Destination:Malfuction - [Extravaganza 2020]
Jan 11, 2020 2:54:07 GMT
Post by Cavespider_17 on Jan 11, 2020 2:54:07 GMT
This is an Extravaganza piece for Minty.
Prompt:
Sci-fi shenanigans starring Bill and Lanette.
Summary:
An accident at Sea Cottage leads Bill to waking up inside a Hub in space. When pressing buttons on a computer leads to Lanette’s arrival and a drain on the power, Bill and Lanette must recruit from their world and others to try and figure out what is going on and the truth of the matter…
A piercing blue light shot through the room, scoring the eyes of anyone outside who dared look through the window of Sea Cottage. Seemingly an act of perfect revenge for any peeping-tom, having their eyes burned with a painful light, if only for a few moments. A crack leaked through the door, as the bright light stopped glowing. The satellite dish that had sat proudly upon the roof of the building swivelled around before looking down at the grassy route, saddened as part of its life had been taken away by a sudden flash; a miscalculation.
The darkened blue glow from the glass protecting the outer hub didn’t stop the empty feeling of space creeping into the large orb. Bill slowly lifting his face up from the ground, pushing on his injured and slightly burned wrists until his legs slipped into a crossed position. He raised his aching arms to his face, pinching the thumb and index finger on his left hand against the top of his nose, in a desperate bid to stop his head from spinning. His memory started to come back to him after a few moments. The aftershock from his initial experience seemed to turn to dust. He remembered reaching over to one of the panels on the time-capsule; the machine he had invented in all its glory to transport Pokémon at an instant to the once far away Johto region. Although technology had now advanced to the point where his machine was near enough useless, he still enjoyed preserving it as a memento of success.
However, something had gone wrong. Maybe he had leaned on the wrong button, or maybe it was the coffee he had left on the desk nearby, which he had carelessly knocked over onto the machine – he would never know.
He let go of his nose and looked up at the pulsing hexagonal field around the hub. A single machine sat in the centre of it, along a light blue path. He stood up, taking a deep breath and a single step. The machine started to whirl, lighting up the path as he took a second slightly less confident step. Then another and another.
Bill felt his brown hair become static-filled, raising its height a little. He looked down into the soulless construct, which was the computer in front of him. The keyboard was in a language he wasn’t aware of, but it seemed to be asking for something of some kind.
“Darn it, it must be a password,” Bill muttered, looking around the desk for a clue as to what it may be. His brown eyes dimmed a little as his search felt more and more fruitless with each second he spent scouring across and around the hub. He sighed, “I guess I have no choice but to press something and hope for the best.” He leaned in, pressing his fingers into a few of the keys. The hub echoed a little as he did, ringing out. “Please take me home,” he said, still a little shocked.
The panels in the hub flipped to a bright orange for a few moments before going black.
A bell sounded, and some cogs turned and churned their way through some rust that had been sitting on them for some time amongst the mechanisms.
“Hey!” a familiar voice called out to him.
“L-lanette? Lanette, you are here?” he replied, turning to look at her.
“Where is here?” she replied, looking around the hub. Her long curly brown hair was tied back in a way Bill had never seen before.
“I don’t have a darn’dest clue,” Bill answered. “I just pressed a button on the machine after getting sucked here. It is in a language I don’t understand, some strange one.” He quickly brushed down his shirt, walking back towards the machine. “We are stuck here it seems, in the vast and wonderous entity that is the beyond,” Bill said, a little flabbergasted by his own words.
A clunking noise came from below the platform they stood on.
“That didn’t sound too good,” Bill said, looking around to try and see if there was a way down to check out the rumbling below. A single-pole hung down through a small vent in the floor. Its red paint made it stand out amongst the overwhelming blue that plagued the rest of the hub.
The ladder slots were designed more for hooves than feet, two on each side being very slim. Bill turned to the side, placing his left foot on the ladder first. It swung a little from side to side as he tried to balance himself. He tightened his grip, making his fingers ache. Waving his right leg around, desperately, he caught the other side of the ladder. Uneasily, one foot at a time, he made his way down to the lower platform. Immediately, the flickering lights made him a little on edge. The handrails on the side weren’t perfect, they were tilted ever so slightly inwards, making them appear triangular rather than the common cylinder, intriguing Bill a little.
Meanwhile, at the main machine, Lanette leaned down onto it in thought. ‘Looks like a normal PC, just in a foreign language. Maybe I can figure out what some of it means.’ She tapped on the screen lightly on the bottom. A little panel shot up from it, previously hidden. ‘Just like another PC.’ On one of the panels, a circle appeared. She touched the circle with her right index finger, making it beep. It loaded up a new page, hundreds of thousands of planetary pictures were displayed; all were numbered or numerically assigned, she couldn’t tell which. She recognised Kanto on one of the planets being shown, spinning around on the screen. Lightly she touched it with her index finger, within a second the picture changed to a long list of humans with profiles attached to each of them, some clearer than others. She recognised her picture near the top of the list, her profile was green. She squinted, pushing her glasses up her nose. A few places above her on the list a second profile was lit up green; it was Bill’s profile. ‘What the hell?’ she thought. She flicked the top corner of the screen, making it zoom back out to the planet list. She noticed another planet which looked very similar to the first she had pressed on, although clearly not hers, she pressed on it to see what would happen. The screen glowed a little, flickering, scanning the room quickly.
A flash of light appeared, making the room feel like it was violently shaking. The circuits on the lower platform sparked, sending ashes and gritting shockwaves towards Bill. He raised his arms up to cover his eyes before looking at the newly shattered and crunched up panel. His fingers twitched to tinker with the wiring to see what he could do. A loud thud came from upstairs, the platform above his head rattled a little, making him jump out of his skin. His ears pricked up, as if he was a Mightyena, at the sound of voices shouting at one another. He turned back towards the ladder, scrambling up it to make sure Lanette was okay. He left the panel sparking and crumbling away on his way.
“Who are you?” he heard her shouting as he reached the top of the ladder. He looked up a little pushing himself up onto the platform. He wobbled a little as he did.
“Lanette, are you okay?” he asked, as he looked past her to see a boy with a knife drawn, unsure of what was going on. A knife skimmed past his face, slamming into one of the panels. The blade dug into them, making them ripple as the leather-coated handle stuck outwards.
“Stay away from me! Where am I? What is this hell?” the boy shouted, panicked.
“Easy, we aren’t going to hurt you,” Lanette replied, raising her hands up showing her palms.
The boy took a deep breath, pushing his glasses back onto his face. “What is this place?” he asked, sitting down, holding his head with his left hand. With his right, he reached over to some of the rails. With a single breath, he looked up into one of the reflective panels in the hub, relieved to see himself looking back at him he relaxed a little. Touching the little cut that had been carved into his black skin, he grunted.
