December 2

14:27 GMT

Somewhere between Earth and Mars Orbit

Rick found avoiding the others remarkably easy on the spacious rocket. The SpaceR StarCruiseR had been designed originally to transport fifty people to Mars. NASA expeditions had only been sending between twenty and thirty, and since those extra cabins couldn't be filled with fuel, they contained supplies or nothing at all. This meant, for a space vessel, the StarCruiseR was remarkably empty.

Two months in, Rick was bored stiff. He had won most of the single-player games the Space R computer systems had provided and read as many of the books as he could stomach. At this point he could probably go for a Masters’ degree in Roman History; he’d found a batch of nonfiction and burned through it in one marathon sprint, emerging late at night to raid the galley when no-one else was around or work out in the gym. He wasn’t sure there was any real point to staying in shape, not if they were about to get vaporized or digitized or whatever, but somehow the thought of Sam seeing him with the twenty extra pounds he’d put on since their breakup had him on the treadmill at 2 am most nights. By the time they were six weeks out of Earth, he’d had to break into the supply lockers for smaller pants.

It was better than brooding, which was his other major occupation. What if they were all heading into an alien vaporizer? Everyone else seemed so serious and mission focused during the few mandatory briefings he’d attended. Those were usually recorded speeches from Earth brass followed by a lecture from Colonel al-Raman, both of which he yawned through. A couple times they got weird, off-the-cuff messages from Leon Ambrusk, who seemed to view this whole thing as his personal embassy to the Galactic Federation, whoever and whatever that might be. Rick had trouble giving a damn about whether the secrets they might learn would give the US a strategic advantage, or benefit all mankind, or whatever other bullshit they were being fed. Most of Team Technique seemed to feel the same way but Pratt and Jens ate it up. They’d even invited him to a “team building exercise”. Twice. He’d turned them down both times, and Pratt had showed up at his cabin to pontificate about the fate of humanity and the chance of redemption, blah blah blah. Rick had shut the door in his face.

On the other hand… part of Rick wanted this to mean something. He’d screwed up everything else in his life, made a farce out of his education, his relationships, his gaming career. It would be nice not to screw up for a change.

He was on his night cycle when the announcement popped into his vision.

[Welcome, humans. You are entering the sphere of influence of a galactic network-connected world. This world is still in the evaluation phase. You may choose to join the evaluation immediately. Please note the evaluation phase of Earth will not begin for 0.8 of its cycles. If you wish to participate in the evaluation phase of Earth, you will need to return to the Earth's sphere of influence.]

At the bottom of the message was a blinking buttom labelled: [Confirm Integration?]

Even as Rick finished reading the message, the StarCruiseR’s public address system blared. "All crew, report to the command deck immediately."

Rick considered just pressing the confirm button and seeing what would happen, but obediently made his way to the command deck.

The colonel was looking grave as Rick floated in. Lieutenant Williams sat at one of the consoles. "There's no sign of any of the Chinese, sir."

Rick glanced around the room. The other four members of the soldier team were assembled. The StarCruiseR crew was split between waking and sleeping cycles, but all of them were dressed and looked ready for action. Williams was bent over a keyboard, no doubt sending a message back home.

Team Technique members were still drifting in. Jens was there, and Pratt came in just behind Rick.

"What's this all about, Colonel? My team's ready to go." Pratt had been getting more and more abrasive throughout the two months. He ordered his team around as if he was in command of the entire ship and clearly chafed under any of the colonel's orders, another reason Rick tried to avoid him as much as possible. The ship was almost completely automated, a marvel of SpaceR engineering. The colonel being in command of the entire expedition was merely a formality. “What are we waiting for?” Pratt snapped.

The colonel glared at him. “This new message has provided valuable information. Earth must be informed.”

“The message has been sent,” Lieutenant Williams called from his terminal.

“Good,” Pratt snapped. “Now, is there anything left for us to do before integrating?” Pratt’s overbearing behavior had bordered on insubordination for weeks, if there was such a thing among civilian ‘volunteers’. For some reason, the rest of the Technique team had welcomed it and snapped to obey his every order. Asskissers. Just because he’d led them some moderate success was no reason to act like Pratt was God’s gift to gamers.

Scott and Kim drifted in. "I think Andrews already integrated," Kim said as he grabbed a handhold to stop his motion.

"What?" the colonel and Pratt said together.

"He was in his bunk when the message came in, and when I looked again, he was gone."

"The Chinese have gone too," the colonel said. "I'm assembling the crew for a final briefing. Everything we need to know—"

Pratt jabbed his finger at the colonel, "All which has been said a hundred times.” He turned to the assembled technique team. "Team, hit accept now."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Wait," the colonel said as team captain Pratt vanished into thin air. One instant he was there, the next, gone. Less than a second later, the rest of the team had disappeared.

After two months of waiting, Rick was sorely tempted to follow immediately, but he had made enough rash decisions in his life, and this one was likely to be a one-way trip.

"Colonel, is there anything else?"

The haggard military officer was seething with rage but shook his head slowly. "No, Staunton-Jones, that will be all. My team will be following shortly. Carry on."

More for politeness than anything else, Rick said, "Yes, sir." Then he selected [Confirm Integration.]

The world dissolved.

