Chapter 4

Down The Drain

It was evening now, and the researches had been working all day. So far they’d confirmed that he was still somewhere in the game, and that if he was reunited with his body, it would be as though nothing had ever happened. Only problem was that they couldn’t find him. This game was massive, and had literally an infinity of places he could be. It could take too long to try and find him, and they were pretty sure they couldn’t leave his body like this for long before it started decaying. They needed to get him alive again, and they needed to do it quickly.

At about eight o’clock my Mom came downstairs. The three of us were sitting on the couch across from the computer, still watching in the hope that something would happen. She looked over at the computer screen, and then back at us.

“It’s getting late, and I don’t want to worry your parents.” She was of course referring to Jessica and Jake.

“It’s alright. We’re fine.” Jessica quickly spoke up.

“No. I don’t want to push our problems onto you two. I’m sure we’ll have this all sorted out soon…” But she didn’t sound confident. In fact, she started to tear up, and quickly left.

“It’s alright guys. I’ll be fine,” I said.

“Look man, we won’t leave you with this kind of crap going on,” Jake said.

“No. My mom’s right. This is our problem, and we’ll get through it. He can’t hide in there forever.”

Jessica looked unsure of what to do, but her and Jake finally stood. I joined them, and we slowly walked outside to where their bikes still lay on the driveway from earlier. The vans were all lit up, and a hum could be heard from all the electricity being pumped in and out of them.

Jake mounted his bike, but Jessica stood, still unsure of what to do, holding hers next to her body.

“Chris…we’re here for you.”

I nodded, but looked down at the ground. She reached up and put her hand on my face, and lifted it back up. Her face was emotionless, but her eyes portrayed a deep sense of caring.

“If anything happens, call us first.”

“Thanks. I—”

“Go in?! You’re just as crazy as he was!”

“It’s the only way we’ll find him before his body can’t be reanimated. We go in now, or risk losing him permanently.”

The three of us perked up quickly, and headed over to the open door. The two technicians were still sitting at their work stations, but turned to see us approach.

“You’re going in?” I asked.

They paused, glancing sideways at each other. The first one finally spoke. “There’s a possibility of sending someone in. It would be much more effective than waiting for the computer to scan the entire hard drive.”

“Then do it! What are you waiting for?!” Jessica shouted at them.

“We’re not familiar with the game construct. Sending one of us in would be like letting a six-year-old try and pilot a 747. There’s no way we’d last long, and then we’d be in the same state your father’s in.”

Then it hit me. This was my turf. I knew how to play the game.

“Send me in.”

Jessica gasped. The techy laughed. “That’s absurd! We couldn’t send in someone like you. You have no experience with this technology.”

“Chris, are you crazy?” Jessica said realistically.

“I may not know how your fancy helmets work, but I know how to play that game. I can go anywhere, anytime, anyplace. The sky isn’t even a limit to me in that game. You put me in there; it’ll be like putting a singer on stage. This is my world.”

The techies paused, and seemed to think it over. Jessica was still gaping at me.

“It would be much quicker…”

“And in essence he would only have to stay alive…”

They thought for a few more moments, looked at each other, and then at me. “Alright, but you’ll need backup.”

Jake instantly stepped forward. “I’m second in command!”

Jessica shook her head. “You know you mom will never let you do this?”

“Then don’t let her find out.”

She folded her arms. “If you’re going to do this…then at least let me come along.”

Yes! Finally, she would get to see the wonders of my world.

The techies returned, and each had a helmet in hand. “The setup will be out here in the vans. The helmets won’t actually display image, they’ll bombard your brain with electromagnetic waves. Once you put them on, you’re mind will be directly interfaced with the computer. You’ll appear where you last left off on your game.”

The three of us climbed into the van, and took a seat next to the computer screen. The helmets were laced with wiring, which glowed as the light passed through it and into the machines.

“How will we get out?” I asked.

“You’ll be given a controller. It’ll summon features from the game for you, but it’ll also allow you to exit,” the first one said.

The second one said, “However, since your mind will be engulfed in the game, it’ll take a few minutes to bring you out. A suggestion would be to only bail out if you know that you’ll make it out in one piece.”

We all nodded, and Jessica swallowed hard. I took my seat, and several sensors deployed all over my body. Jake took his seat quickly, and pulled the helmet on. Jessica was hesitant, but finally did the same. I was the last one.

“Before you go in, there is one last thing: Because your mind will think your body is in the computer, you will feel as though you are. You will feel pain, you will feel gravity, you will taste, and you will feel sensation. This may work to your advantage, but it could also work against you. If you get injured, you will be immobilized. But, keep in mind that the controller can repair any damage.”

