The Starfighter Invitation

23 ship

"What?" Startled, my concentration collapsed, along with the enormous glimmering half-bubbles I’d nearly succeeded in joining together. "But I didn’t complete the Pocket."

[[Creating a sealed Pocket on a planet is not recommended.]]

"Why?"

[[The planet moves away. Very awkward.]]

"Huh." I sat down, though I wasn’t as tired as I’d been during my storm session—or as far out among the sandbars. "So the Pocket, what, takes you outside of space and time? My own personal TARDIS?"

[[Space only. And the universe dances on.]]

"You could have told me that before I started," I said, frowning. "What if I hadn’t stopped, and I’d completed the bubble?"

[[I would have told you to stop, and if you didn’t, let you drift. But this is a simulation, and after you had enjoyed vacuum for a while, we would have had a discussion about the tone of voice I use when I really really mean it.]]

"You almost tempt me," I said, but with a widening smile. "And I really passed."

[[You did. Well done.]]

"Thanks, Dio. How do I get the propulsion unit?"

[[It will be fitted before you reach your Snug. And then you will be clear to go off-planet. You also graduate to a less protected stage of citizenship. Your safety is still primarily dictated by the rules of your location, but more interactions are permitted.]]

I started to pick my way back across the sandbars, not bothering with a skid since I could walk most of it without difficulty. A few of the nearest players yelled "Congrats!" and I supposed it had been obvious that I ranked since I’d arrived, nearly formed a full Pocket, and headed straight back. I smiled and nodded, but didn’t pause. I wanted to waste no time.

"I can take off straight away?" I asked as I caught a pod. "I don’t have to put in supplies, or get flight clearance or anything else?"

[[Supplies are already taken care of, as much as they’re needed. Check your menus.]]

Remembering that I’d won naming rights, I sorted through my menus until I found [Ship] and opened that up to:

[[If you’re going to cry looking at the menus, I can’t wait to see your reaction to orbit.]]

"I don’t call this crying," I said, wiping away a bit of mistiness. "And I can’t wait to see my reaction to orbit either."

Dio made a noise I hadn’t heard before: not the little jangle of laughter, but something lower and more muted. I glanced at tem, but then the pod arrived, and I hurried to my Snug while whipping through all my new menus, drinking in information greedily. My propulsion system was [Planetary Standard] and my [Status] was Docked. By the time I’d stepped through my airlock, my Snug was officially named The Hare, and I was examining all the sub-commands in [Flight], discovering [Tutorial].

"Any words of wisdom before I try this?" I asked.

[[I believe "Don’t Panic" is traditional.]]

I smiled distractedly, hurrying to the cockpit, but then took myself in hand, and went to visit my Wet Room instead. This was an experience I wanted to enjoy without any distractions. Finally, refreshed and free of sandy grit, I settled into my chair.

"Hell, yeah," I muttered.

[Activate Flight Mode] produced a number of faint background noises, and caused my chair to adjust position. Straps for a harness seemed to extrude over my shoulders, making me start, and I thought for a while that I would need another tutorial to work out how the things were supposed to join together, but as soon as my hold on them loosened, they finished fastening themselves to a couple of side-straps. I made myself hold still, trying not to think of writhing black snakes, and then tried [Destination].

"Does Free Zone indicate I’ll be charged for the others, or does it mean something else?"

[[It means it’s outside the gravity well, and there’s little to no clutter, which makes it the preferred zone for Skipping arrivals.]]

"And is there any significant difference between these stations and the habitat?"

[[Ossa Habitat is on the largest chunk of your former moon. The stations are listed from largest to smallest. Because this is a gateway world, there aren’t any restricted stations, so you’re free to head to any of them.]]

But I didn’t want to go to a station just yet. I wanted to gawp, and so I selected [Low Earth Orbit], and was treated to a whole series of projected trajectories and timeframes. Not being in a hurry, I selected something from the middle of the range, and then tried [Piloting System] and goggled at the array of readouts and panel of virtual flight controls that presented themselves to me.

Before I could worry too much about how to work out what next, I noticed a Tutorial—Autopilot Only message blinking in the top right. Feeling faintly relieved, I selected [Depart] and settled back to divide my attention between the view and the display, watching as various steps were highlighted. [Clearance], [Engine Mode: Hover], [Uncouple], [Shields].

