《A bad deal.》


 ch.1 Hope for the future.

    Standing on the edge of the forty-five-floor high-rise with my toes hanging over I think to myself ¡®Is it today? Is today the one I lean out and embrace oblivion?¡¯ it¡¯s a weird question to ask while looking out over the fantastic city-space of NYC. It¡¯s a view I started taking for granted a long time ago. Standing here for what might be the last time I can¡¯t help but notice its beauty and wonder if it¡¯s the last time I¡¯ll ever see it. With that thought in mind, I make my decision


    Taking a shaky breath, I step back. Cowardice. The feature that defines me as a person, it¡¯s the reason I was on the edge, it¡¯s the reason I stepped off it. Someday I¡¯ll find my courage and I¡¯ll either take the plunge, or find the strength to never want to again.


    The edge is always a gamble for me, 5¡¯4 before the cerebral palsy hunches me down to a little over five foot even with pain, and degeneration. Add on that it¡¯s a form of ataxic CP that has been with me from a very young age and every time I put my toes up there I play cards with fate, a notorious cheater. I guess it comes down to her not wanting a Coward as well.


    ¡°Baron! What are you doing out here, you¡¯ll catch pneumonia!!¡± Betty means well, she is the only person I can think of that cares for me as a person and not either a test subject, or wealth. She¡¯s been with me since my parents disappeared twelve years ago. when their company plane went down on the way to propose a new form of energy that could potentially put oil into the rear view. Oddly enough not only did the plane go down under mysterious circumstances, the black box was ¡®damaged beyond recoverable¡¯. Those things are made to withstand enough force to be pulled out of 747¡¯s, and airbuses, so I still don¡¯t exactly trust it.


    I guess it¡¯s a moot point now, every court system I¡¯ve gone to has stopped listening. I¡¯m living on the money from the settlements that were still fuzzy on the legalese side of why I needed to be awarded a settlement. Blood money? Coward money.


    ¡°Baron, you are staring off, are you OK?¡± I can hear the concern from Betty, she¡¯s a good woman.


    I¡¯m in love with her. I think she loves me, but not in the same way, never in the same way. Even if she did, and I was honest, she¡¯s my mother¡¯s age twenty-four years older than me.


    ¡°Yes Betty, I wanted a few minutes of air before I get stuffed into the car and carted off to the torture chamber.¡± My distaste for having to continually endure my mistreatment by something seemingly out of anyone''s control is a constant detractor to my mood.


    Betty harrumphs, ¡°It¡¯s not torture, they are test batteries to make sure you have stabilized. Once your health has evened out they can attempt the new cellular regeneration, you could finally be free, we could¡­you could see the world Baron. Imagine the freedom you would have, the things you could do!¡± Betty has been weird ever since I got accepted into the study two years ago. I can¡¯t help it is because she will be free once I have been ¡®healed¡¯, able to live her life free of the soul crushing entity that is Baron.


    I¡¯m sure on some level she will be happy that I would be truly healed, she doesn¡¯t have to stay with me, practically forcing her way into caring for me once my parents passed. She left the company and stayed on with her own money for the better part of two years, once I had control of my own finances I hired her on as ¡®staff¡¯. She¡¯s the only staff I have, the CP hasn¡¯t driven me into hospice yet, and if my next test is all even it hopefully never will.


    Grabbing my forearm crutch and turn back to Betty, ¡°Alright, my friend, lead me to the mosquitoes.¡± Betty¡¯s face lights up with a smile. She truly is something else. A beautiful forty-seven-year-old who didn¡¯t look a day over 25. Her soft skin almost dark enough to be purple, Betty was a rare mix of African and Asian I¡¯d never seen anywhere before. Admittedly, I am not that worldly; spending most of my time locked up in my tower apartment. For all I know ninety percent of the women in the world looked exactly like her.


    Where was I? oh yes, Betty.


    Betty was about 5¡¯8-ish, I¡¯m guessing because it¡¯s a question I never asked. She has curly, almost jet-black hair that she keeps in a loose frizzy pony-tail, green eyes set of slightly up curving sockets, and immaculate, almost severe, eyebrows. Her lips were full, and a pink color dark enough that it might be mistaken as red if you didn¡¯t look hard enough. Her short straight nose always caught me off-guard, there is nothing wrong with it, but something about it brings the word ¡®cute¡¯ to mind.


    Betty has a thin body, I wouldn¡¯t describe her as athletic, more on the skinny side. Whip-thin, would be the term. Despite that she¡¯s strong compared to me, she picks me up when I fall and holds me when I have seizures and as far as I can tell doesn¡¯t break a sweat doing it.


    Compared to my measly 5¡¯4 height, and pasty white complexion, and short brown hair I¡¯m incredibly normal looking by far.


    For as many things as I love about Betty, she does have a few quirks. She¡¯s one of those religious types, not the obnoxious ones that are trying to shove things down your throat, one of the devout ones of a religion that involves daily worship at specific sun, and sometimes moon, phases. I¡¯m not going to complain, it usually involves her doing some kind of yoga in the great room area, and what kind of man would I be if I complained about a woman in tight yoga clothes preforming bendy worship?


    Back to the matter at hand, I suppose.


    ¡°Onward, to the palace of pain yon maiden!¡± I call, as I hobble back into the house.


    Betty snorts and turns back into the house maneuvering around the couch and towards the door, ¡°I¡¯ll call the elevator, Galahad.¡±


    I like to think I¡¯m witty and clever, Betty laughs, but I¡¯m still not sure if that is at me or with me. If I¡¯m hale enough to receive the treatment, which I have been actively suppressing my excitement. I don¡¯t want to get there and have them tell me it¡¯s not an option.


    Walking through the suite at my shelves of books, and my comfortable couch, big tv, and other amenities it brings a feeling of worthlessness. None of these things have brought me happiness, only reprieve from the almost constant pain, and unhealthiness. I¡¯d thought it more than a few times; I would trade all of it for health.


    I don¡¯t dislike people who are healthy, I do envy them though. I cannot say I would be a better person than some, I do not want to change the world, or donate my time to charity. Most of my fantasies involve walking unaided, and not having to deal with the looks of pity when I go places.


    Lost in my little bubble of self-pity I don¡¯t even realize I¡¯m standing a few feet from the elevator. Betty is holding it for me, letting me process the emotions that have taken ahold of me over the years.


    As I step into the elevator she gives me a self-conscious smile. ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m ready.¡± Reaching out she pushes the button, closing the elevator doors.


    Once the doors close Betty quickly looks at me with a serious look at puts a finger over her mouth, the universal symbol for be quiet. After about four seconds she puts moves her finger from her mouth and touches two to her right temple.


    ¡°Scans say we¡¯re clear of auditory bugs, come over speakers his implant is only blocked, not safe for comms.¡± Betty sounds like a completely different person, usually so soft and soothing, this Betty is straight-forward and stern.


    Opening my mouth to talk betty quickly puts her finger over her mouth again, and shakes her head.


    A tinny voice comes over the speakers in the elevator, ¡°Baron, don¡¯t talk we have control over most signals to and from the implant, but anything you say might still be recorded and uploaded. Betty, I¡¯ve made it look like someone got off on the floor before you got on with a child who pushed multiple buttons, I¡¯ve bought you maybe an extra 30 seconds.¡±


    Betty gives a nod, and starts talking ¡°Alright, to be clear; we have done this before, almost every time we get into an elevator we have this discussion. Keep quiet and I¡¯ll give you the highlights¡± she raises her eyebrows, and I give her a quick nod of my head.


    If this is a discussion we¡¯ve had before I should get my mental faculties checked.


    ¡°Important stuff first. You are a hostage, the cage is rather beautiful, but it doesn¡¯t make it any less real. Second, once we get to the ground floor you won¡¯t remember any of this until later. Usually we do a wipe, but this time we¡¯re going to suppress it, today is the day you get out of this cage.¡± Taking a breath, she keeps going, ¡°a long time ago you were taken from your parents and hidden as leverage. They were important people in the grand scheme of things, and were in position to make a difference on a massive scale. Your imprisonment ends today, the bad news is that there¡¯s a very real, very high chance that we all die in the process. The good news to that you would DEFINITELY die if we don¡¯t move today.¡±


    I¡¯m having a hard time believing any of this information, it seems pretty far-fetched, outlandish. Some of what she¡¯s saying is fantastical. Opening my mouth to say so, she moves her hand over my mouth to stop me from talking. Moving so fast that I barely even register that she had moved in the first place.


    ¡°Don¡¯t. Talk. This has been years in the making, we don¡¯t have much time left, here¡¯s what need you to know to survive once you remember: be brave, follow my and move, if I go down; listen to the man in your head. Once it kicks off they are not going to try and take you alive, they are going to kill you either way. That¡¯s all the time we have, I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    Removing her hand from my mouth and touching her temple, she talks to herself again, ¡°Suppress it, key phrase: Evergreen. Authorization Beta-Echo-453.¡±


    About half a second after she says it a small burning starting behind my right ear quickly builds to a pulsing pain that hurts all over my brain; the pain is so much I fall over onto the wall and handrail for the elevator, for me it feels like an eternity, and then I black out.


    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


    As the elevator doors open I realize I must have been more lost in thought than I thought. ¡°I¡¯m sorry betty, I think I¡¯m a bit more nervous about this screening than I initially thought, I can¡¯t keep my head in the right spot."This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    All the worrying has given me a headache, I don¡¯t think it will matter in the grand scheme of things. Headaches are an almost daily aspect of life for me, and it¡¯s never mattered before. I like to believe I¡¯m usually the stoic sort, but it¡¯s cumulative somedays. If I¡¯m being honest with myself I¡¯ve been worried about this for days, mix that in with the day to day pain, the recent news about the tension in the city and I¡¯m lucky I¡¯m not dealing with a constant stress migraine. This one feels like its building to be a whopper.


    ¡°Can we slow down some please, I¡¯ve got one of my headaches coming on.¡± It¡¯s not necessarily a command, and not a question since I¡¯ve already slowed down. The walk to the car is almost unbearable. Betty takes my arm, partially helping guide me, but also taking some of the weight of walking. She really is a godsend, little things like this are the reason I never hired any other staff despite the size of my household. I¡¯ve considered it often, but in the end more people means more moving parts and I¡¯ve existed long enough without it. With any luck, I¡¯ll end up healthy and well, maybe in enough health that I can ask Betty to stay as a friend instead of a caregiver.


    Shawn, my hired driver, gives me a look of pity ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me saying it, you look like shit Mr. Baron.¡± Betty shoots him a stern look. ¡°What? I¡¯ve been driving the two of you around for years, hell, I¡¯m up there almost every day playing games on the couch, and most of the days I¡¯m not we play online anyways. I might be ¡®just a driver¡¯ but I care.¡± Shawn looks less like a man who was just rebuffed, and more like an insulted friend.


    Shawn was a burly guy, either twenty-four, or twenty-five, depending on the day you asked him. I figure he probably just didn¡¯t put much stock in age. A hair over five foot Nine inches, he had short dark brown hair that he kept cut short, usually showing up with it freshly shaved every week or so. His face predisposed to smiling, rarely without one when we were hanging out. He was usually more professional with his uniform on, saying he classified as what people call a ¡®Bro¡¯ would be more than fair.


    He¡¯s earned it in my mind, we play games, or just sit and watch tv almost every day. When I came into the money, I had hired a driver through a local company, Shawn was the third driver I was assigned. The difference between him and the other two was that he was honest to a fault, and didn¡¯t pull his punches. I never caught him flashing a look of fear, or disdain in my direction for my frailty.


    If anything, he helped me up, the second week he had driven me and Betty out to a scheduled helicopter ride, and while getting out of the car I had tripped and slammed my elbow into gravel causing some scraping and bleeding. Instead of rushing over and acting like I was an invalid, he stood by and let me get up on my own. I remember Betty had not been happy about it, she had been at the counter confirming our flight time.


