Session 1

Leda. Still feeling good from your clever idea, you sit on your good old computer and start your calculations. Your hands swiftly move, almost like they have minds their own as you've spent so much time with this device. You could've used it with your eyes closed. Computer runs the inputs you give, as you wait. When it shows the results, you stand there, not being able to process this information.

As far as your calculations are concerned, there are absolutuely zero presence in this place. Computer could not detect waves of time, only reasonable explanation at this point would be that there is no time. Your computer would detect an exact copy of another scene, it would even detect if you were somehow a clone of your original selves. It was built to detect such identities or weird unalignments, after all. From what you've seen, it's almost like you're looking at data gotten from a complete vacuum with nothing in it. Even then, space is not exactly empty in layman's terms, thus you would see some statistically insignificant yet present discontinuities. You don't see such a thing now.

As you stand in awe, trying to make sense of your discovery, you suddenly fell onto the floor as you've been sitting on your bed for all this time. Your eyes and mind work in different phases and it takes some time for you to process it but your room is gone, with everything inside it. You're currently sitting in an empty room with nothing inside it, your computer also disappeared from your hands. Only unappealing, white walls of the room accompanies you. You take one shift of physical damage from the fall.

"Alright, everybody, check in!" Dayton calls out. "As your tactical officer, here's my two credits worth - We need a plan. If we aren't on the same page, I've got a feeling we just might run into one of Hariette's Snarkaks. Divide and conquer and all that. At this point, what the specific plan is, is probably less important than showing a unified front. We've all got different specializations and perspectives. You've heard mine. Let's get yours out on the table so we can take a vote." As Dayton speaks, he moves to the center of the room, unconsciously adopting his full military bearing. He's seen too many situations where indecisiveness and a lack of leadership led to disaster, and he doesn't want to see that replicated - not on his watch.

The stress of the current situation abates as Leda throws herself into putting her creation to work as she punches in commands, and more commands based on returned results. In the span of a few minutes the final result comes back, and she stares at it.

"What? But that's nonsense. Nope, it makes no sense," she says shaking her head, an expression of incredulity written all over her face.

Standing up, she rubs her hands down her thighs and then collapses on the floor in a heap. Raising her head she sees what the computer predicted. There is absolutely nothing here except for her. The white walls are too bright and her computer and room contents are gone. As she looks at the four stark walls she realizes she hurt her leg in the fall. "Ouch! What the hell has happened?"

Getting up with difficulty, she walks out of the room and announces, "It's gone. It's all gone."

CC looks over at TBD. She folds her arms and stares at him with one raised eyebrow. She says, "I don't know what is going on. It all seems real but how can we tell? So, are we agreed that this is something like a zoo? I don't mind being united, but what are we united on?"

Returning from his discoveries, Hiro is nodding his large head.

"Agree. All for one! For -- what, exactly? I'm not the brains of this outfit, that's for damned sure, but I do think that playing along feels... like something we shouldn't do." Seeing O'Rourke smarting a little when she comes out of her room, he gives her a you okay? look. He then asks her, "What's all gone?"

"If I'm outvoted, I'm out voted." Hariette says, rolling a cherry tomato back and forth on her plate. "I'm all for some kind of collective action. Dayton? What do you have in mind"

Hearing Leda, she walks over to her room and looks in.
"Ah... fascinating You seem to have gotten a reaction doing... whatever you were doing"

Dayton considers Leda's report and lets the new intel ruminate in his mind for a moment.

"I'm all for listing our options and then deciding together on our plan of action. So far, I see two main courses of action: a) play along, follow the bread crumb trail and see where it goes. Leda's discovery may be the key here - it looks like she may have found a way to 'break the game' as it were. And b) break it ourselves by not taking the bait and responding to the prompts they're offering up. I'm sure you all have other ideas, probably a lot smarter than mine, so let's put those out there too and think them all through."

"Leda, what do you make of your findings?"

CC shrugs. "It is the duty of every prisoner to try to escape." She lightly punches the wall. "But no, I don't know how. I'll follow any plan until we can find away to escape."

"Leda looks at Hiro and shrugs her shoulders. My room. My computer. It went poof! I was running my calculations one minute and the next everything was gone. Kind of like how we got here."

With her computer gone and the distraction along with it, she was becoming a bundle of nerves being so out of her element. Whatever the tech was that was doing this had recreated her computer and that was saying somerthing.

"TBD, I think you're right. I think I broke it. But what IT is remains to be figured out. I like your plan and yep Harriet, we got a reaction alright. Collective action is probably the only way we work it out. We have to be a team. Other than that, I'm out of ideas."

A thought strikes her though. "Cass. I really hope you are wrong about a zoo because that would make us the exhibits and that's a chilling thought."

For Leda, that was an entire day's worth of words for her to speak in the space of a few minutes. As soon as her nervous energy abated she'd become the shy person she usually was again.

"Can you do something similar in here?" Hiro asks Leda. "Break this room? Or the one with the strange statues?"

When the woman raises her empty hands to show that she no longer has the computer, the big man grunts. "I think this is some kind of group consciousness. Like we're networked together. Our brains, you know? Like in... cyberspace. Anything goes in that kind of virtual reality, yeah?"

Thinking for moment, Hiro looks at Dayton. "Bro. You have a knife, a blade on you?" Turning around, he spreads his muscular arms wide and closes his eyes. "Stick me man. Not too bad, but let's see if I feel it, see if I can tell where you slice me."

Hariette cocks her head seriously, wondering where Hiro is going with this. She flicks her wrist, producing the blade she concealed. "I have this one, but it's from here. Dayton's might be more real. Try both? For science?"

"Whoah, whoa, guys! Do you really want to do this? I don't see any advantage in causing bodily harm on purpose. If what you say is true Hiro, why not just pinch your skin and see if you feel it? At the very least a pinprick, not a slice. Or see if you can feel the cold steel of the blade?"

Cass moves up to Hiro, and slaps him. "Did you feel that? If so you don't need to stab yourself."

Observing the proceedings, Dayton can't help but laugh. "Sometimes you guys scare me - and I've seen some pretty heavy excrement."

Hiro opens one eye when CC slaps him, saying, "Well, I also wanted to see if I would bleed. If this was my real body."

Hiro. You were so sure that one of your friends were just going to pull out a blade and cut you with it. When you feel the slap of Cass' bony hand you flinch and open your eyes. There is a slight redness left in your face by the slap, as well as the feeling of it. You absolutely felt it, maybe a bit too much since Cass' didn't hold herself back.

The rest of the group, although obviously found Hiro's suggestion of cutting him a bit silly, is appearently impressed by his determination. You feel he can be a rock mentally as much as physically. He seems like he can endure anything if it'll help everybody get out of this situation alive and safe. He doesn't even understand why you found his suggestion funny right now.

Cass smooths the spot where she slapped him and mouths, "Sorry".

"Okay, if this is a VR thing, then it's a frakkin good one. All safeties could be off. Maybe I'll chow down on my favorite foods then."

She looks for something that would actually make her nauseous. Oh, sushi. After that weekend on Kepler-6, I haven't been able to keep any down.

"Yum, sushi!" She fixes a plate of fish things.

Leda had been too tense to think about eating but now she was hungry and dammit she loved sushi. If Cass was chancing it, she would too. Besides, it would keep her mind occupied for a while.

Scooping some onto her plate she waits for Cass to try a piece first. Self-preservation has trumped her hunger for the moment. If Cass doesn't drop dead, the food is probably okay to eat.

"How is it Cass? Does it taste fresh?"