Aly in Space Ch. 04

I had to get the timing just right to test it. We were about to slide back into their side of the atoms in our apartment building, and I was curious what would happen during the stretching/sliding part. As soon as Yevn pressed her green button, I jumped into the air, testing to see if gravity was the same.

Oh god, it was not! I saw the three of them stretch below me, before the upper half of the room sprung back into place. The dark blue floor of the spaceship also rushed toward me much faster than before. I yelped as I suddenly crashed toward the floor, just barely stopping my face from hitting the ground.

"Stars, darling! All this isn't enough for you?" Kat said, gesturing to the alien ship around us. "You have to go testing it, too? You're practically a wild child!"

I rolled to my side, propping my head up by my elbow and gave Kat a sophisticated look. "I'll have you know I am by all definitions an adult. I can drive, I can vote, I can drink, and I can even rent a car now." I nodded definitively, then scrunched my face as I realized something. "I don't think I can be president yet, though."

Kat and Mark laughed, and our slightly perplexed hosts watched with mild puzzlement.

Mark had had a few more questions for our alien friends, and we had needed time to ask off work for a day or two, but eventually, we had agreed to sign the contract. Yevn was thrilled. I guess she was specifically supposed to gain a lot of knowledge from their observations of us. I wonder if it's some kind of alien work-study college thing. She was the only one who we ever saw off the spaceship.

This time, Valitor, Zentylk, Yevn, Onsa, and several others were in the room to greet us (which, by the way, was not always the same room on their ship when we went through the green aquarium thing). They respectfully signed our papers, and then led each of us to a moist panel to sign their versions.

"The screen will give way somewhat as you touch it. If you could place your palm on the panel and hold for three... two... one... (thank you), the panel has measured your dermatological genetic imprint."

I watched as the screen kind of hugged first Mark's hand, then Kat's, with a mote of light then traveling from the panel into the large structure behind it. When it was my turn, I pressed my hand into the squishy panel, almost like pressing into a ball of dough, as it perfectly molded to all the crevices and shapes of my fingers and palm. When I pulled away, my hand buzzed ever so faintly, but it wasn't sticky or even wet, and the buzzing went away within a few seconds.

"Thank you, truly," smiled Valitor. "We will begin as soon as you feel ready, but first I would like to show you the facilities you will be using. If you would follow me, please," he said, walking out to one of the central domes with a distinct spring in his step. I squeezed Kat's hand in excitement, and she squeezed back as we followed.

In the center of one of the main domes, the simulation lab stood in open view. "What we have here," Valitor said, gesturing to an open space on the floor, "is a very dense gaseous state contained by its own particle adhesion within the confines of the white platform on the floor here. This vapor is capable of holding objects in air with manipulatable force." He nodded to a technician off to the side, who stood behind one of many panels surrounding the floor space. He then pulled from his pocket a water bottle (just a normal one like from our first meeting) and tossed it into the open space.

At first it arced through the air like a normal projectile, but as the technician fiddled with the controls, it slowed to a stop midair. Valitor nodded again to the technician, then stepped into the field of air himself. He walked on the floor seemingly easily, through the gaseous form, up to the water bottle.

"At the moment, there is no simulation at play. I am seeing what you all are seeing." He then grabbed the water bottle and gave a very convincing show of trying and failing to move it. It was stuck in space like a doorknob attached to nothing. "If you notice, we can suspend both objects and people in this vapor with varying parameters. The science is very fine-tuned..." he said, as he grabbed just the cap of the water bottle lightly and twisted it free without touching the bottle, "and whatever we need to happen within the field can."

He then began walking around the floor, but somehow never reached the other side, as if he were walking on a treadmill. We saw a small flight of stairs shimmer into appearance in front of him, and he walked up them confidently, before turning and jumping... into what looked like open space. He then nodded to the technician and made his way back to us.

"This gaseous field enables us to provide a fully immersive simulation. You will feel the ground as if you are actually walking on it. You will feel the objects, the environment, gravity... You will taste, feel, smell, and hear the illusions as if they are real. Would you like to test the stairs I just climbed?"

I grinned and walked up excitedly.

"Go ahead and walk onto the floor," Valitor instructed. As soon as I stepped onto the floor, the room around me vanished to a white screen. I could no longer see the panels or technicians or people walking on the upper deck around the dome. I could still hear them, but it looked like I was in a small room with white walls, floor, and ceiling, except for the gray steps where they had been.

Valitor's voice continued outside the room somewhere. "We've adjusted the visual field for you, Aly, how does it look?"

"I can't see any of you all, but this room sure looks real."

"Excellent. I will now filter out the other senses one by one to fully immerse you in the simulation. Ready?"

"Ready!"

"Feel free to move around or interact with the simulation exactly as you would normally."

Valitor's voice and the ambient sounds of the spaceship slowly faded to silence, which was quickly replaced by the sound of waves on a beach, and a gull overhead. The room around me quickly shifted to look like a boat, bobbing softly in the waves just offshore. I could smell the salt, feel a light breeze, and I had to sway slightly to counterbalance the bobbing of the floor in the waves. The stairs were now wooden but still there, leading to the bow of the boat.

Being careful of my sea legs, I walked forward slowly, testing the movement, shrugged, then jogged up the steps to lean over the rail. A faint mist sprayed my face, and I beamed ear to ear. Then, just as quickly as it had come, the sounds, smells, textures, visuals, and bobbing faded out as the lab came back in view. I stood steadily on the ground, behind where I had been before!

