I spent the whole trip up to Threshold working. Juana was heads down, planning, and Grandpa refused to respond to anything I said, so I pulled up the information the system had given us on the 87 different interconnected levels that made up this phase of the reality engine exploit and started looking. It was hard to picture because, like everything else in the reality engine, the level design didn't have to make sense in the physical world. The tunnels leading between instances were massive, but not nearly massive enough to go back and forth between dozens of different scenarios. They made use of portals to shift between realms.

The kobolds weren't the only minions the reality engine was employing. There were several other different types, and they were standing in for whatever the particular boss scenario required. At any given time, a boss could call for backup, and a dozen robed kobolds would spring into action, running up a set of steps that would, no matter where they started, take them right where they needed to be, deposit them in a boss chamber, and feed them into the meat grinder. They would be killed, and their soul coins allocated to the winners.

I wanted to believe that the NPCs really weren't people. I'd been slaughtering them by the hundreds since I got here over a year ago. I knew the reality engine could be puppeting them to act like people, but as I studied the mechanics underlying this phase, I was starting to feel more and more sorry for the NPCs. Not nearly as sorry as I felt for me and my fellow humans, of course.

I took notes on various fights, especially in the later bosses, thinking of clever ways to disrupt an enemy team's attempt. I sent Kirin a couple of notes on early boss fights I thought we might want to send a team into to get their feet wet. She replied she'd pass them along to Arjun, and come up with a clever plan. Then I dove back in.

As we neared the hub, I couldn't take my studies anymore, so I closed away my files and stared out the window at Jupiter hanging ruddy beneath us. Juana looked up. Grandpa had his head down to his chest and his eyes closed. He was snoring softly.

"What are you thinking about, Shad?" she asked.

"The missing time," I said. It had been bugging me ever since we got back. We were gone for 72 hours, but we didn't get back for almost 80. "Where'd the missing time go?"

Juana frowned. "Hadn't really thought about that."

"Well, I have," I gestured around us at the pod. "How come we have to take a space elevator up to the hub every time we want to talk to Veda or get ourselves checked out by the doctors?"

"I don't understand."

"How come we can't just step through a portal and be there?" I demanded. "The reality engine moves people around instantly."

She blinked at me. "I suppose because the hub is galactic technology and not part of the reality engine?"

I nodded grimly. "Yeah, because it's really there, and most of what takes place inside the reality engine is hallucinated. I still don't know if we even have bodies when we're inside those levels."

Juana shuddered. "You mean like we're just inside the Matrix, and we think that things are happening to us, but really our bodies are being kept in pods somewhere?"

"Could be. I don't know how I'd prove otherwise."

"What did you mean about the missing time, though?"

"I think that's how long it actually took us to get to Earth," I said. "I think the aliens just made us forget or kept us unconscious or something."

"Why would they do that? Why not just tell us? Put us on ships? Whatever?"

I shrugged. "Maybe they're hiding the fact that they're not all-powerful. Maybe they don't want us getting a look at their technology." I hesitated. "Or maybe it never really happened."

Juana's eyes went wide. She looked around as though searching for an escape. "No, we were there."

"Can you prove it?" I asked. "If we'd just been in another level of the reality engine, would you even know?"

"I think so," Juana said. "The people, they were real. I met people I knew, like, like my ex." She blushed. "He was real. He was an asshole, but he was real."

"I don't know. I feel like the aliens probably could have studied us well enough to know who was waiting for us and mock it up."

"But why would they?”

“Why did they do any of it?" I asked, feeling irritable. "Some sort of psy-ops game because we're doing better than they want and they're trying to throw us off? Or because they enjoy watching us squirm? For all I know, they're taking video feeds of this and shooting it back to their own home worlds. Maybe this is the alien equivalent of a telenovela."

Juana looked amused. "There's not nearly enough identical triplets and coma babies, if that's the case," she said. "But, Shad, aren't you constructing an overly complicated theory when the simplest explanation is just that they sent us home and somehow lost track of time?"

"Maybe," I said. I decided not to push any farther, especially since I wasn't sure what I was trying to gain with this conversation. I liked Juana. Really liked her. I didn't want to upset her needlessly. Not when she was one of the few steady people in my life helping keep me on an even keel. She hadn't even given me crap about choosing the Tunnel Rats, not once she calmed down from the initial shock, and she hadn't pushed me for an explanation. I valued that.

