《Ante Portas》


 Aliens? What Aliens?

    ¡°This way, Ms. Thompson, if you would be so kind.¡±


    The agents, predictably, were overly polite. Usually this was the case, since they didn¡¯t know who she was, but she was visiting important people. This made her important as well in their minds.


    She knew from experience that it was the best to just ignore it. She nodded, and followed them, one in the front, one behind, while keeping a curious eye on the environment. As someone working with the Government for a few years now, she was no stranger to military and agency sites, but she never visited this specific one, or even heard about ETACA, who owned it. From the looks of the decoration, the site was new. Probably the agency as well.


    After a bit of walking and a few turns, they finally arrived. Their goal was an office door, one of many, smelling of fresh paint, with no name tag on it. The agent in front knocked, waited for the answer, then opened the door. They let her go in but both of them stayed outside.


    It was a fairly small office, with a single desk, three chairs and a file cabinet inside. Freshly painted, obviously, and without any visible decoration that would tell anything about the people occupying two of the chairs. One of them - crew cut, graying, uniform, muscles - was looking at her, returning the scrutinizing look she gave him. The other one - civil clothes, graying, glasses, sickly - was organizing some papers on the desk.


    ¡°Good morning, Ms. Thompson!¡± - the uniformed one raised from the chair to greet her - ¡°Thank you for joining us.¡±


    ¡°My pleasure... ¡° - she checked the insignia on the uniform - ¡°... Colonel. How can I help you today?¡±


    There were no names or introductions, which was pretty common in this environment. She was fine with it, no one wants to learn new names every week.


    ¡°Before I explain what this is about, can I ask you to take a look at these articles?¡±


    On cue, the other person in civilian clothes placed the papers in four groups, title on the top. One of them was from a magazine, others from different blogs and forums. Quickly browsing through the titles, Lina decided to speed up the discussion.


    ¡°Yeah, I read those three, and wrote the fourth one myself. What is your question?¡±


    The two men looked at each other, then the colonel cleared his throat, apparently being ill at ease.


    ¡°We didn¡¯t actually know that you wrote that one, Ms. Thompson. I¡¯m sure we will look into that, right, Mr. Vance?¡±


    ¡°Uh, yes, Colonel, I will make an inquiry about that.¡±


    Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°Anyway¡­ Ms. Thompson, could you please briefly describe the topics of these articles for me?¡±


    Thinking for a second, Lina went through the contents of the four articles in her head, looking for a common theme. It was fairly obvious, actually, and it made her very curious about what this assignment will entail.


    ¡°All four of them are looking at different aspects of first contact with Extra Terrestrial civilisations. One is looking at the probable technological differences, and how this could affect the economy. It has some interesting ideas. The next one looks into the possibility of getting infected by alien viruses. While the foundations are good, the variations are so numerous that even the author admits that it is impossible to prepare for everything. The third one is garbage; it¡¯s supposed to be a generic article about everything related to the first contact, and therefore it doesn¡¯t have anything substantial. Mine discusses a sensible approach to make first contact, considering the inevitable psychological and cultural differences of two races, and tries to define a way how these could be bridged, eliminating the chances of accidental war.¡±


    ¡°Garbage, eh?¡± - the colonel laughed elbowing the suddenly sour-faced civilian - ¡°I couldn¡¯t agree more! Can you tell me a bit more about the first one, please?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    The discussion took a few minutes, mostly focusing on the theory that the alien technology can be unidentifiable for simply a different design approach, but it might also be a fully unexplored technological field where Earth scientist would lack the fundamental theoretical knowledge to even understand the function of said device. This time the civilian also joined the discussion, and Lina was pleasantly surprised by his grasp of the concepts, and the ideas he brought to the table.


    ¡°So, in short, it¡¯s fair to say that it would probably take some time to understand even a simple piece of alien technology, if we could understand it at all, correct?¡± - summarized the colonel.


    Lina nodded.


