Rune sat straight in his seat and perked his head up so that he could see above the mostly seated crowd, scanning the entrances to the cafeteria for what seemed to him like the billionth time. Just to be sure, he mentally double checked the time. 7:33. They were supposed to be there three minutes ago. Where the hell were they?

Rune slumped back in his seat, letting out a gusty and annoyed sigh. Meanwhile, Teira smirked at him from across the table.

“You know,” she said, her voice slightly amused, “they’re only three minutes late. That’s not that late. I’m sure you’ve been more than three minutes late to plenty of things.”

Rune grumbled and rolled his eyes before letting out another gusty, exasperated sigh, letting himself relax a little. “Yeah, I know. I’ll chill out.” He paused for a second. “So anyway, I’ve never really gotten to ask anyone, but where exactly are we, in terms of the galaxy? I’ve spent most of the past few days watching history vids, but uh, nothing about geography.” He frowned. “Or, space-ography. Whatever it would be.”

A slight smirk crossed Teira’s before she responded. “It’s cosmography or uranography, depending on who you ask. Most people use cosmography though because it sounds better.” She waved a hand, dismissing the subject, before saying, “regardless of which is more important though, what exactly is it about the local cosmography that you want to know?”

“Uh…” Rune flushed a little red. “Everything?”

Teira quirked an eyebrow at him. “Please tell me you at least know what system we’re in right now.”

Rune gave a quick nod. “Yeah, I think it was Taraxis, uh four?”

Teira was quick with a follow-up question, asking, “And the sector?”

“Uhhhhhh…” Rune could only sit there, growing redder and redder as he was unable to come up with an answer. He sighed, his shoulders slumping in defeat. “I have no idea. Tell me, what sector are we in. And by sector, do you mean the cluster of stars, or what?”

Teira nodded. “Yeah, the cluster of stars, in a sense. It’s kind of like a voting district. Several officials are voted for, but all of them represent the same cluster of systems. It can be a little chaotic at times, but UIS government approval is the highest of all the governments in the galaxy if you would believe what the propaganda is telling us. Our cluster, in particular, is called the Herbert Sector, named after our first magnate.”

"Huh.” Rune paused for a second before speaking, thinking. “So, then, is the magnate like the president or something, and each sector kind of like a state within the United States back when it still existed?”

Teira nodded, thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I mean, in some ways. Yeah, the magnate is the face of the sector.” She stared off into the distance for a second, thinking. “I guess you could liken him to U.S president,” she spoke slowly, “but his powers are a lot more restricted. He’s,” she waved her hands around in the air, “a lot more of a check and balancer, as opposed to an actual political powerhouse. It's not like anything from the 22nd century.” She eyed Rune. “It’d really, really help you to take a politics class. Doesn’t have to be long. Just a couple months. This is information that you need to know.”

Rune chuckled. “Yeah, I feel like I’m stumbling around in the dark, barely ev—”

Rune was cut short when a hand slammed down on his shoulder, and a familiar, cheerful voice rang through the air. “Hey buddy, we were just looking for you! How’s it going? Wanna find a different, more private table to eat at?”

Rune glanced from his plate, up to Jamis and Harvey, the latter of which was fidgeting nervously, back to Teira, who was glaring daggers across the table at the former of the two aforementioned miscreants.

Rune’s mind raced for a half second before, in the hopes that Jamis had merely misinterpreted the situation, he spoke up, attempting to defuse the situation. “Uh, dude, thi—”

He was cut off before he could even get out a sentence by an ice cold voice ringing out from the other side of the table. “Is this your friend?” Rune turned back to Teira, his lips moving as he prepared a response, stopping after he thought better of it, and then finally finishing with a nod. Teira shifted her glare from Rune to Jamis. “Well, your friend’s an asshole.”

With a cocky smirk on his face, Jamis pulled out one of the chairs to the table and sat down in it. “Well, at least I don’t think that I’m better than 99% of the galaxy just because I was born with a couple extra creds in my GC Account.”

Teira just raised her chin. “Oh, don’t worry, I don’t think I’m better than you because I have a couple ‘extra creds’ in my GC account, I think I’m better than you because I’m not a fucking asshole, plain and simple.”

