Chapter Text
In the vast expanse, there were two things. You, safe inside the first spacecraft ever to reach the famous Böotes Void, a feat for centuries believed to be impossible, and the aforementioned craft itself. Now, using technology unimaginable in the far past, you had become the first person to ever be so far out into space. You were unsure exactly what to do- somewhere amongst the chaos of figuring out how to get you 700 million light years across the universe, they must’ve forgotten to give you a briefing. However, you did find a camera in one of the compartments, one in which you’d originally assumed there would be food. There’d only been enough food for a weeks’ sustenance, you realized. Oh well, you probably weren’t meant to stay very long anyway. Ignoring that detail, you instead got into your space suit, and headed into the void. Your vessel was the only source of light, but you still took pictures of the emptiness, and the few specks of light from stars beyond it. After a few images, you head back in to make sure they turned out well.
Quickly, you got to printing out your photos, and placed them on the table in the main room. They all appeared in good condition, as far as you could determine from a void. Except for one. The last photo, which was meant to be a photo of your vessel within the darkness, had a little smudge in the corner. At first, you were inclined to brush it off as just a star. But it was far too close to your vessel, and far too dim. In fact, without the glow of your vessel, it may as well have been invisible. It was still a ways off into the void, so you decided to move the entire space craft- the Odyssey II, as it was called- further toward it. You were not willing to risk getting stranded, not for this. What if it was a new celestial body? Likely impossible, but the prospect of discovering something new- or at least something unexpected- was quite alluring to you.
Once you got closer, you exited the Odyssey II, and moved to inspect the oddity. It was… a book? The side you saw had a blank cover, but after flipping it over, you saw Russian text on it. You could barely remember any of the Russian you had known in childhood, and even that was quickly overshadowed by the immediate shock and fear that hit you alongside a series of realizations. How was this here? There was no way it could have gotten here, unless… No. There was no way NASA would have sent someone before you. It made no sense! Even if the launch of a previous vessel was kept secret, somehow, you knew there was no way they could hide the return. You had, yourself, witnessed the opening of the wormhole you would’ve been sent through. If just that reportedly caused a mass blackout, you surely would’ve noticed it happen before. And if there was no return, you were certain you would have seen the remains of a vessel here. Unless something ate it, your brain unhelpfully suggested. That couldn’t be possible, you reassured yourself. Taking a breath, you resigned yourself to figuring out the origin of this book at a later time. For now, you would at least decipher the title. You had to start somewhere, right?
The title was handwritten Cyrillic, almost carved out into the leather cover with how many times it had been written in.
Король в Жёлтом
It would be pronounced “Korol v Zheltom”. But there was nothing more you could do with it. Maybe you should ask Odysseus? You were told the AI had complete fluency in every language. Which made you wonder why a spacecraft needed that knowledge, but that was besides the point. It wasn’t worth it. You might waste too much of the ship’s energy- it was only meant to be used when you had no other options in an emergency. A book was not an emergency. But if it was not from someone before you, it would’ve been formed by the particles present here. Which was next to impossible- no, it was entirely impossible with the sparseness of the atoms in a void in deep space. So that meant they were lying to you; that theory was impossible, and you were–
You had to stay focused. It was best to contemplate their lies later, and concentrate on your new task, inspecting this book. However, your mind was too tired and panicked to even try to figure out even the title, let alone the scratched out author’s name. Judging by the fact the title was in Russian, it was quite obvious the contents would be as well. So you found it pointless to even open the book. Your mind didn’t need the strain anyway.
And then it struck you. The reason you wouldn’t have seen the wormhole’s effects must be because it occurred on a different continent. The book was in Russian, after all. The Russians must’ve launched the ship that brought it here. You hadn’t expected them to have acquired wormhole technology yet, no matter how unstable.
But then why was your ship named the Odyssey II?
– INSERT AD BREAK HERE HAHA LOSERS (probably a joke) –
An interesting question that you had no answer to. There was, once again, no point in wasting time over an unsolvable problem, so you redirected your focus once more. You looked over the cover of the strange book, and seeing nothing of note other than a funny symbol on the bottom left corner, and the previously identified title and author, you decided there was no harm in finally taking a peek at the text contained within. Your curiosity was growing, and you were getting further impatient. You had nothing better to do, and it sounded quite interesting. It was a great source of intrigue, why this book had been left behind.
But just as you’d gotten to unclasping the book, a timer rang. Crap. It was time for you to sleep. In order to maintain your wellbeing, it was a requirement that you sleep every thirteen hours for a minimum of seven hours. That timer was set to notify you of the next beginning of that cycle.
You sighed- your safety and health were still your priorities, and you were willing to put a pause on your discoveries for the time being. Quickly, you changed out of your space suit into more suitable clothing for sleep, and got into bed, taking the book along with you and placing it on the bedside stand. Tomorrow, you thought, and went to sleep.
It was a fitful sleep, it felt like you woke every hour. Which was odd, your dreaming had ceased for a while now. Your consciousness was still restless, the book somehow occupying it even though you had no idea anything about it. As far as logic would take you, you would chalk it up to a severe lack of mental stimulation for your mind. You had always done rather poorly with recalling your dreams when you did have them, and it was no different now. Your memories of the nightmares you experienced were foggy, and rather vague, but there was one thing- and only one- that you could recall with absolute clarity.
A town, rather small, and mostly unremarkable. You were certain you’d never seen it before, but it felt so… familiar. It appeared to be old, abandoned, and almost rotting, but it still had a strange air of liveliness amongst its melancholy. It seemed most likely this was because of the odd shade of yellow that painted almost every feature of the town. The pathways had gold lining, the bushes yellow flowers; the houses had yellow carpets and the windows were tinted like sunshine. A central statue- a fountain- was made of an almost gold-coloured marble, sculpted with the image of a hooded angel. You could not distinguish its face. The place fascinated you, it almost compelled you, as you explored it within your mind.
And all the time, the book lay silently beside your bed.
– AHAHAHSHJGAH END OF ACT I –