InsaneJournal

Day 14
Who: Mal and OTA
Where: Approaching the resort
When: Late afternoon/ into evening
What: Arrival
Rating? TBD
Status? Incomplete

"What the...." Malcolm sat up and looked around groggy and lazy eyed. " Zoe?" He looked around trying to figure out just where he was and how he got there. After a pause and no answer from his first mate he stood and rubbed his face in his hands and looked about again as if his situation would have changed, but things remained the same.. no crew, no friends... no ship. "Where the rutten hell is my goram ship!" he exclaimed. As the seconds passed away Mal was finding himself more and more agitated and worried. He tried to rethink what had transpired through the last few days that might have led him here, but all he could come up with was that he had finished a shipping job with the crew and was enroute to their next setup. He had climbed down into his bunk for a few hours of sleep, and now... here he was.

He looked around again, but still nothing discernible could be seen. It was all just, empty land with no landmarks or any notable terrain. Heat mirage shimmered on the horizon but even it screamed of nothingness. Mal stroked his chin in thought, weighing his situation. No ship, no crew, no supplies, he reached down and felt at his side.... no weapon. His holster was empty. Now he was really unnerved... to have no weapon meant it was taken from him. So who took it... same person that dumped him here no doubt. What had they done with his crew and his ship. He snarled at the thought and whipped around again, hoping to see something, anything but it remained the same dismal lack all around him. At least he wasn't locked up or being tortured again.... yet at least.

He was dumped here for a reason, and having been left with nothing but his clothes Mal could only assume it wasn't to flourish. As he stood there and evaluated his situation the shimmering horizon parted before him and slowly revealed a..... a resort? He looked about again and back to the image but it remained. He immediately checked himself... no lump on the head; sweating, so he wasn't dehydrated yet, didn't feel drugged, pulse and breathe seemed normal enough so he wouldn't guess to be so bad off as to hallucinate yet. But watching a resort materialize before him where there had been an empty expanse previously seemed to suggest otherwise. A confused grunt was all he could manage. Seemed a most inviting place, then again they always did right? Games that your mind, or others played on you. Never heard about people be lured into a trap with sparkling images of a prison. Still, what had he to lose? Where he stood there was nothing, nor was there in any other direction. Part of him screamed to go the exact other direction... but who said that was the right choice either. What if he really needed to be heading off some other random direction? No, there was one choice shown to him for some reason... and he was damn sure going to find out why that was and where his ship and crew were.

So he started hiking towards the image of paradise. He looked up to the sky and groaned. The sun was starting to drop and he had a long ways to go. At least it would start cooling off... but Mal worried about just how cool it would drop. He picked up his pace since the falling sun didn't slacken it's downward arc, as it set the heat mirage faded and confirmed that Mal had chosen well. He could see nothing save the resort in any direction. "What the hell is going on here?" He muttered to himself.