Planet Bexmotfzor

  Eleven years ago

  Several very tall aliens are positioned in a circle around a control station covered in flashing red and orange lights. In the center of the enormous sterile room, shielded by a large glass cylindrical tube, stands a lone alien of similar species. The solitary alien watches the work of his companions with lowered eyelids.

  "Will they hurry it up?" Xol thinks angrily to himself. "They've been perfecting portal travel for almost two decades. You'd think, the Bexmo scientists would've figured out a simple little bug like a time travel jump by now. So much for all of my hard-earned Wexxer tokens. Whatever's wrong with the jump sequence, it's going to cost me big. The next jumper is scheduled for forty-five minutes from now. If these dumb scientists haven't figured out the problem by then, my portal jump will be forfeited. No explanation. No refund. On to the next paying citizen. Great. Such is life on--and off--Bexmotfzor.

  Xol reaches up with his left hand and presses the communication nodule attached to his neck.

  "What seems to be the problem? I was supposed to be on to my next destination nearly twenty minutes ago," Xol inquires, frustration straining his voice.

  "It is nothing," a flustered scientist with beady yellow eyes says. "We are working on the problem. It is nothing. Please try to remain calm. We will have everything figured out momentarily."

  "Uh-huh," Xol grumbles. "I hope so. I paid over two million Wexxer tokens for this jump. A lifetime of scrimping and saving. If you don't get this portal working in time...I will take each and every one of you before the Terran Council. I may not succeed in getting my forfeited jump...Or my tokens back. But, it will be nice to see someone set a fire under you scientists' ass. You don't update your technology. You cut corners. Then, you mess up and still manage to pocket hard-earned tokens from hard-working Bexmos. It isn't fair."

  "Life isn't fair!" a large alien scientist says, her long lizard tongue snaking out of her mouth. "None of us asked to be born on Bexmotfzor. It was a curse set upon us at birth. Our various species have barely survived on this nearly forgotten world. What little tech we do have...We have scraped together after years of careful study and sheer determination."

  The surly Fjik lizard scientist glares over the huge flashing console at Xol. Even through the glass partition, Xol feels as if her fiery glare will melt him into a puddle of Bexmo goo.

  "How dare you insult us," the lizard scientist continues, her metallic skin seeming to glow. "Without us scientists...The people you citizens love to slander...Where would any of you be? What hope would you ever have of escaping this harsh and desolate world? But are any of you ever grateful? No, of course not. You run to the Terran Council with every complaint of a hiccup. Problem is...Every time you lily-livered citizens do that...They further cut our funding. You are causing your own pain. If you do not like paying two million Wexxer tokens for a single portal jump? Maybe you citizens should try...A little patience?"

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  Xol's mouth gapes open and he stares silently at the adversarial female scientist. Is what she says true? Does the Terran Council really reduce funding after every complaint to the residing board? That seems rather counterproductive. The whole point of a complaint is that the services do not match the costs. By cutting funding to the Bexmotfzorian Science Bureau, the Council is making matters worse. But why, is he not surprised?

  "I...I apologize," Xol manages to say, keeping his voice firm. "I may have...Misspoke. But even you must admit, that two million Wexxer tokens is a lot to pay for a failed jump?"

  "Must I?" the lizard scientist sarcastically drawls. "I would say...two million tokens is a small price to pay...For the chance to escape a lifetime of hell."

  Xol becomes speechless once again. He simply stare at the angry female scientist through the glass partition. She continues speaking without being prompted. This is her time now. What she has said, she has wanted to say for many many years. Nothing will stop her now.

  "You citizens really don't understand. As scientists, we are forbidden to purchase a jump. We can never leave this planet. We must watch as families and workers step into the portal...And disappear into the wonderfulness of space. But we can never hope to join them. My family is no longer on Bexmotfzor. I paid for them to leave many years ago. I did not want them to suffer and toil in vain on this planet's harsh surface. My daughter wanted to be a scientist. I begged her to be anything else. To be a scientist...Is to be one of the condemned. I wanted her to have a life. But...I will never know where she is. I will never know if she is happy. We are not permitted to know these things. Fore, if we did...We might want to leave. And that...Is forbidden."

  Fury rages through Xol's reptilian breast. What the scientist says cannot be true. Why has he never heard of this decree? This is insanity. It's barbaric. The Terran Alliance is made up of civilized beings. The female scientist must be mistaken.

  "You must be mistaken," Xol says, voicing his fears aloud. "Surely, the Terran Council would never allow..."

  "Hahahahaha!" comes the chorus of several bitter laughs.

  "The Terran Council would never allow such a thing?" the Fjik scientist scoffs. "Allow it? They wrote the law. Try educating yourself, Citizen. I have lived under the Council's strict rule for over a hundred spaceyears. You are barely fifty-three. My daughter is older than you. Older still, if the spaceyears have aged her any. You are like a baby. You have much to learn."

  A loud claxon sounds, causing the female Fjik scientist to glance down at the flashing console. Within the glass cylinder, a thin portal of whirling energy appears. Tendrils of orange, blue, and purple energy rope from the top of the glass cylinder to the bottom. Eventually, the energy portal becomes a solid column, nearly filling the entire glass tube.

  "We've established jump capacity," a smaller lizard scientist exclaims, the blue metallic scales on his face lighting up with glee. "I'm plotting the destination now. Final countdown. Commencing in five...four...three...two...and--"

  Xol never hears the final number counted out. The energy of the portal envelopes his body and he is drawn out of the tube--and into forever.