Vince looked through the piles of tools and equipment on the hangar floor. He grabbed a canvas bag and threw it into a wheelbarrow before carting it over to where Hudson was looking at the pickaxes available on a rack.

“Are you sure you won’t push the wheelbarrow and let me ride in it?” Vince said. “I saw you in the fight this morning. You were moving just as fast as Clara and those people you call the ‘cheaters.’”

He paused and frowned.

“That’s kind of suspicious, actually. How do I know you’re not one of them?”

Hudson picked out a pickaxe with a smooth handle, set it on his shoulder and turned to Vince.

“I’m not one of them, but I do have a breathing technique. Although I think they call it a ‘cultivation technique’ here. If I breathe in a certain pattern, then my muscles are stronger and I can move faster. It doesn’t seem permanent though... I don’t really know much about it yet.” Hudson didn’t want to give out too many details, and he also didn’t truly know much yet.

“So you do have a cultivation technique!” Vince exclaimed. “I really wanted to ask you about that. But–”

Vince’s next question was interrupted by the director.

“Please prepare to depart. Opening to rift active in t-minus 5. 4…”

Vince whispered fiercely at Hudson. “You gotta teach me that cultivation technique. Remember – you owe me!”

Hudson didn’t respond. He wasn’t sure about teaching Vince – if he could do it or even if he should.

“...3. 2. 1. Opening rift.”

A section of the wall slid away, making an opening big enough to walk through with a wheelbarrow easily. The doorway was pitch black, however, and nothing could be seen on the other side.

The darkness inside of the door was eerie. It was the same, strange quality as the portals the director used to teleport participants away for punishments, but perhaps because it was static and not moving, that quality of looking like a hole in space was even more prevalent.

“The rift will be open for six hours. Return before the rift closes.”

The ten cheaters lined up in a single file and marched through quickly. The ones with spears were first through the door, the ones wielding pickaxes in the middle – Clara was one of these – and the wheelbarrows last.

“Let’s go, Vince,” Hudson said.

“I still don’t know about this,” Vince said. “Why don’t we just sit this one out? See what happens when they come back? If they come back? How will we know when to come back? What if we get stuck there? Do you even know what a ‘rift’ is? Do you?”

Hudson ignored Vince’s non-stop litany of questions and picked up an armband off one of the racks. It had a circular attachment, similar to a watch, with the number six flashing on it. While inspecting the armband, the number changed from a six to a five, like a digital clock.

He threw one to Vince and picked up another for himself.

“I bet when this armband changes to zero, we will know we have an hour to return,” Hudson said. “And besides – you said I owed you one. Making you go with me into that rift is me repaying the favor. Those cheaters over there know more than we do; they’ve said they were supposed to be here. They gamed out the battle royale challenge this morning.

“They clearly know what’s up, so we can either follow them and do the best we can to get out of here, or we can sit around and hope things will be fine.” Hudson thought about how that had worked out at his former job, how he had trusted others to have his best interests in mind, and how that had worked out in the end.

“Let’s go.” Hudson turned and walked towards the rift, wheelbarrow in tow.

Vince frowned, but then ran after him. “This doesn’t count as repaying the favor. You’re teaching me that technique, ok?” Vince grumbled as he followed Hudson over to the rift portal.

Hudson stopped directly in front of the opening. Up close, the rift was even more unsettling. It wasn’t so much black as it was the absence of light. It had no texture that he could see. It was like a hole in reality. His skin crawled.

He had just worked up his courage to step through the portal when a voice called out.

“Hey there,” an older man said. His hair had faded completely to gray and was cut close to his scalp. He had a few days of stubble on his chin and an easy grin on his face. He was a bit shorter than Hudson, but in good shape. Better shape than Hudson, really, and carrying a sledgehammer and canvas bag.

“Mind if I tag along with you fellas?” he asked. “We don’t know what’s on the other side of that door, and I figure it’s better to be together.”

Trust no one. Hudson heard Chiang-sensei’s words in his mind. His old teammates’ laughter echoed in his ears, and the disapproving face of his old boss flashed before his eyes. He shook off the memories. He had been taken advantage of, tricked, and humiliated by a lot of people around him, but that didn’t mean this guy would. And besides, he was in charge this time, right?

“Sure,” he said, pushing his chest out confidently. “That makes sense. I’m Hudson, and this is Vince.”

“My friends call me Cor,” he said, while pumping Hudson’s hand with a quick, firm handshake. He had a quiet but intense air about him that just screamed confidence and competence. His movements were quick and precise, with a military feel to them.

“Well, Cor, let’s get to it,” Hudson said, before turning and stepping into the rift.

Stepping into the rift was one of the strangest sensations Hudson had ever felt. His skin felt an intense, tingling cold, but it lasted such a short amount of time he wondered afterwards if he had imagined it. He stumbled on stepping through, even though the ground on the other side was even. His sense of balance had shifted when he went through the rift – similar to the feeling of being at the top of a roller-coaster, or when a fast-moving elevator stops suddenly.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The space on the other side of the rift was very dark but not completely pitch black. It took a few seconds for Hudson’s eyes to adjust from the harsh bright light of the hangar.

Vince and Cor came out of the rift behind him. Vince stumbled and almost ran into Hudson, whereas Cor seemed fine. There was no sign of the ten cheaters who had gone ahead of them.

They were in a rough cave. Gouges from pickaxe strikes were visible on the walls. There was a dim source of light from the entrance, about twenty feet away.

Hudson heard a click, and then there was a soft glow illuminating the cave. Looking back, Cor was carrying a small flashlight in his hand. The beam from the light was very diffuse and soft, but it was enough to see by.

“Where’d you get that?” Vince asked.