    It was the only time I had ever seen her get in someone¡¯s face, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you help him up?!¡± she had asked, a couple of inches between her and him with fist¡¯s balled at her side. She was even more beautiful than usual that day: Yellow sundress with flowers, hair pulled back into a loose bun, and her face flushed with anger. It was the day I realized I felt more for her than friendship.


    Shawn had shrugged, ¡°If he had needed, or asked for help I would have.¡± Turning to look me in the eye he said, ¡°something¡¯s a man has to do on his own.¡±


    After discussing it with Betty during the flight, I offered him a job at twenty percent above whatever his pay was, plus a sign on bonus. It was one of the few times since my parents died that anyone other than Betty had treated me as a person. She wasn¡¯t a fan of him, but understood where I was coming from.


    I gave him a smile and got in the car. After sitting down and putting my head on the seat I must have passed right out, the hour ride out to the research facility was over in a wink for me. I¡¯m not sure what I was dreaming about but I woke up tense and sweaty.


    Betty taps my leg as we pull into the drive for the facility. It¡¯s tucked away, just outside of the city limits a modern looking building; a large L shape, six-stories with one of those designs where the first floor is inset three or four feet inside the floor above it, making it look like it frequently skipped leg-day. The square, four story parking garage next to it didn¡¯t quite fit, but I guess allowances had to be made.


    My headache was mostly gone as I got from the car and walked into the facility. I went through the sliding doors and straight to the wheelchair next to the desk. This might look like an average research facility, but would classify as something for the elite. The place was immaculate, the doctors were impeccably professional, I hated it. I imagine millions of dollars come through this place every month, if not more. I try not to be too hypocritical when I say stuff like that. I donated thousands from my settlement every month to charity, usually medically labeled facilities. I hated the fact that I got treated better because I had money. I didn¡¯t hate it enough to throw my money away though.


    Deep in thought about the dichotomy of how I hated the money that gave me the advantages, and chances I¡¯ve had so far, I didn¡¯t even notice that betty had finished signing me in and was quietly talking to the nurse as they took me back to Doctor Plerion¡¯s office. I never actually paid attention to where we were going, I¡¯m sure it was usually the same place. First, I¡¯d do a quick sit-down with him to discuss how I felt overall today, then we¡¯d go into some body X-RAYS in a machine that resembled the machines at the airport, except it had a body mold that held me immobile so it could do bone scans. It was one of the worst parts about this whole process.


    Standing up as I was rolled into his massive office Dr. Plerion came around the desk and shook my hand. Another reason I disliked this place. I¡¯m sure he wasn¡¯t a bad guy, probably a boon for the facility, but he was insanely clinical. Down to the point that I¡¯m sure he wrote notes on the estimated pounds of pressure I used during a handshake; cataloguing them in his reports.


    Standing a bit taller than Betty the Dr. was an average looking guy, probably mid-fifties, black hair gone salt and pepper. His face was slightly ovoid, with his nose ending up looking stretched because of it, the only thing that really stood out about him was his sky-blue eyes.


    ¡°how is my favorite patient today?¡± His voice is soft, with an even baritone, the kind of sound most doctors strive to keep. He had stopped attempting to smile around me, I¡¯m not sure he knew how to do it right, and I¡¯m pretty sure my socially inept attempts to hide my uneasiness at it had led him to just stop around me all-together.


    ¡°Not bad sir, I had a little bit of a migraine earlier, but I believe the ride and fresh air out here have mostly cleared it.¡± He looks interested at that and sits down to start typing at his computer. We spend the next hour with me answering a battery of medical questions; have I been eating healthy, do I deficate regularly, what is the consistency? All very exciting stuff, I assure you.


    Once it feels like I¡¯m going to lose my mind from the amount of questions he goes silent and finishes his report. ¡°Alright Baron. Today is going to be the same as always, you¡¯ll get the scan, then we¡¯ll take some blood. If nothing has changed you can do intake immediately and we can start your first treatment tomorrow, do you have any questions?¡±


    Yes, I did. Unfortunately, even with all the non-disclosure-agreements, there was still a massive amount of secrecy behind the procedure. ¡°If I¡¯m clear to go, what can I expect with the procedure?¡±


    Taking a minute to process to assess my question he answers, he stands up and closes the door, ¡°the most I can tell you before you are cleared through intake is that the first surgery is the most invasive, starting at the base of your spine, and basically rewiring a few nerve pathways there. That¡¯s obviously not all of it, given the nature of CP, but it is the most daunting thing for most who have made it this far, that¡¯s technically more than I can tell you, but considering the magnitude of what is at stake I feel it fair to tell you that.¡±


    Even though everything he told me was said in his soft voice, it was possibly the most human thing I¡¯ve ever heard him say. ¡°I appreciate it Doctor, I¡¯ll keep that to myself.¡±


    He stands and opens the door, becoming the desk nurse, and Betty over. ¡°He¡¯s ready when you are ladies, same room as always,¡± looking at the nurse specifically he says, ¡°Tell the tech I would like to be there for this scan. If possible, I would like to take some notes on Barons state of mind as he¡¯s getting his scan done.¡±


    That¡¯s a little out of the ordinary, but not unusual. Probably three out of the eight times I¡¯ve been here he¡¯s come in to ask either clinical, or mental questions as I sat in the machine. The nurse simply nods her head and starts walking me to the scan room, talking politely with Betty about trivial things, the weather, season finales of shows. We take a couple of turns and end up at the end of a hallway looking out into the top floor of the parking garage, the trip up the elevator and to the room took less than five minutes, and as always, we only ran into a few other people on the way up.


    She rolled me right up next to the changing room, and asked if I needed help. I politely declined. Having to sit naked in the machine is bad enough, needing a nurse to help me disrobe and half carry me would be worse. I¡¯ve only needed assistance once when I first started coming, but my health has gotten much better after that. Probably something to do with the regime of medicine, exercise, and diet they put me on. The exercise wasn¡¯t overly drastic, usually using a resistant band to do joint movements. Just something that would get the blood flowing really.


    After changing I stepped right out into the room with the machine. It was intimidating on its own. A large octagon machine that took up a little over a third of the room. Enclosed gray plastic panels, interspersed with windows every foot or so, and a single door that I had to turn sideways to get through. Once inside I had to reach grab a set of handles at chest height that automatically came up to shoulder level then out so my arms were almost perpendicular to the ground.


    The one redeeming quality of the machine is that the gray area was larger around the midriff to hide my manly parts. Which is honestly a good thing since the machine faced the technician¡¯s booth and they¡¯d get a peek.


    A little bit of panic sets in as the machine starts to put the panels in place that gently hold me vertical for the twenty-minute scan. I¡¯m not sure what they are made of but they are soft, with enough rigidity to hold me up, I don¡¯t really have to exert any muscle to stay up, it locks me up tight without too much pressure.


    Ensconced in the machine I have a slight panic attack until I see Betty standing at the rear left of the Tech¡¯s booth. Betty has seen me at my worst many times, a few of those naked. While I¡¯m slightly uncomfortable with her seeing me this way, it¡¯s a comfort to know she¡¯s there. She looks more anxious than normal, but I guess that is too be expected since this scan will basically decide how the rest of my life will unfold.


    The tech flips his mic and asks if I¡¯m ready to start, giving him a yes, I hear the mic click off, the techs window darkens, and the machine starts to click and bang. After a few minutes, the machine makes a screeching noise it has never made before and my body starts to heat up.


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s making weird noises, and it¡¯s squeezing me.¡± For a few seconds, there¡¯s no answer and I start to panic.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s part of this battery of scans. It might be a bit more firm than usual, try to relax.¡± I didn¡¯t feel much better about that, but what am I supposed to do? I don¡¯t think there is an emergency exit button. In the middle of my eyes starting to look for some type of exit button the machine makes the screeching noise and the nerves in my body start to burn. It hurts so bad I close my eyes and accidentally bit my tongue.


    It¡¯s a pain like I can¡¯t ever remember having. My nerves hurt, my brain feels like someone set off an explosion inside of it. It comes on so hard and fast that I am unable to even scream in pain. After a few seconds it gets worse, my bones feel like they are splintering and my skin gets hot and prickly like someone has shoved nettles under it. After a few moments of agony, I realize I¡¯m screaming and there is a commotion going on in the booth in front of me.


    Dr. Plerion is standing off to the side where betty had been with his hands up. The tech slumped over half through the shattered window, and betty is pointing a gun at the doctor, one hand on the machine, and looking at me. She has a black eye, and a couple of scratches on her chest.


    ¡°Are you OK Baron?¡± she asks, her voice has lowered a couple of octaves, and it has an authoritative edge to it. Too confused, and in too much pain to talk I just gawp at her and nod my head twice. For a second the betty seeps out from the dangerous thing in front of me, ¡°I¡¯m sorry baron, this is going to hurt, but it should be the last time, I swear.¡±


    Reaching up to her temple and holding two fingers there in an almost familiar gesture she says, ¡°This is raven, confirm evergreen.¡± Less than a second later she says, ¡°authorization Beta-Echo-453, execute.¡± And the pain I felt a few minutes ago seems like a stubbed toe.


    Years later I would liken the experience to someone slowly ripping my skin off, then peeling the nerves off while soaking me in lemon juice. The pain was indescribable, it felt like it lasted an eternity, but in reality, was closer to much shorter.

 ch.2 Answers.

    As the pain subsided I realized the machine had released me and someone was dragging me out of the machine by the arm. Once the dragging stopped whoever it was started checking my pulse, and tried lightly shaking me.


    ¡°His vitals are fine; the seizures have stopped. If he wakes up soon we can see how he feels. You can point the gun elsewhere Miss Stahl. I¡¯ve told you I don¡¯t actually work for med-corps, I¡¯m a contractor sent in from my company.¡± He sounded tired, his voice a tighter than any of the times we¡¯d talked in the last couple of years.


    I can hear betty adjust where she was standing, ¡°I¡¯m not sure you aren¡¯t working for them Doctor, but I¡¯d rather not take my chances. Once Shawn gets here with our transport out we can test the validity of your statement. Until then you are suspect, at best, in my mind¡± This didn¡¯t sound like my betty. It was betty¡¯s voice, but colder, more direct. All the softness I attributed to her voice was not there.


    This is surreal, why has she attacked the tech, and point a gun at the doctor? While I¡¯m on that WHERE did she even get a gun? Shawn was already outside with our car, why would we need it, were still on the fourth floor, not even close to an exit. Deciding I had enough control of the pain to try talking I decide to try and get some answers.


    ¡°I¡¯m alive. In pain, but alive. What happened doc, why did the machine do that?¡± opening my eyes and looking at betty I start my list of questions to her. ¡°Why did you attack the tech? why are you pointing a gun at the Doc? WHERE did you get a gun? What is happening.


    Talking brought back some of the pain, my head was swimming in confusion.


    As I asked the question I got the feeling that I knew the answers. The same feeling you get when you studied for a test, but when it¡¯s time to give out answers they¡¯re just out of reach. The thought about it made my head hurt anymore and I curled into a ball on the floor. The act reminding me that I had been laying in the middle of the floor spread-eagled, but ass naked in front of Betty turned my cheeks red.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have time for answers, things are moving too fast, and the plan has already turned to ash. We haven¡¯t even made it out of the building, everything will make sense soon. I know this is strange, but I need you to trust me like you always have.¡± The warmth is back in her voice when she talks to me, almost like she¡¯s the betty who helped walk me to my car this morning.


