Ah, and there it was. Something for him to dig in further. During my time in the police I had learnt that when you have a psych eval, you didn’t hold back. Be truthful and be yourself. They might raise an eyebrow at your opinions or ways of thinking but if the psychologists had the impression that your actions and thoughts and feelings were largely congruent and authentic, they pass you. Done. But hold back things and they always found a way to dig into it. When they dug into it and something incongruent came out, then you were put on the bench. Because of what we just talked about. When lives are on the line, you better know how you are going to act because hesitation kills just as fast as a wrong decision.

“Yes, it was almost a panic attack. I woke up disoriented and when I did not feel the texture of the vac suit on me and did not have the tint of the face plate in front of my eyes, I was convinced for a few seconds that I would die. Then I became aware of my environment and any feeling of panic subsided.”

“But you are aware that you panicked about something that is just a game, right?”

I laughed at this question. Actually I laughed about the whole approach.

“Seth, there are two things you need to keep in mind: One, for the last ‘perceived’ twenty days I needed that vac suit because my character would die otherwise. Yes, it is a game. But whatever you call reality and what you call the game. The fact that signals get pumped straight into my brain, that it is the only ‘reality’ I have while I am in immersion, makes it real. You know yourself that perception is reality. Two, this whole ambush tactic doesn’t work on me. I am sure it is a great tool to rattle some gamer kids.

“But I see the tactic. You poke around a bit, push me a little with the first questions, then tell me everything checks out and I let my guard down and you ambush me. It doesn’t work because my guard is always at the same level. Compared to some people you could consider it to be down and compared to others it would seem that it is always up. The thing is I know who I am.”

Now it was his turn to first crack a smile and then chuckle. “You got quite intense there at the end.”

I shrugged. “These kinds of games annoy me a little.”

“Fair enough. Want to talk more about the panic attack?”

“Not really. I honestly think that it was an aftereffect of being immersed for so long. And when you are in the game… it is real. I actually had to remind myself a few times that what I was experiencing is a game. And yet I feel hesitant to call my acquaintances and friends NPCs. Because they are not the scripted NPCs from previous games. They, like the game world, are for all intents and purposes real. And I am sure if you would administer a Turing Test to them, they would pass with flying colors.

“I do think that there is a need to monitor the mental health of people going into long term immersion. Actually, with the time dilation, you might want to think about monitoring people that regularly spend more than eight hours ingame.”

“Thank you for your time Kade. I agree with you that perception is reality and from the conversations that I have had, I lean towards agreeing with you about mental health monitoring. You seem to have a handle on things and I am happy to send you back into the game.”

He made a quick note on the tablet then we shook hands once more and he headed off. I sat down, pulled up my messages and contacted Nic and Damian. Then I just sat there and took in the late morning sun and relaxed in the park for a while going over the conversation once more in my head.

* * * * *

The meeting with Nicola and Damian didn’t happen until Monday at lunch time. Finding time between their combined tests wasn’t easy. But we finally managed.

“Dude, this game is insane.” Nicola started while munching on some fries.

“Right? I mean I have seen some cool shit, especially in the Hub. But this is on another level.” Damian had an excited sparkle in his eyes.

“Can’t agree more. I can’t speak to the realism since I have never been in space. But the level of immersion is something else.”

While we finished our food, we shared stories. Damian had rolled a Korim, a humanoid race that had an alien symbiont, and had started as a recruit in one of the Legions in the Circle of Lords domain. He was basically a marine and was getting trained on mech suits - big robotic suits that he would plug in with his link and then wreak havoc on the battlefield. And while he hadn’t seen any action yet, he said that it was a matter of time since there were apparently conflicts brewing.

Nicola had also started, like him, in the Circle of Lords and was focused on trading but wanted to go the route of trader-slash-spy. She had rolled an Ulseo, a race of green skinned elf-like people, and had gotten a big bonus to charisma and had an innate skill of social engineering. Which made sense considering how she had played her games in the past. So for her to get people to do what she wanted seemed like a perfect fit. And like me, she was ahead on the money making curve. While she didn’t have her own ship, she had hired on on a transporter, learned the navigation skill and after the original navigator left, had taken over his duties and was a well respected member of the crew.

Damian on the other hand had both of us beat in skill level. His highest skill was Mech Armor at 56. Which was mind boggling but when he told us that he basically spent eight hours every day inside his mech armor, it made more sense. I am sure if I would have stuck with asteroid mining, I would be somewhere in this range too.

“So, what are your plans for the second immersion?”

“Make money and contacts.” came Nicola’s answer without hesitation.

“Uhm, I guess I am going to see action soon after I am back inside. The initial training only lasts for thirty days and then we get shipped out. Why? I see that sparkle and I have the feeling you have something up your sleeve.”

“Yep.” I smiled. Maybe a little smugly. “How would you feel about throwing in together?”

