“Make sure you get my cigarettes on your way home.”

I sigh, hanging my head as I walk out the front door, squeaking out a small response, “I will.”

Hearing loud mumbling as he thought of some form of insult, I slammed the door. My eyes were drawn to the truck sitting on the front lawn. He bought it a couple years ago, and proceeded to scratch, and dent it on everything around him. It would be so nice to have a car, but I turn to the street, steeling myself for another shift at the factory, where we produce circuits and components for small electronics.

Looking down at myself, I sigh at my frumpy outfit. Terrible orange pants and a rough blue jacket. It’s an outfit so ugly I could almost cry. I simply take one step at a time, passing the eight kilometers to work deep in thought. Mostly deep depression related to the circumstances of my life.

Stepping into the factory I put my coat on a hanger, taking my name-badge, and I punch the clock. When I open the first door to the main floor, my supervisor greets me, his strong, compassionate, hand grips my shoulder. “Hey, Alice, ready to go.”

I look up at him, “Yeah Jeff,” I shrug and exhale sharply, “I’m ready to beat the day.”

His strong grip squeezes my shoulder, “Good to hear sport, you always do a great job.”

I shake him off to walk forward, “All I do is a quality check of a couple traces boss. How hard could it possibly be?”

He shakes his head, opening the second door for me, “Well I appreciate that you stay awake, unlike the people around here I actually have to supervise.”

I smile again, “Thanks, Jeff. Appreciate it.”

He waves goodbye as he turns to his station, I jog down the line to my station where I sit, for 8 hours a day, checking the same 12 things on a monitor. It’s easy… but monotonous. Work is monotonous, and I slip into fantasy as my eyes scan the monitor lines, and my hands hit the deny button for each failed circuit.

I daydream of a life with someone who loves me. A place where I can feel loved, or dare I say, happy? This dream is one which I strive to have each and every day, while I am safe at the factory. Fortunately, today was easy, the hours flew by, and the buzzer which indicated shift change rang out as the line paused for a brief moment, allowing my replacement to jump in behind me. Some days are not so smooth, sometimes, when my fears and doubts overwhelm me… I have to grit my teeth and focus.

After walking from my seat, I sigh as I walk into the office. I open a folder on the counter, pulling out my paycheck and slipping it into my pocket when I hear the voice of my supervisor.

I spin about, facing Jeff. “Great job as always kiddo.”

“You’re welcome boss.”

He leans on the counter, “Is everything okay for you?”

I bite my tongue, not wanting to cause a scene, my eyes darting to the ground, “Yeah, everything is fine, just got to pay the bills.”

“Alright kiddo, I hope so… you do a wonderful job, but I can see you from my spot, and you look a little upset.”

I do my best to avoid breaking down into tears. “It’s nothing I swear.” I turn to the door, starting to open it.

He sighs, “Well Alice, I would like to help you, but I can’t help if you don’t let me.”

I hang my head, passing through the door. “I know Jeff, thanks for caring, there’s nothing to be done.” I allow the door to slam behind me as I step out into the dark. Snow is falling heavily, and covering the ground, I walk carefully, doing my best to not fall and slide down the road.

The convenience store near my father’s home welcomed me with its bright yellow lights. I step into the store and approach the counter. “Hey Fred, I need the weekly.”

The smiling clerk rounds the corner, his red shirt stained with coffee and soda, and his toothy grin missing a few crucial teeth. “Paycheck and 2 cartons?”

“Yeah.”

Fred does his best to cheer me up, “So how was work?”

“The same as usual, I do work, and get paid.”

Fred came down a little, resting on his bulbous arms, “I know you don’t smoke these, you smell like flowers, and you have all your teeth.”

“Guilty, and no I don’t want to talk about it.” I take the bags and the envelope with the rest of the money in it.

Fred spins around, “Wait a sec.” I pause as a cap pops off a bottle, and my overweight friend rounds the counter. “Here, this might help a little.” He extends a bottle of Michelob, my favorite beer.

I turn to Fred, someone who does not know the depth of my troubles, offering me something to help. While I know the beer is not a solution, it is a welcome distraction from the reality I am about to face.

A single tear flows from my eye, as I take the beer. He gives another toothy grin, handing me a brown bag to put the bottle in, “On the house, don’t worry about it.”

“Thanks, Fred, this means a lot.” I take a swig, glad to have the alcohol in my mouth, opening the door and leaving Fred alone in his store once again.

The worst part of going home is always opening the door. I open it as quietly as possible. “Took you long enough bitch.”

I enter the living room, the only source of light is the TV in the corner, “Hi Dad.”

His expression could only be described as annoyed he grits his ugly teeth as he speaks, “It’s bad enough that I ran out of cigarettes earlier today, but I had to wait a whole extra hour after your fuckin shift?”

“I know, it’s snowing.” I hand him the bag of cigarettes and try to pass him to go down to my basement room.

His hand extends out, blocking my path. “You’re shitting me? You think making me wait is okay?”

I turn, as respectfully as I could, “It was snowing Dad, I couldn’t go any faster, and you make me walk…” I pause and close my eyes as he grabs at the PVC pipe he always keeps near his chair. He slams it into my neck, and I collapse to the ground, as he hits my side several times.

“I MAKE YOU? What makes YOU think YOU DESERVE a ride?” He grabs at me as I try to hide in plain sight, pulling my jacket and ripping it off of me. Digging through my pockets he turns to me, “Where is my money?”

“Right pocket, Dad” I squeak, my syllables intermixed with tears.

He pulls out my hard-earned cash, stuffing it in his jean pocket, tossing my jacket down to me.

“Good, now go to bed.”

I stifle my tears. My weakened body standing and stepping into the hallway that goes to my basement. Upon reaching the basement I collapse onto my bed, pulling my shirt off to investigate my side. It was bruised, the skin darkening a little. I pulled off my tear stained shirt, entering the bathroom to get a cool cloth to put on the bruise.

Dabbing at the bruise, then swinging the cloth around to cool it back down was the only way I had to care for myself. My father certainly wouldn’t spring for an icepack… So I just sit in my room, nursing the injury, hoping the pain would subside.

I cried myself to sleep like I do most nights, my tears mixing with the stains of previous tears, as I hoped, even prayed, that I would find some method of escape.

My eyes open, and the room was bright white from the reflection of new snow coming in my tiny basement window. I sit up and look in the mirror, feeling a little better, my side aching, but not causing me to cry.

I have a few hours before work, and I want to feel good, feel happy.

Opening my closet, I am faced with an assortment of items which I have obtained behind my father’s back. First, I pull a beautiful blue dress out of a bag, it was a long, flowy affair, which I wear to feel beautiful. Slipping the gown over my battered body is easy, and zipping it up is somewhat difficult, but the result is worth it.

I look in the mirror, my deep blue eyes brought out by the wonderful piece of clothing. I return to the closet and pull out a small bag of makeup, I apply foundation, covering the little imperfections of my face and I try to cover a deep gash which ran from my chin to my eye, then adding blush and a little eyeliner.

I return to the mirror, loving the way my eyes sparkle and glisten in the light reflected from the window, and how the gown sparkles and reflects all the happiness I attempt to exude. I use my favorite lipstick, which is a deep red, and is the final touch. I smile, and my perfect teeth shine through. I feel lucky that in all the abuse I have taken, my teeth have never been hurt.

I then brush my shoulder length blonde hair, removing as many tangles and knots as I can with the limited time I have.

Looking closely at my reflection, I see myself as I wish I could always be, a beautiful young lady. But zooming out I see the dank basement in which I live. How I am being repressed, contained in a box of definite proportion. I ball my fists, and the look of joy on the face of the princess staring back at me dissolves.

I am full of anger for my situation, I don’t know why a God if there is one watching all of this, has allowed this to happen to me. I try to smile at myself again, to escape for just one more moment.

I cannot.

I sigh, turning around and pulling my dress off, hanging it gingerly on its hanger and slipping it into its protective bag. After hiding it in the back of the sparse closet, I go into my bathroom and turn on the shower, and step into the pathetic flow of water. I wash my body clean, the dirt and grime which I had ignored falling to the ground. I wash carefully to remove the traces of makeup. Any sign of me having fun or joy would result in undeserved insults upon ascending the stairs.

As I dress I see myself in the mirror once again and I smile. “Just another day.”

My work uniform on, I ascend the stairs and hope that the monster above me is in a decent mood. Fortunately for me, it appears that he is asleep. Or blackout drunk.

Grabbing an energy bar, I exit the house, walking through the snow and ice, reaching the freshly salted road.

I walk in silence, as cars pass me, the people within, warm, safe, and protected. I, on the other hand, am cold and shivering. I despise the cold and wish I could be somewhere warm.

My shift passes in silence, and while I do receive smiles and encouragement from Jeff and my other co-workers. I leave the building feeling as frustrated as when I had entered.

I turn onto my street and approach my home. The last light of the setting sun cast long shadows and made unusual things visible. In fact, things which I had never seen. A small shadow cast from a tiny form on the ground was most curious.

Kneeling down to obtain a closer look, I see what appears to be a tiny doll… “Sad, who left their toy out here?”

I reach down and grab the little doll, it is surprisingly fluid, clearly not made of plastic. I pull off my glove, grabbing the little object with my bare hand, and am shocked to discover that it is warm.

I furrow my brow, dipping to get a closer look, and I see a small cloud of vapor coming from its tiny mouth. My eyes suddenly go wide, “Holy Shit, it's alive!”

I look closer and notice that she is having a hard time breathing her tiny impish breaths. I carefully raise the tiny form to my chest, she is nearly motionless. I rub her back and hold her close to my bosom, hoping to warm her as best as I can. Looking at her I see that she is clad in a unique dress, it is a knee length gown, blue and white. The white highlights seem to glow against the failing light of the sun.

Realizing I couldn’t safely carry this little creature through the house, I remove my coat and walk to the back of the house. Placing the coat on the ground by my window.

“I don’t know if you can hear or understand me… but I’m going to put you in my coat and it should keep you warm until I can take you inside.” I receive no response other than a motion of her arm, so I continue, “I want to help you, so stay here.” She doesn’t respond, but she does curl into the warm coat, which I guess is a good sign. I walk to the front of the house and, unsurprisingly, the worst thing in my life is waiting for me.

“What the hell are you doing back there bitch?”

I motion back to the backyard, “I… I just…”

He smiles, “So you think you can just go wherever you please? This ain’t your place, little bitch, you just live here.”

“Sorry.” I squeak out, I go around him and walk into the house, inhaling the obvious alcoholic fumes from his slack jaw. I watch as he stumbles out to the truck, slamming the poor thing into gear, driving away.

I look back through the window, rolling my eyes and extending my middle finger, “Whatever, good riddance, have fun at the bar.” I spin around and descend to my domain, throwing the window open, carefully pulling the coat containing the tiny girl inside. Opening the precious bundle I am pleased to discover that she is still there, and she seems much warmer than before.

I lay her on my bed and run back upstairs. Cracking open a can of Chicken Noodle Soup, and throwing it in the microwave, nuking it for a couple minutes. When the broken speaker on the oven indicated a completed cycle, I pulled out the soup and grabbed a spoon, returning to the bedside of my tiny patient.

Her eyes were not open, and I didn’t really see a way to put the soup in her tiny mouth. I grab a ruler from my desk and lay it beside her. 8 centimeters high, but despite her size, her feminine attributes were very apparent.

She is such a busty little thing. I lean in to observe her tiny body when she takes a tiny, but deep breath. She stands quickly and starts to run to the end of the bed.

Shocked, I nearly yell, “I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to help…”

I stand up and she turns to me, her eyes wide in terror as a beautiful pair of blue wings shimmer into existence, fluttering them she flies out the open window and I watch as she panics and collides one of her wings with a tree in the backyard.

She falls straight down, into the fresh snow.

I run up the stairs, pounding the ground to get to the tiny girl. A fall like that must feel like thirty meters to her. I prayed that she was alive, that I might be able to help her. What I find in the backyard is both relieving, and heartbreaking.

She is laid out in the snow, holding a damaged wing which is emitting small blue spot of light, the healthy one wrapped around her. She is crying, and when she sees me she starts panicking and backing away.

I get on my knees, raising one hand and I slowly approach her. “I won’t hurt you,” I whisper, I then reach my hand out toward her.

She stops backing away but still has a look of pure unadulterated terror in her tiny eyes.

“I just want to help you little one,” I say. As I speak, her eyelids relax slightly, and she lowers her shoulders, still cautious, but allowing me to approach. I do so, scooping the little girl up and holding her against my chest again, to protect her.

Walking back into the house, I ask, “Do you understand me?”

“Yes.” She speaks with her tiny, almost musical voice. She sniffles, her tears still flowing freely. I carry her down the stairs, placing her on the bed.

“I have food for you, it will help you warm up.”

She looks up at me, “That would be nice.”

I grab the spoon and realize just how hard this was going to be. I look down at her, making eye contact. “Sorry, I didn’t even think about how inconvenient this would be.”

She smiles lightly, “I’ve got it, don’t worry about it.”

She holds up her hand and a blue light appears from her wrist, forming a tiny spoon, she grabs it with the opposite hand. What appears to be small threads of light connect the glowing spoon back to its source. She dipped the spoon in the soup and drained it. Her eyes close and she smiles, enjoying the salty flavor.

I laugh, “How long has it been since you ate?”

She looks up to me with significantly brightened blue eyes, coughing softly, “It’s been a few days.”

I had so many questions, I didn’t know where to start… So I remained silent, contemplating my next move, however before I could think of anything to say she spoke, “Do you have a name?

“Um, I’m Alice.” She smiled in reaction, standing up and walking to me, her damaged wing flapping behind her.

“I’m Violet, and I’m, sorry for flying away… most humans try to hurt someone like me.” At this point, I was genuinely confused, why would someone try to hurt someone so… curious and different? Was I so different to be kind?

I hang my head and feel like I’m turning super red, “I’m sorry for that, I really do just want to help…”

Violet spun around, returning to her bowl of soup “I can tell, you seem… different than most people I’ve met, you haven’t bent my arm backward or tried to break my spine. People are so rough sometimes…” She sits down next to the bowl, dipping her glowing spoon back in, and looking back to me. “Have some, there is no way I’m going to devour all of this.” She gestured to the bowl.

Feeling more at ease, I smile and dip my spoon in, taking a generous spoonful. She turns around grabbing at the broken wing and holding it in her hands. “This will take a couple days to fix.”

“So they aren’t part of you?”

She looks to me and giggles, “No, they aren’t part of me, I invented them! My wings allow me to explore places and sights quietly.” She takes the broken wing in her arm, “They aren’t too bad actually, I’ll look at it tomorrow.” She flutters her finger around and red light pulses through her wings as they seem to retract back in, and dissolve into the air.

Although I am shocked at this crazy technology, I shrug and take another spoonful of soup, “What are you exploring then?”

She coughs, “I’m just exploring the world… researching about nature, governments, and stuff.”

Now I’m suspicious. “Why are you researching those things?”

She focuses on her soup, “Oh I’m just curious about it, it isn’t really a big deal.”

I decide I’ve questioned her enough, for now. She seems uncomfortable, and she is certainly not comfortable talking about her motives… Good enough for me, she is nice. I smile, “Keep your past, I just want to help you.”

Her face lights up, “Thanks, I just need a place to crash tonight.”

“Only tonight?”

“Yeah, I should be fine after that!” she laughs,

I do my best to avoid showing my disappointment, “Okay, I’ll try to find something for you to sleep on.” I turn around, hopping to my feet and I open the closet. I see a ton of big blankets, but I realized she wouldn’t really be able to make good use of it. Then I see a small pillowcase poking out of a pile of sheets. Perfect.

Spinning around, I am holding the pillowcase in my hands. “This is perfect, it should be nice for you to sleep on.”

She nods her little head, reaching out for the pillowcase. I give it to her and she lays it on the bed near my pillow. “Mind if I sleep here?”

Happy to see that she is so close to me, I nod vehemently, “That will be good!”

The sun was all but gone, and I was tired, so I entered the closet, slipping out of my clothes and into an old nightie. Coming back into the room I find Violet already under her sheet. I am excited to be with another person, even if it is only for a night. I slip into bed, and make sure my alarm is set, and I close my eyes.

Sleep arrives easily, I had worked hard, but halfway through the night, I hear the slam of the truck door. Then the familiar opening of the door into the house. Then my basement door opens. “Shit.” I squeak.

I hear a tiny movement and a little voice, “What’s wrong?”

“Hide, it’s my father.” The poor little girl stumbles over to the side of the pillow.

I sit up as the drunk asshole fills the doorway. “This is yur fault!”

Standing up, I try to stand between him and Violet. “What’s my fault?”

“I ran out of gas, you didn’t fill the truck!” he takes a step toward me.

He takes another step and I’m starting to panic as I back away and fall to the bed, “I’m not allowed to touch the truck! Why would I fill it?”

He reaches his shaky fist out, grabbing my nightie and pulling me off the bed “You should have filled it you, ungrateful, little bitch!”

He pulls me off my feet and drops me on the floor, kicking me on the left side. I cringe, trying to hold back the tears. He pulls me again, tearing at my nightie. “No, stop!” I yell, tears starting to flow freely as the dainty dress fails against his drunken grip.

“If you didn’t want… this you shouldn’tuh have been so… un.. un… grateful!” He starts grabbing at my breasts, and I do what I can to stop him, which isn’t much. As I kick and cry, one very fortunate kick of desperation makes solid contact with his groin. He shoots up, yelling and holding himself.

Clearly dazed from the alcohol, he stumbles about, going to the staircase. “You’ll pay fer that you… little… bitch.” He stumbles up the stairs, grumbling about his nuts. I take shallow, fearful breaths until I can’t hear footsteps, crawling back into bed, my cries muffled by the pillow.

As I cry I feel Violet moving around, she runs her hands along the multiple contusions and bruises that cover my midriff. I hear her sniffle, she is crying… for me…

“You poor thing…”Violet’s little hand touches my forehead, “You wanted to help me?”

I let loose another volley of tears, “Of course, I care about people.”

“Well, thank you for your help Alice. Now I am going to help you.”

I furrow my brow, looking up from my pillow to the tiny girl, “What do you mean? I’m fine! He’s going to forget about this in the morning and everything will be normal!”

She frowns, placing her hand on my curled fist, “Everything is not fine here sweetie, you deserve better… I’ll take you with me, to my home, if you want to come.”

“Where is that? I’ve tried to run before and he has always found me.”

She giggles, rubbing my forehead softly, “You may have run, but you've never left Earth before."

My eyes shoot open, “What did you just say?”

Violet touches my cheek, guiding me to her eyes, "I’m not from Earth, and I want to take you with me, to save you from… this… I can see what kind of person you are, because, despite your situation you wanted to help me… So, I am going to help you have something… better.” She pauses, looking around the room, “Better than this shitty home, and better than your shitty father.”

My tears continue to fall, as I bring my hand around to Violet, scooping her up and pressing her against my face, lightly. She reciprocates, placing her forehead on mine and lightly rubbing it with her hands.

I meet sleep quickly, thanks to the comfort of my new friend, who also happens to be an interstellar beauty…

The light of the morning meeting my eyes, as it signals a fresh start… I open my eyes and see a beautiful little girl lying on the pillow in front of me. She is still asleep, her little breaths evenly distributed. Sitting up in bed, I smile, this unusual feeling… a feeling of hope which I am unaccustomed to overwhelming my senses.

Getting ready was easy, I felt light on my feet as I showered and dressed for work. As I prepare to leave Violet motions for me to come to her. I kneel next to the bed, curious what she needs.

She is hunched over, working on a bundle of what appears to be tiny wires, “What are you working on Violet?”

She doesn’t respond for a couple seconds, eventually looking up, “I’m fixing my broken wing, it’s normally quite strong, but the tree got lucky.”

Eager to help the little woman, I quietly ask her “Can I get you anything you need?”

“No, I’ve got the stuff I need Alice, I called you to ask, Do you want to leave tonight?” she asks, her hands firmly on her hips.

Shocked, I whisper, “That’s... really fast.”

She looks down, “I know, I don’t want you to endure any more abuse, but it’s up to you. I need a couple things before we can go.”

“Like what?” I inquire, curious what this woman from another world could possibly need my help finding.

“So I’m not normally this tiny Alice, I have a device which helps me grow and shrink in order to suit my needs, it got damaged the other night…” she projects an image from her wrist. “I need some… what do humans call them…”

“I know what those are! I make them at my job, how many do you need.”

Violet looks me up and down raising an eyebrow, “That is a crazy coincidence… and I need twelve.”

