ɪɴ ꜱᴘᴀᴄᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴀʀᴋɪᴘʟɪᴇʀ (ᴘᴀʀᴛ 1)

ᴛʜᴇ ᴀᴄᴛᴏʀ

The darkness had enveloped Alise, but only for a few moments, their mind still racing, trying to deal with the weight of their actions, with the guilt, with the knowledge that their crew was gone because of their inability to find help in a timely manner... their inability to do anything right. All they wanted now was to go back, go back to the moment they'd chosen to go towards the light... and instead stay in the darkness forever, maybe then, none of that would've happened. They thought about Mark's words; he was still confident things could be fixed, but how? If they reset the timeline things would've only gotten worse, and even if they didn't, what could they do after waking up and stabilizing the ship? No matter what if they sent a distress signal, Wug would've found them and brought them to the U.S.A. which was just a waste of time. Agreeing with Burt and popping the ship in reverse could've had terrible consequences as well, and the Event Horizon protocol wasn't going to shut the warp core off anyway... realizing that, they began to feel hopeless, if they couldn't figure something out themselves, no matter how many times they reset, the mission would be a failure regardless-

"I just... want to go home... with everyone else" they mumbled, wiping off the small tears in the corners of their eyes "I'm so tired of running in circles..."

As they walked around aimlessly, the darkness began to fade, and they could see just where they were right now... a movie set. 

Their heart dropped.

"This looks like- the interiors of the Invincible II?"

As they explored the set, they couldn't help but think they'd reached the oddest timeline of all... a timeline where their tragedy had been turned into a movie. Who would even get such an idea? and how many years in the future did that happen? Couldn't have been many, the filming equipment looked just like, if not somewhat more primitive, to what they used in their current time period... but there was no way... no way someone could've predicted it all-

Suddenly, they heard a voice. It sounded very familiar, and at the same time completely foreign "Coffee? How long does a man have to wait for coffee?"

Alise walked towards the backstage door, from where the entitled voice kept complaining.

"Five minutes? Because that's what I'm doing! Amazingly, that's what I'm doing and I can't believe I'm doing that"

The Captain slowly opened the door, revealing a man behind it, surrounded by the staff tending to his every need. He looked extremely similar to Mark, but they could tell something was off about him. A doppelganger maybe? His attitude was completely different from their Mark too, he sounded incredibly high and mighty and pretentious. Alise... already wasn't a fan.

At one point, a staff member brought him some coffee. "Oh finally! Oh, which one do I get? Eeny-meeny-miney-- the big one!" he grabbed the cup and took a sip "Ana, could I have a word please?"

The makeup artist ran up to him.

"Do you see this? Do you see all of this? Yeah. I have one month of parole left and if I go out, looking this ugly- GUESS WHO'S GOING BACK TO PRISON?!"
Then he stopped, looking straight at Alise, his eyes wide, but of a weird kind of surprise, the surprise you feel after you meet a person you hadn't talked to in ages...
Right then, another staff member tried closing the door, but was promptly stopped by the man who shouted at her to get out of his way. He stormed towards the door, looking at Alise from top to bottom, almost in disbelief.
"You... it's- it's really you!" he said, gripping their shoulders.

"M-Mark?" they mumbled, still feeling unsure of the man's identity... he really did look like their head engineer... in features at least.

"Yes! Yes it's me, Alise! I haven't seen you in so long- I almost thought you were dead! But you couldn't be, of course you couldn't be!" he kept talking, pushing them inside the room and shooing away his staff.
"Where in the hell were you?! Ah whatever, it doesn't matter, all that matters, is that you're here now- and you're dressed right for the occasion too! I actually needed a nice astronaut sidekick for this movie, you'd fill the part amazingly! I still remember you being great at acting back in high school, I'm sure this'll be a breeze for you!"

Alise stopped for a moment, they had absolutely no experience in acting... and they definitely hadn't known Mark for that long "W-wait a second, please!" they pleaded, their mind flooded by contrasting thoughts as they tried to juggle the hopelessness they'd been feeling, along with the sheer confusion spreading through their head in that moment. "Please..."

He fell silent and looked at them.

"I... I don't think I'm the Alise you're looking for..." they tried to explain, even though they themselves weren't so sure of that. With all those timelines, how could they be so sure there had never been an Alise who HAD met Mark that early in their life?

Mark chuckled "What do you mean? Blonde bob cut, tan skin, glasses... it's definitely you! Maybe you're feeling confused... it HAS been a while since the Poker night..."

"Poker night?" Alise widened their eyes. They were totally lost "I... I don't mean to be rude but... we've never played Poker together, sir... and- and now it's pretty obvious you're not the Mark I know either... he's an engineer and... I've only known him for two years at best... definitely not ever since high school- and he's definitely not an actor..."
They were fully expecting their explanation to fall on deaf ears, but surprisingly, it didn't; instead, the man looked at them once again, and the small spark of light in his eyes slowly died down as he realized the person before him really wasn't his Alise.

"But... if you're not her... where is she then? She... she didn't die there, I'm sure of it... her body... it was never found..." the other Mark mumbled, biting his nails and looking away.

"Maybe... they're still there? Wherever 'there' means... or maybe they're looking for you as well- regardless... if you two were close friends, I'm sure they miss you... so please don't give up your search!" Alise said, feeling a bit strange as they were essentially telling someone not to give up after they themselves were dangerously close to doing so just a few moments ago.

He chuckled "If I know her well enough, she definitely does... and she definitely hasn't given up on me yet- that's how Alises are!"

Actor Mark's words rang in their mind, along with what Engineer Mark had previously told them... and now that they'd had some time to think, and a brand-new encounter that had shown them how broad the multiverse was... it really felt like somewhere, in some universe, they might've been able to find the solution to all those problems- they might've found a solution that would've fixed it all! Sure, the possibility of it taking ages still filled them with fright, but at least... now there was a sliver of hope.
"That's how Alises are, huh... I guess I should try to be more like that as well then-" the Captain pondered. This adventure had been so crazy that it had easily rendered them hopeless... but that wasn't the time to give up! They were still alive, and Mark was too- and until that was the case, there was hope.

"I should head off now, Mr. Actor Mark... my head engineer is surely worried about me, but thank you... for reminding me how Alises act in the face of hardships" Alise smiled.

"Of- of course! Yes, that was my goal all along!" he said, letting out a boisterous laugh "Have a nice trip, Alise"

They nodded and put in the coordinates for the wormhole generator, they waved at the other Mark, and just like that, they were back into the wormhole, and this time, they were going to end this.