The Miner

Given the state of the rest of the world this entire space would only belong to me, this was my refuge while my body underwent repairs. My sanctuary of silence and calmness.

That was how it somehow came as a surprise to me as a disembodied form to watch a shape in the far distance slowly moving towards me. A glow was formed in the air, white light but shifting into different colours. Hard to tell exactly due to the distance. I could hear strong footsteps that impacted the ground, each step gradual but formed. Huh. Pure darkness and a figure turn up.

Like a fireside story we used to run inside my bakery during Halloweens. Just needed a skull face and a dollop of blood to make it realistic. Nah. This was a prank by the stupid system. I’d clearly had enough time to myself and this was a roundabout way of getting me back to work.

Unless the whole alternate reality thing came with reality shifting deities who messed with normal hard-working miners for fun. A program gone wrong and decided to take control due to wrong directives.

Unlikely but my mind was going to all sorts of random places. Gods, that would be a right trip. Bored gods who decided to mess with people. I was pretty sure that most stories ended up with deities getting involved but humans were pretty messed up in their own ways as well.

Was this going to be a god? It had better not be some other random guy turning up unless the system had worked out a way to break into my unconscious mind and directly intervene. This was my place, not a holiday resort.

‘Hello? I hope you’re not a wandering deity. This space is private or reserved if you’d prefer. Occupancy fit for only one guest. Me.’

It was nice to hear the sound of my human voice in this place. Hmm.

‘Lala! This space is mine and not yours. Ah, not a joke. Bye now.’

Yeah, my voice did work perfectly well. A disembodied mind with a voice in pure darkness along with a figure walking towards me. Well, this isn’t creepy at all. I so wished I had a soundtrack running for this part. It’d help me pretend that I wasn’t actually becoming slightly concerned.

‘System? Vincent? I’m searching for the right electronic tone. Sys-tem. Activate! Right…no results. Of course there won’t be.’

Given that there was no response meant this must be my deep, deep unconsciousness. A dream state even. The part of me that was separate from the world deep inside my mind or soul. And if someone considered that submerged unconsciousness would a nice place to take a walk with a glow stick, seriously they’d better get out. Or I’ll….ask politely for them to leave. Not many options here.

‘Hello? Conversation is appreciated but I’d prefer to be left alone. Vincent, if this is part of your Campos directives I’m going to be pissed. Don’t tell me that Overmind is a ghost manager.’

No response came from the figure, but it continued to walk towards the sound of my voice judging from the footsteps.

I willed myself to move. If I had any control over this space, perhaps even fly around the sky but no. Not right. I should have a severe lack of physical limitations if this was virtual reality. At least there should visible errors.

‘Stupid darkness. I got it, lights on!’

I may as well be a sentient statue with no control over my movements. Just me deep inside my own mind. Boring.

‘This is a private space. You are trespassing. Did you not read the signs?’

Still, nothing but I was now sure that the glow stick was coming closer towards me, those footsteps were a short distance away now. This wasn’t a fun situation.

Two choices, either ignore the thudding feet noise or keep shouting. As my body must have been undergoing intensive repairs, I had no clue how long I’d be stuck here. I chose option three, loudly humming out the lines for Pachabel canon in d major. The classical music calmed me slightly.

As a disembodied presence, there wasn’t anything some weird figure could do to cause me harm. At the least, it’d be nice to chat with someone to pass the time until the system caught up to my full consciousness. The thudding sound was almost towards me when I saw the full-frontal view of the figure.

was a person wearing an old-style spacesuit. The light didn’t come from any glow stick but instead, the helmet visor which was displaying a reflective screen which was constantly shifting into different colours and lines.

This made my nonexistent eyes ache.The astronaut suit was dark grey with several reflective white surfaces including a copper metal zip that ran down the front. It was impossible to tell gender or any other human features from the suit as the sheer bulk of the thing and gloved hands and booted feet didn’t give me much indication of the build or size of the person wearing it.

The figure carried on walking towards me before stopping around a metre from my disembodied presence. I saw a small blue and red badge with words and a white and red line running around it like a ring. It read the letter N.A.S.A. Huh, the name of the person wearing the suit then.

I called out. ‘Hello, is that your name? Na-sa? Nice to meet you.’

The suit had stopped moving with its two arms hanging loosely at its sides. From first appearance this thing was a giant insect shell that was meant to protect a human being, I was pretty sure that I hadn’t recognised that type of spacesuit before. I knew what it was used for but the whole thing just struck me as old and tatty. Even bits of the name tag NASA were held on with ductile tape.

The only interesting part of the suits was the visor that continually flashed in different lined colours and occasionally broke into pure black and white and the necklace, now that was intriguing to my non-visible eyes.

‘Hey, nice to meet you. Did you have any problems finding this space? It is kind of hard to locate and all given that it’s my deep unconsciousness. You ok there?’

The ancient proto-astronaut just stayed there, screen flickering in different colours bringing a vast array of light that flickered around and lit the absolutely dark surroundings. I stared back. A freak. Not quite what I had been expecting, not scary with a Halloween feel. Slightly surreal even.

‘I’m only visiting you know. Ok…this whole silent colour-staring thing is becoming uncomfortable. NASA, is that your first or last name?’

I took a different approach as constantly asking questions wasn’t going to give me a result. There were many different ways to make conversation and I’d just try another.

