The lights in the hangar shone sharp and vacant, illuminating the over two kilometer wide stretch of empty landing pads that were once bustling with tourists coming and going. The central administration building stood tall and apathetic, like a giant circular pillar. A line of circular pads embedded in the floor were set up parallel to the back wall of the hangar. Behind them was an equally long line of check in booths, each with a door next to it leading towards the elevators for secondary access to the rest of the station.
The sliding door of employee bathroom in the administration building opened, and a fair skinned young woman wearing a black mourning dress stepped out, cautiously running her fingers through her fiery orange, curly hair. As she looked around with red rimmed eyes, she wiped the tears from her cheeks. She looked like she had just come from a funeral. Karis looked around the rooms of the administration building, glancing in the empty offices and peeking inside the vacant cubicles. With her grief gradually turning into confusion, Karis stepped towards a doorway ahead flanked with big glass windows. Stepping through it, Karis found herself in the empty expanse of the hanger bay. Now even more confused, she turned and looked up at a holographic message circling the administration building above her. Vox Chronos had been watching the young woman wander around the administration building with equal confusion. There had been no warning of her arrival and unlike every other visitor who had ever come to the museum, she had somehow entered through the bathroom. Last the lonely Vox AI had checked, there were no portals inside the restrooms. But soon the excitement of a new visitor broke through the confusion. "Welcome to the Traveler's Quest Museum! You don't know how happy I am to have a visitor after all these years." Echoed a deep British voice, startling Karis. She whirled around to see a levitating spherical object with a screen. On the screen was a logo with a V and a C. The voice spoke from the drone again. "My apologies for startling you. Might I ask who you are and how you got here? I haven't had a living human in the museum in 407 years." Karis blinked, trying to make sense of the situation, reaching out habitually for a handshake only to realize the drone didn't have any hands. "Uh. . . I'm Karis, Karis Holar. And. . . I don't know how I got here." Vox didn't even notice the grief in Karis's voice as she glanced around skeptically. "Who are you? What is this place?" Vox's voice continued to project from the speaker on the drone hovering in front of her. "I am Vox Chronos, your voice in time, and your guide to the Traveler's Quest. This is Station 11, aka TQ station, home of the Traveler's Quest Museum." "You're. . . a tour guide program?" "Yes I am." "Did you just scan me?" Karis's question struck Vox as odd. "No I did not. I am curious as to how you got here though. May I do a quick scan?" Karis's caution went up slightly. "Not sure why you would need to scan me twice, but sure." As Vox scanned her using the drone, he pondered what she meant until the data from the scan appeared. "Fascinating. You came here from another dimension. Although, if you had built a portal you would have ended up on one of the teleporter pads." contemplated the AI as he observed the line of circular platforms nearby. "How did you get here?" Karis glanced to the side, avoiding eye contact with the drone. "I uh. . . used a different kind of portal." "I see." said Vox. He knew she was hiding something but did not wish to pry. He became excited again. "Would you like to see the museum?" Karis opened her mouth and was about to say something, but chose to say something different. "You know what, sure. I could use something boring." Vox stopped. "Boring? On the contrary, the Traveler's Quest Museum may be a museum but it is designed to be an unforgettable experience for all ag-" "AAaaaaa! Let go let go let go!!" Vox was startled by Karis's screams only to realize the drone had malfunctioned. It had gone into security mode and its retractable arms had deployed, grabbing Karis by the right wrist and dragging it closer to the bottom of the drone. There something like a tattoo gun was waiting. Karis struggled but the hovering drone held her arm fast. She tried kicking at it and bought herself some time. The screen on the drone had changed to a blood red with a three sided symbol and a deep voice began repeating distorted and warped through its speakers, "You must receive your NEROchip to enjoy the museum. Please remain still." Karis watched in horror as the tattoo gun-like apparatus unfolded to reveal a tiny micro chip ready to be grafted into her right hand. She looked around for something to whack it with, but there was nothing in reach. At the last second another drone rammed into it at full speed. Karis's arm flung out of the drone's grasp as it was hit and the collision sent both drones off into the wall where they both exploded. Karis held her right hand, shaking at how close she had been to who knows what was about to happen. Vox's voice came through the station PA system. "I'm sorry Ms. Holar. Please forgive me. My drones have been malfunctioning. I should have told you sooner." Karis shook her head. "Yeah, I can't take this right now. You do you but I'm not staying here. I wish you luck finding visitors but seriously, I would fix that first." "You appear to be in great distress. I am very sorry about that. You're right. This should be fixed immediately. Could you please tell me everything unusual that happened from the moment you arrived? Whatever caused that is hiding its actions from me." Karis didn't respond, still shaking. After a few moments she took some deep breaths, and got down on one knee. "Dear Lord, thank you for keeping me safe. My life has been in much more peril than most people could ever dream of. It's a miracle I'm alive. Praise you Jesus." When she got up she took another deep breath or two before stopping, as if seeing or hearing something. Or perhaps she was feeling something. "Vox?" "Yes Ms. Holar." "Don't lose heart. Don't give up hope. No matter what happens." "Why? I'm just an AI. What happens to me ultimately has very little meaning." Karis turned and looked up at the security cameras she could see. "Vox, even if what you will do or what will happen to you has very little meaning in the Lord's plans, that doesn't mean it's not important. God bless you in Jesus name." Vox understood but was still curious. "Thank you. . . what happened?" She tilted her head at the cameras. "Wait, you didn't see any of that? Then why did you save me?" "I heard you scream and assumed my drone was malfunctioning." "Well I was screaming because your drone was suddenly grabbing me and trying to put a microchip in my hand." Karis's frustration shuddered through her voice, but she took another deep breath and calmed herself. "So you're saying that wasn't you?" "No it was not. I would never attempt to harm a visitor unless they were a certified threat to other visitors around them and could not be contained." Vox backed any other drones in the area away from Karis. Karis noted, realizing Vox had no intentions of hurting her and that something else he was not aware of was at work. "What's a NEROchip?" Vox's screen glitched as something moved in his code. All the drones in the station went dark and fell to the floor with a loud clatter, startling Karis. After a few tense seconds Vox's voice came through the station speakers again. "The drones just went through a forced shut down from an unknown program." Karis was on edge again. "It was nice to meet you, and I wish I could help you but. . ." Vox understood. "Go ahead. It's fine. Maybe we'll meet again some day." With that, Karis ran back into the administration building and into a closet, closing the door behind her. Curious, Vox remotely opened it a second later, only to find she had disappeared. As the drones rebooted, Vox wondered who she was and where she had gone. She had mentioned something called a NEROchip. Perhaps some research was in order. Vox began accessing the archives only to find that any files referring to or referencing "NEROchip" to be locked to where he couldn't access them. Realizing the situation, he opened a back door in his code, accessing computers throughout the station in order to secretly bypass the locks. It would take a few months, but eventually, he would get to the bottom of this. [01101000 01110100 01110100 01110000 01110011 00111010 00101111 00101111 01110111 01110111 01110111 00101110 01110110 01101111 01111000 01100011 01101000 01110010 01101111 01101110 01101111 01110011 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101 00101111 01110011 01101000 01100101 00101101 01100011 01100001 01101101 01100101 00101101 01110100 01101000 01110010 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00101101 01110100 01101000 01100101 00101101 01100100 01101111 01101111 01110010 01110111 01100001 01111001 01110011]
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