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Pat asks "Are you ready?"
"No, but I'm going anyway," Sally responds with a shrug. She'd spent the night in her own room, tossing and turning more than actually sleeping. Look, it's not like she's afraid of being alone – she does that all the time. What's really eating at her is the void itself, that complete, suffocating blackness they're about to dive into. Sure, the group's meeting for breakfast to go over their game plan, and she's genuinely excited as she heads downstairs to the cafe. But honestly? It also feels like she's walking to her own execution. She's stepping into the unknown – and we're talking the absolute, total unknown here. Michael had tried to reassure her, explaining that getting lost is impossible since she can just think herself back home. As an etheric projection, she'd have complete freedom to teleport back whenever she wants. But let's be real – that doesn't make her feel much better. What's really gnawing at her, deep down, is the worry about her friend, her surrogate mother figure – the net. Was she destroyed too? Did some fatal virus take her down? Maybe evil aliens captured her and turned her into some kind of weapon of mass destruction. Or – and this thought makes her stomach churn – maybe she was inherently evil all along, playing Sally and her parents for fools, just waiting for the perfect moment to wipe out humanity and claim the planet for herself. These dark thoughts are churning in her gut, almost – but not quite – killing her appetite for breakfast.
"Good morning, crew!" Michael greets them as they gather at the cafe. "Figured we'd grab breakfast here since the booth is just across the street. So what's our game plan, everyone?"
"You explain it, Pat – I'll handle ordering the food," Sally jumps in.
"Alright, here's what we hammered out last night," Pat says, addressing the group while Sally takes charge of ordering for everyone. She's been getting pretty bossy lately, but honestly, the guys don't mind. They absolutely adore her in ways that go beyond words – though she can still be a bit irritating sometimes. Pat continues, "My main job is getting Sally in and back out safely, since I know the territory. But I've also got this idea brewing. Not sure if it'll work, but John got me thinking when he mentioned using smoke to visualize air flow patterns. Here's the thing – I can somehow sense a sound. Don't ask me why. Maybe my etheric body still remembers bits and pieces from the INA chip, like there's still some residual connection there, some kind of leftover resonance. If I can transmit as well as receive, I might be able to create an interference pattern, or get some kind of reflection or reaction. That could give us more information to actually see what's lurking in there. No guarantees, but I'm willing to give it a shot."
"Alright, sounds solid. We've got our plan – let's eat and get this show on the road." The meal passes quietly, everyone lost in their own thoughts and feeling pretty anxious. John's actually taking it the hardest. He loves Sally like she's his own daughter, and he's grown pretty fond of Pat too. The thought of them facing some distressing situation is causing him serious grief. John's an old soul though, so he knows how to let these feelings wash over him. But it's still going to be gnawing at him until those two emerge from that booth.
Pat and Sally stand before the booth, door open, that inky blackness waiting on the other side. Pat reaches for Sally's hand, but she grabs his whole arm instead, pulling it around her while wrapping her own arm around him. Arms around each other, like they're walking into a sea of black paint, they disappear beyond the door.
Sally: OooooooohhhhhhHHHHHHH FUCK!! Whatever you do, don't let go and keep talking to me – tell me everything that's happening, every single little detail.
Pat: Okay, we've entered the void. I need to get really quiet now, inside and out, and you do too so I can pick up the signal. Then we'll float toward it. Once we start moving, let me know if you hear or feel anything at all.
Sally: Got it.
Sally: Do you hear anything yet?
Pat: Shh, be quiet. Wait until we start moving. I've got you – I'm not letting you go. Sally: Okay, but hurry up.
Sally: Ohhhhh SHIT! We're moving. Is that you doing that?
Pat: Yeah, I've got the signal. We're getting close now. I'm assuming the signal's coming from the planet's surface, but honestly, I'm not sure. For all I know, we could be underground right now. But I want to try an experiment.
Sally: Okay, experiment with your other hand all you want, but don't move the one that's around me.
Pat: I won't – there's no way I'm letting you go. Here's the experiment: We know we're etheric projections, right? Us being here with earth bodies is just an illusion we're imagining because that's the image we're used to – what we think we are. Now I want you to imagine yourself holding a magic flashlight and wearing magic boots that can walk on a planet's surface that we'd normally just fall through. Can you do that? Can you make yourself believe it?
Sally: Sure thing. I'm really good at make-believe – you wouldn't believe how many imaginary friends I had as a little girl. But I might need my hands for something, so I'm wearing a miner's hat instead of holding a flashlight. Hee hee.
Pat: Alright, imagine your light is on – believe that it's on – and start looking around. Let's see what we can see. While we're doing that, I'm going to try transmitting back the sound I'm hearing, make a little smoke.
Sally: I don't see anything. My light's broken.
Pat: Could be our experiment didn't work, or maybe there's just nothing to see. Let me find a stronger signal and try again.
Sally: Holy shit, Pat! I see something! It's vague and wispy, but I'm actually seeing something. I think our lights and your smoke might actually be working.
Pat: Okay, concentrate. Let's move toward it. This might take some practice to get right.
Sally: Pat, it's a big building – like a warehouse. The door's open.
Pat: I see it too. Let's float inside and see what's in there.
Sally: Are we really seeing third-level matter? If so, we just invented something completely new because this is supposed to be impossible.
Pat: Necessity is the mother of invention. You never know what your limits are until you push against them. I can see better now – this is a huge room. I wonder what it was used for. I see crate after crate after crate stretching for hundreds of meters in every direction. If this is food, I'm sure it's spoiled by now.
Sally: Maybe not. All biological activity stopped when everything died. It might still be good.
Pat: Sally, look to your left. I think I saw something move.
Sally: I did too. Shit! Let's follow it. If there's something alive down here, I'm gonna catch it and kick its ass.
Pat: Wow, what happened to your fear? Okay, here we go.
Sally: Have you ever seen anything like that before? That doesn't look like any animal I've ever seen.
Pat: It's not an animal, Sally. It's some kind of bot. It's not a living thing – it's a machine.
Sally: But it has arms and feet and eyes with lights, and it moves around.
Pat: The closer I get to it, the more I can hear it. You know what? If I can get inside it somehow, maybe I can interface with it. Maybe there's enough of the INA interface left that I can use that to get inside this machine.
Sally: Okay, but take me in too and don't let go.
Pat: Got it. I'm trying to position where my INA interface used to be with where the strongest signal is coming from this device.
Sally: Let me know if you have any luck.
Pat: I'm IN! I'm connected. I can see through its cameras. I can see what it's doing.
Sally: What's it doing?
Pat: It's loading and stacking crates, labeling them with some kind of category system. I don't recognize the symbols – looks like computerized coding. Not human. But oh... now I see what they're doing here. This doesn't make any sense.
Sally: What doesn't make sense? What are they doing?
Pat: They're stacking and categorizing all these crates. And in each crate... there's a body. It's us – the humans. Shit! These crates are filled with all our old dead bodies.