I smile, taking another look at the schematic she was holding in her tiny hands. I am shocked that this little space explorer needs my help to find something as simple as a handful of 550 microfarad capacitors and a few odds and ends. I smile down at the tiny lady, “I’ll see you after work.”

She simply smiled, waving me off and returning to her wing. I spin around and ascend the stairs, flying through the kitchen and onto the path to work.

This is normally the part where I would contemplate the futility of life and dream of a better future. Except today was different. Instead of my eyes being glued to the ground, they wandered in the sky… I imagined worlds of people, places free of the crushing influence of my father. For the first time in my life, I feel… hope.

Approaching my place of employment, the factory that has been my safe haven for years, I suddenly realize it is one of the few things I will miss about home. Entering the building I have a smile on my face which none of my co-workers have ever seen.

I turn the corner to enter the main floor and I run straight into Jeff, and since he’s a big guy, I bounce off and land on my ass. He looks about as shocked as I was before a big smile spreads on his face. His eyebrows raise, “Holy shit, are you smiling Alice?”

I blush, and look away, realizing that for the first time ever, I was smiling at work! Taking Jeff’s extended hand, he pulls me up. “So what happened Alice?”

“Remember, when I told you about my home situation?” He responds with a compassionate nod. “Well, I made a friend who offered to let me live with her, and… I know it’s the right thing to do…”

“So,” he gives a fake disappointed sigh, “you are leaving?” I smile and nod, and he continues, “Well, I hate to lose such a good worker, but I understand, let me know if I can help.”

I hand him a little piece of paper with the list of capacitors and components that Violet needed to fix her device. “I need these things before I go.”

Jeff rolled his eyes, “Of course kiddo, and I’m not even going to ask why, how about that.”

I look down, embarrassed at my request, “Thanks Jeff.” Now smiling I go around him to take my place on the line and finish my last shift as a quality control lady. Checking the caps and circuits today was easy, and I spent most of the time thinking about the future. I had so many ideas and concepts floating through my mind. As much as I imagined the future I realized that I had no idea what awaited me. Fortunately fear couldn’t grip my mind. I had someone who was willing to guide me into a new world…

Her name is Violet, and she is a beautiful person… and I feel inextricably drawn to her…

Seeing a batch of bad circuits I send them off the line. Despite my excitement, I still want to do this job right! Putting my head down I focus until the end of the shift.

At the sound of the buzzer, I stand up, running my hand along the back of the seat. For the last time I would leave this structure, and in so doing I would enter my future. Jeff was standing just outside his supervisory seat, holding a small plastic bag with the things Violet needed.

I run up and hug him. He was always so nice to me. “Thanks for being good to me, all these years.”

“Of course kiddo, you’ve done a good job,” As is his custom, he squeezes my shoulder in a fatherly way, “and I hope everything works out.”

Taking the bag, I slip it in my pocket, as I leave the building I look back one last time, I look back at the only father figure I have ever known. Turning out, I step boldly out into the fresh snow making my way home.

Arriving at the house, I am pleased to discover my father’s truck is gone. I enter, quickly finding myself downstairs. “I’m back!”

She is nowhere to be seen. “Are you here Violet?”

Fearing the worst, that she left without me… I nearly give into the despair of a lost opportunity when a blue streak of light blazes through the window, a three-foot long sleek metal tube with two protruding metal wings sweeping back to a glowing blue ball following it.

Three legs unfold from the superstructure and it lands on the floor.

All I can think is, “What the shit?”

An aperture opens on the left side, and Violet steps out. “Sorry, I wasn’t here… I had a harder time finding this then I thought!”

I cross my arms, “What exactly is it?”

She smiles, “Do you really think I fly through space with my wings sweetie?”

I blush, covering my face, “I didn’t even think about it…”

The little girl laughs, extending her beautiful, and apparently repaired wings and fluttering up to my shoulder, landing and resting her hand on my neck. “Alice, this is my ship, the UNS-Arrow. It is fast, quiet, and comfortable… and right now, very, very small.”

Smiling, I lean over to Violet, but I wasn’t thinking and I knocked the tiny girl from her perch. She flung herself off and allowed her wings to catch her, she glided in a circle down to my lap, landing on my leg. She wore a big smile and laughed at me. I realize what I did, covering my face with my hand as I start to laugh, “I’m so sorry!”

She simply dropped down and ran her little hand back and forth on my leg, laughing. I realize she isn’t hurt, and I start laughing harder.  She looks up to me, “Were you able to get the things we needed?”

I smile, pointing to my pocket, Violet walks across my leg, pulling the little bag out of my pocket. She takes a quick look at the contents as a smile forms on her face. She jumps to my stomach, hugging me, “This is perfect! I’ll get to work right away!” She flutters, with the relatively huge bag over to her ship.

She takes the parts in and I see her poke her head back out, “You should pack the stuff you want to take! Anything else I can get for you later.”

Realizing the truth of her statement, I grab a bag from the closet, to pack the few things that are important to me. I enter the closet, and fold my gown, the dress that helped me see myself for what I wanted to be… instead of what I was made to be by the monster upstairs. I place it in the bottom of the bag. I take the small amount of make-up I had acquired over the years and put it in a little pocket of my bag.

I take a couple comfortable shirts and a pink nightie, and my only intimate wear… a beautiful bra and panties that I tried on in the store, but had never worn since. I then stuff a couple skirts and a tight pair of jeans into the bag.

The last thing I grab is a picture of me with my work crew. Everyone who was nice to me there… they deserved to be remembered… especially Jeff. I hold the picture close, and slip it in the bag.

Putting the bag on my back, I laugh as I exit the closet, and encounter Violet with a crazy look in her eye as she exits her ship. “It is fixed!” She lifts it and presses a button, and nothing happens. Her crazy look drains.

“What happened?”

She stands there, motionless, I assume she is thinking, but she soon raises her hand again. “I apparently forgot something….” She spins around and walks back into the ship, small noises of repair resume and I hear the sound of a truck transmission slamming into park.

I look down at The Arrow, “Shit. He’s home. If he comes down here we are fucked.” I whisper.

Violet yells back from inside her ship, “I’m almost done, if you can stop him from breaking my ship, I can help you!”

Fear gripped my heart… how could I defend her ship… I can’t even defend myself… I hear a faint voice in the back of my mind, gently telling me… “You can.” I didn’t understand where the voice came from, but it was an emboldening experience.

I suddenly realize that right now, I hold my own future in my hands. I know I need to face this problem now… and instead of cowering like I have my entire life… I will protect myself from the monster that ultimately helped create me.

Then the door at the top of the stairs slams open. He can see everything. “What the fuck are you doing down there.”

With my new courage, I yell back, with an intensity he had never before heard from me. “None of your business! Stay up there!”

He starts to descend the staircase, “I do what I please in my house bitch, what is that on the floor?”

“Something you are not allowed to touch.” I widen my stance and make it apparent that I am going to hold my ground.

He steps down to my level, his lumbering body, powerful when not entirely inebriated with alcohol, filling the path before me. Gesturing to the side, he furrows his brow and grunts, “Get out of the way little bitch.”

“No, you will not get your way… not this time.”

Clenching his fist he throws a punch. But this time, instead of accepting the impact I put up my arms and cross them. Blocking the punch and sliding back instead. I step forward, holding my ground I kick his shin, and elbow his descending jaw, and he yells in pain, connecting his fist with my stomach, knocking me back to the side as he steps back to the door.

I feel powerful, but I know that he won’t stay back for long… and I’m not sure I can withstand another punch and still be able to stand.

I return to my place between him and the ship, I am visibly weakened, and he approaches slowly. He is beyond close for comfort when a blue flash is emitted from The Arrow, and a small “yes” can be heard throughout the room. I look back to see Violet’s wings blur my vision as she flies directly between me and my father.

“Thank you, Violet,” I mumble under my breath, as I wonder what she is going to do…

She is wearing a form fitting blue armor suit that I had never seen before, reminiscent of middle age knights, but the joints glow, and it is precision cut and far more elegant, to protect her perfectly. Her wings glowing, she brandishes a blue hard-light sword, emitted from her wrist, it appears as threatening as any sword could look at her size.

Protecting me, she addresses my father, “You have abused this woman, and tortured her, held her against her will, she does not belong to you, and I will free her from you… you bitch.”

A look of amusement crossed his eyes, “What is a runt like you going to do? Talk me to death? Seriously?”

Violet shook her head in adamant disappointment, “If only you had left when Alice gave you the chance abuser.” Violet raised her hand emitting a powerful white light, as her form expanded, she continued to hover in the air, as her body grew from its minuscule eight centimeters, to twenty, to almost a meter.

She lowered her hand, and she accelerated her growth, doubling her height and falling to the floor as she dismissed her wings. Her growth was fast but had my father not been so dumbfounded this would have never worked. She matched his height, pulling back her arm and sending it squarely into his chest, sending him flying into the stairs. The look on his face was one I had never before seen. He looked like he was the prey. For the first time, I was watching as he had his ass handed to him. No longer my predator, but a weak and paltry prey.

Stepping forward, Violet’s head impacted with the ceiling, halting her expansion. She looked back to me as she placed her sword over me and her ship. She smiled and said, “Please stay put,”as she began growing again, raising her head into the ceiling.

I watched as this once tiny woman expanded to enormous proportions, collapsing my childhood hellhole to debris in a matter of seconds. Walls fell, and the roof split in two, a single support truss fell knocking out enemy back off his feet. Nothing in this building could withstand the expansion of Violet’s body. She finished growing and I looked up to her knee, I only reached her ankle.

Lifting her foot, and dropping herself down to a kneeling position, she dug through the debris, picking a little form out of the debris, dropping it on the floor in front of me. It was so… small…

“What is that?” Violet turned and walked away.

I looked closer and realized I was looking at the diminished form of my worst nightmares. He looked up with anger. “You destroyed my ho…” The anger washed from his face when he realized that he was not even as large as the finger I held over him.

“You know… I have feared you my whole life. You have made my life a fucking misery. Right now, though, things are as they should be. I am a bigger person than you… A better person… There is no way for you to fix what you’ve done. So, unlike you, who abused me for decades, your end will be quick and merciful.”

I raise my foot over his limp and nearly motionless body, and press down swiftly. He splatters instantly, no match for the power in my feminine leg. I rub his guts off my shoe, into the debris of this hellhole. I turn around, as a smile spreads across my face as I walk away.

The evil which had always dominated my life… was gone.

Forever.

As I walk away from the ruins of my childhood home, I feel liberated, more then I had ever felt in my life. Stepping over the remnants of the foundation, and looking through the neighbor’s yard, I could see the top of Violet’s head. She was shrinking back down in the desolate, snow-covered park.

I walk to her slowly, my body feeling calm for the first time in years. My smile shook as tears streamed from my face.

Tears of liberation, and joy of finding a tunnel out of the hole my life had been. Arriving in the park, Violet was in the process of hiding the Arrow in a small gathering of bushes, well hidden from the road. She turned to me, silent.

As tears streamed from my face I embraced her. There was only one thing to be said, I whisper in her ear: “Thank you for saving me.”

She pulls me in tighter, her vibrant blue hair covering my face, her hands rubbing my back, “I couldn’t just leave you…”

“It’s over… It’s over…” The tears flow freely, as I experience the first moments of freedom in my life.

She sighs in my ear, “It is…” she pushes me out just in front of her, locking her eyes on mine. “You are free, and you always will be.” After saying this, Violet pulled me back in, her hands glowing red. As soon as she embraces me, the world grows as I shrink for the first time.

I would be afraid… if I hadn’t just annihilated the source of my lifetime of horror. I was with a woman who clearly cared for me, and I truly believe she has no intention to harm me. She takes my hand, pulling me to the ship, breaking my trace.

“Wow, looks a lot bigger now.”

“It’s my home, of course it’s bigger, come on in!”

Entering the ship was, in short, unbelievable. It was spacious, and extremely open. The front of the ship had two chairs focused on what I believe is a navigation system. It looked unlike anything I’ve ever seen, like holograms.

Violet pulled me along through the kitchen and eating area, the tables were made with her hard light. Projected out, but with a switch it could all be turned off. The kitchen had interesting round objects, which I can’t decipher without Violet’s assistance.

The back of the ship has a silver ball, with two tubes extending out to the sides, colored blue, and two red pipes going to the floor. Controls and tools litter the floor and cover a hard light workbench.

Violet pulls me to a ladder, as she laughs, “I’m not dragging you up the ladder, so come on.” Snapping back from my observation of this incredible little ship I climb up the ladder, arriving in a beautiful bedroom.

I am “Are those windows, because I don’t remember seeing windows?” I ask, pointing to the ceiling through which I can see outside, the undersides of bushes and tree branches are easily visible.

She smiles, “No, they are screens, so while you can see outside, you can also…” she walks to a control panel next to her bed, grabbing a hologram and turning, throwing it onto the ceiling, the view dissolves, focusing now on whatever it is she threw up there.

“While I’m sure all of this is cool, you can look around later, right now I want you to rest from the shock of all this… change.” She waves her hands about for emphasis. “Okay?”

“Okay, can I shower or clean up, because I’m really gross?”

“I can do better than that.” Curious about what she means, I observe as she presses some controls on the wall, she covers her face with her hand, and turns to me as the air starts to smell… sweet… and a little tangy, just as I pass out.

…………

I hear a voice, “Hey Alice…” I roll over in bed, and I hear it again as something jostles my shoulder, “Alice!”

Slapping back at whatever it is, I groan, “No, no no…”

“Alice, you’ve been sleeping for 15 hours” I open my eyes, to find myself in Violet’s bed. My eyes shoot open.

“What the hell happened?”

Violet giggles, “You wanted a shower... so I took a little time to clean and heal you…”

“You did what?!” I feel... violated, she should have asked!

Violet raises her hands, “Alice, you were injured… I’ve never seen someone with so many bruises and contusions… you must have been in so much pain.”

I’m panicking, confused, worried, and my body feels different. “What the hell did you do Violet?” I tear at the sheets, to get them off of me.

Violet approaches me slowly, pulling up on the nightie I was now wearing. “See, you are all better.”

The skin of my stomach was clear… no scars… no bruises. “I don’t… what?”

I don't feel violated anymore, my feelings of panic and anger instantly dissolve. I touch the fresh, beautiful skin, and for the first time in a long time it feels... nice... I actually feel no pain. I close my eyes, basking in the feeling of my refreshed body. Then I feel a light touch on my left side, and the pleasure is like electricity, I had never felt like this. I turn, tightly embracing Violet around her neck, “This is amazing… Thank you... so much.”

She smiles, “Well I have more to show you,” she motions toward the wall, I follow her and stand next to her, as she touches the wall it shimmers and becomes a reflective surface, I see myself standing beside Violet. Only I don’t look like myself.

Approaching the mirror for a closer look, I gasp, running my finger from my chin to my eye… where an enormous scar once marred my face. All the little marks from the years living in tyranny were… healed… My blonde hair looked healthy and beautiful, even the bags under my green eyes were cleared... I look to her my voice cracking as I try to bring some sense of gratitude, “Violet…”

Violet grinned, putting a single finger over my mouth, “You deserve it, beautiful,” she tugs at me again, “it’s time to leave.”

Still in shock, I turn and follow my benefactor, “Where are we going Violet?” I ask as she excitedly leads me to the front of the ship. Upon arrival, she sits in the right seat. “You can sit in the left chair, just don’t touch anything.” Looking over, Violet smiles, “Until I teach you… and Ed, I need a course to Auru.”

I look over to Violet, thoroughly confused, “Who the hell is Ed?”

She casually points up without looking away from her screen, “Why don’t you ask?”

I raise my eyebrow, looking around, to nowhere in general, “Hello… Ed?”

“It is nice to welcome you to the Arrow Alice, I am the Arrow’s Artificial Intelligence, and I’m around if you need me.”

I look back to Violet for an explanation. She is all smiles, clearly enjoying my confusion. She touches my shoulder, “Ed is an AI, he controls the Arrow’s Extra-solar Drive… a space engine, and I call him Ed.

Ed’s vaguely simulated voice echoes through the room again, “I’m just here to help, if you need anything, ask.”

Violet’s smile simply won’t fade, she taps at the controls, making a number of adjustments to her station, “Ready Ed?”
“Of course, the course is plotted.”

“Good.” Violet smirks as she takes the controls and the Arrow hovers from the ground as all the walls appear to dissolve and show an exterior view. Moving forward, we fly over my old home, it is surrounded by fire trucks and police cars, clearing trying to figure out what happened.

Violet laughs, “We had better get back to our normal size… see that red and blue circle near your left hand, turn until it shows 100%.”

I look down to the controls, and find the knob she was talking about. Upon touching the control the indicators all translate to English. “The scale is .5%?” Violet just laughs, twisting her wrist in the air to the right, so I do. It raises, and as I spin the knob I feel something like power… like my body is growing, as the ship grows… we do too! Upon reaching 100% I decide to test Ed’s capabilities. “Ed, how tall am I right now?”

“Fifteen meters, and thirty centimeters Miss Alice.”

I sit back in the chair… a huge grin spread across my face, “I’m huge!”

Violet points forward, “Look Alice, we’re in space!” I stand up, looking out at the vast emptiness of space through the screens, my new… home. While I’m lost in the observation, Violet grabs my arm, “You might want to hold on to something.”

I sit down, holding the arms of the chair tightly as she accelerates again, flying over the earth at speeds which NASA could only imagine.

I grip my seat as Violet accelerates in another direction, tapping a couple controls above her, “Ready Ed?”

Ed responds with an exact replication of his earlier utterance, “Of course, the course is plotted.”

The silver ball, which I assume is the engine, in the back of the ship begins to hum, vibrating lightly. The stars outside suddenly blur and appear to flow to the back of the ship, turning blue, then purple, and everything outside darkens as the screens return to a light blue color scheme, blocking out the view.

I stare out the still transparent front window, when a timer appears that shows the time remaining to Auru.

It read: “3 Hours 46 Minutes”

Violet turns to me, grabbing my knee and… well, more serious this time, “We are on our way to my home Auru, so it’s time to talk about what to expect.” She helps me out of the chair, embracing me. “You have a lot to learn, come on!”

This time Violet doesn’t push me, but she does skip to the back of her ship, where her workbench is. I follow, but take a different route through a hall on the port side. Walking through the hall, I notice a ladder going down under the floor, presumably allow access to repair broken stuff. The hall ends at Violet’s workspace.

I step up onto a raised platform while her back is turned, and I float about half a meter off the ground. Surprised, I let out a little squeak.

Violet spins around. “Oh, good, you’re getting this!” she walks around behind me, tapping controls. Suddenly what looks like her armor appears around me, covering my nightie, it resizes and modifies itself, a smaller chest, and wider hips, as well as a less hourglass figure, until it appears skintight.

“Okay, what color would you like Alice?” Violet inquires, still behind me.

“Ummmmmm… yellow?” With a couple taps the image ripples, showing the accents as yellow. “No… too bright… how about pink?” Once again, the image shimmers, displaying the modification.

Violet laughs behind me, “It’s cute!”

“It’s still too bright though, can we try red?” As soon as the change occurs, I look down at myself, I like this color. “Okay, that’s good.”

Violet walks back around in front of me, now holding a glowing blue pen, she taps at my waist, drawing a skirt onto the bodice of the armor. She leans down, changing some of the components of the legs, including a shin guard her armor doesn’t have. She continues working for a few minutes, before turning around and touching the wall.

As a mirror shimmers into existence, she smiles at me and asks, “What do you think?”

Looking at myself in the mirror, I am shocked at how good the armor looks.

“If you don’t like the first version Alice, we can change it later.” Violet smiles again reaching up and offering her hand. The image around me dissolves, and I am once again in my nightie. I take Violet’s hand and step down… I could have very easily done it alone, but there she is reaching out to me, expressing kindness which I had never before experienced.

She runs her fingers through my hair, her eyes piercing me. “You looked nice in the armor… and you… look nice.” I smile, walking forward, letting her hand go as I go to the kitchen, “Well I’m hungry.”

Violet laughs with her signature melodic tone, “Wait for me!”

I can’t believe what I’m seeing as we approach Auru. My nerves are shot, and I am astounded by the view as Violet weaves back and forth through space stations and satellites. Auru looks quite different from Earth, the land appears much like Earth, varied colors which correspond to specific ecosystems. The special thing is the oceans, they haven’t got an inkling of green in them. They are entirely blue, pristine light blue. The planet is surrounded by many larger stations, which are all connected with a ring, the ring appears to go far out, but ultimately wraps around the entire planet.

“Violet, what are those?” I ask, as I press myself into the window to try to see more of the ring.

Looking over from her seat, she explains, “Those are space-elevators, it’s a fancy way of getting into space without rockets.”

