This one took on a life of its own. I sketched out critical scenes I wanted to make sure were written and followed a logical sequence of events. Pfft!! As always, I begin writing a scenario and whoosh, I am off into the Unforeseen Country. I am like where the hell did that come from? I am forced to ask myself critical questions. Is it cool? Does it add to the storyline without wrecking it? Is it visual or have a heavy sensory component to it? If it fits one or more, I'll likely keep it. This is going to come in four rapid fire posts, ten through twelve. The whole thing is over 120 pages, so I am going to post one part a week for three weeks.
Enjoy. Vote. Comment.
*****
Training Day:
Aoki and Kyanna were sharing a bath while I showered. I had never dated two women at the same time, but it was clear that is what was happening. I glanced down at my upper thigh where the robotic arm had extracted the tissue and bone sample. The deep bruise was almost gone and after only ten hours. I touched it gingerly at first but when it didn't hurt, I washed it to remove the remainder of the chemicals that had been sprayed on it.
"Hey Booker," Kyanna called out.
"Yeah?" I replied as I turned to face the tub.
"What are you going to do after this... I mean the playtesting." She said her voice faltering.
"What she wants to know is if you'll still want to hang out with us." Aoki giggled and I felt the same fear of loss.
"I've grown quite attached... what I mean is..." I stammered and I heard the dual splash as they left the tub and crowded around me. "I care about both of you and..." Kyanna kissed me into silence and then Aoki took her turn to kiss me after that. "I still want to finish the Marvel Vs. Disney Princess, I hope that doesn't come off as selfish."
"We understand," Aoki giggled. "If I had the chance, I'd be on that in a heartbeat."
"Same here," Kyanna said and then bit her lower lip. When I asked her, what was bothering her she jumped up and down and I couldn't help but smile. "I was accepted into the US lightsaber team!"
"Huh?" I said and Aoki knew all about it.
"The French made lightsaber dueling an official Olympic event this year. The world is snatching up the best duelists for their teams. I'm surprised they haven't approached you yet." Aoki explained with a puzzled expression.
"Maybe we just missed each other," I stated and wondered if working for Numenor disqualified me.
"You know what," Kyanna said excitedly brainstorming. "We could open our own dueling school.
Maybe Kat would sponsor us... I mean if you'd want to..." I kissed her into silence this time.
"Speaking of Kat. Have either of you seen her?" Aoki asked and I felt a sudden pang of guilt tinged with fear.
"Crap," I cursed. "Listen, I need to make sure she is okay. I'll catch up with you in the cafeteria or worse case in game."
I rinsed, dried off, and dressed. I took the elevator down to the sublevels. I moved quickly and quietly to my old room. It didn't appear to have been reassigned. I slipped in silently that came from so many hours skulking around in game and with a marriage of practice and muscle memory. Many of the other play testers still slept and so I went cautiously. I tried to remember what part of the wall the wet footprints had led to.
"Booker? What are you up to?" Surfer whispered manifesting without warning.
"I want to make sure Kat is okay. If anything happened to her, I'll never forgive myself." I said and I saw the A.I. thinking over whether to help me and add to that her unbidden manifestation I was painfully aware of her strange behavior. I was about to ask her what the fuck was going one when she cursed.
"Damn it!" She said and a hidden door slid silently open.
I heard voices speaking and one of the them was Kat. I followed Surfer's avatar down the empty hall to an empty room. The dim illumination given off by Surfer was more than enough light for me to see by. It was a large room and it was clear by the scratches along the walls and floor that it had been cleared out quickly and recently. Some of the paint was flayed and the metal beneath gleamed under Surfer's radiance. What the hell was going on in here? The next two rooms were much the same as the first with damaged walls and floors, but in the third room there was the faintest hint of that chlorine smell I had woken up with before. I heard Kat speaking in hushed whispers with someone else, a male voice I didn't recognize.
"Did you hear something?" Kat asked.
"He's right on time," the other replied. "I'm sorry." He said and I felt he was addressing me. The overhead lights came on and instinctively I looked up. Those same lights began strobing at a fast-intense rate. I lost control of my body. There are two types of seizures. In the old days they called them Grand Mal and Petite Mal. Grand Mal are the ones you see in the movies where the person drops and flops. I was subjected to the second type, what they call a 'partial complex' seizure. It can manifest from the weak end with mild auditory or visual hallucinations to the more severe fugue state where you just go away and lose X amount of short-term memory. The victim of these types of instances usually get used to it and go back to the last thing they can remember to figure out how bad the seizure was. Low end memory loss can be as little as an hour, but on the high end it can be as much as seventy-two hours. There can be flashes of events that occurred during the seizure, but they feel more dreamlike than true memory.
