Thursday Taster 99: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

We start right where we left off last week.  

"And if our parents forced him to go because they wanted him to socialise, he would just ruin all the fun for me and ask people questions starting with "what do you think about?" she said.
"Your parents wanted him to socialise," I wondered how it could be that bad but my relationship with my parents weren't really normal either.
"Well, more like there wanted him to check on me or something, I came back drunk at home a few time, I mean they wouldn't even have noticed if he didn't tell them that I was sick," she said. "But seriously, would anyone go ask, what do you think about the bear brewing process? The fermented bacteria seem to have been so sick this year, I'm not sure offering a bear to my sister is a good idea."
I shuckled, personally I found it funny.
"He really asked that?"
"The bear literally dropped his bear at my feet and ran to the toilet to whatever he needed to do there. I got my shoes ruined with the alcool and so sticky and they smelled like bear for a week even when left outside on the open and there was glass everywhere," she said. "Alex is cool as a twin but for party he totally suck. So what do you think about this?"
She turned around with a too familiar red dress in front of her.
"No way," I said.
"It's awesome isn't it?" she said taking that as a compliment. "So do you have a dress for Thursday night, we are going to dance salsa all night long."
Salsa, you needed a partner to dance Salsa and I didn't want to go anywhere alone with Amy knowing that she was going to ditch me to dance. But that wasn't really my main problem here. I had already seen Amy in this red dress, even if it was a different Amy in a different world with a different red dress, it was really too similar.
"I don't have a dress like this," I said, and I didn't intend to get one in a nearby future, I was still only 17 and my mother would kill me, my father would kill me, damn, even Jonas would know better. Amy bent down to grab a part of shoes. The high heal shoes, the exact same as in the other universe.
"See, those are perfect, aren't they?" She said.
"I don't think we should go," I said.
"Why not?"
I had hundreds of good reason not to go ranging from a group of guy is going to be running after us in a really disgusting street to I have class on Friday morning but I know that none of this was ever going to convince Amy of not going. My only chance was Alex but seeing how Amy felt about having her brother involved there was also a possibility that she would go anyway without me at all and then there would be nobody to save her.

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Thursday Taster 98: Parallel Slip

 

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

We start right where we left off last week. 

"So why do you faint all the time?" Amy asked as I tried to order what I understood from my very first official university lecture. I had blacked out again during it, for a hole twenty minutes. I had to copy things from Alex after the class and of course he had told Amy everything.

"I don't know," I said.

Which was true, the doctor didn't know why I fainted, my parents didn't know why I fainted. Now I couldn't possibly give her my theory that I was traveling to parallel worlds because the other version of me in these worlds needed my help. I couldn't say that a certain Pithy of Delphi in a version of our universe where the Pithy of Dephi still existed believed that I was doing it to answer some personal questions.

"You must have some kind of clue," Amy said.

She stood up from her desk, she had been the one asking me over to do homework even though I didn't have any homework to do yet and even if I had some she had been talking non-stop so I would have been unable to concentrate.

"Not the slightest clue," I said.

"So what's this about," she said pointing at my travel diary. It was a bit more direct than her brother's approach but it didn't make me more comfortable.

"I kinda dream when I black out so I'm recording what I remember," I said.

She opened her closet, all her clothes were hangs and fold neatly in it. I hadn't bothered unpacking yet.

"What kind of dreams?"

"It can be anything really," I said.

"So there is this party on Thursday night," she said.

I was happy for the change of topic but I wasn't too sure I wanted to talk about partying either, especially in the middle of the week.

"It's the first party this semester, you know parties are always on Thursday," she said.

"Yes, that's why the amphitheaters are all empty on Friday's, because the students need to recover but I still can't miss my classes," I answered.

"I never said we'll miss classes but I am a student and I want to enjoy every single little thing about the student live," she said.

"And what does Alex think about it," I answered.

"Of course I haven't told him, he had never been invited to a single party through high-school and even when he could come because I was invited, he wouldn't," she said.

"Really," It was true that Alex didn't hit me like the party type but I didn't think he would miss high-school parties either.

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Thursday Taster 97: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

We start right where we left off last week.  