The Snugs on either side of me slid out of view, and then there was a rapid burst of speed before the Snug angled for ascent—not to the vertical thrust of a rocket, but definitely more tilt than a passenger plane. I was pressed back into my chair, and that made me gasp, though mainly from excitement. More G-force than a passenger plane taking off, but not enough to hurt.

The late afternoon sky had been very clear, and so for a while the only visual indication I had of ascent were the virtual displays. But the blue began to thin, then darken, and motes of light gleamed through. I took a deep gulping breath at that, then turned the displays off, because I didn’t want virtual overlays to distract me from the way the sky became a haze, then a blueness I lifted from, and then night was an ocean I swam through, and my world a great glowing bauble of an island left behind.

I did cry. I didn’t care that Dio might laugh, though te was thoughtfully silent as I tried to take in stars more vivid than my eyes had ever seen, the enormity of Earth with its new geography, and arcing above it all the unfamiliar powdery ring of the moon.

The Earth was still enormous beneath me when The Hare levelled out. Low orbit. I drank in the blueness, broken by swirls of cloud and the mere tracery of islands. For a while I tried to map familiar continents onto the visible land area, presuming them to be the locations of the tallest mountain ranges, but nothing really seemed to fit.

After a good ten minutes of wallowing in the moment, I selected [Lunar Ring], and took another deep, satisfied breath as my ship obediently began to move. This was a much longer trip, and as I studied in increasing detail what was left of Earth’s moon, I turned the tutorial displays back on to see what they would tell me. A wealth of detail, although it was less overwhelming now that I was off-planet. It didn’t seem like there’d be a lot I could do at the moment anyway, except keep the thing flying in a straight line.

"Do Bios usually actively fly their ships, or is it more common to use autopilot?"

[[It’s rare to use anything but autopilot or assisted flight. Some Bios like active control, but it’s either dull, or a good deal of work, and we rarely allow it in populous areas.]]

"If I stole one of these ships and took it off to my supposed Enclave, would I be able to fly it, or would it stop working for me?"

[[The Snugs are not so remarkable we are particularly concerned about their theft. The only systems that require a Cycog presence to function are the Soup, and Skip navigation.]]

"The entire crux of the game is whether or not the player stays happy, um, serving in heaven, or steals a ship and goes back to their Enclave, but it doesn’t bother you if we steal your ships?"

[[Is that the crux of the game?]]

I turned in the confines of my straps, trying to find where Dio was hovering. "Feel free to tell me all about your true purpose."

[[Where’s your sense of mystery?]]

"Not even a clue? Care to eliminate one of the popular theories? An outright statement that you’ve no plans to invade Earth would be nice."

[[We have no plans to invade Earth,]] Dio said obligingly. [[We neither want your water, nor is it our fatal weakness. We don’t consider you edible, or want you for breeding, and we are not preparing your bodies for possession. No hyperspace bypasses are involved. This is not a test of Earth’s worthiness to join the galactic community.]]

"But you do have a purpose beyond entertaining us."

Dio didn’t respond to that, simply drifting down to rest on my hand. There was no sensation of contact, and I remembered tem telling me that Bios were like mist to Cycogs. Did they find us pleasant or uncomfortable or nothing to touch?

Looking back out at the moon, I considered what little we’d learned of its destruction, and tried to decide whether being hit by an asteroid would cause all this. Instead of a few large pieces, it seemed to have been completely shattered, and then presumably had slowly settled into a ring. The result was far less evenly distributed than Saturn’s, and seemed to be further separating into layers according to the size of the pieces. Closest were the biggest chunks, while further away were finer, smaller particles, and as I drew closer it began to look less like a distinct ring and more like a vague collection of grey. The individual pieces appeared quite sharp-edged, and I puzzled over why I thought they would have been smoother. Erosion is not a factor in vacuum.

"I don’t think you’ll tell me who drowned the Earth, Dio, but will you tell me if the destruction of the moon was how it was drowned?"

[[It certainly can’t have helped.]]

"Was that a yes?"

[[That was a non-answer side-step obfuscation.]]

I sighed, but smiled at the same time, looking out at the moon. Stars. The whole of the galaxy, now mine to embrace.

"I don’t think I’ll forget that your answers aren’t always true," I said. "And I don’t know whether I’ll like the reason for this game, when I finally get to it. But, Dio, I think I’ll always be grateful for the journey."