‘Your necklace, I like your necklace Na-sa. Interesting, is that a family heirloom?’

This time the astronaut suit jerked up and with its arms raised like a space zombie, and it took a single step and then another in the direction of my disembodied voice.

‘Uh, ok then. I like your necklace.’

The suit jerked even closer; its movements slightly awkward. Each step on the ground made the same audio hard impact on the ground.

The flickering screen struggled to focus on a single image but made for a blurry site. Not cracked or damaged, but the shifting colours and black lines threw me for a moment. Then it placed both hands on its head and began to talk to me with a crackly voice that sounded distorted through the reflective helmet.

{ddddddd.]

‘Hello, your necklace. Does it belong to you?’

{ddddddooo.}

‘Just try and get the words out. I’ve got nothing but time to listen until I leave this place.’

{dddddoooo youuuu}

‘Yes? Do I what?’

The astronaut smashed both gloved hands against the helmet several times with violent force. After a few hits both the distortion of the voice became more stable, and the voice became slightly clearer. It was a male voice.

{dooo you even know youurr name?}

‘No.’

I replied in my disembodied voice.

‘No. I don’t know my name. System?’

{dooo you even know yourrr name?}

‘No. System? We’re done here, I’m ready to get back to work. Shunt me back into that robotic form and let’s get on with it.

I had enough of the freaky proto-astronaut suit questioning me. I didn’t know if this was meant to be heaven or hell, but it was no longer holding my interest.

{dooo yo-} The necklace around the neck of the figure was being clutched tightly in both hands.

‘Shut up.’ The man wearing the astronaut suit shifted for a moment before the flickering lights dimmed down. The voice that he was talking in sounded familiar to me, but this should be my deep unconsciousness, this was my place. Therefore the guy in the suit would be part of my mind, a facet that was trying to tell me something.

Or I was having a psychotic breakdown, and this was an induced form of schizophrenia.

‘System.’ I raised my disembodied voice by imagining that my voice would shake light into this place and dispel the darkness.

‘SYSTEM. TURN OFF CONSERVATION MODE. NOW.’

I would say that waking up felt like being born but I’d only be trying to describe a vague feeling. No, this felt like someone had just grabbed me and yanked me high up into the air before letting go.

It felt closer to being dropped from a fast plane without a parachute, but you knew that a safety net was waiting there for you.

Body, I was back into my mechanical body. I knew that I was stronger, and more connected than previously. Energy flowed through me. My surroundings were the same concrete flooring with a roof and walls. The door wasn’t quite as damaged as when I had first entered. Still broken but at least tidier. Everything was a bit clearer this time around, I raised an arm and lowered it. Smoother. There were deep scratches on the floor leading from outside from when I had crawled in. Ouch.

The energy flowed better, my body felt fixed up, back to factory standards. Aside from my missing legs. I saw a neat stack of batteries next to a large crate. Tidy. Nice. Someone had organised an essential power supply. Judging by the amount it was likely that this building had been designated as a battery supply depot, could have other tools and be worth a search later but I’d need legs for that.

For starters, that door would need fixing and being made secure. I didn’t know if any wild animals or dangerous fauna were running around as I hadn’t met or even stepped on any on my journey here but still.

Nobody left a storage unit with an open broken door. An opportunity for robbers if there was one. Might as well make a makeshift alternative. I called up the name of the only being that would give me better advice on that. I’d need a checklist soon of the tasks I was meant to get on with.

[System?]

<…I’m telling you, that’s the main reason for the constant instability errors all the time. We need to find a newer candidate as soon as po->

[I’m back. Hello Vincent. Campos. Not sure what to call you.]

[I requested conversation mode turn off. So I just had an interesting experience with a man in an ancient spacesuit. Wait, who were you just talking to?]

Current Objectives: Repair/Locate Additional Mining Drone.

-Reward: 2 Hours in Mind Palace

-50 XP

Past Objective Achieved: Successful Location of Power Supply.

Reward now Available: Bonus 15 XP Awarded, 5 minutes Mind Palace

-20 XP reward

Special Abilities: Can process small amounts of rock through the main body into new ore and mineral sources.

-New Ability: Overcharge (You can push yourself beyond normal physical limits for short spaces of time.)

Failure of Objectives: N/A>

I let the words on the screen in my mind’s eye scroll down. An upgrade. Interesting, still not quite clear on what the experience points were there for, but it had been nice to be able to go back to that mind palace for a change of environment. I’d be heading back there to get some answers as well.

[Vincent. Who exactly were you talking to?]

Right. Scavengers and weapons sounded like a good opportunity for random conflict. I still wanted an answer to my questions. As in the experience points, there should be a steady way to gain them and level up faster. The more upgrades, the easier the work would surely be.

[System, who were you talking to? I met a astronau-. Wait. No, tell me who you were talking with. Am I not alone here? Did you find more people to shove into Starter Mining Drones? I’d like to have someone else to talk to.]

[Excuse me?]

[Wow, you’re harsh. Sure you’re not a corporate manager who urgently needs human resources training?]

I felt the whole conversation was becoming tiring now. If Vincent wasn’t willing to provide me with answers, then I’d have to take them by force if necessary. Being frivolous would serve to keep me sane and balanced. For a time at least.