Chapter 8

Cominatcha

The facility, according to my GPS, was about twenty miles north of here somewhere in the mountains. It was probably up high, too, for a better signal. So, not only did we have a long walk, but we had a long hike. Something had to give, and I was not going to spend my day hiking through the mountains when there were all these vehicles nearby.

“Do you think you could fly one of those things, Jake?” I said, referring to the futuristic busses.

Jake looked from me to the busses. “Why do I have to drive everything?!”

I looked over at Jessica, shrugged, and then back at Jake. “Okay, I’ll fly it.”

“Damn straight.” He suddenly frowned. “Wait a minute…”

The busses were about as big as a freight train engine, and painted silver chrome. Hell, they looked like a diesel engine. These things were massive. But like a bus, there was a door that opened on the side near ground level. The buses themselves were parked in some sort of dock that was partially below the tarmac. It was low enough so that the door lined up with the platform.

There was a control panel next to the door, consisting of about three buttons (none of which were labeled), but after pushing them in all in verity of ways, nothing happened.

“Maybe it’s locked for the season?” Jessica suggested.

“Stand back, guys. Let a pro show you how it’s done…” Jake stepped forward, cracking his knuckles, and stretching out his arms. He raised his fist, and did some sort of air-drop kick against the door.

The door didn’t even slightly retract from the blow. There was a bang, which I’m pretty sure was more of Jake impacting than the metal actually being hit. There wasn’t even a ding.

Jake nearly fell over, and started reeling around in pain. Jessica and I both cracked up. “Did it open, Jake?” I said, still laughing.

He shot me a look, still trying to recover. “Well what do you think?!”

“I think you’ll need a doctor…!” Jessica said through suppressed laughing.

Jake finally recovered, and held out his hand. “Oh man…I think it’s broken.”

Then suddenly I remembered. The techs had said that we would feel pain, but that we could heal ourselves using the controller. I pulled my out quick, and opened Jake’s program. Sure enough, according to the sensors his hand was fractured, and his legs were slightly sprained. I pushed the clear-all button, and the grid showed that he was back to health again.

Jake stood up to full height. “Huh. It’s gone. I feel fine again…”

Jessica and I both rolled our eyes, and I looked back down at the controller. There was a file for the bus, and I selected “unlock doors”. As I pushed the button, there was the sound of several loud clicks, and the buttons on the bus’s control panel lit up.

I reached out and pushed one of them, and the door slid open. We all stepped on, and began hiking up the small stair case.

Inside there was a hallway that led the length of the bus, to what looked like small separate rooms. This thing was a train, but one that could levitate. In front of us was another smaller staircase, which led up to a closed door. We hiked up, and found the cockpit.

It was about as big as an engine-cab, and had several seats for backup crew. There were two main chairs, but only one looked like it had the controls for the pilot. Jake quickly pushed his way between us, and took the seat as the pilot.

“I thought you were tired of being our driver.”

Jake had obviously thought of quick rebuttal. “I’ve only flown the ship! And it’s not like you two could do any better.”

Upon finishing saying that, he looked down at the controls and frowned. I rolled my eyes again, and pulled out my remote. Luckily there was an “on” switch, and soon the bus rumbled to life. There was a funny sensation as the bus rose out of the small pit, and it was now officially hovering.

Jake grabbed the steering and height controls. Height was controlled by the way one handled the stirring wheel. If you pulled it down, the bus went up; you pushed it up, the bus went down. Basically the controls were inverted, and Jake began to look a little nervous.

“Are you sure you can fly inverted?” Jessica asked.

“Come on… I play video games, don’t I?” he added in.

“Yeah, but we always shift out of inverted because none of us like using it,” I said.

Jake frowned, and put his foot on the gas pedal. “Just navigate, please?”

Both Jessica and I shared a look, and then quickly buckled ourselves down. I sat next to Jake so that I could easily change his direction. Opening up the map feature again, it now showed us as an arrow. The arrow pointed whichever way we went: currently it was pointed forward in the direction the bus was facing.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Jessica asked.

In answer to her question Jake hit the gas, and the bus rumbled to life. At first it started slowly, and began moving across the flat tarmac that was spread out across the valley. I pointed out the window, and he slightly changed course. Now we were heading directly towards the signal.

Soon we were moving quite fast, and I looked down at the speedometer to see that we were cruising at a steady speed of eighty miles per hour. Also, I began to notice that we were heading into the empty region of the tarmac where all the cruisers were currently resting. The first one rushed by as we continued to scream forward.

“Jake…wanna to slow it down a bit? We’re getting a little close to those ships.”

“We’ll be fine.”