"I have several reasons for that," I said. "First someone desperately want us not to go to Antares. Second, if we don't do our best on this mission, if we don't do our best at all and just follow the easy path, we will never make any progresses."
"But sometimes, following the easiest path is the most difficult thing to do," the patient man answered.
"I have to agree with that," I said.
"But you still want to go to Antares," the patient man answered.
"There is nothing difficult in going home, if I have to admit failure, so be it but first I have to fight to make things right," I said.
The man stood up and so did the other council members.
"We'll leave it up to you for this time captain," he said.
Tucker was throwing me heinous looks and I wonder what in the sky made him hate me so much and why he wanted to go home so badly.
"Do it as soon as it's safe," I told the girls.
"Yes captain," they answered.
They didn't smile at the victory, nor did I, I was thinking about the 5.64%, I was thinking that maybe I was making a mistake trusting them, trusting Fin.
"Why do you always come up with ideas to break protocol," I said finally turning my attention to him.
"Because that's what I was made for," he answered.


"And the synapse allow the information to pass into your brain," the professor was saying.
"Are you back?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, how long was I gone," I said.
"About five or six minutes," Alex said.
I took my notebook, opened it and wrote down the time. Then I recorded the adventure of the day and my worries about the black hole propulsion. Alex didn't ask more questions. He didn't seem to be attracted too much by the lecture. I took notes to stay concentrated. It was basic, the third years students were new at neurobiology, it was nothing I never read before. When I was at the hospital for longer than just a scan, I used to read my doctor's book, not because I was really interested when I was little, but more because I had nothing else to do and nobody ever bothered to give me a children book or something more appropriate to read. I wondered why my mother always seemed so surprised for me to be interested in physics and science when she was the one who involuntarily got me surrounded by it for as long as I could remember. "So did you learn anything interesting," Alex said as the class finished.
"Nothing I didn't already knew," I answered.
"How many books did you read about the topic?" He asked.
"More than I can remember, since I could read actually," I said.
"You mean you learned to read with neurobooks," he said.
"Not really but I had a lot of them around, you learn what is in your environment, most likely," I said.
"I've got to remember that one," he said.
He was looking at my notebook, not the one with the neurobiology class in it, the one about my parallel universe travel and it suddenly made me feel uncomfortable. What did lieutenant Fin meant by "that's what I was made for," and when would I be able to ask the girls was Alpha actually meant? 

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Thursday Taster 96: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

"We run out of gas because of our little adventure with the last star, isn't it?" I said. "Yes," Lieutenant Fin said looking down. Escaping that had taken a lot of energy, that was obvious, so if we turned back because of it, it wouldn't only be because someone had poisoned the girls, that was their first chance, kill my pilots but they also wanted to kill them at a place where we would be in danger, they wanted to get rid of the pilots where they would have been necessary to avoid the problem, knowing that somehow protocol would get us out, knowing that somehow we would escape with not enough fuel to get to Antares but only enough to go home.

I stopped between Debby and Klara.

"Can you do it?"

"What are you thinking?" Tucker said. "Did everything that happened since you're in charge teach you anything at all?"

He was fulminating.

"Can you do it?" I repeated ignoring Tucker, the council members still not giving me any clue.

"We can leap," Klara said.

"Probability of failure?" I asked.

"5.64%," Debby said.

"You know what happens if they fail," Tucker said. "We'll be snatched into the black hole and end up out of the white all and nobody knows where."

"Have you ever done it before Tucker," I turned to face him and the council members. "As any of you ever propelled at full speed with a black hole?"

There was murmurs but no answers.

"Do it!" I said to the girls.

"Are you sure captain?" Klara asked.

"It's an order but don't you dare make a mistake on me," I said.

"You are as crazy as your father," Tucker said.

"I'll take that as a compliment," I answered.

The patient man of the council looked at me.

"Are you ever going to follow protocol? Despite us asking you too," he asked. "Why do you want so badly to complete this mission? we told you that you are to follow protocol, especially in time of emergency, unless unexpected actions are required."

"But this is not a matter of emergency," I said.

I managed to get a smile out of the man, a very small one which disappeared as much as fast as it had appeared.

"Then why not follow protocol and go home," he said.

