After a brief moment of confusion at not having my holo navigation unit, I relented to navigating the old fashioned way, via signs. I mean... why have one implanted when I could just have it as a module on my engraph unit? It didn’t take long to locate the commissary. Although it was far more of a traditional restaurant then what one would think of as a commissary. Things sure have changed since 2020. From free tuition for all trade schools, greatly subsidized room and board, not to mention compensated internships, the debt crisis of the higher education racket was all but a footnote in history.

Ugh. Nostalgia wasn’t going to get me fed. Still, It feels weird to get a decent bowl of ramen for what would have amounted to pennies on the dollar. If we still used dollars… I mean don’t get me wrong, we still use money, but as you had the world globalize and economies get further intertwined, a new monetary system had to be put into place. Ha. I bet you think this is just an exposition dump for your benefit. You’re not wrong, but this is also how the mind of a philosophy major works. We can’t help but consider the past as we face the future. To ponder the eccentricities of the past that shape our future and the worlds around us. Seriously we also break the fourth wall regularly. In case you missed it, I ordered the ramen.

I find myself staring into a bowl of ramen and sighing for the fourth time. What does this all mean? I understood that wildling exposure would change me, but it seems like my life experiences have achieved some interesting results. I understood from the beginning that if this worked, I would have power. Now, I had to figure out what to do with it. Figure out how to hone a new weapon of ‘war’ to further my goals. This moment of respite felt like it was turning into a whirlwind of thoughts, feelings, and machinations. I had to figure out a way to apologize for all the destruction of Erin’s labs, maybe a cookie. A plate slamming across from me brought me out of my reverie.

“Wow, that’s impressive, a one-armed man eating ramen. Hell, it’s pretty unusual to see a one-armed man. Judging by the socket, you’re getting fitted; so, I guess you’re him.” Before I could get a word in, the woman across from me leaned in conspiratorially halting my rebuttal. “So, one-armed man… did you do it?”

“Uh, do what?”

“You know the one armed man did it. So it’s gotta be you.”

“Aren’t you a little young to be using that one?”

“My dad was weird. He said weird old shit all the time. He said, and I quote: ‘It builds character’ What’s your excuse? Is it just being old, or did you build character too?”

“Certainly builds character. Not certain what kind of character, but certainly... character. Yes, I’m old. I’m possibly as old as your dad… ms.?”

“Whoa, there. Breaking out the ms. for little old me? You really must be old. Call me Exxes. As in, you know, X’s and O’s, as in, you’ll be kissing the ground, my ass, the dirt, or the trail I blaze… wait that last one doesn’t work….hmmm. That sounded better in my head.”

“So Exxes, What brings you to talk to the ‘fossil’.”

“Oh, apologies mister fancy pants. I’m your Skeleton crew liaison. I'll be helping with your training, as well as, being one of your sparring partners. We at the Skeleton crew require that our future squadmates receive hands-on training to better facilitate a higher survival rate. Jester will be here in a moment. Despite his name, he isn’t funny. Like, at all.”

“Liaison...hmmm. I wasn’t prepared for that. Jester? Is he another member of the Skeleton crew?”

“Uh, yeah... Mr. Fossil we typically work in three-man sorties. So, again, to better facilitate you not going extinct, the crew policy is to have new members be paired up with their future initial squad.”

“If we are using Mr.’s it’s Mr. Wolfe, but you could just call me Nikolai.”

“Use your name? No, way. That’s not how we do it in the crew. We use monikers. It makes us both closer and still gives us distance...you know, for when you inevitably die.”

“Well, I’m no stranger to a bit of gallows humor. War will do that to ya. I guess I might fit in better than I thought.”

“How old are you?” A vaguely disquieted look crossed her face.

At that point Jester quite dourly yet drolly appeared with a tray of food. I at least assumed it was him by the traditional harlequin faced patch on the shoulder of his black fatigues. In the same place that Exxes had a patch of double X’s. “Hi.” he acknowledged me before addressing Exxes. “What do we call him Exxes?”

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“I haven’t decided. I was going to go with Fossil since he is soooooo ooooold, but Boss might get mad at me. He looks to be about the same age. His name is too cool to be used as his moniker. I think we might have to hit the training room before we figure it out.”

“Understood. We have 20 minutes before we need to report to room 9a to test for 8x time compression with our new sortie member.”

