| Base-Zero |
Tsv-01
Tsv-02
Tsv-03
Tsv-04
Tsv-05
Tsv-06
Tsv-07
Tsv-08 |
Tsv-09 |
| Contents |
Lpnet1
Lpnet2 Lpnet3 Sci-shorts-01
Sci-shorts-02
Sci-shorts-03
Sci-shorts-04
Gallery |
Animation |
| Tsv-05-100 Alternatives Chapter 1: Knight to king's Base 4.5 Chapter 2: What Reality is this? Chapter 3: The Hisorian Way Chapter 4: Fresh Air and Exercise Chapter 5: Stranger in a Strange Land Chapter 6: Point Man Put to the Test Chapter 7: The VR and the Videodrome Chapter 8: The Tem-Space Variant Returns Chapter 9: The Amazing R-Wing Chapter 10: The Lunaside Vacation Chapter 11: The Lunaside Hiso-Courts Chapter 12: On Space, Time, and Parallel Alternate Realities |
Tem-Space Variant 5:
Alternatives
8. The Tem-Space Variant Returns Madkro managed to get past the third quad at 1c, but got stopped at the spiral step- way in the final quarter. It took him 3 tries, but he finally did it. In the early afternoon, Madkro made it through the short maze of illusions, into the final quarter, to the base of the spiral step-way. It was there, where he hesitated, and got struck by the rays from a security-unit hiding in the corner of the second-level, to his right. "I've got to make that spiral," he said to her, as they left CQ for the day and drove back to the apartment. "We can do a short day tomorrow," she said, "before we prepare to leave. You will get another shot before we go." Everything went smoothly, without complications, until the next day, at the end of the 1c course. Madkro was on his second run, when he did a clear sweep of all 4 obstacles in the lower level of the final quad, stole up the spiral with a second big wind, knocked out 2 more obstacles midway up to the top, and tagged the final tagnet, at the top, where a large metal door slid open under an archway aligned by dark blue curtains with fine silver lacing. When he reached the other side of the archway, he was fired upon, before getting a clear vision of the area. He ducked low to the side, found himself in a large, dimly-lit, misty chamber with dark corners. His eyes adjusted to the light, while he found himself in the corner of the structure. It appeared to be the central power-plant chamber, an area that connected with all quadrants and levels of the pyramid. He stepped along the corner to a step-case, which led to a higher landing, and got a better angle for perspective. He sited a secondary control-station, presently unmanned, about 20 meters away, toward the central spine of the plant, which towered up through the ceiling to the higher levels. Lisa suddenly appeared, in the archway, and he said, "Get down!" She ducked just as she was fired upon, and snuck into the corner, just behind Madkro. Seconds later, as she snuck to his side, a voice spoke to them clearly, from the shadows of the next landing. "A trip to the Moon, Madkro, is no Hiso-course. But if you do go, don't count on any help from the Reps. In the best interest of all, I feel it only fair to warn you. Don't blow yourself up with your own foolish pride, Mak." "Who is that?" Madkro said, and decidedly stole up the steps to the next landing, his ray-gun ready and willing. He fired at 2 different obstacles, during a 10 meter search. He found no one, just an unmanned com-link station with a test-pattern on the main console. Under the test-pattern was the word 'Enzelvyer'. Lisa joined him, at the station, and read the word. "It's one of the RWZ's," she said. She touched the access pad and the screen changed, to show an overview of the RWZ and its spex. Madkro sat down and took a closer look. "It seems like more than a coincidence," Lisa said, "that whoever spoke to us was in this area just over a minute ago." "Think we scared him away?" Madkro said. "I don't know," she said, and looked around. "I have no idea who he was or what he was doing here. There was something familiar about the voice, I just can't place it." "I don't know," Madkro said. "If he's with this CQ, wouldn't he be on our side?" "Ordinarily, I'd say yes," she admitted. "But it's never been like this before. I'm not so sure the course is over, Mak." Suddenly, a droid-unit rolled out of a side corridor, beyond the com-link station, and fired at them. "Down!" he shouted, and gave her a little push to the other side of the console. As she went under cover, he dove to the right, away from the station, did a short roll on the landing, stopped at the rail at the edge of the plant's core, and fired the rays at the droid-unit. "We have to get out of here," she said, and he agreed, as they joined at the middle of the landing. "Which way?" he said, and she thought about it. "Ha! Very clever," she said, thinking over the situation. "What?" he said. "We were steered in the wrong direction," she said, "by the first shot in from the archway. It was deliberate!" "Really? Why?" "Because, Mak," she said, "the end of the course is directly to the right inside the archway, just 20 meters away." "So we have to go back?" he guessed. "Either that or spend another hour getting through the long way," she said, "which is the way we’ve been going." "So, what do we do?" he said. "Mak, it's never been like this before," she insisted. "The end of the course has always been before the central plant. For some reason, this time, there was a short corridor through the door at the top of the spiral, leading all the way to the edge of the plant." "Are you saying it's different?" "Absolutely," she said. "The end of the course was a simple maze to the right of a corridor. Of course, now I understand. Inside the door there must be a square room with more than one secret doorway. Until today, I've always turned right inside the room, but today, that passage was closed and this one was open. "Interesting," he admitted. "Now what do we do?" Before she could answer, there appeared another droid-unit, on the lower-level back the way they'd entered. It got their attention, aimed, and fired. They had no choice but to continue to the left. They ducked into the shadows under an archway, around a corner, for cover. "Looks like we have to do it the hard way," Lisa said, and adjusted her ray-gun. "I think your right," he agreed, and checked his own lite-tools. "We can give it our best shot." There were steps leading up and down, to the left, from where they took cover. "No reason why we should have to go up," she said. "It'll be easier with gravity on our side." "Agreed," he said. So they took the steps down to the next landing, which led to next lower level. They had the benefit of dealing mostly with stun-alert units, which always made a high-pitched whizzing before firing. Timed quickly enough a sharp-shooter could outdraw such units and neutralize them before they fired. But the hard part was the quantity of units per quad. There was just enough time to take 3 or 4 long steps, most of the time, before another stun-alert sounded off and drew fire. All total, Madkro and Lisa neutralized about 2 dozen stun-alert units and half as dozen other obstacles and entraps. The final quad was the most dangerous. There was a collapsible catwalk connecting the plant chamber to an archway leading back to the beginning of the course. As they were crossing it, it suddenly collapsed, but they managed to catch the rail, on both sides of the bridge, and climbed up. It reminded Madkro of his first fall, the fall which dumped him in the alternate reality. Was it the fall itself that did it, the bump on the head, or both? He wondered. As they crawled up from the catwalk trap and into the cover of the archway, he wondered if Rem could answer his questions. Minutes later, they walked through the archway, to the end of a short hallway, and stepped into the tunnel leading to the locker-rooms. They felt good to have the course completed, without being stunned or narked, and were intrigued with the mystery of it all. "Congrats," she said, as they hit the showers. "We did it!" "Yes, so where does it put us?" he said. "It puts you back on level-10 blue," she said. "Not bad for 3 days of work." "Ten-blue?" he said. "Where you were about 10 years ago," she admitted, "when you first qualified as a point-man." "If I've been a Point-man for 10 years," he said. "Why were the Con-Reps holding the courts?" "Oh, that happened when you were 3rd Point-man," she said, and explained, “And again when you were second. During that time, you scored extremely high with the sublinear sessions. That was how you got to be first point-man." "How long have I been first?" he said. "Almost 4 years now," she said. Minutes later, they were on the road, headed back to their apartment. |
|