Rune frowned and spoke loud above the hubbub as he looked out across the familiar crowd from his spot at a small table where he and his three friends sat, each sipping a drink. The shop itself was actually just down the street from the hotel, apparently one of the many buildings in the services section of Tetris town.

“Yeah, I’ve been here,” Rune began, “but I didn’t know it was called Tetris town. How did it get that nickname? Isn’t Tetris some lame twentieth-century video game about like,” Rune paused to think for a moment, “blocks? Or rectangles? Something like that.”

Teira’s laugh rang through the air. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what Tetris is. The town is only made of squares and rectangles, and that’s how it got its name. Nobody really would know anything about a game like that except for stone heads. Which would be the reason, obviously, why this town is named after some archaic game from whenever.”

“Hey,” Jamis interjected, “Just because we respect our roots doesn’t mean we’re a bunch of psychos. We’re not reversionists.”

Teira rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t mean you’re not a bunch of backward, obsessive miners, though.”

“Oh you’re one to talk, miss stick-up-your-ass I’m better than everyone else highborn,” Jamis angrily retorted.

Teira chuckled at him. “Can’t take a joke, now can you? Good at dishing out, but not so good at taking, huh?” She smirked at Jamis, who went a little red before frowning and crossing his arms.

Rune, however, for once, wasn’t paying any attention to their little spat, instead of looking out at the crowd with a confused face. “What is that?” He asked, pointing confusedly at a very strange looking creature, almost like someone had mixed a slime, Lovecraftian nightmare, and spider to create some horrendous creature, and then somehow civilized it and gave it human tech.

To start, the creature had way too many limbs, more than Rune could count. Its lanky, skinny, carapaced limbs extended in a black curtain three or four feet down from a bulbous body with a total of six thick, powerful looking four jointed arms extending out from the main body, three of which sported large claw-like protrusions. In between each of the arms, there were a series of five cylindrical spurs that were topped with strange, clear, interconnected caps that ultimately connected to some sort of massive belt contraption which went around the entire beast. On the top of the creature was a series of sacs which continually inflated and deflated, flaring purple at their maximum size and dying back down to black when they finally contracted.

Rune couldn’t find a mouth, nose, or eyes. Whatever this creature was, it was nothing like Rune had ever seen in his life. Either it was some sort of sick mad scientist’s lab experiment, or it was an alien of some sort.

Stuttering in awe, Rune spoke while pointing at the creature. “Is—is that an alien?”

His three friends broke out laughing. Jamis was the first to catch a breath to speak. “You sound like a kid after his first gram of paradise.”

At this line, Teira doubled over. “Oh my god, you are so right.” She kept laughing.

Rune’s face slowly went redder. “What, so is it an alien, or not? What the hell guys?”

After a minute his friends finally managed to stop laughing, and Jamis was finally able to explain to Rune. “Yes, that one was an alien. A Terrulian. There aren’t a lot of aliens, though, and most of them are nowhere near as technologically advanced as mankind. Only three races have been deemed advanced enough to be integrated into society, the rest we’ve just left alone on their planets to keep growing.” He frowned then. “Well, at least, for the most part, we have.”

Rune quirked an eyebrow at that, about to ask more, but Teira interjected with her own two cents. “I’d be careful, though, Rune. You don’t just want to go around calling anyone and everyone that doesn’t look totally human an alien. There are a lot of cyborgs, bi-augs, synths, and even some spliced around. And for many people, getting called an alien is pretty offensive. So unless it looks definitely not human, I’d assume it’s one of the other groups.”

Rune frowned and nodded, looking back out across the crowd. “Alright, sounds fair enough. Don’t go around assuming that people are aliens because that can be offensive. Still, though, there are aliens? How the hell did that happen? Where did they come from? Don’t any of them have starships or anything?”