    With that thought a quick stabbing pain hits me at the base of my skull and a part of a memory slams into my mind. Betty¡¯s voice, ¡°¡­Be brave. Follow me and move. If I go down; listen to the man in your head¡­.¡±


    ¡°You know I trust you betty, I¡¯ll follow whatever it is you¡¯re doing.¡± The idea of whatever is happening is terrifying to me. Was betty some kind of criminal, am I going to go to jail because betty has a sordid past?


    Reaching up to her ear betty gets a faraway look to her face, ¡°Roger, initiate exfil.¡± Her eyes focusing again betty looks at me and the Doctor, ¡°move him behind the machine and keep your head down.¡± Switching her eyes back to me, ¡°how are you feeling, can you walk? We don¡¯t have to move far, but we¡¯re going to need to move fast.¡±


    Trying to keep myself covered as the doctor helps me move I hadn¡¯t realized until she asked, but I was moving almost freely. My arms were going where I wanted them to, and my legs didn¡¯t feel weak and achy like they always did. If I¡¯m honest almost all the pain was centered in my head.


    This is the best I¡¯ve EVER felt. Most of my life I have spent in at least a small amount of pain the joints of my arms and legs the usual perpetrators. If it wasn¡¯t the joint, or spine pain it was the random nerve firing at the wrong time. I was sore everywhere, but it wasn¡¯t the overt pain associated with my day to day existence.


    ¡°Are you ok Baron, you stopped moving?¡± The doctor touched my shoulder and asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t hurt¡­why doesn¡¯t it hurt?¡± I can see a look of confusion cross his face for about half a second before I his eyes grow a couple of sizes in surprise and he stops in confusion.


    ¡°Get behind the machine!¡± betty yells at us and drags me over by my arm.


    The doctors face is sliding between multiple emotions, from the fear from before to outright curiosity. Before he can settle on an emotion. The building is rocked with an explosion right outside our door, blowing it open halfway off the hinges.


    The blast has laid out everyone in the room, the pressure from the blast causing my headache to worsen. Dust and debris are floating through the air, drying out my mouth and clogging my nose. I¡¯m still recovering when Betty starts to lift me and assist me in walking towards the door.


    I pull back from going that way, there was an explosion there, why are we going there? We need to stay where it¡¯s safe, ¡°Betty there was an explosion out there! It could be a terrorist attack, we need to keep still until the police get here!¡±


    I can see her mouth move but only catch the word, ¡°¡­trust...¡± I imagine we¡¯re going back to the listening to her thing. Is she with a terrorist group? Betty¡¯s never led me wrong before, but something about this is not sitting right with me at all. What kind of person can turn that hardness on and off, what kind of scientist sees an explosion and decides to move towards it?


    So many questions, but I decide I¡¯m already in it. I¡¯m not the smartest guy in the world, but I¡¯m smart enough to know the camera¡¯s in the room saw her knock out the guard then hold the doc at gun point. I try to shake some of the cobwebs loose and test out what walking feels like without pain.


    There is still a lot of soreness, but walking is much simpler when your muscles aren¡¯t actively fighting you or refusing to work altogether. It¡¯s not the easiest thing to do, my body has spent a long time in a hunched state, half bent over walking with a crutch. My muscles are not built for the speed Betty is trying to force me to.


    As we get to the door she props me up on the wall, and puts her gun out and checks both ways of the hallway, when she reaches back to grab me I can see relief on her face.


    Pulling me out of the door and turning towards the window I can¡¯t help but be shocked. Where the window had been is not a giant metal door leading into a hallway sitting on the floor, Shawn is sitting off to the side of the door on the other side of the hallway with a rifle pointed into the hospital.


    ¡°Nice to see you up and about Baron,¡± he¡¯s got a smile on his face, ¡°you have permission to come aboard.¡± I realize at this that it¡¯s not some kind of hidden hallway, like I had assumed, it¡¯s a flying ship of some kind. The door and hallway are the color of sterilized steel, whereas the wall behind Shawn is light gray color.


    ¡°what?¡± I hear the doctor speak up behind us.


    Cursing betty lightly pushes me towards the ship, ¡°get in the ship please.¡± Spinning around at an almost inhuman speed she points her gun at the doctor, ¡°what are you doing?¡±


    I half turn and walk towards the ship while watching the exchange.


    The doctor coughs a few times, taking a step back as the gun is pointed at him again and starts talking, ¡°I¡¯m guessing you have heard the rumors about Med-corps. Doctors that have been working for them for years go missing, die mysteriously, or stop being heard from eventually. I feel if I stay here I might become one of those cases, please take me with you.¡± His eyes flick in my direction then back, ¡°plus I¡¯m a scientist and he is a miracle. By every test performed in the last two years his health was stable, not getting better or worse. Now he says he isn¡¯t in pain, and I can see it. That¡¯s quantifiable. I would like to come with you all, if not as a curious scientist, then as someone who doesn¡¯t want to die.¡±


    It sounds like an honest request, but I can see Betty starting to shake her head already, ¡°No way Docto- ¡°


    ¡°Let him come Betty, you said yourself you can test his truthfulness. If there¡¯s a chance he¡¯s being honest he deserves to live. We can¡¯t leave him.¡± Plus, the doctor is the only person I know who¡¯s acting like they should be in this situation, and I could use some normalcy.


    I can see her tilt her head a little bit, like she does when she¡¯s thinking about something, ¡°Alright Doc, here¡¯s the deal. We¡¯ll let you on board, you¡¯ll be locked in a room until I can get to you. There¡¯s not a guarantee that you survive with us though, and if you do and you are lying; I¡¯ll push you out of an airlock. That¡¯s the option, take it or leave it.¡±


    By the time she finishes her speech I¡¯m at the junction where Shawn is, ¡°She wouldn¡¯t actually do that.¡± He says, I start to sigh when he says, ¡°she¡¯d have one of the bots do it.¡±


    ¡°Alright buddy, I know this is not how you thought today was going, but it is the way it is. Move to the end of the hallway behind me, turn right and then take the stairs up to the cockpit. Have a seat in any of the blue seats and strap in. move as fast as you can, we¡¯ll be coming up right behind you.¡± He still hasn¡¯t taken his eyes off the hallway.


    I hobble past him into the hallway and see that right is the only direction I can go. It leads into a room with the same color floor as the hallway, the walls are the darker gray color, and there are stairs on the far side leading up to a short catwalk. I can see there are a couple of pallets on the floor strapped down.


    As I walk into the room I realize there is a set of stairs on myside as well, inside I get a better feel of the dimensions. It¡¯s twenty-feet across, and about thirty, or forty-feet lengthwise between the stairs. The ceiling is a bright white color, with a large upside-down dome in the center. Up the stairs and centered on the catwalk is an open door with a few steps up. I can see what looks like the edge of a seat. I guess that¡¯s where I¡¯m going.


    I start making my way up the stairs when Betty rushes past with the doctor, taking him to the front of the cargo-hold and into a door I hadn¡¯t seen before. Towards a room to lock him in, I guess. Shawn comes in behind her pushing a red colored splotch on the wall.


    The button turns yellow and starts blinking after he touches it. A panel in the hallway swings out and closes, cutting off my view of the hallway. From where I am I cannot even see any crevices between the two. Shawn comes up the stairs behind me.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    ¡°I¡¯ll help you the rest of the way, we have to go now. Security was at the end of the hallway, they weren¡¯t shooting at us though so they probably want to take us after we break atmo, less clean-up planet side.¡± I¡¯m sure he thought he was being helpful with the information, but it was all Greek to me. It sounded like he was quoting lines from a sci-fi novel.


    I went with it, moving as fast as I could up into the ¡®cockpit¡¯. Stepping up the stairs I can see that there are four chairs all facing out towards a wall with monitors mounted on them. The two in the rear back to back with a few feet between them, the two in front of the catty-cornered, and the one in the center fading the front. As far as I could tell there weren¡¯t any windows, and it looked comfortable, if a little cramped.


    The seats were all the type of seats you would see in a sports car. All one piece, contoured to fit the body; very sleek looking. With what I had seen so far, I half expected them to be giant egg-shaped things that held you in with gravity fields or something.


    Despite the unfamiliarity of what was going on, I couldn¡¯t help but feel like I¡¯d seen something like this before. Like a remembered dream. Shaking my head, I move to the right-hand seat inside the door and sit down.


    Once my butt hits the seat the screen in front of me lights up, information cascading from the top of the screen to the bottom like a waterfall that broke through a dam. I was so surprised by the screen that I almost miss the seat-belt buckling itself on me. ¡°Cool.¡±


    As I''m marveling at the seat-belt, Betty runs in and jumps into the seat off to Shawn¡¯s left, ¡°Cargo secure, locked him in the mechanics quarters, I had the seat restrain him so he should be safe enough for evasive maneuvers.¡± Back to the business Betty voice, she turns to look at me, ¡°are you strapped in? this is going to get rough. Grab onto something if you need to, you aren¡¯t authorized crew yet so none of the controls will respond to you.¡±


    Without any other words, she turns and runs her hands over the controls in front of her, ¡°Docking hall is disengaged, ship status as combat orbit exfil.¡±


    Shawn¡¯s seat has pushed forward so that he is halfway under the controls now. His eyes are closed, and his hands are on a set of joysticks that are now sticking out of his armrest¡¯s, ¡°All systems green, white-shift point selected, commencing operations.¡±


    I hear a faint humming as the ship engines take on more load, and a little jolt as the ship starts to move, thinking to myself how much I wish I could see anything, the screen in front of my lights up. Giving me a split screen view of everything outside the ship.


    In one picture, I can see the hospital fading below us, the parking garage was flattened, and the area I assumed we had left from was caved in from the ship bulling its way inside. In another screen, I can see a couple of gray dots growing in size. After a few seconds, I realize the gray dots are some other type of ships coming right at us. The picture starts to zoom in and give me a clearer look and I can see they an ellipsoid shape with one of the pointed ends coming right for us.


    ¡°Kree ships incoming, they¡¯ll be on us before the mana-drive finishes charging, can you take them down?¡± I¡¯m not sure how Shawn knew that with his eyes closed.


    ¡°Yes, I have a firing solution, I am waiting to clear atmosphere before I take the shot. Firing a physical projectile at this angle might land in the city if I missed.¡± Betty seems to know what she¡¯s talking about.


    In one part of my brain I am geeking out. If this isn¡¯t a dream I¡¯m on a spaceship, on my way into space. In another part of my brain pieces of memory are fading in. Pieces of Betty saying our chances of survival are not guaranteed, once the realization kicks in on the reality of that fact I start to panic, ¡°shit. Shit. Shit. Are we going to die? What are those things? Why did you guys destroy those buildings? Are you aliens? Why are you taking me?¡±


    Ignoring my panicky questions betty says, ¡°you¡¯re going to have to wait for later for those answers.¡± Continuing to push buttons, and turn dials at random on her console.


    ¡°Upper atmosphere detected, White-shift in twenty seconds.¡± A British sounding man¡¯s voice says, I didn¡¯t see any speakers on my way in, but I wasn¡¯t exactly looking for them.


    ¡°Engaging.¡± As betty talks, one of the screens in front of me shows a tube pop into view off to the side angle and three small eruptions of fire spray from them. Behind us one of the ellipsoid shaped ships explodes and disintegrates , the one behind it shows some smoke coming from a couple of spots on the front.


    ¡°One Kree ship destroyed, second damaged. Second ship has sent a wide spectrum data burst,¡± betty says aloud.


    ¡°White shift in 3¡­2¡­1..Shift initiated.¡± The British man says again. My body feels like someone has forcefully sucked off the air from my lungs, and a weird almost warm sensation touches my skin. At the same time, a bright white light blinds me and I close my eyes as fast as possible.


    ¡°Shift completed, craft is stabilized. Approximately three-days until shift-out to destination.¡± I still can¡¯t find where this guy is talking from. Unless he¡¯s hiding under the console he¡¯s not in our room either.


