by Dante Doom
As she dreamt, she realized how futile it was for her to even bother to understand the words. She was dying, trapped in a tube that was going to become her coffin. Why care? Why care about anything except for the fact that Van would hopefully be free?
“Wake up!” Trefor said sharply, shoving Sang. This caused her to wake up with a start, gasping a little as she realized that they were atop some massive platform in the sky.
“Where… where am I?” she asked as she stood and shook her head, trying to get the grogginess out of her mind. She was feeling dizzy and weak, but at least she could stand.
“You’re at one of our observation facilities,” Trefor replied. The Dragon at his side hissed and shrieked. “Calm yourself—we’re going, we’re going,” he said as he took Sang by the arm roughly and began to pull her toward the giant, windowless building. It didn’t look anything like the video game world that she had become used to.
“Well, I’m here. Are you going to let Van go now?” Sang asked.
“I just released his log-out credentials; he’s free,” Trefor said. “See? I told you I’m a man of my word.”
Sang glanced at her online display. Van’s player profile icon still said ONLINE. It could mean one of two things... either Trefor was lying to her, or Van had chosen to stay behind and find a way to help her. She hoped that he wasn’t trying anything clever. She sent a quick message to O’Hara, instructing them to unplug Van as soon as it was safe. She didn’t want to tell her friend that she was going to be dead, one way or the other, but knew it would be foolish for Van to risk his life to try and save a dead woman. The only way she’d had a chance of convincing him to allow her go with Trefor had been to tell Van to figure out a clever plan to rescue her, so she had. Maybe Sivlander would come in to rescue her, but she doubted it. Draco wasn’t stupid, and Trefor was no doubt sending regular reports. Van wouldn’t have a chance of logging in to his old character.
The doors to the building slid open and Sang could see thousands of floating desks within. It was just like Van had described it.
“Now then, my employers are very interested in what you have in your head,” Trefor said, sharply turning to face her. “We know you made contact. We want to know everything that you’ve learned. Now, there’s two ways you can do this. You may, if you so choose, voluntarily tell them everything that you know. That will be painless and safe. Or… or you can try to lie to us; you can try to cheat us and then we will have to use extraction methods that are far more… horrific, in every way.”
“Hahahaha,” Sang weakly laughed. “You’re such an idiot, you know that? Trefor, right? Or should I say, Trever Williams? 24-year-old American who lives in the Bronx?”
Trefor’s eyes narrowed. “H-how do you know that?”
Sang grinned. “You really wanna know who I am? I’m an agent working for the CIA. We’ve been investigating this game. Do you know what that means? That means that I have my own people. My people who found your address and are on their way to your house right now, armed and ready to rip you out of that tube. We might not be able to prove anything in a court of law, of course, because this is all kind of silly, but fortunately, the CIA doesn’t really specialize in doing things legally.”
Trefor looked visibly uncomfortable, and he took a step back from Sang. “You’re making that up.”
“Oh, sure I am, sure I am. Ha. You’ve probably noticed that I’ve been an exceptionally skilled hacker in this game, changing just about anything that I don’t like. What, do you think that I work for some corporation? Some other game company trying to spy on you? No, sir. I’m working for the CIA and you’re in a ton of trouble.”
Trefor glanced around. “No matter... uh, no matter,” he said, his face clearly panic stricken from the news that he had been kidnapping a CIA woman. “Draco has no time for such games. My contact should be here soon. I’ll hand you off to the Messenger and then they will get everything they need.”
“Why are you doing this?” Sang asked, coughing a little. “Money? Fame? None of that will do you any good when you’re tied up in one of our basements being waterboarded.”
“You can’t do that! I’m an American citizen!” Trefor shouted.
Sang grinned, “Oh right, right. I forgot the CIA definitely doesn’t torture citizens at all.”
Trefor backhanded her. “Ah!” she gasped as she felt blood rush into her mouth. The steel glove that he had been wearing had seriously busted her face.
