I didn’t know what to say. What do you say when someone goes insane in front of you? Rhodes gestured to a small, nervous looking woman behind him. She was pretty, in a pinched way if not for the bizarre assortment of metal and plastic gear covering her like some kind of post-apocalyptic dune warrior. She stepped up and waved at me.
“Yes, you’re really in the Logorinth. My name’s Gorgon, and this is Merlin and Golem.” Gorgon said jerking her head towards the small guy and massive woman behind her each. “You already met the Captain. Before we can really fill you in, we gotta ask a few questions. Standard protocol stuff meant to help figure out what you need explained. You don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to and they’re all yes-or-no questions.”
“Okay, let’s hear it.”
“Question 1: Do you know what machines are?”
“I think so…?” I searched through my headache, trying to find something. “It’s all foggy.”
Merlin winced sympathetically. “It’ll come b—“
“Question 2:” She said with a glare. “Do you know what a computer is?”
“Yes?”
“Question 3: Do you know what video games are?”
“…Yes? Are we in a video game right now?”
She waved the question off.
“Question 4: Do you know what nanites are?”
The word sounded familiar but… “Not… really? Little robots? Is this a memory test or something?”
“Question 5: Do you know what sub-quantum computing is?”
I shook my head. “No clue at all. Listen, how many more are there?”
“Just two more. You’re doing great.”
I sighed and waved her on.
“Question 6: Do you know what a synthset is?”
“Never heard of it.”
“Question 7: Do you remember how the world ended?”
“What does that even mean? Like global warming is killing us or…?”
I could feel my panic spiking. I’d never been good at this kind of stuff. Something was wrong. Those words, the way her expression changed when I said no. This was all too much.
“Relax, relax.” Gorgon snapped her fingers to get my attention. I might have kept spiralling if not for the sympathy in her soft brown eyes. I’m safe. I’m okay. This will be okay. Breathe.
I exhaled slowly as she stared at me.
“Okay. You’re a 4A Crosser. Okay.” She flicked her hand at something in the air as she spoke before beginning a canned recital of something only she could see. “Hello Crosser, this is a pre-written speech by the Coalition of Respites intended to help you begin navigating this place we call The Logorinth. Please hold all questions until the end of this speech.”
Gorgon paused to let it sink in. I nodded back grimly.
“Based upon your answers to the standard Crosser survey, you have been classified as a type 4A Crosser. This means that the time period you remember before arriving here reached technology suitable to understand the following: You are now in a massive, reorganizing, mechanical structure bigger than the Earth which appears to be run by computerized systems. We call this the Logorinth. You are not the first to appear here and will not be the last.”
I tried to butt in. Gorgon ignored me and read louder. How far back does this go?
“Those who found you are either Crossers like you or descendants of Crossers called Natives. Not every Crosser appears to have come from the same time period. Other anomalies have been observed. Regardless, we are all human together. Many generations of Crossers have come before you and created human settlements at stable places in the Logorinth called Respites. The team who found you have accepted the responsibility of searching and finding new Crossers and returning them to Respites where further evaluation and assistance will be offered to help you.”
Gorgon looked back at the others and they all nodded together as she spoke. I could tell this meant something important to them. I waited.
“This is voluntary but survival without an orientation has been shown to be incredibly unlikely. In the event that you choose to continue on your own, know that any Respite will still welcome you as a fellow human and that the computerized systems appear to operate similar to video games you may know, rewarding exploration, combat, and completing tasks using some kind of nanite or microscopic technology. Use your best judgment. You may now ask any questions you have held. This has been a pre-written speech by the Coalition of Respites.”
I searched through the massive dump of information to form questions.
“You said ‘time period.’ Do we not all come from the same time period?”
“No. We’ve had Crossers arrive from periods that had barely made stone tools all the way to eras that sound like technological utopias.” Gorgon said before grinning. “My mother was a Crosser who’d only heard of new-fangled ‘electricity’ after she had her third child. Most seem to come from about when you did.”
I winced. “So… time travel?”
“Maybe? Listen, it’s not official or anything but…” Merlin chimed in.
The massive, dark-skinned woman beside him-Golem I think-groaned. “Not again, Merlin.”
“What?” I asked.
“Merlin has a theory.”