I wasn't sure myself that I'd made the right choice, but I did know now that we were on this course, we needed to stick with it, and that meant keeping the reality engine's secrets.

Juana looked up. "Since it's been more than a week, I've gone ahead and scheduled our checkups for after we speak with Veda. I'll make sure that Sage gets hers sometime soon. That way we can put off another trip up to Threshold, the hub, for as long as possible."

"Alright," I agreed. "You wanna see about getting dinner together afterward?"

She winked at me. “I’d love that.” She glanced over at Grandpa. "Can we ditch the third wheel?"

"Oh, definitely."

Veda sent word that she would meet us in a privately rented room off of the hub's busy main gallery. Usually, she just teleconferenced into whatever suite she had arranged for us, but this time we stepped into what looked like an old-fashioned study. Tall wooden bookshelves full of leather-bound tomes lined the walls. There was a desk in the corner with an abandoned pipe lying on it, a tall wing-back chair, and a fire crackling merrily. Veda sat stiffly on a low couch. She had a glass half full of an amber fluid in her hand. As we entered, she rose.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"What the void have you done, Shad Williams?” she demanded.

Juana and Grandpa slipped inside after me. The door closed behind us.

"We haven't spoken to you in over a week, and that's how you start off?" I asked. "Last I saw you, you were going off somewhere with the traitor Waters and someone you said was your mother. I've heard two lines from you since then. Meanwhile, we've been left to do the best we could."

“This was the best you could?" Veda demanded. "Picking some obvious disaster faction that takes us from having a good shot at walking away with a fortune to no chance at all? I understand why you might have been tempted. It's a good chance to screw everyone else involved, but Shad, there's more than just revenge here. I've put a lot on the line for you and your people—”

“And we've made you rich!" I shouted. I could feel all the anger and frustration of the last week boiling up in me, and Veda made such an inviting target. Grandpa wasn't even saying anything. Juana had crossed to the wingback chair and sat down, looking at us with that inscrutable expression she had when she was thinking deeply. "You could have at least let us know what was going on."

"I was busy," she snapped back, trying to get things in order before someone else could take advantage.

"And so you treated us like mushrooms?"

She looked confused, frowning. "Mushrooms?"

"Kept us in the dark and fed us shit," I said.

Veda's brow wrinkled. "I... oh, I see. Earth allusion. Yes, well..." She took a deep breath. There were little pale white spots on her cheeks, high up. "Fine. You want to explain to me why you picked the Tunnel Rat faction?"

"No. You want to tell me why you haven’t been returning our calls?”

"I was going to explain," Veda began.

“When exactly? You could have sent us a message at any time."

"There were things I wanted to get taken care of, and I didn't dare talk about them beforehand because you never know who's listening."

"Exactly," I said, pointing at the ceiling. "Which is why I'm not going to explain my motivations either."

Veda looked from me to Juana and Grandpa. "Do either of you know what's going through his head?"

Grandpa shrugged. "Probably a little more than usually does, but details? No."

Juana shook her head. "He hasn't been very forthcoming."

"And you, Juana, you're usually more level-headed than this," Veda said. "You didn't try to talk some sense into him?"

Juana hesitated for a minute. I thought she might reveal how I had picked the faction without consulting with anyone. But she shook her head firmly. "I trust Shad more than I trust you."

Veda looked like she'd been struck. "We've been working together for over a year now. I haven't lied to you. I've stuck my neck out for you, for all of you.” Her voice rose. "You have no idea what I've been risking to help you people."

"And we have no idea what we've been gaining on your behalf," Grandpa said. "You didn't come here with altruistic motives. You came here to take advantage of a bunch of rubes. Maybe you have better intentions than most of the others. Some of the folk who came trading with my ancestors treated them better than other folk. They made honest swaps, traded rifles and firewater for buffalo pelts rather than just taking what they wanted. Some of those mountain men married Indian squaws instead of just raping them and leaving them to deal with the consequences. Doesn't mean that my folk got a square end of the deal."

Veda blinked. "I... I don't know what you're trying to say."

"What we're trying to say, Veda, is that from down here among us worms, all you galactics look pretty much the same. It's about what you can screw out of us and what happens when we're not useful anymore. Well now we see. We made a decision you don't like and got uppity, so you're here to get us back in line."

Veda shook her head. "That's not it at all. You have no idea. Colonel Ames and I have spent the last week setting up a holding company. I'm trying to transfer your contracts over. There's complications, but I've been working round the clock to keep Proxima from getting their hands on you."

