“What’s on your agenda on your first full System day?” Marcella asks me as I que up the coffee machine.

“It’s not planned for me already?” I say, with more interest than snark as I get breakfast fixings out of the fridge.

“That starts tomorrow. I figured I’d give you a day off for your initialization.”

“Well, then, probably not much different than a training day? I figure with the few extra inches all around, I should see if a workout feels different and if it’s changed anything for firearms and whatnot.” To be honest with myself, I hadn’t thought about the minutia. I just assumed we talk about stuff and keep on driving hard until I got my track. “Oh, I also wanted to ask if it was common to initialize at level 2?”

“Level 2 huh? Guess we missed that. You should text Dani about that. Makes sense though, two mid intermediate and an advanced skill impart a lot of experience. Speaking of levels, advancing skills now imparts general experience toward your levels as well. You need to figure out a hobby, preferably one or two that mesh with what you’re aiming for. There are the usual life-skill based skills, there are the game-norm skills like smithing, leatherworking, tailoring and others, as well as some more esoteric choices like engraving, magitech, and other aether involved vocations. If you don’t care much, or just want to be useful, there is a message board with a list of skills the Organization is looking for.”

“Huh, I guess that’s the biggest change I should expect. Access to information via my system interface?”

“Yep. That and your AI helper. That clinches it, I’m taking your morning back and assigning you to familiarize yourself with Warram’s New User Guide and chat with your AI. Then you can have a free afternoon.”

I laugh at her while I scramble some eggs with cheese and vegetables, like Belle showed me how to do. I’m going to have to do a lot of things now that she’s not around. I suppose I did get used to her taking care of domestic stuff.

Are domestics a topic you’d like to be more experienced in?

Oh, hey Tova. Not really no. I don’t mind this level of cooking, but I think I would lose interest pretty quickly. What do you think about hobbies?

Based on the direction you’ve aimed, and your current skills, I have some ideas of what would be useful, but you’re not far from seeing your Track options--holding off is also viable. No, I do not get a head’s up on your options. They are revealed to both of us at the same time, and I am not knowledgeable enough to speculate.

Yeah, I think I would like something that would let me fix or modify my guns, maybe make them more versatile or something.

I can think of a few options, but many require handling or using aether. Engraving and using aether with it creates Runes that can alter or augment function. Enchanting changes material properties using aether. Artificing is essentially a magic tinkerer, but that’s more of a Track than a Hobby, the Empress’ Track in fact. There are smithing specialties that can do what you mentioned, and base tinkering is also possible. Imbuement is an ‘on-the-fly’ limited-uses version of enchanting that can use runic effects. There other subsets of Runes and Enchanting such as Charms or Totems.

Huh, charms sounds kind of fun. Is that like whittling plus magic?

That is more totems than charms. Charms often use alchemical components to get the aether in them.

Holy cow. Alchemy? I bet that is on the list of wanted hobbies for the Organization.

I checked. Most aether-based crafts are on the list.

Is there a reason you think I’d be capable of these aether crafts?

You have ratings in each of the aether ability slots on your status sheet. Thus, you will be capable of using aether. Ideally, you would adopt symbiotes to help you process them, but that is a choice only you can make. You may still select tech-based tracks while having a symbiote, should you desire to, but the enhanced ability to handle aether that the symbiote would bring may open more options for you.

That easy, huh? So I can just order me up some microscopic aliens from the Exchange and just inhale them?

Yes, and not exactly. The Empire currently needs to approve the purchase after assessing your basic abilities block. No other information is relayed save your region and it is to ensure that you have the ability to host the symbiote successfully. Most Earthers are put into a government run program to ease them into getting their symbiotes on Astoria as Earth is a difficult place to thrive with its low aether levels.

Well, based on my talents, I need aether so augmenting my diet to get it is going to happen anyway. How much does the symbiote cost? Hmm, I’ll look after breakfast.

I set out plates of eggs and toast for Marcella and me and we chat about how excited we both are about where I can go from here.

***

I placed an order for a single injector of Andromeda Matrix Symbiotic Interface Organisms, costing me ten credits should the order go through. I ponder the crafting avenues and am sure that I will pick aether-based vocations Imbuement, Charms, and Alchemy being particularly interesting to me. Although Runes and Enchanting seem very powerful, I’m not sure how viable it will be with the low availability of aether here. If the stories have any truth to them, the Empire was practically forged with those two skills.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Having more reach while boxing the heavy bag is strange and most of the weightlifting exercises feel funny as well. I figure it may take up to a few weeks to make the adjustments—especially while sparring—but Marcella tells me that I won’t have any jobs to go on until at least a month after I Track up. She also told me that the analysts are insistent that this cycle of selectees should use their initialized skills to target intense training or hobbies to obtain a desirable advanced Track.

Does the System grade Tracks Tova? And what’s the difference between the Matrix and the System?

The majority of the races in the Supercluster Community call it the Andromeda Matrix. Empress Astoria thought general Humanity would have an issue accepting something called ‘The Matrix’ so she went with ‘the System’ due to literary custom established nearly a century ago. To your first question, no, the Matrix does not grade Tracks, however it is common to favor tailored options over basic options such as Farmer, or Blacksmith. When we become a Citizen, I can research the matter further should you wish to.