“It’s not a theory! It’s basically almost a fact! The other theories don’t account for all the anomalies!” Merlin shrieked back before collecting himself and looking at me. “Look Tee, I got a few more questions. Nothing official or anything but it’s something some of us are figuring out.”
I eyed the man skeptically. “Yeah?”
“So, if I said ‘Barney’s on television’ does that mean anything to you?”
“Like… the dinosaur on the kid’s show?” I asked confused.
“Yes! Great! He’s a dinosaur for you and he works with kids! Good!”
“…does he not always?”
“Most of the time, but sometimes we get weirdos. This one guy remembered a chicken and said it was from like horror stories.” He shrugged. “Maybe he was messing with us, but he was really weird, man.”
“So… maybe not the same world even?”
“Bingo!” Merlin shrieked.
Golem rolled her eyes. “Don’t let Merlin and his group sell you on anything. Some of us believe multiple worlds, some of us think they edit our memories and get things wrong. Nobody really knows anything.”
“Parallel worlds is the only thing that makes sense! How could they be good enough to edit our memories and know enough to write believable fakes but get the details wrong? That’s hogwash!”
Golem started to answer before the whole room trembled. Rhodes reached out a hand and braced me.
“Enough chatter guys. We need to move out before this area resets. It’s still a low enough Threat Region we should be fine if things get weird, but I don’t want to put Tee through that.”
Gorgon put her hand on Rhodes’ shoulder, her eyes staring into the distance and her free hand twitching again. Her motions were tight, but shaky. She’s not good with stress either. Probably suffers a generalized anxiety disorder. I thought. Huh, where did that come from?
“We got problems, captain. That shake? Fourth squad says they’ve got Twists flooding corridor B5.”
“Well, they’ve got Minos. Have him drop walls and stall them out. We got new blood to deliver to a Respite.” Rhodes shouted over her shoulder.
“No good. Minos is the one who called. He’s already got walls up and they’re breaking them down too fast. He says it’s a wave.”
“Shit. You heard ‘em crew. We got a rescue to mount.” Rhodes glanced back at me. “You’re coming along, I guess.”
I froze.
“I-I’m not ready for that.” I said, backing up. “I don’t know what a twist is or why Minos has walls or--”
I could feel my anxiety climbing again.
“Look Tee,” Rhodes replied, cutting me off. “I’d love to gently introduce you to the Logorinth over a Sunday brunch but my people are in trouble.”
He flicked his thumb back towards the hallway behind us.
“Your options are either coming with us, catching up with Mephis’ gang that way, or going on your own. Your choice.”
I gulped. We both knew that two of those options were death or worse.
“I guess I’m in.”
Rhodes nodded and picked up the pace. Golem shouldered up next to me.
“I’ll explain some things as we go. I can’t give you a whole orientation, but nobody should risk facing their first fight without a clue.”
The next few minutes were a rapid, uncoordinated march. Rhodes glanced at a device on his wrist and quietly boasted Merlin and Gorgon led our way, peeking out through various holes in the walls into chambers. The first few looked similar enough to my chamber but a crater where the cage I’d started in would be. I stopped looking and paid attention to Golem instead.
“I saw the dead corpse of the Splitjaw back there. Did you get any notifications from the System?” She said.
“Yes…” I said hesitantly.
“Good.” She replied. “That means you probably gained enough experience to gain a level. We don’t have time to class you, but we can at least try to assign your points.”
“Okay. New terms. So we have classes and xp and all that roleplaygame stuff. Okay.”
“I’m so glad you’re above a type 3. The early ones take so long to grasp this.”
I grinned. “I can imagine.”
“I don’t know what your display shows you. It’s a bit different for everyone. Some see 2D pictures, some 3D projections, some see a weird language we call Syslang, some work through even weirder systems.”
I boggled. Mephis’ behavior suddenly made more sense. He was trying to figure out what kind of display I had. “Mephis said I was an ‘alpha.’ Is there a good one?”
Golem grimaced. “Sort of. Alphas like you see Syslang text. That makes you popular because it’s an easier interface to work with, even if you don’t know what it says.”
“Okay, and that helps others somehow?”
Rhodes hushed us as our hallway let us into a massive chamber with multiple hallways jutting out, some going off at weird angles up and down. The entire chamber showed the same decay and rust as my own, with blinking lights and exposed wires everywhere. He looked around for something and then pointed to a hole on the left and we continued down a sloping path.
