Come Back To Me by Drew Concord

Come Back To Me by Drew Concord

Twyla lifted the white sand in her hand and watched it fall like sparkling glass through her fingers against the lilac sky. Waves crashed on the shore, drawing back a cascade of alabaster pebbles with every retreat.

The colossal laser beam from the outpost passed through the sky in a steady ellipse, flashing the rhythm ID for their port. It served as a beacon for vessels navigating the asteroid belt on their way to the outer reaches of the Kantar 9-B galaxy. Signifying a place to rest, to fuel up and re-supply in the expanse. One of many established by the intersystem alliances.

Twyla had been stationed at this one for the last six years. The Lighthouse, they called it.

A flock of grey seabats skimmed over the distant surface, dipping their claws down into the water in the hopes of catching a swimming meal. Their shrill cries were carried to her ears by a strong, cool breeze – along with the algal pungency of the salty sea. The marine system here was three times as saline as the one on Earth. It stung the eyes but made for good floating during shift breaks at the zenith of the day-weeks.

She looked to the golden light of the setting sun on the horizon in the spot where ships took the typical flight path in. The sun was in its eleventh day of setting. This was her favorite time, the lingering cusp between the many months of days and nights. The three moons were high and bright overhead, so close to each other at this point in their passing that she was sitting near the sandgrasses edging the dunes to avoid the tide.

The wind gently tugged wisps of black hair out of the long braid down her back. She was in the khaki jumpsuit that was the Lighthouse’s uniform. Sitting on a faded blanket in the sand, a notebook with an array of watercolor pencils beside her. Twyla was drawing the foxcat who lay curled up at the base of a sandgrass hedge nearby, regarding her with one silver eye open.

Her obliging muse was patiently waiting for another one of the snacks she kept throwing to keep them cooperating. It was taking her a while to capture their coat – an iridescent lavender that shifted to a green sheen when the angle of the light hit it just right. In the day-weeks the animal was a silvery grey, and soon they would finish their shedding to become a dark violet with a forest green transformation, ready for night.

Foxcats were one of the creatures she’d been assigned to catalogue in the first Earth year her station began. This one had been glued to her side ever since. As the post’s epidemiologist, most of her duties were on the health team, monitoring incoming traffic and the endemic wildlife for signs of disease. Microbiological transference was common on stations throughout the universe, but they were well-tracked and response times had been stellar for decades. The job wasn’t a stressful one. Many of her duty shifts were in fact spent documenting flora and fauna, part of the long-term exploration of the planet.

The foxcat suddenly whipped its head up and gave a loud trill, responding to a call too faint for her own ears to pick up. Twyla startled, then laughed at herself for it. The creatures here still always found a way to surprise her. It helped her cope.

A memory sprang into her mind before she could stop it. Atlas laughing near this very spot. She remembered how his bass rumble traversed the dunes as they ran over them, racing to the water. The deep laugh that had first captured her attention, drawing her out of the medical bay to spy the loud culprit’s broad shoulders standing above the crowd at the docking station three Earth years ago…

She hadn’t been pinged to receive the ship yet, but she’d been in a lull between tasks and decided to meander over early to help.

A mountain of a man was conversing with the station commander, Celeste, as she passed a zeta wand up and down his body, checking for the highest ranges of radiation – uncommon at the station, but not unheard of. Must have traveled far. When the tech beeped an all-clear, Celeste threw her hands up in the air and let out a massive sigh of relief. The pilot laughed and swung his arm around her petite shoulders like they were already old friends. Twyla chuckled as the commander looked around them as if loathe to be caught. Come to think of it, Twyla hadn’t seen the commander interact with anyone like that before.

Celeste shook a finger up under the man’s nose like she was giving him a solid what-for. He roared in laughter again, throwing his head back in the air, chestnut hair in a pleasant state of sun-kissed disarray. The commander stomped away, shaking her head.

Soon after, in the medical bay check-in, he asked Twyla out before she even finished taking his blood pressure.

“The name’s Atlas. I’ll be staying a while. Ship’s got some hefty fixing needing done.”  

Twyla stopped the exam and turned to him in surprise. She saw how his brown eyes melted to an almost golden center and quickly looked away.

“That has to be a record,” she said as she went back to readying the vials for a cheek sample. Viral checks. “I’m not sure I’ve met anyone like you.”

“Oh, I’m sure there are lots of me’s running around out there. Lucky for me that we met first.” He flashed a confident smile at her.

“You’re clearly trouble passing through,” she said. “So, absolutely not.”

By the time she sent him off to the next check-in bay, she had decided to ask him.

Some blissful sunrise-weeks and five day-months later, they were in a tent on the shore, saying goodbye.

His hand held her cheek and his eyes left a lingering trail before landing on hers. She smiled and leaned in, their foreheads touching. Atlas brought her hands up to his lips and kissed them. She closed her eyes.

“Come back to me,” she whispered.

“Always,” he said back. “Like a river runs to the sea.”

Her eyes flew open with concern and she pushed away. “But not all rivers end there!”