    Looking over I see the seat Shawn is in sliding out from the console while the flight-sticks retract into his seat. Hitting the button on the center of his chest to release his harness I can see a look of relief on his face.


    ¡°Godamn it feels good to be back out here. Terra-1 isn¡¯t a bad prison, as far as they go, but it¡¯s still a prison.¡± He smiles in my direction, ¡°hungry?¡±


    Betty hasn¡¯t moved, or said anything so I take it I¡¯m supposed to wait a little bit for answers.


    ¡°I guess, if it¡¯s not that gross gray stuff from the ¡®Aliens¡¯ movies.¡± I force some levity into my voice, answers are going to have to wait. I hadn¡¯t eaten today, and have worked up one hell of an appetite.


    ¡°Alright man, be careful getting up. The first shift is always the worst. I¡¯ve lowered gravity to seventy-five percent of earth so movement shouldn¡¯t be too rough on you. Push the green button on the center of the harness and it¡¯ll let you go.¡± I had forgotten I was strapped in.


    Hitting the button, the harness opens and releases me. By the time I have gotten myself out of the seat Shawn is outside the door on the catwalk, standing with one hand on the rail.


    It¡¯s the first time I see what he¡¯s wearing. It¡¯s a full body suit, a dark gray color from neck to foot. The bottom looks like it has an integrated boot on it, I don¡¯t see any zippers or buttons anywhere, but maybe they¡¯re hidden. After I walk a bit closer I see that there are little subdued squares on his shoulder and the outside of his wrists.


    Deciding that his choice of attire is much further down on my list than everything else that has happened today I put the thought out of my mind.


    ¡°Ok Shawn, let¡¯s get some food. Maybe I can get some answers at the same time? It¡¯s been a hell of a day boss.¡± Shawn smiles and gives a light shake of his head.


    Moving towards the left side stairs and down, opposite the way we came in, he goes through the door under the cockpit and there is an open room almost as big as the cargo hold. In the center of the room is a rectangular table, the far side has what looks like an overly large microwave. There are also four doors, two on each side of the room across from one another.


    ¡°I¡¯ll grab us some cubes. Any flavor you¡¯d like?¡± Like I¡¯d know what the flavor options are.


    ¡°Surprise me.¡± Moving around is amazing to me. I had been marveling at it all the way down the stairs, and into the room. After realizing that the pain in my body was gone I had realized I could stand up straight. That may not sound like a lot to you, but it is to me. I cannot even describe the difference. It¡¯s been so long since I had stood straight-backed that I had to make a conscious effort to do so.


    Coming out of my distraction Shawn is standing at the table with a huge smile on his face, ¡°It has to be different for you. I¡¯m glad your pain is gone, you have no idea how much it hurt me and Betty to spend years watching you sit around in pain. It was the hardest part of the job.¡±


    Finally, looks like I might be getting some answers, ¡°Alright man, let¡¯s talk about what is happening.¡± The smile on his face fades a little bit, but it looks like he¡¯s going to give me something. Waving his hand at the table I notice a couple of brick size cubes that look like ice-cream, with some cups that looked like sports drink lids, ¡°Lets dig in and I¡¯ll tell you what I can.¡±


    As I sit in the chair next to him he takes a bite of his brick, ¡°Try it, taste¡¯s like lasagna.¡±


    My interest in how something that looks like an ice-cream brick tastes like lasagna piques my interest and I take a timid bite. The texture is soft like ice-cream, but it¡¯s warm. The flavor is not close to what I expect. I once took Betty to a very expensive Italian restaurant for her birthday and had some lasagna, it was the best I¡¯d ever had. Until now. This lacked the texture of the food itself, but it tasted perfect. The flavors of everything balanced the way they should be, somehow layered inside the brick. ¡°Holy shit, that¡¯s delicious.¡±


    He chuckles a little and finishes his bite, ¡°Ok. We¡¯ll start with the important stuff. This is a space-ship, its technically a shuttle to our actual spaceship. The earth you knew was not actually the earth you think you knew.¡± Taking another bite of my food, I let him mull over how he¡¯s going to continue, partially loathe to interrupt, partially too busy with food in my mouth. Looking like he¡¯d come to a decision he continues.


    ¡°Your parents were royalty, not high up royalty, but royalty all the same. If I had to describe it I would say your mother was the third niece to the king of Aelva, not in direct line for the throne, but still a position of power. Your father was just a common man that she met and fell in love with. At some point one of the political powered parties opposed to the monarchy decided to start killing off the royal family. Most went into hiding, some stood up in the light so that they could try and bring those parties to justice.¡±


    He stopped for a minute to take a drink from his cup before continuing, ¡°The royal family has been hotly debated for at least a millennia. But since the royal family never flexed their power to interfere it was left alone. Your mother and father were eventually caught a few years after your birth, you were taken and placed in care of the Kree to keep your parents compliant. It worked for a long time, I think your parents came to believe you had died and stopped giving into the demands. They were executed. I¡¯m sorry to drop that on you like that, but it is a hard truth that you have to live with.¡±


    It hurt a little bit to know my parents had been alive for longer than I had thought, but the sting wasn¡¯t as bad since I had already thought them dead. I took a breath to compose myself and nodded for him to continue.


    ¡°Betty, I, and a few others are all that is left of the royal guard, the rest are on the ship we are headed to. There aren¡¯t many of us left, and even fewer of us are actually what would be considered ¡®combat capable¡¯ the royal family has been decimated, there are rumors that a few of the ones in hiding are still alive, but you are the last known living, registered, member of the ruling family of the Aelvans.¡± The last part he said in a whisper.


    I stopped in the middle of chewing, dumbstruck by what he¡¯d said, ¡°I¡¯m royalty?¡± there were more pertinent questions, but that was only thing I could get out.


    ¡°you were royalty. The ruling family has been decimated, a government has been put in place to replace what was destroyed, and we were nowhere near as powerful as we needed to be to stop any of that.¡± The further he gets along the redder his face gets, I can see the controlled rage at their impotence to stop what happened.


    It was a lot of information to take in, and the way it was being given was like riding a roller-coaster. I can¡¯t judge Shawn too hard though, I can see from the way he is reacting that the things he¡¯s revealing are deeply emotional to him.


    In the end, it doesn¡¯t change much for me, I¡¯m still some random kid in space. But one question does pop up that I need an answer to.


    ¡°If the royal family is dead, and replaced, why save me? Why risk your lives getting me out of there? Wouldn¡¯t it have been safer to get yourselves out?¡± I don¡¯t think I could leave a friend behind like that, and don¡¯t believe they could either, but I still wanted to know.


    ¡°Because my life¡¯s duty up until now has been to protect you. Because you bring legitimacy to our claim of vengeance on those that attacked us. But most importantly, because you have become one of my best friends"

 ch.3 Initializing...

    I was sitting on the bunk and were the crew cabins, after a long night of not sleeping. I¡¯ve been thinking about all the changes in my life. I can¡¯t stop thinking about the fact that I would have given all the money I had, all my earthly possessions, for even a chance at life like this. So the idea that I get to do this with my two best friends, has me ecstatic. The problem, is that I still need to learn all the new things that are important in this universe.


    The real cream to this, the topper if you will, is that my body works now. I have no way to quantify to somebody else how this has changed everything for me. The only way I can think to describe it is if you were to imagine you are in pain all the time, always achy in some way or another. In constant fear your body would betray itself, that you would get some kind of sickness out of nowhere.


    Now imagine that all that just disappears, your whole entire world changes. You get better, don¡¯t hurt, and you¡¯re not afraid of your body failing. It¡¯s the only way I can think to describe it, because it¡¯s the way it is. That¡¯s how my life has been for the last 24 years and I can remember. After me and Shawn spoke last night I came back to my room, well my room for now. On the way to the room I had realized I¡¯m actually already moving more easily. I¡¯m not instinctually hunching forward, not measuring my steps to make sure I don¡¯t pull ligaments too far out of place. Once I lay down and realized how big of a change that was from before I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about it.


    I had only managed to get a couple hours of sleep. Even those hours amaze me because I didn¡¯t wake up a few times with any type of pains from rolling over wrong. I¡¯ve been awake for about twenty maybe thirty minutes when Shawn comes into the room.


    ¡°Alright man time to learn some new stuff follow me.¡± Shawn doesn¡¯t seem surprised I¡¯m awake already, I¡¯ve always been an early riser. He doesn¡¯t even wait for me to get up and follow he expects me to do it, and I do.


    Following him into the hall I ask ¡°Are you going to teach me to fly the ship? Maybe how some of the systems work?¡± I can¡¯t help but be excited.


    I see the corner of his mouth quirk up little bit ¡°No, today you learn about how the new world works. Well, your new world. You¡¯re in for a very pleasant surprise.¡± He¡¯s excited about it, seems pretty vague to me though.


    We walk back through the cargo room into the dining area and grabs a quick bite to eat. The whole time we¡¯re eating I¡¯m asking questions and he¡¯s refusing to answer me. Giving nothing but a smile as an answer.


    After we finish eating and the trays are taken care of Sean walks over to the wall and puts his hand on a glowing white circle at about chest level. Giving it a quarter turn a 4 x 8 square on the lower part of the wall flashes bright blue and then a panel slides out.


    Once the panel has completely slid out I see that it has four seats sitting back to back facing away from one another. They look surprisingly comfortable, like giant lazy boys. They are all slightly laid back with a quirk that there is what looks like a helmet above the headrest. The gap between where the base of the skull is and top of the shoulders should be. That area is recessed and there are some wires sticking out, almost like USB connections.


    ¡°This is where the magic happens. Go and pick a seat, sit in it the lean back and put your arms on the rest. Try and relax, the first time hurts a little bit but there is anesthetic.¡± Shawn says with a mischievous look in his eye.


    The last part he said causes a little bit of trepidation, but not enough to stop me from sitting down in the chair and trying to get comfortable. Once I''m sat down and comfortable I feel a pressure on my body that is comforting and frightening at the same time, before I can ask Sean what¡¯s going on he gives me an answer.


    ¡°The seat has micro sensors, once it realizes that you¡¯re comfortable in a good position that you can sit for a long period of time a gravity fields takes effect. The one reason it does that is that any movement your body makes when you¡¯re in the simulation won¡¯t be able to push you out of the seat. The second reason is that these double as an installation device. Once you give the command I¡¯m about to teach you in a moment the gravity field on the seat is going to push down hard enough so you can¡¯t wiggle around, then apply a local anesthetic and install a port into the nerve cluster at the back of your skull.¡± He says all that with the voice of a teacher, a tone to convey information.


    I scrunch up my eyes and look at them ¡°why would I need a port installed in the nerve cluster at the back of my skull?¡±


    ¡°Because it¡¯s the first thing you¡¯re need to learn how to use. Everyone has one out here, and you would be at a disadvantage if you did not. Any more questions?¡± He asked moving over the seat next to me.


    I shake my head no.


    ¡°All right then, I¡¯ll teach you the words you need to say. ¡®Initiate protocol port installation, clearance level: Alpha-Romeo-453¡¯. Once you say those words the gravity field will increase to hold you down and the anesthetic will be administered once the process is started it can¡¯t stop until it¡¯s finished. On the upside, the only thing that really hurts is the anesthetic, but it really doesn¡¯t hurt that bad.¡± I want to believe the part about the anesthetic, but honestly it doesn¡¯t sound like he believes that either.


    Deciding I might as well it get over with, I go ahead and say the phrase ¡°initiate protocol port installation, clearance level: Alpha-Romeo-453.¡± As soon as I finish the initiation command a tinny voice from the wall says ¡°Initiating port installation suite. Capitalize level: Royal family.¡±


    The pressure I felt before increases pushing me down in the seat and I think it¡¯s going to crush me but let¡¯s up enough that I can still breathe comfortably but not move. I hear the cables behind me rustle bit, and then feel little pinch at the base of my skull.