Teira outright laughed at his questions. “Well, I mean, there aren’t aliens like you know aliens, nothing like what you might find in any of the many sci-fi flicks of the past several centuries. Aliens simply haven’t developed that far. We know because of colonization. With our current tech, we’re looking at two thousand or maybe even one thousand years before the entire galaxy is colonized. It’s an exponential process. Every system colonized in turn colonizes more systems, and they’re all interconnected. After a few hundred years a single system may send new seed ships to ten, twelve, hell, even sometimes up to twenty systems depending upon how many resources a given system has. If there are any aliens out there in our galaxy, they’re either technologically at approximately the same stage as us or significantly less advanced.

“All the races discovered so far have been the latter. Honestly, there’s a large percentage of the population that doesn’t think they should’ve been assimilated at all. Calling them technologically less advanced is kind of like saying that a sea cucumber has fewer arms than a human. Only the Fasteans have any sort of technology, and by technology, I mean crude tools. It’s hard to tell how long, exactly, but it could’ve been millions of years before they got anywhere near as technologically advanced as us if they even got more intelligent.”

Rune frowned at that. “Are they a lot dumber than humans then?”

At this, Harvey spoke up. “Yeah, I would prolly say that most aliens aren’t that smart. If I remember correctly from classes I’m pretty sure that even after extensive biological augmentation the most intelligent aliens only had about 90 IQ. Pretty dumb, for a genius, you know?”

Rune frowned again because he didn’t really know a lot about IQ. “I actually don’t really know. Is 90 a low IQ? I don’t really know how the scale works.”

At that, Jamis chuckled. “Well, you probably should know. If you go in for a job evaluation, they’ll test your IQ and a whole bunch of other random shit. But yeah, as for your question, 90 is pretty damn low, especially for nowadays. Most people genetically edit their kids in an attempt to make them smarter, and the average nowadays is supposed to be about 120.”

Teira smirked at him. “Well, your parents obviously chose not to give you that boost.”

Jamis just snorted and waved her off. “Oh, can it, miss I’m way richer than anyone else. I’ll bet your parents gave you the whole package, with all the newest and freshest IQ enhancements and physique upgrades. And even with all that, I’m still better looking and smarter than you.”

Teira smiled, this time slightly wider. “Touche,” she responded.

“So anyway,” Rune interjected before they could get back to dissing each other, “That guy right there, who looks like a pro bodybuilder who sprouted an extra two arms. What’s his deal? Is he a mutant?” It was a big, four-armed humanoid, similar to the man that had bumped into Rune and knocked him out of the way on his first day.

Teira quickly responded. “Mutant he may be, but the more correct term would be biologically augmented, or as everyone ever calls them, bi-augs.” She snickered. “There are a bunch of bi-aug groups around town, but those guys are by far one of the biggest. They call themselves the Fourmidables.”

Rune raised an eyebrow, the question obvious on his face.

“Like, as in, four-midables,” this time Teira enunciated each of the two halves of the word.

One of Rune’s eyebrows went up as a smirk crept its way onto his face before he facepalmed himself. “Oh my god,” he chuckled, half in pain and half in amusement. “That has got to be the worst pun I’ve ever heard.”

Jamis broke in, with a surprisingly serious tone of voice. “You shouldn’t underestimate them though, or give them shit. That’s how you end up getting fucked up. As ridiculously stupid as their name is, the Fourmidables run the largest gang on Terrassis, and,” Jamis looked around nervously, leaning into the table and closer to his friends, “rumor on the street is that they’re in bed with the pirates.”

Teira frowned at Jamis. “Really? Are you sure about that? The Fourmidables run a sizeable part of station security. There haven’t been any sizeable station raids in the past year. I’d expect that there would be at least a few, especially if there are guys on the inside.”

Jamis just shrugged, holding up his hands in placating manner. “Just what I’ve heard, the word on the street. I don’t know the specifics. Haven’t really been in with that crowd in a long while, not since I applied to the TEF and got in. Still, though, I know some people, and they’re out here in the tunnels. They hear things. And the word is that the Fourmidables are going up in the world, far faster than regular station security would. Could be a black deal with pirates, could just be that they found a couple large resource nodes. But guys like that never seemed big on mining, and everyone’s heard about those hits on freighters.”

