Nightbirds coo and hop around you, and offer you tiny bits of yellow rice they stole from a planet tall yellow rice machine that is on the verge of crushing you.  Meanwhile, the advancing YRM-41 (by its insignia) is reading you poetry by Kipling in Russian.

The grinding noise gets closer, and you realize its real.

You're laying on your back amidst tall plants of uniform size. Above you in the dark skies are a plenitude of blazing stars in formations unfamilar to you.  Near the horizon is a yellow planet twice the size of the moon, and high in the sky is a dark red planet three times the size of the moon.

To your left is a shadowed machine with a broad front.

Its repeating a message.

"Human. Please vacate the Rakow Family planting field. If you need medical attention, please make this plain....Human. Please vacate...."

PT

My eyes flutter open, and as I slowly prop myself onto my elbows, my eyes widen in shock as the machine approaches me. I scramble out of the way, and when I stand back up, I gaze at the sky in awe. I can't be on Earth...this is impossible. Where AM I?

I then notice the shadowed machine to my left. I look at it with a bewildered expression. What was it saying? What did it mean? I move closer to get a better look.

The machine starts to move forward when you get out of its way, and then stops when you approach.

"Please leave the area, sir, unless you require medical attention. This area is private property of the Rakow Family."  The voice is not computerized this time.  Its low, and melodic, that of a young female.

Looking closer in the darkness, you see that the machine is some sort of small thresher that is cutting the wheat?? and removing its huge heads for storage.  It looks robotic.

A camera is tracking you as you move, and the voice comes from a speaker beneath it.

"Please leave the Rakow Family..." The thresher begins.

"Cancel, Murphy." The female voice says, and the thresher stops and hunkers down in its tracks.

PT

This was too weird. This machine was talking to me. It must be some sort of robot. What was even weirder was the female voice. That voice was nowhere near robotic. I will attempt to get through to whoever is controlling the robot by speaking back to it.

"Um...excuse me...if you can hear me, please...I need your help. I have no idea where I am. I'm still not fully sure how I got here. I-I don't believe I really need any medical attention...except maybe an aspirin..." I hold my head as a headache starts to pop up.

"But...I do need your assistance. Please hear me out."

"Wait a mo."

There is no sound from the speaker for at least a minute, and then you hear a faint whine coming from across the field.  You look in that direction, and see a flying shape take form out of the darkness.  It gets closer, and you see that it is a personal flying platform with railing in front, like a flying chariot in a way, and it has a passenger.

The rider is dressed in a tunic and leggings, and has a large blocky pistol shape hanging from her belt.  A short knife is on her right thigh.

"I'm Samantha Rakow." She says as the platform comes to hover five feet in front of you.

PT

I stare at the platform in awe as it approaches me. I definitely wasn't on Earth anymore. I sigh in relief when I see Samantha. She's human. Good. I am a bit curious about that pistol of hers.

"Samantha, huh? Well...I'm Shane. Shane Capriles. You, uh...you mind if I ask you a few questions? What...planet are we on, what year is it, and, by any chance, can you take me back to wherever your home is? I really need to get my bearings."

She giggles.

"This is like a story of a cryosleeper." She clears her throat. "You are in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, approximately five hundred lights from Old Earth in the Ti System.  More specifically, you are on Ti Premeras."

She points to the yellow moon. "Ti Secundas" and the black moon. "Ti Terturus. These three comprise the Political Union of the Ti System."

She waves her hand about her head to show all the land.  "Draumshir Continent in the southern hemisphere, and Peg Divisionement, and you're on the Rakow family farm in field 41, southeast corner of it actually."

She pauses.

"Oh, yes, its 2792 in the Year of our Lord."  She then turns around and speaks to the wheat.

"Lucy, Misha, Dex, Rhonda...you can come out now. Joke's over."

PT

I gaze in awe as Samantha shows me the planets. I...was a long, LONG way from home. I've never even heard of a Ti system. I look at her with surprise when she tells me the year.

"...2792? A-are you serious? That...wow...*chuckles* so humanity was finally able to reach the stars above...that's pretty awesome. You mentioned something about the 'Year of our Lord'. Is humanity being run by an empire? When exactly was humanity able to expand to outer space, and...has our species made contact with any extraterrestrial races?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:21, Fri 19 Sept 2008.

She frowns prettily, and puts her hands on her hips as she surveys the wheat.

"Oh, very well, I'll continue playing."

She turns to you.

"Quite serious. Of course, different systems sometimes use different calendars....I think in Presol System, they reckon is 2794, but we use the Lunar Reform Calendar of 2245, and they...I forget what they use."

She gives you a long, searching look.

"The Star Age began in 2312 with Southerland's invention of the first practical bubble drive. Empire? Are you kidding me? Its every system and subsystem polity for itself. 'The Year of our Lord' well that refers to Christ's birth. As to intelligent species, we've met a few, but they're a long way from here."

Her friends don't spring up out of the wheat to reveal the joke.

PT