An Evening With Alpha Prime

Jake lifted his head up off the table to hear an insistent pounding at the door, followed by muffled feminine shouts of “Jake! Jake! Open up!” It was throwing off the pounding in his head caused by the numerous empty bottles littering the table around his latest project. He secured and stashed the device then grudgingly went to go see who it was bothering him at this early morning… oh, wait, it was mid-afternoon. At this mid-afternoon hour.

The cameras revealed the nearly blindingly brilliant light of Alpha Prime, hovering on the front door step. She was banging on the door and alternating between yelling at the door and at the camera. “Jake! We need to talk! I’m not going away this time! I just want to talk! Jake! Jake, open up! Jake!”

The pounding at the door finally synched up with the pounding in his head. He found a bottle that was still half-full and drank it to help with the hangover. It was about as good as he was going to feel at this point.

Over the intercom Jake buzzed, “Yeah, uh, let me get dressed real quick.” He then did a quick sweep of the house to hide all the illegal stuff. The pounding and yelling at the door stopped while she waited. He took the precaution to put on some rubber insulation under his clothing, then opened the door.

“You have a lot of nerve,” she said to him as she landed and entered the house. “A fully automated human clone factory!? You and I had an agreement! I would prevent the Atorians, the TMC, and the other Galactic authorities from finding you, and in return all you had to do was keep your tech and advancements to yourself.”

She continued. “Now look at this mess! That factory had your signature all over it. I’ve done my best to keep the Humans from being suspicious, but my superiors aren’t buying it. They’re on your scent again.”

While she prattled on Jake winced at the bright light coming in through the door and closed it behind her. Alpha Prime noticed and dimmed her own light as she looked at him sternly and kept talking. “Your stunt with the Atorians a few weeks ago was good. It really threw them for a loop. They concentrated all their efforts out in that quadrant. But now you’re on the radar again.”

“So this agreement, let’s say I uh…” Jake trailed off. “How do you feel about rewinds or reset buttons.” He smiled awkwardly. “Rewind for about X amount of years that is.”

“No such thing,” she said to him sadly. We can’t go back to the way we were back then. We’ve talked about this. It could never work out.”

“Ta-da!” Jake opened his arms wide as if presenting himself with that same awkward smile.

Alpha Prime looked at Jake puzzled, then with some measure of scrutiny. “Have you… changed your hair? It looks bigger than I remember. Wait,” she suddenly said with a revelation. “Are you younger? What have you done to yourself this time, Jake? You didn’t… tell me you didn’t get caught up in the Atorian’s experiments!? By the Light of the Core, no wonder the Atorians were so worked up!”

“This time it wasn’t me,” Jake told her. “I let people in like you told me…” Jake hoped this conclusion he jumped to was correct. He had no memory of interacting with her before these last couple days. “…and Ethel goes and kills me on our first day trip.”

Her look softened towards Jake. “You took my advice and reconnected with your estranged sister? And then she succeeded in doing something the entire Galaxy’s spend decades trying to do?” She tipped her head back and made a joyous, musical melody that seemed like… laughter. When she stopped laughing she looked back at Jake with an amused look. “So what you are saying then, is you died and reset to be as you are now? Younger? More like in our old days?”

“A bit before that,” Jake told her. “I still have my youthful vigor.” He grinned seductively and joking at the same time.

“Oh?” She said with a seductive grin of her own. “Well, let me be the judge of that.” A bright light started moving from her towards Jake. He quickly realized this was her inner light, her true self. Her physical body stayed where she was standing and crumpled to the floor, like a discarded skin suit.

She dimmed her light so it wasn’t too blinding to him. She moved so she was right in front of him and leaned forward so her energy form lips touched his. It was electric and painful, but not uncomfortably so. In fact it was rather enjoyable. This was a feeling of being alive, and Jake realized he was incredible aroused. Without a second thought, he went with the moment.

Several hours of painfully passionate lovemaking passed. It’s dark outside by the time the two of them have had enough of each other. Alpha Prime re-assembles her containment skin and lays next to Jake. Once they calmed down Jake resumes their earlier conversation. “So year I shut down those factories after I was made aware of their existence. Who tipped you off?”

“He didn’t give his name,” Alpha Prime told him. “I was told he sounded as a young man.” She looked at him seriously now. “Will there be more surprises such as that one? Or do you no longer know?”

“I hope not, but you know me. The last thing you can expect is predictability. I would visit myself and ask myself what all I did, but you know that the past me would torture current me ’till I found out how I died to avoid it.”

“Now you talk of time travel too? Is there no end to the madness of your science?” She asked that playfully, not seriously. “Your unpredictability is tiresome. I hate that I find it so attractive. I do not know how much longer I’ll be able to keep the TMC from finding you. It will help if you can avoid any further ‘discoveries’ of your science from becoming public.”

“Well on the bright side,” Jake responded, thinking of his disdain for costumes and fake names. “You will know it’s me if it does happen.”

“If you discover another surprise such as that factory, call me first,” Alpha Prime said to Jake as she wrapped her arm around his exhausted and burned body. “If I can get ahead of it I can keep you safe.” She released him after a moment and got up. “Don’t be a stranger,” she said as she walked towards the door. “Just because we can’t have public relations doesn’t mean we can’t still see each other.” She turned to Jake and winked. Then she left.

Once the door closed a voice from the hallway spoke up. “She is still quite a vigorous woman. You have done worse.” The pattern of the wall melted away to reveal Snake Person standing there. “I have reconsidered my original hypothesis, friend Jake. I no longer believe the Atorians are coming for you. I believe they may be coming for your sister.”

Jake remembered back to the time Snake Person and he used to live together and how this was not an uncommon experience for them, but for others this would be weird. He fixed himself and Snake Person some breakfast quickly and sat down on the couch with dimensional TV playing in the background. “It would appear that way. Maybe we offer them what they want to lure them out.” Jake smiled.

Snake Person took his food and nodded at Jake. “I will let you know when their arrival is imminent. Should I also invite Squonshy to help? He will be very excited.”

“Do you even need to ask?” Jake chuckled, remembering the good times. “Just make sure you bring the old ship if you still have it.”