Slom sat behind the desk and examined Alaska for the first time, "I need a messanger", he opened, "can I trust your discretion with a top secret mission on the real world?", she pulled back at those words, "for reasons I won't tell you", seeing her hesitation he smiled, "a man has to have some secrets after all", raising the tension, "I can't contact these people directly", he lowered his voice, "so I need you to pass on a message for me", ending with a crooked smile and building up the conspiracy, "just a little thing for some great rewards", he leaned over "what do you say?".
Alaska shook her head, it was beyond anything she ever thought about meeting the most powerful Player in the game, a man who'se legacy of powerful conquest lay in the realm of legends and fantasy, almost a god to other Players, wanted her to deliver a message for him, personally, feeling her adoration bubble up inside she could hardly hold on to her vision of calm, her knuckles already white from grabbing the chair so tight, then the question came and all she manage was a tiny nod.
"I appreciate your class", he said then, "a lot of the others usually fall all over me when I'm anywhere near arms length", he looked at her calm face and serene eyes, "men and women", she sat quietly before him "but you are quite pleasant to be with", the door rattled at the words, "anyway", he continued "its not a difficult task", pointing at a sofa in the back "you just set your respawn over there", the door made another noise, "and log off to call this number", he handed her a piece of paper, "and tell whoever is on the other side", he thought a second "probably a secretary, "at the break of dawn three days from tomorrow", he looked her in the eyes "are you ok with that?"
---------------------------------- shifting to Alaska for a bit -----------------------------------
Alaska wanted to scream, respawn in his office, she saw the bed and realised it was probably his own home, his respawn point and private collection of items and legacy artefacts from before her grandma was born, when he took her arm and lead her to the sofa all she could say was "thank you", as she set the respawn point, on a ship, no ship had safe zones, this ship has safe zones, her thoughts jumbled up, she read the number on the note again and copied it to a digital format in her memory, it was too short but she wasn't going to argue with the captain.
Logging off she screamed her lungs out, two of her roommates ran over to see what happened and she could barely make full sentences, when she finished her story they ogled her and Candle finally said "The Captain Slom?" she ran out of the room and returned with a folder, "this Captain Slom?" showing Alaska a picture of the captain and Alaska nodded "and you didn't dream this?" Candle asked.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Alaska shook her head, Bella took the folder and flipped through the pages "isn't this your crazy masters degree about 'Powers in the virtual world' candle?" Bella looked at Candle who nodded in silent contemplation, "wow" Bella said finally, "are you going to be a celebrity now Alaska?" she asked the other girl.
Falling back to her rig Alaska let gravity pull her down with a dreamy smile, "I have to do what he asked", she finally said, "and you can't be here because he said its a secret", adding finally, she looked at their faces falling and reached to hold their hands, "I will tell you about him later", she squeesed, "maybe try to arrange a meeting if you can get on the ship somehow".
Candle's eyes sparkled, "get kidnapped by the emperor of the seas" she said in a dreamy voice while Bella pulled her out of Alaska's cabin.
Alaska sat up, logged in to her personal space and took her time to pick the perfect outfit, nothing she already had would do, cruising in the online shops she realised she needed help and called in a personal advisor, the tiny robot image smiled at her and pulled out a bunch of looks for her to choose from, projecting her image with the different clothes and styles in an endless row of fasion walkways, finally settled down on a solid five piece skirt suit, payin the outrageous sum the designer asked for and seeing her balance was like a bucket of ice water dropped on her head, what was she doing, how could she be so irresponsible just for a guy?
With morbid thoughts of how he was going to throw her out of his cabin as soon as she finished the mission she grit her teeth in frustration, doning the suit and setting up her workspace she dialed the number he gave her, on the second tone she was forcibly pulled out of her space and into the most opulant office she had ever seen, everything was gold and nothing seemed to be programmed, hand made murals and carpets, strewn across the walls and floors, she was standing at the start of a hall stretching and bending out of her sight, walking for almost a whole minute brought her to a hand made desk with a woman in a grey suit sitting high above her like a judge in a courtroom.
Alaska swallowed, "I have a message from Captain Slom", she paused.
"And what would that message be?" the woman said in a condescending voice.
"The message is 'at the break of dawn three days from tomorrow' thats it", Alaska recited from memory.
After a few minutes of silence the woman looked at her "you can go now", she said and punched a button that flung Alaska back to her personal space where she sat dumbstruck for almost a minute before she logged off again to find all her roommates were offline and throwing a party for her.