Looking down and realizing I was only about halfway through my large bowl of ramen. I placed my chopsticks down with a reverent one-handed apology bow. I grabbed the backup fork I received with my meal and started shoveling the noodles in. I Ignored the stares. I proceeded to pick up the bowl with one hand as soon as the noodles were gone. I drank down the broth. Finishing with a final slurp I then paused and sighed with contentment. “I’m going to head out first.” Noticing that neither of them had touched their meals and had apparently just sat and watched me devour my food over the last 5 minutes. I gave them the one-handed sorry chop and tried to give an explanation. “In the military, you learn to eat quickly. You often don’t have much time. A habit that stuck around.” I pushed my seat back in to place and picked up my tray, and headed to the dish window.

I heard a muffled voice behind me, “Wait for me!” She called after me. Clearly stuffing what looked to be a fried egg sandwich into her mouth.

“You know running with food in your mouth is a good way to choke.” and as if on queue she started choking on the bite before I could even finish the sentence. I patiently waited as she caught her breath/finished her coughing fit.

“Ugh… you jinxed me.” She sputtered around a cough.

“I’m pretty sure it was actually just a consequence of your choice of actions.”

“Are you always this stiff?”

“I just believe in being accurate. Is that what you call stiff? Well, I guess I also believe people should take responsibility for their actions. I can see how that could be seen as stiff. I do have a Ph.D. in philosophy, does that make me stiff?”

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. You have a doctorate? Hmmm. That’s something we can work with.” She said as she fell in step as I turned to leave. Jester nodded, seeming to again appear out of nowhere and followed suit.

“Well, anyone got directions? I left my holo nav. In my other arm…” Waiting for the inevitable groan. Congratulating myself for my supreme sense of humor, I was jarred out of my reverie.

“Sure. I can give you a hand.” A literal disembodied hand appeared on my shoulder like a little hand spider.

“Gah!” I am not proud to admit I jumped a little. As I collected myself I realized that it had black painted nails to match Jester’s other hand. “ I thought you said he wasn’t funny? I mean apart from the jarring delivery that was comedy gold.”

The incredulous look on Exxes’ face told me the whole story. “Oh no. You are one of those.”

I caught Jester’s smirk as I turned back around now following the small holo pop up from the hand on my shoulder. “Thanks for the Jester, it sure is handy.” I shoveled on to the pile.

An unmistakable begrudging groan let me know I had hit critical threshold. “Why? Why did it have to be another one of ‘those guys’.”

“Well Jester, I think we can proceed toward a bright future...hand in hand.” Continuing to pile it on.

“Just don’t ask me to put my foot down on it. That’s still attached.” Chimed in Jester. Clearly glad to have a compatriot to assist in the torture of Exxes and a colleague in the art of pun.

The reverie ended all too soon, Exxes covering her ears hollering, “la la la la la” quite loudly. Clearly missing out that we had already stopped as we reached room 9a. Exxes ran square into my back. “Hey! ...oh.” She realized we arrived.

“Exxes could you please back off…” a pregnant pause left to elucidate what I had done. “You know because you ran into my back. I mean... I wouldn’t want you to be taken aback, but I could really use a backstep right about now.” Mercilessly raining puns on her now that she was out of her “safety bubble”.

“I swear on my momma’s grave, I will get you back for this.”

“Wait? Your mom’s dead? My condolences.”

“No she isn’t dead yet, but she will be someday, and on that future grave I swear to return this torture upon your head.”

“Jester, is she always this easy to mess with?”

Jester clearly trying to avoid Exxes wrathful glare but fighting off a fit of the giggles. “No, Exxes is a clear-headed and even-keeled sortie leader. We never have to bail her out of the fire.” The exaggerated sarcasm caused Exxes to snap.

“I swear on my daddy’s grave that I will get you back as well.”

“This a future grave as well?”

“Yes it is.”

“You realize you’re not supposed to do that, right? Swear on a living person’s grave that is.. Originally that was highly frowned on, as it implied you were wishing a person dead.”

Exxes had a moment of blanching at the implication. “I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Oh good. Let’s head inside shall we.” I moved to the panel and realize there is a keycard swipe slot that needed to be activated. “Um? One of you have an entry card?”

Jester stepped forward and picked up his hand off my shoulder as he moved forward to swipe the card. “Yes. Allow me.”