    ¡°Ok. Coming from this point, let¡¯s talk about your artifact.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ my assumption is that it would be a very simple but obviously artificial shape, like a sphere or cube, as these are basically universal forms. It would have the ability to observe the target civilization, and make autonomous decisions, therefore it would have a partial or full AI, and a lot of passive/active sensors. It should be fairly indestructible, or largely redundant, even on a level of a network of physically distributed nodes. It would arrive on a small autonomous spacecraft that would destroy itself on arrival, mainly to prevent technological leakage. After a long period of observation, once it has established a good understanding of the language and the culture, the artifact would make contact and gradually teach the target society about the language and culture of the source civilization. Or, it would destroy itself if it would deem the contact impossible or meaningless. In case of the initiated contact, it would also send communications back to the source culture.¡±


    ¡°Yes, however in the first part you assume similar design principles to ours.¡± - added the civilian.


    ¡°That is correct. There is no guarantee to have a simple shape, even though from our perspective that seems to be a logical thing to do.¡±


    ¡°This is an excellent article, Ms. Thompson. A lot of us at the agency read it, and most of us agree with your conclusions. It¡¯s really a tremendous amount of luck that we found you accidentally. We will need your brain to puzzle something out.¡±


    ¡°Puzzle something out? What exactly do you mean by that?¡±


    ¡°Would you like to see the artifact you just described in real life?¡±

 Interdimensional Cotton Candy

    ETACA was an abbreviation for Extra Terrestrial and Alien Contact Agency. At first, specifying both Extra Terrestrial and Alien in the name seemed superfluous, but there was a good reason to do so. Most people, including Lina, always assumed that the first aliens humanity made contact with would come from space. Interdimensional travel, while it was an accepted theme in science fiction, never made it to the mainstream thinking.


    ¡°We have two possible theories about the item¡± - explained Mark, the civilian, as they were walking towards the artifact - ¡°The first is that this other civilization is native to that other universe in the multiverse, or as the fictional literature calls it, the other ¡®dimension¡¯, and they found a way to break through the ¡°wall¡± between that one and ours. How exactly they found Earth is still a question, the favourite explanation for that is they live in a parallel Earth, therefore the two are dimensionally coaligned. The second theory is that the aliens are native to our own universe, and they use the multiverse to travel faster than light. Or, a combination of the two, with multiple other universes, etcetera. Either way, they basically phased the artifact directly here, without any flying device or spaceship. As no one wanted to try and move it, at least not until we understood how it works, we had to build this site around it.¡±


    ¡°I  see, thank you for explaining this, but, Colonel, could you please tell me why I am here? I¡¯d like to see the artifact, naturally, but, let me be blunt, what do you get from this?¡±


    ¡°How about we talk about that after you have seen it?¡±


    Although Lina had some misgivings about this, she could read the signs. The colonel was obviously waiting for the right moment to approach the question, and nothing she could say would make him talk now. So, she decided to stay patient and observant, waiting for the right time.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    They didn¡¯t need to go far. After a few minutes of walking, the agent walking in the front opened a door, and stood aside, letting Lina through. Crossing the door she stopped at once and tried to take in the view.


    This part of the building was huge, reminding her of the plane hangars she visited sometimes. Just with all gates closed, for obvious reasons. In the middle, instead of a plane, there was a huge standing cylinder made from opaque man-sized glass tubes, terminals, metallic shelves, wires and lights. All in all, the technology looked disappointingly Earthlike. Even the low hum coming from it sounded like normal machinery.


    A hand nudged her gently forward, and she realized that she is blocking the doorway for everyone. She stepped aside with a quick ¡®sorry¡¯, then looked at the colonel.


    ¡°Is this it?¡± - she asked, motioning towards the strange construction.


    ¡°Hmm? This? Oh, no, this is just the life support we built. The artifact is in the middle.¡±


    Life support? Why do they need life support? Lina refrained from asking the question, but she stored the information for revisiting it later.