Mouth agape, I simply nod, and watch as objects fly past the window… screen. Soon we are approaching a station which looks much like the others, only now that we are closer I can appreciate the size of it, looming over us…

Violet grabs my arm and lightly pulls me away from the window, “You might want to get down.”

“Why? Aren’t we going to land on the planet?” I ask, as the ship suddenly shakes, scaring me. I tighten up grabbing at the console in front of me, “What the hell was that?”

Violet looks down at me, “That’s normal,” she laughs, “so normal that I forgot to say anything about it…” she stands up, sidestepping her chair and taking my arm again, as a sound of rushing air emerges from the back of the ship.

“We just landed, and I’ve seen some of your Earth movies about space and aliens, we don’t just have people flying ships all over the place, it would be madness! Now come on, we need to get you dressed.

I follow Alice to the exit. “What’s wrong with this?” I ask as I look down at myself and realize I’m still wearing the nightie. “Oh right.”

“Since Auru is safe, so we don’t need armor, just something to wear,” Violet taps a couple panels near the door, “here you go, pick something you like.”

The screen is full of clothing choices, bright colors, and most of the outfits look quite interesting. While I am not personally interested in wearing the styling choices that look like scene kids from back home, I find a long, tight silver dress that looks nice enough. I tap it, and the screen asks, “New user, colors?”

“Oh shit I forgot! You’ll need to choose colors to represent your home… since you are the first from your home you get to make that choice… for your planet.”

Surprised, but excited I tap “new” and three color wheels appear, I choose, blue, green, and blue, pressing the last button, the system makes a few noises, and the clothing appears on the table in front of me. The silver dress, and a bracelet with my colors.

Slipping into the dress is easy enough, I’ve done that enough times in my life, but putting on the bracelet is odd, it is much too big for my wrist, each time I put it on, it simply slips off. As I struggle to put it on I can hear Violet trying to suppress her laughter, as she grabs the bracelet.

“Okay, this is how it works,” she pulls at the band from each side, and the bracelet grows. She takes my hand, stepping in front of me, and slips it over my wrist, compressing her fingers around either side of it to form it to my wrist. “There, nice and snug,” she smiles and pulls me into a hug. “Excited?”

I breathe in, and then out, “Excited is not the word I would use… I am totally not ready.”

She smiles, reaching back to the hatch without breaking my gaze, and opening it. Walking through we enter a large translucent tunnel with long handles running along each side. Through the translucent panels I can see a beautiful view of Auru and several of its moons. When I step out I realize why there are handles, there’s no gravity in here.

At the end of the tunnel is a large open room, with windows spaced throughout with comfortable looking benches throughout. The windows offering a fantastic view of the artificial ring that surrounds Auru.

Although the view is fantastic, the scene inside the station is far more interesting. In the room there are a number of women standing, waiting for a ride down, but looking down I can see movement in the floor. It takes me a moment to figure out, but under the glass floor there are tiny people walking around.

The sight is unsettling… and Violet invites me to sit by her, so I do. Once seated, I try to look closer, and see that the movement is indeed people… men who are about eight centimeters in height… I could easily hold several of them in my hand. This seems dangerous… to have these tiny people in the floor, what if the floor broke… I would crush them like grapes…

The concerned look on my face was probably more indicative of my state of mind then I thought it was, because Violet tugs on my sleeve, “Alice, what’s wrong?”

“Violet, why are there people in the floor?”

She sighs, leaning over to me and speaking a little quieter. “In the past thousand years, Auru has evolved past the evolutionary gender roles… long ago Auru was much like Earth… where men still dominate… physically, and politically.” She leans over, looking into my eyes. “Here, about a thousand years ago women started to grow to their full potential… our bodies obviously capable of more strength and power then men could dream of. Women are the strength of Auru, women protect and care for it, and it has become a better, more peaceful place because of it.”

“So, you think men are worth less?”

A smile spreads across her face, as she blushes deeply, “No, not like that Alice! Men and women are both equally intelligent, and here on Auru we work, arm in arm to further knowledge and progress as a society… women are simply larger and stronger and because of that we control the military and police. What use would men be in a dangerous situation anyways?”

A small ding in the hall indicates the arrival of the elevator climber, “You said arm in arm?” I ask as we walk into the climber.

“Okay, they sit in our hands… and wiggle our heels.” she laughs, pointing out the window, “See, and we all get a nice view.” She pointed to the compartments in the corners where tiny little seat line the sides so the men could see out as well. “Men, in their proper place are extremely important. In the past they were often… not helpful. Now that they see enormous women all around… they don’t have power trips like men on your planet do.”

I look her in the eyes, “You talk about them like they were incapable of reason.”

She laughs, matching my gaze, “No, they are quite capable, some of my greatest teachers and mentors have been intelligent reasonable men! We ladies have our own problems… I think we are just less likely to impose on others.” She sighs, “Civilization works better this way.”

Her point of view is refreshing, and I think I’m starting to understand, “So, what are we doing now… you still haven’t told me…”

“First we need to go get some testing done, then we will be talking with some friends of mine.” Suddenly her eyes widen as she looks past me, and points out the window, “Damn, that’s pretty.”

Spinning around I look just in time to see the sun pass beneath the horizon, the view darkens, but in the distance I can see several threads rising into the sky, the space elevator tethers… that glow white, casting a dim white light over much of the planet.

“It’s beautiful…” I look down and marvel at the beautiful, although dim colors of the approaching landscape, illuminated by the light shining down from the tethers.

I turn around and meet Violet’s gaze, the light shining through the window glistens in her eyes. She looks so… happy. I smile, looking down I see her hand resting on the seat back, I take her hand and caress it softly… it is so soft and warm. A few moments later, I meet her gaze, “Thanks for bringing me along… I’m not sure I deserve this.”

She looks away, with a grin on her face and to my surprise blushing a little, “No Alice, you do deserve this… thank you for trusting me.”

Looking to the hologram in the middle of the climber, I notice we are still twenty minutes from the ground. I just watch the hologram as the decent continues… slowly falling asleep.

……..

I hear a light ding, and the sound of opening doors… and the low grumble of city life outside. Opening my eyes, I realize I fell asleep and fell onto Violet’s lap, her arms holding me close.

I sit up, moving her arms, but she is still asleep. I run my fingers through her hair and rub her shoulder. Her eyes open quickly, but she takes a moment to actually wake up. She looks at me, then the center hologram, then back to me before shooting to her feet. “Naptime is over, let’s go!” as she hurries to the exit, I jump up to follow her out the door, laughing at her facial expressions.

Walking out, we emerge to a street which is flanked on either side by buildings which are drastically taller than anything on Earth. The street is beautiful, decorated with lights, and signs, mostly holographic in nature. Women line the streets, many wearing clothing I would consider beautiful, and some wearing things I would consider part of the circus. It is a strange sight though, no men, anywhere.

Then I realize, when I look to the ground, they are underneath. The sidewalks have grooves drawn in with miniature pathways, and tiny little trains moving to and fro. Men going every which way, working, playing, doing what needs to be done… They live underneath the feet of women… so different from home.

While I am distracted, Violet takes my arm pulling me to the right, “Over here Alice.”

I turn and follow her lead, because that’s all I’ve done for the last couple days! We pass through a bright red doorway, passing a number of signs that I cannot really decipher, and entering an office. I assume this is a medical institution of some kind by the oddly familiar sterile smell, but that’s all I can really tell. Violet speaks to the receptionist in her language, who stands and takes us into another room with a couple diagnostic looking chairs and a large holographic console on a wall.

The woman makes eye-contact and speaks to me, but I obviously can’t understand anything she says. I just look back at her, and try to make my best, I-have-no-idea-what-you-are-saying face. Violet grabs her attention, speaking in this unknown language.
The woman smiles, now understanding the situation, and Violet gives me big grin. “Don’t worry Alice, just sit down, and we can get you a linguistic aid later.” I shrug, and sit down where Violet told me to, and she sits in the chair next to me, and I suddenly realize what we’re doing. The woman pokes a needle in Violet’s arm, taking a small sample of blood.

Then as quickly as she had moved before, the woman is next to me pulling out another needle, she takes my arm and presses the needle in, taking a small sample of my blood. Small being a relative term of course, there is more of my blood in the vial then I imagine a man would have in his whole body.

Honestly, I would be upset by the sudden poke, but it didn’t hurt at all. As quickly as she started, she cleans up and steps out of the room.

Violet holds both vials in her hands, rolling them nervously, pressing them into the console. “Okay watch this.”

The console starts analyzing our blood, and what appears to be chains of DNA. Running through the structures. A results page shows on screen after a few moments.

99.9 Percent Match, .01 Variance, Display Data?

“Alice, there are many planets in our galaxy, and all of the inhabited planets are populated by the same species, You and I are the same species.”

My eyes open wide, “How did that happen? How could that happen?”

Drumming her fingers on the wall where she was leaning, she continued, “That’s the greatest mystery in the galaxy, all I know is what I learned in school, and all life we’ve found has developed from the same initial genome, and it’s like someone, eons ago, placed humans all over the galaxy, and left them to grow. I’ve been searching for answers for a decade… and I think I’m starting to crack it.”

I stand up to take a look at the list of differences, throwing the list down, I ask, “So you are close to figuring out what happened?”

Violet stops drumming her fingers, and slams her fist on the wall, “No, I’m close to finding where they were from.” Taking the vials and deleting the data. She presses buttons on her wrist, and a hologram appears as she opens the door for me.

“What are you doing now?” I inquire as I step out of the room.

“Making an appointment with an old friend.” I shrug, following her out to the street and into a nearby building which appears to be an electronics store of some kind. The room is filled with screens and diagrams, Violet grabs a couple small devices, apparently paying with her wrist device. She takes my arm again, “He wants to see us, and we need to hurry.” She pulls me out to the street again.

A little flustered, I inquire, “Who is he?”

Violet barged through a large group of ladies, and pulled me onto a train “A mentor of mine… who taught me almost everything I know about genetics.”

We ride in silence for a while, Violet seems worried, while she tinkers with one of the tiny devices from the store. I am curious why she’s worried, but decide not to bother her, I will likely learn soon enough anyway. Looking out the window, we are flying through the city, at speeds of ludicrous magnitude. Parked in the walls of the train are smaller trains, the ones filled with tiny men that I had previously seen running under the translucent sidewalk.

I find this interesting, the male trains take the tiny men where they need to go, and when they need to go farther, they just join up with a larger train made primarily for women. Mass transit for people of all masses. Brilliant.

The exterior view suddenly changes as we transition out of the city, we are traveling into a valley, the tracks curving, before dipping under the surface, the lights in the train compensate for the darkened cabin maintaining a constant light level, until we emerge again exiting the valley and transitioning to a desert landscape. Now, I’m getting bored, because I can see very little besides sand in the distance.

Then Violet pulls at me. “Okay, time to gear you up Alice. See this?” she holds up a tiny device, then speaking in the language I cannot understand, she raises her eyebrow, and places the little device inside my ear, adhering it in the canal, and I can’t really feel it in there. She opens her mouth again, “My name is Violet and now you understand me.”

I am impressed, “This is what you meant by linguistic aid?”

She smiles, reaching into her bag and grabbing an elegant wristband, similar to the one she wears. “Okay Alice, this is a hard light projector, or HLP, and it is how explorers, like us… can make tools, and other helpful things. It also is linked up to the extranet… if you get lost somewhere, my connection ID is in here for you.” She presses a couple holographic buttons

I take the device when she offers it to me, “You lost me there, what’s a Connection ID?”

“Oh, it’s like an Earth phone number, except much longer… when you have trillions of people to deal with, and several hundred planets… you need a lot more numbers.”

My mind is blown again, and at this point I’m starting to get used to these futuristic ideas and technologies Earth would consider science-fiction being normal and common for Violet and her people.

“You might just want to play around with it, I can teach you a few tricks later.”

I feel so… cared for, Violet is doing everything in her power to help me feel welcome, introducing me to a society I couldn’t have imagined this time last week. Most everything on this planet is shiny metal, or translucent, but strong. They use light to make temporary structures. To say I will get used to this? I’m not sure I can say that, I do feel alone though, like a stranger. I’m the only person around who grew up in an inferior society… I look around the cabin, at all the people mesmerized by the devices they carry.

I guess some things never change. At the front of the train I see a family, a mother and daughter, looking out the window, the daughter is holding out her palm, standing on her hand is a man, who I have to assume is her father. Even when these people are vastly different sizes… they get along.

This society is so… perfect. I wonder if it truly is so, or if I am just… mesmerized by the power and technology they wield. I am grateful to have a guide, a mentor in this new world. Violet. I see her hand sitting on bench, so close to mine.

I slide my hand, taking her hand in mine and intertwining our fingers. She smiles, leaning over and resting her head on my shoulder. Her blue hair cascading down. I lean into her, my free hand running through her hair. This position is new… and relaxing.

“If you want to sleep, when should I wake you up?” I ask as Violet begins to doze off.

Violet nuzzles me softly, as she gets a little more comfortable, “Furaka University… it will be about an hour... from now.”

Continuing to run my fingers through her soft blue hair, “Sleep well.”

Soon her even breathing tells me that my beautiful guide… is asleep.

A soft voice emanates through the train car, “Final stop, Furaka University.”

Violet is still asleep on my lap, I lightly caress her hair in an effort to wake her up, to no avail. Summoning a little more confidence, I rub her back, “Violet we are here.”

She wakes with a start and immediately sits up, her eyes wide. Looking around, she seems to remember where she is and she takes a deep breath, “Oh, okay,” she smiles to me as she stands up, offering her hand, “now that we are here, come on!”

Accepting the offer, Violet pulls me to my feet, wrapping her arm around my waist, and we exit the train. As the door closes behind us, I am greeted by some of the most interesting architecture I’ve ever observed. The buildings stretch into the sky, while above us is a massive mountainous overhang, which buildings hang from, reaching down from above. My eyes are involuntarily wide, because I have never seen such incredible engineering… I wonder how they imagined all of this.

After giving me a moment to look around, Violet tugs on my arm, pulling me toward the entrance of one of the towers, with her typical, “Come on little girl” smile. While I am far from a little girl, I do need the guidance here. So, as has become natural for me, I follow her into the tower without hesitation.

Stepping into a glass elevator, Violet presses a button and we begin ascending rapidly. “So… the professor we are going to meet is a… blunt fellow, if he says something offensive… I’m sorry.”

I roll my eyes starting to feel more used to how things work, “I’m not really worried about it.” When the elevator opens, my eyes trail down as Violet quickly grabs my arm.

“Of course you aren’t, he should be in one of these classrooms,” she laughs, as she pulls me into a large hallway. “His class got out a little while ago and he always pokes around for a few minutes.” There are twelve doors lining the hall, the ends of the hall connected to larger classrooms. Violet pulls me down the hall into one of the larger classrooms. This rooms seems quite similar to what I envisioned college classrooms looking like, my only experience being what I had seen on TV while I was growing up.

Except… there was a set of tinier chairs at the front of the room, which I presume are for the men, elevated to about waist height. With a tiny podium and a camera to project the little speaker to the audience in the larger chairs. Standing at the tiny podium was a stout man, about seven and a half centimeters tall, with a bushy brown beard. He wore professional looking attire, presumably the professor we had come to see.

He leans over his microphone, making brief eye contact with me before Violet blocks my line of sight with her hip. His voice cracks over the PA in the room with a monotone drawl, “Good to see you Violet.”

With her goofy smile she reaches down to the professor and grabbing him, elevating him up and giving him a careful hug. “It’s good to see you too Professor Duval!” She spun a couple times, apparently Professor Duval was used to this kind of treatment from Violet, because all I could see of his face was a light smirk, and when she stopped spinning I could see him roll his eyes.

When Violet finally set the little man down, he leans forward onto the rail of his platform, “So, what brings you here today Ms. Alliotti?” I make a mental note of Violet’s last name, as she kneels down to be at Professor Duval’s eye level. He cracks a smile, “and who is your date?”

My eyes widen, as Violet smiles down on the little man, “She isn’t my date Professor, I got the information from the last planet, and this is Alice.” She motions to me, “When I visited Earth I was injured, and she helped me.”

The Professor’s eyes widen, and his hands grip the rail. “Wait, you did what?!”

I step up to the platform next to Violet wrapping my arm around her, “Professor Duval, I wanted to come, my entire life was… terrible. I don’t even like to think about it. Violet saved me from a life of abuse and sadness!”

He nods to affirm what I said, but he looks down and cradles his head in his hands. “That may be true, but do you know how much trouble you could be in? Who have you told?”

Violet spun around, “I’ve already run the genetic comparisons, she is 100 percent human, so I don’t think there will be a problem!”

Just then there is a slam, as several women dressed in dark red, skintight bodysuits enter the room. Two of them grab Violet and drop her to the floor, and two others, rushing past grab me and pin me down next to her.

“What’s happening?” I ask, hoping for an immediate explanation.

A soft voice fills the room “We meet again Violet.”

Violet yells, her voice shaking, “I haven’t done a damn thing wrong!”

The click-clack of heels tempers the air as a woman who appears to be in her thirties, appears over us, her long black hair braided and held behind her. Her eyes appear black, veiled behind slim framed glasses, with flashes of blue within. She stares down at Violet, “That is to be determined… Miss Alliotti.” Her eyes center on me, “We have no record of you, what is your name?

Scared and close to petrified, I wait a few moments as I attempt to summon my voice. I finally stutter out, “A-A-Alice… S-Speirs’.”

She smiles lightly, “Miss Speirs, I don’t believe this is your fault,” the officer waved off the officers holding me and extended her hand.

As Officer Gisele helps me up, I turn back to look at Violet. Her eyes seem erratic, fearful. I had never seen her afraid before; it was… unsettling.

The woman with the long black braid takes my arm and starts leading me out of the room, “My name is Officer Gisele, and I just need to talk with you for a moment.” I walk with her into the hall.

“I just need your side of the story before I decide what to do with Ms. Alliotti, where are you from?”

Taking a deep breath, trying to remain calm, “I’m from a planet called Earth.”

Officer Gisele leans in close to me, making eye contact. “Did you want to come to Auru, or were you forced to come against your will?”

“I wanted to come, Violet saw how I lived and offered to bring me along.”

She sighs deeply, with a surprising hint of compassion, “Then this is important to how we proceed, tell me about how you lived…”

My eyes well up with tears as I explain my life. Officer Gisele took my shoulders holding me steady as I explain my father, my early life, the constant beatings… I pour myself out, holding nothing back. When I finish explaining, Officer Gisele’s demeanor was quite different, she seemed almost motherly, she turned and stormed back into the classroom.

I followed her, as I heard her command, “Let her go, she was absolutely right to bring her.”

Then I hear Violet’s familiar voice, “Thank the Goddess!”

As I reenter the room Violet was on her feet, she rushes to me, embracing me. Her hand cradles my head, as she whispers, “Everything is okay.”

Professor Duval’s voice crackles over the PA again, “This has been very insightful, but I would like to see your findings Ms. Alliotti.” Violet simply hugs me tighter, helping me feel much better.

Violet turns to talk with Professor Duval, and Officer Gisele pulls me aside, “Tell me about Earth Alice, what kind of world is it?”

I shrug, laughing nervously, “I’m not sure how to describe an entire planet.” Gisele looks at me like I was silly for not having this skill, “Oh you’re serious?”

I thought for a moment, considering the life I lived. How I was raised, how people treat one another. I became easier thinking about it in internet terms. Humans are fucking trolls…

I thought back to the flight from Earth and how… shiny the Earth was from orbit, how perfect it seemed from so far away… I then knew how to answer, “Well, Earth is a little blue marble with a ton of problems… It’s beautiful and conflicted, and I lived in one small town, never saw the rest of the world until Violet saved me.”

I was surprised, but Officer Gisele seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say, as she asked something else, “What is your society like? How big are your people?”

I laugh, “The people are smaller than we are now, and we are all about the size of your men. What I know comes from the internet… our computer network, I don’t think you could say we have a singular society… We are very much divided, people love to hate one another, and many spend all their time trying to hurt and harm others. Some people are good though.”

The Officer thought for a moment as she placed her hand on my shoulder, “I’m sorry for this incident. I’ve sent a message to Violet, reminding her of the proper way to bring someone from another world. I really hope I haven’t soured your opinion of Auru.” She was much more relaxed now, as she leans back on the wall, smiling.

She waves her cohorts off, “Let’s head back, ladies.” With her command the officers quickly vacate the room, she remains only for a moment, “I’m not sure I was wrong about you Ms. Alliotti, but what you did was good. I will see you later.” She grabs my shoulder, squeezing it softly, and extending her other hand for a handshake, “Friends?”

