1 Chapter 1: Holograms?

All I wanted was to sleep in this morning, and instead I'm standing on the deck of a spaceship halfway to it's destination.

In front of me stands a man, 5' 4" and burly. He's holding a gun to my face, while his shipmates stand around in silence, watching and waiting.

I was soon to be killed. But you're probably wondering how I got in this situation. Well, I'll tell you. Let's rewind a little bit...

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Everything was pitch black. I tried to open my eyes, but that did nothing to improve my predicament. I was still unable to see even the outlines of my furniture, or the window behind my bed. Actually, it felt as though I had fallen out of bed, because I was lying on something cold and hard, not at all like my mattress. But I didn't remember having wood floors. Was it still the middle of the night? I should at least be able to see some moonlight from where I'm at. But there was nothing.

I attempted to stand and found my ceiling was much closer to the ground than I had remembered. I hit my head hard and fell back on my butt, groaning in pain. What the hell? I thought.

I tried reaching my hands into the darkness and was met with nothing but air, so I crawled forward. After a couple of slides, I made it to a wall. I groped around looking for a light switch, but to no avail. I continued to survey the room like this for the next couple minutes, and finally I concluded, I was not in my room.

Where was I then? Had I been kidnapped? But who would break into my house in the middle of the night just to kidnap me? And why me? There had to be some other explanation.

In any case, I had to find a way out of the place. When I had been searching the small space, I checked the ceiling too, and found a small latch at the center. I hadn't opened it to be cautious. But now that I had decided to escape, I looked around it for it once more. When I found it, I carefully turned the handle and pushed up.

Light flooded into my vision, and I almost screamed with joy at the sight of it. I had not particularly enjoyed the dark, cramped space.

Next, I checked my surroundings. When I poked my head through the small opening, I observed I must have been in a storage room of some sort. All around me were giant metal crates and smaller wooden boxes. I didn't see much else, or any people, so I pushed the lid all the way over my head and climbed out of my nook.

Upon escaping, I looked around once more and found a door on the far end of the room. I supposed that would be the exit, but my curiosity insisted I take a look at the boxes first. I moved over to one of the wooden contraptions and looked for a way to open it. I then noticed a crowbar sitting beside it and decided to use that. I picked it up and hooked it just under the lid of the box. Then I pulled down and back, causing the top to pop off with ease. I looked inside to find a most peculiar array of items.

I picked up a metal object with a small, green button at it's center. It was about five inches wide, and four tall. The button couldn't have been more than an inch. I flipped it over to examine it further, noting it was very thin. Not even half an inch. Finding no other obscurities, I flipped it back over to look at the button. Then, without hesitation, I pushed it.

Instantly an image popped out of the container, displaying itself in 3D right before my eyes. I gasped. Was this a hologram? I tried touching it and my finger went straight through. The image was of a woman, very old and wearing some very strange clothes. Suddenly, she started speaking. I almost dropped the container right there.

"Hi honey. If you're watching this, that means you've finally reached your new home on X-65T. I'm so glad for you, we all are. We're going to miss you here on Y-45G, and hope you'll come to visit us often. Well, I only paid for a short message, so that's all for now. Make sure to respond as soon as you get this! Okay, bye sweetie, we love you!"

With that, the hologram disappeared and the button turned red. I tried pushing it again, but nothing happened. I think I had just ruined somebody's mail.

But what was that woman talking about, X-65T and Y-45G? Those did not sound like the names of any country I had ever heard of. And I had never seen a mail system using holograms. In fact, I had never seen holograms to begin with. What was going on?

I decided I needed to investigate further and started to make my way to the door. But before I made it there, someone turned the knob and the entrance swung open.

As soon as the man who had opened the door looked at me, he exclaimed, "Who are ya?!"

I gulped.