“Shut the hell up. My orders are to bring you to the Messenger and wait. You’re not going to make me freak out. I’m not going to let you trick me.”
“I’m not trying to trick you at all,” Sang said. “I’m just giving you a chance, right here and right now. If you let me log out before the CIA finds you, I’ll call them off.”
“Yeah, right,” Trefor said, folding his arms.
“Your loss,” Sang said. In reality, she had no idea how close her team was to actually finding Trefor in meat space, but she hoped against hope that they would find him... and quickly. “You’re going to love what my buddy O’Hara can do with nothing more than a car battery and some jumper cables.”
“Enough!” Trefor said, striking her in the side of her head again with his fist. The blow was painful enough that she lost her balance, falling over. She hit the ground with a thump and felt her senses become overloaded by the pain. Her eyes began to close then, and she felt herself slip into darkness once again. This time, however, she was chuckling. Chuckling because Trefor was most likely going to be delivering a dead body to the Messenger.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Van stared at the message. He reread it for the fourth time. It was from Agent Neil. Hey—listen, pal. You gotta do us a solid here. Sang’s not gonna make it for too much longer in this tube. We’re close to finding Trefor in real life, but Sang’s had her ability to log out completely revoked. You gotta grab her and pull her out of the restricted area. We’ve got a few people here who can get you both out the moment she leaves, okay? Just pull her out by any means necessary. Sang’s probably told you there’s a chance you could die in real life due to the biofeedback system, but that’s a risk you need to be willing to take. Bring our girl back alive and you’ll have a hefty reward waiting for you. If you log out and leave her behind, you might get into a car accident on the way home. The kind that involves you getting shot in the back of the head multiple times. Got it? She’s in this mess because of you. You’ve got maybe 12 hours before she dies due to what the doctors are telling us is Onset Biofeedback Overstimulus; apparently it’s some kind of brain thing that’s gonna cause her central nervous system to shut down. So, get in there, save her, and get out. Oh, and we checked Sivlander, and uh…. he’s been deleted, so that’s not a rescue option. Sorry.
Sivlander was gone? After years and years of hard work, in a single moment, his favorite character was gone. Van couldn’t believe his eyes. He had worked so hard to make Sivlander one of the best characters in the game world, had been good enough to have gone pro, and now… now Draco had deleted their only real chance at getting out of this world alive.
Without Sivlander, Van knew that any chance he’d had of kicking down the door, killing a bunch of guards, and grabbing her from Trefor was gone. Even getting to the platform would be nearly impossible at this point. He felt his heart sink into his stomach as he sat down to contemplate the situation. There was no hope. He had no chance of rescuing Sang and she was going to die. Draco was going to win this thing and… and he’d lose the only real friend he’d ever had, who’d known him both as a gamer and a character. He felt a sorrow begin to well up within him as he realized the sheer helplessness of his situation. What could he do? He was just a crappy bard with no skills that would get him even close to overcoming Trefor. He could look for friends and get people to rally around him, but that would take too long. And besides... he didn’t have the money to shell out to convince people to join him in his cause.
At the same time, he didn�
��t have much of a choice in this situation. If he did nothing, then he’d always blame himself for Sang’s death. If he acted, she’d probably die anyway, but at least he’d be able to know that he’d given it his all. He was facing incredible odds here, and there was barely any chance of success, but if he didn’t try, the guilt would follow him forever. There was a high chance he’d die going to save her, but then again, Neil was definitely going to shoot him if he didn’t try everything in his might to rescue her. The situation was bleak from all angles; there was no hope for him. Yet, with the disappearance of that hope came something else. The feelings of anxiety were slowly melting away as he considered all of the circumstances. There was only one truly good choice he could make in this situation: to rescue Sang. All options would lead to his own destruction, so he might as well take the option that was the most virtuous. He could do nothing and die, or he could try to save her and die. Either way, the result would be the same.
