Session 1

"Dreams are messages from the deep."

Space. A deep vast ocean with virtually zero sense of depth as it stretches along indefinitely. You have been assigned to investigate and find out the details of the negotiations taking place on Trimer Delta IV, a neutral zone that is not technically a part of any Federation or the Union. Union is a conglomerate founded by various species who needs to set up an official Federation to send representatives to the Union once they enter the "space age" in their development. Union is not a hostile entity per se, it does not enforce newly encountered species to join itself directly. However, there are certain limitations to such un-cooperative species which eventually force them to give up and join the Union in the long run.

Union is not omnipotent, even they have boundaries and in this particular case those rare boundaries seem to have been met with. As far as the rumors go, exact whereabouts of the home planet of Kituri (as they call themselves) is unknown, even the members of the Union do not know the location precisely, let alone visiting it. You are one of the many "illegal" groups sent by various contractors and organizations. Trimer Delta IV does not have regular residents and it does not have an organized structure in any case, except some decent facilities that are only built to accommodate these kinds of meetings. "You will land on, gather as much information as you can and the moment you get your hands on a significant piece of information, prepare a report and deliver it to us as soon as you can." were the last words you've heard from your contractor's representative.

As you were approaching Trimer Delta IV, maybe a day's long from arriving, out of a sudden, without any warning, without any eerie feeling, without any real implication of what has actually happened, you opened your eyes in the blink of an eye in a room. You have no idea where this place is or how did you get here. There was not a feeling of change, a way for your body to perceive that something has happened. One moment you were in the ship, impatiently waiting to arrive and the next you're here. The room you find yourselves is simple with white-ish colored walls and it is very small. As you slowly become conscious of the place and the fact that you are indeed in a different place, at first a blank television screen at the top right corner of the room catches your attention, partly because there is some oldness into it but quickly, more than the screen, you notice a figure lying on the floor.

By the looks of his uniform, this man is a member of EUS, Elite Union Squad, a military unit that works directly under the Union and comprises soldiers from every species that is a part of the Union. The man, however, seems badly wounded. You can see that he is still alive as his breast is rhythmically moving, but he also seems to suffer a great deal of pain.

Dr. Cassiopeia Canon, or Cass, or CC, or Dr. Canon, depending on what you mean to her, narrows her eyes. She has that feeling that something has just happened that she hasn't yet processed. Like the moment you trigger an alarm but the alarm hasn't gone off. She turns her head, feeling her well coifed ponytail rub along her decorative shoulder pads. A twist of her hips tells her she's wearing her tight synth-leather pants, and a cincher that makes her athletic figure just a little more devastating. She's dressed herself to impress, but that's the normal. Being a celebrity often means being prepared for an interview or a rogue vidcaster at any time, unexpected is always expected.

But not this. How did I get in here? Think, CC. She draws a blank. She eyes the others in the room, seeing familiar faces. TBD, the sec man she recommended. Hiro, the pilot she owes her life to. Leda, her close friend and confidante. Together, only... what were they doing again?

"What in the abyss is that man doing on the floor?"

Reflex or instinct - it doesn't really matter. Years in uniform will do that to you. As quickly as Dayton registers the abrupt and inexplicable change of location and registers no immediate visible threats, his attention lands on the body of the fallen soldier.

"Man down!" he calls to the team, and moves immediately to the soldier's side, field assessing the nature and severity of his injuries.

Hiro Mandalesi blinks and shakes his head as the scene before him changes. One second he's piloting the ship -- well, babysitting the autopilot, considering when he's going to take control of the yoke himself -- and the next he's... here.

Wherever here is.

The strange sensation of a waking dream, when it's not clear where the mind's wants and fears stop and reality starts, washes over the man even as he realizes with some relief that he's not alone. That CC is here, that Theo is here, and Hariette and Leda too. Along with someone on the floor, down and injured. Dayton is seeing to the man, so the muscular, heavily tattooed man scans the room for an exit as he poses the first and second of what are sure to be a great many questions.

"Where the hell are we? What the fuck just happened?"

Though it is hard to see the details of his look under heavy and thick armor, this seems to be a human male with a muscular body. Seeing the man on the floor invites (mostly unpleasant) memories in the minds of Hiro and TBD. A very rare sight, indeed, seeing a member of EUS so vulnerable. The formation and development of EUS was almost like a scientific experiment on how a group of beings can improve themselves without hindering the process. Reaching to the space age implies a certain advancement in technology and science, however, every species has its own struggles, own specializations which they brought onto the table once they have joined the Union. Fighting styles, warring strategies and various experiences of different people have been combined to form a greater form of force. First generations of the squad was less a perfect unit, boundaries between different species still a huge problem and speciesism was still at its peak. As the time passed, Union slowly created a completely new community out of soldiers, soldiers who see their fellow friends closer to them and more valuable than any ethnic, national, religional or species-wise commitments can achieve.

Moreover, EUS are usually commissioned in groups, they are very rarely seen alone. You also notice something else. There is an injured person in the room but who has injured him? There is no sign of any other person in the room.

Hiro. As you look around you notice there are two doors on the opposite sides of the room, one painted red and the other a simple, brown door which is smaller.

Hariette blinks as the world shifts around her, and she finds herself with the crew in a strange room with a soldier on the floor. Her instincts kick in, and she joins Theo in assisting the soldier, but as she does so she keeps her senses open and keen for any signs of alien life on the soldier, like any signs that his wounds were inflicted by alien life, or any signs of infestation.

She also checks to see if she can figure out the nature of what happened. Is she wearing the same clothes, and carrying the same things she was before the incident? Is her hair done the same way (tied back in a ponytail for practicality)? She checks her fingernails, which she keeps almost compulsively short, for signs of growth.

