Penny wasn't sure why she followed Galatea into the room.

Maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was because she wanted to see the Pod that right now Eshan was stepping into, to reassure herself, that while this technology wasn't dangerous. If that was the case, then maybe she'd need to barge into Eshan's room and rip him out of it. She'd do that, if she had to.

But whatever Penny was expecting, what lurked on the other side of the door, was something different.

The room was a small and quiet space, covered in a thick carpet. Dimly lit, it reminded Penny of a massage therapists office, except where a massage table might have been, there was instead the pod. A seamless white object, the thing looked like a cross between a coffin and canoe. Penny couldn’t see a single wire coming or going from it, even though the top was open, revealing an interior upholstered in the same kind of cloth they used in cars.

Penny approached it and ran her finger along the smooth plastic exterior, taking a bit of joy, when she left smudges of fingerprints behind.

"So," Penny said. "What do we have to talk about?"

Galatea closed the door behind her with a click, that was somehow swallowed up in the carpeted hush of the room. "Well, Ms. Jones. I am in a bit of a pinch now."

"Uh-huh," Penny said.

"Yes. It is vital that we fill every single beta-tester role, and I fought to include you, personally, and now you're telling me that not only did you not apply, but now that you're here you don't want to play." Galatea set down her clipboard on counter that was nestled in the corner of the room. "It is not good for me."

"I'm sorry," Penny said flatly.

"You are not a very good liar, Ms. Jones," Galatea said.

Penny grimaced, it was one thing for her to be obvious to Eshan, but this was genuinely annoying. Penny shrugged.

"Well, I do have one thing, that I might think might change your mind. Did you know that we offer a bounty to all of our beta testers?"

"Why? You have a million people who pay you to test this game. Why would you pay us?"

Galatea smiled thinly. "Let me explain. This--” Galatea wiped away the smudges Penny's fingers had left with the back of her hand “--is a VRNCD or Virtual Reality Network Connection Device, and according to the FDA, because it interfaces directly with your brain it is technically a medical device and thus subject to clinical trials. Currently we are in Phase One. That means legally we are obligated to pay you for participating, in this case an amount of two thousand dollars—”

“Two thousand dollars.” The words rushed through Penny’s gritted teeth.

“Yes.”

It wasn’t actually a lot of money, and that was the depressing thing, but Penny took in a sharp breath as she remembered a few days ago sitting with her Mom at the kitchen table. Her mom hadn’t met Penny’s eyes, just stared down at the floor, like she was a little kid at the principal’s office.

Then she kept apologizing, saying she was sorry she couldn’t get herself under control. She kept saying that maybe next time she needed to be hospitalized, that Penny shouldn’t call her therapist.

“You don’t need any more bills, sweetie. Just let me be. Let me be.”

Her mom didn’t that say that she’d be okay.

Because they both knew if she couldn’t get treatment, she wouldn’t be.

“Phase One,” Penny said. “That means, you’ve never tested this on humans before.”

“On very small groups, yes, but a large size of a thousand people, no. Although, up until this point no one, human or animal has had any adverse side effects. Not even a headache.”

“Uh-huh.”

“If you’d like to participate, I’ll need you to sign an NDA --"

"I don't want to participate," Penny said.

Galatea's eyebrows flashed upwards. "You're so sure." Then she shook her head as if speaking to herself. "But I understand, with what happened..."

Penny took a step forward, invading the woman's person space, wanting her to look at her, to meet Penny's eyes. "What happened, Galatea, tell me?"

"Well you were eliminated from the Academy, and your family was forced to pay Edward Prince back. Not long after that your father was diagnosed with cancer, and was unable to afford experimental treatment. Your mother in turn, had a mental break down, which she still has not fully recovered from, leaving you as the sole bread winner for not just yourself, but also her. You were also unable to go to college, because you had an expulsion on your record." Galatea cocked her head as if she was reciting the plot of a movie. "Did I miss anything?"

"No," Penny said. "You didn't." Penny shook her head, and then she turned away from the pod to go to the door.

"For what it's worth, Penelope. I don't think what Edward Prince to you was right."

Penelope turned around. "You work for him."

"Yes, because he is a genius, but genius doesn't also stop him from being..." Her mouth twisted.

"An predatory asshole."

