Андреа Хёст - The Starfighter Invitation

"I really hate how in my head you are, Dio."

[[I see that. The true Synergis experience is perhaps not so intimate, since outside of virtual environments, Bios have more ability to limit biometric feeds to their assigned Cycog, should they wish to. And currently, technically, you are closer to being in my head.]]

"I bet Cycogs find us transparent in or out of virtual environments."

[[Always.]] Ter chuckle was rich, but te added in a more serious tone: [[Most Cycog partners are able to judge a need for privacy enough to –]]

"To pretend they can’t see through us?"

[[In a way. To learn your limits, at any rate.]]

Learning my limits was half the problem, but I shrugged and said: "You said something earlier about using the reward of the System Challenge to ask you more questions?"

[[Indeed. Though I perhaps would not have suggested that to you if I’d anticipated the group you formed. Strong, adaptable, cooperative.]]

"Arlen and Imoenne aren’t even eighteen yet," I said, still thinking through the age helps with strength revelation.

[[No, those two are naturally talented. While you, well…]] Te sighed dramatically. [[Still, if you beat the System Challenge, I will answer three questions of any nature. And if you lose…]] Dio’s chuckle was a pantomime of evil anticipation.

"Is losing going to involve forfeiting my soul?"

[[Very likely. Though, if you fail well, perhaps I might let you go with a kiss. Who knows?]]

I made a face. "And then the spell will be broken and I’ll wake up?"

[[Hopefully.]]

Dio hadn’t paused, or changed tone of voice, but there was a quality to ter answer I couldn’t identify. I looked up at tem again, but there were no clues in a drifting mote of light, so I turned my attention back to the planet, and then the complicated question of what kind of custom modal I wanted to wear, and tried not to think too hard about how many people really would sell their soul for The Synergis.

I met my Oma on Earth Gateway Station, and did not recognise her.

I’d seen old photos, of course, and looked about for someone resembling faded Polaroids, but it was only by opening the player information panel of the woman in company of my parents that I could do more than guess. My mother’s side of the family is all tall, and I had many memories of my Oma towering over me, grim, silent and faintly disapproving, but my Oma’s Core Unit was a giant, almost seven foot tall. On closer examination, I could discover the resemblance to my mother, but it was far from obvious. This new Oma was grand rather than grim, though her bare nod in acknowledgement of my greeting was all too familiar.

My family were not—thankfully—part of any of the rival teams gathering for the System Challenge, but instead had been drawn into an elaborate multi-planetary Challenge my parents' guild was trying to complete.

"It doesn’t unlock anything, but it has a large, guaranteed reward—especially if your guild manages to complete it first," my mother explained.

"Has—have you joined the guild, Oma?" I asked, trying not to boggle. I’d spent time in my parents' guild, which roleplayed with great virtuosity, and a tendency to chew the scenery.

"The friends of Mieke? An excitable group." My Oma spoke with the indifference of a queen. "We must hurry, Mieke, if we are to find the talisman in this place."

She strode away, and my mother, with a bemused smile, waved to me and followed.

"Good luck with the System Challenge," my father said hastily. "We’ll be cheering you on."

The crowd parted before Oma as if spelled. With her head held high, back ramrod straight, and eyes unwavering from a point across the busy entry hall, she seemed touched with an otherworldly aura. Her hands were loose at her side, but I caught a brief flutter of motion to them, as if she were touching thumbs and fingers together: the only unnecessary movement in her progress.

"Oma unchained," I murmured, and wondered if she would be like this out in the real world, if arthritis had not taken so much away from her.

[[Incoming surge of people,]] Dio said.

The arrivals hall was already too crowded for my tastes, so I moved on. Earth Gateway Station was an enormous stacked snowflake of interconnecting corridors, viewing platforms, and hydroponic atmosphere purifiers, all beaded over with the regular shapes of tens of thousands of Snugs. The second wave of players, earning their release from Earth, had flocked to the orbital stations, and the Gateway Station was particularly popular because of the chance to wave off those heading to The Wreck, as if we were athletes on our way to the Olympics.

My own group had been twenty-first to unlock the System Challenge, which is the first time I’ve been so high on a leaderboard for any large game. As Dio had pointed out, I’d lucked into a very strong team. Hopefully they’d all log back in in time to make the next departure of the transport ship to The Wreck, which was a limitation we hadn’t factored in when deciding on our meet up. Our additional delay meant there were now more than forty teams qualified, and more than half had already checked in for the transport, which only departed every twenty game hours. And the next departure was nearly half a game hour before our meet-up time.

I wanted to be on that ship. Beating the System Challenge, coming first in a big way, hadn’t felt real to me until I could sit and watch the chance for it tick away.

To stop myself fretting, I asked Dio for directions to the quietest eating area on the station, and sat nursing a drink while working at the design for my custom suppression modal. I didn’t want to create Kazerin again: the memory of that knife in the back was still too sharp. But having now experienced a few different bodies, I couldn’t decide what I wanted as an alt. The fantasy beauty I’d first designed? Or someone that didn’t resemble me in any way? The discovery of a randomise button kept me mesmerised, but did not take me any further.

Silent>> You near the transport? We’re nearly ready to sign on.

>>Silent: I’m a couple of levels down. Couldn’t get a seat anywhere near the big dock.

Silent>> Yeah, it’s quite the circus. Meet up by the green line elevator?

A group invite came with a handy directional indicator for Silent’s current location. Glancing at the departure schedule, I didn’t head up immediately, taking the time to visit the nearest bathroom, and then working on my breathing, timing each inhalation so that at least part of my attention was devoted to measured rhythm. By the time I was ready to go up, we had the full group in party, and had completed the registration for the System Challenge.

The big dock was one of only two servicing large ships on the whole station, and was positioned at the very top, in a low gravity zone. Light gravity and the swarming crowd put me in immediate danger of a foot to the face, as people were popcorning up and down in order to see something toward the centre of the large, circular space.

I tucked myself hastily against the wall, and then blinked as a series of shimmering force fields rose, and people began to move away from the elevators. I wouldn’t have understood the sudden orderly arrangement if not for the multiple comments directed toward the inevitable drifting motes above them.

"Not sure I care about stupid demerit points."

" But the rest of my guild’s in the other direction ."

"How do I get through to the ship with these force fields in the way?"

" Following arrows is getting so automatic to me that I’m in danger of doing it out in the real world. "

Sticking to the wall, I made myself follow my own arrow, finding Arlen and Imoenne first, distinctive even with their faces hidden by sculptured inky curves. The only person in the group who hadn’t activated their focus was Silent, and he did so as soon as he spotted me.