Chapter 11 - The Gateway.

  He felt a tickle of something on his cheek and reached up to scratch at it reflexively. The sticky wetness on his fingers and a spike of pain from his burned arm jolted him out the stupor that he had fallen into after realizing what had happened to the chameleon-like corpse nearby. He looked down at his fingers and saw dark red staining the tips of his index and middle fingers. He grimaced slightly and wiped the blood on the side of his knee. The red stood out starkly against the white of the jumpsuit. S?ren pushed himself to his knees and then stood up, using the wall to support himself. Moments later the blood faded away, unnoticed, as a self-cleaning feature took care of the foreign substance.

  S?ren's knees trembled slightly as he forced himself to walk over to the alien creature. The pebbled skin of the fallen creature, despite the desiccated nature of the corpse, reminded S?ren of the material wrapped around the hilt of the crystal dagger inside his satchel. With a practiced eye, he studied the corpse, noting the position of its hunched over body against the wall and one stick thin arm clutching the haft of the dark wood and crystal spear with a large thumb and three smaller digits opposite. Its other arm was wrapped around its stomach. A thin boney tail was curled up into a tight spiral at its back.

  "You died hungry and thirsty, didn't you my traveling companion," S?ren said softly. The features on the face of the creature were twisted in agony and anguish, the two scale covered eyes locked on the nearby ring. S?ren's own stomach rumbled a little despite the recent meal. It had help hold the hunger pangs at bay, but it hadn't been enough. Dismissing the thought of food and water, S?ren continued to study the creature. He couldn't help it. All his years as an archaeologist had instilled this curiosity in him and made it second nature. Not to mention, this was clearly an alien creature of extraterrestrial origins.

  "The similarity to the chameleon on Earth is intriguing," S?ren said, giving voice to his internal dialogue. He risked a glance back at the ring, mentally readying himself for another assault on his mind. The double vision didn't trigger this time and he was able to study the ring a little more closely. It hung suspended in darkness at the end of the white ceramic ramp that curved upwards on a slight incline towards the middle of the ring. Symbols of the cuneiform like language were engraved deeply into the material of the ring along the inner edge. A silver column rose up out of the walkway along the left side at the end of the ramp. There were some details on the angled surface at the top of the pedestal he could not make out at this distance.

  To his left and right, a walkway vanished into the darkness, curving to follow the wall of the chamber. S?ren glanced at the railing, curious what was hidden in the darkness below. He then sighed and turned back to the corpse next to him.

  "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what I've gotten into and I think I'm going to need this in the coming days," S?ren said to the dead person. With a bit of self reflection, he noted that he had already started considering this creature to be a person, worth being respected, despite the clear differences between him and it. S?ren reached out and pulled on the spear, dislodging it from the grasp of the corpse. The spear broke free without issue, but the balance of the corpse was upset with the removal of the spear and it tipped over. A soft chime sounded as a crystal shaped like a stylized lightning bolt fell out of the woven-leaf vest.

  S?ren picked up the small shard of crystal and studied it in the palm of his hand for a moment. A small hole had been shaped in one end, but whatever cord had been threaded through it had long since frayed apart. He reached out to return the pendant to the corpse, but then stopped, his brow furrowed in thought.

  "Hmm. If I can find a way through, maybe someone on the other side will be looking for that and want to know what happened to you." S?ren took the satchel off and set the spear down on the floor beside him. He pulled out the crystal dagger and the length of electrical wire and then measured out a short length. The crystal dagger cut through the wire neatly. S?ren stripped a small section of the covering on the wire at each end and then threaded the wire through the pendant. A quick twist of the bare copper wires connected the two ends, creating a cord for the pendant. S?ren placed it around his neck and then looked at the sheath hanging from the woven cord around the creature's waist.

  "In for a penny, in for a pound."

  He took hold of the sheath covered in the same pebbled green material as the hilt of the dagger and used that same dagger to slice through the belt. The dried out woven fibers parted easily as the edge of the blade cut into them, releasing the sheath from the creature's side. S?ren pulled the sheath off the belt and slid the dagger into the sheath. The fit was snug, but not too tight. The dagger would slide free without catching if needed quickly, but wouldn't fall out either. He returned the crystal dagger to the satchel and sealed it before tossing it back over his shoulder. S?ren stood up, giving a last look at the dead person at his feet.

  "Thank you, whoever you were. I hope I can learn more about you someday," S?ren said. He was reminded of his own father's funeral. His father had been there for S?ren whenever he needed him, but he had been a quiet, stern man not prone to sharing his thoughts or encouragement needlessly. S?ren had inherited some of that demeanor from his father, however it was tempered by the larger than life personality of his mother.