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Thursday Taster 95: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

I took a sit on the side and Alex sat next to me. I liked being on the side as it let me not only see the teacher but also most of the people around. I don't know if it was because fainting was making me temporarily vulnerable but I liked to be in corners where I could see everything coming.

The amphitheater soon grew quiet and the teacher appeared at the bottom. He was wearing a dark suit which seemed a bit out of place until he took out his jacket and tie and rolled up his sleeves. He was younger than I ever expected a university professor to be. In my fantasy, this place was filled up with people with white hair but he had dark black hair, still he was wearing round glasses like any professor should. He started to introduce himself and said that he was pleased that so maybe people had decided to try on his specialty for their third year but that it was a very competitive field and that we would have to work hard to make it through the year. Then he walked to the blackboard and the last thing I saw was a drawing of a neuron and accompanying synapse.

"Captain, are you alright?"

Did he always have to call me captain? Alex was in front of me, no, not Alex, Alex was in the neurobiology class that I was missing, this was lieutenant Fin, my lieutenant Fin and as I blinked three times to make sure I totally left the amphitheater, I couldn't repress a smile.

"I'm thinking Lieutenant Fin, I'm thinking..."

We were in the main room, I was sitting on my command sit and the conceal members and Tucker were on theirs and Lieutenant Fin was standing in front of us. I had a huge sense of deja-vu, it was just like the first time I came here. Was I supposed once again to let Lieutenant Fin in charge, and why couldn't Michelle do it herself. She knew everything I knew about this world and more. I wondered if there was a way to talk to her, to interact with her.

"What is there to think about?" Tucker said. "The protocol said not to use the black hole for propulsion, so we just don't."

I looked at the conceal members, there was nothing on their face, not the slightest clue of what they were expecting from me. They had said to follow the protocol, was this a trap? What would be the consequences if I didn't? Couldn't Michelle take a single decision for herself? Whatever the Pithy said, I had no idea why I had come here right now, except to solve Michelle's problems.

"There is not enough fuel to get us to Antares," Lieutenant Fin said shacking his head.

Antares, the giant red, 550 light-years from everything I knew, did I want to go there? Hell, yes.

"That's why we should follow protocol and go home to refuel," Tucker said.

He was determined to go home. I knew that already. I stood up and walked to the girl. The mission was important for lieutenant Fin, he was ready to break every rules.

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Thursday Taster 94: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

"It does, but because you can test it now doesn't mean that it won't ever be able to be tested. I think human beings are in advance over the natural world. The natural world is finished and will never change, our abilities in the natural world, what we can do with our end depends on it we learn from in but our mind goes way beyond it so what we can do goes way beyond it too," Alex said.

"I don't follow you," I said.

"You have a cellphone right? You can talk and see the person you talk to even if you are very far away," Alex said.

I nodded.

"Well someone invented it just few years after the real phone was just barely created, in his head," Alex said.

"Jules Verne," I whispered.

Alex smiled.

"I think he somehow traveled to the future and managed to get the objects in hand, to see them," Alex said.

"How?" I asked, it was a little bit as if Alex had just said that me traveling in parallel universe was possible. I could bring back the plan of the spaceship, I could have it built, right her, in this world.

"You don't think I'm crazy," Alex said, "everybody say that I underestimate imagination, but for me it has to come from somewhere, for something trivial, maybe that's what people say, maybe it's all in your head, but when it gets detailed and complicated and way before your time, I don't think so."

"Then is it the reason why you're coming with me to neurobiology class?"

He looked at me intrigued.

"No, I came here because I'm awake, I have nothing to do and you can faint wherever apparently," he said.

I frowned thinking that maybe he didn't think carefully about all the implication of studying imagination.

"If imagination happens in your head, and if Jules Verne time traveled in his head, I think you should learn about the brain," I said.

"Is that why you are going there?" Alex asked.

"I want to know why I faint," I said.

"You think they'll have an answer?" He looked at the building unconvinced.

"You think you can prove time travel with physics, even though nobody did anything else than refute it, and I think I can figure out why I faint with a mixture of things," I said.

"So physics, neurobiology and what else?" He asked.

"Everything this that will come to my mind," I answered.

"But you can't learn everything," Alex said.

