You are on a quest. A simple one. The kind of quest where it’s good versus evil. But not your normal kind of quest, as there’s no discernible source of conflict. You are in a city. You are not sure which planet, but it is not Earth. You haven’t seen Earth in a long time, not since you were taken as a child, to be studied. They’re friendly enough, these robots. You’re not sure you would want to go back to Earth, even if you could. You’d rather stay here and help them with their experiments. You like it here. You like them. They only want to better understand you, better understand us. They don’t want to hurt you or make you do things you don’t want to do or bring you down to make themselves feel better. You’re not even sure they have feelings. You wonder what that’s like. Not having feelings. You wish you were like them.
You watch as the moons give way to the rising sun, beams of red light pouring into your enclosure through the large window. You marvel at the view, as you do every morning. A shining city built into the mountainside, merging with the green, alien jungle. The natural and unnatural world working in harmony. You remember it was quite the opposite on Earth. Your stomach rumbles and you stretch a little, unconcerned by your hunger. Soon, they will bring you a breakfast of delicious fruits and bread. Then they will take you to exercise with the other subjects. Some from Earth, like you. Others from somewhere else. You smile. You feel contented. You feel happy.
#
Jacques sailed slowly across the cramped ship, his leg outstretched as his body charted a perfect parabola from one end of the vessel to the other. His foot thudded against Joey’s face, jarring her awake.
“What did you do that for?” she said, rubbing her cheek.
Jacques smirked as he strapped into the console next to Joey. “Why are you on that stupid self-hypno dream game again? You’re not even playing it right. You’re supposed to kill the robots and escape back to Earth. You just hang out with them. It’s weird.”
Joey winced as she unplugged the DreamCube from her head. It was always unpleasant pulling the probes from the sockets implanted in her nostrils. The machine beeped as it powered down.
“We’re going to be landing soon. What would Father say if he could see you putting the mission in jeopardy?” Jacques said. He grabbed the DreamCube and shoved it into his storage locker which he then locked.
Joey glowered at her partner. She hated him more with each trip. They were paired at birth having been deemed suitable for procreation, something that had been important to Father, but seemed ridiculous to Joey whenever she thought about it. “Father’s dead,” she said. “He died of radiation exposure over a hundred years ago, thankfully before he was able to drag any more people into his stupid colonization cult.”
Jacques stopped what he was doing, his jaw clenched in anger. “That’s blasphemy,” he said. “I should report you for that, have you locked in the bunker for six months of re-education.”
On most normal days, Joey would have stopped there. She knew he wasn’t joking. Jacques had reported her before. There was something about today. Whether it was how he had woken her from the game, or because these trips were getting harder. “You do see how pointless all this is?” she said, looking him in the eye with defiance. “We can’t live on Mars. Everyone would die if we didn’t make these trips to Earth to beg them for supplies.”
Jacques eyes widened with a rage she hadn’t seen before, like he was going to explode.
“Don’t you ever think we’d be better off staying there,” she continued, committed to saying her piece. “I know Earth’s got its problems, but it’s better than scrabbling around in the poisonous dirt.”
“So, you’d let them all starve? Our friends. Our family. All those trying to make Father’s dream of becoming a multiplanetary species a reality. Just let them all die. Nice, Joey. Real nice. You disgust me.”
“They wouldn’t have to die. They could return to Earth too. The one thing that Father left us with is plenty of rocket ships.”
He stared at her, seething, like he couldn’t believe his ears. That he must be hooked up to the DreamCube and none of this was real.
He slapped her. Not hard, but sufficient to sting. Then he was on her, his hands around her throat, squeezing enough to show that he was in control. “Listen to me,” he hissed, “you are going to keep your stupid ideas to yourself for the rest of this trip, understood?”
Joey nodded, unable to speak with his grip on her.
“Good. Now, we are going to land this ship, and when we get back home, you are going to submit yourself to the authorities for re-education, agreed?”
Joey nodded again, starting to gag.
“Fifteen minutes until landing,” the ship’s autopilot said, a brief siren sounding as it did so.
Jacques released her and sat back down, shaking his head in disgust.
#
The landing was quick and steady. They suited up as the ship’s airlock connected with the landing platform.
“Remember, straight to the office of re-education as soon as we’re off the ship.”
Joey nodded, and they both put their helmets on, nothing else to be said. Joey watched as the doors opened giving way to the landing ramp. Jacques stepped outside with a powerful stride, the conquering hero once more returning.
Joey’s timing was immaculate. The doors had started to shut behind them when she kicked him square on the back. Jacques stumbled forwards and tripped, rolling down the stairway and crumpling at the bottom. Joey darted back into the ship, ducking under the closing door. She pulled down the manual lock and then hurried to get her suit off and strap herself into the console. She entered the code to launch and then blocked any remote commands that might come from the colony. Within minutes she was up in space again, heading back to Earth.
“You’ll never get away with this,” Jacques said, his voice crackling across the intercom.
Joey rolled her eyes and switched the volume off. She already had gotten away with it. She was on her way to her new home, and no one could stop her. All she needed to do was keep herself entertained for the next seven months. She pried open Jacque’s locker and retrieved her DreamCube. She checked all systems were as expected then settled down into the comfort of her console. She took the cold metal probes and began to insert them up her nose, eager to get back to her dream. She struggled to get them in place. It was as if something was already connected. She paused. The only thing that could fit was a DreamCube probe. She considered this for a moment, a sense of despair creeping through her mind. This wasn’t part of a dream, was it?
Art Stanton is a complete square. He grew up and lives in the UK in a town notable only for making shoes. He has worked a whole host of shitty jobs over the years and used to drink to forget. Through no fault of his own, he is now in middle-management hell at a large construction company where he spends his days sitting in endless meetings, drawing pictures of pigeons, and wondering what’s for lunch. His novella, Sex Robots Must Die, was published in 2022.
His latest novel, Gutter Punch, is published by Urban Pigs and can be found here.
Urban Pigs Press 
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