Connection Unknown: Chapter 3 of 9 (Patreon)

People could be whoever they wanted to be on the net, and wherever. The hypernet’s faster than light communications connected humanity across dozens of star systems.

His eyes swept the walkways, the roads. Avatars appeared and disappeared at random. Giants, armored soldiers, people made of plastic, or with blue, purple, and orange skin. Mechas and elves. Humanity and their online personalities as one.

Luke stepped off the platform and entered the press of people.

Luke adjusted his filters to clear out the sea of adverts. Some about different piloting schools, others fashion, more about multi-tools or dating services. Marissa must have been on last. Projections, holograms, people a hundred feet tall or just animated brand names: if you looked at any of them, their message would focus on you and the sound would play.

The advertisements disappeared and Luke muted the local chat as well, removing anyone talking publicly.

The net went quiet as the low-level chatter disappeared. He returned a smile to the lady with a bob cut—green on one side, red on the other—wearing gold and black clothes broken into geometric shapes, next to a man lizard with pink scales and aquamarine eyes.

A group of schoolgirls in the same uniform laughed and weaved through the crowd, off to or coming back from school. With dozens of inhabited systems and stations, the times you went to sleep and woke up across the human’s sphere were varied. Jynx lived in the Maxxel system, Fin the Hydrea system, and Luke jumped between systems on a nearly weekly basis. He and Jynx had shared several classes together, as they shared a passion for gaming.

People chatted, walking into stores along the mainway, or just teleporting into them purchasing games, online cosmetics, offline deliveries—anything you could do in the real world, you could do on the net and more.

[Jynx requests chat]

Luke accepted. “Where you at? Just logged in.”

“I’m at Wally’s Burgers.”

“All right, one sec. I’m on the Odessa system.” Luke swiped through locations he had previously visited and transited to Wally’s.

His vision crawled together in lines of light before it reversed, and Wally’s Burgers appeared. The diner was done up in a nineteen seventies decor. The most eye-catching thing was the huge plastic automaton caricature of a chef with a massive mustache moving a burger to and from his mouth, smiling the entire time.

Jynx was sitting outside—only paid patrons were allowed inside Wally’s. She was wearing her black jeans, a T-shirt of some guild, and a limited-edition Orion’s Belt sweater. Her hair was deep brown on her left side and blonde-streaked, pulled into a ponytail that draped across her shoulder.

To Luke, she was stunning.

“You get something to eat?” He grinned and gestured at the burger house, quickly trying to divert his thoughts.

“I’m here to game, not eat.” Jynx rolled her eyes, hiding a smile. The joke was as old as their friendship.

[Fin is online]

“I got him,” Jynx said. She opened her screen as Luke sat down on the bench, watching people go by.

Dozens of floors disappeared above and below. Here in the mainway, everything was rated for all ages. No guns, no violence, no drinking, and no nudity. All of that was restricted to private nets, DLCs, stores, or games.

Fin popped into being in the same place that Luke had. People walked through him, as he materialized. “I swear, ase days, Wally will be able to get a bite, like some Prometheus stuff. You’re nearly there, bud!” Fin yelled the last part at Wally, gathering stares.

“Jackass.” Luke rolled the jacket forward with his shoulders against the attention.

Jynx snorted as Fin boasted an unrepentant grin. His jumpsuit was just on this side of casual wear, a preset standard outfit, he didn’t want to pay any corporation for extras, let alone cosmetics.

“So they’re really shutting down Orion’s Belt?” Fin looked at Jynx.

“Last day,” she nodded.

“Orion’s Belt see the stars,” Luke tried to imitate the games slogan.

Fin snorted and pushed his shoulder.

“Still one of the best games out there.” Luke said.

“Where we all met,” Jynx said.

Fin nodded.

“You up for a run? We can jump in on a raid of Kat’uzar.” Luke stood.

“Ah hell, one last time! Go all out, use all the consumables!” Fin slapped his legs and stood, they both looked at Jynx.

“Alright, one last time,” She threw her hands up with a grin.

“Let’s go!” Fin drew let’s out into lezz.

“Keep your jumpsuit on,” Luke muttered as Jynx worked her interface.

