Chương 13: User Enlightenment

Felix didn't know what he'd expected. When he'd turned the corner, the System had highlighted the nondescript door tucked inside a recess on an otherwise blank wall. Pushing his way through the tacky bead curtain hanging behind the door of the first dive bar he discovered a poorly lit collection of empty tables and chairs. The former were made of sturdy metal and bolted to the floor, but the latter were cheaper dark plastic with a meager worn pad on the seat.

Purple, blue and orange lights flashed absently in the general direction of a vacant dance floor tucked away on the opposite side of the entry door while techno erupted from the speakers situated throughout, uncomfortably loud without a press of bodies to absorb the repetitive beat. A thin haze drifted from the vents cut throughout the low ceiling, resulting from an overzealous air conditioner's breath clashing with the humid air from outside.

Blue light tubes ran around the edges of the bar itself, while a wall of bottles behind the bar was lit by a sequence matching the dance floor. It was depressingly human and could have been found outside any base where he'd flown; no strange tentacle creatures or fuzzy aliens sitting beside roughneck pilots while a band played their own cheerful pop renditions while some farm kid sipped on colorful milk. A thousand years and unknown light years later, and this was the best humanity could do with a dive bar.

Felix found disappointment had arrived at new depths, which was a feat considering the rest of his day. Three men perched on the stools at the front bar looked up at the clatter of beads announcing his intrusion, each wearing a frown to accompany their cold eyes and greying beards.

"Club's closed," the furthest one growled, staring at Felix while the other two returned to their drinks. Felix threw a thumb behind him before he approached the bar.

"Door was unlocked and the open light was on." He took a seat at one of the fixed stools, making sure to give the three men their space.

"Not here to start anything." The far man watched him sit, and Felix gave him a small wave. Something in the man's face shifted, then he picked up his conversation with the other two men. The music's drone did a good job masking the conversation, so Felix focused on the wall of bottles. Why did I even bother? I don't even know if I drink. It was little surprise when nothing caught his attention, though he'd half expected at least something from his subconscious.

Another bead curtain rustled announcing the arrival of the bartender, a woman of similar complexion to Doc, braided cornrows of hair tied back and expression searching for an agreement between surprise and boredom. The two seemed to reach a détente, and she leaned on her edge of the bar.

"Not often someone comes in this early and doesn't get run off by Kevin and his mates," she said.

"Must have a point or two of Carouse. What can I get you?"

"Well, I'm new around here, and was looking to get my bearings. The—a friend suggested it might be worth stopping in." The woman laughed. It wasn't a very pretty laugh, but it was something genuine at least.

"Some friend to send you here." She leaned in, quieter.

"By new, do you mean to Buffalo, or did you just…" She rocked her body up slightly on her toes, and raised her eyebrows, eying his patches.

"Yes, I mean…" He floundered for a moment. My uniform is selling me out. And just how common are jumpers, anyway?

"Still trying to get my bearings." She nodded, then pulled a pint glass from beneath her counter, slotting it under a tap and pulling on the lever to deposit a golden, foamy beer before placing it in front of him.

"First one's on the house, since you made it past Kevin." She returned to her lean on the bar top.

"So, what classes did you roll?" Felix took a sip and the beer met him with a mixture of floral scents with grapefruit and banana. It was thin and ultimately drinkable, but nothing about it excited his taste buds.

"Combat Pilot and Captain."

"Captain? On a newbie?" Her eyebrows did the thing again and flew upward.

"There's got to be a story there. Unless I find out you're lying to me. You'll owe me for the beer and the boys a round, too." The one on the end, presumably Kevin, looked over and grunted at Felix.

"Beer's free if I give you the story?" The bartender nodded. Felix shrugged, swishing the beer around the glass.

"Not much to say, really. They picked me up out floating in Baltic, and then we got jumped. The captain wasn't in the best health and, well…" He trailed off as he took another sip. Definitely some banana.

"You all have some funny notions about how debt transfers when someone takes command of a ship, and I was dumb enough not to read the fine print." She winced and bent to prepare the counter under the bar top for the evening.

"I don't think anyone who's been here for a minute would admit to that. Beer's on the house for you tonight. I can't believe the crew would just let you take it, too." Felix nodded and took a long draught.

"Looked me in the eye and everything."

"Cold."

"Yeah." They sat, quiet, him sipping again, she was laying out a fresh set of glassware from a rack. The three men continued to mutter between one another, and the techno continued to beat its incessant drum. The woman leaned on the bar again, swinging a hand towel over her shoulder.

"I'm Miranda, by the way. Welcome to Buffalo Chips, dive of all dives. What's your plan now?" This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Felix upended the glass, finishing it off. It wasn't great, but the price made it good enough.

"Well, I can't leave them, I can't fire them, so I've got to find a way to work with them. What I really want, though, is to find a way back home." A guffaw from his right caught his attention, and he turned to see one of the men laughing.

"Home? You jumpers are all the same, thinking there's a way back out. You come here, that's it. The end of the line. You're here for the rest of your life." Miranda shot a glare at him, and the man coughed, turning back to his own drink.

"That's enough." She set a fresh pint in front of Felix.

"Dan's a bit of a skeptic, but there are stories."

"Stories?" The second glass wasn't an improvement.