I entered the building more decided than ever.

"Watch me," I answered.

Only half of the amphitheater was filled up.

"You didn't tell me that wasn't a first year class," Alex said.

"Does it matter?"

"Well see the number of students, it's easier to ask questions," Alex answered.

"Don't worry, I had my dose of books on the topic," I said. "But if I faint, you're on your own."

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Thursday Taster 93: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

I put some jam on my bread and bite in it.

"I'm going to neurobiology class, you wanna join?" I asked.

"Are you going to faint again?" Alex asked.

"That's not impossible," I said. I didn't know what my dad had meant by four hours, it still didn't make any sense, maybe he knew a trick I didn't know yet. I opened my diary and wrote the result of the last travel, all about carrying water and cleaning the house and cooking beans, tones and tones of beans. I felt like I didn't want to see beans for the rest of my life.

"Then I don't have a choice," Alex said.

He took my general relativity book while I finished breakfast. There was something strange and familiar about having him sitting on my bed behind me but I wasn't too sure about it. All I wanted this morning was to make it to the amphitheater without prior black out.

Alex seemed to know every single short cuts on campus. He took me to the main building faster than we had yesterday with my father's car.

"So where did you learn about geodesic?" He asked.

I wondered if he could talk about anything else than physics and if he was going to be that serious all year. He looked so much like Lieutenant Fin. He had the same facial expression, the same way for trying so hard not to put his hands in his pocket as if that was something rude, the same sort of smile that he was trying to hide. I wanted to ask him about the other universe and that was disturbing me because I couldn't because he was not Lieutenant Fin, he was just Alex.

"I never did," I said. That was true, I had not a single clue about geodesic I didn't even managed to get what a geodesic was out of the book even by reading the chapter on it twice. "Why did you chose physics?"

"Because I want to do something different," Alex said.

"Different than what Amy is doing?"

"Different than what everybody is doing, I want to be allowed to think about useless stuff," Alex said.

"What kind of useless stuff?"

"String theory, the thirteenth dimension, time travel," Alex answered. "I want to be able to think about a lot of unobservable things without having people telling me they don't exist."

"And what if they don't exist?"

"If they exist in your imagination, they exist, if they exist in the equations, they exist, the rest, the concrete world, I'm sick of it," Alex answered looking around as if he wanted to include everything we could see in the last statement.

"But doesn't science need to be tested?" I said.

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Thursday Taster 92: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

"So, what class?" Amy asked again.

"Neurobiology," I said.

"That's not on the physics curriculum," Amy said.

"I know that but since my brain is a bit weird," I whispered not wanting to be heard.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense," Amy said. "I have a chemistry class in one hour, that's going to be hell."

"Chemistry is fun, normally..." I ventured.

"For a physics student, maybe, you have all the small cute stuff," Amy answered. "I'm talking about organic chemistry here, I'll have to memorise formulas as long as the street in front of the main building and I hate rote memorisation."

She caught her bread jumping from the toaster and put it on the plate moving her fingers quickly.

"You want to ditch and join me," I said. I could definitely use some company, especially that I didn't really trust myself to find the class.

"Thanks but no thanks, if I ditch my first university class ever, Alex would kill me before our parents even know, save them the trouble," Amy said disappearing in the corridor with her toasted bread. I put my bowl of hot chocolate in the free microwave and waited for it to be warm. I must have looked like a kid drinking this but I couldn't stomach coffee. As I walked out of the corridor, trying not to spit everything on the floor while carrying my hot chocolate bowl back to my room with the tip of my fingers, Alex was there.

"Let me hold the door for you," he said.

"We don't have classes this morning, why are you here?"

"I've gotta make sure that Amy goes to hers," Alex said. "How can you read that? I can't get a single word out of general relativity and we'll only start special relativity next year."

"I'm just pretending I can," I said.

"Fake it until you make it," Alex said.

"Sort of, I hate that we have to go through basics before getting to the really interesting stuff," I answered.

"You think exactly like Amy," Alex answered.

"Thanks for coming over to wake me up but if I had to count on you I would definitely be late, wish me luck," Amy said putting a kiss on Alex's cheek before running away without waiting for an answer.