So even though Van knew that he would be facing certain death by trying to rescue her, he resolved to go down with a fight. He wouldn’t hand Draco a victory. He’d give it everything he could, using every cheap trick in the book to rescue her. It was such a long shot that he didn’t bother considering what he’d do if he was victorious, but instead he simply accepted that his life was already over.
With grim determination, he grabbed his map and pulled it open. The first real challenge was figuring out how to reach the platform. All of the flight services offered in the world were on set patterns, so he couldn’t use them. But he could use a stone of teleportation to drop in right above the building.... That would make sense. The stone would probably stop working once he entered, but he and Sang really didn’t have to do much if he could just get up there. All they needed to do was jump off the platform and the CIA would have them logged out before they hit the ground. Van’s safe fall would ensure he’d survive if he had to, if it took that long, but Sang would probably need some kind of potion of gentle falling, too... just in case. Those items weren’t hard to get. Teleport stones were easily accessed in just about any player market, too, although they were expensive. Fortunately for Van, he had just earned the Sticky Fingers skill, allowing him to steal from vendors once per day. He grabbed his map, glancing at the city of Verrata. It was only a few miles away. That city would have all of the gear he would need.
Going shopping. Get the team ready, and Sang and I will be needing you really soon, he wrote back to Neil as he grabbed his bagpipes and began marching straight toward the city. Yes, his plan was horrible, but it was something. He had enough gold to buy everything that he needed to win this fight... along with what he could steal, at least.
Sang slowly opened her left eye. She was still alive, apparently, and was lying on the steel floor of some kind of windowless chamber. Her face had been bandaged and her mouth felt numb. She climbed jerkily to her feet and glanced around the room. There was nothing around her but steel walls. She didn’t even see a door.
“Where am I?” she muttered. She felt a sharp pain in her chest and felt her heartbeat spike. She gasped and wheezed with a sudden pressure in her body, bending over until the episode passed. She hoped that it hadn’t been a heart attack. She checked her messages, but the words ERROR MESSAGE: SERVER DOWN greeted her. She sighed. Still nothing.
As she glanced around, she noticed that the steel wall on her left was shimmering a bit. It slowly contorted and changed then, turning from a wall into some kind of glass window. Beyond the window were thousands of stars. She looked out of the window curiously and gazed into space. She could see some kind of alien craft in the distance. It looked just as Van had described it. Shivers overtook her as she began to realize that this thing was more real than she could have possibly imagined.
A hissing sound greeted her from behind as a door slid open. She turned to see a long, tall creature walking into the room. The creature was blue and had long arms; its head was shaped like that of a human, but it bore no facial features other than a nose and two eyes. It looked almost like a lizard of some sort, with a long neck. She could see flaps opening and closing on the neck. It towered above her, nearly seven feet tall. This had to be what these aliens looked like, she realized.
“Greetings,” the being said, its voice echoing inside of Sang’s head. The effect wasn’t entirely unlike the strange kind of contact that the aliens from the cave had made with her.
“Ah, h-hello,” Sang said, taking a step back.
“I am Yvgo and I am the Messenger of Draco. An Envoy and Representative of their will,” it said. Its voice, while communicating to her telepathically so that she could understand, sounded chittery, like thousands of bugs speaking at once. It made Sang’s spine crawl.
“My name’s Sang,” she replied. This whole thing was now officially way past her pay grade, and she had no idea what to do. Was she honestly talking to a real alien right now?
“It pleases Draco to no end that you are here willingly,” Yvgo said. “We have much to discuss and much to learn. But first, we must discuss your skepticism.”
“Skepticism?” Sang asked.
“You do not fully believe that you are speaking to a being from across the stars. You do not believe that the things you have made contact with are not from your world. Even as you gaze at our vessel, resting within the solar system, you wonder if this might be some kind of a hoax,” it said.
Sang shrugged. “It’s, uh, crossed my mind that this could be just one incredibly intense programming thing. I mean, you can make Dragons, so why couldn’t you make spaceships? Or weirdly tall lizard things?”
