"Starla" - Part Two

 

Part Two

            On my way to Starbucks, I listened to a recommended podcast from Conrad Clark, a believer from ‘across the pond’ who had some of his own encounters with aliens. His guest that particular day of the show was a girl who was about my age, going by the unique name of ‘Ruby Sunday,’ who had her own encounters to share. Some of them sounded very similar to what my Twitch followers mentioned in the chat last night, specifically the goblins and the world getting dusted.

            Kudos to Ruby for going public with this.

            Lately, there’s been some conspiracy theorists – one of them caught trolling in my Twitch chat on the aforementioned night – who believe people like U.N.I.T. have been lying to everyone not just in the UK but here in America as well. I’d like to see them say that to General Holden’s face.

            Once I made it inside the Starbucks where I met Tiffany, I switched off Conrad’s podcast just as Ruby began speaking of the ‘blue police box’ that Conrad saw in 2007 and the previous year.

            Unfortunately, I didn’t see Tiff anywhere in the shop.

            “Excuse me?” I addressed the dude working at the counter. “Have you seen this beautiful black English lady? She’s got a body like Beyoncé and a voice like Mary Poppins?”

            “Ooh! I love that description!” A familiar voice spoke directly to my left.

            I turned to see Tiffany standing at the other end of the counter and sipping from a cup with a smile. We took our private conversation to a window booth, where I iterated her message. “What did you mean in your comment last night? That the discovery is ‘bigger’ than I realize?”

            Finishing her coffee, she told me, “There’s this friend of mine called ‘The Doctor,’ who comes from a planet called Gallifrey. The Doctor has been to Earth – this Earth – many times, including those events your viewers testified to, in your chat. The Doctor has saved this planet so many times, and no one – save a special few – ever knew it was them.”

            I didn’t know why she was telling me all of this, and I even asked such.

            “There is a plethora of worlds that exist beyond reality,” she explained. “Some of them leak into this world through a point between realities called the Infinite DC. That Red Dwarf spacecraft you discovered comes from one of those worlds across the Infinite DC…and I can take you to it.”

            She had me until she started talking about parallel universes – a multiverse.

            Obvi, I was ready to peace right up out of that Starbucks, my butt edging out of my seat and hanging by a cheek. “Well, thanks for trying to help,” I told her. “But it looks like I’m on my own – as always.”

            As I got up to leave, something right outside the window caught my eye…

            …a white orb-shaped pod of some kind parked in the middle of the street corner.

            It held up traffic and attracted quite the crowd of onlookers, most of whom had their phones out to record the thing for social media. I can imagine the trending hashtag to be somewhere along the lines of ‘#WeirdOrbThing’.

            “Quite the beaut, isn’t she?” I heard Tiffany ask me, as if she knew what the pod was. And, apparently, she did. “It’s my TARDIS – a Type-X model, not like that busted ol’ Type-40 the Doctor cruises ‘round in.”

            Petrified with intrigue, I barely managed to point to the orb or even look away from it when I asked Tiffany, “That thing…is some kind of…spaceship?”

            “Not ‘some kind of,’ luv,” Tiffany said. “It is a spaceship. And it’s mine.”

            I can’t even begin to explain what happened next, after Tiffany led me out of the Starbucks and into – yes, into – her TARDIS spaceship thing. Initially, I assumed the space inside the pod would be cramped. Tiffany was a slender woman, but she was also close to six feet tall. Between her and my scrawny lil’ behind, I wasn’t sure how either of us would fit.

            But then we stepped inside the TARDIS…and teleported into a much vaster interior space. “Are we…on the Red Dwarf?!”

            Tiffany snickered. “Oh, no, darling. We’re inside the TARDIS.”

            I felt a headache coming on. “But we…the outside…it wasn’t…I mean…”

            I wasn’t sure what I meant – all that sputtered out from my mouth was gibberish. Tiffany got some entertainment out of it, looking at me with a warm smile formed on her lush red lips. She was incredibly attractive – in looks and personality. She was also well-acquainted with this bizarrely structured spacecraft, standing at the hexagonal console at the center of the room – the cockpit, I presumed – and operating the controls.

            And then I heard the optimistic, southern-accented voice of a young boy. “Hey, new friend!”

            Turning my head to see who it was, I was taken aback to see three two-dimensional characters looking back at me: a redheaded white boy wearing a long-sleeved V-neck hockey jersey with orange and white stripes, a short girl with strawberry-blonde hair tied into a large bun at the back of her head (atop which a yellow-green bird was perched), and a black boy with ponytailed dreads and wearing a green poncho.

            “Uh…hello?” I awkwardly waved back to them. Looking at Tiffany, I assumed, “You travel with cartoon characters?”

            “Cartoon characters?” The short girl frowned. “We’re not cartoons!”

            Tiff quickly stepped in. “It’s complicated,” she told me. “These lil’ darlings are from another of the Infinite DC worlds. Starla, meet J.P. Mercer, Kelsey Pokoly, and Omar. Kids, meet Starla Becker.”

            Despite the proper intros (and lack thereof of a scientific explanation), I still felt a little discombobulated sharing the same space as animated children. Curiously, I walked around them, analyzing their 2D forms. I was amazed to see that, while their features still appeared ‘flat’ to my more in-depth senses, they shifted as they would any 3D models. Quite a baffling yet fascinating phenomenon; I hope my personal observation offered a little credence.

            “So…are you from another world, too?” I asked Tiffany, having been curious to do so, ever since she introduced me to her TARDIS.

            “I am,” she answered, making sure to emphasize immediately afterwards, “but I live in the same reality as you.”

            “What is reality anymore?!” I blurted out, overwhelmed.

            Tiffany merely took my outburst in stride. Not wasting a moment, she asked everyone onboard, “Now, who wants to see what’s inside the Red Dwarf?” J.P., Kelsey, and Omar responded like the excitable children they were.

            Tiffany then flipped a switch on the console.

            Loud and strange noises suddenly reverberated around us.

            I wasn’t entirely sure where they came from, or whether if it was the ship that was making them or not.

            Maybe this was all a huge mistake.