"I'm sure it's not the organic chemistry making her so excited," Alex said looking at his sister disappear at the end of the corridor from my door.

"She seemed about to vomit just telling me about it," I answered.

"Amy is generally nauseous in the morning, not a morning person," he said.

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Thursday Taster 91: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

I walked out of the hut, there were fields outside for as far as I could see. That wasn't my first time in a farm but that was my first time in this one. I looked around for a well or something but there was nothing in sight. I turned around just to see Michelle's mother's frustrated face at my slowness. I notice a wooden bucket and grabbed it. It was still wet from the water I had fetched yesterday. This Michelle's hands were callus and she had stronger muscle than me. Moving in her body was easy, without knowing it, I started to run, bucket in hand on a narrow path between the fields. If her body hadn't taken me there, I wouldn't even have noticed it. I run, for a long time. It was my first time running without becoming breathless, I was enjoying it, I loved running, it was something unexpected. I stopped at the river and fetched some water. On the other side was a city, with a wall protecting it from the outside, with a castle made of granite stone in the center, it was surely visible from far away on this flat land. I stayed there, looking at it for few minutes, before changing the water, making sure not to touch the bottom of the river to get water as clean as possible. The water was fresh and I cleaned my face, this Michelle had no shower in her hut. The bucket was heavy on the way back, even with this Michelle's muscles. I spend the entire day there, doing cores after chores after chores. I thought I would never go back to my world. This Michelle's life made me sick, she had no time for herself, no time to think from morning to nighttime and she was exhausted and still yelled at to keep going. When I slide again back to my own universe, she had her hand on her bag. Her mother was snoring in the distance, it was time for her to leave and never come back.

When I open my eyes and saw the general relativity book under my cheek, I understood why I had visited her place. I didn't need to regret what had happened with my mother.

I was where I was supposed to be, I had run like Michelle was going to run, if I hadn't, my life would have been an only slightly enhanced version of her misery.

"Why are you up so early?" Amy asked entering our common kitchen.

I was waiting for the guy in front of me to finish heating his pizza in the microwave. That was the first weird thing happening, someone eating microwaved pizza for breakfast and I was expecting tons.

"Problem to sleep and I want to check up a class," I said.

"What class?"

She asked putting two slice of bread in the toaster. I wonder how long the toaster was going to survive if all forty people on the floor were to have toasted bread for breakfast but I didn't say anything, I just stared at the resistance turning slowly red.

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Thursday Taster 90: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

The parking lot's lamp was enlightening my room with an orange yellowing color. I had always slept in the dark at my mother's place and at my dad's too. It was strange to see shapes on the wall, to be able to stand up to grab things on my desk without needing to turn on the light. I took my book on general relativity. The geodesic were way beyond my reach, almost giving me a headache, but I had to go through this because if I couldn't become a physicist, if I couldn't understand who I truly was, I would have been slapped for nothing. I would have been standing up for myself on my own feet for nothing. The last thing I saw was the title of the fifth chapter in a blur.

"Michelle, Michelle, will you get up already?" My mother was standing in the hole that lead from my room to the kitchen.

I blinked three times, to make sure that I wasn't dreaming. It was still dark outside and I was with my mother which was pretty disturbing after being sure not to see her again in my universe. But this Michelle's mum had nothing to do with mine, somehow.

My hand fell on something, she was still calling for me. Food, in a bag, I had been packing food and half hiding it under the mattress on the floor that I used as a bed. Why? I didn't know but I didn't want to get this Michelle in trouble. I pushed the bag in the hole and I placed the flat stone back in front of it, swept the dusty ground to hide the move. I wonder if she was planning an escape.

"Michelle, it's time for you to get the water, you're going to be late again," my mother said hitting the ground impatiently with her feet.

"I'm coming," I said with a sleepy voice. It was not day yet, with the time she had spend calling for me to go get that water, she would surely had time to go get it herself.

I stood up. The ground seems really high when you sleep on the floor. I was not used to it and I somehow felt dizzy. I hope that this Michelle didn't want me here to run away for her but I remembered the words of the Pithy, I was the one coming here for some reason.

My mother grabbed my hair with both hands to get them away from my face. We leaved in a sort of hut, it was dark in the kitchen. She held my head in a sort of pony tail for a second, looking at my face.

