Chapter Two:
The game became more intense as even more aliens were attempting to corner Celestia. They were using cover fire to pin her down while others advanced on her position. Celestia quickly fired at them risking taking another hit, she had already been hit once. The aliens scattered briefly to avoid her fire and Celestia took the chance to run for a set of stairs going down to get away. She knew she could take two more hits without losing the game. Celestia figured that if she could get to the stairs and escape down to the next level she would stand a better chance. As it stood if they got to her position she would lose the game.
Celestia made it to the stairs but before she had taken a single step, the aliens shot her in the left arm. To her surprise instead of hearing the usual chime indicating she had taken a hit, Celestia felt an electrical shock run though her arm from where the laser hit. The sudden pain and the fact that the blast actually pushed her a bit forward on the left side nearly caused her to lose her balance and fall down the stairs. She had to grab onto the railing to keep from falling as she ran down the stairs. Celestia wondered what the hell had happened to the program for it to create a malfunction like that. The holographic projectors had not been programmed to produce anything like that!
Celestia regained her footing at the bottom of the stairs and said, “Jason! Shut down Silver One!” Nothing happened.
“Jason! Kendra! Respond!” Still nothing.
“Emergency override! Shut down Silver one!” Celestia yelled. Again there was no response. Celestia barely had time to realize that there was something wrong with the program when the aliens appeared at the top of the stairs and took aim. Not wanting to be electrocuted again she took off barely avoiding the enemy fire.
Jason watched as Celestia nearly fell down the stairs from being shot. Instantly he knew something was wrong, he could see her lips moving but there was no sound.
“Celestia! What’s wrong? I’ve lost the signal. Celestia!” Jason yelled. He could see that she was still speaking but there was still no sound.
“Kendra! Shut down Silver One!” Jason said. Nothing happened. Jason tried to enter the shut down code manually, but still there was no response. Jason looked up at the screen in time to see Celestia barely avoid further enemy fire.
“Damn!” Jason snarled. “I have to shut it down somehow!” Jason got up and ran to the changing room, if he couldn’t turn the program off then perhaps shutting down the power to the building would do the job. He would have to turn off the emergency generators as well to keep it from switching over to emergency power. Jason had barely opened the door when the sound of movement came from behind him.
Celestia began to feel just a little bit afraid. She couldn’t figure out what had caused the game to malfunction!
“Damn it! Jason! Kendra! Shut down Silver One!” she yelled. Still there was no response. For the next ten minutes Celestia ran like mad avoiding enemy fire and shooting at the aliens every chance she got. But this group of aliens seemed to anticipate her every move and not one shot actually hit! She knew that Jason wasn’t responsible, people often accused her of being arrogant but it was the simple truth that no one had been able to hack her systems or even produce a replica. So it just wasn’t possible for him to have re-programmed the game. Besides, she was fairly certain he liked her. She hired him because she knew he had no intention of stealing from her. How she knew that she didn’t know, but her instincts in hiring personnel in the past ten years had never been wrong. Celestia tried again to get Kendra (the computer) to shut down Silver One without success.
Celestia hid in a closet in one of the many rooms to take a moment and catch her breath. Even if she could get to the door that connected with the control room, her way was blocked by aliens and unless she could get the program to shut down the electrical energy covering the door would keep her from even being able to leave the game. Celestia was glad she was the designer of the game; otherwise with all the running she had done she would be completely lost. The holographic scenery was just too realistic.
“Kendra! Jason! Respond please!” she whispered into the mike. There was still no response. Jason had to have realized that something was wrong by now. Celestia hoped he would realize that he could go to the circuit breakers in the changing room and turn off the emergency generators and cut the power. As she leaned against the closet wall the thought occurred to her that she was glad she had designed the game to end when you are captured and not when you are killed.
Celestia was carefully moving on as staying in one spot was bound to get her caught when suddenly she realized she was going about this the wrong way! The way to end the game was to let them catch her! Once she was captured, the game should end! The program was designed to end at that point. Celestia felt almost foolish as she realized that she had run like crazy trying to escape a mere game. She ran into the next room and turned to await the aliens who were pursuing her. She raised her arms to surrender, as she wanted to avoid being shot again. In spite of knowing it was a game she still felt afraid since she didn’t want to be electrocuted again. Her left arm still felt a tiny bit numb from the first time she had been shot. The game allowed one to surrender so she hoped that the aliens recognized her surrender before shooting.
Then suddenly the door opened behind Celestia. Cursing under her breath she tried to turn around quickly. The aliens had split in to two groups in order to catch her! She turned frantically; it was almost like time itself was moving slowly as the first alien raised his weapon preparing to shoot.
“I surrender!” Celestia cried out! But it was a fraction too late; the blast from the gun hit her squarely on her left shoulder. Celestia wasn’t completely turned around and the blast of electric energy knocked her off her feet. She fell backwards, landing hard on her back. The force of the fall caused the weapon she was holding to go flying across the floor. Celestia wanted to scream; the electrical blast was even more painful than the last time! She thought that she was going to pass out. Her vision began to gray and she fought it until her vision cleared only to see four of the aliens standing above her, their weapons pointed right at her.
Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. Since they hadn’t fired again it meant that the program had recognized her surrender. The game was finally over. She started to get up but to her complete shock the aliens actually spoke telling her to not move! At their words Celestia froze in complete panic! The program hadn’t ended!
