Chapter 3

Bright light assailed Cyrus’s eyes as he found himself able to move once more, but it wasn't the familiar brightness of the sunshine he had just been under, nor was it the harshness of indoor fluorescent lighting. This light felt purer, more silvery than yellow, and it was soft on his eyes, unlike the buzzing and blue infra-rays of artificial lighting.

That’s why it didn’t take as long for Cyrus’s eyes to adjust to this softer spectrum of illumination. As he did, his visual surroundings began to clear, revealing where he actually was now, far from the place he had just been. Attempting to remove his VR headset hadn’t worked, which left Cyrus grappling with the reality of his new situation, struggling to reconcile what he saw in front of him with what he knew he should be seeing. His logical 3b rain told him that he should still be in the shared garden space of his apartment complex, but that obviously wasn’t the case.

He was standing in a large room surrounded on all sides by sleek silver and white walls. The upper half of the walls, including the ceiling, was a pale white with small unusual designs in soft colors running through it, while the lower half was silver. There were no visible seams between the halves that made up the room; in fact, they looked as though the different materials had been created as one large sheet. But that couldn’t be the case either, because interspersed throughout the room were dark, glass-like display panels, and the images being displayed upon them were not the flat images he was accustomed to seeing.

Cyrus was familiar with many different VR games, wherein certain screens could emulate three-dimensional realism and even create holographic images that could be somewhat interacted with. However, the graphical designs he was accustomed to in said games paled in comparison to what he was seeing now. The displays in this room showed images that seemed to have both depth and solidity as they hovered in mid-air, both a part of and separate from the displays.

As he looked closer, he realized the images were not just floating above but had an actual physical presence that felt almost tangible. The displays somehow not only projected a semi-solid object but also conveyed a sense of mass and volume along with it, as if he could reach out and touch the images, feeling the light as a solid thing. Each image was incredibly detailed and intricate, displaying visual information in ways that far surpassed any technology he had ever encountered before.

Cyrus’s mind raced to understand how this level of sophistication was even possible. The images seemed to convey a richness and complexity that suggested a level of technological advancement far beyond his imagination.

“This is incredible,” Cyrus whispered to himself. The displays weren't just showing data; they were presenting it in a way that felt alive and interactive, making the information even more accessible and engaging.

For a few moments, Cyrus was lost in his amazement and curiosity. His anxiety retreated and felt almost nonexistent; the voices in his head silenced, and the fear of what had just happened to him and where he now found himself vanishing.

He reached out gently to touch the strange image floating before him. The display he focused on showed a panel of what Cyrus assumed were words. These unusual glyph-like characters appeared to be more than just flat drawings or computer-generated images. They weren’t the typical font, flat, or even faux 3D with shadows giving them the appearance of depth. Within each glyph were actual separate textures, ridges, and peaks—actual physical buttons made of light which he could reach out and touch.

But there was more to the strange icons than just their appearance. It seemed to Cyrus as though the letters were designed to be interpreted not only by sight but also by touch. Reading the glyphs may provide an initial impression, but he sensed that only by touching them as well could a more comprehensive meaning be understood.

He reached out, his arms and fingers seemingly moving of their own accord. His curiosity got the better of him as he felt he needed to experience this alien technology. He tried to touch it before considering all the ramifications of doing so. But mere seconds before his fingers came into contact with the first of the illuminated glyphs, a hissing sound broke the silence and drew his attention away, ripping him from his entrancement.

Cyrus reflexively turned his head toward the source of the sound, his hand still suspended in mid-air. He watched as a small seam appeared on the wall and a rectangular panel shifted forward into the room where he stood. The door became apparent as it ingressed a few centimeters into the room, followed swiftly by the entire panel sliding along the inside of the wall to reveal an entryway where none had existed before.