    Walking around the construction, the Colonel led them through an opening, and Lina finally had a good view of the alien device. After observing it for half a minute, she turned back to her company:


    ¡°Okay, I think we can tick that part about this thing looking alien. The closest thing I can come up with is rainbow cotton candy made from glass.¡±


    ¡°That sounds surprisingly apt.¡±


    ¡°Soooo¡­ now that I have seen it, and all of these,¡± - she motioned around - ¡°would you be so kind as to tell me what this is about?¡±


    ¡°Certainly. We would like you to enter it.¡±

 Oaks-on-Sea

    Later that night, Lina found it hard to fall asleep. She rarely had this problem, as she was used to spending nights in hotel rooms, and the current one was actually pretty decent for the price. It was also normal for her to learn surprising and sometimes dark things as part of her job. Usually, she could compartmentalize it easily, after all, this was only her job, and she was paid for it very generously. But this alien business¡­


    After a lot of tossing and turning, she sat up with a deep sigh, and switched on the lights. Picking up the tablet and the stylus, she started making a mindmap. This was an old technique back from her time at the university, when she learned that making an idea sheet helped her to organize big chunks of information.


    ¡°SURVIVALISTS!¡± - she wrote, then added an idea bubble - ¡°Earth environment?¡±


    Another idea child from this one: ¡°Next abstraction!¡±


    Then, a new base idea: ¡°Consciousness travels to somewhere else¡±, and a child node: ¡°Impossible to separate it from the brain?¡±. And another: ¡°Can come back¡±. One more: ¡°What if the body dies?¡±


    The map was steadily growing as she noted the different facts and ideas. Once the page was full, she started browsing through all the nodes, and marked a few for further research. Then, she opened her laptop, and started typing¡­


    In the morning, she decided to stay in bed until late. As a result of working till the small hours of the night, she now had a much better understanding of wilderness survival and first aid, a bunch of old myths and legends, and sleep deprivation. Two of these will come handy, she was sure of it, but going to a new world with less than her top mental capacity seemed to be unwise.


    After having an early lunch in the hotel, and checking out, she arrived at the site shortly after noon. The agents, still polite and professional, led her to the medical room for the check up, and carried her luggage away for storing.


    A short time and a copious amount of prodding later she was back at the hangar, shivering in her thin sport top and short. She was surprised when the colonel approached her with a soft blanket, and offered it for her, not expecting kindness from the hardened soldier.


    ¡°I was worried that you won¡¯t turn up today after everything we told you yesterday, Ms. Thompson.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, Colonel. I stayed up late to research some things.¡±


    ¡°Did you find anything interesting?¡±


    ¡°I think so, yes. Did you ever consider that this is not the first time in history when the artifact appeared?¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t say I did. But I assume you found something?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I was just searching on google, nothing more serious than that, but I nailed down a few interesting stories. For example, it seems that a few events in the Bermuda triangle might be connected to an artifact, but we need more research on that. But, more importantly, the story of Ann Willard from 1774, who lived in a village called Oaks-on-Sea.¡±


    ¡°I am not familiar with that story, Ms. Thompson.¡±


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°I¡¯d be surprised if you were, it¡¯s nothing special. She went to the forest to collect mushrooms one day, and somehow hurt her leg. On the way back she stopped for a rest at a weird multi-colored rock, and she had a strange dream. In the dream she was somewhere else, a forest with plants she couldn¡¯t recognise, and unusual looking critters. She spent several days there, looking for anything familiar. At the end, she met a man called Jonathan Miller, who told her that he lived there for several years or possibly decades, but still looked about twenty years old. He guided her back to the point where she appeared, and then she woke up. Apparently, she was asleep for a few hours at most, and arrived home on the same day.¡±


    ¡°Yes, this could have been a travel in an artifact dimension, but the same way, it could have really been just a dream. The time can be messed up in both.¡±


    ¡°I totally agree with that. However, we have another name: Jonathan Miller. Guess what I found when I looked that person up.¡±


    ¡°Several million hits on google?¡±


    ¡°Well, yes, of course. However, after narrowing down the search, I found one Jonathan Miller in that same area, who disappeared 15 years earlier, with some curious circumstances. First of all, he also went to the forest. He didn¡¯t return, so the next day his friends started looking for him. When they found him two days later, he was unconscious, but still alive. They took him home, but two days later he died, without waking up once.¡±


