MidReal Story
Desert Lunch: Unlikely Allies at Taco Bell
Scenario: A man and a klingon meet in the desert then agree to go to Taco bell and have lunch instead of fighting
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I had a weird feeling I was going to die.
I hadn’t been abducted by aliens or anything like that.
I’d just done a really dumb thing and now I was paying for it.
I’d tried to save a little time by cutting off a corner of the desert road.
My car wasn’t made for off-roading, and the sand was too deep, so I’d gotten stuck.
I’d used my cell phone to call for help, but there wasn’t any signal, so I’d decided to walk to the nearest town.
I could see mountains in the distance, so I figured I’d head in that direction.
I should have stayed with the car, but I’d been worried about running out of water.
I’d wrapped a shirt around my head to protect my scalp from sunburn, and put my cell phone in my pocket.
The only other thing I had was a flask of water, and I was drinking that sparingly because there wasn’t much left and I didn’t know how far it was to get help.
The sun was burning down on me and the heat was so intense that I felt as though I were melting.
The only sound was the soft crunch of sand under my feet, but then I heard a motor and looked up.
An aircraft was circling overhead.
I waved my arms and yelled, but it kept circling and then flew away.
I figured they couldn’t see me because I was too small or because the plane was flying too high, but it made me wonder how far away the mountains were.
I’d been walking for hours, but they didn’t seem to be any closer.
In fact, they still looked as if they were on the horizon.
I hoped it was just some kind of optical illusion caused by the heatwaves rising from the sand, but then I noticed something even more frightening—I couldn’t see any sign of civilization in any direction.
It seemed as if everything around me were flat and empty.
No towns, no villages, no ranches—nothing.
If there was someplace close by, I should have been able to see it, but there was nothing—just sky and sand.
I tried not to think about what that meant, but it was hard not to.
The heat was making me dizzy and I had to sit down and rest.
I’d only brought one flask of water and I was already more than halfway through it.
There was no way I’d make it to the mountains before it was empty and I didn’t know how much farther I had to go to get help.
It seemed as if I had two choices: keep walking until I passed out from dehydration or conserve my water and hope for a miracle.
Somehow, I didn’t think a miracle was going to happen out here in the desert, but I decided to try anyway.
I dropped to my knees in the sand and clasped my hands together.
“Dear God,” I prayed, “please help me.”
Then I opened my eyes and saw K’TAR standing in front of me.
K’TAR was a Klingon warrior I’d met a few weeks before in a bar fight.
He was a large man with a muscular build and a ridged forehead.
He wore black body armor and carried a disruptor, which he’d threatened to use on me when I refused to buy him a drink.
Now his shadowy figure loomed over me and his heavy armor reflected the sun’s glare.
My mouth fell open in surprise.
I couldn’t believe he’d found me all the way out here.
The last time I’d seen him was at a bar that was thousands of miles away.
He must have been on his way back to his ship when he got stranded just like me.
“John Smith,” he growled.
“What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question,” I replied.
K’TAR knelt in the sand next to me and rested his disruptor on the ground.
He didn’t smile or extend his hand.
Instead, he said, “You owe me a drink.”
I remembered our last meeting.
As soon as he’d finished speaking, I’d punched him in the face.
His teeth had clamped down on his tongue and he’d spat out blood before getting up to fight back.
The other Klingons had joined the fight too and I’d gotten a few bruises before I managed to make an escape.
We’d been enemies then and I was afraid we still were.
I held out my flask.
“Here you go.”
K’TAR reached for it cautiously and took it from me.
He opened it and took a sip before handing it back.
“There isn’t enough water for both of us,” he said.
“I know,” I replied.
“That’s why I’m trying to get help.”
“Help is coming,” he said.
“How do you know?”
I asked in surprise.
I had no idea what had happened to his ship or how he’d gotten stranded in the desert.
K’TAR didn’t answer right away.
He looked at the flask in his hand and then at the sun above him.
“I have friends,” he said finally.
“They will find me.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I kept quiet.
We sat in silence for a while until K’TAR spoke again.
