Surviving The Theseus (2 page)

Some of the passenger room doors were open,
as if several people had left in a hurry, and apparently naked as
it appeared to her that people were forced to take their clothes
off. Regina couldn’t understand it. She had experienced many
strange things in her life, but nothing like this.

Was Roy part of something bigger, maybe? Some
ploy to rob thousands of people stuck on a huge ship? She never
found her gun, not her primary weapon anyway, the one from the
night before. It was gone. Roy must have taken it.

The hallway was wide and rounded, like a
tunnel, with dull light emanating from the sidewalls. The whole
wall glowed with light, which under normal circumstances felt very
soothing to Regina. The night before, on her walk to eat out, the
tunnel walls were alive with images of forests and wildlife. Now
she felt the tunnel closing in on her, the soothing nature images
gone, and just a dim light revealing a now creepy hallway before
her.

Regina continued down the hallway, listening
for anybody. She did not stop at any of the open doorways, only
quickly glanced in to see if anyone was around.

She was alone, but couldn’t get rid of the
feeling that she was being watched, a nagging feeling that would
not go away.

Regina wondered if Roy killed everyone.
The gun Roy stole from her was fully loaded, but there was not
enough ammunition to kill everyone. Besides, there was no way he
could use it. The gun, her primary weapon, had never been hacked by
anyone, and no one but a SOAD could use one. That allayed her fears
somewhat, but not about how the hell she got back to her room. All
these thoughts were superseded by what lay before
her.
o

Regina came across the biggest pile of
clothes she had seen yet, as she walked by an intersecting hallway,
a t-section. Right at the cross point, there were white pants,
shorts, t-shirts, boots, shoes, socks, underwear, and hats lying
everywhere.

When she looked left, down the hallway
perpendicular to the one she came from, she saw more clothing. She
wanted to go left, to get to the center part of the level where
there was transport to either end of the ship via an automatic
train. Regina decided to keep going straight.

Regina figured to be at least half way across
the ship now, making it over half a mile, going forward toward the
cockpit.

She hated not knowing what happened, hated
the thought of Roy murdering everyone on the ship. And he would
have had help; of that there was no doubt in her mind. But where
was the blood? More than anything, she hated herself for letting
Roy get the drop on her. Granted, her mindset at the time consisted
of trying to have fun, not a high alert looking for a killer.

When a deep, orange light emanated from under
a door in front of her, all thoughts of hatred and killing flew
from her mind. Regina pulled her secondary weapon, a silver-plated
45-caliber handgun, with a twist. If you get shot with this thing,
not only do you get a large exit wound, but a shock to go with it,
a high voltage and high amp current that would most likely kill you
if the bullet didn't.

Regina slowly walked towards the door, her
gun in front of her. This wasn't her job, her task, but if someone
was getting hurt, that she wouldn't stand for. Fear creeped in at
the thought of opening the door to what waited on the other side, a
fear she had not felt since her rookie year as a patrol cop in a
city full of drug addicts, rapists, and murderers.

Cursing herself for being a coward, she
walked by the door, never taking her eyes from the bottom where she
saw the orange flash. As Regina walked by, she turned and walked
backward, watching the door and trying not to blink.

Orange light filled the hallway, no sound,
Regina just outside the range of the light.

On the ship behind and to the left of Michael
sat George Pratt, the commander, with a rank of 1B, and Travis
Deckstill with a rank of 4.

George, tall, heavyset, in his early sixties,
gray crewcut hair, and a kind-looking face, came across as a big
teddy bear the first time Travis met him. Travis, twenty years
younger than George, short and in shape, blonde hair and an
infectious smile -- at least he thought so -- did not get
intimidated easily. But when he heard George talk for the first
time, with a raspy voice that commanded attention, coming across as
angry all the time, he did a double take. George just sounded
tough. That was the easiest way for Travis to describe it.