Jamis whistled, his diminutive form needing to reach up to thump Rune on the back. “Earthsoul, man. Where'd you find this one? A highborn that not just doesn’t talk like a trashy 1800s pseudo-nobility reject, but can even fire back in an argument. Earth below, I’m surprised that you can even—”

Rune finally blew up. “Goddammit man, can you fucking not insult each and every person you encounter for once? Like goddamn, man, you barely know her, and all I’ve heard today is highborn evil this, highborn evil that, stay away from the evil highborn, like what the hell? And anyway, how the fuck can you even tell that she’s highborn in the first place?”

Jamis swallowed. “Earthsoul, man, no need to be so touchy. But everybody knows that highborns are a bunch of pricks, especially to us steel-slinkers. Highborns and steel-slinkers just don’t mesh. The lot of them can’t appreciate that it takes somebody to run society while they’re off making trillions of GC cause they have the money to put into the super expensive projects needed to make money. It’s a caste system, without an official caste.” A scoff came from the opposite side of the table.

Jamis spread his arms wide, his face full of faux disbelief and astonishment. “What, you think I’m wrong? How so? Is it the budget skin—”

Rune growled out a word, yet again cutting Jamis off. “Seriously? Dude, stop being such a jackass. Go get some food, take a chill pill, and then come back. Teira’s cool, I’ve been hanging out with her all day, and I’m not gonna stop just because she's a highborn and highborns are supposed to be stuck up jackasses, okay? So go get some food, chill out, and when you think you can come back without starting another screaming match, come back.” Turning to Harvey who was still awkwardly standing about, Rune swung his head to indicate Jamis. “You should probably go with him too.” Harvey quickly nodded.

Jamis frowned at Rune, looking like he’d been forced to swallow something sour. After a couple seconds, he shrugged and stood up from the table. “Alright, I guess I can go get something to eat. I’m hungry. See you soon, then.” He shot Rune a tight smile as he left the table and headed for the diners, beckoning Harvey to follow him.

After watching Jamis and Harvey walk away for a couple seconds Rune turned back to Teira with an apologetic look on his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get out a word Teira spoke. “Your friend is an asshole. Jamis, you said?”

Rune nodded. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’m not really sure what’s up with him. Why does everybody seem to hate highborns?”

Teira looked away across the room and then sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat. “I dunno, I guess that your friend Jamis wasn’t all that wrong when he said that steel-slinkers and highborns don’t mesh all that well. He’s not wrong. We don’t.” She snorted bitterly. “Hard not to be jealous when someone has more funds in their GC account at eighteen than you’ll ever see in your entire life.”

Rune frowned, thinking, and then shrugged after a couple seconds. “I guess I can see why. I don’t know. My parents were always on about working hard, getting a good education, and getting our asses out of the slums. It was on me and siblings to get out. My parents were pretty well to do before the Great Flood, and they never really had any sort of grudge against rich people. They always seemed to be expecting that things would eventually change for the better, that the when the job market finally rebuilt itself their fortunes would change. Who knows? Maybe it did.” Rune sighed, leaning back into his seat with a wistful and melancholy expression on his face.

Teira, temporarily forgetting her grievance with Jamis, asked, “Wait a minute, have you not researched what happened to your family?”

Rune slowly shook his head. “No, I haven’t, I guess, you know, I don’t know. I’ve put it off till now. It’s a little weird thinking about it, you know? This is supposed to be a video game. That’s what I signed up for with the VC program. How do I know that you’re totally real? I played in the VR arcades, and top line of the tech was only years off creating VR games just as realistic as this. I mean I feel like if I search it up and…” Trailed off and swallowed.

Teira gave him a sympathetic look. “If they’re all dead and there’s a long, accurate history of what happened to them you’ll know for more or less sure that it’s real and they’re all dead and long gone?”

Rune sighed and slowly nodded. “Yeah. I mean,” Rune let out another long sigh, “yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

Teira just shrugged. “Well, I’m pretty sure I’m real, so you might as well just hurry up and get it over with.”