“I have been tracking you.”
I wasn’t sure what he was talking about at first.
Then I remembered that I’d met a hacker at the bar who’d offered to help me with something if I ever needed it.
I’d given her my business card because I thought she was cute and I wanted her to call me.
She must have tracked down my GPS signal and passed it on to K’TAR.
“What do you want?”
He looked at the flask and then back at me.
“You owe me a drink,” he repeated.
“Do you want another sip?”
I asked him.
“Or are you ready to go to the bar and buy your own?”
K’TAR shook his head.
“I am not in the mood for a fight.”
“Me neither,” I replied.
“It’s too hot out here.”
He stood up and offered me his hand.
“Come with me,” he said.
“I’ll take you to the bar.”
“The bar is thousands of miles away,” I replied.
“How do you plan to get there?”
“I have friends,” he said again.
“They will help us.”
He offered me the flask, but I shook my head.
“There isn’t enough water for both of us,” I said.
“We need to save it.”
K’TAR frowned and took back the flask.
Then he stood up and held out his hand.
“We’ll go to Taco Bell,” he said.
“We can eat lunch there and talk things over.”
I stared at his outstretched hand for a moment before taking it reluctantly.
We walked across the desert in silence, both of us watching the sky for any sign of help.
I had no idea how K’TAR planned to get us out of there, but I was willing to go along with whatever crazy scheme he came up with if it meant getting rescued.
It wasn’t like I had any better options.
We had been walking for what felt like hours when we heard the sound of engines in the distance, growing louder by the second.
We both stopped and looked around, trying to see where it was coming from.
Then suddenly we were hit by a wall of sand as a sandstorm swept over us, blinding us and knocking us off our feet.
I’d never been in a sandstorm before, but I knew enough to know that we were in trouble.
We wouldn’t be able to see a thing until it blew over, and we would be sitting ducks for anyone who came looking for us in the meantime.
“We need to find shelter,” I shouted to K’TAR through the howling wind.
“Or we need to run!”
I tried to get to my feet, but the sand kept whipping around me and knocking me back down.
Then I felt K’TAR’s hand grab mine and pull me to my feet.
“We need to find my ship,” he shouted back.
“It is around here somewhere!”
We staggered through the storm until finally we saw a dark shape looming ahead of us in the swirling sand.
“The Bloodied Honor,” K’TAR said as we reached it, his voice barely audible over the sound of the storm.
I blinked against the wind and looked up at him in surprise.
“How are we going to get it out of here?”
“It is not damaged,” he replied as he climbed inside.
He looked around for a moment, then started pulling things out of storage compartments and setting them aside.
“It just needs a power coupling,” he said.
“Then it will be operational again.”
I had no idea what that meant, but I was willing to help however I could if it meant getting off this godforsaken planet.
“Let’s do it,” I said.
We worked quickly to find the power coupling, then set about installing it in the ship.
It wasn’t long before we were back in the air, flying over the desert in search of civilization.
We didn’t say much to each other as we flew, each of us lost in our own thoughts.
I knew that K’TAR was probably still angry about what happened at the bar, and I couldn’t blame him.
I was still a little pissed off about it myself.
But we were in this together now, and we needed to work together if we wanted to survive.
The sun was just beginning to set when we finally spotted the lights of a city in the distance.
We landed in a field outside the city, then set out on foot to find help.
I was so focused on finding civilization that I didn’t even notice when K’TAR stopped walking behind me.
I kept going for several minutes before I realized that he wasn’t there, then turned around to look for him.
He was standing a few feet away, watching me with his arms crossed over his chest.
I stopped and stared at him, my heart pounding in my chest as I tried to figure out what he was thinking.
He looked almost like he did when he was about to attack me back at the bar, his body tensed and ready to spring into action.
But then he unfolded his arms and relaxed a little, and I could see that his expression was unreadable under the shadow of his ridged forehead.
“Why did you stop?”
“Are you tired?”
“I have not eaten,” he said.
“The desert is very hot.”
