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!”