  His father's funeral had been a solemn affair, a little more than a week after his death. Not at all like the traditional Irish wake for his maternal grandfather. That had been an interesting experience for S?ren after the more subdued funerals in the US and Denmark, though the Danes and Irish shared a few traditions like opening the window to allow the soul to leave the deceased and placing candles near the body. S?ren sighed, and turned his attention on the present, away from reminiscing about the past. Plenty of time for that later I hope.

  S?ren adjusted the satchel over his shoulders and attached it to the jumpsuit before bending down quickly to retrieve the spear. He shifted it to his right hand, having no delusions about being able to effectively use it against the Hordelings he had faced so far. He was fortunate that his father had taught him about firearms when he was younger. I just hope I can find a way to recharge the battery if I make it out of this place. No, when I make it out. No doubts. I won't be stuck here and die of thirst or hunger like them, he thought with a last glance at the corpse of the chameleon-like humanoid.

  The acrid grey haze that had filled the hall and steps leading into this room had dissipated finally. S?ren returned to the chamber, stepping carefully over the blackened shards of metal at the bottom of the stairs. He focused his intent on bringing up the interface of the dataslate and checked the charge status of the second drone he had placed on the charge pads. It ticked upwards to just over half. He dismissed the interface with an absentminded gesture.

  "That'll have to do. Can't waste any more time here," S?ren said. Guess I am talking to myself already. He grabbed the second camera drone and attached it to his right shoulder, like he had done with the first on his left shoulder. He snorted and his upturned lips and crinkled eyes revealed a moment of amusement at the mental image he had of himself. Like a newbie in an mmorpg getting their first shoulder pad armor. He spared a last quick glance around the room, to see if he had missed anything and checked the time.

  "Still ten minutes left for this stage."

  He then brought up the chat log and saw that there had been a notification for completion of the Tutorial. It was likely that garbled sound that had happened after blowing up the door, he thought quickly. He sent the chat log scrolling upwards with a small flick of his finger. There it is.

  "Adventure eh?" S?ren frowned, recalling his past interactions with the Guide. Particularly his initial interaction when he felt absolutely awful. Something about a catastrophic failure upon arrival and nanotechnology being used to resurrect him. This combined with the overlaid double vision of the ring inside the white spherical chamber and the vision of the ring inside the cave with a wooden bridge had him concerned.

  I think I really have been transported, teleported elsewhere through that first ring to here and whatever happened during the transit, I had to be rerouted into the resurrection vault instead. Makes me wonder which ring was built first. The one on Earth, maybe in Iceland, or the one here on Gateway. S?ren glanced back to the room between the hall with the obstacle course and this room, seeing a sliver of the gas giant and the Earth-like moon. I suppose that planet is Gateway and this is a space station of some kind orbiting overhead. A terminal for thrill seekers arriving to test their mettle?

  S?ren sighed and shrugged the straps of the satchel tighter and subconsciously willed them to attach. The straps tightened against his shoulders, back, and chest and the satchel molded itself to his back. He turned away from the view out the window towards the planet and moon below and retraced his steps into the Gateway Terminal room. With a last glance to the dead person nearby, S?ren stepped out onto the walkway that extended over the shadows below. His mind had no trouble filling itself with images of Hordeling nests brimming with eggs and spawn, just waiting for him to fall over the railing into the depths beneath him.

  He reached the silver column and took a moment to study the engravings on the surface. A clear crystal dome was set in the middle of the angled top of the column, big enough to fit a hand on easily. More of the stylized cuneiform script wrapped around the sphere on the edges of the metal holding it in place. At the bottom right corner was a small circular hole, a little bigger than the typical ink pen. He reached out and touched the dome on the top of the column and waited. And continued to wait until he finally lifted his hand and poked at the sphere. It didn't wiggle even a tiny bit, firmly embedded into the metal.

  He then touched a few of the icons engraved into the metal around the crystal dome, but again, nothing happened. He poked his pinky finger into the hole and was able to feel around a little. He felt a series of bumps and ridges along the sides of his finger. Aha! S?ren leaned the spear against the rail and shrugged off the satchel, barely having to think about the intent to remove the gear. He dug around inside the satchel for a moment and pulled out the thin crystal rod he had acquired previously.

  He held the rod up to the hole and it looked to be a perfect fit. With a shrug that said why the fuck not, S?ren slid the rod into the hole, using two divots near one end to maintain a grip on the rod. The rod stopped moving about halfway down and turned red as a light illuminated it from within the column. S?ren's eyes went wide and he yanked the rod out, almost fumbling it. The red light in the hold faded away. He looked around warily for turrets or other defensive measures, but nothing had changed within the gateroom.