Atlas grinned and his eyes twinkled mischievously. “Well, I am 100% positive that ours goes all the way.”

She laughed and leaned back in, dissolving into his embrace.

& & &

A sharp chirp drew Twyla back to the present. The foxcat was right at her side, nudging her elbow with their short muzzle.

“Okay, okay.” She reached into the satchel and drew out more treats for them. “Thank you for bringing me out of it.”

It had been over two and half years. No word had reached the Lighthouse since his ship had gone cold outside of Vyxar-1, a supermassive black hole notorious for its extensive jets. He’d been en route to a trade port in the third quadrant of the Pali solar system and slated to come back to their station soon after.

The uncertainty felt like a twisting in her gut, the thread between them made so thick with the turns that it couldn’t be cut. Even when it felt like it was failing, the hope stayed as a faint burn in the dark. She could still see it. Feel it. And she didn’t know how to let it go, to untie the tether.

But she was finally starting to find some peace again. She begged Celeste for extra shifts to keep her mind occupied.   

She was a regular now in the survey teams on the multi-day treks to explore out to the canyons in the east and the snow-capped mountains in the south. They were teaching her to map stratigraphy for the geology review and to acquire more ethical samples for her lab’s bio-catalog, such as setting up a brush web to capture small tufts of fur.

The forays from her duties at the medical bay were made possible by her exuberant and extremely competent assistant, Jubal, an avid medical student freshly landed to the station one year ago. She had a sneaking suspicion that Celeste had brought him in specially to give her the extra freedom. The commander seemed happy enough for Twyla to take the exploratory shifts, even if it meant missing the occasional ship passing through.

Twyla heard her name being called, and she turned to see Skylar and Astrid standing on the wooden path leading out to the dunes from the outpost, waving.

“Twyla!” shouted Skylar. “The ‘scope says a ship’s coming in.”

Astrid called out as she turned to leave, “Grab your dinner before it gets here.”

Skylar walked out to where she’s sitting.

“You doing okay?” he asked.

Twyla smiled and nodded.

“Well, you should come help in the constellation battle. Corbin’s already going on and on about how he should have the first pick of the naming this year. Pretty sure he’s gonna find one he can name after certain body parts, help us all.”

Twyla laughed – she could see this happening. Skylar was clearly pleased that he’d made her laugh. He was so handsome and kind. Warm smile, always ready to brighten her day. She’d welcomed his flirting lately.

“I’ll head in, just a bit longer and I will,” she said as she patted his arm. “Thank you.”

“Alrighty, you got it,” he smiled at her. “One steaming hot plate on reserve, coming up.”

She soaked in more of the sun’s rays. A couple hours passed. She knew the food had gone cold.

The bright lights of an incoming ship dropped abruptly from the clouds, careening straight for the post. They flickered sporadically. Time for maintenance on this one, certainly.

“See you later?” she called to the foxcat. The creature chirped as she got up, then took bounding leaps away over the dunes, tail high.

She walked down the wooden path to the main buildings of the station. People were jostling their way out of the dining hall to get to the port and chatting excitedly.

Astrid bumped into her. She grabbed her hand and started pulling her in the direction of the port. “Let’s go!”

“What’s happening?” Twyla asked.

“This ship has just been through, like, a hundred universes.”

“What do you mean? Why?”

“Apparently, the pilot’s Nav and Comms got knocked out by a massive jet around Vyxar, then an asteroid shoved it off course to an orbit on its edge. Instead of riding it out like any normal human being and giving up the hundred or so years of offset, the dude then freaking went straight for the center at warp.” Astrid stopped and bent over, laughing.

Twyla’s heart thumped in her chest.

Astrid caught her breath and continued. “So of course he had to go through many, many, many more until he made it back to the right one. It’s so ridiculously stupid and reckless, I don’t know what made him decide to do it. Damn lucky, too – the loop could have gone on forever.”

Astrid misinterpreted the look on Twyla’s face. “And yup, you guessed it, he’s run into himself, like, multiple times, trying to do the same exact thing from their own universes.”

“Is he…” Twyla trailed off. She couldn’t say it.

“Oh yeah, I bet his alternates are probably going to be coming and going for years. In fact, they probably already…” Astrid slowed down, but her eyes got brighter. “Oh my god.”

Astrid started skipping backwards in the direction to the port. “C’mon, I am dying to meet this guy. I wanna know if he’s the right one, and then I wanna ask him if he’s met any of my alternates and hear how they’re doing!”

Skylar zoomed up to them just then, panting. “Oh, it’s the right one for sure. I just passed Captain and she’s coming in hot, watch out. Raving on about finally removing a ‘dimensionally-damned dolt’ from her side.” He laughed and took off running again, Astrid close behind.

More people brushed past Twyla as she stood there, watching them depart. She started to walk forward again, stumbling. Then she picked up her pace to a run, then a full-out sprint, eventually overtaking Skylar and Astrid. She burst through the port door and pushed her way through the throng of people, breathless.

 “I didn’t stop to buy flowers,” he said with a grin.

* * * * THE END * * * *
Copyright Drew Concord 2025