Rick got a text from Sam just before they got back to Angels Landing. We need to talk.

He stared at it for a long moment before replying, Fire away.

In person, Sam said. You at your caravan?

Almost, Rick typed back.

Is there a way for me to visit?

It was early evening. The camp was still a hive of activity. Slate and Dr. Schneider had their heads together at the far side of the camp. Rick strode over, and Slate looked up. "What's up, boss?"

"Is there a way for another player to visit our encampment?"

"Sure," Slate nodded, bobbing his head. "I can issue visitor passes. Just take it outside the boundaries of our caravan and wait. When your friend shows up, hand it to them." He snapped the fingers of his bottom right hand together, and a six-inch by three-inch piece of card emblazoned "Hall Pass" appeared. He handed it to Rick.

"Thanks," Rick said before texting Sam. Meet you just outside Angels Landing.

There was no sign of Daniel. Nia sat with Theo on the other side of camp, and Gambit was sitting beside the fire, staring into the embers and humming to himself. He looked up as Rick went past. "Who's visiting?"

"Uh," Rick's face flushed. "Sam wants to come by."

Gambit nodded. "She's coming around then? Good. Once we have her on the team, we can start doing dungeons."

"I don't know if it's gonna work out that easily," Rick felt uncomfortably nervous. He looked around the camp, noting how shabby things looked all of a sudden. That pile of crates looked as though someone had just tossed it down rather than stacking things neatly. The caravan wagons were covered in a fine layer of Martian dust. The NCPs wandered about with vapid expressions on their faces. Rick glanced down at himself. He was wearing his skull mantle, of course, with the hood down, over top his ship suit with the bandit boots he'd picked up ages ago. He felt like a fashion disaster.

Gambit shook his head and smiled. "Don't worry," he said. "Everyone looks like a murderous clown at the beginning of an expansion. She’ll understand you haven't had time to pick up a full set of gear yet."

Rick ran a hand through his hair. "If she really is thinking about joining us, shouldn't we, well, try to put our best foot forward?" He gestured around, feeling like he had the first time his college girlfriend had wanted to visit his dorm room, crossed with a little bit of the nerves from the time he'd asked Sam to come visit his parents for the weekend.

Gambit rolled his eyes. "We want her to know what she's getting into, right?"

"I guess. I mean, sure," Rick agreed.

"And if she's ready to team up with you, she can't be too picky," the Mongolian added. Rick glared at him, and Gambit laughed.

Rick turned his back and stalked off to the edge of camp. He felt a slight tingle as he passed the invisible perimeter. From his point of view, there were no other changes. He just stepped a little closer to the village. And then he waited. And waited.

The sun sank down. Mars's two moons were low on the horizon, little dots just big enough to be discs. Odd music floated over from the village, lots of pipes and a plaintive plucking stringed instrument behind them. A thin wind blew, and Rick considered putting up his hood but had a feeling that would make him look like he was coming off a week-long bender. He checked his messages. Sam hadn't replied. Had she even seen his reply? Had she reconsidered?

"Hey."

He spun. There was Sam, ten feet away, her hands behind her back. She looked at his ear as she said, "So, shall we?"

She was wearing the same outfit as before, the long white dress with blue highlights, and carrying a big staff. She looked more like a frost mage than a tank to Rick, but he supposed that was the benefit of the transforming ability. He nodded and held out the hall pass. She took it. It sat in her hand for an instant before shimmering and disappearing.

"Oh!" Her eyes went wide. "I've got a countdown now. One hour long. Let's not waste it."

Rick stepped back into the perimeter. Sam followed. She let out a gasp as she passed the threshold. "I had no idea," she whispered.

Rick felt a quick stab of pride. They had managed something kind of impressive after all. He said, "Let me give you the tour," but Sam was already past him as she rushed forward.

"Dr. Schneider," she called. “And –[NAME]” The NCPs all looked up from their tasks and hurried over to surround her. She shook hands and exchanged hugs. Nia and Theo were hanging back a little bit. As Rick approached the group, Sam broke off from the huddle of her colleagues and approached them, holding her hands out.

"Nia, Theo, I'm so sorry about before. I didn't get a chance to properly apologize."

"It's fine," Nia said stiffly. "We're fine. Everything's fine now."

"It's all for the best," Theo remarked, smiling contentedly. "Slate has been showing me their crafting setups. It's perfect. It's like I've got my old lab back, but twice as good."