"I'd say amoral asshole, but yes. "

Penny laughed, and then looked around the room. "Aren't you worried you're going to get fired for saying that?"

"No," Galatea laughed as if the idea was funny. "He's not going to fire me, I can promise you that, but here's the thing. I selected you for this testing, because I thought Prince was wrong, not just in how he treated you, but in his initial decision to eliminate you in the first place. It's a flaw people in power often have, that they only value the traits they themselves possess. In my..." Galatea stopped herself. " Anyway, so when I saw your application, Penelope. I was thrilled. I thought the decision showed remarkable amounts of grit and perseverance, given what has happened to you and your--"

“Don’t talk about my family,” Penny said. “And stupidity, that’s what it would’ve shown, if I had applied. Not grit.”

“Maybe,” Galatea said. “But I read your transcripts and your essays from the Academy, and I saw what you did for Mr. Patel’s campaign. Without your work on his ads, and writing his speeches, I am absolutely certain he would not have been elected. You painted a picture of a world that could be better, and got people to believe in it. You could be a powerful player in this game, Penelope. You could influence this world. You could make it something better.” Penny stood for a moment, across from Galatea, feeling like she'd been hollowed out.

"A hundred thousand dollars," Penny said, arms crossed.

Galatea's smile faded. "Excuse me?"

"If you actually think that what Prince did was wrong, then pay me back."

There was a long silence for a moment, and Penny heard, for the first time a whirring sound coming from the pod, the quiet, nearly silent hum of electronics.

"I'm sorry, Penelope, I can't do that," Galatea said.

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"Why not," Penny said.

"It would open us up to liability from the other candidates --"

"Fuck you."

God those words felt so good to say that Penny nearly feinted.

Galatea's eyebrows rose. "Okay. I don't think we're making progress here."

"I feel really good actually," Penny said.

Galatea gave her a wan, annoyed smile. "Well, before you go, can you at least read the contract?" Galatea gestured to a camera at the corner of the room. "That way it will look like you backed out for medical reasons, instead of because I am a terrible judge of character."

Penny was about to say no again, but then she looked down at the clipboard. The text was dense, forests of letters, blocks of paragraphs. It would've been so easy for Eshan to read something and miss something crucial. Yes, he was a much more careful person than she was, but still.

If something happened to him, because he signed this, and there would've been a way for her to stop it, and she hadn't read the thing, she would never forgive herself.

"Fine," Penny bit out. Then she grabbed the clipboard from Galatea's hands.

Teeth gritted, she leafed through the document. Paragraph after paragraph of dense medical and legal text, filled the sheafs. Even though Eshan had assured her that there weren’t any tricks lurking inside, Penny still found herself searching. She half hoped she would find something, some excuse to go running over to Eshan's room and to tell him not to play.

But all in all it seemed boilerplate. Mostly the NDA made her promise that she wouldn’t reveal any secrets to the press or on social media.

The medical stuff was trickier. But there was specific language that excluded death or serious harm as known complications, which meant if they did occur could Oroborous would very vulnerable to a lawsuit.

Why had Prince done that?

Penny frowned.

She could see two possible reasons.

The first was that Prince was an arrogant bastard, and wanted to show how confident he was in the tech. But the second reason, that was the interesting one…

The players they were looking for weren’t just your average gamer. They were looking for leaders, people like Eshan, people who wouldn’t just be enticed to try new and dangerous tech because it was cool. People who had lives to lose, who would need to be enticed to take a risk. To be assured…

Penny scanned the document again, and noted that there was a clause that said Prince wouldn’t be responsible for any mental trauma or PTSD. Which confirmed Penny's thoughts that this game would not be a forgiving one. It wouldn't be pointlessly cruel, the man wasn't into the Hunger Games, but he also pried himself on excellence, on truly testing people.

Frowning, Penny started to put down the contract, about to say no one last time, but then she spotted something else.

Her heart began to pound, and she read and reread the line.

In order to qualify for the study, the contract clearly stated all a person had to do was use the pod. Spending a certain amount of time in Astrea wasn’t mentioned anywhere.

So in theory, in order to get the two thousand dollars, all Penny had to do was log on and then log off.

She didn't have to play Prince's games. She didn't have to try and save the world. She didn't have to do what Galatea wanted.