Yvgo stared at her blankly for a moment and then walked up close. She backed up, trying to get away from the creature, but she hit the wall instead. It leaned its entire body down close to her. She could feel the breath emanating from the flaps around its neck.
“You are sick and dying; our reports show that your pod was damaged in transportation after it was stolen from one of our transportation trucks. Poison leaks into your brain. Your lungs and heart are sick, as well,” it said.
“Y-yeah,” Sang said, coughing a little more, almost as if to confirm the alien’s words.
“Then you would believe me if you were healed,” the creature said, placing its hand right on her face. “Breathe!”
Sang felt a strange noxious gas spray right into her nostrils, and though she tried to resist it, she couldn’t avoid breathing it in. There was a sharp sensation of pain that rushed through her lungs as she began to hack and wheeze hard, and she fell to the ground in reaction, writhing and gasping for air for a moment. And then… then she felt a burst of energy, something that she hadn’t been feeling for a while. Her fingers stopped trembling, and the hazy, almost drunken feeling of confusion she’d been experiencing began to lift. She stood to her feet and realized that her legs were working just fine now, and she didn’t need to slump over. Much to her surprise, she felt incredibly healthy. Probably better than ever before.
“Yet, one does not believe,” the being said.
“Wait, I—” But before Sang could finish her sentence, she gasped again and realized that she was lying in the tube. She had been logged out. She tried to push the pod open, but it was sealed shut.
“Vitals check!” the AI unit said, showing her a display of all of her body’s vitals. Her heart rate was healthy and her oxygen intake was fine. Everything that had been warning her earlier was gone. She was perfectly healthy. She glanced at the chart in confusion and put her hands on the tube, to push her way out of the pod, but in a split second, she was standing back inside of the steel chamber she’d occupied a moment before.
Sang screamed, reacting viscerally to the sudden jump.
“Now do you believe?” Yvgo said.
“You… you healed me?” Sang gasped.
“You would be worthless dead, and you would be worthless if you did not believe that Draco comes from another land,” it said.
“I… I get you. Okay, wow. That was crazy. I c
an’t believe it!” she said, stretching her arms and enjoying the feeling of freedom. She hadn’t felt this healthy in a long time. She wondered if whatever miracle cure she had been sprayed with had fixed issues that hadn’t even been related to the pod poisoning.
“You express joy. That is good,” Yvgo said, placing its hand on her shoulder. “Now we must discuss your future.”
Sang quickly went to check the creature’s level, but only question marks greeted her. She frowned. Could she kill this thing and escape? She hoped so.
“You carry information that we need,” Yvgo said. “Draco wishes to harvest it from your mind, but such a task would leave you catatonic and braindead. You are skilled with manipulating computer data and you have a connection to the American government. You have value to us alive. Where, then, do your loyalties lie?”
“Well, what’s in it for me if I help you guys?” Sang asked. Even as she spoke, she wasn’t sure why she was delaying right now. Whatever this creature was, it probably wasn’t in Trefor’s apartment, so stalling didn’t do any good.
“We shall allow you to serve as Trefor does. A high-ranking member, there will be money for you, as well, as much as you desire. When the New World comes, you will be like a god among men.”
“Sounds amazing,” Sang said. “Sign me up.”
“There is deception in your words,” the being said. Sang frowned, realizing that since it was communicating with her telepathically, it was probably also reading her mind. “You must realize that you have only two choices. Serve us or become nothing more than an empty vessel.”
“But if you can read my mind, then you know that there’s no way I’d ever serve you guys!” Sang said. “So why give me the choice?”
“Humans are curious,” Yvgo said as he turned to face the stars. “You seem to be so convinced in your own minds that you are resolute. That nothing can change your minds... but we see a great many people change their opinions on a near daily basis. The reason why you refuse us isn’t because you are so noble, heroic, or good, Sang. The reason you refuse us is because you do not have what you want from us yet.