I turned to leave the field and rejoin Kat and Mark. "Did you see the boat? Was I wobbling all over the place?" I asked them excitedly.

"Yeah. It was kind of like watching the set of a movie where you can see the green screen and prop mechanics, but you know they'll put the camera angle just right to look immersive," Mark explained. "Did you like it? At all... unsettling to come in and out?"

"Not really. It's a quick change, but there is a transition, and I think that helps. Do you want to give it a go? Or Kat?" I said, turning to her as well.

"I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities over the next few days. You, baby?" she asked Mark.

"Can you put anything in there? Or does it have to be pre-programmed?" he asked Valitor eagerly.

Valitor laughed and said, "'Anything' would be a stretch, but what would you like to try?"

"How about... basketball?" Mark replied.

Valitor turned to a technician across the room. "Sequence 303 should have Earth sports." Then, turning to Mark, he gestured to the platform. "Be my guest."

Mark hopped up onto the floor and straightened in surprise as his world suddenly shifted to a basketball court in a high school gym. He was taken aback, because they threw him right in the middle of a game. From our perspective, it was like watching a movie--a whole scene within the confines of the gaseous field--except we always had an unimpeded view of Mark. As other players ran past him, they became temporarily transparent in our line of vision.

Mark looked down, realizing he was now wearing a basketball uniform, apparently on the green team, and locked into gear. His team had the ball, and he ran into position near the net. Right as he jumped, his teammate passed him the ball, and midair he dunked it through the hoop, grabbing the rim and dangling there.

Before he could drop, the scene faded, and Mark (in his normal clothes again), was dangling a foot in the air, holding on to nothing. He looked up, noticed he could no longer see the red rim, and released it to land on his feet back on the floor. He jogged over to us beaming. "That's... actually really neat. Almost unbelievably believable. You sure you don't want to give it a go, Kat?"

"I'm sure," Kat laughed. "I think our tour had a few more stops, if I'm not mistaken...?"

"Yes, indeed," Valitor said, leading us away from the lab. Then he stopped abruptly. "Oh! Since some of you seem more curiously minded, I will also mention that in addition to providing a malleable simulation, the dense field is also contained and measurable on its own. Your breath capacity, drops of sweat, cortisol levels, and more will show up on our sensors.

"This device has enhanced simulation specifications that distinguish it from a similar model that we use more often in acute medical care, which might hold a patient steady for surgery, release pressure from the joints or lungs, or allow us to administer medicine through the atmosphere, for example. The medical ones are usually much smaller, but they do still have rudimentary simulation capacity, such as outlining a bruise to tell if it grows over time, or providing a reference bar for comparing skin samples or pallor. But! There's more to show you, if you would follow me..."

Valitor escorted us around the lab to an opaque door nearby. "This room is for your privacy. You may do what you wish, bring what you wish in or out, and by our contract we will not probe past this door." He showed us how to open and close the door, and the three of us peaked in. It was set up like a small hotel room, with a normal human bed, couch, bathroom, thermostat, and TV. Huh. "If there are any of your own items that you wish to bring or store here for your comfort, you may say so at any time and we will gladly oblige."

Valitor continued around the perimeter of the huge dome, pointing out interview rooms, their Regeneration Room (which had a minimal supply of real human food, but also the means to make other things, apparently), the doctor's station (for our biology, Valitor clarified), and Yevn's study. He did point around the tunnels above where his office and Zentylk's personal lab were, but Yevn's study was right off the main dome with a full view of the lab. To be fair, I don't know if it was "hers," specifically, or just an observation deck, but they told us we could find Yevn here in between simulations if we had any questions or needs.

As we finished our tour, Valitor led us back to the privacy room. "I would recommend taking some time to replenish your needs before we begin. The technicians will have some calibrations to perform for each of you individually, and then the three of you as a whole. Take a moment for yourselves, and then whenever one of you is ready, feel free to meet Zentylk by the platform."

There was still so much to take in of the alien ship and technology, not to mention the lab and simulations. But it was a good idea to take a bathroom break and get a drink. I stepped into the privacy room after Kat and Mark and shut it behind me.

The air felt a little less moist in here than the rest of the ship, although I had gotten pretty used to it. They said we were very similar as species, but given the whole mushroom cave vibe of the ship, I imagined they must like it pretty damp. No circuits to spark or papers to get soggy, from what I had seen so far.

Kat was meandering around the room, lightly touching everything next to her path.

"Are you okay?" I asked gently, sitting on the bed near where she walked.

"I think so? A lot of this still doesn't feel real to me, and I guess I'm a bit nervous about adding a simulation to the feeling I already have." She plopped on the bed next to me and rested her head on my shoulder. Mark was currently in the bathroom.

"That makes sense. We don't have to do this if you don't want to," I said quietly.

Kat sat quietly for a moment and took a deep breath. "I get the sense that this is genuinely very important to these people, even more than they are telling us. And that feels real. Maybe I can let you two go first while I practice some of those grounding techniques I always used to tell you to do when you were struggling." She rubbed my back warmly and straightened up. "I'll be okay, girlfriend. And you and Mark seemed to really enjoy it. And I like that they've promised to never show us a fake version of each other. I think that'll be important to me. Thank you, though. I love you, Aly."

"I love you, too."