Tower of Stars

Movement.

Sounds.

Movement.

Sounds coupled with movement.

What are these sensations? What are these feelings?

Small warping shapes floated past a dark void; these shapes were light but unidentifiable. The vision was slowly trying to come to terms with having to work for the first time. The shapes began to form themselves slowly before it; while the sounds stayed merely a continuous loud beat that surrounded the dark void.

Blobs...? No... bubbles? Why are these bubbles around... me? ... ‘Me’?

There were other shapes within the void that surrounded the bubbles. These shadows loomed over the visions and almost encompassed it. The shadows seemed to grow more and more frequent and agile, dancing around the void with the bubbles. The noises becoming warped and incomprehensible as the vision slowly returned to darkness.

Wait...

The shapes returned again, but this time things were monstrously different. The world past the void was clear before the vision - everything was green-blue shades. The bubbles rushed in a multiplying wave throughout the green-blue world, the vision was shocked at this enormous sensation before it. Everything blurred as the world tumbled and turned, yet something always held it firmly in place.

Suddenly a shadow like that of before returned to the world before the vision, the new sharp view giving a more definite outline to the darkness. The shadow still had its tall shape, but the top was contracted slightly, before expanding back halfway and rounded slightly at the top, within the top of the shadow were two square bright shapes. The shadow moved with the vision, and slowly, the wave of bubbles died down and the vision once again faded.

There seemed to be a moment of rest for the vision. It was unknown how long it lasted, but suddenly without warning – it ended.

There was a click, and the world exploded into existence. It was not green-blue shades like before, but white. The vision revealed a small, almost marble-like room. There was no evidence of origin of light, yet the room glowed as if the air willed it. When the sight took in what it saw, it fell to the floor and tried to block it out. The vision discovered it was able to do this naturally, as long as it willed it.

Then there was noise. “Do not be afraid. What you are experiencing is but an illusion.”

Do not be afraid. What you are experiencing is an illusion.

“That’s good. Accept the gift.”

Accept the gift? What... what is this? Why... feeling... what... where-

The noise that came from within itself was interrupted. “Good, good. You are responding with the wish to know; the wish to have information.”

Can... I know?

The noise that came from outside seemed to ignore the statement, yet eventually a far wall rippled and revealed a mirror. The vision could not understand this at first, but seemingly instantaneously it become aware that this extension to the world was a copy of the rest. The vision saw within the reflection a small shape upon the floor. There was a sensation, and the shape moved. The vision discovered this feeling similar to the will not to see.

“Go see yourself.”

‘Yourself’? No, m... myself? Why ... what is this-

The inner noise was interrupted a second time. “You are thinking. It’s how creatures make sense of the world privately within themselves. Now go and see how the world sees you; from outside your vision, and outside your thoughts – with their own vision, and their own thoughts.”

The vision moved, as the creature built up the strength to move itself over to the wall high mirror. Within the mirror was a small red and yellow quadruped creature. It had a long face with a nose upon the end, a thick and short tail, and fluffy white fur upon its chest and head.

This is ... ‘me’?

“Yes. Do not be afraid. There is no reason to be afraid of yourself.”

Something feels ... right... no, wrong... about this.

The other voice remained silent, the creature was about to speak to it again when it spoke. “Shut it off now.”

The world vanished into nothingness.

* * *

What seemed to be years later to the creature, the world returned into existence, this time as its original green-blues. The creature tried to identify the shades into objects; there were several shadows that seemed to interact with darker areas, and place things upon lighter surfaces of dark areas. The creature attempted to move forward as it did in the white room, but discovered it seemed to be restrained into its position. It reached out with a paw, but was stopped by a hard surface.

What’s going on? Why am I back here? Why can’t I move? Why am I thinking this?

The creature closed its eyes and tried to block out the world it had re-entered, almost as a reaction, the muffled quiet noises that could be heard past the thumping became more erratic and quick, and suddenly everything seemed to collapse. The creature opened its eyes again to discover it had returned to the white room.

“Welcome back.”

The creature scowled, although there was no one to scowl at, even the mirror was replaced by the wall that originally stood there.

You brought me back here didn’t you? You’re making these illusions...

There were short, high pitched thumps from above. The outer voice spoke again. “Very well done, you are learning well, even with very little time conscious. Your brain is processing the information well.”

I... I suppose you’re... t... teaching me things too; teaching me... knowledge. Giving me the power to communicate-

“That’s astounding! You’re even answering back...” The voice had less of a surprise this time, and then slowly dropped to more of an annoyed tone.

But you haven’t taught me... why. Why am I here? Why can’t I see you?

“You are not ready. Your mind has been ... given the power to communicate, yet your body has not been given the power to function. You are unfit for the world outside this illusion. The ‘body’ you feel is as false as the walls and the floor of this room.”

The creature looked up, and opened its mouth to speak with its voice, not its mind. “Y... yo... you...”