“We don’t know where we are, but judging by what you are wearing… I suppose you aren’t from Kanto?” Bill asked.
“I suppose not. You aren’t from Elktan either. This place feels strange,” the boy paused, seeing Lanette reaching over and touching the main machine, scanning and touching the panels. “Is that what brought me here? Who are you people?”
“Well, I am Bill, and this is Lanette,” Bill answered, pointing to her and straightening his own shirt a little as he did.
“I… I am Ulrich,” Ulrich said, starting to stand up. “This place sounds bad…”
Bill paused, rubbing his forehead. ‘My head hurts,’ he thought. With several glances around, he turned sharply on his heels to face Lanette.
Lanette looked up at him, her smile had drifted into a mild frown before she locked her eyes onto the spinning Earths once more. She flicked her fingers towards her, and the two came over, both as cautious as one another. “We aren’t from the same Earth, which begs the question… what the hell is this place, and why is it spying on Earth?”
“Don’t know,” Ulrich answered. “However, don’t you think it's odd that we are speaking the same language? I suspect you aren’t speaking Elkrat…”
“You are right…” Bill sighed. “Maybe this place is translating for us somehow.”
Ulrich sat down by the machine once more. “I cannot go home now… I am a traitor; being here makes me a traitor.”
“Only if they know you have been here,” Lanette chipped in, not turning to face him, but rather pressing on a different Earth. “Just strange how the machine here isn’t translating for us.” She sighed, “Which would have been far more usefu-”
The panel on the lower platform sparked, shorting out some of the lights.
A voice started to blare over the hub’s intercom, “Warning, system overload. Power level ninety percent. Inner shields damaged, diverting power to external shields. Power level eighty percent.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Ulrich said. “It sounds like you are losing power.”
Bill looked back, worried. “It does. The panel downstairs was overloaded when… I accidentally brought Lanette here…” He rushed down the ladder once more, Ulrich following him closely, catching his blue uniform on the side of one of the railings.
The panel’s wiring hung down, not fully connected in places. The sparks pulsating around them, making it impossible to reach and reconnect any of them.
“When I came… what happened?” Ulrich asked, looking at the mess of wires.
“Bill! You probably should come look at this!” Lanette shouted.
Bill carefully placed a hand on Ulrich’s shoulder. His light shirt clashing with Ulrich’s dark blue one. His frown grew a little. His fingers twitched as unease rose up through his body. He reached his hands back onto the ladder, yanking himself up onto the upper platform.
His arms ached a little from the awkward ladder, the constant climbing up and down left started to strain them. He stopped at the top for a moment, taking a deep breath in, filling his lungs with all the air he could, fearing that soon the oxygen would also start to drain away as randomly as the power had. He looked to Lanette as he walked over. Each step seemed to feel as if he had been repeating himself like he was in an endless loop.
“It is a gateway,” Lanette said, confidence filling her voice. “Each of these Earths represents a different Earth in time and space – but it's not just Earth, there are other planets on here too. Some are much bigger than Earth, others smaller. I wish I could read the language here, though, at least I would be able to figure out the differences between them.” She pushed some of her curls to the side. “Maybe if we could find someone who could read this language… which reminds me, the electronics and power distribution has its own tab, judging by the lightning bolt symbol on one of them, we could resolve our problem.”
Bill reached over and touched the screen, loading up a new page. “So, on this side, all the people from the planet are listed?”
“In order of intelligence, yes, IQ sorting,” Lanette answered, crossing her arms. “Perhaps whoever was running this hub was watching over the most intelligent people on all of these planets… but why?” She pressed one hand against her chin.
“Perhaps we should bring someone else here.” Bill leaned against one of the railings. “The more people we have here, the faster we can solve our situation. Could you bring Cassius here, do you reckon? He could probably help.” Bill straightened himself up and looked back at Lanette.
“I can try,” she answered. She pressed hard on the screen, searching for Cassius’s profile. “I think this is the right Earth,” she said, scanning down the information. ‘This one is him,’ she thought, pressing the screen one more time.
The hub flickered far more violently than before.
“Power at sixty percent,” the voice on the intercom said.
Cassius’s body hit the floor hard, shattering his sunglasses into several pieces. Ulrich jumped up in shock, drawing his sword and rushing up the ladder.
“What was that?” Ulrich shouted, raising his sword up to defend himself.
“Nothing, just Cassius,” Bill answered. “Cassius! I am glad you are here; we need your help.” He grabbed hold of Cassius’s leather jacket, lifting him up a little.
“Yo, Bill calm down, man. My head hurts, yo,” he muttered. His green tuft sagged down. “Who is the medieval dude? Hey Lanette,” he added, rubbing his head with his hand.
“Oh, this is Ulrich – he is from a different world…” Bill replied, still uncomfortable with saying it.
“Sweet,” Cassius said with a smile. “You must have a lot of stories, bro.” Cassius picked up his broken sunglasses, examining them. “Ah shoot, that was my favourite pair.” He threw the broken pair over the edge of one of the railings.
“I am not your brother.” Ulrich walked over to the machine, looking at the list of names. “I do not like the thought of someone watching us all an-”
The hub stated to shake a little, steam puffed out of some of the pipes that were lining the lower platform. The wiring below became coated in it. The water within made the vibrant electricity pulse and scream out more.
“Damn, we need to stop the steam…” Ulrich muttered.
The hub rolled, slowly making the four slip along the floor, closer toward the ladder, and off into the engines below. The blue panels turned red, and the sirens started to blare.
“Warning, internal gravitational pull failing – stability failed.”
“No shit!” Ulrich shouted, grabbing hold of one of the railings. “Grab hold of something!”
Cassius reached out to grab hold of one of the railings, his fingers touched it. The feel of metal on his fingertips was brief. He strained to try to extend his fingers further as he hopelessly fell down, slamming into the machine as he did.
“Shit!” he shouted, twisting himself as he held onto the machine. He pressed buttons with his free hand, hoping for the best.
“Diverting power to the internal gravitational pull from auxiliary. Auxiliary power remaining – two hours.”
The hub rolled back to the balanced position, flinging the group back down against the floor. The hub flashed once more the machine glowed frantically letting out a bright white light rather than the blue from before. The engine whirred more ferociously, creating a piercing sound, making Ulrich feel slightly sick. Some figures crashed down onto the platform, making Bill jump back.
“Power level at fifty percent. Projection mass overload.”
The lights flickered off, changing to a dull red barely making anything else visible in the room. Another figure crashed down onto the floor, followed by another, as the machine flickered cutting out. The main screen displayed a dark black.
“Power level at twenty percent, oxygen level at eighty percent.”
