Jim slowly turned his gaze away from the boy, across the smooth walls of the space station room and towards the view of the Earth. The dread engulfed him as his planet was wrapped in light not natural to the spectrum he was so used to seeing. Edging towards the window he pressed his palms upon the frame, pulling himself closer and closer to the unfolding calamity of the world.
“Are the continents…. moving?” He croaked, trying to recover his thought process.
“Indeed they are!” Exclaimed Dux as he watched Jim’s reaction closely, paying no attention to the world changing event taking place just outside the window.
Somehow Jim didn’t believe his eyes as he managed to find a small glimmer of himself again. “Well I guess that changes my schedule for the day.”
A dawning of thought settled into Jim’s mind. Running through the countless issues with his current situation if the worst has happened and the world is gone.
He only had a few months of supplies, can I make more food, more fuel? Can I grow food? No fuck that, he wasn’t a Watney style botonist and there’s no seeds on the station. What about communications? The satellites must still be here if he is. What about NASA? He peered out of the viewport again to see that India was now separating from the main landmass of Asia and crashing into the Philippines. Assuming a similar situation was happening in the US he had to also assume comms would be a long shot right now. That’s if any radio waves can pass through this weird purple energy.
Talking to himself didn’t help that much right now as there were far too many problems to overcome to even give himself a slither of a chance of surviving unsupported up here.
He felt panic’s cold fingers crawl up his back. No wait, those were actual fingers!
“Ahhh what the hell!!!” Screamed Jim, momentarily forgetting he wasn’t alone here.
The boy had laid a hand on his back, trying to calm Jim’s unraveling nerves.
“Don’t worry, I plan to get you back down there. We just need to wait for the dust to settle”
“DOWN THERE?! ARE YOU JOKING?”
Jim felt his whole body itching against his overalls, the heat of his sweat causing him to feel every stitch in fresh panic. He had no idea what was even left down there and he definitely knew he’d prefer a quick trip out of the airlock than be thrown into an apocalypse.
Gripping anxiety wrapped around Jim’s throat. All his training and all his calculated, rigorous emergency drills meant nothing right now. The world was ending, and he had to watch.
As the panic attack started his breathing intensified. In, out, in, out, in, out. Quicker and quicker and quicker. Oxygen was further from his grasp with each breath.
And then…
“Boop”
With wide eyes peering through his blue fringe the boy smiled as his finger touched Jim’s nose.
Then nothing. Darkness. Reprieve and sleep.
***
4 weeks later.
“AHHHHHHHHH!” With a nightmarish scream Jim’s eyes shot open as he sat up in his bunk.
THWACK. His head rang off the base of the bunk above.
“Oooh ya’ bastard!” he wailed as he grabbed at his forehead.
As he massaged his temples the feeling of what he could only compare to a deep hangover flooded into his senses.
“Eughhh, what the hell, where has this come from”
Jim swung his legs onto the floor as he sat in his bunk, head in his hands. He tentatively opened his eyes and the space around him was dark. As he squinted shadowy outlines came into view. There was enough light for him to recognise that he was still in the ISS, or at least the room was roughly the same layout. He then noticed that usual smooth paneled floors of the space station were… rougher, dustier even. Presumably this was just his senses playing tricks on him due to the pounding in his head. As he stood the room spun and his stomach lurched.
“I’m ok, I’m ok, just like college.. We can do this”
With a pause he took a deep breath, and stepped towards the toilet cubicle.
It took him a few steps until he realised. He was… walking. There was gravity, in space.
“Eh?” he grunted in confusion.
Ding! The sound of a soft bell chimed from seemingly nowhere. Then a voice. It was the same feeling as his Lens, directly inputted into his head but this time a forceful booming male voice.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notification:
Experience: +50
Enhancement gained:
You successfully saw through an ailment to understand something about your surroundings.
Your natural affinity to wade off ailments has increased by 25% against any reductions in stats brought on by an ailment by Devine, Magical or physical means.
Well done on your first steps into a new world… Hero!
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Whaaaaaaaaat was that?" remarked Jim.
Ding!
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
His Hololens spoke again.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome Traveler! Your journey into Kaldoria begins.
Quest available:
Message from the gods.
Open the message from Dux and accept your fate.