"I'm guessing by your reaction you didn't do this, Hiro?"

Everything is exactly the same as it were in the ship, it's almost like you stayed still and the world around you has changed.

Hiro shakes his big head when Hariette moves to help Dayton with the downed soldier. "Naw, nothin' I did. We were just cruising, on approach. I didn't see nothin' on the scopes, either." The man is dressed as he was when he was taken from the cockpit: heavy boots, cargo pants, a tight tank top that shows off both his physique and the many tattoos that mark his arms, shoulders, back, chest and neck. Those boots clomp as he approaches the larger door to get a better look at it.

"Huh," he says to himself as he checks it out -- how it opens, whether it might be locked, what it's made of.

CC kneels by the others, to check out the man. She is thinking that whoever this soldier was, maybe some of the marks around him seem like something she'd recognize.

"Sir? Are you awake? We want to treat your wounds. Do we have your consent?"

Hariette continues to help Theo with the soldier on the ground, coming to realize that whatever happened seems outside of her expertise.

"Whatever happened, it didn't seem to affect our bodies. I don't know about all of you but I'm exactly as I was before this happened, and I didn't feel like anything changed. I thought we might have been drugged and moved but that doesn't seem to be the case," she says, removing a sweater she was wearing to tie as a tourniquet.

@Naelick: With Academics +3, maybe its better Theo leaves the matter in more expert hands. LOL Maybe we can retcon that roll into treatment rather than an assist.

As Dayton assesses the man's injuries, he notes the skill and efficiency with which Hariette applies the tourniquet. "You'd make a passable field medic, Dr. Galant," he says with an approving nod, before returning to his examination of the nature of the injuries themselves.

Hiro. You get a closer look to the larger red door. It is a very simple door by the looks of it, almost antique. There is no resemblance to the usual self-opening doors you get used to. This one looks like it's from a history book you remember from your childhood which people physically open and close in order to get in or out of a room. What an ineffective way it was. It seems sealed shut, you feel a great resistance once you lay your hands on it, almost like it does not want to open.

There are small neon lights scattered to the ceiling, nothing fancy. Air is what you might expect from an indoor place, though using space ships and living at artificial buildings has caused you to forget the difference between atmospheric air and synthetic air. There is nothing in the room except you, the wounded man, lights, doors and the screen.

Hariette and TBD. As you take a closer look to his wounds with the hope of preventing further damage, you realize that those wounds seem like old cuts. The blood around the wounds have dried already and the man's face is a disaster. Such an unhealthy face, such lifeless eyes with only a little light inside them. As she inspects him, Hariette understands that this is not the face of a man who has any chance of living. He's living his extra times, as one might say, because it was certain that he would be dead even when you first realized him.

Cass. You approach and talk to the man, realizing the same thing Hariette and TBD did when you see his face. However, when you refer to him, for the first time he shows a sign of life beside his nearly unrecognizable breathing. He slowly opens his mouth, hardly succeeding because of his dried lips and utters a few words, only audible to the three people treating him. "Whatever you do," he says with a trembling voice. "Do not go there. Just leave here." He looks at the small brown door as he speaks the first part. With that, the tiny glimmer in his eyes vanish and you realize that he is dead.

Hiro. You notice Cass, Hariette and TBD approaching the man and leaning towards him. After a few seconds, as you are still touching the door to size it up, you feel the beforementioned resistance fading away. This material now feels more like a light, manipulable object than an unmoving obstacle.

Leda had been immersed in a mathematical equation of epic proportions. This thrilled her to no end especially as she was on the verge of solving it after months of work. She was just about to......."What? Where's my terminal!?"

She stares at the space where her bank of monitors usually are and they aren't there! Instead, she is in this strange tiny white room with a blank television screen and an injured man on the floor.

"What the hell?" I was just about to solve it! Leda wasn't one to use bad language. She was too shy for such outbursts but this was beyond annoying. She had been so close!

But being totally dumbfounded passed momentarily. As she looked around she could see the others, keying directly in on her friend Cass.

"Is this some kind of really bad joke CC?

To Harriet, she says, "I don't feel any different at all either. Exactly as I felt when I was working on my project." Glancing at the dead man, it seems to fit with the whole improbability of the current situation which she is still trying to process.

"What? Nonono don't you die on me!" Hariette shouts, moving to straight to CPR, lamenting that she was here instead of her lab, where she had all manner of chemicals (some medical, some alien) that might have helped.

Hiro frowns at the red door when it seems to change composition. Rapping on it, testing how sturdy it is, he looks back at the others as Galant starts CPR. His deep voice rings out in the nearly empty chamber.

"Hey. Hey! How do you three know that guy didn't have something contagious?"

Hariette. You don't like failing, especially if a human life is at stake. You start your CPR and apply it as best you can but the body under your hands just feels like a pile of flesh. It would be wiser to apply CPR to a bag of cloths as you think even that would have more life inside it.

Hiro. The door feels sweet and warm under your hands. Do you try to open any of the doors? What's your next course of action?

Hiro. You had your fair share of breaking through doors in your past, thus you easily understand that this door wouldn't stand a chance against a blow from you, if there is no way to open it properly.

Cass places her hand on.Hariette's shoulder. "It's okay. You did what you could. We're clearly in danger though, so I need you to let him go, okay?"

Leda, who up until now had remained glued to her chair looks wide-eyed at Hiro then back at the body. "What if you're right and this man is contagious?"

Sinking as deeply into the chair she as can as if it will put more distance between her and the body, she looks at the blank screen wondering what had been on it if anything, and whether there is a console or datapad hidden anywhere that she could use to turn it on, possibly something on the TV itself.