Rick staggered at the sudden gravity. A hot, dry wind blew on his face.

[Welcome to the initial starting zone. Please take a few moments to familiarize yourself with your player interface. You will shortly be given your first ability point. Now a good time to consider how to use it. You will be removed from the pacification zone in 300 seconds. Good luck, humans.]

Rick spotted the icon in his vision. After one head twitch, he locked onto it with his eyes and opened the menu.

He longed to dive into all the menus and examine each one in minute detail, but the announcement had been clear, and there was no time to waste. He did glance briefly in a menu called [Abilities]. There was a massive list: walking, running, breathing, and a million other things scrolled past, all with value scores. At a glance, he didn't see anything above five. He could have spent hours going through it. An icon at the top showed the list was sortable, but Rick didn't take the time. Instead, he went back to the talent menu.

Swirling lines blasted before his eyes, but as a veteran gamer, the interface was immediately intuitive. Select one talent, and others would unlock. He moved through the options quickly.

There were several clearly intended for melee characters: increased weapon damage, dodge, and block proficiency, but he needed something with real punch, and quickly. He breezed past the elemental selections. Without knowing if creatures in this game would be resistant to fire or ice, he didn't want to take the risk of choosing only one. Air and earth were gated beyond fire and ice and required two points to be unlocked.

Instead, Rick moved on to a generic Magic Ability tree. It was split into Force and Healing. He put his one available point into Force.

[Gained Ability: Force Wave. Relevant Stat: Magic Affinity. Current Damage: 1-5. Range 10 meters plus Magic Affinity. Current Range 15 meters]

The interface changed, and he saw he could put points into the next tier up or into another tier entirely. He could also go back and select healing, but he was out of points for now. Rather than take more time to explore the abilities trees, he backed up and went to the character sheet. All his basic stats were listed, with five points in each, and he had one spare point to assign.

Stamina

5

Strength

5

Dexterity

5

Magic Affinity

5

HP

15

A small icon flickered in the corner of his display, and Rick selected it. [Achievement: Assign your first ability point.] He dismissed the announcement and went back to his stats. Nothing impressive here, but what could he expect from level one?

He took a moment to minimize the user interface and look around. Brown rocks and red dirt spread in all directions, patches of green moss covering both.

He looked around for anything that might be useful, running his vision over everything he was able to inspect.

[Shrubbery, durability 9 of 10]

[Rock, durability 10 of 10]

[Dirt, it's red. What do you expect? No durability]

No immediate threats presented themselves, so Rick pulled his interface back up. He found he could push it to one side of his vision and maintain some situational awareness.

During the two months on the ship, the colonel and his team had set up training classes, and much of the military jargon had sunk in. Things like situational awareness and keeping your head on a swivel that were more suited for a battlefield than a usual PC or console game where having a good mini-map scan and well-honed cooldown awareness sufficed.

The Technique team had grudgingly given a few briefings of their own to get gamer concepts through to the military team. The powers that be had selected veterans of many special operations who hadn't spent a lot of time in games, not even Call of Duty. They were a poor choice, in Pratt's opinion, and he had made no secret of the fact.

The Chinese had attended classes politely and listened to everything while taking notes. Other than that, they had kept to themselves and only engaged the Westerners in conversation rarely. Rick sympathized. Aside from the lectures, he’d spent as little time as possible with his so-called teammates.

Rick gave his user interface a quick survey. He found an edit feature that let him move displays around, and several popped up that he hadn't seen before: his own health bar, which apparently was hidden when it was full and he was out of combat, as well as hotkey bars that were invisible when not populated.

He pulled his new force attack into the first slot and started rapidly searching through abilities to see if there were any others he could add. Nothing was immediately obvious. He gave up and readied himself, only just in time.

A few yards away, the dirt stirred. A red, scaly lizard lifted its head from the dust where it had been perfectly camouflaged, or simply not there, a moment ago. The monster hissed.

Rick targeted the creature with a Force Wave. When he selected the ability, his right hand jerked up, and a blast of magic tore from it. It was a strange effect. He briefly felt like an automaton.

The magic hit a glancing blow, and numbers flew through the air: -1 hit point. As his hand pointed at the creature, he felt an intuitive sense he could fire another blast. Force Wave was there at the edge of his mind.

The creature hissed at him and scampered forward. The attack came off cooldown. Rick fired again. Force Wave left his hand and struck the creature full-on.

The lizard flew back, twisted, and flopped on the ground, dead. Its icon shifted to [Lizard, level one, dead, lootable.] Before Rick could make a move towards it, two more appeared. Without hesitating, he shot the first one with a Force Wave.

It took four points of damage as he knocked it backward, leaving it with one hit point left.

The other lizard, ignoring its companion, came on at a run. Its mouth stretched wide, filled with razor-sharp needles.

Rick dove out of its way. The creature missed its bite. It landed nearby and whirled, but Rick's Force Wave was off cooldown. He blasted it directly into its open maw. The colorful word [CRIT] flashed in the air over its head, and the creature's skull exploded as -10 appeared.

"Whoa, double damage!” He spun as the one-hit-point creature came in. As the lizard lunged, snapping, Rick kicked it in the face. The creature took two points of damage and flew back, dead.

He stood there, panting, although not really out of breath, and looking around for more threats. None appeared.