Fool's Paradise

"Leslie, wake up, Les." Leslie's eyes fluttered open to the sight of Jackson's smiling face and felt a small kiss on her forehead. "Morning my sweet. How'd you sleep?" he asked.

She took a moment to gather herself, realizing that it was all just a dream. "I had a nightmare..." Leslie admitted, her voice tinged with fear.

Jackson lovingly brushed a strand of hair away from her face, concern etched on his features. "Wanna talk about it? I've never seen you like this before."

Leslie hesitated before spilling to him about the dream of being stranded in space due to a wormhole. Teary-eyed and vulnerable, she leaned into his embrace, letting out soft sobs.

"It's alright Les," Jackson comforted her, gently rubbing her back. "Let it all out, nobody's here to judge you." Leslie clung to him, crying without reservation.

"N-Never leave me again... Okay, Jackson? Promise me!" Leslie pleaded, her eyes red and swollen from crying, nuzzling his neck.

Jackson hesitated for a moment before responding, "I won't... I promise Les," holding her tightly. Just then, their child, Malcolm Reeves, entered the room, jumping onto the bed.

"Mommy, are you okay?" Malcolm asked, rubbing her arm, before receiving a tight hug from both Leslie and Jackson. "Please cheer up mommy!"

Overcome with emotions, Leslie held onto Malcolm and Jackson as if her life depended on it, tears streaming down her face. After some time, she began to calm down but continued to hold onto them for support. "I love you guys... with all of my heart," she said, her voice filled with timid sincerity.

Jackson felt a rush of emotion as he held Leslie close, his heart swelling with love. "I wouldn't trade you guys for anything in the world, I promise," he said with a lump in his throat. He noticed Malcolm gazing at him with innocent eyes, and a sharp pang tugged at his heart.

Suddenly, his phone broke the tender moment, causing both Malcolm and Leslie to startle at the ringtone. "Uh, I gotta take this... about work, sorry," Jackson explained apologetically.

Leslie held onto him tightly before letting go, planting a kiss on his cheek and giving him a weary smile. "It's fine. I understand, just be sure to hurry back," she said with a hint of concern in her voice.

With a nod, Jackson ruffled Malcolm's hair before leaving the house to answer his call. "H-Hello?" Jackson spoke into the phone, stealing a glance back at the house to see if Leslie or Malcolm was watching him as he entered his car.

"Jeez, now you answer?" A woman says, her irritation palpable over the phone. "What were you doing? Being a great father, I'm guessing?" she adds with a hint of mockery.

"I was..." Jackson begins, feeling a surge of anger at her lack of respect for his family, but then he hesitates. He realizes that he's not in a position to judge her. "I was... caring for my wife and son..."

"Still with her and the brat?" She chuckles as she gets dressed. "You should just leave them already! I thought you said you were going to talk to her about it-!"

"I KNOW DAMMIT!" Jackson shouts, feeling the weight of guilt bearing down on him, slamming his hands onto the dashboard. Tears well up in his eyes. "You don't have to rub it in, dammit..."

She notices his voice wavering making her feel empowered. "You okay?" She says with a smirk. "Hey... stop by... I can cheer you up~" She says in a sultry tone causing Jackson to look back at the house before pulling off and making his way to her house. The two began texting as he drove to her house sharing explicit pictures of each other, then out of nowhere an 18-wheeler tanker truck spun out of control and headed for him. 

"So... this is it..." Jackson says in his mind as he slowly watches everything unfold. He then had flashbacks of his past from childhood to his wedding with Leslie, filled with the pain of regret. His eyes started to fill with tears as he watched the truck inch closer to him, taking in a deep breath, and closing his eyes as he accepted it. "This is what I deserve, L-Leslie... I'm sorry..." he repeats over and over in his mind as the truck rammed his car causing an explosion making him lose consciousness.

"-son, Jackson, wake up!" a familiar voice calls out to him, causing him to jolt awake feeling his shuttle crash land on an unknown planet. "Space Marine Jackson Reeves? Are you still alive?" S.T.E.V.E. asks in a worried voice.

Jackson still a bit dazed from the dream, slowly remembered his situation. "So, it wasn't a black hole?"

"Thank the stars! I thought you died-"

"Now's not the time for a heartwarming welcome. Where are we?" Jackson asks sternly, trying to push away his mixed feelings from the dream he had.

"I-I apologize, sir..." S.T.E.V.E. responds, seemingly embarrassed. "It appears the Wormhole sent us randomly into this planet's gravitational pull." S.T.E.V.E. scans the planet's surface, finding unknown materials. "Seems like this planet has a lot of unknown properties."

Jackson quickly pulled out his tablet and scanned the ship's damage, only to discover a small hole in the window, letting out precious oxygen. Frustrated, he called out to S.T.E.V.E., "When were you going to tell me we were losing O2?" Determined to find a solution, Jackson started searching for duct tape to patch up the window.

To his surprise, S.T.E.V.E. responded blankly, "I didn't think it was necessary to our dilemma currently," leaving Jackson visibly startled. As their eyes met, S.T.E.V.E. appeared to blush, creating an unexpected turn of events.