In my case I went away. I don't remember my body hitting the floor. The rest are obscure bursts of images, smells, and pain. I am on my back looking up at the blossom shaped surgical lights. I hear Kat crying off to my left. I feel wet and smell that distinct chlorine scent. I see a bright red laser line painting my left arm just below the elbow. I feel sick to my stomach and my arm burns. My body is hovering in fog and It feels like someone dumped ice water into my veins. Then the male voice returns out of that fog.
"Test. This is a test. Remember that... a test."
I felt like I was falling. I didn't hit bottom, but the sensation ended. I was surrounded by darkness. I could see, was I in the game? To see if I was, I tried pulling down my HUD and saw that my equipment was once again greyed out, but all my abilities were accessible. This was a test. I went to task and used far sight to see where the hell I was. I was in interstellar space. The asteroid I was trapped inside was slowly tumbling towards a structure off in the distance. It looked like a lighthouse after a fashion.
"Fuck you asshole!" I cursed and tried to teleport to the structure. Nothing happened. I tried folding space but that failed as well. "Fine. I'll have to dig my way out. Let's see what I am dealing with." I growled as I scanned the properties of the asteroid. It was composed of equal parts 'unknown element' and meteoric diorite. "Great!" I snarled. Diorite was just this side the hardness of diamond. The only reason I remembered was when mom talked about replacing the kitchen counter tops with it. I did research and wondered at the time how the hell she could afford it. She never did say. I couldn't attack the diorite with my spells since I would be at ground zero, but I could remove the unknown element to my heart's content.
I used the spell for mining and attacked the main mineral content inside my prison. I had to shift to gaseous form to keep from being covered in the strange dark powder. As it filled the empty pocket, I added the 'strange alloy' to my inventory so I didn't drown in it. Once I had mined all the strange alloy from the asteroid I went on the attack. The diorite resisted my best attacks. While I waited for my meters to recharge, I pondered how the hell I was going to escape before the asteroid smashed into the lighthouse.
"I am so fucking stupid!" I said as I remembered something my dad had taught me. "Place a firecracker in an open palm and you get singed a bit. Close your hand around it and you'll lose fingers from the same explosion. I am going to crack this fucker like an eggshell."
I would try and use Force burst but in reverse. Instead of building up a compressed ball of telekinetic energy I was going to fill this space until it popped. I remained in gaseous form so I could survive the explosion to come. I built up the energy slowly and once it was full, I added more and more. It felt like taking a garden hose to a balloon. It can only hold so much water before it burst. The same was true of the asteroid. It shook like a bitch until finally the structural flaws gave way and the rock split into seven pieces that flew off in different directions.
"Yes!" I exclaimed when I pulled down my HUD and had access to all my equipment. "Let's take a look, shall we?"
I teleported to the lighthouse. I looked up the configuration and Surfer came back with a hyperspace warning beacon. These were towed into place and anchored around anomalies or dangers that pilots should avoid at all costs. I couldn't get in, but I did notice the strange space nearby that when I scanned it came back as an erasure anomaly. What the hell did that mean? I received a message from Aoki and Kyanna. They were in game and waiting for me aboard my ship. Their names triggered something. I didn't remember logging into the game. I was just suddenly inside the damn asteroid. I remembered being in the shower with them and then nothing. No there was a hint of something. Fog and a bright glowing flower. My left arm twinged as if an electrical current ran through it or I had hit my funny bone. It wasn't painful just annoying. I flexed my fingers and wondered if it was just a glitch. My biggest problem was more urgent did I use my Ghost Fire persona or Katria? As if on cue a wave of dizziness slammed into me and I nearly let go of my grip on the lighthouse. You know that sensation when you get up and walk into a room and can't remember why you did it. This was that except I didn't remember getting up.
"How the hell did I get here?" I muttered to myself. "Left hand... what about it? Must be a minor glitch. I'll remember it or not. Fucking nightmares." I murmured as the memory proved elusive. "Damn, I just can't remember! Back to the things at hand. Surfer? What should I do?" I asked and she manifested next to me staring out at the wonder of the view.
"Nice isn't it. Do? Please specify." Surfer requested a bit stiffly.
"Ghost or Katria?" I asked.