I take her hand, shaking it firmly, “Friends.” then she left, and only the Professor, and Violet and I remain.

Violet pulled out a small chip, which I assume is a memory device, “On this HGD is the result of many years of work, the information from Earth completes it.” She turns around after placing the chip on a contact pad and causing a hologram of the galaxy to appear in the center of the room.

“As you know professor, these are all of the planets which we have discovered harbor humanity.” Blue spheres appear all over the outside of the galaxy. “These planets form a lattice, and at the center of each group there is a quantum singularity.”

I reach up into the hologram… my hand dwarfing the images of stars, “So you are telling me, someone made a map with planets… and the people are somehow the key?”

Professor Duval furrows his brow, considering this new information, “Now, why do you believe that is significant?”

“Because each of the singularities are orbited by a giant blue star, and a single planet. I wasn’t sure the pattern would hold before, but with the information gathered from Alice’s home, I now believe we need to visit these planets and find whatever was left for us to find.”

“So what were you looking for at each of these places?” I ask.

Violet smiles, and wraps her arm around me, “For years we have been searching the stars, and from all of these planets we have found humans. The only difference being their size. Some humans much larger than us, and some much smaller then you were.”

“So... my next question, why would we all be different sizes?”

The professor smiles, “That is a very good question, and the answer is quite simple. What do you think happens if a planet is larger and less dense than your home?”

I shrug as I don’t really understand, “I guess it would have bigger people?”

“That’s right, when the planet is bigger, but less dense, it has less gravity, and the people there grow much larger, while smaller, denser planets all have smaller people.”

My mind was blown, I sit in one of the ladies chairs, and simply watch as the Professor and Violet keep talking about the mission they’ve created.

After a moment of silence, Professor Duval laughs, and I turn to look as he takes over the display. “Okay, Miss Alliotti, you found the location, I think I know what you need to look for.” he waves his hand, and throws a program on the wall. “This signature is what I believe you will find… it might be slightly different, you will have to get close to be sure.”

The wave loops up and down and in and out. Some kind of 3d wave, unfortunately I don’t really understand these things too well. Just then the screen went blank, several boxes with some kind of code appears for several moments.

As I stand here helpless, Violet is struggling to restore the screen, slamming her hand down in frustration. “What the hell…” Violet clears the screen and turns it off.

I turn to Professor Duval who was furiously typing on his terminal, “What’s happening professor?”

Sounding desperate, he yells, “I wish I knew ladies! All my files are being disrupted!”

Violet thinks for a moment, reaching down and grabbing a small holographic device off her hip, pulling it out she presses in a few commands, causing the Professor’s screen to clear. “Someone was copying your files Professor, but I think I blocked them. You should still lock down your systems to be safe.”

“I will, and I’ll report this to the police, maybe they can find out who was trying to copy the files.” Professor Duval smiles, “Be careful, you know how important this is… and I doubt this hacker was a coincidence.”

Violet picks him up again, hugging him, “Thanks for being incredible Professor,” she put him down again, “Let me know what happens with the hacker.”

Professor Duval waves Violet away, “Of course, of course, and Violet, Alice is a wonderful person, you are lucky to be with her, take care of her.”

I blush, “No, I’m lucky…” out of top of my eye I see Violet is as red as I am. Noticing that we are both embarrassed, we get even more embarrassed.

After a few moments, I decide to pull Violet out the door for a change, I yell, “Thanks Professor!” as we leave the room and enter the elevator. Our trip back to the ship was uneventful, and I was harboring a new feeling in my heart…

Looking at Violet, I can see someone incredible. Someone who saved me from a life of sadness… like I told Gisele. I think I’m falling in love with Violet.

Her eyes are deep and focused, she doesn’t reveal a thing I wish I knew if she feels the same.

Shit.

Riding up the elevator to the ship is beautiful. I look out the window over the vast horizon, and watch as the detailed ground, the streets and trains flow around beneath my view. I feel like I am growing away from the surface of the planet.

Soon the detailed view gives way to blobs of color; flowing landscapes begin to show the sharp contrasts of ecosystem changes. The colors blend and mesh making large groupings of similar colors.

Then as we view entire continents, Auru sits before me, a marble in the heavens. I hold my hand up to my face, my index finger on top and my thumb underneath, as I pretend to hold the world between my fingers. I giggle as I look out to the east and see a thin line, which is another elevator.

I wish I had the capacity to understand the work that went into this massive elevator system. It is incredible.

Violet touches my shoulder, breaking me from the trance the sight put me into, I mutter, “Wha?”

She smiles, “Just want you to know we are almost to the top.”

Turning was worth her smile, because it is so genuine, she radiates happiness, and that is a wonderful trait to have. I turn and place my hands on my lap, trying to smile back as best I can. Although smiling has never been my strong point, I think spending more time with Violet will change that.

The doors slide open as the car comes to a stop and we arise and exit. Looking around I do not see anything to guide us to our parking spot… Of all the things I never thought could be an issue in space. I notice that Violet’s Projector is displaying an arrow. Of course.

I just follow, like I always do and we soon arrive at the tunnel, which leads to the door of the Arrow. Stepping into the Zero-Gee tunnel we arrive at the door, Violet it twice and it opens.

“Secret Code?” I ask.

She smiles as she pulls me in, “Nope, Gene Analysis, it works for you too.”

“Damn, that’s cool, genes as keys.”

Violet simply smiles, “You will get used to it. Besides, you have me to show you the ropes.” Her smile…

We spend the next few hours getting ready to leave, Violet guides me around the ship, showing me various panels, briefly explaining what they do and starting to teach me the basics.

The engine is rather interesting; it uses some kind of electrical field to reduce the gamma draw and the mass of the ship at high speeds. While I do not know exactly what that means, I do know it saves us from getting lost in time!

We load food into the kitchen and the hold in the belly of the Arrow, and make sure everything is in working order. After some extremely productive hours, I take a shower because I feel gross. The shower is so nice; Violet has made sure her quarters are comfortable. Then I realize I do not have a room… does that mean I get to sleep here? Shirking the thought for the moment, I open the closet to grab something to wear, my figure being similar to Violet’s makes sharing an easy prospect.

She has too many clothes anyways. As I shuffle through the various items, I see a light red dress that catches my eye, its long smooth skirt and comfy feeling fabric seem perfect. I pull it off its hanger and tap the wall panel near me, allowing it to become a mirror.

I slip into the dress, smoothing it along my curves. I look in the mirror… and realize that I have gotten one of the greatest wishes of my life. I am now able to beautify and groom myself without being abused and heckled. I run my fingers along the seams of the dress. I look like a princess. I lean over and sort through my personal make-up.

The few things I collected and treasured had never been used when someone else would see the result. Violet would be the first. I polish up with a little makeup, foundation and blush, a light line of eyeliner to define my happier eyes. I smile in the mirror, enjoying the fact that I will be able to become beautiful whenever I like.

I finally feel presentable. I find myself entirely occupied with how I look, and while I am telling myself that I do it because I can… If I am honest with myself, I am doing it because of Violet… I need to look good for her. I really want her to see me as beautiful… desirable.

Then Violet knocks on the door and scares me so bad I hit my head on the wall.

She apparently heard the impact because she laughs, “Did you hit your head?”

I swing the door open, still rubbing my head, “Yeah, you scared me.”

“Sorry Alice… Wow! I like your dress. It looks damn good on you!”

I laugh nervously as I walk out the door, skimming around her. “Thanks Violet.”

“Are you wearing makeup?” My already flushed face turns even deeper red as I look down, Violet’s hands wrap around my arm, “It’s okay Alice, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. You look beautiful.”

She releases my arm, “Try to relax; I’ll be out soon.” She then lightly closes the door behind her.

I turn around and drop down the ladder into the life deck. I enter the kitchen area and open the cupboard, which I know contains something similar to crackers. I grab the bag, and sit at the kitchen table.

I allow my mind to wander as I stare out the window above me, stars twinkling along, shimmering in the sky… I’m so happy I’m here right now, away from Earth and all its problems, with someone who cares about me.

I could hear Violet’s door opening, I turn to see her jump from the ladder, and fall to the bottom, landing gracefully on her feet.

“Holy shit Violet, you landed so… incredibly.” I admire her toned legs that her ensemble revealed, she had donned a knee length dress, which was a wonderful shade of blue, and it flowed out with each of her small motions.

She walks over to me, her damp blue hair hanging around her shoulders heavily. “I’ve got a lot of practice jumping around, “She laughs, “What have you been up to?”

I smile, and continue watching her as she goes to the other side of the kitchen table because her walking is incredible. Her hips sway far more than mine do, her dress ensures that the flowing cloth amplifies her motions. While I am mesmerized, she waves her hand a few times. “Alice?”

I snap back to reality, “What, yes?”

Violet smiles, and leans down onto the table, resting on her elbows. “I asked you what you’ve been up to.”

“Oh, just eating some of these cracker things and enjoying the view.” I smile, trying to maintain eye contact instead of body contact. Which is a weird thing, it’s never been difficult to avoid looking at a body. I haven’t ever considered women, well I hadn’t really considered anyone. I had lived most of my life just trying to feel safe in a hostile environment.

Now that I am free to be my own person, I find myself spending much longer watching Violet’s body than anyone else I have ever met. While this is an interesting development, I’m not really sure what to make of it.

Violet taps on the table a couple times, trying to get my attention again. “I have a gift for you. I know leaving your home was abrupt and shocking, but I may have been to a few facilities, and I have this for you, she taps an object called Earth Connection.

Then a box appears on the table and orients to me. It loads up to the Google Homepage. I sit there in silence, confused. “How did you do this? We are… impossibly far from Earth.”

Violet smiles and leans closer to me, “Remember how tiny I was when I met you? I had been… visiting a few facilities; I left an entangler on a server at a place that called itself “Google”

I felt my eyes go wide as I logged in and was able to access YouTube. I feel an emotion of happiness wash over me, I jump up over the table and embrace Violet, “You saved me, and allowed me to connect with the good things of my home… you are the best Violet, thank you so much.”

She was surprised about my outburst of happiness, but she smiles and hugs back, “Of course, I just want you to be happy, thanks for coming!”

We stay there in tight embrace for a few more moments, until Ed speaks up over the speakers. “Just so you ladies know we have only a few minutes until we have to pay for another day of parking. In the interest of savings, we should leave.

Violet laughs, exiting my embrace and helps me off the table. “Thanks Ed, appreciate the reminder.”

“Of course Miss Violet.” Ed replies in his sterile tone.

Now on my feet, I follow Violet to the front of the ship. I watched her behind the entire way.

I sit in my seat, slightly more aware of things I could help with after Violet’s training over the past few hours. It turns out that both of the front consoles can do everything, so if I do something Violet can see it, and if I do it wrong she can fix it. I activate the engine cooler, which is the first thing to do in the starting sequence.

Violet turns to me, “Good job, you caught on quickly. Now, what comes next?”

I blush and move my hands around nervously, “I don’t remember.”

She laughs again, “That’s okay Alice I’ve got it.” Her hands are a blur as she activates the ship and prepares to leave. “Ed, let the control station know we are about to undock.”

“Of course Miss Violet.”

Then as the ship starts to move the inertia pushes me into my chair as Violet expertly pilots the Arrow out of the structure and into space. This trip away from Auru was much faster than leaving Earth because we started in space. Suddenly one of the moons of Auru is getting much bigger in the window…

“Violet… what are you doing?”

She says nothing, her smile indicating something devious as we rapidly approach the surface of the moon. She rolls the ship over pointing our heads at the surface as we pass over the surface. The surface blurred due to our enormous passing velocity. I feel like I can almost touch the surface. I put my hand in front of my face, pretending to flatten the surface underneath my palm.

Violet gives a wild laugh as she flips some switches and pulls one of her main levers, causing us to lift away from the surface as the engine begins to hum. The stars begin shifting and the screens distort and cover the outside view as we jump into interstellar space.

I am breathing heavily, as is Violet. While we are both breathing heavily, we are doing so for very different reasons.

We both shout:

“That was awesome!”

“That was scary!”

Then we look at one another, and make brief eye contact before simply laughing. I lay back in my chair and enjoy the laugh, because for the first time in years I feel happy enough to have a deep belly laugh. It feels so nice to be this comfortable.

Violet stands and motions for me to follow her. “So why don’t you show me some interesting things about Earth?”

“Sounds like fun!” I jump up to follow her back to the kitchen.  We sit on one side of the table and I push though pages of content, trying to show her some of the popular things on the internet. Some of the more interesting things Earth has to offer.

I pull up some viral videos. The first to make Violet laugh was Psy’s Gangnam Style music video, while it’s a little old, it is a classic representation of everything good about Earth, free-spirited, goofy, and slightly stupid. I also showed her old internet classics like Peanut-Butter Jelly Time and Axel F’s “Crazy Frog”.

Violet lays her hand on my wrist, “What service is this? Who makes all these videos?”

Confused, I reply, “Everyone on Earth does. You don’t have something like YouTube on Auru?”

She waits for a moment before continuing, “No, we don’t.”

“Well YouTube is a sharing platform, anyone on Earth with access to the internet can upload any video they like to YouTube, and anyone can watch them whenever they like.” I am surprised that Auru has not come up with this yet. Maybe we can make some money on Auru with this one…

“Well that is awesome Alice, I like it!” I press a couple buttons bringing up some music videos. I press on of the Armin mixes and the music starts to play over the speakers. Intense, one of my favorite tracks is the base of the mix.

I turn to Violet, “This music has a big beat, and I love it because of that.”

She smiles, “I like it.”

Just then, we hear a huge explosion as we are thrown to the floor, sliding backward all the way to the ladder to the bedroom. Another explosion rings out in the back of the ship. The lights flicker red as all the windows reactivate and show the outside, two ships are circling us both firing their weapons.

Violet stands, “Are you okay?” she offers her hand.

“I’m fine, maybe bruised a bit.” I accept her hand and get back on my feet as more hits rock the ship. Violet leads me back to the flight deck.

“Ed, fire anything you’ve got.”

Ed reports instantly, “Most of the defenses are cycling Miss Violet; there isn’t much I can do!”

“Damn, Alice just try to keep the power settings balanced like I showed you, while I try to get us out of here.” As she gets to work on that, I pull up the power settings and try my best to match the bars. She had showed me how earlier today, but that definitely did not make me an expert.

Violet tried to get us away from our aggressors, but the ship is too damaged and needs time to repair functions. Violet shut down the engines. “Alice, are you willing to fight?”

I sit there for a moment, dumbfounded. I make eye contact with her and nod in the affirmative. She reaches down and taps the panel next to her twice and it opens, she pulls out a couple guns. One pistol and a rifle. Very advanced by the look of them. She tosses me the pistol.

“There is a little light on the back of the gun, it lights up blue when it’s locked on, and red if it isn’t. It knows me, you couldn’t shoot a friend if you tried, so don’t worry.”

Worried, I stand and watch as the ships dock to the side of our ship. I hide behind the kitchen counter, aiming carefully at the door the invaders are entering.

Violet grips the wall and aims from the side. When the hatch opens… I see no one.

The ship is definitely connected, and according to Ed, who is now yelling, “Intruder Alert” we definitely have intruders. I scoot up toward the door to get a better look and I laugh.

Ed is right we do have intruders, but he did not say anything about how big they are. A platoon of tiny centimeter high men stand in the entrance.

“Violet, I don’t think these guys should have come in here.”

She peeks around the corner and sees the sight I am seeing before bursting out laughing. I step around the counter and walk over to the men who realize just how big of a mistake they made. They were not tall enough to reach the hem of my dress. Several of them open fire, I know because my ankles tickled and little flecks of light flew from their guns to my skin.

Pathetic.

Violet drops to her knees, the air blown out by her descending skirt knocks all the men on their asses. She smiles, “Well, you were winning this fight… too bad you chose to meet us face to foot.”

One of the tiny men starts yelling in some language.

I think for a moment what to do with them, since I do not want to kill them, but I would rather not leave them to attack other people. I turn and go into the kitchen, finding a large jar.

I carry it out and kneel next to Violet while she intimidates our prey. Setting the jar on the floor, Violet raises an eyebrow. “What are you doing Alice?”

“I don’t want to kill them so I figured this would work as a jail cell.”

Nodding, Violet giggles, “Damn, that’s a great idea.” I kneel on the other side of Violet, touching my knees to hers and blocking all avenues of escape. One by one, we place the little people in the jar.

Each one yells and screams, but they went in nonetheless. Picking up the jar of people, I place it on the kitchen table until we can decide what to do with our little pirates. Satisfied with the solution I turn and walk over to Violet, and I hug her from behind.

“Thanks for helping me feel safe during that… because you were calm, I was able to keep it together.”

She giggles, “No problem, space is as dangerous as it is beautiful, most threats are a little more… threatening, and a little less stupid.”

She looks back to me, “It was funny to see the big dangerous threat for what it was though… a bunch of tiny men… completely incapable of hurting us.”

I roll my eyes, “Men.”

She laughs, “Tiny men.”

I make eye contact with her, our faces separated by only a few centimeters of air. She seems to be searching for something… as I am. Looking for chemistry, a hint of desire, the adrenaline from the fight makes this search faster. My eyes close as I pull in closer, pursing my lips.

I hope this is not too forward, that this moment of weakness does not end my newest, greatest adventure. I wait to see if she accepts. Then, suddenly, her soft, succulent lips meet mine. She presses lightly the first time.

I hungrily kiss her again, this time deeper and more passionate. Her arm drops down, pulling my stomach in and making direct contact with her.

My first lesbian experience is the best kiss I have ever experienced… something about the smell, the taste of a woman is beautiful. Her lips meld with mine, as we spend this timeless moment together, our lips playing together, activating all the nerves and pathways. It feels so good.

I break the kiss and hold Violet close. I am breathing deeply, as is she.

We both whisper:

“That was amazing.”

Violet turns and embraces me again; resting her cheek on my neck, “So you do like women…”

I smile, “I guess so.”

She pulls back and looks me in the eye. “Judging by that kiss… you really like women.” She pulls me in again, “I’m glad.”

I smile, because now I know that she feels the same.

Violet takes my hand and leads me to the front of the ship, “Let’s see what kind of damage they did…”

She dotes over one of the consoles as I look out the window at the little ships attached to the side of the Arrow.

Violet is grumbling under her breath, clearly frustrated as she looks for a solution to the problems she is enduring. “… raw materials… patching… the fuck? oh…need…”

Then I look out at the little ships again. She needs raw materials… “Why not?” I laugh as I go to the door, I hook my fingers around the top of my dress, pulling the soft, comfortable item over my head, tugging my hair along with it. The dress off, I stand there in my bra and panties, ready to wear my suit.

I laugh at the tiny men who cannot help screaming at an enormous woman undressing. Pathetic. All of them together couldn’t hope to stop my finger from crushing them. Much less my arm… or a breast… I laugh lightly as I snap the breastplate into place, and slide the cloth over my midriff.

Connecting the midriff to the hip component I slide down the skirt of the suit, which is basically there to look nice, it does little besides make me look feminine.

I pull the legs and arms on, connecting the thrusters and components where they belong. The skintight fabric and ceramic components of my suit hugs my curves, and emphasizes my figure. As I put the helmet on I enter the airlock and open the door. Carefully gripping the side of the Arrow, I enable my suit’s mass manipulator.

I don’t set a height, I just allow myself to grow. As the machine makes me grow, a feeling which I felt once before comes again. Power just flows into me, manifesting as more and more height. My suit grows with me, staying nice and tight.

I look down at my expanding body, my legs grow longer and longer, stretching further away as the ship seem to dwindle relative to me. The Arrow begins to look like it did when I first saw it, like a big children’s toy.

The power is enthralling, as my breasts expand they ache and stretch, expanding proportionally to my gigantic body. I wrap my arms around them, hugging myself and satiating the feeling of expansion when I press and move them about.

I quit growing when the Arrow seems to be less than half the size I originally saw it at. The tiny pirate ships are like tiny pop cans. I laugh at the toy sized objects, realizing that I must be a hundred meters tall. I take the ship closest to me in my hands, holding it in plain view of the occupants of the Arrow. I know they can see what I’m doing, but I cannot see them, all I can see is the outside of the ship, and the tiny sensors which enable exterior viewing.

I apply pressure to the little ship and it seems to bend, yielding to my petite, feminine hands. While I expect to hear, creaking and breaking sounds, I hear nothing through the vacuum of space. It’s not only the size of an aluminum can, it is much weaker. I close my fingers around the wing I am holding and the metal buckles and collapses like paper. It cannot hope to withstand me…

I smile, realizing that I am easily crushing the object that was threatening us minutes ago. It is a joke, I smile and press my hands together. The ship offers close to zero resistance as I crush it flat. Sparks fly out, dancing harmlessly across my arms, and the gases which fueled and allowed the crew to breath escape during my single catastrophic attack.