    It doesn¡¯t start out that bad, but the needle stays injected I can feel it slowly sliding in deeper and deeper. After what feels like hours, but is probably only seconds, the back of my head goes numb.


    After that I can¡¯t really tell what was going on, loosely feeling pressure on the back of my neck whirring sounds and sucking sounds but I don¡¯t have much idea what¡¯s going on. At one point, I go blind for about half a second, it comes right back though. I¡¯m not completion sure how long the process takes but during the entire thing I feel different parts my muscles tense and relax, there¡¯s even a point where I stop hearing for a few seconds. Throughout the whole process I don¡¯t have any control over my body. I initially thought it was the gravity but came to realize that I didn¡¯t have access to my bodily functions.


    A few seconds after realize I don¡¯t have any control of my body I start feeling sensations in my fingertips that move up my arms moving into the core of my chest. Once the gravity restraint finally starts releasing I realize that Shawn isn¡¯t there anymore, he must¡¯ve moved off at some point while I was going through the process.


    After the gravity is Release completely I reach back and touch the back of my neck without thinking. Just a graze of my finger shoots fire through the back of my neck and causes me to cringe down into my chest. It felt like the time I get a third-degree burn on my arm and I just had to touch it.


    As I¡¯m recovering from touching the back of my neck Shawn walks in and sees me cringing down into my chest.


    ¡°Ha, touched it didn¡¯t you?¡± He says with a smile.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to, it just kind of happened without me thinking about it. I thought there was supposed to be a port back there it didn¡¯t feel like that, I just felt raw skin.¡± I say they little confused.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    He gives a nod ¡°Yeah the port parts a bit misleading. It¡¯s a contact plate. Port is a throwback to the old days when it was an actual port. Now we just need a neural interface. Unfortunately, I forgot that you got the Royal suite so you are going to need some time to recover. We can¡¯t start your training right now. You should be good in a couple of hours. I guess I can probably explain what will happen though.¡± Reaching up with his left hand he puts it on the wall and turns a half spin to the left, counterclockwise the four seats that are sitting back to back stretch out sliding next to each other against the wall.


    Shawn takes a seat next to me so we can see each other¡¯s we talk ¡°So you were big on those RPG games right? The ones we got the select your attributes and there were skills and all those other things.¡±


    I lightly shake my head ¡°yeah I was really into WoW, guild wars, and a few of the other ones. Why?¡±


    ¡°Then you¡¯re going to love this next part. The earth we just left is in a pocket dimension, it¡¯s an offshoot, cut off from the rest of the universe and probably the most important part: the universal-soul. The universal-soul is a lot like the RPG¡¯s from that earth, it¡¯s actually where it comes from. Some people think they¡¯re clever writing stories, making up imaginings. But that¡¯s not what it is, most of the ones that are doing that are remembering. Most things like skills, attributes, levels are things that actually happen out here once we get past the veil. Don¡¯t get me wrong it¡¯s not exactly like the RPG¡¯s of earth there are some very large differences in how stats work. But we¡¯ll get to that later.¡± It¡¯s hard to believe the things he¡¯s saying, it all sounds insane. But honestly everything up to this point is been fucking crazy.


    ¡°So you¡¯re telling me we are going to a universe where I¡¯ll be able to learn quantifiable skills, I¡¯ll be able to follow the exact percentage amount I know? Are there respawns?¡± it seems a great idea to me.


    He shakes his head ¡°No, no respawn. At least not the way of the games, there is a way to clone bodies and move retained memories that are saved to new clones if they have been set to the data point. Most people can¡¯t do that though, you¡¯ll be able to, and most of the guard can. It¡¯s almost prohibitively expensive, as if you can get the money to do it are almost immortal to a point.¡±


    ¡°This is a lot to learn, huh?¡± Living in the new universes isn¡¯t going to be quite as easy as I thought it was going to be, it¡¯s a good thing I have friends and resources.


    ¡°We can¡¯t access that inside the white-shift zone. The training seats are connected to the ships computer mainframe and have stored simulations specifically for this. We wanted to be able to train you to operate inside of the real universe once you got extracted so the next couple of days you¡¯ll be learning inside of those. Once inside it the time will flow faster for us, technically, it will equalize between how fast the two of us think. It won¡¯t help us rest or anything like that, but you can learn faster and once some of the upgrades the link has activated assimilate data better.¡± After he finishes the last part he pushes back in the seat and I see it turns into a recliner.


    ¡°What do you mean activated?¡± It sounds like these things are already inside of me.


    ¡°A lot of the stuff inside your body was enhanced before you were taken. Bones, muscles, ligaments, you name it. On top of that you have nanites inside of you, the highest tech available at the time. The problem at this point is a lot of it is dormant and has never been used. You¡¯re also lacking the interface software, which is our next move after you are healed up enough. Most people are stuck with what they¡¯re born with, as a royal you were given the best chances available with some upgrades. There also a few quirks you¡¯ll be able to get into, changing stats on the fly.¡±


    The last part has me very interested ¡°what do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Just to be clear about this from the beginning, you¡¯re not going to be able to put all your points in the strength and suddenly be superman. Most of that stuff has to be built up through practice and training. The biggest difference for you is going to be that you will have of base stats, but you also have stats you can allocate at will.¡± He must¡¯ve seen the confused look on my face because he tried to explain better. ¡°Okay, think it about like this. Let¡¯s say you have a ten points in strength, depending on your programming and the level of nanites in your body at the time you¡¯ll be able to shift points over to a stat for a boost. As far as I know most Royals have their base stat, and then anywhere from five to ten points they can allocate at any time. I¡¯m sorry that doesn¡¯t make sense it¡¯s the best example I can think of.¡±


    ¡°No, I think I¡¯ve got it. If I have a base stat of five, with a decent set of nanites I¡¯ll have extra points to move around and boost those stats?¡± He shakes his head affirmative.


    Oh man, depending on how big the boost the nanites give me that¡¯s a game changer. I wonder if better nanites give me more boosted points or if there¡¯s a ceiling to how many boosted points I can have.


    ¡°Will I have a status screen, skill menu or any of that stuff?¡± And then a HUGE question hits me.


    ¡°Is there magic?¡± He barks out a laugh.


    ¡°I was wondering when you would come to this part. There is magic, it¡¯s actually a fairly large part of the over-verse. But just so you know most of it is not spells, it¡¯s affinities and imagination is the limit.¡± Putting his hands behind his head he lets me process the information he just gave me.


    Damn. This just keeps getting better and better. Spaceships futuristic technology and magic. If it gets any better I might make a mess in my pants.


    ¡°So we can access any of the stuff in here, is that all white-shift space?¡±


    ¡°No, just this white-space. Here and in between a few other dimensions. Most dimensions, and between them we will be able to access the universal-soul. It¡¯s only between dimensions that don¡¯t have access to the universal-soul, and those that touch them. Luckily, there aren¡¯t very many dimensions that don¡¯t have access to the universal-soul. That was a double-edged sword of being in the pocket dimension we were in. On the one hand, not having access to the universal soul, and magic was almost like a vacation didn¡¯t have to worry about superpowered people, or entities with magic. On the other side of that, though, we didn¡¯t have access to our abilities or magic. So, it¡¯s hard to gauge how far we deteriorated in the twelve years we¡¯ve been in the pocket dimension.¡± As he same last part his face squishes like he licked lemon.


    With that last part I realize just how much they have given up maintaining my safety. Must¡¯ve been horrible to go to a place where you lose everything you have been used to your entire life, restricted from doing most the things you do a daily basis. A lot of them probably not even missed until you realize you were relying on the system.


    Clapping his hands, he says ¡°Enough of that. Let¡¯s run some diagnostics. Not everything is super crazy. You have some things that just needed to be initialized but don¡¯t need software to test. Some of that should have initiated your communications network integration. Along with enhancing a few of your senses. First were going to test out the communications network integration.¡± He looks over the wall ¡°Marla, connect Baron to the ship wide communications network.¡±


    The tinny voice I heard earlier says ¡°connecting... Testing¡±


    A smooth, slightly British woman¡¯s voice pops into my head you now have access to the ship wide communications network. Access level: unrestricted. I don¡¯t physically hear the voice, but I know it¡¯s there. I decide to try something.


    Marla, can you understand me? I think at the ship.


    Yes Baron. I would prefer you interacted with me in this manner going forward, as it is easier and more efficient. The ship says.


    ¡°Aw man, this is freaking awesome. I can nonverbally communicate with the ship, can I do that with everybody else?¡± I asked Shawn.


    ¡°Not yet, the ship is easy because it has targeted thoughts. You don¡¯t have to filter out the stray stuff. Once your contact port is finished with healing we¡¯ll be able to get you your first batch of programming, and updates. Depending on how fast your body adapts to everything coming online we might be able to get you trained up for your AI by the time we make it to the main ship.¡± He says offhandedly.


    I feel like my brain is an overload with all the new information, and possibilities of my new reality.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go ahead and test out your sense of touch,¡± he says opening the arm rest and pulling a piece of paper out of it.


    It¡¯s the shape of an index card, blank except for a blue line running down the middle. ¡°This is a reactive testing strip. Run your finger down the blue strip, and tell me what you feel.¡±


    He hands me the card and I run my finger from left to right down the blue line. I slide my finger slowly down the line and realize it isn¡¯t a constant line, it feels broken in some places. It¡¯s a bit strange just to my sight it appears like an unbroken line. I¡¯m not sure how I can feel the differences. ¡°It¡¯s weird, it looks like one continuous line but I¡¯m sure that it¡¯s broken in some places.¡±


    Reaching out for the card he slides it back into the armrest, and pulls out a black one with a bright green line, ¡°try this one.¡±


    Taking the card from him I slowly do the exact same thing I did with the last one. This time I feel the breaks are much more frequent. After about the third time running my fingers down the card I realize they¡¯re words. ¡°They are words! How do I even know that?¡±


    He reaches over and puts the card back into the armrest ¡°once we finish all the update you should be able to read what you feel. It¡¯s kind of amazing you can tell that without the firmware, maybe your parents give you a higher level of augments than anybody knows about, most Royals have a high-level set but not a lot are as in tune as you are without the firmware.¡±


    Closing the armrest, he stands up, and rubs his hands together ¡°all right, let¡¯s grab some food. Maybe you can go get cleaned up and changed. Then we can get to the good stuff.¡±

 ch.4 Purgatory

    As interesting as it was to learn about this stuff with Shawn, or at all really, it was a lot to take in. I¡¯ve been trying to process what¡¯s happening in little pieces but even the tiny ones feel like they¡¯re the size of elephants.


    Too much.


    I¡¯m trying to keep a positive face for Shawn, and Betty. If I ever see her, seems like we¡¯re too busy doing this or that, or I only see her in passing as she goes back to the captain¡¯s quarters. Oh, that¡¯s a thing. She is the highest ranking of the guard on the mission, so she gets to be captain. I guess technically Shawn has more experience, but he came up from the enlisted ranks. He doesn¡¯t have as much ¡®command experience¡¯ he¡¯s told me betty is one of the good officers to have though, she listens to opinions and will actually consider them. It¡¯s all relative to me, I have zero experience.


    The plan is to get me into the seat and get a little practice that way. From what Shawn says the nanobots in my body have already started healing all the damage at an accelerated rate, and once they are done with the fixing they will start ¡®enhancing¡¯ which I think basically means making me more buff? I don¡¯t know, he¡¯s always been kind of a meat-head so he thinks I¡¯m looking forward to getting jacked.


