Everything was black. A very disorienting black. Seconds ago he was in a life boat, an escape pod, same thing, whatever. He was sitting on the floor next to a dead trooper named TESTTESTQWERTY. That was a stupid name. But the guy with the stupid name was dead.

Mark was alive. The live boat jerked and accelerated. Mark got to see the explosion. His transport ship, the Antonio Lopez and the TU’Con ship had collided and exploded.

Mark couldn’t hear the explosion. Maybe that was because of space. But then again, mark couldn’t hear anything. Maybe the last time he fell or shot or something he went deaf. Messages flashed fast across his HUD back then.

Even if he couldn’t hear the explosion, he felt it. The shockwave sent the lifeboat tumbling.

The tumbling had sent Mark crashing around the back of the lifeboat. It was his own damn fault, even if he didn’t want to admit it. He should have gone to one of the acceleration couches and strapped in.

There was no chance now. The lifeboat rolled over and over. Mark was tossed around like laundry in a dryer.

Then everything froze. Mark was upside down. He could see the floor he would crash into any second. It was an eight foot drop onto the hard deck. Best case he would land on TESTTESTQWERTY’s dead body.

He didn’t fall. Everything was frozen. Another message appeared in front of his face. Some red letters he couldn’t quite focus on. Before he could read it, everything went black. A deep quiet black. A disorienting black.

The black ended with some loud clangs and a bright light. Mark blinked. The door to his capsule was opening.

“Just stay there for a minute,” a woman’s voice. He didn’t remember meeting hearing the voice before. “Most people want to climb right out, especially after their first time. That can be a bad thing. And you won’t get far if we don’t disconnect the sensors first.”

She leaned in close to his head. She had short brown hair. In fact she looked a little mousy. Nope, haven’t met her before.

“Look at this? Your ear buds are out.” She kept talking as she looked at the other side of his head, presumably looking for another earbud. “Yup, the other one is out too. We’re you able to hear anything? Was it just muffled?”

“I couldn’t hear,” was all he managed to say before she started talking again.

“That would have made me crazy if I was in there and couldn’t hear. I suppose if you were using the chat you could still communicate with your team but still not being able to hear anything around you…”

Mark had to interrupt her. “Chat? What do you mean chat? A written thing?”

“Of course chat is enabled. How else could you privately talk to your companions without other players or even NPCs hearing?” Her super annoying voice continued. It wasn’t that it was to squeaky. It was her weird cadance, like she was rushing some words and slowing others and putting the wrong emphasis and most of all, she wouldn’t shut up.

Mark closed his eyes and leaned back as she nattered on. The woman, he still didn’t know her name, was now on about shoes or sensors or the sun or something. The woman was disconnecting the sensor wires from the pads stuck to various places on his body.

Only now did he think about his clothes, or the lack of them. He was standing there in his boxer shorts.

Now that he thought about it, the woman was wearing a long tshirt and….it looked like she was in her underwear. He looked around the lab. Everybody was missing their pants or skirts or shorts or whatever. They kept their underwear, but no pants.

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One of the guys, Billy long hair?, was wearing Team Titans underwear. One girl had “monday” written on her butt. Most people were plain except for Angie. Her lacy undies and bra set her apart in that respect.

Another woman, her name was Janet? Janet was carrying a robe as she approached Angie. After a few words, Janet helped Angie into the robe.

The annoying woman was back in his face. “Now that you’re disconnected, do you want a robe?” She held out a bathrobe. “You might get a chill.”

“Thanks, who…” He knew if he didn’t take this chance, there might not be another…“who are you?”

“I’m Robin. A lot of ne call me, I mean a lot of them, people, call me mother Robin because I try and take care of everyone.” Mother Robin helped mark into the bathrobe. Once she tied the belt around his waist, she started talking again. “Next we need to get you liquids, lots of liquids and some food. But I think Angie wants to do a debrief. First I think you should drink. People sweat a lot in there.” As she spoke, Momma Robin guided Mark down the hall. “I’m actually a nutritionist physio. Other people take care of the hardware and software, my job is taking care of the people ware.” Mark was sure she would never stop talking in her annoying voice.

Angie looked at her assembled team: Three game players who didn’t have anything to do with making the stuff or making it work; Janet, Billy and Billy and Momma Robin, they were friends, confidants and trusted assistants; and then another 15 or so other people.

“So, Mark you had problems.” She glanced at the notes on her phone. “Earbuds fell out. No communication in or out.” Mark nodded his head as she read off the notes. “I find the delay much more worrying.”

She turned to Janet and her team. “It happened more than once.”

Janet answered, “we know what’s going on. We started by looking at the differences between Mark and Flanni. This led us into the interface relay…”

Angie kept the meeting as short as she could. A glance at her watch said T-minus 215 minutes until the game restarted.

She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Focus on one thing at a time. Break it down into steps and make it happen.

Janet and Momma Robin were coming at her. Janet had her tablet out where she had been taking notes. Momma Robin had a tray. Soup, a burger and coffee. With help like this she might just get it all done.

Billy Long Hair ran up to her, cutting the line. He had his own tablet in his hand. “Look!” He handed her the tablet. They all looked at it.

Teams Eliminated:

Best VR ever (Players Killed, did not leave FA Antonio Lopez)

Reen Pencils (Players Killed, did not leave FA Antonio Lopez)

Frontier Traders (DQ)

“Wow!”

Angie looked at the list again and again. Twenty One teams started. Three are out. She gave a little shiver. We were a minute away from “did not leave FA Antonio Lopez.” *poof* all my work coulda been gone because we didn’t get off the first boat. Damn!

“Any idea why there were disqualified?”

Billy Long Hair shook his head. “Nope. That’s all it says. Want me to go find out?”

They all looked at Angie. She let out a breath. “No, we need you here.”

“I can go,” Momma Robin volunteered. “Everybody else is eating and going to sleep. Once I get you taken care of, my mission is accomplished.”

“Ok.” Angie shook her head. “We should have an intelligence team.” Did we have a spy team last year? I don’t remember and Javi never mentioned anything about spies. But he did have Jennie hang out in the lounge….

Momma Robin smiled. “When I’m done playing Jane Bond, want me to call my sister and her friends and have them start spying?”

“Spying?” Janet was surprised.

“No, not spying. I just think my slut sister and her slut friends can be friendly and pick up some gossip.” She chuckled. “And maybe a rich husband.”

“Would she settle for the potential to be rich?”

“I hope she settles for potential to be rich.”

“Hopefully not as rich as us.”