I nodded and wiped the sweat from my forehead, then looked around at the empty landscape.
It was so still and quiet out there, you could almost forget that there was anyone else in the world.
Except for the two of us, stranded there together with no way out.
“I thought you were going to kill me,” I said finally.
He raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to one side.
“Back at the bar,” I said.
“You said that I had insulted your honor and that you were going to kill me for it.”
“Oh,” he said after a moment.
“I do not remember this.”
I stared at him for a moment, then shook my head and started walking again.
“Let’s get out of here.”
He followed me back into the city in silence, letting me take the lead as we made our way through the streets in search of food.
I had no idea what I was going to do once we got there, but I figured it would be better than sitting around out there waiting to die.
We walked for several minutes before K’TAR stepped in front of me and blocked my path.
I looked up at him, surprised by how tall he was compared to me.
“What is it?”
I asked as I tried to step around him.
I thought you were going to kill me back in the desert,” I said as I stared up at him.
He frowned and glanced down at his hands as if he hadn’t realized that he had been acting that way.
He stepped back and looked down at me, his dark eyes fixed on mine as we stood there staring at each other in silence.
In the distance, I could hear the sound of a dog barking and a car horn honking off in the distance.
The world seemed so far away out there, but in that moment it felt like it was right on top of us.
“What do you want?”
I asked finally, breaking the silence between us as I took a step back from him.
He glanced around the street and then looked back at me, his expression unreadable under the shadow of his ridged forehead as he stared down at me from above.
Then, without saying a word, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper folded up into a square.
He handed it to me and waited for me to open it up and read what it said.
“You are a human,” I read aloud after a moment.
“And I am a Klingon,” K’TAR said as he folded his arms across his chest and stared down at me with his dark eyes.
“We are sworn enemies, but today I have decided that I will not kill you.I will let you live, so long as you agree to settle our differences over lunch at Taco Bell.
I read the last part aloud and then looked up at him, my mouth hanging open in shock.
“Are you serious right now?”
He nodded and waited for me to say something, but I was so stunned by what I had just read that I couldn’t find the words.
All I could do was stand there staring up at him, trying to figure out if it was some kind of trap.
It seemed too good to be true, almost like it was some kind of joke, but when I looked up at him I could see that he wasn’t kidding.
His expression was unreadable under the shadow of his ridged forehead, but he wasn’t smiling.
If anything, he looked more serious than ever as he stood there waiting for my answer.
I felt my heart pounding in my chest as I tried to think of something to say, but I couldn’t come up with anything.
“This is a joke, right?”
I asked finally.
“Is this some kind of joke?”
He shook his head, his expression still serious as he stared down at me from above.
“I am not joking,” he said.
“I just want to settle our differences like honorable warriors.”
My mind was racing as he spoke, trying to make sense of what was happening.
It seemed so strange, so out of character for a Klingon warrior like him to ask for something like this.
The last time we met, he had almost killed me for an insult, and now here he was offering to let it go if I agreed to have lunch with him.
It made no sense, almost like it was some kind of trap or a trick or something.
But when I looked up at him, I could see that he was serious, that he really wanted me to agree to whatever it was that he was asking for.
And for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why.
“I don’t know,” I said finally as I looked up at him.
I don’t know if I should be doing this, but I’m not sure what else to do in a situation like this one either.”
I watched as K’Tar stood there, waiting for a reply, his arms folded across his chest as he stood there staring down at me.
His ridged forehead was still shadowed by the sun, but I could see the muscles in his jaw working as he clenched his teeth, as if he was trying to hold back some kind of emotion that was bubbling up inside of him.
To be honest, I was surprised by his offer, shocked really, and I had no idea what to make of it at all.
It didn’t make any sense for him to want to settle things like this, not with the history that we had together, and so I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking or why he would suggest something like this one.
It was almost like he was asking for a favor or something, and from what I knew about Klingons that wasn’t a very likely thing to happen under normal circumstances.
But then again, I didn’t know very much about them at all, and so maybe I was just being paranoid or something.
