Chương 3: Onboarding

[HELLO, FELIX CONWAY. WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSE] White-blue letters hung in black space, right in front of Felix but out of reach. He knew this because he tried, but the letters just floated, unperturbed by his attempts to take hold of them. Not that he could see his arms anyway; it felt as if he were just a mind floating in a vast, dark ocean. A flat cursor, an underscore, blinked beside the bracket, as if something were waiting for him to act.

"Hello?" He spoke-thought, and the cursor jumped. [UNIVERSE ONBOARDING SEQUENCE EN#@2%! 1...] [WARNING: USER GLITCH DETECTED, SYSTEM BOOT IN SAFEMODE. ONBOARDING TUTORIAL DISABLED. INITIATING CONCIOUSNESS RESTART IN 3]"Wait!" [2]"No!" [1]"Don't do—" Darkness. Felix floated for eons, compressed into seconds, stretched across eternity. His mind spread everywhere, watching points of light across a galaxy he didn't recognize—it was a little flatter, a little wider than the Milky Way that sprang to mind.

In one corner, a trillion points of light—somehow, he counted them—clustered, some resting, some moving, each belonging to someone. Occasionally a light would wink out, but elsewhere another would blink into existence. They all had voices, some angry, some sad, some happy, some quiet. Some growled and spoke in strange tongues, others in words he knew but didn't hear. Hopes appeared, some dreams died, others were rediscovered. A song echoed across the little corner of the galaxy, and he was wrapped in it.

For a hundred years he watched the lights come and go, each lifetime a blink of his eye. Along one edge, a handful of lights flashed and faded, replaced by emptiness as an iridescent cloud swirled around the remainder. Then one point of light on the far, opposite edge brightened and Felix found himself pulled toward it. The light grew brighter, larger as he approached, his body—he had a body again, somehow—stretching into it. The light filled his vision, blinding him, then—"Welcome back, Mr. Conway."

A dark face hung over him, covered in shadow by the bright light behind the man's head. Felix tried to move one hand to shield his eyes but couldn't because of the restraint tied around his wrist. Doc. That's what the woman called him. Doc saw the movement and gave Felix a gentle smile before reaching down and releasing the strap.

"Sorry about that, you had a pretty bad seizure there. It was hard enough getting you into the bed, much less trying to get you out of that pressure suit. We didn't even try that, just tied you down in case it happened again." He reached over and released the other strap, and then the one across Felix's chest. Felix tried to sit up on his elbows, but Doc set one hand on his chest.

"Just take a minute." The light silhouetting Doc winked out, and Felix could better see the man's narrow face. His hair was short and dark, darker than his skin, close cut in a way meant more for utility rather than style. His jumpsuit was a charcoal grey, allowing his darker brown skin to provide a warmth the room otherwise seemed to lack.

"How long was I out?" His voice cracked, throat parched again. A flicker of annoyance landed on his shoulder; how often was he going to wake up like this?

"And who are you?"

"An hour, perhaps? And I'm Simon Vail, or as the rest of the crew calls me, Doc." He offered Felix a sip of water, which was happily accepted. The water, just a quick mouthful, was enough to soften his tongue and throat. Then Doc ran that instrument he'd used earlier across Felix's body again, then frowned at the screen.

"You're still not integrated, though. At least not entirely. Strange." Integrated. The galaxy rushed back and his breath caught, the black sea rising, the glowing white words floating…he squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth. At least the pain hadn't come back.

"I... don't understand. I saw something, some message. From somewhere. It was just…there. Welcoming me... here." He looked at Doc, levering himself onto an elbow. The world swam for a moment.

"Where's here, anyway?" Doc sucked in a breath through his teeth and rocked back on his heels.

"Well, I'd tell you to sit down, but since you're already in a bed that's a bit unnecessary." He paused, staring off above Felix, his eyes darting back and forth. Then he looked back down at Felix again.

"I've never seen this before, but thankfully the System has a guide. I assume it already presented the tutorial?"

"I'm sorry, the what?" Felix shook his head. That set the bells in his head again, pain blossoming in his temples. He grimaced and continued, "I saw the message, then it said there was an error and there wouldn't be a tutorial." Doc rocked back and forth, heel to toe, muttering and doing the thing with his eyes again. It seemed like he was reading.

