The Apocalypse Contract

EPILOGUE - MELISA

The first of Melisa's space bears came from the gift shop at the Kennedy Space Center. It was an exhilarating day of rockets and shuttle simulators and things designed to light a fire in her eight year old mind. Her father bought her the space suit clad teddy bear almost as an afterthought. Now, nearly eight years later on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, her collection of space bears had grown to an even dozen. It included several more NASA teddy bears, one cosmonaut bear, a stuffed tardigrade, a redshirt Star Trek bear, and even a teddy bear assimilated by the Borg. Her most recent addition, currently going by the placeholder name 'Twelve', was a green furred alien bear with antenna where his ears should be. Melisa had tucked him next to her on her hospital bed so he could observe her defeat the final level of Metroid Infinite.

"Samus... what are you doing to me?" she yelled to the tiny animated warrior. "Just go where I tell you." She frantically manipulated the game controller, but Samus was consumed by plasma fire. She threw the controller aside, knocking Twelve to the floor in the process.

"Everything all right in here?" A nurse peeked in and asked.

"Only if being killed by the Mother Brain for the millionth time counts as all right," she complained.

The nurse ducked into her room and scooped the green stuffed animal from the floor, setting it back on her bed. "Well, it's getting a bit late, so it's probably best to keep the shouting to a minimum." She checked Melisa's IV drip, then noticed Borg Bear sitting on the oxygen tank. "You've got quite the collection of these," she observed.

"They're my space bears," she explained. "I used to just get one every birthday, but I've gotten a bunch in the last year. It's the 'kid dying of cancer' sympathy thing. I even got one signed by a bunch of SpaceX engineers."

"That was nice of them."

"Well, I asked to go into space... that whole make a wish thing... but hey, a stuffed bear is almost as good I guess."

"I'm sensing some disappointment," the nurse noted.

"Oh I don't blame them; it was a crazy wish. They did what they could. I was even going to get a special tour of their factory and sit in a dragon capsule... but then I was approved for a new clinical trial, and everything got put off." She picked up Twelve, staring into his vacant black eyes. "You know what the really frustrating thing is?"

The nurse checked her oxygen sensor. "Do tell."

"There are aliens living on the moon now. The U.N. is building an even bigger and better international space station. Pretty soon traveling in space is going to be like catching a plane to Europe. But I'm not going to live long enough to see it."

"Well that isn't very optimistic." The nurse had moved on from her oxygen sensor and was instead looking at one of Melisa's sketches, a fanciful space station she had drawn only the day before.

"I'm being realistic," Melisa insisted. "This experimental treatment isn't going well. I'm getting sicker. My parents won't admit what's coming, but I'm not an idiot."

"No, you are definitely not an idiot. I can tell you are remarkably smart and imaginative. You remind me a lot of me when I was your age."

"Well you seem alright for a needle jabber, so I'll take that as a compliment."

She put the sketch down. "Needle jabber?"

"Sorry, it's my name for the nursing staff. I'm just a bit tired of all the injections and blood samples."

"I can sympathise with that." She pulled up the guest chair and sat next to Melisa's bed. "I promise you I will not be jabbing you with any needles. In fact, I can arrange it so nobody jabs you with a needle ever again."

Melisa turned to the nurse and realized there was something very weird about her. There was a strange smoothness to her skin, almost like she was wearing a mask. And her eyes... they seemed to drink in the light. You could fall into those eyes and never stop falling, like the whole universe was behind them. "You... You're not a nurse, are you," Melisa whispered.

"No, I'm not a nurse. Can't put anything over on you. Your file did say you were wicked smart. Let me properly introduce myself. My name is Sydney. I'm with the Intersystem Alliance."

She smoothed the fabric of her fake hospital scrubs, then sat up straight. "And we have a proposal we would like you to consider."