    ¡°And you think he went into the artifact, got lost, and kept living inside for 15 years after his body died? Without aging?¡±


    ¡°Well, it sounds like it, doesn¡¯t it? Hard to believe though.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I will play along: so, what if this is the case?¡±


    ¡°My assumption is that this is not a unique case, therefore we can expect dozens, or possibly hundreds of humans living over there. Most of them would be arriving from the previous centuries, making them more suitable for being able to live off the land and laying down the foundations for settlements. So, we can expect some form of civilization to exist.¡±


    ¡°Okay, let me play the devil¡¯s advocate here: We have no idea how big this other world is. So, there are a dozen huts somewhere there, or even, a village of two¡­ How do you plan to find them?¡±


    ¡°I have no idea. But, if there is a will there''s a way.¡±


    ¡°Wow. Quoting me proverbs makes you look so smart.¡±


    Lina couldn¡¯t help herself, and stuck her tongue out. The Colonel laughed, and bowed his head slightly.


    ¡°Sorry for the sarcasm. I get your point, it is worth running this by the top brass. I will do that. You, on the other hand, should get ready for your first dive.¡±


    ¡°Sir, yes sir!¡± - she said with a mock salute, and started walking towards the technicians, holding the blanket like the finest cocktail dress. Throwing a look back above her shoulder she saw the Colonel grinning widely.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect this from a soldier¡± - she murmured to no one in particular.


    Then the life support team took over, and Lina was shown the capsule she will spend some time in. They explained - twice - what she needed to do, which was nothing more complicated than: ¡°Go close and touch the core¡±. She had to drink a weird tasting liquid that was supposed to help her transition, and finally, she was standing a dozen feet away from the artifact, blanketless, shivering from the cold and the expectation. She felt like her feet were rooted in the floor, unable to take a step forward.


    After a few seconds a warm, quiet voice break her fright.


    ¡°I know this is hard, Ms. Thompson. If you want to do it tomorrow, just let me know. There is no urgency.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s... fine¡­ I¡¯m fine. Just give me a second.¡±


    ¡°Take all the time you need.¡±


    Encouraged by the kind words of the Colonel, she took a step forward, then kept on walking. As she approached, the ¡°fluffy¡± part withdrew - as promised - and revealed the small, melon sized yellow sphere, that the technicians referred to as the core.


    Raising her hand, she stopped once more, then put it on the surface.


    ¡°It feels like...¡±


    And blackness.

 Not Quite Naked

    "...silk!" - Lina said, then realized that she already switched over.


    "Mmm, so this is it" - she thought, looking around. As the colonel described it on the previous day, she was standing in a forest type environment, not a jungle by any means, but fairly warm. The plants looked strange at first sight, the green was a bit off, and the shape of the leaves was also unusual. Exactly as it was described by the so-called scouting teams. No sign of any civilization, neither human nor alien. Just a bunch of tall plants and bushes.


    The ground showed signs of people being here, tracks of naked feet as well as broken or disturbed vegetation were all around her. The ground was surprisingly dense, under a thin top layer it felt almost like hard clay, without the stickiness.


    After taking note of the environment, Lina checked herself. Her body looked precisely as she remembered it, including - she quickly checked - the parts under the clothes. The clothes themselves were exactly the same as what she was wearing outside.


    Already, after maybe two minutes, there were a lot of questions on her mind. How did the artifact scan her so quickly? What happens with the fallen leaves? With the lack of the plant detritus, how does the whole ecosystem work? Is this a real world where she is controlling a clone, or a digital one that somehow copied or transferred her consciousness?


    Well, her money was on a digital world, or whatever the alien version of that was. Shared mindspace? Something like that. That could be an explanation for everything above. However, as they discussed this on the previous day, the colonel, for undisclosed reasons, had doubts about that.


    However, for the time being, she decided to start two experiments. From the plants, she selected a piece of hard¡­ wood?... and scratched a visible L on her forearm. Then she grabbed the piece in her right hand, and focused on leaving the alien world.