"What did the man say?" she asks the others.

"Not a damn thing," Dayton says tersely as he stands. "And we don't know if he's contagious. Could've been booby trapped with some kind of IED as well. But that wouldn't make a lot of sense - if someone or something has the tech and the desire to zap us from the ship to this place, they could just as easily have spaced us if they wanted us dead. Assuming this isn't some elaborate mindfrack. But Doctor, you and i probably shouldn't go shaking hands or stirring anybody's drinks with our pinkies for the time being."

He scans the room a little more closely, noting the limited details and the options before them, senses on high alert. "Hiro, what's up with the door?"

Cass gives Leda a hug, and says, "So nobody knows how we got out here? It's like I was reading a research paper and then I was standing in here just now."

She taps around her body. "I'm not caring a weapon. Anybody armed?"

Hariette backs off, panting from the effort.

"I couldn't just let him die, infected or not. If I had a first aid kit... oh, and you can drop the doctor thing. Not that I'm... not... but Dr Galent was my mother so... Hariette is fine. Just Hariette" She goes to recover her sweater, strangely not as bloody as she expected it to be.

In response to Cass' question, Hariette digs in her pockets, hoping to find a scalpel or something.

"I don't think I have anything, let me see..."

Hiro listens to the conversation about the dead man, then nods when CC asks whether anyone is armed. He grins and slaps each of his impressive biceps as he answers, "Yup. Got two of them."

"The door," he then adds to Dayton, "appears to be in our way. Let's see what's behind it."

Staying that, Mandalesi tries to shove the door open.

Hiro pushes the door. Against his heavily muscled arms, the door stood no chance. With a clicking sound, it opens, ready to move away from your way.

"I'm just armed with my noggin," Leda says smiling meekly pointing to her head while she watches Hiro attack the door with his large, bulging biceps.

"Maybe we will find out what we are doing here and how we got here on the other side of that door."

Leda being a shy and quiet person had a tendency to ramble when nervous which often resulted in stating the obvious. It was her way of thinking things through to find a solution. Not having any answers was a situation that provoked much anxiety for her as she obsessed about what the heck they were doing here, why they had no memory of getting here, and why that dead man was here and alone on the floor.

She got out of her chair presuming they were all going to investigate what was on the other side of that door next.

Dayton checks his gear to make sure that his standard loadout is still intact (combat survival knife, sidearm, extra clips, and a holdout blade tucked into a sheathe on his calf) before replying.

Hiro. You try to find a way to open the door somehow. There is no indication on it that would explain how exactly will that work. As you spend a bit more time, you realize that this is a door, meant to keep one enclosure seperate from the other and the feeling of decreased resistance under your hands still endure. You decide to force your way out, pushing the door with greater force every second, until which point the door makes a loud clicking sound and opens to the other side. Though you don't apply any further force to make the door wide open, out of your control the door just rotates all the way to the other side, revealing two standing figures to you. These are just two non-human beings. By the looks of them they seem intimidating, and though you don't know much about them, as a man accustomed to dangerous situations you quickly understand that you are not in a safe situation at all, even though they stand still like they are frozen in time, without any movement. Right now they are too real to be a statue and they are too lifeless to be alive.

This room is a bit larger than the other one. It would take approximately 25 feet to get to the other side where another large, red door is present. The creatures are standing right in the middle of the room. One of them have a more or less humanoid shape with a distorted feeling. They have two very large arms, one arm is almost as thick as an average human's head. They are relatively short but every inch of their body seems tough, even by just looking at it. One gets a feeling of looking at a rock when looking at this creature's skin. There is not much skin to be displayed, also, as most of their body is covered with a brown and black leather-ish clothe. They have a thick head with an even thicker head. Their face is not recognizable behind a kind of mask they are wearing, which has no contours, no way of telling how this creature see at all. With their relatively long legs compared to other parts of their body, large arms, scary mask and thick skin, anyone who looks at the creature would get the feeling that they would not want to get in fight with them.

The other one is a complete mystery. Yes, she looks exactly like a human female, with all the indications that make one assume as such but she also has this non-authentic feeling, almost like a wax sculpture, the frozennes also further strenghtening this feeling. Her clothes are what one might expect from a typical woman of her age would wear on a hot day. There is nothing more to her to be recognized, other than the eerie feeling she leaves.

The room is empty, even emptier than the previous one, with the exception of two mysterious creatures standing right in the middle.

Hiro's eyebrows and concern rise after the door opens and he gets a good look at the next room without going into it. Turning to look back at everyone, he says, "I think you're all going to want to see this..."

Thrusting his hand through the threshold separating the rooms, the brawny man looks to see if anything happens, and if it doesn't, he strides into the room.

Cassiopeia has entered dozens of rooms with little idea of what she would find. She always pleaded to the fates and luck that she would be surprised, for that would generally mean archaeological treasures that would help her piece together the story of an alien culture. She wasn't here to be a treasure hunter, though, but for her well publicized adventures in xeno negotiations.

Except, where was "here"? Not knowing that, the assumption of what they want from her, from them, had to be reserved.

She steps close and places a hand on Hiro's arm, letting him know where she was. She looks past him into the room. She passes over the human female and focusses on the odd creature. "It's not just me, they're not moving at all, are they? Not even breathing." She sticks her hand into the room. "I'll go in, take it slow. Don't get aggressive until I say so or I go down."

She steps in slowly. A decade of experience in first contact has prepared her for this. She knows what to say, generally, but the first interactions are crucial. "We just arrived in this place. We don't know how we got here. We would like to be friends, and share what we know with you."

