Stella Unchained- Day 1.1 (Beta)

9:00 PM

The stack hit him like snow crashing on his faceshield. Waves of chaos. Colours. Sensations. An ethereal cacophony filling the void with geometry. Neon lines converging at the speed of thought. Entangled web of meaning.

Then silence.

When Kline opened his eyes, he saw the Grid. It encompassed his visual field, superimposed like a layer on reality.

At first, the grid undulated, bending the layer beneath and morphing the scene like plasticine. The effect disappeared within five minutes, and the universe snapped back into a crisp crystal lattice. For the next three hours, he would control the Grid and bend it to his will. It was the perfect visualization tool for modelers. And barely even cost him anything. Like they said in Leary's Prefecture: A stack a day keeps reality at bay.

He looked through the pod’s window and saw the snow blow across the barren landscape, dotted here and there with the blinking light of the distant prefectures. A smooth realm of snow and ice.

“Stella: Temperature,” he said.

The answer appeared on the window glass: -223 C.

It was warmer than last week. Not that it was any comfort in this frozen world, whose inhabitants were cocooned by a layer of technology designed to protect them from the harsh elements. The ancients were often praised for their wisdom in colonizing this world, but Kline had his doubts.

He watched the snow swirl along the icy barrens. On the dark skies, the aurora shimmered and rippled like water. Three of the seven moons were visible as they slowly glided from one end of the sky to the other. He watched their trajectory superimposed on the Grid. The moons danced and wobbled in their orbit leaving a colorful trail of fine elemental mist.

Suddenly, his eyes grew abstract. He stared at his reflection on the glass; dilated pupils superimposed on the lunar twilight. When he came to himself, he realized 30 minutes had gone by.

He rushed to his console and donned the CR goggles. Once the neural link was established, he fired up the modeler.

"Stella, summon trajectories-v23."

A 3D model popped up on his visual field, depicting his home planet and its seven moons. When he waved his hand, an array of symbols faded into view, clinging like dew drops on the Grid. With graceful precision, he arranged and rearranged the cognitive tapestry of logic. He smiled as each symbol fell into place and glowed with a soft green hue.