"What?" Jackson demanded, struggling to maintain his composure while contemplating the factory reset button.

Then, S.T.E.V.E. pleaded desperately, "I-I, THERE'S OXYGEN ION DETECTED ON THIS PLANET! DON'T RESET ME! IT'S DARK THERE!" 

Jackson hesitated, his gaze fixed on the unknown planet outside the window, before noticing something stirring in the sand. "W-what the..." Jackson says, his eyes widening as he gets closer to the window, trying to get a better view. "Hey S.T.E.V.E., scan for entities."

"Oh, Okay!" S.T.E.V.E. replies, initiating the scan. Multiple blips begin to appear on the screen, indicating the presence of entities moving at high speeds. "Multiple entities detected. Moving at high speeds approaching, but I do not believe them to be hostile."

Jackson scoffs, "You think I'll trust ya after that black hole mistake?" He sits still, watching the window, grabbing his pistol and checking the mag, revealing it to be full. "How can I tell if you're right?"

"U-Uh... I have an idea!" S.T.E.V.E. exclaims, releasing a rover to let Jackson see its perspective. "Wow, It's quite hard to traverse in this sand-" Suddenly, the rover gets grabbed and pulled beneath the sand, causing Jackson's view to black out. "S-something's got hold of the rover..."

"What was that about them being nice?" Jackson smirks as he looks at his monitor, causing S.T.E.V.E. to blush even more as he tries to regain control of the rover. "S.T.E.V.E., it's fine, just let it go-" Just then, the camera turns back on, revealing a huge manmade cavern with small unidentified creatures surrounding the rover, approaching it curiously and poking it with what looks to be a stick. "What... the..."

S.T.E.V.E.'s avatar smirks proudly, "It appears that they are just very curious little creatures, huh?" Suddenly, the shuttle begins to sink into the sand. "Uh oh... Mr. Reeves, please stay away from the window, it might break due to the pressure-" The window breaks, causing the shuttle to fill with sand, forcing Jackson to rush to his space suit and successfully put it on.

After 9 grueling minutes of the shuttle slowly sinking, they finally felt the shuttle hitting the ground in the cavern, hearing the high-pitched chattering of the creatures. Jackson cautiously made his way through the sand and stepped out into the cavern, looking down at the creatures. "U-Uh... I come in... Peace?" Jackson said, blushing from embarrassment.

One curious creature noticed him standing on two legs and began trying to mimic him, causing the others to join in, letting out little chirps as they tried, seemingly having fun doing so. This made Jackson smile. He crouched down and reached out his hand to one of them. It cautiously sniffed his hand before gripping it gently and looking up at Jackson to gauge his reaction. Jackson smiled as he began patting its head, causing it to close its eyes and lean into his touch, chirping as the others surrounded him, eventually overpowering him and nuzzling against his suit.

Everything was going well until Jackson felt pain coming from his finger. He looked down and found one of the creatures biting down on his finger, drawing blood. Startled, he pulled away yelping, and distanced himself from them.

The creature looked at him, tilting its head as he walked back, seemingly licking its lips as its skin turned into a more viscous black mass, then to a small humanoid figure wearing the same spacesuit Jackson was wearing.

"W-What the hell?" Jackson fumbled, trying to pull out S.T.E.V.E.'s USB stick and insert it into his space suit.

"YOU HAVE TO STOP DOING THAT!!!" S.T.E.V.E. whined. "DO YOU KNOW HOW- hold up... what's that?" S.T.E.V.E. began scanning, sensing Jackson's DNA inside of it. "Why does it have your DNA in it...?" S.T.E.V.E.'s avatar stared at Jackson, afraid and disgusted by what he could've done.

Jackson quickly caught wind of this. "W-Woah, I didn't do anything to it. I-It... bit me and now... it's in a spacesuit?" Jackson said, kneeling and poking its little helmet, making the creature let out a little chirp and poking Jackson's knee.

"Oh, thank the stars..." S.T.E.V.E.'s avatar sighed as it began scanning again. "Hm... so it's mimicking you?" S.T.E.V.E. began to take note of this as it made up a name for the creature. "Let's call it a Mimic."

Jackson nodded as he looked at his finger, alarmed to see how easily it pierced his spacesuit. "Quite dangerous, aren't ya, lil fella?" he mused, eyeing the "Mimic" in front of him.

"I would prefer not to be referred to as 'lil fella', please, tall lanky creature!" the mimic responded in a cheerful yet stern tone, causing Jackson to jolt back and land on his butt. "I apologize, I'm not used to this language just yet. Did I say something inappropriate?"

"N-No... uh... you can talk?" Jackson asked in disbelief, as S.T.E.V.E. scanned the creature, revealing that its brain had begun to evolve to that of a human's. "That's a bit shocking, to be honest." Before the Mimic could respond, a huge roar, shaking the ground, caused the Mimics to travel towards the source. "W-What was that?"

The Mimic noticed Jackson hesitating and began to gently tug at his arm toward the source. "Mother has called us! You must meet her!" Jackson reluctantly followed as S.T.E.V.E.'s scanner indicated a creature nearly as big as the SS Vagabond was the cause of the noise.