Altmis-War of Athalos

Chapter 9

I felt the world around me changing. The wall behind me no longer feeling of stone, and the room was brighter than the dungeon was. I suddenly realized that I must have exited again, and opened my eyes.

Everyone was sitting at the front of the room where the monitor was, half asleep but still conscious.

"Well, it's apparent that you have an honest conscious, but it appears that the cerebral cortex has overpowered the exit programming so that you'll only wake when you sleep," Shawn said.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out after I entered last time. But I think the cortex is just merging with the programming," I coughed, suddenly smelling burning fuel.

"And what the heck is that smell?" I asked.

"The suit got a bit overheated, and....well, let's just say that for a few minutes the machine was smoking," he replied.

"And you didn't try to use the emergency wake?" I said, raising my voice.

"Hey, don't get angry at me, we tried that but it didn't work. It seems like that got overpowered as well. But we did manage to connect a cooling system onto the suit so that it won't overheat again," he said defensively.

"Anything else I need to know before checking the reports?" I said irritably.

"That's about it," he answered.

I walked over to the monitor room where the last few minutes from my Rift kept playing over, everyone else watching.

The mayor was in the dining area drinking some coffee, dark rings under his eyes. I walked over to the pot, which was half full but still warm. I poured myself a cup, and sat down next to the mayor, who was now watching the monitor in the other room.

"Why do you look like you haven't slept in the last few days?" I asked, taking a sip.

"I haven't been sleeping. I've been watching you in the Rift," he whispered, yawning shortly afterward.

"Why?" I continued.

"Because, I want to know that it will be completely safe for when it is released. Make sure that I did the right thing in getting you that interview," he explained.

"And that's why you're such a great person. You give people chances and make sure that you're citizens are safe. Tell you what, when this is released, you'll be the first person to own one," I said.

"Thanks. That means a lot," he replied, smiling.

The mayor then got up and walked over to the cots, and laid down on one.

I walked over to the monitor room, where everyone was trying to get some food from the breakfast table. Deciding I wasn't going to try and fight my way through just for some left over toast, I continued to the report room, where the reports of the latest Rift entry was.

Getting to the small room, I picked up the reports and choked on what was left of my coffee. They were completely blank. There was nothing to show in the vitals section or the mental activity section. It was like I was completely dead as soon as I had entered my mind. But then I started to think about how I was actually entering my mind, which would basically mean being brain dead.

I picked up the reports and took them to Shawn, who was running diagnostics on the Rift suit.

"This surely is important news. We'll start monitoring your mental state to see if this will affect the motor skills and ability to do anything after exiting the Rift. If we see anything that raises a red flag we'll do our best to wake you," he said, looking at the report.

"Good, because I'm going back in," I replied.

"The diagnostics aren't finished yet, and besides that, I think you should get checked up by the staff doctor, just incase there's any physical injury," Shawn countered, still looking over the reports.

Rather reluctantly, I started walking to the staff doctor, thinking about why I even should have to see the staff doctor, but I really didn't have a choice.

Finally reaching the office, I opened the door and walked into the office. The doctor was looking over some files, but put them down when he noticed me.

"Now, just to get this out of the way, I'm only going to say this once. I'm not that much of a neuro doctor, so my results may not be that good," he said, putting on his glasses.

"Let's just get this over with," I replied.

"Ok,"

He started to check my vitals, and my ears and eyes. He also checked my blood pressure. After the end of this his expression was surprise.

"Well this is strange," he muttered.

"What's strange?" I asked.

"There's an unusual amount of mental activity coming from the cerebral cortex. Like it's still trying to connect to the Rift," he answered.

"I think we should do more testing, just in case," he finished.

"No. I want to go back in as soon as possible," I countered.

"I'm afraid that could end in dangerous results if you continue without further testing," the doctor combated, hands in his labcoat pockets.

"I understand that you'd be excited to get back in, but if my theory is correct, then this could be dangerous to continue," he continued.

"You even said yourself, your results may not be that accurate. Let me go back in," I argued, my voice raising slightly.

"I'll see what Shawn thinks," the doctor said, finishing the conversation.

Walking out of the room, the staff doctor locked the door, probably to stop me from going into the Rift without anyone knowing. The doctor came back a few minutes later with Shawn, who, by the looks of it, was still trying to decide.

"I'm going to need that answer, otherwise I'm going to have to release him," the doctor said.

"Let's see what happens for now, and if anything bad develops, we can run some tests. Until then, let's just observe what happens," Shawn finally decided.

"I don't think that wise, but, you're the boss. Or at least one of them," the doctor sighed, writing notes into a file.

After what seemed like forever and the passing through many doors, we finally made it into the lab, where one of the programmers was typing away at the console, probably to finish the diagnostics.

At the sight of us he stopped typing and walked to Shawn and I.

"The diagnostics say that nothing is wrong with the machine sir," the programmer said.

"Good, because I need this thing up and running by the time I turn on the monitors," Shawn replied.

At this, the programmer started hurrying around flipping switches and hitting buttons until we could hear the hum of the suit. After a few more minutes that felt like hours, I was finally suited up and slowly slipping off into Riftsleep.