Personnel Profile [https://i.postimg.cc/6pdg5Sgp/Screen-Shot-2022-08-27-at-8-32-56-PM.png]
Was this… him?
Again, he had no baseline for normal but he thought that those numbers looked pretty low. Surprised enough by the Terminal he took it in stride. Some of the terms seemed pretty self-explanatory, he understood what “strength” was, what Grit, IQ vs EQ, Psi vs Psy, he had no idea.
“Um, computer?” He saw a blinking dot. Oddly enough he had the thought that the Terminal was waiting for him to speak.
“What is this?”
This is your Current Physical Profile.
“Ok. Um, what does that actually mean?”
This reflects your Current Physical Status. Assign Available Allocation Points…
None of his following questions were answered so he looked back at his profile.
His strength seemed good, really good he thought as he gripped his left hand into a fist. He knew he didn’t really have anything to compare it to but it was probably fine where it was.
He quickly reviewed his goals. Find other Security Personnel, Find Julia, Slow down the ship, Land the ship.
First, he needed a weapon. Well first he had to "assign Allocation."
His Dexterity seemed low but that didn’t seem like it was used to move fast, just his hands and even then, they were his hands, he knew them like the back of his hand. He continued further down.
Agility meant “moving fast,” he thought, so that was probably more important, after all, he had a decent list of things to do once he left the room. Most of all he just needed to figure out what is going on. He was somehow already neck deep in whatever mess was going on so he’d rather do it now than live in the fear of it. He put a point in there.
The handpad heated up and he curiously looked to his hand. He felt nothing beyond a slight vibration that started from the handpad and rolled through his body, shortly followed by goosebumps that had too faded as he got over the initial sensation.
He wasn’t sure what to expect after the strange feeling faded but "nothing" wasn’t it. He didn’t think he felt particularly fast. Well maybe he did, but his hand was still trapped on the pad so testing his speed would have to wait. He waved his hand in front of his face and took a step backward and forwards. He didn’t think to run around in the brief minutes of confusion after waking up in a metal box not with half-formed memories so he wouldn't know how to compare his Agility.
Julia was the only Human he knew, maybe he knew lots of Humans, but the fact remained, she was his only connection and she was on the Bridge. With the ship heading to crash he’d have to save her or he was dead anyway. There weren't a lot of memories to trawl through and the act of thinking quickly brought him back to the noises he heard over the speakers. The ones she was terrified of, and suddenly, he felt the need to hurry up.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
He shrugged away the bad feelings and moved to the next on the list. Endurance. Going with the theme that there’d probably be a lot of moving, the idea of being able to move around for longer seemed like a good idea. He tapped the sideways arrow putting an Allocation into Endurance.
The handpad heated up again and this time he did feel a little different. He felt tougher somehow. Like he could take a punch. Well maybe, he didn’t know if he could take a punch before but he definitely felt like he could take one now. He wouldn’t want to of course, but if he had to he felt like he definitely could take one.
He tried to brush away the “this is strange” feeling that was desperately trying to crawl and burrow into the back of his neck. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head and looked back down at his hand. It was an easy feeling to set aside as the ever-growing desire to not have his hand attached to this Terminal's pain pad anymore continued to fester.
With one point left he hovered his finger between IQ, EQ, and Senses. He didn't see any arrows next to Psi and Psy, he tapped them both, nothing. So it didn't look like he could increase either of them. He didn’t know what EQ was and as looked around the metal box of a room he imagined much of the place would look the same even if he could Sense it better. He put a point into IQ.
The pad started to heat up again and this time he felt his brain heat up along with it. It wasn’t that painful beyond the start of a headache and that his forehead was getting a little sweaty. When the pad cooled down his headache disappeared alongside the heat. It did, sort of, feel like his head was a little less foggy. He looked down at his jumpsuit and two specific neurons sparked creating a flash of curiosity. He wondered how he was wearing this jumpsuit at all. Would he put on a jumpsuit without his real name before going into cryo? It seemed like he would want his name on his uniform.
Strange. No, it was weird.
As he thought he became aware of a pain in the middle of his head, he resolved to set thoughts like that, for now.
After he had shoved, down deep, the thoughts and concerns that flitted through his head he noticed that he didn't remember any new details.
Maybe it had to be higher, like way higher to remember things.
He quickly reviewed the stats he had increased on his Personnel screen:
Jack #30329427183
Agility: 5 -> 6
Endurance: 6 -> 7
IQ: 4 -> 5
Wisdom: 3.5 -> 4
Available Allocation: 0
It seemed good he thought with a smile. He stepped back and smiled broadly, stretching from the left side of his mouth to his right. He didn’t miss the extra half point in Wisdom. Perhaps he was a little wiser.
“Ah ha!” He laughed long and loud at his new hand-based freedom and strange new whatever. He almost missed the Terminal that suddenly output:
Locker Code 4A729153E8771I11I
Looking from the Terminal to the locker panel he quickly tried to memorize it and was surprised that he was able to do so relatively easily. He moved over to the locker panel and started to type. The I's and 1’s seemed to have switched places while he held them in his mind.
He went over to the Terminal again and attempted to type in the code, bit by bit, but as quickly as he tried to shuffle back and forth, the panel would flash red and reset before he could make it back to continue inputting the code.
He decided to take a break and do a quick check of the hallway outside. He walked to the door and the blue-colored handpad next to it.
He looked through the small window into the hallway and didn’t see anything new so he quickly set his hand on the pad which briefly flashed green before the door started to slide into the wall on his left.
As it opened he heard a faint scritching sound from the other side of the door.
The same door that was now sliding open.