CHAPTER 1 - AWAKENING

When I met my end, I was filled with warmth. I felt it slip from me as darkness encroached. A blinding spark, which lasted only a moment, putting the rest of the life I’ve lived in stark contrast. I welcomed death.

When my eyes next opened, I was surrounded by cold. Water, tinged green and cold to the touch, and yet surprisingly easy to peer through. Only to be met with the impenetrable darkness which peered at me through the temperate glass of my coffin… No, my enclosure?

‘This is…?’ On my star, even the afterlife leaves little mystery to people of knowledge. The cycle of life and death marches undeterred to this day, despite the efforts of certain individuals. I have rarely concerned myself with such proclivities but even one such as me was sure: this wasn’t the realm of the dead.

This was life. I was still among the living.

Despite my wishes.

My fist smashed against the inside of the enclosure. It exploded in a burst of anger, liquid, and shattered glass.

-I-

‘My body feels different.’ My state of undress wouldn’t have normally bothered me. Among the many applications of the martial disciplines of my homeland, protecting oneself against the elements was among the most basic. And yet there I stood, shivering in the darkness broken only by the green light of the machinery. ‘And this technology is foreign.’

Whatever process had been used to bring me back to the land of the living had changed me in a way. Just by observing the wreckage of the machine I was held in, though, I couldn’t fathom what. All I could do was feel the enfeeblement that had taken my body. The magiks still flowed through my being but so much weaker, especially if compared to when…

…

‘If whoever brought me back did this out of generosity, they’ve done me nothing but a disservice.’ Although, the question then came to my mind if my demise was possible at all. The modifications I had subjected myself to had already kept me from shuffling my coil once. Although the second time circumstances were different, mayhap the outcome was not to be so?

My eyes fell to a particularly large, sharp edged piece of glass. My reflection ghastly in the darkness broke by acid green over my pale features. Was this the price I paid? Forever damned to a world mired with tedium and trivialities? With no salvation, save a few, blissful, hard-fought for moments? Did I have it in me in to even keep living like so?

“…and yet, I have no choice.” I frowned. Whoever had brought me back could most probably do so again, and a slit throat was but a mosquito bite to my friend’s tender and loving care. I turned away from the machine and towards the darkness. For the moment, I would continue. I would seek out more information about my current plight.

Also, some clothes. I saw a walkway that continued into the darkness from the spot where my enclosure stood. An unmoving red light shone on what I could surmise being the other side of the room… I moved forward, stepping carefully over the broken glass.

A loud mechanical noise echoed from above as a set of white lights activated, illuminating specific parts of the environment. I found myself in a laboratory, the now illuminated walkway revealing itself to be cross-shaped, connecting four distinct areas overlooking a yawning abyss. And a distinct lack of handrails.

My attention was caught by the area to my left, featuring a desk, lab equipment and some kind of computing machine. Mostly because of the laboratory coat left draped over a chair. I made my way there quickly, my footfalls echoing dully off the metal panel. ‘It’s not much but it’s a start.’ As I grabbed the garment, I inspected it. It smelled… Clean. Too clean. Uncharacteristically so, since the folds in the fabric made it evident that it had been worn before. It featured no distinctive marks, but I did find a plastic keycard in its right pocket and a discarded food wrapper in the left.

'Not exactly covering and it will barely reach my mid-thigh, but it's a start.' I removed it off the chair and swung it around my body, sliding it on my left arm and then the right...

YOU RECEIVE 1 Second-Hand Lab Coat!

My eyes widened as an electronically produced sound filled my ears and a holographic projection appeared in front of me displaying an inane phrase. "What...?" I stopped my movements, my eyes glued to the sudden apparition, waiting for anything else to happen...

Nothing. Just the same sudden screen, hovering in thin air without a trace of a- 'Is it following me?' As I moved my body and head, I noticed that the screen moved with me, as if to remain always at the same distance and positioning relative to my eyes. Like it was coming from some kind of personal device hidden on my persona...? 'Maybe rejuvenation is not all that was done to me.' Also, what kind of useless information...? Yes, I can very much see I have collected a second-hand lab coat.

Also, it didn't seem to want to disappear. I frowned and caught the rhythmic up and down movement of a cursor in the bottom right corner of the screen. Waiting for input, maybe? I slowly stretched my right hand to the floating screen and, as I would with the ones programmed in my homeland, tapped at it.

YOU RECEIVE Third Level Keycard!

It progressed to a new window which, this time, had more useful information for me. It considered the keycard and lab coat two different acquisitions while ignoring the food wrapper. 'It gives them different importance... And the different colors are a similar indicator too, maybe?' With another tap, the screen disappeared in a floating shower of blue particles. "...I will need to find a physician, then. Fantastic."

Putting that thought aside, I fingered the keycard and brought it up to my eye-level. It was made from flimsy material in grey and red, with a single metallic looking golden patch...

CHECK - (INS+INS)+0, DL 10
RESULTS - (5+6)=11 / SUCCESS!

I then realized that whatever the component was, it was made to contain information. Back on the star where I was born, we used crystals for this same task. This object was made to be inserted somewhere to be read. I peered in the direction of the door, then to the old-fashioned terminal on a desk, belonging to the same ensemble the chair with the lab coat was part of.

A tiny slit seemed to be suitable for the task. I took a seat and inserted the keycard, prompting the blank screen to light up with green letters...

CHECK - (INS+INS)+0, DL 16
RESULTS - (6+1)=7 / FAILURE...

I sighed. "I cannot read this." The letters seemed familiar to the ones of my star's alphabet, if weirdly stylized, but they formed words that I couldn't comprehend. The screen provided me with a list of four inputs and using the keyboard's arrow marked keys made a flashing cursor loop through them up and down.

I weighted my choices briefly. I had activated the terminal with a suitable keycard so there was no reason to believe any operation would raise an alarm so, at best, all I could do was randomly operate machinery. I shrugged and selected the third option from the top, before tapping on the biggest button on the keyboard.

A loud mechanical noise echoed from behind me. I turned around and the red light above the exit of the lab had now turned green. "...well, then." Randomly operating machinery shouldn't end up well, by any logic, but... 'My friend... It reminds me some of the weird luck that always seems to follow you around.'

I removed the keycard and walked to the now openable door, finding a panel with a single button on the right side of it. Upon pressure, the heavy door parted with a low pneumatic hiss. As I stared at what laid beyond it, I couldn't help but let a wry smile surface as I thought of my circumstances.

I was in an unknown location surrounded by unfamiliar technology, brought back to life for reasons unknown. Weakened and with no weapons, barely clothed, with something happening to my body I had no notion of...

'The thrill of excitement you would feel...' Such emotions were beyond me, they had always been but... Maybe I could try and imitate them.

Maybe, for a little while, I could try and amuse myself by acting as my dear friend would.