I awoke to the cold feeling of metal on my back. With a start, I sat up, and took in my surroundings. I was in a somewhat small room with metal walls, a single door, and what looked like a metal wardrobe in the corner. I stood, feeling the shift of unfamiliar weight across my body, and struggled to maintain my balance with my new body. I glanced down, and was surprised to see myself wearing only what looked like cloth undergarments, and nothing else. The unfamiliar sight made me smile, although I didn’t know why.

I pulled open the wardrobe, and found various types of clothing to dress myself with. I chose a comfortable looking pair of pants, a tank top, a pair of boots, and a light jacket to fight the cold. My hair stuck in the jacket awkwardly, before I gently tugged It loose and let it flow back behind my shoulders.

When I felt comfortable, I walked towards the door and opened it. A cold hallway greeted me, and I stepped out into it. To both sides, the metal flooring seemed to curve, before disappearing out of sight. On the walls, every so often, what looked like windows were set in the metal. My jaw dropped when I glanced outside one of them.

A large portion of the view was filled by the shape of a planet. Rings rivaling Saturn surrounded the planet, and I could see lights strewn about its surface. I was so taken by the view, I nearly didn’t notice the sound of footsteps to my right.

As I glanced over, my eyes nearly bulged out of my head as I saw a woman walking towards me. Rather than the mechanical subtleties that Aegis had displayed, this “woman” was entirely made of metal, each joint clearly joined through some technological wonder. She was holding a clipboard, and didn’t look happy.

“Excuse me,” she said, “You just arrived, yes?”

I nodded, still stunlocked, and she continued.

“Follow me please, you’re due for registration.”

She about-faced and swiftly began to walk off. I hurriedly followed after her, feeling somewhat awkward, as I heard fragments of her muttering, “...this is the third time…literally just have to walk to the main counter…I swear I’m quitting…”

I guess working is tough even for a robot.

I tried to not feel guilty about causing the woman more work, and obediently followed behind her.

Shortly after, she stepped into a room. When I entered, I saw what looked like the average DMV waiting room, with multiple sets of chairs, counters with workers behind them, and a small table with those strange toys I always saw in dentist offices.

The woman stepped behind what appeared to be her station, and looked at me with an irritable expression. She ruffled below her station for a moment, before pulling out a stack of papers an inch thick. I began to sweat thinking about filling out that many papers. Mercifully, she took the top three pages off and returned the rest.

She placed it on a clipboard and handed it to me, saying, “Please fill these out. Your registration will take up to an hour to be approved, feel free to entertain yourself in the lobby.”

Stunned, I took the papers and sat down in one of the lobby chairs. The start of a space adventure and it’s me filling out paperwork? Typical.

I looked at the paper, confident, until I saw the first field.

NAME:

Oh, shit. The hardest part.

I pondered for a moment, before filling out the name, “Sylvia.” It felt right. I didn’t provide a last name. Sounded cooler that way.

The next 10 minutes were spent laboriously filling out paperwork. Is this what it’s like to be out of high school? No wonder Mom’s tired all the time.

After I turned in my paperwork, I returned to the lobby, but seeing that almost all the chairs were full, I sat down in the only spot available. A man with sharp, handsome features smiled at me as I sat down.

“They got to you too, huh?” He asked, smiling impishly. He adjusted himself so I would have more room, and turned a bright look at me. “I can’t believe I’m filling paperwork out in a space adventure game,” He complained, jokingly.

“Right?” I replied, “What is this, DMV simulator?”

He chuckled, before introducing himself. “I’m Strevan, nice to meet you.”

“Sylvia,” I responded.

We smiled at each other for a moment, before chatting about various things. It was comfortable, like we’d known each other for years. For some reason, I felt a warmth in my chest I didn’t understand. I had only ever felt like this with Jace, but it was nice.

“Are you planning on playing this game solo?” Strevan asked.

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

“No, I was going to meet up with my friend. We started at the same time not too long ago.” I replied, absentmindedly.

“Oh really? Same with me!” He replied enthusiastically. “If you want, when I meet up with my buddy, wanna tag along? We can learn the ropes together.”

I smiled at him warmly, before responding, “Yeah, I’ll try to get my friend in too! I’m not sure what he’s going by in game, but Jace should be in the lobby somewhere…” I said, ending the sentence by dragging out the last syllable.

I looked at him expectantly, and was shocked when I saw his face seemingly short circuiting. His jaw had dropped open, and if brains could have a loading icon, I’d have seen it working overdrive.

“Wait…Austin…?” Strevan stammered.

…

Hah?

Wordlessly, blood rushed to my face as I realized I’d been chatting with my best friend for the last hour. I could see Strevan’s— no, Jace’s face flash with a hundred different emotions.

Finally, he looked me head to toe intently, before nodding. Seeing his eyes linger in certain places made my face flush even harder, if it were possible.

“Austin. Er — Sylvia, I guess. I just gotta say. Nice.”

My mouth opened and closed like a fish, and I covered my face.

“You don’t have to be embarrassed, man. You make a hot girl,” Jace teased.

“Please just — I— give me a minute…?” I squeaked, trying to make sense of my emotions. Belatedly, I realized ‘Strevan’s’ friendliness had been driven as much by good nature as by attraction.

He thinks I’m hot? Why does that make me happy?

Gathering my will, I looked him in the eyes with mustered spite. “You horny bastard,” I reprimanded, “I just thought you were being nice!”

He raised his hands in an ‘I’m innocent’ kind of way, before responding with a smirk, “I was being nice. I was being nice to the hottest girl I’d ever seen in my life, sue me. I didn’t think it’d be you.”

We bickered for a few minutes before the embarrassment wore off. Finally, I sighed.

“Alright I’ll let you off the hook.”

