"Welcome," said the voice.
The voice came from somewhere in the darkness, and yet it seemed to come from all around NervousMan too. There were probably speakers built into the place, hidden from view.
NervousMan could feel cool sweat on his forehead, beading up.
"Where was that Molly person?" he thought suddenly.
NervousMan started to turn around, as if anticipating that she would walk in again, then thought better of it, and resumed his stance on the 'X'.
NervousMan's shoulders slumped. He was resigned to going through with this thing, whatever it was. It would be rude to have Molly stop it at this point.
NervousMan didn't want to be rude.
"Why am I even here, in this thing?" thought NervousMan. "What am I doing here?"
NervousMan blinked, scratched his head and sniffed. He glanced around nervously. He could not tell how big the room was. But it seemed to be a fair size.
"Since ever there have been humans, we have looked to the skies."
NervousMan noticed that the voice was deep and resonant. Pleasant in sound quality, but slightly menacing in tone.
NervousMan felt small.
For a moment, he could see the movie, or room, or movie projected onto the room, or whatever it was. It was large and circular. He was in some sort of 'observatarium' perhaps they were called.
The scene faded, and changed.
NervousMan looked up. Now it was a sunrise he was beholding. Perhaps he was supposed to be now on some African plain. He could even feel a breeze, slightly, blow against his forehead. As if it were coming from a vent somewhere.
NervousMan shivered.
At one end of the round room, NervousMan could see the 'sun' projected in the 'distance' of its forced perspective. It burned and flickered slightly, like fire, and seemed to be miles away.
NervousMan squinted at the makeshift sun.
Birds, projected on the wall, flew by. From somewhere, flutes played, and below, in the music, the infrequent yet sharp timpani of a small drum.
NervousMan felt dreamy. His eye followed one of the birds, down, down, down the sky, flying away from him, until it's merest wingtip was silhouetted by the projected sun.
Then, the scene faded and changed.
"...as the modern age approached, through the middle ages and the Renaissance, we continued to watch the skies".
NervousMan saw now a projected jet airplane cross the dusky 'sky' around him. It disappeared somewhere above his head. A rumbling engine sound followed it. He breathed.
NervousMan's eyes focused on the middle of the room again. Something resembling a satellite faded into view, drifting through the inky blackness. Almost the shape of an energy drink can, with an elaborate series of antenna about it, and a dish, the satellite loomed closer. It almost seemed to be really there.
NervousMan was starting to feel nervous. He should have asked the woman out there what this was all about. But he had been too nervous to even broach the subject. She might have thought him strange.
"...what you are about to see, are the greatest views of the sky that have ever been taken. From views of Mars... to the horsehead nebula... to the farthest reaches of our universe".
The looming satellite faded, and now it was all stars again.
Why am I here? thought NervousMan again.
And from deep within him, came another thought to counter this:
Why is anything here?
The 'satellite' faded, the music taking on a more ominous and bassy tone. The light of the stars grew together quickly as if all expanding at once, until all the corners touched and the room was bathed in light.
The music swelled, reaching a dramatic climax. NervousMan winced.
Before he knew it, the room again plunged into darkness.
Now it seemed like NervousMan was falling through space itself. He could see little pieces of space debree rushing past him. His point of view was being swept through all manner of cosmic structures now, both dark and illuminated.
Light and shadow danced before NervousMan wildly.
For a moment, he really had the sense of flying through space. Towering nebulae loomed and then he passed through them.
"Mercury," thought NervousMan, almost non-sensically.
Spiral galaxies passed overhead. Ringed planets passed on his left and right, accompanied by electronic 'wooshes' from the soundtrack. He felt like he was falling into the stars. Falling into darkness. An endless abyss. Would it crush him? Would it destroy him?
NervousMan looked at his feet, to the X beneath his feet.
No, this is just a simulation, remembered NervousMan. A simulation. Not real.
"I am standing in a room," he thought. He shifted his feet.
A planet was looming up ahead on the invisible wall, growing to envelope NervousMan's field of vision.
Blue and green, it now dwarfed the sky.
NervousMan could not tell now if he was falling up into its heavens, or plummeting toward its surface. He shifted his feet, again, and bit his lip. He glanced behind him but could see nothing. NervousMan nervously rubbed the back of his neck. The soundtrack thrummed.
The planet became everything now. And even though NervousMan was looking up at it, he had the sense of looking down on it. He was looking down on clouds which were usually in the sky. And now he saw canyons and rivers. Far off in the distance he could see a large body of water rapidly approaching. The projected sun glinting off of its surface.
NervousMan started to realize that he really needed to go to the bathroom.