"Well, that's a bit of a problem." Doc looked back down at Felix, a frown creasing his face.

"No class? Skills? Nothing?" Felix kept shaking his head—slow and careful—and then put his hand to his forehead. It wasn't hot, but it still ached from the movement.

"I don't understand what you're talking about. I saw messages, but I don't know how, and I don't know why." The man pulled a chair over and sat next to Felix's bed, rubbing his face.

"Alright. I'll give this a shot. You are what we call a Jumper. You come from a different reality, some sort of parallel universe to this one. No one knows how you Jumpers get here, but it happens often enough that there are protocols."

"Another universe? How do I get back?" Doc blew air through his pursed lips.

"That's the hard part. You can't. At least, no one's managed to. Once you're here, you're here." Felix laid back in the bed, the picture of the woman reappearing in his mind. If he couldn't go back, he'd never find her again. Another tear formed, alongside that same, sharp pain from when he found the picture. Above him a device beeped and he worked to focus on his breathing rather than the picture, letting the pain subside.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Now that's odd." Doc leaned over, looking at the display behind his head.

"What was that about?" Felix's breath shuddered as he let it out, shoulders slumping in the bed.

"Trying to remember someone…back home."

"The system activity in your brain spiked. I've never seen anything like that. Who was it?"

"I don't know. I…can't remember anything before I woke up in my capsule." Doc grunted, looking over the display, tapping the side of his chin.

"Strange. And no pop-ups? No system dialogs?" When Felix indicated no, Doc sat back on the chair, crossing his arms and touching his lips.

"There's something wrong. It's like your integration is glitched…" This time, Felix successfully forced himself up, clenching his jaw. The tension ached, but the pain gave him clarity, this time.

"What is this integration you keep talking about? Just tell me why this…" He swept one arm around the bay.

"…is this." The doctor stared at Felix, thinking, then sat forward, hands between his knees.

"Okay. Before you woke up, you were supposed to get a tutorial. The whole known galaxy is one interconnected web, through this System. It governs skills, abilities, even what roles we can fill in life—our classes. All of that should have been covered." He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What did you see when you woke up?"

"A pressure warning because my space capsule was leaking air and almost out of battery power." Felix glared at Doc.

"What is this, some kind of game?"

"Oh." Doc shifted in his chair, again. The man really seemed to have trouble sitting still.

"Which would be why translation didn't come on until you were with us…when was the first System message you saw?" Felix wiggled his feet. The suit was growing uncomfortable, and he wanted to get out of it.

"When you brought me in here. And how am I seeing these messages, anyway? How did it 'integrate' me?" Doc burst out of his chair, back to his desk and grabbed a tablet and started scrolling.

"You're supposed to be asleep for the entire process…the pressure warning must have caused some sort of safety to kick in and wake you up early."

"You still haven't told me why I'm seeing it, though." Doc didn't bother to look up.

"Nanomachines. As soon as a Jumper shows up they start the process, integrating you into the system and can directly stimulate your brain." Felix swung his legs out of the bed and sat staring at his hands. There's machines in my brain? That would be why his head ached. But how would they have gotten to me? I was in a sealed spacecraft, unless… did they create the hole? [STATEMENT: AN ERROR WAS MADE. PROTOCOLS REQUIRED EARLY AWAKENING TO PREVENT INADVERDENT SYSTEM INDUCED USER DEATH.]"Wait, what?"

Felix's head snapped up, the message he read/heard hovering in his mind. Doc set the tablet down, watching Felix through narrowed eyes.

"Everything okay?" Felix ignored him.

"What do you mean, error? And who are you?" [QUERY NOT RECOGNIZED.] He slumped his shoulders, bracing his feet on the floor. It seemed as if this 'System' was picky about how it communicated, a frustration to say the least. I guess it beats having some sort of chattering robot in my ear, I suppose.

"What happened?" Felix didn't bother to turn.

"Your System told me it almost killed me by accident and had to wake me up so I wouldn't die in my sleep." I guess that part was helpful, but perhaps it should have thought about that before burrowing through the sealed hull of the capsule. Felix tried to force himself to be positive. He could be a popsicle thawing in the bay right now instead, after all. The medbay door slid open, washing the darkened room in the brighter hallway light. A large man—Heigel, was it?