A troubled look was on Teira’s face as she stared down into her drink. She shrugged. “Huh. I don’t know. I guess I might talk to my dad, then. Good to let him know.”

A sort of awkward silence came over the group for a few seconds, the seriousness of the prior conversation stalling any talk.

Eventually, Teira broke the silence. “Have you been to the starport, Rune?”

Rune shook his head. “No, I’ve barely been anywhere. All I’ve seen in Tetris town is the hotel and this shop. What’s in the starport, anyway?”

Teira shrugged. “Well, it’s called the starport, but there’s a huge open market there where traveling merchants, miners, and even megacorps coming from all over the galaxy hawk their wares. You can buy pretty much anything there if you look hard enough. Starships, drones, shimmer, paradise, you name it, you can probably find it, or at least find someone who knows where you can get it.”

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Harvey chimed in. “Yeah, there are actually a few things I want to pick up there. Now that I’m confirmed to tuning I should probably pick up some basic gear.”

Rune shrugged. “Alright. Let’s go check it out, then.” The quad of friends got up, Jamis and Teira taking the lead with Rune and Harvey following behind as they pushed their way through the crowd of people, drinks clutched in hand.

Rune frowned. “What’s this paradise thing you guys keep bringing up? Some sort of drug? Does that even work on a synth like me?”

Jamis snorted. “Of course it works on a synth like you. Synths are mostly biological, man. Something like half of you, or a third of you is flesh, blood, and organ. Some parts have been replaced or removed to make your function more optimal, but life for you is mostly what life would be like for a normal human. You still need to use the bathroom, and you still need to eat things and sleep from time to time.”

Rune recoiled a little bit. “Wait, do I not need to sleep or eat as much?”

Jamis looked at him like he was an idiot. “Yeah, you don’t need to sleep or eat as much. I don’t remember what the numbers are, exactly, but I know that you can go for days without needing to eat anything and also go for a few days without sleep and still be fine.”

“Ehhh,” Teira said, “not quite. I mean, not totally wrong, but also not totally right either. Rune here can probably only go for a day without food and a night or two without sleep before he starts feeling the effects like a regular human. If he wants to boost his ability, he’d need to increase his vitality. What you’re talking about is when a synth gets to one hundred or so vitality. I don’t think that Rune is anywhere near there, or, at least, I wouldn’t expect that he is.”

Jamis just shrugged. "All I've heard are stories. But of course, you know everything, don't you rich girl."

Teira rolled her eyes. "Anyone could figure that out with a single G-Web search. It's not my fault you can't even use your own interface."

Jamis shrugged and smirked. “Hey, I’m a simple Combat trainee. Spent all my time learning actual, applicable combat skills and staying in shape, as opposed to wasting it searching the G-Web for the most boring and useless information.”

Teira scoffed. “It won’t seem so boring and useless once you’re working with synths in your unit and fighting those in your enemy’s.”

Jamis just shrugged. “I’ll learn it then. All good.”

Teira smirked. “Might be a good idea to learn about your enemy before facing them. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. It’s an age-old proverb, soldier boy, and you should probably follow it if you plan to make that your career.”

Jamis seemed about ready to retort but Rune spoke before he could say anything, pointing at a figure in the crowd. “So, is that one of those spliced guys you were talking about earlier?” The figure that he was specifically pointing at seemed to be some strange hybrid of Freddy Krueger and the Alien from Alien. It had long claws, and most of its body was covered in a sleek black carapace. Its heavily muscled arms were elongated with four joints as opposed to three. A decent length, presumably prehensile tail stretched from its behind. It lacked sexual organs of any kind that Rune could see. The only part that looked even remotely human was the face, and even that looked something like an orc’s from a swords and sorcery sort of game or movie, with small dangerous looking tusks coming out of the jaws and arcing up.

Teira shook her head. “No, that isn’t one of the spliced. That’s just another bi-aug. That’s a Shadow. They don’t have a significant force in this town like the Fourmidables, but they’re a much more powerful force overall. For the most part, they’re assassins. They’re extremely fast, have insane reflexes and strength, and can kill unarmed people in the blink of an eye. They also occasionally serve as foot soldiers or scouts in the army. They’re widely spread, and they have a lot of respect from people in the UIS.”

