Natalie stayed in the pod until Sam told her it was eight o'clock. Then a horrible realisation swept over her, she had slept all night... her night work, she hadn't login to the main frame or done her nightly maintenance.

"Sam!" Natalie called urgently. "I didn't do the shift assigned to me last night."

Natalie felt panic rising up in her, she knew the penalties for missing shifts. She couldn't believe she had been so absorbed in yesterday's drama that she hadn't even thought of her shift work.

"It's alright Natalie," Sam soothed. "You didn't miss any shifts, it was Saturday, today is Sunday. You don't have any shifts on the weekends anymore."

Natalie sagged back in relief. She decided to get up and have her shower, on her way to the bathroom, Chelsea appeared from her room, Natalie froze, as the memory of her ordeal in the game surfaced at the sight of her sister. It seemed trivial now.

"Hey Chelsea, nice catch on the first corpse butchering." Natalie said smiling. "you really had me going there for a bit, I almost sliced the head off my kill to try and butcher it, when I got the notice."

"Notice?" Chelsea looked blankly at her. "What notice? I didn't get one and it took me twelve kills and a lot of really smelly knife work, before I learnt how to do it."

"You mean, you actually butchered the kills? " She asked incredulously. "It wasn't a joke? All I did was place the knife near the throat of the bird I killed and a notice popped up, asking me if I wanted to butcher the carcass."

Chelsea looked thunder struck, Natalie couldn't help it she practically collapsed laughing. Chelsea stood watching her with a confused look on her face, then she too began to laugh. She thought of the messy, time consuming efforts to butcher her kills. All that could have been avoided.

"I think I hate that game." Chelsea finally managed to wheeze out, as she calmed down.

"The game is pretty good, it's the person that made it you should hate," Natalie groaned out, her chest hurt from to much laughing.

"Your right, I'm going to hunt him/ her down and rub Jakes dirty socks in his /her face!" Chelsea said.

"Oh that is just down right mean Chelsea," Natalie spluttered, her laugh activating again. "Maybe a bit overboard in the punishment department."

"No I think I'm being lenient," Chelsea stoutly claimed. "Those carcasses stink if you cut them wrong!"

Natalie collapse into laughter once again, their father found the pair of them, leaning up against each other, giggling fit to burst. He shook his head, then decided he didn't want to know, turned around and went back downstairs.

Natalie hugged her sister, then while she was still bemused over the hug, dived into the bathroom. Giggling again at the outraged cry from Chelsea, as she shut and locked the door on her. She loved her sister, but under no circumstances, would she step back and allow her into the bathroom first!

Downstairs both their parents were listening to the giggling girls, they were still in shock from Natalie's news. All night they had called people they knew, and quite a few they didn't know, only to find out that not many of them even knew about it.

No one could deny the facts, the file was available, the law on such things were clear. There wasn't however, any law saying the file had to be displayed easily. It was also a year and a day since the file had been put into public domain, as the laws demanded. No one had challenged it, so now it was approved.

In six months it would be announced, they could do nothing. Their little girl was going to be shipped off to another planet. They had started a court process to try and get it revoked in their daughters favour, but in all likelihood, she would already be on the planet, before it even went to a hearing.

They stood clutching each other, grief lining their faces, as they tryed to come to terms with it. All the while, slightly hysterical giggling, from the girls drifted down to them. It was to much for their mother, she rushed out the back door, tears streaming down her face and stood leaning up against the porch stairing at nothing, her body racked by sobs. A few minutes later she was pulled into her husbands arms, that's were they stayed for the remainder of the morning.

None of the children, found them. They all had their breakfast and returned to their pods. The resilience of the young, already dulling any hurt or confusion they were feeling.

Natalie was sitting in her space looking at the trees, watching some of the birds flying amongst them.

"Natalie, the forums have been repaired, they are once more up." Sam announced. "I still haven't found anything about the use or finding of magic from any of the other players."

"Oh, I had forgotten about that," Natalie said. "I suppose it doesn't matter so much now, considering everything else."

"The game is still viable Natalie, it is a good training tool." Sam replied. "You will still need some form of entertainment or release, also it will be a continuing communication outlet for you, with your family. Since this pod, the game and myself will be going with you, when you leave."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Going with me?" Natalie was suddenly feeling a bit stupid, she had somehow assumed that going to the new planet would mean the loss of technology she was used to. When as a point in fact, the pod had its own power convergence core, it could draw energy from the air and light around it.

Some of the technology they would use on the new world would be primitive, compared with the rest. That was more of a colonial aesthetic, then a need. Although most convergence cores were incredibly heavy, even the tiny ones required for pods. So high end tech was limited to medical and research.

Her recent training in handling animals and plowing would be very handy on the new world. In fact, Natalie realised her time in the game was going to be gold, as far as skills were concerned.

There was nothing better for teaching a person a new skill, then having them learn on something fun. Muscle memory could be built up in the game. Then it was just practice outside the pods, that made people good at what they learned.

