SARAH GREENLAND

The fact that she was on a ship to an unintegrated planet was something that she was strangely okay with. At least her parents were back on earth and could not bother her anymore. Unfortunately, the same wasn’t said for Rush Sparrow, her biggest admirer. Now, it was not that she was pretty enough to warrant an admirer. And ever since Rush crept around her, she tried hard to not be his type, but it seemed to her, that this person just didn’t understand the word no. Or that he loved to make her uncomfortable. Right now, she was in her cabin and hoped that he would just go away. Instead, he knocked on her door again and again. Sometimes, he shouted: “You can’t hide in here forever! Eventually, we will arrive and you have to talk to me! And no one will stop me then!”

She shouted back: “Leave me the fuck alone! I find you deplorable, an amoral sack of shit that has been shaped into a human by a fucking amateur! Get some empathy, manners and compassion! Or lost! That too is a good option!”

After that tirade, she put on her noise cancelling headphones and tried to meditate. Tried being the operative term. She tried to ignore the noises and to concentrate on her breathing, but that had always been a fool’s errand. People always said that it helped, but it never made her feel any better. Maybe there were techniques that were not for everyone. Or maybe these techniques only worked after the 16th birthday when the system assisted. After the futile attempt to meditate, she instead tried to focus on a rhythm that she repeated in her head. The music that she had been exposed to as a child and teenager often left her wanting. So she often tapped strange rhythms onto any available surface and sang to them. Her rhythm this time was 11 beats long and difficult to concentrate on. But she managed and started singing a simple melody. Rush eventually left the hallway under comments that she could not sing worth shit and she was free to leave. Doing so was not something she wanted to do, but she needed people in her corner on the new world.

TEKI

The fact that the ship only provided a really small bathtub for him, barely enough to lie in a crampy, unpleasant shape that hurt just about every part of his body was horrible. The fact that there was no entertainment to partake in was worse. The only thing he could do was read Company policy documents. All he could do was read tedious documents about Company policy and listen to the noises that the passengers and the crew made and wait for the landing for what seemed like forever. For a few minutes, there was singing. It was pretty, not so much because it was skilful but because it was a sound that was not angry, loud, naughty or otherwise unpleasant. Teki could forget the current situation for a moment while listening.

A while later, a notification was shown. Someone was at the door. Teki opened it with a command to the room system. A human stood there.

Teki said: “Hello?” in a voice that clearly indicated that he was not sure what to make of it.

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The human responded: “Hello. I just wondered who my room neighbour is. I am Sarah. Just one of the dropbears.” Dropbears were people who were dropped onto a planet that was about to be integrated to get various achievements for being first. It was not a very polite term. And someone referring to themselves as such was pretty much unknown.

Teki gurgled: “I am Teki. I am the one behind the integration. Why are you here?”

The human was embarrassed: “I kinda… I heard that there is someone other than me who is just about always in their room and hoped… that I could meet a kindred spirit. And you know, we could prepare for the drop.”

Teki’s face fell. “Not my choice. It is not like I can leave here.”

The human asked: “Why not?”

The keani eyed the human to evaluate if she was particularly daft or naïve. “I have just short moments outside of the water or I will asphyxiate?”

The human, Sarah, didn’t even look bothered by the slight: “The Keani that I know wear watersuits. So, that was why I asked. Are you constrained in some way?”

Teki tried not to make his annoyance known: “Financially. Watersuits are very expensive. I am not sure if that word translates correctly.” The latter was another low-key insult against a spoiled brat whose parents got her everything she wanted, including a drop on a pre-integration planet.

The human’s facial expressions went through several changes in a short time, then she approached him and breathed into his water, doing something that the system called whispering: “Do you want to watersuit? I can organise one for you.”

Teki looked at her in confusion. It was seldom that a rich person was randomly generous. There had to be a hidden motive. On the other hand, he felt frustrated in this tub: “I would like to.”

Sarah nodded: “I would need your assistance with something in return though. I know that something called initialising patches exist. And I know that our parental units paid good money for them. If, like, an accident happened and mine was changed a bit…” Sarah was not a negotiator. The way she spoke, made it seem that she herself was not sure if she was actually going ahead with this.

Now, Teki understood: She wanted to get an advantage beyond what her parents could provide. “You are aware that these can only go to a certain level before side effects happen. Side effects that can maim you. Or worse.”

The human nodded: “I am aware of that. Let me explain my issue though. I will be down there for like 5 years with some of the most disgusting people of the local cluster. I know that my parents had prepared an initialising patch that would allow me to easily get some abilities which they want me to have. But like, if instead of that, A nice movement skill or two made it onto the patch so that I could get away from these jackasses, I would be delighted.” Sarah tried to sound confident, but to him, it seemed like she was speaking while fighting off a swarm of piranhas.

Teki checked her initialising patch and for the first time in the conversation smiled: “Yeah, I can do that!” Of course, he could give the spoiled person what she wanted. That it would be an immense nerf compared to the magical skills that her parents wanted her to have, that he left unsaid.

The human smiled: “Grand. I’ll be back later. Take care, Teki!” and left the room.