Yet Another C B A story

 

A "C B A" Story

 

(Go figure)

 

 

 

 

"There was this dome," I say to Sheila, over a bottle of beer at Thursday's. 

 

She hangs out with us a lot now.  I suspect not because she really likes my friends, but more because she thinks it's interesting, scientifically.

 

"We got to hang out there, sometimes.  As a reward or something, for digging so much.  It was this beatiful forest.  Lots of tall pines, bleeding hearts, that kind of thing.  Anyway, it had this real weather system.  The seasons really changed.  They weren't acturate, of course, but they turned every few months.  It was so cool.  We kept track of holidays.  The 'lieums let us celebrate them.  Like the first time it froze, we'd celebrate Thanksgiving.  When it first snowed, we celebrated Christmas.  And then when the seasons changed, we celebrated New Year's.  Every ninety days."

 

She's interested in that, I think, and starts discussing the mechanics of it with Dan and Casey.  I don't bother listening, I never really cared for that stuff.  I turn towards Hai and smile.  She's hardly even touched her vodka.  I perfer that she drinks it though, because she'll forget the evening.  I can let down my gaurd.  Maybe that's selfish.

 

"Why do you call them 'lieums?" Sheila asks.

 

"Well, no one really knows what they were called."

 

"Probably the race was named after the planet.\," Kale says, though she previously hadn't been paying any attention.  "Earthlings are from Earth, Martians are from Mars."

 

"But what was the planet?" Casey asks, somewhat indigniatly.

 

"I've been studying the sky," a man called Harry speaks up, "and I believe we were on a planet called Likheru Quintus."

 

Why do people waste their time on that?  "Likheru Quintrians, then.  I still like 'lieums better."

 

"Or," Harry continues, "quite possibly we were on a planet known best as Hib Ru VIII, althought it's refered to as Xo-Qu in some textbooks."

 

"Do you really think so?" someone else says, that I can't quite identify.  "I've been doing some research, and I think we were on Diommh III."

 

"No, we were on Yeza Tuga XII," another voice says.

 

It seems like a lot of people have their own opinions, everything from Mars to the Southern most continate on Hroge Xabuig 9.  And it surprises me.  I didn't know everyone cared so much.

 

Could it be that I'm not the only unhappy one?  Maybe I'm not the only who wants to go home?

 

I can't help but look up at Haichelle.  She seems deeply unhappy, but not to be home.  That she can't be home.  Does she really want to go back to a normal life?  Could she really suceed?  Can anyone really live, after all we've seen?

 

I really don't think she could, though she doesn't know.

 

"No, I read up on them on Wiki," Casey is saying.  "They're called Transdimensional Monks Of Betelgeuse One.  A dark feathered race, who can curl themselves up into balls.  They're hermaphroditic and most of them are ambassadors."

 

"How would you know?" I ask.  "You never saw them."

 

None of us ever did.  So how we all knew it was an alien homeworld is beyond me.

 

"Yeah, yeah," a curley haired girl called Sno says.  "I read that.  The currency is really cool.  The have the 'Amber Farthing' which is worth two Brass Federals.  A Brass Federal is the same as four Royal Thirty Meter Cards, eighteen Princess Pences or one hundred and thirty two Ten Meter Bills."

 

Chico, Sno's best friend suddenly speaks up.  "What?  Who cares about that? Did you read the section on ship racing?  Where the Wonder Fighter beat the Forgotton Jackpot despite the fact that Jackpot had three times as much engine power as Fighter?"

 

"How does anyone even know this stuff is true?  We only went outside to dig holes.  I only saw a couple ships, and they had alien writing on the sides.  I mean, seriously, someone must have made this stuff up!"

 

"No, it was made by another one of us.  A girl whose screen name is Queer Girl Kawaii.  But her real name is Hazel Angelique Morales.  She was in another camp where they didn't dig, they marched all the time.  Another form of making energy."

 

"Yeah, yeah," Sno says.  "She kept track of everything in a journal and then put it on the internet."

 

"Whatever," Dan says.

 

"Yeah, she probably just made it all up.  She's a psycho."

 

"Um, excuse me," Sheila says.  "But you all sound just a little bit psycho sitting at a table argueing about what race of aliens you were all captured by."

 

"Yeah, probably.  Come on guys, let's call it a night."

 

There's a huge clamor and chairs move, and coats are collected.

 

"Hey, Blaise," someone calls.  I turn to see Sno.

 

"I've got this idea.  I don't know if you'll like it, but ... well, I was thinking that maybe there's we could track people who've gone missing.  See if there's some kind of a pattern.  Maybe then we could go home."

 

I lose her quickly in the crowd.  She always tends to disappear.

 

Still it seems like a good idea ...

 

Home.  She called it home.