—forced himself through the doorway, puffing grunting.

"You need to do something about this door, Vail." Doc sighed.

"I have other things to do, like taking care of my patient. I put in the maintenance request."

"Looks like your patient is up and moving already, so I don't see what else you have going on." Heigel dodged a handful of stacked crates and stopped on the other side of Felix's bed.

"Alright, you. If you're going to be breathing my air and eating my food on this run, might as well see what you can do for me." He stared at Felix, waiting. They stared at each other for almost a minute before Heigel let out an exasperated sigh.

"Well? Pull up your sheet, let me see it," he said, pointing at the bed.

"I'm sorry?" Felix blinked, then lifted the sheet draped over the bed. Doc snorted, then looked down to hide his snickering while Heigel turned a particularly vivid shade of violet.

"Oh, did we just take on a comedian? How about I drag your happy freeloading ass to the nearest airlock so you can walk back to port?" Doc's chair creaked as he rose and interjected himself between the Captain and Felix.

"First, captain, I've already told you that you need to take it easy. You keep letting things like this get to you, and, well… paff!" He lifted a hand and spread his fingers apart in a bursting motion by his head.

"It's why we're out here playing salvage games instead of running cargo to York." Heigel grunted, a non-committed acknowledgment of Doc's warning.

"Second," Doc continued, "he's still in my med bay, which means he's still my patient. If you'd come to me first instead of just storming in and making noise, I'd have told you he's got no idea how to do anything with the System yet." Heigel crossed his arms, glaring.

"Why don't these Jumpers ever pay attention to the tutorial? They always skip it, and then we get stuck having to hold their hands."

"I didn't get a tutorial," Felix said.

"Some sort of error. Am I going to have to explain this to everyone?" Heigel didn't appear convinced, but Doc nodded at Felix sympathetically.

"Yeah, unfortunately. What the captain wants is to see your stats, which you pull up the same way you interact with anything in the System. Prompts, menus, personal information, any of that, you just think about what you want to see, like opening a datapad." Frowning, Felix thought about a sheet of paper with his name on it and a small, blue square illuminated in the corner of his vision. He focused on it and the sheet leapt into his vision, exactly what he'd imagined except blue and translucent.

[FELIX CONWAY] [CLASS: NULL] [STRENGTH: 8] [DEXTERITY: 11] [ENDURANCE: 10] [INTELLIGENCE: 12] [PRESENCE: 9] [SKILLS: NULL] [ABILITIES: NULL] Felix stared into the empty space projected into his brain, both marveling at the technology involved and mildly terrified at the implications of the nannites. There was a part of him desiring panic, threatening to get worked up at the unanchored feeling tugging at his psyche, but something deep and instinctual forced the feeling down, keeping him grounded and analytical.

"Not much to see, I'm afraid. Just some numbers and that's about it." Heigel opened his hands, glaring.

"You going to share, or do you need your hand held for that, too?" Doc rolled his eyes.

"Just think about who you want to see it and send." A moment later the other two men joined Felix in frowning.

"There's just some stats! No skills, no abilities, nothing!" Heigel barked first.

"What are you even good for…Conway, is it? How did you end up in a spaceship if you can't do anything?" Felix shrugged.

"I woke up there. I don't remember anything else." Instead of letting the man get him riled up, it felt more comfortable for Felix to ignore Heigel's negativity…especially since there wasn't much else for him to care about at the moment. Doc held up a steadying hand.

"Breathe, Captain. It's part of whatever's glitching him. Give it time, maybe a day or two, and it'll unlock something." The captain ran his hands across the remnants of his hair. It wasn't really much, just a bit around the crown of his head.

"Just…give him a broom or send him to move crates around with Bates." He turned, shaking his head, muttering, bumping into one of the boxes and spilling several packages of gauze.

"And clean it up in here!" if you're reading this and not on Royal Road, this work has been stolen. It is a work by the user ZeeWulfeh, under his penname of ZeeWulf. This has not been released for sale by the author on any book selling platform.