2029 May 13
Somewhere west of San Antonio Texas.
The local heat was blasting down on a field and the tractor moving along it. The tractor was dragging along its rake, combing the field and preparing it for planting. The driver a United States Air Force Lt. Col. newly retired. She was focusing on the 100 acres in front of her that she was going to need to plow soon.
Casey Collins was 39 years old, an ace pilot who had over 10,000 flight hours. She was quickly on her way to her next promotion when during a routine training exercise, a random piece of debris struck her aircraft in just the wrong way that caused a series of errors that lead to her having to eject.
The ejection saved her life, but the massive G's forced on her spine meant she would never fly again for the Air Force. She never really wanted to do anything but own a ranch and fly aircraft. And with the latter no longer an option she decided to retire and use the family inheritance to buy a ranch just west of San Antonio.
She could still consult from time to time at the air base there and catch up with her squadron from time to time. The ranch was a rocky piece of property that wasn't really good for anything but Casey still wanted to give it a shot. The land was near a local fault line so there were a few caves in the area. Casey figured if she ever got really bored she got to build a bat-cave…as if.
Casey stopped the tractor as the comb had gotten stuck on something. She climbed down from the cab to go to inspect. She saw a huge boulder that seemed to appear from nowhere. She must have not been paying attention while driving. She walked back to the tractor to grab a rope from the utility storage compartment to try and drag the thing away.
She tied one end to the harness point and dragged it to the rock. "Damn, how could I have missed you, little bugger?" Casey said to herself. She inspected the rock looking for a harness point but there wasn't anything she could see. "I guess I will just make one." Casey reached for her pistol at her waist and proceeded to fire 3 shots from a short distance away from it at the thing.
Bang
Bang
Bang
Crack…
As soon as the third bullet hit the rock. The ground under Casey started to crack underfoot. "What the hell!" Casey shouted. She had but a moment to think and saw the rope in front of her and she jumped to it and just barely grabbed the end she knotted into a ring before the ground beneath her collapsed into an underground cave. The gun that Casey had been holding fell into the hole before her and she too quickly followed behind.
Casey was dangling precariously above a dark hole that she couldn't see anything beneath. She heard her pistol fall and crash into something hard. The crash was significant because it had somehow activated the under-barrel flashlight and she could see the cave floor about 10 feet beneath her. She was definitely hanging at least 75 feet because the rope was 100 feet long. So this cave she is in is somewhat deep.
Casey did her best to look around and gather her bearings. She made a clicking sound with her mouth and the echo produced was enough to tell her she was in one of the really big caverns near her property. "Fucking hell!" Casey said to no one in particular. Fortunately, the rope still seemed attached to the tractor above and for the moment she seemed ok. There was sunlight coming from the whole above it looks like the ground had destabilized or maybe a sinkhole, she wasn't sure. "Geology sure as shit ain't my specialty," Casey said to no one again.
"Ok, Casey get it together you're a big girl options." Casey had a bad habit of speaking out loud. It was a habit she picked up from years of piloting when she needed to make constant voice chatter for her communications recorder, the record so it were. She loved that part of flying almost like she was a nature documentary presenter. It became a game for her when she flew combat ops. Casey would narrate in her best David Attenborough voice at enemy ground forces, planes, and installations whatever to make herself laugh at the situation.
Casey could both climb the rope back out of the hole and try to move the tractor above. If she did that there is a chance the ground could give way and bring the whole tractor down with her. Also, the rope didn't have any knots so it would be difficult, to say the least. Her other option was to drop what looked like 10 feet to the ground below where her pistol was and hopefully find another way out of there. If she let go she would need to combat roll and she would be stuck for sure.
Casey figured going up was the best choice. So she moved to start climbing up when the rope seemed to snap and Casey was in free fall her decision made for her. Casey had but a moment and her training kicked in she rotated her center of mass and tried to land where her gun light was pointed the ground looked relatively flat.
Within a moment Casey was on the ground and did a combat roll so most of the energy was spread through her body. She slowly stood up and nothing seemed to be broken. Her back did twinge a bit. "Damn, that sucked." Casey complained to no one
Casey picked her gun up and held it in a way she could use the light to scope out her surroundings. The ground was a hard metal not rock as she thought it should be. She seemed to be on some kind of raised platform and there appeared to be a broken pair of stairs going up and a full set of stairs going down. "What the damn hell, why are you here?" She said to the stairs. She looked at the stairs and thought maybe she was in a bat cave after all. "Mr. Wayne, You there? I'm sorry I feel in your cave." Casey laughed at herself and her dumb joke.
Casey decided her best bet would be to follow the stairs downwards and hope there was some kind of exit. "Ok Casey, you got this, no man in her underwear and costume can scare you. Goddess I wish I had a drone right now." Casey slowly made her way forward down the stairs with her eyes on the lookout and gun in a ready position. The flashlight illuminated the way forward.
Casey moved down the stairs one at a time and the stairs seemed to go pretty deep down she had been walking for like 10 minutes and go down at least 1000 steps. When finally made it to what looked like and Sci-Fi door with a huge circular shape that kind of looked like a bank vault tumbler wheel. "Ok so maybe not Batman but possibly star trek?" Casey said aloud again.
