Awaken: Naval Academy

Audio version

This version is produced by myself and narrated using (pretty damn realistic) TTS, primarily for use on my fictional "Awaken" podcast in Second Life. This story in particular is very strongly tied to Second Life.

The audio version uses the following sounds and music:

The narrators and the bubbling sound effect were generated using ElevenLabs (with whom I have no affiliation).

Text version

These events took place late last night, while I was the only one left online in Shroomhaven. I was making my way back home from Shroombucks, wandering through the forest toward the Stargate. Suddenly, i hear an announcement: "Incoming wormhole from The Naval Academy". I'd heard of the place in passing, but I didn't know they were connected to the gate network.

One thing you need to know about me is that I'm usually very shy, and avoid interacting with strangers. Since all of my friends were offline, I could only assume that whomever dialed the gate was unknown to me. So, to avoid unnecessary interaction, I hid in a bush and peeked out at the new arrivals. Two avatars soon made an appearance, Puun Nagreb and Vector Edge. Both of them wore some strange backpacks that looked almost like scuba gear with large hoses attached.

They made their way to the DHD and waited for the incoming wormhole to disengage. They then began dialing a new address, but it didn't make sense. They didn't stop at seven, eight, or even nine symbols, I counted 15 in total. My field of view began shaking, and the shaking intensified as more and more symbols were locked in. As the fifteenth chevron in the sequence locked, the stargate gave off an intense humming and began to glow. Then, a thick white liquid began oozing out of every crack in the stargates structure. Puun and Vector made their way over, and began sucking up the liquid using the strange equipment they brought.

After about 10 minutes, when all of the white liquid had been harvested, they dialed a new address and left. As they did so, I quickly targeted Puun and tried to open his profile, but as soon as the window opened my computer died. I didn't get a bluescreen of death, or even just a hard lock. The whole thing fried and refuses to turn back on.

I was just too invested in this whole event to let it go, so I brought out my work laptop and signed back in to see if they left any traces. When I came back online and started moving around, I noticed that Roads was standing at the edge of the clearing. Had he seen it too? "Roads, please tell me you saw what I saw!" I shouted, he responded: "Gate milkers, sure is."

"Gate milkers?" I asked.

I'm having a hard time processing all of this. If anyone else has had a similar experience, please let me know.

Last modified: 2025-05-07 08:12:11