As the line moves forward to get into the convention, Lillian hands me a lanyard with the convention badge for me to hang around my neck. When we pass through the glass doors into the convention, I’m handed a thick brochure printed on recycled paper. Inside are all the panels and presentations. Quickly flipping through it, I see weirdly titled panels like: “Facebook and you. Social media for the Indie writer.”, “How to Cosplay in 10 easy steps.”, “Romance novels, yeah we’re still a thing.” And “Holograms, a new dimension of media.” What catches my eye is one of the celebrity panels. There’s a panel for Jay, and Silent Bob Get Old with Kevin Smith. Man, I love that guy. Even though he’s like 70, he’s still funny as hell. Heck, he’s the only reason that I took a job at a convenience store. I figured, ‘if he was a convenience store clerk and did well, why can’t I?’. That and we needed the money.
Lillian and John are walking ahead of me now, and I have to squeeze through the crowd to get to them. I pull them away from the crowd of convention goers and ask, “Hey, do you two think we have time to catch some of the panels? There are a couple that I want to see.”
Lillian shakes her head, “No. We’re here to do a job and get you leveled up. We’re not here to see panels.”
John, flipping through his convention brochure says, “Wait. The boy has a point. I mean, we’re already here. Why can’t we see a panel or two?” Pointing to the brochure he continues, “There’s one where the entire surviving casts of Star Trek Voyager and Deep Space Nine are coming together.”
Lillian pauses her automatic head shake, “Wait, is Captain Janeway going to be there?” John nods and Lillian’s eyes light up. She looks at me, and I can tell she’s rethinking her position from the way her mouth is quirking. With a loud sigh, she says, “Oh, ok. But just a couple. And we still have to work.”
John and I agree immediately. The three of us decide which panels we want to see and estimate when we’ll have to leave the dungeon to catch them. Lillian sets an alarm that will notify us when we have to leave the dungeon each day to catch the panels, and the three of us set out to find the dungeon entrance. I use Dungeon Scan to home in on the dungeon, but we are slowed down by photographers and convention goers that want to take pictures with John and Lillian in their cosplay outfits. As we get closer and closer to the dungeon, I notice more frowns on people’s faces. I know it’s a small thing but ever since Lillian showed me the effects of keeping a dungeon around too long, I’ve been careful to note these kinds of things. I’d guess that this dungeon has only been around for a couple of days.
Eventually, we reach an old unused part of the convention center on the ground floor near the docks in back. Just like the mall, it seems like people unconsciously avoid the area. A few minutes of visual searching and we spot the red door that leads to the dungeon. A quick use of Dungeon Inspect on the door provides us information on what we may be facing.
Dungeon
Type - Future
Restrictions - None
Recommended for levels 10-15
I’m pleased to note that practicing with Dungeon Inspect and increasing the skill to level 3 increases the amount of information the skill provides. I pass on the information to the rest of the team. With a quick nod to each other, we open the red door and step onto the bridge of a starship. I recognize it as a mash-up between the bridges of space ship shows, but there are also a variety of uniforms on the crew members. There are ladies with afros and short red dresses, men in black and yellow pajamas, and even a couple of guys in the skirts featured in the first episode of Star Trek-The Next Generation.
A seven-foot-tall man with orange skin and spikes protruding from his forehead walks up to us. “You three are not supposed to be here. Identify yourselves.”
I’m not sure what to say, but Lillian steps forward with an answer. “We are new ensigns recently assigned to the ship. I apologize for our tardiness.”
The orange man considers us for a moment before sighing and saying, “No one ever tells me anything around here.” He then pulls a datapad out of a pocket and taps on it a few times. He has each of us press our thumbs to the pad, and our eyes are scanned to log us into the ship's database. When we finish, he escorts us to the ship's supply room and hands us each a uniform and small tablet. Once we’re dressed the orange man introduces himself, “I’m 2nd Lieutenant Arbitrator Deflux. I officially welcome you to the United Confederation of Planet’s ship, Titan. Your data pads will inform you of where you will be stationed and what tasks you can perform to help the ship.”
He then walks away, leaving us alone once the doors to the room slide closed.
Once the doors to the room slide closed with a whoosh; I practically jump up and down with excitement. “How cool is this? We’re in a Star Trek knock-off!”
Lillian smiles at me, happy to see me so excited, but there’s also a thoughtful look on her face.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s just unusual that the dungeon does something like this. It’s probably related to the convention announcement that the fifth Star Trek reboot was delayed because the production company fired their third director and the A.I. playing Khan is holding out for more screen time.”
Well, regardless of why the dungeon turned out this way, I’m looking forward to exploring it. The three of us quickly change into our new uniforms. I’m sorely tempted to try to sneak a peek at Lillian but refrain. Lillian however jokingly calls out ‘hot stuff’ when John and I are changing with our backs to her.
Checking out my datapad, I see a series of quests that have to be completed before the dungeon is defeated.
Easy quests: Adjust the triilithium matrix with the Irish Engineer. Listen to the android member of the crew at a recital. Help the alien chef prepare dinner.
Medium quests: Survey an alien planet. Negotiate a treaty. Solve a mystery involving a space ghost and a red-headed doctor.
Hard Quests: Battle an invading alien race. Create a new propulsion system. Space Battle against a Star Destroyer. Prevent a time distortion.
Over the next three days, the three of us spend part of the day completing these quests. It’s not easy, but the time compression in the dungeon helps us find the extra time. When we’re not questing, we’re enjoying the convention, attending panels, guessing who cosplayers are dressed up as, and perusing artists’ alley for stuff to buy.
When we finally defeat the last hard quest and save the confederation of planets from certain destruction, we are each awarded some serious XP and credits. For defeating the level 10 dungeon we each get, 10,000 XP and 9,000 credits. That leaves me just 577 XP shy of level 9. Yes, the quests were super hard, especially that time distortion one. On that mission, the three of us had to avoid violating the temporal time directive as well as repair the damage done by a time traveling alien rebel. Still, all the work was worth it. The 9,000 credits will go a long way to outfitting me with some good gear and to helping out at home.
Chapter 36
After spring break is over, I return to school, work, and dungeon clearing.
One day when I come home from my morning class, I find Mom sitting in the kitchen. Usually, she’s asleep by now, resting for her night job while Marie is at school. Her shoulders hunched, and her gaze is downcast, staring at something in her hands. As she takes a sobbing breath, I realize that she’s crying. I drop my backpack, rush to her, and put my arms around her shoulders.