Forgetting, however, was another animal altogether. It simply wasn’t possible. She could pretend, she could keep the memories locked away in the farthest recesses of her mind as best she could, but they never really left her. Nor did she want them to.
“My real name isn’t Kari,” she softly admitted. “And I wasn’t born to the Gy’at Lis.” The princess slowly craned her neck, her glowing blue eyes wide, as she stared at her with rapt interest. Kari told herself she was about to spill her heart out to her traveling companion merely to break the ice and hopefully win her confidence. Maybe if she shared one of her secrets with Dari, the princess would realize she could trust her with one of her own. Tit for tat, a secret for a secret. It was a fair exchange. “Surely you can tell just by looking at me that I’m not even from Galis.”
As the admission left her lips, she gave up the self-imposed charade. This was more than an attempt at manipulation and she knew it. She was going to tell Dari who she was and where she was from because she actually wanted to. They could very well be butchered after their gastrolight cruiser landed on Khan-Gor. She didn’t want to go to her death still pretending.
“You are jesting,” Dari weakly returned. “For a certainty you speak in riddles and—”
“Do I sound like a Galian? Do I even look like one?”
The princess was quiet for a protracted moment. “Nay.” Dari visibly swallowed as she trained her gaze on her lap. “You have the look of—” Her voice, a smoky feminine sound that slightly reverberated when she spoke, lowered to a mumble. “’Tis not important.”
Kari’s wine-red eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean? Who do I have the look of?”
“’Tis naught but the musings of a weary mind.”
“But—”
“Leastways,” Dari interrupted, abruptly surging to her feet. “I should check on Bazi.”
Kari sighed as she watched the princess hurry away. The sleeping male child Dari had fled Arak with and brought to Galis had been looked in on less than five Nuba-minutes past. Indeed, ever since the three of them had made a hasty departure from Kari’s adopted home, narrowly escaping capture from the warriors who would stop at nothing to reclaim their runaway princess, Dari had conveniently needed to check on Bazi every time the two women got close to confiding in each other.
She absently looked through the gastrolight cruiser’s transparent front window, her gaze raking over the ice-coated planet of Khan-Gor. She wasn’t altogether certain why the urge to tell the princess everything was so strong. At first she had believed it to be out of a sense of camaraderie, a desire to grow closer to the young royal now that they were all the other had. Yet there was more to it, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
Maybe it was simply the fact that the princess reminded her of Geris, her real sister’s lifelong best friend. The resemblance between them was uncanny. Were it not for the fact it was next to impossible…
She shook her head slightly, as if attempting to erase that ludicrous thought from her mind Etch-a-Sketch style. The strikingly beautiful Dari possessed Geris’ dark mahogany coloring and her regal, statuesque bearing—hell, the princess even wore her hair like Geris had in a veil of long, black microbraids that hung to her waist—but the similarities ended once you gazed into her eyes. Dari’s glowing blue orbs were a reminder of the alien civilization Kari’d been whisked away to so many years ago, whereas Geris’ earthy brown eyes had bespoken of home.
“What is your true name?” Dari whispered, startling Kari. She’d been so lost in thought she hadn’t realized her companion had returned. “From whence do you come?”
Kari took a deep breath and slowly expelled it. A soft smile tugged at her lips as her gaze found Dari’s. Finally—finally—the princess was dropping her shield, or at least lowering it enough to let her in a bit. They had another three days of travel before the spaceship would breach Khan-Gor, the legendary Planet of the Predators. The only certainty they had now was each other.
She needed to know Dari’s secret before that third day arrived or she couldn’t protect them from whatever evil the princess feared dwelled there. The only way to gain her confidence was to give her hers first. Trust didn’t come easy for either one of them—a shared trait that was undoubtedly responsible for keeping them both alive this long.
