I hate math. Well, not basic math. Any math involved in accounting isn't that bad. I'm just talking about algebra/trig. Maybe if I had a different teacher I would like the class better, but judging from how the mess I'd made on the kitchen table with all my study books and notes, probably not.

"Unnggh..."

I slammed my head into my hands. Why was this so frustrating? Was it really that hard to figure out the compound interest formula? I knew the formula by heart, so why was solving for "t" so hard? A little bit of my brain, somewhere right near the back, mentioned that I probably should have been paying attention in class instead of reading The Gulag Archipelago. Of course, I had few regrets. Surely reading the misadventures of Georgi Tenno was more important. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those hosers that thinks math shouldn't be taught in schools. I just happen to not be the best at it.

"Buh, math, you are my enemy!" I wailed, breaking out into song. "How much I hate you! I wish I could make you suffer in just the way you torment me!"

Wa-blam. Head into the table in surrendering exasperation. I seriously needed more coffee.

"...I take it you are occupied."

I shot right back up, jolly as all get out and grinning like a doofus. It was Aldaris! Cranky adventures away!

Well, yeah, I thought back at him. But I was just about to take a break. Sometimes I have to even leave a math final to fate. Anyway, I assume you want to see Starcraft now.

"You assume correctly."

He didn't sound terribly excited about it, but of course he wasn't going to. Hopefully not too much of that annoyance was due to me, but I wasn't going to sit there and worry about it.

"Okay. Give me a sec to grab everything."

Grinning like a kid on sugar, I ran up the stairs and grabbed everything I thought I needed, stuffing it into a convenient bag. The discs, my laptop (charged already), and some of the won just in case his teleporter bugs out again and I end up on the streets of Korea. Granted, there's no guarantee it would be Korea again, but still, it's worth a shot. Technically I had already decided in my head that it's Aldaris' money, but since it's his fault I'd be teleporting away, I could consider it "teleportation expense" and record it accordingly.

Dude, you should have talked to me sooner. I thought at him, hoping he was still listening - and also silently cringing for calling him 'dude'. I won't do that again in a hurry. I had to give the projector back to Dad.

"I was not going to subject myself to your nonsensical notions without first confirming what it is you claim." Aldaris said plainly. "Unfortunately, all has evidence confirmed your statements. As for the projector, I believe I have a device of this kind on board."

He knows what a 20th century projector looks like? Well, it's entirely possible that he has one, given all the random stuff that ended up on his ship when he arrived on Earth. If it was the wrong kind, then maybe we can just ask Statkus if he has one. For some reason he seems like the kind of person that would have a spare projector lying around.

"Oh, okay. Hopefully it has a USB port. I have a USB cord so that's not a problem. Okay, I think I'm ready."

The now familiar blue mist picked me up again, and once more I was on Aldaris' ship. I should really ask him what its name is. This time I didn't appear on the bridge, but in one of those storage rooms (I dunno, it seems like a spaceship would have more than one). That had to be what it was, or else the big piles of earth stuff on one side of the huge room made absolutely no sense. Piles and piles of random things filled the entire right side of the room (if you're facing away from the door). Big piles of chairs, colored pencils, sales catalogs, and a broken VCR only a few of the miscellaneous whatnots in the pile that extended way over my head - and none of it looked like it was handled gently. I found myself overcome by an urge to dig through that awesome pile of randomness, but I resisted. I'm here to show off Starcraft, not play around. ...I hope he lets me organize it later.

The doors opened at that point, and in came Aldaris. Seeing him, it suddenly occurred to me that I was just now meeting the real Aldaris. Before he'd just been a confused Protoss in a completely wonky situation. Today he was Judicator Aldaris in the flesh, his mind accepting of his situation and dealing with it accordingly. Aldaris, standing straight as a rod, that greeted me. His gaze was like the gaze of an Aztec king, with all the wisdom and cruelty of someone who as led and ancient empire and can have me executed at any moment. I'm not quite sure why he felt the need to be all intimidating. It didn't even work. I just grinned. Now this was the real Starcraft character everyone loves to hate. Well, except for me. I don't hate him, and he's just going to have to deal with it.

"Annyonghashimnikka! You're cheerful today!" I say, completely genuine and free of sarcasm. "Good to see you're adjusting to things better."

Aldaris just glowered, pointing behind me. "You may set up there."

From all the human objects Aldaris had gathered, he managed to find several useful things. One was obviously the projector (seriously, how does he know what that looks like?), and it faced the back wall as it rested on a round metal table that was meant for outdoor use. Charlie'd even thought to get me a seat, and I was grateful for it, even though it was nothing more than a tattered leather footrest. I'm not picky, and despite being ugly it was comfortable.