"Yeah," Sam said weakly. She turned to Rick. "So, uh, who's Slate?"

Nia drew Theo back to his station as Rick ushered Sam to the other side of the camp. "Hey, Slate?"

Slate looked up from his current task. He had a book open atop a pile of crates. "Oh, you must be Ms. Wilkins. Rick's told me all about you."

"He has, has he?" Sam said coolly.

"Not really," Slate said. "I'm lying. But it seems like the sort of thing to say."

"Uh-huh," Sam said. "So, what's your story? Are you an actual Martian?"

Slate bobbed his head. "I am. Native-born to the system, though. My ancestors got grabbed the last time the probe came through our system. While your ancestors were busy swinging from trees, I gather." He laughed, a rough sound like rocks sliding past each other. "But here you are now. What'd you like to know?"

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Sam turned on Rick. "Pratt's been telling me how they have a caravan and a game guide, too. But I got Jens to give me the whole story while we were questing together."

Rick fought down a quick stab of jealousy. "You and Jens?"

Sam waved off his question with a dismissive gesture. "Well, I needed to know what was going on, and you don't think I was going to deal with Pratt or Anderson, do you?"

Rick shook his head. Of all his former teammates, Jens was definitely the most reasonable. He could respect Sam's choice for sure. Not that he had a say in it.

"Anyway, Jens said they've got some NCP that is clearly reading off system-generated answers to them. She's able to confirm when they ask detailed questions like about the upgrade tokens y'all are using. She isn't volunteering anything on her own."

"They have a camp now, but I haven’t seen it.”

“How'd they get it here then?" Rick wondered.

"They picked it up from a quest hub north of town," Sam said. “So they haven’t moved it at all yet.”

Slate nodded as though this made perfect sense. "There's a shipping oasis there. No doubt they were able to hire some of the leftover caravans themselves. It will take them significantly more upgrades to get to this point, Rick. We were fortunate to get a world quest that rewarded us with a complete base caravan set and retinue."

"This retinue thing I gotta ask about," Sam said. She was eyeing the NCPs as they went about their business. "I don’t know about what you’ve done to them. I need to talk to them to make sure that they're still my old colleagues. Nia blocked me on messaging, and I haven't been able to message any of the others. Not even Theo. And I had his contact info."

Rick turned to Slate again. "Can we message NCPs? I mean, obviously I can message you, but..."

"Oh, certainly. But when you get changed from full player to NCP the system reclassifies you. You'll have to re-add him as a contact," Slate explained to Sam.

"Right then," she said. "I'm gonna go have a word with them and then I'll be back to talk to you." She strode off. Rick stood for a minute, feeling awkward. The camp wasn't big, but he didn’t want to follow her around.

Slate was looking her up and down. "She's going for an interesting build. Not many species like changing their shape. Is this a common trait for humans or is she unusual?"

Gambit snickered. "I think he's asking if your girlfriend's a furry."

Rick's ears burned. "First of all, she's my ex," he told Slate for the thousandth time. "Second of all, obviously there's advantages and disadvantages to every class, and I'm interested in hearing from Sam what advantages her shapeshift gives her."

"It lets me walk around wearing normal clothes and not chainmail bikinis or giant suits of armor," Sam called over her shoulder from where she was talking to Dr Schneider. So apparently he hadn't given her enough space. "And no, what's your name? I am not a furry."

"It's Gambit," Gambit reminded her helpfully. Rick glowered at him, but he just smirked back.

Sam engaged in a couple of minutes of quiet conversation with Dr. Schneider and a couple of the others. She approached Nia and Theo but didn't stay there for long. Exchanging a quick fist bump with Theo, she backtracked to Rick.

"Okay, so it's still them," she said. "I don't like how much the system seems to be affecting their free will, but I guess there's nothing we can do about it."

Rick shook his head. "There's not. And it's got to be better than being stuck on a road with giants menacing you for days, right?"

She blinked. "Is that where you found them? They said you rescued them, but I wasn't clear on the details."

"Scripted event outside of the Rork starting village," Rick explained. "Sounded like they'd been there for a couple of days, but it's hard to tell what's real and what's the system talking."