I nodded slowly, and the helmet lowered over my head. The mask started pumping air into my nose, and I relaxed a little. Slowly I began to feel sleepy, and it almost felt like I was drifting off to sleep. Then just as I was on the verge of sleep, I could feel energy returning to my limbs. I had the sensation of lying flat on my back, and opened my eyes.

Above me were a row of bright lights, and I had to sit up to shield myself. Jessica and Jake were lying on the ground next to me, and were now beginning to sit up too.

We were all wearing some sort of Marine outfit. It was the outfit the commando avatar of the game wore. We were the avatar.

Jessica looked from me to Jake, and frowned. “We look like ourselves.”

Jake shrugged. “And why not?”

“I don’t know… I guess I kind of assumed it would be like playing the game. We would see an avatar, but not ourselves.”

I finally stood up and looked around. We were definitely on the space station. The hallway we stood in was only about a hundred yards long, surrounded completely by glass windows, the floor metallic. Behind us was the mega-structure of the space station. The many windows were all lit up, but no activity could be seen from where we were. In front of us was the red hull of the awesome ship I had discovered. And out the left-hand window was the large, blue orb that was Earth.

We were definitely back where I had left off.

“Whoa! Awesome ship!” Jake was looking longingly down the hall too. Jessica, however, was looking at her hand. She touched the cool glass, and then reached out to touch my face.

“I can feel the difference between the cold space and your warm body.”

I blushed, but tried to hide it. “They said that because our minds were in the computer it would feel like our bodies were too.”

She smiled, and looked around. “So…we could do anything we wanted, and it would feel like real life?”

I shrugged. “Yeah.”

She quickly balled her fist, and slugged into the side of my shoulder as hard she could.

“Oww! What the heck?!”

“Wow, it does work!” She giggled, and looked away momentarily at Jake who was now walking towards the other door where the ship was. I took this time to quickly reach around and tickle her. She jumped.

“You!”

I turned and quickly headed down the hallway with Jake. Upon reaching the door it slid open, revealing a five-foot thick airlock between the station and the ship.

“I guess it’s unlocked,” he said.

I frowned. This couldn’t be that easy. There was always a contingency lock system. This was revealed when Jake stepped forward and the next door wouldn’t open.

“Uh, it isn’t working.”

“It’s a user-lock system. There must be a password somewhere on the station that opens it,” I said.

Jessica looked at it worriedly. “How are we going to figure out the password?”

“It’s probably in the memory banks…here I’ll go unlock it now.”

I started back up the corridor, but Jessica followed. “It’s alright; you can stay here with Jake. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”

“You’ll need backup…”

I shrugged, and we kept walking down the hall. Jake just stood alone by the door.

“I’ll just keep guard, then…?”

The station was actually quite wide and spacious, opening up into large parkway areas that seemed like scenes right out of city landscape. Of course the station was minimally run, and as mentioned before I had gassed the place, so all the occupants were unconscious. Come to think of it, though, I hadn’t seen any of them lying around the station.

We found ourselves taking an elevator up a series of levels, and finally reached the control center. It too was empty, even though all the systems were running at full capacity. It was as if all the workers had been dissolved by whatever I pumped in the station.

On the screen were two images; one of the powerful red ship, and one of my little shuttle I’d used to dock with station earlier in the game. Jessica looked over all the controls, and finally sat down in one of the seats. I found the main controls, and pulled open the docking controls.

It was just as I feared. The ship was locked to the dock by a series of security codes, all of which were controlled by a master switch. All I had to do was figure out the code.

While thinking, I looked over and noticed Jessica scratching at her Marine jump-suit. She seemed uncomfortable in it.

“What wrong?” I asked.

“It’s this outfit… it’s wrapped around me so tight.”

She pulled off her parka, revealing a green shirt and camouflage pants, which were indeed tight around her figure. Of course this was for protection against stray objects in space and minimal bullet-proof capacity, but it did feel a little uncomfortable. It was also then that I noticed how well it portrayed the curves and figure of her body.

“Chris!”

Apparently I was staring, too. I quickly shook myself back to reality. “You’ll have to get used to it, unless you want to look in the closet for a spare outfit…”

She glared at me, and then folded her arms to look out the main window into space. I turned back to the control panel, and started to think of the possible codes. Most likely there was an Easter egg hidden somewhere on the station that gave away the password, but I didn’t have time to look around for it. Looking for Easter eggs was just not quick enough right now.

“Don’t you have that controller?”

I snapped back up, and looked at Jessica who was pointing to a pocket on my vest.

“What about it?”

“Could you change my clothes that way?”

I rolled my eyes. “Jess, this is no time to be thinking about fashion!”

“I was just asking.” She looked away.