“Comm Set.” As soon as George spoke this, the
communications channel on his eyeglasses, and everyone else’s in
the group, opened up. ”Mike, before you try it, Travis is going to
try and contact them again.” George looked over at Travis, who
smiled back at George.

Travis leaned over the console, a
communications screen before him, the runner ship displayed. Travis
touched the screen to open a channel with the runner ship. ”Ahhh,
this one goes out to all those who forgot to put their brains back
in their head after a night of shenanigans. This is your last
warning. Cease and desist or we’ll blow you up. Oh yes, we will.”
Travis closed the channel as George looked over at him with a frown
and narrowed eyes.

The runner did not stop. It veered up, down,
left, right, and every which way, zigzagging through space.

Regina turned and ran away from the orange
light. The light diminished in less than a second.

Her heart pounded. In all her life, she had
never felt more threatened, like the light itself meant to attack
her, like it had a consciousness of hatred and malice so deep you
would not survive its wrath if one iota of it made contact. It felt
like something was there, yet nothing was, nothing visible, unless
the orange light concealed it. But then wouldn't it be there now?
She chanced a glance back, seeing nothing. She kept running,
watching a stairwell sign get closer.

Regina took a hard left into the stairwell,
grabbing the edge of the open doorway to whip herself around. Her
long legs helped her leap up three steps at a time.

After climbing six flights, going up two
levels, she bolted through the open doorway.

Regina came out of a pyramid-shaped housing
for the stairwell, into an open area of glassed courts for
basketball, beach volleyball, and many different kinds of racquet
sports. There were a couple of large, square rooms sealed all
around by black glass, which Regina knew were Flash rooms for
playing a game involving floating in a dark, weightless environment
as you shot at holographic images of asteroids coming at you.

There was no cover and going back was not an
option. She kept on, zigzagging through the different hallways that
surrounded all the courts, trying to find another stairwell.

Regina took a left, behind a tennis
court, and finally ran into a nontransparent structure. It seemed
to be quite large, running left and right across the width of the
ship. She ran toward a large, golden door with a holographic sign
above it reading:
The Kill Zone: An Adult
Adventure
.

The appropriateness of the name did not
go unnoticed. Slowly, Regina opened one of the doors wide enough
for her to sneak in.
An Adult
Adventure
made Regina think the place provided some
sort of pornographic romp fest. A large holographic area, on a
staged area in front of the box office, said different.

The holograph displayed digital, wire-mesh
characters and creatures slaughtering each other. Regina supposed
this was so the business didn’t offend anyone who came in and
didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. The human
characters were carrying large rifle-type weapons, with long, thin
barrels. Red lasers fired from the barrels. The wire-mesh
characters shot at wolf-like creatures that either ran for their
lives or charged their human enemies. The creatures towered ten
feet tall, standing, and five feet tall down on all fours. Audio
blared from multiple speakers, male and female characters yelling
and screaming, either in rage or in fear, and the creatures
bellowing in pain or roaring in fury. The stage was substantial,
twenty-five yards lengthwise and ten yards deep, and what ensued
was nothing short of mayhem.

Warnings regarding health conditions and high
stress factors stood out all over the walls in bold red letters,
with a minimum age of 21 strictly enforced.

Regina took this all in, as she ran
past the box office and through the only door she saw in her
immediate vicinity.
Enter . . . If you
dare
, in blood, dripping red paint on a solid black
door with the Kill Zone emblem of a human character facing a
creature.

She dared, and found herself in a preparatory
room for the game, with helmets, elbow and kneepads, the weapons
she saw in the holograph demo, and a body suit with small, white
sensors all over it. She had read about the technology, which was
supposed to give you a very realistic experience. The sensors on
the suit get triggered by holographic actions, such as a creature
swiping at you, causing you to be pulled and thrown as if the
creature actually existed and attacked you.

Had Regina not been running for her life, she
would enjoy having a game. It sounded like a fully immersive
experience.

