We're all in this virtual space together.
Alioth

You wake up Alone in a virtual space.

What do you do?

Somewhere in the distantswirling galaxies of the universe, a lone giant ark of a ship sailed seeminglyunhindered through the blues and purples of the vastness of space. On theoutside it appeared smooth and sleek; swimming through space like a fish wouldglide through water. In big bold letters on the exterior walls of the ship readthe name ‘Astraia.’ Named after the star-bright maiden in Greek mythology, shesilently played through the stars like a lively goddess in all her beauty. Theship was long and narrow, with great delicate fins extending from either side.The outer walls were a dual colored metallic texture, and depending on how oneviewed them and what angle they either appeared bright, shining silver, or awarm liquid gold. Towards the front of the ship several small porthole-likewindows were present, belonging to the rooms of those ranked higher within theinner workings of the ship’s government. In the very front a large expansivewindow could be opened and closed to let in a glorious view of the passinggalaxies, a sight only privy to Her Majesty, herself. No other living thingstepped in the room to behold the grace bestowed by Mother Nature to the lastof the people of Earth. The window opened in a delicate curve, much like therest of the ship operated. Not one hard line was found on this ship, creatingits dimensions through curves and bows, with all the grace and liquidity offlowing water. The Astraia powered itself seamlessly, no large or bulkypropulsion systems present, but instead an arc like area around the back of theship moved the craft through the vast atmosphere less space.

Within this complexspaceship laid hallways of vibrant colors and textures, all creating the vasttapestry of the spacecraft Astraia. The ship was divided into several residencesections of declining wealth and importance, a wide and expansive space thatcould be transformed for any sort of entertainment, a booming city life - thatof course had its own slums, and a hidden citadel area where it was presumedthe Empress mainly stayed guarded by her own personal, handpicked civiliansthat had gone through rigorous training. The residential area was made up oftower of individual livings pods that stacked one atop another until it reachedhigh around the walls of the ship. Great, long towers covered the majority ofthe inner walls of the ship, pressed as close as architecturally possible tostill leave room for the inner area of the ship to contain enough entertainmentto sustain whole generations of humanity for a lifetime. These living podsranged widely in size, with high ranking officials having large expansivepenthouses, with ordinary jobless citizens living in places no bigger than asmall apartment space. The spaces were furnished with hyper modern furniture,consisting of graceful curves and lined with iridescent rope lights. All roomsalso had a mood matching capability, which immediately altered itself to suitthe needs and purposes of the owner if they had their neurons linked with theinternal core of the living pod. One merely had to think of something, and thewalls around them would provide the utmost compatibility to the need or want inquestion. All non residential areas of the ship were designed with a certainflair and style of luxury in mind. City sections were filled with toweringskyscrapers attempting to reach the heavens that they were already sailingthrough, the lack of space outward forcing life to develop upward. Glitteringgold mixed with velvet purple, trimmed with a vibrant line of LED lights tocoat almost the entire interior of the ship in a soft pinkish glow; bathed inthis light being all of the last remaining members of humanity, now venturingthrough space on their stellar journey from their homeland of Earth due to therapid collapse of civilization. Thousands of cities had collapsed; one by onefalling to the raging virus that had slaughtered basically all of humanity savefor a small colony that had been ruled by the woman who was now Empress oftheir spacecraft. She saw the cities around her falling, and had her peoplebuild a glorious spacecraft on which they were going to flee the Earth on. TheEmpress worked here citizens to the bone, and many workers never saw through theend of the project, so focused on the harsh deadline of mass extinction thatthey worked themselves to death. The virus began its’ onslaught quietly,sneaking into a host’s nervous system and dwelling there for a few days beforeworking its way to the bloodstream and corroding the arteries, causing victimsto be fine one day and suddenly die the next. Blood soon bathed the streets ofinfected cities, and it was too late to save those who were already infected.Whole areas became danger zones, and soon most of humanity was pressed intotiny colonies at far corners of the world, warring for untainted space andtrying to quell the horrifying virus. No one knew where the deadly disease hadstarted from, but it spread like wildfire across the cramped and heavilypopulated cities of the Earth. Many people while on Earth theorized that it hadall started due to a corrupt leader who wanted to control the entire myriad ofhuman colonies. Others thought it was a scientist’s experiment gone terriblywrong. But none the less, soon barely any humans were left, and the Earthbecame uninhabitable due to the land itself being poisoned with the highlyinfectious plague.

Beautiful peoplepopulated this lone spacecraft of humankind, of every size, shape, color, andethnicity. Those who had survived the deadly virus leapt at the opportunity toleave their old lives behind. The only surviving quality was untouched by theferocious plague, leaving the mark of perfection that had come with advancementin beauty technology as well as vanity. The Empress easily bestowed newtechnologies onto these people, having been able to focus all the energypreviously gone onto curing the humanity wiping virus into things thatpleasured her and her people. She created a proverbial land of milk and honey,making it easy to cater to the every whim of the last of Earth’s creatures.Most humans had undergone surgery to look more appealing, or had theirchildren’s genetics to be altered to be the best they could be.Humanity had now become a designer breed, nolonger caring for self preservation when they had their lives assured to them.There was no need for war when they could easily be the lapdogs of the Empress,going on about their personal lives while she ruled and made their livessimple. They frolicked in their easygoing lives, perfectly content withthe natural order of things under the great Empress, a powerful woman whom nonehave ever seen. These people lavished in the luxuries of their futuristic home,partaking in any activity that took up their fancy.

Two of such people werestretched out luxuriously in the beautifully radiant artificial sun, alreadyhaving set up a picnic on the plush almost too green grass. They laughed andchattered meaningless chatter, the picture of a perfect utopia setting goneright. A calm and tranquil aura of listlessness surrounded the picture perfectcouple. The two lazed and enjoyed each other’s company, making smallobservations they would forget in the next hour, or just merely leaning againsteach other. It seemed the world itself was on pause with how slow the twomoved, enjoying every second of their day like they had not a care in the worldand absolutely nowhere to be or nothing to do but sit there and enjoy eachother’s company. Just as one of these people went to reach for anothersandwich, a fiery haired young man tore between them like death was hot on hisheels. An energetic smile was plastered on his face as he gleefully yelled anapology to the now frazzled perfect couple behind him. He continued running. Heran and ran and ran. Unlike most, this young man had somewhere to be.

This was a young mannamed Myos, the unlikely hero of our story - or at least, of his story.