As he said that my eyes caught the attention of a particular cruiser about half a mile away that was almost directly in our path.

“Jake…”

“I see it, we’ll be fine.”

He slowly started to pull back on the wheel, and the bus began to rise further into the air. The dial showed us at thirty feet, then fifty feet…then it stalled. The bus leveled out, and we stayed at a steady height of fifty feet, but we were still going pretty fast, and that cruiser was obviously taller than fifty feet.

“Jake!”

“It won’t go any higher!”

“Why?!” Jessica shouted.

“This is just a hover craft! We can only go so high before the anti-gravity loses its affect!” he shouted.

There was a short pause, and then we all screamed. Jake quickly steered us, and we banked hard, turning just in time to almost graze the surface of the cruiser. Now, however, we had another cruiser coming right at us. Jake steered again, and we barely avoided it. But we were still stuck. Every time we turned there was another cruiser waiting just ahead. After nearly crashing quite a few times, I lost it.

“Jake! Stop this thing!”

“I can’t! We don’t have any brakes!”

Of course. These things were like airplanes. You had to let them slow down. But we were still in too much danger up here, so we had to go down…

I grabbed the wheel from Jake, and pushed it up. We instantly dived, but leveled out nicely. The dial now read at ten feet. The cruisers were still there, but now that we lower there was less bulk to run into. Ahead of us there was a straight shot, with plenty of space to slow down.

As we came down to about thirty miles per hour, Jake finally regained his composure, and we started going again at a steady rate.

“Okay, I’m driving.” Jessica said sarcastically.

“That was just a temporary problem,” Jake said. “We had too many cruisers, and we needed to get somewhere fast.”

“Yeah, speaking of which, we still haven’t found my Dad,” I said.

Jessica and Jake both turned sober, suddenly remembering why we had even come in here.

We continued uneventfully out of the tarmac, and finally started up the mountain. This time we had to raise the bus up to maximum height, just to stay above the tree line. Eventually we had to go at almost eighty miles an hour again, the mountain landscape rushed past us at high speeds. We came up over the ridge, and saw the next one ahead of us, a few miles off. It was quite a sight. As we got progressively closer to this next mountain, I could make out the details of the facility near the top.

It was a series of white buildings, scattered along one particular ridge, concentrated in a specific area. On top of the mountain was a giant domed structure that had hexagon plates made of what looked like gold. This was obviously their main sensor, and possibly where the signal was coming from. There was a strong reason to believe it.

“Okay, what do we do when we get there?” Jake asked.

I looked, and saw a landing pad. It wasn’t very big, but at least it had a runway. Perhaps we could manage to land this flying piece of concrete on it.

“Right there…” I said pointing.

Jessica looked, and her eyes went wide. “Are you crazy?! We’ll never get this thing on there!”

Jake, however smiled. “Oh yes we will…”

He pulled the bus around into position, and shifted gears. He then pushed up on the steering wheel, and the bus came into a landing flight pattern. The small stretch of concrete was getting progressively closer.

“Okay, please keep all hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. We are not responsible for any death or injury that occurs during this flight,” Jake said, turning on the loud speaker.

“Wait a minute. You’re not responsible for my death?!” Jessica shouted.

The bus came in, and the anti-gravity reacted from the new surface. Jake tried to find a brake, but then remembered there was none. What was worse, he had come in a little too fast.

“Oh crap… Hold on!”

The bus went straight across the runway and landing pad without a second thought. It then plowed through the forest, and into the trees. The trees whipped past, several being completely obliterated as the moving hulk continued on.

“Stop this thing!” Jessica shouted.

I suddenly looked back at my controller, and went to the same program I used to start the thing. Now there was an off switch. After activating it, the bus suddenly turned off completely, but sheer momentum kept it going. Also, the anti-gravity shut off completely as well, and we landed on the forest ground.

Now plowing through the forest like a battering ram, we were leaving a trail of debris as we left an indent in the ground. We finally came into a slight clearing, only to plow through the walls of one of the white structures, and then came to a wide gym-like room. The bus tore up the tile floor, and finally came to a rest in the center.

The three of us sat in a total state of shock, and then busted out laughing. Jake fell out of his seat, and lay on the ground panting.

“Think we should get out and take a look around?” I suggested.

“Yeah, that might be good…” Jessica said.

We regained our senses, and headed down the stairs. After stepping out of the bus, we got a good look of things. It seemed the bus had only partially come through the wall. The rest was still sticking out in the woods, with debris having collapsed around the main bulk, preventing any way for us to climb out that way. The bus itself was surprisingly not bent up or damaged. There were quite a few scrape marks and forest material scattered across the sides (not to mention dirt marks), but the entire thing was surprisingly intact.