[Group Transit to Orion’s Belt?]

Luke accepted. His vision crawled as they appeared before the familiar lobby, the buildings that had been modern at the time now old, the sign for Orion’s Belt floating above the entrance. It was a second home, a place he knew as well as his own room.

“I’m going to miss this place,” Fin said, taking it in.

Luke realized they hadn’t moved in several minutes and cleared his throat. “Come on then.” He waved them forward.

Jynx led the way. Inside there were stands set up where people could check out their gear, a range to test their weapons, and stores to buy in-game gear, loot boxes, cosmetics, and the like.

The log-in doorway to the game was framed to look like an air lock. People touched it, disappearing and entering the game. There was a solemn quietness Luke didn’t remember to the lobby.

As they stood there, whispers and low chatter gained volume off to the side like a bug in his ear.

A crowd gathered around a holographic star map, some disappeared as if they were logging onto a game. “What’s going on over there?”

“Another log-in entrance?” Fin screwed up his face.

“That don’t make sense, there was only ever one login location.” Jynx said. “Sphere World?”

Luke read the name over the area.

“I don’t remember anything called Sphere World, I don’t remember that area even.” Luke frowned. It was off in a corner, hidden behind stalls, if not for the chatter, he wouldn’t have noticed it unless he’d studied the hidden reaches of the lobby. Luke glanced at Jynx. “Did you Dad or Uncle?”

“No, they never mentioned anything and I don’t think I’ve heard them talking about it before.” Jynx’s brows pinched in as she bit the side of her mouth.

“Could be a demo for something they’re coming out with afterward?” Fin suggested.

Jynx made a noncommittal sound.

“Why don’t we check it out?” Fin grinned.

“We came for Orion’s Belt,” Jynx said.

“Come on. One quick look, then we’ll go roam around Orion’s Belt!” Fin glanced between them and focused on Jynx.

“All right, fine.” Jynx threw up her hands and smacked them on her legs with a grin, spreading to Luke and Fin.

They walked through the people as if they were ghosts, reaching the space map.

Luke brought up his terminal, connected it to Sphere World, and went through the list of destinations that appeared.

“It looks like it’s free to play. But we have to do a tutorial first and we can only spawn on Sphere World.” He clicked on the location; the map spun, zooming in on a spherical station circling the fifth planet, a remote ice ball. “Orbits Valhalla.”

“Looks like a lovely planet, cold as shit little ice berg. You check the numbers for the Sphere World station, its freaking massive,” Fin said.

“Well, looks like we have to do a tutorial first,” Jynx said.

“What about Orion’s Belt?” Fin asked.

“We can check out Sphere World, see what it’s about and then jump into Orion afterwards.” Luke shrugged.

“Works with me.” Jynx said.

“I’m in, looks like there are camps on Valhalla, wonder what we can do.” Fin tapped the holographic map going through the menus.

“All right, see you in there.” Luke clicked on the tutorial, the only lit up option on the menu. joined the game. His projectors darkened his arms and legs gently pulled down straight, he let the servos do their work. They locked into position and his vision brightened, coming out of a rack.

“Step forward please.” A woman’s voice came from somewhere.

Luke stepped out of the rack onto the steel decking, his boots locking to the ground. He started looking down, seeing his metal appendages as a mirror dropped from the ceiling in front of him.

He looked up, seeing himself in the game’s avatar. A humanoid combat bot, similar to the security bots that protected the corporate elite: mechanical and electronic systems supported by a heavy-duty frame and anodized armor plates, making him look clean, functional, and powerful.

A bracket appeared on the mirror highlighting him.

[Bot]

[The user’s way to interface with Sphere World]

Luke moved his metal fingers, and looked down at his ‘body’ it wasn’t his boots mag locked to the ground, it was his bots feet. He moved around, feeling the inertia of his movements. “Actually feels like I’m in a three hundred pound metal monster.” Luke let out a laugh and jumped lightly.

“Welcome to the Sphere World tutorial.” The voice continued. “You are currently using a bot. First, we will go through the basics of Sphere World. Please proceed into the testing chamber.”