The hub started to feel cold, making Bill shiver as he walked over to the four new beings who lay sprawled out on the floor. Lanette joined him, shivering a little too. Both knelt down to see who had joined them in their entrapment.
Ulrich walked over to Cassius, extending his arm out to him and cautiously opened his hand. “Here,” he said, pulling the man up onto his feet, noticing his boots were just as heavy as his own. “Your shoulder, it looks bad,” he commented. “We should probably find something to put on it, I suspect it is badly bruised, but it isn’t worth risking getting a chill to check.” Ulrich turned to face Bill and Lanette.
Bill rubbed his arm a little as the group on the floor seemed as confused as the others before them. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ulrich approaching Lanette, who was staring at the machine, which seemed dead.
“My lady, would you like to borrow my jacket to stay warm in this cold?” he asked, taking off his jacket and offering it to her.
An awkward silence passed through the air for a moment before Lanette sighed, “Maybe it would be better used on one of them?” She glanced at the people on the floor. ‘How unusual, these people aren’t from the same place, they are wearing very different outfits.’ She bent down beside Bill.
Bill gently nudged the girl, who grunted back at him. He tugged on her grey hoodie to try to get her to roll over at sit up. He pulled her up onto into a sitting position and left her against one of the pillars. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked, turning back to the other three who were also starting to stir from their abrupt fall. ‘I wonder if the power capacity has anything to do with the stability of an individual post fall? If only we had the power to test this theory.’
The tall man stood and stretched, seemingly less disturbed or confused than the others initially. He turned to face Bill and then Lanette. “Has it not occurred yet?” he asked, giving an almost vacant but simultaneously concerned look.
A skinny boy sat up, looking at everyone in the room. “The event which is in question has not occurred in their time stream yet if indeed it is the same time frame which is being observed,” he said, dusting off his black shirt and black trousers.
“Great, another machine,” the girl muttered.
“I am not a machine, I am human,” the boy responded.
Ulrich looked at the machine, which had Cassius’s body imprinted in a large dent on the side. “It looks like the main machine is broken and not to put too grim of a point on it… but without that machine, I don’t think any of us are going home.” He gripped his hand into a fist and then opened it again. “On the brighter note, at least I won’t die from diabetes… we will run out of oxygen long before that…”
“Fantastic,” the girl chipped in.
Bill looked to the last of the group who had landed. A quiet girl with blond hair lay still on the floor, unconscious. ‘She looks injured by the fall,’ he thought.
“Here,” Ulrich said, placing his jacket over her. “I hope that helps. What are your names anyway?” he asked the other three, feeling his breath become a little heavier.
“Door,” the Door responded, touching her throat. “This is Geist,” she added, pointing to Geist, who was looking down on the boy.
The boy was examining Geist, his black and brown hair as divisive as his grey and brown eyes. “Nusko. You are interesting and fascinating.” He poked Geist in the chest, waiting for a response.
“I would appreciate it if you did not do that,” the large man-like machine responded.
The group stood silently as the two looked each other in the eyes. The hub’s red lights shimmered a darker red before stabilising once more. The hub lights went off for a moment a red beam scanned the people standing in the room before the lights came back on, albeit dimmer than before.
Nusko walked over to the platform’s end and sat down, staring out at the stars he could see. Silent.
Bill stretched and yawned. “We need to get out of here, there are more of us now, less oxygen, less power and less time.”
Door stood up, walking over to Geist, readying to send out the Audino which sat inside the Poké ball she held in her right hand.
“That is a bad idea,” Nusko said, continuing to stare forwards.
“Oh, and why is that?” Door responded, dragging out every letter she could.
“Because it is a more use of oxygen.” Nusko’s eyes looked on at the stars. “The loud noises don’t scare me here. Isn’t that funny?” he asked.
Door looked at him, confused. The strange boy seemed more fixated on the stars in front of him. She looked around at those around her, spotting Lanette and scowling a little. “This whole place is a mess, isn’t it?” she asked, sitting beside him.
“Yes.” Nusko continued to look forward. “This hub is perfectly spherical; it soothes my mind; it is that way. We are on the highest floor.”
“How can you tell?” Bill asked, looking at him.
“Is it not obvious? The glass isn’t aligned to be central. The angle it is at corresponds to us being rather high up.”
Bill thought back to his arrival and the second floor. “There is a panel down the ladder which is overloaded…”
Geist looked to the ladder. “This was not designed for human usage.”
Lanette nodded in agreement, wandering back to the machine. “Well, the oxygen left is running out rather fast, we need to get ourselves out of here and fast.”
Bill walked towards the ladder, climbing down to face the overloading panel once more. The sparks flew up as he did and the steam made it hard for him to see the wires. “Darn it!” he said, looking to the side at Ulrich, who had followed behind him closely.
“Without our Pokémon shutting this off will be difficult, but the Nusko boy is right, we cannot afford to use up too much oxygen…” Ulrich sighed, looking at the influx of steam before shooting Bill a glance, hoping his elder would have advice on what to do. “As much as I should inherently hate you for being an off-islander we have to figure things out.” He touched his cheek where his cut was, feeling his skin just as smooth as it had been before, he looked up at his reflection and seeing it gone from his face.
Bill noticed Ulrich’s focus fade.
“Yo! Bill, Eldritch!”
“Ulrich…” Ulrich muttered back. “Ulrich Otto Van Coug, son of Lord Otto Eric Van Coug, not that it matters.”
“I suppose you had life handed to you on a silver plate, fed by a silver spoon,” Door said, coldly. “Being a son of such a grand Lord.”
Ulrich watched her tuck her hands deep into her cargo trousers. He grunted, “It was never like that. My father couldn’t care less if I was never born – except I was, and I was male. I became his heir and he wished me to be a slave… but when things changed… I never wanted this life; all I have ever wanted for myself is to become an engineer.” He clenched his fists tightly.
On the upper platform Lanette walked over to Nusko, seeing his gaze still not deterred from the stars. She edged over to the ledge, sitting down beside him, letting her jacket fold up a little. She let her curly hair rest against her shoulder as she shuffled closer towards him. “Nusko isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I am Lanette. You seem a very… quiet boy. Are you scared?” Lanette asked, taking his hand.
“Yes. I am not used to… feeling.” He nodded, his voice a little higher than it was when he first landed in the hub. “The stars are beautiful. They make my heart feel warm and feel… a strange buzzing in here.” Nusko raised his hand up, touching his chest.
“Happy?” Lanette asked, cautiously. “What a time to feel happy, huh? Stuck here in space, on some sort of alien craft which is spying on intelligent beings on planets.”
Nusko turned to face her, taking her hand with a timid grip. “I am afraid of the other people. Everyone is strange and so stupid.” He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath. “We need more time to solve things. We have no power and no oxygen, but the pipes lead to something. Where it all begins. We are lucky Geist isn’t human.” Nusko looked back up at the stars, not letting go of her hand. “I feel safe with you. You aren’t loud like the others.”