    Can¡¯t say I¡¯m against it, but it¡¯s not on the list of my ¡®to be excited about right now¡¯. I¡¯m still getting used to the walking. The fluidity between thinking ¡®I¡¯m going to stand up¡¯ then all the sudden I¡¯m standing without aid or pain catches has caught me off guard more than a few times, it¡¯ll surprise me so I¡¯ll stop and lose thought of whatever I was doing. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll get used to it, I¡¯ve got to.


    I¡¯m not as passionate about revenge as Shawn is, I understand someone held me prisoner then had my entire family killed, I¡¯m just so far removed from it. It¡¯s been so long since my parents died that I¡¯ve pretty much accepted the fact, and I didn¡¯t even know the rest of them existed until recently. I can humor them though; they are my best friends.


    Shawn had told me the nano¡¯s would have me healed enough to use the chair in an hour before walking off and leaving me in the kitchen area. I¡¯m not sure what he went off to do, I didn¡¯t really ask. He¡¯s always been a mover, even at the house just constantly in motion, I stopped asking him what he was doing, or to stop moving a long time ago.


    While he was gone I explored the room, not much to it. There were two microwave-esque machines inset on the back wall, stacked on top of one another. There were a couple of tables in a line about as long as picnic tables and the chairs on the far side. The only anomaly out of the whole thing is that there was a large octagon on the empty wall that was slightly discolored in contrast to everything around it. It was large, I could probably stand in it if it weren¡¯t just a flat spot on the wall. I¡¯ll have to ask Shawn about it.


    After my exploration of the kitchen, galley? I think it¡¯s called a galley on a ship. I moved out to the cargo hold and started to explore around. The first thing I noticed was what would be considered the rear wall had a giant horizontal rectangle that took up most of the space across it. I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s the rear hatch of some sort, I¡¯ll have to explore that again at some point. There wasn¡¯t much to be seen for it, I think most of the struts and parts that operated it was tucked away like everything else in the ship.


    I wonder if that¡¯s an aesthetic thing, or purpose driven. Before I¡¯d realized the thought had registered I moved forward and ran my hand along the wall, door, whatever it was. The walls are mostly all the same color, the one I touch is slightly darker gray than the rest. Sitting my fingers on the wall I¡¯m surprised by how warm it was. I had figured it would be cold, or maybe room temperature but it¡¯s almost body temperature.


    As close as I am it looks, and feels, like the texture of an eggshell. I¡¯d half expected it to feel like bare metal. Wanting to get a closer look I bring my face closer to the wall. The small bumps on the wall look more akin to fingertips, swirls and lines appear to be laid out at random.


    I spent longer than I should probably admit looking at the wall. Trying to figure out if it were a randomized pattern that had a repeating point, or if it were truly just complete randomness. Eventually, I decided I would check in other places and began exploring the room, touching the walls, the stairs, even the railing. Everything had the same design and feel, the only difference being that the back wall felt as abrasive as the floor. I figure maybe it swings down, a loading ramp? I¡¯ll have to ask eventually.


    ¡°MphhMphh,¡± Shawn clears his throat behind me and I freeze. I¡¯d been rubbing my face on the railing, putting my ear on everything I could reach for the better part of three hours.


    ¡°I was going to grab you earlier, but you were exploring and figured exploring the ship would be good for you. You and the ship are good friends, but if you start putting your tongue on her insides before she¡¯s ready you¡¯re going to make things awkward for the both of you.¡± He¡¯s got that slightly crooked smile on his face, but he didn¡¯t sound like he was joking.


    ¡°¡­is the ship alive?¡±


    ¡°You could ask her, she¡¯s probably more apt to answer all the questions you picked up while rubbing all over her anyway. The short answer, though, is mostly.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re messing with me. I¡¯m sure if I asked you will have preprogrammed an answer into it or something.¡± I¡¯m not super confident in that. Shawn is a good gamer and a smart guy. But I really doubt he has those skills. Of course, up until a day ago, I thought he was a limo driver, so.


    Marla, are you alive? I¡¯m hesitant to ask since I¡¯m not sure if Shawn is fucking with me or not.


    I am sentient, but do not believe I fall under what most sentients would classify as ¡®alive¡¯. the ship answers.


    That makes things a bit awkward, but I wonder what she means. Probably something I should explore later.


    I¡¯m sorry for rubbing myself against all of your walls, I did not realize you were sentient. I¡¯m not entirely sure why I feel weird about rubbing a ship since we¡¯ve been walking on her floors anyway.


    It is not a problem. It was most enjoyable, maybe we can get to know one another better in the future. Her voice sounds lower, husky, almost like it¡¯s coming to my brain in almost a whisper.


    Gulping, I try not to think too deeply about the implications of that.


    Shawn¡¯s smile just gets bigger, enjoying the change of color in my face.


    ¡°That¡¯ll have to wait until later, we need to get into your acclimation.¡± he waves and we start moving towards the galley, ¡°The program we set up is pretty straightforward, it¡¯s also adaptive, so if you start moving through faster than expected it will follow you along. The initial part is going to be me you and Marla in what we refer to as ¡®purgatory¡¯ but is basically a loading zone. It¡¯s where programs can be decided and started. Most of the programs are slaved to the ship in the same way an external drive would be, so every program takes a few moments to load.¡± By the time he¡¯s finished talking we¡¯re in front of the seats and he sits in one.


    ¡°Grab some chair, we¡¯ll start in a minute. The last thing you need to know is that I¡¯m still heavily involved in writing a debrief to give to what¡¯s left of command. Mine doesn¡¯t have to be as detailed as Betty¡¯s, but it¡¯s still a little over twelve years of reports. Marla, mixed in with whomever you decide to be your personal AI will be overseeing your training. Usually, an AI is chosen at a much younger age, especially for someone of your old rank, we¡¯ve been over why that wasn¡¯t an option. Fortunately, AI are adaptive. You are past the choice where you can grow and learn with one from childhood, so we had to improvise. There are a few archetypes, preprogrammed attitudes, that can be chosen from. You¡¯ll have to describe what you want to Marla and she will help you design it.¡±


    He stops to take a couple of breaths, ¡°That¡¯s enough I¡¯ve talked about this a lot, but in the end, the only way to start moving forward is to actually do it. Lean back in the chair and Marla will initiate the training once the handshake is confirmed.¡±


    He closes his eyes and it looks like he falls straight to sleep. His body has relaxed completely, and it sounds like he¡¯s going to start snoring soon.


    Trying not to overthink it I lean the seat back and close my eyes.


    Marla, can you take me to ¡®purgatory¡¯?


    Of course, I¡¯ll be gentle since it¡¯s your first time. The ship, Marla, I¡¯ve got to stop thinking of her as ¡®the ship¡¯ if she¡¯s sentient is apparently a pervert.


    After a few seconds, I can feel myself get tired, almost like I¡¯m falling into a day nap. As I realize I¡¯m falling asleep, and have the thought that I should be awake to do the training I open my eyes to a different world.


    I¡¯m standing on the edge of a platform in the sky looking down at a planet that looks like earth. The continents are wrong though, there are only three and they are all connected by thing land bridges. They form an almost loose, off-angle, triangle from the direction I am looking at them. It¡¯s an amazing view.


    ¡°Aels, the homeworld of your people,¡± The slightly British voice of Marla speaks beside me, ¡°I often find myself looking at it.¡±


    Even with the surprise of hearing her verbally instead of in my head, it takes me a second to tear my eyes away from the planet. It had elicited an emotion from inside that was rare to me; pride. It felt like the embrace of a loved one that I never saw, the sun shining on my skin during a cool fall day. The depth of emotion I felt for it almost frightened me.


    ¡°It¡¯s beautiful.¡± Looking over to Marla I realized she¡¯s what I had personified her as in my head, almost. Slightly taller than me, a narrow face with a straight nose. The differences I hadn¡¯t imagined were her silver, almost solder colored hair, and her eyes. The eyes were black like the stars, but the pupil was a bright red light, almost LED like in their brightness.


    She has a small smile on her face, ¡°Shawn isn¡¯t here yet. The level of your nanites is a great deal better than we thought. The level of time compression you can safely achieve is much higher than most royal counterparts, and almost an order of magnitude higher than initially calculated. He is still loading in, going forward I would like you to give me access to study the upgrades to your body. The level of the technology applied to you was just coming into prototype status when we came to you, and it was very early alpha testing. For you to have it, and even what looks like the higher end of that is fascinating.¡±If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    I was stunned, a couple of interactions between myself and the ship had been almost robotlike initially, except for the last few. Maybe it¡¯s a defense mechanism for her? She can pretend to be a machine, to defer awkwardness? It¡¯s probably more likely she was easing me into the idea so as not to shock me.


    ¡°Of course, Marla, anything you need. I¡¯m interested in it myself, for different reasons because I didn¡¯t even know I had it, but still.¡± The smile she flashes is wonderful.


    ¡°Shawn is most of the way loaded, I will adjust the time so all are equalized. The information on tech level will be transmitted.¡±


    A couple of seconds after she says that Shawn pops into existence on the platform behind me. Turning to face him I realize I wasn¡¯t paying enough attention. The stars around us are beautiful. The digital world here looks real, if we weren¡¯t standing on a platform in open space I¡¯d be suspicious it was.


    ¡°What the, ho¡­¡± Shawn starts to talk and Marla flicks her finger at him, a physical motion I assume to denote that she had sent him information.


    ¡°Uhhh¡­Give me a sec to check this over, can you transmit this to Betty? She needs to know as well.¡± Shawn is waving his hand around in the air, and I can see his eyes flick back and forth like he was reading.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised, but not too much,¡± he says with a small chuckle, ¡°We knew you had higher levels of upgrades than was normal. Your parents had left some clues alluding to it with some of the guard, but never any hard numbers. I guess we¡¯ll make it up as we go. It¡¯s a good thing, this makes it a bit easier since you can train faster. Looks like it¡¯ll be at a rate of about six-to-one. Damn. All right. Let¡¯s go through the basics before I leave and remand you into Marla¡¯s tender care.¡± The last part is said with a smirk that lets me know that whatever is going to happen might not be as tender as I think.


    ¡°First thing, all of the things in here are simulated. We won¡¯t know what your stats are until we are in space that has the universal-soul attached. That means things could vary wildly from where you are here once we mesh out. The other important thing is this, most of the information you need will be directly transferred to your mind, and you will need to actively practice something to get better at it. This program will give you the basics of a lot of things, but that won¡¯t mean you can do them perfectly; You¡¯ll know how to fly a ship, but that doesn¡¯t mean you can do it. Most importantly of all: this is not a game. There are ways to stave off death if it happens, but if you die out of range of them you¡¯ll be gone.¡± The last part is said as a stern warning.


    Marla had been standing off to the side watching the planet but perked up after she heard he was coming to an end, starting to walk towards us.


    ¡°Alright Baron, I¡¯m going to let you and Marla get started you¡¯ll be able to get along faster if you can work at your speed.¡± After saying this he holds his hand up and uses his finger to trace a circle, surprisingly I can see the blue outline as he draws, then he puts all four fingers up and pushes them into the center of the circle before pixelating and disappearing.


    ¡°First lesson, that¡¯s how you log out if you are inside of any computer, or simulation. We will be getting to that another time, somewhere around advanced lessons.¡± She had taken on the tone, and stance of a teacher. ¡°The first thing that needs to be taken care of is your AI. We can do everything from assisting with mental calculations to nothing more than scheduling. It¡¯s almost an unlimited ability. Some higher-level AI can control the body to an extent. There are safeties in place though, an AI can never have full control of the body, to do so would violate the treaties of AUS245, and causes immediate purge and deletion of influencing AI.¡±


    I¡¯m glad she added the last part, the idea of another consciousness being able to control me is quite frightening.