Or she is walking into some kind of technological trap.

There is no change in the creatures. They don't seem to perceive another presence in the room, even if they are somehow alive. Cass' words are just absorbed by the room's walls, which seem to display the same reaction as the creatures: nothing.

She'll approach them cautiously, continuing her friendly chatter. She's wary of whatever tech or art is suspending them in place, and wants to find the place that that field or bubble starts to operate.

Hariette follows Cass to the door, trying to subtly position herself to yank her back in case of hostilities. When nothing happens, she enters the room keeping a wary eye out, uncharacteristically cautious and quiet, still keeping within range to tackle or jump in front of Cass at the first sign of danger. Technology isn't her specialty, but she cautiously observes the aliens, to see if they look like anything she's seen before. She also looks at their expressions - do they look scared? Surprised? Or, perhaps worst of all, do they look like they didn't even have a chance to react? Hariette feels that with her knowledge of alien physiologies, she'd be able to get a rough read on their emotions, even if they aren't exactly like a human's.

Cass. You approach them quietly and slowly, looking for a clue to this mystery but there is no discernible effect that you can observe by your bare eyes. Your other senses seem to feel just normal as well, without any change. When you observe the masked individuual, though, from the design of their mask, you figure out that it has some kind of a religious or spiritual meaning. You've encountered such artifacts before. They are generally worn either for pure ceremonial purposes or in combat/war situations. In some ancient cultures these masks were worn to arouse fear in the enemy and strengthen the bond between the soldiers. Although making such assumptions about this creature standing in front of you just by looking is not likely, you are absolutely sure that this mask is something valuable to its bearer and taking it out without their consent would probably be not wise if you don't want to antagonize them.

Hariette. Similar to Cass, there is nothing you can pick to understand the cause of this frozen state they are in. However, as you examine them, your eyes recognize some things before you're even aware of them, due to your years of training and studying. You realize that the woman seem like a 3-D art, a sculpture rather than an actual human being. It is almost too perfect in some ways, like a very good artist has drawn (or carved) her. Her face expressions are such that they meant to convey positive feelings. Not a complete joy, not even a smile, but like an expression you would make for a headshot. The other being is one you've never encountered yourself before, although you feel like with proper equipment and more time, you can get lots of info from them.

TBD enters the room on Hariette's heels, scanning corners, the floor, ceiling for anything that might be a danger. He's about to interject when she and Cass approach the figures, but by the time the words are starting to come out, they're already there, so he merely holds his ground a quick step away from his comrades.

"Trophies, you think?" he asks quietly.

Leda follows the others into the room with a small degree of trepidation which is quickly replaced by fascination. These beings if that's what they are appear harmless based on their lack of any discernible reaction to the others. She thinks that they might be engineered entities made entirely of alien circuitry. Now she is no longer concerned with how their group got there or why, and becomes entirely fixated on these creatures as she walks around them in a circle, tilting her head this way and that, examining them without touching them.

She too feels the mask might be of some importance but in what way she had no idea.

"Should we touch them?"

Cass reaches out, not touching but tracing some of the lines in the mask from a few inches distance. "I think this mask is spiritual in function, perhaps sacred to them. It would be unkind to take it from them."

She reaches into her pocket, retrieving her secret weapon. She spins it in her fingers; a touchscreen stylus.

"Maybe we're in a zoo."

"Mmhmm," Dayton mumbles as he makes a circuit around the space examining it for any irregularities or signs of surveilance. "Or in an IQ test. On our homeworld, humans once used to put rodents in mazes to see if they could figure out how to find a treat. Anybody smell cheese?"

"Are they statues?" Hiro says as he also moves into the room. "Or beings... caught in some stasis field? Be careful, ladies."

With everyone else fixated on the figures in the middle of the room, Hiro examines the ceiling, checks the room they just left, then moves to examine the new door.

Hiro. As all the group enters the new room safely, so do you but you glimpse at the previous room just before entering the new one completely. You realize that the dead man is no longer there. The room is completely empty, and just as you realized these the door shuts down with a loud thud. When you lay your fingers on it, you again get the feeling when you first done it, like the door displays a resistance under your hands, an uncompromisable feeling.

After the door shut down and you've all entered the room, without having time to process what was that, creatures start moving like somebody has unpaused them. They show signs of realization regarding your presence in the room and one doesn't need to be an academic to figure out the surprise on the woman's face or the surprise in their body language in general. Without having chance to speak to them (or them speaking to you) they vanish, without a trace, just erased from existence in front of your eyes, leaving nothing behind, like they were never there in the first place.

Mysterious events follow one by one, this time you hear the red door on the other side of the room opening, revealing another, much larger looking room from where you stand. It seems to contain lots of things but none of you can see it properly from your position.

Leda's analytical engineer's brain kicks in as she watches the strange scene unfold before them. "Could it be that we are caught in some kind of fluctuating time compression dilation situation?

She chews on her lower lip for a minute and continues in mid-thought. "And the creatures .... they weren't frozen at all. They were just moving very, very slowly. So slowly that their movements were imperceptible. Then time sped up again in a similar but opposite fashion."

Chuckling, fully at ease now, deep in the throes of theoretical science she adds, "We are stuck in an oxymoron!".

"We're here as friends--" and they're gone. CC narrows her eyes and looks around. Are they cloaked some how? But other things have changed too.

When Leda speaks, she turns and looks at her clever friend. "Is that possible? To freeze people and not others? That is pretty advanced. Perhaps we're dealing with a very technologically adept species, one that maybe exists in time differently than we do. That sounds like superstitious nonsense, doesn't it?"