Penny looked up from the clipboard, and she found herself staring at Galatea's hands. The woman had no wedding ring, but she did have a giant emerald on her right hand on her middle finger. Penny ached to snatch it away, to take some, small sliver of what they had taken from her back.

She looked up.

“How long is a session?” Penny asked.

“It takes five hours of real time, although it will feel longer within the game.”

“How much longer?”

“About a day for every hour,” Galatea said.

“Okay,” Penny said. “And I can log out at any time.” She glanced over at the pod, not meeting Galatea’s eyes, hoping the woman wouldn’t see her plan. Clearly, logging out right away was not what Galatea had in mind. If Galatea was trying this hard to get Penny to play, she probably would get in trouble if Penny logged out early.

“Any time,” Galatea repeated.

Penny looked back down at the clipboard. There was a pen at the top attached by a small string. The logo was printed on the cap of the pen. She swore the eye of the snake was staring at her.

Penny stared back.

She was tired, so tired of feeling like she had that morning after she'd been expelled. She hated the weight on her chest, the feeling of constant unending dread of being paralyzed. She wanted to do something, anything.

So she picked up the pen.

This time would be different. This time she knew the risks. Penny knew all this, but still she couldn’t fight back the wash of fear, as she scrawled her signature across the bottom of the page. Then she handed the clipboard to Galatea.

Galatea took it, and then went to cabinet, opened it, picked something out. “I’ll need you to take off your shoes and get into the pod.”

Penny did. Her heart began to thump just a bit quicker in her chest. She maneuvered to the pod the way she’d get into a canoe. The bottom was soft against her feet, although had little give. Penny noticed three metal circles gleaming in the place where she was supposed to lay her head.

“You’ll need to lie down,” Galatea said. She held something in her hand now, two tiny paper cups.

“What’s that?” Penny asked.

“This is water,” Galatea motioned to one of the cups. “And this is a pill that will help you sleep.”

Penny glanced to the door, then bit her lip. There was no going back now. She sat down and leaned back. Through her hair she felt a few cold points of pressure. The nodes, she guessed, that would conduct the electricity that would manipulate her brain waves into believing she was in Astrea.

There was little room for her hands, so she ended up lying down stiff and straight like a plank, looking up at a paneled office ceiling. A combination of dread and something else tangled in her chest, knotting together, until she couldn’t tell one from the other.

“Here,” Galatea said, then handed her cup with a pill. “It’s melanin. A very strong dose that, combined with the electromagnetic waves, should send you to sleep quickly, and keep you unconscious until you decide to leave Astrea."

“And I can leave, right?” Penny hated the slight edge of desperation in her voice.

“You can log out any time.”

“Okay.” Penny grabbed the plastic cup with the pill, and downed it dry before she could second guess herself. Then she leaned backward again into the pod.

Galatea said nothing, but only grabbed a head piece from the counter, and then wrapped around Penny’s skull. It was a band of cloth covered with more metallic circles. Galatea’s touch was dry against her skin, and gentle.

Penny closed her eyes.

“I’m turning it on now. Good luck,” Galatea said.

Penny opened her mouth to say she didn’t feel anything, but the moment she did she noticed a prickling. It was like a low level of electricity tickling her forehead. It wasn’t enough to hurt, but it felt uncomfortable.

“Close your eyes,” Galatea said.

Penny resisted the urge to do just the opposite, and then screwed them shut. A floater drifted by in the blackness, and Penny felt uncomfortably alert, overly aware of the flow of air over the tiny hairs on her arms, and the stiff curve of the pod underneath her spine.

She was, she thought, a million miles away from sleep, but then her mouth started to go dry, and she felt her skin slacken. Pins and needles spread up from her toes to her legs.

Log in and then log out.

She let out a slow calming breath, and then inhaled.

And immediately realized, something had gone, very very wrong.

She wasn't breathing air.

Water, slightly salty, poured into her mouth and down her throat. Her eyes flew open in reflexive terror, and she expected to see the linoleum ceiling again, to be able to grab Galatea by her arm, but there was no ceiling.

Instead she was faced with a wall of murky blue, and when she tried to scream, but there was no sound, only a few bubbles drifting up and up and up.

Initializing system...

Fuck, Penny thought.