Mace woke with a dry mouth, sore ribs, and the feeling that someone had installed a light show behind his eyelids. As he sat up, blinking through the filtered light of the camp’s prefab shelter, his HUD flickered—barely perceptible data points danced in the corner of his vision before fading.
He groaned. “Well, that wasn’t a dream.”
His arm throbbed, but it was duller now. He flexed his fingers, surprised by how little pain there was. The Bioform cast—two slightly rounded panels with adjustable straps and advanced bone repair technology—was still secured over the break. Even with the modern tech, it would need several more days to complete the repair. A faint residue of medgel tingled beneath it, still cool from the emergency patch-up.
Across the camp, Reina stirred. Calla was already sitting up, rubbing her temples. Vesh stood just outside the shelter, staring into the forest like he’d been up for hours.
“You guys get the night show too?” Mace asked.
Calla looked over. Her expression was unreadable. “You mean the class selection menu?”
Reina sat up straighter. “Okay. So that happened.”
“I figured I’d hallucinated it,” Vesh added, turning back toward them. “I’d barely slept, but… the memory of the selection interface, it was vivid, not dream like at all.”
Mace smirked. “I may have gotten the deluxe version. Direct line to a very opinionated AI.”
Reina narrowed her eyes. “You talked to it?”
“Yeah. Said it had to wait until a neural chip was built in my head. Then it dropped a bomb—told me the ship’s fuel is gone, reclaimed by whatever this ‘transformation’ process is.”
Reina, frantically pulling up her tablet. “Mace is right, all the fuel is gone…”
Mace gestured to the surroundings. “So, we’re not going anywhere.”
Vesh muttered, “How wonderful...”
Calla frowned. “Reclaimed? Like… intentionally?”
Mace nodded. “Nanites. Subroutine-style behavior. No one’s piloting the swarm, just following orders set centuries ago.”
Vesh walked over, bio-scanner in hand. “Sit.”
Mace grunted, obeying. The scanner hummed.
“No obvious foreign objects, but this scanner won’t detect nanites—they’re too small and probably bio-camouflaged,” Vesh muttered. “Your neural activity’s spiking in a few interesting areas, though. And your metabolic markers are elevated…”
“Great,” Mace said. “I’m a side project.”
“You chose a class, didn’t you?” Reina asked.
“Forgemind.”
Calla blinked. “What does that even mean?”
“Means I can probably yell at toasters and make them cook faster. Or bend tech with my thoughts. Not sure yet. Felt right.”
Reina rubbed her eyes. “I didn’t get anything like that. I could read all the classes in my dream, but I wasn’t prompted to choose.”
“Same,” said Calla.
Vesh looked down at the scanner, then up at Mace. “Which means you’re first.”
As if on cue, a chime echoed softly in the shelter. Three interfaces lit up in front of the others—floating, translucent, shimmering just above their wrists.
Calla, “Whoa! That’s not normal.”
“It’s asking if we’re a party?”
Mace, “Select yes, in games it usually means we gain shared access to certain things, like communication, stat info, and experience.”
Calla, “Oh..kay..”
[Class Selection Interface Initialized]
Reina muttered, “Well, that’s subtle.”
Mace, “Apparently the class selection is for our own protection, in order to survive in the environment.”
Vesh sighed, “We should probably each pick one. But please, let’s not just pick the first thing we see. We have no idea what type of ramifications these choices may have.”
Calla was the first to move. She scrolled slowly, reading the descriptions with quiet intensity.
Reina followed, tilting her head at one particularly odd-sounding entry. “Who writes this stuff?”
Mace grinned, laying back in his bed. “Apparently, civilizations across the galaxy.”
They each stared and scrolled through the options presented in their interface, many minutes of silence stretching between them. The ambient hum of the surrounding forest felt… deeper somehow. Like the world had taken a breath.
“I’m choosing this one,” Calla said finally. “Latticeweaver.”
Party Member, Calla Mirek has selected class Latticeweaver. Alignment with growth networks and organic pattern matrices confirmed. Congratulations. You’re now the weird plant friend in the party.
Reina blinked. “Did everyone just hear that?”
Everyone acknowledged, Calla rolled her eyes.
Reina looked at her own display again reading over her top candidate. “Tactical memory imprint… temporal anticipation…” “Alright, I think I found mine. Chronosign.”
Mace, “Queue omnipotent voice in, 3, 2, ..”
Party Member, Reina Solis has selected class Chronosign. Cognitive anchor synchronized with temporal drift. You now officially know what happens before everyone else. Try not to be smug about it.
Vesh took longer but confirmed his choice as well.
Party Member, Vesh Talin has selected class Sinew Binder . Biophysical resilience acknowledged. Skeletal integrity improved (moderately). Still, maybe avoid cliff diving.”
Vesh added, “I figured it might come in handy patching you idiots up.”
The interfaces shimmered, each accepting their choices. A soft pulse of light flashed at their temples and faded.
No dramatic changes. No fireworks. Just… a sense of alignment. Of quiet confirmation.
“Well,” Mace said. “Now we’re either chosen ones or beta testers.”
Vesh stared over at Mace, “Hey, do you guys see status information over everyone else?”
Reina, “I see a blue outline around you if I focus, but nothing else.”
Vesh gave a questioning look and walked over to Mace, “I’m going to try something.”
Mace, “Hey now..” but before he could finish his sentence, he winced and then looked from his arm to Vesh, taking the cast off and wiggling his fingers. “Whoa! It was already healing pretty fast but now it’s totally better!”
Vesh, “I saw an indicator over you and when I got close there was an option for bone repair. It looks like there’s a bar indicating the usage.”
Mace, “Quick! Someone grab me a toaster!”
Calla smirked and then chimed in, “It looks like we can view our skills on our wrist, or activate them contextually in the world if they apply. I have Identify and Compel, it looks like it allows me to see properties of plants and make them sway in a direction.”
Reina looked toward the hills. “Alright, so the day is young and we’ve apparently got a new set of skills, we should get out there and figure out what we’re up against and maybe more about whatever the hell is going on here.”
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