Rune gave her an incredulous look. Teira waved her hand dismissively. “Besides, they’re not necessarily all dead. It’s not outside of the realm of possibility that some of them are still alive. Immortality Serum was first released for public distribution in the 23rd century, with initial testing starting halfway through the century. It’s well within the realm of possibility that one of your siblings or your parents even did make it to a decently wealthy state and bought some. If they made it especially wealthy, shit, they could be a king of the MET or a station master somewhere in the UIS. They’d probably have bought your brain and reintegrated you themselves if they cared, but hey. You can dream, right?” She gave him a winsome smile as if she’d said something that should cheer him up.

Rune’s mind, in turn, was racing. Could his family still be alive? It was kind of mind-boggling to Rune to think that it was even possible for someone to be alive for a full four-hundred years. But still, no matter how slim the possibility, it was possible that his family was still alive. That was insane. Rune was struck by a sudden urge to go and try and find out whether his family was still alive or not, or what descendants they had left behind.

“Huh,” Rune said, thoughts running through his head, “I guess I’ll just check later tonight. I never even considered that.”

Teira shrugged. “Most government reintegrated synths don’t. Many do actually have relatives around, they just never realize it. After you leave the academy, you should find yours.”

Rune nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

The conversation lapsed into silence for a second, before Teira’s eyes flickered up over Rune’s shoulder to land on something, her face hardening.

Rune glanced over his shoulder to spot Jamis and Harvey walking towards the table, each with a tray of food in their hands. Rune gave Jamis a wary smile as he approached the table and parked in the seat next to Rune, with Harvey unexpectedly circling around the table to take a spot next to Teira. Teira seemed surprised, giving Harvey a look of mixed distrust and relief, who in turn gave her a shy smile before turning to his meal. Jamis also started digging into his meal, not making any more noise than the smacking of lips as he shoveled food into his mouth.

Teira stared at Jamis for a couple seconds before shrugged and going back to her meal, picking at the last remnants of her steak as the other two ate. Rune sat there in the awkward silence for all of fifteen seconds before he’d had enough. He’d dealt with his younger siblings plenty of times when they were acting like this, and he knew that the number one way to get them back in each other’s good graces was to get them talking.

Deciding to start off with what was more or less a mundane question, Rune turn to Jamis and asked, “So anyways, Jamis, how was your day? What’d you do?”

Jamis shrugged, keeping his eyes on his meal. He stuck a noodle in his mouth before letting loose a not-so-subtle jab. “My day was good up till now.” He let that hang in the air a couple seconds before continuing. “But as for earlier today, we went over to Tetris Town and hung out in the VR arcade and played some Swords and Spacecraft. Was fun. It turns out that Harvey here is better than just Attunement, but almost a pro Swords and Spacecraft player.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Rune looked to Harvey with an eyebrow quirked. “A pro gamer?” He said the words almost wistfully, a faraway look in his eyes.

Meanwhile, however, Teira was looking with much more interest at Harvey. “What level have you managed to get to?”

Harvey flushed for a second, hesitating before responding. “Just eighty-four.”

One of Teira’s eyebrows went up and she nodded approvingly. “Not bad, eighty-four. I’ve reached a max of seventy-six. Eighty-four is really good. Huh. I might have been able to get there if I had another year to keep grinding but, eighty-four is impressive.”

Harvey’s face was glowing red by now, and he was opening his mouth to make a response when a scoff from across the table cut him off. “Yeah, and how much did you have to pay for that account, huh?” Was Jamis’ caustic reply to Teira’s comment.

Everyone, Harvey included, gave Jamis a scalding look, and Rune himself gave him a sharp elbow in the ribs.

Jamis jumped in his seat. “Ouch man, what the hell was that for?” Jamis gave Rune an indignant look.

“I told you to cool it,” Rune growled. “Cool it, man.”

“No,” Teira said from across the table, “if he wants to pick a fight with me, then a fight he’ll have. I did not buy that account. I played for it all the way. The only thing I bought was gear, and gear doesn’t even really matter in the grand scheme of things.”

