.
As we sat outside of the ship, looking up at the sunrise, Ascedes gave me a pat on the shoulder. "See you around." She said, and boarded the ship.
Alison hugged me rather quickly, pulling away just as fast. "I can't stay now, but… maybe I can visit sometime."
"I think that'd be nice, Alison."
"Well, I… uh, I'll see you around, I guess." She giggled as she stepped into the spaceship. "Goodbye!"
"Goodbye!" I waved to the ship as it hovered into the air, disappearing.
And now we're here. I've got Drakhul on my shoulder as I'm typing this up. Alex called the Supervisors earlier, something tells me they're going to be really interested in these events.
But you know what? I think I might leave out some details. I don't want them going after my friends, of course. And that includes Drakhul, it's actually quite the sweetheart.
I'm not uploading this document to the database. I'll give them a little talk, say that two girls from space captured me and made me fend off a giant world-ending beast.
I've been fighting for more independence from them, so I'm definitely not stopping now.
