Vivid Stars Online

I pulled myself out of the VR pod and shuffled over to my bed, trying to resist the urge to pace incessantly. As much as I was worried about what was happening in the game, the only thing I could do now was to get a good night’s rest.

It was still hard to force myself to sleep, however, eventually I managed to drift off. My Alarm woke me nearly six ours later so I could re-enter the game. While I still hated entering the VR pod, I forced myself in a little early just to make sure I didn’t waste a single second.

I lay there shuddering as the time ticked down until finally, my surroundings went blissfully dark.

I woke on a soft surface. Feeling around under myself, I realized it was my bedroll, rolled out over some kind of metal floor. Blinking, I realized I could see as if it were daylight.

I pulled myself up to see Elana sleeping on a bedroll nearby, while Linnea stared at a metal door a few feet away.

It wasn’t the door we’d been trying to get into the night before, instead, it was a much smaller, person-size one. I glanced behind me as I moved over to her, seeing the massive closed door behind us.

Right, I mused as I tip-toed over to avoid waking Elana. They must have moved me inside once they got the door open. This room seems a bit odd though, why have such a small room attached to such a massive entrance?

The room we were in was barely wider than the door itself, I couldn’t imagine why the two would be connected.

“Hey,“ I whispered to Linnea as I sat down next to her. “Thanks for handling that after I passed out.”

“No worries,“ she whispered back. She looked tired but not as bad as when she’d stayed up all night at the lake.

“Elana took the first watch,“ she spoke as she stood up. “We figured that if we each take a three-hour turn, then we can all get six hours’ sleep.”

I nodded in thought. That made sense and tied in neatly with how long I had to spend out of the game. Trust Linnea to take the hardest job, I mused, realizing that she had split her sleep into two, three-hour periods.

“Get some rest then,“ I whispered back. “I’ve got it from here.”

She nodded thankfully, rising without another word and moving over to a third bedroll in the corner. She was asleep seconds later, and I turned my attention to keeping watch.

First, I looked around the room. It was almost entirely featureless, the only thing standing out was an access panel on each of the two doors. They looked identical to the one I’d seen Elana fiddling with the night before.

Apart from those, the walls, roof, and floor looked to be made of single sheets of metal, the only joints being where they met. It was impressive architecture, even if I didn’t know why the room existed.

I also couldn’t see any source of the odd, omnipresent light surrounding us. Some kind of super alien tech, I guess. Hopefully, Elana has an idea of what the room is for when she wakes up, I mused as I settled in to keep watch. She’s focused on engineering, after all.

I considered leveling while I waited, however I eventually decided to wait a little longer. If what I was looking for was in this facility, then waiting until I had my first Psionic Ability would be ideal.

Three hours later, both sisters rose as their watches beeped. Linnea pulled herself straight out of bed, while Elana took a little longer as she yawned while stretching. We all spent a little time taking care of our morning routines before meeting up to discuss our situation.

“So, what’s with the room? “I asked once we were all seated in a circle on our bedrolls.

Linnea simply shrugged, looking over at Elana as if deferring to her experience.

“We're guessing it’s some kind of prison, probably because I forced our way in. I mean,“ she shrugged as she continued. “The entry door clearly doesn’t match the size of the room, right? There was also this voice that spoke as we entered.”

She gestured at the walls as she continued. “While we couldn’t understand the voice, I’m going to guess that it was something like ‘Intruders Detected’.” She shrugged before continuing. “And we’ve been stuck here ever since.”

Linnea broke in after that. “While we didn’t stay up long to talk about it, I’m guessing this is something of a temporary prison for any trespassers. You don’t necessarily want to just open fire on anyone who enters after all.”

“At a guess,“ she continued. “I’d say that if the facility was still active, a group of guards would have checked that us out by now. As it is, my hunch is that as long as we don’t try to break out of this room, we’re safe. “

“If we mess with anything, well.“ She shrugged, looking grim. “That’s when I’d have the automated defenses activate if I was designing this place.”

I nodded in thought, processing the situation we were in. In a way, it had been a boon for the night before, allowing them to set us up somewhere relatively safe for the night. Now, however, was another story.

“Do you think you can get us out safely?“ I asked as I turned toward Elana. This was exactly the situation I’d been worried about and why I’d been willing to bring her along in the first place.

She bit her lip, looking uncertain. “Maybe,“ she said finally. “The issue I was having last night is I can’t read the language of whoever built these ruins. That meant I had to just poke around till the doors opened. I’m not too confident doing that again if it might be dangerous.”

Sounds like it’s finally time to break out that Database of Alien Languages, I mused with a grin. It had been the only thing I’d started with and I was glad that it was time to put it to use.

“I might be able to translate. “I said in response. “My class started with a database that should have a translation for the Arkathian language in it. I doubt I'll be able to transfer it to you though, it was a trait rather than a piece of equipment.”

Elana sat straight up, staring at me. “Actually, that might be perfect,“ she said with a grin. “Even if you can’t send it to me, I should be able to route all the communication through your Personal Computer and have it translated.”

Then she paused, her face falling a little. “I’d need admin access to your watch to do it, though.”

I paused, thinking about the situation. While it might not be the smartest decision, I felt I could probably trust her with access as long as I was monitoring the watch at the same time. If I removed her access straight afterward, it wasn’t too large a risk.