Geist walked over, looking down at Nusko and Lanette. “You believe we have a chance of regaining the power?” he asked. His brown hair looked slightly more static.
Nusko looked at Lanette and nodded.
“He said yes,” she answered for him. ‘He was so confident when he first arrived here… but now he is almost a husk of what he was.’ She pushed a strand of hair out of Nusko’s face. “Bebe will wake up soon, I hope.”
“I want to be with my grandfather,” Nusko whispered, tears starting to leak into his eyes.
Geist stepped back, awkwardly, making his way towards the ladder to join Ulrich Door and Bill on the lower floor. He walked toward the panel, staring at Bill, who felt awkward looking at Geist. A feeling of familiarity inside Bill stirred, making him feel queasy as Geist spoke, “The weird boy said that the pipes will lead to power.”
Ulrich shrugged, looking at Bill. “It makes sense. The pipes have steam inside, if we follow them back, we can find the main utility room inside of this strange alien hub. Hopefully, Nusko is correct, the power wires will lead back there too.” He straightened his tie, looking to Bill for advice.
Bill looked at the sparking panel. “Firstly, we need to get the steam valve on the neighbouring pipes switched off. I don’t think the steam is too important – at least not right now. Besides, the lower down we go there will be more steam pipes which are far safer than the broken ones up here. We need to get past this panel.”
Door smirked a little. “Geist can help with that; he can hack any system – so surely he can absorb the overload.”
Ulrich raised a finger. “That doesn’t resolve the steam issue, but… as a Young Guard… I am sworn to serve and protect my people.”
“How noble,” Door interrupted, rolling her eyes.
Ulrich shook his head at her, taking his midnight blue cap off, placing his hand inside of it. Quickly he reached over to the valve duct on the wall, grabbing the wheel and spinning it as fast as he could, burning his fingers inside the cap. “Agh!” he cried out as the steam was reduced to nothing. “Fuck!” he shouted, throwing his hat on the floor, glaring at his burned hand which seemed to glow a raw red. He shuffled to the floor, holding himself in pain.
Geist stepped forward, ignoring Ulrich’s screams and opening up the broken panel. Despite the sparks and damaged wiring, Geist felt confident he could override the system. He pressed the wires into place, drawing the electricity in and onto himself.
Bebe stirred on the upper platform as a result of Ulrich’s screams. “Ugh… Hiya Lanette, who is your friend and what is that noise?”
“Too much noise,” Nusko said, tensing up, grabbing his head as tightly as he could. “Too much noise,” he repeated.
Lanette placed a hand on Nusko’s shoulder, “I will make the noise stop, okay?”
Nusko nodded, holding his head still.
“Bebe, this is Nusko, can you keep an eye on him please? He may not be… the most functional, but he is very scared,” Lanette asked, making her way down a level to see what all the fuss was about. As she traversed the ladder, she observed Ulrich holding his hand in pain, slowly following Bill, Door and Geist, who had already started to travel further down one of the corridors. “Hey,” she said.
“Yo, Lanette,” Cassius replied. “Bill wanted me to tell you and the gang to move out, we have to make our way down, yo.” His prior injuries seemed non-existent.
Ulrich’s cries became silent in the distant, not just due to distance, but rather he had stopped entirely. The rusty metal plates which lined the tunnel leading deeper into the hub was a much dingier outlook than that of the red panels that coated the walls above.
Bebe came clambering down the ladder, holding Nusko’s hand, leading him towards Lanette. She looked into his brown and grey eyes with her blue ones, placing his hand in hers.
Nusko started to reduce intenseness, resting his head against her shoulder. “I am scared, I feel sad and confused and lost…” he whispered, looking around the hub. He reached into his pocket, taking out a small notepad and pencil. He pressed the pencil against the paper, scribbling down equations on the paper, taking deep breaths as he did, calming himself down once more.
Further down the corridor Door and Bill led the pack. Door tugged her hoodie down a little, looking at the T-junction that was coming up. The steam pipes stopped dead in their tracks. Her eyes rolled a little as she looked at Bill. “What now?” The group paused, looking up at the pipes, feeling their throats starting to tighten a little more violently. “Damn it.”
“Can’t your robot hack into the system and bring up a map?” Bill asked, trying to remain calm, pushing his hair back up as it had started to deflate due to the stress.
Geist chirped up a little, “I already have. I was just waiting to be asked.” He looked at Bill, who looked straight back at him. “We need to go left here. That will lead us down to the power room.”
Door added, “Why didn’t you say that before Geist? Just because you don’t need oxygen…” She started to lead the group down the left path.
“Auxiliary Power failing.”
Nusko, holding Lanette’s hand, looked up at the group who seemed panicked. “We must hurry, gravity is failing,” he whispered as the Hub started to roll once more uncontrollably.
Door seized hold of the ladder, dragging herself down to the third floor, which had become the first, and then third once more. The Hub’s spinning made her feel sick, as if she had been strapped onto a never-ending rollercoaster. She stretched grabbing one of the switches, pulling it down.
She hit the floor hard as gravity restored once more.
“I feel excited and sick,” Nusko said, squeezing Lanette’s hand, making her chuckle a little. “Now power is equal, we must override the system, find out how to get home…” he whispered, looking at a large power terminal which seemed to be powering the Hub. “I think the robot can provide a kind of interface.”
“Robot is called Geist,” Geist said. “I will plug in right away.” He touched the panel.
“Wait,” Bill said. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
Nusko looked up at him. “It isn’t real… none of us. I was just too scared to… and that’s just it… I cannot feel in my home.”
“What are you saying?” Door scowled.
Bill looked at Nusko and then Lanette. “Well, if this ain’t real, what do we do to escape?”
Geist pondered, scanning the terminal’s log. “Every action we have done while being here appears to have been documented.”
Bill stopped, looking at the panel. “That makes sense, we were all scanned…”
A strange figure appeared from behind them, clapping loudly as he did. “Well, well, the primitives figured it out…” a horse like creature stared them down. “I admit I am surprised and I apologise for being late to your trial, but I had things to do… however, I have been watching it from a far. I have to say, if you are humanity’s more intelligent beings… for the most part… the Grexian have nothing to fear for your survival. You see… many species die out at the stage you are at… although, I did plan to only observe the trial of Bill and other beings from his Earth… I did manage to observe multiple Earths. I no longer fear your species going extinct, although you did almost destroy my observation hub. Be gone… beings…”
A flash of blue light scored Bill’s eyes as he woke. His head was slumped down against the machine he was fixing. His head spun as his phone rung, quickly he picked it up.
“Bill? Are you there? Are you okay?” Lanette asked.