  "Guess that was part of the Tutorial," he muttered as he recalled the near death experience with the access pad in the workshop. S?ren flipped the rod over and inserted the other end into the hole on the silver column. It slid in a little over halfway and clicked to a stop. A cyan light illuminated the column from within and a panel on the side of the column hissed open. Curious, S?ren stepped around to the side and kneeled down to inspect what was inside.

  In the back of the space revealed by the opening, S?ren could see a series of crystal wafers inserted into a half-dozen thin slots. The first four were glowing a light blue cyan color, but the fifth and sixth were dark. Tentatively, S?ren reached into the opening and wiggled the fifth wafer of crystal. It refused to slide further into the slot, like a misaligned stick of ram. The sixth wafer also refused to slide into place. He pulled both of them out and discovered a bright, lozenge shaped steel object, about the size of his thumb, wedged behind the empty slots. The object was just big enough to keep them both from fitting into place. He dislodged the lozenge of steel and let it fall onto the floor in front of him. He put the two crystal wafers back into their slots carefully. All six wafers were illuminated with pale cyan colored light.

  S?ren returned his attention to the steel object at his feet. He picked it up and brought it out for a closer look.

  "Fuck yes I would!" S?ren shouted without really giving it any thought. Six spindly legs unfolded from the sides of the oval shaped lozenge. S?ren shouted and tried to toss the device away, but it clung tenaciously to his hand. The steel spider-like creature skittered up his arm, across his shoulder, and then up his neck and chin. It vanished into his right nostril, squeezing its way in. He felt like his nose was going to split apart. Then, for the second time today, a blinding pain built up inside S?ren's head and dropped him to his knees. He slumped over onto the cool ceramic walkway and lost consciousness.

  Y???????????????????o????????u????????? ??????a?????l?????????l????????o?????????????w?????????????e??????????????d????? ???????t?????????h??????????????e?????? ???????T?????r???????????a???????????v????????????e??????????l????????e??????r????? ??????????t?????????????????o??????????? ??????????a??????????c????q????????u?????????????????i????????r?????????e???????????????? ???????????????a??????????? ?????????t??????????????r?????????a?????n??????????????????s??????????l????????????a??????t?????????i???????????o???????????????n??????????? ??????????a?????????u???????????g?????????m???????e?????????????n????????????t??????????.??????????? ????????T??????????????????h?????a??????????????t??????????????? ???????????????w????a??????????????s?????????? ?????????n??????????o????????????t???????????? ????????a?????????g?????????????r???????????e??????????????e??????d??????? ??????????u???????????????p?????????????o????????????n???????????.?????????

  We did not know that the device was there. The memory sector that information was stored within had been Corrupted by the Chorus. The data was only recently Recovered, after the Discovery.

  Y????????????????????o????????u???????????????????????? ???????????p??????????????????l???????????????a????????????????????????????y??????????????? ????????????????a????????????????? ????????d?????????????a????????????????n???????????????????????g?????????????????????e??????r????????????????????o??????????????????????u???????????????????????????s???????????????? ??????????????????????g?????????????????????????a????????????????????????m????????????????????e?????????????????????? ??????????????????????????G?????????????????????????????a???????????????????m??????????????????????e?????????????????????s????????? ?????????M???????a?????????????????????????s?????????????????????t????????????????????e??????????????????r????????????????.??????????????????????????

  Do not forget the rules Warmind. The Traveler is allowed to keep what they acquire.

  W???????????????????e??????????????????????? ??????????????????????k?????????????n???????????o?????????????????????????????w??????????? ??????????????????t???????????????????h?????????????????????????e????????????????????? ??????????r??????????????????u??????????????????????????????????l??????????????e???????s???????????????????????.????? ??????????????????

  As S?ren lay insensate upon the cool material of the walkway, the muscles that controlled his eyes twitched them back and forth beneath his eyelids. Under the walkway and hidden in shadow near the end of it, a pair of mucous covered mottled brown and tan egg sacks undulated and pulsed. The sides shuddered and the outer shell of the eggs darkened and rotted away to reveal two Hordelings. Their legs and talons were embedded deeply into the underside of the walkway. They turned towards each other, as if their blind faces could see, and opened their maws wide. A low chattering wail escaped before they both snapped their jaws shut and settled in to wait. Quiet... eager... hungry.

  Date Posted.

  January 8th, 2021

  Date Edited.

  January 11th, 2021 - Removing bold formatting of speech. It was not a good idea. Someone should have stopped me.
February 6th, 2022 - Minor edits for clarity and fixing typos.

  Author's Note.

  Another non-Zalgo Text version of the conversation above.

  You allowed the Traveler to acquire a translation augment. That was not agreed upon.

  You play a dangerous game Games Master.

  We know the rules.

  Source.

  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Indian_Chameleon_%28Chamaeleo_zeylanicus%29_Photograph_By_Shantanu_Kuveskar.jpg