“Pffft.” Jamis waved his hand. “Buying gear is still a huge advantage. Don’t give me the I’m not pri—”

Harvey, who had been shaking his head, finally interjected. “C’mon man, we all know it’s true. Gear doesn’t really matter that much. There’s no real way to game the system with money in Swords and Starships. Past level fifty or so, it takes real skill to keep going. You’re only level sixty-two, so you might not realize just how hard it can get once you start pushing past the seventies skill cap, but if you’re going to get to seventy-six, you’re not going to do it with money.”

Jamis scowled at Harvey and threw his hands up in the air. “Alright!” He said, exasperation and defeat in his voice. “Fine. I’ll shut up. Whatever. If you two pros want to talk high-level Swords and Starship gameplay, go ahead and leave little old me out. Whatever.”

Teira rolled her eyes and him, and Harvey let out a relieved sigh before turning to Teira. “So anyway, what class you specced into?”

Teira smirked. “Starhunter Pod all the way.”

Harvey’s eyebrows climbed for the sky. “Wow,” he said, drawing the word out, “that’s really impressive. Stones. You don’t see a lot of those around, let alone at level seventy-six.”

Teira smiled at the compliment before speaking. “Eighty-four isn’t so bad yourself. What do you play?”

Harvey smirked, before responding in a tone oozing smug satisfaction. “Xenoscourge necro, of course.”

Teira’s eyes opened wide. “Holy crap! A controller class at eighty-four? That’s monstrous! How long have you been above eighty?”

For a while longer the two chatted away, happy to engage in discourse with a fellow gaming nerd. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the conversation was flying over Rune’s head. After five or so minutes they tried to explain it to him, but he knew that he’d never understand until he had the opportunity to actually try the game for himself and hardly understood what they were saying aside from vast, open-world, RPG, and customizable. The duo chatted for yet another twenty to thirty minutes, with Rune nodding along politely whenever needed, and Jamis pouting next to him trying to feign annoyance and disinterest. Eventually, the discussion concluded with the duo promising to meet up and play together sometime in game before they moved on to real life topics.

“So anyway,” Teira asked the table at large, giving each of them a glance in turn, “what are you all planning to go into?”

Harvey was the first to speak. “Definitely Attunement,” he said with a voice full of confidence. “My dad served as an MHP-HAI. Fought in the skirmishes with the ESA for nearly two decades, did border patrols for another five, and then did a stint as a shimmer diver for a few years before retiring as a tuner here in Terrassis. He was the division tuner while he worked for the army, so he knew the tricks of the trade and passed them on to me. He was always kinda hoping that I’d go for combat but…” Harvey sighed and looked a little sad. “I guess I’m just not really cut out for it, you know?”

Teira just shrugged. “Yeah, you aren’t exactly in shape my friend. But hey, to each their own. If you can get eighty-four on a controller class, you’ve got a future in attunement.” She raised her glass and downed it. Harvey went beet red and Jamis looked like he was about to blow up, but Rune nudged him and shook his head. Jamis gave him an incredulous look, but ultimately sighed and kept his complaints to himself.

The whole exchange hadn’t exactly evaded Teira’s notice, however, and she quickly focussed in on Jamis, turn to him and fixing him with her sharp gaze. “So, Jamis,” she said, her voice oozing faux politeness, “what do you think you’re going to go into? Let me guess… combat?”

“Yeah,” Jamis said, his voice confrontational, “you got a problem with that?”

“No,” Teira said, leisurely stretching, her voice oozing calm and confidence, “no problem at all. In fact, my brother is an MCF-RI.”

For a second, the table was silent, Teira coyly blinking across the table at Jamis. After a couple seconds, he managed to find his tongue. “Regular infantry? What, is he the pariah of the family or something?”

“No,” Teira drawled out, flicking a piece of uneaten steak still on her plate, “my family is a military family. Each of my other two siblings has gone to a public academy. I’m the last, the only integrator of three children. I’m going into the military myself once I graduate.”

Jamis opened his mouth as if to make a response, before slowly closing it, and then opening it again, only to say nothing.

Teira smirked. “You know, somebody with a lot of money has to make those ads about civic duty, joining the military, and reclaiming the lost worlds, and it isn’t all the UIS, you know.”