Rune watched the bi-aug pass, a curious look on his face, averting his eyes when the Shadow’s eyes passed over him. “Huh,” he said contemplatively, “they look dangerous.”

Teira snorted. “That’s because they are.”

Rune nodded, and the quad kept walking forwards through the crowd. Eventually, the crowds thinned out and a different style of building replaced the vibrant, flashy and colorful section they had just been in. Now the walls they walked by were dark and drab, featuring steel and even some roughly hewn stone in a few places. Adverts occupied the lower sections of the walls whereas graffiti was painted festively across the highest sections of the walls defining various buildings. The bustling crowds of vibrant people wearing all manner of clothing had disappeared, and in their place men and women wearing fatigues and uniforms of several different makes, logos emblazoned across their chests or arms.

“Are we out of Tetris town, now? Is this some kind of military sector or something?” Rune asked the questions as the group walked through the steel corridors, wanting to know more about his new home and where he might be able to find things in the future.

Harvey was the one who responded. “No, this is actually still part of Tetris town.” He paused for a second as if debating whether to continue, before actually doing so. “Tetris town is super organized and also where most of the money is. Up in the northwest, you’ve got the guild and the mines, and right below that, you’ve got the residential district. It’s pretty big, and it takes up about a third of Tetris town. In between north and south and stretching from east to west you’ve got the service sector. Vendors, mercenaries, recruiters, hotels, you can find a lot in the service sector. When you have money, that’s where you go to hang, you know?

“What we’re walking through right now is called the industrial sector. Honestly, though, while they call it that, it’s also the military sector. A ton of Combat trainees go there after graduating and sign on to serve in the UIS military for a decade or two. Nobody really comes here unless they’re going to the Starport or something happened to them. Just so you know, this is the Southeastern section of Tetris town. And in the last quad is the commercial sector. That’s where most of the bigger corps are set up, and also where a lot of the bigger tech deals go down. People don’t really head there unless they’re doing big business, or again, if they’re going to the Starport. That’s just Tetris town, though. There’s also the Dungeon, the Deep Side, and the Warrens. The Warrens doesn’t really count, though, I guess.”

Rune frowned. “The dungeon and the Deep Side?” Rune pulled up the map of the town. “Are these specific places? So Tetris town is this big cluster in the middle. So I assume residential is up at the top with service, commercial, and industrial below them.”

Harvey frowned, and a half second later Rune received a mental query from Paine. Harvey Dorlan has requested the ability to view your projection without distortion. Would you like to allow him to view and manipulate your projection?

Yes Paine, Rune mentally responded, Let Harvey view and manipulate my projection.

Once Harvey could see sections of the map, he pointed to the different sections, naming them and causing them to light up in different colors with their respective labels. The Dungeon was the large section to the east of Tetris Town, and The Deep Side was the cluster of tunnels to the west of Tetris town, with the Warrens being a sprawling network of tunnels slightly further east than the Deep Side.

“So,” Rune began hesitantly, “what’s the difference between all these different parts of Terrassis? Does everyone live in the residential district? It doesn’t seem big enough to hold, what, eight-hundred thousand people?”

Jamis shook his head. “Most people don’t live in Tetris Town’s residential district. The vast majority of people here on Terrassis live in The Deep Side. It’s pretty much the slums of Terrassis. Buildings go much higher, and as many people cram into them as they can fit. A good three-quarters of the population of Terrassis lives in The Deep Side.” He frowned, then shrugged. “I’ve lived in The Deep Side most of my life. Only the richer upper middle class can afford to live in residential. A few super-rich own massive mansion complexes over in The Dungeon. I’d figure that there’s a Sheinfeld house somewhere over there.” He looked fiercely at Teira as he spoke, almost daring her to make a comment.

She just shrugged. “Of course we do.”