Maybe this was the way that they did things or something, and I just didn’t know about it yet.
I wasn’t sure what to think as he stood there watching me, but then after a moment he spoke again.
“I know you are confused,” he said.
“But I promise you, I am not trying to trick you or anything like that.
I just want to settle our differences in a way that is honorable for both of us.”
“That’s all you want?”
I asked him as I looked up at him.
It seems kind of strange to do things this way if you are a Klingon.”
He shook his head in answer to my questions, but it was hard to tell if he was telling the truth or not with the way that he was standing there looking down at me.
The sun had begun to set in the west as we stood there talking, and I could feel the heat of it on my skin as I waited for him to speak.
“I don’t understand why you would be doing this,” I said finally as I looked up at him.
“I mean, why would you want to do things this way instead of fighting?”
He shook his head at my question and then looked away as he stood there thinking.
“I don’t know,” he said finally as he looked back at me.
“But I have made you an offer and now you must choose whether or not to accept it.”
I didn’t know what to think as he spoke those words, but even as I listened to him they made a kind of sense to me.
It seemed strange for a Klingon to suggest something like this one, but then again maybe he wasn’t trying to play tricks on me or anything.
Maybe he just wanted to do things in his own way or something like that, and so there was nothing wrong with that if that was what he wanted.
But then again, maybe he wasn’t being entirely honest with me about his motivations either, and maybe there was something else going on here that I didn’t know about yet.
It was hard to tell for sure with the sun shining on his face the way that it was, but even so I couldn’t shake the feeling that something strange was happening here.
And so I just stood there watching him for what felt like an eternity as I tried to think about my options.
I was at a literal crossroads in the desert, and I knew that I had to decide which way I was going to go soon or else I wouldn’t get anywhere at all.
The tension between us was almost unbearable as I stood there watching him, and I could almost taste his uncertainty in the dry desert air.
I wanted to ask him another question, but I didn’t know if it would make any difference one way or the other, and so I just stood there watching him in silence.
And then after a moment he spoke again, and I knew that it was time for me to make up my mind about what I was going to do.
“We have no choice,” he said.
“You must choose one way or the other, or else we will have to settle things in another way.”
I didn’t know what to say as he spoke those words, but even so I knew that he was right about them.
And so after a moment I just nodded at him, and then I turned away from him for a moment as I walked back over to where I had been standing before.
The sand sifted between my boots as I walked, and it felt strange to be moving away from him after all of the time that we had spent talking, but even so I knew that I had to make up my mind one way or another soon.
As I walked, though, my mind was racing with thoughts about what he had said, and about whether or not he was being honest with me about only wanting to settle things with me in an honorable way.
It seemed strange for a Klingon warrior like him to be saying something like that when it went against everything that I knew about their race, but then again maybe there was nothing wrong with that if it was true.
Maybe he really did want to settle things with me in his own way, but then again maybe he wasn’t telling me everything about why he wanted to do things this way either.
After all, Klingons were known for their trickery and deception, and so it wouldn’t have been surprising if he was trying to play some kind of trick on me by saying something like that either.
And even if he wasn’t trying to play tricks on me, maybe he was hiding some other kind of secret from me instead, and maybe there was something else going on here that I didn’t know about yet.
It was hard to tell for sure with the way that he was standing there looking at me, but even so I couldn’t shake the feeling that something strange was happening here.
And so I just stood there watching him as I thought about my options, and then after a moment I turned back around to face him again as I waited for him to speak some more.
It was hard to tell what was going on behind his eyes as I watched him, but even so I knew that I had to be ready for anything that might happen next, and that I had to be ready to fight my way out of this situation if things went bad for me later on too.
But then again, maybe fighting my way out of this situation wasn’t something that I wanted to do, and maybe it would be better for me to just walk away and leave things at that instead.
After all, I was unarmed and dehydrated, and it seemed unlikely that I would be able to win a fight against a Klingon warrior like him in that situation anyway, and so maybe it would be better for me to just take my chances with him instead of trying to fight my way out of this situation and risking my life for nothing in return.
