Regret

Captain Nathaniel walks to the window and looks out at the red nebula as the ship speeds past it. “I’ve been thinking. With my new face, no one will recognize me during the war times. I can finally right some wrongs and fix some mistakes.”

“What do you mean?” Haticat asks.

“There’s something that has bothered me for a very long time and I think it’s finally time to do something about it,” Nathaniel responds. “Power up the time machine. We’re going to Livilia-7.”

Many years ago, when Nathaniel was young, he was assigned to spy on the girls during the war. He found them negotiating an alliance with the psychosymbiotic Dolls of Livilia-7. He did not realize the significance of the empty cargo ships in orbit until it was too late. Losing patience with negotiation, the girls used their prettification nanobot contagion weapon to convert the Dolls and then teleported them onboard. They were then sent to Zek Omega to neutralize the psychosymbiotic cuddle blankets before the boys could solidify their support. Then they were sent to take planets Candy and Gruezhe, giving the girls a massive advantage early in the war, forcing the boys to rely on their barely finished secret weapon – the superbomb. Before long, both sides had bombs capable of destroying entire star systems. Eventually, enough of the bombs were used that they created a barrier of deadly radiation between the galactic center and the rest of the galaxy. This could all have been avoided if only the boys were tipped off about the girls’ plan to capture the Dolls.

Pop! Nathaniel and his crew appear in orbit around Livilia-7. They activate the hull camouflage and land their cross-shaped ship onto one of the much-larger cargo ships. They disable the teleporter beams and overlight engines. Then they move on to the next ship and the next. It takes hours.

There are no people on these ships, allowing Nathaniel and his crew to walk wherever they want. In some places, there are signs that the crew left in a hurry. On the way to one engine room, laundry is strewn up and down the hallway. A large pile of frilly laundry sits just outside the entrance. “These must be clothes for the Dolls to wear. Girls always did love clothing,” Nathaniel comments.

“But why are they so messy?” Fred exclaims.

“I don’t know,” Nathaniel answers.

It takes them only minutes to disable the power conduits in and out of the engine, and laser-fusing the regulator links so it will take some time to repair. Then they walk out, stepping around the pile of laundry blocking the doorway. Suddenly, Nathaniel whirls around with his gun out. “What is it?” Haticat asks.

“Someone moved the clothes. This pile was two meters that way.” Nathaniel points.

Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill pull out their guns and keep very quiet. “Where could they be? I don’t hear anything,” Haticat says.

Then the laundry pile changes texture. The pile smooths out, becoming a featureless, brown blob. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I was only curious what you were doing. We’re on the same side. Call me Blobert,” the blob says.

“What are you doing here?” Nathaniel asks.

“My agency merely wants to keep informed on gains made by the boys and whether they are distributed fairly among the races. My superiors are concerned that liquid life is being discriminated against by solid life. I’ve been watching the Dromaeosaur on the planet’s surface train the Dolls to fight,” Blobert says.

Nathaniel immediately remembers the alien wars that followed the war of the siblings, when Humanoids were attacked by the Anti-Primate League. “Understandable, but if you were here all along, why didn’t you report the girls’ plan to Girlbusters HQ?”

“What do you mean? The plan to teleport the Dolls onto the cargo ships? I just figured it out and was on my way to report it when you arrived,” Blobert says.

Something isn’t right. Nathaniel is from the future. He knows that no message ever arrived. “You’re either lying to me, or something ends up stopping you,” Nathaniel says.

“Huh? You four are the only other ones here. These ships are empty – except for all this loose clothing that I blended into when I heard you coming,” Blobert says.

“That this clothing is so messy is unusual. Girls are generally neater than this,” Doctor Bill comments.

“True,” Haticat adds.

Nathaniel picks up a pink shirt from the floor and looks closely at it. It seems like an ordinary shirt. Then the smell hits him – the smell of rapidly-decaying neurotransmitters that must be continually created to maintain such high levels. The shirt is alive. “All these years I wondered how the girls so easily ensured the Dolls’ support. It turns out they had help from their other allies – the endosymbiotes of Plaza De La Ropa!”

Suddenly, the pink shirt squirms wildly in Nathaniel’s clenched fist. The clothes on the floor begin crawling away as fast as they can. “Don’t move!” Fred yells, firing a warning shot into the wall.

“I had no idea,” Blobert utters, as his own gun bubbles up from inside his body. “They’ve been watching me the whole time. They’ve probably already tipped off the girls.”

“I’ve got to warn the Girlbusters,” Nathaniel says.

“There isn’t time,” Blobert says.

“It will only take a second,” Nathaniel says. Then he, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill run back to their ship.

