[Erick Sanders]

This wasn’t what I had expected at all. I wasn’t a stupid man, but I was struggling to accept what Donrnish told us. We had stared at him blank-faced, much the same expression as I had right now, looking out the window of my room on the third floor of the grey house. According to Dornish, this wasn’t just a simple dream, It wasn’t even some scientists extraordinary experiment using brainwaves on the whole of humanity. It was an alien creation.

I had my money pegged on science, even magic or the religious nuts idea that it was god changing things up a little bit. Who would have guessed that the flat earthers were right, That aliens manipulating our world from lightyears away.

Dornish’s people had entered The Dream just over thirty-five years ago, one year later they had discovered millions of nanites in everyone's brains. Technology that was hundreds of years from being created on their planet. Just like how he had stood in front of us to tell us this information, someone had stood in front of him and his class of recruits to blow their imaginations away with the same information. Part of me didn’t want to believe it, like it was some trick of the Dream, a developers ploy to increase immersion. Only time would tell.

Dornish didn’t know why the dream had been created, why the species of the galaxy were linked in this virtual world he had only said there were rumors that were not confirmed, and that he wouldn’t speculate on. He told us if we want to dig into the hole that millions before us, then we were free to. Free to hunt the question of why. But that didn’t concern me right now. I was too shocked at the revelation to even contemplate why an alien race would do this. I stared out the window of my small room on the third floor, sitting on the edge of the bed opposite the desk and wardrobe, watching as the triple tipped leaves whispered against the wind, and the thick flakes of lichen glisten in the dying light. Just wait until everyone on earth learns about this, I thought.

Dornish had information on that too, according to him, it would only be a matter of weeks until the real world would change. Ships and drone he said, his planet was surrounded by ships and drones, that had made a prison out of their own home. While it had created terror initially, the ships and drones came with access to a global market. The destruction they had wrought on their environment was revered in five years, hunger eradicated by nutrition bricks delivered by their alien captors, then for the last thirty years, they had lived two lives. Earth would be the same, and people would be terrified and pissed off in equal measure.

My daydreaming was interrupted by a mock on the door and Mia’s form silhouetted in the doorway. She moved inside and slid down next to me on the single bed and shook something in my face, the Grey Scarred issued scanner that had been taken from my body when I had been abducted.

I took it from Mia's hand and pulled the one I was currently wearing from my arm with a grunt, replacing it and wiping away the excess blood from my arm. “You looked pretty deep in thought,” Mia said.

“Aren’t you? What he said, it changes everything.” I answered, looking over at her brown eyes. They held steady as she matched my gaze.

“Does it?” she said quietly.

“Not right now,” I kissed her softly, then again with more passion, pulling her back with me onto the bed.

She laughed and rolled over me with a kiss again before sitting up. “The door is still open, and we’re expected for dinner.” I pulled her back to me and she laughed again, “Later,” she whispered against my lips, then lifted herself from the bed, “Besides, the door is wide open,” she said, straightening her top and offering me a hand to pull me from the bed.

I only picked up my swords from the edge of the bed where they rested, leaving my pistol and rifle in the simple room. We walked down the hallway our footsteps bouncing off the stone floor and walls to the central stairwell that led down to the first floor and the common room. Where Jack, Keg and Sam were already waiting. Their heads pressed together over bowls of rich noodle soup and steaks. Millions of lightyears from Earth and there was still some variation on Ramen. I smiled as I picked up two bowls from the counter by the kitchen and sat down beside Jack, sliding a bowl across the table to Mia who rubbed her hands together hungrily. The broth was hot and thick, small pieces of meat rolling down my throat with the liquid.

“Its good right,” Jack said between slurps,

“What do you think the meat is?” Mia asked.

“Don’t care, tastes nice,” Jack muttered.

We devoured the food in silence. Then, when the bowls were empty and the plates of grilled meat were all but licked clean we dropped the dishes in a pool of water beside the kitchen that sucked them down and away. Likely to be cleaned and stored until the next meal. “A man could get very lazy with this kind of treatment,” Keg muttered with a smirk, watching the bowl spin in the water before disappearing.

We moved past the tables, through the entry hall and into the common room which was warmed by a large fireplace as much for the aesthetics as for the heat. It filled the room with a rich golden light that flickered on the leather chairs, wooden tables, and shelves of books that covered the walls.

Jack filled three glasses with wine from a bar along the wall and I filled two more, carrying them over and sitting, the soft leather coated cushion of the couch hugging my back and shoulders.

