Chapter Three:
Jason turned to see aliens from the game entering the control room from a door of light in the middle of the room! He was so surprised that he froze in place, how could they even exist outside the game? It just wasn’t possible! There wasn’t even any of the equipment installed in the control room to support a holographic image! Once four of the aliens had entered the control room the mysterious door of light vanished.
Jason slowly stepped back into the changing room as the aliens were facing the monitors and hadn’t seen him yet. He reached for the door and slowly started to close it, he knew the sound of the door catching would be too loud but if he closed it only partway then he could at least hide the fact that he was shutting down the power. He had almost finished when one of the aliens saw him! They raised their weapon to fire; Jason slammed the door shut barely avoiding the shot and quickly locked it.
He had barely stepped back when he heard the loud hum of another shot being fired. The blast knocked the door off its hinges slamming it into Jason knocking him off his feet. The force of the blast slammed him into the back wall of the room; he slid down into a sitting position with his back to the wall and his legs underneath the door. He could taste blood in his mouth where he had accidentally bitten the side of his cheek when the door hit him. Jason pulled his legs out from underneath the door, other than some bruises he didn’t seem to be hurt too seriously. Though he was quite sure that the bruises would hurt a lot more later. He looked up at the doorway to see the alien who had shot at him stepping through the smoke from the blast. With her weapon pointed right at him he did the only thing he could think of. Jason raised his hands and said “I surrender.”
Two more aliens entered the changing room. They dragged Jason to his feet and bound his hands behind him. They took him back out into the control room and had him sit in his chair facing the monitors. He could see Celestia on the monitors as she continued to evade the aliens. He winced when he saw her hiding in the closet. He could hear the aliens communicating with the ones pursuing Celestia. If she didn’t move they would catch her!
Jason knew he wasn’t anywhere as smart as Celestia, but even he knew something was terribly wrong. Somehow these people had to be real, but why they would chose to look like the aliens in her game? He knew that there were plenty of governments out there who would love to have Celestia to make weapons for them using her unique technology. She had turned down several job offers since he had been working for her. She had told them that although she was willing to make them stuff, she refused to work exclusively for just one government. Still, this whole thing just didn’t make any sense! If they wanted to kidnap Celestia why go to the trouble of pretending to be aliens in her game, and that didn’t explain what the mysterious door of light was either!
Jason watched as Celestia left the closet and continued through several rooms. Suddenly she stopped and faced the door she had come from, raising her hands in a gesture of surrender. He was puzzled until he realized she still thought the game was malfunctioning! She was going to surrender and end the game! She didn’t realize that the people were real! Jason watched as the door began to open behind Celestia.
Without a second thought he was on his feet yelling, “Behind you!” In a vain attempt to warn her. He watched helplessly as the blast caught her on the shoulder knocking her to the floor. Jason didn’t get to see what happened next as one of the aliens guarding him backhanded him with such force that it knocked him off his feet. He landed on his right side so hard it knocked the breath out of him. He looked up to see the alien who had hit him approaching.
The alien was coldly beautiful with shoulder length silver blonde hair and a face that other than the silver eyes looked like it came right from a Vogue magazine. His dark green uniform couldn’t hide his slender yet muscular build. Jason was surprised that his eyes could look so cold and yet beautiful at the same time. He had never seen such a look in another person’s eyes, for some reason he didn’t understand he actually felt afraid of him.
The alien dropped to one knee, pulled out his laser gun and firmly placed the nozzle against Jason’s left cheek. Jason cringed when he felt the cold hard nuzzle of the gun against his cheek. The alien saw his reaction and smiled.
“You will be silent. This is your first and last warning,” the alien said. He removed the laser gun and left Jason lying on the floor. Jason watched as the alien got back up and continued what he was doing. He looked up at the monitors to see Celestia lying on the floor surrounded by four of the aliens. Jason knew there was nothing he could do and he was certain the alien who had threatened him wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him if he tried anything else. He cursed under his breath at his own helplessness.
Celestia watched as another alien came in the room, unlike the others she was dressed in a more formal outfit. She was strangely beautiful with a touch of green in her silver eyes and dark blonde hair running halfway down her back. Celestia was surprised that she was wearing the uniform of a commander. She had sketched designs of the dark green uniform with gold braiding and a pale green cape, but she had yet to actually write the program for one. How was her sketch showing up in the game?
“Bring her,” the commander ordered. Two of the aliens grabbed Celestia’s arms and pulled her up so she was standing. They bound her hands behind her back. Once again Celestia was speechless as there was nothing in the program for them to even have any type of restraints! The aliens ordered her to walk forward but she was still too surprised by what was happening to even move. One of the two aliens standing next to Celestia shoved her so hard to her get started that she almost stumbled and fell.
She followed the two aliens in front of her as they led her back into the other areas of the game. Celestia began to wonder just what had really happened with the game. She knew the programming hadn’t been altered so why was it not working correctly? With the guns actually being able to hurt her could she actually be killed? Perhaps the computer had somehow malfunctioned and aspects of other games she had created were present. It would certainly account for the weapons actually hurting her. If such a malfunction had occurred all sorts of things that the program wasn’t designed to do might actually happen. And yet part of her wondered how such a thing could happen with all the safeguards she had put in the system.
As Celestia was being led by the aliens though the game her mind raced, no matter what she thought of she couldn’t seem to figure out what had gone wrong. She knew that her only hope was to go along with the game. Jason was sure to realize what was happening and shut it down, yet she was bothered that he hadn’t done that yet. Had they attacked him as well? No, Celestia realized that it wasn’t possible as there wasn’t any holographic equipment in the control room.
What was taking him so long! He should have already shut the game down! She still didn’t have any clue as to what they planned to do with her. If her thought about other games being merged with this one was true then at least she didn’t have to worry too much. None of the games she had designed so far had any torture or other nasty stuff in it. Celestia followed the aliens into the next room and stopped dead in her tracks at what she saw there. In the middle of the room there was a mysterious door made of light? There wasn’t anything like that in any of the programs she had written! The aliens didn’t give her any choice as they grabbed her arms and dragged her through the door made of light.
Celestia was surprised by what was on the other side of the door made of light. The room she was in now contained scenery that didn’t exist in any of her games. She didn’t have much time to think about it as the next room completely took her by surprise. It was obviously an interrogation room! There was a table with four chairs on one side and a single chair on the other with restraints for holding someone down. The two aliens walking beside her took her over to the chair and after removing the restraints on her hands they forced her to sit in the chair and then proceeded to fasten her to the chair.
With a restraint across her chest just under her arms, one around her waist and ones around her wrists and ankles, Celestia found she couldn’t help but feel afraid. She couldn’t even think clearly. Two of the aliens stood at attention next to the door while the other four sat down at the table. The woman wearing the Commander outfit started turning on a computer, which was located in the table.
Although Celestia could see the light from the monitors built in the table, she couldn’t see what the screens actually said from her position. She felt a strange vibration in the chair she was bound too. Some how Celestia knew that wasn’t a good thing.
