Jeff Nostro was falling. Blue fire surrounded him, coruscating light dazzling him as he fell across huge gulfs of space, down through a sapphire beam.
Where am I?
Plummeting through a void at an incomprehensible speed, his confused mind was full of questions but no answers, incapable of fathoming his situation, the circumstances that led up to this, his most recent memories, unreachable.
He appeared to be dropping down a beam of blue light, cutting across a vast expanse of space which stretched endlessly around him, and as he fell at a blinding speed, all around, a tapestry of stars and nebulae whirled and coalesced. Vast clouds of burning gas shot by at blinding speeds.
As he gazed out through the vastness of space, a deep feeling of unreality gripped him, but strangely, no fear. Jeff spied countless other bright blue beams of light criss-crossing the star-lit darkness around him, all heading towards the same distant point, far off across the void. He dreamily imagined other travelers, suspended within their own sapphire streams of light, cutting through the night.
His long descent continued. At times, his trajectory seemed to slow, almost deliberately, to give him a privileged view of the cosmic wonderland he traversed. Jeff’s path momentarily aligned with a majestic comet, its massive coma—a shimmering halo of gas and ice—streaming solemnly past him.
Further confirming the dreamlike nature of his journey, Jeff began to notice purple-edged rifts—tears in the very fabric of space. Through these strange windows, glimpses of huge beasts came into view. Towering tentacles, each the size of a skyscraper, coiled and writhed around distant planetoids. In one jagged purple rift, he briefly glimpsed an eye the size of a moon, calmly watching his passing.
This has got to be a dream, a simulation. Maybe some kind of drug trip? Or am I in a coma, strapped to a gurney…or even dead?
How could this be real? He wondered, the question repeating, reverberating through his addled mind like a refrain. Jeff found himself struggling to recall the events that had led up to this point.
The haze lifted slightly and he forced himself to concentrate. Scraps of detail began to filter back through the fog—slowly, his memory returned. He remembered being in a bar. Laughter, jokes, the clink of glasses. And then, a vivid image—Sally. She was there.
Sally.
The thought of her momentarily distracted him from his predicament—her vivacious presence, that infectious laugh. Her bee-stung, cupid’s bow lips, hinting at some deeper sensuality.
Hadn’t he been working up the nerve to ask her out on a second date? His mind wandered for a while, lost in memories of her smile…her bright laughter…her body…
Where had it all started? The bar.
We were drinking…getting drunk…
His mind, struggling to find a logical explanation for his plight, latched on to that last memory.
That’s it! Somebody slipped something into my glass… this is just a dream or a hallucination. I should just go along with it until I wake up…
Relief washed over him, the pieces falling into place in his mind. A drug-induced trip, not total insanity.
He attempted to concentrate on his immediate surroundings, to center himself, and make out what was happening in his immediate environment.
The light beam he was immersed in seemed to shield him from the harsh vacuum of space, a radiant tunnel serving as a protective conduit. In the weightlessness of the beam, the concept of up and down had no meaning. He gently spun, drifting within its glowing confines. By sheer force of will, he found he could propel himself from one side of the beam to the other—a sensation akin to swimming—each mental command sent him gliding gently within the luminescent ray.
Encouraged, Jeff pressed his hand against the glowing boundary of the beam, testing it. But the light formed a solid barrier, resisting his attempts to venture beyond. There was no way to exit through the beam’s edges into space.
Time stretched on—minutes blurring into hours—and still his surreal, dreamlike journey through the void continued.
If this was a drug trip, shouldn’t it have worn off by now? A fresh wave of panic rose within him, threatening to spiral out of control once more.
As time continued to drag on, the novelty of the cosmic journey began to wear thin, his panic replaced by a creeping sense of monotony. In his dreamlike state, he found himself wondering if interstellar travel was as uneventful as flying economy on a long-haul flight.
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But then, just as boredom was about to fully set in, something unusual caught his eye.
Ahead, another beam of light shot across the expanse of space, this one perpendicular to his own. Unlike the sapphire hue of the tunnel he travelled through, this beam was a vibrant scarlet, etched into the void with striking intensity. The two beams intersected in the distance, and at their crossroads, violent sparks of red and blue flared out into space. Jeff realized with a start that he was rapidly approaching the collision point.
The moment he hit the intersection, Jeff was yanked sideways out of the blue beam and thrown into the red one. The transition was rough, depositing him none too gently within the crimson corridor of light. Now, he was moving faster—far faster. The sparks of distant suns blurred into streaks of light, forming a dizzying wall of starlight that enclosed him on either side.