It turned out there was a USB port on the projector, and I was able to set it up to project on the left side of the wall across from the door. The wall was gold-ish instead of white, so it was going to end up coloring everything a weird tinge, but it was clear enough to see what was going on.

"Okay," I say as I set up the computer. "Main screen, turn on! Now let me just get the game disc out of the bag. So, I have to warn you that I have to use my laptop's battery to power the projector, and that's going to make the battery wear out sooner, especially since I have to use my old laptop, because that's the one that's got Starcraft installed on it. Since I don't have anywhere to plug this in, there's only so much I can show today."

"You could not spare the time to acquire a portable power source?" Aldaris glared. "You had more than enough time to do so."

I chuckled, wondering to myself what sort of power sources he was talking about. Maybe that was something from his universe that people had. Was there even something appropriate for this? I know there's power banks for things like cell phones and ipods, but computers drain power significantly faster than those. Aldaris gave me an odd look, so I guess he could hear my thoughts.

"Power generators are smelly, noisy, greasy things. I didn't figure you wanted one on your ship, assuming I even had a way of getting one." I said. "And the smaller power banks wouldn't work that well. But now that you mention it, it seems strange that portable power devices wouldn't exist for laptops. Huh."

Aldaris didn't comment. With an authoritarian glare, he simply placed down a large, folding chair thing (clearly of Protoss origin) a fair distance away - everything about his motions clearly said he had no intention of being anywhere near me. I shrugged it off. It's not like I want to be within arm's reach if he sees something he doesn't like.

"Oh hey, I was talking to the other guys, and Toby has a theory on why you're here instead of your universe. You'll find this interesting. I think you said you don't know how human years work, but according to the game manual, you're 740 years old. Since you only came about five hundred years from the past, that would make you two hundred and something years old where you come from. And since it's a paradox that there would be two of you in the same universe, you got booted out here."

"I remain uninterested in the irrelevant ponderings of a novelty shop entry-level employee." Aldaris commented without emotion. "With the computing abilities of my vessel, I do not require idle speculation from humans."

Toby worked in a shop? Huh, I'd been talking to him for weeks on the net and I didn't think to ask him that. That makes me a horrible friend, doesn't it? Then again, how often do you really talk about work with online friends? Some time when Aldaris is in a good mood, I'm going to ask him if I can visit London. I don't think he'll say yes, but it's worth a shot.

"Oookay, whatever." I tapped some of the keys. "Before we begin, let me warn you of a few things. First of all, Starcraft was a game Blizzard came up with sort of on a break from Warcraft, and they didn't expect it to be popular. Thus, certain aspects of it are very lazy. For example, for the first Starcraft, most of the cutscenes don't at all match or have anything to do with the story, as they were made before the game was finalized. They're just there to look cool. Well, except for the introduction. They fixed that problem in Brood War, but just keep in mind that sometimes Blizzard got lazy, so if something seems off, that's the most likely reason."

Aldaris said nothing, so I continued. "Also, keep in mind that this game is dystopian and from a human perspective. Don't be offended by the context, because so far as we know aliens don't actually exist at this point."

"Exactly how long must I endure this game?"

Snarky, snarky. I clicked on the Starcraft icon. "Uh, well, since we're just going for the plot, it's not as long as it could be. We can get through the Terran missions in less than twenty minutes since I know most of the important cheats. The Zerg and Protoss ones will probably take longer because it gets progressively harder. Then there's Brood War which'll probably take slightly longer than this game, and then the videos of Starcraft 2. I don't have SC2 right now, but Toby's working on recording it."

This seemed to be good enough for Aldaris, and for the moment I caught the faintest melancholy from him. Of course, the second I thought of that, Mr. Cranky Telepath picked up on my thoughts and scowled. I quickly turned away and hit the Starcraft icon again. The Brood War screen popped up, flashing Artanis', Kerrigan's, and DuGalle's faces before going into the main menu. I clicked on single player, original Starcraft, then my game user name (Moody), and then okay.

"Terran missions..." I said, more or less to myself. "And skipping the tutorial. There's no story there, so it's fine. Just be aware that what you're about to see isn't going to be pretty. It starts from the attack on Chau Sara and goes to Tassadar's sacrifice. I'm sure it'll bring back memories of a lot of things you probably don't want to think about."

"Your words are excessive and unnecessary." Aldaris straightened in his chair to a dignified posture. "There is nothing within this time period that I unable or unwilling to face. Continue."

I clicked on the first mission, that consisted of meeting up with Raynor. It didn't take long to finish. I let Aldaris hear the part where Raynor meets the Magistrate and then hit the enter key for the cheat.