"No, not nonsense. Not really. It could be oscillating. The time flow, if that makes sense. Fascinating!" Leda is clearly in awe.

"Maybe just because it's not my field, but interesting isn't the word I'd use. Horrifying? Anyways, how do we avoid getting caught up in it?"

"I'm not sure. If the ship is causing this effect then there might be a controller somewhere on the ship. We just have to find it. Failing that, you got me. The creatures themselves might be manipulating time to serve their purposes. But I have no solid answers."

"We might be in it already. We wouldn't know right?" Hiro says as he moves towards the other door. "We might be stuck in some slow-motion time trap ourselves..."

Hiro. You peek into the room and boy, isn't that a wonder? Compared to previous ones, this can't even be described as a room since its large enough to constitute a whole floor in a big building. The room is filled with stuff. Stuff like you've never seen before. Even the decoration of the room is different, compared to others' simple design this one seems like its carved by a sculptor herself. You see a table nearby, filled with all kinds of food, some of them making you think "is that even edible?", others making your stomach rumble. There are exactly five chairs around the table. Even the smell of the room has softened when you got closer, accompanied by a chilling sound coming so low that you could also have imagined. At the far end, there is another red room present, barely noticible because of the distance but your sharp eyes recognizes them with the help of the vibrant color. There are three doors to the right and two doors two the left, all of them similar to that smaller door in the first room. It seems like there are some letters written on each of them. You can only clearly see the closest ones to you, one on the left and the other to the right. The one on the right reads H.M. and the left T.B.D.. The room is lit with a sophisticated lamp with a complex edsign and in the ceiling this painting is present:

Cass looks around. She picks out the familiar initials on the doors. When she sees the painting, she tries to recall her studies of valuable relics from history.

Cass. The painting does seem familiar from one of your old studies. Though you cannot recall the name of it, you remember the painting being about something not even properly represented in it. As you inspect it a bit more, you remember that there is a figure in the bottom right, sinking to the sea. That’s what the painting was about, or rather the insignificancy of it as nobody notices it, continuing their everyday life.

Cass points that out. "This painting, I remember. This spot here is the main element, the rest of the painting obscuring the tragedy with overbearing mundanality. All in all, I take the prominence of this work as being A BAD SIGN."

"This shit just keeps getting weirder," Mandalesi mutters as they make their way into the next room. There's a lot going on there; it's hard to even take it all in with the doors and the food and the chairs and the ceiling mural.

"I'm gonna pass on the grub, but what's next you think? Keep going through these red doors, or try the ones with... our initials?"

Dayton steps through the room cautiously, trying not to be distracted by all the shiny things. Never take your eye off the ball, Theo. The words come back to him, along with the the recollection of the bean ball from his old man that followed. Still, sound advice, he thinks to himself.

Reaching the doors on the far side of the room, he says quietly, "Well, whoever or whatver it is that's doing this is clearly trying to communicate 'something' - whatever that might be. I'm leaning in to the idea of an IQ test." Turning back to the group he adds with a wry look, "Just wonderin' what the smart choice is here."

"I think Hiro is right. Anyone that has a personalized door ought to go in through it. So HM and TBD why don't you go see?"

Leda couldn't make head or tail of the painting. She never had time for art.

Cass looks at the rest of the stuff in the room, looking for any significance to the objects collected. "A zoo, or a museum."

A sudden thought. "First, before you go in, do the other doors have initials we don't recognize? Our dead union friend or the two that we're frozen, perhaps?l

"We're outmatched, being led on a journey here. We might just need to go with the flow, until someone shows up and explains what we're doing here. Maybe that starts with opening each of our doors?"

"I think so too." Leda's insatiable curiosity was in charge now. She looked for a door with her initials on it and walked directly to it.

"Hey, hold up, let me do mine first!", Hariette says, sprinting to her door with a manic grin on her face.

Hariette will boldly go open her door, in the spirit of "I'd rather get hurt than put others in harm's way"

Hariette. The door slides and opens as soon as you enter a close range. You are welcomed with a familiar room. It's almost like somebody has taken a trip inside your life and constructed this room as a most pleasant, comforting place.

"Wait!" Hiro says, reaching for Hariette before she can crack her door open... but he's too late. Frowning, he adds, "Do we really want to just play along her, being manipulated? I was thinking we might open each other's doors..."

Leda wheels around when Hiro mentions the possibility of being played. "Hmmm. You have a point. Want to swap doors with me Hiro?"

The hunt for information was on. She was excited and raring to go.

"It's too late for Harriette. Hey Cass, if Hiro doesn't want to, we can swap unless you are intent on searching your room. Maybe this will mix up whoever is playing games with us? I don't mind which room. Whoever wants to switch with me really."

"Alright," Hiro says to Leda with a shrug of his huge shoulders -- then he opens the door to the room marked "LO."

When O'Rourke does the same to the big pilot's door, she finds...

Cassiopeia opens her own door, seeing that the first one isn't a trap. "Don't worry, Leda, I'll be careful."CC sees her own history laid out before her. She know's what she packed, and brought on the ship, but what she sees is different.

There is a collection of Oxtallian fetishes hanging on the wall, the purpose of which she will never tell anyone, anytime; a holographic picture display shows depth-realistic photos of some of her favourite adventures, generally ancient, dusty places with a sepia toned theme; an old book, made of actual paper, a leather bound, replica printing of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand League's Under the Sea which she has always meant to read but never has; a perfectly organized AI driven cosmetic and coifing station; and about four people's worth of wardrobe

Hiro. As you approach the door, before sliding to reveal its contents you barely realize that the initials carved to the door has changed to HM before you enter and it is your room.