"How many time will I have to wake you up? I can't do that every morning, you're old enough to know your duty," she said.

She turned around and sat at the wooden table, she was taking the tip of beans out, sure, she needed the water to cook them and put them in jars for the winter. I wondered how I knew that but somehow, I knew it.

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Thursday Taster 89: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

I didn't set the table, I walked to my room, my room where I couldn't isolate my self, my room without a lock on the door. I wanted to yell but I had lost my voice. I had been talking to her about going to university to learn physics since I was fourteen, since the first day I had learned what an atom was and she had planned my entire life for me without even consulting me. I was to become a secretary and work with her until she retired and then work with an assistant until I retired. A steady job, everybody's dream, everything prepared for me, everything I hated. And she had come to my room to force me to set the table.

"Don't be a baby," she had said, "It's for your own good. Do you know how many people fail university in first year? More than half, it's filled with drunks and drugs and gamers, people don't go there to study, they go there to get away from their parents and enjoy themselves in debauchery until reality catch them up. A bright girl like you don't want to waste time with those people."

And she went on and on and on about it, while I set the table, while she prepared dinner, while we ate. Not a single time she asked me what I wanted, not a single time she asked me what I liked, not a single time.

"Mum, what's my favorite color?"

"Blue of course."

"My favorite dish?"

"Chocolate cake."

"My favorite book?"

"The last of the Mohican, you used to play indians with the neighbor's kid before they moved away," she said, "Why all those questions?"

"Hum, for nothing, just conversation."

I finished my roast-beef and fries. I hated roast-beef and I wasn't too far of hating my mother's fries either. My grand-mother made them so much thicker so much tastier. I wanted to cry. I though after knowing me for seventeen years my mother would at least know me a little bit but she didn't. My favorite color was purple, my favorite dish was salmon with Holland sauce and my favorite book was Dune. She had not a single clue who I was and she had no intention of ever figuring it out. That's the day I started analyzing her, her words, her behavior toward me and toward others. I asked for a second form to my teacher and I filled it up during class. She didn't need to know. Then the slow process of convincing her started but I never managed too and that's why it leaded to today. That's why she slapped me, because she had finally realized that I wasn't a toy she could play with for her own ambition, or lack of ambition, but a real person, with real feeling and I had to hate her to make her see this. It was insane. But it was my life.

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Thursday Taster 88: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

I had trouble to sleep that night. It was the first time my mother had actually slapped me and even if slapping back had been a sort of defense mechanism, I wasn't really proud of myself. Everything went against what I had been taught all my life. I didn't hate her all my life, it had just happened recently. I guess I had been blinded, like everyone else, maybe even more because we were so close and everyone was so happy to say how great a mum she was. I think it happened on the day when we had to fill up the form for university. Of course, I had been talking about it forever but she might never had taken it seriously. I brought the forms back from school and I sat at the kitchen table, looking at all the possibilities in front of me. Everything that the closest university could offer, I felt lucky that I didn't need to go too far away from home to be able to get quantum mechanical classes early in the curriculum.

"What are you reading?" My mum had asked.

"I'm filling up the form for university, there are so many interesting classes to take, I don't know what to choose. I know I want to do physics for a long time now but if I could study tectonic that would be great, that's my favorite topic this year and..."

She had taken the book away from me. For one second maybe, I thought she was interested, that she was going to give me some advises about what to take, that she was going to say not to overload my schedule at first and add classes later if I felt like I could tackle them. But she barely looked at it. She closed it, pilled up all the forms wrinkling the pages and threw it in the bin.

"Set up the table, it's almost time for dinner," she said taking a pan out of the cupboard.

That was it, that was my first serious interaction with a university form and she had just discarded it while I was working on it.

I took everything back from the bin, part of it had sauce on it from the previous night diner and was unusable. She snapped it again from my hands when she turned around to see what I was doing. This time, she teared things apart before putting them back in the bin. I couldn't say anything, I just looked at her unable to really understand what was happening to me.

"I don't want you to get big idea, I already talked with the headmaster of the school I want you to go to and seeing your grade there is no problem, you have been registered there and you can start as usual in September," she said.