Jamis just sat there for a couple seconds, flabbergasted, before finally crossing his arms. “Alright. I’ll admit, I may have been a little too quick to judge. Maybe not all highborns are the same.” He rolled his eyes before holding out his hand. “Peace?”

A wide grin of victory on her face, Teira reached out across the table, taking Jamis’ hand and shaking it. “Peace.” She leaned back into her seat before continuing. “But, for the cost of peace, you’ll have to put up with my caustic dialogue.”

Jamis just shrugged, the familiar smug smile coming back to grace his face. “Eh. It’ll take more than a couple sharp jabs to keep up with wits and dashingly good looks, young lady.” He drew out the last two words, saying them sarcastically, but this time in a less hostile manner.

Teira just rolled her eyes and turned to Rune. “I assumed that from the fact that you were testing in it that you were going into Harmonics, but just to confirm, that’s your plan, right Rune?”

Jamis snorted. “Of course Rune is going into Harmonics. He’d have to be an absolute idiot to go into anything else.”

Teira gave him a weird look. “I mean, not like I look down on combat or anything, but combat is a lot more dangerous and doesn’t even pay as well. But still, there are people who choose to go into Combat over other more consistently lucrative disciplines simply because Combat is their preference. And besides, if he really wanted to he could take remedial courses and go into Attunement or tech. I don’t see why he couldn’t pick something else.”

Jamis just glanced between Rune and Teira a few times, a smile slowly spreading across his face. “He hasn’t told you?”

Teira arched an eyebrow, deliberately staring down Jamis before glancing at Rune and then finally reverting her gaze back to Jamis. “Hasn’t told me… what?”

Jamis nodded to and waved to Rune as if to give him the honors. “You do it, man.”

Rune glanced from Jamis to Teira. “I’m not really sure why everybody seems to think this is such a big deal. Yeah, I can pilot a bigger starship. So what?” He sighed, while Teira waved her hand in a circle, prodding him to go on. “I have four naturally occurring neural linkages.”

Teira cocked her head as if she was sure she had heard wrong, whereas Harvey slammed the table before shouting, “you have four? Why the fuck didn’t you guys tell me?” He glanced between Rune and Jamis, the latter of which was choking back his laughter, and the former of which was trying to shrug it off.

“I mean, yeah, I have a very low chance at piloting a massive starship that can destroy a sun, whoopdeedoo. Can’t they just a build a machine that does the job without a human?”

“No, no, no,” Harvey said, “that’s not the point, and even if they can, it is so much more expensive to maintain for a long time. But star destroyers aside, multiple integrators are so much better in combat and get so much more pay.” Rune opened his mouth to talk, but in a surprising show of assertiveness, Harvey continued speaking, cutting him off before he could get a word out. “Really, if I remember right the average quadruple integrator earns approximately a thousand times what a single integrator earns. So not just do you have the potential to bring down entire systems, you also have the potential to earn shittons of money.”

“And besides,” Teira interjected, “People will hire you just for the potential you have. Even if you suck at integration and have no real talents, the government, a mega-corporation, or somebody will snap you up just so that others can’t have you. Lucky thing you were born in the UIS cause in the MET or CSC you would’ve been obligated to serve the government for your entire life.”

Rune frowned and shrugged. “I guess it is pretty important, then. Huh. Just doesn’t seem like it would be that important, you know? I can control four drones at once… so what? I figured technology would have advanced beyond that at this point.”

Teira laughed. “Well no matter what you think, you should definitely go into integration if you’ve got four neural linkages. You’re be throwing away your potential if you didn’t.” Jamis and Harvey were both nodding along with her.

Rune put his hands up in a placating manner. “Alright, alright. I’ll go into Harmonics. It’s just—you know, I was kind of hoping to pick up other courses too. Maybe a self-defense course in Combat, and some remedial courses in tech and Attunement.”

Everyone else at the table was staring at him like he was an idiot.

“You dolt,” Teira said, “as long as you score high enough, you can take whatever courses you want. The TEF offers five years of courses, and as long as you’ve taken the prerequisite courses or can test into later courses, you can literally take whatever course you want whenever. There’s no set path. You just learn whatever you sign up for.”