“Wow, now that’s what I called built Ford tough!” Jake said.

The room we had crashed into was a curious place. It was about as big as a gym, but also covered with some tick, white tile. It almost looked like the same kind of tile they used on the Space Shuttle. Hell, this entire room looked like it was right out of a Star Wars scene. There were also all these black nodes sticking out of the walls every so often. This room was definitely a test chamber of some sort.

“Wow, what is this place?” Jake asked, looking around.

“I don’t know, but we don’t have time! Come on!”

We all started across the room, and came to what appeared to be the door. However, just as I was about to reach over and push the open button, my hand touched an invisible force field. There was blue discharge of energy, and the three of us were thrown back.

“Oww!” Jessica shouted.

We all slowly sat up, and looked back at the door. I stood up first, and quickly reached out again. Once again, I hit the force field and was thrown back, this time landing on top of Jessica.

“OWW!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry.” I quickly rolled off, and helped her to her feet. The three of us stood motionless, and watched the wall.

“It’s got some kind of force field around it,” I said.

“So…how do we get back out?” Jake asked.

I looked up and down, over the rest of the walls. Whatever they did in here was obviously a test of their energy fields. But if the room was completely shielded, then why wasn’t the floor pushing us back…?

I quickly dropped to my feet, and began feeling around the tile floor.

“Chris, what the heck are you doing?” Jessica asked.

“Haven’t you noticed that the floor isn’t force fielded? There must be an access panel…ah ha!”

Sure enough, I pulled up a loose tile, revealing a metal grill beneath. I tried pulling it up, but when that failed I put a few bullets in it with my pistol. That managed to break whatever was holding it down, because in the next instant we pulled it up.

Looking down, we saw what looked like a ventilation shaft. It ran in one direction only; forward and under the door.

“Come on!” I said leaping in.

I started crawling forward, and heard Jake jump down to. Seconds later I heard Jessica yelp as she leapt down too. We started crawling forward, and after a few yards finally came to a second grill. I kicked it out with my feet, and it clattered onto the ground. I jumped down, and landed in other white hallway that looked like another one of those Star Wars places. This time, however, there were no nodes sticking out of the walls.

“It’s clear!” I said.

The others followed suit, but landed less elegantly, landing in a heap on the floor below. I rolled my eyes, and after they got to their feet, we started down the corridor. We came to a bend that went left, and little while later came to a bend that went right. This put us at a pressurized double glass-door. The scanner beeped, and the first door opened. The door closed, and there was a second beep, allowing the second door to open.

Before us lay a metal labyrinth of stair cases and walkways that spread across the side of the mountain, linking to the other buildings. It had never occurred to me at the time that this part of the mountain was really this steep. The only way to get around was these walkways.

“Come on…”

Using the controller as my guide—which was still receiving coordinates from the Anon in space—we started our way past the buildings, and up the various pathways. As we continued, the large gold-tile dome got progressively closer. Something told me our answer was in there…somewhere.

About ten minutes later we finally did arrive outside the doors to the dome, and walked in. Unlike the other building which had been all white, this one had black tile walls, and low lighting, giving it an ere feeling.

We pressed down the main corridor, which seemed to lead to the heart of the creature. Finally we came to a double door, which led into a tall, circular room, with several computer consoles arranged around in a circle in the center. In the center of this circle of work terminals was a giant, cylindrical tube that glowed bright electric blue. It extended from somewhere below the floor, all the way up through the ceiling, obviously into the main dome. My controller detected the signal in here…

“What exactly are we looking for?” Jake asked, scanning the various things.

“The signal is probably coming from one of those terminals,” I said pointing to the circle of computers. “Each of you take one and see what you can find.”

They both walked forward and took the nearest two, while I walked around, seeing if I could see anything else. Sure enough, there was a terminal on the other side very different from the others. It had a bigger screen, and was hooked directly into the glowing tube of energy going into—or out of—the dome. I looked once more at my controller, and got a signal coming from what appeared to be directly where the terminal was.

This was it.

I slowly walked forward, and sat down in the rotating chair. I pulled up the monitor, and got a completely black screen with a single line of code displayed at the top. Below that was the blinking line waiting for something to be typed. Out of sheer will, I typed in hello.

Then something happened I didn’t expect. There was a response; Hello. Who is this?

Now my curiosity peaked, I began typing again. This is Chris.

Chris? Where are you?

I’m not sure. Some laboratory on a planet near a black hole.

Oh. I thought you were someone else.

Like who?

Never mind, you wouldn’t understand.