    ¡°What do you mean ¡®to an extent¡¯?¡± it feels like something that might be important.


    She nods her head, agreeing with my question.


    ¡°It means we cannot initiate any actions. If you decide you want to do something the AI inside of you can use your nanite resources to speed up your movement, or your mind to a degree where it feels like time may have stopped, or slowed for you. Most beings also leave the allocation of their personal growth points to the AI since the calculations and implementation of a long-term positive outcome can be better calculated by us.¡± It¡¯s a lot of information.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going into brain overload here. Can we just get into it, please? I learn a lot better by doing.¡± My head was starting to hurt at all the information I¡¯d taken in lately.


    She nods her head and pushes her hand away from her shoulder, almost like she¡¯s tossing something away. As she does four lights, brown, red, yellow, and green come from her hand into an arc that follows if she had thrown something.


    They are each about the size of a baseball and pulsing at different intervals. The Brown is a slow pulse, calming to look at. The red is blinking faster, and deeper almost angry. The yellow is pulsing even faster than the red, but I feel it¡¯s more of urgency than anger. The green has a very even pulse to it, somewhat slower than the green, but much faster than the Brown. As I¡¯m looking at them I realize there¡¯s one on the end, a purple one that I hadn¡¯t noticed before because of the darkness I get the feeling that it isn¡¯t pulsing to the light, but into the dark. I feel drawn to it. The second I realize it¡¯s the one I want to study the other four wink out and it comes to float in front of me.


    ¡°That is an odd choice. The purple cores are often unnoticed, and even more often not chosen because they are a mix of all. They are the slowest to grow. You will gain abilities slower, but they will be more potent at lower levels. I believe a purple is what was chosen as my base core. It¡¯s hard to tell since there is no way to check color after integration.¡± I¡¯m surprised again at the level of introspection from Marla. If I hadn¡¯t known she was a ship I would assume she was another person in here with me.


    ¡°OK. The next is the easiest, but the most dangerous. You¡¯ll reach out with your off-hand and wrap your hand around the ball. It must accept you. It is rare that a base AI does not, but a complete incompatibility between the two can damage the user, and destroy the core. If it rejects you and is destroyed it will leave a ¡®scar¡¯ on your psyche that will make integrating any AI afterward almost impossible. The trick is to want the AI, you should allow it to probe your mind without stopping it. I know that sounds weird since you have never had to learn things like this, but it¡¯s basically just opening up and accepting.¡± She gives a small smile, folding her hands together and waiting.


    That does not sound good. I¡¯m not sure how I¡¯m just supposed to ¡®accept¡¯ it without clamming up. Not too much to do other than reach out and grab it so I reach out and wrap my hand around the AI core. It¡¯s about the size of a baseball and feels like a cold ball of glass. After I have a firm grip I close my eyes and imagine my brain is a small castle and I¡¯m opening the doors.


    With that image in my mind, I realize that without my bidding I can feel something waiting outside of the gate, and I almost hesitate. Realizing that its already there and stopping might hurt me and kill it I resume the opening almost immediately and feel a pulse of appreciation from whatever is outside of the gate.


    After the door is open far enough to see out I see an amorphous, almost human-shaped shadow outside that is colored like the purple-core. It¡¯s about the same size as me, and I can almost see its head move from side to side. Probably the same bit of hesitation I had, I might be imagining that I¡¯m not sure of the complexity of a base AI. So, I really don¡¯t have any information to go on. I see it solidify a bit more than it was, almost becoming a concrete human-shape, then take a step over the threshold of my mind-gate.


    It¡¯s hard to describe what happened after that. Everything happened at such speed that there wasn¡¯t enough for me to save it as solid memories. Thinking back, I remember standing in front of the AI and reaching to shake its hand, then a flash and we are looking at a memory of me standing over two caskets, then in the police station, I¡¯d spent so much time in trying to find someone to help me investigate my parent¡¯s death.


    After that little snippet of my life flashed by faster and faster. Too fast for me to even account for any of the memories. Afterwards, everything comes to a stop with me and the AI standing at the gates of the castle with our palms pushed together. The AI had changed and now looked exactly like Marla, but the opposite colors.


    Where Marla¡¯s skin was an alabaster-white, my AI was the shade purple so dark it was almost black. Her eyes shined with the purple light of a sunset after dusk. I couldn¡¯t help but feel like she was a childhood friend.


    ¡°¡­what?¡± the AI even had almost the same tone of voice as Marla did.


    Before I got the chance to start asking her questions I felt myself being forcibly logged out of the training area and opened my eyes to a distraught and frightened Betty standing over me. It took me a minute to realize the disconnect was that I was now laying down, the chair I had been sitting in fully reclining.


    ¡°How do you feel? Are you ok? How many fingers am I holding up? Can you talk?¡± She was rapid-fire asking me questions without giving me a chance to answer. She seemed panicked, almost in a manic state.


    ¡°I feel fine Betty, I think I¡¯m ok, three fingers, and I can talk.¡± I was still trying to get my brain in gear from the switch out of the training area, I felt incredibly groggy. On top of that my body was very stiff. If this is what it felt like to go into the training machine I¡¯m not sure I want to keep doing it. ¡°Calm down Betty, I didn¡¯t even get to ask my AI her name¡­.¡±


    My AI. I now essentially have another being residing inside of me.


    Betty looked like she had calmed down, almost to her normal self. ¡°We were unable to wake you up after the AI initialization started. Marla was in a panic, I¡¯m not sure who agonized more over you not waking up, her or Shawn. Did you manage to integrate your AI? Do you remember anything that happened?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I think she¡¯s hibernating or something right now, or I don¡¯t know how to contact her? She was in my mind when that logout happened, but I don¡¯t know how to contact her.¡± After saying it I realized I knew how to contact her.


    Lifting my left palm so that it was above my face there was a purple mark that almost looked like two chevrons had been spun on axis to form a rectangle. Concentrating on the center of the mark a menu pops up into my view, hovering between my face and my hand.


    Self.


    Status.


    A.I.


    Inventory.


    There were a few more options, but I ignored them and rushedly concentrated on the AI portion bringing up a submenu.


    A.I.


    -Enable.


    -Disable.


    -Status.


    -Manifest.


    I mentally push the enable button, instinctually knowing I don¡¯t have the equipment necessary to manifest her. I¡¯m not sure how I know what I need, but realize that something strange must have happened in the training simulator.


    ¡°I¡¯ve enabled her, she should be coming online soon, and we can ask her.¡±


    There¡¯s a fuzzy feeling around my skull, almost like static electricity.


    Hello? It¡¯s weird thinking words into my brain and expecting a response, I almost feel like a crazy person doing it.


    Hello. The voice coming across is very timid.


    I don¡¯t want to sound rude, but I don¡¯t think we were properly introduced, or I have forgotten. I¡¯m assuming she was in my brain for the last few days, I don¡¯t think it worked out the way it was supposed to though. Both Shawn and Marla had acted like I would choose an AI then immediately be able to start training.


    Mercy. My name is mercy. Her voice seems to be gaining confidence, making me realize it¡¯s less of a shy thing, and more of a system coming online thing.


    Do you know what happened mercy? The last thing I can remember before being pulled out was us trying to shake hands, then a flash, some pain, and we were coming out of the training grounds.


    I can feel her processing while thinking, it¡¯s the strangest thing I¡¯ve ever experienced.


    I think it went wrong somehow, most of my memories are either corrupt or missing. Some seem to be archived somehow. We should have integrated then been able to start training and learning from one another. I¡­I¡¯m going to need to process this, it shouldn¡¯t be this way. There¡¯s an undercurrent of confusion coming from her as she speaks.


    ¡°She says she needs to process what happened, that it shouldn¡¯t have worked out that way. I don¡¯t know Betty, this is all new to me, I¡¯m sorry if I did something wrong. Is everybody ok?¡± Forgetting that I¡¯d already ask causes her to smile a little.


    ¡°Were all fine, me and Shawn have been worried, he¡¯s only left the chair next to you for a couple of hours every day.¡± The way she¡¯s talking I¡¯ve been in there for more than a few hours.


    ¡°How long was I out Betty?¡±


    ¡°Six days since you Shawn left you to train. He¡¯s a wreck, convinced something he did during the little time he was there ruined the process. Crucials captain actually threatened to have him sedated if he didn¡¯t get some rest.¡±


    Six days. It felt like minutes for me if even that. I really don¡¯t remember most of it though so I guess I can¡¯t really account for time. Nothing I can do for it now though, I¡¯ll let Mercy process it and she¡¯ll give me an answer. I¡¯m a little amazed at how easy I¡¯ve accepted the fact that a woman now living in my head.


    The biggest problem I have so far is that I accumulated more questions when I should have been getting answers.

 ch.5 Captains quarters.

    ¡°It¡¯s gone. Everything from the blackout is unrecoverable.¡± Mercy¡¯s voice, though much like Marla, is thankfully without an accent. It doesn¡¯t take the sting out of six missing days, but it¡¯s a nice parallel.


    ¡°It is what it is, I guess.¡± I¡¯m not actually too disappointed about it. She¡¯d split off a part of her attention and explained to me that my upgrades were something different than anything before. I¡¯ll grow like I would on earth because that¡¯s how my body learned. On the other side of that, the level of my augments would make my growth almost insane compared to most people. Which is good because I am woefully behind comparatively.


    The extra growth will be nice, but the problem is that the six ¡®floating points¡¯ that people usually get to assign at will are automatically moved to where they are most needed at that moment. Mercy says the algorithm is beyond her right now but she can put it on the list of future research. It¡¯s not all bad though, most people only get to choose where those points go once every twenty-four hours, mine will assign instantly depending on some algorithm. Considering the rest of the augments are over the top helpful I feel like this one is probably for the best as well.


    ¡°Most people assign them the same every time anyways. I personally use the points spread out through my stats.¡± I¡¯d almost forgotten I was in the middle of a conversation with Shawn.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not too worried about it. Everything else is geared to give me an advantage, gotta take the bad with the good, as it were.¡±


    Shawn and I were in route to meet the captain of the ship Crucial which we had landed on a few hours ago. I¡¯m disappointed I didn¡¯t get to see it from the outside, we¡¯ve been walking from the docking bay for almost ten minutes now. We haven¡¯t taken too many turns and we are just now getting to the captain¡¯s door.


    ¡°Alright, he wants to meet you alone. I¡¯ll be out here when you are done, remember your manners, but try not to come across as a pushover.¡± Shawn seems more nervous than I¡¯ve seen him before.


    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best, see you in a few.¡± The door I was standing in front of was the same color as the doors on Marla, but looks like a different material. I had been trying to connect with the network to the ship but kept getting a prompt back about needing captain¡¯s permission.


    Shawn nods at me and hits the ¡®call¡¯ button on the panel next to the door, ¡°Good luck.¡±


    Before I have a chance, the door opens and a deep voice calls, ¡°Enter.¡±


    I give Shawn a little wave and walk into the room. It doesn¡¯t surprise me too much, I had expected a sparse environment. The room is the same basic color as most of the walls in the ship, the slightly off-white color. The room isn¡¯t very big, probably twelve by sixteen feet. I imagine he¡¯s got a set of rooms connected to it, there¡¯s a door off to the other side of the room. The desk is a flat panel that is sticking out from the wall next to that door, with a holographic display on it. There are a few chairs across from the desk, nothing fancy though.


    The big surprise in the room is the man behind the desk. Standing just over five feet and probably close to three feet wide. He¡¯s got a bald head and a braided red beard that reaches almost to his waist. His outfit is the same one-piece suit as Shawn was wearing, except for it is a navy-blue color and has a rotated cube sitting where lapels should be and an embroidered nametag on his left breast says ¡®CPT. Lager. The parts of his face that I can see are a darker shade of white, and his eyes are a dark brown color.