Nobody said anything for a minute. If what Veda said was true, maybe she was on our side.

"Out of the goodness of your heart?" I asked finally.

"You and your team have already done everything that I ever hoped for," Veda said quietly. "We kept my family license alive, something my father valued. We provided for my family. I wanted to see if I could help yours just a little bit, but it's complicated. There's galactic politics involved. You're right. Most people here don't want to see you prosper. I've been trying to do my best, and then you throw in a twist like you just did." She shook her head. "What's the good outcome here, Shad? How do we live with the results after you've burned everything down?"

"Who cares?" I said, but it sounded hollow in my ears. "If we can kick all of you back where you came from, it'll be worth it."

"You think this is going to be more than a tiny setback to Proxima and Alabaster Sky and the rest of them?" Veda challenged me. "They're already making plans to move on to the next reality engine to exploit. It probably won't be as much of a pain in the ass as yours. You know who is going to be left with the smoking ruins? You. You and all your people. Do you understand the forces that they can bring to bear against you?"

"No," I said. "No, I don't. You people have technology that seems like magic to me, and even to you, the reality engine is something to be feared and exploited. That makes it pretty powerful. Yeah, you could probably blow up our moon or turn all of our planets into grey goo or... I don't even know. Whatever threat you make, I'll believe it, but what's the alternative? We just let you sit here and take it?"

Veda took a deep breath. "I just want to know how we salvage this. How do we all get what we need?"

"What is it you need?" Grandpa asked. "I thought we'd already paid back your investments."

"Yes, well, you've got to finish buying out your contracts. I spent as much of the profit as I could buying out other members of Misfits Guild, so I hold something like 800 million soul coins worth of unredeemed contracts compared to even a tenth of one percent of a share of the reality engine. That's not much. I was betting on you guys winning at least that. Now, I don't know."

"We have a plan to make money," Juana said. "The only way we win under this rule set is by making it too expensive for everyone else to fight. Along the way, there should be some good economic opportunities for our crafters."

"That makes sense," Veda said. She wrapped her arms around her torso and rocked gently back and forth. "But you can't make money on killing them since you're sworn to this faction."

"Kickbacks," Juana said brightly.

Veda cocked her head. "What's that?"

"Kickbacks? Surely a galactic civilization as corrupt as yours knows what those are. We find unaffiliated squads, people like Mak’Gar, if they don't have anything going on right now, and we hire them as privateers. They attack our enemies and get part of the gold cost, part of the soul coins it costs them for each death. But in exchange for hiring them, they give us, say, 15% of their take."

Veda pursed her lips. "That might work."

"That's just one of my ideas," Juana said cheerfully. "We'll see what else I can come up with. I was feeling a little frustrated when I first read the rule set, too,” she admitted. "But the more I look at it, the more I think we can exploit this."

Veda nodded. "I'd like to see those." She stood up. "I'm sorry. I'm a little emotional right now. I'd like some time to calm down, and then maybe we can have a better discussion about all this."

"I'll take you to dinner tonight," Grandpa said, speaking up unexpectedly. I turned to stare at him.

"Huh?"

"We'll sit down and talk without the hothead here." Grandpa hooked a thumb at me. "I'll pick you up after my appointment with the docs, shall I? I'm sure you know a good place to go."

"Uh, sure," Veda said.

"Besides, the young’uns have plans without me." Grandpa gave me and Juana a wink.

"I thought you were snoring a little too loudly," I said. "What was that all about?"

"I just didn't feel like talking," Grandpa said. "Right now, what else?"

“Colonel Ames needs to meet you and Juana at a lawyer's office to turn over ownership in the holding company," she said.

"Where?" I asked.

"Not you, Shad."

"Oh," I felt a little hurt. "Wait, so Ames's working with you?"

"He is. We'll talk later," Veda told Grandpa. "Meanwhile, I'm sorry for losing my temper at you." She looked at me.

I was pretty sure I was supposed to apologize here, too, but honestly, I wasn't sorry. Veda had been playing her hand close to her chest, and whether or not she had good reasons for it, I didn't care. It was our lives she was playing with. We were the ones whose home had been invaded, who had been abducted and forced into a situation we didn't want. If we cost Veda a little more of her profit margin than she'd been expecting, well, that was her problem, not mine.

“See you,” I said.

She gave me a tight nod and left the room.