Soon after launch, Nathaniel notices that the time crystals are getting worn and decides to stop on Delta Temporis to replenish his supply. He then spends a few days tinkering with the time machine only to notice how low his candy supply is getting, so next they stop on planet Candy to fill up. Finally, they arrive at Girlbuster headquarters on Ninosa at precisely the same minute that they first appeared in orbit around Livilia-7. The boys do not know who this strange Nino is, how he knows about the Dolls, or how he knows all their secret passwords, but when they see the squirming creature he is carrying, they agree to send a fleet to Livilia-7 right away. Finally, they head back for Blobert and the empty cargo ship. He times it to land just before he left, landing on the opposite side of the ship out of sight. He waits around the corner, holding a finger over his mouth to tell his companions to be quiet.

“I’ve got to warn the Girlbusters,” the earlier Nathaniel says.

“There isn’t time,” Blobert says.

“It will only take a second,” the earlier Nathaniel says. Then he, and the earlier Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill run back to their ship.

Five seconds later, Nathaniel and his companions approach from the opposite direction. “The boys are on their way,” he announces.

“That was fast!” Blobert exclaims. “How did you get over there?”

“Trade secret. I might show you someday,” Nathaniel says. “First, we need to neutralize the rest of these ships.”

“Well, expelling the air should make them unsuitable for Dolls or Ropa,” Blobert suggests.

“Good idea, but I’ll take it from here. You should go home,” Nathaniel says.

“You’ll need my help; there are a lot of ships and limited time,” Blobert states.

“I’m fast,” Nathaniel says cryptically.

“Okay, good luck,” Blobert says and oozes off to his ship.

Haticat and Fred kill the Ropa on the floor while Nathaniel and Doctor Bill set the computer to remove all the air. Then, they visit the next ship and the next one, traveling into the past each time so that multiple copies of him are attacking multiple ships simultaneously, not allowing any warnings to be issued until it is too late.

After emptying his fifteenth ship nine hours later, he takes a break. He is tired, bored, and hungry, so he travels to planet Lectipas ten years ago. After a good night’s sleep, waking to a beautiful sunrise and the sound of pterodactyls, he eats a bowl of cereal, bathes in the pristine river, and puts on a fresh set of clothing. He is putting the coordinates into the time crystal assembly when he notices a faint smell. He is not sure at first, but then recognizes the smell of Ropa. He reaches for his gun. With help from Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill, he tries to track down the source. “I smell it everywhere!”

Finally, they realize the strongest source is in Nathaniel’s clothing drawer. He points his gun and prepares to fire. Suddenly, his arm is bent away and pointed at Doctor Bill. “I’m not a Ropa!” he protests.

“I know! I can’t control my arm!” Nathaniel’s pants and shirt pull against his body, forcing him to walk, returning him to the time machine. The Ropa somehow snuck on board during one of the landings on a cargo ship and hid in his drawer. He had unwittingly put them on that morning after his river bath. Now they had control of his limbs. Fortunately, they had no control over his fingers and could not make him fire his gun, which he drops, but they could bash his hands clumsily into computer controls.

Pop! The ship appears on the surface of Plaza De La Ropa in the middle of an outdoor marketplace and Nathaniel is forced to walk to the door. “Let me go!” The Ropa continue to march him forward and use his arms to open the airlock. He zaps them with his electricity power, but this only causes them to lock up for several seconds, freezing him like a statue. He tries again, but soon he is outside and surrounded by girl police.

“Leave him alone!” Haticat shouts. He, Fred, and Doctor Bill exchange laserfire with the police and are forced back inside. Nathaniel is taken into custody. He is driven to the station, locked in a cage, and left alone.

“Get off me now or you’ll regret it,” Nathaniel warns his clothing. When nothing happens, he pees his pants. Instantly, the pants fall off. He steps out and lets them crawl away. Then he lies on the floor to rub his shirt in the puddle. The shirt cannot get away fast enough. Now wearing only socks and sneakers, Nathaniel electrocutes the cage lock and escapes.

“Stop!” yells a girl, but Nathaniel slips into superspeed mode and runs out of the station faster than anyone can take aim. Soon, he is back at his ship, evades the police around it, and takes off.

Pop! The ship is back in orbit around Livilia-7 right in the midst of a battle. Boy ships and girl ships fire on each other. “Oh! I need to go back some!” Nathaniel says, struggling to remember the proper time and date. “Ugh! What year is it?”

Finally, he resets the time machine and appears at the same time as most of his previous selves. As he finally gets dressed in real clothes, he hears a bang. Someone is breaking through the wall of his ship. He joins his Stuffian companions and runs towards the source of the sound only to see four girls in Tarrati battle dresses stepping through a gaping hole. “They landed their capsule on the hull during the battle just as you activated the time machine. You pulled them back in time with us!” Haticat exclaims.

The front girl sees them and her dress starts to spin, the cutting lasers powering up. “Quick! To the…place with the…stuff in it!” Nathaniel yells.

“The armory?” Haticat says.

Nathaniel was forgetting times, dates, and words. This was the price of so much time travel and so much knowledge.

Tarrati battle dresses were impervious to nearly all weapons of the time. Fortunately, Nathaniel has something that hasn’t been invented yet – antigravity fissors, guns delivering a pulse of antigravity energy so strong that it tears even atomic nuclei apart. He grabs four and hands them out to his companions.