The little ship never stood a chance. I giggle as I continue crushing the ship between my voluptuous thighs. I ball up the remains of the vessel with my hands, until it is about a tenth the size of the original ship, small enough to store in the cargo hold of the Arrow.

The radio in my helmet crackles and Violet’s voice starts coming through, she sounds... different... she sounds out of breath, “Holy shit…”

I look over at the Arrow, tapping the side of my helmet to respond, “Are you okay in there?”

Then I hear Violet’s soft laugh she definitely sounds odd, almost turned on, “Ohhhh, no… that was fucking amazing, I actually heard the tiny men yell.”

I lightly pump my fist, glad she enjoyed the show, “Where should I put this?”

“Just leave it, I’ll get it…” The Arrow starts moving toward the little floating ball of metal, as I set my sights on the other ship. I grab the ship by the nose and pull it into my arms. I wrap my arms around the doomed vessel, and press it slightly, this time an explosion occurs, blasting off one of the wings.

I grab it to keep it from escaping as I use my hands to crush the ship into my chest. My breasts don’t even notice the destruction; the ship's fuselage is simply incapable of transferring enough force to press into them. The craft crumbles, as the vital gasses which once enabled it bleed away.

I ball up the destroyed ship and place it close to where Violet just picked up the first one.

Feeling confident from my first foray into crushing things, I allow myself to shrink down to my normal height of fifteen meters, as the Arrow spins to allow me in.

I attempt to land gracefully though the door I exited through. My feet touch the ground, and suddenly I am under the influence of artificial gravity, and I flip forward too quickly falling flat on my face and rolling twice, sliding under the kitchen table and knocking into a chair.

Dazed, I hear the sound of laughter again, as a single hand fades into focus. Violet is kneeling in front of me, she kneads my shoulder, and kisses my helmet. “That was the best entry I have ever seen.”

I simply glare at her, with my angriest eyes, but something seems different when I look at her. I cannot put my finger on what is going on.

She simply laughs and helps me up. “Well, we have what we need… and I’m going to let Ed fix the ship.”

Violet steps away, waving her hand, inviting me to follow her.

I follow her, cautiously, past the jar full of angry men. Then I hear a light, stupid whistling. I roll my eyes, and stop in my tracks… “Did one of you just… cat-call me?” I turn back to them. “You assholes should have thought about losing everything when you attacked women who are two-hundred times taller than you. What did you expect?”

They were certainly quieter after my outburst--I guess yelling may have broken some of them. They were now holding their heads, and some had fallen over.

Turning back to the ladder, I climb up into the bedroom. I simply find an empty room, Violet is in the bathroom, I can hear her moving around and making a little noise. I’m not really sure what she needed me for, until she opened the bathroom door.

Violet emerges from the bathroom, and I realize what is happening. Violet’s glowing pink lingerie accentuates her trim, toned figure. Her supple skin glistens, beautifully reflecting the artificial light of the ship, and her hips move like water. I blush and look away, I’m not really sure how to react to this situation…

“Alice… it’s okay, look at me.” Her voice is so quiet, and so… sensual.

Judging from the look in her eyes, she clearly wants me… her right hand is on her hip and her left, holding her breast. Her lips seem pouty, her eyes intense… she tries to pull me in with her will alone. She is so amazing, and despite being more interesting and intelligent person then I am, she wants me…

Dammit, I want her too.

Her hand brushes the side of my helmet, making a light squeaking sound, as she makes eye contact, and I am suddenly transfixed. Looking at her this way is so… exciting… Her deep blue eyes pull me in. Her eyes seem different somehow, they used to imply distance, like she was stepping back and away. Right now, in this moment her eyes tell me that she wants, or even needs me.

She playfully rests her index finger on my chest, running it down the ceramic plating, to my stomach. She reaches around with her other arm, breaking the seals of my helmet and she carelessly tears it off, flinging it to the side. Her lips meet mine while she wraps herself around me, while my helmet bounces under the bed.

Violet’s expert hands continue to remove my suit, she breaks the seals and each arm slides off, and she covers the exposed skin with kisses, she removes most of the armor with a little help from me. She breaks the final seal of the chest piece, and I moan uncontrollably when the armor slides off my hardened nipples.

Fully exposed, I stand vulnerably before a beautiful woman, who is herself exposed… vulnerable. In my previous life, whenever I would be happy, or feel this good I would expect to be beaten and denied happiness.

This fear overwhelms me, I shake and cringe at the approaching pain… I feel like I am dreaming, this could never happen to me, I’m going wake up to an abusive asshole, who thinks I am supposed to be mistreated. I wait, but it never comes.

Instead a soft feminine presence surrounds me as Violet hugs me tenderly, her cheek resting against mine, her legs lightly brushing against mine. Her warmth penetrating deep into my body. I feel like I am floating on air. Opening my eyes I realize that I am indeed floating on air as Violet wraps her legs around mine.

Embracing the beauty before me, I resist the urge to curl inward and close out the woman before me. While I fear losing her, and a return to the sadness of my youth. I chose to become more, because I am better than my circumstances, and ultimately better than the shit I endured.

I pull her in tighter, and I kiss her deeply, my fingers playing along her backside, unclasping her bra, and tugging it out allowing it to float away. I massage her back lightly while she lightly nibbles my neck and caresses my shoulders. While we spin from the sudden passion, we lightly bounce around the room.

I caress her back and run my hands down her sides, hooking my thumbs into her panties, pulling them off her hips, letting inertia take them off for me.

She kicks her panties off while she finishes removing the last of my clothing. Her fingers tracing lines from my breasts to my navel. She kisses my navel tenderly, moving down slowly toward my vagina... I wrap my legs around Violet, helping her to her apparent goal. I squeal, because for the first time, someone else touches my lips, her soft tongue playing with my lips, teasing me… Suddenly her tongue enters and rolls along the sensitive nerves that make every hair on my body stand on end. I gyrate my hips in response to her incredible tongue, the powerful feelings she creates pounding within me, making me feel insane.

The immense pleasure builds, and she releases me and pushes lightly off the floor, her body sliding along mine, her breasts running slowly up my body, her navel rubbing along behind. The small amount of friction pulls me along with her. Each incredible nipple running from my stomach, up my body to my own chest. The moment our nipples touch she grabs me, and my hands land on her ass. Her ass is so soft and supple, but the softness covers her incredible leg muscles. When she moves her legs they respond powerfully…

We pound into the ceiling, while I start kneading her ass, softly, carefully. She closes her eyes, gripping me and moaning lightly. Loosening her grip, she pulls me in, our bodies still spinning slightly as she bites my neck, and plays with her tongue. We breathe heavily, rubbing together to the rhythm of our hearts. The vapor from our breathing has no gravity to pull it to the floor, and no breeze to pull it away. I catch brief glimpses of the air around us as it fills with tiny droplets of water.

She suddenly changes positions brushing my vagina with her wrist and I convulse in response. I grab her lightly, pulling her up to my mouth, kissing her deeply, exploring her mouth with my tongue. I press my breasts against hers, my fingers meeting her vagina, and beginning to explore her. Her moans increase in intensity when I slip my fingers into her very moist womanhood. Our breasts continue bobbing against each other, shifting with our play.

Nipples against nipples, breasts rubbing back and forth, our passion fuels motion, and our chests are victims of this assault. They press and rub, making pleasure that I had never intended to have. I never realized that my breasts could feel like this. I look into Violet’s focused eyes, I realize… they can always be like this… whenever and wherever I can have her.

Rubbing her sensitive areas with my fingers makes her moan, laugh, and cry while she holds my shoulders to bounce up and down on my hand, working in and out, in and out. For a moment I think she is about to orgasm, when she squeals and pushes off the floor, sliding off my hand.

She spins around and pushes of the ceiling, tackling me into a nearby wall. Goddess, her sexy body, her movements and play… she is making me so horny.

Not only horny, but she makes me feel complete. She presses two fingers into my vagina… it feels so incredibly tight! I had never had the courage to buy a toy… or experiment with myself at all. Her two fingers alone make me feel so full! Her fingers make me want to burst… Goddess! Just then I feel a third finger wriggle along my walls and push in, making me squeal, gripping at anything I can hold!

I know she feels me struggling with the immense pleasure within, when she caresses my back, and whispers, “Ready?”

I moan as I squeak out a little, “No.” Then she touches something within me that I didn’t know, or believe existed. It was like all the pleasure I had ever been denied in my life was released from prison… if that prison was my vagina! My body suddenly works against me forcing me to clench and scream in pleasure!

The pleasure erupts through my body, spreading from my vagina, rapidly and repeated up my back. Then finally out to my limbs and every single nerve. It is like being overwhelmed by waves of pleasure.

“AAAAAggghhhhhh! Holy Shiiiittt!” I scream, convulsing, and grabbing at the wall, trying to help arch my back and let all the passion flow through me. My hand brushes against Violet’s soaked Vagina… and she pulls away, thrashing about and moaning loudly as I grab her convulsing body. She leaves a trail of her tears of joy though the air, and a trail of her feminine juices below. When she regains control, her eyes snap to mine, and she grabs my shoulders and kisses me passionately.

“Alice, that was… amazing.” She pants, resting herself against my body, as we continue to float, cuddling our pleasure soaked bodies together in the zero-gee.

I don’t know what to say. My first time having an orgasm…. It was unlike anything I could have imagined.

Far from home in a distant corner of the galaxy. In a spaceship, after destroying some tiny ships… I had lesbian sex with my… girlfriend named Violet.

Goddess. It’s fucking perfect.

I awoke to a beautiful sight. Violet’s face so incredibly close to me. The woman I’ve given myself to is so beautiful, her eyelids flutter over her eyes, dreaming wistfully. My eyes fall down her body following her gorgeous curves, down, and down. She is so beautiful I just have to watch her rest for a few moments before rolling out of bed.

I approach the mirror, looking myself in the eyes. What I notice below my eyes is my smile, something I had not seen in the mirror often before Violet saved me. This happiness must be real, I’ve never felt so free! I notice my bag on the wall, the bag which contains all that I brought with me from Earth. Taking it down I cradle it in my arms.

I open it and pull out the few pictures I brought, the one of my an my coworkers, it makes me laugh, remembering how good those people had been to me, especially Jeff, who had been more a father to be then my actual father had been.

Digging in, I find a small slip of paper in the bottom of the bag. I flip it over and encounter something I thought was lost: a picture of my mother holding a small child. A woman I never had the fortune to grow up with. I never learned about how to be a woman from my mother… I had to learn from the internet and people around me. She was so beautiful, and I miss her.

Tears well in my eyes, I place the picture on a nearby table, as I try to stifle tears. I realize my gown was missing. Panic shoots through my core as I drop to the floor to see if it was lost down there. Nothing to be found, but in my search I pumped the closet door, allowing it to slide open, and there it was, lying on the floor.

Picking the item off the closet floor, I hold and inspect it, doing what I can to appreciate the dress which had helped me through so many rough times. However, instead of seeing the beautiful dress that I thought I had, I begin noticing flaws I had never noticed before. Small rips, tears in the seams. Small things I had somehow never noticed…

I don’t understand how I couldn’t have not seen these things. I slip the dress over my naked body. When I zip it up, it fits me like a glove. Hugging my curves and loose through my chest due to the lack of a bra. I run my hands through the old, tattered fabric.

It’s not as beautiful as I thought. It still shines, it still holds me tight, but compared to the sleek materials in this ship, and the beautiful clothing Violet shares with me, the dress feels tawdry and old. I look down on myself as my tears begin dropping… and two soft hands embrace me from behind.

“It’s a beautiful dress, and it looks good on you.”

I close my eyes, tears flowing freely, “No it’s not. It’s ripped, and dirty.”

Violet, pulls me by my shoulder turning me around. I open my eyes again, and I am faced with the most compassionate eyes I had ever seen. “Alice, this dress is important to you, isn’t it?”

“This dress is all have… of my mother.” I curl in a little, and Violet simply reaches around me, holding me in her arms.

She breathes deeply holding me tight for a long time before speaking again, “Everything, our lives, our homes, our situations, can be changed, molded, and remade… Memories are what they are, that is what makes this dress important.” She smiles, running her fingers softly through my hair.

The tears continue to flow, “Yeah, I wish I had noticed… that I could have cared for it better.

Violet keeps looking at me, her beautiful eyes pierce my soul. “Alice… it’s okay, it is still part of you. I’m sure your mother would understand.” Violet keeps looking at me, her beautiful eyes pierce my soul, “Come here…” she pulls me in and holds me around the waist, her soft hands resting lightly on my behind. “You look beautiful sweetie…”

The tears stop falling as I rest in her loving arms.

“Alice, would you like to help me so we can get moving again?”

I smile lightly, nuzzling into her, “Of course.”

We spend several hours in and out of the ship, placing the components Ed had been working on all night into their proper places. Most of the metal from the other ships was used, although few scraps remained in the hold.

Spending the day with Violet helped melt the feelings of despair and sadness that I had felt this morning. I feel at peace with myself, and that feels damn good. Violet and I are in the hold, working on a few last things, when we hear the sound of the shattering of glass.

She is about to jump up, but I place my hand on hers, “Don’t worry, I’ll go check.”

She smiles back at me, “Have fun!”

I walk to the side of the hold and ascend the ladder, turning around the hall and entering the kitchen.

The glass jar is shattered on the ground, my eyes focus on several tiny men fleeing toward one of the vents.

Then I hear a booming voice behind me, powerful and deep, “You, lady, turn around slowly!”

I freeze and slow turn around to face the person who yelled at me. I then come face to face with one of the men I had imprisoned in a jar. Except he was almost my height. He was holding one of our portable mass manipulators in one hand, and Violet’s pistol in the other. His body shook… likely in anger.

I try to remain calm, and I speak to him gently, “What do you want?”

His eyes are wild, and he responds while he shakes the gun at me, “I want you to unlock the controls of this ship, and show me how to use them.” He gives a sadistic grin as he steps closer, “Stop stalling, turn around and walk to the cabin, I’ll be right behind you.”

I tried to remain calm, but being face to face with an angry man brings horrible memories to the surface. My knees feel weak, and my body aches. I can’t handle this… I can’t! I can’t stop him! I can’t even call for help… I don’t want to be beaten again, and I don’t want to cry! Here I am, a light years from home, still in submission to a man, crying over his demands. I’m in submission to a man whose ship I crushed between my beautiful little hands.

I breathe deeply, trying to summon the courage to speak, “I’m sure we can find a way, to get you where you want to go.”

His face appeared angrier, and he spat as he yelled, “The hell you could bitch! No, you are going to show me how to fly this ship. Then maybe I’ll let you live!” He approaches me slowly with a menacing grin, knocking me into the wall, making me slump over, he leans down with the barrel of the gun dominating my vision, “Did you hear me bitch?”

I don’t know what else to do, he’ll just keep hurting me if I don’t do it. “Fine, I’ll show you. Just don’t hurt me.”

I stand up and turn to go to the cockpit when he grabs my ass and places his fingers where they don’t belong. Tears are flowing down my face.

Then Violet drops in gracefully, her boots slamming into the back of the pirate, knocking him to the floor and sending the mass manipulator sprawling across the floor. Violet flips over and plunges down, pressing her elbow into his spine.

He doesn’t like that much, he flips over and kicks Violet, sending her flying into the wall. He rolls back over and is quickly on his feet. He jumps and plows his fist into Violet’s side, slamming her into the wall.

While she is definitely taller, he has a mass advantage, as he throws Violet around like a doll.

She doesn’t act like a doll through, she returns the punch with two swipes to his side, making him slump over. He pulls out a knife and thrusts it at Alice, missing her throat narrowly. She jumps back but he knocks into her legs, making her tumble again.

He gets back to his feet and I realize in a moment that if I don’t do something he could really hurt Violet. That if I sit and cower, I could lose the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Once that thought sinks in, I move on instinct and plow into him from behind. I haphazardly knock him into the wall, sending his knife flying, I hit the wall immediately after and everything goes black.

I feel my arm being pulled and my body dragged and tossed aside, but it feels distant, almost disconnected. Then I feel something metal against my head, “Stop moving or she dies, you hear me?”

I’m too stunned to move, but when I open my eyes I see Violet’s face. She looks… scared…

As the pirate continues posturing, I notice that Violet is very close to the mass manipulator, I’m not sure what she is going to do, but I hope that it works.

“What are you doing bitch? Look at me!” he presses the gun into my head harder.

“Why? Why are you doing this? What the hell did we do to you?” Violet’s eyes are so wide, her passion so vicious, I can almost feel her words slide past.

He spits, “Why do you think you can do whatever you bitches want, you pull me and my crew in a fucking jar!”

Violet stares the pirate down, “You attacked us! We did nothing to you, we could have just crushed you flat, and we didn’t!”

He presses the gun into my head a little harder, “Well, maybe you should have, you wouldn’t have lost this little bitch.”

Violet kicks the mass manipulator to me, screaming, “Now Alice!” I grab it and activate it the moment it reaches my hand. The pirate is unable to pull the trigger in time and he yells as he quickly shrinks back to his normal size, and then I press it again, making him almost a speck on the floor.

I look down at him. A tiny, insignificant speck. It’s almost poetic that someone so evil should be so tiny and pathetic. He is tiny because I was brave. It was scary, but I pushed through! Violet is okay, I am okay, and we can both be safe if we are brave enough to protect each other.

Violet hangs her foot over the pathetic speck. He is so tiny… like a bread crumb, or something equally small. She yells in what must be earsplitting volume for such a tiny creature, “This is for threatening my girlfriend!”

She slowly lowers her foot down, steadily, and powerfully. Instantly annihilating the bug beneath her sole. She twists her ankle, grinding his remains into the floor plates. After crushing him she breathes out. “Asshole.” Her shoulders relax, and she offers her hand and pulls me up into a hug. She rubs my back when Ed’s voice comes out over the PA.

“Someone is attempting to poison the air with contaminants in the cargo bay.”

Then Violet closes her eyes, almost whispering, “I’m done with these fucking pirates.” She turns, breaking our embrace and walks to the cockpit, I follow her, curious as to her plan. When I walk into the flight suite, she erects a force field behind us, sealing us in.

I raise my eyebrow following her to see what she is doing on the screens, she is disabling some safety systems, as evidenced by screens which normally show in green and blue turning yellow, and red. “Violet, what are you going to do?”

She faces me, her eyes, while beautiful… are filled with anger. “You heard what I said to their leader!” she waves her hands about to emphasize her irritation, “These pirates attack us, even try to kill us. Then when they lose, we keep them alive… I was going to drop them off on their home planet and just leave it at that… Now these stupid tinies are trying to poison us and their leader stole a mass manipulator and threatened to kill you. I’m done with them.”

She turns around tapping a couple switches, “Ed open the cargo door.”

I grab her by the wrist and yell, “Don’t do that Ed!”

Her eyes wide, “Dammit Alice! Why shouldn’t we, they’ve done nothing but try to hurt and kill us!”

I stare into her eyes, and speak calmly, “Yes they have, but just because they have does not mean we should.” I point to the hold, “We are better than that, better than them!”

She slumps down into her chair. “Okay then, what do you want to do.”

“Well they’ve already poisoned the air, so I’ll take one of the respirators and go down there. I’ll get them and put them in another jar, and we will give them whatever they need and take them to their planet.” I pause and laugh lightly, “and this time I won’t put their jar on a table.”

Violet laughs despite her frustration, “Okay, sounds like a plan.” She takes my arm, hugging it, “Thanks for stopping me, I would have regretted that later.”

I smile back at her, “That’s what girlfriends are for…” I laugh as I put the respirator over my face, walking back to the hold. When I get downstairs, the room seems about normal, except for the bugs lying near the floor vent. I gather them all up and hold them in the palm of my hand.

Violet’s voice sounds over the comm, “all they did was dump isoflurane into the vents… not sure it should be defined as a real poison, but they should be fine.

“What is isoflurane?” I ask.

Violet responds quickly, “Sleeping gas, and speaking of isoflurane, I filtered the air, so you can take the respirator off. I take it off as I climb the stairs.

When I arrive in the kitchen I get a smaller jar and dump the tiny men into it, when Violet walks into the room, she leans against the wall, with a goofy smile on her face.

I roll my eyes at her, while I get a lid and puncture some tiny holes so the tinies can breathe. I close it, tightly and place it on the ground where they shouldn’t be able to get to break. Damn men, they are destructive at any size.

