Star Trek: Foothold - To Relieve Paine

Into the Arcanian Precinct

Paine admired the transition between scenes as she entered the dungeon. Again, she contemplated the differences this program embraced from other holographic sims, where immersion was considered a more graceful experience for the most part: walking through a doorway into an impossible scene was possible, but one always walked through a doorway, rather than transitioned through a very obviously artificial scene change. One could step into an open field by dropping through a manhole in a street, or be in an expansive futuristic control room when walking into a blue box on a corner, but there wasn't usually an elaborate transition. As soon as she had chosen to enter the scenario, on the other hand, the world she'd been in had decompiled into symbols; the space around her had streaked with light as if she were going to warp, but without the benefit of a ship around her, that set her momentarily back on her heels as the effect of its momentum staggered her; the sensations, odours, and atmosphere of the courtyard disappeared as if whisked away by air filters, and new replacements swirled in to tangibly take their place, making the transition a full sensory experience. Perhaps most interestingly, the world that built itself back up around her was not the bland office building she would have expected to arrive in upon walking through the door to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Station, but a feast of contrasting experience that momentarily disoriented her as she arrived on the scene.

The inside of this building should have been a bland lobby, with grey and white walls, a simple front counter, perhaps with the insulating glass that protected security officials from the public. In her life Paine had experienced enough security and law enforcement stations to have a reasonable idea of what to expect. As soon as the red, brown, and golden hues began to reconcile themselves, she knew that it wasn't going to be at all what the packaging might lead one to believe. Before taking the time to interpret what was in front of her, she quickly turned to see what her route to retreat would look like, and was, for a second time, surprised: rather than the door she would have 'entered' to come into the station, a torn- out wall leading into a scene of absolute devastation greeted her. She recognized the Tower in the distance, but it looked older, bleaker, and less vivid than what she had been looking at moments before. The cityscape, too, was different, and she recognized almost immediately that it wasn't Seoul, but somewhere else entirely. The sky was read with sullen black clouds, more burnt out than the ones she'd left before, and the whole scene had a sense of fatigue and exhaustion, as though it had been consumed and left to die of exposure.

She could not, however, investigate that scene, as there was another holographic panel over the exit here with a message waiting for her:

CURRENT SCENARIO: The Law Can't Save Us
SETTING: Realm of Arcania, Central Municipal Police Station
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 / 3 (5 Max)
TWO STAR CHALLENGE
TIME REMAINING UNTIL COLLAPSE: 10:46:55

The objectives were also listed, and matched what she had seen outside, but the details of the scenario were, if not different, at least expanded. She mused on this, but something in the back of her mind said punching our way through a normal civilian police station probably wouldn't make for a very fun game, which was an argument she found hard to fault. She brushed her hand over the Exit insignia under the readout, only to have it flash a message that read "NON-EMERGENCY TRANSITIONS RESTRICTED FOR 9:17 MINUTES", and was slowly counting down; apparently the game had limits imposed on jumping between expensive transitions. Turning back around she took in the lobby of the Arcania, Central Municipal Police Station.

The front wall of the lobby she'd found herself in was in a state of lockdown that did not extend to the blasted hole she'd apparently entered by. Much of what would otherwise be two-story windows was covered by dropped riot guards, which looked like rolled-out segments of flexible barricade. Eye-level view slits confirmed the ruined view of the city beyond, but offered a more extensive panorama that gave her the impression that Arcania had a more classical aesthetic, closer to the European renaissance than the 20th concrete and glass aesthetic Seoul had espoused. Buildings here were low, although that may have been a sign of the destruction as much as anything, and what was left standing was built with stone, wood, and steel. Windows were prominent, but not dominant in the architecture, with spires and tiled rooftops being far more common than the flat buildings of the Earth period she'd left behind. She wondered, abstractly, what sort of heating and cooling the Arcanians used, and whether it was simply more temperate here, not calling for such systems, before being forced to acknowledge that they'd still need to circulate fresh air, so the machinery of industrial society would have had to be hidden behind the facades of those vaulted rooftops. Unless they're not industrial, she speculated to herself, attempting to reconcile the thought with things like the rolldown riot panels and the obviously electrical lighting. Mysteries.