“I am fine… so… it was real, right?” Bill answered.
“Yes… I think so,” Lanette replied. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to document it…”
Prompt:
Sci-fi shenanigans starring Bill and Lanette.
Summary:
An accident at Sea Cottage leads Bill to waking up inside a Hub in space. When pressing buttons on a computer leads to Lanette’s arrival and a drain on the power, Bill and Lanette must recruit from their world and others to try and figure out what is going on and the truth of the matter…
Destination: Malfuction
A piercing blue light shot through the room, scoring the eyes of anyone outside who dared look through the window of Sea Cottage. Seemingly an act of perfect revenge for any peeping-tom, having their eyes burned with a painful light, if only for a few moments. A crack leaked through the door, as the bright light stopped glowing. The satellite dish that had sat proudly upon the roof of the building swivelled around before looking down at the grassy route, saddened as part of its life had been taken away by a sudden flash; a miscalculation.
The darkened blue glow from the glass protecting the outer hub didn’t stop the empty feeling of space creeping into the large orb. Bill slowly lifting his face up from the ground, pushing on his injured and slightly burned wrists until his legs slipped into a crossed position. He raised his aching arms to his face, pinching the thumb and index finger on his left hand against the top of his nose, in a desperate bid to stop his head from spinning. His memory started to come back to him after a few moments. The aftershock from his initial experience seemed to turn to dust. He remembered reaching over to one of the panels on the time-capsule; the machine he had invented in all its glory to transport Pokémon at an instant to the once far away Johto region. Although technology had now advanced to the point where his machine was near enough useless, he still enjoyed preserving it as a memento of success.
However, something had gone wrong. Maybe he had leaned on the wrong button, or maybe it was the coffee he had left on the desk nearby, which he had carelessly knocked over onto the machine – he would never know.
He let go of his nose and looked up at the pulsing hexagonal field around the hub. A single machine sat in the centre of it, along a light blue path. He stood up, taking a deep breath and a single step. The machine started to whirl, lighting up the path as he took a second slightly less confident step. Then another and another.
Bill felt his brown hair become static-filled, raising its height a little. He looked down into the soulless construct, which was the computer in front of him. The keyboard was in a language he wasn’t aware of, but it seemed to be asking for something of some kind.
“Darn it, it must be a password,” Bill muttered, looking around the desk for a clue as to what it may be. His brown eyes dimmed a little as his search felt more and more fruitless with each second he spent scouring across and around the hub. He sighed, “I guess I have no choice but to press something and hope for the best.” He leaned in, pressing his fingers into a few of the keys. The hub echoed a little as he did, ringing out. “Please take me home,” he said, still a little shocked.
The panels in the hub flipped to a bright orange for a few moments before going black.
A bell sounded, and some cogs turned and churned their way through some rust that had been sitting on them for some time amongst the mechanisms.
“Hey!” a familiar voice called out to him.
“L-lanette? Lanette, you are here?” he replied, turning to look at her.
“Where is here?” she replied, looking around the hub. Her long curly brown hair was tied back in a way Bill had never seen before.
“I don’t have a darn’dest clue,” Bill answered. “I just pressed a button on the machine after getting sucked here. It is in a language I don’t understand, some strange one.” He quickly brushed down his shirt, walking back towards the machine. “We are stuck here it seems, in the vast and wonderous entity that is the beyond,” Bill said, a little flabbergasted by his own words.
A clunking noise came from below the platform they stood on.
“That didn’t sound too good,” Bill said, looking around to try and see if there was a way down to check out the rumbling below. A single-pole hung down through a small vent in the floor. Its red paint made it stand out amongst the overwhelming blue that plagued the rest of the hub.
The ladder slots were designed more for hooves than feet, two on each side being very slim. Bill turned to the side, placing his left foot on the ladder first. It swung a little from side to side as he tried to balance himself. He tightened his grip, making his fingers ache. Waving his right leg around, desperately, he caught the other side of the ladder. Uneasily, one foot at a time, he made his way down to the lower platform. Immediately, the flickering lights made him a little on edge. The handrails on the side weren’t perfect, they were tilted ever so slightly inwards, making them appear triangular rather than the common cylinder, intriguing Bill a little.
Meanwhile, at the main machine, Lanette leaned down onto it in thought. ‘Looks like a normal PC, just in a foreign language. Maybe I can figure out what some of it means.’ She tapped on the screen lightly on the bottom. A little panel shot up from it, previously hidden. ‘Just like another PC.’ On one of the panels, a circle appeared. She touched the circle with her right index finger, making it beep. It loaded up a new page, hundreds of thousands of planetary pictures were displayed; all were numbered or numerically assigned, she couldn’t tell which. She recognised Kanto on one of the planets being shown, spinning around on the screen. Lightly she touched it with her index finger, within a second the picture changed to a long list of humans with profiles attached to each of them, some clearer than others. She recognised her picture near the top of the list, her profile was green. She squinted, pushing her glasses up her nose. A few places above her on the list a second profile was lit up green; it was Bill’s profile. ‘What the hell?’ she thought. She flicked the top corner of the screen, making it zoom back out to the planet list. She noticed another planet which looked very similar to the first she had pressed on, although clearly not hers, she pressed on it to see what would happen. The screen glowed a little, flickering, scanning the room quickly.
A flash of light appeared, making the room feel like it was violently shaking. The circuits on the lower platform sparked, sending ashes and gritting shockwaves towards Bill. He raised his arms up to cover his eyes before looking at the newly shattered and crunched up panel. His fingers twitched to tinker with the wiring to see what he could do. A loud thud came from upstairs, the platform above his head rattled a little, making him jump out of his skin. His ears pricked up, as if he was a Mightyena, at the sound of voices shouting at one another. He turned back towards the ladder, scrambling up it to make sure Lanette was okay. He left the panel sparking and crumbling away on his way.
“Who are you?” he heard her shouting as he reached the top of the ladder. He looked up a little pushing himself up onto the platform. He wobbled a little as he did.
“Lanette, are you okay?” he asked, as he looked past her to see a boy with a knife drawn, unsure of what was going on. A knife skimmed past his face, slamming into one of the panels. The blade dug into them, making them ripple as the leather-coated handle stuck outwards.
“Stay away from me! Where am I? What is this hell?” the boy shouted, panicked.
“Easy, we aren’t going to hurt you,” Lanette replied, raising her hands up showing her palms.
The boy took a deep breath, pushing his glasses back onto his face. “What is this place?” he asked, sitting down, holding his head with his left hand. With his right, he reached over to some of the rails. With a single breath, he looked up into one of the reflective panels in the hub, relieved to see himself looking back at him he relaxed a little. Touching the little cut that had been carved into his black skin, he grunted.
“We don’t know where we are, but judging by what you are wearing… I suppose you aren’t from Kanto?” Bill asked.