I think I would. You wouldn’t believe the crap I’ve gone through.

The crap you’ve gone through?! I’m not even talking in a physical sense.

What do you mean?

I got killed, and now I’m in some strange zone. It isn’t like in the physical sense…maybe you could call it heaven, but it feels more like hell.

Who the hell are you?

I could ask the same thing. What are you doing? How did you find me? I’ve been trying to get out of here.

I paused. This was getting weird. Was this my Dad? It almost sounded like him, but what he was saying didn’t make sense. Then I typed the ultimate question. Are you from in here?

What are you talking about?

Are you from within the Anon? Or are you from the outside?

There was a long pause, and then a single message. Chris? Is it really you?

Dad, it’s me.

Son…how did you get in here? How did you find me?

It’s a long story. The scientists or technicians, or, whoever they are sent us in to get you back. Things aren’t looking good.

You came alone?

No; Jessica and Jake came too. There here with me.

Son…what have you done? You can’t find me. I don’t even know where I am!

What happened to you?

It’s kind of hard to explain. After my avatar died, my mental constitute didn’t know where to go, so I think the computer shifted me to some alter existence in the game.

I stopped and thought about that. Was it possible that his character had been caught up in one of the alter realities in the game? I’d heard of people who had claimed to have found ways into these other parts of the game, but they were usually too weird for the gamers to figure out their way around. These were places where one tended to avoid. I typed my reply. If you’re in another existence of the game, then how come am I talking to you from here?

You said you were on a planet near a black hole?

Yes.

And you said you were typing from a terminal in a laboratory on this planet?

Yes.

Isn’t it obvious? You’re receiving signals from the black hole… I’m on the inside.

But, that’s impossible…

Chris, this is a game, isn’t it? Physics don’t have to make sense. Things don’t happen as conventionally as you’d think.

I paused, and then typed my reply. We’re coming for you.

Be careful. If you die, then you’ll be trapped in the same mess I’m in.

I will.

Thanks, Chris.

Bye...

I stood up quickly, and ran around to where the others were. They looked up, puzzled to see me.

“Chris, what is it?” Jessica asked.

“I found him.”

They both looked at me wide-eyed.

“Well, where is he?” Jake finally asked.

“He’s in an alternate realm of the game. Somewhere that is almost impossible to get to, but everyone who buys this thing tries to find.”

“So if this thing is impossible to find, then how do we get to him?” Jessica asked.

“We’re going to use the black hole.”

“What?!” They both said it simultaneously.

“Look, the black hole must be the portal. Why else would we be getting these signals from this one particular place? Plus, that explains why it is so hard to find. Who wants to fly their character into a swirling death trap?”

Jessica and Jake looked at each other nervously, and then back at me. “How will we know if it works?” Jake asked.

“If we fly the ship through, and end up on the other side. Duh!”

There was a short pause. “All right…let’s do it.”

Suddenly the building was rocked by an explosion. The power flickered, but managed to stay on.

“What the hell was that?!”

The building rocked again, and the power finally went out. “Time to go!” I shouted.

I grabbed Jessica’s hand, and we rushed forward. Jake turned on his portable light from his Marine jumpsuit, and led the way. As we rushed through the hallway the building shook again, and several chunks of the ceiling nearly collapsed on us.

The doors opened automatically, and we stepped outside to see the horror. There were several ships floating just over the mountain ridge. Fighter ships were flying out of the larger carriers, and then firing about the base. I looked down to see them firing directly at the building where we’d crashed the bus.

“What the hell?! Who the heck are they?!” Jake shouted.

It didn’t take much guess work. By the design of the ship, I could easily tell it was our alien friends from the planet where we’d found my Dad’s avatar. The question was; how had they managed to track us all the way here?

“It’s those alien bugs we first encountered,” I said.

“How did they find us?” Jessica asked.

“Who knows…?” As I spoke, the dome above us exploded in a ball of fire, and we had to duck as razor sharp glass crashed down around us. We jumped back up, and started taking off down the pathway. Ships flew overhead, destroying anything they could get their weapons targeted on. As we crossed another bridge there was an explosion, and the bridge collapsed just as we stepped out onto another ledge.

“How are we going to get out of here?” Jessica shouted over the explosions.

I pulled out the controller and opened the transporter log. Ha! We were in range. I pushed the transport button, but nothing happened. There was a brief message saying something about too much interference.

Crap. We needed to get to higher ground.

Suddenly there was an explosion on the wall of rock right next to us. We looked up in time to see a small platoon of the alien soldiers come down the face of the rock, heading right towards us. They had their guns out, but couldn’t get any good shots off from their awkward position.

