"...silk!" - Lina said, then realized that she already switched over.

"Mmm, so this is it" - she thought, looking around. As the colonel described it on the previous day, she was standing in a forest type environment, not a jungle by any means, but fairly warm. The plants looked strange at first sight, the green was a bit off, and the shape of the leaves was also unusual. Exactly as it was described by the so-called scouting teams. No sign of any civilization, neither human nor alien. Just a bunch of tall plants and bushes.

The ground showed signs of people being here, tracks of naked feet as well as broken or disturbed vegetation were all around her. The ground was surprisingly dense, under a thin top layer it felt almost like hard clay, without the stickiness.

After taking note of the environment, Lina checked herself. Her body looked precisely as she remembered it, including - she quickly checked - the parts under the clothes. The clothes themselves were exactly the same as what she was wearing outside.

Already, after maybe two minutes, there were a lot of questions on her mind. How did the artifact scan her so quickly? What happens with the fallen leaves? With the lack of the plant detritus, how does the whole ecosystem work? Is this a real world where she is controlling a clone, or a digital one that somehow copied or transferred her consciousness?

Well, her money was on a digital world, or whatever the alien version of that was. Shared mindspace? Something like that. That could be an explanation for everything above. However, as they discussed this on the previous day, the colonel, for undisclosed reasons, had doubts about that.

However, for the time being, she decided to start two experiments. From the plants, she selected a piece of hard… wood?... and scratched a visible L on her forearm. Then she grabbed the piece in her right hand, and focused on leaving the alien world.

As promised, she was back in her own body on Earth the next second, laying on a bed. She checked her forearm and her hand, neither the mark nor the plant piece were there, but she didn’t expect them either. As soon as she opened her eyes and started moving, the technician sitting next to her bed started a medical checkup.

“That’s normal procedure after someone comes back, if they are not in a pod. The pods automatically track all vital signs.” - said the Colonel, patting her knee - “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, all good. It’s pretty much as you described it yesterday.”

“Excellent. Now, the next thing: we would like you to spend a few days on the other side. From your file I can see that you have experience in camping and some rudimental training in survival. As I explained yesterday, a few military survival experts already tried this, with limited success. However we believe that your education and experience would lead to a different approach, that might just work better. Or not, in which case you just need to come back to the starting point and leave the world, as you did today.”

“Come back? Why?”

“It only works there. We don’t know why. Anyway, since we don’t want to influence your experience or impression, we will not share the reports from the others just yet. We want you to come up with your own thoughts. If you can survive on your own for 10 days, please come back, and report. If you need any help, either medical, emotional, or anything, come back. There will be someone in this area 24/7, and they will contact me at once if I am not here.”

“Uhh, that’s a bit sudden, Colonel. What can I eat? What do I do against predators? What happens if I die in an attack?”

“Well. There are things to eat, but you need to find them. So far no one reported any big predators in the vicinity. We have no idea what happens if you die on the other side, if that is possible at all. Try not to find out!” - he smiled for a second, then turned serious again - “We are here as a safety net, if you need anything, come back. I mean it.”

The technician gave a thumbs up, and collected her instruments. Finally permitted to stand, Lina looked around. She was right next to the artifact, almost touching it.

“How much time elapsed here while I was in?”

“Not a lot, maybe a minute. We only had time to place you on the bed, and you woke up a few seconds later.”

“So, there is a difference in the speed of time inside.”

“Yes, it’s about three times faster inside. 3.1, or so.”

Lina laughed, then, seeing the confused look on the Colonel’s face, she explained:

“I guess you will find that it is 3.1415 times faster. It’s a sign from the aliens that they control the flow of time inside. It’s the value of Pi.”

“Interesting idea, we will try and measure it.”

“Anyway… I am okay to spend a few days inside, I guess this is why you said that I should check out from the hotel. Anything else to know?”

“Nothing you will need. We are ready whenever you are.”

She nodded, and without further ado, walked to the core, and touched it again.

Blackness.