I hesitated for a moment, and then quickly pulled out the unusual device. It was made of a strong, white plastic material, and was dominated by a large blue plasma screen. I quickly flipped it on, and went to Jessica’s vitals. There was actually an icon for clothing. I turned it on, choosing the first one that caught my eye.

Jessica gasped, and I looked up to see her Marine jumpsuit change into a black tank top and short (short) jeans. She gasped, and quickly covered up her chest area. If she was afraid of me staring at her curves then, that was nothing compared to her appearance now.

“CHRIS!”

I laughed, and kissed the controller. “Problem solved.”

“Change me back now, you pervert!”

I frowned, and pretended to hesitate.

“Now!”

“Oh, alright.”

I pushed the same button, and her marine clothing returned. “Happy?”

“No. This stuff still irritates me. When we’re done, you’re giving me a decent outfit.”

I shook my head, and then suddenly looked down at the remote. If it could affect such events, could it be possible that it had a list of the Easter eggs, or hell, even the answers I needed for specific situations?

To test the theory, I opened the options feature, and sure enough, there was a section titled Easter eggs. I opened it, but was surprised to see only three selections. Did that mean there were only three secrets in the whole game? I clicked the top one, and got a map that led to a secret hallway on the station. I skipped that one, and selected the next one down. It was of a hidden weapons cache on the station—somewhere down in the cargo hold. The last one displayed a single code word, which would be needed to undock the ship from the station.

I looked back down at the screen and typed in the word. An error screen popped up, but this too was an Easter egg. After reading the comical little message, a final line of words read; “USS Anon is now unlocked”.

Huh; the ship was named after the game. How appropriate.

There was a shudder through the station, and I looked down to see the large clamps release from the now titled Anon. There was a wave of static, and I reached back into my vest, pulling out a radio.

“Dude! It worked! The door opened, and I’m on the ship!”

I pushed my call button. “Where did you get your radio?” Everything we said was also playing over Jessica’s radio too.

“I found it. There’s a bunch of other cool stuff in our vests too. You should take a look!”

I looked over at Jessica who just shrugged. I reached into my pocket, and indeed pulled out a futurist-looking pistol. It was loaded, and ready to fire. “Coolyo.”

Suddenly an alarm went off overhead, and Jessica nearly leaped out of her seat. I looked back down at the previous error message, which now read; “All knocked out occupants are back up. They will not let their ship leave this station.”

“Ah crap. Time to go!”

I grabbed Jessica’s hand, and pulled her out the door.

“What’d you do now?”

“Don’t know, but whatever it was just woke up all the people on this station, and-they-are-pissed.”

We ran down the hallway, and made it to the elevator when several bullets ricocheted off the wall behind us. Several men in white jump suits and air-helmets came charging down the hall. The elevator opened, and I pushed Jessica in. The men had pistols too, and were shooting at us. I fired off a few rounds from my own gun, and then stood back as the door closed.

“When we get down to the next level, RUN!”

Jessica nodded, and brushed some stay hair out of her face. The elevator continued to descend, and my radio buzzed to life.

“Guys, what the hell is going on?! Alarms are going off, and a bunch of dudes just piled up outside the ship.”

I flipped my radio on again. “Are they onboard?!”

“No. I locked the door, but they don’t look happy. I think they’re trying to break in, so I’d suggest getting on another way.”

“Another way?! Jake, there’s only one airlock!”

There was silence, and then Jake spoke again. “Just use your rifles.”

I looked over at Jessica. She frowned and shrugged.

“Jake, we’ve only got pistols!”

“No you don’t. They’re on your vests, slung about your back.”

Jessica and I reached around simultaneous, and felt the bulky shape of the rifle. Almost as if Jake had seen this very act, he laughed over the radio.

“Ha! What’d I tell ya?!”

“Okay, okay. Just make sure they don’t get in. We’ll be there to give you backup shortly.”

“Rodger! Over and out.”

Jessica looked questionably at her rifle.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I’ve never actually fired a gun in real life…only in the games.”

“Jess, we’re in a game!”

She frowned, but didn’t seem any more reassured. The elevator dinged, and our movement ceased. As soon as the door opened, a barrage of ammunition poured into the shaft. Jessica and I jumped to the side, and watched as the back wall was torn apart by the constant bashing of lead.

“What now?!” Jessica yelled over the sound of machine-gun fire.

I reached into my pocket, and found just what I was looking for. I pulled the pin off my grenade, and chucked it out the door. The hell-fire stopped almost instantly, and several people screamed. There was loud explosion, and the elevator car shook.

We slowly peeked around the corner, and saw the ground littered with debris and bodies.

“Yes!” we said together.

