A Utopia 1 - Utopian
Welcome to the Utopia Project! We thank you for volunteering to restore a beautiful solar system into its former thriving glory. There is a lot of work to be done, but we are committed to make everything easier for contributors to follow. Here is the first colonisation kit you will need to revitalise the first planet. Please report back once you have completed everything on the checklist included in the kit. Good luck and we look forward to hear your good news!
I traced a tearing point of the kit and ripped it open. The kit dispersed into compressed item data that found their way inside my cargo pack. I rummaged through the junk I normally carried with me - ferrite dust, carbon and what not, before I finally found the new additions that bound me to the contract of this project.
Or at least I assumed this is what the space beast from my dreams wanted me to do? Bring back some life in this lonely universe, or multiverses?
The kit populated my cargo pack with some ion batteries, pure ferrite, and other essential things that I admittedly do not always restock out of laziness. There was also a… First Gek helmet? Did the project also wanted me to pretend I was a First Gek colonising a habitable system, just as the founding Geks intended?
The Utopia Project terminal continued to flicker behind me while I treated the work supplies a bit more festive than what I probably should be. For a moment I thought it was talking to other volunteering interlopers, but when I was about to head out to the first settlement destination, I turned towards a distinct voice.
“Captain-entity? Is Captain-entity there? Hello?”
The voice came cackling through the Utopia Project terminal. Who’s there? Was it talking to me?
“Captain-entity? Does Captain-entity not recognise this entity? This entity is-”
The voice got cut off by static. I reached towards the terminal, desperately tried to find something to press so that I could resume the conversation. However the terminal was nothing more than a display, controlled by the core of the outpost tower. I got very worried. That voice and the way it spoke, sounded like a Korvax frigate captain I had lost to an expedition a long time ago.
I ran outside the terminal room to the landing pads, somewhere I could see the sky, and attempted to summon my freighter. The signal was jammed. Nothing arrived above my sky. Then I heard a loud broadcast from the tower core, very likely addressed to me: “To ensure all contributors are not disturbed during their revitalisation effort, all interstellar interference are blocked from this solar system. Only volunteers invited by the project have the exact coordinates to arrive at this system. We thank you for your understanding!”
I let out an angry but helpless sigh. Perhaps the sooner I finish my part in this project, the sooner I could get out of here to track the message origin. My guts told me I knew this voice. My guts also told me I need to reunite with this voice.
Until then, I disgruntledly put on the First Gek cosplay helmet, and begin what was meant to be my calling by the stars.