“I suppose not. You aren’t from Elktan either. This place feels strange,” the boy paused, seeing Lanette reaching over and touching the main machine, scanning and touching the panels. “Is that what brought me here? Who are you people?”
“Well, I am Bill, and this is Lanette,” Bill answered, pointing to her and straightening his own shirt a little as he did.
“I… I am Ulrich,” Ulrich said, starting to stand up. “This place sounds bad…”
Bill paused, rubbing his forehead. ‘My head hurts,’ he thought. With several glances around, he turned sharply on his heels to face Lanette.
Lanette looked up at him, her smile had drifted into a mild frown before she locked her eyes onto the spinning Earths once more. She flicked her fingers towards her, and the two came over, both as cautious as one another. “We aren’t from the same Earth, which begs the question… what the hell is this place, and why is it spying on Earth?”
“Don’t know,” Ulrich answered. “However, don’t you think it's odd that we are speaking the same language? I suspect you aren’t speaking Elkrat…”
“You are right…” Bill sighed. “Maybe this place is translating for us somehow.”
Ulrich sat down by the machine once more. “I cannot go home now… I am a traitor; being here makes me a traitor.”
“Only if they know you have been here,” Lanette chipped in, not turning to face him, but rather pressing on a different Earth. “Just strange how the machine here isn’t translating for us.” She sighed, “Which would have been far more usefu-”
The panel on the lower platform sparked, shorting out some of the lights.
A voice started to blare over the hub’s intercom, “Warning, system overload. Power level ninety percent. Inner shields damaged, diverting power to external shields. Power level eighty percent.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Ulrich said. “It sounds like you are losing power.”
Bill looked back, worried. “It does. The panel downstairs was overloaded when… I accidentally brought Lanette here…” He rushed down the ladder once more, Ulrich following him closely, catching his blue uniform on the side of one of the railings.
The panel’s wiring hung down, not fully connected in places. The sparks pulsating around them, making it impossible to reach and reconnect any of them.
“When I came… what happened?” Ulrich asked, looking at the mess of wires.
“Bill! You probably should come look at this!” Lanette shouted.
Bill carefully placed a hand on Ulrich’s shoulder. His light shirt clashing with Ulrich’s dark blue one. His frown grew a little. His fingers twitched as unease rose up through his body. He reached his hands back onto the ladder, yanking himself up onto the upper platform.
His arms ached a little from the awkward ladder, the constant climbing up and down left started to strain them. He stopped at the top for a moment, taking a deep breath in, filling his lungs with all the air he could, fearing that soon the oxygen would also start to drain away as randomly as the power had. He looked to Lanette as he walked over. Each step seemed to feel as if he had been repeating himself like he was in an endless loop.
“It is a gateway,” Lanette said, confidence filling her voice. “Each of these Earths represents a different Earth in time and space – but it's not just Earth, there are other planets on here too. Some are much bigger than Earth, others smaller. I wish I could read the language here, though, at least I would be able to figure out the differences between them.” She pushed some of her curls to the side. “Maybe if we could find someone who could read this language… which reminds me, the electronics and power distribution has its own tab, judging by the lightning bolt symbol on one of them, we could resolve our problem.”
Bill reached over and touched the screen, loading up a new page. “So, on this side, all the people from the planet are listed?”
“In order of intelligence, yes, IQ sorting,” Lanette answered, crossing her arms. “Perhaps whoever was running this hub was watching over the most intelligent people on all of these planets… but why?” She pressed one hand against her chin.
“Perhaps we should bring someone else here.” Bill leaned against one of the railings. “The more people we have here, the faster we can solve our situation. Could you bring Cassius here, do you reckon? He could probably help.” Bill straightened himself up and looked back at Lanette.
“I can try,” she answered. She pressed hard on the screen, searching for Cassius’s profile. “I think this is the right Earth,” she said, scanning down the information. ‘This one is him,’ she thought, pressing the screen one more time.
The hub flickered far more violently than before.
“Power at sixty percent,” the voice on the intercom said.
Cassius’s body hit the floor hard, shattering his sunglasses into several pieces. Ulrich jumped up in shock, drawing his sword and rushing up the ladder.
“What was that?” Ulrich shouted, raising his sword up to defend himself.
“Nothing, just Cassius,” Bill answered. “Cassius! I am glad you are here; we need your help.” He grabbed hold of Cassius’s leather jacket, lifting him up a little.
“Yo, Bill calm down, man. My head hurts, yo,” he muttered. His green tuft sagged down. “Who is the medieval dude? Hey Lanette,” he added, rubbing his head with his hand.
“Oh, this is Ulrich – he is from a different world…” Bill replied, still uncomfortable with saying it.
“Sweet,” Cassius said with a smile. “You must have a lot of stories, bro.” Cassius picked up his broken sunglasses, examining them. “Ah shoot, that was my favourite pair.” He threw the broken pair over the edge of one of the railings.
“I am not your brother.” Ulrich walked over to the machine, looking at the list of names. “I do not like the thought of someone watching us all an-”
The hub stated to shake a little, steam puffed out of some of the pipes that were lining the lower platform. The wiring below became coated in it. The water within made the vibrant electricity pulse and scream out more.
“Damn, we need to stop the steam…” Ulrich muttered.
The hub rolled, slowly making the four slip along the floor, closer toward the ladder, and off into the engines below. The blue panels turned red, and the sirens started to blare.
“Warning, internal gravitational pull failing – stability failed.”
“No shit!” Ulrich shouted, grabbing hold of one of the railings. “Grab hold of something!”
Cassius reached out to grab hold of one of the railings, his fingers touched it. The feel of metal on his fingertips was brief. He strained to try to extend his fingers further as he hopelessly fell down, slamming into the machine as he did.
“Shit!” he shouted, twisting himself as he held onto the machine. He pressed buttons with his free hand, hoping for the best.
“Diverting power to the internal gravitational pull from auxiliary. Auxiliary power remaining – two hours.”
The hub rolled back to the balanced position, flinging the group back down against the floor. The hub flashed once more the machine glowed frantically letting out a bright white light rather than the blue from before. The engine whirred more ferociously, creating a piercing sound, making Ulrich feel slightly sick. Some figures crashed down onto the platform, making Bill jump back.
“Power level at fifty percent. Projection mass overload.”
The lights flickered off, changing to a dull red barely making anything else visible in the room. Another figure crashed down onto the floor, followed by another, as the machine flickered cutting out. The main screen displayed a dark black.
“Power level at twenty percent, oxygen level at eighty percent.”
The hub started to feel cold, making Bill shiver as he walked over to the four new beings who lay sprawled out on the floor. Lanette joined him, shivering a little too. Both knelt down to see who had joined them in their entrapment.