Then up ahead, he saw it—looming in the distance, a vast, black slab of alien technology suspended in the darkness of interstellar space. A ship, its surface pocked and weathered by eons in space. On one of its flanks, an enigmatic symbol caught Jeff’s eye—an intricate fractal design, almost calligraphic, like neon brush strokes etched into the void.
As Jeff neared the ship, a portal on its side irised open and the red beam deposited him inside, into an enclosed chamber. His celestial journey came to an abrupt end as the light winked out, leaving him standing upright within a small octagonal room, deep in the heart of the alien craft.
The room was strikingly alien in design. Sigils decorated every surface, their mind-bending convolutions twisting and emitting an overpowering radiance. Though Jeff tried to focus on the patterns, his gaze was unable to fix on their strange shapes. Each of its eight walls sloped inwards, converging towards a domed ceiling which gave off a soft, ambient glow.
A doorway irised open and two ‘entities’ stepped through.
What Jeff saw was indescribable. Something so bizarre and alien, the pair radiated such power, that his consciousness immediately shorted out, like a circuit breaker tripping to protect his brain from exposure.
—Disconnect—
Jeff slowly returned to consciousness, voices impinging on his awareness as he came to. What just happened? Jeff felt sure that something had briefly interrupted his thoughts, but he had no memory of the event.
“Why do you always do that? You know that these mundane lifeforms aren’t in a fit state to see our true forms until they’ve been fully integrated into the System. We have little time left before our intercept is detected. We must begin the Selection process immediately…”
“I know, I know…I’ll be more careful with the next one. I promise,”
The voices continued their bickering conversation as Jeff’s vision slowly returned.
The same dreamlike feeling as before gripped him. Across the room, an elderly couple stood facing him, both draped in flowing silken robes. Their faces bore the deep lines of great responsibility, and on each of their foreheads glowed radiant runes emanating power and wisdom.
The woman spoke. “Look, he’s returning to consciousness. Let’s proceed.”
The pair turned to Jeff, and the man smiled, his piercing eyes blazing with a peculiar intensity. When he spoke, his voice carried authority, echoing through the small room. Jeff felt humbled as the words resonated deep within, creating an almost irresistible urge to believe. There was something in the strange harmonics of the man’s tone that made him seem wise, his words rich with meaning.
“Traveller, do not be alarmed. As you haven’t yet been integrated into the System, you are not capable of viewing our true forms.”
The man paused and came closer, to stand directly in front of Jeff.
“I am Kjel, and this is my partner, Dijana. We are of the Autoch race, members of the Union of Resistance. Your thoughts have been compromised by the transit beam, but as you will shortly discover, you have been selected by a race of beings known as ‘Vogels’ to be the Champion of your species, and will be required to fight in a Tournament. We have reached out and intercepted your passage through the substrate. Our interception will not remain unnoticed for long so I will speak quickly. Heed my words—Try to process what I am saying, this is of the utmost importance.”
Jeff struggled to understand the man, attempting to snap out of the strange semi-conscious state he had been in since waking within the confines of the blue beam.
"By creating this evil Tournament, the Vogels have manipulated the System, circumventing its controls and safeguards. This wickedness has granted them dominion over the System-universe, their ultimate goal being the subjugation of all other life. We have selected you, and others like you, to fight back, to rectify these injustices.
We are offering you an unprecedented opportunity: to choose your Path prematurely, granting you an advantage in the Tournament’s trials.”
The man finished reciting what to Jeff sounded like a pre-prepared speech.
“Do you understand me?"
Jeff thought abstractedly about the question.
If this is a hallucination, it’s an awfully convincing one… It almost feels like a cut scene in some kind of immersive game.
He began to wonder if his drug theory was correct. Could this actually be some kind of game simulation?
He nodded. “Yes, I understand,” he said, biting back the cascade of questions he so desperately wanted to ask, reckoning it was best to play along at this stage.
The old man smiled in approval. "Good. You will now be presented with eight options to choose from, eight strands of potential pulled from the wheel of Fate. Let the System reveal your Path, traveller. Choose your future…”
Abruptly the walls began to glow—the whole room transforming into a mesmerizing display. Each of the eight surfaces of the chamber lit up, pulsating with intricate patterns and complex runes. Ethereal tendrils of inquisitive energy, almost sentient in their behavior, floated lazily forth from the walls, curving around and through him, delicately probing. They seemed to be taking his measure, analyzing and evaluating the depths of his being.
Jeff was rooted to the spot and could do nothing but submit to the meticulous examination. Every facet of his character and personality was being scrutinized and dissected by a vast, dispassionate observer. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the intrusive needles of energy receded.
The wall before him shifted and shimmered, its surface rippling like disturbed water before settling into a reflective, mirror-like state. Jeff was confronted with his own image, but not one he immediately recognized.