"What school?" I managed to articulate.

"Come on Frederique, the secretary school of course," my mother said, "I told you I need an assistant at the office and the company agreed to wait two years until you complete your degree. You'll get a degree in two years and a steady job, that's everybody's dream. Now set the table."

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Thursday Taster 87: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

The council reentered the room and I stood up. They didn't sit down, they all stood near their chair, I was suddenly feeling like I was surrounded by a group of giant all dressed in white. It wasn't really different from my experience at the hospital.

The taller one with a large red beard hiding his face started to talk:

"Pilots, you are to remain in your duty until the end of the mission.

Captain, you have to obey the protocol especially in time of emergency, unless unexpected actions are required.

General, you are in charge of the inquiry about 34564 and 34565..

Do you all understand your tasks?"

"It's perfectly clear," Tucker said.

"Yes," I answered.

Once again the council members started to move to the little door at the back of the room.

"Someone take away..."

"Maybe it wasn't a panic attack, maybe it was a real heart attack, it feels the same," Amy said.

"Don't be ridiculous, she is still breathing, it's just as if she fainted or something," Alex said, "Didn't her mum said it happened all the time and that we needed to send her to the hospital?"

He pressed a cool towel on my forehead.

"No hospital, ever," I said.

I tried to sit back but he pressed on my shoulder with his hand, it was warm on my bare skin and I didn't regret my small tank top anymore.

"Take it easy," he said.

"I'm fine," I answered.

"You always say that but it looks like you're not," Amy said.

"I'm fine, I just black out all the time without warning, I'm used to it," I said taking Alex's hand away to sit up. "See, no problem, I'm not even dizzy. But I'm hungry, so we better go shopping before it starts to rain."

They both looked at me.

"Just like that, are you sure?" Amy said.

"Only my mother makes a big deal about me fainting," I said. "She had me locked up, until today."

I grinned.

"I want to know everything about your life," Amy said.

That was exactly the reaction I had hoped for.

"Then I'll tell you on the way."

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Thursday Taster 86: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

"Enough," one of the council member said. "Pilots, do you have anything to say for your defense."

"No," Debby said.

"No," Klara answered.

They could have been yelling that they didn't do anything wrong, that would have helped me to have someone ready to yell on my side but they both seemed resigned.

"You are accused of leaving your position without preparation to have put his ship into danger, are you aware of that," the patient man added.

"Yes," they both said.

"And you don't have anything to say about that," he asked again.

"These creatures are not made to be pilots, just look at them," Tucker said, "they are unable to think."

"Enough," one of the council member said and I wondered for a minute if it was his only role.

Curiously, there were no female in the council, I wondered if I should be happy about it or not. "May I speak?" I asked. I mean I had things to say but I wasn't going to let them yelling enough at me. The polite approach seemed to be the best.

"You may speak captain," the patient man said.

"If you decide to take the ship back," I didn't know where because I truly didn't have a clue. "I want it to be quarantined until we figure out who tried to poison my pilots," I said.

"Why are you still on with this nonsense?" Tucker said.

I walked closer to the council's table.

"This mission is obviously important enough for someone to try ruining it," I said. "If you decided to send the ship back, I want it quarantined."

"Is that all captain?"

"The matter is in your hands," I looked at the patient man straight in his blue eyes. The council members stood up and one by one disappeared through a little door on the other side of the table. I fixed the door until it was closed behind the last of them.

"Are you all right?" I walked to the girls and squatted in front of Klara's chair.

"You shouldn't have tried to protect us," she said.

"They are going to take the ship away from you," Debby said.

I checked their wrists, they were a bit swollen but nothing that would last if we took the chain off soon enough.

"I need you, we need to finish what we started, they don't want to get us there and I want to know why," I whispered.

I didn't want Tucker to hear me. I needed to find a way to get this mission over. I wanted time alone with the girls to tell them why it was so important to me. Why I needed to go there now and couldn't wait for a shuttle after going back.

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Thursday Taster 85: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

Tucker seemed to be done with his chitchat. I looked at the member of the conceal one by one, they were in a semi circle. Then I noticed that Klara and Debby were behind me. Sitting on chairs, with their wrists and ankles attached. I had a huge feeling of revolt burning in my chest, something as violent as when I had told my mum that I hated her. They had been my dad's girls and now, they were my pilots.

