What’s mine is yours

Inspired by Vicente L Ruiz’s weekly writing prompt (link below)

Picture credit also to Vicente.

Belgurb and Meeprose were at the Milky Way Oddities conference on Andromeda. Belgurb sat in on the Truth Probe demonstration where kidnapped earthling specimens were manipulated to tell stories about their favorite memories. One of them talked about a place called Lost Vegas. It had been confusing at first, Belburb thought the man meant the Vega star, but apparently it was just a place name on Earth.

“Meeprose, I’ve found our vacation destination!” he’d said when they met in the lobby. “It’s full of adventurous sorts, plus it’s the land of plenty. You put a shiny object in an automaton, and more shiny objects come out. You can use the shinies to get drinks, and if you give them to females they will touch your excitable parts. We will pass many days there in bliss until we earn enough credits to return home.”

They went to find the earthling. His had been one of the more popular demonstrations, he’d been selected numerous times for the truth probe already. They found him in the laboratory wincing and holding his backside.

”Why does he keep doing that? Is that his excitable part?” Meeprose asked.

“No, I think that’s where they put the probe.” said Belburb. He picked up a transcomulator.

“Earthling, please tell us more about Lost Vegas.“

The earthling backed away, his own transcomulator banging against his chest.

“Get away! No more!” he said, placing his other hand behind himself protectively.

“What? No, we don’t want to probe you. That’s just for medical nerds. We want the location of your Lost Vegas,” said Belburb. Truly, sometimes these earthling captives could be absolutely obtuse.

The earthling’s mouth hung open. He began to mumble, “A dream, It’s a dream, it’s a dream, it’s a dream.”

Out of nowhere, he hauled off and punched Meeprose in his middle. Meeprose looked down calmly as the earthling’s fist got stuck in the gooey brown muck that made up his body.

“Location. Do you understand location?” Meeprose asked, ignoring the struggles the earthling was having.

The man finally extracted his hand and shouted “Las Vegas is in Nevada. You can’t miss it!”

“No,” Belburb said, oozing forward. “We need you to think about it. In your mind. We can use your neural pathways to map our way there. Try it, it’s very convivial!”

Belburb and Meeprose linked minds, then searched for the beacon of mind sound from the earthling. They soon latched onto him and saw the location he was pointing them to. It was humble. Earth must be even more backwards than they thought.

“Did you find it?” the earthling asked.

“That’s Lost Vegas? With the shinies?” Belburb asked.

“Yes,” said the earthling. That’s my precious Las Vegas that your people took from my memories. What’s mine is now yours. You’ll need to go inside to find the shinies.”

“Oh, I want to try now! Right now!” said Meeprose.

He and Belburb had each saved enough good conduct points for one-way galactic transit, and this place seemed like the perfect destination. They transferred the location the earthling had given them into their personal conveyance code monitors. In no time they were standing in front of the vision the earthling had projected for them.

“Do you think Lost Vegas is inside there?” Belburb asked, pointing at the crumbling walls.

“Definitely. The time of our lives, here we come!” said Meeprose.

Together, they entered the abandoned mineshaft.

Back on Andromeda, the earthling was being brought out. The bad news was, they wanted him for a new truth probe session. The good news was he had a new happy memory to relate.