We sat in silence a moment, everyone's mind on the same thing yet no one wanting to broach the topic. Eventually, Jack nutted up, took a sip from his drink and spoke.

“So how long until the ships arrive?” He asked. Referring to the ships that would arrive on earth, Ships sent by the creators of The Dream.

“How long until it becomes public knowledge that we all have millions of fucking nanites in our brains. The worlds going to go mental.” Keg said.

“It won’t be long, almost everyone in that room is currently serving with some military or another, in the real world. They will have orders to report anything they find out. And this is only one Company, what about the rest of the Companies and Guilds.” Mia said, watching the sweet red wine swirl in her glass.

“Have you guys reported it?” I asked, look at the faces, all of them were currently in the military, all special forces of some kind.

“Not yet, I’ll do it in person in the morning. What Petra said about not trusting some information through the web made me hesitate. Keg did the same.” Jack said.

“I did, sent it for me and Mia, it’s literally our job,” Sam said, shrugging. I wondered exactly what It was she and Mia did in the real world. Jack and Keg had both been S.A.S for a few years but were not in our counter-terrorism commando unit. A branch of the S.A.S. But what Mia and Sam actually did was still a mystery.

“You get a response yet?” Keg asked.

“You kidding? You know how long this shit takes, they will have their fingers up their asses trying to figure out what It means first,” Sam laughed.

“The worlds going to turn to shit,” Keg muttered, and we all nodded. Hopefully, people like Jack, Keg and Sam relaying information to their respective governments would allow them enough time to create some order when the shit hit the fan.

“You heard what Dornish said, there were so many benefits of the ships. Medication, Food. We could use this,” Mia said.

“We’ll be trapped on our own planet, they may bring some good shit with them but people will go insane when they turn up. I don’t want to deal with the chaos, just think about it. The looting, riots, people taking what they can for some impending apocalypse.” Keg said, putting his drink down and rubbing his temples.

“You watch too many movies. It won’t be that bad, people aren’t that stupid.”

“A person isn’t stupid. People are.” Jack muttered.

Mia shot him a look, “Stop being so pessimistic, This could be a good thing for us.”

“Have you ever seen riots? When people get scared they get crazy,” Keg said, throwing his hands into the air.

“Have you ever seen anyone starve to death? Or children drinking from muddy diseased rivers because they have no freshwater,” Mia hissed. Her tone had twisted from casual to serious as she raised her voice, “We can't seem to fix shit like this, real problems, maybe they can!”

“You think that’s worth it? A quick fix to problems only to create more?” Keg retorted, his drink left forgotten.

“It’s not like we have a choice, and thank fuck we don’t because that quick fix will be the only fix we’re going to get,”

“Guys leave it,” Jack said, taking another sip.

“Bull shit…” Keg started before I cut him off.

“Keg! Drop it!” I hissed, leaning forward and flashing him a menacing look. The same look I gave someone before I killed them. Keg glared at me then swallowed and leaned back.

“Of course you take her side,” he muttered.

“Just drop it man,” Jack said, picking up Kegs drink from the coffee table and handing it to him.

“Fine. What’s your course schedule look like?” Keg asked.

Jack shook his sleeve down and activated his scanner and looking through the documents. “Small unit coordination and tactics, and a tactical operator course. I’m pretty sure I don’t need the second one.” Jack said with a laugh,

“Yeah I’ve got that one too,” I said, opening my scanner and checking the notifications for the documents Alaria had sent. “As well as… Asset tracking and acquisition. Oh, also Legal limitations and law enforcement tactics. What the fuck are they training me to be?” I asked. Did I even have a choice? I wondered.

“You probably need the tactical operator course. The legal shit sounds like stuff a cop would learn, maybe you’ll get a badge,” Mia joked patting my shoulder, “It sounds pretty similar to Sams courses. Looks like we all have the operator course, should be a great refresher, for most of us.”

“What else have you got?” I asked her, turning in the chair to look her in the eye.

“Umm, small vehicle piloting,” She said, smiling at me.

“Sam?” I asked.

“Pretty much the same as you, with Urban reconnaissance rather than the legal shit,” she said.

“It looks like we will have a pretty nice little team going once we learn a few things, but to do what?” Jack wondered aloud.

“Anything we have to by the sounds of it. With my wilderness reconnaissance and covert operations, we can do a bunch of shit. I’m liking the sound of this,” Keg said with a smile, leaning back in his chair.