“OK,“ I said, smiling at her. “I don’t mind giving you access for a couple of minutes. I trust you not to do anything crazy with it.”

Elana blinked for a moment before her face broke out into a massive smile. “Thanks, Jared!” She almost shouted before rushing over to the access panel on the inner door.”

“This shouldn’t take too long, just accept the prompt when I try to access your watch.” She continued, already fiddling with the door.

Sure enough, a few minutes later I got an alert from my watch, warning that there was a pending connection attempt. I confirmed temporary access and settled in to watch what was happening.

While I wasn’t any kind of computer programmer, the watch could show a visual display of what was occurring. Elana was using it to relay communication in both directions.

She would attempt to send a command to the wall panel through my watch, using my language database to translate it into the Arkathian language. Similarly, the response she received from the panel would be directed back in the other direction, being translated into English.

This continued for several more minutes before the door's panel lit up with a bright green backlight.

“Got it,“ Elana said, as she turned to us with a proud smile. “Though it’s just this door,“ she continued, her face falling a little. “While we won’t immediately trigger an alarm by leaving anymore, the rest of the facility will probably still see us as intruders.”

I nodded in response, that was probably the best we were going to get. I was extremely grateful that Elana had pushed to come along, I had no idea what we would have done otherwise. Probably got ourselves killed trying to break in, I thought with a shudder.

Turning to Linnea, I checked she was ready to go before we opened the door. While she was still favoring her left arm, she was now at least able to hold her gun in two hands. She nodded as she caught my look, gesturing toward the door.

“No point in waiting around,“ she said as she strode toward the door.”

I couldn’t argue, so I also moved forward. When we were all standing in front of it, Elana triggered the panel.

I think we all expected the door to slide down and let us through. Instead, however, three of the walls surrounding us retracted into the ground, leaving us standing inside a cavernous room.

For a moment, all was dark, and then the same omnipresent light spread out in front of us. It revealed a massive, clearly artificial space. It was at least three times the size of the main hangar I’d seen in the Altheias capital when I’d arrived.

“What?” I said, speaking out loud in my confusion. While we hadn’t been able to see much of the facility last night, I was pretty sure that the wall we’d entered by hadn’t been nearly tall enough to house a room this large.

It also didn’t match the picture I had of the facility, none of the visible buildings in that had been this large.

“Interesting,“ Elana breathed next to me, barely audible. A moment later, she spoke up, grinning. “I think we may have actually been wrong. Instead of a prison, I think that room was some kind of cargo elevator. “

Fuck, I thought as I processed what she was saying. “So, you mean we’re underground now?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

“Yep," she responded, nodding at me with a grin. “That probably wasn’t the main entrance we found. More like a way down to here,” she gestured at the surrounding room. Some kind of hangar, maybe?” She tilted her head in thought as she finished.

It’s fine, I thought, breathing deeply. This is larger than any above-ground building, anyway. There’s no reason to even think about the fact we’re underground, with who knows much weight pressing down on us.

Just explore the facility as planned and don’t think about it. I continued breathing for a moment, gradually feeling myself calm. “Why would there be an underground hangar, though,“ I asked, more to distract myself than anything.

“To keep it safe, maybe?” Elana said, though her voice sounded uncertain. “I guess it would be safer for orbital bombardment and stuff. Harder to spot, too. I mean,“ she shrugged as she continued, “did you spot this in that picture you had?”

That actually made a lot of sense, as long as there was a way for them to get the spaceships out, it would make for an excellent hiding place. “It’s a shame it looks empty,“ I said as I glanced around the room, reassuring myself of its size as I did so.

Ever since I’d been on that ship during character creation, I’d thought that spaceflight would be amazing. Not to mention that it would be nice to have a way to help deal with the space pirates that were causing so many issues.

“Yeah,“ Linnea sighed next to me. “I’d love to have a spacefighter or something. I can only imagine what it would be like to have that kind of mobility, that kind of freedom.”

I glanced at her with a grin. While I’d been thinking about something rather larger than a fighter, I could understand the thought. It was a shame that a ship would likely be far outside of my budget.

We spent a few minutes scouring the hangar to ensure it was entirely empty before finally ending up in front of another, smaller door.

“I think this leads further into the facility,“ Elana said as she poked at the panel. “Looks like it’s a bit more secure than the outside one, as well. I’m thinking it’s the difference between a public area and a restricted one.”

Linnea shrugged next to me. “Just do your best,“ she said with a smile. “I doubt we’re going to get through this without tripping the security, eventually. If it happens now, then it happens.”

I nodded, adding my agreement. While sneaking through without tripping any alarms would be ideal, none of us were really built for stealth. If we didn’t trip the alarm on a door, then I was sure we’d run into something else eventually.

Elana smiled wanly before turning back to the door. I accepted a prompt to relay communications again, and she spent another minute fiddling with the panel.

Then the door slid open, revealing a corridor behind it. For a moment it looked like we were safe, then a loud claxon rang out. A voice followed it, speaking loudly in a melodic voice I couldn’t understand.

“Now that,“ I said, wincing as the siren echoed through the facility. “Was definitely saying ‘Intruders Detected’," It seemed we would have to face the building’s defenses after all.