"That means I should continue playing, Sam, are you sure you have that program shut away?" Natalie didn't want something messing with her feelings, or controlling her thoughts.

"Yes, I have examined every part of the game's processing, there is nothing else in it, that can harm you," Sam reassured her.

"Since you will be coming with me, we need to gather as much information about colonial procedures that we can." Natalie decided. "You can store a huge amount of information, everything from survival tips, to breeding farm animals."

"Yes, I have been anticipating this need and have already compiled an extensive list, for your approval." Sam told her. "You should also spend time in the game, getting use to different types of primitive machines."

"I won't be the only one going Sam," Natalie laughed.

"No, you won't be." Sam agreed. "It is merely prudent to learn as much as you can, diversity and flexibility, as well as being adaptable to different situations will make you a valuable assets."

"Me? An asset?" Natalie was incredulous.

"Yes you, this way you will become successful." Sam replied.

Natalie was speechless, who would have thought her AI was more ambitious, then she could ever be? This made her think about things. What did she want to accomplish on the planet, Sam was right about one thing, being successful was definitely something she needed.

If she managed things right, no one would have any control over her again. Slowly her thoughts circled, as she tryed to decide what she needed to learn first.

"Sam, we need more information on the planet," she said thoughtfully. "It's hard to plan ahead, especially, when your not sure if we will land during winter or summer? Does it snow? What sort of animals roam it? So much to find out!"

"The authorities involved with this, haven't released anything that would be useful just yet." Sam said. "Your parents as predicted, have raise a huge amount of attention on the project. Just on this alone, will probably force some kind of response."

"They haven't done anything to get into trouble over have they?" Natalie was suddenly fearful for her parents.

"No they will be fine," Sam replied. "They have just brought this whole can of worms into the light. There are some very important people, who are displeased, over the way this has been handled."

"How did Mum and Dad, manage that in one night?" Natalie asked.

"They know a lot of people, and they knew which ones to call first." Sam replied. "It won't help, Natalie, but maybe this will loosen up the hold on information we need."

"I should try to talk to my parents, try to do something, instead of hiding in this pod." Natalie said.

"It might be best to leave them alone right now," Sam said quietly. "They will find you, when they are ready, and it is they who should be talking to you."

Natalie was once again shocked at how Sam was behaving, he sounded like a person. A few times lately, she had been sure he had shown emotions. She decided to ask her mother about this later, she was the expert on all things robotic and on AI's. Her mother had developed quite a few AI intelligence, for different groups over the years, including household AI's like Sam.

Even though she was still a little anxious about them, Natalie listened to Sam's advice, she guiltily realised, she didn't have the courage to face them right now. She was a little angry, knowing that she should be displaying more then just mild irritation, over all this, wasn't helping either.

"Sam?" Natalie asked. "How long will it be, I mean, for my emotions to be mine again?"

"It will take a while Natalie," Sam replied. "You should use this time, capitalise on this, use your clear mind to organise the things you will need. When you have your emotions back, I fear you will be unable to manage much."

"Maybe, by the time I am back to normal, I will be so use to it, nothing will bother me." Natalie said.

Sam didn't respond to this, Natalie wasn't surprised, she didn't believe it either. Even with her emotions repressed, she was running around in circles, she thought about Amanda's response. Well maybe it was a good thing right now, if she had been emotionally aware, she was sure Amanda wasn't showing enough!

Natalie pushed that all aside, right now she needed to focus. First thing, she decided, get Sam monitoring the public domain, if any type of information related to this popped up she wanted it.

"Sam could you please keep your attention on all public domains related to this?" She asked. "Capture and relay it to storage, we can go though it later."

"Understood," Sam replied.

"Also I will need any stored data on farming, the tools and machines necessary for it," she thought hard for a minute. "I enjoyed working with the donkeys, more learning simulations on animal care to please."

Natalie checked the time, it was almost lunchtime, she had wasted a whole morning, that had to stop. She had six months before they announced everything, she had no idea how long after that, before she would be shoved aboard the colony ship.

Also contacting Amanda, she will need to know, so she could prepare herself. That one wasn't going to be easy. But maybe they could manage to stay together, having a friend in a strange place, would be helpful for both of them.

Natalie was about to tell Sam to open Freedom, when she heard the chime that signaled someone was outside her pod.

"It's your father, Natalie." Sam said.

"Start on data collection Sam." She said. "I had better see what he wants."

Natalie opened the pod, her father was standing a little back from it, he looked worn out, she felt a pang of regret for what they were going though.

"Dad?" Natalie said. "What is it?"

"Your mother and I need you downstairs, Little Bee," he told her. "We have company, a CEO of the division responsible for all this, has personally turned up to explain things to us. We thought you should be there for it, since it's about you."

"Sam, go into record mode on my wrist unit," Natalie said. "I want to be able to remember everything he says."

"That's my girl." Her father approved, giving her a quick hug. "We are both recording this as well, now come on, we had better not keep him waiting to much more."

Natalie nodded and followed her father. She couldn't help wondering how they had managed to stir things up so badly, a personal visit was needed.