Jace was about to respond, when the irritable woman from earlier approached with two devices in hand. They looked like bracelets, one was a larger, dark colored sporty looking band, while the other was noticeably thinner, with red highlights.

She handed Jace the former, and myself the latter. It slipped over my wrist with surprising ease, and seemed to fasten in place — snug, but not uncomfortable. I lifted my hand up to admire it.

“These are your consoles. They’ll update with information related to any activities you might pursue, as well as allow you to contact other players. Don’t lose them, or I’ll have to do all that paperwork again.” She said, testily.

A peculiar sensation filled my brain, and I felt as if I could control the console as easily as a limb. I opened the interface, and a holographic blue screen popped up, showing multiple tabs.

“Let’s see…” I said, “Inventory, map, journal, codex?”

I noticed a settings icon at the top right and opened it using my mind. Hundreds of options appeared before me, but the only one I payed attention to was “appearance.”

I personalized the color of the screen to a warm pinkish red color and changed the font to be a little easier on the eyes. I was stunned by the amount of options available.

The woman then said, “You are now registered as Wayfarers. You may accept requests from either individuals, or more official requests from the notice board included in your device. Have a good day, thank you, goodbye.”

She turned around and stalked off. Unused to such unprofessional behavior, both Jace and I turned towards each other before bursting out laughing. We walked out of the room together, and I noticed he was walking closer than he usually did. I didn’t mind.

We had been informed during our briefing that we could claim either a starter ship for each of us individually, or if both of us agreed we could receive a larger one fit for multiple people.

“Holy shit,” I said, as I took in the view.

Jace simply nodded as we looked at our space ship. It was sleek, designed like a fighter jet, and it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen in my life.

“We get to fly this?” I asked, energetically.

Jace smiled at me briefly before nodding.

“Who’s captain?” He asked.

“Well, that’s obvious,” I joked, before raising my hands for the ultimate game — rock, paper, scissors.

I pouted when I shot scissors to Jace’s rock.

“You don’t have to pout,” He said, laughing, “I’ll let you be captain.”

My ears practically perked up as I said, “Really?!”

“Sure, you just owe me a favor.”

I stared at him in contemplation. He’d probably just make me do his homework or clean his room. It’d happened before.

“Alright, you have yourself a deal, sir.”

I reached forward and shook his hand. As he shook it, however, I noticed the shit-eating grin on his face. I suddenly had a bad feeling about what I had just agreed to.

Ah well, it’d be fine. Whatever it was, as long as it was him, I didn’t mind.

Jace practically had to drag me towards the captain’s chair, as I was too busy nerding out over every piece of equipment in the ship. Eventually, we made it to the bridge. Dramatically, I sank into the chair and crossed one leg over the other.

“Jace, take us home,” I said, trying my best to attempt a deep voice. It didn’t work.

“Yes, Cap’n. And call me Strevan.”

“Strevan, take us home,” I said again, in the same impression.

He shook his head before pressing random buttons.

Eventually, he found the right combination, and our ship rumbled to life. Slowly, it raised from the ground, and approached the exit field of the station. It wasn’t long before our ship was sailing heroically into the abyss of deep space.

I marveled at the process, watching through the holographic display that showed the ship’s surroundings. It wrapped around the bridge, appearing as if it were windows. I looked at the device set in front of my seat, and noted the multiple influxes of information, such as the condition of various ship parts like the engine and shield system. My eyes settled on the most interesting bit — the starship map.

“Where should we even go?” I asked in wonder. “I really didn’t expect the game to be this…open.”

“Just hit something random, we’ll take it as we see it,” He replied, smirking.

I looked at him, shrugged, and returned my gaze to the map.

Let’s see… eeny, meeny, miney, moe…how about this one?

I reached out and randomly selected a system without reading. Strevan diligently activated our engine, and the ship began to hum with power.

“Initializing hyper jump sequence,” a feminine voice said, appearing as if from nowhere. I looked around confused, wondering if there were a speaker of some sorts. It took a moment to realize that the sound had come from my console; I hadn’t realized it was capable of streaming sound directly to my brain.

A bar appeared in my display, loading. I looked worriedly at Strevan, before strapping myself into the seat with the provided belt.

3

I gulped.

2

I braced myself.

1

I closed my eyes in terror, and prepared.

Jump initiated.

With my eyes still closed, I awaited a lurching, g-force like feeling that never came. Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked at Strevan. He was staring at me curiously with his eyebrows raised.

“What were you expecting?” He asked, half a smile raised on his lips.

My face burned, and I ignored his question.

“How long until we arrive?”

“About five minutes.”

I tapped my fingers impatiently, my long fingernails clicking against the metal part of my chair.

Click, click, click click click.

It went on for a few minutes before Strevan shot me a mean glare. I smiled innocently at him, before clicking my fingers again.

I violently jerked my head to the side as I dodged a haphazardly thrown shoe, courtesy of Strevan.

“You missed,” I said, sticking my tongue out.

His face froze for a moment, and I could see a light red color flush his ears.

What’s up with him?

I was about to ask as much, when finally the ship jerked lightly, and we arrived. I heard Strevan cough, before announcing, “Captain, we’ve arrived. Welcome to Bet-3128.”

The holo displays updated, showing our surroundings. I gasped, shocked by the sight.

In the distance, a yellow sun shone brightly, but in front of us was a planet. Or, the remains of one. It was a massive thing, twice the size of earth, with huge chunks of its surface ripped out into space. The newly formed planetary rings sloppily surrounded its surface.

I had just barely began to parse what I was seeing before an alarm went off.

ALERT, HOSTILE VESSELS DETECTED. ALERT, HOSTILE VESSELS DETECTED.

The two of us froze, looking at each other.

Oh, fuck.