Alien Reincarnation in Midtown Manhattan

Do you remember who you are? She had asked him. And as he tumbled into bed, shoulders and head aching, still wearing the same shirt, he thought about that. Funny enough, he’d often asked himself the same thing, but only when thinking about how much life in the fast lane in New York City had changed him. Some of the changes he liked, and others, well, that was what it took to succeed and to be where success was measured in superlative terms.

He didn’t even remember falling asleep.

***

"Good luck, my friends." The woman said in a way that was meaningful and light-hearted, but then that was Ila. She could be a hard bitch at times and a bleeding sentimentalist at others, but Orian and Kia loved her, anyway. Ila stood blinking at him a while with her large coal-black eyes and then slapped him on the shoulder. "I expect to see your sorry faces when we rendezvous with Vsad One." She laughed at him, unconscious of the power of her laughter. "So take care of yourself, and don’t disappoint me."

"How long do you think we have before we reach the target field?" Kia asked. She was young, pretty, doe-eyed, and smart. Unlike Ila, her hair was the darkest shade of grey. And her eyes were red as the supergiant Baytal.

"Soon enough. And sooner if you keep thinking about it," Orian said with a laugh.

The three of them: Orian, Kia, and Ila stood in a small airlock of the spaceship, three comrades in arms, three friends for life, bound closer to each other than any would admit. The only person missing was the old veteran Riak, who had died two years ago. Leaving Orian outnumbered by females, not that he minded much anymore. Half in love with Ila, his often bitchy superior, Orian was equally attracted to Kia, the young officer who had been assigned as his own subordinate and merani assault team partner. But beyond that, the trio had become friends. Imagine that, Orian thought, having female friends, real friends. Friends because they had been through the mouth of hell together and returned, only to brave more battles every time the mothership Vsad One got attacked. Orian knew that any personal relationships with his comrades, now his friends despite his additional inclinations, would just have to wait until the war was really over. Assuming that they won it.

Their enemies, a rival colony recently from Ataxia, were people like them and originally of the same planet, Kerrol, somewhere so far away in the galaxy that most of the people on Orian’s ship Vsad Three considered life on Kerrol ancient history. Nevertheless, Orian’s people still called themselves Kerrollans. Since the colonies had left Kerrol, the Ataxians, once their own people, had rebelled against the government of Vsad One and allied themselves with an alien race from Catar, a strange society of creatures barbaric in custom but light years ahead in technology and scientific development. A strange mix, the Catar, but there were loads of stranger things in the universe.

"The enemy has breached Vsad One... Prepare to launch all merani units." A voice interrupted over the intercom.

"They keep playing that old song." Ila sighed smiling, then shrugged. "Time to go. Don’t forget. You two promise to come back."

"Believe me, we intend to!" Kia returned glibly. "Same goes for you." And a moment later, she and Orian pulled up their faceshields. Orian took one last look at Ila, turned to the air lock and waited for the fall.