They wait around the corner as the girls approach. Lasers slice through the carpet. As Nathaniel watches the points of contact get closer, it becomes obvious that he will be sliced up before he can get a clear shot. He shoots through the wall instead.

BANG! The lasers stop. Nathaniel and his friends run around the corner and kill the three remaining girls, leaving gaping tunnels through both metal and flesh. Then he opens a panel on the nearest dress and inspects the power supply. “It’s going to blow! Get back!”

They close the door to that arm of the ship just before there is a loud bang and the entire ship shakes. Fire erupts through the hole Nathaniel shot earlier. Then air starts to rush out. “We need to plug the hole!” Doctor Bill yells.

“There’s too much damage! Help me reconnect the time crystal assembly rails!” Nathaniel says. They pull the rails out of the wall and attach them across the door. Then he runs to the ship controls and activates the time machine once again.

Pop! The cross-ship appears on future Ninosa with only three arms, not too many years after the time they bought the ship. They have left the damaged arm in the past with the girl invasion capsule. The rest of the day is spent shopping for a new spacecraft, finally finding one even more comfortable. Comfort tech has advanced considerably. This ship is little more than a king-sized bed with a force field to hold air. The soft force field allows one to walk in and out so long as one carries a key. Like the hull of their old ship, the force field can wrap light around it to appear invisible. Tiny holes in the invisibility field allow the occupant to look out, and any images can be automatically projected onto the inside of the field.

Several pillows orbit the bed inside the field and protect it with lasers. The pillowcase fabric is made of the same material as Ninosan laser socks. On the bed, one pillow holds the control panel to fly the ship. Another has a screen. An egg-shaped orbiting capsule contains the toilet and has its own artificial gravity orientation. Another contains a storage shed. The underside of the bed is a compact laboratory and bridge, complete with telescope and traditional piloting controls. Artificial gravity holds the occupants in place, upside down relative to the bed.

Nanobots continually clean the sheets and any occupants, meaning no need for a washing machine. Blanket temperature, texture, and weight (responsiveness to the artificial gravity) are all customizable. There are also controls for light and music.

“It lacks the firepower or storage capacity of the old ship, but it’ll do for now,” Doctor Bill says.

The four explorers install the time machine into their new ship and return to the past, continuing to empty the air from the cargo ships around Livilia-7. Finally, they are finished, and await the arrival of the boy fleet.

“I still miss my books that were lost in the explosion. I’m going to get them,” Nathaniel declares. He materializes the bed inside the cross-shaped ship one of the many times the earlier Nathaniel was out committing sabotage. He grabs his books and other wanted items from the past and then leaves. His past self never knew they were gone.

Returning to watch and wait, the sudden depressurization of every cargo ship (and the distress calls from dying Ropa) worries the girls. They decide it must have something to do with the Dromaeosaur on the surface and send a patrol vehicle to pick him up.

“They knew I was there all along? But never did anything about it?” Nathaniel mutters in surprise.

“We’ve got to save you!” Haticat says.

They fly the bed to intercept the younger Nathaniel, who will never make it to his ship in time. They land in front of him. “Get in!” Nathaniel yells.

“Who are you?” younger Nathaniel asks.

“I’m you from the future. I died and got a new body. Then I bought this spaceship. The girls are coming; get in!” Nathaniel answers.

“Hi me!” Haticat yells to his younger self. The younger Nathaniel, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill are shocked to see themselves already on the bed in front of them.

“It’s a twin!” the younger Haticat yells, pulling out his gun.

“We’re not twins! We’re from the future!” the older Haticat says.

“How can I trust you?” younger Haticat says.

The older Nathaniel thinks for a moment. “You don’t need to; you’re standing inside the range of influence.” He hits a lever and the time machine springs to life. Seconds later, they are on Zek Omega.

“How did I get here so fast?” younger Nathaniel says. He and his crew walk away, in awe at the landscape.

“Quantum frame rates,” older Nathaniel answers.

“Huh?” younger Nathaniel says. He has not yet drunk the smart juice.

“Never mind,” older Nathaniel says. He then disappears and returns to Livilia-7 without them.

Finally, the boy fleet arrives and the battle begins. Nathanel drinks a soda while he, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill watch the show. The boys win. The Ropa never control the Dolls. The Dolls never join the girls. The boys are well on their way to winning the war without resorting to superbombs.
Nathaniel travels to planet Paffy twenty years in the future. It is still there, but the girls are gone. It is a boy paradise. The bed-ship lands in a field where it is lightly raining. The force field blocks the rain in the middle and turns it to spray near its edge. Haticat complains about the humidity, so Nathaniel sets the controls to have the force field block it. When the rain stops, they walk into town. The bed behind them becomes almost invisible, nothing more than a slight distortion of light among the reeds.

Soon, the explorers find some boys to play tag with. They are later invited to a party and they stay up all night. Then they climb into bed, fly over to the night side of the planet, and fall asleep between the stars above and the glowing cities below. They all sleep very well.

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