The outer voice chuckled. “Go on. Speak. Use the gift I have bestowed upon you with the wondrous power of mankind!”

“Show yourself... to me. Show... give me ... something to talk to.” The creature stuttered up to the whiteness above.  “Give me something to identify you as.”

The voice chuckled. “Oh okay... if you insist.”

There was a moment of silence, and then in front of the creature, a shape began to form. Starting off as just static in reality, the shape began to form itself similar to the shadows, colours bled out from the centre and flowed throughout the static, before hardening into a three dimensional form; a human, with short hair, rectangular glasses and a large, white lab coat.

H- Human. The creature thought, as it looked up the form that loomed high over it. The creature discovered it only reached the human’s knees, after this observation it stumbled back awkwardly.

The form before it changed positions awkwardly, with large pauses before changing again; unlike the creature itself who moved smoothly.

“I apologize for the poor reception in there. I am not directly linked to the virtual system, and therefore cannot fully experience it.” The human stopped and stood, pausing to think. “Well?”

I... know.

“Ugh... don’t tell me that we’re going to have this conversation every time we meet right? Surely you can’t cope with it? You know because we directly upload the knowledge to your mind. It saves us the unnecessary and tedious act of teaching you about the world through interaction. The most important thing you needed to know was what a human was.” The form seemed to pause, even with its already stuttering image, and then it held out its arms to its sides as if to show off its body. “And this happens to be what one looks like.”

The creature was shocked; it was unsure what to think about this. If it was able to communicate with its mind before, surely this human could hear its thoughts? Was the human invading its mind? The creature wondered why this seemed wrong. It shook its head and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“I don’t want this!  I don’t... want this... this place!“ The creature’s mind was screaming out in pain with the voice it spoke. “Give... me the... this ‘real world’ I can picture!” The world crumpled, and returned to the green-blues that held it in place. The creature attempted to speak again, but discovered that something was bound over its muzzle. Upon becoming aware of this binding it could feel numerous other pressures across its back, and on its legs that were seemingly absent in the virtual white room. However the anger that boiled up from the illusional world remained in this one, and gave it the strength it desired.

There was a crack, and the binding upon one leg was released; but with it was a new feeling – pain. The creature attempted to curl over in instinct, but once again the bindings held it in place. What it did manage to see was a billowing red that began to overpower the green-blues; this red was so dark that it did not allow for view of the shadows that began to rush around it. The world slowly faded away before the creature.

What returned was not the white room nor the blue-green bounding world, but a light blue one. The creature discovered its body was so heavy it was unable to move. It lay upon a bench; around it were similar benches and objects that reminded the creature of the blue-green shadows it could make out before. It tried to speak, but the human before came from behind and touched it on the nose.

“Quiet Traveller, you need to rest. You could’ve killed yourself struggling in there.”

‘In there’? What do you mean ‘in there’? The creature thought. It did not respond. The human didn’t even notice its thought. Could the human no longer probe its mind? Was it doing it right now, but just refused to respond? The creature bent its neck slowly to look down its body. There was a wound on a hind leg which two other humans; dressed similarly to the one it was familiar with, were stitching up.

The creature sighed and tried to return to the darkness of sleep. At least there, nobody could do anything to it. It was a struggle, but sleep came; and so did the dreams, dreams of a world that it only knew of, and never experienced. The dreams slowly became more vivid, and it simply forgot it was asleep anymore. The dreams had become reality for it, the creature escaped to a world of its own design. There were no white rooms, there were no lab coat wearing humans seeing how he reacted to things, there were no bindings across his body holding it within a world of fluid.

* * *

“I’m sorry to take you from this little inner paradise you have constructed Traveller, but we must get on with the real business.” It was the voice of the human that had emerged in the white room. Before the ‘Traveller’ could react, the world faded away, and returned to the liquid and bubbles. The creature ignored the statement the human had once said so long ago, and tried to struggle against the bindings, however it discovered they were absent.

Through the ripples the human spoke to the creature within the tube, its voice slightly distorted by the liquid and glass divide. “It’s been so long for both of us, but its time for you to unleash your destiny Traveller.” The human shadow moved away and seemed to touch something upon a dark shade of blue-green. There was a loud clunk above the creature, and the liquid began to drain away around it. The creature fell to the bottom of the tank and struggled to get footing.

“Don’t fight it.” The human said returning to the tank; now as clear and detailed as it was in the virtual world, “You must wait for the chemicals within you to wear off before you can survive in the outside world.”

The creature looked down at its paws, it was drenched all over, and could clearly see a hard, dark device attached to its muzzle. Past this it noticed the fur upon its chest was now are light blonde, close to a match of its yellow-like skin across the lower parts of its body. It seemed different to what it was in the white room, but was unsure what it was. Before it could think any further on this matter however, there was the sound of rushing air, and the device upon its muzzle released itself and fell to the hard floor, revealing itself as being attached by thick tubes to the top of the glass tube.

“Oh; what a shame.” The human muttered unsurprised, as the creature collapsed into darkness.