    As promised, she was back in her own body on Earth the next second, laying on a bed. She checked her forearm and her hand, neither the mark nor the plant piece were there, but she didn¡¯t expect them either. As soon as she opened her eyes and started moving, the technician sitting next to her bed started a medical checkup.


    ¡°That¡¯s normal procedure after someone comes back, if they are not in a pod. The pods automatically track all vital signs.¡± - said the Colonel, patting her knee - ¡°Are you ok?¡±


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Yeah, all good. It¡¯s pretty much as you described it yesterday.¡±


    ¡°Excellent. Now, the next thing: we would like you to spend a few days on the other side. From your file I can see that you have experience in camping and some rudimental training in survival. As I explained yesterday, a few military survival experts already tried this, with limited success. However we believe that your education and experience would lead to a different approach, that might just work better. Or not, in which case you just need to come back to the starting point and leave the world, as you did today.¡±


    ¡°Come back? Why?¡±


    ¡°It only works there. We don¡¯t know why. Anyway, since we don¡¯t want to influence your experience or impression, we will not share the reports from the others just yet. We want you to come up with your own thoughts. If you can survive on your own for 10 days, please come back, and report. If you need any help, either medical, emotional, or anything, come back. There will be someone in this area 24/7, and they will contact me at once if I am not here.¡±


    ¡°Uhh, that¡¯s a bit sudden, Colonel. What can I eat? What do I do against predators? What happens if I die in an attack?¡±


    ¡°Well. There are things to eat, but you need to find them. So far no one reported any big predators in the vicinity. We have no idea what happens if you die on the other side, if that is possible at all. Try not to find out!¡± - he smiled for a second, then turned serious again - ¡°We are here as a safety net, if you need anything, come back. I mean it.¡±


    The technician gave a thumbs up, and collected her instruments. Finally permitted to stand, Lina looked around. She was right next to the artifact, almost touching it.


    ¡°How much time elapsed here while I was in?¡±


    ¡°Not a lot, maybe a minute. We only had time to place you on the bed, and you woke up a few seconds later.¡±


    ¡°So, there is a difference in the speed of time inside.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s about three times faster inside. 3.1, or so.¡±


    Lina laughed, then, seeing the confused look on the Colonel¡¯s face, she explained:


    ¡°I guess you will find that it is 3.1415 times faster. It¡¯s a sign from the aliens that they control the flow of time inside. It¡¯s the value of Pi.¡±


    ¡°Interesting idea, we will try and measure it.¡±


    ¡°Anyway¡­ I am okay to spend a few days inside, I guess this is why you said that I should check out from the hotel. Anything else to know?¡±


    ¡°Nothing you will need. We are ready whenever you are.¡±


    She nodded, and without further ado, walked to the core, and touched it again.


    Blackness.

 Survival 101

    Back in the forest, Lina checked her forearm. It had the mark on it, and she found the plant part in her fist.


    ¡°Okay, so the body is persisted while I am outside, like a character in a videogame. I wonder what else there is that is like that. But before we go there, let¡¯s think about survival.¡±


    She always talked to herself, when she was alone. Being in an alien dimension slash videogame was not a good enough reason to stop this useful habit.


    Anyway, survival basics: oxygen, drink, food, shelter. She wasn¡¯t sure if the air actually contained any oxygen, since she had no idea how her current body functioned, but rest assured, breathing was not a problem for the time being. To find food and drinks, she will need to experiment with the plants and look around for a source of drinkable water. Shelter¡­ that was a tricky one. She could theoretically stay in a cave or similar, but she had no idea if there was one in the vicinity. Alternatively, she might build one, but without tools and materials, the best she could hope for was to break off a few branches from a bigger plant with leaves, and somehow fix them together, with vines, for example. Not that she had any idea about what the weather will be like here. Putting that aside, making fire could also be important, for providing heat and light - assuming that the nights were actually dark and cold. Also, that there were nights here.


    ¡°Damn! Too many assumptions and only one Lina to experiment, never a good combination!¡± - she swore out loud, which made her feel better.


