Андреа Хёст - The Starfighter Invitation

"What do I do to get the clothes actually on me?" I asked, looking at the edges of the mirror and then the back of the door for hangers or parcels or something.

[[Walk in.]]

I turned my head to stare up at the floating mote, and decided that that rainbow shift did signify amusement.

"Try not to enjoy yourself too much," I said, and won a sputter of musical notes to go with the colour change.

[[But the expressions Bios produce when they’re confused and trying to hide it are nigh-irresistible.]]

"Wouldn’t want to bore you," I said, before considering the mirror again.

A cautious touch produced a ripple, and a faint chill. Not glass, but some kind of reflective liquid?

"If this leads to a heart-themed queen after my head, I’ll be less than impressed," I said, then took a deep breath and walked forward.

It was not so much cold as tingly, like a bath of mint liqueur. I don’t recommend baths of mint liqueur because the shock makes it almost impossible not to gasp, and mint liqueur in your lungs is a moment of full-body ice cream headache.

I didn’t find myself choking, however, just very light and strange, in a place too bright to see. Unsure what to do, I tried stepping forward again, and emerged back into the main room, all turned around without even trying, and dressed in unexpectedly comfortable gear. The boots especially were light and so form-fitting that I almost felt barefoot.

"I didn’t even feel the change. What happens if I put on something like a corset?"

[[I expect you’d feel that. You were distracted by the Soup.]]

I glanced back at the mirror . "This reflective stuff is…soup?"

[[A common term for it. The substance that your equipment is made from. That your modals are made from. Any pattern you obtain can be fashioned using Soup.]]

"Matter conversion? Tea, Earl Grey, hot ?"

[[If you want to think of it that way. True matter conversion takes an unreasonable amount of energy. This is closer to what you’d think of as 3D printing, but with the Soup giving flexibility to the print substance.]]

"Will I dissolve into a puddle of silver goo if I’m killed?" I asked, tugging at my new outfit to try to determine if I had any underwear.

[[No. Merely stiffen and stink.]]

I glanced up from my discovery of a tank top beneath my coverall. "Does…does this game use permadeath?"

In most MMOs, the consequences of death were mild. You died, you respawned nearby, with maybe a little temporary stat impairment, or a lighter bank balance. Games where you had to start over from scratch if you were killed were extremely rare.

[[You will not want to lose your Core Unit,]] Dio said. [[But The Synergis gives you many opportunities to postpone the various things that happen to Bios after they die.]]

"What happens to a Cybercognate when you die?"

[[We don’t technically die—not in the terms you’re thinking of. Or, at least, none of us have been confirmed to yet, though we have lost contact with a number. In certain circumstances we…diminish. And we merge or divide, which some regard as a kind of death.]]

Not certain if this counted as glowing ball sex, or whether it was impolite to pry, I let the subject drop. Dressed with all my non-edible possessions in this virtual world, I went into the [Capture] menu, and found I could take either screenshots or video, and did both, since it was a tradition with me to keep a record of all my characters in their starter gear.

This accomplished, I glanced briefly at the [Consumables] menu, decided I needed neither food nor any urgent investigation of the wet room , and said: "Ensign Taia, reporting for duty."

[[Ensign?]] Dio said. [[You’re getting a little above yourself. You’re Rank Zero at the moment.]]

"Is it true there’s no level cap?"

[[In all the history of The Synergis, the highest Rank reached was one hundred and fifty-four. That Bio is lost, however. There are several dozen in the one-thirties. We have a number of stratagems active to improve them, and there are several we have hopes of reaching a new record.]]

"And Rank doesn’t equal level?"

[[Rank is a measure of your strength in lan. After a certain point, expanding lan Rank is immensely difficult. It is not a matter of accruing experience until you automatically gain a Rank. It is surpassing yourself.]]

I digested this, walking back to my control-less cockpit and settling cross-legged into the chair, my boots poking into my thighs. Progress through the game revolved around increasing a particular skill, rather than gaining levels?

"So what Rank would be needed to reach the next galaxy?"

[[That is a complicated question. Skipping, as the name implies, does not require arrival at your destination in a single bound. Simply by Skipping repeatedly, we should have spread beyond the bounds of Helannan centuries ago, but every ship that has Skipped a certain distance beyond the galactic halo has not returned.]]

"And you don’t know why?"

[[Not yet. There are places our ships cannot survive—gravity wells beyond their tolerance, stars, extreme atmospheric envelopes, and the centre of the galactic core. We have many theories on what could lie between galaxies, but we have yet to detect anything of note. Whether our ships are facing some consequence of galactic rotation—the Dark Current, as it is fancifully known—or there is a factor we have not even guessed at, our approach includes a push to increase the length of an individual Skip in the hopes of leaping across the imagined obstacle.]]

"So getting to the next galaxy is the main quest?"

[[It is one of the primary goals of The Synergis, certainly. But there is plenty to occupy us within Helannan. Half a trillion stars, and a great deal still to learn. And do. Start by opening your Activity menu.]]

[Challenge]

[Trial]

[Event]

Since only the [Challenge] menu was green, I went straight into it, and found an extensive selection:

[Construct]

[Scramble]

[Hunt]

[Courier]

[Puzzle]

[Gauntlet]

[Labyrinth]

[Citadel]

Some of these I could guess at, but others… "Citadel?"

"Your best equivalent would be big lan dungeon ."

The [Construct] option was green, so I took it, and was given only an opportunity to [Request].

"Any consequences for selecting this that I should know about?"

[[The first Challenge is universal, and will give you no difficulty: it’s designed to introduce you to the use of lan. Once you have completed it you will be given more choice, and your Loss and Abandon statistics will accrue.]]

"And there’s a penalty involved in bad statistics?"

[[The mockery of your fellows? My own mild disdain?]]

I gave my Cybercognate a steady look, then said: "So are you a permanent attachment? You follow me through thick and thin, a faithful guide, strewing barbs and bon mots along the way?"

[[I certainly don’t follow you into the wet room,]] Dio said.

A literal Bio break? I smiled, but waited, watching a seagull drifting far below.

[[No, I don’t follow you about all the time. Primarily, we work together on the lan-related Challenges and Trials, while you’ll be on your own for the majority of other Challenges. For the moment I’m conducting you generally, but once you’ve passed the initial orientation, you’re free to meander about as you will. Simply say privacy please or something similar and I’ll leave you. The [Contact] menu will be available if you have questions, or wish to progress in the game.]]

"What do you do when you’re not conducting me?"

[[Oh, all manner of perversions,]] Dio said, and even though I didn’t hear any laughter, I caught the rainbow shift.