We quickly took off down the hallway. The airlock was right around the corner, but gunfire could be heard in the distance. I looked back, and saw several more goons starting to chase after us. Jessica pushed the release button, and the door opened.

After entering the airlock corridor, I pulled a large tumbler, and locked the entire door. Bullets started pouring on this door too, but the glass and frame were bullet proof, so all it did was add unsightly dents.

Jessica screamed, and I looked down the airlock to see the small group of white space men who had abandoned the door, and were now looking at us. I whipped out my battle rifle, and never let go of the trigger. I was surprised when the gun didn’t wobble around wildly, and by the level of control I had over it. It never went anywhere I didn’t want it to, and moved almost as easily as moving a pencil across paper. Apparently the affects of the game were still working on our avatars.

Jessica had pulled out her own battle rifle now, and was also firing a barrage of bullets down at the attackers. As the dust cleared, there was no more sound of rifle fire, and we both lowered our guns.

I raised my hand, and she responded by giving me a high-five.

“Problem; taken care of!” I said aloud.

We took off down the airlock corridor, and stopped just as the door slid open. A familiar voice greeted us. “Welcome aboard Jake’s wild galaxy ride!”

We rushed in, and as the airlock closed I heard a loud explosion. They had broken through the first airlock door. As our door closed, there was a loud clank of metal, and then the ship began to move.

“Come on…”

Jessica and I headed down this new corridor, and followed it until we reached a turbo lift that led to the bridge.

The bridge itself was pretty nice. There were several control stations, one of which included ship navigation—where Jake was playing with the steering controls. I quickly sat down in the Captain’s chair, and looked out the main viewer, which was currently pointed away from the Earth towards the Moon. Jessica took a seat next to the weapons stations off to my right. 

Jake turned around, and spotted us. “Hey! I wanted to sit there!”

“You’re piloting the ship.”

He thought for a moment, and then smiled. “Never mind.”

“Oh, and one more thing; the ship is called the Anon.”

“What, like the game?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s a little hokey…”

“The ship is an Easter egg, so stop your whining. Would you like one of the main fleet ships?”

Jake’s eyes lit up. “There’s more ships?”

“You know what, never mind.”

“Screw that! I’ll take a battle cruiser! Where’s the fleet docked, anyhow?”

Jessica rolled her eyes. “Have you guys forgotten our mission?”

Jake frowned. “Oh fine…” He turned back around, and faced the control system. “Destination, Captain?”

Now I was stumped.

I had no idea where to begin looking. The image had shown an image of my Dad on some alien world; most likely an inner colony, seeing as how he couldn’t get too far on his first time in the game. Yes, probably an inner colony, but it would have to be a dangerous one. While there were quite a few inner colonies, not many of them had any hostile forces. Any of the ones I could think of were just little terrorist or rebel forces. This looked like he was fighting an entire army of aliens.

“I don’t know…”

Jessica looked over at me confused. “We don’t know where we’re going?”

Then it hit me. Dad probably got a ship with Randomization drive. This was the most effective mode of transportation. It used an advanced Quantum drive that used chance and probability to move a ship across vast distances using unusual forces. Not much was known about it—or provided at the online forums—so most of what was known was speculation from fans that’d played the game.

“Jake; use the Randomization drive.”

“The what?”

“If you look, you’ll see a feature called the Randomization drive. It’s like an advanced warp drive.”

Jessica and Jake exchanged looks, and then glanced at me. “And where do I tell it to take us?”

“Nowhere. Just tell it to generate a random location.”

Now Jessica and Jake were extremely confused. Jessica spoke up. “Are you saying we’re to trust our lives to this random drive, and hope that it’ll put us out in the right spot?”

“Pretty much,” I added unfazed. “The thing is that I think my Dad used it. It took him somewhere unusual, and that’s why he ran into trouble.”

Jake spoke next. “And this thing will take us to the last place he was?”

Uh oh. “Well…no…maybe…”

“So what will happen?” Jessica asked.

“I’m not sure. Very little is known about the Randomization drive. It uses a strange form of quantum weirdness.”

Jake looked like he was going to lose it. “Why would you build an engine that pops you out at some random place in the universe?!”

“Look, I don’t know how or why they built this, so just start pushing buttons!”

There was another moment of silence, and then Jake smiled mischievously. “I think I like where this is going…”

He turned around in his seat, and slammed his hand down on the control system. “Randomization drive activated. Jump time estimated in eight seconds. Destination; who the hell knows!”

The edge of the view screen began to warp, and then everything around us became warped. Inside and out, the view of reality was warping, and becoming increasingly bright. Jessica looked around frantically, as the very fabric of space warped around her.

“Chris…!”

Before she had time to speak, it all went white.


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