    Looking back at her scant clothing, she also added making clothes to the increasing list of tasks. The colonel told her that they don¡¯t want to transfer anything artificial here, and she didn¡¯t question this decision then - not even suspecting that she will be requested to spend several days in this world - but now, thinking about it, that didn¡¯t make any sense. She was sure that the artifact already scanned everything on the other side, technology, clothes, people, everything, so whether something actually gets replicated on this side or not, it¡¯s a moot point. This will be the first point in her report, she decided, and turned her mind back to the survival thing.


    One thing to keep in mind: you need to be able to orient yourself. You can find the best food, build the greatest shelter, but if you can¡¯t remember where they were when you need them, it¡¯s like they never existed. So, first thing: let¡¯s memorise the entry point.


    Looking around, she couldn¡¯t see anything that was unique enough to be visible from further away, nor anything that she could use for marking the place. That left only her clothing.


    Tearing off a piece of cloth looks so easy in the movies. It wasn¡¯t that, though. Lina spent several minutes trying to rip a part of the sports bra off, then used her teeth to try and wear it out, frequently stopping the effort for swearing loudly. At the end, she succeeded, and was a proud owner of a strip of white textile. Also, a partially ruined bra, which still served her to some extent, but made her feel like she was in a low budget horror movie. Adding a mental exclamation mark to the ¡®make clothes¡¯ task from earlier, she tied the strip around the closest tree, just above her head height. She hoped that this and tracking her own footsteps back will be sufficient.


    Next, she broke a straight branch off of a bush, maybe two feet long, and cleaned it, creating something that wasn¡¯t exactly a staff, more like a rod. Totally useless for self defense, but helpful for drawing marks on the ground. Immediately, she drew a circle at the starting position, drawing the end of the branch around herself several times to make the mark easy to see, and then drew a line in one direction, marking the way she planned to go.


    The direction was not randomly selected. Lina picked the way where there was more light, figuring that open water would mean less vegetation, but even if there was no water, just an opening between the trees, she would see further from there. With regularly marking the ground and breaking parts of the plants down to leave a visible trail, she walked towards the light in a more or less straight line..


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    A few minutes later, she started noticing a change in the vegetation. The ¡®trees¡¯, as she called the tall plants internally, started growing shorter and sparser, giving space to a bigger number of bushes. Luckily, this wasn¡¯t the uncrossable mass of branches and thorns that you often see on Earth; the bushes had an easily identifiable half spherical shape, and they tended to keep a short distance from each other, never quite touching. Very soon, Lina noticed a yellow and blue dotted shape on one of them. A closer look revealed that it was a fruit or berry, growing from the underside of the leaf for some reason. Peeking under a few other leaves, Lina collected a handful of these, with varying colors and size.


    Earth logic dictated that the bigger, more colorful ones were more ripe, as these would catch the attraction of herbivores, and help with spreading the seeds of the plant. However, there were so many assumptions in this chain of thoughts that Lina decided to forget the idea itself, and just try each one of them without trying to guess which ones were better. Hoping that she wouldn¡¯t be poisoned, she bit into one, and kept it in her mouth for a second to check the taste.


    ¡°Savoury with a tang of something unique. A bit like a tomato, a bit like mushroom, and a lot like nothing I ever tasted. Can eat this, if I have to.¡± - she muttered, then started sampling the others.


    She didn¡¯t really note an obvious logic about how the ¡®fruits¡¯ tasted, but she preferred the ones she picked from the parts which were further away from the center of the bush.


    ¡°I will name this thing sangee¡± - she decided, trying the word - ¡°Yeah, sounds good. We will see in a few hours if the sangee is poisonous or not. Hopefully not, though, and if it is, let¡¯s hope I won¡¯t die from this much.¡±


    She was surprised about this thought. It felt really disconnected, like death didn¡¯t matter at all.


    ¡°Remember, Lina, however much this feels like a videogame, there is no respawn here¡­ I guess. That¡¯s not an experiment I would voluntarily try.¡±


    Something reacted to her voice, moving in a bush next to her, probably running away. She crouched down to take a peek between the leaves, but she couldn¡¯t see anything.