Leda experiences the same thing as she approachess what was initally Hiro's room.

"Well this is interesting," she muses out loud. Suddenly Hiro's initials morph into hers. She had no idea what kind of technology was responsible for this odd change but she was eager to investigate.

She enters the room and is immediately rushed back to several images of her room from the past all jumbled up together. There was her hover-bed that she had designed for a school project when she was twelve. The droid she had designed as a hobby when she was fourteen stood in the corner head bowed. A duck that quacked, another robot project was laying on the bed, webbed feet comically pointing up toward the ceiling. Moving photographs hung in various patterns on the walls depicting parents, siblings, and famous robots. A venus fly trap sat green and healthy on a bedstand, snatching flies from an automatic feeding tube. A holograph of a field of corn waved lazily by another wall.

She stood in the middle in awe, taking the trip down memory lane.

"At least one of us should stay in the main at all times!" Dayton shouts to his compatriots. It's a good idea, but frankly, there's something about this that fills him with great unease - even more than a room full of Trilaxian proctologists. "I'll stand watch outside until we can make sure that you can all get out when you want to." Saying that, he strides to the nearest open door, and peers in, checking on the status of his crewmate.

"Agreed. Whoever is doing this is it's trying to make us comfortable... or get us to lower our guard. Until we know which is which, we should treat this as hostile territory. " Hariette grins. "This isn't exactly like a xenobiology field mission but the principles are the same. I'm still not ruling out that I'm caught in the sweet dreamlike embrace of a jub-jub plant. "

Hiro doesn't see the initials change, so he has a moment of confusion when he sees the room. This is something for Leda? No. No, Hiro knows this place.

The apartment he shared with Inia those few glorious months on Marezon. A pleasure world, or what passed for one for those who couldn't afford the real thing. It was small, just like he remembered -- with a balcony, a bed, an expensive spa-style tub in the corner. The windows were floor to ceiling and provided a view of the beach and the water beyond. On the bed, next to the impression where he could tell Klovis recently laid, he sees the keys to his old bike and the short, snub-nosed pistol he favored for so many years. On the bedside table, a picture of a massive extended family, all gathered together at an outdoor picnic -- his uncles and aunts, his cousins. Finally, on the floor, his old Skider boots. God he loved those things... and hated leaving them behind almost as much as Inia when the time came.

TBD. As you're keeping watch in de middle section, when you're near the door with your initials on it, in the corner fo your eye notice a flicker, coming from the door. When you turn to face it, there is nothing of it but everytime you are near it you get the same feeling, like it wants you to open it and explore the wonders inside it, just like everybody else. In the mean time, you also notice that big table in the middle of the room is full of food and beverages, some of them are your favorites, packed in front of one the chairs like they are put there for you exclusively. You notice the same thing in others chairs as well, presumably favorites of the crew.

"Theo, since you haven't opened your door yet, do you want to see if you can influence the contents? Wish really really hard for an armory and a hammock"

After saying this, Hariette will close her door and open it with something in mind, to see if she can influence the contents. Failing that, she'll start tidying it to see if she can find anything useful. It wouldn't be impossible to find some nutritional bars stashed away in some corner.

Walking back out of her room she says,

"Given we don't have any kind of rations, we're going to need to try the food sooner or later. There's protocol for tasting food on alien planets, I think we should follow that.", and she picks up a bottle of rootbeer from the seat and pops it open by hitting it against the table. She rubs a bit on her hand, and given no immeditate reaction, her lip, and tastes a small bit on her tongue, before finally taking a swig

Hariette. Your senses go wild as this is one of the greates rootbeers you've ever tasted. It's taste is so balanced that for a second you forgot that you're in this weird place, think about a time you've drunk a similar beer some time in the past. Your mood increases, but then you realize that the taste is not only similar, it is exactly the same as that the time you've drunk this, nothing is different. It's like you've returned to that moment.

"Mmm, it's always difficult to tell objectively, but I think this rootbeer is making me hallucinate slightly. It's way more nostalgic tasting than seems strictly natural..."

Cassiopeia shakes her head, trying to get a sense of what is what. "What is going on? This is bullshit. Look, there is no way this is happening."

She cranes her head up and screams at the ceiling, "I'm not playing your stupid game! Let me out of this!" She claws at her temples trying to take off the VR set that might be there. Of course, there is nothing there, so she grabs her favourite meal, a winter vegetable quiche and flings it into "her room".

Theo considers Hariette's suggestion about wishing for an armory of some kind stocked with weapons and ultimately decides the idea is worth a shot. Since the rooms the others have entered into seem to be related to past memories, he thinks of that time back on Thrombosis IV when his squad had just taken out the last insurgent cell and captured their weapons stockpile. Which, as it turned out, included a healthy supply of Thrombosian whiskey. Good times. With that image in mind, he opens the door...

A spark of an idea flashes before her as she sees her old wrist computer. Why not use it to figure out what was going on here? Were they in a hologram? None of it made much sense yet it was here and she was in it. It was a very powerful device and she knew this because she made it.

Leda sits on her old bed and grabs her trusty computer. She will hope to boot it up and run a calculation through it specifically the Handringsma Holographic Identity Theorem equation.

"Hey, Cass..." Hariette says sitting down at the table. "There's no sense freaking out... yet." She picks up a steak knife. "As long as we don't know what's going on, there's nothing we can do, so just... play along, ok?" As she says this, she holds up the very sharp knife, looking at herself in its deadly reflection, and then, wrapping it in a cloth napkin, slides it carefully in her sleave, and winks.

"Why would we play along?" Hiro says, closing the door to 'his' room without even entering it. Joining the others, he noticeably doesn't touch the food.