I breathe out heavily, leaning on the table, “Okay, is everything working now?” I ask

Violet grins, “Seems so, after all of this drama, I think we are ready to go!”

I laugh, grabbing Violet’s arm as I pass her, “Well let’s go, I’m tired of just sitting here!”

As the the universe blueshifts back into the visible range I can suddenly see our mark. A tiny globe, which looks quite a bit like Earth, orbiting a beautiful blue star.

I take a look at the scans, and it seems odd, the planet registers very little gravity, and seems farther away then it should. Padding through some of our previous scans, I find the Sol system for reference.

I take another look at the scans as I compare this world to Earth. "Violet, this planet is tiny, it's smaller then Earth's moon!" I lightly giggle, drawing a similar sound from Violet.

She takes her own look, "Well, it's not very dense, the terrain is relatively tiny too...

Looking back to the table with the jar of men, I laugh, "Could this be where our captive men are from?"

Violet smiles, "I'm not sure, but with all the trouble they have been, we can probably just drop them off here and be done with them."

I laugh, "I'm not arguing with that."

Violet pilots us into the planet's gravity well, we rotate to match the gravity of the planet and dip into the thin atmosphere. I watch my screens for signs of life. I don't really see anything, this planet is barren. Giving up on finding civilization, I turn my attention to the coordinates we got from Violet's previous research which point to a location along the equator. I highlight the spot and project it on Violet's navigation controls. "You could land here, seems barren enough."

"I can't though, the scans show significant surface fracturing, I'm not sure what it is, but I'm not putting a landing strut there."

"Well, what do you suggest?" I ask, continuing to look around.

"That valley looks stable enough, but this planet is fragile..."

I laugh, "You aren't kidding, the atmosphere only really extends 45 meters from the surface, and the mountains... appear to be shoulder height!" I get out of my chair, excited to see the new planet. I lean over to kiss Violet while I spin about and head to the armory.

I pull my suit down from its hanger, sifting through the pieces and slipping into the leggings. I had the legs zipped in when Violet entered the room.

She leaned on the wall, "Eager?" she asked.

"I want to see these mountains, the peaks are only 12 meters high, but they look like full sized mountains!"

Violet smiled, and grabbed her armor and the blue plating sitting beside it. As she donned the outfit she continued staring at me. I noticed her eyes as I continued dressing, and upon finishing with the top of the suit, I skirted around Violet, narrowly evading her playful punch.

Exiting the room I grab my helmet, because the atmosphere of this planet is unfortunately rather thin at my height. I look out the window, and see nothing of note, the ground is green, but I cannot make out grass blades, or anything recognizable. Just then I receive the playful punch I missed earlier. "Ouch." I rub my side, exaggerating the pain. as Violet hugs me from behind.

"Okay, I don't know anything about this world Alice... so be careful, and follow my lead." she reaches up and over me to decompress the airlock and open the door to the outside world.

The first thing I notice is that is that it is incredibly quiet. I watch as Violet steps off the platform onto the surface, the green surface erupts around her foot like it was a pile of loose dust. The cloud mushrooms out and flattens along the surface, disappearing almost as quickly as it had appeared. Incredible.

When she lifted her foot nothing remained of the green landscape, it was just brown... gone.

I shrug, because this moss must be pretty pathetic to be destroyed underfoot like that.

I follow Violet over to the side of the mountains, standing here on this planet, next to these shoulder height mountains feels surreal. Almost impossible, I place my hand on the peak of a particularly tall mountain, and take in the moment... I am here, thousands of light years from home, standing on a world that is so small, the mountains cannot match my height. I feel powerful, strong, almost invincible. Then I feel a warm presence pressing down on my hand. Opening my eyes I see Violet's gloved hand squeezing my hand, caressing it softly.

She looks at me cautiously, "Alice, are you okay?"

I smile and breath out heavily, "Yeah, just taking in the moment... I feel incredible standing over these mountains."

She smiles, laughing lightly, "You don't need to stand over mountains to be incredible... you are always incredible."

I pull my hand away, smiling, and blushing... I pull out a scanner, I continue walking toward the signal, when I notice the fragmentation Violet was talking about.

As I am about to step into it, Violet pulls me back. She laughs, "One of the rules of exploration, when you don't know what's happening, look first."

Violet rests her hands on my hips and guides me to my knees, she settles down beside me on the edge of the strange fragmentation, leaning down, I get my head a couple inches from the ground. I squint my eyes to focus as best I can, and I can see skyscrapers.

"Holy shit." I mutter.

Violet laughs lightly, "See why it was best not to step first?"

I place my scanner close and magnify the streets below. I can now see the microbes... the tiny people living in this microscopic city, they are walking about their daily lives, apparently unaware of two enormous women looking down on them. With some proper measuring I realize just how tiny they are. Their buildings soar into the sky relative to them, the tallest reaching a little more then half a centimeter. Which makes the tinies below close to sixteen micrometers tall. So small... insignificant.

I stand back up and turn to Violet, "Well we can't drop off our tiny prisoners here... they would be giants."

Violet just nods knowingly, "We'll find a place for out little idiots, just not here." Violet's hands rest on my shoulders. Her warm breath on my ear as she whispers, "If we are going to find the source of the signal, we might need to shrink down."

My eyes widen as I turn back to Violet, "That small?"

Her smile was contagious, "Sounds exciting right?"

I look back to the micro-city, "I'm not sure I want to be that small..." I continue thinking about it, these buildings are smaller then the components of electronics I was the QC agent for on Earth. The people are almost the size of cells. I have become quite fond of my 15 meter height... shrinking down seems like going backward.

Suddenly I feel the inverse of the feeling of growth, like power is being pulled out of my soul. I curl in on myself, I hate this feeling, I don't like being smaller. I am on the verge of tears as two strong arms wrap around my dwindling body. Violet pulls me into her grip, as she bites my neck... her warm tongue running down my neck and over my shoulder.

The rapturous feeling of intimacy washes over me, distracting me from the rapid shrinking I am experiencing. The buildings of the city go from miniature fragments, imperceptible to my eyes, to the appearance of a map, to a skyline before me, to an intimidating wall of structures, towering over my miniature body.

We are suddenly standing in a barren wasteland. Hundreds of feet away from a forest. In the other direction... the wasteland extends out to the horizon. "What the hell happened here?"

Violet laughs, "You stepped on the forest sweetie. That's what happened."

I think about it for a moment, until my jaw drops when I realize how powerful my steps had been. I look down at my tiny feet. "Well they won't be doing that at this size..."

Violet unclasps my helmet, pulling it off and clipping it on my belt, once she removes her own, she parts from me with a nuzzle as she pulls me toward the forest so we can enter the city. As we walk into the city borders we are still in the process of shrinking. We are still about 10 stories high. I walk behind Violet along the street. The people on the sidewalks don't acknowledge us.

Very strange. If I was them I would be staring at the women whose feet fill the streets.

Once we are small enough that we can walk side by side, Violet drops back, wrapping her arm around my waist, "I've got a path to the signal now, we'll just have to walk to the center of the city."

"Alright, any idea how far?"

She laughs, "About the length of my finger?"

"10 kilometers?!"

We both giggle as we finally reach the height of the people of the city. Looking around as we walk I hear the light murmur of many conversations, and my translator seems to be working on the language. I tap the device, and Violet chimes in, "It's never heard there language before, give it a minute." I nod my head realizing that a language is a pretty complicated thing, when I notice something... peculiar.

The side of the street we are walking on is occupied with women. Only women. The far side is occupied with only men. I can only wonder why, when I notice a train station which seems to head for the center of town. "Hey look, we could probably take that train!"

"Good idea!" Violet yells, as she grabs my arm and pulls me straight to the train. She hops on as the train starts moving, but I have to run a little to get aboard. I bump a lot of people in the process, but no one seems to mind.

When I sit down on a bench in the back of the train, Violet joins me, cuddling herself into me. She is so warm, and my heart flutters with joy.

I watch as a woman walks through the aisle, looking for a seat, her brown hair is worn in a long ponytail, and she is wearing a simple red dress which covers her beautifully, revealing as tasteful amount of her chest while flowing down to her knees. She seems frustrated as she looks row by row, until she reaches the bench in front of Violet and I. A woman is sitting next to the window, and a man is sitting as close to the aisle as he can. The woman who was looking for a seat scoots into the seat. The man reacts quickly, trying to stay as far from the women as possible. I find this concerning, and rub Violet's arm and whisper, "Look at this..."

She opens her eyes and sits up, looking at the strange spectacle. The man seems very concerned sitting between these women, which seems odd to me, because where I come from any man would be happy to be in this situation.

Until I notice what is happening to him. Violet nudges me, "He's shrinking."

I watch as he shrinks even further. "I know, I wonder why?" He continues dwindling as the women on his sides watch, with a little concern on their faces. Like they don't mean to do this. The woman who sat down speaks, and my translator picks up the language, buzzing as it processes, and it finally outputs something understandable.

"I'm sorry little one, I needed a seat."

The little guy simply sighs, slumping his shoulders as he shrinks smaller then could possibly be measured in micrometers. She reaches down and picks him up, "I'll take care of you until you grow back." She smiles and the glimpse I get of his face is a contented acceptance of the situation. Something unpleasant but acceptable in their society.

I think it's cute for the women to care for the inadvertently tiny men, it just seems right. Despite the scene before me, it still bothers me that no one seems to take interest in us. We are wearing some seriously different clothes, and for some reason people seem none the wiser to the aliens in the back.

Riding on the train reveals some interesting views, the streets seem to be repeating. Almost like this city is the same city block repeated over and over across the surface of the planet.

I'm not sure what to make of my observations, but I just put it aside, hoping for answers at the signal. I look over at Violet, meeting her eyes, her smile is beautiful, so contagious. I look into her eyes as she give me a soft kiss and rests her head on my shoulder. "Wake me up when we get there."

"Of course I will." I look back out the window as the streets flow steadily past, as we draw closer to the center of the city. I am curious what we will find there, how strange it might be.

The train moves swiftly and I can hear a little of the conversations around me. I come to realize that many of the women on the train are caring for men they've inadvertently miniaturized. Such an awesome thing, on this world, women are so powerful that their mere presence shrinks men to a more appropriate size.

After a few more minutes of the same streets flowing past the train begins to slow as it reaches the center of the city and begins turning to go around a large building. The building is a large dome of some kind. Thousands of people are crowding around the building, walking uniformly in a counterclockwise direction.

I nudge Violet, her head pops up as she looks at the same thing I am. She furrows her brow, "What the hell are they doing?"

I have no answers, I just shrug in response, "I have no idea, it is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen."

When the train comes to a stop, the passengers quickly evacuate the car, naturally we follow, but we are almost run over by the group of people who immediate attempt to refill the train.

Violet points to the central building, "Follow me Alice, don't let go of my hand." Pushing through the crowd of circling people is easy, as we just follow the pattern people are following, occasionally making our way toward then center. When we break through the group and reach the center, there is no one here. The central building is surrounded with a black line, and none of the people have crossed it.

"This is so strange Violet... feels almost wrong."

She looks back at the circling people, "Something is wrong with this city, these people... they don't seem to be real... almost like they are being controlled."

I take her hand, "Come on, lets find out what's going on here, the answer has to be in this building." We walk hand in hand to one of the entrances, no one is guarding it.

As we cautiously pass through the portal, Violet points to the center of the room. "Why is there an enormous statue of a naked woman?"

I roll my eyes, because I obviously don't know. The black statue stands over the room, the head of the woman close to the ceiling. If I were my normal height, I would guess she stands about 100 meters high. Her black marble body has small veins of white crystal running through it, and a single glowing white ring around her feet.

Walking up to the base the white light pulsates as a voice fills the room.

"Life!" she announces, her voice loud, filling the room and echoing powerfully. "There is life here..."

Violet steps forward, "Who are you?"

The voice sounds like she is waking from a deep slumber, with a tinge of what I could only guess is excitement. "I am Vigilance, the guardian of this Sigil-world, and I am so happy to meet you Violet, because you are... alive."

Violet looks to me with confusion, mouthing, "How does she know my name?"

I give her wild eyes to indicate that I have no idea, when I look up to Vigilance as her eyes begin to glow. She makes eye contact with me, I stutter a little as I start to speak, "Mmiss, we don't rrealllyy know why we are here.

Her eyes seem happy as she looks down on me, "You, Alice, are here for the sigil, and forgive me for enjoying this moment, because I have been alone for so long."

"Alone? What about all those people?" Violet pointed out toward the barely visible crowds of people.

Vigilance laughs, "The simulations?" she laughs weakly and sighs, "No they are not real, I made them to try to keep me company over the millennia I have been here alone, protecting the Sigil, allow me to explain."

Suddenly a crack of thunder blazes out, splitting the sky in two, as I am whisked off the ground, floating several meters from the floor, I feel Violet take my hand next to me, as what I can only describe as a vision is imprinted into my mind.

Eons ago... there was the First, they were intelligent, powerful, and beautiful.
They spread across the stars, terraforming worlds, and ordering chaos.
The most beautiful of these worlds were given the gift of intelligence.
A sample of the genes of the First left there to flourish, guiding all life.

For thousands of years the First lead the galaxy, establishing true order.
The leader of the First was considered a Goddess, her power immense.
She could control life, control mass, and guide thought, she was perfection.
Until the night of darkening. When the worlds conspired against her.

She was trapped, held captive, her power split and left on three minor worlds.
The First civilization was lost when a power of light split the galaxy, leaving nothing.
The sigil-worlds have waited for these eons to restore the power of the great one.
The beauty of the galaxy, there for all to see, in the very core.

Even now the power of the First is under attack, on another sigil-world.
The sigil of growth is in the hands of one who desires power and control.


In the last moments of the second vision I saw his face, and heard an angry growl from Violet. "Richar..."

I look over to my girlfriend, "Who?"

Her hands balled into fists, she gritted her teeth. "Richar, the bastard who has opposed my work for years. He steals my research, goes to the places I plan to go to, stealing the things I rightfully discover... dammit!"

"Violet, how the hell could he know about these sigil-worlds?"

"Dammit, I knew it... remember that computer glitch in Professor Duval's classroom? That must have been Richar, stealing more of my work, and this time... he might be able to do some serious damage."

Judging by what Vigilance had shared about the power of the sigils, I have to agree with Violet. Damn men.

"This Richar is dangerous with the sigil, if you will work to stop this man, I will give you the sigil freely, just understand that without the power of the leader, it cannot be truly controlled."

I look up to Vigilance, "What do you mean? Why can't it be controlled?"

She smiles down on me, "I cannot explain that, but look at the simulated women... they aren't even real and they exhibit the inability to control the sigil."

My eyes widen. This sigil is powerful.

"I will retrieve the sigil, hopefully you think quickly."

In a flash Vigilance was gone. I turn to Violet whose eyes were open wide, "What does she mean, 'think quickly?'"

Violet runs past me, and I follow her to the exit and what we encounter is beyond imagination... Vigilance is kneeling over the city, standing at our normal height. When she drops her hand on the northern part of the city. She begins sliding her hand southward, annihilating the city with one pass of her tremendous hand.

Violet's eyes reflect the fear I suddenly feel, as she activates her radio, "ED, SCALE TO DOT ZERO ZERO ZERO ONE PERCENT OF STANDARD AND PILOT TO ME IMMEDIATELY!"

Vigilance's hand grows closer, the rumble of annihilation drawing nearer and nearer! Her pure black hand destroying everything in its path. First it fills the distant corner of the city but in moments her hand towers over us, soaring what appears to be kilometers into the sky.

Crushing more and more of the simulated city, I fear that the Arrow may not arrive in time, when there is a small glimmer of light against the endless black wall of Vigilance's hand, a small streak of silver which pilots with accuracy only an AI could manage. The hatch opens and I run and jump into the ship. Once I am within the gravity field of the Arrow I spin about to help Violet in as Vigilance's hand impacts the central building, throwing the arrow meters into the air and launching Violet over the hatch.

I grab Violet's legs and pull her in as quickly as I can. I grab the hatch handle, slamming it closed, I yell, "ED GET US OUT OF HERE."

"I cannot plot a safe path."

"TAKE ANY PATH DAMMIT, JUST GO!"

The Arrow lurches into motion as I run to the cockpit. I jump in my seat just as the Arrow emerges over Vigilance's hand.

Vigilance's hand begins pushing into the ground, into the remains of the city, her fingers appear to wiggle and push further and further in.

Frustrated with what she did, I quickly navigate the menus to the scaling menu and set the Arrow to return us to our normal size. As the feeling of power eases back into my body I return to the hatch where Violet is curled up by the door.

I sit down by her, and hold her, "It's okay Vi... I'm here."

She breathes heavily for a few moments, before gently turning and making eye contact. "You saved my life."

I grab her, "Of course I did, I don't know what I would do without you... I don't know how I ever lived without you."

She pulls away and runs her left hand through my hair, "You were fine without me... you are stronger then you know."

"Well, I might be strong, but I have a few words for Miss Vigilance." I hand Violet her helmet, stand up and grab my helmet, once I have it secured, I pop the hatch, storming out the door to the marble woman leaning over the remains of the city. She is pulling a light blue sphere out of the ground.

"Dammit Vigilance, you almost killed me! You very nearly killed my girlfriend and almost destroyed our ship!

She looks over calmly, unfazed by my outburst. "You seem fine. Violet is alive, and the ship appears undamaged." She holds the light blue sphere up, "This is the sigil, please protect it."

She drops it into my hand.

"Take it and go to the third sigil world, get the sigil and save the other from the man Richar."

I just blink, realizing just how... single minded she is.

She turns and sits down, suddenly becoming motionless.

I stand there for the longest time. Just looking at this sigil I have been entrusted with.

Violet pulls me back, "Come on big girl, we need to get to the other sigil-world."

I follow her back to the ship. "You're right Violet, and Vigilance was right, Richar is dangerous with the sigil... let's go get it."

She pats my shoulder as we climb up into the ship.

As I sit in my chair in the cockpit of the Arrow, Violet holds my hand. She squeezes my hand again and again. I look over to her, her eyes closed, tears streaming from the sides. Even with her make-up running, she is so cute.

"Vi..."

She sighs, "I know I'm being stupid."

"No Vi, that's not it at all."

She breaks my grip, storming back to the kitchen. I hear her slam the table and realize that she really needs me. I hand control over to Ed and walk back to be with Violet.

"...more careful... why didn't... should've..." I kneel down beside her, pulling her off the table, and wrapping her in my arms.

"Violet, this obviously is weighing on you, you still haven't told me why."

"I said Richar was the problem!" she snaps back.

I recoil a little, surprised at her vicious return, but I continue, "You said he was a problem, you didn't tell me why."

She sighs again, and raises her voice, "Richar. HE has followed me from job to job, planet to planet since I refused to work with him when we completed school. HE steals my work, HE steals the rewards of years of planning and effort, AND NOW HE IS TRYING TO STEAL MY GREATEST DISCOVERY." she slams the table again and turns about, tossing me to the floor in the process.

I hit my head on the wall, "Ow..."

She is still turned away. "STEALING... my... my..."

I raise my voice over her frustrated muttering, "SO WHAT VIOLET, WHO CARES WHAT HE STEALS?"

She pauses and turns around, noticing me on the floor, and realizing why I was rubbing my head. She drops to her knees before me. "Oh Alice... I'm sorry..."

I look into her glistening eyes, placing one hand on her shoulder and the other on her chest, "I don't care what Richar has done Violet, but I do care what he will do with this discovery... We need to get the third sigil and use its power to stop him."

She breaks down, slumping down and closing in on herself. I see something I hadn't seen before... the fact that Violet is hurting. Deep beneath everything she puts up, her confident attitude, her gorgeous eyes. She has been hurting for years because someone has been stealing her ideas and discoveries. Everything she knows, and all of her success... this gaping hole in her soul was caused by this man.

Then I realize that size isn't everything. Despite being one tenth her height, Richar has inflicted deep wounds in Violet's soul. As big as she is, as strong, and beautiful as she is, she feels defeated by this abusive person... Like me.

I know what she needs. She needs what she gave me. Love, care, a listening ear, and... ultimately she needs a victory.

I lean up and hook my thumbs behind her neck and lean back. She collapses forward with me as I pull her on top of me.

Her eyes go wide and her crying stops. I look up into her tear stained eyes, the beautiful blue globes I've come to adore and I say one word. "Hi".

She pauses, a look of confusion passing over her. "Hi?"

I laugh lightly, "Hi, my name is Alice, and it's nice to meet you."

A small smile appears on her face, "Hi Alice..." She forces through sniffles. "I'm Violet."