The irony was not lost on her. The same steel-willed resolve that had permitted survival would ultimately destroy them if they didn’t let it go. Kari had understood this for several days; she realized Dari now did as well. Revealing her past to anyone but the Gy’at Lis had been unthinkable up to this point, yet now here she sat, yearning to tell the princess who she was and where she was from.
“My name is Kara,” she breathed out for the first time in more years than she could remember. It felt so good to taste her real name on her tongue as it escaped from between her parted lips. “Kara Summers.”
Chapter One
Orlando, Florida - First Dimension
July 4, 1999 A.D. (Anno Domini)
“What the hell am I doing here?”
Kara Summers muttered the question to herself as she glanced around the amusement park she had unenthusiastically agreed to attend today. Seated at a picnic table next to a hotdog stand, she plopped her chin on her palm and contemplated why she’d allowed Jonathon to drag her here in the first place. Or more to the point, she thought glumly, why was she dating a grown man with no kids who considered this a good time?
Disney World. Her lips pinched together in a frown. If this was the happiest place on earth, humanity was fucked.
Kara decided the fault could be placed at the feet of her older sister, Kyra, for this debacle. She had, after all, talked her into going out with Jonathon in the first place. , Kyra had described Jonathon, a fellow accountant at her sister’s firm, as settled, ready for a commitment, and financially solid.
In other words, boring.
“That Spaceship Earth ride was totally rad!” Jonathon enthused. Kara blinked. She hadn’t heard him approach over the sound of her self-pity. He plopped a paper bowl down in front of her that contained a hotdog, French fries, and several ketchup packets. The lemonade came next. “Let’s try the Pirates of the Caribbean ride after we eat.”
Let’s try a suicide pact and hang ourselves.
“Well…” Her irritation slowly gave way to guilt. Feeling like the bitch her last boyfriend had called her, she forced a semi-smile to her lips. Jonathon was a good guy. He simply wasn’t turning out to be the guy for her. Fortunately, she could tell he wasn’t getting “the vibe” either so it wasn’t as if ending things would break his heart. Jonathon was no doubt simply trying to make the best of things until they returned to New York City tomorrow. It wouldn’t kill her to do the same. “Sure. Sounds like fun.”
She supposed the suicide pact could wait. Besides, being a natural redhead with skin the color of porcelain, she’d probably sizzle like a vampire before hanging herself became an issue. Disney World in July. What had she been thinking? Colonizing the planet Mercury would have been less painful.
Kara opened a ketchup packet and squirted out the contents onto her fries. “Spaceship Earth was pretty interesting, if a little farfetched.”
“Agreed.” Jonathon pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose with one finger. “As if we’ll ever be able to talk to people in real-time while seeing them simultaneously. Utterly absurd.”
“Maybe a few generations from now, but we won’t be alive to see it.”
“Exactly.” He bit off a large piece of hotdog and talked while chewing it. Kara winced. “It would be cool if we did though.”
She glanced down to her plate and eyed her hotdog. She had a phobia about seeing food bits in people’s mouths. Better to stare at her hotdog than to dry-heave. “Totally.”
They ate in silence for the next several minutes. The quiet gave Kara time to contemplate what her next course of action should be. Should she state the obvious and tell him that she’d like to b
e his friend, but wasn’t interested in more? Or just forgo the conversation altogether and let their lack of mutual attraction speak for itself?
“I need to admit something to you, Kara, and it isn’t easy.”
Her head shot up. One wine-red eyebrow arched quizzically. Was he about to do the hard part for her and tell her she wasn’t the woman for him? Good lord she hoped so. “Okay.”
“It’s just…” He cleared his throat and fumbled with a napkin. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Hurt me. Please. “Go on.”
Jonathon’s mouth worked up and down, but no words were coming out of it. Just say it already! Then we can officially be “just friends” and maybe halfway enjoy this dumbass place. “I…uhhh…I…”
She feigned patience she wasn’t feeling. “Whatever it is, just say—”
“I’m gay.”