Jamis looked like he wanted to comment, but decided against it. The conversation died off, and they walked on in silence for another while before Jamis and Teira finally led them to an especially large set of sliding steel blast doors. A number of people in fatigues who seemed to be industrial sector workers were clogging the corridor, and some of the more vibrantly and exotically dressed Terrassis citizens were also pushing through the crowd, in one direction or the other. Rune and company joined the crowd, moving with the mass of bodies flowing through the large doors.

Eventually, they managed to get through the doors, and Rune and his friends spilled into a crowded room. Aside from a few service desks and buildings built into the walls, Rune didn’t really see anything too impressive.

He frowned and spoke loudly to be heard over the hubbub of people walking around. “Is this supposed to be the market? It’s not really… what I expected.”

Teira snorted. “If this was the market, we wouldn’t have bothered coming at all. No, this section of the starport mostly holds larger starships, namely the larger frigates and haulers. You can see them through the viewport up there.”

Now that he was looking for it, Rune realized that the farthest section of the room was a massive glass panel. He could only see the roof over the top of the crowd, but he assumed that somewhere below there were starships. “Hell yes,” he said, rather excited, “I want to see some starships,” Rune said. Not waiting for his friends, he started weaving his way through the crowd, heading towards the glass panel so that he could get a good view.

Saying that it was like a scene out of a sci-fi movie would not have done it justice. The starships were larger than life, both literally and figuratively. By Rune’s approximation the massive ships were at least one-thousand feet long, likely more. There were a total of four in the bay, taking up nearly all the room available, arranged in a square pattern.

Massive, shimmering swarms of what were assumedly nanomachines swarmed through the air, occasionally passing over the hull of a ship, leaving behind a structure different from what had originally been there. Mechanized workers dotted the shipyards here and there, moving crates or miscellaneous technology. And massive robotic arms extended from the walls, floor, and ceilings in places, some laying dormant, others active in a whir of machinery, making minute adjustments here and there on the starships.

Coming out of one of the ships was a long line of what looked like people. They were at quite the distance so it was difficult for Rune to tell.

An appreciative whistle came from next to him. Rune turned to see Teira standing next to him, an impressed look on her face. “You probably don’t know much about starships, but that one furthest from us on the right?” Rune nodded. “That starship is a Javelin class corvette. Produced by Grey Duck industries. That model of starship is owned exclusively by the MET, and they don’t come here a lot. They must’ve just gotten in, or I’d have known about it. This is pretty big news, there aren’t a lot of MET ships flying around in UIS space.”

Rune arched an eyebrow but said nothing. Maybe he’d investigate later.

For the next few minutes, the group of friends stared at the starships as Teira and Harvey explained the classes, purposes, and affiliations of the various ships currently docked. Two of the rest of the three ships were merchant ships, one carrying drones and spaceship parts with the other luxury commodities. The one carrying munitions, owned by Chikara Industries, was being escorted by the fourth ship in the hangar, a lightly armored gunboat.

Once Teira and Harvey had finished their explanation, the group simply stood in silence and watched the small people at the other end of the hangar unload the Javelin Class Corvette. After a minute or so Jamis announced his boredom, and the group moved on. After a short walk alongside the glass pane overlooking the hangar, the quad reached a steel corridor and turned onto it.

Inside the corridor, there were even more of the colorfully and artistically garbed people Rune might’ve expected to see in Tetris town, and less of the people wearing what Rune assumed were workers clothes.

After a minute or so of walking Rune and his friends finally passed out of the corridor and into the market. The market was like nothing Rune had ever seen or imagined before. All the stalls were interconnected, forming one massive superstructure that spanned the entire room. Glowing swarms of nanites, floating lights of all colors and sizes, and glowing signs and wares of all manner of inscriptions and functions decorated the various buildings. Styles from all eras were featured in the various building of the market, in one place a Victorian staircase leading up a level, in another place what looked like a ramp constructed out of bamboo shafts, and in yet another place a futuristic, glowing tile with rails floating up through the air towards the second level.

Rune gawked in wonder for a second, taking in the sight before his friends finally pulled him forwards into the market.