Sam shuddered. "Yeah. They say they're happy to be with you, but I guess that's what they would say, isn't it? That's what Nia is freaked out about. And there's another problem. If I did join you, I'm not sure how well she's gonna want to work with me. I can see she blames me for what happened to Theo, and she should," Sam added ruthlessly. "I was the tank. It's my fault. No matter how bad the healer was, I should have been able to keep them alive."

Rick shook his head. "That's not how these things go. You've got to have all of the team working together."

She held up a hand. "Stow it. Right. Where's your other guy? The one who looks like an ultramarathoner but has a weird sense of humor?"

"Oh, you mean Daniel. He's probably in his cabin working on traps."

"Traps?" Sam's eyebrows shot up. "Did he get himself made an NCP while I wasn't around?"

Rick shook his head. "No, he just really is into these traps. He was EOD for the army before we came," he said, and Sam nodded like that explained things.

"You guys really want me to join you?"

"Yes," Gambit called. "We do. We need a tank, and you're... human. That's got to count for something. I promise. It's not because I think you're hot. You're not hot when you're a bear," he added, "just in case you were wondering whether I thought so."

Rick cringed. "Gambit, you can't be sexually harassing our potential recruits."

"I'm not," Gambit said, his eyes widening. "It's only sexual harassment if they think you're creepy and that you mean it. And from the look on Sam's face, she's pretty sure I don't.”

Sam laughed. "Okay, so the 90s are calling, and they want their sexual harassment ethics back. Where did you pick this guy up?"

"I'm Mongolian," Gambit said promptly. "I was on the Chinese team, and if you think my jokes are bad, you don't want to meet any of them."

"Right," Sam turned back, sighing. "You see why I had my social info turned off when we bumped into each other in a dungeon, right? And maybe why I picked a class where I can focus on my job and not get comments about how my butt looks?"

"How bad is Looking For Group?" Rick asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Only about one in ten of the groups I run with has someone who's making creepy sexual comments, probably because they're all aliens and aren't into humans," Sam said. "I can just imagine what it's going to be like when Earth gets opened up and every hotshot gamer on Earth jumps into the game. Mostly they don't talk at all. The DPS are running ahead trying to pull mobs while you're dealing with the last pack. The healer just stands in one place until he's good and ready to move. It's a disaster." She shrugged. "I'm kind of surprised I've made it this far without losing my player status. I would’ve, but I got a lucky drop my second dungeon, the one right after I ran with Sam and Theo." She looked nervously at them, then back, and held up a pendant. "It's an amulet of rebirth. It's got a three-day cooldown, but if I die, I respawn back wherever I was before I entered the dungeon without losing my player status. So I only run dungeons if it's off cooldown, and if we wipe, I drop out of the party and wait for my pendant to reset."

Now things made sense. “How often has it triggered?"

"About eight times so far," she said. "Call it every other dungeon run."

He shook his head, whistling. "And you still go into these things?"

"They're hands-down the best source of experience and loot out there," she said. "How do you think I'm level 15 at this point? And on my own? I've got to get a real group, though. So, yes, I'm willing to give your team a try. Provisionally. You get me killed, and I'm out of here. You understand that?" She glared at Rick as though holding him personally responsible for the rules of the universe.

"Got it," he said. "That's more than fair. Hey, Slate," he called. "Can we get more things like this amulet? Ways of coming back after a death without getting turned into NCPs?"

"Oh, sure," Slate said cheerfully. "Lots of ways. Most of them are expensive and grindy as hell, but I'll work up a list for you."

Sam pointed. "There. See? See? That's why I’m giving you guys the time of day. Despite everything, you have it together. You've got a game guide, you've got a caravan, you've got a retinue. Team Technique has lots of potential, but none of them like each other, and they're only listening to Pratt because he's a loud-mouthed asshole who won't shut up."

Rick felt strangely warm and realized it was because she was comparing him to Pratt just a little bit favorably. Sam saw his expression and shook her head. "Don't get any ideas. You've got a swollen head often enough. But, well," she shrugged, "you're a known quantity, and right now I can really use something in my life I can depend on. Just don't screw it up this time, okay?"

Rick nodded. He extended a hand and a party invite at the same time. Sam shook his hand, and a moment later a notification popped up. [Samantha Wilkins has joined your group.]

"Welcome to the team," Rick said as Gambit leapt up, whooping. "Let's get you a bunk, but first...” Rick reached into his inventory and pulled out the Caravan Upgrade token.