"There's not much plot to this level." I explain. "It's an early level for noobs to get used to building different structures, so I'll just skip the rest of it. Though I did think there was a little more to the plot than Raynor just saying hi."

"Does this game concern Raynor's history very much?" Aldaris says, bored and examining his fingernails.

"He's only the main character of the game," I snorted. "Besides, knowing all this background stuff sets up the context of later stuff."

"I see." he said, not particularly happily.

"Hey, it's a human game. It's going to have a human protagonist. Though it would be cool if they showed Tassadar's perspective."

"Just get on with it."

I typed in the cheat code, and we made it through the entire Terran missions without one more quote from the one 'Toss peanut gallery. He was pretty contemplative the whole time, though I could feel like waves of summer heat his anger at the part where Mengsk abandons Kerrigan on Tarsonis. I guess he didn't know that part. But we made it through Raynor's escape from Korhal, and Mengsk's ending cinematic speech.

"Never in my life have I witnessed a thing so unsettling." Aldaris stared at the projection like a zombie. "Many of those in my employ translated that very speech."

"It's accurate then?"

"To the very word. As much as I can recall, in any case." Aldaris turned to me, curious. "This game implies a greater passage of time then what it portrays, correct? Raynor claimed he had saved Kerrigan many times, yet this is not shown."

"Yeah, this is a game, and in games plot is way less important than gameplay and graphics. Though it would feel a lot longer if I wasn't cheating."

"Why did Raynor not go in to save Kerrigan on Tarsonis? It should have proven a simple enough task to disobey Mengsk. He could have saved the entire Sector much grief."

"We don't know what he was doing at that point, or how far away he was. Or maybe Starcraft is just wrong, and Raynor found out about what happened afterward. And you saw what they got off the Confederate discs. The Zerg wanted any human telepath. It didn't necessarily need to be Kerri, so saving her wouldn't have made too much of a difference in the end, as far as we know." I clicked the mouse on the hydralisk icon. "So Charlie, you ready for the Zerg missions?"

"By what name have you just referred to me?"

I winced, leaning away as if that would get me away from the annoyed Judicator. I didn't mean to say his nickname in front of him, but it just came out.

"Uh, nothing...nothing." I stammer. "That's just what me and the guys call you when we're talking on the internet. That way if anyone comes across what we say, they won't think we're talking about an alien. Y'know."

Aldaris' eyes narrowed. "Bethany, do not feel that you are my only source for information. It is merely convenient for me to allow you here. Only with moderate difficulty could I find a replacement for you on your 'internet'. You may either refer to me by my name or title, or you may find something else to do with your time. Do you understand?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

"Now continue."

I did as he said. I wish I hadn't said anything, because he sure wasn't going to like hearing the Overmind speak. Annoying him with the whole name thing first wasn't exactly the best preparation for it.

"The Overmind?" he heard my thoughts. "What joy."

"Awaken my child," the computer sounded the Overmind's voice. "And embrace the glory that is your birthright."

I sneak at glance at Charlie (I will call him that as much as I want...when he's not paying attention), and the look on his face is priceless, no less full of horror and disgust for not having a mouth. I quickly turned away before he picked up on my thoughts.

"The Overmind is not going to be present for every Zerg briefing, is he?"

"...No, just most of them. And since this next mission isn't plot important, you're gonna hear him again really soon."

"I do not understand. The creators of Starcraft would have no way of knowing if this is how the Overmind communicates."

I shrugged. "They had to make up something. The probably just picked whatever sounds the most evil."

I was able to skip a couple of missions, like the one where the cerebrate takes down a bunch of Confederates. I guess that mission was there to prove that Mengsk really was going after Kerrigan. Pretty soon we got through the mission where Kerrigan emerged from the chrysalis.

"Did you notice that the very first thing Kerrigan did as a Zerg was disobey the Overmind?" I asked. "She was told to kill everyone, but spared Raynor."

"Of course I noticed. It was only painfully obvious." Aldaris said, casually. "Continue."

Why in the world was I helping this guy? Oh well, it's not like I didn't know what I was getting into. Little did I know at that point how bad it was going to get. Really, I should have seen this coming. But it's honestly been a while since I had last played the original Starcraft single player, and I completely forgot about it. We got through the missions where Kerrigan fights Tassadar alright, and other than mentioning how it was weird Tassadar said Kerrigan used to be honorable (maybe they'd met when Kerri was a human or something), Aldaris didn't say anything. I mean, I could feel him get increasingly concerned, but it's hard to blame him for that. When your history is turned into a game, it's hard not to be concerned.