Ulrich walked over to Cassius, extending his arm out to him and cautiously opened his hand. “Here,” he said, pulling the man up onto his feet, noticing his boots were just as heavy as his own. “Your shoulder, it looks bad,” he commented. “We should probably find something to put on it, I suspect it is badly bruised, but it isn’t worth risking getting a chill to check.” Ulrich turned to face Bill and Lanette.
Bill rubbed his arm a little as the group on the floor seemed as confused as the others before them. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ulrich approaching Lanette, who was staring at the machine, which seemed dead.
“My lady, would you like to borrow my jacket to stay warm in this cold?” he asked, taking off his jacket and offering it to her.
An awkward silence passed through the air for a moment before Lanette sighed, “Maybe it would be better used on one of them?” She glanced at the people on the floor. ‘How unusual, these people aren’t from the same place, they are wearing very different outfits.’ She bent down beside Bill.
Bill gently nudged the girl, who grunted back at him. He tugged on her grey hoodie to try to get her to roll over at sit up. He pulled her up onto into a sitting position and left her against one of the pillars. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked, turning back to the other three who were also starting to stir from their abrupt fall. ‘I wonder if the power capacity has anything to do with the stability of an individual post fall? If only we had the power to test this theory.’
The tall man stood and stretched, seemingly less disturbed or confused than the others initially. He turned to face Bill and then Lanette. “Has it not occurred yet?” he asked, giving an almost vacant but simultaneously concerned look.
A skinny boy sat up, looking at everyone in the room. “The event which is in question has not occurred in their time stream yet if indeed it is the same time frame which is being observed,” he said, dusting off his black shirt and black trousers.
“Great, another machine,” the girl muttered.
“I am not a machine, I am human,” the boy responded.
Ulrich looked at the machine, which had Cassius’s body imprinted in a large dent on the side. “It looks like the main machine is broken and not to put too grim of a point on it… but without that machine, I don’t think any of us are going home.” He gripped his hand into a fist and then opened it again. “On the brighter note, at least I won’t die from diabetes… we will run out of oxygen long before that…”
“Fantastic,” the girl chipped in.
Bill looked to the last of the group who had landed. A quiet girl with blond hair lay still on the floor, unconscious. ‘She looks injured by the fall,’ he thought.
“Here,” Ulrich said, placing his jacket over her. “I hope that helps. What are your names anyway?” he asked the other three, feeling his breath become a little heavier.
“Door,” the Door responded, touching her throat. “This is Geist,” she added, pointing to Geist, who was looking down on the boy.
The boy was examining Geist, his black and brown hair as divisive as his grey and brown eyes. “Nusko. You are interesting and fascinating.” He poked Geist in the chest, waiting for a response.
“I would appreciate it if you did not do that,” the large man-like machine responded.
The group stood silently as the two looked each other in the eyes. The hub’s red lights shimmered a darker red before stabilising once more. The hub lights went off for a moment a red beam scanned the people standing in the room before the lights came back on, albeit dimmer than before.
Nusko walked over to the platform’s end and sat down, staring out at the stars he could see. Silent.
Bill stretched and yawned. “We need to get out of here, there are more of us now, less oxygen, less power and less time.”
Door stood up, walking over to Geist, readying to send out the Audino which sat inside the Poké ball she held in her right hand.
“That is a bad idea,” Nusko said, continuing to stare forwards.
“Oh, and why is that?” Door responded, dragging out every letter she could.
“Because it is a more use of oxygen.” Nusko’s eyes looked on at the stars. “The loud noises don’t scare me here. Isn’t that funny?” he asked.
Door looked at him, confused. The strange boy seemed more fixated on the stars in front of him. She looked around at those around her, spotting Lanette and scowling a little. “This whole place is a mess, isn’t it?” she asked, sitting beside him.
“Yes.” Nusko continued to look forward. “This hub is perfectly spherical; it soothes my mind; it is that way. We are on the highest floor.”
“How can you tell?” Bill asked, looking at him.
“Is it not obvious? The glass isn’t aligned to be central. The angle it is at corresponds to us being rather high up.”
Bill thought back to his arrival and the second floor. “There is a panel down the ladder which is overloaded…”
Geist looked to the ladder. “This was not designed for human usage.”
Lanette nodded in agreement, wandering back to the machine. “Well, the oxygen left is running out rather fast, we need to get ourselves out of here and fast.”
Bill walked towards the ladder, climbing down to face the overloading panel once more. The sparks flew up as he did and the steam made it hard for him to see the wires. “Darn it!” he said, looking to the side at Ulrich, who had followed behind him closely.
“Without our Pokémon shutting this off will be difficult, but the Nusko boy is right, we cannot afford to use up too much oxygen…” Ulrich sighed, looking at the influx of steam before shooting Bill a glance, hoping his elder would have advice on what to do. “As much as I should inherently hate you for being an off-islander we have to figure things out.” He touched his cheek where his cut was, feeling his skin just as smooth as it had been before, he looked up at his reflection and seeing it gone from his face.
Bill noticed Ulrich’s focus fade.
“Yo! Bill, Eldritch!”
“Ulrich…” Ulrich muttered back. “Ulrich Otto Van Coug, son of Lord Otto Eric Van Coug, not that it matters.”
“I suppose you had life handed to you on a silver plate, fed by a silver spoon,” Door said, coldly. “Being a son of such a grand Lord.”
Ulrich watched her tuck her hands deep into her cargo trousers. He grunted, “It was never like that. My father couldn’t care less if I was never born – except I was, and I was male. I became his heir and he wished me to be a slave… but when things changed… I never wanted this life; all I have ever wanted for myself is to become an engineer.” He clenched his fists tightly.
On the upper platform Lanette walked over to Nusko, seeing his gaze still not deterred from the stars. She edged over to the ledge, sitting down beside him, letting her jacket fold up a little. She let her curly hair rest against her shoulder as she shuffled closer towards him. “Nusko isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I am Lanette. You seem a very… quiet boy. Are you scared?” Lanette asked, taking his hand.
“Yes. I am not used to… feeling.” He nodded, his voice a little higher than it was when he first landed in the hub. “The stars are beautiful. They make my heart feel warm and feel… a strange buzzing in here.” Nusko raised his hand up, touching his chest.
“Happy?” Lanette asked, cautiously. “What a time to feel happy, huh? Stuck here in space, on some sort of alien craft which is spying on intelligent beings on planets.”
Nusko turned to face her, taking her hand with a timid grip. “I am afraid of the other people. Everyone is strange and so stupid.” He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath. “We need more time to solve things. We have no power and no oxygen, but the pipes lead to something. Where it all begins. We are lucky Geist isn’t human.” Nusko looked back up at the stars, not letting go of her hand. “I feel safe with you. You aren’t loud like the others.”