“Hm, I don’t know. I am not going to be able to get out of the Legion for a bit. The contracts are per engagement but until I am through the first, I won’t get out. And I have no clue how long and where that will be.”

“Yeah, makes sense, just floating the idea.” I looked towards Nicola.

“I am not opposed. You always play hard and do cool stuff. So I would not mind as long as I get to play my way.”

Then both of them started staring at me, waiting for me to talk. When I hesitated Damian pushed: “What? What plans do you have?”

“It’s not so much plans as it is possibilities. Nothing is really clear yet and I am gambling a little on the whole thing but I am sitting on a ship and I think it might be one of the two relic ships that Steiner was talking about in his little welcome back speech.”

“Wait, what do you mean might? You don’t know?” Nicola asked, leaning forward. It seemed I definitely had their attention now.

I held up my finger, waved the waiter over and ordered another round of Lone Star beer and then started telling them the whole story of the asteroid, the claim, the ship and the Red Moon.

“So you haven’t been inside the ship yet?” Damian clarified when I was done.

“Nope.” I shook my head. “We haven’t found a way inside yet.”

“You need an archaeologist or tech specialist or both. If you truly could not find the ship in the data bases then I am pretty sure that you are right with the relic thing.” Nic chimed in.

“Not sure I can find them in this system. I don’t think you have many archaeologists hanging out in indentured mining systems.”

“Yeah, that might be a problem. Not sure where your closest university world is but you can probably find a lead to one there.”

“Hm” I nodded. “Good idea Nic.”

“Actually…” she thought for a moment. “Yeah, you know what. I will make my way over to you. It’s going to be a trip but it will be good for my navigation and people skills.”

“Really?” I could not believe that she had so easily agreed to drop things and come over.

“Yeah, really. I mean it’s not like I can stream with the time dilation. That leaves guides, video content or ingame money. Since I am sick of video stuff and not big on guides I am thinking ingame money. And I told you, I want to build myself up as an information broker. In the end, that is where the money is. IRL and in the game.”

“And hanging out with Kade on his asteroid is getting you further on that how?” Damien asked confused?

We all knew that Nicola saw angles to exploit that neither of us was aware of. We both had found that out during the time that we dated her. So if she said that this was a good opportunity for her, I trusted her and was thrilled that she wanted to join forces but even I was confused about what she was getting at.

She rolled her eyes. “Guys, seriously? Sometimes I wonder how you made it in this world. Kade, if you take possession of a relic ship you will paint a huge ass target on your back. And I am talking about the big player clans and NPCs. If it is still working and you start flying around in it? Will only make the target bigger. Once Black Space goes live it will be even more interesting. An information broker in the middle of all of this? Best place to be.”

Wow, talk about angles. And the whole painting a target on my back? Yeah, I knew there were people that would be interested in taking the ship from me. But I hadn’t considered the whole ‘after release’ situation. At least not in the way she just did.

“Yeah, you have a point. I mean I was thinking about it but the way you phrased it... Damn, it's going to be a ride. Happy to have you on board.”

“Man, now I want to be in the middle of it too.” Damian grumbled.

“Dude, I am sure it will take us quite a while to get our hands properly on this thing. Finish your contract and then hit us up. Even Nic needs a while to get to me. I am literally in the ass end of nowhere from what I understand. Let’s exchange ingame info and we add each other.”

“Yeah, we won’t have real time communication until we are in the same system but we can slip com messages and keep each other in the loop. Fuck, going on adventures with the two of you again. I did not see that one coming.” she laughed.

“Me neither. But we definitely had some exciting times whenever we got together.”

“Haha, do you remember the Dragon Fortress in Elora?” Damian started chuckling while both Nicola and me groaned.

We ended up chatting for another hour and a half until Damian needed to go to his own psych eval and Nicola wanted to also take a nap before her cognitive test. So we exchanged ingame information, said our goodbyes and headed back in the building. I decided to follow Nic’s example and crash out for another three hours until I needed to get ready for the next immersion.

An alarm woke me a few hours later and I was eager to go back into the game. At 19:00 I was dressed and ready to go. Then I spent 55 minutes restless. I had given up on exchanging information with other players, had tried reading some but given up because I was unable to focus, thought about eating something but wasn’t hungry. You get the picture.

At 19:55 I got a notification telling me to make my way to the testing center. When I got there, there were again a bunch of med and tech and maybe even some med tech people milling around. There were eight or ten little dressing cabin tents set up. I was ushered into one, told to get undressed. Then I stepped out on the other side and there was my pod. It was propped up the same way that it had been when I climbed out.

I stepped into it. A med guy gave me a onceover, gave someone out of sight a thumbs up and the lid started closing. The moment it was closed fully, blackness surrounded me and the last thing I felt was the gel being pumped into the coffin-like pod. When it was about ankle high I must have passed out. The next thing I knew was a blue message in the center of my vision.

Please remain calm.

Neural Sync with Black Space in progress.

8/8 minutes remaining.