“In the Logorinth, information is power. Having a different interface might give you some advantages, but being an alpha means you can usually follow steps other people give you to manipulate your displays. Betas who see pictures often have to search for specific icons or weird shapes. Gammas do whatever the hell they can to survive because each one is a special snowflake.”
“Shit, that sounds rough.”
“Yeah, but if you ever meet a Gamma who passed level 10, they’ve probably got plenty of tricks you’ve never seen.”
“Really? Gammas have some secret sauce?” I asked.
Golem snickered. “They must have to survive that long.”
I gulped.
“Anyways, to assign your level points try thinking of an up arrow and a plus sign. That works for most people.”
Weird, but sure. I imagined an arrow and a plus sign floating in front of me. A familiar blue window snapped open.
[Growth Vector Allocation]
You have 30 Growth Potential Units unassigned.
System Evaluation:
Muscular Output: 1.01
Motor Reflex: 0.94
Cognitive Processes: 1.51 [Advancement Available]
Memory: 0.56
[Further Traits Locked. Access may require Qualifications or Trait Advancement]
“I see it.”
Golem let out a sigh of relief. “Oh good. That usually works. You can open stuff by thinking or saying words too, but you’d have to know what it means in Syslang and most of it we don’t.”
The crew slowed down in time for me to realize we’d entered another large chamber. This one differed considerably, with a ditch cutting across the entire width with massive, shadowed holes on either end leading out. Everyone took up cautious positions along the wall as Gorgon moved to a small terminal next to the doorway.
“I-is something wrong?”
“No. This is a transport hub.” Gorgon said. “We’re going to have to call a ride but stay alert. Sometimes we’re not the first passengers.”
As Gorgon began typing in the air, Golem got my attention and pulled me to the side.
“Okay, if you brought up the menu, you should see a few lines of text. Those should be your stats. Learning to read them is basically impossible but you’ll learn to figure a few things out.”
Shit. I thought. Hiding that I can read the messages is gonna be a problem.
[ADAPTIVE FILTER DISABLED]
Huh, so it’s togglable.
[ADAPTIVE FILTER ENABLED]
[ADAPTIVE FILTER DISABLED]
[ADAPTIVE FILTER ENABLED]
“Hey, you with me?”
I looked back at Golem and blushed. “Sorry.”
“No problem. So, usually the first line doesn’t change. The second line changes as you level. We think it’s a counter of some kind. Third line doesn’t change. The rest change a lot and different people have different numbers of them. They’re your stats.”
“Okay, so you’re telling me nobody has cracked the code?”
Gorgon laughed. “Oh, some people spend their whole lives trying. The problem is Syslang. It changes from region to region and appears to get updated in each region at different times. We don’t know who or why. People pay a premium to Infobrokers to get clues about their menus and some people travel the Logorinth looking for more stable regions.”
A hum broke up our conversation, first faint and then growing stronger. Everyone but me stared at one of the two holes, alert.
Rhodes held his left hand forward. A large mace with blinking lights along its length formed in midair and fell into his grip. I gasped as everyone else manifested weapons similarly.
“Shit, you haven’t called your first weapon.” Golem said. “Forget the menus for a second. You should have enough Dust for this. Just concentrate on fighting. Imagine swinging a weapon and just kinda… push.”
Wide-eyed, I tried to do what she said. It wasn’t happening. This was all too much. I was back in the tube, that creature trying to tear its way in, the lights blinking. I—
A knife, rough around the edges and with an uncomfortable handle, formed.
[Introductory Personal Defense Allocation Claimed]
“There we go. That’s your freebie. Huh, a knife. I wouldn’t have figured you to be the up-close type.” Golem patted my shoulder, her voice bringing me back. “Don’t worry, this is a blue zone and ride hoppers are rare. Just stay behind me. You’ll be fine.”
The hum had built to nearly deafening levels now accompanied by the shrieking scrape of metal on metal. With only a spray of sparks from the ditch to announce it, a massive vessel of corroded metal cables erupted from the left hole and slid to a stop infront of us. A pair of doors twice the height of Golem slid open and a dimly lit inner chamber greeted us.
“Gorgon?”
“Nothing on scanner, Rhodes.”
“You heard ‘em.” Rhodes grinned. “Everybody aboard.”
We climbed into the dark chamber. None of them lowered their weapons. Neither did I.