Project Obsidian Moon

Chapter 12: "I prefer Tequila"

Even from the outside, the faint thudding of the synth music emanated through the door. A bouncer stood outside, checking everyone's credentials before letting them enter. He wore a black suit with dark green accents at the collar and sleeves. A small red carpet led to the entrance, a metal door with no windows or handles. The line in front of me was empty. I took a deep breath and walked up to the bouncer. He looked at me, sizing me up.
"You got a reason for being 'ere?" His voice didn't seem friendly.
I smiled, removing a dark green strip of plastic from my pocket. The colour matched that of his attire. He inspected the pass, confirming it's legitimacy, before pounding on the door four times. He smirked as the door slid open.
"Pleasure havin' you 'ere. Try not to get lost."
"No promises."
The music was much clearer now, and much louder too. The nightclub ahead was blinding in contrast to the dim corridor outside. Beams of light of every colour strobed through the club. White light flashed every few seconds, syncing with the music. The club itself wasn't too big, but I wouldn't call it small either. A music booth sat at the front centre. Sofas were scattered all over, along with many other things I don't want to describe. Dozens of people danced and partied all over, even if the club wasn't too big, there were at least a hundred people in here. An illuminated bar stood on the left, I didn't see many people there. A woman sitting by herself, Three guys who seemed to have passed out from the alcohol, a couple taking shots. All things you would see at a normal nightclub. I took a seat, and not too long after, the bartender came over. He seemed quite young, somewhere in his 30s maybe. His face had a certain ease to it, something you could only find in someone who loved their job.
"Hey, what can I get for ya?" He said, wiping the part of the table that I'd sat in front of.
"Whiskey, with a lime on the side."
He smiled, tilting his head at my request.
"You're the only other person who's not called for a beer tonight. Acquired taste?"
"Guess you could say that. Who's the other person?"
He threw the towel over his shoulder, putting his arms on his hips and motioning to the woman sitting alone a few seats down.
"Well it's on the house then, we could really get rid of some of this alcohol, and all anyone gets around here is beer."
I nodded, appreciating his gesture. It had been almost two weeks since I'd broken into sector 5. A lot had happened since then. In the first few days, Aki dug up as much info as he could. He'd found multiple project files titled 'Obsidian Moon' and another encrypted cloud server named 'Elysium'. It didn't take him long to decrypt it and it turned out to be a gold mine. Over the last decade, the ARK had constructed an off-site base of operation. It was almost 200 kilometres away from the bunker that the rest of humanity lived in. The purpose of this? They were planning on completely ditching this planet all together. Elysium was the name of this base, and they'd been building something capable of taking them to Carmine, the planet Travis had found, which also happened to be partially composed of Crimsonite. They're building an invasion force. An army that would secure humanity's position on that planet regardless of whatever opposition it's inhabitants put up. I wasn't gonna let them destroy another planet. That is.. if I could reach them. Right as Aki pulled the coordinates to Elysium, he was blocked out of the system. His best guess was that they found his access node in their DISH and removed it. There was only one known method of reaching the outside world. There had to be another exit that the ARK was using to transport all the resources to Elysium, but that would probably be in Sector 5, and there was no way in hell I'd make it back in there. The only other way I could think of was through the old decommissioned hangar bay. Which meant I needed a pilot.
"You don't like beer either?"
The girl next to me had dark long hair, with a single purple strand. She wore a black T-shirt and jeans. She looked only a few years older than me, but I knew all that. She was the reason I was even here at the nightclub. She turned to me, seemingly annoyed that I'd even attempted a conversation with her.
"You want what happened to them?" She pointed to the three guys who lay passed out.
I'd assumed it was because they'd drank too much. I guess appearances can be deceiving.
"Careful, she's a feisty one." The bartender said, sliding my drink to me.
"It's alright," I turned back to her, "You may want to listen in, you might regret missing out."
She continued sipping her drink, seemingly uninterested. But I know I caught her attention, or I'd already be on the floor out cold.
"You graduated the academy at the top of your piloting class..."
She didn't respond for a few seconds, but then she took a sip from her drink again, pausing.
"And look at what good that did me. Seven years later I'm here in a bar at 3 in the morning getting wasted. "
"Well.. I have something that could make things a little exciting. But I need a pilot."
She took a deep breath, moving in her seat to fully face me. That was the closest thing I was gonna get to an invitation. I moved a couple seats down to sit next to her. My watch projected a set of numbers into the air in front of her.
"I need to get to these set of coordinates, what you do after getting me there isn't my concern. If you can get me there, you'll have a bank account with twenty million credits waiting for you back here."
She tilted her head at me, looking at me like I was insane. In retrospect, I am a little insane. She looked up at the ceiling, thinking.
"Nah, I'm good."
"Why not?"
"Look, even if you could get us into a bird and get that bird out of the bunker, there's nothing out there. Those coordinates are almost a hundred and fifty kilometres away from here. What the fuck do you want to do out there?"
I minimized the projection, finally taking a sip of my drink.
"I can't tell you that unless you agree. But let me tell you this, if you're satisfied being who you are now, then you aren't the pilot I thought you were."
I finished my drink, standing up.
"This is bigger than you and I. This is how you can leave your mark on the world."
I placed a napkin with an address jotted down on it on the table in front of her.
"If you change your mind, you know where to find me.."
I began walking towards the exit. I was taking a gamble. If this didn't work, we'd need to find someone else. That might be hard considering there's not many as good as her. Just a couple seconds later I heard her call out to me.
"Not much of a beer person. I prefer Tequila."