As the door slid open noiselessly along the wall, Cyrus's anxiety surged back in full force. Not only was he no longer alone, but the occupants on the other side of the doorway were decidedly non-human.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Cyrus had entertained the idea that he might have been abducted by aliens, even though his rational mind still had a difficult time believing in such things. He wasn’t one to believe in conspiracies, at least not a lot of them, but from what he was now seeing around him, as well as the circumstances leading up to him being here in this place of much greater technology, alien abduction seemed one of the most logical explanations.

His brain had been slowly bringing the pieces together, but at the sight of these strange creatures, the puzzle looked as though it had been completed, the pieces fitting together and clicking into place.

But the creatures standing there, just beyond the doorway weren’t the skinny gray aliens he expected to see. They didn’t look like how he’d heard lizardmen described either, those being another of the alien races he’d learned of on the internet. They definitely weren’t the Tall-Whites, which he had seen a video of online and were said to run the Earth from the shadows.

These beings were small, green, and smelled a lot like cat piss, the ammonia quality to the air surrounding them reaching his nostrils and causing tears to form in his eyes. The pungent smell wafted in as soon as the door was fully open.

Each of the roughly four-foot-tall creatures had long ears that stuck out and away from their heads. Their dark maroon eyes were disproportionately large on their smallish heads. From the center of each of their faces blossomed an irregular nose, each unique but overly large. Some noses were round and bulbous, while others stuck out several inches before ending in an exaggerated point.

Their mouths also seemed slightly larger than what should be normal, and from behind their slim, slightly darker green lips, Cyrus could see dozens of sharp, yellowish teeth. Their bodies were skinny, and their clothing, if it could be called that, looked more like ill-fitting potato sacks than anything properly sewn together.

Yet there was one of these frightful, yet odd, creatures that seemed slightly taller, better dressed, and had a slightly better-proportioned head than the others. This one stared directly at Cyrus, but rather than having the look of being ready to start tearing away at his flesh, like the others looked like they wanted to do, this one looked almost as startled as Cyrus.

There was a tense moment where Cyrus, frozen in place by the sight before him, locked eyes with the larger of the creatures. There seemed to be an acknowledgment of mutual stress and misunderstanding between them, but the moment was fleeting. Then, several of the chest-high green critters sprang forward and began clawing at Cyrus.

He had only a moment before the first of the monsters barreled into him. This initial attacker was larger than the others, but different from the tall one. It was wide and muscular, as though it enjoyed throwing boulders for entertainment, its arms and chest chiseled like those of a bodybuilder, but with a gut that conjured the definition of morbid obesity.

The large creature lowered its head and plowed directly into Cyrus. Since the creature’s head only reached about waist height at its current angle of charge, it barreled directly into his most sensitive area, causing Cyrus to double over from the blow.

Along with the creature’s bald, hard head impacting his crotch, two stubby yet strong arms wrapped around his legs, lifting him off the floor and carrying his entire body several steps in the opposite direction of what he faced and into the wall behind him. The remaining oxygen in his lungs was immediately expelled due to the impact.

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Two more small green creatures lunged forward, following closely behind the thick one. They pounced on top of Cyrus’s now prone form, joining the initial combatant with what could only be described as a sense of wanton glee. Their dirty, jagged claws ripped into his skin, teeth tore into his arms and ankles, and the larger one had the gall to bite down on the flabby skin hanging over his beltline. A couple of inches lower, and Cyrus would have been singing a very different tune.

As it was, he cried out in pain and tried to curl his body into a ball. His mind instantly shut down. In his state of shock, his senses failed him, and his fight-or-flight response devolved past the lizard brain and into the pill-bug state of mind. He curled in upon himself, sobbing from the torture to his body, and generally hoped that his end would come swiftly.

The room seemed to grow small, the light dimmed, and while he felt the pain immensely, it somehow seemed less than what it should have been. Cyrus also noticed that he was losing his hearing perception and could barely make out the grunts and growls coming from these creatures. The sounds they made were both animalistic yet slightly discernible as a possible language.