Rune raised an eyebrow. “Really? Back in the 22nd century, schools and colleges were still highly regimented. You know, you must take these four courses a year, and those four courses the next. Is that gone?”

Jamis was the first to respond. “Man… education hasn’t been like that for ages. Practically since humanity expanded to the stars. Trades these days take years to learn, and most of what you’ll learn is very nuanced. Tuners take decades to perfect their craft, and techies often take nearly a decade just to learn enough to build basic things. Combat and Harmonics are similarly big commitments. If they did regiment things like that, it would just hold back those with more skill and stop more dedicated people from exploring their fields.”

Teira gave Jamis a nod of acknowledgment. “Well put.”

“Wait a minute,” Rune said, a look of mixed worry and confusion on his face, “then when do we choose our classes?”

Teira responded first. “That’s tomorrow. We’ve got the entire day to pick out our classes. Here, let’s all just meet up tomorrow at noon for lunch, and I can walk you through the process. Typically they have a series of instructional assemblies through the day, so if you want to go to one of those you can, or you can just rely on my stellar advice.” She flashed a winsome smile at him.

Rune smiled and nodded. “Awesome, yeah, that would be a big help.”

“No problem,” Teira said.

From there, the conversation lapsed back into more mundane things. Jamis, who was clearly interested in both Teira’s family and Harvey’s father, asked for further details. This sparked off a long series of war stories, which captured both Rune’s and Jamis’ attention for next hour or so. Harvey and Teira each kept telling more impressive and grand stories, moving from stories they’d heard from their relatives to mere hearsay, while occasionally discussing some more technical aspects of the stories. Time flew by. 8:00 passed, then 8:30, then finally 9:00 when a message from Paine misted through Rune’s brain.

The Terrassis Educational Facility has sent you a document. No encryptions or potential for viruses or malware detected. Would you like to open the document, or save it for a later date?

Teira, who had been talking about some daring raid on a pirate lair, stopped mid-sentence with a faraway look in her eyes. “Scores are back,” she said, excitement in her voice, “I’m going to check mine.”

Rune had already opened his, and the information sank slowly into his understanding.

Technology test score: 5 Course Levels Available: Remedial

Combat test score: 41 Course Levels Available: First Level

Attunement test score: 3 Course Levels Available: Remedial

Harmonics test score: 32 Course Levels Available: First Level

Rune wasn’t totally sure what to make of the scores, but they seemed decent enough to him. Teira had said something about 20 being the cutoff, and he’d passed that level for both Harmonics and Combat, which meant he could go into one or the other. Rune looked up from where he was sitting to spot all three of the other kids at the table sporting smiles on their faces.

Teira was the first to speak. “I can guess from your faces that you all managed to make it into the courses you wanted to make it into.”

Jamis was the first to respond. “Yup, a thirty-nine in combat which is pretty much everything I wanted.”

Harvey was nodding too. “A forty-five in Attunement. Not to mention a flat twenty in combat. Wasn’t hoping for anything else.”

Rune slowly spoke. “I guess I got a thirty-two in Harmonics and a forty-one on Combat.”

Teira slowly glanced around the table, an impish smile on her face. “I scored a sixty-three on Harmonics.”

Jamis whistled. “Stones. That’s insane. A sixty-three? Wasn’t the high score a sixty-something? How close were you? Did you beat it?”

Teira shook her head. “No, but I did tie it.”

The table was silent for a couple seconds. “Earth below,” Harvey said, “and I thought my score was good.”

Rune cleared his throat. “Well, I guess we all got into our respective fields.” He glanced across the table at Teira. “Tomorrow, then, at noon?”

Teira nodded. “Yup, see you then. Afterward, if you two want to meet up with us, we can all head over to Tetris Town or something.”

Jamis nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Alright!” Teira said a genuinely happy smile on her face. She pushed back her chair and stood up. “Well, I need to go and message my family and do some other stuff. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

She was soon followed by Harvey, citing similar excuses, leaving Jamis and Rune alone together at the table. Collectively they decided to head back to their rooms together, whereupon they split ways and went into each of their separate rooms.