The sound of her voice was heard by a computer in the door and at the onset activated a blue scanning array above the door and did a top-down scan of Casey.
"DETECTED LIFEFORM IN TRANSIT FACILITY. PLEASE HOLD FOR THE IDENTITY SCAN. IDENTITY SCAN COMPLETE USER NOT FOUND, CHECKING DATABASE…ERROR DATABASE NOT REACHABLE, CHECKING STORED LOCAL FILES…THE CONFIRMED SCAN MATCHES 1 USER IN STORED FILES. FILES INDICATE MATCH IS FOR THE SPECIES HOMO STELLARIS…ERROR SCAN MATCHES 92% OF HOMO STELLARIS. SYSTEM ANYALZING…CHECKING INTERNAL TIME MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS…SYSTEM ERROR…ANALYZING… SYSTEM REBOOT RECOMMENDATION…3…2…1." (The computerized voice made a series of vocal sounds in a language that sounded like Latin but has been translated for you, dear reader.)
"What was that? Hello is someone there? Can you hear me I'm just looking for the exit." Casey yelled at the door. She aimed her gun downed and moved her left hand to the jacket she was wearing to grab a snack she carried with her. Usually a granola bar. She felt the bar and also her phone. "Dang I thought I left you in the tractor." At that moment the computer voice came back online.
USER DETECTED AT ENTRANCE…CONFIRMING IDENTITY…DETECTED TECHNOLOGICAL DEVICE…SCANNING FOR DATA…SCANNING…SCANNING COMPLETE LOW-LEVEL SECURITY DETECTED…LAUNGAUGE MODEL READ…DETECTED SINGLES FROM ORBITAL PLATFORMS…SCANNING LOCAL AREA FOR FEDERATION CONTACT POINTS…ERROR NO LOCAL CONTACT POINTS FOUND…CONNECTING TO USER'S DEVICES…PINGING ORBITAL PLATFORMS…SCANNING FOR CONTACT POINTS… FOUND FEDERATION CONTACT POINTS DETECTED ATTEMPTING TO COMMUNICATE…ERROR CONTACT POINT AT LOW POWER…RECEIVING DATABURST… ERROR … SYSTEM REBOOT…3…2…1. (The computerized voice made a series of vocal sounds in a language that sounded like Latin but has been translated for you, dear reader.)
The computer spoke again and Casey still didn't know what it said but she felt that it was speaking Latin. Maybe. "Hello can you help me I fell down a big hole and I really would like to get out of here," Casey yelled at the door again. "Damn come on, please respond I need assistance."
SYSTEM REBOOT COMPLETE…LANGUAGE MODELS UPDATED USER CAN YOU HEAR ME? CAN YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
Casey finally got a reply from the voice. "Yes, I can hear and understand you. Please I need assistance I have fallen down a hole and I would like to leave this place." Who are you? Can you help me please?"
USER PLEASE CONFIRM IDENTITY…NAME RANK SPECIES.AND PLANET OF ORIGIN.
Casey was momentarily stunned this voice wanted some weird information. "Look I just want to get out of here can you open the door and show yourself please," Casey said to the voice coming from the door now.
USER PLEASE CONFIRM IDENTITY…NAME RANK SPECIES.AND PLANET OF ORIGIN.
Casey was beginning to get flustered she was tired, her back hurt, and she was dealing with a weird computer Sci-Fi door. "Look please I just want to leave," Casey yelled this time.
USER PLEASE CONFIRM IDENTITY…NAME RANK SPECIES.AND PLANET OF ORIGIN.
"FOR FUCKS SAKE, MY NAME IS CASEY JANE COLLINS, FORMER LT. COL. UNITED STATED AIR FORCE. I AM A FUCKING HUMAN FROM PLANET EARTH!" Casey was angry now. "You hear that you fuck I'm human and from planet Earth.
CONFIRM HUMAN IDENTITY MATCHES WITH HOMO STELLARIS 92%...DETECTED CURRENT LOCATION OF EARTH IN THE SOL SYSTEM ON THE OUTER REACH OF THE MILKY WAY GALAXY…THE LAST FEDERATION CONTACT WAS 183,426.245 CYCLES AGO LOCAL CONTACT POINT IS UNREACHABLE AND PINGING A DISTRESS BECAON ON FTL FREQUENCIES… CONFIRM USER LT. COL. CASEY JANE COLLINS HUMAN DESCENDANT OF HOMO STELLARIS. PLEASE STEP THROUGH THE DOOR AND MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE OBSERVATION AREA FOR DEBRIEF.
The door opened with a hiss and beyond was an empty space with lights slowly coming online to reveal a grand room the size of something like a grand central station, with a ring-shaped thing down on the promenade area. "What…the…fuck." Casey was frozen by what she just heard and what she sees. She was still holding her weapon and didn't know what she should do.
LT COL COLLINS PLEASE STEP THROUGH THE DOOR A DEBBREIF WILL BE GIVEN MOMENTARILY.
Casey decided well in for a penny in for a pound. She turned off her light and holstered her weapon and crossed the threshold and the door closed behind her.