​     "And why should I go with you anywhere?" Niki replied.

​     Again with the tight smile from the young man.

​     The cherub cheeked waitress set a cup of steaming coffee in front of Niki. Niki gave the coffee a sniff. It smelled like warm water with just the slightest coffee scent.

     "I'm not getting this," she said to the young man who sat across from her. "This place doesn't feel right. And then there's you. And then there's that woman who attacked..."

​     "Did you go to Domitika last year?" Trevor asked, because that's who the young man wearing the goggles was. It was Trevor Harper, who'd been back on Earth less than an hour when he first walked through the doors of the café.

​     "Uh, what? Domitika?" Niki replied.

​     "Domitika. That amusement park that opened last year for exactly one day and cleaned half a million people out of everything they owned. You must have at least heard about it."

     "What has Domitika got to do with..."

     "Did you or did you not go to..."

     "No."

​     "Well I did. Me and some other people were there to help Adam Forwarder get to..."

     "Adam Forwarder?"

     "Yeah, but, anyway, the place was packed with cowboys, aliens, all for show and all looking as real as you and me, only, in reality, there was nothing real about them. 'Kill' them, and they'd dissolve into silver..."

     "What?"

     "Yeah. First they dissolve into this silver goop and then this silver..."

     "But that's exactly what happened to me this..."

     "I know."

​     Just then the waitress returned with a pad and pencil. "Can I get something for you, sir?" she asked Trevor.

​     Niki pointed a thumb at her. "What about the waitress?" she asked Trevor. "She one of those..."

​     "Replacers we call them and, yes, she probably is. Real good chance of it." Then Trevor grabbed the waitress's wrist before the older lady could drive her pencil into the back of Niki's hand. He twisted the woman's wrist until she made an "awk!" sound, then used the palm of his other hand to drive her nose into her skull.

     The waitress dissolved into a silver goo, then a silver mist.

     "See?" Trevor asked.

     "Got it."

​     "Ready to go yet?"

​     "Sure am."

​                                                   CONTINUE