I laugh, "Well, I think you are beautiful."

Her eyes shut as her body relaxes. Her chest relaxes, and all her weight is suddenly on me. I pull her down and our lips lock together. I kiss her passionately. Her motionless lips don't move for about a minute.

Then she returns the kiss. She pushes down upon me, pressing her lips against mine. This kiss is full of thankful passion. Goddess.

Breaking the kiss, Violet rises away from me, her eyes much happier. I smile as I arise and take her hand, pulling her to the back of the ship.

"No Alice, I have to get back to my seat."

"Violet, forget Richar. This is space, we won't get to where we are going for awhile."

"But what if..."

I tug her again, "Ed if anything happens, you'll tell us right?"

To my surprise. Ed sounds like he is laughing, "Of course ladies."

Violet looks as if she is looking for an excuse... she breathes deeply. I simply pull her in and I touch her sex through her armor. I run my fingers up across her lips, making her legs go weak, she falls into my embrace... and I whisper in her ear, "I need you..."

This time when I pull her, she comes easily...

We snap each other out of our armor, leaving pieces all over the kitchen, the halls, and at the bottom of the ladder. I throw Violet on the bed, and she is wearing a lacy blue bra and matching panties, and one of the shoulder plates. I am left only with my left boot and my lacy pink undies.

"Nice shoulder plate Violet."

She winks and wiggles her shoulders, "Nice boot."

I kick the release with my right foot and the boot breaks off as my hands rise to my hips. "I know."

Violet pulls the shoulder plate off with her right hand and tosses it aside. I crawl over her, my eyes trailing along her curves. Her hips are incredible, so wide and smoothed by her soft skin. I grab her panties with a finger and pull them down, allowing her to kick them off. Her pelvis curving into her picturesque lips. I run a single finger along the edges of her lips, they are so soft and wet... a small line of glistening fluid follows my finger up as I continue to trek up her body to her navel. I lay myself down touching my navel to hers... She moans with the contact, and I seize up slightly.

My lips land on her, and her fingers tempt my pussy through my panties... I gyrate over her in response. Just as she thinks she knows what is about to happen, I squeeze the device in my hand, and find myself completely enveloped in her cleavage.

She is shocked, "What the... hell?" I clamber through the soft warm valley away from her powerful voice.

Suddenly I collapse as her stomach curves in, "Alice!" I hear from behind me, as my body passes over her lips. When I hit the bed I run forward and jump into her. She screams in ecstasy as I fill her in a way she had never been filled before. Her vagina is very dark, but the walls slide back and forth, rippling in response to my welcome but unexpected presence. The cavern is filled with a deep moan, coming from all sides.

I rub my hands on her walls and press at the areas I know are most sensitive. When I find her G-Spot I grab and hold it, licking it furiously. She seems to throw her hips up in response. I cannot truly be sure, because her pressure and heat is so intoxicating.

The little air inside her smells intensely like her... Well, like her gorgeous sex. The walls cave in on me from all directions. Rhythmically squeezing me in tune with her laborious gyration. Moments later, I feel her fingers wrapping around my legs as she pulls on me. I raise my hands and run them along the walls as I am pulled out. When my neck is enveloped by her lips I think she is about to pull me out.

Nope.

I am shoved back inside with greater force then I had been pulled. It is intense, but not unpleasant. In fact, her vaginal walls manage to stimulate my nipples through the fabric of my bra. "Goddess!" I scream as she pulls me out and pushes me back in.

Soon her force becomes more intense as her pleasure mounts higher. I am feeling a similar feeling deep within myself. The powerful undertones of orgasm start to tick. I moan enthusiastically and while I know she cannot hear my puny moans, I hear her every sound.

I hear the telltale sounds of a feminine orgasm, shallow breaths and a high pitched squeal, "eeeeeeEEEEEEE!"

When she suddenly thrusts me far within her, my legs sliding out of her fingers, and I slide through her, coming to rest by her uterus. Where her sudden rush of feminine cum envelopes me and drags my puny body over the edge. I scream with my girlfriend, as a powerful orgasm washes over me.

I clench my jaw as my body works to powerfully push pleasure through every fiber of my being. I breathe the little air of the cavern, trying to catch my breath, while the walls around me calm down. Her breaths are calmer, more relaxed as her body enjoys the massive surge of pleasure she released, when I suddenly feel a reorientation which I can only assume is her getting off our bed.

Her breaths are still relatively shallow, when I realize my foot is resting against her G-Spot. I smile, and kick it, proceeding to rub my foot across the surface of it, initiating another powerful orgasm.

I quietly chuckle, until the moment I realize that she's actually falling over.

Which means I am falling with her. "Shit."

She lands on the floor and her pelvis is pressed in, compressing me against her vaginal walls again. She scrambles back up, her laughing pressed through my body, the vibrations are pleasant and melodic.

Then, I hear the shower. While it is a familiar sound, it is dampened by being inside another woman.

She reaches in, opening her powerful lips, and I see the light peeking in, as a torrent of water enters. The water loosens the grip of her feminine fluid and I slide down through the opened aperture.

My legs emerge first, and she takes hold of them carefully. As I slide out into her hand, I collapse from the cataclysm of the event. Her eyes are very different from earlier. They are now bright, happy, and slightly concerned.

"Goddess... Violet..."

She seems a little more worried then I thought originally though. "Are you okay Alice?"

I collapse back. "Oh yes... I am so okay, actually better then okay. That was incredible."

"I didn't hurt you?"

"No, not hurt at all, your vagina is amazing..."

She blushes. "You didn't have to do that."

I giggle, "No I didn't, but I wanted to because I love you Vi."

She sighs, leaning against the shower wall, she takes a soapy hands and lathers me up, carefully running her enormous fingers over my entire body.

"Alice, I thought you were wearing a bra?"

"Oh. Shit."

She looks down at me inquisitively, "Did you lose it inside of me?"

I laugh. "Looks like I did."

Warmth.

I has it.

Goddess, so nice...

I stretch my arms out and they run along a warm surface... which stretches softly in all directions. When I open my eyes I stare up at the ceiling. This ceiling has become quite familiar, I've awoken to it a few times. But this time... it seems so far away...

Then I remember why. On each side of me are mountains, rising over me and shadowing me.

Violet's breasts...

I turn myself over and stare up through the valley to Violet's neck. From there the ground rises to her beautiful face. I just stare at her lips... so soft, kissable, each bigger then me right now. Goddess.

This sight is overwhelming, I can't help myself, my hand is soon between my legs.

Suddenly Ed's voice booms through the room. "Violet, Alice, we are approaching the sigil-world."

The skin beneath me suddenly rises as Violet inhales deeply, and the next thing I feel is air rushing all around me as I am launched across the room when Violet shoots out of bed. I flail my arms helplessly in the air, looking back at Violet who seems to be confused.

"Alice?" she looks around the room,when suddenly our eyes connect and her mouth drops. "Alice!" she screams, "Ed, kill the gravity in the bedroom!"

While the pull of gravity abates, the momentum I already possess carries me straight into the wall.

Dazed, I rub my temples while a buzzing fills my head.

When I open my eyes I come face to face with Violet's stomach. Her hands surround and engulf me as she pulls me toward her face. Her eyes glisten, they are so gentle. Her lips move, but I can't hear her through the buzzing... but she keeps trying.

A couple moments later Violet reactivates gravity, the buzzing slowly abates and I can hear again. "Alice... are you okay?" Violet pleads, her eyes full of concern.

"I think so... I'll be fine."

Her shoulders drop as she lets out a big breath. "I'm sorry, I should be more careful."

"It's okay, there are more important things right now! Grow me back so I can help you!"

She smiles, glad that I hold no anger for being thrown across the room. She grabs the mass manipulator, using it to restore me to my normal 15 meters. I rest my hands on my hips and run them up to my chest, "That was fun, but good to be normal."

Violet's eyes go wild again as she remembers why she launched me, "Alice we have to go!" She jumps down the ladder, rolling at the bottom and running to the cockpit. I laugh as Violet runs past the jar of tiny men, completely nude.

I sigh, deciding I don't give a fuck what the little guys see. "It's their lucky day." I jump down and follow Violet to the front. Ignoring the whistling from the jar, I slip into my seat and start my scans. As the data pours in, I can see the typical data motions of Ed compiling for me, making it easier to interpret.

"Well, it's significantly larger then the last world. One city, appears to be in the southern reaches, on an isolated island."

Violet looks over to me, all business, her eyes alight with her frustration, "Any signs of other ships?"

I look around the scans, and see nothing so I shrug, "Not yet."

Violet popped her knuckles and leaned into her console. "He'll be here... we have to be prepared."

She twisted out of her chair, walking toward toward the airlock. I decide to ask the obvious, "Are you going to put any clothes on?"

Violet is silent for a couple seconds, "Oh shit." she emerges from the kitchen blushing, covering herself and staring at the jar of tiny men. "You tinies saw nothing!"

I just laugh and go back to get my suit on. Slipping in is easy, but finding a place to land is hard. The island we need to land on is covered with a civilization, and not a miniature one either. Enormous spires of metal and glass jut kilometers into the sky, and every square meter of the island is covered with buildings, parks, and trains. Vehicles flow between buildings and move people back and forth.

I hover the ship above the skyline, "I give up Vi, there's no good parking, can we just drop in?"

She shrugs as her wings activate and flow outward, "I don't know, can we?" she smiles and hits the door latch, springing it open with a satisfying whoosh of pressure equalization. She takes my hand and steps out.

I tip with her, snapping my hand to the activation switch on my hip, my wings springing to life, materializing just soon enough to slow me from falling and allow me to glide downward.

Violet lets go of my hand and plunges down, she tucks her arms in and allows gravity to accelerate her toward her target. I am moving considerably slower then she is and she rapidly dwindles from my sight.

"Well shit." I'm rapidly falling behind, I need to keep up so we land in the same general area. I swallow my fear and pull myself in, allowing the air to flow around me as I accelerate.

The feeling is unreal, almost stupid, I wonder why would someone jump out of a perfectly good spacecraft anyway?

I decide that following the other 15 meter long lady is the best course of action. I train my eyes on Violet's voluptuous behind and do my best to stay on her tail. As we approach the ground Violet flips around and points her feet at the ground as she rapidly slows down to a graceful landing in an empty alley below.

I however botch the spin and continue falling until suddenly my wings catch air and slow me down... and pull me forward toward the wall.

Now, I don't hit the wall too hard, but my landing is far from the grace of my girlfriend.

Once I've caught my breath, Violet pats me on the back, "You need more practice."

I turn to her, my eyes wide, "You pulled me out the airlock! I had no idea what to do!"

She smiles and walked past me, "You did good for your first time."

I sigh, "Damn you Violet."

She looks at her wrist, watching the map on her projector. We are pretty close to the signal; we just need to find it. As we walk out on the street, I notice that the people around us are about 10 meters high, they are pretty close to our height, but not quite so. I take Violet's arm and we walk quietly, watching the blips of light on her wrist, trying to determine how to get to the signal.

I look around and notice almost nothing, these people seem completely normal. This would feel like a perfectly normal street back home, if there were any sound. Each person is silent, there movement are coordinated, agile, and completely silent.

I whisper to Violet, "Doesn't this silence seem strange to you?"

She looks up, whispering back, "Well now that you mention it... it is very quiet here."

I look up at the tops of the buildings, they all rise to a point, then I realize their purpose, "I think that is why the spires are all triangles, this island is like a sound dampening room, sounds just can't echo here!"

She looks back at her wrist, "It may be damn quiet, but there is an insane amount of signal activity."

I lean in, "What do you mean?"

She simply points to some of the people walking past, "Look at their necks, they are wearing some kind of communication device, and judging by how much they are sending out, I think they are saying hello to every single person passing by."

I take a closer look at these strange devices, a simple choker that seems to fit loose about the neck, it flashes a bright color pattern each time they make eye-contact with a passerby. Incredible. I look back to Violet, as she furrows her brow and pulls me close, "It looks like there are tunnels underground, look how these signals move around."

I look at the layers of data she is showing me. "Almost like a circle... none of these streets are circular."

Violet looks at me, "Soooo..."

"There must be an underground tunnel!" I yell.

The silent reaction to my outburst is deafening.

Violet sighs and takes my hand, "Follow me."

Since I clearly have no choice. I follow her into one of the buildings which line the street. The middle of the lobby is like a large platform, which the people streaming in and out of the building walk on to, then a chunk of the platform seems to break off and float away.

These platforms that break off from the main floor return once they have deposited their passenger at their intended destination. Hoping for the best we walk out to the platform, and fortunately our platform descends down.

"How does it know we want to go down?"

Violet shrugs, "I haven't a clue love."

Reaching the bottom we walk out into a large brightly lit tunnel which seems to go on in either direction in concentric circles. I lean on a nearby rail and watch as a woman steps out into the light. When her body is hit by the light she expands in all directions, growing from her 10 meters, to probably 100 meters. She reaches her hand out to a small platform, on which a man stands. He steps onto her palm, she grips him and starts to jog through the tunnel.

"Okay, that's fucking awesome." I smile pulling Violet toward the light.

She comes along easily, as I'm sure she is as eager as I am to try out this method of public transit. When we reach the entrance, Violet pauses, maybe worried, but I push her in first, and her growth is rapid.

Her shoulders shoot up out of sight as she holds her stomach and seems to squeeze her legs. I wish I could see her chest, but I do watch closely as her ass rapidly ascends over my head, giving me a wonderful view from underneath. She squeals with delight as she steps out of the light, it seems like she is struggling to remain upright. I wonder why...

So I follow her in, and Goddess... this light is powerful, almost intoxicating, as power flows into me my every pleasure center feels as if tiny tongues are crawling across it. As my breasts grow I cradle them in my hands, squealing lightly as my vagina rapidly contracts into an involuntary but welcome orgasm. I nearly collapse as I match Violet's size.

She giggles, spinning me with one hand into the wall, kissing me deeply. She breathes in sensually, "Growth and an orgasm, that's an interesting choice."

"We need to make our Mass Manipulators do that..."

She tackles me, straddling me on the floor, as the silent people simply walk around us. Her intense eyes draw me in, they seem to tell me she needs me.

I sigh, "As good as this feels, we've got to go sweetie."

"True enough." she lies down on me, gyrating her hips a few times as she gives me a passionate kiss.

My mind just tells me how lucky I am to have her.

Once we had caught our breath, Violet helps me up, and we explore the tunnel. Every kilometer or so there is a connecting tunnel, one going into the circle, another going out. They all seem to go to the same place. "Think we should take one of these tunnels?"

She taps my shoulder, "Only one way to find out." She suddenly turns left into one of the connecting tunnels. "Only one way to find out."

I spin on my heels and run to catch up. When I get back to her side, I am slightly out of breath, and she is laughing at me. I playfully punch her arm.

The nice jog is soon interrupted as we enter an enormous room.

An enormously familiar room. A room with a large, red, and naked marble woman standing in the middle, her statuesque posture seems more relaxed than Vigilance's was. As much as she is similar to Vigilance, something is very different about her.

When I stand in front of her, she moves slightly, before her eyes open, revealing her shiny red eyes.

She smiles, and steps toward Violet and I. She grabs us and pulls us into an unexpected hug. "Hello ladies, it's been a long, long time, I am Persistence."

Violet giggles a little, "Nice to meet you, we kinda know about you because we met Vigilance."

A look of a pleasant surprise spreads across her face. "Oh! How is she?"

I think about it for a moment, "Well, I guess the best word would be... lonely?"

"Well, since Vigilance didn't kill you I would assume you are good girls... good enough for me anyway, when you take the sigil, and I don't have to be here anymore, I'll go see her, and she won't be lonely anymore."

"That easy?" Violet inquires.

Persistence seems amused, "Why wouldn't it be that easy?" the marble lady spins around and drops down, slamming her heavy palm into the ground, and the cavern shakes vehemently. Large chasms appear in the floor as the once solid surface divides in four and slides out to the sides of the room, opening a 150 meter drop to a smaller chamber. Persistence drops into the floor and emerges with the object of our desires.

She looks Violet in the eyes, "You don't plan to terrorize, maim, attack, hurt, injure, destroy, annihilate, burn, annoy, poke, or kill with this power right?"

Violet rolled her eyes.

And...

Persistence clearly has no idea what that means, since she leans forward a little and asks again, "Yes or no?"

Violet laughs, leaning forward, "Of course not, I want nothing but good things."

"Okay then," Persistence reaches forward and plops the precious relic in Violet's hands like it was a worthless rock. "Been wanting to get rid of that for eons."

Damn, Vigilance made me feel like these things were holy, while Persistence makes me think it's worthless.

"So, Persistence, what does this sigil do?" Violet asks.

She looks into her eyes, "This is the sigil of growth, it's function should be obvious."

She blinks, still getting used to Persistence's strangely short explanations, "So... like my mass manipulator?"

Persistence just smiles, "If your Mass Manipulator has limits, then no. This will grow you and your allies to any size you want."

Violet stood there smiling for a moment when a rumble spread through the complex.

"What the hell?" Persistence yelled, as chunks of the ceiling crashed down as another rumble occurred, this time accompanied with the sound of an explosion.

Violet grabbed my wrist, "We have to go, I'll bet that's Richar!"

I didn't disagree. I ran with Violet through the tunnels, soon reaching a collapsed ceiling to climb out of.

A large spherical ship was hovering over the skyline, it was emitting large bolts of energy every few seconds. these bolts were the obvious cause of the sudden earthquakes. The silent people ran in every direction, silently fearing for their lives.

Richar was standing atop the vessel, when he noticed us emerging from the ground.

"Violet! So nice to see you."

Violet gritted her teeth, "Not very nice to see you Richar." She tightened her fists, knuckles cracking.

Then her body starts expanding, lengthening out in every direction, growing to about a kilometer. As she runs forward her ass passes my face, a beautiful sight.

She jumps with her new kilometer of stature and slams her powerful fist into the side of Richar's vessel, leaving a sizeable dent in the chrome paneling. Richar is nearly tossed from the platform! Violet riles up for another assault but Richar holds up the other sigil and it glows, stopping Violet in her tracks.

"Violet, don't stop!" I scream, now extremely worried about what is happening.

Instead of fighting back, she only screams as her face turns blank.

His vessel pulls in front of Violet's enormous face, "Now Violet, crush this city."

I suddenly realize that Richar's sigil is letting him absorb Violet's will... she cannot stop him.

I then notice her foot rising above me, and I dive away, narrowly avoiding her boot, which quickly teaches me that I cannot stop her still growing body either.

Her merciless stomps annihilate buildings, crushing them flat beneath her soles. I run to the outskirts of town, fumbling with my Mass Manipulator to shrink myself down, to avoid attracting attention from Violet and Richar. Once I reach the water, I turn around and watch as Violet presses her powerful feet down into the large chamber which once housed her sigil. The center of the city suddenly collapses as she breaks the supports which enabled the structures to stand.

She continues to stomp down with vigor, systematically crushing the city with her powerful feminine feet, as she continues growing.

Her face is emotionless.

I suddenly realize that my sweet, fierce, and loving Violet is...

Gone.

I hid my face in the dirt, the pounding, the annihilation behind me horrified me.

Why did this happen?

What could I have done differently?

Fuck.

-------

I laid there on the ground for the longest time. Until silence returned, then I waited some more. Rising to my knees, tears streamed down my face when my eyes encountered the flattened remains of a formerly bustling metropolis...

The city was gone, and so was Violet.

My Violet.

Then the sound of footsteps behind me startles me, I jump to my feet, spinning to face whomever dared make a sound, and I come face to face with Persistence.

I nearly collapse after tensing up so hard, she takes my shoulders and steadies me, "Alice, this wasn't your fault, you remember who stole Violet?"

My voice filled with anger, I look to the ground, "Of course I do, it was Richar."

She takes her marble hand, lifting my chin, and raising my head, "So what do you need to do?"

Realizing that I have the power to do something... I look Persistence in the eyes, "I need to save her."

I tap my wrist, "Ed, come get me. ASAP."

I look into the distance as The Arrow rapidly approaches us, Persistence grabs me again, "Alice, be careful!"

I turn and hug the marble woman, "Thank you for getting me out of the dirt, I didn't know what to do..." The sound of the Arrow's RCS thrusters fill the air, while the ship resizes itself to match my current stature, Persistence screams, "don't... eyes..."

"Goodbye!" I yell out as I scramble into the Arrow. I march to the front of the ship, rapidly returning it to it's normal size, and initiating forward thrust. As we climb into orbit, Ed inquires, "Where is Miss Violet?"

I sigh, realizing that while Ed is a smart AI, he doesn't know much about anything outside the ship, "Richar stole her Ed, and I'm going to get her back."