The room Regina came into had three revolving
doors on each of the other three walls, labeled as Level 1, Level
2, and so on.

Regina walked towards the door
labeled
Level 1
. As she did, she noticed
a painting on the wall depicting what waited inside.

The creatures from the holograph were fully
realized through the paintings. They had long, black hair, black
claws, white eyes, long snouts, pointy ears, and sharp,
double-rowed teeth. Severed heads hung from their blood-dripping
fangs. A typical fierce, horrible creature to invoke fear in the
players. A speaker in the ceiling unleashed wrenching growls,
squeals, hisses, and barks. All told, it was a nice build-up to
freak you the fuck out before the game.

Regina went through the dark, revolving
door.

Chapter
6

Back in Michael’s ship, George’s voice spoke
to him through his eyeglasses. “Let them have it.”

Michael nodded to Cindy. Cindy looked at her
screen, which showed that the weapon had reached its intended
target, just below the engines. The Class C Flat Fanny, small
enough to fit in a suitcase, attached itself to the underside of
the engines, like a magnet to metal. “Sending CMP through,” Cindy
said as she chose the CMP option on her screen. The CMP, or
Controlled Magnetic Pulse, shuts down everything but life support,
leaving a vessel dead in the water, the people safe inside.

Seconds passed and nothing happened. The
runner continued its zigzagging attempt at escape.

The good old, reliable
network,
Michael thought to himself. “Comm Set,”
Michael said. “It looks like they disabled it. Hold. Cindy, blow
it.”

Cindy chose the
Explode
option on her screen, and nothing
happened.

”No effect. Repeat, no effect,” Michael
said. “Recommend a surround and shut down
.
There’s a Gate near by. Check your navigation screen. Comm
Off.”

Before Michael finished talking, Cindy
started the process of shutting down non-critical systems in the
holding area, diverting all power to the engines.

In seconds, all the ships had more power to
their engines and they proceeded to surround the runner, from the
front, back, left, and right. They used a magnetic towing beam to
lock the runner in place, allowing some room for movement, but
making escape difficult once the runner was locked in.

After walking through the revolving door,
Regina found herself in a smaller room with black walls. As soon as
she walked in, the white lights above went out, a short blackness,
and then a rotating, red halo light came on.

”Prepare!” came a loud, bellowing voice,
which Regina wished would shut up. The voice continued. “You are
about to enter the first level of the most horrifying adventure of
survival you will ever be put through. What you are about to
experience has been meticulously duplicated from the accounts of
Ryan Buckner, the only survivor of the Jaltorn Horror.”

Regina had heard the Buckner story as a kid,
but it was never proven, because Buckner couldn’t recall what
planet he had come from. His ship’s logs were wiped out because one
of the creatures got on board, and Buckner shot the ship all up
before killing it and jettisoning it into space. The ship was found
to be damaged, like Buckner said, and there was some non-human
blood found, but beyond that, nothing proved Buckner’s claims. It
was a good story, Regina thought, and a good lead into the game.
Jaltorn was the name Buckner gave the creatures.

Regina figured Buckner got a royalty every
time somebody played the game.

She needed to focus. No time for
distractions. One distraction could be the end.

Even though her fear abated somewhat, she
still felt uneasy about what had happened, and why no one seemed to
be left on the ship but her.

Regina was not prone to her imagination
getting away with her, because she couldn’t make the living she did
if that was the case. But with everything that occurred, and now
with the Jaltorn Horror coming back to mind, her heart started to
beat a little harder.

She pulled her gun up and pointed it toward
the revolving door. If the revolving door twitched, she would not
hesitate to open fire. That was her first thought, but she knew she
wasn't that jumpy. No, she would need to see any attacker face to
face first, and then she would shoot. Taking any innocent life
would devastate her to the point that she would likely take her own
life. Everything she worked toward demanded it; otherwise she would
be just like the pieces of shit out in the universe that took and
took and kept on taking from others. And that would not do. No
mistakes. Ever.