    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s just whisper from now on¡± - she whispered to herself - ¡°we don¡¯t want anything bigger than this to notice us.¡±


    Memorising the shape of the leaves on the sangee bush, she started walking in the original direction, keeping an eye out for other interesting plants. She found a few more sangee bushes in the area, then a different type of bush took over, then another. She found one that had thin but strong vines, and collected a few of these, using her teeth again for cutting them off. Then, another interesting bush with leaves that formed jug-like shapes, containing some liquid and a big seed pod in the middle. A vine held them at the top, hanging in the air.


    ¡°Ha! Pitcher plants, trying to catch me, the little fly! I am not that na?ve! Or am I¡­ we still don¡¯t know the insect situation in the world¡­ hmm.¡±


    As it was the first possible source she saw to gather some liquid, she decided to try it. Carefully, she approached one, then, using her wooden wand, nudged the vine and the leaf. Getting more brave with the lack of any reaction, she grabbed the vine, and broke it in two, keeping the part with the jug in her hand.


    It seemed to contain a good amount of liquid. Peeking inside, she didn¡¯t notice any dead insects, the liquid was clear, and didn¡¯t smell of anything. She sploshed it around, checking the viscosity, noting that it was similar to that of water.


    Using the thin part of the vine that held the seed pod in the liquid, she fished it out and inspected it. The walls were translucent green, giving her the impression of the contents which looked like a bag of marbles. Kneeling down and placing it on the ground, she turned her attention back to the jug.


    ¡°So, visually it is good. Smell is good. Nothing to listen to. We have touch and taste left. Let¡¯s start with the touch.¡±


    Carefully, she touched the wet part of the pod with her little finger. Not feeling any stickiness or burning, she carefully dipped the same finger in the liquid in the jug. Still nothing. She lifted the finger out, and placed the single drop of liquid that stuck to it on her tongue.


    Water. Pure, maybe a hint of plant taste, but nothing more than that.


    Lifting the jug, she took a sip of it in her mouth, and waited. Feeling nothing unexpected, she swallowed it.


    ¡°One more way to get poisoned. This will be an exciting night.¡±

 Ripe Sheets

    The next few minutes were spent with fabrication. Using the strong vines Lina gathered earlier, she made a very simple belt, and tied the jug there, after emptying the leftover water on the ground. Finally, a pocket! She placed the fruits and the seed pod in it, together with most of the vines she still had. Then she picked another jug, and tried to tie a knot to close it, but the result was questionable at best. After a while she just gave up and left it open, hoping that she could be careful enough not to spill it.


    ¡°Where to next?¡± - she mused, whispering to herself - ¡°I can go back, but it will be a cold night if I don¡¯t find something to make fire with, or at least some cover.¡±


    Suddenly, a strong wave of loneliness took over her. It felt almost like a thirst, the need to talk to someone. She wasn¡¯t a stranger to this feeling, as someone living alone without a long term partner, this emotion state was a frequent evening visitor. When this happened, she usually just stood in the living room of her flat, and imagined the people living upstairs and downstairs from her, and her next door neighbours. She thought about them watching TV, cooking, making love, reading stories to their kids, and she felt that even if she didn¡¯t have a family, she was part of something bigger. But no one was here. Even imagining that her actual body was out there, surrounded by other people, didn¡¯t help.


    She struggled with the feeling for a while, trying to raise anger at something - anything - to fight the depression. ¡°I am not going to go back on the first day, no chance in hell¡± - she thought, her hands in fists, teeth grinding.


    Ever so slowly, the bad feelings disappeared, leaving her feeling tired and confused. She couldn¡¯t shake the impression that this was unnatural, like her thoughts were being manipulated externally. And if it was, what was the point? Was it about measuring her dedication, her willpower? What else will be tested and how? Everything she found here raised more questions than answers so far.


    Turning her mind back to the problems she could actually solve, she peeked at the sky to see if there was any sign of the approaching evening yet. Since she was in a more bushy area now, she could actually see it properly. She didn¡¯t see a sun or any other discernible object in the sky, so she couldn¡¯t use those to fathom the local time. The color of the sky was a bit off, bluish gray, probably cloudy. It would be prudent to hurry, she decided, even though she had no idea which way to go and what to look for.


