[ WP ] The reason she never called you back was because she was abducted by an alien civilization . She adapted , grew , and lead a rebellion to overthrow the tyrant that ruled there . Today she just texted that she wants to go out again .

`` Do you remember that time the school called you to the office about me?'' Regina said. 
 
 Dex snorted. `` Yeah? Which time?'' 
 
 `` The time they called me a liar.'' 
 
 `` Reggie, they were just trying to help you distinguish between fanciful ideas and facts.'' 
 
 `` I thought that they were trying to give me an education,'' she said. `` Unfortunately, they just wanted me to recite facts and churn out essays spouting the standard dogma.'' 
 
 Dex sighed. `` Memorization of facts is a part of education too, Regina.'' 
 
 `` Is it? How about separating everyone artificially by age and telling them when they can pee or blow their nose? How about asking someone to be creative and then telling them they have to do it a certain way?'' 
 
 `` You were supposed to write the biography of your respected family member, not a dramatic retelling of their life that changed an unsolved missing person situation into an abduction by aliens. You were twelve, and grieving, so we let it slide with just counselling. Nobody ever said you were a liar.'' His voice was rising, and he interrupted himself. `` Reggie, I'm not going to get sucked into another argument with you about this particular trigger point.'' 
 
 Regina paced back and forth in front of him. `` What about one of my other triggers, as you call it? The Air Force.'' 
 
 He sighed. `` The Air Force advanced you through their ranks quickly because you were the daughter of one of their darlings, and you demonstrated that you had her intuition and affability. You had a stellar career in store until you exploited every opportunity to sneak into their classified records in order to find evidence of a cover-up.'' 
 
 `` What you're forgetting is that I did find evidence of a cover-up,'' she argued. 
 
 `` You found evidence that her plane was found intact and sold to a private buyer in India through the black market. This indicates corruption, but no cover-up, and no aliens, young lady.'' 
 
 `` Do n't dismiss me because of my gender, Dad. I'm not so young and I'm definitely no lady. I also found evidence that they doctored her file after her disappearance to show that she was suffering from post-partum depression.'' 
 
 `` Maybe it was doctored, or maybe her counselor was just updating the file for completeness.'' 
 
 `` Five years after her last child was born? Or maybe they did n't want to pay out the insurance by ruling it a suicide.'' 
 
 `` So now there's more than one conspiracy?'' 
 
 `` Why ca n't there be?'' 
 
 `` Because, Reggie, once you need multiple theories to support your paranoia, it conflicts with Occam's Razor.'' 
 
 `` Dad, you went along with it because it suits your personal agenda. You did n't want the insurance payout, because it was affirmation that said she was really dead. You loved her and you never wanted that. You wanted to believe that she had post-partum depression, freaked out, shut off communications and flew off to India. You want to think that she never called you because she had a mental breakdown and started a new life.'' 
 
 `` Whereas you think what, Reggie? Still aliens?'' 
 
 `` Yes.'' Regina paused for dramatic effect. `` And she's home.'' 
 
 She threw open the door to the parlor, where Adina sat, flipping through the news on her tablet. `` Did you have fun berating your father, dear?'' she said. 
 
 `` Very much so.'' 
 
 `` It's not kind, you know. He's been through a lot.'' 
 
 Dex walked up to her, staring at her face as if it were a hallucination, then suddenly fell to his knees in front of her. He took her hand and began to cry. 
 
 `` Dex, please do n't. I lost the ability to cry years ago, and it makes me uncomfortable.'' 
 
 `` Where did you go? Where have you been? My love...'' 
 
 `` Have n't you been listening to your daughter? I was abducted by an alien armada as they tried to infiltrate Earth.'' 
 
 `` Are you... joking?'' 
 
 `` Not at all. They forced my plane to land over the Marshall Islands, took me captive and forced me to teach them everything I knew about navigation, geography and modern technology. They could n't leave me here while they regrouped at their home planet to make a battle plan, but the General took a fondness to me, and brought me home to Asphodel as his bride of war.'' 
 
 Dex's jaw dropped. 
 
 `` I fought him at first,'' she said quietly, `` but he was an expert at breaking people. I was light years from my family. It was either adapt to my new life, or die. I chose to live.'' 
 
 `` I do n't care. I'm glad you're home to stay, and we're going to make everything alright.'' 
 
 `` What is here for me? A world that will be disgusted with me for betraying them? A husband, who will be disappointed by my failure to honor my marriage vows? A child who looks at me in pity as one who has been enslaved and abused? My life on Earth is gone, Dex. You have no idea how much joy it gives me to see Regina, tall and strong and healthy, but I have no other reason to stay. On Asphodel, I matter. I'm the woman who united and saved the planet. I'm a general, something I could never have achieved in the Air Force.'' 
 
 `` Do you know how you inspired me, Mom?'' Regina said. `` You did everything in your power to ensure that we had a good childhood, even as you pursued your career. You taught us about the strength of being a woman in a world that is stacked against us. I ca n't believe that now you're just the thrall of a dictator.'' 
 
 Adina pulled herself to her full height. `` Slow down one minute,'' she snapped. `` I'm not a thrall. Maybe I seemed to be, once, when my very survival depended on him, but things change. I direct my own life now. Would I be here now if he had any control over me?'' 
 
 `` Tell me that you would rather be there on his ugly rock pelted by ugly rocks whose only aim is to pelt more rocks at other planets to turn them into ugly rocks too!'' 
 
 Adina's lips turned up at that, and despite the tension in the room, both women laughed. 
 
 `` Regina,'' she said quietly. `` You speak of strength. I can defend myself against almost any physical attack. I resisted the attempts of my kidnapper to break me emotionally, and turned him into my admirer. I command the loyalty of ten thousand troops, I use them as a force for societal change, and I have no issues with making difficult judgment calls and ordering those troops to their death. I do not, however, have the strength wake up every day and look into the eyes of a husband I betrayed.'' 
 
 `` You're supporting a regime that will destroy Earth,'' Regina said. 
 
 Adina waved her off. `` He wo n't destroy Earth. He just wants to unify Earth under the same authoritarian rule that has been so successful on Asphodel.'' 
 
 `` Are you serious, Mom? You think that he can unite a strange planet, of which he has no understanding of the culture and complexity of international relations, by exporting a kind of government which barely worked on his own world?'' 
 
 `` For the same reason that a family might see a counselor, Regina, it sometimes helps to have an external, expert point of view. He knows more than you think. He's been observing Earth for decades, after all.'' 
 
 Regina snorted. 
 
 Adina sighed. `` Alright. You're probably right. I'll overthrow the bastard.'' She stood up and kissed Regina on the cheek, and neatly stepped over the broken form of her ex-husband as she pressed a button on what looked like the remote starter for a car. A thundering roar shook the house. `` I'll be home by Christmas.''