But then it happened. It was that one mission where the player has to stop Zeratul from escaping the Zerg. You know, times like this it would have proven prudent to do a test playthrough before showing it to Aldaris. Granted, I don't know how I would have hidden the mission briefing from him, but at least he wouldn't have found out about this without a warning:

"Behold, my long silence is now broken, and I am made whole once more." the Overmind's voice said through the little speakers on my laptop. "The cunning Protoss have dared strike down that which was immortal. For the Protoss who murdered Zasz are unlike anything we have faced before. These Dark Templar radiate energies that are much like my own, and it is by these energies that they have caused me harm. Yet shall their overweening pride be their downfall. For when the assassin Zeratul murdered Zasz, his mind touched with mine, and all his secrets were made known to me. I have taken from his mind the secret location of Aiur, the Protoss Homeworld. At long last, my children, our searching is done. Soon we shall assault Aiur directly."

I wasted valuable time staring at the screen in shock, precious time I should have spent hiding under the table, or maybe running away as fast as I could and hiding until Aldaris calmed down. But no, I did the dumbest thing possible: look over at Aldaris. He was fuming, and his head was encompassed by the red glow of his eyes.

"Zeratul...Zeratul is responsible for the destruction of Aiur?" Aldaris shook with fury. "All this time...he acted as though..."

He glanced over at me, and I avoided his gaze. Why in the crap didn't I keep my mouth shut? Pssht. I thought I could calm him down. Yeah right.

"Maybe Starcraft is wrong...once we get to the Protoss missions, you can see if it's accurate or not-"

"Be silent!" he snarled, rising from his chair. "I need no comfort from you, you misbegotten child of a degenerate race!"

In the most horrifying few seconds of my life, Aldaris charged out of his chair at me. Only by falling over on the floor did I escape being strangled or something. I don't care to speculate what Aldaris was planning to do, but my falling did seem to satisfy his need to punish something. I hid with my arms over my head, waiting for something horrible to happen. After a second or two of nothing happening, I peeked out. Aldaris was there, fuming but standing still. The glow of his brilliant red eyes was focused soley on my person, filled with all manner of hatred and wrath.

"Yes," he said, scornfully staring down at me. "Writhe there, and never presume that you can ever understand what it means to lose all that you hold dear. Your wretched world still hangs within the heavens - be grateful for that."

My laptop beeped (thank God he hadn't knocked it over) and the projector blinked off. The battery was out. Saying nothing else, Aldaris paced out of the room, and from the way the door thunked and clicked after it closed, it was a reasonable guess that he'd locked it behind him. I didn't waste any time. Pulling out my USB cable and folding up my laptop, I repacked my bag and got ready to go. Well, actually there wasn't any "got ready" about it. Once my bag was full and zipped up, all I had to do was sit there and hope to God that Aldaris really was going to send me back home.

I hadn't sat there one full minute when the blue clouds started forming again. I only started breathing again when my home appeared around me, and for several minutes I stood in the middle of my living room, trying to calm down. Once I regained my senses, I immediately ran to get my laptop's power cord. There was no way I was going to not tell Toby and John what had happened.

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Author's Notes:

- Sorry this chapter took so long. I wanted to review the game before I wrote Aldaris' reaction to it. I literally did not remember the part where Zeratul ends up being the one who lured in the Overmind to Aiur. Bet you didn't remember either. Aldaris is sure not going to forget.

Author's Notes New:

- I feel kinda bad for my comment up there that my math teacher wasn't that great. He was actually pretty alright, just kinda tempermental. He was sort of old fashioned, in that he was more of the "stand there and give a lecture while the students listened and take notes" type. I honestly like this style, especially after the teachers I would later encounter in life. Community colleges don't exactly pay enough to hire the best, y'all. Though I was especially horrified to find out that some of the teachers got less than poverty level income. At least, one teacher (one of the pretty good ones), heard me talking about the official poverty level (I think it was about $12,000 that particular year) and seemed astonished to learn how comparable it was to what he earned.

I will not comment on the less than stellar teachers, except to say that at the college level, introverts make for the best teachers. Extroverts will get distracted or come up with ideas unrelated to the topic at hand. Introverts are too shy and task oriented to expend energy on that kind of thing. In short, if I am paying you money to teach me programming, I want to learn the topic, not have extraneous activities or lectures.

- I looked it up, and apparently having power banks for laptops is a fairly recent development. There's compatibillity issues, for one, because most power banks seem to be for lower voltages. Macbooks apparently have power banks, and I want to say that some PCs do too. However, that is a result of brief 2021 research, so speaking for 2016 (when this is set), the answer might have been slightly different. What is certain is that my 2016 self could not have easily afforded such a thing.