"Someone is fucking with us. In our heads." He touches his temple for effect. "Probably all connected to the same VR net or something, right? No way this shit is real. But how do we get out? How do we wake ourselves up?"

"Right now we don't know anything. Maybe we learn something if we play along. If we find out what they want, maybe we can get some leverage. But I don't think throwing the food around helps us. Not yet, anyways."

Hariette's grin fades as she becomes serious again

"Look, what has happened already? We were shown the dying soldier. A threat. Then the frozen aliens. Another threat - they have the technology to stop us, no matter what we do. But this latest thing, it's an olive branch. The overall message is, 'we can end you in a moment but we're choosing not to'. So, maybe it makes sense to play nice for a bit? We're not dead yet, but we could be, very easily. We need more information"

Hariette, you're a frickin' genius! 'Course you already knew that," Dayton adds with a chuckle as he surveys the armory. "I don't expect they'd be of much use if it came down to using 'em though. 'The Lord giveth and taketh away' and all that. But whatever it is seems to be reading our thoughts and replicating the things we're thinking of - consciously or subconsciously I guess."

Dayton leaves the room behind to join the others, eyeing the food. "I'm gonna have to double down on the IQ test theory. Like Hariette said, they've given us a number of prompts - threats, possible threats, carrots - and I imagine they're out there somewhere gauging our responses to see what we're all about. Are we reactive and violent, curious, easily lulled by shiny things. Hmm..." his sentence trails off as the mental gears turn.

CC frowns. She hates being called out on things, most especially when she might be in the wrong. "You could be right, TBD. But, should we be good little mice in the maze and hope we get a nice treat-treat for din-din? Or should we show them trust is earned, and cooperation will only follow then?" She smiles innocently at the heavily armed man.

"We could go full Gandhi and see what happens..." Dayton muses aloud. "Just take a seat and not participate. Demonstrate that we understand what's going on," he gives a subtle shrug to indicate that's a maybe, rather than a certainty, "by changing the rules of engagement."

After a bit of a pause he adds, "But I'm not a xenoscoiologist, just the hired muscle, so take that for what it might or might not be worth."

She had made her wrist computer for a science project in the young and gifted program competition. It won first prize and it became one of her most prized possessions. It was them that she knew she would be an engineer, and never wavered from that course. It had been used to run her Handringsma Holographic Identity Theorem equation. Someone would make a hologram and give her the coordinates and amplitude indices and her computer would identify the holographic object. It could even tell if it was fake and not a hologram at all.

The best part though was that it could allow a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed with the exact same amplitudes and frequencies. It might be able to help figure out what was causing the phenomena on the ship and if time was oscillating at different rates.

"I'm a xenobiologist, not a psychologist. But. Ok, you're wandering along and you fall into a Snarkak den", Hariette says, in a tone that suggests this isn't an entirely hypothetical scenario for her. "Your odds of survival are down to whether you've found a happy Snarkak, or an angry Snarkak. And, supposing you've had the incredible luck to find a happy Snarkak, your job is to keep the Snarkak as happy as possible until you can get away. I feel like we might be dealing with a Snarkak here. Except instead of being 10ft tall and mostly teeth, it can read your mind and freeze you in time."

Hariette shrugs, taking another swig of her rootbeer.

"But maybe all that means is I need to spend more time with people and less time with Snarkaks"

Listening to the conversation but not participating in it, Hiro checks each of the initialed doors, one after the other, to see what he finds within...

Hiro. You check the doors one by one, seeing your crew's personal rooms. You get a sense you hadn't before, a sense of understanding as you witness your crew's deepest, most personal belongings. You see how Leda's busy and fragmented mind corresponds to her physical existence as well. You see Cass' room, you understand her sophisticated life-style. You understand what a firm soldier TBD was, how hard is it to penetrate his feelings. You get a similar feeling from Hariette, how accustomed she is to loneliness, how she built her outer self with such confidence.

You now have an aspect: I understand my crew better than everyone.

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?"

"Oh, it's--" (erp) "Totally what you'd--" (errrp) "wish for." She turns a little green.

Leda had a piece of sushi on its way to her mouth when Cass answered. Halting the fork's further progress she analyzes her friend's face. "You're joking of course. Right Cass? Your face really isn't green. Is it?"

"So good! My favourite --" (errrp) "raw meats." She tries to hold it in, but food aversions are nothing to breeze past. You know, if they're real food. It's totally fake, the texture is simulated. Simulated!

As you sit on the table, eating food, thinking whether what you’re eating or feeling is real, the red door at the far end of the room slowly opens, making quite a lot noise while doing so, almost like it wants you to hear it opening. You can see a dimly lit room from the opening but nothing more from where you’re standing.

TBD raises an eyebrow at the sound and slowly moves to remove his holdout knife from its sheath, never taking his eyes off the door or what might be coming out of it.

"Heads up, everybody. Looks like we graduated this room."

"That's rude, I wasn't hungry yet" Hariette gripes. She goes to her room, and finds in the pile of junk a backpack (which she packs with some stuff she might find useful, and a used, soiled takeout container. Grabbing what looks like an old rag but may have once been a tee-shirt, Hariette "cleans" the takeout container (in a way that'd be in no way sanitary), then heading to the table and packs up a little dinner from the food provided, and places the takeout container on top of the stuff in her bag.

"Ok, that's better. Ready when you are"

When the red door creaks open, Hiro shakes his head. "This is messed up, right? They're just playing with us. Like we're mice in a maze. Like we're lab rats."

Putting his hands to his mouth, he raises his voice. "Yo in there! Up there! Why don't you just tell us what you want?"