“RUN!”

We took off up the stair case, and definitely came up to a higher point. I was about to push the button again when a plasma bolt fried the ground near Jake’s feet.

“Shit!”

“Keep going!” I shouted.

We continued up the stair case, and came over the ridge onto the other side of the ridge. We were now looking down the other side of the mountain; down at a new range altogether. There were also several more alien ships holding position over the lower valley, not moving, but launching several waves of fighters.

This trail we were on continued down the side of the mountain. There were no other buildings, which probably meant we probably we wouldn’t be seen. I grabbed Jessica’s hand, and we started down.

“Where are we going?” Jake asked.

“Safer ground!”

After descending a few more feet we finally found a ledge, and I pulled out the controller. The target system said that we were in range, and I smiled.

“Okay, let’s blow this joint.”

There was suddenly another bolt of plasma, a loud crackle, and then the smell of burning flesh. Jessica made a weird sound, like she’d been slapped, and I looked over. Her eyes had gone rigid, and a second later she slumped over; the burn of plasma scorching clearly visible on her back.

“NO!”

I rushed over, and quickly supported her up. I put her in my arms, while Jake pulled out his rifle, and began to fend off the attackers who were now coming over the edge. I looked back down, and saw that she had stopped breathing. Her eyes were now dark.

“Jessica! Speak to me!”

She remained paralyzed.

“NOOOO!”

I quickly pushed the transporter button, and the three of us disappeared; we reappeared in the transporter room. Jake was still holding his battle rifle, and I was still holding Jessica’s body. Jake glanced down at her and gasped.

“Get up to the bridge! Hurry, before they attack the ship!”

Jake took flight, and I carried her body to the medical bay. I set her down on a table, and pulled out the controller. My emotions started going haywire. I thought that maybe if I could heal Jake, then I could heal her. But to my horror, Jessica no longer had an icon on the remote. She was gone…

I fell over on top of the screen, and started banging the side in anger. Somewhere I vaguely acknowledged the docking clamps releasing. A new anger sparked inside of me, and I stormed out of the room.

I soon arrived on the bridge, and took my spot at the Captain’s chair. Jake was still backing the ship out of the dock, with a great shot of the planet. He looked back as I sat down.

“How’s Jessica doing?” he asked.

But I ignored him. Instead, I pulled open my control panel on the chair, and activated the weapons matrix. If this ship did indeed carry every weapon, then it also had the universal matrix destructor. It was a device capable of creating an energy wave that could either destroy an entire fleet of ships, or even a planet. I pushed the start sequence.

The ship stopped moving, and the loud sound of energy charging could be heard. Jake looked back at me and frowned. “Chris, why did we stop?”

Small pin pricks began to form on the screen as the enemy ships started to leave the surface. They were coming. Jake looked back and saw them too.

“Enemy ships approaching! Chris, we need to get out of here!”

I still said nothing. Soon more pin prick began to form around the screen. But these weren’t ships. They were small blue and purple blips of energy. They began to collect, and came together to form a single tear-drop shaped bolt of energy, which remained floating outside the ship. The energy continued to building, and then finally released. The bolt flew away at high speeds, and was soon out of sight.

“Jake! Get us out of here NOW!”

He quickly jumped to the controls, and turned the ship around. He punched the accelerator, and the ship begun on a course towards the black hole. He turned on the reverse view screen, and we got a brief glimpse of the planet.

There were now quite a few ships around the planet, giving it a swarm-like appearance. But then in a single motion there was a massive explosion that seemed to emanate from within, and the planet was obliterated. Rock and fire spread out, and any ships that had been nearby were instantly vaporized or destroyed in the ensuring debris shockwave. Jake gasped, but kept his eyes glued to the screen as the final debris settled out. All that remained now was dust…

He slowly turned and faced me. “Chris…what were you thinking?!”

But I said nothing. I covered my face, and looked down at the floor.

“Chris?”

“Jake; just get us in that black hole. We now have two people waiting for us in there…”

Jake’s eyes went wide, and he slowly turned back to the controls. Moments later the glowing plasma disk around the black hole became visible. He took us up, and put us in a nose dive. The warning alarms started going off all around the ship, and the bridge became unusually hot.

“Ten seconds to impact.”

The ship continued its dive. The whirling plasma became increasingly bright. The black hole could be partially seen, a small black dot in a sea of white. It started to get bigger, and bigger. The ship continued to complain, and several systems went offline.

Then it all went black.


<--Back To Chapter 7: Dance Of The Freaky Circles
-->Forward To Chapter 9: Dandelionaid
<-->Back To The Player