Nah, it’s not that important. I find it odd that the Organization spent so much time categorizing and grading known Tracks. References to the algorithm in the Guide say that it attempts to identify individuals that are likely to achieve grade ‘B’ or higher Tracks before Track refinement. A statement like that wouldn’t seem too odd, save that there are few Tracks listed as grade ‘B’ or higher.

One thing about the new body shape of mine is that the mechanics of running feel better. Maybe I got better at it while out in Barstow and Adelanto, but I can feel the energy from impacting the ground storing in my hips as my gait rolls toward the next step and being used as I push out to extend my stride. Not only am I faster, I’m also less tired from the same distance. Heck yeah! Thanks Tova, and the Matrix of course. Now if I could get used to the weirdo that looks back at me in the mirror, that would be great.

Hey now, if I don’t look like me, maybe I can get a spar? The boys I’ve trained with ask me ‘new girl’ questions and I tell them I’ve trained with the general population in Krav and Kickboxing. I am learning kickboxing, so I might as well look like a newb while testing my reach and reactions.

One thing I realize right away is that I have no callouses or use-based reinforcement after the change. My shins are weak, my feet are weak, and my wrists are just not aligning the same when I punch. One of the Asian boys comes up and tells me that my form isn’t bad, but if I want to continue with the martial art, I need to harden my strike surfaces. I take his advice as it was meant—for once—and thank the group for their time and attention.

I decide that my workout is done for the day and hit the shower to be reminded that my initialization used the fat I was building up for energy too, and how much I’m going to need to eat to get it back. My clothes don’t fit the same either, but the outer garments I’d been provided previously were either stretchy or didn’t look too bad after the growth. Still, I should shoot a message to supply and see if I can trade the stuff in.

I also send a message to our range officer to see if there were any times blocked off today. When I get back up to our room to pick up my firearms, I see a package with a message waiting for me to open it.

/Congratulation on your eligibility for Symbiote use! Please allow up to four hours for your Symbiote to scan your aether capabilities, and up to three days for full integration to complete. As an Earth-based applicant, please consider sending our office your development data so that we may enhance our services to other Earth applicants./

I open the package to find an oversized steel ampule with two buttons on it. One labeled ‘deploy’ with a number 1 on it, and the second labeled 'inject’ with a number 2 on it. Simple enough. I roll the ampule over to see one-line of instruction.

‘Inject into a body section that can accommodate the injection volume.’

I’m guessing that means abdomen.

You’re brain’s not taking up too much space either.

Ha ha. Very funny Tova. Maybe I can download a humor module for you once I reach level 4. I depress button one, jam the needle up underneath my sternum and hit button number two before I can think too hard about the pain.

Were you trying to inject it through your diaphragm? Because that’s what you did.

Kinda. I think as I waddle to the med pack for some pain killers. I thought there would be a decent chance I’d inject them into my intestines instead of a space. Chest cavity has way more space right?

Andromeda help me. No, not in humans it doesn’t. You have a uterus with nothing in it, that would have been safer. You may have saved the Symbiote some time integrating though.

Oh! Is there a way to upgrade to a full HUD display with one of my modules? Things like a progress bar for integration would be cool.

Like this?

A small circle with the numerals ‘3%’ inside, connected to a sliver of opaque white appears in the lower right area of my vision.

“Holy shit! I have a HUD now? Why didn’t you tell me?!”

I didn’t know you didn’t know. You could see the representation of keyboards Danielle and Marcella were using. I assumed you realized that your HUD was showing that to you. It’s such a common request, that if the energy and materials are present, it’s installed automatically now for Tech Users.

Can you also quantize my energy levels to gauge fatigue and whatnot? Oh, and the emotional impact for my Talents?

I would need more data, and it wouldn’t be exact, but I could yes.

Okay, sweet. Let me know when you have enough data for a good estimate. Oh! And please always show my approximate saturation percentage. I don’t want to eat my way into a mutation by accident. I am so jazzed to have a HUD in my vision!

And you cannot lose it as it is not tied to your eyes, but the nerve clusters just before they interface with your brain.

That’s neat and all, but what else can it do for me? I look at the holsters I am strapping on and wonder if it can increase my abilities with aiming and targeting.

I cannot include information I don’t have, like the scope view or correcting a reticle displacement if you don’t know something’s wrong. There are weapons with linking abilities that constantly feed targeting info to a user, but that sort of thing is a mod or three down the road.

That would be neat, but it might feel a lot like cheating? I guess cheating to stay alive is a good move though. Anyway, time to take my pretties to the range!

The mechanics of handling my MRAD aren’t changed with my extra inches, but my pistol draw is completely hosed and I even have the holster in the wrong place. I spend an hour working on that and some more time talking to folks at the range about the benefits of a shoulder harness versus a leg harness. One of the guys mentions that it’s easier to fight in a shoulder harness and realize that should be my metric more than anything else. I put that on my list of work ‘nice to haves’ that I can now live update for Marcella to review whenever she has time.

After putting my rifle and pistol back—and picking up my knives—I go to see if the barber is open, looking to complete the change of image with a faddish haircut. They say they can fit me in, so I tell them I want a short buzz on the sides and back, and long on top. The man with fancy scissors says that a little shaping would help it keep a cascading hair look when it’s down and I easily give him permission to make it look good. Twenty minutes and three Marks paid and I have a much lighter head of hair that still feels nice when I run my hands through it.