When the world returned, the creature was once again upon a bench like that of which the humans had been nursing its wound. It looked back at its leg out of curiosity and discovered not only was there no wound, but the weight that had held it down before no longer suppressed it. The creature looked around for other humans, but found the only one he could see was the one from outside the tube. Near him was a glass tube, was it inside that?

“Traveller...” The human sighed, and leaned against the tube. “I really hope that you are... what we are looking for.”

The creature tilted its head in confusion, wondering why this human had suddenly changed mood. It opened its mouth, and slowly formed some words. “Why? What we are looking for?”

The human chuckled and looked over to the creature, it peered away momentarily only to reach for a chair and sit next to the creature, now at eye level with it. “That’s always what you ask isn’t it? Why?” The creature wondered in awe at this statement. Something seemed different about the human this time. The creature felt something welling up inside and only realised what it was after it spoke.

“What’s the matter?”

The human looked surprised; it looked away towards the empty tank before looking back, unsure what to reply. “We... don’t know.” He paused for a moment, while scratching his chin. “People have been vanishing. Simply being there one moment and not the next.”

The creature didn’t reply. What was wrong with this? It looked around the room it lay in, and found there were only three humans around. Had the others the creature has seen when he was here before ‘vanished’? What did this mean?

“I think it’s about time you got some answers Traveller.” The human said.

“’Traveller’?” The creature asked.

“It’s what we call you. You are the second wish of mankind to travel mass distances. You are one of the greatest achievements in modern science.” The human looked up, thinking proudly about this statement. “We need you to find out what’s happening to our people. It is... you could say; your destiny.”

‘Destiny’? I am meant to ... find our people? The creature was confused. It was not sure it liked being out of the white room now. The white room was simple, straight forward; there were no complications to get thrown into. Even though the knowledge of another world outside the white room, at least there the creature did not have to worry about it.

“Why can’t you do it?” The creature finally brought the strength to ask.

“The powers that snatch away our fellow men are too strong for another man to control. We ... scientists... wish to follow after those who have left us, and maybe bring them back.” The human stood up and looked back at two others working at a bench. The three nodded at each other, and the two in the distance walked away and were hidden from the creature’s view.

“You are the Traveller that shall go to other Worlds. We do not know what Worlds you may search, but our kind is somewhere – separated from family and friends.” The human seemed upset by what he said. “Excuse me a moment.” The human followed after the two and closed a door behind him. The lock clicked.

“’Door’.” The creature repeated what its mind had told it. It looked around the room, then leapt off the bench to have a closer look at the tube it once was suspended in. “Tube... computer... bench...” Its mind was an infant to the real world, looking this way and that, it tried to identify things that lay around it with names. “Screen... paper... words... T- ‘Traveller’?”

The creature looked down upon the writing that lay on the white paper. A lot of the symbols it was unable to identify, but some stuck out at it, and it felt concerned about this.

Entry 01:
 With the previous formless nature of MARK I TRAVELLER we have decided to try for a more natural
 shape that could live in a common environment. We have chosen the newly emerging lizard species as
 a base and will proceed to configure it to our needs.

The creature looked back the empty tube it believed it was inside for what was an eternity. Was this how he was taught about the world?

‘He’? Him? The creature pondered over this pronoun. He seemed to identify the human with it subconsciously, was this how it or he should himself too?

The creature looked back at the empty tube again. It towered up to the roof of the blue room, large grey machinery worming its way around the top of the glass. At the bottom was similar machinery. The creature prodded the thick plastic bound cables that lay across the floor. Some other cables were coming from other machinery in the distance. The creature was shocked to discover two more tubes. However these were inhabited. Within one green liquid was a small black sphere. It was hooked to the top of the machine by a web of thin wires, much lighter than that which was affixed to the creature’s muzzle. The black sphere hung in the centre of the green tube lifelessly.

The tube to the right of it also showed very little signs of life, but instead of another black sphere, was something the creature could not bear to look at. It was like the wound from his leg, but multiplied to twice the size, and given an inflated, distorted centre. It was merely a mass of formless flesh that floated in the tube, attached to its position by a single thick cable that hung from the top. There were very few bubbles in this tube’s liquid, it almost seemed neglected.

“Why do I feel sorry for it? It could be dangerous...” The creature shook its head and tried to push the door that the humans went through open; it didn’t budge. He looked back over to the desk with the notes. Climbing atop the desk, he looked around for any more information. There was nothing he could identify. There were strange shapes scrawled on paper, some of the black sphere, and some that looked similar to himself. The creature tried to pick up these pictures, as he had seen the humans do with other devices, but found he couldn’t do so. Curious about this he lifted up a paw to inspect is more closely. What did the humans do?

Out of curiosity the creature tried to stand on its hind legs like the human did, but it lost footing and fell down to the hard floor below. The world shook, and vanished. The creature’s mind faded away. Not even the world of the dreams came to comfort it; there was nothing.