Sophia - Tyana

She awoke much later to find herself face down on the bed where she had fallen. The key was nowhere to be found. She started to panic until it rose out of the flesh of her left hand. Then she panicked for real, holding her hand away from herself and watching the key melt back into it. "What the FUCK!?!"

A faint, ghostly shape faded into view several feet in front of her. "Easy, mistress. It means you no harm," the figure said in a quiet, low soprano voice.

Sophia backed slowly away, coming to rest with her back against the lattice of the middle window. "What...what is going on? Who are you? Where am I?"

"Easy, mistress," the voice said again. "You are in no danger. I am Tatyana Zerina Merilen Cheryenko Petrovka, Tyana to my friends, and I certainly hope we can be friends! I am the Hut, well, the master control system that runs the technology of the Hut at least. The key has activated, now you and I and the Hut are joined. I am here to help you, although you should lower your heart rate. It's really not good for it to race like that." Slowly the ghost faded into solidity.

The room spun in front of Sophia, her vision closed down to a narrow, dark tunnel, and she would have fallen if Tyana hadn't caught her, helped her to the bed, and eased her down on it. "Maybe I should come back later?"

"No," Sophia replied slowly. "Just give me a chance to breath." Her eyes slipped shut and she drew in long, slow breaths until the darkness began to fade. "I get panic attacks," she said uneasily.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Perhaps, as time goes by, I can help you with that." The bed settled slightly as another body settled onto it. Sophia slowly opened her eyes once the darkness had receded. Above her, warm brown eyes in a round face, stared down at her. "Are you better now? I didn't mean to scare you, it's just most...it's just I didn't expect you to be so frightened. Aren't you used to magic or technology?"

"Things don't disappear into people's hands. Holograms don't become solid, shit, hologram projections like you don't even exist where I'm from. And magic is parlor tricks performed by sleight of hand."

"No arcane magic users? I'm very sorry. Your realm sounds very backward indeed. But no matter, you are here now, where magic and technology have evolved to a very high art." Tyana motioned around the room. "You'd never guess this was stabilized energy in a pocket dimension, would you? And it is for you, a gift from Irena."

An icy chill stole over Sophia as the words sank in through her panic. "What is going on here? Where am I? And how can you be named Tatyana? That's a name from a story, from a game, not from reality."

"One Realm's reality is another's fantasy. That is one of the truths of the multi-verse. Some can see through the veils and catch glimpses of the other places. Artists and writers do this better than most. This will give you an advantage."

"Send me back."

"Haven't you read the book yet?"

No. I recognized the Key. If this is like what we were working on, then the book will be a short bit of background with the final bit being, 'oh, so sorry, but you need to finish the quest before you can go home. Oops, my bad.' Am I right?"

Tyana looked embarrassed as she replied, "Well, sort of, yes. The book does explain it. Short answer, the Hut is damaged and you need to fix it to go anywhere."

"You trapped me here deliberately?!?"

"Not deliberately! Just as we shifted you here, there was a ripple in time and space, caused by one of the power groups. We don't know which one, just that it damaged the Hut as we placed you in it."

"What the fuck did you do and what gave you any fucking right to do it?"

"I told Irena it was a bad idea, I really did, but she said there was no time. We had to live with the dangers of cold recruitment, in the hopes enough would understand fast enough. I know it will make no difference, but I am sorry you were brought here this way. If we had time, we would have done this differently."

"Fuck! And I thought Shandi was crazy."

"Maybe she wasn't. If you get the Hut working, you could try and go back and see your friend. Let her show you what she was talking about and determine her sanity then." Tyana dropped her voice, "I did disobey Irena a bit. I left a Summoning Crystal for your friends. If they use it once the Hut is fixed, they might be able to call you home."

"What does it look like?"

"A fist sized, heart shaped sapphire."

"They'll recognize it."

Tyana's eyes lost focus for a few moments. "I have a status report ready for you. Would you like me to display the short summary or the full report? And would you like it here or in the control center?"

"Uh?" Sophia swung her eyes around the room, looking for a display, "Summary and here, I guess, if you could show me the terminal?" Tyana made a small motion and a glowing screen shimmered into focus in front of Sophia. She almost shrieked in surprise, but caught it at the last minute.

"This is the summary, mistress."

System Log: SUMMARY - display only failure mode data

system cold restart - initiated - successful until

WARNING: energy spike - space/time distortion pulse

WARNING: nav system damaged

WARNING: Interface Fault:

System Malfunction.

Interface Locked to Nearest Target

interface system damaged

- status -

Off-Line

AutoRepair requested

AutoRepair

FAILED

control crystal matrix damaged

- status -

Off-Line

AutoRepair requested

AutoRepair

FAILED

standard defcon grid deployed

defcon blend selected

defcon established

power system malfunction

- status -

Primary

Off-Line

Interface System

FAULT

Secondary

Online

defcon control

- status -

Off-Line

defcon locked cur config

Waiting Power Restore

autoconfig started

navsys destination purge - succeeded

autoconfig parameter error - terminated

config repair

succeeded

config stable

auto-repair launched

- status -

Running

------

Halted

Primary Power FAULT

Interface System

Manual repair required

crystal matrix

replacement(s) required

"Could you tell me what this all means in a non-technical summary?"

"Normally the auto-repair systems can handle most any failures in the Hut. There are a few things that are required for the auto-repair to work, though. One of those items is a complete set of control crystals. One or more are damaged, so auto-repair cannot work. You will need to find replacements before the Hut will be able to fix itself. I hope replacements are available where we are, otherwise, I am not sure what we do next."

"How do I know what to look for?"

"Check the diagnostic terminal in the Core Systems and then a physical examination of the various units should give you an idea. After that, you need to find out what sort of world we are in and where to look for crystals. I'd also recommend reading through the book. Irena went to the trouble of writing it up. It might actually help. I must concentrate on what auto-repairs I can make," Tyana began to fade.

"What if I have more questions?"

"Talk to the Hut and I will answer."