Geist walked over, looking down at Nusko and Lanette. “You believe we have a chance of regaining the power?” he asked. His brown hair looked slightly more static.
Nusko looked at Lanette and nodded.
“He said yes,” she answered for him. ‘He was so confident when he first arrived here… but now he is almost a husk of what he was.’ She pushed a strand of hair out of Nusko’s face. “Bebe will wake up soon, I hope.”
“I want to be with my grandfather,” Nusko whispered, tears starting to leak into his eyes.
Geist stepped back, awkwardly, making his way towards the ladder to join Ulrich Door and Bill on the lower floor. He walked toward the panel, staring at Bill, who felt awkward looking at Geist. A feeling of familiarity inside Bill stirred, making him feel queasy as Geist spoke, “The weird boy said that the pipes will lead to power.”
Ulrich shrugged, looking at Bill. “It makes sense. The pipes have steam inside, if we follow them back, we can find the main utility room inside of this strange alien hub. Hopefully, Nusko is correct, the power wires will lead back there too.” He straightened his tie, looking to Bill for advice.
Bill looked at the sparking panel. “Firstly, we need to get the steam valve on the neighbouring pipes switched off. I don’t think the steam is too important – at least not right now. Besides, the lower down we go there will be more steam pipes which are far safer than the broken ones up here. We need to get past this panel.”
Door smirked a little. “Geist can help with that; he can hack any system – so surely he can absorb the overload.”
Ulrich raised a finger. “That doesn’t resolve the steam issue, but… as a Young Guard… I am sworn to serve and protect my people.”
“How noble,” Door interrupted, rolling her eyes.
Ulrich shook his head at her, taking his midnight blue cap off, placing his hand inside of it. Quickly he reached over to the valve duct on the wall, grabbing the wheel and spinning it as fast as he could, burning his fingers inside the cap. “Agh!” he cried out as the steam was reduced to nothing. “Fuck!” he shouted, throwing his hat on the floor, glaring at his burned hand which seemed to glow a raw red. He shuffled to the floor, holding himself in pain.
Geist stepped forward, ignoring Ulrich’s screams and opening up the broken panel. Despite the sparks and damaged wiring, Geist felt confident he could override the system. He pressed the wires into place, drawing the electricity in and onto himself.
Bebe stirred on the upper platform as a result of Ulrich’s screams. “Ugh… Hiya Lanette, who is your friend and what is that noise?”
“Too much noise,” Nusko said, tensing up, grabbing his head as tightly as he could. “Too much noise,” he repeated.
Lanette placed a hand on Nusko’s shoulder, “I will make the noise stop, okay?”
Nusko nodded, holding his head still.
“Bebe, this is Nusko, can you keep an eye on him please? He may not be… the most functional, but he is very scared,” Lanette asked, making her way down a level to see what all the fuss was about. As she traversed the ladder, she observed Ulrich holding his hand in pain, slowly following Bill, Door and Geist, who had already started to travel further down one of the corridors. “Hey,” she said.
“Yo, Lanette,” Cassius replied. “Bill wanted me to tell you and the gang to move out, we have to make our way down, yo.” His prior injuries seemed non-existent.
Ulrich’s cries became silent in the distant, not just due to distance, but rather he had stopped entirely. The rusty metal plates which lined the tunnel leading deeper into the hub was a much dingier outlook than that of the red panels that coated the walls above.
Bebe came clambering down the ladder, holding Nusko’s hand, leading him towards Lanette. She looked into his brown and grey eyes with her blue ones, placing his hand in hers.
Nusko started to reduce intenseness, resting his head against her shoulder. “I am scared, I feel sad and confused and lost…” he whispered, looking around the hub. He reached into his pocket, taking out a small notepad and pencil. He pressed the pencil against the paper, scribbling down equations on the paper, taking deep breaths as he did, calming himself down once more.
Further down the corridor Door and Bill led the pack. Door tugged her hoodie down a little, looking at the T-junction that was coming up. The steam pipes stopped dead in their tracks. Her eyes rolled a little as she looked at Bill. “What now?” The group paused, looking up at the pipes, feeling their throats starting to tighten a little more violently. “Damn it.”
“Can’t your robot hack into the system and bring up a map?” Bill asked, trying to remain calm, pushing his hair back up as it had started to deflate due to the stress.
Geist chirped up a little, “I already have. I was just waiting to be asked.” He looked at Bill, who looked straight back at him. “We need to go left here. That will lead us down to the power room.”
Door added, “Why didn’t you say that before Geist? Just because you don’t need oxygen…” She started to lead the group down the left path.
“Auxiliary Power failing.”
Nusko, holding Lanette’s hand, looked up at the group who seemed panicked. “We must hurry, gravity is failing,” he whispered as the Hub started to roll once more uncontrollably.
Door seized hold of the ladder, dragging herself down to the third floor, which had become the first, and then third once more. The Hub’s spinning made her feel sick, as if she had been strapped onto a never-ending rollercoaster. She stretched grabbing one of the switches, pulling it down.
She hit the floor hard as gravity restored once more.
“I feel excited and sick,” Nusko said, squeezing Lanette’s hand, making her chuckle a little. “Now power is equal, we must override the system, find out how to get home…” he whispered, looking at a large power terminal which seemed to be powering the Hub. “I think the robot can provide a kind of interface.”
“Robot is called Geist,” Geist said. “I will plug in right away.” He touched the panel.
“Wait,” Bill said. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
Nusko looked up at him. “It isn’t real… none of us. I was just too scared to… and that’s just it… I cannot feel in my home.”
“What are you saying?” Door scowled.
Bill looked at Nusko and then Lanette. “Well, if this ain’t real, what do we do to escape?”
Geist pondered, scanning the terminal’s log. “Every action we have done while being here appears to have been documented.”
Bill stopped, looking at the panel. “That makes sense, we were all scanned…”
A strange figure appeared from behind them, clapping loudly as he did. “Well, well, the primitives figured it out…” a horse like creature stared them down. “I admit I am surprised and I apologise for being late to your trial, but I had things to do… however, I have been watching it from a far. I have to say, if you are humanity’s more intelligent beings… for the most part… the Grexian have nothing to fear for your survival. You see… many species die out at the stage you are at… although, I did plan to only observe the trial of Bill and other beings from his Earth… I did manage to observe multiple Earths. I no longer fear your species going extinct, although you did almost destroy my observation hub. Be gone… beings…”
A flash of blue light scored Bill’s eyes as he woke. His head was slumped down against the machine he was fixing. His head spun as his phone rung, quickly he picked it up.
“Bill? Are you there? Are you okay?” Lanette asked.
“I am fine… so… it was real, right?” Bill answered.
“Yes… I think so,” Lanette replied. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to document it…”
