Do I Know You, Captain?

Just a game?

Mark didn't understand. How had he ended up in the warp core again? Working on the warp core again. Had The Captain not fixed the paradox he had created? Or was he stuck fixing it for another thousand years?

Tears brimmed his eyes as he stood here. The core was in front of him, almost complete. His vision begun to blur as his breaths became shallow and painful.

He couldn't do it again, he just couldn't. He reached up and tried to grab his hair, but his hands hit something in front of his face. It caused pain on his nose and his vision blurred.

"Mark?" A familiar voice said to him as everything turned abruptly black. He felt something constricting his face and he started to feel for it as the voice came again,"Mark, are you alright!?"

He finally managed to get his fingers under the strap but as he yanked it off, he pulled his hair.

"Ah shit, owie." He muttered.

"Mark, sit down!" The woman said to him. His vision was blurry at first but as they adjusted to the light.

In front of him was a slender woman with slim, pink lips, long eyelashes, platinum hair with side swept bangs. Even with the worry in her eyes, the corners of her lips naturally curled up in sharp angel kisses.

"I-uh-think.... think I broke my nose." He muttered, feeling the burn inside his nostrils.

"Again!?" She said in a cute voice, frantically looking around the room. As she searched, he became aware of another person in the room. It was a lanky young man with hair a similar color to the woman's. He had a very young face with big expressive eyes.

"So, Mark, how was it? Did it feel real?" He asked.

"Did what feel real?" Mark asked quietly.

"The video game. Are you ok? I mean, besides your nose?" He asked as the woman put a rag to his nose.

"What video game?" He asked, his voice muffled. The woman put her free hand so gently on the back of Mark's head, so gentle and caring.

"Vita Renascentia." The man answered.

"That's what we chose to name the new planet." Mark stated as the woman took the rag away from his face.

"Yeah." She said softly, squinting a little,"In the game you were playing."

"What?" He scoffed lightly," What are you two talking about!?"

"Please sit down. Amy, should we call 911 or should we drive him to the ER?" The man said.

"Amy? Amy. Thats..That's... so familiar... and you're Eef?" Mark muttered, pointing to each in turn.

"Eef is his nickname..." Amy said absently,"Uh... let's call, this is serious."

"Ok..OK... tell me what's going on. Please." Mark said, slowly sitting on the floor. He looked around the room he was in. It was a strange room with sound tiles on the walls, a standing desk, much more equipment for recording.

"You are one of five people on YouTube that were chosen to be part of a virtual reality experiment." Amy started to explain as Eef held a phone to his ear, chewing on the nails of his free hand," It was supposed to feel extremely realistic. This is your third time playing. They intended to have you play multiple times because the experience is different each time. After a certain number of times, they would take all your reactions and plug them into a software program to make you a character that can react according to choices the "Captain" character."

"Captain character? Are you saying the Captain is a game player?" Mark asked skeptically.

"Yeah. Someone hired as part of the experiment, like you." Amy explained gently.

"No." Mark shook his head,"No, the Captain... we... they..."

"It's a game, sweetie." Amy said. Eef came back while Amy ran her fingers through his hair. His heart skipped a beat and his breaths caught in his chest as he watched her worried face.

"Ten minutes tops."He said, kneeling next to Amy in front of Mark.

"They... we were... in love." Mark whispered.

"It was a game." Eef reassured him, patting his arm.

"No, no. Give me the goggles or helmet or whatever it was." Mark demanded.

"Uh, I really don't think that's a good idea. Ethan... hand me..." Amy said, pointing to her phone. Mark grabbed her wrist, his lip slightly curling.

"You don't understand." Mark muttered.

"Mark, let her go." Ethan said in a stern voice that seemed out of place on his young face,"There is something wrong, but you have to let her go."

"It... it was really just a game?" Mark asked,"Everything we went through was fake?"

"Yeah. Uh... you need to go to the hospital." Ethan muttered,grabbing Marks wrist,"Let her go."

"I'm not going to hurt her, I never meant to hurt anyone." Mark whispered, trying not to cry,"I'm so tired."