The door was about to close completely when Hiro shouted his words to the "invisible powers". Right after that, it slowly starts to close and halfway through, opens again, emitting the same gritty sound for the whole duration.

"Ho, ho, ho, you've been warned, Hiro. We must be obedient rats or we won't get our treats." She knows the psychology at play, she's done tests like this in a college intro course. "I guess we go through it, and be on your best manners. Bow if you have to, like good little rats." She realizes that she's feeling a little salty about the others not wanting to fight it, but she knows that they need to be united.

Moving forward, she looks through the door, to report back to the others.

"So we're taking the bait," Hiro says as he accompanies CC, moving closer to the door to at least see into the other room.

Cass and Hiro. You look through the door and everything goes for a blank for the moment.

Everybody feel like they have just entered a room full of jelly. It's like you're floating in a vacuum, not being able to have much control on your movement. When you regain your sense of physical existence, you realize that you are in a room, alone. A hologram stands right in front of you. Maybe stand is not the proper word as this hologram does not have a definite physical form. Its fluid, changing continously from various physical objects to alien bodies. To your right there is a containment room with someone or something in it. To your left, the same thing. The room is very small apart from the two rooms and the holographic shape. At your back you see a red door. At the fronts of containment rooms, there is something that looks like a button. You get close two rooms to distinguish what's inside...

"Please look to the room in your left." the hologram says. Everybody hears what it says on their mind and you are still alone in that tiny room, no signs of anybody. Its voice feels like a combination of many people's voices you've encountered through your life. You instinctively do what it says and see that wounded EUS member there, barely breathing still and probably about the faint out if he already hadn't. "Now you have two choice, dear humans. Press either of the buttons and the other one gets sucked into space. You may have one moment with the one you've chosen. The scene is yours."

Hariette begins to shake as her heart breaks into a million pieces. At many points in her life, she would have said she'd do anything to see her sister again, just like this. Hell, at many points in her life she'd already be across that room, slamming the button and screaming in insane joy. Instead, she's filled with a cold rage.

"How dare you use her memory this way." Harriette says with an icy chill in her voice. "I've changed my mind. I was willing to play nice as long as you play nice. But now you've crossed the line." She turns to the hologram. "Release them both. NOW"

CC doesn't hesitate, saying immediately, "Ivan, I want him, space the other one then."

Leda sees a body in the other room to her right. Even though he seems still, she feels he is alive. But then she recognizes something. Her eyes widen. "Oh my God! Is that you, Jarrod? It can't be... but.... Wait a dang minute. This is crap. It's not real and my computer told me there was absolutely zero presence in this place."

When the hologram interrupts her she turns her attention to the other room on her left and sees the EUS agent. She didn't know the EUS guy anyway, this wasn't real and she'd play along and press the button to space the agent. On the slim chance this wasn't a fake scenario, she might see Jarrod again.

TBD is momentarily shaken by the painful image from his past, but he quickly steels himself, grounding himself in the present moment. "That's pretty messed up whoever or whatever you are."

Hariette. You hear the hologram's voice in your mind again. "Rage is meaningless. You are expected to make a choice."

"You need to clean your ears then, if you have any. I reject your dilemma. I made a choice. Both. Release them or tell me why it's impossible."

Hariette. For some time, there is no response from the hologram with its everchanging shape. Then, it says "It is not impossible, it is just not an option." Its shape stabilizes for some time, becoming Cass, then Leda, Hiro, TBD, one by one all the faces you have ever seen in your life. It stays like those faces for only one second, in the mean time speaking. This time actually speaking, its voice changing with every face. "You seek answers, you are not aware that you are the answer. You seek freedom, yet you refuse to acquire it." The faces' eyes turns to the buttons one at a time as it says the last words. "Choices are clear. Cooperate." You notice one last figure you have no opinion of when it finishes its words before becoming fluid again.

CC vomits her (holographic?) sushi over the floor, her nerves and the trauma of the Sophie's Choice laid before her. She didn't hesitate to codemn a man to death to save someone she hates (and loves).

Leda presses the button to space the EUS guy. She figures he's mostly dead anyway.

"Yeah, here's a little human geometry problem for you - go fuck yourself." TBD steps back from the containment devices and adopts a ready resting stance, feet apart, knees flexed, hands open and relaxed near his abdomen. Focusing on his breathing, he braces himself for whatever consequences might ensue. Full Gandhi, but ready, just in case.

"You seem to have a problem then. You require cooperation, but I require nothing from you. " And she sits, her back pointedly turned away from the hologram. "Release both prisoners, and then we can negotiate my cooperation."

It's difficult to see Inia suddenly, especially laying on the floor the way she is. Hiro loves the woman, even as he know how terrible she is for him... and he is for her. Two souls intertwined who can't help but bring out the worst in one another.

He looks at the woman's image longingly for a long, quiet moment, then he turns to the shifting figure before him.

"Fuck you. That's not Inia. And I have no idea who this guy is. None of this is real. So fuck you. Space yourself."

Hiro, Hariette and TBD. For a quite some time, the hologram in front of you continues changing shape, constantly. Then for a split second you feel your wrists burning. Not much of a painful feeling, this feeling is not pain as you remember but you can also describe it at best as burning. Then you open your eyes.

Leda and Cass. You see the hologram disintegrating in front of you, splitting into a thousand million pieces and slowly disappearing. Everything else seems to disintegrate as well. Then you open your eyes.

Dreams are messages from the deep.

Space. The ship wanders through it without much effort. Just you're about the finish your last blink, you all find yourselves in the ship, exactly as you remember before appearing in the rooms.

END OF SESSION 1