“I didn’t see any flashlights among the equipment,” Hudson said. “It’s a good thing you got one.”

“Always prepared,” the older man said with a grin. “And you didn’t see ‘em since you were a bit late joining the party. That other group, the ones that banded together – the first thing they did was try and snatch up all the flashlights. I saw that and grabbed one of the last ones for myself.”

Hudson kicked himself mentally. He should have noticed that.

“Good job, man. I missed that. Those cheaters know stuff about this place.”

“Cheaters, eh? Hehe. I like that. It does feel like we got the deck stacked against us,” Cor said. “But that lights a fire in my belly. Nothing better than some competition to bring out the best in ya.”

“So what’s your story, Cor?” Vince asked. “Where are you from and how’d you get here?”

“Hmmm, I could ask the same of you young fellas, and I think I will,” he said. “But how about we walk and talk at the same time, eh? Whatcha say there, fearless leader?”

Hudson took a moment to realize Cor was speaking to him. He blushed a little bit from embarrassment.

“That makes sense. I don’t see any of those silvery rocks we saw in the hangar. I’m assuming we’re supposed to gather those, right? So I’m thinking we should walk out of the cave and take a look around.”

“I’m thinking the same thing,” Cor said. “But if I could suggest we go quiet and careful-like, until we’re sure we’re not alone out here.”

Vince was nodding vigorously. Hudson agreed as well.

“I’ll go first, then Cor in the middle with the light, and Vince in the rear with the wheelbarrow?” Hudson asked.

“10-4, lead on,” Cor said with a grin. Vince gave him his trademark thumbs up, and Hudson walked slowly out of the cave, head turning constantly and on the look-out for threats.

The cave opened out into the bottom of a ravine. The floor of the ravine was filled with loose granite except for a narrow path of solidly packed dirt, while the rocky sides stretched up steeply a few hundred feet. To the right, it appeared there was a dead-end, but to the left, a path on the bottom of the ravine curved out of sight.

The temperature outside of the cave was cooler, but not unduly so, and while still very dark, they could see some distance without a flashlight.

There was no sign of a large underground base in the side of the ravine behind them, or any sign really of human habitation, aside from the dirt path.

Hudson could have imagined they were taking a hike at night in a national park back on Earth except for one detail: the magnificent and alien night sky.

When Huson looked up at the sky in the rift, he just stopped in his tracks and stared in amazement.

A gas giant with rings like Saturn hung in the sky, like a moon, except it was at least twice as big as the moon on Earth. And the stars – the stars were so much brighter. So much closer than anything he had seen on Earth, and packed tight with each other.

Faint streamers of green, like an aurora borealis, trailed across the stars.

“Would you look at that,” Cor said, breaking the silence.

“Let’s go back through the rift, guys,” Vince said. “We are definitely not on Earth, and that is freaking me out.”

Hudson was still transfixed by the beautiful night sky. A completely different night sky, on a planet or moon he had not been born on. In a different time or place, he wouldn’t have minded just sitting there for hours. It didn’t so much as scare him as it excited a part of him he didn’t know was there.

What other skies existed out in the universe? What other stars, moons, nebulas were out there? Were there more rifts that could be explored, or was this the only one?

Vince was busy sniffing the air. “What if the atmosphere is poisonous? Or has a bunch of viruses?”

Hudson shook off his thoughts and said, “Well, we are already here and breathing the air… and it seems like it would be a bit silly of a secretive group of people capable of opening rifts in space to other planets just to kill us through… a poisonous atmosphere?”

“I’d feel a bit safer if I learned a cultivation technique, you know?” Vince said. “I’m sure that would make me stronger, able to resist any viruses in the air and all.”

“Look, I’ll think about it, ok? I’m not even sure I know how to teach you,” Hudson said. “How come you keep asking me about it?”

Vince frowned and looked away without responding.

The three fell into a companionable silence and started walking down the packed dirt path. The only sounds were the faint whistling of a wind over the lip of the ravine, and the soft impressions of their footfalls. In the dust of the path, they could see a few recent footprints from the participants who had entered the rift ahead of them.

At various points along the path they could see past evidence of mining activity. Smashed rocks and debris, indentions carved into the side of the rock wall, and even a few shallow caves. But no sign of the silvery quartz mineral anywhere; if there had been any of it lying around, it had been picked completely clean.

After a few twists and turns, they came to a fork in the road – to the right, the path descended down into a large cave opening. The footprints from the cheaters followed that path. To the left, the path continued along the bottom of the ravine, although a few places were covered in rock slides and it appeared to be much more difficult to traverse than the path so far.

“Which way should we go?” Hudson asked Vince and Cor. “It looks like the cheater group headed down into the cave; they probably know where these resources are supposed to be.”

“I don’t think you’re wrong,” Cor spoke up. “But the folks ahead of us are picking up anything they see; if we follow them, we’d only be getting their crumbs.”

Cor had a good point. Following the others as a strategy would only be good up to a certain point.

“They might know where it’s safe and where it’s dangerous, though,” Vince said. “What if the cave is safer than out here? Maybe there are monsters or animals…” His voice trailed off as he thought of other things to be afraid about.

“We only have one flashlight,” Hudson mused. “There might be branching paths down in the cave that we could take, so we’re not following the other group precisely. But with only one flashlight between us, it might be tough.”

What Hudson didn’t say was with only one flashlight, and Cor holding that flashlight, he could conceivably leave them behind. In a dark cave. On a planet far from Earth.

Trust no one…

“Let’s go left and forge our own path,” Cor suggested. Vince nodded his agreement.

“Sounds good to me,” Hudson agreed, shaking off his paranoid thoughts.