VirileMail/9

Near the destination
I woke up much time later, I thought many hours had passed. There was something inside my head or inside the room that made me sleep. Maybe the travel was too lengthy to be able to be conscious all the time. The windows were closed again. After a few minutes they were open again. Maybe there was some AI that had detected that I was awake. The problem is I really needed to go to the bathroom. I thought if there were some equivalent to the nurse ring... I shouted and cried that I wanted to go there and after a few seconds a voice said, in a neutral voice:

“There is no need to shout, Mr. Daonet. I can hear you perfectly.”

“Oh, there is someone here. Who are you?”

“Janek. I am communicating with you from the Earth. You might wonder why the communication is instantaneous. We have mastered wormholes and we used them for sending messages, like this voice. The door on your right has been opened and it leads to a bathroom.”

“OK. Thanks.”

For the first time in his life, he was grateful to Janek. At least they understood human needs. Maybe they had some food too. He went there and came back quickly.

“So, I guess you are sending me to Mars, why do I deserve this astronomical exile? I had told I would agree with you when you put these nanobots out of my mind... I thought we had a deal.”

“Yes. We have a deal. I just want you to have an adventure in another planet. I want you to learn that we are not a threat to you as you will be able to talk to the humans in Mars base. We are not as bad as you see us.”

“No, you are just too tyrants, doing whatever you want without asking permission. OK, I will talk to those people there and see what I will decide, after that...”

“Nice. I see now that you are cooperating. Keep it that way and you will be rewarded.”

“OK. Don't you have any computers in here? It is a little boring to look at the stars after a while.”

“We have only one, it is the computer controlling the ship. With you I have understood the meaning of addiction, particularly to computers.”

“Well, Geisler and Chloe are not far from me, I guess. It is a pity.”

“Just relax and watch the stars or we could talk a little more.”

“No, thanks. I will talk with you after I speak with the humans in Mars.”

“OK.”

And it was all about stars. After a few days, the views changed completely. Now I was able to recognize Mars through the windows. It was exactly as I had seen it on some NASA's website. The same color, the same apparent size. The only difference was that I was seeing the real planet! I entertained a lot and Janek started to tell me about Mars and their underground complex. It was like a hearing Wikipedia articles with TextAloud. My trip to Mars was being very interesting at that time.

Mars
Finally, we landed on Mars. Janek told me where to find a spacesuit in case the little spaceship damaged for some reason. I put it and entered into the little spaceship. That UFO's mission was to take me to their underground base. It was completely automated and I could keep talking to Janek. I was amazed at all that technology and Janek told me I would find more of it there. I just had, almost fully, forgot about Chloe and Earth affairs. Janek was right in sending me there. Now I was near to get to appreciate him, I mean, it.

I saw a nice view of Mars that I enjoyed too much. I watched the yellow sky and the dead rocks. It lasted almost an hour. I felt like traveling through Sahara's desert, but this desert was the size of a planet! I was almost hypnotized of seeing it. At last, the mini UFO found the entrance to the complex and started to fly downwards. I could not see anything. I asked Janek and he made the UFO light the surroundings. Anyway, it was not much different than seeing black. I saw rocks and more rocks. After a few hours, I got to the base. I had thought it would be like the bunkers in movies, but it was not. It was the greatest city I have ever seen, and the most advanced too. They had special technologies for light and travel, specially. They used hovering cars to move in there. It was quite an experience to be able to see that. I felt like a teenager visiting Trantor in Asimov's stories.

The little spaceship landed on a spaceport. A door opened vertically and Janek told me I could get out. He told me he could not communicate anymore, until I get to another computer. As soon as I got off, the mini UFO flee the port. Some humans came to visit me. I noticed that the underground ambient was the same as inside an Earth's building. The same quantity of oxygen but a better temperature, more akin to my body. They greeted me with their hands but we could not understand each other because they talked that unknown language. They carried several weapons which looked like science fiction to me. After walking for some minutes we could get to a big computer screen. Janek greeted me. Now he had a human face.

“Hi there. I see you are surprised to see me this way. It is more 'user friendly' as you say on Earth.”

“Hi. Yes, I am surprised.”

“OK. Now I will be your translator. Just talk and I will translate what you say to them. They have earphones and can hear my speaking. They will give you another for you to hear me, too.”

“Cool.”

They gave me the earphones and we started talking.

Epilogue
THE END.

There are a few parallel versions of the epilogue happening in parallel universes to this story. Some of them are very short though.


 * WNANT/9-2
 * WNANT/9-3
 * WNANT/9-4

Story created and written by JWSchmidt. With some additions in chapters 6 to 8 by Davichito. The parallel endings are all his invention (until now).