Neetra and Flashshadow

Neetra sat up straight again in her latest attempt to persuade her knickers to stay put, and resolved that the next time she straddled a Vernderernder for several hours she wouldn’t do so with a short skirt on.

One or two planets glittered far-off, but the nearest intelligent life-forms were a thousand parsecs removed in every direction. No-one was by to note the solitary silent chauffeur as he toiled steadily along, nor the two girls perched on the bare metal frame of his back as though he were a motorcycle. Neetra had turned about to face backward so she might best talk to Flashshadow, who was riding demurely side-saddle. This slender quiet female was fairly difficult to detect even in broad daylight, and out here under the afterglow of distant stars she all but disappeared. Our heroine however knew she was there, and suspected the ghostly girl could not know how much comfort even her physical presence brought at this lonely time. With both Flashshadow’s wispy insubstantial hands balanced gently in her own, Neetra continued to her:

“It’s no wonder we’re a mystery to the likes of Dimension Borg. Half the time, we do things we hardly understand ourselves. Like what we’re doing right now, which I think I’ve got to tell you about. Partly because it involves a friend of yours, someone you’ve known longer than I have. And partly because I owe you an explanation about why we’re here – I mean, why I’ve turned in my Flash Club tunic instead of leading you all in our final assault on the Solidity. But most of all, I’m hoping that if I talk to somebody else about this, it might just start making sense to me.”

A tiny soft glimmer at eye-level in the direction Neetra was facing indicated faithful Flashshadow’s caring gaze was upon her. So she continued:

“His name’s Joe. He’s the reason for all this. I’m on my way to see him again, just as soon as we’ve left you safely at Eshcaton. He’s come to your galaxy, all the way from mine…but he didn’t come unaccompanied. Gala’s here too.”

Neetra couldn’t help hesitating for some seconds, while her listener patiently waited.

“Nothing I’m sensing about that is good,” our heroine went on at last, in a small voice. “Every fact I know already, every shred of evidence there is, says Joe’s betrayed our love and chosen her instead of me. And then there’s what I’m picking up now, about just how far that’s gone for them while he and I were apart…Shadow, there’s every chance that what I’m flying straight into is going to break my heart once and for all.”

She had to blink several times and look away.

“But I don’t know for sure,” Neetra then asserted, once she had mustered the words. “And the one who taught me that was Flashthunder. It was when we were in the heat-field. You were resting, because I’d worn you out yet again making you save all our lives – you know that’s why you’re here with me now instead of fighting alongside the others. So, there we were, and Flashthunder…”

Her words tailed off into another pause. She looked thoughtfully at the indistinct shape sitting with slim legs curled up on the pillion ahead of her.

Neetra had never been sure what exactly Flashshadow was, besides a staunch friend and perhaps the one person of this entire galaxy she had come to admire and respect the most. It occurred to her now that such an ephemeral life-form might not be able to relate on any level to the intrinsically corporeal experiences she had shared with Flashthunder. In fact, it seemed almost rude to start suggesting Flashshadow would want anything to do with that much grappling and breathing and perspiring. Certainly Neetra only had to be in her presence to feel there was twice as much of herself, though she knew Flashshadow didn’t do it on purpose, and guessed the latter had the same effect on most girls.

“Well, Flashthunder was there when I needed him, Shadow,” was how Neetra eventually put it. “And I know, that doesn’t leave me in the best position to go judging Joe for anything he and Gala might have done. But Shadow, here’s the whole point…”

Neetra drew in a deep breath.

“It was good with Flashthunder,” she confessed, and memories of all she had touched upon in that treasured time, wondrous discoveries made then to be carried with her forevermore, spoke out lyrically as she breathed the words. “Everything I’d longed for from Joe, suddenly there I was, tasting it with him instead. He, um, wanted it to be more,” Neetra added, turning a little pink, “but when it came to it, Shadow, I couldn’t. Because Flashthunder made me see what I’d known deep down all along. And that’s how come you and I are here. That’s why I’ve left behind friends, and my team, and a great guy who really liked me. There were times I was so happy leading The Flash Club, and I’ve told you how much hurt I might be letting myself in for by going to find Joe. But when I had to make that choice, Shadow, there wasn’t any question. You don’t even stop and think about the pain. When you know at last you’ve found the one thing for you that’s real, you can’t go on hiding from it anymore.”

She gazed out upon the glittering distance.

“And that’s Joe,” Neetra whispered, to the stars and the whole of the ambient cosmos that twinkled around her. “It always was. Even in the heat-field, even then, living every fantasy and every temptation with somebody else…I knew. It was always Joe.”

“Might have mentioned that to Flashthunder before you started getting it on,” commented the Vernderernder from between her legs. “You have treated him dishonourably, fleshling.”

“Mind on the driving, hands on the wheel, Vern,” Neetra grumbled in reply.