He inquires again, "Where is Miss Violet?"

It is at that moment that I realize, I have no idea where she is.

However, I do have the Arrow's scans of the area, I pull up today's readings, quickly finding the orbital charts of the sigil planet we were on.

I soon find the positional data of Richar's ship, and realize that he is clearly feeling confident about his plan, because he didn't bother masking his position. Then I realize that he may have amplified the signal, probably to taunt me.

"What an overconfident son of a bitch." I run my fingers along the path, tossing out some wavering in the line. "Ed, based on what I have on my screen can you extrapolate a destination for this trajectory?"

The charts appear in Ed's holo-projection as he processes the data. His avatar disappears, laying out a star chart, the line runs through a several star systems, but only through one planet. When the planet appears on the screen I stare in disbelief.

I turn to my console, plotting the course and initiating it.

Ed's avatar appears to my left, "Miss Alice, this course is highly inefficient."

I look back to the shimmering AI, "Yes I know that Ed, but it is much faster then an efficient route."

He pulls up some warnings on my screen, "Miss Alice, be advised, we will have insufficient fuel for a safe landing."

I swipe the warnings away, ignoring them entirely, "I'll drop from orbit if I have to."

Then the AI asked an unexpected question... "Miss Alice, are you okay? Your vitals seem erratic."

I stare back at Ed pausing for the longest time as the engines continue to increase in volume as the universe outside red-shifts out of sight. "No Ed, I'm not okay. I just watched as my girlfriend was stolen from me... and I'm not sure I know what I'm doing..."

Ed quietly responds, "I'll leave you be." His avatar shimmers away, leaving me in the cockpit, alone. I rest my head on the console in front of me and allow the tears to flow. The adrenaline of my growing retaliation had helped the pit in my stomach, but right now I needed a moment to think.

The unfortunate thing about thinking though, is when a person is sufficiently exhausted, they tend to pass out.

-------

The shuddering of the ship as it rapidly approached its destination and fell under the effects of gravity awoke me. The source was the big ball of blue growing on the display before me. The place where this all started.

Auru.

I check the instruments, "Ed did you slow us down?"

"Of course. You needed the rest Miss Alice."

I rub my temples, and place my hands on the controls, taking back navigation. When I check the radio, Auru was already sending out alerts... Planetwide disaster alerts. Violet was already on the ground, obliterating thousands with every single step.

Several alert appear on my control interface, "Miss Alice, due to your expedited route we have insufficient fuel to adjust course, and I cannot adjust to pull us into orbit, we are going to crash planetside." Ed's normally calm and collected voice seemed to be cracking which was strange, because despite being an AI, Ed sounded genuinely scared.

That was when I realized the magnitude of what was going to happen, this ship, and everything on it was doomed.

I jumped out of my seat, it mattered little what I did as a pilot now, but I needed to save Ed! He may just be an AI, but he is nonetheless my friend. I dodge past the kitchen as the proximity alarms sound, the screens all over the vessel, red with the course shown to warn me.

Goddess what am I doing?

Oh right, this is fucking insane.

Passing through the kitchen I notice our jar of men sitting on it's side. Shit.

They did attack us, but I don't believe they deserve to die this way. I grab the jar, yelling a bit too loud as most of them hold their heads like the sound is painful. Shit. I don't want to hurt them, "Do you have a leader?"

The little guys look around, and one of them raises his hand, I lower my hand into the jar, inviting him to climb on. Pulling him out of the jar, I grab a mass manipulator and start growing the little guy to my size. He certainly seems to enjoy the feeling, but he still recoils when I speak to him, despite now being about my size.

I place my hand on his shoulder, "As you may be able to tell, this ship is about to crash. I'm giving you a chance to save your crew. Take this." I hand him the mass manipulator.

He looks at the device with a look of bewilderment, "What do you want me to do with it?"

I laugh and show him how the device works, "Take this mass manipulator, your jar of comrades, use one of the parachutes by the door, when the door says it is safe to eject, you can leave."

He smiles and places his hand on mine, a stray tear rolling from his eye, "Thank you..." he pauses, "I speak for all of us when I say sorry for attacking you."

I smile, rolling my eyes and softly patting his back toward the door. "Try not to abuse this chance okay?"

Once he starts putting on his parachute, his jar of crew-mates held tightly, he yells, "We won't."

Waving, I run to the back of the ship, and slide down the ladder under the engine core where Ed's memory is stored.

Tapping the panel open, there is a pulsing blue light, running around a large array of chips, small pieces of paper label the components, I find the label which indicates Ed's memory. "Ed, shut down."

His avatar pops up on a nearby screen, "Why Miss Alice?"

I look him in the eyes, something which doesn't happen to him often, "I'm going to pull your memory, and take you with me."

Ed's face changes, as he almost cracks a smile, his avatar eyes close as his systems shutdown.

Once all the indicator lights drain, I pull the chip and slip it into one of my leg pockets.

The atmo noise continues to amplify as I pull myself out of the maintenance area, the ship starts to creak heavily... I run through the ship catapulting over the kitchen table and sliding into the cockpit.

What I see as I regain control is terrifying, "Shit!" I scream as I pull back on the stick, because I am headed directly toward one of the atmospheric tethers which hold Auru's orbital elevators in place.

I deploy some of the aerobrakes in an effort to vear way from the tether, knowing that if I hit it at this altitude, both my life, and the lives of many below would end with the tether wrapping all the way around Auru nearly a dozen times.

As the tether looms directly in front of me I pull left and send the Arrow into a tailspin, avoiding the tether, but at this velocity is a very bad idea.

Then it hits me, Violet taught me that the narrowest part of the ship pointing into the atmosphere will become the atmospheric anchor... I belt myself into my seat and focus on my screen, because I can fly this bitch backwards.

I tinker with the interface to reverse the controls, and pull an exterior view as I soar into the stratosphere. Even the decompression of the cabin as the enlarged pirate opens the escape hatch cannot faze me. I proceed to dump what is left of the fuel into the engine, and despite the warnings Ed is no longer standing there to stop me.

I ignite the fuel and a huge explosion rocks the ship as the ignited fuel places massive strain on the main structural beams which hold the Arrow together. Parts of the engine are blown out the back of the ship and crushed back into the sides of the ship by aerodynamic forces.

Suddenly I lose all control as the dorsal aerospike is severed by the sudden deceleration and the impact of the freed engine components, I watch as it pumps the side and pulverizes one of the cockpit's visual sensors, resulting in several seconds of black screen.

Fortunately, the systems reconfigure, and I regain some control, but it is much less then I previously had. As I past into the lower atmosphere, things become abundantly more clear. Before me is the love of my life... Violet

She is close to fifty kilometers in height, crushing her beloved home under her... bare feet.

He made her take her clothes off? Isn't it enough to force a woman to do something she doesn't want to do? Did he really need to sexualize the act? Goddess... she is beautiful though. Her curvy hips, literally kilometers wide make me more then a little damp...

Her bikini clad breasts hang proudly, casting shadows ten kilometers long covering massive swaths of city. The blue fabric shimmers in the light of the sun. Violet looks fantastic.

Which would be great if her gorgeous feet were standing on a beach, but the city beneath her probably appreciates her beauty less since her beautiful soles are effortlessly collapsing everything beneath her.

I furrow my brow and focus on my trajectory, because imagining being between her breasts or inside her lovely feminine cavern is very distracting. Stealing one more glance at her colossal form, I nearly shed a tear at the radiant beauty of my lover.

I need to end this.

I need to get her back.

As I look for a safe place to crash, I notice an even better target, Richar's bulbous ship was floating right in my path.

I let the fins balance out and let the ship accelerate for the last couple kilometers, as I trust my life in the providence of physics.

I am suddenly pushed into my harness as the tail end of the Arrow crumples into itself, the engine implodes on impact, sending the kitchen table slamming into Violet's empty seat, crushing it against the console and collapsing the right side of the cockpit. I now have no control, as the power to my console is severed when a massive shower of sparks is emitted from the port power control system. An ungodly creak rises through the ship as a crack in the hull breaks through my display.

As wires split and sparks fly, I slam the emergency eject panel with no response.

I can't believe it. Of all things to break.

Brandishing my disbelief, I hit the panel again... with no evident response...

"Fuck it." I brandish my energy blade, slipping the hilt under my harness and activate it, slicing the harness in half, now free to move, I push off the seat, through the breach, activating my wings the moment I am free.

My foot narrowly escapes the Arrow as my wings slow me significantly relative to the crumpled mass of both ships. They fall several more kilometers, impacting the ground at near terminal velocity, collapsing several nearby buildings and coming to rest near a skyscraper which appears to be relatively undamaged despite the tremors caused by Violet's footsteps.

Now that I am gliding down I take a moment to breath, and look up. My eyes run along Violet's tantalizing curves, and what I see informs me that I am still in danger.

Apparently, Richar had complete control of Violet, and since I broke his concentration with my kamikaze strike he now has other things to think about.

I realize that as a result, Violet is falling., and I am staring straight up at her gorgeous falling ass.

I dive down in an attempt to accelerate away from her beautiful round bottom, I hope to reach an area her ass isn't about to annihilate.

The wind generated by Violet's falling behind helps push me to safety, and not a moment too soon, because the next moment her ass suddenly meets Auru, snd forever changes the world. The crust of the planet couldn't hope to withstand her mass.

The surface structures collapse into oblivion as two massive cracks spread outward, radiating out from her hips. Magma is suddenly ejected kilometers into the air through the fissures, coming to rest on some nearby buildings, melting them like milk chocolate.

I am protected from oblivion by the small of her back, which reaches nearly two kilometers above the surface. The massive swath of city before me is untouched because her body is so large that the small of her back rises two kilometers above the surface.

Unbelievable.

I land on the skyscraper near the crashed vessels, deactivating my wings, and proceed to smash through an access door into the structure. I call an elevator because I need to get to the ground. I need to stop Richar, because if anyone could live through that crash... that fucker could.

This elevator sports a view of the city outside, and any other day it would be a peaceful vista. Today we can see only the waistband of a bikini and a woman's back rising over the structure, entirely filling the sky.

The elevator stops several times during the descent, filling with women who are clearly in shock... in disbelief over a woman so exceedingly large. Size changing is a fact of life for Aurunites, they are used to the concept. Although it is a common concept, the mass manipulators which are so common in society have limits. A woman can only grow so large, perhaps a power worker might grow enough to work with large towers, but fifty meters is a far cry from Violet's fifty kilometers.

She is beyond enormous. The sight I am met with as I leave the lobby confirms how small I truly am... Violet's blue bikini panty is the entire western horizon. The ribbon which holds the panty on looks to be over a kilometer wide. The excess ribbon falling from the knots on each side, fall all the way to the ground carving large swaths of city under the weight of a ribbon. Just then one of the atmospheric tethers collapses to the ground...

Violet's arm must have severed one of the tethers...

The tether remains tout as it is pulled off the surface of Auru. It is strange to see something which seemed to be attached to the planet. My intuition would tell me it should come crashing down. Instead of falling, the tether rises. It rapidly accelerates and produces a deafening explosion as the mass breaks the sound barrier as it flies out of sight.

Goddess. This is insane.

The smoke around me chokes people, fortunately my suit filters out all the particulates, I set myself to finding Richar, and stopping him. I realize that he must still be in the command center of his ship. It is easy to enter the ship, the holes all over the hull make that step easy. The jackpot was finding the main elevator shaft.

Looking down the tube, it seems to reach all the way to the command area. I start walking up, contemplating the possibilities. I know that this is dangerous, Richar is clearly unstable, and he is probably my size if I had to guess from what I've seen earlier.

I pull out my mass manipulator... and the display is disheartening because it is devoid of power. I sigh, placing it back on my belt.

I am alone in this fight, no help, no backup.

Stepping into the command center is like stepping into hell itself, the ceiling is collapsed in, sparks fly in all directions, one of the Arrow's aerospikes is lodged through the main helm. Some fuel covers the floor. It smells horrible, like burning brakes.

I did this, this was all me.

Just as I am celebrating my victory, I see a movement of light in my periphery, as quickly as I respond, I am met with a fist to the jaw. I twist and fall to the ground. Catching myself I turn back around and grab the little asshole, he holds the sigil in his hands, "Now you too will work for me."

Nothing happens, I feel fine, and he seems confused. "Get off me." he screams as I grab and pull his leg up toward me. It starts to crack from my suit augmented strength.

I know why he can't control me... it now made sense why Persistence mentioned eyes, you need to make eye contact to use the power of the sigil on others.

I laugh as I amp up the power, collapsing Richars leg in my hands. He gives out a horrific yell, as he collapses to the floor. As I reach down to finish him off, the ship shakes as the ceiling is removed.

Violet, on her hands and knees, uses her kilometer long digits to manipulate this tiny pile of wreckage. She grabs me with the nails of her index finger and thumb, the nails are as thick as I am tall. As she pulls me out I think she is helping me, but the laugh of Richar tells me that this is his doing, that he is still in control.

I have never felt this small or pressured in my life, it hurts so bad. as my legs twist and buckle together. My armor helps, but even the strong semi-metallic polymers in the suit start to yield to Violet's incredible grip. My cracking legs suddenly feel wet... not a good sign.

Suddenly pain exacerbates from every corner of my being as the pressure exerted on me rapidly shifts. A small motion for Violet, but one which may have obliterated my hips. I howl. Tears stream across my face, as the visor of my suit seems to shift red.

I have to block out the pain, I need to think, then she opens her hand, and I meet her beautiful face... the sun shining behind her, glowing, radiant, and beautiful. Her blue hair flowing in the wind, and discoloring the light, leaving me and the city below in a strange blue shadow.

There is only one problem, her face is completely blank.

I don't know what to do...

I cannot move.

I cannot fight.

I can barely breath.

So, after a moment of contemplation I decide to give love a try, and I scream, "Violet... I love you!"

Moments pass as my tiny voice carries through the air, what must be 10 kilometers, all the way to Violet's ears.

Her pupils refocus as she suddenly regains some control. Her nails retract as she whispers, "Alice?"

Suddenly, without the support of Violet's nails, I am in freefall and my wings shudder into existence as the world around me slows down, I turn myself downward and focus. I need to end Richar, that will end all of this. I fall into the command center as gracefully as I can, slamming my boots into Richar's chest. The pain is excruciating as my legs are certainly broken, but I need to do this, not even this blinding pain can stop me.

Knocking out his wind was only the start.

I drive my elbows down into his head and start whacking his head with my fists. He tries to speak, I don't care. Nothing he can say can stop me.

Not a fucking thing.

It doesn't matter what he says. This man must be stopped.

He stops moving, but he is still conscious, I flip my visor open as I pull his sigil from his hand, revealing my eyes.

I make eye contact with him, and for the first time, I use my sigil.

Richar starts to rapidly dwindle under my gaze, his body shrinking smaller... and smaller.

Tears trace my face, as I scream at the bastard, "Why would you do something like this? You steal Violet's work for years, you follow her, you track her, then you use her. You used her to kill MILLIONS of people. You made her into a brutal weapon against her will. For what? Your power trip?"

He looks back up to me, "I was jealous, she always overshadowed me, beat me."

I look down on the pathetic man, slamming my fist into the ground beside him, "You... bitch."

I should want him to die, I should crush him under a single finger, a pathetic end for a pathetic man.

But, as I look down at him, I realize he doesn't deserve to die... that is an easy way out for this pathetic man. I think about it for a moment, as the world starts to go black.

I feel... dizzy. Lightheaded... like my body is giving up. "You deserve to die Richar..." I choke out.

Goddess. Is this what death feels like?

Is this the end?

"But I can't do it..." I collapse, my chest armor covering Richar completely, but protecting his pathetic body from my weight.

I look to the side, a massive shadow of a hand enveloping me as the world goes black, I can only hear my heart pounding in my ears.

As a light appears in the distance.

It fills my vision, as the heartbeat is silenced.

The bright light filled my view, as a deep tone pounded in the distance.

I floated forward... and could see the outline of a woman in the distance.

I continue moving towards this spectacle, with no effort on my part. Her face breaks through the foggy light, as I stop mere inches from her. She is beautiful, her dark skin glistens with the light of this place. Her eyes are closed and she places her finger over my lips.

"It's okay Alice." Her eyes open, and stare into mine with incredible intensity.

I summon the will to respond, but instead of a powerful command, I squeak out a pathetic, "Am I dead?"

Her lips curl into a friendly smile, as she runs her fingers through my hair, "Yes. Yes you are."

I sigh, "I figured, dreams are never this real."

That elicited a laugh from the gentle lady, "My name is Aurora, and I have been dead for a long time, but here I am thanks to the power contained in the sigils."

I look back into her eyes, "So what are you here to do, there has to be a reason for all this?" I gesture all around me to emphasis my point.

She waves her hand, and all three sigils appear above her hand, floating there. She holds her hands out to the side, pressing the pieces together until a blinding light is emitted, fusing them together.

She takes me by the waist and holds the new object near my neck as a golden necklace materializes. "This gem contains my power, I wore it all my life. Now, I'm giving it to you, the power to control others, to control their will, to control matter, immortality... they are all yours."

I turn to her, looking her in the eyes, "Aurora, I don't want to be a Goddess. I just want to be with Violet, and be happy."

She seems confused by my lack of excitement from this gift. "Why wouldn't you want to be all-powerful? Do you understand what this means?"

I sigh, "I do understand it, and I understand why you are shocked. For me, that kind of power is too much for any one person. I just want to be happy... Violet makes me happy."

Aurora looks a me again, pulling me into a hug, "You are worried for her?"

I break her hold spinning around to face her, "Of course I am, that fucking Richar made her into the worst war criminal in the history of her planet! She killed millions of people with her feet! Not to mention her ass! They aren't going to care that she was being controlled..." it was then that I realized what caused this whole mess.

I turn and face Aurora... anger flaring through my soul, "BY YOUR POWER!"

She holds her hands up as I get closer, "Now Alice, we can fix this, try to calm down."

I grit my teeth, "This entire thing has ruined my happy ending Aurora, your powers have fucked up my life after Violet fixed it the first time. I don't want any powers. I don't want to be a Goddess."

"All I want is to be with Violet."

Aurora looks down at the ground, clearly feeling guilty. She stays there for a few moments, contemplating her response, she looks back up and the look in her eyes tells me that she has no ill intent. "Alice, my power is already yours, you can do with it what you wish. This gem is nothing but an object, a representation of your power.

She hugs me and whispers, "The real power is in your soul. The fact that you don't desire power makes you perfect to hold it."

She waves her hand behind her, and Violet appears above us. She is sitting in a chair... somewhere.

Look, Violet is okay, the authorities checked the records from her suit and Richar kept some overconfident records. They know that she was a hostage... The people of Auru are a little more forgiving then the people of Earth, they see her as a vicitm, many people have tried to help Violet, she has been given the best care." Aurora then places her hand back on my shoulder.

"Alice, you are a selfless soul, and now you are free to enjoy life." she laughs again, "and maybe you can use your powers for some harmless fun." and a moment later she pushes me forward.

I begin flying again, but this time, I am in control, I pass through the foggy light, the air around me dims as I feel myself returning to my body.

I inhale deeply and hit my head on something hard. It is dark, and my arms are trapped.

They buried me. Of course they did.

-------

A short time later I am walking through the fields of Auru near the city of Furaka. I know it's Furaka because I remember the incredible architecture which impressed me the first time I visited.

Walking into the city, I certainly look strange, walking around in a burial gown. I find a directory and look for Violet Alliotti, she is listed as living in a nearby highrise, on the 230th floor.

I walk to the building with bated breath, eager to see Violet. Hoping that all is well.

The ride up the elevator has me watching the sunset over the nearby mountains. I look into the sky and find myself imagining Violet's legs dangling overhead.

Goddess... I am broken? Why would I want that?

Shaking that feeling, I emerge from the elevator, with my arms folded, her apartment door is ajar. I push open the door and enter a room that seems to be a normal living space. Nothing drastic or strange besides my armor hung on the wall beside her own armor. I step in and around the corner and stare into the eyes of a confused young woman.

She pushes her blue hair off of her face, standing up slowly.

"Alice?"

"Violet?"

Upon hearing my voice she practically jumps across the room, grappling me as tight as she can muster, as her tears begin to flow. She backs up slightly, looking into my eyes to check if it is really me.

"How is this possible... you died..." she sniffs, and wipes the tears with her sleeve, "I crushed you..."

I smile and pull her back in, "I'll explain later, but for now let's just say heaven sucked, so I came back to you."

She giggles and sweeps me off my feet, "I'm so glad you did." her devious eyes lock with mine as she kisses me deeply.