Reward: Continued existence
Reward: Augment - Rarity: ERROR
Fail to complete or reject this quest and you will die an agonising death.
Do you accept this quest?
Yes / No
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Woah woah woah, what is going on. Lens?” he spoke into the air, confusion surrounding his voice.
“Lens?!”
He didn’t hear the voice of his usual Lens companion, just the same demanding new bloke.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you accept this quest?
Yes/No
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Jim rocked his groggy head he saw that the message was now appearing in his view. He reached up towards his head, expecting to feel the Hololens glasses on his face. There was nothing. He frantically felt around his head, with only his crew cut hair brushing through his fingers.
“What? How can I hear this stuff, how can I see this damn message?!”
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you accept this quest?
Yes/No
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With an anguished clench of his fists Jim swiped in the air at the message floating in front of him. His fist passing straight through the text as if it wasn’t real.
“Am I losing my mind?’ No fuck off, sod your quest”
Ding!
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have rejected the Quest.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As quickly as the message disappeared, the pain rose. His wrists, ankles and neck started to sear in burning purple light. Jim felt the piercing burn deepening, as if he was wrapped in molten iron as rings of runes and lights torched his flesh around his limbs and throat.
His boiling blood pounded into his heart as he dropped to the floor in hellish agony. With blood seeping from his eyes Jim arched into a ball. And.. BOOM, SPLAT. His body exploded in bloody steam, evaporating into the air in a haze of red mist.
***
Several hours later.
“AHHHHHHHHH!” With a nightmarish scream Jim’s eyes shot open as he sat up in his bunk.
THWACK. His head rang off the base of the bunk above.
“Oooh ya’ bloody bastard!” he wailed as he grabbed at his forehead.
As he massaged his temples he had a fierce feeling of deja-vu.
“Huh?”
He swung his legs onto the floor, his head pounding in agony.
Ding!
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notification.
You died. Welcome back Hero!
New quest available:
A longer message from the gods.
Open the message from Dux and accept your fate.
Reward: Continued existence
Reward: Augment - Rarity: ERROR
Fail to complete or reject this quest and you will die an agonising death.
Do you accept this quest?
Yes / No
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Jim opened his eyes in a painful squint he could feel a dry yet squishy feeling underneath his toes. Blood and guts covered his once beautifully clean sleeping quarters. The floor, ceiling, viewport everything was covered in a layer of what he then remembered was… himself.
“Nope. Nope this isn’t real. I did not just explode and come back to life. This is just a dream.”
Jim slapped himself across the face with all the force he could.
He felt a sting linger on his cheek and with a breath opened his eyes. A set of bars appeared in the lower right hand side of his vision.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AJ_Bars [https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52801720730_504420fb3f.jpg]
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Nope, not real”
His eyes widening as Jim let out a quiet maniacal laugh.
“Hahaha, space madness!!! I’ve lost it, I’ve gone insane”
Talking to himself Jim stood, a calm came over him as he made his way to the airlock.
A clang of the manual handle was the only sound in the station. Then a hizz of a large heavy door moving.
Step. step. step.
He looked out of the viewport.
A planet was there, but it was clearly not his Earth. New oceans, new continents and a new… moon? That was no moon, that was a… disk. A moon sized disk with the image of what looked like a moon facing the Earth.
This must have just been nonsense in his broken and crumbling psychological state.
He keyed in his access code to the panel on the wall.
Beep, boop, beep, boop, boop.
Warning lights flashed red in the chamber, he closed his eyes and hit the big red button.
The exterior door whooshed open and Jim felt his body stay exactly where it was.
No rush of a vacuum sucking him into oblivion.
He grimaced as he opened one eye.
With nothing blocking his view he saw the planet in all its awe. This is the first time a human had ever seen a planet without some kind of shield blocking the view. He never really thought about that before. About the little refractions and reflections you saw in a visor or a viewport. It was all just there, in front of his eyes.
“Well that’s pretty”
Jim raised an arm and slowly a finger followed. He edged it closer and closer to the opening of the airlock.
His finger reached the precipice of the doorway, and with a smush it pressed upon an invisible barrier.
With an inspective glare and a twist of his finger the timing of the Ding! was perfectly poetic.