Spaceships and Magic, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Chapter 107: Celebration Chapter Three (Alternate Timeline): New Teeth, New Voice... That's Weird

I woke with a groan. My head was pounding and my mouth felt as if I had eaten a tablespoon of sand. I knew that I had a pretty heavy drinking session on Saturday, but to still be feeling the pain of it on Monday morning meant that it must have been truly ridiculous. I let my eyes flutter open, wincing against the harshness of sunlight as it streamed through my window. The world around me came into focus and I froze in my bed. 

Well, I froze in the bed, because it certainly wasn't mine. Neither was the room for that matter. My bedroom was small. It was a part of a tiny flat that I owned in London, cramped and with a floor covered in dirty washing that I had yet to get washed up. There was a single dim light that flickered when the tube hurtled past, and it always smelt of damp no matter how much I kept the windows open. It was certainly not a wide and expansive room with metallic looking walls and a dark wooden floor. My room did not have two strips of high tech looking lights lining its ceiling, nor did it have futuristic looking doors with no handles and a large window that looked out into the inky blackness of space. 

My memories returned slowly as the initial panic subsided. The little girl, the van, the creature in the void, The Maw. The creature had promised to send me to another dimension, one where I could reach my full potential and live a worthwhile life. I couldn't help but feel a little jolt of joy, of sheer childish excitement. I had travelled to an entirely new universe, apparently one where I lived on some sort of star ship and travelled through space. It was like all my childhood dreams had coalesced into one reality. Sure I'd died to pull it off, and sure I knew the terrible truth that my soul was basically just being harvested to feed some interdimensional god. But at the moment things were cool, and I wanted a moment to enjoy it all. I felt like a kid again. 

I decided to try something. "Comp" I began to say, before noticing that my voice appeared to be deeper than I remembered it, and my mouth felt strangely different in general. I ran my tongue over my teeth. "New teeth, new voice that's weird." 

I swung my legs out of bed and onto the wooden floor, which I imagine must have cost an unimaginable amount of money to get made considering this were a spaceship, and got out of bed. There was no mirror in the room, so I decided to try something that I had seen on a science fiction show before my time on Earth had ended. 

"Computer, activate mirror," I ordered, trying to make my voice as clear as possible. 

"Activating mirror," the computer system, which had a strange lack of the metallic twang voice activated AI's had back on Earth. It almost sounded human. 

A hologram flickered into life about a foot in front of me, and stared straight back into my own eyes. I had been expecting to see my slightly portly self staring right back at me, but instead I saw a rugged and handsome man. Handsome in all the ways that a man should be handsome, too. The holo-man had deep green eyes that seemed to pierce right through me, even though he were a hologram they sparkled with intelligence, life and determination. His dark hair was cut short on the sides but there was still a slight fringe. His arms and stomach showed a light amount of toning, not too much to make him look like a total beefcake but just enough to show there was a level of definition and strength beneath his skin. To be honest, if I weren't straight, I would probably jump him there and then. 

"Computer, I said activate a mirror not show me the stereotypically attractive lead of an action movie," I snarked at the machine, not really expecting a response to such an obscure sentence. 

"But sir," the computer responded, "The holo-mirror functions are working at one hundred percent efficiency, you look just as strange as you did when you stumbled in here last night!"

I swallowed, and watched the adam's apple of the attractive man bob in synch with my own. The computer told no lies. That demonic wraith of the veil had done more than just sent me to my childhood dream. It had taken away the remnants of acne that had plagued me since puberty, it had reduced my fat levels and toned my muscles, it had made me grow a good half a foot and changed my hair and eye colour to be a striking combination. Not only had it sent me to a universe where I could do well, it had sent made me look good while doing it. That would take some getting used to. 

Now to address the multiple elephants in the room. I needed to find out some pretty core things about this universe I found myself in. I needed to find out where I was, if the universe had the same star systems and constellations as the one that I had left, what my purpose in this universe was, and how much cash I had to my name. I would start with the most pressing of issues. 

I turned away from the holo-mirror and strolled over to the wide window that took up the majority of one of the walls in the room. When I saw what lay outside the bounds of whatever ship or station I was in I felt my knees go weak, and had to steady myself against the wall. For a start there was the space. Of course when you are on a planet you know that space is infinite. Or at least that space was as close to infinite as a human being could ever comprehend. But when you're standing on the surface of a world you are, in a sense, separate from that infinity. The world around you keeps you grounded, no matter the infinite space above and below. When you are actually in space things become a different matter altogether. There's nothing to ground you anymore. 

I looked out of the window into the ceaseless expanse of space. It stretched out for light-years below me, light years above me, light years to the sides. Far out there were the tiny twinkles of other star systems, glimmering prettily like like diamonds on a jewelry shelf. It was beautiful, it was breathtaking, and it was making my head spin. A well of panic was bubbling away deep in my gut, whatever calming effect the Void had on me was relinquishing its hold. My heart raced, my palms became sweaty and clammy. Looking out into the depths of forever I was terrified. 

That was when it started to hit me, really started to hit me. I staggered back a few steps and collapsed onto the bed. In just a few moments I had lost everything. My family, my job, my life. It was locked away in a universe that I myself was now separate from. I let my head fall into my hands and let out a harsh sob, tears flowing freely from the corners of my eyes. Damn that reaper, or whatever it was, and damn the void. Though I hadn't realised it at the time the entire space of the void had sapped me of my will, and though I had asked the reaper some pretty important questions I hadn't been able to feel my fear. If I had I probably would have made a run for it. But then, how could an ordinary human run away from such an immense and powerful being in its own domain? I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath, steadying myself before standing once more. This was my life now, and although I was more scared than I had ever been before I had to make do and get on with it. There was no use moping around for the things I had lost, even if they would scar my heart for a long time to come. I had been sent to this world for a reason, I had left my Earth incomplete. I needed to lead a long and fulfilled life so that balance in the universe would be maintained, and though that didn't sound too bad in principle, I couldn't help but feel a heavy presence settle over my mind.