Silence. Her mouth dropped open. She wasn’t the woman for him? Damn. Apparently there was no woman for him.
Kara blinked. She prided herself on her remarkable gaydar, but she hadn’t seen that one coming. He didn’t work out at the gym and had zero fashion sense. He ate with his mouth open for shit’s sake. “Are you sure?” she said dumbly.
“I’m sorry, but yes.”
She couldn’t have been happier if she actively tried to be. Her smile was radiant. Relieved and radiant. “There’s no need to be sorry!”
“There isn’t?”
“No way.” Her expression grew serious as concern took over. “But why are you in the closet?”
“My family,” he sighed.
“Ah.” Her silver-blue gaze filled with compassion. “I understand, Jonathon, but they’ll come around eventually.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Then they don’t deserve to have you in their lives,” she said firmly. Kara splayed her hands. “You only go around once. You deserve to be happy while you’re doing it.”
Jonathon showed his first hint of a smile. “Thank you.”
Kara nodded. “If you need the support of a friend, I’ll be happy to stand by your side while you tell them.”
“I appreciate that, but I think this is something I need to do alone.”
“I understand, but the offer still stands if you change your mind.”
His smile was genuine. “Thank you.”
From that point on their conversation no longer felt stilted. It actually became fun. They talked about everything from politics, to who they thought would win today’s Wimbledon (Kara was rooting for Steffi Graf), to the new Harry Potter book releasing in a few days.
“Come on,” Kara said, standing. “Let’s grab two Mickey Mouse ice-cream bars and eat them on the way to that Pirates of the Caribbean ride.”
“I’m hungry for one of those chocolate-covered frozen bananas.”
Kara grinned. She couldn’t resist teasing him. “I bet you are.”
Jonathon laughed.
* * * * *
Climbing into the wooden boat with another twenty or so tourists, Kara found herself feeling grateful for the respite a water ride would provide from such a hot day. As the boat lurched forward, one of several children on board stood up and shouted, “Whoop whoop!”
“Sit down!” his mother chastised, tugging at his shirt. She held a toddler in her lap. “You’ll get us kicked off the ride.”
Kara doubted such was possible since their boat had already taken off, but the threat worked. The wide-eyed boy looked around for any signs of a Disney worker prepared to yank him off the ride. He settled into his seat.
The next several minutes were, well, boring, but the cool air-conditioning more than made up for the very unconvincing animatronic pirates. The boat lurched upward, beginning its ascent up a track.
“There’s a small fall at the end of this ride,” Jonathon whispered. “It’s fun.”
“You’ve been on this before?”
“What can I say? I’m a kid at heart.”
She half snorted and half laughed. “Nothing wrong with that.”
The boat reached the apex, signaling the approach of a rapid descent. It was no log ride, but she conceded a little bit of fast movement down the hill would serve to pep things up a bit.
“All right!” the little kid who couldn’t seem to sit still yelled out. “Here we go, Mommy!”
Kara’s eyes widened as the little boy surged to his feet at the worst possible moment. Her stomach leapt into her throat when she realized his mother was too busy caring for the toddler to notice her older son. Time seemed to pass in slow motion as the boat raced down the hill, the boy still standing.
Kara leapt out of her seat, grabbed the child by the back of the shirt and pulled him down. He fell to the floor of the boat, stunned but okay. Kara cried out as she tried to regain her footing, her heart pounding in her chest. Jonathon’s eyes widened in horror as he reached out a helping hand a moment too late. She screamed as her body lost its battle with gravity and plummeted into the cold, deep water.
A sharp pain splintered through Kara’s head as she hit the bottom of the tank. Desperate, frightened, and knowing she’d be crushed if she didn’t breach the surface and get out of the water before the next boat came barreling down the track, her arms and legs instinctively flailed.
A bright light blindsided Kara, rendering her disoriented. Unable to distinguish up from down, she could do nothing but hold her breath while she awaited the next boat’s impact.