His world was closing in, death beckoning to him, and he was about to lose consciousness when the attacking creatures reluctantly withdrew. Cyrus had just enough awareness left to see the slightly taller of the pack of creatures, the one he now believed was their leader, walk up close and stare down into his eyes.

He wasn’t sure whether this being was taking his measure, pitying him, or planning to be the first to dine on his flesh, but as he looked back up into those strange dark eyes, he felt his own roll back into his head as he passed out, no longer able to deal with the mental stress of the situation.

“Raknak, Khibi, Gooniz, back off!” Daegnon yelled as the three of them lunged forward and attacked this strange-looking human.

The floating light images on the dark panels of the ship had led him here using arrows drawn upon the dark glass in a radiant yellow. The rest of his ‘gang,’ for lack of a better term, had followed behind him, not knowing what else to do but instinctively following the orders given by the burrow-master.

The arrows had changed once they stood in this barren hallway in front of an ordinary-looking wall. They had passed by here before, but the hallway had held nothing of interest, so it had been thought of as just another hallway. But this time, the arrow pointed down instead of forward, and a small panel opened up revealing a button.

This button was similar to the one that opened the other doors of the ship, so Daegnon didn’t hesitate to push it, assuming the ship, or whoever was guiding him through it, wanted him to do just that.

He and the others had been exploring this ship now for over a day. It had taken them several hours to realize, at least to some degree, what had happened. They were obviously no longer in their mountain and were now surrounded by stars with no land or water in sight. They had to assume they were now somehow in space.

Daegnon had an inkling about how this had happened, but he firmly kept that information from the others. If he were to maintain his position as burrow-master, he needed the others to trust that he was not the one who had accidentally put them in this situation.

It was the ultimate goal for the clan to explore what lay beyond their mountain anyway, once his ancestors had realized what exactly it was they had found, so in a way, he had simply moved the plan forward. Although leaving without the majority of his people was definitely not the way he would have gone about it had he the option.

Goblins weren’t much for technological things, but they weren’t totally ignorant either. They had heard stories about the other races and how they held differing factions. Some were more mystical, which their tribe favored to some degree, while other factions were far more technologically advanced and sailed the skies as well as the stars.

It was said that some races even lived in the stars, spending their entire lives away from the planet to which they initially belonged. That was difficult to understand, especially since their clan didn’t really venture far from the mountain in which they resided. But it was to eventually roam the stars that most of the clan members had looked forward to doing once the ship was fully excavated.

“The ship didn’t bring him here to be food, dummies. Don’t go killing this human. He’s gotta be important for something,” Daegnon explained as he pushed the three attacking goblins away from the body.

Daegnon had watched as the human’s eyes rolled back into his head and his body went completely limp. He wanted to speak to this person but feared he wouldn’t understand him even if he tried. The fear and confusion in the human’s eyes were evident as he passed out, and Daegnon understood that his cronies had just inflicted some serious trauma on the human, even though the physical damage didn’t look too extreme.

He hadn’t had much experience with other races, but he had been taught about them by his father and the Elf who birthed him. He knew basically what a human should look like, so he could tell that this was one of them. However, from the descriptions he had heard, they were supposed to be thick and lean, not fat and soft. That fact made him second-guess his initial supposition.

This human also had strange clothing covering it. Goblins knew what armor was, as that was a large part of what they hoped to find while digging in their cavern, but the clothing worn by this person was anything but armor-like.

The bottom half of him was covered in a strange, slippery-looking black material. It was shiny and reflected a small amount of light from white stripes running down the sides. There were also shoes on its feet, but they weren’t the typical leather boots that he had been told humans wore. These were multicolored, short, and made of materials Daegnon had never encountered before.

Perhaps the most unusual piece of clothing this human wore was on its torso. The material was soft, similar to, but different from, the bottom half. It was also a shade of blue that Daegnon had never even imagined before.