    ¡°It¡¯s not polite to stare son.¡± His voice sounds like it¡¯s coming from his stomach, a deep base.


    ¡°I¡­I¡¯m sorry captain. I beg your forgiveness, I didn¡¯t realize you were a dwarf.¡±


    Most captains are dwarfs in space. The elves make great crewman, and techs but dwarfs tend to be a bit more pragmatic when it comes to captaincy. Mercy tells me.


    ¡°¡­Hasn¡¯t said a word to me in the last couple of days and sends you in blind. That Shawn is going to be the death of me. I¡¯m surprised Betty didn¡¯t tell you at least.¡± He doesn¡¯t seem too upset about it.


    ¡°I saw Betty for a few minutes when I woke up but she went to tell Shawn I was up then never came back. Shawn says she¡¯s debriefing with the XO. I Didn¡¯t see her while I was on Marla too much.¡±


    The captain looks annoyed when I mention that, ¡°Betty was debriefed the day you got here. I¡¯ll have to talk to her, she might be avoiding you, Baron. Let¡¯s discuss that another time though. I hate to get straight down to business as it were but we need to discuss your plans for the future.¡±


    I¡¯m fine with getting right to business. Shawn is under the impression that we are going to storm off and take back a crown, I¡¯m not sure that¡¯s what I want to do.


    I figure I¡¯ll lay it out, no need for misunderstandings heading forward ¡°It needs to be discussed, sir. My whole life I have been an invalid, living on a single planet without any responsibilities than myself. I am in no way, shape, or form in any way prepared to lead a rebellion. On top of that, I don¡¯t think I really want to. I just got into space. It¡¯s something I only imagined in my wildest dreams and death, even if there is a chance I can survive via clone, is still something I would rather not experience.¡±


    He looks relieved at my short tirade, ¡°I¡¯m glad you feel that way but there are a couple of things you need to understand before you make any long-term decisions. First is this: The guard is split internally on that very aspect. It¡¯s been more than a few years since the Aelvans royalty were deposed. In that time things have gotten better in more than a few ways. Don¡¯t misunderstand me son, just as many things have stayed the same or gotten worse. It¡¯s a matter of perspective. We can discuss that another time. Second: Whoever put you in that prison knows you¡¯re out now. That¡¯s a cat that isn¡¯t getting back in a bag. Third, and last: You are not a prisoner here. Your parents made contingencies for everything. I was captaining the Crucial long before the insurrection. This is your fathers personal ship and we have all of the documentation on what he wanted to happen once we freed you.¡± I can see there is a genuine sadness in his eyes when he mentions my parents, fond memories mixed with loss.


    ¡°He¡¯s left you with options son. Your parents were good people, they didn¡¯t keep truck with most of the royal caste. I think they both realized, and planned, for you to be your own man. I¡¯d like to lay it all out for you Baron. Your father always shot straight with me, treated me as an equal, and I would like to repay him that by doing the same with his son. Are you OK with that?¡± His deep voice leaves a bass echo in the room every time he clips his sentences off.


    ¡°I would appreciate it greatly captain Lager.¡± Growing up thinking I had CP lead me to be succinct in my everyday life, when you think you could die at a younger age you tend to take things by the horns.


    ¡°Fine by me then. I do not believe a rebellion is the way to go. Your father and mother stood outside of most of the drama that happened all those years ago. Your father even refusing to step into the role of king when it came down to him and a few others left. He stayed outside of most of the fighting as well. I can¡¯t say I don¡¯t believe he agreed with the rebellion''s side of things, but I think he understood. The Aelvan monarchy was oppressive to most races, granted, it wasn¡¯t intentionally so. But it still was. Things looked rough for a few years, but things are about equal now. That¡¯s the way I see things anyways, I¡¯ll thank you if you find your own opinion.¡± I¡¯m a bit surprised he admitted that he doesn¡¯t think the rebellion as a good thing.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Thank you for your honesty captain. I¡¯d like to do some research before I get too far into it, but I¡¯m inclined to not want to incite some kind of bloodbath. Especially if the parents I never met didn¡¯t believe in it.¡± I¡¯d like to do some research on how things are now, and how they were before. For all I know the Aelvan rulers were into human sacrifice like the Aztecs from earth.


    ¡°Now we¡¯ll get to the decisions you need to make son. Your father left a contingency if you decide you want to rebuild the Aelvans empire and I¡¯ll follow them as best I can. If you decide to go that route most of the guard will follow you. This includes thirteen fully stocked and prepared war-ships, a few freighters, and probably a couple of planets that believe in their cause. The downside to that is some of those ships don¡¯t hold with that cause and will probably want to withdraw from the guard. If that¡¯s the case it¡¯d be best to just let them go, you don¡¯t want to force their hand into doing it knowing they might break at the worst possible time.¡± Judging by the way he¡¯s talking I don¡¯t think that¡¯s his preferred option either.


    ¡°Your next option is to announce you have no intentions on rebuilding. You should probably somehow release it wide as well. The people who want you probably won¡¯t stop because you don¡¯t have intentions, but people will know you exist and that¡¯ll bring a measure of protection all its own. If you go this route there are still going to be some who want to make a run at the council, so you announcing your intentions not to will cede their legitimacy away and insulate you from it.¡± I think this is his preferred option, his voice levels out in tone.


    I can¡¯t help but realize that these are things I wouldn¡¯t have noticed before.


    The heart is feeding you information, now that you are open to it your ¡®stats¡¯ have taken effect. Ah, that makes sense, I wonder how she knew what I was thinking.


    I¡¯m in your head silly. Any thoughts you have I¡¯ll hear, you¡¯ll eventually learn to keep your own but until then I¡¯ll hear everything. That¡¯s a bit off-putting.


    Hmm, why can¡¯t I hear your thoughts then?


    You are. You probably aren¡¯t picking them up because you aren¡¯t looking for them. I imagine they are like fleeing thoughts to you, there then not. You¡¯ll learn eventually that we are more alike than any person you will ever meet, I am based on your memories and personality that I searched through when we merged. I am a lot of information and my own type of entity but were still one, if that makes sense. I guess it kind of did; if her personality is based off of my memories and experiences then she can¡¯t help being of the same mind as me.


    Exactly. I¡¯m sure eventually I¡¯ll start making my own assumptions and decisions but even then, I¡¯ll still be formed off of you. If I had been based on a ship, or a machine it would have been too foreign to assimilate and even if I¡¯d managed to there¡¯s a strong chance you might not have accepted me. That was the single longest sentence she had ¡®said¡¯ to me since activation. It¡¯s good information to have, not exactly useful, but interesting.


    The captain had let me talk to myself, finally clearing his throat.


    ¡°There is one last option. This is kind of the ¡®catch-all¡¯ option. Your mother was an intellect without equal in a community of geniuses. I can only assume she had your father add this one knowing it was probably the greatest probability. You can relinquish your royal rights. This would cause a cascade of events that would distribute every ship in the fleet to its separate captain. It would split the treasury accounts that are still active, seventy-five percent being disseminated to the captains and crew, the last twenty-five going to you. This would also net you any ship in the fleet you wanted, minus the cruiser class. This would not solve the problem of the council coming after you. You¡¯d still need to go to send out a statement saying you had no intentions to help the rebellion.¡±


    If I¡¯m honest with myself the last one had my attention the most. I don¡¯t want to lead any organization of this size and I definitely don¡¯t want to do it in combat, ¡°Is there a time limit here, can I take some time to decide? This is a heavy pill on top of what has already happened. If possible, I would really like some time to wrap my head around everything that is going on.¡± The feeling that I¡¯m just under the surface of water but no matter how fast I try reaching the top it¡¯s just out of reach is going to overwhelm me at some point.


    ¡°There is no time limit son. You take as long as you need to, just keep in mind that the fate of thousands, maybe even millions rests on your decision¡± No pressure there.


    The captain changes the subject and we spend some time talking about the crew. My brain is barely working at this point. My options are completely overwhelming to me. Eventually, the captain takes pity on me and releases me back to the wild with a promise that I would come back the next day for dinner in the officer¡¯s mess.


    I almost stagger into Shawn as I walk out the door.


    ¡°Are you ok man? You look like you just came down off something heavy.¡± His question is a bit easier than his usual slams.


    ¡°You¡¯re a dick. We¡¯ll start there. You could have warned me the captain was a dwarf damn it.¡± I catch the smile he tries to hide with a cough.


    ¡°Nah man, I forgot about that.¡± He can¡¯t keep the smile off his face, so it¡¯s pretty hard to believe him.


    ¡°Whatever man. I¡¯ve got a decision to make, I assume you know that though. I feel like the captain is the kind of guy who likes to keep it real with everybody.¡± Shawn looks like he is struggling with something, but just shrugs.


    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m going to decline to say anything though. We¡¯ve been friends for a long time and I don¡¯t want to cloud your decision with my experience, I¡¯m with you whatever you decide.¡± I¡¯m glad to hear that. On the ship, he seemed passionate about the whole rebellion thing. It could have honestly been adrenaline though, things were crazy then.


    ¡°Good deal. Are we sleeping on Marla, or do I get my own room? Can we grab some food, I am starved man. I don¡¯t know what it is, but I feel like I go straight from content with food to borderline starving every couple of hours.¡± My appetite was always stable growing up, if incredibly healthy.


    ¡°It¡¯s the augments coming online. The nanites in your body have to finish building some of them. Others are probably tearing through sustenance coming online. Most of the augments will be passive once they are complete, but until then you are going to be almost constantly hungry.¡± There¡¯s a sympathetic look on his face, I imagine this is something that happens in kids. Probably exacerbated for me since mine are trying to get years of growth in as quickly as possible.


    ¡°As far as a room you¡¯ll be right down the hallway in the officer¡¯s area. There will be a dispenser for food in your room, the same thing we had on Marla, but if you want the good stuff you¡¯ll want to head to the mess. They make real food, not flavored bricks. My AI got a message saying the captain would like to see you, me, and Betty at the officer¡¯s mess at seventh bell.¡±


    I did as well, I did not want to interrupt the conversation. You should ask about clothes and a shower. Thanks, Mercy.


    ¡°Does my room come with a shower or clothes?¡± I had managed to get one of the body suits Shawn and Betty had started wearing. I was wearing my old pants over them though. The suits didn¡¯t leave much to the imagination, and I never really liked tight fitting clothes.


    ¡°Ha ha, forgot about that part. Yes, you¡¯ll be in a high-crew level suite, so you¡¯ll have everything you need in there. There¡¯s going to be a fabricator for clothes in the room as well if I remember right. The body suits are a staple, but most people don¡¯t just wear that. The crew are usually allowed to wear whatever they want unless they are on duty, so I¡¯m sure you can just pick something out of the list and be fine.¡± I wasn¡¯t built like Shawn with his giant muscles and square jaw. I wasn¡¯t very tall and I definitely needed more muscle before I might want to do any showing off like that.


    Thinking about my own perceived deficiency I realize that I was taller now, probably about five-eight, and I¡¯d put on some muscle. I doubt I¡¯d ever be built like Shawn, but I could feel the muscle growing. Which brought me to the realization that everyone we passed was some kind of attractive. They were all athletic without a skin blemish between them.


    Nature of the universe. You can have things you don¡¯t like changed at certain shops, it¡¯s generally a painless procedure. They just tweak something in your DNA and your body acclimates on its own. A little disconcerting that somebody could just jerk your DNA around, but I imagine there¡¯s some type of safeties built in.


    We took a couple of turns heading back in the direction we came from, where Marla was docked, and finally, come to a side hallway full of doors without many people around.


    Shawn stops me at the second to last door in the hall, ¡°I¡¯m in the next one down if you need me. At the risk of sounding corny; Welcome home.¡±