I smiled at them, there was no way I was going to let them in this situation. I turned around to face the conceal and yawned I wondered if Michelle had taken me here because she was so bored but I remembered the words of the Pithy. I was the one who had come here.

"Then I'll let you in charge," I said walking to Tucker.

Everybody shifted in their sits, that was a move they weren't expecting.

"I..." Alex entered the circle, "I have an important document to deliver to the captain," he said walking as fast as he could to me and handing me a paper.

"You are not allowed in this room lieutenant," a member of the conceal said.

"Go," I whispered.

I was happy to have him here in the middle of the hostility but that wasn't really the time and place to break the rules. I looked at the paper and fold it carefully before placing it in my pocket. That was one more reason to get my pilots back.

"Please continue captain, you wanted to relegate your captain responsibility to general Tucker," one of the conceal member said. He had patient blue eye but he didn't seem to be the kind of person that you would want to piss off.

"I was saying that I'll let him in charge of the current affair," I said. "I want him to find out who tried to poison and kill my pilots and to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"This is ridiculous," Tucker said fulminating, "this child is trying to turn this ship into... into..."

"Into a safe place for everyone," I said. "That's my last offer, we have an important mission to accomplish and we can't keep on wasting more time."

"This is all about your father, isn't it?" Tucker said.

"General," one of the member of the conceal said. He had the same sort of blue eyes as the other one and curiously, they all did.

"I need my pilots, we don't have anyone else who can drive on board, I want them back to work," I said, "I'd rather have them their then in jail the next time we meet a sun."

"But you managed the solar attack so well, captain," Tucker said with so much sarcasm in his voice that I wondered how he didn't strangle himself on it.

"Not thanks to you," I answered.

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Thursday Taster 84: Parallel Slip

Hello and welcome to a new Thursday Taster, the day when awesome writers all over the blogosphere come together to give you tasty bits of their last fiction. You can find the list here.

If he really cared, he could have called Sabine, that was a way better idea than to leave me in the hand of my mother after this.

"I'll manage," I said.

"But I can't leave you alone here," he said.

"Seriously dad, I'm fine, just go," I said.

He hesitated

"And we'll take care of her," Amy said grinning.

There was something in that grin that was kind of reassuring as if she understood that I needed my dad to go away as much as I needed my mum to. The difference was that it didn't take hours of nonsensical argument to not get across my father's head. He stood up.

"Just call me if there is any problem," he said.

"I'll do that," I answered.

He kissed me on the forehead and left, just like that.

Amy waited until he was totally out of ear reach and entered the room closing the door behind her.

"I want to know everything about your life," she said.

"Why are you guys helping me?" I asked. I was feeling so tired, like I could sleep for an eternity and the problem was that with my heart stopping like that, I was also afraid not to ever wake up again.

"Are you kidding me?" Amy said. "At first, I just wanted to see the face of the weird girl who needed both her parents to show her everything in here, but then wow, really you're something. I mean if I ever talk to my mum like that she would lock me up for the rest of eternity."

"Amy," Alex rolled his eyes at her as a sign that it wasn't really the best topic right now. "Don't listen to her, she's craze, both our parents where here too until they noticed it was embarrassing. Now that you can breath, let's go get you some fresh air."

I stood up for a second. I was sure it wasn't 6 pm yet, I fell backward on the bed. The last thing I saw was the almost empty shelf then the ceiling and the top of Alex hair.

"Alex?" I blinked three time wondering where I was.

Lieutenant Fin turned to me.

"See, this is exactly what I mean, even with her blood and inheritance, she is just a spoiled child who would rather put her incompetent friends in the spotlight than to follow the protocol and care about this ship. We can't risk more damage than we had during the solar attack," Tucker said.

I was in a large round room, standing in front of the council and Tucker was harpenting the room in front of me, his hands attached together in his back. He seemed impatient. He seemed to have a case against me and I sure knew why but I didn't see how to get rid of him. Alex, well, Lieutenant Fin which might also be call Alex in this world was on the side of the room. Making signs I didn't register.

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