    She decided to continue walking in the general direction she previously followed. It would make finding her way back easier, and otherwise there was no visible difference in any direction she could pick.


    The bushes soon started to change again, new, different types appeared. Most of them didn¡¯t seem to be useful in any way. Still, Lina was able to pick two other types of fruits, one small, like a berry, that was growing on a long, finger wide vine, the other one a red, broccoli shaped fruit that had cubic ends. She refrained from eating them just yet, to be able to determine what poisoned her, if something did. They went into her new ¡®pocket¡¯ for later experimentation. She was also able to collect more vines, although she still had to use her teeth to get them. There was a total lack of rocks so far as she could see, meaning that she won¡¯t be able to advance to even the stone age, unless she finds an area where they were more abundant. At this point of time she would have been happy to find something dry that she could use for creating fire.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    She didn¡¯t have any luck with that, but she found something else instead. At first, seeing the shape, she thought it would be a willow tree, or similar. Happy to find something useful for weaving, she started walking closer, then she realised that instead of the thin, flexible branches, this tree had enormous yellow sheets hanging towards the ground.


    ¡°Okay, it¡¯s official. These plants are designed to provide the fundamental survival equipment.¡±


    Her suspicions started when she saw the jug plant, but still accepted that as a possible quirk of nature. However, a tree that basically grows cloth? She was sure that with a bit of searching she would find a plant that grows scissors.


    ¡°So, plant based rudimentary industry? Not a bad idea. I wonder if this somehow mirrors either the primary technology, or the environment of the aliens¡­¡±


    Thinking about the consequences of the above, she collected four big sheets - each of them is as big as a king sized bed sheet on Earth - and folded them as much as she could. From the touch they reminded her more of paper than cloth, but they were hard to tear, except at the line where they were attached to the branches. She saw that the sheets closer to the middle of the tree were smaller, and more attached to the branches.


    ¡°So, they grow and become ripe. Ripe sheets? That just sounds wrong.¡±


    With the big bundles on her back, it took a bit longer to walk back to the starting point. When she finally made it there, she carefully placed her ¡°pocket¡± and the full jug next to a tree, and then made her bed on the ground with the sheets. Despite only spending a few hours awake, her brain was already so tired from processing the new information that she was asleep in a few seconds.


    * * *


    Back on Earth the Colonel was reading a report when the civilian called Mark approached him.


    ¡°Her heart slowed down, and the body temperature is 10% lower than the normal. Both of these changes are in the expected range. The EEG is practically flat, there is almost no activity. This is also aligned with our previous observations, and proves the theory that the consciousness of the person actually leaves the body in some unexplained way.¡±


    The colonel nodded. He was well aware of all measurements and the theories.


    ¡°Thank you, Mark. Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ yes. Can I ask why you didn¡¯t talk to her about the deadline?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t want her to be worried about that. She will be out of there way before the five days that is the current shortest time period. Don¡¯t forget that it means more than fifteen days inside, and I asked her specifically to come back after ten days.¡±


    Mark hesitantly nodded. The colonel knew that he was thinking about the ¡°current shortest time period¡±, but neither of them commented on that.


    After a few seconds of silence, Mark quietly turned around, and walked away. The colonel started reading the reports again, but his mind was not on the task.


    He hoped Lina would come out in time. He didn¡¯t want to risk her.

 The End :/

    Dear Readers


    Sorry for dropping the ball on this story. I had a few interesting ideas about it, but ultimately got to a point where I decided that I will write another one on similar grounds, but with a different focus.


    This, then, lead into dropping *that* story, and writing another one, which I actually finished and self published on Amazon. It''s called Limbo, and if you search for it with my name, you will find it. It has a beautiful purple cover.


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Now, I am planning to write another story here. That one is significantly more fitting for this format. It will also be an Urban Fantasy, and just to make sure that I don''t leave you hanging like I did with this one, I will not publish anything until I have at least 20 chapters in the queue.


    Hope to see you there.


    Jack