If we were to do just about anything we would first have to work our way through all the course material. As it turned out, most of the learning was self-guided, lectures were all recorded and accessible through our scanners, and practical work was taken whenever you were ready, conducted by one of the hundreds of identical robots. The only personal interaction we had was during our tactical operator's course which was a one on one tutorial session with a flesh and bone instructor. They were far from what we had originally expected them to be.

On our second morning on the campus, I had strolled across the lawns, using the guide on my scanner to navigate to a lone building the size of an aircraft hanger. The lines on the map leading me through a series of corridors until I came to an inset black door labeled [Lecture hall 334]. With one more look at my scanners map, I pushed through the doorway. Inside was a room of black rubber, the same as the training room on the Explorer. The material would shift into whatever shapes the user requires and holographic projectors would make the environment so lifelike that the only way to tell what was real and what was fake would be through touch.

Standing in the center of the room was a woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties, creases along her forehead spoke of a frustrated life and only brought attention down to her eyes which shone a vibrant blue, almost illuminated against tanned skin what was indented with tiny patches of gold. Along her neck were two cuts. Gills? I wondered as my eyes ran along their length. There was no flap of skin that I would have expected to see, only a sheen of gold that ran along the entirety. In her hand was a shinning steel straight blade.

I had only taken two steps into the room when she disappeared in a flash of motion. In an instant I had drawn a sword from my back and brought it around to block her overhead slash, My heart started pounding in my chest, as I the edge of her sword glinted inched from my nose, I ignored it and watched her body for any movement. I hadn’t even seen her move. Since I had escaped from Scaratous I hadn’t been in a fight that I knew I couldn’t win, I hadn’t thought I would ever be in a fight I knew I couldn’t win again. Seeing and feeling her muscles tense I twisted the dial in my mind and reacted as she swirled and slashed at my side, then the other, I barely blocked the attacked in time.

When she stepped back to reposition I did the only thing I could, acting in the way the Havar had pounded into my head through countless deaths and fights, I pushed forward. Knocking her arm high with my shoulder as I stabbed out. Instead of blocking, the woman stepped aside and slapped the flat of my sword with such force, it was ripped from my grip.

Before I could draw the second I stood with the tip of her blade resting lightly under my chin. “Not the worst I’ve ever seen,” She said, stepping back. My heart still beath erratically in my chest, and the skin on my face and arms itched with a cold fear that I hadn’t experienced in months.

“The fuck is this?” I asked, taking a deep breath and walking over to my sword that lay against the wall.

“Your tactical operator course didn’t you read your schedule. You are Erick Sanders right?” She asked, tapping open her scanner and flicking through it. “I didn’t get the wrong room again, did I?”

“No, I am. Why did you just attack me like that?”

“How else am I meant to see what you can do?”

“Ask?”

“You think someone will ask before trying to kill you?” She scoffed.

“Guess not. So you’re my tutor?” I asked.

“What were you expecting?”

“Honestly, kind of expecting another robot.”

She scoffed again. Then walked to the wall and tapped the control panel. A table and chairs morphed up from the black floor.

“Take a seat, Erick.” She said, pulling out a chair and sitting, “ What do you want out of this?”

“To be honest with you, I’m not even sure what a tactical operator is?” I muttered, sliding into place opposite her.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. What do YOU want from this?” she asked again.

“What are the options? Could we start with your name,” I said.

She looked at me for a moment before blinking as if remembering she hadn’t yet told me. “I’m Diera. As for options, It's quite broad, you know the basics of the sword, but you have a lot to learn. You’re also slow and weak so I assume you want to work on those. How much experience do you have with urban warfare? Close quarters combat? Use of surroundings for disengagement? What about combat in a civilian situation? Protection and threat detection?”

“I have no experience in most of that,” I said cutting her off. I wasn’t overly happy with her evaluation of my speed or strength and had to remind my self that out of Earth isolated system I was only Rank Sixty six, so comparatively, I was weak and slow and that’s exactly how I had felt in the second she had attacked. I ground my teeth together slowly.

I had enjoyed knowing I was in the top one percent, no just for the boost to my ego, but It had removed the sense of powerlessness that Scaratous had left me with, with the memory of horrible fear scratching at the back of my mind. To make sure I wouldn’t feel that way ever again, to never be at the mercy of a stranger pulling strings, I would do whatever I had to.

“I just want to get stronger. In every way that I can.” I said, standing up, and stepping away from the table., “Can we get started?”

Diera smiled, “Gladly,” She said.