"One of the guys on the…my crew was saying there are plenty of tales about jumpers. I'd rather not get my hopes up for the kind of stories spun in bars." As the beer settled, Felix realized he'd not eaten since breakfast and he should probably find something else before the alcohol took him somewhere else he didn't feel like going. Dan nodded at Felix, still hunched over his own barely-touched pint.

"Wise choice, young man. Better to avoid fairy tales." The third man raised his voice over the warbling synthesizer.

"I knew a guy who tried to get back once. Never heard from him again, assumed he pulled it off."

"There's no way to make sure, he could have just exploded somewhere, flown into a star or fell into the crack between the universes. Better to stay here and live." Dan took a drink, though his beard tried to stir the glass before it arrived at his lips.

"I've heard of people leaving, too. People watching them go and everything," Kevin grumbled at his two mates. He raised his glass toward Miranda.

"She knows." The three men collapsed back into their huddle, arguing with one another, while Felix turned back to the bartender. He knew he was wasting his time, but if nothing else her tall tales could give him a better feel for the sort of nonsense people spun around here.

"Alright, I'll bite. Tell me your story." The bartender smirked.

"You don't believe him."

"Can you blame me? I've already had my chain yanked pretty hard since getting here, and one of the—my crew already said as much as Dan right there." Felix took a careful sip.

"Besides, I've sat in enough bars to hear the sort of fish tales pilots tell." That part was remembered, at least, once again thanks to the flying connection.

"What's a bar in another universe? Though usually it's the Kevins rather than the bartender themselves with the story." She threw a towel over her shoulder and crossed her arms, leaning her back against the wall.

"That crew member one of the ones who sold you out?"

"Well, when you put it like that…" She had a point. How much of what the Magpie's crew had told him was true?

"I'll give you a freebie, Jumper. This universe is a bit of a dumping ground, the bottom where people land when they fall out of theirs. The whole System here is the base software of reality that the higher levels can't see, and because it's so barebones we've got a handful of self-proclaimed Admins who like to run around. Usually people who've gotten so strong they can speak to the System itself while breaking whatever rules they want."

"Wait, it doesn't normally talk to people?" Felix asked cautiously. If that were true, it might behoove him to keep quiet about his own interactions. Miranda, however, gave him another of her eyebrow raises before continuing. Something close to recognition flashed across her face.

"No, it's not. The messages everyone else gets are standard templates." Felix took another sip.

"Okay, so what's that got to do with some of us jumpers finding our way home?" The bartender's smile widened. She's going to want something. Felix knew it down to his soul. She'd baited him, and he just hit the line.

"Most of the Admins stick together and try to run the show, but there's a couple who do their own thing. I happen to know one who has looked pretty deep into jumping and how someone can get back to the universe they came from." There it was. He imagined the tug of a hook in his cheek. Now she was going to reel him in, unless he broke away.

"And I assume that's going to cost me something, isn't it. How many hopeful jumpers do you sucker in with this story?"

"Fewer than you'd think," Kevin interjected.

"Most all of them think it's goose shit and storm out about this point." Miranda's smile slipped into something else, an expression more focused and narrow, as she caught his eyes and held them.

"Enlightenment sometimes requires blind trust." Felix's blood ran cold. In the message corner of his UI, blue System text still burned: THE SYSTEM IS NOT ENTERTAINED. IT IS ENLIGHTENED. SUGGESTION: PROCEED TO LOCAL COMMERCIAL BEVERAGE ESTABLISHMENT FOR USER ENLIGHTENMENT. She knew. Somehow, she knew, or at least, the System knew. What game was it playing? His stomach turned, the beer losing any remaining appeal. He was being yanked down a rabbit hole, and there was no asking his permission.

It was not a pleasant feeling.

"What's the price of user enlightenment?" Felix didn't blink, staring back at her. After a long moment, she nodded, a quick jerky motion.

"I need something picked up and brought back here. You have a ship, you have a crew, and I get the feeling you might understand discretion. Do this, and I'll put you in touch with him." A chit appeared in her hand, which she slid across the bar top toward Felix. The label featured a stylized lizard biting a piece out of the title The Lord of Neo-Tokyo The hairs on the back of his neck stood, and Felix realized all three men were now staring at him, waiting for him to collect the device.

Any pretense of casual grumpiness had disappeared, replaced by an intensity that his senses screamed was only shared by predators. It was time to tread carefully.

"Just how hot is this cargo you want? They may have turned my back into a pincushion, but they're still my crew and I'm responsible for their safety." Felix expected whatever it was, getting caught running it would likely result in some very uncomfortable questions being asked. Miranda smiled again.

"Remember those other Admins? It's something that we'd rather they didn't find." She looked again at the chit, then back to Felix. He set his hand over it. I hope you know what you're getting me into, he thought. Only silence met him, and after a few heartbeats, he closed his hand around the chit and slid it into a pocket. The three men seemed to relax, their drinks suddenly holding more interest again.

"How long do I have? It might take some time."

"The cargo is perishable. The sooner, the better." The prickling sensation crawled up his back again, but this time it wasn't a sense of danger, simply awareness. Off to his right and outside, still distant but closing steadily, Kyra had drawn close enough to set off his Crew Sense. He slid off the stool, toward the door.

"Thank you for the stories, I think I need to head back to my ship now. One of the crew is supposed to be finding us work." Miranda's lip curled into a half-smile.

"Good luck out there, Captain."