I’m a dead woman. No one can survive this.
Her body felt as if it were moving faster than a tsunami, which she knew wasn’t possible. Dizzy and terrified, she hysterically decided this must be how people get to Heaven…or to Hell. She continued to hold her breath as her body whizzed through space and time. She hoped she awoke to the sight of angels rather than demons.
The happiest place on earth, my ass.
Chapter Two
The Matriarchal Planet of Galis
Trek Mi Q’an Galaxy, Seventh Dimension
6022 Y.Y. (Yessat Years)
Kara coughed and sputtered as her head pierced the water’s surface. Her lungs ached from holding her breath, but the need for air was tantamount. She sucked in as much oxygen as was possible, her throat and lungs burning from the successive, harsh gasps.
Get it under control. You’ve got to get out of this tank before the next boat smashes you into oblivion!
Panting, gasping, and coughing, Kara fought to steady herself. It took her lungs another full minute of dragging in air before they were replete. Her head was aching and her eyes burning, but she needed to know where she was in proximity to the oncoming boat in order to get out of its way before doing so became a moot point. She wasn’t dead and she wanted to keep it that way.
Kara forced her gaze open despite the searing pain. She blinked several times in rapid succession, her eyes taking what felt like forever to adjust.
An odd feeling stole over her, a sixth sense that told Kara something wasn’t right. It dawned on her that she wasn’t hearing any of the sounds that should be assaulting her senses right about now—no boisterous children, no shouts of mad panic as workers attempted to pull her from the tank…
No nothing.
She fought with her vision, mentally demanding it to bring her surroundings into focus. When her eyes at last obeyed, she felt more disoriented than she had when her world had been a blur. “What the—”
Kara’s eyes widened in disbelief. Her gaze frantically darted around. “I must be dead,” she muttered, too shocked to become hysterical. “This isn’t happening.”
Treading in water that resembled a liquefied mirror, she gaped at the maroon shore just ahead. Beyond the shore lay a dense jungle, its trees and plant-life a slightly darker shade of reddish-purple. Rising above the thick foliage was a series of austere black mountains. Innumerable white structures that looked crystal in appearance encircled the foothills of the obsidian massifs, while a single, palatial edifice of purple crystal sat at the apex of each peak.
Kara closed her eyes tightly. “I’m hallucinating or I’m dreaming. I must be in a coma or something.”
Maybe she’d swum into a back lot and was viewing what would eventually be a new Disney ride. With all the purple and crystal it was possibly some ostentatious tribute to The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. Or to Liberace.
She wanted to believe either of those scenarios, but a nagging feeling in the pit of her belly told her it just wasn’t so. Her eyes flew back open and her gaze wandered up further still, beyond the purple mansions and into the bluest skies she’d ever before seen. They looked as if they’d been colored in with crayons.
She stilled, the hair at the nape of her neck standing on end. Kara stared unblinking at a sight so alien, so unbelievable, that she couldn’t be certain it was even real. Five moons of varying color dipped down from the heavens, piercing the blue skyline beneath them. “Where am I?” she whispered, goose bumps forming on her skin. “What the hell is happening?”
If she wasn’t dead and she wasn’t dreaming then only one possibility remained, but that prospect was so farfetched as to be unthinkable. Kara swallowed past the lump in her throat, her silver-blue gaze paradoxically vacant and haunted. Her heart slammed in her chest as she wondered aloud, “Am I still on Earth?”
A gigantic flying monkey swooped down from the mountains, carrying two women on its back. Kara sucked in her breath while the females eyed her quizzically, as if she was as foreign to them as all this was to her.
Her mind was too stunned to perform even the most basic of motor skills—like moving her arms and legs. No longer treading water, it briefly occurred to Kara that the middle of a mirror-like body of water wasn’t exactly the most ideal of places to experience the first fainting spell of her life. As quickly as that thought struck her, blackness engulfed her.