When my vision returned, I found myself standing in the doorway of an office building, with people in fatigues walking about or sitting behind desks. The desks created a sort of barrier between the fatigue-wearing people and those wearing civilian clothing like myself. I slowly walked forward, feeling confused.
“Recruit Mackenzie, in my office now!”
I saw a man with his hair cut short, he was wearing fatigues with some sort of transparent plate over his breast pocket and shoulders. He stepped back into the room without waiting for my reply. I followed the man into the office, pausing in the doorway as I looked around the room quickly before entering and sitting down in the chair his hand had pointed to as I paused in the doorway. I saw the transparent plate over his breast pocket had a name scrolling from right to left. I glanced at it reading ‘sutori’ my eyes shifted to his shoulder seeing a symbol I didn't recognise spinning slowly.
“Recruit Mackenzie, you are late, and I am a busy man that does not have time for your tardiness. However, it is not entirely your fault. I did review the footage from your subsystem, welcome. However, the recruit that performed the welcome forgot to inform you that you had 5 minutes to use the secure link codes for your recruitment interview. Now shall we get down to the interview?”
“I, uh, I am not sure why I am here or where here is?”
“You are on the servers of the spaceship designated GFA1752. This particular server is used in military recruitment for this sector of the void. The reason you are here is to be assigned to a boot camp that is best suited to your particular class.”
“What, void pilot?”
“Yes, now that particular class has two options, the navy or the Marines both use void pilots. The question here is, do you want to fly ships or drones?”
I clicked my tongue in annoyance before responding, “I can fly drones back home, why would I want to do that here?”
“How would I know, your primitive humans do weird things, and the drones from our marine branch are a lot more sophisticated than the primitive versions on your planet.”
“Still sounds like a drone operator instead of a pilot to me.” I muttered as I looked down at his desk for a few seconds while I considered it.”
“Pardon? I couldn’t hear you, recruit”
“You are not really giving me an option, the only thing I would choose is to be a pilot of a ship, otherwise I wouldn't be a real pilot, would I?”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He instantly grinned, and I watched his uniform ripple from his collar down to his boots, changing from a forest camo to a black and grey camo. The symbol on his shoulders changed to a new one.
“You wish to choose the navy? Please confirm this decision by stating ‘I choose to join the Navy’. Otherwise, I won't be able to process your request.”
“I choose to join the navy” I deadpanned at the man as I stared into his eyes.
He dropped his grin and started moving papers around his desk before touching the top one on a stack and flicking his finger in my direction. A hud activated in my vision and the papers appeared floating just in front of me. I could see my health displayed at the bottom left as numbers. And I began to read the contract floating in front of me.
“This is a lot of words,” I muttered loud enough for him to hear.
“Shall I simplify it for your primitive mind?”
I tried to look past the papers to glare at him, but the top page shifted, staying in front of my eyes, its contents changing, as the other pages disappeared.
I, Kenna Mackenzie, hereby agree to the following conditions.
* I will serve the Galactic Alliance Navy to the best of my ability.
* I agree that anyone in my chain of command with a higher naval rank than my own is my superior.
* I will carry out any legitimate order given to me by a superior to the best of my ability.
* I agree not to retaliate against any perceived harassment or threat and will allow the server master to punish the guilty person or persons.
* I understand that the Galactic Alliance Navy uses clone spawning pods, and I will willingly pay for my clones if I am ever sent on a real-world mission.
* I understand there Is a fee to receive a server body and will willingly pay it.
* I agree to be paid in standard galactic credit and not my home-world currency or any other currency.
A semi-transparent window appeared below it with the outline of a right hand. And the words ‘place hand here to sign’ I paused and then read the page again trying to take it in and understand what I was agreeing to. I finally reached up and placed my hand against the outline as it flashes green and then vanishes. The uniform-changing man in front of me smiled again and then shuffled the papers before pulling open a drawer and dropping them into it.
“Alright,” he said as he closed the drawer and looked at me. “Your paperwork has been submitted, filed and forwarded to your drill instructor and your secure uplink codes have been updated. You will have ten minutes of home world time to get your affairs in order before you are ordered to report to boot camp. Any questions before I request your disconnection?”
“What do you mean ten minutes? How the hell do I even use the uplink? And more importantly, what is happening to my body while I am using the uplink?” I rapid-fire asked as my eyes narrowed to glare at the smug-looking guy.
“I am going to ignore the obvious question, as I am sure anyone from a planet with the concept of time. Can tell how long ten minutes is and what it means. So let's move on to the second question. Anyone with an uplink cradle can send their consciousness to the galactic server. However, since you are currently not using one of those to attend this appointment, I can only assume you do not have access to one and therefore are using the very primitive thought connection way of connecting to the galactic server. You connect by simply thinking ‘Activate secure uplink’. I do not recommend long-term use of this method as it has known side effects. But if you are insistent on using it, then your body simply goes to sleep where it is and remains asleep until you disconnect. Now please exit my office and good day.”
He turned his back to me as his chair swivelled, and I felt an urge to give him the bird finger but stood up and stomped my way out of his office. The second I passed through the doorway though, I felt my body jerk and my eyes snap open. A little semi-transparent blue box read ‘You have been disconnected’ I let out a sigh of annoyance as I turned to see Wilma holding my door open and waiting for me. Shifting my legs, I slowly stood up out of the car and looked at Wilma.
“Welcome home, young miss.”