On the human’s tunic was an unknown script as well as an image of a mushroom-shaped monster being chased by a strange humanoid creature with a red hat and a dark spot of fur just below its prominent nose.

Daegnon studied the human further, taking advantage of its unconscious state. The human had dark brown hair, cut short and curly, sticking out at strange angles, almost as if it had dried after being wet without being combed. Its face was smooth with round cheeks and a small, undignified nose, at least in comparison to a goblin sniffer.

“What’re we gonna do with it then?” Raknak ventured. He was by far the most aggressive of the five other goblins on board when the ship left. His heritage was supposedly handed down from an Ogress, though that part of his family had died several generations ago. From his stature, it seemed he had inherited some of the large monster’s strength anyway.

“Not sure yet,” Daegnon answered truthfully.

He turned to the rest of his goblins, acknowledging them but also seeking insight. First, he focused on Khibi. This young and scrawny whelp acted like Raknak’s younger brother despite no shared ancestry. Khibi followed the larger goblin around and mimicked whatever Raknak did. While muscular goblins were typically less intelligent, Raknak had a surprising amount of both brain and brawn in their duo.

Next was Gooniz. He was his own goblin but also a reluctant follower. Gooniz had been leading Raknak and Khibi around the ship, searching for parts they could steal and sell. Yet Daegnon knew he was just taking orders from someone else; a goblin that Gooniz wouldn’t, or possibly couldn’t, name. Some hexes bound the tongue.

It was due to those three scavenging on the ship that they were now part of the 'gang' Daegnon had here. They had technically been part of the faction wanting to dismantle the ship for profit, but following that agenda had landed them here and away from the rest of the clan. Now their only options were to follow Daegnon or start a coup. Wisely, they had chosen to follow, since none of them had any idea how to lead a group properly.

Prayda entered the room, followed by Glix. They had stayed outside during the confrontation, leaving the fighting to the three known associates.

Prayda would be considered a rogue by adventurer's terms. He was sneaky and had no problem sticking a knife in a person’s back. He also had a silver tongue and could convince almost any person to do whatever he wanted. This quality came in handy when dealing with other races, and he frequently went with caravans to the surface when the clan attempted to trade.

He wouldn’t tell Daegnon why exactly he was onboard, but the burrow-master suspected Prayda was scoping out potential profitable ventures. His intentions seemed similar to those of Gooniz and the others.

Glix was the only one who wasn’t here for profit. She was fascinated by the ship, far beyond any other goblin. Her mind delved deeper into curiosity and exploration. She wanted to know how the ship worked far more than she cared about any profit or power to be gained from it.

She was also the only female among them, which meant, whether she knew it or not, that she would be the object of the others’ affections rather soon—something she probably wouldn’t appreciate if what Daegnon had heard about her was true.

As Glix fully entered the room and stared down at the strangely attired human on the floor, Daegnon noticed the door they had entered through sliding closed. At first, he paid the event no mind, but then a small sense of danger triggered within him. The others were poking and nudging the human, but Daegnon moved back to where the panel had silently shut, feeling along the walls for any cracks, buttons, or seams, but found none.

All at once, the light in the room changed, shifting from silvery white to a chilling blue. It wasn't the pleasant shades of blue like the sky or ocean, but icy and cold. As this happened, panels in the ceiling slid open and a strange gray mist began pouring out.

The Goblins began to panic and whine, scurrying about, feeling along the walls, crawling on the floor, and bumping into one another. Daegnon tried his best to gather them all in one place, but his ‘gang’ was scattered. Screams and grunts of panic filled the room, amplifying the chaos.

The mist quickly filled the room, leaving them lost within the fog, unable to see further than the ends of their noses. The gas spread so fast and fully that within seconds, all the goblins fell to the floor, gasping for air and fighting to stay awake. Their growls and grunts turned to snores and twitches as unconsciousness quickly overtook them. Within moments, they all lay asleep on the silvery sterile floor.